At the Hop!

Before I get to this week's offering, I've forgotten for two weeks now to alert any of you that might be interested that I made a post to WFMU which has a bit of overlap with the song-poem world. It's my second visit to the amazing releases on the Fable Label, some of which may have been song-poems, all of which are wonderful in their own way. That post is here. There is almost nothing I could offer up in comment about today's featured song, a Tin Pan Alley number called "Joe and Sue Doing the Hop", that won't be addressed better by just listening to the record itself. I'm sure you won't be disappointed - thank me later. Here are the Melodiers: 

Download: The Melodiers - Joe and Sue Doing the Hop

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Please note that the above song was written by Del Rush, who wrote the equally amazing "We Like the Kentucky Hills", which I offered up in my final post for 2010. The flip side, "Peace of Mind", is notable for using a modified blues progression that Tin Pan Alley performers used over and over again on their records, for another set of winning lyrics, and for another singular performance by the Melodiers. 

Download: The Melodiers - Peace of Mind

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His Last Request

I'm sure, if you're anything like me (or like song poem lyricist Marion Trautman), you've been kept up many nights by the thought of Barry Sadler's "The Ballad of the Green Berets", wondering, focusing, fantasizing, obsessing over one question: "But what happened NEXT?". Well, your prayers have been answered, because Rodd Keith, and the aforementioned Ms. Trautman, have teamed up to answer all of those questions, with the song "Green Beret's Last Request". I'll also mention that this record sounds to me less like a typical Preview label release, and much more like a Sterling Label record, from the band sound to the use of echo. Since dozens of Preview records from this era (although not this one) show the involvement of Sterling boss Lew Tobin, this similar sound may not be a coincidence! 

Download: Rodd Keith - Green Beret's Last Request

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The flip side, "Suddenly", does not, in my opinion, have a whole lot to recommend it, but the many Rodd-Heads out there may beg to differ: 

Download: Rodd Keith - Suddenly

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Tropical Dreams

Another weekend, another college visit. As a result, I'll have to keep this brief. Most people have probably had enough of the winter weather that's hit most of the states the past few weeks (not me - I love snow, and generally much prefer winter to summer, being no fan of heat - although I'm even more partial to spring and fall). However, bowing to the majority, here is a favorite singer of mine, Cara Stewart, offering up her tribute to "Hawaii", on the relatively rarely seen Top Fifty label, out of Cheyenne, Wyoming: 

Download: Cara Stewart and Combo - Hawaii

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Unfortunately, this is not a twin spin for Cara, as the flip side is handled by Johnny Michaels, who I suspect may be the same singer who was sometimes billed as Jeff Reynolds, on records with a connection (as this one has) to Lee Hudson. This song also pays tribute to the 50th state, casting the islands as the home of the singer's "Lovely Lady". 

Download: Johnny Michaels - Lovely Lady

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Bobbi Blake

This is the week I get to offer up a more substantial thanks to a reader/poster named Sammy, who let me know of all the broken links which I've slowly been fixing. He's a big fan of Bobbi Blake, and has pointed out a glaring hole in the collection of songs I've posted over the course of 25 months - no Bobbi Blake! I'll rectify that today, and in the near future. The absence of the lovely-voiced Ms. Blake is less because of any dislike on my part for her singing (although, to be fair, my tastes in female vocals on song-poems run closer to the 1950's style heard on records by such singers as Betty Jayne and Cara Stewart). The main reason is that she did most of her work for MSR, a label whose general sound (with major exceptions) doesn't do all that much for me. But I never intended this site to just be about my taste - if I'm not posting something from a segment of the song poem world that you like or love, by all means let me know, through a comment to a post. Today, though, two MSR 45's which are major exceptions to my apathy for that label, at least on their respective A-sides. Best of the four Bobbi's to be heard today is probably the one which goes by the unlikely title of "Rochester New York Blues". I dunno, those words don't seem to have much in common with each other, or with the musical style heard on this platter. However, what is there is suitably odd and interesting. There's a nice soulful band performance, with some great organ fills during the vocal, but when the solo section hits, the weirdness begins, as it sounds to me like a carnival has come to town. On top of it all is a first rate vocal.

Download: Bobbi Blake - Rochester New York Blues

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The flip side is the downright turgid "Beggar of Love", which features that unfortunate string keyboard which is the biggest reason for my dislike of many MSR singles.

Download: Bobbi Blake - Beggar of Love

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  Picking up the pace, though, is the a-side of the second record I'm featuring today, a driving rocker with a forceful vocal (and in which those synth strings are thankfully buried), "Run My Son", a plea to the writer's child to follow the straight and narrow. The sudden fade makes me wonder if there was an error further towards what was supposed to be a longer fade. 

Download: Bobbi Blake - Run My Son

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Finishing out the set is "A Woman", another bland ballad, with one of those song-killing spoken sections. But getting two good songs out of two song-poem 45's is certainly far above the average.

Download: Bobbi Blake - A Woman

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Thanks again to Sammy - hope this is a good start at a pay back! 

It's Nice to Know You

I'm pretty well tied up with other things this week, so I'll skip most of the commentary and just say that I hadn't offered up any Norm Burns in over half a year, and felt that the time was right. Here's a distractingly scratchy Sterling platter titled "It's Nice to Know You". The label number and year on this record indicates that it would be one of the last records Norm would record (or, at least, release). He died later in 1974, and his last release number that I'm aware of is barely 30 numbers higher than this one: 

Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars - It's Nice to Know You

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And here's the flip side, "Deep Love".

Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars - Deep Love

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Stop Growling!

Dear readers/listeners, today we are all in luck. It's not every day we get to hear a previously unheard epic from the Halmark factory, and their prime export, Bob Storm. And what's more, today's offering carries the promising title "Stop Growling At Me, Babe!" And it doesn't disappoint, with typically Halmark-worthy (and often stunningly unmusical) lyrics, such as "I have the right of way", "your indignant tone", "double-crossing glances are out of date", and an all time winner of a lyric: "I am in the unsophisticated teenage category". Enjoy! 

Download: Bob Storm - Stop Growling At Me Babe

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 Also please note that this is one of the logos (the label used a few) in which Halmark (the most common spelling on their records) used the correct spelling of the word, with two "l's". The flip side, "My Love is Yours", is more typical of the unctuous, barely listenable material that graces the majority of Halmark releases, but I know there are some out there who will revel in it, for just that reason. I do particularly enjoy the following rhyme, such as it is: "Everything I have is yours / For my love is yours". I'm sure that couplet took a lot of thought:

Download: Bob Storm - My Love is Yours

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A New Year Treat

Happy New Year! I thought this celebratory occasion called for something special, an EP which only recently made its way into my collection, and which I've really been enjoying. It's a record on the Air Label, and features Rod Barton and Sammy Marhsall, with two songs from each of them. The real stars here are the two songs on the B-side, written by Harry S. Reynolds, and sung by Rod Barton, who was previously heard on this site on an acetate, doing that insane song about "Heat". First up, and best of the bunch, is "Skeleton Blues", which I'm betting will have every reader up and about, "rattling those bones":

Download: Rod Barton - Skeleton Blues

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Sounding fairly similar, and not far below in quality, is "Rock and Roll Blues". This is the sort of session I'd love to have attended: 

Download: Rod Barton - Rock and Roll Blues

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Over to Sammy Marshall's side of things - or, as he's credited here, Sonny Marshall. First up is a peppy number which seeks to keep us all humble and to offer up some insight which is always welcome at the start of January, "You Put Your Britches On Just Like I Do". I notice that Sammy never actually sings the words of the title line in the order listed on the label!: 

Download: Sonny Marshall - You Put Your Britches On Just Like I Do

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The side ends with Sammy and friends doing what sounds to me like an attempt to capture the sound of The Fleetwoods on the very brief song "You're Not Mine Any More": 

Download: Sonny Marshall - You're Not Mine Any More

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Stunning!

Today, to celebrate the end of the year, I have something I consider very special. Truly horrible, mind you, but special nonetheless. Today's first song, a late-era Tin Pan Alley single by the awkwardly named group "The Melodiers", features what may be the most mind-numbingly bad lyrics I've ever heard on a song-poem. There may be worse individual lines or verses, but this song, "We Like the Kentucky Hills", piles one poorly worded, incomplete, obvious, ridiculous and/or (particularly) inane line after another, for four and a half minutes! I don't want to give all, or even many of the joys of this song away - there's too much pleasure in hearing this for the first time. But consider a few examples, such as the opening section: Me and my woman met on a blind date I can't remember her name See I live in the hills of Kentucky and she lives in another state When I go to see her I'm allllllll ways late So weeeee don't haaave much time to date And another favorite: So I went home and told my dad Just... just what I had done My dad said..... "son... you know.... you're right!" The song contains an abundance of lines which sound as if the writer, having come up with the last line (or word) for a verse, then worked backwards to figure out something - anything - which might rhyme, and built the rest of the verse that way. The subject matter meanders, never really focusing on the title concept for more than a moment, but not really staying on anything else to inspire a better title, either. A plus for me is that the guitarist, who only has to be able to play three chords, regularly misses the correct fingering or fret, turning what could have at least been a nice do-it-yourselfy sort of backing track into just another layer of incompetence. I hope you enjoy this record as much as I do! 

Download: The Melodiers - We Like the Kentucky Hills

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  The slip side, "Don't Shout, Just Get Out", written by the same wordsmith as the A-side, features some of the same on-the-fly lyrics and performance as its flip, but the results, while entertaining to a degree, can't match "Kentucky Hills".

Download: The Melodiers - Don't Shout, Just Get Out

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Updates to older, broken links will return with the next post.

Christmas With Sammy

Silver Records was the record label of the John Koproski family, of Cleveland. Another family member, Mr. Koproski's son, John, Jr., was the writer behind the killer double A side known to song-poem fans everywhere as "Rock And Roll Boogie Beat" & "Twist And Turn", but here, the senior Koproski takes his turn with two more serious, Christmas related tunes. As with his son's record, they are sung by Sammy Marshall, although both Mary Kaye as well as the Party Crashers (heard on "Twist and Turn") took the night off for this recording. Here's "Holy Day":   

Download: Sammy Marshall - Holy Day

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The flip side, sounding a lot like "Holy Day", is "Manger of Bethlehem". Perhaps the most interesting thing about this record is that the production and arranging credit goes to John Koproski himself, which seems extremely unlikely, as Sammy Marshall recorded for the Nashville-based Globe Records company - this record has all the hallmarks of that company's work, and was likely made many miles from Cleveland, by those behind the Globe song-poem factory.

Download: Sammy Marshall - Manger of Bethlehem

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A Christmas Wish

Today's post is a double offering for Christmas, both songs being courtesy of writer Elvie Rowland, via performer Mike Thomas, of Tin Pan Alley Records. The better of the two is "A Christmas Wish", a record typical of the minimilist style of TPA's records during this period, and a song which flies past us in less than 90 seconds: 

Download: Mike Thomas - A Christmas Wish

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The flip side is the far more ponderous "The Nite (sic) My Savior Was Born":

Download: Mike Thomas - The Nite My Savior Was Born

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When He Says "Go Out", He Means It!

Heeeeeere's Rodd!

Here's a great one from Rodd Keith, masquerading as Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound", on the Action label. This song title "Before I Go Out" isn't all that intriguing, but the lyric is great - when lyricist Valliere Hancock uses the phrase "Go Out", she adds "Like a Light", and the rest of the words make it clear that she's talking about all the things she wants to do and learn before she dies! Rodd's brilliant use of the Chamberlain, as well as his vocal stylings, only add to the fun. I'd be surprised if this wasn't recorded around the same time as the equally jazzy and atmospheric "Tom Dooley Last Will and Testament" (from the Norris the Troubadour album, and which everyone reading this words should hear, if you haven't already). Like that song, this has a cool, laid back vocal that nonetheless fits the unusual words.

Download: Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound" - Before I Go Out

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For the B-side, the same writer submitted another song, "The Splendor of Love". She shows none of the spirit that makes the A-side so interesting, going so far as to borrow the opening line from a former #1 song which was heavily identified with that same opening line, "Love is a Many Splendored Thing". Easily the best thing about this song is the Chamberlain track that Rodd created for it. At times, it reminds me of some of the John Lennon Mellotron experiments which are available on bootlegs (the Mellotron being essentially the same instrument as a Chamberlain). There is a moment in the backing track from about the 1:45 point to the 2:00 point which I find to be nothing short of gorgeous, and which certainly shows off Rodd's keyboard genius.

Download: Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound" - The Splendor of Love

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Delicksious!

First, I'd like to say that that the world is suddenly a lot less wonderful, following the death on Thursday of Ron Santo. Those we call sports heroes - and he certainly was one of those - are rarely really heroes, and even with that, their time in the spotlight is usually fairly brief. Ron Santo was a true hero, as a person, if for nothing more (and there was so much more) than for maintaining a positive, infectious outlook, and a real joy in living, despite experiencing an often extremely difficult life. Baseball won't ever be quite the same without you, Ronnie. ... 

And now, on with the countdown:There were few releases on the Delicks label - two 45's and an album that I'm aware of. Everything released on the label was written by Francis E. Delaney, who appears to have been more self-aware than most song-poets, as witnessed by the name of that Delicks album, "The 12 Most Unpopular Songs" (which I'm also lucky enough to own a copy of). Today, in honor of the holiday season (and the first snowfall we've received today, in my home town), the only songs I'm aware of on Delicks to not be contained on that album. Both are sung by someone identified on the label as "Betty Bond", although I'm sure those of you more familiar than I am with female song-poem singers can tell me who she might be. And although the "Unpopular Songs" album was done through Lew Tobin's Sterling label, this single was produced through National Guild, a separate song-poem factory, run by Bob Quimby in Florida (although this record sports a suburban Chicago address - go figure). First up is a rather obvious take off on Rudolph's song, "Blinky, the Blue Nosed Snowdeer": 

Download: Betty Bond - Blinky the Blue Nosed Snowdeer

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  Apparently someone either really enjoyed this record, or took exceptionally poor care of it - it's beat to hell. Here's the flipside, "Little World of Snow":

Download: Betty Bond - Little World of Snow

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I get a kick out of the fact that this record came to me housed in a Stax Records 45 sleeve.