Sunday, August 31, 2025
Sammy Marshall and the Teen Notes on Crescendo Records
Sunday, August 24, 2025
George and Kay! Who Are They?
Today we visit the land of MSR Records. As long time readers of this site may recall, I'm not much of a fan of this label, or really of anything that the "MSR" crew was doing from the early 1970's (at this label and others, such as Cinema). That puts me at odds with the powers that were behind the song-poem boom and CD releases of 25-30 years ago, who actually named their series after the label. Perhaps it puts me at odds with my readership, too - I dunno. I just find their material far more frequently sterile and boring than other labels. Plus, the early '70's to the mid '80's are simply not my favorite era, and those are the sounds they were aping. For what it's worth, I like the sound of the Columbine label (which operated in the same eras) even less than MSR, and for the same reasons.
But I do like to throw out an MSR track every now and then, if for no other reason than to provide a more full picture of the song-poem world. And at those times, I also try to offer something interesting.
To that end, today I have a record for which both sides were written by song-poet Fred L. Chitester. Mr. Chistester was a prolific song-poet, and apparently had enough money to throw around to have nearly two dozen documented releases of his handiwork on the MSR label - and those are just the records discovered before the song-poem archives website was mothballed. He submitted a handful of songs to the label around 1974-75, and then at least a dozen during 1979-80. This includes a couple of albums in that period which each featured five Chitester songs.
The song that intrigues me here is "George and Kay", sung by the always incompetent Bill Joy. Bill Joy was the dominant male singer during the last days of MSR, starting in 1976 or so, and, by 1980, was singing all but a handful of the male vocals on the label until its demise in the mid 1980's. And he was awful. The first time song-poems were explained to me (by Dr. Demento), the song used to demonstrate the genre was a Bill Joy special, "How Long Are You Staying?" (I had heard song-poems before that, but hadn't known their provenance.)
"George and Kay" intrigues me because of its lyrics. It seems to be about a famous couple - or at least locally famous, somewhere. They are seen every day, but what the song-poet appreciates about them is how they always do right, and are always bright, smiling and happy, and in particular, how they make a point of not ever telling anyone else to do. Mayhap I am spacing on a couple who were famous in 1980, but I have no idea who he is singing about. The music is vapid, particularly that awful synthesizer which is omnipresent on MSR releases of this area, and Bill Joy provides his typical supper-club awfulness.
Anyone know who he's singing about?
Download: Bill Joy - George and Kay
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The real horror here is the flip side, "When You Are Low and Feeling Blue", in which the solution for clinical depression is to "Change Your Ways", or perhaps move somewhere where you can pretend to be upbeat and "no one will know" that you're depressed.
Have I mentioned my 35 years working in behavioral health? This is an infuriating lyric - because I know there is a certain subset of people out there who think like this. God help 'em if they developed a behavioral health condition.
Download: Bill Joy - When You Are Low and Feeling Blue
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Monday, August 11, 2025
First Person Christianity
In the notes to the fourth song-poem compilation album, "I'm Just the Other Woman", there was a section in which was pointed out an uncommon aspect of the song "The Will of God", that being that it was sung from the perspective of the singer being Jesus Christ. And I agree that such a conceit is a fairly unusual one.
Here we have another one, from the waning days of the once-great Sterling label. Sterling's greatness came from one man - Norm Burns, a singularly great singer - with a large assist from one other man - Lew Tobin, the arranger and frequent composer who set the song-poems to music. Well, Norm died in 1974, and was followed by a series of much-lesser lights, and Lew's name - which showed up as a bandleader and/or co-composer on the vast majority of Sterling records releases into the mid-1970's, disappeared from the credits, never to return, right around the time this record was made.
The singer on this side is Mel Moore, heard here with "The Starlets", who was the dominant performer for Sterling from around 1977 until their demise around 1984. I have a few Mel Moore 45's, but had never featured him before, largely because Sterling records after the departure of Norm and Lew are often deadly dull.
But I do get a kick out of this one. Jesus is singing the song, you see, exhorting his listener to "Walk On" and "Stand Tall", those being the two parts of the title of the song. Jesus doesn't actually get around to identifying himself until nearly half way through, by which point he's clearly irritated at not being asked "Dude, who are you anyway", and gives away his secret. I can commiserate with him there - it seems like that might be a conversation you'd have with some random stranger who was telling you how to live, somewhat earlier in your interaction.
For all I said about the suckiness of late era Sterling records, this one is actually bouncy and even sort of swings, with a Johnny Cash, "I Walk the Line" beat on the drums, a really nice interplay between the piano and the guitar, and an equally nice give and take between the lead singer and the backing gals. It's a sweet sounding track.
Download: Mel Moore and the Starlets - Walk On - Stand Tall
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Shelley Stuart (whose name I now see I have misspelled on more than one occasion here) is the singer on the flip side, another religious number from the same song-poet. Shelley shows up on a few of the earliest tracks on Sterling, and then made well over a dozen records for the label during the period just before Norm Burns' death, but this is a later release for her on the label that I can find reference to online, exactly one hundred label numbers later than her previously known last release. For a label that seems to have released only 40 or 50 records a year, that's a significant gap of time between recordings.
Anyway, Shelley's song, "Live For Jesus" is awful. It goes on for about 17 days, or at least it seems to. The folks at Sterling did do an effective job of creating the sort of dashed-off gospel/inspirational sound that could have been heard on a dozen religious fund-raising TV shows or cheapo Christian albums of the time. It's not a good sound, but they did a good job capturing it.
Download: Shelley Stuart and the Starlets - Live For Jesus
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Monday, July 28, 2025
A Texas Two-Fer
Today, we make another visit to the waning days of the great Film City label. This is number 4035 on the label, that label having started at #1000 and going to around # 4140, so this is late indeed. It's two releases up from Rod Rogers' great "Little Rug Bug", so there is quite the chance that Rodd Keith is also the Chamberlin master herein. And like several other releases in this numbering sequence, this record appeared on goldish-yellow vinyl.
The singer is Jim Wheeler, about whom the less said the better, and the songs - both about Texas - represent a fairly rare occurrence in the land of song-poems, and that is, submissions by a songwriting team. Both of these song-poems were written by the same two-man team. Does that mean they wrote the words AND music (making this more of a vanity number), or just that they both wrote the "song-poem" lyrics. There's no way to know for sure, but these melodies and chords sound so traditionally "Film City-ish", that I'm betting these were traditional song-poem, with music by the Film City crew, and not a full submission of completed songs.
The better of the two by a wide margin - better being very much a relative term here - is "Remember the Alamo". It is peppy, with a creative backing arrangement, a nicely structured "string section" solo and a lilting melody. And best of all, it doesn't wear out its welcome, ending in well under two minutes.
But please, while everyone is remembering the Alamo, let's not forget that those fighting for America were on the wrong side of history: The battle at that time and place was really about trying to control Texas in order to allow those living there to have slaves, a practice that Mexico had outlawed.
Download: Jim Wheeler and the "Swinging Strings" - Remember the Alamo
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I can muster up no enthusiasm for the flip side of this record. "The Beautiful Texas Waltz" goes on for roughly five days, or at least seems like it (it is actually just under twice the length of "Alamo". The word "dreary" comes to mind, which is unfortunate, as the song tells a happy story, and seems to have been designed to be a counterpoint to "The Tennessee Waltz", a song with a positive outcome.
I'd also like to point out that both of these songs contain the weird feature - mentioned here from time to time - of songs which have a fade out, but then end before the face out is completed. Why fade a record out if you ended on a full stop?
Download: Jim Wheeler and the 'Swinging Strings' - The Beautiful Texas Waltz
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Saturday, July 19, 2025
Hitting On the Nurse
We're featuring Gene Marshall and his lovely voice today. The song has the promising title "Patient and His Nurse". Perhaps Song-Poet Harry Fineburg was writing from personal experience, perhaps he'd been watching a few soap operas, or perhaps he was just letting his imagination run wild. I say this because, to me at least, these lyrics seem to indicate the patient - who is heard in first person in the lyrics - is quite enamored of, and seems to be at least passively hitting on, his favorite nurse.
Perhaps there is another explanation. Feel free to chime in.
Download: Gene Marshall - Patient and His Nurse
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Download: Gene Marshall - All That Remains
Saturday, July 12, 2025
His Body Don't Rest Easy
If anyone represents the idea that TPA stuck with the same singer(s) at length, it's Mike Thomas. Obviously, the song-poem website is mothballed, and having been updated in some 20 years, but for those records captured on the TPA page of that website, Mike Thomas' run of releases starts at # 538 (and I recently discovered he did a few, before that, under what I assume is his real name, Mike Yantorno), and then proceeds to be the named artist on every single then-identified TPA release until # 914. And at that point, a group called "The Melodiers" take over the next several releases. The lead singer of "The Melodiers" being, quite obviously, Mike Thomas.
Anyway, here's Mike Thomas and the small, energetic TPA combo, with a song called "My Body Don't Rest Easy". I really enjoy the energy on some of these upbeat performances by this admittedly limited, but very peppy group.
Download: Mike Thomas - My Body Don't Rest Easy
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The first thing I have to say about "The Flowers Came to Late" is that the band should have stopped and started over again after the guitarist got his instrument in tune. Aside from that, as in general, these guys are less interesting in mid-tempo numbers (especially when the song-poetry starts to get recited as it does here). I still enjoy the interplay of the organ and guitar here, in spots, especially on those lovely 7th chords transitioning the melody into another section, as well as the little solo at the end. And at this speed, they were still better than they were on the dirges that they sometimes had to perform.
Download: Mike Thomas - The Flowers Came Too Late
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Monday, June 30, 2025
A 1960 Wolf-Tex / Globe EP
Their record number system also went through a few revisions, with records sporting three digit, four digit and even five digit label numbers across what were a small number of releases. The song poems on Wolf-Tex seem to have all (or nearly all) come from the Globe song-poem factory. I get much of this information from the Wolf-Tex page at the AS/PMA website, where you can also view a photo of the delightful Carrie Biggs, although I also own several records on the label not reflected on that page, and there are multiple YouTube videos of records on the label - although not this one.
Three of the four songs on this EP are listed as being sung by Kris Arlen and John Hurley. "Kris Arlen" is most certainly the singer variously identified elsewhere on song-poem records as Kris Arden, Joan Auburn and Damita. I have identified her as Kris Arden in the tags, as the Arlen name seems to have been limited to Wolf-Tex releases. Who John Hurley is/was, I have no clue.
Two of the three songs are most definitely songs sung from a male perspective towards/about a female, and the main vocalist is John Hurley, yet Kris Arlen is listed first for all three, even on our first track, "Be the Little Girl I Used to Know", where she is barely present aside from a few harmonies and wordless backing vocals.
More curious still: The three Arlen/Hurley tracks are listed as featuring the "MG Orchestra". MG appears to have been a vanity label with no direct link to Wolf-Tex, aside from the common link to Globe, and what's more, the label appears to have only ever issued one album, and it has no songs written by those song-poets whose name appear and recur on Wolf-Tex releases. The mysteries of the song poem world.
Download: Kris Arlen and John Hurley, MG Orchestra - Be the Little Girl I Used to Know
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The second song on side one is "Little Nobody (Somebody Loves)", and if anything, first-billed Kris Arlen is even less featured on this track, providing multi-tracked harmony backing vocals and not sharing the lead with John Hurley at all.
Download: Kris Arlen and John Hurley, MG Orchestra - Little Nobody (Somebody Loves)
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The Globe factory's MVP, Sammy Marshall, shows up for one song on this record, curiously also assigned an orchestra, rather than a singing credit, and assigned not to MG, but to the parent company, Globe. The song is "If You Forget Me, I'll Die". Interestingly, this lyric (but not, technically, this song) is available on YouTube, in a version on a Wolf-Tex single (not an EP) and also sung by Sammy Marshall, but that version is completely different - and superior, I'd say - to this one. It's got a different melody, chord structure, rhythm, everything!
Download: Sammy Marshall Orchestra - If You Forget Me, I'll Die
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The record finishes with another "duet" featuring Kris and John, but really mostly John (again). At least on "Miss Belle of the Blue", they due sing in harmony here and there. This song is about a beauty contest in Kentucky. You'll be glad to know that the first two qualities upon which the winner is chosen is her figure and how she does her hair. And as with the previous Sammy Marshall track, this one is ALSO available on another, at least somewhat better Wolf-Tex 45, which is somehow identified on YouTube as Bluegrass (??), and which can be heard here.
Download: Kris Arlen and John Hurley, MG Orchestra - Miss Belle of the Blue
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Thursday, June 19, 2025
A Quartet of Dreamy Love Songs from Cara Stewart
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Linda Dahrling's Greatest Hits
Today, I have a bit of an oddball release - this preview release appears to be the only record ever credited under the oddly named spelling "Linda Dahrling". It's been suggested to me that this is Bobbi Blake, and I initially identified her as such, but Sammy Reed, who knows his Bobbi Blake perhaps better than anyone in the world, says that's not the case, and suggests that it might be the singer identified elsewhere as Joan Merrill. I have no idea, so I am leaving her identified as Linda Dahrling in the tags.
This is clearly, to my ears, a Rodd Keith production, and I'm fairly certain that's Rodd singing in the background, too. It's not one of his best - both songs sound very much alike to me and the level of creativity is far below what he was capable of. But... it's a relatively early Preview release with Rodd's involvement and for those reasons alone, good enough to share.
The first song is "Poor Little Sparrow", in which the song-poet minimizes the future problems of a bird suffering from a broken wing (she seems to think it will heal itself - I don't think it works that way) when compared to her life, given that her man is in Vietnam and might not come back.
Download: Linda Darhling - Poor Little Sparrow
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The flip side, "God Bless You" is standard issue "thanks for loving me" paean to a woman's lover.
Download: Linda Darhling - God Bless You
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Sunday, May 18, 2025
Blazing Hoofs and Impeachment, Too! - Another Ridiculous Record from Gary Roberts
"Blazing Hoofs". Okay. I had to look that up, and it appears that, in addition to "Hooves", "Hoofs" is an acceptable plural of "Hoof". Who knew? It still looks goofy to me. And of course, who better to sing a western outlaw ballad than Gary Roberts. I know, almost anyone would be better. After a faux Flamenco guitar introduction, the band settles in to a "Western" gallop which is about as authentic as one might have heard at the time in a skit on a local kiddie TV show.
The lyrics are a compendium of genre clichés (although I did web search for the phrase "My Pinto's Going Dry" and it literally came up with no hits - an absolutely original, if genuinely stupid, set of four words). The words of the lyrics are manipulated into phrases that just don't work, all for the sake of rhymes. My favorite example, in which a rhyme for "sleep" was needed:
The girl I left behind / yes the girl who says she's mine
Whom I kissed before I left / began to weep
The whole thing is over in barely two minutes. I found myself wondering what Halmark would have done with this material.
Download: Gary Roberts - Blazing Hoofs
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Based on Sterling's numbering system, it would appear that his record came out at the end of 1974 or, more likely, in 1975. And that would line up nicely with the title of the flip side, "Impeachment of Love", as well as with the wah-wah sound and beat (such as it is) heard on the track.
It is, as you might guess, a song of a cheating lover being discovered. We're off to a fun start in the two lines, in which "love" is rhymed with, um, "love". And then, when the protagonist discovers his lover's indiscretion, he appears to have witnessed - "Hiding like a clown" (another line shoehorned in to create a rhyme) - an unusual lover's embrace, to be sure:
I saw you kissing, embracing and strangled in strangled in strange arms.
Gary gives his all to try to sound outraged, hurt and enraged, but it's just beyond his abilities. Just picture what Gene Marshall, for example, could have done while singing that last verse.
Download: Gary Roberts - Impeachment of Love
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Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Rocket To the Moon
As I alluded to in my last post, I have precious little time right now, so I will not have much to say. I do want to share a vintage song-poem ad sent to me by longtime reader/listener/commenter Tommy. Here it is:
Thanks, Tommy!
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Today we have the always entertaining and barely competent Billy Grey, on the Tin Pan Alley label. The song is "Rocket to the Moon", the conceit here being that, apparently, going into outer space is the latest move to make when one is pursuing romance (?). My favorite line, a complete non-sequitur, is "Let's Not Be Different" - I can't figure out what that means, in OR out of context.
Download: Billy Grey - Rocket to the Moon
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On the flip side, with virtually the same tempo and feel, is the sad lyric of a man who has learned his gal is moving on. He is nice enough to tell her "you're free to go", which is mighty sporty, but he'd really like her to stay, even redundantly saying "Please darling, please change your mind".
Actually, the best things about this track, by far, are the guitarist and drummer, who are clearly in a better record than the singer, particular in the last 20 seconds, when the drummer, in particular, seems to think he's playing with a hard rock band.
Download: Billy Grey - Darling, Please Change Your Mind
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Sunday, April 20, 2025
An Easter Egg For You - A Rare Rodd Keith Album from Australia - COMPLETE!
First, let me just say that there are some things going on in my personal life which may - or may not - impact just how much time I have to give to sharing and writing here for the next month or more. If there are fewer posts, I hope it is only for this month and next.
But TODAY, I have something ultra rare and exciting: An entire album that Rodd Keith produced, under the Film City umbrella but clearly with more money and options, for a song-writer in Australia, and released in Australia on a legitimate Australian label - W & G records.
The existence of this album has long been known, and its contents are duly related on the Film City page of the song-poem website - although that listing shows that the album was released domestically by Film City. But I can't find that its contents have ever been shared online. My copy is the Australian release, obtained from a friendly Australian record dealer named Michael. Thanks a million, Michael!
The album is called "Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef", and indeed, all twelve songs are about Hayman Island and the surrounding areas.
I am fairly certain that this entire album is a song-poem/vanity hybrid album, and that these are songs written - music and words - by the listed songwriters: Reg Hudson for the first song, and John Ashe for all the others. The tunes are quite pedestrian, for the most part, although some have a nice, and appropriate, South Pacific type of lilt. But none of them have the sort of tune-writing excellence I would associate with Rodd Keith.
What they DO have, though, is embellishment. This is Rodd Keith working with at least a somewhat larger budget than he usually had, particularly at Film City, where he was usually a one-man band. Not only is there a female singer heard nearly throughout the album - heard, in fact, virtually as much as Rodd himself - as well as both a female chorus and a mixed chorus on other songs. There are also horns playing here and there - a sax solo on the first, song, for example, and a veritable Dixieland combo playing on the fourth song on side two, South Molle Memories. In addition, there is clearly a "real" piano being played over the Chamberlin backing on a few tracks.
And despite the bland nature of the tunes, Rodd's musicianship, vocal chops and particularly, genius for arrangement, shine through over and over again.
Below are files containing each of the two sides, with no attempt made to separate the tracks, followed by photos of the album and the labels.
I have NOT listened to the files I made of this album - I listened to it first before making the files, and as I said, I'm a bit busy just now. If there are any glitches, let me know and I will fix them.
I hope you receive this with as much excitement and enthusiasm as I had in receiving it.
Download: Rod Rogers with the Tropic Island Serenaders - Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef, Side One
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Download: Rod Rogers with the Tropic Island Serenaders - Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef, Side Two
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