A Sammy Marshall/Kris Arden Globe Acetate!

Another rarity today! Perhaps not as rare as a Stylecraft 78, or a Cubs song-poem, the combination of which was shared a few weeks ago, but a 78 acetate from Globe isn't all that common, either. That's what I have here.

The Globe company released few "records" as such on their own label, mostly limiting their own name to demos of their products on acetates, and putting their actual "releases" out on literally dozens of labels. I have several Globe demos, most of them on 45's, and most of those are simple piano and vocal demos.

But in this case, we have what sounds like a finished product, and a pair of songs that could easily have found release on any of those myriad labels that they were connected with.

First up is label mainstay Sammy Marshall, and the song "Winds of Chance", a song and arrangement which is a perfect fit for Sammy's talents. There are few elements to this record which give it away as anything but a failed attempt at a hit (mostly a few bum notes here and there in the backing, and some less than inspired lyrics).

Download: Sammy Marshall - Winds of Chance
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Over on the flip side is another of those clues to this not being a "real release", that being that the flip is by another artist entirely, in this case Kris Arden. This performance of "Take Your Letters", is, to my ears, a slightly clunkier arrangement and performance of a slightly stronger song than the one Sammy got to sing. I'm not a fan of Globe's reliance on hokey sax solos, however, I am partial to the brief guitar solo here, and a few of the simple, accented fills performed by the drummer, as well as the warm lead vocal.

Download: Kris Arden - Take Your Letters
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BIG NEWS!!!

Before getting to this week's offering, I have some big news! This has been long-in-the-works, but today, I can finally announce that the folks at the online Happy Puppy Records label have put together what will likely be the first of a series of compilations of tracks culled from this site. 

The releases will contain tracks I've previously featured, along with excerpts from my pithy comments on each track, all in one package. The first compilation features a heady mix of tracks by the one and only Rodd Keith, with 20, count 'em 20 big, excellent selections. The compilation can be found here, and there will also be a link to it in my links column to the right of my posts. I will provide updates on further compilations as they become available!

~~~

And now, what better way to celebrate this auspicious event than with a Rodd Keith record, in this case in his guise as Rod Rogers with the Film City Orchestra and Chorus. 

If you listen carefully, you can hear Rod's Chamberlin warming up even as you read these words. It's another  patriotic special, a plea for all listeners to "Join In the Fight for Freedom", and Rod has taken on his most patriotic vocal tones, added the Chamberlin's trumpet setting for some stirring fills, an oboe-ish solo, and a quick 6/8 march. Just as your heart begins racing with Red, White and Blue fervor, it's over, lasting just barely 90 seconds.

Download: Rod Rogers and the Film City Orchestra and Chorus - Join in the Fight For Freedom
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Rodd makes up for the brevity of the A-side, and then some, in providing us with a flip side which is an astonishing (for a song-poem) four minutes and-then-some long. But really, is four minutes too long to tell the story of the life of Douglas MacArthur? For that is what we have here, in "Ballad of MacArthur". 

Download: Rod Rogers and the Film City Orchestra and Chorus - Ballad of MacArthur
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Incidentally, I just did a search for that "Film City" address (which is actually nearly a mile from Sunset and Vine), and it looks like there is now a Spa and an "Alphabiotic Balance Center" at that location today. 

1060 W. Addisong-poem: The Clark and Addison Song-Poem

HAPPY CUBS SEASON!!!

I know most people are calling it baseball season, but that's just because they're not Cubs fans. What a pity for them. A damn shame, really. And I know that there are 29 other teams, but that's just so that the Cubs have a variety of teams to play. Because IT'S CUBS SEASON!!!

And to honor this wonderful occasion, I have a real rarity - not only is this a song-poem 78, the sort of item which doesn't turn up every day, and a record on the Stylecraft label, of which there are really only a handful documented, it's a song-poem ABOUT THE CHICAGO CUBS! Specifically, it's about Hank Sauer, who played left field for the team from 1949-1955.

The song is performed by label regulars The Stylecrafters, with the lead vocal by Ray Vali. Among the other unusual features of this record is the way it begins, with a mock radio broadcast of a Cubs game!

I actually have some questions about the Stylecraft label, and maybe someone out there knows more about this than I do. Clues as to its status as a song-poem label are almost non-existent - on the AS/PMA website, there are no links to other labels, and there does not appear to be overlap between artists, either. The quality of their productions is considerably higher than that of other labels, and there are few indications from those records themselves that they are song-poems. One of the few clues in that direction here is what I hear as a mispronounciation of "Waveland", one of the streets surrounding Wrigley Field - I can't say I've ever heard it pronounced the way it is here, but that could mean nothing. I would love to know based on what information the label was identified as a song-poem outfit.

But.... I've featured songs from the label before, and may do so in the future, and I'm certainly glad that having them identified as a song-poem label allows me to post a song about my beloved Cubs.

Download: The Stylecrafters - Sweet On Sauer
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The flip side, "Love Just Won't Keep On Ice", is a pretty standard issue offering for the day and era, performed for us by an outfit with a name that just trips off the tongue: "The Howard Sutor Orchestra".

Download: The Howard Sutor Orchestra - Love Just Won't Keep On Ice
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Get Some Other Fool!

Before getting to this week's songs, I thought I'd point out that two of my last three posts at WFMU have had song-poem connections. Most directly, my Easter posting featured six Halmark tracks, four of which had previously been shared here, but two of which had not:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2013/03/a-song-poem-easter-from-halmark-records-mp3s.html

And about a month ago, I posted a very early record from one of Norridge Mayhams labels. These particular songs do not appear to have any song-poem link, but because of the Norris the Troubadour connection, some of you may be interested:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2013/03/an-unusual-calypso-record-from-norridge-mayhams-label.html

And now....

Well, after spending the last several weeks variously in the 1960's, 1970's and with labels whose products sound like they're from the 1940's (yet weren't), I thought I'd head straight back into that most wondrous of eras, the late 1950's. Today's singer is Margie Sands, who is, aside from this record, otherwise undocumented among Tin Pan Alley or other song poem label releases. This is a fairly straight ahead number for the period, one which - aside from a few little flubs that might have been corrected with multiple takes - the average record collector might very well believe to be a failed attempt at a hit, and isn't that what most song-poets were after in the first place? Here's Margie with "Get Some Other Fool!":

Download: Margie Sands - Get Some Other Fool!
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From the flip side, here's Margie Sands again with another one which sounds just right for the time it was released, mid 1958, "My Heart's In Your Keeping"

Download: Margie Sands - My Hearts In Your Keeping
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Um... You Might Want to Rephrase That...

Every now and then, a song-poem becomes available that I really have to try and get, just because of the title. It could turn out to be a good or bad record (bad in this case largely meaning uninteresting), but sometimes the title itself is the show.

This moment I saw this title was one of those moments. I own a lot of religious song-poems, and have heard many more from others' collections. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more poorly considered title, though, then the one I'm offering up for this Good Friday. It just seems to me that there are certain turns of phrase that you might not want to connect with certain Holy names, images and things. And I'm guessing I'm not alone in saying that when it comes to Jesus, one phrase to avoid might be "Hanging Around". And yet, here we have it:

The song itself does not turn out to be a stellar one, but it is an interesting performance, in that the construction of the remarkably brief, even skimpy poetry of the lyric writer seems to have resulted in some rather complex arrangements by whoever set it to music. As a result the one-time-through-and-done process appears to have been a failure - the usually reliable Gene Marshall struggles through the performance, missing an entire word ("be") the first time he gets to the title phrase, and sounding over his head at a few other points, as well.

Download: Gene Marshall - Jesus Will Be Hanging Around Your Side

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Actually, the most remarkable thing about this record may be the song on the b-side, "Watching Sally Grow". Seriously, you have to listen to this record, it's a chintzy attempt on the song-poet's part to glom onto Bobby Goldsboro's big hit, the sickly sweet "Watching Scotty Grow", written by Mac Davis. The lyric is constructed in much the same way, and covers much of the same ground. 

Actually, it's more obnoxious than that: it starts with the exact same phrase "there he/she sits with a pen", the opening verses end with "well it's not too bad, 'cause she's my girl" verses "but it ain't too bad, 'cause that's my boy", and the rest of the song also parallels those of the big hit record (although this set of words might be considered an improvement; we're not informed that "BLRFQ spells mom and dad") , both end with the same phrase, "Me and God are watching (Sally/Scotty) grow".

I can imagine a lot of hit songs inspiring rip off from the song-poem community, and even posted one where the "lyricist" lifted an entire verse from the song "Nobody's Child" for her own submission to a song-poem company, but "Watching Scotty Grow", with it ripe stench of tripe emanating from every moment, would not have struck me as one worth plagiarizing. Sheesh. 

It's also worth noting that most Preview song-poems have the same publishing information as the A-side of this record, Arthur Music, while this side boasts Liberty State Music, another oddity. Upon review, I see that some copies of Bobby Goldsboro's hit have a reference to a "Liberty" company, so perhaps even the folks at Preview realized they would be in hot water if they tried to copyright this set of lyrics,and assigned them to the owner of the copyright to "Watching Scotty Grow". 

Just another weird corner of the weird, weird world of song-poems.

Download: Gene Marshall - Watching Sally Grow

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Not Every Song is Meant for a Mixed Vocal Trio...

Today, the second half of a little two week jog into the true fringes of the song-poem world, and another EP from the folks at the Film-Tone label. Clicking on the Film-Tone link at the bottom of this page will take you to the three previous EP's I've shared from the label, as well as the very little I know about the label. The key point here is that the only credits you'll typically find on a Film-Tone 45 are the director credit (usually Vincent Poli) and the fact that the performance is by a vocal trio.

This trio, and the group behind them, play and sing as if it was still the 1930's, and regardless of the lyric, it's always the same two men and a woman. Often, this works okay, but other times, I have to wonder what the song-poet thought of the results of his or her submission - more on that in a bit.

Within the limits of their chosen genre, the trio works well enough on the first song, "Butterfly at Play", although I swear I hear a phone ringing at the 1:46 point - it would be a perfect summation of the quality of song-poem industry products if that's exactly what it is, and if they kept the take anyway:

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Butterfly At Play
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Then there's the awkwardly titled "Singing the Song of the Blues", which also works, I guess, with this arrangement, although it features some truly stultifying lyrics, particularly those song in the solo section by the bass singer, who curiously only sounds like a bass when he's singing alone - the rest of the time his voice seems considerably higher.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Singing the Song of the Blues
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Side two kicks off with "Restless", which features some more words from the creativity challanged end of the lyricist spectrum, and, unusually, some unsure moments of vocalizing from our trio, brief moments where the three part harmony seems close to going off the rails.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Restless
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And finally, the one referenced in the title of this post, "Everybody's Girl". These lyrics fairly scream out for a solo male performance, or at least a group male performance (or, on the off chance that it was meant to reflect a gay relationship, at least a consistent performance from vocalists of a single gender). And sure enough, it starts out with the two men singing. But then, quickly, the woman of the trio comes in and takes over the melody for the remainder of the song. I have to think this was not what the lyricist had in mind, and although I suspect it was just another job for this particular singer, I do wonder, while listening to this piece, what the hell she might have been thinking, while taking on the lead part in this particular song.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Everybody's Girl
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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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Hooray For Mike Thomas!

I sure do enjoy Mike Thomas. Admittedly, he couldn't really sing that well, and his garage-band-lite backing band always sounded like they needed another year or so to rehearse before going into the studio. But the end results of their collaborations are often quite entertaining, although perhaps not for the reasons that the song-poets envisioned. There is often a "what the hell is going on" quality to these records that brings me back for more.

On "There Ain't No Reason", we're treated to an opening with a hi-hat break that seems to predict a vo-de-oh-do song. But no, it's more of the same three piece combo stuff Mike always seems to be singing over, and his nasally warbling quickly gives way to - of all things - a bass solo! And although the guitarist fails to cut off one of the stop-chords, they kept going anyway.

Mike sings the same verse again, and then we get the same bass solo again, with some borderline creative drumming this time (the drummer seems to be wishing for that vo-de-oh-do number). Finally we get a different verse, with a note a 1:44 which seems to have been pulled out of a different song entirely, and the whole thing quickly comes to an end, just 112 seconds after it started.

Download: Mike Thomas - There Ain't No Reason
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The flip side, "I Ain't Living, I Ain't Loving, I Don't Know", is a slow blues, a music style which would seem to be about as far outside of Mike Thomas' wheelhouse as would be Chinese Opera. The guitarist is going to town behind him, and actually manages to throw in a few passable fills, although he seems to struggle with the seemingly simpler task of staying on the beat, and I do wish he'd chosen a more aggressive tone for his guitar, rather than the weaselly, tinny sound heard here.

Download: Mike Thomas - I Ain't Living, I Ain't Loving, I Don't Know
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He Better Pull Out!

Since, by most accounts, my recent post of a Rodd Keith feature did not actually feature Rodd Keith on lead vocals, I thought I'd come back to him sooner than usual. And while the second half of today's record has been readily available for some time, I still thought this record was worthy of a feature, due to the previously overlooked A-side.

I'm not always a fan of Rodd's country stylings - I think he sometimes sounds like he's too obviously ridiculing the material - but on "Pulling Out and Pulling In", he has everything firing just about perfectly, starting with an unusually clever lyric, complete with punchline. Then Rodd attached that lyric to a perfectly suited arrangement, featuring a nice guitar solo, and effective give and take on the chorus with "The Raindrops". As nice as the flip side is, and despite that other song having been chosen for a compilation, I think this is the stronger of the two songs and performances.

Download Rodd Keith and the Raindrops -  Pulling In and Pulling Out
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The flip side is "Don't Throw My Love Away", which was featured on the wonderful "I Died Today" CD of several years ago. This one is in the 1960's adult pop wheelhouse, and wouldn't have been out of place in the repetoire of a Dionne Warwick or her contemporaries. Rarefied air, indeed, and I can recognize the depth of talent and style here, without really enjoying this as much as many others do - it's not really my thing.

Again, although it has been out there and available for ages now, I'm sharing it here for completeness sake, and for those who may not already have it:

Download: Rodd Keith and the Raindrops - Don't Throw My Love Away
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Road Trip!

Today, we're going on a trip to Arkansas. I've been in 42 of the 50 states, by my count, and although I was only in Arkansas for part of a day, the land I saw there may be the most beautiful I've ever seen. Those behind this record, it appears, would heartily agree.

Here's a record on the previously undocumented Patmar records label out of Springdale, Arkansas. Springdale is in the Northwest corner of the state, about 30 miles from Decatur, Arkansas. While Springdale is a good sized city of roughly 70,000, Decatur, on the other hand, has well under 2000 residents.

I think we can reasonably guess that in one of these towns - I'm guessing Decatur, lived a couple named Pat and Marge, who threw their money into song-poem recordings as well as their own nearly eponymous record label, not even bothering to provide their last name on the songwriting credit! And for at least one side of their record, they turned to the Globe company, and stalwart Sammy Marshall, offering up a wish for those who hear him to "Give Me Decatur". Sammy gives it his typical upbeat, enthusiastic performance. By the way, the momentary fades you'll no doubt hear on this track are part of the original record, and not a flaw in the transfer to MP3:

Download: Sammy Marshall - Give Me Decatur
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On the flip side is a recording which might be a song-poem offering, or may be a commissioned performance by a local performer, or perhaps even a friend of Pat and Marge, someone named Les Anderson, nicknamed "Carrot Top" (and God help me, I hope this is the only circumstance under which I have to be entertained by someone with that nickname), along with a string band under the direction of Tex Atchison. I honestly don't know that this is a song-poem or some other animal, but I do know this: as mentioned above, I can fully understand the songwriters' point of view and love of their local land in their song "Beautiful Arkansas":

Download: Les "Carrot-Top" Anderson - Beautiful Arkansas
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A Halmark Love Letter

It's St. Valentine's Day! And I know that when we speak of love, and of song poems, there are those of you who love the Halmark label (and what better label to choose than one which is almost spelled like Hallmark, the company that bring us all of those holiday cards?).

Here's a Halmark special, featuring a superbly nasal performance - I think that's Jack Kim, but my recent singer identifications have been repeatedly called into question - on a love letter in song, titled "I'll Stand By You".



Download: Halmark Productions - I'll Stand By You
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On the flip side, we have a female Halmark singer (whose name I don't know), singing over a backing track I don't remember hearing on a Halmark disk (a real rarity in itself), in an supremely boring religious number, "Where Shall I Go?":



Download: Halmark Productions - Where Shall I Go
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It's St. Valentine's Day! For those of you who love the Halmark label (and what better label to choose than one which misp

That's Her Kissy Face - In Prison

Continuing last week's feature of songs sent to me from a long-time song-poem pal, I've got two songs from a Cinema release, featuring of course The Real Pros. As with last week's feature, because I'm getting these from outside of my collection, I don't have label scans.

The two songs contained on this record could hardly be more different. On the A-side, we've got a light-as-a-feather pop confection called "That's Her Kissy Face", featuring the unusual pairing of acoustic guitar and cheapo synth, over which the singer - who I think is Bobbi Blake - sings a wonderful sweet lyric about a mother's love for her young daughter. Despite the ridiculously low production values, it's a keeper!

Download: The Real Pros - That's Her Kissy Face
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On the flip side, we have Gene Marshall, emoting all over something called "Prison Blues", something of tone poem (a tone-song-poem?), with absolutely no beat or rhythm. Over outtakes from the Deep Purple/Iron Butterfly song-intro file, Gene does a first rate job of offering up the feeling behind the songwriter's words of woe. It's a fairly singular sound and performance from within the song-poem world, actually. Have a listen:

Download: The Real Pros - Prison Blues
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A big thank you to Michael, from me and all the readers and listeners!

AND an addendum, all these years later - it appears I was wrong about both singers here. I'm not convinced that it is not Bobbi Blake on the first cut and it is not Gene Marshall on the flip. I don't know the female singer, and the male singer is the same one who was on most of the earliest Cinema releases.