Waldorf in transition: America's Favorite Music, or Top Hit Tunes (1959)

Both Sides Now notes that Waldorf Music Hall records were sold exclusively in Woolworth stores, which is fairly common knowledge among us cheapo-label lovers.  However, Waldorf Music Hall (or Music-Hall) was only one of many Enoch Light labels, so I've often wondered if Enoch's 18 Top Hits label (the three-fer packages of six-selection EPs) may have been a mail-order deal.  Their format would suggest as much.  However, until I come across a vintage advertisement to support my suspicion, it'll have to remain a guess.

Am-Par Records, which became ABC-Paramount in 1961, purchased Enoch's labels (including Waldorf M.H.) in October 1959, reports BSN, "although the label had probably stopped issuing albums prior to the purchase," it adds.  Well, today's 12-inch Waldorf LP is from January, 1959, so we know Waldorf was still pressing vinyl at least that close to the acquisition date.  But something odd was going on, as this release features nothing on the jacket except what you see above--a cover photo and the title America's Favorite Music.  No company info, no artist listings.  Back cover--blank.  It's as if Waldorf was ceasing to care.  A pretty reasonable assumption, given that it was willing to release an LP sure to have many buyers asking "What the heck is this?  Dance instruction?"  Me, I knew from the stock Waldorf photo, and from my previous America's Favorite Music experiences.

The label sports the "Top Hit Tunes" slogan that had replaced Waldorf's "18 Top Hits" starting about 1957.  Here's Side A, with the catalog number, 33-JAN-59, which strongly suggests that this is a 33 rpm disc released in--oh, let's say--January, 1959.

There are very few familiar Waldorf names here--Dottie Evans, Enoch Light, Loren Becker (only one track!), and Hollis Harbison are the only four that register with me.  The rest are either newcomers, or... possibly, folks working for some other outfit.  Waldorf may have been outsourcing at this time.  You may or may not remember my posting of the 1961 Pickwick release, Hurrah! Top Hits, which follows this same strange format--i.e., eighteen fake hits plus six totally unrelated tracks.  Here's that post: Hurrah! Top Hits.  The 1961 Pickwick (Hurrah!) collection was concurrently released as America's Favorite Music, with a stock Waldorf image on the jacket: AFM.  So there must have been some kind of Pickwick/Am-Par relationship happening in 1961, which raises the possibility Pickwick was conspiring with Waldorf even earlier--namely, during Waldorf's up-for-sale period.  Such weirdness would be about par for the irrational cheap label course.

To me, these tracks do not have that smooth, professional Enoch Light sound--the quality just isn't there.  These could just as easily be from Promenade (Synthetic Plastics Co.), a company whose approach was pretty much two-takes-and-hope-for-the-best.  And the awful orchestra on The World Outside would never have been allowed on any Light production prior to this--even the fake RCA (Record Corporation of America) might have hesitated to release it.  And then put it out, anyway.  After all, the fake RCA is the home of a terrible fake of Autumn Leaves, which closes with the out of key orchestra botching the tonic chord.  As for The World Outside, the "Songsters" are pretty good in their imitation of The Four Coins, which makes the two-cent musical backing regrettable.  I didn't realize, until hearing this fake, that the song is based on the main(?) theme of Warsaw Concerto.  How I could have missed that previously, I do not know.

And if you've been dying to have the great themes of America's greatest bands, you're in luck.  And those tracks are very well done, and if I had the time, I could probably track down the original issue--they're likely cribbed from an EP set or earlier 10" or whatever.  Anyway, this is Waldorf in transition.  For all we know, it's not even Waldorf.  This could be a pod-people Waldorf that temporarily seized Enoch's labels until Am-Par came in and chased out the pods.  Then again, astrologer Light should have been able to anticipate any such shenanigans.

It's kind of cool to have a Waldorf-in-transition offering to share. And I'm probably the first person to ever use that phrase for a music post.  History is being made here.

I'm listing the titles as they appear on the label.  Where apostrophes are missing--oh, well.  And be sure to notice how utterly different "Joe Perkins" sounds between One Night and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.  I think Joe may have come from the Made-up Names Department at Cheap Label Supplies, Inc.  Such a strange album format, since it meant cramming 24 tracks onto one LP, which often required editing down at least some of the fake hits.  An LP could easily have accommodated the 18 fakes in full form, so why the extra six tracks?  Especially since the jacket contains zero reference to them--No "Six Bonus Tracks!"  But these labels obviously didn't spend much time reflecting on their own actions.  At this point, Waldorf--or whoever's behind this--had probably forgotten why the bonus-track tradition existed in the first place.  They were just filling in the template with track titles.

Worker #1: "Why are we adding these big band themes?"  Worker #2: "Funny--I was going to ask you."





DOWNLOAD:  America's Favorite Music (Waldorf 33-JAN-59)




America's Favorite Music/Top Hit Tunes (Waldorf 33-JAN-59)

Problems--Burt and Bob
Whole Lotta Loving--Hollis Harbison
One Night--Joe Perkins
I Enjoy Being a Girl--Dottie Evans
A Lovers Question--Hollis Harbison
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes--Joe Perkins
Chiquita Cha Cha--Enoch Light and the Light Brigade
You Are Beautiful--Loren Becker
Old Black Magic--Dick King and Betty Golden
Bimbombey--George Clark
The World Outside--The Songsters
Beep Beep--The Victors
Goodbye Baby, Goodbye--Jimmy Lee
Lonely Teardrops--William Patton
Donna--Lloyd Jones
Gotta Travel On--Sonny Scott
The Diary--Lloyd Jones
Come Prima--Mario Morghesi

The Great Themes of America's Greatest Bands--Booby Bryne Cond. the All Star Orch.

Smoke Rings--Theme, Glen Gray and His Casaloma (sic) Orch.
Auld Lang Syne--Theme, Guy Lombardo
Cherokee--Theme, Charlie Barnet
Ciriciribin--Theme, Harry James
Nightmare--Theme, Artie Shaw
Take the "A" Train--Theme, Duke Ellington


Lee