Christmas at Halloween, Part One--Mistletoes and Cobwebs

Rosie welcomes you to Christmas at Halloween, a suite by yours ghoully. I mean, truly. (No Ghoultide puns--I promise.) The suite kicks off with Mistletoes and Cobwebs. Spell Check doesn't like "Mistletoes," probably preferring "mistletoe" for the plural, but that's its problem, not mine. Then again, Mistletoe and Cobwebs might sound artier. I don't know.

I think I'll obsess about it for a few hours. Anyway, this is me playing "live" for once--as in, straight from the Casio CTK-551 keyboard. The recording technique was especially innovative--a microphone several inches from the right speaker. Then I MAGIX'd things.

The suite continues next time with Santa's on His Way/Noisy Night. I was going to call that first part Santa Claus Is Thumbing to Town, but a Google search revealed the name's been used. Dang it.

Scary Christmas (at Halloween)! Mistletoes and Cobwebs (Lee Hartsfeld).


Lee

Halloween music to date--Slaylists 1-4

SLAYLIST--HALLOWEEN 2008, Part 1 Halloween 2008, Part 1

1. HOUSE OF HORRORS--Merv Griffin, 1962.
2. MY FRIEND THE GHOST--Tommy Dorsey, feat. Gordon Polk, 1954.
3. THE NIGHT BEFORE HALLOWEEN--Bill Buchanan, 1962.
4. BONEYARD SHUFFLE--Red Nichols, Five Pennies, 1926.
5. THE SNAKE--The Liverpool Five, 1966.
6. QUENTIN'S THEME--Charles Randolph Grean Sounde, 1969.
7. WITH HER HEAD TUCKED UNDERNEATH HER ARM--Kingston Trio, 1960.
8. THE HAUNTING (Scifirin)--Lalo Schifrin and His Orch., 1963.
9. MY FRIEND THE GHOST--Jill Whitney, 1954.
10. THE THING (Grean)--Cliff Holland.
11. SATAN AND THE POLAR BEAR (Rose)--David Rose O., 1957.
12. HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE--The Capettes.

SLAYLIST--HALLOWEEN 2008, Part 2 Halloween 2008, Part 2.

THE LOCH NESS MONSTER, PTS. 1 & 2--John Tilley, 1934. From Columbia 78.
SWEENEY TODD THE BARBER--Stanley Holloway, 1956.
WITH HER HEAD TUCKED UNDER HER ARM--Cyril Scott, 1949. From Castle 78.
THE COOL GOOL--Sharkey Todd and His Monsters, 1959.
THE HORROR SHOW--Sharkey Tood and His Monsters, 1959.
I'M A MUMMY--Douglas Byng, 1963.
GHOST RHAPSODY (Templeton)--Alec Templeton, 1938.
IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING (Grieg)--Orig. Piano Quartet, 1964.
SPOOKY SPOOKS (Claypoole)--Prince's Band, 1916.
THE SNEAK--(Herb Nacio Brown)--Club Royal Orch., 1922.


SLAYLIST-HALLOWEEN 2008, Part 3 Halloween 2008, Part 3.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN--Ray Anthony and His Orch., 1957.
THE BLACK HOLE--END TITLE (Barry)--Andre Kostelanetz, 1980.
LITTLE SPACE GIRL--Jesse Lee Turner, 1958.
THE FACE FROM OUTER SPACE--Jeff Barry w. Billy Mure O., 1960.
THE SCREAMIN' MEEMIES FROM PLANET X--Merv Griffin, 1961.
MONKEY BUSINESS (Billy Sherrill)--Eddie Hill and Group, 1959.
THIRTEEN MEN--Dinah Shore, 1958.
FALL OF THE PLANET EARTH--The Moonbillies, 1960.
THE 'LECTRONIC BRAIN--The Moonbillies, 1960.
SUPERMAN--The Sandpiper Singers, 1959.
ROCKETSHIP X-M (MAIN TITLE) (Grofe)--movie soundtrack, 1950.
COUNTDOWN: LAUNCH; INTO ORBIT (Grofe)--Same.
JOURNEY INTO SPACE (Phillips)--Frank Weir and His Orch., 1955.


SLAYLIST--HALLOWEEN 2008, PART 4 Halloween 2008, Part 4.

THEME FROM THE BAT (L. Forbes)--The Ventures, 1964.
FEAR (MAIN THEME FROM ONE STEP BEYOND) (Lubin)--The Ventures, 1964.
THE MUMMY (Rod McKuen)--Bob McFadden and Dor, 1959.
FUNERAL MARCH OF A MARIONETTE(Gounod) Russian Symphony Orch., 1912.
IT'S A MONSTERS' HOLIDAY--Buck Owens, 1974.
GREENWICH WITCH (Confrey)--Zez Confrey, piano, 1922.
IT'S WITCHERY (Tobias)--Charle Spivak O., v: Tommy Mercer, 1947.
DESERTED BALLROOM (Gould)--Elliot Everette Orch.
MARCH OF THE LUNATICS (Pennario)--Leonard Pennario X 2, pianos, 1960.
BLUE GHOST--Tommy Roe, Jordanaires, 1962.
HAUNTED MERRY-GO-ROUND--Lee Hartsfeld (who?), 2008.
IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING (Grieg)--Victor Symphony O., 1926.
MOUNTAIN KING (Grieg)--Lawrence Welk and His Orch., 1961.


Lee

TV, Griff, Ducks

Pops Concert V--Jose Melis

Soooo... I've calmed down and taken a broader view of the DSL situation, and all I have to say is...

AIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Now to segue into our regularly scheduled post....

We all "know" that Elvis invented rock and roll. Rolling Stone wouldn't lie, would it? Now, when it comes to exotica, the inventor of the genre, apparently, is Les Baxter (Ritual of the Savage, 1952). Therefore, the nine 1950 Jose Melis tracks we're about to hear--all beautifully remastered on a Harmony label LP from...?--can't be exotica. Yes, they sound like exotica, but what does "sound like" have to do with matters of, well, sound?

To be sure, two of the numbers are as exotica as they get--1894's Orientale and the 1930s gem, On a Little Street in Singapore. And the others are given exotica treatment and thus transformed--in particular, The Love Nest. But this stuff can't be exotica. Too early, and Jose is not exotica-approved, to say the least. Read, for instance, the Space Age Pop site's rave write-up of the artist: "A pleasant pianist and an average arranger who gained more than his share of fame by leading the band on one of Jack Paar's 'Tonight! Show.'" (The "one of" appears to be a typo.)

Elsewhere, he's noted as someone who recorded Latin-style pop. The end.

To these ears, the Cuban-born Melis' 1950 sides are, frequently, like Martin Denny without all the corny sound effects. There's a spare but lush texture (is that possible?), a quiet-jazz feel (complete with the chords we'd expect from that genre), and, well... just an exotica feeling all around. I call it exotica (save for the deft, polite-stride version of Old Black Joe). To heck with common cyber-wisdom.

See what your ears think. I mean, think what your ears see. I mean....

Click here to reach zip file: Pops Concert V: Jose Melis.

JOSE MELIS PLAYLIST (All Columbia label, 1950)

MOON OVER MIAMA (Leslie-Burke)
ISLE OF CAPRI (J. Kennedy-Grosz)
ON A LITTLE STREET IN SINGAPORE (B. Hill-P. DeRose)
CHEROKEE (Ray Noble)
OLD BLACK JOE (S. Foster)
THE LOVE NEST (Harbach-Hirsch)
MY HEART AT THY SWEET VOICE (Saint-Saens)
PLAYERA (Granados)
ORIENTALE (Cui)

Btw, the font switch during the text wasn't intended, but it's kind of arty, no?

Lee

"Oh, no!! Windstream is coming!!!"

DSL customers, trying to remain calm in spite of the news.

Forget it

Please disregard the positive post about our abominable Internet "service." DSL died last night. It came back at some point, but now my email isn't allowing me in.

Thanks, Windstream. They can't deliver the service, but they do deliver the bills. Even notice how that works?

Calling the company is a waste of time, since their customer service is nonexistent. Their phone reps can't understand a word spoken outside of their native tongue, meaning that zero communication occurs beyond "How are you?" (And I'm not even sure it gets that far.) One could call Windstream and say, "Godzilla is ruining my garden. What should I do?" And the phone person would say, "Yes, sir. Thank you. Just a moment. Now, what is the brand on your modem?" "My cousin's a vampire. Can you believe it??" "Thank you, sir. (Type, type, type.) Do you have the modem open, sir? Hello?" "Of course, I told him, 'Sure, you'll live forever, but forget about ever seeing the sunlight again." "Sir? What is the number inside the modem?" "'Of course, you'll never have to worry about skin cancer,' I said..." "Have you rebooted your computer yet, sir?" "My big issue would be vampire hunters. I mean, having to change my coffin location constantly..." "Very good, sir. Now, will you bring up your email program? Thank you." "So, when it comes to becoming a vampire, I'm like, No, thanks." "Are you getting any kind of message, sir?" "Yes, from Jupiter. I'm running the message through my portable translating computer right now." "Thank you, sir. One moment, please. (Type, type, type.)"

Sunday morning gospel--Schmitt Bros., Vanguard Q., Hollywood Christian Group

Oh, fun. Blogger failed to save any of the text I just worked a half hour producing. Argggghh! Double-Argggghh! Oh, well--it's working now. I hope.

Anyway, today's selections come from three LPs I found at Goodwill this week--all with musty covers and labels, unfortunately, so I'm not likely to keep them. (Those are the thrift-store breaks.) However, I got some nice tracks from them.

A remarkably good barbershop group called The Schmitt Brothers is featured in six superb tracks, all taken from vinyl. These guys were Revelers-quality singers--just superb. Two of their six tracks fall into the kind of/sort of gospel category--one which I just now made up.

These are followed by three fast gospel numbers from The Vanguard Quartet of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

Finally, the coolest find of all--1961's This, Too, Is Hollywood by the Hollywood Christian Group, which included Nick Adams, Pat O'Brien, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Beatrice (Hooray, Hooray, I'm Goin' Away) Kay, Don DeFrore, Gregory Walcott, and more. The music is very pleasant, Word-label-style fare of the period, with a terrific version, by Roy Rogers, of Thomas A. Dorsey's Peace in the Valley. Almost as good are two medleys by the Group. I had no idea this LP existed.

Character actor Gregory Walcott, by the way, is unfortunately known almost exclusively for his starring role in Plan 9 from Outer Space, but he has a long TV and movie resume that includes Bonanza, The Mod Squad, Kojak, Dallas, Midway, Joe Kidd (as the sheriff), the excellent Tony Curtis film The Outsider, and Prime Cut.

Just an opportunity to point out that Walcott has been in a lot more than Plan 9 (which I love, by the way). It's always cool to catch him on TMC and/or TV Land.

Click here to reach zip file: Sunday morning gospel, Sep. 28, 2008.

PLAYLIST

BLESS THIS HOUSE--Schmitt Bros. (Cuca KS-4440)
STANDING IN THE NEED OF PRAYER--Schmitt Bros.
MIGHTY LAK' A ROSE--Schmitt Bros.
WERE YOU THERE?--Schmitt Bros.
ABIDE WITH ME--Schmitt Bros.
TILL WE MEET AGAIN--Schmitt Bros.
THE OLD COUNTRY CHURCH--Vanguard Q.
I'LL HAVE A NEW BODY--Vanguard Q.
JOSHUA--The Vanguard Quartet
THIS, TOO, IS HOLLYWOOD/SHARE THE BLESSINGS--Hollywood Christian Group; Ruth and Jimmie Dodd, 1961.
THE OLD RUGGED CROSS--Pamela Baird, 1961.
THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO (Evans)--Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, 1961.
MY GOD IS REAL (YES, GOD IS REAL)--Sylte Sisters, 1961.
ROCK OF AGES/JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL/JESUS, SAVIOUR, PILOT ME--Dale Evans, 1961.
THAT OLD TIME RELIGION/I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY/SINCE JESUS CAME INTO MY HEART--Hollywood Christian Group, 1961.
PEACE IN THE VALLEY (Dorsey)--Roy Rogers, 1961.


Lee