Memorable Mono Media, Part 4: Riverieras, Joe Turner, Bill Haley, Johnny Preston, The Originals, more!

 

Another helping of memorable mono media, starting with Johnny (Running Bear) Preston's 1960 cover of Leave My Kitten Alone--according to their own testimony, the model for the Beatles' recording of the song, though the Fab Four version didn't surface until the first Anthology release.  Next, the Southerners (whoever they were) with 1957's Say Yeah, which sounds for all the world like an early soul release, though Google identifies the group as a rockabilly band.  Could be.  Then, from Bill Haley, a novelty originally written and recorded by R&B singer Daniel Dorsey "Danny" Overbea, and further covered nicely by Les Brown and His Band of Renown--Forty Cups of Coffee.  Dick Hyman, who is loved by UK collectors, next gives us a nice bit of Ferrante and Teicher-style Exotica with the 1956 Junglero on MGM.  Lowkey but highly effective.

Continuing, we have a Band of Gold-style shuffle ballad scored by Ray Conniff for Eileen Rodgers, 1957.  Rudolph Toomb's Gum Drop was originally done by Otis Williams and the Charms, and the Mills Brothers do quite well with their R&B-inspired rendition of the same year (1955).  Your True Love, which follows, is a terrific rocker by Carl Perkins, slightly sped up so that Carl sounds younger (that was the intention, anyway).  Can't Wait is a superior 1958 rock and roll ballad by The Del Vikings, and Yea Yea (In the Mood) is a blatant steal from/of I'm in the Mood for Love, sung by a very young-sounding group of kids.  Meanwhile, The Four Voices' 1957 Bon Bon, written by Bob Merrill, is a somewhat silly but effective R&B-style I-vi-ii-V ballad, beautifully sung.  Then, 1956's Over and Over by the all-time great Moonglows, featured in the film Rock, Rock, Rock! but not a chart success.  The elaborately-arranged Seven Come Eleven has an overworked background chorus giving a solid and heavy beat to the proceedings, and True Love Is Hard to Find is one of the Rivieras' (not to be confused with the California Sun group) less elaborate numbers for Coed (here in a Lost Nite reissue).

Next, the Shirelles on Decca in 1958 with I Want You to Be My Boyfriend, a side on which the harmony falters a bit in the bridge but is otherwise up to the group's later recordings.  I'll Be Around features Don Cherry duplicating the sound of his own Band of Gold, and 1960's Little Lonely Girl features a familiar minor-mode descending bassline.  This single, to my surprise, is quite collectable (at least, at Discogs).

Tarrantela Rock is a terrible but fun rock and roll instrumental (its flip, Somebody Loves Me, is even more fun and terrible), and Steve Lawrence's cover of Joe Turner's The Chicken and the Hawk (Leiber and Stoller) is surprisingly effective.  Great 1961 doo-wop by The Devotions with I Love You for Sentimental Reasons, preceded by Hugo Winterhalter's very R&B-style cover of Ollie Jones and Luther Dixon's Midnight.  A bit odd to hear such an effective treatment by Winterhalter, who famously didn't think much of teen pop.  He certainly did well with it here.

DOWNLOAD: Memorable Mono Media, Pt. 4.zip

Leave My Kitten Alone--Johnny Preston, 1960

Say Yeah--The Southerners, 1957

Forty Cups of Coffee--Bill Haley and His Comets, 1957

Junglero--Dick Hyman Trio, 1956

I Wish I Didn't Have to Dream So Far--Eileen Rodgers w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Gum Drop--Mills Brothers w. Sy Oliver, 1955

Your True Love--Carl Perkins, 1957

Can't Wait--The Del Vikings, Orch. c. by Carl Stevens, 1958

Yea Yea (I'm in the Mood)--The Rockin' Kids, 1958

Bon Bon--The Four Voices w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Over and Over Again--The Moonglows, 1956

Seven Come Eleven--Tony Rand (Anthony D. Ranucci), 1957

True Love Is Hard to Find--The Rivieras, 1960

Midnight Cannonball--Joe Turner and His Blues Kings, 1955

I Want You to Be My Boyfriend--The Shirelles, 1958

I'll Be Around--Don Cherry w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Little Lonely Girl--The Originals, Featuring Tony Allen, 1960

Tarrentela Rock--Frank Sandy and the King's Men, 1958

The Chicken and the Hawk--Steve Lawrence w. Chorus and Orch. dir. by Dick Jacobs, 1955

Midnight--Hugo Winterhalter's Orch. and Chorus, V: Johnny Oaks, 1958

(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons--The Devotions, 1961

Lee

Ping Pong Percussion--in mono! (Is that possible?)

 

From Google's AI Overview:  "(The Stradivari Strings) recordings were actually made by uncredited, anonymous studio orchestras. While the musicians were competent professionals, they were churning out cheap, easy-listening covers of show tunes, waltzes, and movie themes rather than premium classical performances."  This is true, but I think the performances here are exceptional, considering.  Or, at least, much better than we might expect.  It helps to not expect the utmost, though the liner notes are no help in that regard:  "For you who dine by candlelight and toast your conversation with champagne...here are unforgettable moments...hauntingly beautiful melodies played with the romantic fervor captured only by superb strings in the hands of marvelous performers."  

Yes, nothing complements dining by candlelight like 99-cent vinyl.  That is, if we've already blown the budget on lighting and beverage...

And ping pong percussion in monaural?  Is that even possible?  Well, yes, obviously, since the Spinorama label did so here, but it's not logically possible, since ping pong percussion is, by definition, a two-channel effect.  It consists of the audio engineer panning between the right and left channels, which of course requires at least a pair of audible groove sides.  Monaural ping pong percussion is simply... percussion, I guess.

Of course, the clever cover design--courtesy of Harry and Marion Zelenco, Inc.--is just as fine in stereo or mono.  Meanwhile, savor the typical rack-jobber carelessness: "M-32" on the cover, but the longer matrix numbers on the label.  Also, the mismatched titles: The Sound of Leroy Anderson (jacket) versus The Music of Leroy Anderson (label).  At least the artist credit stayed the same, though "The Magic Strings" were credited on the first edition (on Promenade) of this work.

Suppose someone spent years performing in The Stradivari Strings, but since there was (technically) no such group in real life, that person's career would be unqualifiable, since there were no specific "Stradivari Strings" ensemble or ensembles.  Just whomever was available for a given gig.  ("I was a member of the Stradivari Strings."  "Who were they?"  "Um... Well, they never actually existed.  On the other hand, we were also known as The Magic Strings, Al Goodman and His Orchestra, and The Limelight Strings.  I played in all of those.")  It could be a thing for bragging... or not.

"Ask for 'Stradvari Strings' when you want the best in recorded enjoyment!" the liner notes invite us to do.  I'll have to remember that the next time I visit Giant Eagle.  I suppose I should take this album along.

DOWNLOAD: The Music of Leroy Anderson.zip FLAC

Blue Tango

Summer Skies

China Doll

Saraband

Fiddle Faddle

A Trumpeter's Lullaby

The Girl in Satin

The First Day of Spring

Syncopated Clock

The Blue Bells of Scotland

The Sound of Leroy Anderson (Aka, The Music of...)--The Stradivari Strings (Spinorama M-32)


Lee

Memorable Mono Media, Part 3: Dell-Vikings, June Valli, The Buckinghams, Carl Perkins, Big Jay McNeely, Sunny Gale!

 

So, ragweed pollen has arrived, and so I feel like I'm blogging in my sleep.  In fact, I might be asleep--can't be sure.  But, trusting that I am in fact awake, here are 22 memorable mono tracks, starting with some 78-rpm thrift finds of the past two weeks: The Dell-Vikings on Fee Bee (with the ballad side sounding terrible, but the hit side--Come Go With Me--sounding terrific), The Heartbeats with Oh Baby Don't, and LaVerne Baker on Atlantic with the rocking Jim Dandy.  Note the distortion and tape-glitch in How Can I Find True Love--flaws which also appeared in the 45 rpm release, if not as blatantly.

Then, back to 45 rpm singles, with a terrific, more-or-less-r-&-r ballad by Fred Weismantel, sung beautifully by the Four Voices: Darling, Thanks to You.  This 1955 performance, much like the same songwriter and group's Lovely One (also in this playlist), is the perfect marriage of 50s-quartet pop and doo-wop--the Four Lads meet the Dell-Vikings, sort of.  

Then, the incomparable June Valli with 1957's Street of Memories, probably my favorite of this bunch (and with enough reverb for two sides).  Next, Magic Star--Tel-Star with lyrics--beautifully arranged by Bill Justis for Margie Singleton on Mercury.  And we have ? and the Mysterians with the two-chord romp, Got To, a 1967 effort which--as the B-side of Girl (You Captivate Me)--charted, though just barely.  Meanwhile, Carl Perkins' Hollywood City (1962, Columbia), cowritten by Otis Blackwell, completely failed to chart, though it probably should have.

Very tight musicianship distinguishes Boyd Bennett's Right Around the Corner, while tight doo-wop harmonizing graces the Turbans' Sister Sookey of the same year (1956). 

Then, Clyde Battin and Gary Paxton's (Skip and Flip) 1959 Lunch Hour, which is not to be confused with June Valli's 1958 single of the same name (farther down in this list).  Jerry Lee Lewis' 1961 Money, not surprisingly, went nowhere (Lewis having committed bigamy in 1957 with a 13-year-old bride--not the kind of thing that helps a pop career), whereas Ray Conniff's Strollin' and Boppin' hit the Top 20 as one of the numbers on the LP Dance the Bop!  And Conniff was, at the time and by contrast, legally married to his second wife.

Conniff leads the orchestra on the Four Voices' Top 20 hit, Lovely One, an unusually elegant doo-wop effort, and he provides a reasonably rocking background for Guy Mitchell's Take Me Back Baby, penned by Claude Demetrius (cited as "Demetuis" on the label), and a minor hit for Guy.  This is followed by Dealer of Dreams, a Buck Ram number which failed to chart for the Penguins.  Then, the frenetic, solo-filled, honking-sax classic, The Goof (1952).  

Which brings us to our playlist's most out of place track, the 1968 Where Did You Come From by the Buckinghams.  Afterwards, a subdued June Valli demonstrates that teen rock was no challenge for her (Lunch Hour, 1958), Sunny Gale provides a country-fied Come Go With Me, and the Mint Juleps give us a highly effective12-bar-blues rocker, Vip-a-Dip (another non-charter).

DOWNLOAD: Memorable Mono Media, Pt. 3.zip

How Can I Find True Love--The Dell-Vikings, 1957 (Fee Bee 205, 78 rpm)

Come Go With Me--Same

Oh Baby Don't--The Heartbeats, 1956 (Hull Records 720, 78 rpm)

Jim Dandy--LaVerne Baker and the Gliders w. Orch., 1956 (Atlantic 116, 78 rpm)

Darling, Thanks to You (Weismantel)--The Four Voices, 1955

Street of Memories--June Valli w. Joe Reisman's Orch. and Chorus, 1957

Magic Star (Tel-Star)--Margie Singleton, Merry Melody Singers, Arr. Bill Justis, 1963

Got To--? (Question Mark) and the Mysterians, 1967

Hollywood City (O. Blackwell-W. Scott)--Carl Perkins, 1962

Right Around the Corner--Boyd Bennett and His Rockets, 1956

Sister Sookey--Tubans, 1956

Lunch Hour--Skip and Flip (Clyde Battin--Gary Paxton), 1959

Money--Jerry Lee Lewis and His Pumping Piano, 1961 (Sun 371)

Strollin' and Boppin' (Conniff)--Jimmy Richards (Ray Conniff), 1958

Lovely One (Weismantel)--The Four Voices, 1956

Take Me Baby Baby (Claude Demetrius)--Guy Mitchell w. Ray Conniff, 1956

Dealer of Dreams (Buck Ram)--The Penguins, 1956

The Goof--Big Jay McNeely and His Orch., 1952

Where Did You Come From--The Buckinghams, 1968

Lunch Hour--June Valli, 1958

Come Go With Me--Sunny Gale, Orch. and Chorus Dir. by Sid Bass, 1957

Vip-a-Dip--Mint Juleps, 1956

Lee

TV Western Themes--Slim Boyd and His Range Riders (Coronet CX 175; 1963)

 

One of my all-time favorite budget efforts, despite its many shortcomings.  Among these: Only two of the ten tracks are actual TV themes (Davy Crockett and Cheyenne); hence, 80 percent of the material rates as filler (though not a bad ratio for a junk-label LP).  As for Slim Boyd and His Range Riders, other artists credited with the same material (on other issues) range from Sons of the New Frontier, The Rio Grande River Boys, Frankie Starr, and Jack Arthur, among others--the usual up-for-grabs junk-label attributions.  And, though this collection was released in 1963, the material dates back to the previous decade and to the Peter Pan label--thus, the release year amounts to nothing.  Otherwise, a perfect album.  And it has cheap but delightfully campy jacket art, as does Western Favorites, the source for today's bonus tracks:

                                                                                     

The numbers I added from the Coronet Western Favorites (no "TV" this time), include A Buckskin Boy (And Gal in Calico) by J. Fred Coots of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town fame.  Here's the original Peter Pan picture sleeve and record label for same:

Meanwhile, here's the original sleeve and label for Buffalo Billy, an actual pop song (as opposed to an intended-for-budget-label title), plus the sheet music for the 1909 My Pony Boy, which appears on the latter LP as Pony Boy.  And you thought this was all junk with no redeeming details...

The standout TV Western Themes tracks--Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Davy Crokett, Cheyenne, and El Paso, a fine cover of the Marty Robbins hit--comprise a full 60 percent of the track list, which is an impressive feat for any dollar-bin disc.  Oh, and here's El Paso in its original SPC EP form:

Several of the shorter selections, including Arkansas Traveler, are medley snippets padded out via splicing, though Red River Valley only gets one pass, and with an awkward finish.  Anyway, the usual for-a-buck rip-off, but with unusually fun selections.

At Discogs, "Slim Boyd" yields no fewer than seven budget aliases, including Curley (Half as Much) Williams. 

DOWNLOAD: TV Western Themes.zip

SLIM BOYD AND HIS RANGE RIDERS

Davy Crockett (actual TV theme)

Wyatt Earp

Cheyenne (actual TV theme)

El Paso

Red River Valley

Wild Bill Hickok

The Old Chisholm Trail

Jesse James

Buffalo Bill

Home on the Range

SONS OF THE NEW FRONTIER

A Boy in Buckskin (J. Fred Coots)

Buffalo Gals

Buffalo Billy (Redman-Cavanaugh-Weldon)

Pony Boy (Heath-O'Donnell)

Arkansas Traveler



Lee

Memorable mono media, Part 2! Mike Pedicin Quintet, The Impacts, Dixiebelles, Joe Dodo and the Groovers, more!

 

For the sake of alliteration, I should have called this post "More Memorable Mono Media," but the "more" is kind of ambiguous, so "Part 2" it is.  And my favorite track of the bunch, the Mike Pedicin Quintet's version of Shake a Hand! (played in fast tempo, unlike the Faye Adams and Elvis versions) presented restoration challenges, since someone at some point point must have played it with a bent needle.  Here's the VinylStudio display, complete with numerous splices, about 19 in all:

I just ordered a new Shake a Hand! from Discogs, though I did manage to get acceptable audio from my battered copy.  Shake a Hand! is the 16th track in this playlist, while things start out with the Dixiebelle's Rock, Rock, Rock ("...put it in a pock"), the flip side of (Down at Papa Joe's).  Wikipedia reports that, at least for the hit side, the Dixiebelles were members of the Anita Kerr Singers!  Then, ? and the Mysterians' Midnight Hour, which is not a cover of the Wilson Pickett hit but pure garage-band drone.  This is followed by an alternate take of the Five Satins' In the Still of the Night flip side, The Jones Girl, featuring a single-note sax solo for the ages.  Next, the early (1952) r&r number, There's No Other Way by the Jackson Brothers Orchestra on RCA Victor, a track which strongly anticipates Bill Haley on Decca, then the Lenny-Dee-cowritten Plantation Boogie by Buddy Cole and the Wood Sisters, and then the marvelous 1956 Ooo-Poppa-Doo by former Louis Prima vocalist Lilyann Carol on the Mercury label.

We move on to Angel of Love, an almost-rock-and-roll number rendered by the superb Four Voices, co-written by Fred (Big Ten Inch Record) Weismantel, and featuring brilliant work by tenor Allan Chase, who unfortunately failed to launch a successful solo career at Columbia.  The Four Voices were the all-time perfect pop-vocal/doo-wop hybrid of the 1950s, and it's a shame they weren't encouraged to record more sides like this one and their one big hit, Lovely One (the remake of which I previously featured).  Then, C&W/r&r with Pee Wee King--the 1956 Ballroom Baby, followed by the Ray Charles Singers with Al-Di-La (one of my all-time favorite singles), Ronnie Hawkins with a 1959 retitling of Chuck Berry's Thirty Days (adding ten days for Forty Days), and then Steve Lawrence in teen-pop mode singing Gene Pitney's Tears From Heaven.

Co-written by Percy Faith (!), Rockin' and Yodelin' is, true to its title, an exercise in rock and roll yodeling, with Cathy Johnson skillfully managing both aspects, and then it's on to pure doo-wop with the Impacts (Canadian Sunset), a disc I first owned on its original label, RCA--and I believe it was the very first doo-wop side of my collection.  Then, Jonnie Ray with Such a Night, accompanied (according to Google's AI) by Paul Weston, a fine cover of Long Lonely Nights by Kitty Kallen, and the Mike Pedicin Quintet with their classic fast-tempo take on Shake a Hand! (see label and VS images).

The final five numbers: The eccentric Groovy by Joe Dodo and the Groovers (sounding like something concocted by Ray Ellis or Johnny Douglas), the Five Stars' Pickin' on the Wrong Chicken, Don Cherry's Rumble Boogie (written by Eddie Curtis), June Valli out-melodramatizing Elvis with Bob Merrill's Tell Me, Tell Me, and Snooky Lanson providing a fine r&r vocal for 1955's Stop (Let Me Off of the Bus), a Dot side most likely inspired by Rock Around the Clock (and cowritten by Billy Vaughn!).  Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Memorable Mono Media, Pt. 2.zip FLAC

Rock, Rock, Rock--The Dixiebelles w. Cornbread and Jerry, 1963

Midnight Hour--? (Question Mark) and the Mysterians, 1966

The Jones Girl--The Five Satins (Alt. take), 1956

There's No Other Way--Jackson Brothers Orch., 1952

Plantation Boogie (Lenny Dee-Vaughn Horton)--Buddy Cole w. the Wood Sisters, 1955

Ooo-Poppa-Doo--Lilyann Carol and the Jan Raye Quartet, 1956

Angel of Love (Fred Weismantel-Jack Schell)--The Four Voices, 1957

Ballroom Baby (Dick Glasser-C.J. Hall)--Pee Wee King and His Band, 1956

Al Di La--The Ray Charles Singers, 1964

Forty Days (Chuck Berry)--Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, 1959

Tears From Heaven (Gene Pitney)--Steve Lawrence, Arr. and Prod. by Don Costa, 1960

Rockin' and Yodelin' (Carl Sigman-Percy Faith)--Cathy Johnson and Friends, 1955

Canadian Sunset--The Impacts, 1958

Such a Night (Lincoln Chase)--Jonnie Ray, 1954

Long Lonely Nights--Kitty Kallen w. Chorus and Orch. dir. by Sid Feller, 1957

Shake a Hand! (Joe Morris)--The Mike Pedicin Quintet, 1955

Groovy--Joe Dodo and the Groovers, 1958

Pickin' on the Wrong Chicken--Five Stars, 1958

Rumble Boogie (Eddie Curtis)--Don Cherry w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1955

Tell Me, Tell Me (Bob Merrill)--June Valli w. Henri Rene's Orch. and Chorus, 1954

Stop (Let Me off of the Bus)--Snooky Lanson w. Orchestra, 1955

Lee