Rock n' Roll--Artie Malvin (1956); Tops in Pops--All the Latest Hit Recordings (Allegro Elite 4131)

Two budget 10-inch LPs of surprisingly good quality, both sound- and performance-wise.  The Artie Malvin disc had obviously been played a lot, and not with light-tracking tonearms.  To the rescue: my 1.2 mil LP stylus, which nearly cleared up channel separation issues by itself, even before I utilized MAGIX.  Of course, this is a mono LP, so technically there should be no channel separation issues, but when you have uneven (and deep) wear on the groove walls and you're tracking with a stereo cartridge, you have channel separation issues.  Solution: use a wide needle and combine channels (or, if one side is fried, double the best channel).  I hope Artie appreciates all this trouble.

But that's not what you came here to hear.  You want to know, how does cheap label regular Artie Malvin do on his Waldorf tracks, all Bill Haley hits?  In my opinion, terribly.  His totally fake attitude of excitement seems designed to convey, "This is exciting!  It's rock and roll!"  The big band arrangements hardly help--at this stage in Waldorf Music Hall's history, the label wasn't much trying to achieve a genuine rock and roll sound, putting it years behind the Synthetic Plastics Co. labels Promenade and Prom, and the Record Corp. of America labels, like Allegro Elite, and Royale.  But, come 1957, Waldorf was getting with the program.

By the way, as far as synthetic plastics go, isn't plastic synthetic by definition?

Anyway, even if they don't sound like the real thing, the Malvin tracks are professionally produced and fun.  The musicians certainly don't sound like they were dragged into doing this.  AND Malvin's Rock Around the Clock presents the song's original minor-key verse as written, and he almost does the twelve-bar chorus as originally conceived, making this much closer to what Rock Around the Clock sounded like before Sonny Dae (Paschal Vennitti) and Bill Haley revised it to make it sound like an R&B number of the party-all-night type.  It's one of about four versions I own which are accurate, to some degree, to the sheet music.

I've always figured that the cheap labels, being the market parasites they were, would quit trying to exploit a given hit past his chart life, but Rock n' Roll 's line-up covers the years 1954 to 1956, making Rock a Beatin' Boogie the only current track.

This edition of Tops in Pops contains enthusiastic performances, all very well recorded, with even the shaky At the Hop harmonies forgivable since the track has so much drive.  There are exceptional vocals on All the Way, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, and My Heart Reminds Me (which is clearly a steal of the Della Reese version).  All the Way sounds uncannily like Sinatra, and the track would be a cheap label mega-classic if not for the poor strings and the nearly-ruined key change at the end.  As for Kisses, whoever this guy is, I like him better than Jimmie Rodgers.

Great Balls of Fire is kind of clunky, but it captures the spirit of the original quite well, so it's not the usual junk-label letdown.  This Tops in Pops jacket (top of page)--or, pretty much, any Tops in Pops jacket you want to choose--would have any reasonable person expecting very little, so these tracks are quite a pleasant surprise.  And look how weirdly the guy and gal are joined into/over the background photo--they're floating over the floor.  I'm not sure why there's so much contrast on my copy--there are much better looking example of this, including this one at Discogs:

 

Click here to hear:  Rock n' Roll--Artie Malvin

Click here to hear:  Tops in Pops-Allegro Elite 4131; 1956

Artie Malvin--Rock n' Roll (Waldorf Music Hall MH 33 149; 1958)

See You Later, Alligator
Rock Around the Clock
Dim, Dim the Lights
Shake, Rattle and Roll
Razzle Dazzle
Rock a Beatin' Boogie

Tops in Pops--All the Latest Hit Recordings (Allegro Elite 4131)

All the Way
At the Hop
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
Wake Up Little Susie
Jailhouse Rock
Melodie D'Amour
My Heart Reminds Me


Lee