The twist: A 1958 Hank Ballard song whose chart success happened in 1960 and 1962 (courtesy of Chubby Checker), and whose chief period of popularity (the height of the twist-ploitation craze) occurred in the latter year. Thus, we have Ray Anthony presenting his 1962 variant.
I thought this would be a less time-consuming jacket photoshopping job and manual click removal task. That's what I get for predicting. Turns out that the VG-looking surface had its share of crosscuts. The type which elude VinylStudio (with its bass protection feature), with some easily removed by MAGIX's wave shape "pencil," but others requiring a track splice (hard to pull off without an audible gap).
And lots of black area to photoshop-fill on the front and rear jacket: The kind of wear that becomes painfully visible upon scanning. But, finally, it's ready to go. And I'm as sane as when I started. You can read that as you wish.
Should I start with the good features or the not so good ones? Drawbacks: Monotony of presentation: There seemed to be a lot of repetition in Anthony's arrangements. However, this impression could be a consequence of the many times I had to halt the file and review two- and three-second sections while deleting audio spikes. I can't make a fair judgment until I listen to the restored file straight through.
Plus, there's the Capitol stereo, which was no blessing to record buyers. Luckily, this is for-real stereo, as opposed to that awful "Duophonic" process (a type of fake stereo) too often employed by the label. But here we've got the all-of-the-instruments/singers-in-the-same-channel kind of unrealistic stereo separation, which may as well be binaural. But, again, it is stereo. Or binaural-sounding stereo.
The pluses? The excellent musicianship we would expect, and in fact do get, from Ray Anthony (albeit, not always in key). And the delightful "period" sound--in this case, the kind of "canned" Discotheque music so common to TV shows and movies of the early 1960s. Nice nostalgia trip. Plus, clever takes on (what else?) The Bunny Hop, Tequila, Peter Gunn, Hound Dog, Night Train, Mexican Hat Dance (oh, well), and Rock Around the Clock. That last title is the reason I thrifted this LP, oh, about five years back. Anthony's version is called Twist and Rock Around the Clock, though I don't know for certain that it's possible to do both at the same time.
Why not simply Twist Around the Clock? Well, there was a movie and single by that name, so I'm guessing this was an instance of copyright-claim avoidance. And the notes excitedly announce Ray Anthony twist originals ("hard-rocking Anthony originals"), including Twist Around Mister, Let's Twist (very evocative), Bookend Twist, and Twistin' Alice. All of which became cherished and honored members of the Great Rock and Roll Songbook. (Wait--they didn't?) But I love the idea of Ray Anthony twist originals. It appeals to me, somehow.
Worth a listen, and once more I'm inspired to wonder why the twist was greeted like a new era in popular music. Like a massively major event. I mean, eight-to-the-bar boogie-woogie had already been heard in the person of Pete Johnson, Will Bradley, Freddie Stack, Chuck Miller, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis (when not using triplets), and contemporary surf music. Some have suggested that the twist was an across-the-generations dance craze: nice and clean, with nothing suggestive (a la "rock") about "twist." Yet, I've read that the twist was criticized for not being close-contact dancing, like "real," respectable dancing. Of course, in an earlier era, close dancing had been scandalous (e.g., the waltz). These things go in circles, I guess. As someone once said, "You can't please anyone." And it just occurred to me that a bunny hop/twist hybrid is likely not something I'd want to see.
DOWNLOAD: The Twist--Ray Anthony and His Bookends (Capitol St-1668; 1962)
Bunny Hop Twist
Twist Around Mister
Tequila With a Twist
Let's Twist
Peter Gunn Twist
Twistin' Hound Dog
Bookend Twist
Night Train Twist
Twist and Rock Around the Clock
Mexican Hat Dance Twist
The Twist
Twistn' Alice
Lee
12 comments:
I'm twisting again like I did last summer! Thanks Lee!
I'll be twisting the night away! Thanks Lee and welcome back!!!
Already looking forward to listening to this one, Lee! Ray Anthony has long been one of my favorite artists; he released several great "now sound" albums for Capitol in the mid-'60's, with the Today's Trumpet compilation LP probably being my favorite of the lot. Did not know that he even produced a Twist LP. Looking at the catalog number, it looks like this album came out before his "Worried Mind: Ray Plays the BLues" album. Naturally, he redoes a lot of his his hit tunes in twist tempo here. Thanks for sharing. Good choice!
Mostly a mixed bag. It could have been a lot better. Some of the cuts sound like they came from a Lawrence Welk Show Twist special! The Saxophone solos, whom I am assuming are from Plas Johnson, are really great on this album. The female singers can either be great or annoying depending on the mood. Also, why did Ray Anthony insist on using a mute for most of his trumpet solos on this album! It would have been great to hear some solos from him in his standard trumpet style. There are a handful of good cuts on this album--"Tequila" in an almost Three Suns style, the great re-imagining of the "Bunny Hop Twist", the almost Perry Como-novelty sounding "Twistin' Alice", the "Mexican Hat Dance Twist" and the almost non-twist-sounding version of "Night Train". AS you listen, you can tell that Ray really listened to the Chubby Checker Twist albums, because he sure does a good copy of his sound here. Good but not great. Only Two-and-a-half out of five stars from me.
musicman1979,
Thanks for your review. I was disappointed, too--I expected more from Ray Anthony. I do like the "Rock Around the Clock" variant, if only because it's RATC. And the awkward title--"Twist and Rock Around the Clock"--is classic.
I do feel that the cruddy Capitol stereo works against the LP, too. The tracks wouldn't sound so much the same had they been mixed more realistically. Capitol's 1960s concept of stereo separation sounded wrong even on cheap stereos, I recall.
Capitol not good, but RCA's "electronically reprocessed" stereo was the worst. Perry Como's "Golden Hits" sounds like it was recorded in Mammoth Cave. At least the label was honest about the mutant LPs, adding that (e) to the catalog number.
Diane,
I agree! RCA's was worse, but yes--it was advertised honestly. Except, perhaps, for adding, "We've totally ruined the sound, by the way."
RCA used the same time of echo treatment on the first two volumes of Elvis' Golden Records, Perry's I Believe compilation, several early Harry Belafonte albums like Calypso and Belafonte Sings of the Carribean and their Glenn Miller Story album.
Like Diane, my first copy of Como's Golden Records that I found at a church rummage sale in October of 1990 when I was 11 years old was the Stereo Electronically Reprocessed album, which I kept until October of 1997, when I found the first Mono copy to replace it on a UK import at a flea market which I kept until I found a pristine stateside original RCA pressing sometime in 2011. Now a handful of the hits on the Como's Golden Records album have now been mixed into Real Stereo on the Canadian Hit Parade label's best-selling Hard-to-Find Jukebox Classics series.
Now I pretty much look for original Mono copies when it comes to pre-Stereo albums and only buy Duophonic or Stereo Electronically Reprocessed copies if they are the only ones available.
musicman1979,
I think my first copy of Como's Golden Records was faux stereo, too. The mono edition was a revelation, as were Perry's mono 45s. He's my all-time favorite pop singer, btw. And I can't forgive myself for missing the chance to see him in Toledo, circa 1988.
Thanks Lee!
rev.b,
My pleasure!
Great comment on Perry. Even though she never owned any of her records, my Dad's mother was a pretty big Perry herself.
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