Given my copy's slightly rough condition, I wasn't sure if my remastering job would succeed--but it did. (The miracles of channel-summing.) The worst part was having to remove eight or nine clicks which escaped the VinylStudio filter (owing to its bass-protection feature, no doubt), but otherwise it was just the occasional click. And is that a flattering "cheesecake" cover, or what? Perhaps I darkened it too much, but I didn't tweak it any more than usual--I think the photo was doomed from the start.
And the label sports an "RL1514" number, meaning a reissue? Very possible, since the original issue contains a misprint on both jacket and label--Jealousy instead of How High the Moon. Given Top's usual "Who cares?" attitude, I'm a little surprised that it took the trouble to correct this. Had buyers complained?
And sorry for the posting gap--I think the recent lost DST hour is still slowing me down. So, what we have here (save for one track with iffy fidelity) are expertly remastered singles, along with four borrowed LP tracks by Jay Gordon. The early-50s hits Charmaine, Blue Tango, and April in Portugal make this an especially interesting rack-jobber special.
Needless to say, there was never a "Tops All-Star Orchestra," and so we have the usual budget ploy of getting double the $$ for the same material. But, since Tops' LP mastering was better than its single mastering, nothing lost.
We start with a Jay Gordon track migrated from a 1957 Gordon LP (and sounding very pre-1957), then move on to an excellent Lew Raymond treatment of Lisbon Antigua, a Nelson Riddle hit which, for some reason, I associate with Lawrence Welk. Hal Lomen delivers a slightly odd, and fidelity-challenged sound-alike of Charmaine, which adds a mostly-in-tune chorus; a straight copy of the Mantovani hit might have been preferable, but this version is certainly interesting. Then, a Melody of Love sound-alike which, I assume, follows from the Four Aces hit. The Rhythmaires do a more than competent job. Plus, Skokiaan (misspelled as "Skokian"), which this time around reminded me a great deal of Wimoweh, with the Toppers and Lew Raymond in top (ha-yuk, yuk!) form. Bud Lomen's 1952 Blue Tango (Leroy Anderson) sound-alike is the most successful Lomen side I've heard to date, and The Poor People of Paris is a very respectable copy of the Les Baxter version--and we have that "Les Anthony" credit once again.
Skipping forward to April in Portugal, we have a Les Baxter hit credited to "Ray Baxter," and there can be no question of motive this time. A lawsuit might have been justified, but maybe there was little point in going after Tops. Good sound-alike, at least.
Time on My Hands, Penthouse Serenade, and Siboney are three more Jay Gordon migrations from two 1957 Gordon LPs whose material surely originated earlier (probably during Tops' 10-inch days). Bewitched, which of course is better known as Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered), is from an unknown source and badly recorded. The performance is adequate, but the slightly out-of-tune piano somehow bothers me more than had it been seriously so. Not sure I know why. Maybe it's a "If you're going to be out of tune, don't settle for slightly" reaction. Only my analyst knows for certain.
UPDATE: The "Toppers" credit for "Skokiaan" was my error. Sorry!
DOWNLOAD: All-Time Favorites--Tops All-Star Orchestra (Tops L1514; 1957)
How High the Moon--The Jay Gordon String Orchestra, 1957
Lisbon Antigua--Lew Raymond and His Orchestra, 1956
Charmaine--Hal Lomen Orchestra, 1952
Melody of Love--The Rhythmaires, Nat Charles and His Orch., 1955
Skokiaan (misspelled "Skokian")--Lew Raymond Orch., 1954
Blue Tango--Bud Lomen Orchestra (1952)
The Poor People of Paris--Les Anthony and His Orch., 1956
Time on My Hands--The Jay Gordon String Orchestra, 1957
Bewitched--Unknown
Penthouse Serenade--Jay Gordon Concert Orchestra, 1957
Siboney--Same
April in Portugal--Ray Baxter and His Orchestra, 1953
Lee
20 comments:
Looks like a winner - many of my favorite instrumentals from that era!
There are so many examples on Internet Archive of noisy digital transfers of 78s, I have to wonder if the people who do the work ever bother to listen to the results. Most of the time they go through all the trouble of using different shapes and sizes of styli, speed correction, etc. In most every case though, you get all the surface noise in glorious hi-fi stereo while the actual recording lies buried in the center, many time overwhelmed by to static, scratches and wear. It’s amazing who much better a 78rpm rip sounds if it’s done in mono. The surface noise mostly disappears behind the recording that now takes FRONT and center stage as it should.
Having heard you work in this area well as vintage vinyl, I’m certain this will sound w-a-y better than it would otherwise. All that and a classy eye-candy cover? Sold! (and much appreciated Lee)
Alrightee...............
Thanks for that. Skokiaan mp3 collection rises to 23. It's one of those earworms from that era like "Istanbul" and "The Song From Moulin Rouge" that I can't get out of my head.
"It’s amazing much better... " My ability to keystroke/misspell lies beyond the capability of any spellcheck app!
rev. b
Yes, that's the catch--if the unintended word is spelled correctly, we're out of luck. "Who" for "How" must be in the Top Ten when it comes to letter transposition. I do it all the time...
Buster,
When I saw the track list, I knew I had to have this one--somebody put some thought into the line-up. And I think the "Blue Tango" rendition--while not up to Leroy's, of course--is a commendable early-period sound-alike. "Charmaine" is kind of a lovable misfire!
Rev. b,
Thanks much for the nice words! And I assume you mean the IA George Blood 78 transfers. The principle there seems to be keeping the audio as is, with no noise reduction--lest the fidelity be less than pure. I respect that philosophy, though I don't agree with it--surface noise was made to be neutralized. I do appreciate their care with response curves and, as you noted, styli diameter, but un-denoised 78 transfers for the sake of audio purity is a little too much!
lafong,
Happy to "feed" your Skokiaan habit! I have my own earworm songs--numbers which I enjoy in any and every setting. MacArthur Park, The Long and Winding Road, and Strangers in the Night are three of these.
RE the IA 78 transfers-I don't think they're doing much post processing to those, other than applying a semi-standard curve to make listening a bit easier. They provide the raw rips so that users can apply their own processing, filtering, summing, etc. Too much processing and the files no longer become an archive of 78s but an archive of recordings that someone is going to sue over due to copyright. But perhaps you're referring to the private individuals who contribute their own restorations. In that case, yes, they frequently miss the mark, as I'm sure I do sometimes. But we have Lee to come along behind us and do a better job. :)
Who are these people?? I have had some Tops records with artists like Lew Raymond and Jay Gordon. They are surprisingly good covers of hits of their time and are very well played. Great sax on Skokiaan, in tune strings throughout. Does anyone have an idea who the real artists are? They deserve credit and praise?
Ernie,
Thanks for the nice words--and I agree: the George Blood transfers are unprocessed beyond the application of the right response curve. And I was going to mention the many terrible 78 rips at IA, but those are typically OVER-processed. People go crazy with the hiss filter setting! And there's no way to rescue those...
Eric1947,
I don't have any background on the Tops stable of artists, though my best guess is that most of the credits are legit--except for the ones which sound fake (e.g. Ray Baxter). musicman1979 seems to have some background data on tops, esp. in regard to the "house" quartet The Toppers. Discogs doesn't offer much help, though SecondHandSongs lists Lew Raymond as the main Tops label bandleader. I've always figured that the Tops credits are a mix of real and fake names...
Within the last 24 hours, I found that Lew Raymond "Skokiaan" track released on Tops as by "Gayle Larson", with the Toppers of course.
I think the Tops history has been written up in the last 20 years in a UK/European collectors mag, but I can't find it online. As far as I know, there was no "Tops studio", but it appears to have been both a re-issue and original release outfit.
Tops is really a mixed bag, particularly on the 45 rpm and 78 rpm releases.
Some Tops artists were semi-established and had releases under the same name for other labels....Del Gillman, Scatman Crothers, Betsy Gay, Corky Carpenter, Dave Burgess.
Some keen-eared listeners have tentatively identified certain Tops names as pseudonyms for known artists who recorded elsewhere under their real names. Jack Williams on Tops is believed to be the better known Earl Aycock of Mercury. Hank Smith on Tops is both Leon Payne and George Jones.
Some Tops names are suspiciously generic and may be totally fabricated for whatever reason: Rusty Howard, Outpost Scotty, Rusty Williams.
Even worse, Tops in some cases bought and re-issued previously recorded masters from other labels of established artists, some of them previously unreleased takes. The prime example being The Plainsmen recordings made for Coast circa 1946, some of which turned up in the 1950s on Tops 45s, EPs, and LPs.
Some Tops releases are thought to be re-issues of previously recorded transcriptions made for other labels by well known artists...Matt Dennis? Maybe Martha Tilton?
Some Tops names were used on cover versions to be easily confused with a better known artists who had the hit record: Johnny Ryan's "Hot Rod Lincoln" (Tops S53), when the original was by Charlie Ryan.
Would you be enticed by "Dick Avalon" doing "Hello Young Lovers"?
Tops is a mess.
lafong,
The Matt Dennis tunes on Tops are largely from MacGregor transcriptions. I delved into the matter in these posts:
https://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/search/label/Matt%20Dennis
lafong,
To put it mildly! Thanks for the research, and I had forgotten about George Jones. Re Gayle Larson, Tops' labels were also a mess--in this case, Gayle Larson and the Toppers are probably on the second track, "Shake, Rattle and Roll." I assumed the Lew Raymond credit covered both numbers listed, but of course this was an educated guess. And "Gayle Larson" sounds legit, but there seems to be no info on her. Where did you get your Tops info? I know that Both Sides Now has a pretty extensive page on Tops/Mayfair. Also a mess: The question of who owned the Tops catalog at any given time.
Buster: Yeah, I got some Matt Dennis from your post on big10inch. Much appreciated.
Lee; most of my info has come from over 50 years of collecting, mostly 1945-1960 country, rock and roll, and pop....wherever my ears wandered. Which involved exchanging info with other collectors worldwide, reading all kinds of auction lists, set sale lists, fanzines, lots of note-taking, etc. I gave up on vinyl circa 2001 in favor of mp3s.
I just saw the Both Sides Now page on Tops within the last hour. I think I read it years ago and had forgotten. That's a good site. I think one of the UK collector's mags did an article on Tops as well, probably in the 1990s.
Tops got a lot of notice in hard core collector's circles because of the "unknown" nature of most of the artists and the surprisingly high quality of some (I say some) of the performances...if not the pressings and engineering. Being in LA in that era helped as it was a postwar hotbed for R and B, rockabilly, western swing, etc...with massive population growth and dance halls galore.
This Google search term generates 39 hits:
"Carl Doshay and Sam Dickerman"
Haven't dug into it.
I Know that Martha Tilton did record some material for Musicraft after her Capitol contract expired, which could count for some of the reissued solo material on Tops. However, she did an album of radio and duet sides with her old radio co-star Curt Massey, which is probably the most common Tops Record I know of from her.
Other "Legit" artists who recorded for Tops include future Lawrence Welk Show Champagne Lady Norma Zimmer, who solos on "Tammy" on a 12 Top Hits plus contributes an amazing rendition of "A Wonderful Guy" from that label's South Pacific album, again helmed by Lew Raymond. That album was mostly legit artists, save for those infamous "Toppers" on "There Is Nothing Like A Dame" and the possibility of maybe Charles Peck. The South Pacific Tops/Mayfair LP also inlcudes solos from movie ghost singer Marni Nixon, session singer Gene Merlino, who later sang with Ray Conniff and the Anita Kerr Singers, and Bonnie Lou Williams, who sang with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra in the late-'40's.
Also other "legit" Tops artists include Ralph Brewster of the Modernaires, who recorded an awful cover of the Coasters "Searchin" on the same 12 Top Hits LP that "Tammy" is on. Other name artists that cut albums exclusively for the label include Johnny Desmond (two albums), Kate Smith (at least five albums), the Pied Pipers, sax man Charlie Ventura, Glenn Miller arranger Jerry Gray (two albums), late-'40's vocalist Bill Lawrence, and Mel Torme (the classic Prelude To A Kiss album, which I have in an original Mayfair yellow vinyl pressing). They also recorded Connie Haines, former Tommy Dorsey vocalist, on a great Helen Morgan tribute album that shows off a different side of her vocal range.
Tops basically did not reissue a lot of early material when Carl Doshay was running the label; basically some early Lena Horne sides on Black and White Records and some transcriptions from Red Nichols and his Five Pennies and the Les Paul Trio. It was after Doshay sold the label to Bob Blythe that old label material that Eli Oberstein issued on his labels began showing up on Tops alongside all of those band tribute albums by Dave Pell, who later became a staff producer at Liberty Records and helmed recordings from Vikki Carr, drummer Sandy Nelson, and Gary Lewis and the Playboys, to name a few.
By 1958, when Tops started Golden Tone, one artist would be credited by one name on Tops while the same artist would be credited by a different name on Golden Tone using the same recording, of course, replacing the name of the studio house band as "The Hi-Tones" instead of "the Toppers."
That is just a few of the things I know for sure about Tops from my years of collecting and research.
lafong and musicman1979,
Wow--thanks for all the Tops details! A mystery I'm still trying to figure out concerns fake hits co-released on Tops and Promenade (SPC, of course). There was a period of overlap about the time of "At the Hop." This may have simply been just another instance of tape-trading between label groups, but early in my fake-hit collecting days, I was surprised to discover the overlap. It continued at least far as "Blue Moon." Similarly, the post-Enoch Light Waldorf swapped off with Pickwick for a spell, even using the same catalog numbers on occasion. I suppose the budgets, since they were working on the fringes, could pull any stunt they pleased.
One Minor correction--the Martha Tilton Post-Capitol sides were on Majestic an not Musicraft.
Like what I have heard so far. The Jay Gordon take on "How High the Moon" is classic '50's Easy Listening music.
Contrary to what was identified, there were no Toppers singing on their version of "Skokiaan." Apparently Tops was aping the Ralph Marterie version while someone else probably thought they were aping the Four Lads vocal version. Personally, this Tops knock-off is a lot better than some of the "real" hit versions of "Skokiaan."
Also, a great take of "Melody of Love." I thought for a minute that Tops was aping the Billy Vaughn instrumental recording on Dot with Justin Gordon's saxophone solos, yet as I listened on, I discovered that Tops was aping the Four Aces' vocal version on Decca. Of the handful of Four Aces Tops knockoffs that I have heard so far on this blog, this recording of "Melody of Love' is one of the finest.
I have yet to finish the rest of this album. I will try to provide comments here when I do. I am also planning to finish up the "Sing the Top Hits" Capitol LP and re-listen to the Ray Ellis Top 20 LP and provide fresh comments on that in the near future.
musicman1979,
Agreed on the Jay Gordon--and I'm guessing it's from the early 1950s. Great stuff, in any event. And the "Toppers" credit is my error--I need to correct that. "Skokiaan" originally came out on an EP, combined with "Shake, Rattle and Roll" on the A side. The Toppers are apparently on the latter track. I don't know why Tops stuck all of its artist credits together, instead of per track. Well, actually I do--They were careless!
Also, another quick note on the Tops/Golden Tone current hits fake LPs: When Tops simultaneously released current hit albums of the same record on Golden Tone as America's Top Tunes, they would lop two songs off for the Golden Tone version; 12 hits on 12 Top Hits became a 10 track playlist for America's Top Tunes. In the early-'60's, when Precision Radiation Instruments and Bob Blythe took over Tops and started issuing 10-track current hits LP's, the America's Top Tunes version would eight, like my 1961 volume in the series does.
So excited about the new SPC fake hits LP you uploaded late Thursday night! Looking forward to diving into it. Have a great Weekend.
I'm kind of late... Bah ! Never too late to say thanks.
I find «Bewitched» not that bad.
For the record (no pun intended hahaha) I began to get interested in less known or more ''very easy listening'' LPs when I see them in thrift stores.
Much to be discovered ! (I now have a thing for Cyril Stapleton for example).
Thanks for your high quality transfer and this very interesting thread.
Ravel,
Sure thing! Glad you enjoyed. And I have an easy listening LP coming up on the Palace label--Jacques Darieux and His Orch. It looks to be in fine condition, but I won't know until I do a needle drop...
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