Music for the messes since 2012. Into the obscure, the underground, and the other stuff. Clean Nice Quiet is live on KPISS.FM every Saturday from 5 to 7 PM US Eastern. Live on 8K.NZ every Thursday 9 PM US Eastern. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: E-mail your rad tunes to: matt (at) clean nice quiet (dot) (com). In the body of the e-mail, please include a publicly available file or link. Please do not submit anything under embargo. Feel free to send when it is publicly available.
Reverend Milton Bronson (1929-1997) was a Grammy award winning gospel musician and a pastor in Chicago. There's a post office branch in Austin, Chicago named after him.
Bronson's Wikipedia page says he released his first album in 1988, but his Discogs page shows he and the Thompson Community Singers were recording since the early 1970s.
This 45, "I'll Trade A Lifetime" b/w "All Power," doesn't have a date but judging by it's label number, HOB-1303, and where that would fall in the HOB catalog listing on Discogs, I think this was released sometime around 1971 or '72. Both songs are from the album named "I'll Trade A Lifetime."
The label that put out Bronson's 70s work, HOB, released religious recordings from 1959 up to 1999, according to Discogs data. HOB was a subsidiary of Scepter Records, which was founded and ran by New Jersey housewife Florence Greenberg, who put out a lot of hits by the Shirelles ("I Met Him On A Sunday," "Tonight's The Night," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," etc.).
On my copy of this 45, the A side skips, but someone's already put "I'll Trade A Lifetime" on Youtube. Youtube comments on that page reveal the names of a few of the "Tommies," as the Thompson Community Singers were called -- Maggie Bell, Betty Jean Plummer, Mary Jean Adams, and Otis Williams. Apparently Maggie Bell was the lead singer on "I'll Trade A Lifetime."
Both "I'll Trade A Lifetime," and the flip side presented here, "All Power," are great, stirring gospel tracks. I apologize for the hiss and cracks in my recording of "All Power," I cleaned the record the best I could.
Listen by pressing play; right click the embedded player to download:
Click here to listen if the two options above do not work for you: "All Power"
It's been too long since I dipped into my 45 collection. Also I figured out how to record better, I think:
According to his Wikipedia entry, Sir Cliff Richard turns 75 this October 14, has sold more than 250 million records worldwide, and is the third-top-selling singles artist in UK Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. How is it I have never heard of this cat, nor ever heard a single song by him? Richard's career has spanned more than 50 years, but he never found much success in the States, which I assume is the answer to my question.
Richard and his band the Shadows were marketed as rebellious rock'n'rollers and were apparently top dogs in the UK pop/rock scene of the late 50s/early 60s, before the Beatles showed up. According to Wikipedia, John Lennon called their 1958 hit "Move It" the first British rock'n'roll record.
The Shadows split in '68 but Richard continued to record. He finally had a hit in the U.S. with "Devil Woman" in 1976. "Devil Woman" is a pretty cool song, with a chorus that ends with "she's gonna get you from behind." Is the Devil Woman going to sodomize me? Geeze, I will stay away from that Devil Woman then. October is approaching so put "Devil Woman" on your Halloween mix for sure.
Richard got religious, got knighted, the Shadows reunited in 2008; there was a sexual assault allegation against Richard after the Jimmy Savile scandal, but no charges were filed and as of June 2015 the investigation has been dropped. Looks like he might've just got caught up in a witch hunt.
This Epic release, 5-9691, has "Bachelor Boy" on the A-side and "True True Lovin'," on the flip. "Bachelor Boy" is from a 1963 movie musical called "Summer Holiday," starring Richard.
"True True Lovin'" was also the B-Side for "Constantly," which doesn't look like it was released in the States. This 45 was put out stateside by Epic in 1964, same year as the Beatles' first world tour. You can certainly hear the Beatles influence on "True True Lovin'." It's a fun, pacey rarity written by Bruce Welch of the Shadows and produced by Norrie Paramor.
As always, this track is presented strictly for educational purposes, and won't be up for very long.
In April 1952 Specialty Records (who would release Little Richard's Tutti Fruitti three years later) released Lawdy Miss Clawdy. The single spent seven weeks at the number one spot on the Billboard R&B chart, and was named R&B Record of the Year by Billboard and Cashbox. It was written and sung by Lloyd Price (with Fats Domino on piano), was Price's first hit, and is a seminal piece of R&B and early rock'n'roll. Larry Williams (who had been Price's valet, per wikipedia), later reworked the song into Dizzy Mizz Lizzie. Lawdy Miss Clawdy has also been covered many times, but I think in my personal experience I've heard Dizzie Miss Lizzie more often.
Lloyd Price (born March 9, 1933) had more hits (Stagger Lee, Personality) and a long career in music and business. Price currently manages Icon Food Brands, which on top of Southern-style foods also features Lawdy Miss Clawdy clothing and collectibles. He's got a street named after him in his hometown of Kenner, Louisiana, and that city celebrates an annual Lloyd Price Day. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Per Wikipedia, he and his wife live in New York and he continues to sing.
There's a couple of different recordings of Price doing this song on Youtube, but none are as upbeat as the one that's on his Millennium Collection. I assume that one on the Millennium Collection is the original single, and the others are re-stylings, like this 1969 version I present tonight, along with its b-side.
This electrical soul version was recorded for his own label, Lloyd Price's Turntable. Per Discogs, he opened an identically named Manhattan restaurant-nightclub the same year he started the label. The label design is particularly groovy and features a picture of Price looking sharp. The B-side is another funky soul reworking of one of his older songs, the Luther Dixon-penned Little Volcano.
I didn't find either of these versions after my customary quick Google search. I picked this up over at Josey Records, for $3.
As always, this is presented strictly for educational and historical purposes, and will only be up for a limited time.
I have not posted a 45 in a while. On a recent CNQ Las Vegas junket, I picked up Fells' Walking & Wanting b/w their cover of The Buzzcock's E.S.P. for $5 at The Beat Coffeehouse. The Beat was a super-cool place; the food was excellent and they had a neat little record selection.
I'd never heard of this band before, the label just looked cool. I know we're at the point now where I can just look it up on my phone real quick, and I will do that if I'm on the fence about something. But if it looks too cool there in my hand like this one did I like to take my chances and don't bother looking it up until after I've bought it. Usually, like with this seven inch, I am pleased at the outcome of that adventurous gambit.
Looks like the band went by Fells and The Fells, but since Fells is what's on the label of this 45, I'll go with that for this post.
Back in 2009, this writer cat Jason Gelt wrote a good piece for examiner.com which reminisces about Fells as "Arizona's greatest garage band." Gelt mentions Walking and Wanting was his favorite Fells song.
Per Discogs, this was recorded live to 2-track on February 28th, 1994, at Waterworks West, Tucson Arizona, and broadcast on "Gimme Indie Rock" KXCI 91.3 FM. 500 of these seven inches were pressed.
In doing a little research on the band and their discography, I found some transcripts of an Austin fanzine called Geek Weekly that have been digitized. I'm not sure who the author is, but they mention Heath Heemsbergen, the lead singer, and Fells in a story about what otherwise sounds like a pretty righteous punk party if you're twenty in 1994:
"Then it all fell apart...and the Fells fucking went to hell in front of us all. It was insane nad (sic?) by the end no one was playing their own instruments or anything and people were getting on the stage and Heath was under a ladder in back of the stage nursing wounds."
In 1994 I was eighteen and I hitchhiked to a Lollapalooza with a hobo sign. It was different times back then. For me, anyway. This song is songs are copyright 1994, Heemsbergen and Fells:
Jason over at the awesome 7inches blog has been busy with his Sweaters & Pearls label. Here's some cool vinyl he has for sale:
"You Are Not Going To Heaven" is a 2011 six song e.p. from Brooklyn band Soccer Mom, on really beautiful white vinyl, courtesy Sweaters and Pearls and 100m Records. Good Sonic Youth-esque rock, $13 bucks and shipping. I'm serious about that white vinyl, it is exquisite looking.
Reminds me a little of The Trouble with Sweeney cover of Listen To What the Man Says:
These 45s are all $5 and shipping from Sweaters and Pearls:
Fat History Month is from the Boston area. Sweaters and Pearls is running out of this 7", recorded in 2009. The last thirty copies are hand-painted. Sweet mustard yellow vinyl. Here's my fave of the four tracks:
Sweaters and Pearls pressed 300 red vinyl copies of R. Stevie Moore's "I Miss July" b/w "Traded My Heart For Your Parts." "I Miss July" was originally recorded in 1978, the b-side was recorded in 1994. I've never heard of R. Stevie Moore before - he's been recording for over 40 years. I'll say it again: I love this hobby. This is my favorite of this post's set.
Harpoon Forever is New Jersey's WFMU DJ Alex Goldstein. Sweaters and Pearls sez to think 90s indie rock, Silver Jews, and The Strapping Fieldhands. Man, I'd never heard of The Strapping Field Hands. Again, I love this hobby. This is all killer stuff.
Today at Lucky Dog Books in the D I picked up a big hardback encyclopedia of Roman history for a cool $6, plus some old Who's Who In The DC Universe reader copies, a couple of Steely Dan albums, and this heavy metal sampler LP called Heavy Metal Thunder. Originally released on French label/distro Carrere in '82, the one I picked up has label and album print (except for title and band names) in Spanish, and it was released on Peerless in 1983. Neat stuff.
Among the 45s I picked up was this pop obscurity. Take A Good Look b/w Close To You by Johnny King, with The Singing Strings of Carl Cotner, released on a label called Monticello in 1960. I couldn't find out anything about Monticello via a Google search. This site puts the recording year of this seven inch at 1960. And the song was mentioned in a Billboard in mid-January, 1960, though I see a couple of other links that have it for sale put the year of its creation at 1959. There's a few copies available on Ebay.
Take A Good Look was written by one Al Stewart, but I don't think it was the Year of the Cat Al Stewart because he woulda been 13 and 14 in '59-60. My Google search turned up nada on the song. I prefer this track to the B side, Close To You.
Close to You was written in 1943 by Jerry Livingston, Carl Lampl and Al Hoffman, and has been covered three times by Frank Sinatra. And I guess once by Johnny King with The Singing Strings of Carl Cotner. Two of the three writers mentioned above - Hoffman and Livingston plus a guy named Milton Drake, wrote Mairzy Doats. My pet peeve is the words "can't you see" in a song. So cliche, and Close to You features it, but it's still okay I guess.
I couldn't find a dang thing about Johnny King. At least, no one named Johnny King who I think was the singer on these tracks.
Carl Cotner, who led the backing band on both sides of the vinyl, is more of a known entity than the shadowy Johnny King. Per Cotner's Discogs page, he was "Gene Autry`s longtime music director and movie stand-in," born in 1916 and passed on in '86.
So who listened to this stuff back in 1960? Was it for teens? The elderly? Babies? Thirtysomethings? I really don't know.
These three new, original Christmas songs courtesy CNQ fave Adam Holtz are from Volume 18 of his copyrighted material. Click the title to listen and download:
Lowell Fulson, per Wikipedia, was, "after T-Bone Walker, the most important figure in West Coast blues in the 1940s and 1950s." I'm always humbled by the amount of music history I do not know. I bought it because I pick up any 45 I find that's from a Shreveport label. Lonesome Christmas Parts 1 and 2 were originally recorded by Fulson for Swing Time Records back in 1950. It charted at #7 on the R&B charts. Both songs were written by fellow West Coast Blues pioneer Lloyd Glenn. These updated, funkier/bluesier/cooler versions below are from 1970, on Shreveport's Jewel Records (Jewel 813). Fulson recorded these as Lowell Fulsom. Fulson died in 1999, age 77, the father of four and grandfather of thirteen. Glenn died in 1985, age 76. As far as I can tell, neither of these versions of Lonesome Christmas Parts 1 and 2 are otherwise available on the Internerts:
I was digging through our 45s for Christmasy singles and/or b-sides. Here's a couple I found in Mrs. CNQ's stack that were already on Youtube...the Dolly song is from 1982's The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas soundtrack:
Al Casey is a famed session musician originally from Phoenix, Arizona. He played with Lee Hazlewood, Sanford Clark, played guitar on Jody Reynolds' awesome Endless Sleep, wrote Duane Eddy's Ramrod, and was an original member of The Wrecking Crew, the famous group of studio musicians in 1960s Los Angeles. Casey's guitar can be heard on Pet Sounds, Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," and a ton of other popular music from the 1960s and beyond. He was also a member of the band on the Dean Martin Show.
Thus was born The Exotic Guitars, which released several albums and singles through the late 60s and into the 1970s.
I Will Wait For You, was on the first Exotic Guitars self-titled album, and is the B-side to the single, a cover of Blueberry Hill, from the same LP. I Will Wait For You is the English version of a song from a French musical called The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The music was composed by famous French composer Michel Legrand, and the English lyrics are by American lyricist Norman Gimbel, who wrote Sway, The Girl From Impenema, Killing Me Softly with His Song, among others.
Casey puts a 60s surf spin on I Will Wait For You, and it's the most, man. The most.
The 45 label credits Al Casey on guitar, but says I Will Wait For You and the A-side were both arranged and conducted by Bill Justis, he of Raunchy fame.
Al Casey passed away back in 2006. A Youtuber has posted the whole self-titled Exotic Guitars album, but still, here's I Will Wait For You.
Blogger has this little widget where you can let people vote on the post, and I gave the options boss/mas o menos/eats it. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I gave the Internet the option to tell me my post eats it. Oh well. I think it's more punk rock to take the negative criticism than to remove the option.
I purchased my copy at the flagship Half-Price Books in Dallas for four bucks - it was actually one of the first seven inches I bought for the blog, back a couple of years ago. I just kept buying 45s like a nut and this one got buried.
So Coleman's side of that 7" is called "Minor Wes," and it's two and a half covers of Minor Threat songs and one original, Shut Up & Love Her. The covers, as far as I can tell, are not hitherto available on the Internet, so here they are, for a limited time, and for education/historical purposes only:
If the embedded player above doesn't work for you, try this: "Straight" Edge
So thru the magic of the Internet I got to ask Coleman about the recording of this 7" and received some rad insight into some Texas music history.
JWC says Minor Wes was recorded at the same studio, Shape Have Fangs, and with the same band (The Fleshlights) Coleman used on the album Steal My Mind, which is on Google Play and worth checking out for sure. For Minor Wes, basically they had a kegger and invited their friends to lovingly record seven Minor Threat songs with them, as well as that original number -- Shut Up & Love Her, linked above.
Coleman has another band called The Golden Boys, and they're cool too:
Finally, as a special treat for all you CNQrs (both of you), here's an unreleased track of Coleman's "Strange Life," recorded by Andrew McCalla, down in Austin, back in February '13:
Princess Ramona, AKA The Cherokee Princess, is Ramona Kemp, and she was born February 9, 1925. Her Facebook page was last updated March 7, 2014. I've tried to contact her and a few of her contacts via Facebook, but I've come up short on replies.
This 45 is, as the label sez, "A Little Bit of Royalty." Both of these songs are great. "Lover For A Night" is a sultry, seductive slow jam, and "I Need All The Help I Can Get" is a fun B-side with some interesting guitar flourishes. I don't know if that's Princess Ramona on guitar also or a studio musician.
Before we hear the songs, here's all the information I could find on Princess Ramona:
Per her Internet bio I found on a couple of different sites, Princess Ramona has traveled the globe singing, yodeling, and spreading the gospel for more than 50 years. She is the daughter of Chief Frank Buckshot Standing Horse. Princess Ramona was the wife of producer and fellow musician Buddy Kemp. I couldn't find much else about Buddy Kemp other than the work he did with his wife.
Back in September of this year I did a post featuring Sammy Masters' "Say Yes Or No" b/w "When Fools Get Together" from 1966. Sammy Masters' song, "Say Yes Or No," was written by B. Kemp-R. Dale-S. Masters. I picked up both the Sammy Masters 45 and this Princess Ramona from the same place - The Record Parlour in Los Angeles. I'm not a hundred percent sure but I'm going to venture to guess that this B. Kemp was Buddy Kemp, Princess Ramona's husband, producer, and co-performer, and that the Ramona Dale who helped write "Say Yes Or No" and sang back up on both of the Sammy Masters tracks was, in fact, Princess Ramona.
As far as I can tell, the two songs on this 45 have not been shared with the Internet before. "Lover For A Night" was written by Oklahoma-born country songwriter Eddie Miller, who also wrote "Release Me," and, per his Wikipedia entry, "was the founder of the Country and Western Music Academy in Hollywood, as well as a co-founder of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (of which he served as the first president and also another term in the presidency)."
"I Need All The Help I Can Get" was written by Glen Garrison, a country singer-songwriter born in Arkansas.
On a final note, Princess Ramona's father, Chief Frank Buckshot Standing Horse, became a preacher late in his life and apparently had a keen interest in UFOs. He had his own contactee experience in 1959, in which he claimed to have been taken on a space ride across the solar system. He also founded the First Indian Spacecraft Convention in Sulpee, Oklahoma. Click here for the details on that.
Some rad-ass Texas outlaw country/novelty jawnz tonight.
John Stuckey, who wrote both these tracks, had a radio show on KPFT in Houston in the 70s, and also was into demolition derbys. Awesome. The B-side to this 45, "Scares the Hell Out of Me," has been featured on the Dr. Demento Show a couple of times, once in 1975 and once in 2009. As near as I can tell, neither of these tracks are previously available on the Internet, so this is the type of real deal cool stuff CNQ breathes for. Stuckey's son got in contact with me tonight and said his dad was 6'8", and went on to become a renowned tattoo artist, and both Stuckey and Uncle Bob (the label is called Good Ole Uncle Bob) were tattooed dudes. That's pretty cool. Sadly, John Stuckey is no longer with us, having passed away in 2003.
So this is UB-2020, copyright Crazy Cajun Music BMI. It was recorded at the famous Sugar Hill Studios in Houston. Stuckey's son thinks both were produced by the Crazy Cajun himself, Huey P. Meaux. Seems reasonable to me that they would be.
These songs are great. Topical, timeless. The A side, Seeds & Stems:
If the embedded player above doesn't work for you, try this: Seeds & Stems
"Alfonso is known as “El Mero Leon de la Sierra” or “the distinguished silver-headed living legend” among Tejano music fans...In 1998, Alfonso was inducted into the Tejano Music Awards Hall of Fame. In 2002, (he) was inducted into the Tejano R.O.O.T.S. Hall of Fame."
El Sonsonete was the B-side to El Silencio de la Noche. Both songs were on the 1973 Capri Records album, La Unica Mujer. This 45 is catalog #CA-265. The address on the 45 label is in McKinney, Texas. Cool.
The 45 label identifies the A-side as a Ranchera song, written by Mexican music legend José Alfredo Jiménez. El Sonsonete has the initials "D.A.R." where the songwriter credit usually is. Not sure what that means, maybe it's a traditional? The 45 label identifies El Sonsonete as cumbia.
Listen to Alfonso Ramos and His Orchestra play El Sonsonete:
If the embedded player above doesn't work for you, try this link: El Sonsonete
Besides the McKinney address on the label, I couldn't find any info about Capri except that they also put out some Latin psych-funk back in '72 from Tony Hernandez & The Latin Liners. The Hernandez LP is called La Voz Encantadora. Back in '12, the guys at latinfunk.org posted the track featured in the Youtube video below, as well as the song Jo Tex, plus some biographical info about Hernandez. Gotta find me some Tony Hernandez.
I picked this punk 45 up at Half-Price Books in Dallas for five bucks. It was one of the first ones I bought when I started my little 45 collection, back in '12. I had never heard of Bastards before, I just liked the cover. But today is the first time I've actually listened to this record. I am a spoiled child, buying toys and then not playing with them. Well, I finally got around to it, anyway.
Hailing from Minnesota, Bastards were Anthony Martin on bass and vocals, Joachim Breuer on guitar and vocals, and Tommy Rey on drums, though it looks like a cat named Dave Wieland played drums on Who Cares and Shit for Brains. Bastards rocked something one Youtube commenter called "hatecore" and another called "dirt rock" in the late 80s and early 90s. Looks like they released just three 7"s, one EP, and an album called Monticello that was produced by pre-Nirvana Butch Vig (There's also a CD that combines Monticello and the EP).
This 45 and Monticello were both put out on Treehouse Records, which also released some stuff by big names like Pagans, Babes In Toyland, and Unsane.
It was produced at Salmagundi Studios, in Northfield, MN, by the band and Mark Trehaus, the owner of the Treehouse label. Back in 2007, the sadly defunct music blog The Last Days of Man on Earth wrote a post that talked a little about Treehouse, and weirdly enough, in the comments section, there's a comment from TODAY on it, posted not 30 minutes before this writing, from the very same Mark Trehaus of Treehouse Records. The Joe he's referring to is the writer of The Last Days of Man on Earth. Here's Trehaus' comment:
highwatereverywhere says:
October 18, 2014 at 6:56 pm
just met joe in my store today, and he hipped me to his site. not much to say about my old treehouse label, except that i don’t know what the hell i was thinking at the time. who in their right mind would think it would be a healthy thing to try and stay clean while starting a label with a guy i met in a drug treatment center, and then begin signing up a bunch of bands largely full of (and surrounded by) ungrateful, dysfunctional, juvenile brats…talk about a recipe for disaster! and a disaster it was.
to correct joe: treehouse records (the label) was formed out of oar folkjokeopus, the store i managed for 17 years prior to taking it over and renaming the store treehouse records (after much urging) in 2001. the label was ahead of its time, as opposed to being some sorta amphetamine reptile wannabee…check the timelines if you think i’m spewin’ sour grapes. anyway, amphetamine reptile ended up getting better ink, more money, and a few other scale-tipping factors which caused them to ultimately reap the notoriety and financial paydays. i’m not bitter about it; i have my sanity intact, which i almost lost about 20 years ago, and i wouldn’t want to be any of those guys for all the gold in china.
----
How serendipitous is that!? I wonder if the guys in Bastards were some of those brats...
There are two releases of this 7". The first was a limited silk-screened, hand-numbered edition of 200, with art by Fred Hagstrom. I'll be. The second, the one I have, is a repro of that original, in pink and black.
The band went on to do other stuff. Anthony Martin founded Boomba Records in Germany, released some Turbonegro albums over there. Joachim Breuer went on to form Janitor Joe with Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff. If the guys in Bastards are out there, this stuff y'all were doing a quarter of a century ago was awesome. Glad I finally listened to this 45. Today I found a vinyl copy of Monticello on ebay and ordered it immediately. It's post-punk, kinda bluesy, kinda metal. I dig it the most.
A lot of the songs off Monticello and the EP are available on Youtube, but I couldn't find Who Cares anywhere, so I thought I'd share it. Bastards seems to have a bit of a cult following, as is evidenced by various Youtube comments on the tracks shared on there. One guy says Bastards played a show with frozen mice hanging from their instruments. Here's a cool 2004 review of Monticello.
Today was my first visit to Shake Rag Music in Dallas. Among a whole bunch of other cool stuff the wife and I picked up, I found two 45s with labels written in Arabic. They were pretty scratched but for 75 cents a pop I could afford to take a chance on them. Bottom feedin'!
So I snagged these two 45s, each a different label, but both have text only in Arabic. Wild! The song presented below is the only one that plays without a skip, even after I cleaned them up. I still think they're neat.
UPDATE: I had guessed this was North African from the 1960s, but I was wrong. Thanks to the cool folks on the facebook page I follow, The Art of the 45 RPM Label, I am told this is Iranian pop by a performer named Aref Arefkia, on the Monogram label. Aref was a popular performer in Iran in the 60s and 70s, and left the country after the Revolution in '79. He lived in London for a while and now lives in Los Angeles. He's still performing after 50 years, check out his web page. I'm still not sure what the name of the song is, but I'll update once I figure it out.
New Star Records operated in Milan, Italy from the 1960s to the 80s. Ermanna Melli's "Avevi Ragione" ("You Were Right") is the B-side to "Cos'e' Questo Desiderio" ("What's This Desire"). Both tracks were written by Crisci-Gial, and I can't find any info on that songwriting team. Both tracks were produced by maestro Angelo Camis, who also founded the label.
I can't find much on Ermanna Melli herself, and this seems to be her only work for New Star - maybe her only release period. Per the site Music & Memory, a backing band called The Whole may assist her on this record. This ebay listing has a picture of the original sleeve of the 45.
Like I said, both tracks on this 45 were written by a team named Crisci-Gial. I did find a poem, "Mary Was The Poetess," on the site poetrysoup. It's copyright 2009 by Andrew Crisci, whom I believe is Mary Crisci's brother. In the poem he talks about how Mary wrote the song "Cos'e Questo Desiderio" when she was 18, and it was recorded by Ermanna Melli, "from the city of Forli." The poem is a very pretty tribute to his sister, you should check it out.
Both the A and B sides of this 45 are enjoyable 60s pop. Kind of reminds of me of French ye-ye. Someone on Youtube beat me to the punch with the A-side (posted below), but the B-side, to my knowledge, has yet to be featured on the Internets.
The first track off The Great Dismal Swamis' latest, a repost to test to see if the player works. I've been having problems with my mp3 embeds, or maybe the google sites page where I store mp3s, I dunno. Right click the link below to open another tab and hear "Box Wine Bitches:"
I've had a couple of reports of my mp3 embeds not playing, so I'm trying out some new code tonight. If it won't play on your device, it should say so, and provide you with a link to download the song instead. If you've got a moment, leave me a note and let me know how this new code treats you. Thanks!
Also, I know it's janky to just take a picture of my record with my cell phone. You can see my shadow over the vinyl - embarrassing. I need a new scanner. It's on my list.
Sammy Masters was a rockabilly cat who recorded in the 50s and 60s. He wrote Turn the Cards Slowly, a minor hit for Patsy Cline. He was on The Jack Benny Show and Town Hall Party in the 50s. His song Rockin' Red Wing was a regional hit in L.A., and made it to #64 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. Another of his songs, Who Can I Count On, was recorded by Willie Nelson, Bobby Darin, and Wayne Newton.
Masters' music career seems to have stalled, and he worked in TV production in the 60s and 70s. I dunno what he did in the 80s and early 90s, but in 1997 he got to tour Europe and Japan when a rockabilly revival was going on there. That's cool. After that, I guess he went back to doing his normal thing. He died at age 82 in March, 2013.
Top Shelf Oldies has a more in depth bio of Masters and a discography. It lists the A side as When Fools Get Together and the year as 1967, but my brand new copy of Rockin' Records (thanks Ahbob!) says '66, and the record itself is printed as Say Yes Or No = A side, When Fools Get Together = the flip.
Neither discogs nor 45cat have a listing for this 45, and I didn't find either song available for listening on a Google search. These two tracks were released on Galahad Record Co., which was Masters' own label independent label. The address on the 45 is Box 656, Norwalk, California.
Say Yes Or No was written by B. Kemp-R. Dale-S. Masters. I'm not sure who B. Kemp was, but R. Dale must be Ramona Dale, who is also listed as singing backup on both of these tracks. I dunno who Ramona Dale is otherwise, though. When Fools Get Together was written by Sammy Masters only. Rockin' Records lists this 45 as being $8-12 in near mint condition. Mine's a little scratched on one side but it plays fine - I picked it up for $2.98 at The Record Parlour in L.A.
Those links talking about Masters are interesting and each is worth reading. These two songs are fair enough 60s country - both are a little downbeat. I prefer the B-side but don't I always? As always, these songs are featured on CNQ strictly for educational and historical purposes. I'm not making any money doing this, and I hope I'm not pulling any bread out of mouths when I share these. If anything, a little exposure never hurt any artist. But the mp3s are gonna come down in a month or so, when I have to make room in my online cabinet for new stuff. So listen while you can.
I found this in my dad's old 45 record album. From 1955 comes Dolores Ware's There's a Whole Lot of Fish In the Sea/If I'm Wrong (Mercury 70559). Both songs written by "Evelyn/Kirkland." I'm not sure who Evelyn is, but Kirkland is Leroy Kirkland, who had an incredible behind the scenes career as an "arranger, bandleader, guitarist and songwriter," per his Wikipedia article. Kirkland worked with a lot of cool people, I'll have to keep my eye out for his name from now on.
Ware has at least three 45s to her name from Mercury. There's this one, plus 1954's My Heart's In the Right Place/Please Tell Me Baby (Mercury 70394), and from '55, Can't Eat, Can't Sleep/Everything Will Be Alright (Mercury 70618).
On Mercury subsidiary Wing Records, founded in 1955, she had two releases: Thrill-La-Dill/Sweetness (W90017), and Is It True/I'm Through (W90032). Discogs says Is It True/I'm Through was released in '55.
The Mercury Labels: the 1945-1956 Era by Michel Ruppli and Ed Novitsky (Greenwood Press, 1993) says Is It True, I'm Through, Thrill-a-Dill and Sweetness were all recorded at Mercury Sound Studio in NYC on July 28, 1955. From the same source, she recorded Your Hurting Heart/Everything Will Be Alright, and For Once In Your Life/Can't Eat Can't Sleep with a guy named Lee Austin (real name Austin Cromer), at Universal Recording Studios in Chicago on April 7, 1955. And at Fine Recording Studios in NYC, on May 14, 1954, she recorded Just To Be With You (unissued)/My Heart's In the Right Place, and Tell Me Baby (Just What I Say)/I'm Selfish (both unissued). There may be more of her in that book but that's just what I came up with on the Google preview.
A Google search turns up little biographical information but she was mentioned in Billboard several times in 1955, in album reviews and ads for Wing Records. The Billboard review for Thrill-La-Dill is positive but here's the lukewarm Billboard review of There's A Whole Lot of Fish In the Sea/If I'm Wrong.
According to Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks page on the 5 Crowns, on November 13, 1955, Ware performed at Harlem's Rockland Palace Ballroom, along with the 5 Crowns, Ray Charles and the Moonglows, the Cadillacs, Charlie & Ray, and the New Yorkers Five. What a line-up.
Thrill-La-Dill has made it onto at least a couple of jump and "early ladies of rock" type compilations.
If the Dolores Ware mentioned in this 2011 Times-Picayune article is the same woman who recorded these songs, she was 76 in 2011 and was still active as an organist and music director for a concert at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival that year. That would put her born in 1935, and just 20 years old when she had her big year in 1955.
The A-side of my copy is scratched and jumps too much, but here's the excellent If I'm Wrong, an obscure gem of an R&B song if ever there was one:
If I'm Wrong:
So if you know more about Ms. Ware, I'd love to hear it. Leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. Here's all the Dolores Ware I could find on Youtube:
Can't Eat, Can't Sleep:
Everything Will Be Alright:
There's A Whole Lot of Fish In The Sea:
Thrill-La-Dill was also co-written by Leroy Kirkland. Great song:
Sweetness:
Is It True:
Here's that one from NYC's Sharon Records. Recorded before 1955? After? Not sure.
Jan Howard was born Lula Grace Johnson to a poor farming couple on March 13, 1932, in West Plains, Missouri. She was one of eight kids and was married at the age of 15, with three sons before she was twenty. She divorced twice before moving to L.A. in 1955. There she met her future husband, songwriter Harlan Howard, and after that her career took off. Despite her success, she's had a rough go at life - the bio on her website has this to say about Mrs. Howard's hard road to becoming one of the "Grand Ole Ladies" of the Grand Ole Opry:
"Jan is the survivor of a difficult life, but has always made it clear that she doesn't want pity. Her saga - which includes miscarriages, marital abuse, bigamy, poverty, war, suicide, cheating, divorce, thievery, depression, and mental collapse - has only made her stronger."
Dang! Bring It On Back To Me was the flip to the non-charting My Baby's In Berlin, both written by Harlan Howard. Released in 1961, on Los Angeles-based label Challenge Records. Challenge Records was co-founded by Gene Autry! Their biggest hit was in '58, the Champs' Tequila.
Bring It On Home isn't on Youtube, and the 7" isn't listed on Discogs or 45cat. I found it listed on Howard's own website's discography page, and from there I got the date. Youtube poster Jruus1 says My Baby's In Berlin is only available as a 45 single, and hasn't been on any of Jan's albums. I like this song. For educational purposes only, here's:
"Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman (April 19, 1934 – November 6, 1989) was an American music and record producer born in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for inventing and using the technique of the "break-in", an early precursor to sampling, that used brief clips of popular records and songs to "answer" comedic questions posed by voice actors on his novelty records. He also wrote and produced some original material, most often heard on the "b-side" of his break-in records."
Irv's Theme is one of those b-sides, written by Goodman and Bill Ramal. It's the flip for Mr. Jaws and is a neat little instrumental. Per Wikipedia's Mr. Jaws entry:
"("Mr. Jaws") peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1975. On Cash Box magazine's chart, it fared even better, reaching #1."
Goodman has an impressive discography. He committed suicide in 1989, age 55.
The comments section at 45cat has some interesting facts about the pressing of this record, a couple of different theories on why Goodman chose "Cash Records" as the label name (one repeating the story from Wikipedia, that Goodman named the label Cash because that's what he wanted the record company to make the check out to), and why there are so many different variants; plus pics of all (?) the variants. Neat stuff. I scored my mono copy (pictured above) for 98 cents at The Record Parlour in L.A.
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