Halloween 2024, Part 2: Al Goodman, Earl Fuller, John Logan, Charles Randolph Grean, The Four Tunes, The Liverpool Five, more!

 

On this not-so-chilly October evening, our second Halloween 2024 collection (which is why I call it "Halloween 2024, Pt. 2"--seems logical enough).  We start out with a marvelous 1945 recording of Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound theme, which Camden credits to Harold Coates, though it's really conducted by the Ukrainian-born Alfred Goodman.  The theme was famous for its use of the Theremin, and I think I hear a brief appearance of same on this recording, though my ears may be mistaken.  

Until I figured out that "Harold Coates" was Al Goodman, my Google searches kept taking me back to Memorable Music From The Movies (shown above, with Jim Flora art).  There was, in fact, a real Harold Coates, so I don't know if RCA's Camden label goofed, or if RCA was mad at Al, or what.  The correct ID appears at a Miklos Rozsa page.  However, no mystery in regard to Harry Lubin's One Step Beyond track, Weird, which is definitely by Lubin and very recognizably from that very show (One Step Beyond), where it was constantly used.

In fact, both Weird and the OSB title music were reworked into the second-season Outer Limits title music--unfortunately.  Lubin's OL music hardly compared to Dominic Frontiere's amazing first-season offerings, but he did an uncharacteristically terrific job on the famous Demon With a Glass Hand ep, plus the score for my favorite second-year OL, The Duplicate Man. I wish Harry had worked at that level more often.  At any rate, Lubin will always be known for the rather lame 1959-1961 OSB, a show hosted and directed by John Newland, allegedly featuring true (yeah, right) tales of the paranormal.  Because I only knew Newland for OSB, I always figured the man was something less than a masterful horror director, and so I was stunned to discover he'd directed what might be the scariest episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted Thriller series, "Pigeons From Hell," along with some other genuinely excellent entries.  He also directed the famous 1962 Bus Stop episode, "I Kiss Your Shadow," which Stephen King calls "the single most frightening story ever done on TV."  At the moment, that ep is still up on YouTube, and it is quite creepy (hence, perfect for Halloween).  But not quite the equal of Thriller eps like "Pigeons," "The Hungry Glass," or "The Cheaters."

And, courtesy of SPC's (Synthetic Plastics Co.) Promenade label, two budget knockoffs by John Logan: 1958's Dinner With Drac and The Witch Doctor.  From SPC, also, is 1965's Saturday Evening Ghost, performed by Frankie Stein and His Ghouls.  I can't believe I didn't hang on to my copy of the original LP version (which preceded this 1977 {?} Peter Pan EP release).

Rod McKuen's 1959 The Mummy features Bob McFadden and Dor (Rod), and is derived from a folk tale I know from childhood, which was featured in the same year's The Thing at the Foot of the Bed.  My book copy is packed away at the moment, so I can't quote from the text, though it employs the same story formula, only minus any mummies.

More instrumentals: Theme from "The Man With a Thousand Faces"--from Chopin's Prelude in E minor (Op. 28 No. 5); Morton Gould's Deserted Ballroom, performed by Morton at the piano; Chopin, again, with his famous Funeral March, performed my Mark Andrews; Josette's Music Box, familiar to any Dark Shadows fan; Graveyard Blues; John Barry's The Black Hole--End Title;  Lawrence Welk and George Cates' terrific adaptation of a famous Grieg number; Frank De Vol with The Addams Family theme; and Ferrante and Teicher with a prepared-piano rendition of Man From Mars, which I suspect they wrote (though I'm not sure).  Not sure where the LP is at this moment.  And there are Three Hauntovani Waltzes, composed and played by some guy named Lee Hartsfeld.

And, one of all-time favorite finds: The two-band, 78 rpm Theatre Lobby Spot for The H Man (the title for the 1959 release of this 1958 Inoshiro Honda classic).  "One of the most unusual and exciting films of its kind!" "Faceless, formless horror of destruction!" "Terrifyingly real, as the world in which it lives!" "See an exotic dancer trapped and destroyed!" "See.. The H Man."

And... three sides shared with me years back by my dear e-friend, the late Pete Grendysa, one of the leading R&B-history experts: Steve Gibson and the Red Caps doing their version of Charles Grean's The Thing (note that Grean recorded our version of Josette's Music Box); The Four Tunes' Ballad of James Dean; and Mr. Ghost Goes to Town, sung by the 5 Jones Boys.  The Four Preps' The Sphinx Won't Tell and the Liverpool Five's The Snake are maybe titles you're not likely to hear elsewhere, but with all the recordings available on YouTube these days, who knows?

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2024, Pt. 2

SLAYLIST

Spellbound (Rozsa)--Harold Coates (Al Goodman) and His Orch.; 1945

Weird (Harry Lubin, From "One Step Beyond")--Harry Lubin; 1960

Dinner With Drac--John Logan (Promenade; 1958)

Theme From "Man of a Thousand Faces"--Wayne King Orch.; 1958

Deserted Ballroom (Gould)--Morton Gould, piano; 1940

Funeral March (Chopin)--Mark Andrews, Pipe organ solo; 1928

Josette's Music Box (From "Dark Shadows")--The Charles Randolph Grean Sounde; 1970

Saturday Evening Ghost--Frankie Stein and His Ghouls; 1965

My Friend the Ghost--Jill Whitney; 1954

The H Man--Theatre Lobby Spot (Columbia Pictures; 1959)

Graveyard Blues--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orch., 1918

Witch Doctor--John Logan (Promenade; 1958)

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte--Al Martino, Orch. c. by Pete King; 1964

The Thing (Grean)--Steve Gibson and the Red Caps; 1950

The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen--Steven Freberg, with June Foray; 1956

Ballad of James Dean--The Four Tunes; 1956

Mr. Ghost Goes to Town--The 5 Jones Boys; 1936

The Sphinx Won't Tell--The Four Preps; 1962

The Snake--The Liverpool Five; 1965

The Black Hole--End Title (Barry)--Andre Kostelanetz; 1980

Mountain King--Lawrence Welk and His Orchestral; 1961

The Addams Family--Frank De Vol; 1965

The Mummy (Rod McKuen)--Bob McFadden and Dor (Rod McKuen), 1959

Man From Mars--Ferrante and Teicher, 1956

Three Hauntovani Waltzes (Lee Hartsfeld)--Your blogger;  2010

Lee

Halloween 2024, Part 1: Stanley Holloway, Paul Frees, Elsa Lanchester, David Rose, Gene Moss, The Merriettes

 

A number of technical glitches when preparing this slaylist--evil forces working to ruin my Halloween-blogging plans, no doubt  But I chanted some magic words over my ceramic Frankenstein-monster-and-pumpkin planter (? shown above), and I seem to have expelled the demons (or anti-demons?) at play.  But not before having my first MAGIX "project" (of 20-plus tracks) vanish on me.  Crud.  

Elsa Lanchester for Halloween?  If only for her portrayal of the Frankenstein monster's bride, yes.  But we'll hear two 1957 numbers from her act at Hollywood's Turnabout Theatre, shortly after the closing of that establishment.  Forman Brown's Never Go Walking Out Without Your Hat Pin may or may not be a period song adapted by the songwriter--it certainly sounds "period."  It's all about a hat pin as a defense against unrequested sexual attention--and there's also the implication that the pin can function as a reminder to young lower-class British women of the virtue of protecting their "you know what."  At the close, we discover that, had her mother remembered to carry a hat pin, the singer wouldn't have been born.  Yikes.  Those reserved Brits sure have a talent for bold, frank (not to mention dark) humor.  The Ratcatchers Daughter (which I incorrectly tagged as The Ratchcatchers Song--sorry!) is described as a "London Street Song," and a rough one, too.  Even though the fidelity is adequate for both numbers, I suggest headphone listening--if you want to make out all the lyrics, that is.  The numbers are introduced in a dry, ready-to-burst-out-laughing fashion by Elsa's husband, Charles Laughton (whose sole directing job, 1955's Night of the Hunter, is a perfect Halloween flick.  Which is probably why it's not on TCM's October schedule).

Sterling Holloway's Sweeney Todd the Barber is more typical music-hall material, though with the same level of dark humor.  Recorded in 1957, far as I can determine, though released in the U.S. (on Columbia Masterworks) in 1958.  And the Village Stompers' Haunted House Blues is a spooky-in-title-only number, but still fun.  Of course, I was hoping for something more traditionally Halloween.  A few screams, or at least a low-pitched "Buwa-ha-haaaa!"

The Dramatic Cue and Mood Music "suite" was edited by me from the above Elektra LP.  I assembled a number of season-appropriate cues into a single file, and it flows amazingly well (I was expecting lesser results).  The LP has seen better plays, but VinylStudio's declicker filter did an amazing job, as usual.

Two Funeral March of a Marionette (aka Alfred Hitchcock Presents) offerings: An excellent and just-right 1956 pipe organ performance by Ray Bohr, and a fine, swinging 1959 interpretation by Ralph Marterie and the Marlboro Men.  (What Halloween is complete without Ralph and the Marlboro Men?)  And, courtesy of the famous voice actor Paul Frees (Solomon Hersh Frees), we have "Boris Karloff" crooning the Bacharach-David The Look of Love, and "Bela Lugosi" with Games People Play.  And some moody--if marginally-Halloween--1961 titles on Enoch Light's Command label (Grand Award Record Co.): Strange Interlude and Witching Hour.  I was hoping the latter would have a more foreboding sound, but it's effective enough, and the highly precise Command-style stereo is fun.  

In addition, my favorite Douglas Byng track of all: 1963's I'm a Mummy.  A brilliant cabaret performer, known for appearing in drag, and of course at a time when it was very not safe to come out of the closet.  A situation to which we never want to return.  Douglas was a comic genius, which is all that matters.

Gene Moss, the voice of Smokey Bear from 1992–2002, provides two song parodies as "Dracula": I Want to Bite Your Hand and Frankenstein (Clementine), both from the 1964 RCA LP, Dracula's Greatest Hits.  And I confess to a love for Mantovani's music--including this dreamy 1969 arrangement of Robert Colbert's famous Quentin's Theme (from the 1960s Gothic soap, Dark Shadows).  Just part of my high regard for expertly arranged and performed mood/background/"EZ" fare.  The collectable value of most mood music, of course, is slim to none.

My rip of David Rose's Forbidden Planet comes from the 1957 MGM Music From Motion Pictures LP (speaking of superior mood music), but I cheated by swiping the Discogs image of the picture sleeve that came with the single.  Rose was hired to compose that film's soundtrack, but his music was ditched for the very cool (I think so; not everyone does) electronic background.  So, is this the actual title music Rose composed?  Or an original recording thereof?  I do not know.  But it's excellent stuff.

Look Out for the Batman, courtesy of (who else?) Synthetic Plastics Co., is a mess of a knockoff rushed to market during the 1966 Adam West/Batman craze, but I love it to death.  I even love the recorded-in-another-room quality of the drums.  And Batman is a permanent part of my Halloween memory, if only because I went to school as Batman that year--complete with cape and mask.  Even at 9, I recognized the set as non-brand, but it was cool, anyway.

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2024, Part 1

SLAYLIST

Sweeney Todd the Barber--Stanley Holloway, 1957

Dramatic Cue and Mood Music-suite, 1964

Quentin's Theme--Mantovani, 1969

I Want to Bite Your Hand--Dracula (Gene Moss), 1964

Alfred Hitchcock Presents--Ralph Marterie and the Marlboro Men, 1959

Frankenstein (Clementine)--Dracula (Gene Moss), 1964

Blue Ghost--Tommy Roe, Jordanaires, 1962

Trick or Treat (Ferde Grofe)--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch., 1976

Ghost Town--Don Cherry With Ray Conniff Orch. and Chorus, 1956

March of the Marionettes--Ray Bohr, pipe organ, 1956

Haunted House Blues--The Village Stompers, 1964

I'm a Mummy--Douglas Byng, piano: Alan Leigh, 1963

Strange Interlude--Lew Davies and His Orch., 1961

The Witching Hour--Same, 1961

Never Go Walking Out Without Your Hat Pin--Elsa Lanchester, intro: Charles Laughton, 1957

The Ratcatcher's Daughter--Same

Forbidden Planet (Rose)--David Rose and His Orchestra, 1957?

The Look of Love--Paul Frees as Boris Karloff, 1970.

Games People Play--Paul Frees as Bela Lugosi, 1970.

Look Out for the Batman--The Merriettes, 1966

Lee

Reposts: The Biggest Hits of '59, Vols. 1 and 2--The RCA Camden Rockers (not!)

As requested by musicman1979, a revival of RCA Camden's The Biggest Hits of '59, Vol. 1 and biggest hits of '59, vol. 2.  From "The Biggest" to "biggest."  And, for some unknown reason, I forgot that I'd already ripped and posted the second volume--this, despite the fact that musicman requested that I "revive" same.  It's rather hard to revive/restore something that hasn't already been offered--hence, "revive" is a hint that a given offering has already been offered.  Then again, could we conceive of a multiverse in which this wouldn't be true?  Great material for a two-hour debate.  Or not.  Anyway, I done spaced out.

As noted in my previous post, plus my earlier Biggest Hits of '58 entry, by this point RCA was no longer using its own artists (Stuart Foster, Robert Alda, Tex Beneke) for its "Biggest Hits" LPs.  Come 1958, this most popular record label of its time was trading tapes with... SPC (Synthetic Plastics Co.), the folks behind Promenade, Prom, Peter Pan, and other rack-jobber operations!  And why not, I guess.  Furthermore--and I had forgotten this discovery--the tracks of the second 1959 volume also appeared on  Eli Oberstein's bottom-of-the-barrel Ultraphonic (Record Distributors of New Jersey) label.  Thus, RCA was sourcing its fake hits (as I call them--"hit facsimiles" doesn't have the same ring) from the bottom of the bottom of the barrel.  However, pressed on better-quality vinyl than anything offered by the "fake RCA" (Record Corp.) or SPC.  With classier cover art, to boot.  And, in the case of volume 2, in stereo!

Some excellent fakes between the two volumes--topped by I Need Your Love Tonight, which is graced by terrific Elvis-sound-alike singing--long before that became an industry.  And Hawaiian Wedding Song features an expert impersonation of Andy Williams--something that never became a trend.  (No cut on Andy, who was a superb vocalist.)  And I have a vague memory that this particular Pink Shoe Laces isn't, in fact, the SPC cut.  Which, if so, raises the mystery of, "Where did it come from?"  Enough to keep fake-ologists busy for years.  I, on the other hand, am too lazy at the moment to dig through my record rows and track-compare.

And, though I have two copies of biggest hits of '59 vol. 2 (I'm going with RCA's lowercase font), at least one of them was a thrift gift from Diane, so... thanks again, Diane!

As musicman noted, when I put up the Promenade I Ain't Never at my Lee's Fake Hits channel at YouTube, I should have used the stereo cut here.  Maybe I should do a second posting.

Sorry for my recent blog absence.  I do intend to offer some Halloween slaylists this month--or one, at the very least.  Fresh Halloween sides are tough to dig up (especially if they're been buried for a spell), in distinct contrast to Christmas LPs and singles, which--like Xmas decorations in October--are everywhere.

DOWNLOAD: The Biggest Hits of '59, Vol. 1--RCA Camden Rockers

DOWNLOAD: biggest hits of '59, vol. 2--RCA Camden Rockers

Lee

 

Hey There, Lonely Girl--Jingle, Jangle--Sugar, Sugar (Design SDLP-311)--repost from Apr. 12, 2019

Musicman1979 suggested I revise this post (thanks!), as the LP is (or was) being discussed at the Facebook Brand "X" page.  I retained the original text.  I see that I liked the cover tracks, though the Facebook verdict is less kind!  Enjoy...

Design Records has given us three anonymous but pretty good 1969 rock/pop covers--The Archies' Jingle Jangle and Sugar Sugar, and Eddie Holman's Hey There Lonely Girl--plus six other tracks that couldn't possibly be less related in style.  We get Dixieland, a Rimsky-Korsakoff selection in the style of a Benny Goodman combo, two tracks that would have fit in better with last post's fake The Good, the Bad & the Ugly LP (one choral, the other a kind of Mexican exotica), plus Running Free and Brazil Nut, neither of which I know what to label.  Only nine selections, so things are over with pretty quick, and the LP could have been a lot worse, considering its slapdash nature.

And, really, it's the incredible front cover that makes this a must-have.  Well, for me, anyway.  Far better art than the Design Records norm, and it's delightfully period art--clearly, the illustrator was a fan of the Yellow Submarine movie. I could have done with a few more colors, but why complain when the jacket is so far above expectations?  The back cover is the same one used on all Design LPs of this period--black and white pics of other Design LPs, and a blurb about musical tastes in America and the importance to the public of having "quality low-cost recordings of familiar favorites" available to it.  Familiar favorites like Brazil Nut, Sissy, and Carol's Theme.  Tracks you would have expected to pay a whole lot more for.

Sound quality is decent, and condition is okay, though a big bubble in the vinyl at the start of side 2 made for some fun restoration--for the first time, I used the "loud" option on the rumble filter (for the quiet opening section).  And I don't know what is happening to the sound on Carol's Theme, whether the breaking up of the audio is the result of needle wear or issues in the pressing.  Perhaps we'll never know.  But the sound only sucks in spots--and that cover is far out.  So out of sync with most of the music, and vice versa--just as we expect with these things.

No artists are credited.  Design was manufactured by Keel Mfg. Corp., Hauppauge, NY.  Which is to say, it was a Pickwick label.




LINK:  Hey There, Lonely Girl (Design SDLP-311)





Jingle Jangle
Hey There Lonely Girl
Sissy
Running Free
Brazil Nut
Sugar, Sugar
Carol's Theme
Rollin' River
Sweet 'n Low

Hey There, Lonely Girl--Jingle, Jangle--Sugar, Sugar (Design SDLP-311)




Lee

Thrift store shellac scores: "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "Cheroubtoul Rah."

 

"Thrift store shellac scores"--say that ten times.  ("That, that, that, that...")  Yes, we find some of the least usual shellac in thrift stores.  Alongside the common-as-dust platters (Frankie Laine on Columbia, etc.).

I'll start with two "Arabic" 12-inch 78s which, after any number of listens, I find quite interesting.  However, no need to apologize if your response is closer to "Was the needle stuck in the groove?" or "Yikes!" or "Huh??"  It's the kind of ethnic music which radically departs from the ways of Western music--Western form, anyway.  And both sides are pre-electric (1909 for the first; the second, unknown).

Both artists--Abdel Hai Effendi Hilmy and Salim Douman--were popular Arab-American singers, with Abdel passing away in 1912--Douman, in 1955.  Now we know.

The Douman side, Lahar Anhy, is the livelier of the two, though it has the same stuck-on-the-tonic drone feel.  The side also sports a wide crack, the sound of which I painstakingly edited out of the file (my wrists have yet to un-numb).  The crack rendered the B side impossible to save, given the chipped-away areas, but A was (more or less) rescuable.  Abdel's 1909 effort--Cheroubtoul Rah, Pts. 1 and II--is slower but with relatively better fidelity, since I was able to use my 3.0 mil 78 stylus.  In the case of Douman, I opted for my 1.2 mil stylus, which 1) made for less than perfect groove compliance, but 2) less noise from the crack.  

And, honestly, I'm expecting most listeners to give each file, at most, a 30-second chance before moving on.

The Mac Gregor label square-dance sides by Rusty's Rides make for a night-and-day contrast with the Arabic tracks.  They're a fun reward for anyone with the stuff to endure twelve minutes of the Opera Disc Company and Macsoud sides.

And, according to a 78 expert who clearly knows his stuff (at the 78 rpm records & cylinders fan group Facebook page), the Discogs data on the Opera Disc Company is false--it was not a "bootleg" label.  To quote the expert, "The discs were pressed in Germany by Deutsche Gramophone which did not have a license to sell most of these outside Germany."  Now we know, Part 2.

My label shots are digital pics, since my new Epson scanner has a depth of focus of approximately half a hair-width.  My chief problem with my old Epson was far too much detail.  With my new one: Out of focus scans for anything not flush with the glass. 

DOWNLOAD: Arabic, Mac Gregor 78s

Lahar Anhy (Bagdady)--Salim Doumani (Macksoud 115)

Cheroubtoul Rah, Pts. I and II--Abdel Hai Effendi Hilmy (Opera Disc Company 200041; 1909)

Ghost Riders in the Sky--Rusty's Riders (Mac Gregor 681)

Smoke Smoke Smoke (Talkin; up the Square)--Same

                                                                                                                  

Lee