Rockin' Her, Rollin' Her, Holdin' Her, and I Wonder What Else!

 Greetings!

As it so happens - and in a complete coincidence - the next month for me to update, just as the Christmas ads and music start their far-to-early comeback into our lives, was December of 2011, a month when I featured four Christmas themed song-poem 45's. Those I fixed today include records by Cara Stewart, Gene Marshall, Jeff Lawrence (who made very few song-poem records) and Gus Colletti's "Santa is a Superman". I also wrote a post that month, with no music in it, but directing people to my WFMU posting of one of my favorite Christmas albums ever. 

We now join our program, already in progress

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Today, a wonderfully awful, or perhaps awfully wonderful selection from the folks at Tin Pan Alley, circa 1958. During that time period, the TPA folks seemed to have received more comic song poems and/or those with ridiculous titles, than ALL other labels combined. And since TPA, in those days, was more adept than their competitors, at turning out music that sounded at least roughly like the music of the day, the results are often extremely entertaining, as well as being ridiculous. 

This one may stretch the bounds of acceptability a tiny bit, from today's lens, in terms of its comic portrayal of a then-frequently stereotyped culture of the day, but boy oh boy, does it make me smile. 

The first voice heard is that of Margie Sands, who only turns up on one other documented song-poem record, which I've posted here previously. And the song is half hers, to be sure. But she is essentially the guest artist as far as the listing goes. The credits on the label to "He's A-Rockin' and A-Rollin' and A-Holdin' Me Tight" (!) is "Jack Verdi with Margie Sands". Jack Verdi made only a handful of records for the label himself, one of which I've previously featured. 

I'll leave it at that. The charms of this record have to be experienced first hand. Hope you love as much as I do. 

Download: Jack Verdi with Margie Sands - He's A-Rockin' and A-Rollin' and A-Holdin' Me Tight

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For the flip side, "If You Were There", it's Jack Verdi, solo, showing that perhaps he was not at his best on romantic ballads. This record seems to be the result of someone who listened to a bunch of Platters records trying to recreate the same, without any of the necessary skills needed to achieve that level of greatness. 

Download: Jack Verdi - If You Were There

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Get Some Other Fool!

Before getting to this week's songs, I thought I'd point out that two of my last three posts at WFMU have had song-poem connections. Most directly, my Easter posting featured six Halmark tracks, four of which had previously been shared here, but two of which had not:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2013/03/a-song-poem-easter-from-halmark-records-mp3s.html

And about a month ago, I posted a very early record from one of Norridge Mayhams labels. These particular songs do not appear to have any song-poem link, but because of the Norris the Troubadour connection, some of you may be interested:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2013/03/an-unusual-calypso-record-from-norridge-mayhams-label.html

And now....

Well, after spending the last several weeks variously in the 1960's, 1970's and with labels whose products sound like they're from the 1940's (yet weren't), I thought I'd head straight back into that most wondrous of eras, the late 1950's. Today's singer is Margie Sands, who is, aside from this record, otherwise undocumented among Tin Pan Alley or other song poem label releases. This is a fairly straight ahead number for the period, one which - aside from a few little flubs that might have been corrected with multiple takes - the average record collector might very well believe to be a failed attempt at a hit, and isn't that what most song-poets were after in the first place? Here's Margie with "Get Some Other Fool!":

Download: Margie Sands - Get Some Other Fool!
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From the flip side, here's Margie Sands again with another one which sounds just right for the time it was released, mid 1958, "My Heart's In Your Keeping"

Download: Margie Sands - My Hearts In Your Keeping
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