Happenin' Sounds of the Sixties, Man!!

Fake hits of the Sixties, ripped from records made for the following cover labels: Tops, Hit Parader, Top Six, Columbia Record Club, and Columbia House. The Sixties, as you sort of--but not quite--remember that decade.

These tracks are happenin'. I happen to think you'll love them.

Click here to reach the zip file, man! FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

PLAYLIST

PAINT IT, BLACK--Top Six 29.
PAINT IT, BLACK--Hit Parader HP-41.
PENNY LANE--The Candy-Rock Generation, 1969. (Columbia House)
IT'S NOT UNUSUAL--The Soho Singers. (Columbia Rec. Club)
YELLOW SUBMARINE--36 Today! (Columbia Rec. Club)
HELP ME, RHONDA--Hit Parader HP-35.
LADY JANE--36 Today!
RUNAWAY--Chubby McDaniels (Tops)
96 TEARS--36 Today!
HELLO, GOODBYE--The Candy-Rock Generation, 1969.
CHERISH--36 Today!
HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR MOTHER, BABY, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS?--36 Today!
DON'T JUST STAND THERE--Anne Kettle (Columbia Rec. Club)
MOTHER'S LITTLE HELPER--36 Today!


Lee

Gootch Jackson--"Learnin' the Blues," 1955.

The evocatively-titled Super-Value Extended Play Records label was owned by Rite Record Productions of Cincinnati. Many thanks to T. Rebentine of the That's All Rite Mama blog for alerting me to his site and to 45rpmrecords.com, which--among other goodies--includes a matrix dating guide for Rite.

Which is how I know that today's selections were pressed in 1955. Gootch Jackson's Learnin' the Blues is very Sinatra-esque, which, considering that this was a cover of Frank, is entirely appropriate. Love the (uncredited) band. No, the recording doesn't consist of someone instructing, "I, I, I, I7 (move to IV)...."

This Rock Around the Clock version was also issued on the Tops label, oddly enough, as well as Big 4 Hits, Gilmar, Variety, and Hollywood. Here, Dick Ronson is credited. Elsewhere, Bill Warren, Fred Gibson, or nobody gets the honor. My least favorite of the budget versions of this tune.

Honey Babe (which I mistyped as Honey Baby--sorry) is a fun "pop" cover, and The Four Blades do a good job with Don't Be Angry, while the back-up musicians do even better.

I guess you either love these cheap covers or you don't. Label me addicted.

To the music: FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

PLAYLIST

LEARNIN' THE BLUES--Gootch Jackson, 1955. ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Dick Ronson, 1955. HONEY BABE--Lewis Everette's Orch. and Cho., 1955. DON'T BE ANGRY--The Four Blades, 1955.

(Super-Value Extended Play Records 144, 1955)


Lee

Astonishingly, astronomically, earth-shakingly vital and important must-hear news from Huffington Post: Starbucks to Stop Brewing Decaf After Noon

Tomorrow, I think. I guess. It was announced around 6:30 p.m. today, so it must be noon tomorrow.

Boy, this is sure important news, with permanent ramifications for all mankind. Life as we know it will never be the same.

In other news, Bernie Madoff's Palm Beach home was recently toilet-papered by angry teens:














This has been today's edition of the MY(P)WHAE News.

Lee

Sunday morning gospel--Charles H. Gabriel, Part Four: a "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"-athon

(For this fourth installment of my series devoted to Charles H. Gabriel, I'll be reusing some of a blog essay I wrote back on Aug. 20, 2005. Just in case some of it sounds familiar. The part about the PBS transcript is from the 2005 post, for instance. Anyway, here goes....)

As I was starting this entry, I came across a transcript of "The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken" segment of PBS' American Experience in which Bill Clifton is quoted as saying, "When he (A.P. Carter) fixed them up he fixed them up right. Everybody who sings Will the Circle Be Unbroken sings the way A.P. fixed it up. And they don't sing it the original way."

He was referring to A.P. Carter's steal--er, fixing up--of Ada Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel's 1907 gospel song, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, wherein Carter had changed the words (a lot) and the melody (slightly) and substituted Can for Will. This is how the song became "his." The swipe-job took place around 1935. However, a lot of artists continued to sing it "the original way"--the "original" Circle has, in fact, co-existed for decades with the Carter steal. It has been recorded by the likes of The Blue Ridge Quartet, Burl Ives, The Stewart Family, The Pathfinders Quartet, and Pat Boone.

Most of the Circles in our playlist are the Habershon-Gabriel song, except for The Carter Family and Danny Davis (May the...) selections. Oh, and there's the Oak Ridge Quartet's Will the Circle Be Complete, a song most likely inspired by the Habershon and Gabriel. If I'd had a copy of Carl Story's The Circle Was Broken ready to go, that would be here, too. But I didn't, and it's not.

To the music: FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE


PLAYLIST

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN--(Ada Habershon-Charles H. Gabriel)

The Pathfinders.
Pat Boone, 1957.
Blue Ridge Quartet.
Stewart Family.
Country Gospel Boys.
William McEwan, 1913.
Burl Ives.
Eddy Arnold, 1946.
George Beverly Shea, 1971.

CAN THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN (BYE AND BYE)
Carter Family, 1935.

MAY THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN
Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, 1974.

WILL THE CIRCLE BE COMPLETE
The Oak Ridge Quartet.

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN

Frank and James McCravy, 1927.
Bud Billings-Carson Robison, 1928.


Lee