Uncommonly Pretty

Here's a song discovered by a friend. While on a used record shopping spree with my pal Stu, we poured over some well loved disks at a Salvation Army store. Whichever one of us found the album by "The Sacred Heart Singers" was bound to make it a certain purchase, if for nothing more than the great cover, featuring a bunch of girls and young women, some with guitars and ukes. 

Stu was the lucky one who found it first, and he originally posted his favorite track from the album to his blog. That post is now broken, so I'm reposting it here. 

I'm about as taken with it as I can get, and maybe you will be, too. It's quiet, flowing beauty is something you can just let wade over you. The words may or may not be consistent with your way of thinking. If they are, you may well find this extremely moving from standpoint, as well - I know I did. If the lyrics aren't your thing, I think perhaps you'll still find the sound of this record extremely affecting and moving. 

Download: The Sacred Heart Singers - Once Upon Eternity

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That's Rock and Roll

I think that sometimes I go on too long about the recordings I'm sharing here, so today, I'll just say that I'm offering up a classic by a lost father (or perhaps brother) of Rock and Roll, Mr. Barry Gordon, and his classic MGM release "Rock Around Mother Goose". Rock Me Another, Barry!

Download: Barry Gordon - Rock Around Mother Goose

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More Merigail

After my recent post to the 365 project, of a bunch of Merigail Moreland material, there were several requests that I post the rest of what I own of this wonderful singer. I'm going to do this in two posts, each containing multiple tracks. 

First up are three tracks that I skipped in submitting to the 365 days project, because I was unsure that they actually are Merigail. However, the more I listen to them, the more convinced I am, due to the little flip in her voice near the end of two of these three tracks. These are, however, the least of the tracks I am offering up today, in terms of quality, and I would guess that they predate the "Reputation" tapes from 1953 by at least some months, if not more, based on the (lack of) quality of her singing. 

First, she sings a song called "Why", a song her father appears to have been trying to turn into a hit (based on the number of versions of it that turn up on these tapes), presumably with her father, and perhaps the woman who joins in later is her mother:

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Why? (A Capella)

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Next, she sings the previously heard (at 365 days) "Mommy Daddy Bye Bye" again with a man I'm assuming is her father, Don: 

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Mommy Daddy Bye Bye

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Then she sings "Why", again, this time with an unidentified woman, probably the same woman as in the earlier version: 

Download: Merigail Moreland and Woman - Why? 

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Next up is a third version of "Head Cheese", which I left out of the 365 days post because it seemed sort of redundant. This is from the same recording session as the second of the two versions posted to 365: 

Download: Merigail Moreland - Head Cheese (Take One)

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The main focus for today, however, is the other 1953 versions of Reputation, which I left out of my post because there were just so many of them. Here we have the first recorded version with the guitarist, who appears to be still learning his part: 

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Reputation (Take One with Guitar)

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Next up, another take, one which came before the "you were sharp" version that I've already shared. Oddly, Don shouts "perfect" at the end of this take, although it quite clearly was not so perfect: 

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Reputation (Take Two with Guitar)

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Here is a tiniest fragment of a take, included for completests:

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Reputation (end of a take)

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And here is a version actually recorded after the "final 1953 version", but apparently rejected in favor of the better version done just before this one: 

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Reputation (Take Four with Guitar)

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And I believe that with the tracks featured here, I have now shared, between here and at WFMU, everything that is heard on the 1953 (and pre-1953) Moreland tapes which features Merigail's voice. 

After ten years, these recordings can still make me tear up more than just a bit. Her voice connects with me on some very basic level, the joy of a child combined, at times, with the abilities of a great singer in training. I love every minute of these tapes. 

Tonight's project is to digitize the circa 1980 tapes of Merigail which I was sent recently, and I hope to have those posted tomorrow.

Gettin' Tipsie

Next up, and not wholly unrelated to Ms. Layne, is Miss Tipsie Lee, who was apparently even younger at the time of this recording than Ms. Layne seems to have been trying to sound: according to the label, Tipsie was "13 years old" when this record was made, and I can certainly believe that. 

But as much as some others might quickly lump this into the "difficult listening" file, I find that there is something magical happening here. There are points in the song where it feels to me that the train (heard at the beginning and the end of the song) is about to slip right off the track. 

The energy in Tipsie's lead vocal is infectious, in a way that I rarely hear in the voice of a grown singer, and I'm a big fan of records where you can hear the intake of breath before a big vocal. 

I found this record at the late, lamented record store "Toad Hall", of Rockford, Illinois, easily the best record store I've ever been in. Three buildings, two of them combined storefronts. However, the owners had taken over the basement and what had once been upstairs apartments, and virtually every space in the buildings, even closets, where stuffed with records, except those places filled with books and magazines. The third building housed nothing but 45's and 78's. Sadly, the owners both died in the past three years, and the store is no more.

Download: Tipsie Lee (13 Yrs Old) with The Adrian Loraine Orchestra - Traveling Love

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ADDENDUM, JANUARY, 2022: As mentioned in the comments, some wonderful person (or peo-ple) bought Toad Hall records and all of their inventory, and the store has been open again, for the last several years. If you're ever anywhere near Rockford, IL, I encourage you to spend a day there. 

Cheesy!

For the first time in this forum, but certainly not the last: Today's item cannot be bought anywhere, and never could. In this case, it's even possible (though perhaps not all that likely) that I have the only original recordings of this song that exist.

I have bought hundreds of home recorded reel to reel tapes over the years, containing every manner of recorded material - albums of classical, pop, country, MOR, jazz, etc., radio and TV broadcasts, college lectures, commercial demos, even studio rehearsal tapes. Then there are a whole bunch of family and personal recordings, generally my favorite type of material to find on a reel of tape.

And a bunch of tapes I found just over a decade ago form, as a group, my favorite batch of home recorded reels in my collection. I guess I'd call them "The Moreland Tapes". There is one song from this batch of tapes already out there on the web, along with a more detailed description of these tapes, and that description, and the song "Reputation" (in two versions) can be found about 4/5ths of the way down the following page:

https://wfmu.org/365/2003/134.shtml

Today's song is also from this batch of tapes, and carries the unlikely title of "Head Cheese". In fact, it was the words "Head Cheese", written on one of these boxes which caught my eye, during the sale at which I purchased these tapes. "What the Hell...." I think was a good approximation of my thoughts, at that moment.

The brief version of the story of these tapes is that there were apparently a group of friends, most of them not professional musicians, who gathered together (perhaps much like my musical friends and I gather together from time to time), to make music, write, perform and/or record songs, between the early '50's and the early '60's. Whether these were just for personal enjoyment, or designed as demos for some (probably) failed attempt at selling their efforts, I don't know, but at least a half dozen people sing lead on the songs heard on these tapes, with varying styles of musical backing.

The contents of the tapes (and there are about 6-8 of them) are, for the most part, very well documented on the tape boxes, and some songs are heard several times, while others are performed only once or twice.

My favorite songs in this set of recordings are those sung in whole or in part by a young woman who was apparently the daughter (or at least a relative) of the one man in the group who was clearly a professional musician (others may have been, but I only know for sure that this one - Don Moreland - was). Her name was Marigail Moreland, and she sings a couple of songs, including "Reputation" and "Head Cheese", along with the adult musicians.

While "Reputation" is simply a stellar song, fantastically arranged and unique in performance, "Head Cheese" is altogether goofy, maybe even stupid, a child's song in writing level and performance, rescued from the the doldrums of musical hell suggested by those terrifying words by the sheer exuberance of the lead singer, and the good fun that everyone involved seems to be having.

I'd never say this is a great recording (there are several better, I suppose, even amongst these "Moreland" tapes), but it's a damn good time, and as with everything from these relaxed, friendly sessions, the love and enjoyment between participants comes through. And I just adore the singing of this young woman, who I know nothing about, except her name, and that (per the web) someone with the exact same, rather odd name, once worked on a 1960's Z-Movie, one which went on to be featured on MST3K. I'd certainly love to know where life took her.

As I wrote in the title of this post, this is REALLY cheesy stuff, with lyrical phrases that were probably clichés by the time the song was recorded - February 6, 1954, according to the tape box - and a really corny conclusion to the song, and yet the song still runs around in my head from time to time, 10 years or more after I first heard it.

Download: Merigail and Don Moreland - Head Cheese

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Portrayal of Exuberance

I don't have a long story to tell about this one. For one thing, I have no memory of where I got it, although I think it was around 1986 or so. And for another thing, I only have the vaguest of ideas of what is being sung about - I'm sure that, if I were to be able to learn the title of the song, it would be nothing similar to the title "Spring Song" with which I've labeled the recording.

The first thing to say is that, perhaps more than anything else in music, I love the sound of children singing. The second is that this song, and others, proved to me that it wasn't necessary for me to understand what they were singing for me to love certain recordings of children singing.

I can't seem to find this record right now, so I don't have a picture of the label. But the label of the 10" record this song comes from is written almost entirely in Russian, as are all of the songs on the album. None of the other songs stood out as anything I needed to hear more than a few times, but near the end of the second side, I heard this marvelous, chugging accordion (or whatever it is), with lower notes provided either by the same instrument or something else (it sounds almost like a pump organ), and I was immediately captivated.

And then the singing began....

What a marvelous, unrestrained and inspired vocal. It is life-affirming, exciting and adorable, too, uninhibited and wonderfully emotional. And then, just when that was getting really good, a whole chorus of like-minded, and like-voiced kids join in to sing a refrain, in each case made up of what I think is a part of each verse the soloist had just sung.

That paragraph really sums it up. This is just a wonderful sound - three minutes or so of absolute exuberance, which I find completely intoxicating. 

Download: Russian Choir - Spring Song

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I once had a friend take the song to a relative who spoke Russian, and she returned with a written description of what the song was about, rather than a translation. I no longer have that description, but as I recall, the song is about Spring in some unnamed town: courtship and other related happy, youthful Springtime experiences. Sounds like the right story for this music to me.

ADDENDUM, MARCH, 2022: I reposted this track at WFMU, three years later, and received a more or less complete description of the story the lyrics tell. Rather than being a celebration of Spring, it is more or less a celebration of the local "Collective Farm", as well as a celebration of the singer's boyfriend. It's also been suggested that what I've heard as children's voices are actually at least older teens if not adults, and that I've mistaken their style of singing for that of children. Could well be. Also, just within the last two months, I've finally come across this 10" album, and the label photos are below (I don't have the cover). If anyone would like to translate this for me, I'd be MUCH obliged. I can't even tell which part of this writing contains the track titles, but if someone else can, this song is the next to last song (out of five total) on the side with a lot of staining, seen first, below.