Lou Gaines: "Lash LaRue" (1981)

I'd featured the flip to this, "You're The Oil Slick of My Heart," back in June of '12, and would've posted "Lash LaRue" as well but my copy of it had scratches that made the A side skip pretty bad. Luckily, Lou Gaines (who changed his stage name from Lou Gainer once being accepted into the American Guild of Variety Artists), who wrote and performed the song, saw the post, contacted me, and was nice enough to send me a clean copy to feature on the CNQ blog!

On top of being a songwriter, Lou is also a professional bull whip artist, and you get to hear some cool whip cracks on this track. The horns and backing vocals on this track are also great - this is good stuff, made all the better by the awesome whip crack effects!

As for the flip, "You're The Oil Slick of My Heart," it's seeing some fresh action itself. George Jones' former backup band, The Jones Boys Band, has covered "You're The Oil Slick of My Heart" on their recent album, "The Legend Continues." You can check out their airplaydirect.com page and listen to the song, which is the second song from the bottom of the track list. If you're into country and steel guitars, I really recommend giving the whole album a listen on that page, I really enjoyed it.

So, here's "Lash LaRue!"

Up next: more of my Record Holder Series, some early 80s new wave from a compilation I got on the cheap, and, as always, all that other stuff I talk about, to which I never get around!

CNQ On A Roll...Some New Bandcamp Stuffs

Insomnia by Elizabeth:

Second Demonstration by Lovechild:

Patti Page (With Jack Rael And His Orchestra): Little Crazy Quilt b/w Keep Me In Mind (Mercury, 1955) & Red Sovine: "Don't Drop It" b/w "Don't Be The One" (Decca, 1954) - CNQ 45 Record Holder Series Episode 3!

I get manic sometimes and will work tirelessly on a project until I burn out, and then I won't touch it for six months, or worse, I'll never come back to it. I'll try to pace myself with my 45 Record Holder Series so that won't happen (but I can't promise anything, as I'm having a lot of fun with it so far).

In case you didn't catch the first two posts of this series, and don't feel like scrolling down to take a look at them, what I'm doing is this: I've got a collection of 24 or so 45s from the '50s and '60s in this little Decca branded 45 holder I aquired from my dad the last time I was home for a visit. My goal for this series is to go through the book, in the order the 45s are inserted in the sleeves, and do a post for each one. A lot of 'em are readily available on Youtube so for that stuff I'll just post the Youtube clip, do a little write-up and move on -- if it's not on Youtube or someone else's blog then I'll post an mp3 for educational purposes.

So this is another Mercury release - I forgot to mention the Ralph Marterie and Joe Carson 45s in the holder are both on Mercury; the Twin-Tones was released on RCA Victor. Patti Page was one Clara Ann Fowler, born and raised in Oklahoma, and according to Wikipedia is "one of the best known female artists in traditional pop music." She died January 1st, 2013, at age 85. Here's her discography.

In the Discogs entry for this 45, it says "Keep Me In Mind" was one of Burt Bacharach's earliest songs to be recorded. "Keep Me In Mind" is a good song but "Little Crazy Quilt" isn't anything I want to listen to again.

Red Sovine was one Woodrow Wilson Sovine, born in West Virginia, 1918, dead come Nashville, 1980. Reading about his career and his hits on his wikipedia page, as well as Patti Page's entry, reminds me that I am woefully more ignorant of 20th century American music than I could have ever realized. Huzzah to still learnin' stuff!

Here's the Discogs entry for "Don't Drop It"/"Don't Be The One", and his discography, also courtesy Discogs.

Fellow music blogger Country. & Western shared "Don't Drop It" back in February 2012.

Here's "Don't Drop It" courtesy Youtube:

I can't find the flip, "Don't Be The One," on Youturbs or a blog, so here it is, for educational purposes only:

The Twins (Jim and John): "Jo-Ann's Sister" b/w "Who Knows The Secret" (1958): CNQ 45 Record Holder Series Episode 2

The Twins, AKA the Twin-Tones, were Jim and John Cunningham, from Hicksville, Long Island. Bruce Pollack has a really excellent interview with John Cunningham from March 2013 about the brothers' 1957 single, "Jo-Ann,". The twins wrote Jo-Ann but didn't write the follow-up "Jo-Ann's Sister" or the b-side "Who Knows The Secret". I highly recommend reading Pollack's interview with John Cunningham. It is a fascinating look into a little slice of early rock'n'roll history. At 17, the Twin-Tones were on American Bandstand, they had their song co-opted by another act due to weird copyright laws, they got to meet Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, and more (including "Bobby Darin before he was Bobby Darin"), all the while with the threat of the draft and the weird spectre of the record industry machine looming over their young heads.

Here's the 45cat listing for "Jo-Ann's Sister."

Here's a listing on ebay for the "Jo-Ann's Sister" 45. They're wanting $25 for it!

Discogs listing for Teenagers Love The Twins.

Amazon has the same album on MP3 via a label called Hallmark.

Finally, here's Jo-Ann's Sister, which someone has already posted on the youtubes:

For educational purposes only, here's "Who Knows The Secret," the b-side to Jo-Ann's Sister:

Who Knows The Secret:

Ralph Marterie and His Orchestra (1955) and Joe Carson (1954): CNQ 45 Record Holder Series Episode 1!

Last Christmas I nabbed from my dad a Decca 45 RPM record holder that contained 24 45s from the '50s and '60s. I think they were his parents, but they coulda also been his older brother's, I'm not sure (Note the holder itself has the Decca label on it; the 45s it contains are from various labels). It's a lot of pop, country, some rockabilly. A while back I featured from this collection "Steer Stomper," the Pacers' sweet ode to the Arkansas Razorbacks, but that's the only one I've posted on CNQ so far (the embed and the link to download that Steer Stomper mp3 are both dead, btw -- let me know if you'd like me to re-up it).

A lot of the jams on these 45s are readily available on Youtube. As an ongoing project, I think I'll go through the twenty-four 45s, in the order that they're in the little holder, and post the youtube embed if there is one; otherwise I'll share the mp3. So, starting from the first 45 in the holder, here we go!

First up is Ralph Marterie And His Orchestra's 1955 Mercury release, "Remember Me" b/w "Blue Mirage (Don't Go)." As is typical with this type of fare, the B-side instrumental is the cooler track. Check 'em both out here tho:

Next up is some sweet country from Joe Carson, who I'd never heard of. This is a real find for me. "Little" Joe Carson began his singer/songwriter career at age 16, doesn't have a wikipedia page I can find (but here's his allmusic bio), and this particular 45 (another Mercury release), "Show Me Now" b/w "Don't Enter," isn't listed in Discogs or 45cat. Here's the links I found relevant to Little Joe:

In Memoriam LP, a best of available via Discogs

This Amazon review about a more recent Carson retrospective is informative.

Here's a cool blog post from New Jersey DJ Richard Sibello about Carson, featuring the excellent song "The Last Song (I'm Ever Gonna Sing)."

Finally, here's the two really great Carson songs on my 45, courtesy Youtube user lillymoons, whose channel is worth checking out for some classic country. This 45 actually looks to be kinda rare. I will take no less than a million dollars for it (OBO). Email me if interested.