This is another one of those weeks when other activities and expectations have left me precious little time to supply this site with anything meaningful to say. To make up for the lack of the verbiage you've come to expect, and also, well..."Simply Because"...I give you the Film City Chamberlin-based sounds of Rod Rogers and the Swinging Strings!: 
It's bonus day, with two Preview 45's featured! And both of them have one song which addresses the space race and the first moon landing. The first one, Gene Marshall's "We Gotta Get to the Moon", has a label number which appears to place its release right around the time of the first moon landing, in the summer of 1969, although the words were no doubt written a bit earlier. This is a peppy number - I love that space-age opening bit, the driving drumming and piano, and best of all, Gene giving his all in a great vocal, with the only problem being the worn sound of the record - odd, because it looks quite clean, so perhaps it was just a junky pressing. 
Another moon related song, far less interesting than "We Gotta Get to the Moon", and from perhaps a year or more after the first moon landing, is also performed by Gene Marshall, and is titled "Journeys to the Moon". The three minute single seems to go on a lot longer than that, with its ponderous music and dull feel.
But one look at the label breeds intrigue - the songwriter is listed as.... George Lucas???? Could it be? I rather doubt it, but still, it's a weird coincidence, given the outer space subject matter.
I've never been much for Crossword Puzzles. Jigsaw Puzzles, that's another story - I'm on perhaps my sixth jigsaw of the winter, and there must be at least 50 or so more in the basement, of varying shapes and sizes, as yet undone by me, waiting to see which of them will be next.
So I was confused by the words of this song-poem. Because I know that Jigsaw Puzzles can break apart, sometimes with a bit of effort, but more often far too easily, and before you want them to. Aside from a jigsaw puzzle OF a crossword puzzle, I've never seen a Crossword Puzzle break apart, and I don't think that such a thing generally happens.
And yet, that's the metaphor here - the writer's heart has been broken, "the pieces have fallen apart", just like a Cross Word Puzzle, leading to her "Cross Word Puzzle Heart". Um,.... okay.
Regardless of all that, I do think that Cara Stewart, as she so often did, sounds just marvelous singing the song: 
As I write this, the annual Oscar telecast is in full swing. Assuming you read this post later, did you enjoy the show? Did you like the way they paid tribute to the world of Film? Did you think the show set the right Tone?
Well, in the spirit of Film tributes and Tone setting, today I'm offering up a fairly wretched EP from our friends at the Film-Tone. Every Film-Tone EP I've found (and EP's seem to be the only thing they released), featuring a male/female trio singing with simple backing, often with the only credit being to arranger Vincent Poli, and this one is, of course, no exception.
Sorry about the horrid quality of this record. I don't know if it was loved to death (which seems unlikely) or neglected to death, but it's sure scratched up.
There's really not a lot of difference between the tracks here (in fact, three of the titles contain the same two word phrase, "My Heart"), although I'm a bit partial to track two, if only for its title. Rather than offer up a lot of pithy comments, I'll just rack 'em up, and count 'em down. Here's track one, "I Don't Want to Fall Out of Love With You". 
Today, we have some wishful thinking on the part of the song-poet in "I'll Never Stop Livin", a claim that seems unlikely at least. I have to wonder if the writer asked for a Calypso flavored track, and if so, if he was in the least satisfied by this emotionless reading of the lyrics, played by a combo that doesn't exactly sound like they know or care what they're doing. Certainly they don't have any of the verve needed to make a Calypso performance work.
But the biggest attraction here - and I must make note it to the greatest degree possible - is one of the dumbest lyrics ever:
"I went to a party last night, where I met a girl that I met"
Enjoy! 
Hey you! Yes, You!!! It's getting late to get that special person that special Valentine's Day gift. If you're behind on this essential task, may I suggest that you simply present that special guy or gal with the dulcet tones of Bob Storm, singing this Halmark label special, "I Want Our Love to Last" in his best Bob Storm way!: 
I don't often feature the Ronnie label - I find their product particularly bland, with a production sound that is typically anti-septic enough to add another layer of disinterest to my reaction to their records.
With that background, I was particularly unprepared to hear what I heard when I put the needle on Jill Donner's rendition of "Tropical Ecstasy". Because here we have the most blatant plagiarism I think I've ever heard on a song-poem 45. Sure, I've heard songs where the musicians copped the feel, or even some of the chords and melody of another song. And I've even heard song-poems where the self-proclaimed "writer" sent in the words to an existing song as their own composition.
But in this case, the opening of this record is a note-for-note copy of Martin Denny's "Quiet Village", the biggest hit that the exotica movement ever claimed, a top ten smash from 1959. If you're not familiar with that record, you can hear it here.
Now have a listen to today's offering:
This is another one of those weeks when there's too much on my plate to say much about the offering of the week, but like the U. S. Mail, I'm dedicated to delivering as promised. So here's the Queen of MSR, Bobbi Blake, with a song with an intriguing line in the middle of its lyric. "When you put this song in your cassette, you can bet I'll be gone". Was the writer of this lyric having her song commissioned primarily as a way of breaking up with her beau? It seems at least possible, given the lyric! Here's "Put On": 
Here's one from the "What the Hell Was That, Man?" file. As much as I love Norm Burns - and I really do - one phrase which would never fit him is "Soul Stomping". Yet here we have Norm singing a song by that title. But.... aside from that title, which is sung about 600 times, I'm damned if I know what on Earth he's singing about. There are two extremely short verses here, and a whole lot of repetitive chorusing, but the combination of the beat-to-hell record and the fact that Norm sang too far away from the mike, keeps me from discerning more of the lyrics. I hear: "I see Miss Blackwell with her nice set of tools
working out like a dizzy fool
I am only of a ?????
and in my right hand is my liquid snack pack..." WHAT?
The other verse is really only two lines long, before it returns to repeating the title, and appears to involve Norm interacting with a streetwalker, but I'm not even sure I'm hearing that right.
All in all, a fabulous - and fabulously weird - find:
...As long as they're in the public domain!
I realized with shock, this weekend, that I hadn't featured a Rodd Keith Preview label record in six months. I've been fairly focused on his Film City stuff (a personal favorite), but I know that plenty of his fans (probably a majority) prefer the Preview material. So to make up for that, here are two early records from that most popular of song-poem labels.
First up, and leading to my joke in the title, is a little something called "My Heart and My Conscience". It doesn't take a doctorate in musicology to notice that Rodd basically lifted the melody from the verse of "Jingle Bells" for this song. In case one did miss it during the vocal, Rodd helpful plays that "Dashing Through the Snow" (etc.) melody, virtually note for note, during the organ solo! Overall, though, this is a peppy, fun and well played and sung record: 
For today's bonus record, here's Rodd in light middle of the road (almost Country) mode, with "I Wish It Could Be Me": 
To kick of 2012, here's a song-poem from that most peppy of s-p performers, Sammy Marshall, one which is only truly appropriate every four years or so, including the one which just began, 20 hours ago (from where I sit, anyway). It's called (of course) "Leap Year"!
While song-poet R. O. Chandler handling of this subject matter perhaps doesn't match the mastery with which a similar theme was addressed by Gilbert and Sullivan, it's still a more creative lyric than is found in the vast majority of the records one finds in this genre. Sing it, Sammy!: 
