The Wonderful and the Obscure

Blatant Plagiarism!

2012-02-05T16:18:00.006-06:00

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:

The flip side of this record, "Bitter Tears" is exactly the kind of recording that keeps me from featuring more of Ronnie Records song-poems in the first place:

When You Put This Song In Your Cassette...

2012-01-30T11:07:00.003-06:00

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":

The most intriguing thing about the flip side of this record, "Say it With a Smile" (by the same song-poet, by the way), is that the billing is for "Bobbie Blake", rather than "Bobbi Blake". This occurred from time to time on MSR singles, but I don't think I've seen both spellings, one each on either side of a 45, other than on this record:

Norm Burns: Soul Stomper!

2012-01-23T20:28:00.006-06:00

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:

The flip side, "Brown Eyes", is yet another entry in the "my loved one has passed away" genre of song poems:

A Great Norridge Mayhams Find

2012-01-16T19:00:00.006-06:00

STOP THE PRESSES!!! This is BIG!!! Well, at least is BIG if you love Norridge Mayhams as much as I do.

I've written here about "Norris the Troubadour" before, linked to the great article about him at the AS/PMA website, and even posted my live, cover version performance of his song "Mary Ann McCarthy". What I don't think I ever expected to find was an acetate containing two different versions of a song he later commissioned, during the time he was interacting with various song poem companies.

The song in question is "Be No Fool - Play It Cool - Stay in School", and it appeared on his Mayhams Collegiate label at least four times. All of these may have been the same version, the one sung by Sammy Marshall, credited variously to "Professor Marcel's Collegians", "The Professor" and on Mayham's classic double album, to "Norris The Troubadour Seaboard Coastliners".

However, it's now clear that this wasn't the original rendition. I have managed to take ownership of the aforementioned Mayhams Collegiate Label Acetate, with two performances of "Be No Fool - Play It Cool - Stay in School". Both are performed by the little known Julia Abreau. A trip through the AS/PMA website shows that Ms. Abreau shows up exactly twice - once, on the Air label, doing a song with no known Norridge connection (however, Air was connected to the Globe family of labels, home to Sammy Marshall, so there's that connection), but the other, a record credited to Miss J.M. Abreau, appeared on the "Little Shirley" label, on which she sang two songs by... yes... Norridge Mayhams!

So what do we have here? Well, one side says "Piano Vocal", and the other side says "Organ Vocal". Oh, but that barely scratches the surface of the wonders of this record. Just have a listen to Julia Abreau's vocal performance on the swinging piano side of this record, and tell me this isn't a huge song-poem find:

Well, that was tons of fun, wasn't it? But I bet it scarcely prepared you for the "organ voice" version, in which the organ plays a beat that had me prepared for a version of "Hava Nagila", before Julia Abreau came in, READING the words, as a poem. I love the little asides - "if they're smart that is", and especially, at the end, "best thing for ya, ya know!". To me, this whole version sounds like a weird transmission from an alternate universe, where this is typical of the sounds heard on the radio. Or something. Enjoy!:

(a note - I usually do a small amount of correcting of surface noise, if needed, on the records I post here. In this case, I found that attempting this correction led this record to have a very odd, processed sound, so aside from a few huge "pops", I haven't touched this one, leading to more surface noise than my postings usually have)

His Conscience Lets Him Borrow Melodies...

2012-01-08T21:43:00.007-06:00

...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:

"Fun" is not a word I would associate with the flip side of this record, a song titled "Would You Look For Me?", song being a questionable term, given that Rodd speaks the entire text over a middle of the road backing track. And that text is really something, isn't it? "Everyone says 'Hello!'":

For today's bonus record, here's Rodd in light middle of the road (almost Country) mode, with "I Wish It Could Be Me":

And a near sound-alike on the flip-side, "Poor Old Heart":

Leaping Into 2012

2012-01-01T13:34:00.004-06:00

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!:

This record, which is stamped with a date in 1962, appeared on the Hi-Lo label, on which there are only two identified records. I'd have suggested that the label was a vanity project of Mr. or Ms. Chapman, but the other record on Hi-Lo contains songs by a different writer. Presumably there are other "Hi-Lo" records out there, as the label numbers on the two identified records are dozens of digits apart.

R. O. Chandler is back, with another fairly clever lyric, on the flip side, "Save a Little Drop For Me". What's more, Sammy and the band sound enthused by the song, and there's even a sound effect!

Christmas With Gene Marshall

2011-12-24T10:28:00.006-06:00

Time is fleeting, as I'm sure it is for many of you reading this, but I wanted to get the promised Gene Marshall Christmas record to you, and here it is. Sorry about the cruddy sound quality - the record is fairly beat up in places, and I'm not sure the vinyl quality was ever that good. The A-side, which even fits in some New Year wishes, is "Merry Christmas All":

And the flip is "Christmas Day":

A Happy Christmas, Merry Holidays and a Very New Year to everyone who reads The Wonderful and the Obscure. Thanks for stopping by, and for all of the encouragement, whether here, in e-mail, or just by your visits!

Some Really Special Christmas Music

2011-12-22T09:36:00.003-06:00

I don't often cross promote, and I don't know how many of you who read this site aren't always regular readers of the WFMU blog (probably few, but who knows), but I didn't want this Advent to end without providing a link to my favorite new Christmas music this year, which I posted at WFMU nearly a month ago. It's an album from the early '70's by The Sacred Heart Singers of Ewen, Michigan, and it can be found here. Have a listen - it's really something special.

I'll have one more Christmas song-poem here, on Christmas Eve.

Alice's Dream for Christmas

2011-12-19T21:04:00.005-06:00

More Christmas music today, with a bonus, something that came with this record, when I found it! The performer is Jeff Lawrence, and unless this is another pseudonym for Rodd Keith - and I don't really hear that, myself - Mr. Lawrence is one of the rarer singers on song-poem records, with this name only turning up on three records in the genre that I know of. It certainly sounds like Rodd on the Chamberlin, though!

Here's the bonus: The seller who gave up this prize to me also had a clipping from a small Iowa town, all about the song-poet, Alice Winkler, and how her song is featured on an upcoming 45 release - this very record! You can read it yourself:

The flip side is the peppy "I'm a Happy Man", credited to the same singer, and with even more apparent Rodd Keith involvement on the ubiquitous Chamberlin:

Name: Santa; Occupation: Superman

2011-12-11T14:28:00.005-06:00

All praise today to song-poem Omer Rawhouser, for his sparkling lyrical effort, "Santa is a Superman", which you'll now hear, courtesy of Gus Colletti. And praise to the anonymous Tin Pan Alley musical miricle makers, for providing such a dandy setting for Omer's lyrics. Go, cats!:

I cannot, alas, provide the same praise and enthusiasm for the flip side of this record, "When Grandpa Planted the Christmas Tree":

A Very Cara Christmas

2011-12-05T19:41:00.008-06:00

To quote a one of my closest friends, "It's Christmastime in the City, and I am Happy". And so, I'll spend the next three weeks sharing some lovely Christmastime Song-Poems.

First up, an offering from the silky voiced Cara Stewart, who, in her inimitable style, sings about "Christmas in the Poconos":

Interestingly, the American Song-Poem Archives page for the Air label indicates that this record was released with two typos, indicating that "Carl" Stewart was to be heard singing "Christmas in the Pocnos". Neither of these errors is on my copy, nor is the flip side's title spelled the way its listed at AS/PMA. It's surprising to me that a song-poem label would have bothered to send out a corrected label, but that seems to be what happened here.

That flip side, "Good-By, Mr. Hard Luck, Good-By", is actually my choice for the better of the two songs, with a typical upbeat Cara Stewart bouncy beat, playful piano, echoey bass and alluring vocal. Only my desire to focus on Christmas music led me to share this one as the flip side, and not the main release of the week. Enjoy!:

AS/PMA dates this record to 1962, by the way. This information probably came from Billboard or another trade paper, and it also seems likely to be from that era, based on the address, which features a "Zone" rather than a Zip Code.

Society's Clever Games, With Gene Marshall

2011-11-28T14:07:00.003-06:00

Today's High-School-Social-Studies-Lecture-via-Song-Poem comes from Gene Marshall, telling us (and saying it "One More Time") that "Society Plays a Clever Game on the Black Man". Aside from apologizing for the poor condition that I found this record in, I think I'll let Gene, and song-poet Otis Jake, Jr., expound on the title subject themselves:

If you thought that side was beat up, you ain't heard nothin'. The flip side, "Pledging My Love" was so damaged that I gave up, mid-attempt, in trying to clean up the sound. There were just too many scratches. And quite frankly, the song didn't deserve the effort:

Stay At Home Mom

2011-11-20T20:48:00.005-06:00

Before I get to this week's record, a few links that I've been planning to share for ages, and keep forgetting/delaying.

First, occasional correspondent "KL from NYC" has hepped me to a record blog which has occasionally featured song-poems. You should go to this site anyway, as much of what's being offered there is just amazing. Here are the song-poems I've found (or KL linked me to) from the last several months, which I've just searched:

http://a45blog.blogspot.com/2011/07/idolatry.html

http://a45blog.blogspot.com/2011/07/mama-told-me-not-to-come.html

http://a45blog.blogspot.com/2011/11/rapid-robert.html

http://a45blog.blogspot.com/2011/09/elvis-new-song.html

And second, here is a link to Darryl Bullock's marvelous blog, "The World's Worst Records":

http://worldsworstrecords.blogspot.com/

Darryl knows a LOT about song-poems and their history, and has shared a lot of information and music with me, over the years. He frequently features song-poems, and as of this moment, his newest feature is a Norm Burns special. His definition of "worst" doesn't always match up - in fact, I love that Norm Burns number - but his featured material is almost always great.

And now, on with the countdown:

Today's title was actually going to be "Stay At Home, Mom", but I thought I'd prolong the facts of this record for readers a few more moments by removing the comma. The previously unknown (by me) Lillian Mars gives a sassy shout-out to a woman whose "child lives in the gutter", and who apparently really needs to get back home. It's a toe-tapper for sure!

On the flip side, we get some painfully poor lyrics about a meetup, which led to the singer's loving relationship, all accompanied by the slightest of piano-bass-drums trio backing:

Rock... Rocking.... ALL THE TIME

2011-11-13T19:03:00.005-06:00

Today, I am extremely happy to offer up the online debut of a song-poem which really should have been widely known before today. I hope you enjoy this record as much as I do.

I don't normally post the same label or artist the same week (or even the same month), and didn't expect to be doing so this week. And even last Sunday, when I learned I had a lead on a copy of one of my all time favorite song-poems, I still didn't think I'd be sharing it, because I was sure it was already in common circulation.

But a few days of research has convinced me that this record - one of my top ten favorite song-poems - has NEVER been shared online. I will therefore say that I don't know of a better song-poem that has not yet been heard by the general collecting song-poem public. And I must rush to rectify this situation.

Most song-poem collectors - whether seekers of records or of MP3's and CD's, will know the flip side to this Noval release, which is "The 23rd Channel", and which is fabulous in its own right. It appeared on the third volume of the "MSR Madness" CD series, and was remade by Gene Merlino (Gene Marshall) for the film "Off the Charts".

But here's what I don't understand - with all of the well-deserved attention given to this song, no one has ever shared its flip side, which is even better. . I would even name it as one of the strangest records I've ever heard, and yet one which encapsulates the song-poem experience in many ways - the odd lyrics, the off-the-cuff performance, the poor match of lyrics to music, the mystery of it all, and on and on....

I first heard this song on a tape, supplied to me by Phil Milstein (thank you, Phil!), well over a decade ago, and it moved to the top of my heap immediately.

It's called "Rock, Rocking All the Time", and I hardly know where to begin in describing it. Perhaps with the lyrics, which beg us to not "blame" the singer for wanting to rock all the time, but then allows that this desire to rock all the time is how "everybody feels" (so why would we blame him?). "Oh La La, Oh, La, La, There They Go", is pretty good, too.

Or there is the fact that the tune is set to a beat that is far from "rocking", being more suited to one of the slower numbers from the Swing Era. And of course, one of the instruments driving the piece is that most rocking of instruments, the Vibraphone.

The vocalist really can't sing, which is not always a problem in real rock and roll, but his minimal ability is more in the area of "bad lounge singing", so even that doesn't fit. The whole thing adds up to a truly amazing performance, and it's capped off (hilariously, and incredulously, if you ask me), with a musical coda in which the band finally decides that they really are at a swing session, and go to town, with a big two bar solo for the vibraphone.

It is impossible for me to overstate how much I love this record. I even love the fact that you can hear the end of the count-off at the start. If there were an Abbey Road of song-poems, this would be on it. I hope you find as much to love in this deeply peculiar record:

For completeness sake, and for those who may not have it, here is the almost-as-deeply-magical flip side, "The 23rd Channel", heard here off of my new copy, not from the CD. You can also hear the end of a count-off on this side, and that's not heard on the CD release.

This has to be in the running for the best Double A-sided song-poem release ever. I can only think of a couple of competitors, both of which featured songs by Edith Hopkins, who was not really your typical song-poet. So maybe I consider this the Hey Jude/Revolution of Song-Poem singles.

Hooray for Noval Day!

2011-11-06T15:40:00.004-06:00

It's always a happy day 'round my place when I become the owner of a previously unknown Noval record. Their records are among the most obscure, and tend to be fairly odd, even within the song poem world. That's above and beyond the fact that they never named a performer on the label, and credited their arrangements to one of a handful of single named men (in this case, "Jay").

"The Capitol of My Heart" is peppier and far less logubrious than the typical Noval release, with a quick beat and a happy sax solo, going along with some downright weird lyrics - my favorite has to be "You're the County Seat of My Love", and the whole thing raps up in just 90 seconds. Here you go!:

The flip side, "A Waltz For You", is much less interesting to me, aside from the genuinely poor lead vocal:

Take Him Back

2011-11-01T11:12:00.005-05:00

Time is tight this week - hence the late posting - but I wanted to include some relevant links, before sharing a nice Sammy Marshall feature.

First - and this may be old news to some - there is a new Rodd Keith compilation LP (Vinyl!) on the market, titled "My Pipe Yellow Dream", on the Roaratorio label. It can be found here, and is well worth the money. It even has liner notes from Dick Kent!

And Second, I've recently posted two Film City records to the WFMU blog. Neither of them is a song-poem - they're both vanity pressings as far as I know - but as I believe almost all of the Film City records had Chamberlin playing by Rodd Keith, they might be of interest to some of you (even if, as explained in the second post, I have some doubts about Rodd's involvement in one of them). The records are "Scotch Tape" by Lana Johnidas, and "Portland Rose Song" by Bert Lowry.

And now, here's Sammy Marshall himself, singing in a vocal style that will never be mistaken for anything from Tennessee, with a musical backing to match that non-Tennesseean feel, on the song "Take Me Back to Tennessee".

By the way, this record was released on the tiny Sherwood label, but the above song also was released, presumably in the same version, on the even tinier Fun label, with a different flip side.

Here's the flip side, "Open Your Heart":

A Real Pro

2011-10-23T18:50:00.004-05:00

While every record I've ever seen on the Cinema label features a generic group called "The Real Pros", most of these records actually feature the usual suspects from the Los Angeles song-poem world - Rodd Keith, Dick Kent, Bobbi Blake and the rest. Actual, REAL pros.

But it's the earliest Cinema releases that fascinate me. While containing that same group name, these actually feature what appears to be a one-man-band, or at least a single keyboardist and a singer. The keyboard is one of those ubiquitous early '70's models that the family down the street always had in their living room. They had pre-programmed drum tracks, and if you pushed down a couple of keys at the left end, you had a chord background for your song. More talented pianists could actually use the drumbeats and play an entire left-and-right handed song.

For a moment, anyway, these keyboards seem to have been acceptable for use on major label record releases - at least if the sparkling review that Billboard gave to Robin Gibb's embarrassingly amateur first album (which has this sort of keyboard all over it), in 1970, can be believed. I've even noted what I believe to be one of these keyboards on a Leonard Cohen album or two.

Whoever played on these early Cinema releases knew how to get the most out of the limited machinery, as evidenced by the uniquely weird "Deep Freeze Mama", and the downright wonderful "I'm Having My First Heartbreak". But my real question is: who was the singer on these records? It appears to be the same guy on all of them, or at least a few guys with the same vocal qualities. I don't think I've ever heard it on any other label's song poems. Despite his sort of loungy qualities, I tend to enjoy this singer.

All that is a long set up to yet another Astronaut record, "Handful of Moon Dust", one whose lyrics are unusual in that they are from the point of view of a homesick Astronaut, who is glad to be back on Mother Earth.

The opening to the flip side "Until You Change Your Ways" sounds particularly like a few tracks on that Robin Gibb record I referenced. I don't have much more to say about this offering, aside from noting that both of these sides bear a production credit to "Quimby, Jr.", which I don't think I've noticed on Cinema records before, although I now see that it's on at least a few other early records from the label. Does this mean that the label was initially linked to the legendary Tropical label, run by Robert Quimby? There's nothing on the song-poem website to suggest this, but still, ooh, it makes me wonder....

Rod Rogers: Ladies Man

2011-10-16T21:48:00.004-05:00

Today, another marvelous pairing on the Film City label, from the pen of Walter York, and the genuis of Rodd Keith, as Rod Rogers. The better of the two is "Sixteen Sweethearts Later", in which we hear of a love affair interrupted by not one fling, not a few flings, but SIXTEEN relationships, certainly more than most people can claim in a lifetime. This performance contains a wonderful Chamberlin solo which is pretty much a perfect example of the typical Rodd Keith keyboard solo, particularly the musical figure at about the 1:09 point, which crops up again and again and again on his records.

The flip side, featuring a nice Rod/Rodd duet vocal, as well as more wonderful Chamberlinning, is "Instant Love". I sure do love this sound!

Does He Sound Angry?

2011-10-10T08:09:00.004-05:00

Linford Haughton was angry. Yes, despite having one of the all time cool names - one which would absolutely keep me from getting angry, just by thinking about - he was angry. He put his thoughts to paper, named them "Darling, You Make Me Angry", and sent them in to the Sterling house of Song Poems. But I ask you, did Norm Burns - whose singing I adore, but still - express anything approaching anger in his reading of Mr. Haughton's outburst? I think not:

On the flip side, we have the sad tale of a man who has been left "Always Alone":

Dimples!

2011-10-02T15:38:00.004-05:00

Computer problems have delayed today's feature long enough, so I'm not going to type a lot and add to the delay. Suffice it to say that it's another great, winning Tin Pan Alley entry from Phil Celia, with that early rock and roll sound that he was not really all that suited for, singing about a girl nicknamed "Dimples"!

From the flip side, here's a more middle-of-the-road offering, "The Prairie Wind":

Cara Mia

2011-09-25T18:57:00.005-05:00

I sure do love Cara Stewart. Admittedly, her records nearly all sound fairly similar, each of them being structured along one of about three or four templates, but each of those are such great templates, with Lee Hudson usually playing a low-rent Les Paul to her sultry Mary Ford. Today's offering has the fairly ridiculous title, "What Time Does the Last Moon Leave?", and it appeared on the little known "Advance Records" label.

You might be fascinated to learn that, based on an ad in Billboard that the author of these two songs took out, this record dates not to the 1950's or even the 1960's, but some time in late 1970 or early 1971. It was, says the ad "very apropos for the moon shot" (the first of which, of course, had been 18 months earlier, a time delay which is actually quite "timely", in terms of how quickly song-poem musicians keep up with trends).

The flip side is more of the same, in terms of the sound, and is titled "My Ladder of Dreams".

Hobby Horse Round-Up

2011-09-18T19:38:00.007-05:00

"Charming" is not a word that I use very much. And it certainly isn't a word that I'd use to describe very many song-poems. But there are a few, and exhibit A may be today's feature, Gene Marshall's performance of "Hobby Horse Round-Up". These are genuinely sweet, whimsical words, set to a fairly appropriate backing, with a particularly well selected bass line.

I could always do without that God-awful synth that they were using by this point, and Gene reads the melody wrong early in the performance, but these are minor complaints. It's actually a tribute to Gene Marshall and the other song-poem singers, that they so rarely flubbed a word or a melody, since they were very likely seeing these words and music for the first and only time, upon singing them. And his warm, sweet vocal here fits the lyrics well. A winner.

Now, onto the flip side, where we find the deeply odd "Riders of the Purple Sky", complete with disco beat (I dig the drumming at about 1:35), Clavinet, and inscructable lyrics, wherein the riders are actually of several Purple Things (sage, sky, day), and it seems that far more is being imparted than 100 seconds could possibly contain. What's it all about, Gene? What's it all about, Priscilla? Another winner!

Every Boy He Knows

2011-09-11T17:37:00.006-05:00

It seemed like it was about time for some Sammy Marshall, so just in time, I came up with today's feature, which appeared on the very rare Lydian Records label. This is the only record I've ever seen on Lydian, and it's the only one listed in the Lydian Records discography at AS/PMA.

Please note that this record, "Every Boy I Know", features what someone has determined to be "The Nashville Sound". While this is technically true (Lydian was provided with its tracks, like dozens of other tiny labels, by the Globe Records song-poem factory, based in Nashville), I can't imagine anyone actually thinking that either side of this record represented any "sound" that a music fan would think was associated with Nashville.

The flip side is "It's a Long Time (Now It's Too Late)", which features a lyric that I admittedly cannot comprehend. Most lines seem to be pining for a lost (or never had) love, while the third line of the song indicates that his loved one is with him.

By the way, the cruddy sound is from the pressing, not from my turntable or other sound equipment.

For Labor Day

2011-09-05T11:55:00.005-05:00

What better way to pay tribute to the working men and women of our country and world on Labor Day (well, America's Labor Day, anyway) than with a look at one of those jobs which is so indispensable that its practitioners can't even get Labor Day off - the Policemen and Policewomen of our cities, towns and villages. The song is "We Proudly Hail Our Police". And what better man to do it than Frank Perry, who is woefully under-represented among the listings of song-poems to be had. And what better accompaniment than the that fabulous band "The 'Big Action Sound'", which is nothing more than the ol' Chamberlain!

The AS/PMA website has this record as being from the early '70's, which seems fairly amazing. I'm assuming that this comes from some sort of listing in a trade publication or an ad in the same, since the AS/PMA folks didn't know the artist for either side of the record. Their dates tend to be correct, though.

On the flip side, we have the Chamberlain man himself, Rodd Keith, in his guise as Rod Rivers, also with the fictional "Big Action Sound", on a less than stellar effort, "To Love". The lyrics here get positively circular, and more than a bit hard to follow:

He Never Wins

2011-08-28T19:29:00.007-05:00

Don't let the slinky piano opening figure fool you - it's not going to be some slinky, sexy, mysterious record, although the band seems to think this was a possibility. And the words to the song ("But I Never Win") here and there, suggest what might have been (although other lines are true clunkers). But then, the folks at Sterling assigned the track to the style-challenged Gary Roberts, and we end up with a quintessential song-poem record.

Ponderous is the word for the flip side, "Man on the Moon", handled by Shelly Stuart, who has not been featured on this site before. She did some good records for Sterling, although this isn't one of them. The song posits that the space program, and the landing on the moon, were the handiwork of God, rather than NASA, which seems to me quite a shortchanging of the scientists, astronauts and others who managed to achieve what they did in so short a time. We'll dedicate this to the Shuttle program, which ended earlier this summer.

Oh, Go Not Yet!!!

2011-08-21T17:33:00.004-05:00

Before I get to this week's feature, I wanted to alert you that I've just posted a non-song-poem offering from the Film City label - a vanity record which almost certainly features Rodd Keith on the Chamberlain, and a deeply odd record it is, too, to the WFMU blog, here. And now, on with the countdown:

Today, our attention turns back to the throaty, appealing vocals of Ellen Wayne, songstress for the Tin Pan Alley label. Here's an early '60's effort, with appropriately jazzy backing, a 95 second length, and a just-short-of-ridiculous title, "Go Not Yet, Oh, Go Not Yet". This is another sound I just can't get enough of!

On the flip side, we hear "(I'm) The Clown", and if anyone can tell me how the addition of parethesis helps that title (rather than just calling it "I'm the Clown"), I'd be very appreciative:

In Elvis' Memory

2011-08-14T14:45:00.006-05:00

Another "Elvis Week" in Memphis (marking the anniversary of his death) is upon us, and what better way to pay tribute than with a Song-Poem. And like the last Elvis tribute record shared here (early last year), this one is by those Cinema Record stalwarts, The Real Pros. The title of this record "The Memory of Elvis Presley", seems to me to indicate that Elvis had a heretofore unmentioned talent for remembering things, and the first line of the song "Elvis did so much to help the poor", is unproven, as far as I know, and pretty much leaves me baffled. And that last rhyme, as the song is fading out, has to be heard to be believed. Try it out for a spin!

About that B-Side, “We Got the Blues”... Well, I find it pretty much unlistenable. Oh, and if you’re going to make a song with “Blues” in the title, it would nice to set it to a musical style that at least has some semblance of the blues, rather than a generic, badly recorded dance track with a predictable major/minor progression, and a solo section that doesn't really bother to include a solo. However, your mileage may vary:

Chariots of the Gods

2011-08-04T19:08:00.004-05:00

Time is exceptionally short this week, as I head off to a fabulous all-weekend-long activity, so I'm just going to offer today's Bobbi Blake feature, which also, unfortunately, features the absolutely terrible sound and pressing quality that MSR was noted for, at this time. Here's "Chariots of the Gods":

And a sad story indeed, is heard in this flipside, "Dear Sister":

I Love That Sound!

2011-07-31T11:52:00.004-05:00

Not that anyone asked me, but... What's my favorite "sound" from within the song-poem world? That's hard to say. Contenders include the sound of Norris the Troubadours 1950's releases, the feel of most of Cara Stewart's records, and the Sterling records crisp production and precise feel. But my favorite of all my be the ridiculously mechanical sound of the Film City song-poem machine, run by Rodd Keith in his Rod Rogers persona, arranging the entire song on the wonderful instrument known as the Chamberlain, and often completing the one-man effect by singing on the final project.

Today, two examples of the result of this process at its most peculiar, as featured on two patriotic songs with lyrics written by Clarence Boness. This record just entered my collection two or three days ago, and I couldn't wait to offer it up! First up is the very brief (105 seconds!) song "The 678th", which features an otherworldly solo which sounds like it belongs on a record about alien invaders, rather than the protection offered by a military troop. What a wacky, wonderful sound:

On the flip side is yet another trip to "John F. Kennedy", again featuring that unique, indescribable Rodd Keith/Chamberlain sound, with only a slightly less odd solo section!:

Not Halmark... Hallmark!

2011-07-24T20:22:00.007-05:00

Usually, the records from this company came out as being on the "Halmark" label, and more often then not, they did not credit the vocalist(s). Today's example of the crusty sounds put out by this company does feature the name of the vocalist - the forever amazing Bob Storm - and far more unusually, correctly spells the word by which the company was named: "Hallmark", a spelling used on perhaps one tenth of the records they released (or, at least, of the records from the label that I'm aware of).

What rarely changed was the backing tracks they used. If you are, like me, a Halmark (or Hallmark) aficionado, both of the backing tracks heard here will be like old friends, and may trigger in your mind memories of other songs, better and worse than these two, which were attached to the same tracks. First up, "All Because of You":

And the flip-side, "I Hear Angels Sing":

Blue Memories

2011-07-17T18:21:00.005-05:00

There are only a handful of documented releases on the Brosh label (pronounced "Broash", we're told). At least a few of them, as documented on the AS/PMA website, were clearly not song-poem releases, while others clearly were. This one, which likely was the first release on the label, would appear to fall into the latter category. It features Cara Stewart on one side, while the other side features Dwight Duvall, who also pops up on other song-poem labels (he also appears to have made at least one legit record, for the same label that released Dave "Baby" Cortez' "The Happy Organ").

But this inagural release from Brosh is certainly worth a listen or two. Dwight Duvall's voice and delivery are certainly unusual - the only singer I can think of to compare him to is Ray Phillips, who you can hear here. And "Blue Memories" seems custom made for Dwight's talents. Enjoy!

And it's always good to have a chance to share some Cara Stewart, which I haven't done nearly enough on this site. Some may say (and have said) that the vast majority of her records sound very similar, and I guess that's true, but what a fantastic sound it is. Here's Cara with the song "Yearning":

I Sure Wish He'd Shave!

2011-07-10T13:40:00.008-05:00

Picture this: It was the late 1960's. You're a woman who came of age during the Eisenhower years, when men were men and knew how to dress, talk, walk and groom themselves like men. Now, the fashions have changed, and many young men have grown their hair out longer than yours has ever been. What's more, they've started growing beards again - that went out of fashion with Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield, didn't it?

What's an upstanding woman to do? I know - write a poem about it, expressing your outrage, and ridiculing this trend - maybe even imply that there's something morally and sexually queationable about it. Then you can have the poem made into a song! I'm sure there are people who will do that for you! So what if you have to pay them, they seem to think you might get a hit record out of the deal?

And so what if they have a guy sing it, and as a result, they change your first person complaint into some sort of weird third person observational rant? And who cares if they attach it to some bizarre setting, where it starts upbeat, slows down to a crawl (leaving "beat" out of the mix entirely for a time), then slowly gathers steam until its at the opening beat again, by the time it ends?

All that is a long-winded way for me to introduce one of my favorite song-poem records, which I can't believe I haven't featured here before, Mike Thomas' amazing rendition of Agnes M. Solan's "My Kind of Man":

The flip side is a pleasant slice of late '60's pop, also by Mike Thomas, "One Little Moment of Day:

Over in a Moment

2011-07-03T14:42:00.005-05:00

I'm still getting re-settled back in from a vacation, and find time quite short for writing anything of note regarding today's offering, so I'll just mention the startling briefness of the song. Even the 1:44 claimed on the label to Gene Marshall's sweet rendition of "Peppermint Canes" is too generous by seven seconds!

The flip side is mostly memorable (if at all) for the terrible sound quality of the record, its interminableness (will it ever end) and it's over-the-top title, "I Stopped Living":

Something a Bit Different from Sammy Marshall

2011-06-26T12:30:00.003-05:00

If you've been listening to song-poems for any length of time, you've probably noticed that almost every Sammy Marshall record fits into one of a limited number of categories - rockin' 1960's party anthem, happy love song, sad love ballad, etc. - provided by the Globe Records factory which provided Sammy records to a seemingly endless number of ssmall labels.

But today's offering, "Picture in the Fire", doesn't fit into any of those categories, being a sort of spooky meditation of a song, with appropriate accompaniment and production. Perhaps it comes from early in Globe's song-poem work, or perhaps the song-poet submitted the song complete, words and music, leading to this interesting performance. Whatever the story, it's definitely worth a listen:

(By the way, one online discography indicates that this label - Crescendo - is the same label as the GNP Crescendo label which was a significant force for a time in the 1960's singles market. This does not appear to be the case - for one thing, it would mean this record came out in about 1956, which is unlikely, and for another, it would mean that the label both changed its name and went legit at some point in the early 1960's, which is even more unlikely.)

The flip side is fairly unfocused, in both construction and performance (have a listen to that backing!), in addition to a clunky name. Here's Kris Arden with "Ever (Modern Fantasy)":

Dear Old Dad!

2011-06-18T10:46:00.003-05:00

This is just perfect for tomorrow's celebration of Father's Day....

When I first heard today's featured song, I could hardly believe my ears! It's so obnoxious in its plagarism, yet a few moments later, so laugh out loud funny in its originality. And all that is wrapped up in what is clearly a Rodd Keith production, and a wonderful one at that.

First, my mouth dropped open at the brazen theft apparent in the opening lines of the song (if you're not familiar with it, there's another song with the exact same lyric, except that the genders are reversed). Then, I laughed out loud at a line that Rodd himself sings - I wonder if he added it himself, or if it was part of the original song-poet's submission. (This line comes just after a weird dip in the volume level, which is part of the record.)

But my next thought was that this song would be perfect for Father's Day, given that it is a plea for a guy who could live up to the singer's father's standard. (I'll overlook the fact that the singer is obliged to make a sort of ucky reference to her father's lovemaking prowess, which just seems wrong to me.)

I'll have to assume that "I Want a Guy" by the Marionettes was never discovered during the period when CD compilations were being pulled together, because it seems like a natural fit for any of them.

The flip side, "Tell Me, Baby", is a Rodd Keith mover and groover, with a backing track which should be well familiar to any dedicated Rodd fan. In fact, this may prove the more popular of the two songs, but the weirdness of its flip side led me to lead off with that one:

Flag Day

2011-06-11T11:05:00.000-05:00

There's never a bad time to share a little Gary Roberts. His toneless, amateur sounding vocal style is in a way a microcosm of the entire song-poem experience - indeed, I imagine many song-poets were considerably better singers than Mr. Roberts, and yet he's the one who got to sing their songs. I only wish there were more Gary Roberts records floating around.

But if another reason was needed, one is handy: Tuesday is Flag Day. And here's Gary offering up a rather flaccid tribute, "Our Flag":

While you're enjoying this flip side, please know that next week's Father's Day feature will include a new find from my collection that I consider quite special. And now, here's the exciting flip side, "It's Nice to Be in Love":

Molly

2011-06-07T15:26:00.011-05:00

It's time for one of my rare trips into the personal side of things....

My younger daughter Molly graduated from High School over the weekend, and I wanted to write a few things about her.

Molly is an amazing and wonderful person. She is thoughtful, loving and deeply caring about others. She loves to learn, with wide interests that span history, cooking, working with children and music, among many other things and has worked hard to succeed - she was recently recognized for her consistently high grades over the course of her entire high school career. She is self assured and knows how to express herself well. And she's a beautiful girl, too.

But while all that is true, and certainly worth mentioning, much of it makes her sound like a serious, studious person - which she is, when she needs to be. But that hardly works as a description of her, and I've saved the best for last. Molly is joyful - she loves life, and particularly loves to find the silliness and humor in things. She is uncommonly fun to be with, in part because her enjoyment of the goofy and funny nature of every day occurrences is absolutely infectious.

My sister captured Molly's joy in life when she was perhaps three years old, and on the swings. This is one of my favorite childhood pictures, because it seems to me that it captures pure happiness.

Throughout the intervening years, Molly has retained the ability to find the joy in life that is reflected in that picture.

Not only that, she is among the funniest people I've ever known. Now, my view of this may come from the fact that she has internalized part of my own sense of humor, which is heavily based on playing with words. But the appeal of her ability to be naturally and quickly funny is hardly limited to me. Even when she was in grade school, she was able to frequently make everyone in a surrounding group of adults crack up with a quick one line response to something, and she's only improved on that ability as she's approached adulthood herself.

Unfortunately, so much of this ability results in "you had to be there" situations - ones which are over as soon as everyone has finished laughing - that it would do me very little good to try and write out examples.

The following is not exactly a match for what I've been trying to explain, but it does capture her sense of humor, and the response from an audience. This is a spoken word piece that she and one of our closest family friends wrote together. This performance took place two years ago, at one of the music, comedy and improv parties my friends and I have been taking part in for over 25 years. While her partner in this creation introduced the piece, played a small harp-like instrument and offered a few comments, Molly did the reading of what they'd written:

Just as an aside, I'd also like to say that Molly's taste in music is quite a bit better than the vast majority of her peers. She tends towards the more melodic and well made of today's music, and when she does turn on a radio or buy music, it's more often an oldies station or a classic rock station than anything from today. She has a genuine interest in learning the history behind the big hits and the big acts, and shares my love of following music charts. I got a big kick out a recent facebook update from her, which read that she "... liked Shrek and Marvin Gaye". How many other 17 year olds chose those two this month or this year.

Plus, she shares my taste for the out-there, including the fact that she "gets" the song-poem thing ("Stay Where You Are" by Norm Burns is a favorite), and often can't get enough of some of the same way-beyond-left field stuff that I adore, such as "O Sing to Me".

I really haven't done justice to what I wanted to say here, but hopefully, I've captured her well enough for anyone reading this. Congratulations, Molly.

Ultra Creepy

2011-06-04T14:55:00.004-05:00

Today's record is another winner by The Real Pros, that catchall name that was used to capture whoever happened to be recording for Cinema records that day.

And okay, it's true that I have an idea of what the songwriter here was going for - probably some sort of young-adult sexy joke on the concept of "baby sitting", directed at a similarly aged comely young woman.

On my hearing, though, that's not how it comes off. Not at all, particularly when the lyric makes sure to mention getting the mother of the object of his affection out of the house so that he can baby sit. Add Dick Kent, singing at his absolutely most unctuous (which is saying something - he's second only to Ralph Lowe in that dubious quality), and the result is truly icky.

Perhaps you'll disagree. Have a listen!:

The flip side, "Great Riches", has very little to distinguish itself, at least to me. I admit (as I have in the past) to being much less of an expert on the female singers of the LA song-poem world than I am on many other aspects of the song-poem field, but I think this is Bobbi Blake - I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.

Fine Cars, Fine Cigars

2011-05-28T15:40:00.005-05:00

Today, we again get to hear from that mysterious man of the Tin Pan Alley label, "Lance", whose name is always printed with quotes. We last heard from "Lance" when in March of 2010, when he was heard singing about the "Hat Me Father Wore".

Today, he's telling a fairly incomprehensible story, involving the acquisition of two important categories of possessions, "Fine Cars, Fine Cigars". And this record brings up an interesting question, that being whether anyone involved in the making of Tin Pan Alley records in the mid 1960's was competent at their jobs.

At different points on this record (both sides), the guitar player misses easy chords (and how about those solos?), the bass player appears confused as to what song they're playing, and the drummer seems challenged by his assignment which (on the A-side) is mostly to hit the snare drum on the off beats. And "Lance" repeatedly demonstrates very poor ability as a singer - as an added bonus, if you listen closely, you can hear "Lance" clear his throat at about the 2:04 point.

All this is on top of the story being told in the song, which I find genuinely difficult to follow, and this is not enhanced by the clunky melody that the song-writing whizzes at Tin Pan Alley affixed to the words. The whole thing adds up to a truly enjoyable listening experience, as I hope you'll agree:

The title of the flip side of the record, "Troubles", could likely be a description of the goings-on during the recording session for this single. Amazingly, one second into the track, the bass player either plays a note completely by accident, or at best, plays the wrong note, and it's downhill from there - the bass being out of tune doesn't help, nor does a remarkably poorly played organ. There also seems to be an inadvertent (or poorly executed) edit around the 1:47 mark (that's not a file error, that's how the record plays).

A Columbine EP

2011-05-21T16:27:00.009-05:00

Nearly two and a half years into this project, and it's taken me until now to feature a record on the giant Columbine label. There are a few reasons for this, but the two biggest are: First, that Columbine primarily released albums, which I don't generally sample here, and second, I'm not a fan of their typical sound, or of the singing style of most of their singers. Although Gene Marshall made some Columbine releases (under the name John Muir), they released many more records featuring Ralph Lowe, for whom the word "unctuous" could well have been coined, and Kay Weaver, who is a genuinely terrible singer.

But today's EP is worth sharing, for a couple of reasons. The main one is that the lead track, "I Have the Right", featuring Ralph Lowe, contains some lyrics which manage to be both spectacularly pedestrian AND logically baffling. The songwriter in question apparently believes that the fact that one has the ability to engage in a variety of free, open activities, which do nothing to disturb anyone or anything, means that one also is entitled to have his or her feelings returned, from the object of affection.

Seriously: because "I have the right to walk the narrowest trail" (ooh, pinch me), it follows that "you have no grounds to protest my affection, you have no grounds to hurt me"? Really?

Sing it, Ralph!

Next up is the otherwise unknown Linda Bain (who is a terrible enough singer that I wonder if this isn't actually Kay Weaver), singing a piece of fluff titled "Listen to Me".

The first track on side two is particularly appropriate today, when there are plenty of people who believe that the world may be ending (and if you're among them, thanks so much for making the trip to my site while preparing for the end). It's a song about judgement day, titled "Oh Lord, I Am Not Worthy", sung again by Ralph Lowe:

The final track, "Passes By", is sung again by Marie Bain, and is notable mostly for the rhythm guitarist, who appears to be doing his best to imitate a duck with gastric distress:

California Moon

2011-05-14T13:01:00.002-05:00

After three weeks of specialty, seasonal related posts, I thought it would be a good idea to get back to something more mainstream, and for better or worse, few song-poem labels attempted to be more mainstream than Preview.

Judy Layne's name is one that appears rarely on the Preview label, appearing on roughly two dozen documented singles, all but one of them on the earliest set of records on the label (circa 1966-67). Here's one of those low-numbered releases, featuring a track that has all the hallmarks of a Rodd Keith production, and a mighty nice little pop confection it is. All, that is, except for the less than appealing vocals of the aforementioned Ms. Layne, who I find whiny and almost shrill. And yet, "California Moon" (written by the wonderfully named Estalla Beachboard) is still a fairly nice listen.

The flip side, "Walking Softly", boasts a relative rarity among song-poems, a co-writing credit in which neither name is recognizable as someone from the song-poem world (well, I don't recognize them, anyway). The same duo submitted another Preview song-poem, recorded by Rodd Keith, on a different 45 from this era. And despite the prescence of a vibraphone (one of my favorite instruments ever), there is very little I find to enjoy in this side of the record. Maybe you'll have a different take:

For Your Mother

2011-05-08T14:01:00.003-05:00

Today's post is a special feature for Mother's Day, featuring Mrs. Burns favorite son, Norm (or Norman, as he was sometimes billed, including on today's record), singing "Loving Mother of Mine".

For song-poem watchers out there, this Sterling release is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, although the backing track doesn't really sound out of the ordinary for a Sterling release, it is credited to "Ted Lane's Orchestra", the only record on this, or any other song-poem release where I've seen this billing. Ted Lane is also a co-writer on both sides of the single.

In addition, this is Sterling records # 291. There is a listing for this label number at the song-poem website's Sterling page, but it's not this record, and that website also shows no listings for any records released featuring anyone named Ted Lane. Also, the times listed on each side of this record (identical listings of two minutes, ten seconds) bear no resemblence to the actual length of either side.

Ah, the mysteries of the song-poem world. Anyway, I hope all of you, and particularly the mothers who are reading this, enjoy today's featured track:

The flip side, written by the same team, and featuring the same billing, is a patriotic number titled "One Flag Forever":

The Color of Spring

2011-04-30T15:10:00.004-05:00

Here's a rather awful record which seems perfect to me for the season we in the Northern Hemisphere find ourselves in. And it presents a bit of a dilemma to me, as I'm not sure what side of the song-poem story it actually fits in.

It's on the tiny Vellez label, and most of the other records I've heard from this label (or those that appear to be related labels), are wonderful, idiosyncratic pieces in various 1950 genres, well made by everyone involved.

The weird thing here is that the week link in this case seems to be the singer. The songs (although only one of them appeals to me as a song) sound professional - perhaps a little bit too much so for them to be song poems, but you decide - and the arrangements, orchestra and backing singers all do quite well. It's the singer, Vicki Farrell doesn't sound like she was ready to be within two miles of a recording studio.

Have a listen - the Spring tie-in comes on the B-side, heard first here, "Green is the Color of Spring":

The flip side, which I much prefer to the above, (and would have shared first, if not for the Spring tie-in), is a bouncy little number, with some stunning bad singing, called "Absolutely, Positi'vly Love", with, yes, an apostrophe in only the second of those two very similar words, and yes, the apostrophe in the wrong spot (lending credence to the likelihood of this being a song-poem, I suppose...

Old Time Religion

2011-04-23T09:39:00.004-05:00

Today, as we reach the culmination of Holy Week, a couple of religiously themed song-poem records, the first from Preview Records, the second from Sterling Records. First up, here's the great Gene Marshall, preaching about how his life has changed in "I Wanna Live For Jesus":

On the flip side, we hear about how all of humanity is "Starved For Love", and Gene again offers up his solution (or at least that of the song-poet):

Heading from Los Angeles to Boston, we'll now check with Norman Burns, with Lew Tobin's orchestra, on the following record:

First up, a song which nicely touches on some elements of both the Old and New Testaments, focusing on areas from each, which feature "Waters, Waters, Waters":

Finally, more than a little out of season, but included for completeness sake, here's the Christmas-themed flip side, "Sweeter Than Bells":

Lulu's Boo Boo

2011-04-16T11:59:00.008-05:00

Let me just say - I love Phil Celia! Or at least his records. I love the offbeat lyrics received by the song-poem factory at Tin Pan Alley, I love the Latin tinged, piano based tracks that were often used for his releases on the label, and I love the 1950's sincerity of his vocals.

Today's big hit, "You Made a Boo Boo, Lulu" is no exception. And I don't know if this was song-poem Frances Gibson's idea or not, but the responding, coy female voice is a perfect addition. And let's not forget that Lulu's boo-boo, the thing for which callous Phil is dropping her, and taunting her with the fact that he will now marry someone else was.... going out and having various degrees of fun when PHIL WAS LATE. Way to turn your own mistake around and blame the woman, dude!

A more standard 1950's offering, "Honey Bee, Honey Bee, Honey Bee" graces the flip side:

Halmark Memories

2011-04-09T16:52:00.004-05:00

Multiple demands on my time this week are keeping me from giving all but the briefest intro to today's offerings, so I'll just say that I've selected another pair of songs from the Halmark label. These songs again feature some syntax that doesn't exactly flow, musically speaking, and at least one music bed which should be familiar to frequent song-poem listeners. First up, "Memories":

And the flip side, "Remembering You":

Spin Records - They're Tops!

2011-04-02T10:09:00.003-05:00

Here's one of a handful of known releases from Spin Records, out of Arizona. For anyone who had doubts about the quality of a Spin release, the label assures all of that "They're Tops". Someone named Earl Luton appears to have been the driving force behind the label - his name shows up as a co-writer on most of the confirmed Spin singles.

And although this record - "I'm Thru With You" - is credited to Sue Saylor (with the Dream Tones also mentioned on the flip side), the singer is clearly Cara Stewart, who released records under her own name on the Spin label, as well, and the production is almost typical for Stewart's partner-in-song-poem, Lee Hudson.

I say "almost" because of the fascinating and fairly bizarre addition of what sounds like a massively slowed down violin providing counterpoint throughout the record. I guess an equally odd guess would be that it's an example of that rarest of things, jazz cello.

The flip side is a religious number, titled "Mansion in the Sky", featuring more of the standard Lee Hudson factory production.

A couple of comments here - first, the record starts just like it's heard here, seemingly a moment late. And second, the section which sounds like it's played off of a damaged piece of recording tape, starting about 25 seconds in, plays that way off of the record!

The Song Poets' War

2011-03-26T11:15:00.006-05:00

The high point for the song-poem industry overlapped in part with the years of the Vietnam war. And as a result, there are an abundance of song-poems which touch on various aspects of that conflict.

The last time we visited here with Rodd Keith, he was mulling over the fate of the child of a Vietnam warrier. Today, that same conflict is on his mind again, as he considers why the young men are dying, causing the young girls to cry in this touching offering, "Teardrops and Water":

The B-side to today's offering, "I Wonder Who's Holding Her", is notable for the fact that the specific phrasing of the title never appears in the text of the song. Additionally, it's another one of those records where Rodd tries on country stylings, to less than impressive results:

Sammy Dances Again!

2011-03-19T10:05:00.006-05:00

A few months ago, I posted a pair of songs written by John Koproski, released on his family's Silver Records label, and mentioned that his son, John Jr., wrote a couple of Sammy Marshall dance classics which have turned up on Song Poem compilations.

Today, here is another John Koproski, Jr. record, and it's another winning dance number, performed yet again by Sammy Marshall. The oddity here is that although both the Song Poem Website and a different Silver Records discography shows this record to have also been released on Silver (with the same flip side), my copy is on K-Ark Records of Nashville, which appears to have been more of a Rockabilly label, with no clear link to the song-poem business that I can figure out at this moment.

Regardless of all that, this goes along with "Twist and Turn" and "Rock and Roll Boogie Beat" in the pantheon of great Sammy Marshall movers and groovers!

The dreary flip side, "On My Bended Knees", was not only listed as the A side of this record, it was also recorded for Silver, previously to this release, by another artist (George Bryan), with a flip side to that version titled "A Dancing Pair of Shoes". How many of you would guess that the "Pair of Shoes" song was rewritten a short time later as "A Dancin' Date With Sue"?

The plural in the title of this song makes it sound as if the singer is praying to his girl, rather than proposing, doesn't it?

Woe Is He

2011-03-12T11:07:00.004-06:00

I was surprised to find that it has been just about exactly a year since I featured that most inaccurately named of song-poem groups, "The Real Pros", or their home label, Cinema.

Today's offering comes from my favorite era for the group and label - their earliest releases, most of which feature what appears to be a one man band, playing one of those cheesy 1970's home keyboard/organ things that had preprogrammed beats and accompaniments. A few of my all time favorite song-poems come from this fairly tiny subset of records, and while today's offering doesn't reach the heights of "I'm Having My First Heartbreak" or "Deep Freeze Mama", it has some of the same qualities that make both of those records so special.

The better of the two, I think, is the song identified as the B-side, "Woe-Men", with it's mechanical swinging keyboard beat, heartfelt vocal, and fairly non-musical lyrical choices. Plus there's the way the way he sings "Divorce!". Oh, and the whole misbegotten concept on which the lyrics are built, of course...

The flip side, "What Good is the Moon?", has an equally artificial beat - a samba this time - and a more standard (and therefore less unusual/interesting) set of lyrics.

The singer on these songs is the same person who sings on those much beloved records I mentioned earlier, and while he sometimes sounds like Gene Marshall, I don't think that's who this is, and I'm not sure I've ever heard this singer on any other (non Real Pros) song-poem records. What do you think?

Sing It, Norris!

2011-03-05T13:20:00.004-06:00

Today, a return visit to one of my favorite characters from the world of Song-Poems, Norridge Mayhams. I'd feature him more often, but my collection of his music (aside from a CD reissue of his 1976 compilation double album, which I believe has circulated widely) is far more limited than I'd like.

Today, one of his self released singles on his own Co-Ed (Sorority Fraternity) Record Company, from circa 1956. Although the moniker "Norris the Troubadour" eventually came to be attached to whatever singer happened to be appearing on one of his songs, for this record, I do believe this is Mayhams himself singing - and having more than a bit of trouble with pitch control - on the appropriately memorable "Remember Me":

The flip side displays Mayhams idiosyncratic tendancies in the area of song titling, in this case, the song is called "Rock N' Rollin' Honey (You Left Me Baby Cause I Had No Money)". And again, I think Norridge himself is heard on the vocal:

You May Say He's a Dreamer

2011-02-26T11:12:00.004-06:00

Today's offering is such a favorite of mine that I can't believe I've never posted it before. It's place in my collection goes back to my earliest days of collecting song-poems.

In "Let Me Live Again", Gene Marshall gives us a rousing portrayal of a man who is praying for relief in so many areas it makes my head spin. If God is capable of getting whiplash, this is the sort of prayer that might do it. It's not enough to solemnly pray for internal improvement - for relief from being a junkie and a drunk - the list quickly expands to (among other things) freedom for children, freedom from pollution, and a wish for something that goes beyond simple peace between the races. He even wants the grass to be greener! It all culminates with a fairly soulful and wonderful excited expression of the title. All in just two minutes!

I don't have nearly as much to say about the fairly pedestrian flip side, "Forgive Me Darling", but it's almost always nice to hear Gene's dulcet tones, so by all means, enjoy it for that:

Today, I finish the updates and corrections to previously broken uploads, with total of six repaired files, across the following four posts:

Gene Marshall Meets the Big Beatle
Three Song Poems for the Price of One
More Merigail
Announcing! Song of the Week Project (the first post in this series)

Some time in the near future, I plan to upgrade the first two dozen or so posts from this blog, (prior to the focus on song-poems) when I was posting the songs themselves to an external site that required a password. It was a clunky process, which I did away with when I started using divshare, but those initial posts do not have sound files attached to them. Sometime soon, I'll rectify that, and post links.

At the Hop!

2011-02-18T19:55:00.003-06:00

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:

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.

His Last Request

2011-02-12T11:00:00.007-06:00

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!

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:

And here are a few more postings with previously broken files which have been repaired:

The Things One Finds On Three Inch Reels of Tape...
HORRIBLE!
CalypSong-Poem
Toby Deane

Tropical Dreams

2011-02-03T20:53:00.001-06:00

Another weekend, another college visit. As a result, I'll have to keep this brief, and also bypass the broken file updates until next week. 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:

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".

Bobbi Blake

2011-01-27T19:13:00.008-06:00

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 (and there are eight more at the end of this post). 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.

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.

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 writers 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.

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.

Thanks again to Sammy - hope this is a good start at a pay back. Here are eight more posts that have had files repaired:

Ballad of Justice Blind
Eleven Weeks In
Coffee Break
My First Song Poem
Randy Rudolph
Phil Carroll
Great Moments in Marriage
Song Poem or Not?

By the way, the comments to that last post - Song Poem or Not? - indicate strongly that the answer is "or not". But still, it's a fairly amazing record.

It's Nice to Know You

2011-01-20T21:01:00.002-06:00

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:

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

Repairs to older, broken files will resume next week.

Announcement!

2011-01-15T09:39:00.003-06:00

Some of you may have already noticed, but with the new year, I've upgraded my divshare policy, at the suggestion of a couple of kindly readers (thank you!). Not only should this mean no longer waiting through ads in order to download songs (and please tell me if you still have to wait for the ads), but I also believe this will solve the problem of links eventually breaking (but also please let me know if you continue to find broken links).

Just below this announcement post, you'll find this week's post for Song-Poem of the Week!:

Stop Growling!

2011-01-12T20:25:00.009-06:00

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!

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:

Here are some more repaired postings:

A Confusing Label
Wendy
What He Ain't Got
Floating On Air
Special Request Day
He'd Call This World a Heaven
Sing a Happy Song
I Go to REO

A New Year Treat

2011-01-05T21:21:00.007-06:00

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":

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:

Over to Sammy Marshall's side of things. 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!:

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":

Finally, I've corrected another ten posts which had dead links. They are as follows:

The Stranger
The Songs They Play Are On Vellez!
Phil and Don Meet Jimmy and the Boys (A Mash-Up I made, which I was quite happy with...)
Never Like This!
A Canary Record
Sammy At the World's Fair
He's Got a Reputation!
Here's a Fun One!
High Brow Baby
Not Enough Les in the World (Les Paul Tribute)

Stunning!

2010-12-31T12:05:00.003-06:00

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!

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".

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

Christmas With Sammy

2010-12-23T10:57:00.004-06:00

First off, I've fixed a few more of my previous postings. None of these were song-poem entries, because I decided that today would be a good day to fix several Christmas related posts which had broken. They can be found here:

Fun With Decorations
The Family Christmas
Toby Deane
My Favorite Christmas Song This Year
O Holy Night
Christmas Music: The Sublime and the Ridiculous

Thanks also to those of you who made recommendations - I will be making some changes soon, I think, but not until Christmas is over....

Back to the matter at hand:

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":

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.

A Christmas Wish

2010-12-18T11:08:00.007-06:00

Howdy, everyone,

First, (more than) a bit of housekeeping. I want to thank the many people who wrote with comments and/or solutions to the Mac problem which had been expressed to be by a few readers. I've passed that along, and I really appreciate it.

Second, I am VERY appreciative to a reader named Sammy, who, in attempting to gather all of the older material shared on this site, found upwards of 40 posts (!) where one or more tracks were no longer working, either to play or to download. A few others have alerted me to a track here and there in the past, but I had no idea there were so many failed links. I am very grateful to have this pointed out to me, and have today started a project to replace all of the broken links that I've been told about. Apologies to others who have asked me to repair one or two tracks in the past - this is the first time in months that I've had any sustained time off, and just getting new stuff up has been a challenge at times.

The fact that so many tracks have ended up broken is a great frustration to me. If anyone can direct me to a more effective way to post these tracks for download, one which is just as simple and just as free as Divshare, by all means, please let me know.

In the meantime, here are the posts that I have fixed today:

What Dance Did You Dance?
One Year In
Norris Mayhams: The Early Years
For All You Rodd Fans
It's Norm Time!
A Late One From Rodd
What the Hell?
A Song For Jackie
Mayhams Mayhem
Daddy!

I will update the remaining posts in upcoming days and weeks, and will post links to the repaired posts.

And now....

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:

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

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

2010-12-10T19:26:00.004-06:00

Before sharing this week's record, I wanted to ask for help. A couple of people have written to me, saying that they cannot see, much less play or save the files, when viewing this site from a Mac. The most recent of these stated that the writer just "sees a lot of flash code".

What I'm wondering is if this problem is familiar to anyone with more knowledge than me about computers, and particularly, if anyone using a Mac does not have a problem viewing, hearing and/or saving these files, and if so, if there's a fix for this. Any answer I receive will be posted when I receive it, and will be added to the "how to save these files" text.

And now, 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.

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.

Delicksious!

2010-12-04T12:20:00.006-06:00

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.

...

On a separate side note, I appreciate the reader who let me know that a couple of links were broken on this post. They are now fixed.

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":

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":

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

A Halmark Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T13:57:00.002-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! In case you were wondering what Thanksgiving is, here are the fine folks at Halmark Records, to offer up their version, one I find nearly completely unlistenable. Actually, this song's lyrics present Ernest V. Krider's interpretation of the answer to the question, "What Is Thanksgiving?". Your own mileage may vary:

The flipside, "Perfect Living", is notable for being sung by someone who doesn't sound (to me, anyway) like either of Halmark's usual male singers (Bob Storm and Jack Kim). Also, Halmark often listed the author's name and address on the label, and this is the first one I've ever seen that wasn't written by someone in the USA, being composed by Ernest L. Martin, a resident of West Germany at the time:

On a Bender

2010-11-20T12:35:00.003-06:00

I'm dreadfully late this week, but I think that not only will today's posting make up for it, but an on-time posting for Thanksgiving, this Thursday, will also be worth making time for.

I had great hopes upon getting this record, and while the original reason for my excitement did not pan out, the actual subject of this record is in no way a let down. I did think that maybe a record called "The Bender Song" would be about binge drinking, and was really interested in hearing what Sammy Marshall would do with that subject.

But it turns out that the song is actually about a famous 19th century family who lived in Labette County, Kansas, and who are known to history as "The Bloody Bender Family", due to their having been serial killers. You can read about them here.

Sammy Marshall and the Sun-Rays (how's that for a mismatch of group name and song subject) sound almost giddy in singing about mass murderers, as you'll now hear:

Good to know that this record was FREE!

What's even more amazing is that this 45 was meant to promote Kansas, on the occasion of the state's Centennial, which is spelled "Centenial" on the label!

The flip side, "Come to Kansas", which was also co-written by the wonderfully named Clavelle Isnard (along with Jimmy Holland), can't possibly live up to the song it is paired with, but it's got a typically strong Kris Arden vocal, and more peppy accompaniment by the Sun-Rays:

Patriotism - With Gene Marshall

2010-11-11T21:05:00.005-06:00

On this national and international day of remembrance and patriotic thoughts and feelings, I thought I'd share a song titled "This is Your Country - This is My Country", sung by the always enjoyable voice of Gene Marhsall:

The flip side, "The Hanging Tree", couldn't be on a more dissimilar subject. I'm most taken here by the way Gene Marshall sounds more or less happy during the first few lines. Perhaps he was sight-reading it, and didn't realize until the third or four lines that he was singing a first person ballad by a man about to be hanged. That ridiculous synth sound doesn't help, either, but I'm not sure if there's ever been a record that that particular sound would improve:

On a side note, regarding the authors of these lyrics, does anyone name their children Bertha or Gertrude anymore?

The Country Side of Rodd

2010-11-06T12:14:00.004-05:00

Things have been crazy busy the last week at home and work, so I'm a little late with this week's record, plus, I really don't have the time to offer up much comment, aside from pointing out that the Chamberlain backing heard on this early MSR release of Rodd Keith's "The Old Swinging Gate" is not exactly the best accompaniment to what appears to have been an attempt at a countrified vocal performance and setting:

And here's the flip side of the same, "Treasure":

Oh, Happy Day

2010-10-28T20:58:00.004-05:00

I'm repeating myself a bit today, but I hope readers will indulge me, as I've just become the proud owner of a copy of one of my favorite records ever. I have posted the A-side of this 45 before, 18 months before I began this "song poem of the week" project, but the MP3 shared at that time was cribbed from an eBay auction, and I never actually owned the record before this week. This means I can now share a higher quality MP3, can offer up the B-side, and can share scans of the record itself.

The record is "What's She Got (That I Ain't Got)", and I wrote about it at length in July of 2007, in a posting you can find here. Without repeating much of that post, I will say that my love and admiration for this record continues to grow, and in particular I adore the lead vocal, and the masterful bridge, one of the best I've ever heard, made all that much better by a guitarist who had clearly been listening to "Love is Strange", but whose work here is superior even to that great guitar performance.

There is some question in my mind as to if this is actually a song-poem. Carellen Records was a hybrid of sorts, releasing song-poems, vanity records and maybe even some records which were legitimate bids for hit status. And Edith Hopkins, the author of this song, and my all-time favorite song-poet, also commissioned both song-poems and more legit releases.

I'll say this: If this is a song-poem, it's the best one I've ever heard, by a significant margin. If it's a legitimate late '50's release, it's among my favorite records of that era (and that's saying something, as that is my favorite era for pop music). This is, in my opinion, a perfect record.

The flip side, "Cry Baby Heart", is more of a standard late '50's rock-a-ballad, brought to above-average quality by another singularly great vocal by Betty Jayne, who clearly deserved to be a big star (I say this based on this and other records by her in my collection). My view of the likelihood of this being a song-poem record goes way up, when I hear that another take was not attempted, after the bass singer sang a a truly horrible note, right at the end of this performance.

Our World in Song

2010-10-21T20:17:00.009-05:00

One thing I haven't featured much on this site are song-poems from the last three decades. I just don't find the vast majority of what I've heard from perhaps about 1976 or so on to be as compelling, as interesting or as wonderfully weird as what came before.

The two biggest reasons for this are probably: 1.) The music styles which song-poem companies had to work with (to appeal to the most likely taste of their customers), after the mid-70's are not nearly as interesting or appealing as those that came before, and 2.) I think a larger percentage of the customers of these products were probably in on the scam by 1980, leading to a small pool of contributers, and a less interesting group, at that.

An album I just bought, however, "Our World in Song", on the Brea label, contains a few exceptions that just about scream out for attention.

First up, and offered with very little comment, is a song making a linkage between elements of two "real" things that I don't believe I've seem compared in this way before, "Paychecks and Abortions - Both Are Real". I'm sure everyone listening will be singing the insanely catchy chorus by the second time around:

And where to begin in discussing the deep weirdness that lurks within the song "Walking While She's Talking In Her Sleep"? It starts so normally, if you look past the nonsensical line about oysters and pearls. Before long, we come to the multiple repeats of the words "mumbling" and "over", as well as a truly incompetent guitar solo. The mile-a-minute words near the end are an added bonus.

Finally, we have the simply titled "You Know". The painfully awful (and poorly conceived) accent adopted for this song does not hide the fact that the singer is the same Steve Jennings who sang most of the other songs on the album. One wonders what Pedro Graejeda thought of his song being done in a faux ethnic arrangement and vocal. But beyond that, have a close listen to the lyrics! The author describes sums up love as being the act of his lost lover returning to him, and compares her leaving to treason. He bars her from loving anyone else, and insists that she return, because that's what he wants, and after all, "love is like God".

Gotta Love Tin Pan Alley!

2010-10-13T21:06:00.004-05:00

Today, another one of those "stop the presses" moments. I got this record this past week, and wanted to share it right away. Often, when a song-poem song title seems particularly ludicrous, the song itself can be a let down. But not this time, as Tin Pan Alley, circa 1958, offers up Marilyn Fiore with "Come On and Right, Right, Right the Wrong You Done Me, Baby!".

Ms. Fiore - who is otherwise unrepresented in the AS/PMA database - provides just the right sort of vocal for this lyric, and the band has the sound and feel of late 1950's down, too.

Incidentally, the opening moment of this song, in which the original tape appears to be speeding up to the right pitch, is on the record itself, and is not from my turntable or any other source. Enjoy!

The B-side, "Me He Didn't See!", aside from another great title, could be accused of being essentially the same record heard on the A-side, but that's not always a bad thing, is it? Besides, the lyrics here are just as fun as those on the flip, plus, there's a wonderful - if fairly unsuccessful - attempt at a rockabilly guitar solo on this one.

This is what I call a great song-poem 45.

Sandy Stanton

2010-10-07T12:33:00.001-05:00

I haven't given enough attention either Film City, one of my favorite song-poem labels, or its owner, Sandy Stanton. I did do a feature on Stanton's earlier label, Fable, over at WFMU, earlier this year, and will offer up part two of that post at some future point.

But what Stanton brought with him to Film City was the amazing early keyboard, The Chamberlain, and today's offering not only features that instrument, most likely played by Rodd Keith, it also features - like many of Film City records - the Chamberlain being completely unable to keep up with itself. If one didn't know this was a basic synthesiser, one might wonder if there were two different bands working at the same time, or if perhaps the drummer was in another room, particularly at the end of the track. This is what the label describes as "New Sounds From Hollywood". Odd that those new sounds didn't become all the rage.

Not only that, but the song itself - "You Yum" - is fairly ridiculous. For example, the line about vitamins made my younger daughter (who was in the room as I digitized this) to laugh out loud both times. And Stanton's vocal gives some indication as to why he was only occasionally the vocalist on the records his labels produced.

The same writer who gave us "You Yum", is also the writer of the B-side, "Turn Back the Clock". While she clearly wrote the song out of some deeply painful experiences and life lessons, the resulting lyric is unfortunately fairly repetitive and monotonous, and leads to the same qualities in the song.

Watergate Blues

2010-09-29T12:53:00.006-05:00

Here, from a late-era Preview 45, is one of my favorite singers, Gene Marshall, offering up the lament of so many Americans of that day, the “Watergate Blues”. Although the lyrics (supplied by Ernestine Gee) are clunky in places, there are some pretty good turns of phrase here and there, and I think maybe someone could have cleaned this up a little and made it into something, if that was the business they'd been in.

Either this one was played to death, or (more likely) it’s just an example of the dreadful pressings produced by Preview near the end of their run. Hopefully, the poor sound won’t impact your enjoyment of the performance.

The flip side, “Nice Day” has even worse sound quality, but what shines through here is the head scratching lyrics. Not only were they apparently so non-musical that Gene Marshall had to go straight to the recitation, just 23 seconds into the performance, but there are a couple of phrases here which are not, as far as I know, part of the English language. I guess “Cheer Lobber” could mean something or someone that throws good cheer to you, but “Picks Up Your Dobber”??? Maybe a listener out there can explain that one to me. Feel free to feel completely bemused:

Phil 'Er Up!

2010-09-23T11:50:00.007-05:00

I haven't offered up nearly enough of Phil Celia's records here. I think they are, in their own way, just as unique and interesting in sound and performance as Rod Rogers Film City records or Norm Burns Sterling label releases.

Here's an ideal example, a song-poem containing the clunky title of "Let Me Baby, Sit With You, Baby Mine". A nice swing combo provides the fast moving backing, while Phil offers up a winning vocal. A nice piano solo follows, then, this being a song poem, there's a nice little error, in which the band and the singer clearly had different ideas about how many times Phil was going to sing the final phrase, with the band heading for the end of the song before he gets there. No second takes in the song-poem world.

I had great hopes for the flip side, given the title "Riding with the Bar 2 Queen". There is some real weirdness here - the lyrics are fairly odd, and have put to a tune in which they simply do not scan. But the actual song and performance turns out a little bit to drony and morose sounding for my tastes. Your mileage, of course, may vary:

Lost In Space

2010-09-16T09:37:00.002-05:00

For a second straight week, here's one whose history and link to the song-poem field is more than a bit blurry. As with "Friendly Melvin", this record is certainly worth hearing, and the evidence is that it's a song poem.

The presence of the name "Lee Hudson" caused me to purchase this one, unheard, due to the fact that a certain Lee Hudson was a central figure in the song-poem field in the 1960's. I bought even though that name is far from uncommon, and even though the name "Bob Brown", as a song-poem artist is unknown to me.

The Luster label is not listed in the AS/PMA website, but on the other hand, there are records by a "Bob Brown" (again, hardly a rare name), and not only that, those Bob Brown records appeared on records with a Lee Hudson connection.

That brings us to the record in question, "Space Flight", which certainly has many of the hallmarks of a Hudson production, from the thick string arrangement to massed backing vocals which (mixed low though they are) sound a lot like Cara Stewart (along with some male singer) to me. The song itself is a wonder to hear, a veritable composite of many of the thoughts about space exploration which might have been heard during the 1960's.

The flip side, in a real rarity for a song-poem record, is an instrumental version of the a-side, with piano taking over the melody, in the best Roger Williams style.

Gotta Hear That Again!

2010-09-09T19:38:00.007-05:00

Today, another one of those records - and it's been too long - that I get done listening to and immediately say "I've Gotta Hear That Again Right Now!". And to be honest, I have no idea where in the song-poem/vanity/unexplainable universe this record came from. A little sleuthing on the AS/PMA website shows a definite connection between some of the releases on this label (Meloclass)and other song-poem labels and acts, and the B-side (see below) sounds very much like a song-poem to me. What's more, that b-side involves some of the same people as this A-side, including the fabulously named Tumbleweed Thompson.

But this song - "Friendly Melvin", credited (as is the flip) to The Fuddy Buddies, sounds too thought out, too deliberately weird to be a song poem. Then again, so does "Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Potassium", which is clearly a song poem.

Anyway, this one, which may be the weirdest song-poem listening experience I've had since I found Jim Hall's version of "Hydrogen...", grabs me right from the start, with a startling open five second blast of organ, drums and trumpet, and continues with that wonderfully odd, slightly off kilter backing arrangement, while a trio of slightly drunk sounding guys, with just the slightest of midwest ethnic accents, sing a song "inspired by the Marines' Pal, Melvin Miller".

Anyway, at the moment, I just can't get enough of this silly record...

Really, who among us wouldn't want to have all of our woes punched in the nose?

On to the flip: Despite being credited to the same "Fuddy Buddies", the B-side, "I Dunno What to Tellya", sounds very little like the group on the A-side (although that title sounds like something the boys on side one might say). But in this case, there's a female lead singer, piano replacing the organ. guitar replacing the trumpet and minimal presence of drums. As I said above, this one sounds exactly like a song-poem.

Oddly enough, this second song - with the same label number - was released on the same label, paired with a different flip side, by a different group, a song which had a non-matched label number (1002-B), and THAT other flip side also appeared on yet another 45, paired correctly with the other song labeled 1002-A.

Better Songs Make a Better World

2010-09-01T21:20:00.004-05:00

Like several other song-poets, Gus Kondas submitted his lyrics to multiple companies, then released the resulting recordings on his own label, in his case, the creatively titled Kondas Records label. He would send his records to radio stations, along with a little note, sometimes attached to the 45 sleeve. A different Kondas record in my collection came with a separate note which read: "Compliments from the Kondas Music Pub. Co. If you like them please give them a play, if you don't, just throw them away, Thanks." Today's EP came in a sleeve bearing this sticker:

This EP contains three songs from the Film City label, and one from the Globe Records factory. The first two songs feature Rodd Keith, as Rod Rogers. I particularly enjoyed the leadoff track, "If I Had a Million Dollars", because it contains not only the relatively rare feature of Rodd harmonizing with himself - a nice sound - but it briefly features three Rodds singing together at once, something I've only heard on a few records. And of course, it's got that great Film City Chamberlain sound, one of my favorite musical sounds in the world.

The second Rod Rogers track, "Sometime Tomorrow", actually features quite a bit more three part singing than the previous song, although the song doesn't draw me in nearly as much as the first one does. Still, it's nice to hear what this amazing one man band could do:

The flip side starts off with a samba type song titled "If I Ever Needed You (I Need You Now)". I have little doubt that that's Rodd playing the Chamberlain, but the identity of the singer is eluding me. He sounds familiar enough that I know I've heard him before, but the name he is given here - Gene Acres - sounds like a joking reference to "Green Acres", and to my knowledge this name has never shown up on another documented song-poem record.

It's a bit jarring to hear the more natural sound of the Globe label, on the final number, a Sammy Marshall special, titled "It Was Just Yesterday":

Sammy's Cowboy Boots

2010-08-25T21:12:00.007-05:00

Time is tight this week, so I don't have a lot to add to today's Sammy Marshall feature, aside from to point out two things. First, it might be better, when releasing a Western, Cowboy type song, if the label hadn't named the backing group "The Marsh-Mellows", even if it is a nice pun on the lead singer's name. And second, this side, "O, Give Me Back My Cowboy Boots", puts me in the mind of another, completely unrelated Globe Records-distributed track, "I Don't Want a Bracelet or Diamond (I Just Want Elvis Instead)", which can be heard at the end of this post.

Here's the flip, "Dry Up Those Tears":

A Halmark Special

2010-08-17T17:01:00.005-05:00

This Sunday, CBS Presents the first edition of "The Halmark Hal of Fam" for 1976: Richard Widmark starring in "Love Is An Awful Thing", with Joey Heatherton as his long suffering trophy wife, Chloe, Jodie Foster as Jolie, their tomboy daughter and Rodney Allen Rippy as Jolly, the neighbor boy who helps them to overcome their pain. With a classic theme song, sure to be a massive hit, sung by the great Bob Storm, reminiscent of that great hit of yesteryear, "Let's Lay It On the Line". Have a listen, won't you?

(I also notice, in listening to the above, that Halmark clearly had multi-track tapes of their frequently used backing tracks. There are elements in this rendition that I don't hear in the other songs featuring this track, including the aforementioned "Lay it on the Line", nor in "The Ballad of Johnny Horton".

Bob Storm's flip side owes more than a bit of its melody and setting to "The Birth of the Blues". Perhaps not enough for a lawsuit, but there's certainly a similarity. Please also notice the use of "Mrs." on the label, something that would likely key any serious collector (who wasn't aware of song-poems) into wondering just what was going on with this record - seriously, have you ever seen a legit release with a writer credit containing Mr., Mrs., Ms. or Miss?

She's the Wife

2010-08-10T20:43:00.005-05:00

Here's one which is a favorite of my long-time friend Stu, one which I just obtained my own copy of, this week. It's a Rodd Keith production, although he takes a back seat on the lead vocal, turning that duty over to Suzie Smith, and providing not only the arrangement, but a nice harmony vocal. The record is credited to Suzie and Rodd, and is titled "I'm the Wife".

This is a really nice set of lyrics, and I was a bit surprised to find that they were from the pen of one of the weirder song-poets, Dolly O. Curran, who, along with her Dolly-O label, I've written about before. Paired with an excellent arrangement, the result is a first class record which, with perhaps a little tightening up of some clunky lyrics, and a few other changes, could have been something, or at least maybe in an alternate universe where song-poems competed with the "real labels" for airplay.

Please enjoy this delightfully peppy song about having a cheating spouse:

And speaking of peppy settings going with downcast lyrics, here's a happy sounding country setting about having a son die in a war. I'm certain that no non-English speaker, hearing this record, would be able to guess the subject matter.

Seaman Blues

2010-08-04T21:19:00.003-05:00

I've rarely featured one singer or label twice within a month, but when I heard this song for the first time last week, I knew it had to be my next offering, even though the singer - Norm Burns - had been featured just two weeks ago. He is one of my favorite song-poem singers, but in this case - although I do enjoy Norm's early '60's style performance, it's the lyric and arrangement that are the star. Please enjoy "Seaman Blues"!

The flip, "A Moment of Happiness", is about par for the course:

The Filmy Tones of Film-Tone

2010-07-28T21:20:00.006-05:00

Before I share this week's EP, I wanted to make sure that anyone reading this blog knows that I posted an entire song-poem album to the WFMU blog over the weekend. That post can be found here.

And now, on with the countdown:

The Film-Tone label is one of the murkier ones in the song-poem world. I posted a single Film-Tone song early on in this project, but today we have a full EP. ASPMA has documented a link between this late '50's label and the 1960's Star-Crest label. There's no suprise there - both feature arrangements which were long out of date, sung in a sort of sterile style.

But Star-Crest tended to feature a soloist singing what were clearly demos, often barely rehearsed, backed by a pianist or at best a minimal combo (I posted a full Star-Crest album here, a few years ago). At Film-Tone, on the other hand, they went in the other direction, featuring a small combo (piano, guitar and sax, here), and almost always (on the records I've owned and/or heard) a mixed trio of voices - usually fairly intricate in arrangement and (almost) well rehearsed, even - as you'll see - when the choice to use this vocal combo clashed with the lyrics.

Every Film-Tone record I'm aware of is a 45 EP, and although some actually have a name of the orchestra on them (plus "vocal trio"), the three I own do not, reading just "vocal trio". There are a couple of winners here, if you're willing to wade through two others which are quite tepid. The final track, in particular, should prove very entertaining.

The first one, "I Don't Think I Could", does feature some heartfelt, painful lyrics, but the performance is fairly soulless, and it's perhaps my least favorite of the four:

With "The Moonlight, The Prairie, And You", things take a definite step up, in my opinion. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this sort of thing, but this actually sounds like something one might hear on a nostalgic album of "songs from long ago". That it was actually written in the late '50's, commissioned, song-poem style, adds a level of weirdness that I enjoy.

Herve LaPlume's "Send Me Away with a Smile" is notable mostly for the melody, which seems to have been constructed almost entirely from random notes, and I'm amazed that the trio gets through it with as few errors as they do. I don't think I could have sung it:

The award winner here, though, has to be "Steppin' On the Gas". First of all, am I wrong, or do these lyrics make no sense, particularly the line after he's been stopped by an officer: "I had to do some speeding or pay a fine, you see"? Also, what is the line after "the car sped down the highway"?

Those specifics aside, these lyrics are an endless source of pleasure to me, as is the peculiar decision (alluded to above) to use the mixed trio - with the two women on lead for most of the performance - to sing a song which is written from the view of a man.

The Soulful Norm Burns

2010-07-22T21:25:00.005-05:00

This week's posting is quite late, due to a brief vacation and some computer problems. I'll get back on schedule with another post within three days, and will be posting a full Song-Poem album to WFMU soon.

Today, a record which caught me off guard, "Since You Came Into My Life" by Norm Burns and the Five Stars. I would describe this as Norm Burns (completely failed) attempt to provide the customer with some early '70's soul music. I definitely hear elements of that Philly Soul (one of my least favorite genres, to be honest) here, as well as other soulful sounds of the era. The results, particularly Norm's painfully uncomfortable vocal - possibly the worst I've ever heard from him - are fairly bizarre, and not what I expected to hear on a Sterling record. See what you think:

The flip side, "What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am?", is a much more typical example of the run-of-the-mill bland side of the Norm Burns experience, nowhere near the highs of his best ("Darling, Don't Put Your Hands On Me" and "The Human Breakdown of Absurdity" come to mind) or his most amazingly bad (see above). Oddly, this side is attributed to Norm, not with the Five Stars of the flip, but with Sterling's other identified band, "The Satellites". Since I suspect these were both the same band, I find the differing billing sort of interesting: