A Very Noval Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day!

There is no better way to celebrate such a day than with a dull and dreary sounding small combo, led by an unidentified singer who can barely sight read, even when the piano is playing the melody along with his vocal. 

"What is Noval Records, Alex?" DING DING DING DING DING!

Here I have that fabulously weird label, producing a typically flaccid record, in this case, a song called "The Voice of Love". I admit for having a soft spot for these records because I genuinely adore vibraphones, and that instrument is sometimes all over Noval releases, including this one. Certainly the vibraphone is the only thing stellar going on here. On the other hand, the Noval male vocalist's inadequacies continue to amaze me. 

Download: No Artist Named - The Voice of Love

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The flip side - a tale of lost love called "Waiting for a Dream", so still appropriate for today - features a female vocalist, one with more character in her voice and far more accuracy in her ability to find the correct notes than her male cohort. The piano is still copying her melodic line, but it's more buried in the mix and I doubt she needed to have the pianist hold her musical hand in order to perform. And your mileage may vary, but a dreamy vibraphone will make nearly any record listenable for me.  

The interestingly named Ferris Paxton wrote both of these songs. There is a self-published book out there containing the poems of someone by that name, compiled by one of his children. I wonder if that's our man. 

Download: No Artist Named - Waiting For a Dream

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The Noval Man - the Anti-Gene Marshall

Only two posts this month, I'm afraid. It's been quite an ordeal of a month, but one which suddenly turned bright and lovely in the last three days.....

But last time I had eight songs to share, and this week, you'll barely be able to get through the two I have for you without losing your lunch. Yes, it's Noval Time. 

Last time around, I paid tribute to the great Gene Marshall. Gene and the folks at Preview were certainly among those at the pinnacle of the song-poem business, at least for a time, and Gene himself was utterly professional, talented and did a flawless job 99% of the time. As I wrote a few weeks ago: 

in many, if not most cases, he was singing the song-poems you hear on this site the very first (and last) time that he ever saw the sheet music. 

Such a practice does not always turn out well. Perhaps the very opposite of the 1960's and early 1970's version of Preview (and the opposite of certain periods at Sterling and at Tin Pan Alley, among others), was the Noval label. And for that reason, I consider them to be another quintessential song-poem level, just at the other end of the quality scale. 

The stereotype of the song-poem, I think, is a talentless person writing trite lyrics and being tricked into parting with a good amount of money for a recording made my hack musicians who barely have any interest in what they're doing. And often, the first part is true. Anyone reading this knows the sort of lyrics that turn up on these records. 

The hack musician going through the motions part is unfair to a lot of people who worked their tails off, often for material which didn't deserve it. 

But Noval.... oh, Noval.... This is where the complete stereotype I just described comes utterly true. Most of the song-poetry heard on Noval 45s is thoroughly awful, the arrangements are bland and plodding, the singers are not even credited, there is NO address for the label, and the singing is the very opposite of Gene Marshall. For the singer on this record, I certainly hope, beyond hope, that he was seeing the words and music for the first time, because this guy clearly either was not a good site reader or was simply a terrible singer, or perhaps both. The anti-Gene Marshall. 

Have a listen to "Rose of Love", in which the singer misses the second note of the song, despite the fact that the pianist is also hitting the note and it's the tonic note for the key they are in (for all you musicians out there). As he typically did (this guy is on a lot of Noval records), this singer shows no technique whatsoever, and continues to find stay on the melody challenging here and there, culminating on a note he simply fails to hit at 1:59.  

And don't even get me started on these lyrics...

Download: No Artist Named - Rose of Love

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( I must point out at this point, that every now and then something accidentally turned magical, in Noval's hands.) 

On the flip side is "All I Want is You", featuring some additional cookie cutter lyrics. Somewhere during the course of listening this particular song, I became convinced that the reason the pianist constantly doubles the melody of the songs on Noval records is because that was the only way to keep this guy at or near the right notes of those melodies. Sort of a real life Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. 

Download: No Artist Named - All I Want is You

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A Missing Link? One That No One Was Looking For?

 Greetings, song-poem fans. 

Today, I'm going to take a deep dive into a couple of the dustiest corners of the song-poem world, so if you're not well versed in the minutiae of the subject, this may be Greek to you, and it may or may not be interesting. 

Anyway, the story starts with what has to be the most mysterious of all the known song-poem labels, Noval. I've featured the label from time to time, most recently just a few weeks ago, and you can find all of the posts about Noval, including this one, in backward chronological order here. If you want to hear Noval's two greatest hits, which were on the same 45, and one of which ("Rock, Rocking All the Time") is in my all time top 25 song poem list) that posting is here. 

Anyway, even the great song-poem detective skills of those who put together the AS/PMA website couldn't find out anything about Noval - not an address, not a related label, not a time frame, nothing. The page for Noval is one of the most sparse on the site. Their records listed the songwriter, an arranger (usually "Jay" or "Fred"), and no artist, their numbering system seemed virtually random, and their records typically involved a piano, a drummer, sometimes a guitarist, and, rather bizarrely (although very appealingly to my ears), a vibraphone. 

So when this record popped up on eBay a few weeks ago I was certainly intrigued: 

Now, this looks nothing like the other Noval records, in any way, so clearly, the label name might just be a coincidence. After all, the songwriter's listed name is Cy Novak, meaning it could just be a vanity label. And yet, the record is "Arranged by Fred", who in this case has acquired a last name, "Holovnia".  And while the record sounds nothing like anything that was released on the familiar Noval label, it does contain a musical sound that is equally out of time and space with the music of the '60's and '70's, much as Noval's music did, just in a different way. 

In fact, I'd venture to say it sounds quite a bit like what the Halmark label was doing, by the late 1960's. It's got the echoey production, the stale, even moldy sounding canned backing track, and the general feel of a Halmark release, even if the vocalist herself is different than those heard on Halmark. Here's one of the sidees, "Willow Tree", sung by Arlene Martel. Have a listen and see if you share that observation. 

 

Download: Arlene Martel - Willow Tree

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Okay, so maybe it's just a coincidence. But maybe not. Assuming this is the same company, this is the first Noval release to bear an address, and that address is in.... Boston, just ten short miles from the home of Halmark, in Quincy, MA. 

None of this proves anything, and I am sure that if someone has competing information, I'll eventually hear about it. And if so, you all will be the third to know (after me and my correspondent). But the trail here suggests to me that maybe Noval morphed into Halmark (or perhaps into Chapel, which preceded Halmark in the development of that label). Or perhaps the person behind Noval (Cy Novak, presumably) worked with Ted Rosen of Halmark on this release. 

But I'm now betting that there was some link between these labels and companies. And I will forgive you for thinking I'm strange, when I tell you that I find this discovery sort of exhilarating.

Here's the flip side, "Easter Time", which amuses me in a couple of lyrical turns of phrase, the first being when we're told that, during Easter Time, it's "almost spring" (huh?) , and the second being when  the writer observes that "Easter Time is Here to Stay" (again, huh?). 

Download: Arlene Martel - Easter Time

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I welcome anyone who'd like to weigh in on this. 

Some Stunningly Bad Lyrics, A Typically Terrible Performance

I was surprised to note that I hadn't featured the resolutely awful Noval label in just under four years, and thought I'd probably rectify that. 

I think that if you weren't paying close attention to "Our Song", it would just sound like another terrifically terrible Noval musical and vocal performance, with its plodding music and a male singer whose sense of pitch is akin to what a sense of balance is to someone with vertigo. 

I, on the other hand, was dialed into the words right away. From the first moment, I got a chuckle out of a song called "Our Song", which starts with the phrase "Our song had no words".... and yet, you're singing words in a song called "Our Song". 

But that was just a start. Consider these pearls of songwriting craft: 

"Our lips hummed our song" (not sure I've ever heard a reference to lips humming before)

"Oh yes, our song was worthless" (I dunno why, but that just cracks me up)

"but told of love so true" (recall that the lyrics made a point of saying that the song has NO WORDS)

The vocal performance at 1:35 is pretty special, too. 

Download: No Artist Named - Our Song

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The flip side features the other most common singer on Noval releases, a female vocalist who, unlike her male counterpart, seems to have a bit of style, although she also seems to find melody - any melody - challenging. This record - "Loved and Lost" - is as equally plodding as the flip side, and has the disadvantage of an extra 35 seconds, but is otherwise much more forgettable. 

Download: No Artist Named - Loved and Lost

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Wolf Finck's Noval Dream

Howdy, 

I have a bunch of things to start off with. First, I'd like to point out that for the second time in three posts, there was a nice little conversation in the comments about one of  my posts, in this case, the one from last week. It started with my two most frequent commenters, my "analog" world pal Stu and my online pal JW (Michael) stating their beliefs that "Bill Clifford", who was featured in that post, was, as I guessed might be the case, Rodd Keith, and this moved into a discussion of the possible reasons for his various names. You can read those comments at the end of that post. I have added Rodd's name to the post labels. 

Second, am continuing to list the duplicates from my song-poem collection, which I mentioned last week, as well. Those sales can be found mixed in with all my other items, here. 

Third, I thought since I've mentioned having put my song-poems into order a few times, I thought I'd show you what that "order" looks like. Here's a photo:

Each of the full boxes holds somewhere in excess of 200 45's, I think. And I have another box or more of 45's sitting on a shelf by my computer, which are the ones I feel are more likely to be shared here. 

Here's what's in the piles/boxes from left to right: 

My s-p albums

Small labels part one

Small labels part two

Favorite Labels - Film City, Fable, Sterling, Mayhams related

Tin Pan Alley

Preview

MSR (with 78's and 10 inch albums mixed in the side)

Finally, I have yet again updated another month's worth of old posts, in this case, April of 2011. That 

month, I shared both sides of a whopping six song poems, in five posts. These included a typically blah Halmark offering, a song for spring on the tiny Vellez label, yet another great late 1950's offering on Tin Pan Alley, a nice one from Cara Stewart (under an assumed name of her own), and a twin spin featuring some religious material from both Gene Marshall and Norm Burns. 

And speaking of blah offerings from uncredited performers....

I'm actually being a tiny (very tiny) bit unfair here. Because while "Blah Offerings" would have been a more accurate label name for Noval Records, on today's record, they actually offered something just a little exotic. For the lyrics to "Only a Dream", by Wolf Finck - who goes on the list of wonderfully named song-poets - the Noval house combo tried a slightly south-of-the-border groove. And while the results are fairly laughable, at least they tried - I don't, for example, remember a lot of Noval releases with much percussion, let alone the multiple percussionists heard here. 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Only a Dream

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Much more typical of Noval's work is the flip side "Trust Jesus Day By Day". Typical touches: no beat; the piano doing little more than playing the exact same melody that the singer is singing; homely and technique-free singing; and what should be the saving grace, the vibraphone. This is one of my favorite instruments ever, but even its presence doesn't save anything here, save for that lovely opening few seconds. 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Trust in Jesus Day By Day

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SCARY BAD!!!

What better day than a day dedicated to all things scary to offer up a new find on one of the most consistently, frighteningly awful labels out there, the tiny and mysterious Noval Records label. 

First up is a song with an absolutely quintessential song-poem title, "Thoughts", sung by Noval's resident female - as always, not credited on the label (that's the songwriters' names you see in the scans). There are at least a few other obvious titles that could have been given to this lyric, but no, the song-poet with "Thoughts". 

A lugubrious pace and somnambulistic setting by the combo drag this one down, as they do on about 80% of Noval's releases. The singer - as this singer always does - sounds like a hometown girl performing in an amateur hour at the local church, although I am head over heels for the spectacularly incompetent swooping in her voice at 1:26 - It borders on self-parody, and it's worth the price of admission. 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Thoughts

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The flip side, "Following Around With You", features the same vocalist, but the band, as heard here, is about the peppiest that I've ever heard on a Noval release, and it's sort of led by a plucked guitar, another rarity on this label. The whole thing (except the typically awful vocal) sounds more like a Globe production than the typical Noval output. 

That doesn't make any of it very good at all. Lyrically, it's actually a close relative to "Thoughts" - a woman pining for someone who has likely been untrue - although the specifics are different (the reference to the Army seems to fly in from another song entirely). Musically, despite the peppier beat (it's not actually peppy, but it's a rock and roll stomper compared to most Noval records), nothing of interest happens, aside from a few badly played moments. And is it just me, or does this seem to go on forever.

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Fooling Around With You

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Thanksgiving Turkey Leftovers

As promised, here's a little musical turkey to go along with your leftover turkey sandwiches, two days after Thanksgiving. When you talk about song-poems and musical turkeys together, it's hard not to arrive at the Noval label, sooner rather than later. I have often wondered if Noval's customers were, by and large, happy with the results of their submissions, and also, how much they paid relative to other customers of other labels. There aren't enough Noval releases around to get a sense of whether they had repeat customers, as some of the larger labels did.

Beyond that, I'll let these fairly ridiculous records speak for themselves. As arranged by Fred, here's "Rocking Bronco", performed, as always, by an unnamed singer and band.

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Rocking Bronco
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And here's the same team, with the expertly, and creatively titled ditty, "Love":

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Love
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I hope that everyone (or at least those who celebrate it) had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you all have an even better Holiday Season!

One Hell of an Argument!

Noval song-poems are often an offbeat treat. The one's I typically enjoy feature half-assed musical  performances of lyrics which are badly suited to the backing provided, sung by a guy who has problems staying on pitch. Today's feature, however, has a decent, if journeyman-like bluesy jazz backing, and the singing is considerably better than I'd have expected.

In this case, it's the lyric that makes me grin, every time I hear it. I won't spoil the source of the argument that's central to that lyric - you should get to discover that yourself - but I will say that I cannot imagine anyone having a major argument ("for most an hour"), over the disagreement described here (especially given that the singer states he will "do anything for you")

At 100 seconds or so, this is one of the shorter song-poems you'll hear. Also please note that the entire song has only eight lines of lyrics, some of which are repeats of earlier lines.

Download: No Artist Named - Salvation Army
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The flip side, "You" is about as creative and interesting as is its title. Again, there are minimal lines to this song, stretched out at a snail's pace, again across about 100 seconds of music:

Download: No Artist Named - You
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God is His

Almost invariably, when I hear a Noval 45 for the first time, two thoughts come to mind:

1.) What on earth would the average record collector - one with no knowledge of song-poems - think upon happening upon this record, and listening to it for the first time? (Especially, but not limited to, situations where what they probably assume is the artist billing - in this case, Ada Billy - doesn't match the masculine singing on the record.)

2.) Was any customer EVER satisfied with the product the received from Noval? Given, that is, that virtually every record I've heard on the label features a singer who seems incapable of either staying on pitch or reading the melody on the page in front of him accurately.

Today's feature, "God is Mine" is a perfect example of the latter question. This is the same guy, I think, who is on most of the Noval records I've heard, and he is thoroughly incompetent. Listen how he hesitantly pauses over the word "step" at the 32 second point, and then wavers on the long note just after that. And there's more than a little wavering on the last note. He also lands poorly almost every time there is a jump of more than a few notes up or down the scale, and generally seems to be unsure of where about half of the notes are supposed to be - the whole thing is just sung tentatively, as if he's afraid of stepping on a land mine.

And it's not like this would be a difficult song to sing - it moves at a snail's pace, has simple words and stays within a rather small range. Add that all of that is on top of a dreary, deadly backing arrangement, and you have quite the song-poem pastry.

Download: Noval Productions - God is Mine
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The flip side, "Little Band of Gold" is, at least, peppy, but the same problems continue. Right from the start, in the first two lines, the vocalist comes within striking distance of the melody at several points without quite getting there (I particularly like the notes on the word "message", and the complete breakdown of his reading of the tune on the title line) - despite the fact that the pianist is playing the notes of the melody behind him.

I sure love that Noval label.

Download: Noval Productions - Little Band of Gold
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A One Sided Acetate... How Noval

I'm a little late this week, due to some connectivity problems, among other things - I hope to be back on an end-of-the-week/weekend schedule in another couple of days.

Meanwhile, here's the only item in my collection that fits this particular description: It's a one-sided acetate on the Noval Records label. There's no artist named, but that's not unusual, as Noval never named the artists on their records. They did bother to credit the arranger, and as always just put his first name, in this case "Jay".

As far as the material, well, this is not a demo version of a Noval record. It sounds like a demo, but so did all of their releases, and this one is no exception. To me, the structure of the song most closely resembles that of "The 23rd Channel", with a bridge section in particular sounding like a rewrite of the bridge of that record.

The stunning thing about this record is that the "sweetest dream" of the title is, if I'm understanding them correctly, that the singer has now learned that she is to die soon, and will be seeing God soon. If you think I have that wrong, please chime in.

Download: No Artist Named - The Sweetest Dream
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When I Write My Noval

If the main focus of this site is a corner of the music world that is definitely on the fringes (and it is), then today's post and record lie on the fringes of that fringe. Because today, I'm bringing you another record born of someone's decision to employ the mysterious staff of the deeply obscure Noval label.

With their simplistic background arrangements (usually distinguished only by the lovely presence of one of my favorite instruments, the vibraphone), lack of named artists (probably to protect the exceptionally bad singers from embarrassment) and downright bizarre crediting system (never more than an "arranged by" note, followed by a first name), Noval stands alone in terms of the sheer depth of their weirdness.

I'd love to know when these records were made - they sound like they were produced in the late '40's, but I'm guessing that's not the case. On the first side of this disc, we have "Now You've Gone and Left Me", which sounds very much like a reject from Tin Pan Alley (the legendary song-writing location, not the label), in structure, arrangement and performance, with a vocal performance sounding very much like a read-through demo performance from our mystery man. At least it's almost peppy, at least compared with much of Noval's output.

Download: No Artist Named - Now You've Gone and Left Me
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On the flip side is a drippy love ballad, "I Love Only You", with words that wouldn't be out of place in a 7th grade love note - so simple that they make the A-side's lyric sound like Shakespeare in comparison, although I hasten to point out that both sides were written by the same person.

Download: No Artist Named - I Love Only You
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It's That Time Again!

Now that December is upon us, it's time to again reach into the cornucopia of Christmas song-poems, and pull out the first of at least four holiday-themed 45's that I'll feature here during the weeks leading up to Christmas (and, if I can motivate myself, perhaps another half dozen that I'll put up over at WFMU next weekend).

And what better reason (as if I needed one) could there be to share a record on the ultra-weird and shadowy Noval label. And I think the first song featured from this 45, "A Christmas Stocking", is the only record I've heard on the label not to feature the sort of bland, pitch challenged male singer that seems to pop up on every other Noval release, including the flip side of this 45.

But in this case, the singer is a slightly more effective (emphasis on slightly) female singer, although as always on this label, she's accompanied by a bare bones combo (albeit with the addition of jingle bells ringing on every beat - on the other hand, I'm not sure I hear the vibes, which are usually the nicest part of a Noval record). The song itself is a generic tune, contained in a record which would barely last 80 seconds, if not for the fact that the backing band plays the entire tune through before the singing starts.

Download: Noval Productions - A Christmas Stocking
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For the flip side, "Thinking About Christmas", the voice-of-Noval is back, as are the vibes heard on most of Noval's records, and as is the meandering, near-tunelessness which is also a Hallmark of the label's releases. But hey, it's Christmas!

Download: Noval Productions - Thinking About Christmas
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Rock... Rocking.... ALL THE TIME

Today, I am extremely happy to offer up the online debut of a song-poem which really should have been widely known before today. I hope you enjoy this record as much as I do. I don't normally post the same label or artist the same week (or even the same month), and didn't expect to be doing so this week. And even last Sunday, when I learned I had a lead on a copy of one of my all time favorite song-poems, I still didn't think I'd be sharing it, because I was sure it was already in common circulation. But a few days of research has convinced me that this record - one of my top ten favorite song-poems - has NEVER been shared online. I will therefore say that I don't know of a better song-poem that has not yet been heard by the general collecting song-poem public. And I must rush to rectify this situation. Most song-poem collectors - whether seekers of records or of MP3's and CD's, will know the flip side to this Noval release, which is "The 23rd Channel", and which is fabulous in its own right. It appeared on the third volume of the "MSR Madness" CD series, and was remade by Gene Merlino (Gene Marshall) for the film "Off the Charts". But here's what I don't understand - with all of the well-deserved attention given to this song, no one has ever shared its flip side, which is even better. . I would even name it as one of the strangest records I've ever heard, and yet one which encapsulates the song-poem experience in many ways - the odd lyrics, the off-the-cuff performance, the poor match of lyrics to music, the mystery of it all, and on and on.... I first heard this song on a tape, supplied to me by Phil Milstein (thank you, Phil!), well over a decade ago, and it moved to the top of my heap immediately. It's called "Rock, Rocking All the Time", and I hardly know where to begin in describing it. Perhaps with the lyrics, which beg us to not "blame" the singer for wanting to rock all the time, but then allows that this desire to rock all the time is how "everybody feels" (so why would we blame him?). "Oh La La, Oh, La, La, There They Go", is pretty good, too. Or there is the fact that the tune is set to a beat that is far from "rocking", being more suited to one of the slower numbers from the Swing Era. And of course, one of the instruments driving the piece is that most rocking of instruments, the Vibraphone. The vocalist really can't sing, which is not always a problem in real rock and roll, but his minimal ability is more in the area of "bad lounge singing", so even that doesn't fit. The whole thing adds up to a truly amazing performance, and it's capped off (hilariously, and incredulously, if you ask me), with a musical coda in which the band finally decides that they really are at a swing session, and go to town, with a big two bar solo for the vibraphone. It is impossible for me to overstate how much I love this record. I even love the fact that you can hear the end of the count-off at the start. If there were an Abbey Road of song-poems, this would be on it. I hope you find as much to love in this deeply peculiar record: 

Download: Noval Productions - Rock, Rocking All the Time

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For completeness sake, and for those who may not have it, here is the almost-as-deeply-magical flip side, "The 23rd Channel", heard here off of my new copy, not from the CD. You can also hear the end of a count-off on this side, and that's not heard on the CD release. This has to be in the running for the best Double A-sided song-poem release ever. I can only think of a couple of competitors, both of which featured songs by Edith Hopkins, who was not really your typical song-poet. So maybe I consider this the Hey Jude/Revolution of Song-Poem singles

Download: Noval Productions - The 23rd Channel

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Hooray for Noval Day!

It's always a happy day 'round my place when I become the owner of a previously unknown Noval record. Their records are among the most obscure, and tend to be fairly odd, even within the song poem world. That's above and beyond the fact that they never named a performer on the label, and credited their arrangements to one of a handful of single named men (in this case, "Jay"). "The Capitol of My Heart" is peppier and far less logubrious than the typical Noval release, with a quick beat and a happy sax solo, going along with some downright weird lyrics - my favorite has to be "You're the County Seat of My Love", and the whole thing raps up in just 90 seconds. Here you go!: 

Download: Noval Productions - The Capitol of My Heart

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  The flip side, "A Waltz For You", is much less interesting to me, aside from the genuinely poor lead vocal:

Download: Noval Productions - A Waltz For You

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I Can Only Imagine.....

Every now and then I listen to a particularly bizarre song-poem and get to wondering: If this particular record had arrived at a radio station or record store, and was played by someone who thought his or her usual job (to choose whether to promote the record or not) applied, what would that person's response have been to this record. 

Here we have a perfect example: a record so incompetent that, upon hearing it, I could feel my mouth dropping open in astonishment. And I KNOW what it is. What would my fictional record store or radio manager think? 

And again, this record is on that most mysterious of song-poem labels, Noval. Noval, with their bizarre credits - listing only the arranger, by first name (in this case, Jay), and the lyricist. The latter habit no doubt would make most people who pick one of these up think that Irene Edwards sang today's first offering (until they heard the male voice, anyway). 

And the sound of Noval, with their typical combo of piano, guitar, drums and, right up front, a vibraphone. And I LOVE vibraphones more than almost any instrument except for the marimba. I even love vibraphones on Noval records. 

But the end result is nothing short of bewildering - even more so because the singer clearly has not seen the material before singing it (and does a terrifically bad job of sight-reading). Beyond that, the meandering melody results in a song which sounds more like someone struggling to make up a song, and repeatedly starting over, than it does like a finished product. 

I defy any of the musicians out there listening to this to find the patterns of structure, chording or melody that one usually finds in a pop song, anywhere in this record. 

Please enjoy my (very temporary) favorite newly heard song-poem, "Special Delivery": 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Records) - Special Delivery

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The flip side, written by Mrs. Ella Brusch, is titled "I Made Excuses", and although it is not as stunningly weird as the other side of the record, it's still a winner:

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Records) - I Made Excuses

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A Pair of Noval-Tees

I have very little time this week - in any year, during the third week of May, for several reasons, one of which I'll post about over the weekend. So I am slapping up both sides of a single on the Noval label, MP3's which I made some time ago. I don't know where the 45 is just now, but when I find it, I'll scan it and post the scans. 

The Noval label may be the most mysterious of all song-poem labels. Their 45's have almost no information - no artist names, just an "arranged by" credit, the name of the song and the songwriter. 

The most well known Noval record is "The 23rd Channel", which was on one of the song-poem compilations. Great as that one is, its flip side, "Rock, Rocking All the Time" (which has been around in trading circles for years) is almost infinitely better - one of the handful of greatest song-poems ever, in my opinion. 

This Noval record is not likely to be on anyone's short-list of greatness, but as another side of the song-poem world, it's worth offering. I do like the fact that they often involved a vibraphone in their releases. 

The first track is "Underneath the Peek-A-Boo Moon": 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval) - Underneath the Peek-A-Boo Moon

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The flip is "When I Met You": 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval) - When I Met You

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