Not quite what I expected, but after a little research, it seems to me that British discotheques of the 1960s--or even the U.S. kind--might have provided music which potentially could have appealed "to EVERY member of the family," as the liner notes claim. Certainly, in providing music for the many dances presented on this LP--twist, pony, hitch-hiker (yes, hitch-hiker), mashed potato, and so on--discotheques (those which utilized recordings) could have placed the needle down on a Vicki Carr, Si Zentner, Wayne Newton, OR Rolling Stones platter. Instead of Satisfaction, dancers might have been greeted with Frank Sinatra's 1964 Somewhere in Your Heart. Or Barbra Streisand's insufferable People, though I'm not sure what dance might go with same. ("Hey, gang! Let's do the People Who Need People!!")
Since AM radio was mixing "adult" fare with the Stones, Beatles, Beach Boys, Manfred Mann, et al., it's not inconceivable that latter-day big band music might have been heard in 1960s dancing clubs. This is just speculation. I was there, but I was very young, and I wasn't going to dance clubs. But I vividly recall hearing Red Roses for a Blue Lady on my mother's car radio around 1965, and since I didn't know that "blue" meant "sad," I thought the title was hilarious.
And there's one track in this list which I was sure could not have been a 1960s hit--The March of the Mods. No way. But it was, in fact, a big hit 1965 hit for Joe Loss and His Orchestra. Oh, and apparently the Finnjenka is either a Finnish dance or based on one.
This LP has me thinking of that wonderful "Dance Time Discotheque" side I featured (in February) from the Columbia Special Products set, The Unforgettable Years, which has five teen Top 40 hits in charming big-band-ish arrangements. So, were such sounds really happening in discotheques, or were the major labels reinventing popular music trends on the spot, as opposed to after the fact? Like, for example, Rolling Stone has done with the late 1960s and early 1970s, presenting these years as a time dominated by Bob Dylan, protest numbers in general, and Eric Clapton? I sure as heck don't recall every second hit sounding like Bob, and I remember B.J. Thomas, The Ides of March, The Carpenters, Glen Campbell, The Beginning of the End, The Royal Guardsmen, The Buckinghams, and Gary Puckett. Rolling Stone remembers an infinite number of Dylan wanna-bes, and maybe in their multiverse that was the case. But not in mine. But I'll check again, just to be sure.
And just to make the point that received memories of the popular past are often... lacking. Sparse. Reductionist, even. Products of wishful thinking. We might remember an era as we'd have wanted it to happen vs. having to admit, for example, that Gimme Dat Ding was a monster 1970 hit. Or that Tiny Tim was burning up the charts starting in 1968. No, it was all British blues-rock. And people trying to sound like Bob Dylan.
This was recorded in England, with vocals by "The Eagles." The material doesn't especially move me, but it's opened my mind to the possibility that discotheque music of that period may have been more varied, more generationally inclusive, and whatnot than Shindig or Hullabaloo could lead us to believe. Or, maybe Enoch Light's discotheque LPs weren't as far off the mark as I thought. (And I wish I'd kept those.)
Oh, and the only written-for-this-collection number is We Got a Good Thing Going. My favorite track: Downtown--wish there'd been more like it. And don't miss the clever but hilariously dated liner notes.
DOWNLOAD: Dance Party Discotheque.zip
Rock 'n' Roll Music (Twist)
We Got a Good Thing Going (Pony)
Somewhere in Your Heart (Fox Trot)
Popeye (Hitch-Hiker)
Hawaii Tattoo (Merengue)
The Huckle Buck (Huckle Buck)
Call Me (Fox Trot)
The Loco-Motion
Downtown
The March of the Mods
Dance Party Discotheque--Johnny Douglas and His Orch. (RCA Camden CAL-883; 1965)
Lee
15 comments:
Thanks for this one Lee. The cover reminded me of the Cameo/Parkway label and their Wyncote spinoff from the mid 60's.
RobGems68 Wrote:
I have this album in my collection in stereo (as Camden CAS #883), and yes, it's in true stereo. the album was conducted by Johnny Douglas, a British conducter, and the album was actually a British RCA release in 1962, three years before the Americans got a release, I presume to cash in on the then raging British Invasion on the charts in 1965, but this music doesn't have much to do with Mod/Beat music that The Beatles or The Rolling Stones were doing at the time, with a fairly large orchestra and occasional chorus by The Eagles (no, not those famous Eagles featuring Don Henley and Glen Frey, but a British vocal group with a similar name. Those other Eagles didn't form until 1971. Yes, the "hitchiker" was a real dance that cashed in on the massive success of the twist. Two big hits came out of The hitchiker (Chubby Checker's "Popeye The Hitchiker' and Marvin Gaye's "Hitchhike.") I like "The March Of The Mods" because it's silly, but rather catchy in it's own way, but it never caught on in the States. Songs like "People" and "Love Is In Your Heart" are meant to be slow dances for romantic couples to embrace to rather than fast paced dances which had couples usually dancing apart. they were also meant to be adult dances for those over the age of 25 that are not teen related. As the cover stated, there's something for everybody. there are nods to enoch Light, as you said, who issued a handful of "Discoteque" albums on his Command record label before selling it outright to ABC Records in 1966 to form another label (Project 3 Records.) Light's Command albums were very adult oriented rather than for teens, and they were made specifically for hi-fi stereo sets, with great separation of stereo, since he usually used 35 MM film for his source of sound fidelity. RCA did a similar attempt in Living Stereo with this album with this system. 1962 was a year most notable for record collectors as RCA used Living Stereo for the final time before introducing their infamous "Dynagroove" sound quality in 1963, a sound system that is debatable among record collectors. I don't mind "Dynagroove", but many collectors over the years have stated that the sound system was too loud or too brash. "Dynagroove" did seem to work best on large console stereo hi-fi sets made by RCA, as well as competing console sets by rivals Zenith, Magnavox, or Admiral, but on smaller record players, the sound quality could be loud.
One more thing, I said the UK release was from 1962-63, except for "Downtown", which was definitely from late 1964. I think it was a UK RCA single for Johnny Douglas's orchestra. "Somewhere In Your Heart, also from late 1964, may be the B-side. Camden sometimes issued older material that have been languishing in RCA's vaults for a few years. The label was meant to replace the Bluebird label from 1952-1976 as a source for budget albums from RCA's roster, selling at a dollar less than the usual RCA albums, and about 2 dollars less than their classy "Red Seal" albums. Michigan stores like Yankees, Arlan's, W.T. Grant's, Two Guys, K-Mart, Kresge's, and Federal's (which purchased Ohio's Tiedkye's in the late 1960's) would sell these Camden albums at a discount price of $1.99. Stereo Camden albums varied from $ 1.99-$2.00. When they were remaindered, they could sell as low as 49 cents.
RecordCollector,
Yes, I can see the connection. The collage-style design, and the same "air" of cheapness! Glad you enjoyed.
RobGems68,
I had suspected a pre-1965 date for many of these tracks--thanks for confirming! And so this is probably a hodgepodge not authentic to the 1965 discotheque scene, at least in the teen-beat department. More a cash-in than a history lesson...
Also, the presence of 1962 hits had me wondering. But I'm wondering to what extent, if any, slow numbers for older folk would have been heard in discotheques. Or if those numbers were included here simply to serve the "music for everyone" theme?
And I was suspecting that "Downtown" and "Somewhere in Your Heart" were recorded during the same period--that they more or less go with the 1965 release date.
This ad hoc playlist, with much of the material included simply because it was THERE, reminds me of the faux soundtrack LPs from Crown, Design, etc., in which filler tracks were repurposed (often as not, sloppily) to fill out the playing time. This LP isn't quite THAT desperate, but it's in somewhat the same tradition. Thanks for the information!
COOL! You actually got the clearance to post this album this time around! Looking forward to listening to it.
I was just about to suggest to you that you post a discotheque record. Last month, someone gave me Diplomat's first Discotheque collection, that included fake hits versions of Hello Dolly and Hully Gully Baby, Bill Haley's ABC Boogie, cuts from the two Beatles knock-off albums that the Chartbusters played on, plus several other cuts from previously released Diplomat albums.
I'm kind of taken with the bossa take on Downtown. Groovy! As always, I can't get over how clean your vinyl transfers are. Even if I found a 'mint' / umplayed copy, I can't imagine it would sound better. Thanks again, and as always.
RobGems68 wrote:
Slow dancing by adults were very common in the 1960's. The idea of using romantic ballads by bands and orchestras were ideal for embracing couples who wanted to dance close together rather than far apart, whether they were married couples or single steady couples. The teens first had "The Twist" and the other knock-offs to themselves at first, particularly the Black teens, but the white teens saw these dances on shows like "American Bandstand" from the Black kids, and decided that they wanted to do that, too. "The Twist" , after all was first associated by Michigan R&B singer Hank Ballard before Chubby Checker (and Dick Clark) decided to launch it as a world-wide craze. Then the adults wanted to get into these dance crazes around 1961-62, which explains all of those low budget twist albums by fictional artists like "Tubby Chess" (allegedly it was thought to be R&B singer Charlie Francis as Tubby.) Or "Danny Peppermint" (real name: Daniel Lamego.) Johnny Douglas, from England was simply cashing in on a trend that was already popular in the US since 1959 with the twist and other dances. The slow dances were mixed in with the fast dances to demonstrate the "something for everybody" meaning teenagers and adults can dance to, slow or fast. RCA Camden was first used by RCA in 1952, for the budget record department, a position that Bluebird Records was used from the 1920's-1954. Camden lasted until late 1975, then RCA sold the Camden name to another budget label, Pickwick records, and loaning many of their RCA masters for releases and re-releases. These Pickwick/Camden releases lasted until Pickwick's demise in 1982. RCA returned to the "Bluebird" name for special releases in the 1980's. I'm not certain if Douglas's album ever got a re-release on Pickwick. By the 1970's in the midst of the Disco era when Pickwick took over for Camden from RCA, this album would have been dated already. Camden, incidentally was named after RCA's printing and record plating plant in Camden, New Jersey. The building was famous for having a huge statue of Nipper and his gramophone on top of the building in downtown Camden, overlooking the street.
musicman1979,
Did I make a previous attempt to post this? I don't recall as much, but my memory is far from sharp.
And I was going to post that very Diplomat LP! And I discovered that I have two copies with different artwork. And with the second sleeve EMPTY. Meaning that it could be sitting just about anywhere in my floor rows of LPs. At least, I have one of the two platters...
rev. b,
Same here, re "Downtown"! Thanks for the nice words. My rips are declicked at VinylStudio, which has an amazingly good filter. And which also has an amazing manual click-removal feature for anything left behind (no matter how "wide" the noise spike). Pretty mind-blowing, after years of precision wave-splicing at MAGIX.
RobGems88,
Just to clarify--were adult slow-dance numbers actually presented in discotheques of the 1960s, and alongside those dances appropriated from Blacks? I'm chiefly curious as to what extent an LP like this factually (or otherwise) reflected dancing "in the wilds." Thanks!
RobGems68 Wrote:
Probably not on teenage TV programs like "American Bandstand" or at discoteque clubs like The Peppermint Club, but there were a few in the 1960's that did welcome adult dancers that liked to dance slowly. Teenagers wouldn't be primarily interested in adult dance clubs because they would be more like dancing on Lawrence Welk's show (ie: corny.) on the other hand, some adults did adopt rock and roll and R&B and they did attempt to do the twist and it's many imitators to feel young again. It's like an adult dancer at the age of 40 feeling like he was 17 again, and so forth. I still think that this British album was a "something for everybody" concept album specializing in discoteque music. Also the fact that Johnny Douglas was past 30 years of age in 1965, so the older dances for older adults was casually placed aside the younger dances for teenagers.
Link Off
Some of the cuts on this album would have been a shock to people accustomed to Mr. Douglas' lush arrangements on the Living Strings albums, as was the case with the opening cover of "Rock and Roll Music" which is just as good as the Beatles version. "Call Me" is the Johnny Mathis song and not the Petula Clark Tony Hatch-penned '60's classic. Some of the cuts with the vocal group make it sound like The Hi-Los A-Go-Go! "Hawaii Tattoo" is better than the original from the Waikikis, while their Bossa Nova tinged take on "Downtown" has a touch of the Les and Larry Elgart sound thrown into the mix for a very good version of the song. Also really enjoyed "Somewhere In Your Heart", this version has more of a Big Band flavor and is not quite as beat-heavy as Ernie Freeman's original arrangement for Frank Sinatra. So far, I like what I have heard to give it three out of five stars.
My favorite cut so far on the Diplomat Discotheque LP is "Beatles Move".
musicman1979,
"Beatles Move" may have been my reason for buying the LP in the first place! And I'm still wondering what happened to my second copy (the disc missing from the jacket). Interesting to learn that Johnny Douglas is departing from his usual style. The name was only vaguely familiar to me, and he might even appear in a least one Reader's Digest boxed set of contemporary hits. But don't hold me to that! And re that boxed set, the semi-EZ arrangements are quite effective in their own right, so long as we forgive them for not being r&r...
Anonymous,
I just checked the link, and it's coming up for me. But, on a second try, there was a glitch of some type. And, of course, the message "Looks like this file doesn't have a preview" message is generated because of the zip-file format.
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