A Very Shelly Christmas

Today, in addition to sharing another Christmas song-poem here, I'm also preparing a whole set of the same, which will appear at WFMU's blog tomorrow. That being the case, time to blather on is virtually non-existent, so I'll just share that the offering for this week features Shelley Stuart, one of the secondary acts at Sterling Records, singing (appropriately, I guess) in a rather girlish voice about "A Ride On Santa Claus' Sleigh": 

Download: Shelley Stuart and the Five Stars - A Ride on Santa Claus' Sleigh
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If it weren't for the Christmas theme I'm employing this month, this record's flip side would absolutely have been the first one featured. It is the better of the two songs, it features a personal favorite of mine, Norm Burns, and most of all, it's got a downright weird construction - very rare for a song poem - in that it has an unusual and creative chord progression that shows up at the beginning and the end of the record. It's a little thing, and quite short, but it's sort of startling. And since that progression doesn't appear anywhere in the vocal part of the record, it is in a sense superfluous - the fact that they added it  is evidence of the need to find a creative outlet, even when doing something that is often hackwork. Have a listen to "Let That Little Girl Dance":

Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars - Let That Little Girl Dance
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Supper Club Social Commentary

I think I'll go out tonight for my birthday. Perhaps to that Supper Club in Boston, where the star of the Sterling Label, Norm Burns, plays each Wednesday. What really makes him swell is the way he mixes the standard, smooth supper club sound with a deep social message. The last time I was there, he knocked me out with a meaningful number called "Not For Ourselves Alone". I rushed out and bought a copy. Here 'tis:

Download: Norm Burns and the Satellites - Not For Ourselves Alone

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I think maybe I'll try and get there a little late. The opening act, Shelly Stuart, is not exactly in the same league as Norm as a singer. She has a bit of trouble staying on pitch and her tone isn't all that great. Plus, the material is less than interesting. She's on the b-side of Norm's song, for some reason, with an endless meandering piece that she sang last time I saw their show, called "The Waltz of Memories". See what you think:

Download: Shelley Stuart - The Waltz of Memories

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He Never Wins

Don't let the slinky piano opening figure fool you - it's not going to be some slinky, sexy, mysterious record, although the band seems to think this was a possibility. And the words to the song ("But I Never Win") here and there, suggest what might have been (although other lines are true clunkers). But then, the folks at Sterling assigned the track to the style-challenged Gary Roberts, and we end up with a quintessential song-poem record. 

Download: Gary Roberts - But I Never Win

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Ponderous is the word for the flip side, "Man on the Moon", handled by Shelly Stuart, who has not been featured on this site before. She did some good records for Sterling, although this isn't one of them. The song posits that the space program, and the landing on the moon, were the handiwork of God, rather than NASA, which seems to me quite a shortchanging of the scientists, astronauts and others who managed to achieve what they did in so short a time. We'll dedicate this to the Shuttle program, which ended earlier this summer.

Download: Shelley Stuart - Man on the Moon

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