Goodwill 45s--Clovis Gentilhomme, Frank Flood, Little Walter, Adrian Kimberly, Bill Haley!

 

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Okay, one or two of these came from flea markets, not Goodwills, but most were thrifted.  All were second-hand, at least.  And Clovis Gentilhomme fans, rejoice!  We have Clovis doing a weird version (big surprise) of A White Sport Coat, with backing by the Millersburg Military Institute Music Makers.  I can hear people asking, "What took you so long to post this?"  Well, I've only had it for maybe a couple months, so simmer down.  And we have Adrian Kimberly, who is actually the Everly Brothers, and his--er, their--adaptation of Pomp and Circumstance, which is actually Neal Hefti's.  So... yeah.  The Everly Brothers' Calliope label lasted two years, with today's selection the only one managing to chart.  Meanwhile, Bill Haley's 1964 Green Door single (with the flip, Yeah! She's Evil) was, if I recall correctly, Bill's one chance to get back with Decca and producer Milt Gabler.  It failed to hit, and so Bill's Decca comeback was not to be, though in fact this may be the best Green Door ever recorded.

From 1950, a 45 rpm Columbia with a small spindle hole and featuring Tony Bennett crooning The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.  I love this version, despite the fact that Tony sings slightly flat throughout, and very flat when the key change happens.  Ouch!  I don't know why they didn't do a retake, but the1958 Tony's Greatest Hits LP featured a different, jazzier version, so the issue is moot, so far as the Hits album is concerned.  And I have no idea what I just typed.  Anyway, this 1950 recording was a new one on me, as I had only known the Hits version.

Coming back to Clovis Gentilhomme, let me say that it's not every week (or month, or year) that a Ban Com single shows up at the thrifts, and... well, I knew I had to have it.  And I knew it would be weird.  Had it not been weird, I'd have been thrown off.  I'd probably still be stunned right now as I sit here.  Discogs lists two releases for Ban Com, and I'm at a loss to guess what "Ban Com" is a shortened form of, if anything.  I Google it, and I get "Ray-Ban."

The Ray Charles Singers' marvelous version of Al Di La is one of my favorite pop records, ever, and prior to finding this single, I only had it on a VG- Command label LP.  So this single was a great find.  Decca's The Tweeters (how often do I get to type that?) provide us with Mascara Mama and an At the Hop take-off called The Campus Rock.  To my ears, it's Mascara Mama that gives this classic status, and it's because it's so much of its period, and so nicely done, and so... moody.  It's the plug side, and it would have been nice had it hit.  (I'm assuming it didn't.)  But it's a hit here on my blog (with me, at least), and I'm just now realizing, as I look at the label, that I should have cloned out the black mark next to the first c in "Decca"--it's some leftover mark from... something.  Could have been a factory defect.  And what can I say about a label called Slo-Poke II, featuring Frank Flood and Slo-Poke II performing a dumb novelty called Flying Saucer?  Hm.  Umm...  Well, I only paid 25 cents for it.  I can say that, anyway.  It's not as weird as you might expect, given the credits, but it's far enough out there.

And we get the flip sides of two famous rock and roll hits, both of them excellent--The Champs' Train to Nowhere (flip of Tequila), and The Monotones' excellent You Never Loved Me (flip of The Book of Love).  How did the Monotones manage to improve so much, vocally, in the space between two sides?  Then there's Marty Robbins, sounding very un-Marty Robbins, covering Chuck Berry's Maybelline, and covering it very well.  Excellence being something we expect from Marty.

Satan's a Super Star?  The... what?  I have no idea why the question mark was included, but, anyway, a ditty about a guy determined to stay away from sin, and Satan had better stay out of his garage.  Leave his weed-whacker alone.  Something like that.  I might have blacked out during it.  From Relco Records.  And... probably the first doo-wop (r&b vocal) record I ever owned, way back as a kid in Toledo--the Impacts' terrific street-corner-ized Canadian Sunset.  My Toledo copy went to parts unknown long ago, so you're hearing a thrifted replacement.  Then, from 1969/1970, a surprisingly good fake version of Come Together by the Jalopy Five, that studio concoction which recorded scores of fakes for the Hit Records label, which, by this point, had apparently become the Top Pop Hits label.  You wouldn't believe how hammered my copy is, so I won't tell you.  Except, I just did.  Oh, well.  I removed a lot of surface noise.  The thing looks like someone sanded it down for some art project that he or she never finished.

Two numbers by Little Walter, both written by Willie Dixon, and both sounding improvised and/or quickly made up in the studio, with Crazy Mixed Up World the standout--very Chicago-sounding Chicago blues.  Plus, Connie Stevens singing the Carole King-Gerry Goffin Why'd You Want to Make Me Cry, not one of Carole's greatest efforts.  Pretty worn, but next to the Top Pop Hits single, it looks Mint-plus.

What else?  Oh, The Tunesmen, whoever they were, with Bill Bailey, and it's adequately catchy, despite being very cliched.  The label is a masterpiece of non-design, with a wealth of information for the collector--the label name (Grandview), the catalog number, and, um, two white lines.  Lots to go on, there.  Then, from 1963, Debbie Dovale singing This World We Love In, a song I knew from the Merv Griffin Cartlon single (titled The World...).   The flip side of Griffin's record, Banned in Boston, missed the Top 100 by just one notch, so Griffin enjoyed  a minor pop singing comeback for a short while in 1961.  Debbie sounds nothing like Merv here, of course, and I wouldn't begin to know how to describe her singing style, but it works for me.  The record is weird in all the right ways.

DOWNLOAD: Goodwill 45s

Come Together (Lennon-McCartney)--Jalopy Five (Top Pop Hits T-17)
You Never Loved Me (Monotones)--The Monotones (Argo 5290; 1958)
My Baby Is Sweeter--Little Walter (Checker 919, 1959)
Crazy Mixed Up World--Same
Why'd You Wanna Make Me Cry (Goffin-King)--Connie Stevens, Arr. & Cond. by Perry Botkin, Jr. (Warner Bros. 5265; 1962)
The Green Door (Bob Davie-Marvin Moore)--Billy Haley and His Comets (Decca 31650; 1964)
Yeah! She's Evil (Joy Byers)--Same
A White Sport Coat (Marty Robbins)--Clovis Gentilhomme w. the M.M.I. Music Makers (1962)
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Dubin-Warren)--Tony Bennett, Orch. Dir. Marty Manning (1950)
Al Di La (Donida-Mogol-Drake)--The Ray Charles Singers (1964)
Mascara Mama (Alan White)--The Tweeters (Decca 9-30725; 1958)
The Campus Rock (Del Serino-Hal Gordon)--Same
The Graduation Song... Pomp and Circumstance (Arr: Neal Hefti)--Adrian Kimberly (Calliope 6501; 1961)
Flying Saucer (R.D. Devore)--Frank Flood and Slo-Poke II  (Slo-Poke II; 1981)
Train to Nowhere (Dave Burgess)--The Champs (Challenge 1016; 1958)
Maybelline (Chuck Berry)--Marty Robbins (Columbia 4-21446; 1955)
Canadian Sunset (Heywood-Gimbel)--The Impacts (1958)
Satan's a Super Star? (Johnny Holliday)--Johnny Holliday (Relco Records 2014)
Billy Bailey (Hughie Cannon)--The Tunesmen (Grandview 200)
This World We Love In (Toang-Mogol-Raye)--Debbie Dovale, Prod. Nick Cenci (Roulette 4521; 1963)

Lee