Halloween LeeWorks for 2020!

 

A late bonus post for Halloween--nineteen of my own spooky compositions, most written between 2009 and 2011.  At the time, I had a Casio CTK-551, which sounded better than you would think, especially with all the MAGIX effects I added.  I have some more recent pieces I wanted to add, but finding the CD-Rs would take hours, so...

I don't remember when I wrote my Halloween Fugue, or what it was originally called.  It dates back to 1989 or so, though the recording is from 2011.  Pieces like Poker Night in Dracula's Castle are experiments with extreme applications of echo delay, accomplished with multiple saves.  Throughout this set, there's a lot of track overlapping and speed manipulation and other fun.  Most of these are me "live" at the keyboard, with all multi-tracking accomplished in a primitive fashion (often with me unable to hear the part I was dubbing over), and the really virtuosic-sounding numbers were accomplished with my old Noteworthy Composer program, using step-time sequencing.  I think I got nice results on these with such low-budget means.  Or by them; whatever the right preposition happens to be.

I did some editing on these, paring things down.  Many have gone through multiple versions over the years, so, for some titles, these can be considered the latest editions.

My Toccatica was my attempt to redo Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor in an Exotica vein--and it almost works.  Anyway, that explains the title, at least.  My Hauntovani Waltzes were written... who knows when?  Actually, I had a single waltz I'd written (back in 2000 or so) in a Hauntovani mode, and, for this track, I pulled two waltzes out of storage to make a trio.  Not sure if the other two had names.  Funeral Disco is my Disco version of Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette, and The Haunted Choir Room features a ghostly choir made up of... me.  I was multi-tracking in my primitive MAGIX-to-MAGIX fashion, trying to do some four-part harmony.  It didn't come out that well, but with the effects piled on, I made an excellent ghost choir.  So... enjoy!

I'll just let New Blogger double-space my playlist this time...

DOWNLOAD: LeeWorks Halloween 2020

ALL COMPOSITIONS WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY LEE HARTSFELD

Halloween Fugue (c. 1989)

Poker Night in Dracula's Castle

Junk Mail at the Deserted Manor

(You Don't Want To) Get on Board the Ghost Train

Morbid Moments

Toccatina

Food Fight in Space

Dracula's Doorbell

Halloween March

Funeral Disco (Gounod, Adapted Lee H.)

Piano in Outer Space

Galaxies in Collision

Missile in the Moon

The Dead Sitcom Zone

Slaytude in A minor

The Haunted Radio

The Haunted Piano

Haunted Choir Room

Three Hauntovani Waltzes

Lee

Frankie presents... Horrifying Halloween instrumentals!

 

I found this fine Frankenstein monster collectible at (where else?) Goodwill, and I had a pair to choose from.  Tough choice, as both were in nearly dead perfect shape.  But I grabbed this guy, and he grabbed back, and so I knew I had the right one.

He's not all that happy with the design--he thinks it makes him look like Fred Flintstone at Halloween. And heads are for storing brains, not cookies, he insists.  Frankly (get it?), I think the real problem is that I keep calling him "Frank-Tin-Stein," which must get get his stiches in a knot, but my needling is purely affectionate.  He needn't get hairy about it.  That's my job:

.

But enough seriousness.  Today's slaylist features mostly resurrected sections--er, selections--with only three numbers new to the blog, but you get mostly new rips and a higher bitrate, so it's a good deal, I think.  (Well, of course I'd think so.)  We get three versions of Morton Gould's The Deserted Ballroom, including Gould's own solo piano recording from 1940; the Lawrence Welk orchestra playing Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte; Ferde Grofe's Cloudburst in the original 1931-or-so orchestration (in which version it makes ideal spook music); a second dose of Grofe, courtesy of his 1924 arrangement of The Hoodoo Man; Wayne King performing the theme from 1957's Man of a Thousand Faces, which is Chopin's famous E-minor Prelude, as ruined by Frank Skinner; three Dark Shadows selections; a third helping of Grofe with Trick or Treat; a second Gould piece--a wonky number called Robot; Vic (The Addams Family theme) Mizzy with his theme for William Castle's The Night Walker, as performed by Sammy Kaye's orchestra; and the Ferrante and Teicher composition Try Again, which was used as the music for Rod Serling's 1973-74 radio program, Zero Hour (aka, Hollywood Radio Theatre), on which Mission: Impossible's Peter Lupus got five days of starring roles.  Among many, many other TV actors famous at the time.

Speaking of spooks, I served as one in the Navy.  I don't know if that term is still used for those of us who did spy work.  

Since the holiday is a classic rite of reversal, I think it's fitting that I wish you all a !ИƎƎWO⅃⅃AH YꟼꟼAH

Mummy back, if not totally chilled.

DOWNLOAD: Horrifying Halloween Instrumentals, 2020

The Deserted Ballroom (Morton Gould)--Montovani and His Orch., 1956
Satan and the Polar Bear (Rose)--David Rose and His Orch., 1957
Deserted Ballroom (Gould)--Elliot Everett and His Orch. (Varsity VLP6041)
I Want to Dance with You (Robert Cobert)--The Charles Randolph Grean Sounde, 1970
Quentin's Theme (Cobert)--Mantovani, 1969
Try Again (Theme from Hollywood Radio Theatre)--Ferrante and Teicher, 1973
Robot (Morton Gould)--Hal Herzon and His Orch.  (No idea on the date)
The Night Walker (Vic Mizzy)--Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra, 1965
Trick or Treat (Ferde Grofe)--Andre Kostelanetz, 1976
Theme from Man of a Thousand Faces (Chopin, Adapted by Frank Skinner)--Wayne King Orch., 1958
Cloudburst (Grand Canyon--Suite; Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1932
Fire Dance (Manuel de Falla)--Hollywood Bowl Orch., c. Eugene Goossens, 1928
Funeral March (Chopin, Op. 35)--Mark Andrews, pipe organ solo, 1928
The Hoodoo Man (Nacio Herb Brown, Arr. Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1924
In the Hall of the Mountain King (Grieg)--Victor Symphony Orch., 1926
Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte (Frank De Vol-Mack David)--Lawrence Welk, 1965
March of the Marionettes (Gounod)--Ray Bohr, pipe organ, 1956
Deserted Ballroom (Gould)--Moron Gould, piano, 1940.
Haunted House Polka--The Cavaliers (RCA Victor 53-9327)

Lee

The Haunted Victrola, 2020

My Halloween shellac post from last year, for anyone who may have missed it.  I was listening to my rips, and I was impressed (in a humble way, of course), and I thought I'd give this a second, um, life.  (Can I say that during Halloween?)

Carl Fenton's Spike Jones-esque recordings of Animal Fair and Go 'Long, Mule aren't Halloween offerings of the traditional type, but their treatments are so over-the-top nuts, I think they belong here.  Er, in this playlist, I mean.  Edward MacDowell's wonderful 1884 piano piece Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) starts the hearse rolling, and Leopold Godowsky could sure play the piano.  From a Brunswick 78 made in either 1921 or 1922.  Eduard (no relation to Gustav, afaik) Holst's Dance of the Demon is also superbly performed, though it took two guys to manage it--Victor Arden and Phil Ohman, piano partners who became bandleaders.  For some reason, I gave the Polydor label Brownies' Parade a probable recording date of 1928 the last time I posted it, and I must have had a reason, though I can't remember it now.   Maybe clues from a vintage publication that's no longer on line.  It's driving me mad, trying to remember.  Or, to borrow from a Spike Jones record, it's driving me sane.  Cool electrical-era sound quality.  Chopin's Funeral March, played by Prince's Band in 1909, is by Chopin.  I know this, because the label actually lists "Chopin" under Chopin's Funeral March.  It's from his 1839 Piano Sonata No. 2, and imagine how rich his descendants would be if  there were royalties coming on the march.  Murder is a very clever Byron (The Vamp) Gay number about the way jazz bands were murdering "wonderful" songs--totally destroying them, but in an irresistible way.  Sophisticated concept, excellent melody--why is poor Byron forgotten by song buffs?  Big Movie Show in the Sky has lyrics by an anything-but-forgotten lyricist--Johnny Mercer.  Not his best work, and there's something that really creeps me out about the song and this performance.  Which only means that it works all the more as a Halloween track.  Ironic, no?

Halloween is a rite of reversal.  Good is bad, bad is good.  Kids chow down on stuff that's bad for them--sugary stuff packed in rip-off "snack" sizes.  Using a holiday as an excuse to charge more--that's totally American!  It drives me sane, just thinking about it.

Which Hazel is a clever, if slightly oversold (by Al Herman) comic number composed by Abner Silver (real name, Silberman), with lyrics that include, "The guy who wrote Witch Hazel is in a padded cell," and here's that theme, 45 years before Napoleon XIV hit the charts.  That line also places the song in the song-which-refers-to-itself category, the kind of self-reference which normally happens in songs about dances (Charleston, Locomotion, Monster Mash, The Creep, etc.).  Strange--and very Halloween.  And how to describe John Tilley's The Loch Ness Monster, from 1934?  Or John Tilley, for that matter?  I hear a strong Monty Python edge to/in this satirical piece, recorded in England--I suppose it's the cheery but cynical tone, the sophisticated references, and the mild misogyny--that, and more.  The evidence is all there--the Loch Ness monster claim was known all along to be a hoax (and a tourist lure) by thinking people, and note how Tilley makes fun of the Nessie believers' habit of searching for clues--any clues--of past Nessie sightings.  And the Nessie nonsense continues to this day.  The complicated but cool Abominable Science! makes a great case for 1933's King Kong as the main inspiration for the Nessie legend we know.  If that sounds unlikely on the surface (no pun intended), it won't after you've read what the authors have to say.

Delirium is a sophisticated instrumental by Red Nichols pianist Arthur Schutt, and speaking of delirium, I originally labeled the track Derilium.  Which sounds like a substance H.G. Wells would have made up to get his characters to Mars.  The magnificent novelty Ah-Ha! (Sidney Clare-James V. Monaco) shows up three times in our list, though I didn't have time to rip the best version of all--the 1925 Grofe arrangement for Paul Whiteman,  But it's very possible that's up someplace at the blog.  We close with 1916's Spooky Spooks (great sound effects), and Zez Confrey's Greenwich Witch, played by Confrey himself, and brilliantly.

To the treats!  All ripped from shellac housed in my cluttered Media Room.  And it's interesting that the new Blogger retains the HTML versions of older posts in their original form--which is to say, not in the extremely annoying rectangular clump that shows up for the new posts.  Since the new Blogger is forcing us to do more HTML work, I suppose it just had to make the task harder on the eyes.  I don't recommend that children trick-or-treat this year (the notion that it can be done safely is too bizarre to even contemplate), but otherwise I'd be recommending that kids considering going as New Blogger.  "Here!  Take all the candy!!!!"  (Door slams, porch lights go off.)




DOWNLOAD: The Haunted Victrola is Back!









Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) (MacDowell)--Leopold Godowsky, Piano (1921 or 1922)
Dance of the Demon (Eduard Holst)--Victor Arden-Phil Ohman, Piano Duet (1922)
Animal Fair--Carl Fenton's Orch. w. vocal chorus, 1924
Go 'Long, Mule--Same
Chopin's Funeral March--Prince's Band, 1909
Brownies' Parade (K. Noack)--Polydor Brass Band Orch., c. Joseph Snaga, c. 1928?
Me-ow--One-step (Mel B. Kaufmann)--Joseph C. Smith's Orch., 1918
Magic Eyes (Brown-Fiorito)--Oriole Orchestra, 1923
Murder (Byron Gay)--Plantation Jazz Orchestra, 1920
Mystery!--Medley--Paul Biese and His Novelty Orch., 1919
Jabberwocky--Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band, 1921
Ah-Ha!--Freddie "Schnickelfritz" Fisher and His Orch. w. vocal chorus, 1940
Which Hazel (Abner Silver)--Al Herman, 1921
Eccentric Rag (J. Russell Robinson)--Oriole Orchestra, 1924
Big Movie Show in the Sky (Dolan-Mercer)--Blue Barron and His Orch., v: Bobby Beers and the Choir, 1949
Ah-Ha!--Hollywood Dance Orch., v: John Ryan, 1925
Ah-Ha!--Oriole Orchestra, v: Mark Fisher, 1925
Midnight Fire Alarm (Lincoln)--Prince's Orchestra, 1920
The Loch Ness Monster (Tilley)--John Tilley, 1934
Delirium (Schutt)--Carl Fenton's Orch., 1927
Spooky Spooks (Claypoole)--Prince's Band, 1916
Greenwich Witch (Confrey)--Zez Confrey, Piano Solo, 1922



Lee

More Top Hit Tunes

 

This is a follow-up to my previous (Oct. 10) Top Hit Tunes offering, which seems like a very redundant point, especially since I designated this as "More..."  I haven't been myself lately.  I'm not sure who I've been.  Maybe my driver's license will give me some clue...

In fact, back in June I did an even earlier Top Hit Tunes post which featured sides from the Enoch Light period.  Today's post is post-Enoch.  These six-selection EPs were all pressed on junk vinyl, and while the EPs from the Light period (Waldorf Record Corp., 18 Top Hits, early Top Hit Tunes) weren't pressed on prime vinyl, they were far less noisy than these.  Have I thoroughly confused myself yet?

Todays' fakes are from 1960 and 1961, a period I don't remember firsthand, as my earliest Top 40 recollections are from 1962.  Therefore, many of today's numbers were unknown to me until now.  But some were already familiar as oldies: Little Egypt (originally the Coasters), Little Devil (Neil Sedaka), Last Date (Floyd Cramer--country), You Talk Too Much (Joe Jones), Mother-in-Law (Ernie K-Doe),  Crying (Roy Orbison), the King-Goffin gem Halfway to Paradise (Tony Orlando, but which I first heard on a Bobby Vinton LP), and Don't Be Cruel (the version by Bill Black's Combo). For some reason, I thought I knew Summer's Gone, but I don't--I must have been thinking of some other Summer title.  Summer's Gone is the disaster of the set, and I have no idea why the fidelity is suddenly so pinched at the close.  It's nothing that I did.  At any rate, while "Arthur Poem" is a better singer than Paul Anka (who did the original), he's almost definitely under-rehearsed, and of course the audio disaster at the end ruins everything.  Otherwise, a classic cover.  (Cha-dunk, crash!)

I still haven't decided whether or not I'd heard New Orleans before.  Or, if so, when.  I'll get back to you if I figure it out.  Ta Ta; When We Get Married; Let Me Belong to You; Let's Go, Let's Go; and Bobby Rydells' Good Time Baby (I neglected to capitalize 'Time' on the ID tag), Don't Worry, and Please Love Me Forever were all news to me.  Never on Sunday, however, falls into the melody-everyone-has-heard category, and Dedicated to the One I Love and A Little Bit of Soap seem like hits that would be universally familiar, if only by their titles.  I find the playlist, as experienced in one sitting, pleasant but drab, though there were some superb pre-Beatles rock and roll hits of the 1960s, especially in the 1962-1963 period.  The Top 40 was just slouching a bit when these particular fakes were faked.

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor, as many of you know, was a "skiffle" version of the 1924 Does Your Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight, and this fake doesn't sound all that different from the real hit.  Oh, and I'm just now (10/28, 12:14 AM) remembering that I wanted to mention the extreme fuzz tone on Don't Worry, which is a surprisingly good approximation of the distortion that occurs on the Marty Robbins original.  Thanks to RobGems68 for mentioning it.  Buzzsaw guitar tones probably go back to the 1940s (just guessing)--that is to say, distortion of its type must be as old as amplified guitar technology.  Each "legendary" instance of same is accompanied by a similar tale--loose vacuum tube, damaged amp, defective fader in the studio, etc.  Famous recordings feasting the sound include Howlin' Wolf's 1951 How Many More Years (lead by Willie Johnson), Jackie Brenston's Rocket 88 of the same year (lead by Willie Kizart), and the guitar sound on The Johnny Burnette Trio's 1956 The Train Kept A-Rollin' and Link Wray and His Ray Men's 1958 Rumble.  I'm sure there are many more instances.

Again, post-Enoch Waldorf sides here, his Waldorf labels having been purchased in late 1959.  I've previously established a post-Enoch Pickwick-Waldorf connection (say that twenty times!), and in fact the first five numbers in the set are from a Bravo EP--an EP which I'm assuming had a corresponding Top Hit Tunes release.  A pretty safe assumption, I think, but still an assumption...

These were evidently all originally sold as sets, and the numerical suffixes tell us the disc number.  For instance, Top Hit Tunes THC--11-3 was the third disc in (I guess) set 11.  If any of these came in envelopes (which is likely, since these were almost definitely mail-order items), then I've yet to see a Top Hit Tunes envelope, though I have plenty for the Bravo label.

Fun stuff, even if a little mild musically, and lovingly restored by me.  Took some work.  A lot, actually.  And whoever came up with "Sunny and the Moonlighters," "Bernie Bridges," "The Star Glazers," and "The Up Beats" should have gotten an award.

DOWNLOAD: More Top Hit Tunes

A Little Bit of Soap--Unknown (Bravo PEP-210-6)
Let Me Belong to You--(Same)
Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor--(Same)
Crying--(Same)
When We Get Married--(Same)
Please Love Me Forever--Sunny and the Moonlighters (Top Hit Tunes PH-603)
Baby Blue--The Up Beats (Same)
Mother in-Law (sic)--Gary Mitchell (Same)
Never on Sunday--The Tonalaires (Top Hit Tunes THC-10-1)
Ta Ta--Elliot Sweeney (Same)
I Feel So Bad--Bert Summer (Top Hit Tunes PH-70-3)
Every Beat of My Heart--The Calumets (Same)
Little Devil--Bernie Bridges (Same)
Halfway to Paradise (Goffin-King)--Matt Marina (Same)
Little Egypt--The Freckles (Same)
You Talk Too Much--Freddie Freeman (Top Hit Tunes THC-11-2)
Summer's Gone--Arthur Poem (Same)
Let's Go, Let's Go--Phil Regano (Same)
To Each His Own--The Dreamers (Same)
Diamonds and Pearls--Eddie and His Friends (Top Hit Tunes THC-11-3)
Good Time Baby--Pete Studer (Top Hit Tunes PH-60-1)
Don't Be Cruel--Happy Harry (Top Hit Tunes THC-11-3)
New Orleans--The Southerners (Same)
Last Date--The Star Glazers (Same)
Dedicated to the One I Love--The Bleecker Street Regulars (Top Hit Tunes PH-60-1)
Don't Worry--Jerry Frankman (Same)

Lee

8 Top Hits, or Hits, Hits, Hooray! (Waldorf MH 3319; 1954)

 

Yet another budget LP which can't decide what its title should be.  A cool Waldorf ten-incher--a quick listen, needless to say.  At least Waldorf didn't go the six-track route here.  The cover promises eight, and by golly...

Off the top of my head, I'm not sure, but I think Synthetic Plastics Co. also used the Hits, Hits, Hooray title.

Waldorf's 8 Bottom Hits used the same jacket, only upside-down.

DOWNLOAD: 8 Top Hits (Waldorf MH 3310; 1954)

Lee

The Knox Brothers: Good News (Knox Brothers Records KLP-14)

So, a few things I wonder about this LP: the year, for instance.  Not noted on the jacket or sleeve, and I can't find it on line.  And why does the jacket say KBR-14, while the label says KBR KLP-14?  I thought that the junk labels held the patent to that routine (i.e., mismatching the jacket and label info).

But the big question--Take a look at the newspaper-style type under the song titles.  What's with all those weird, um, words?  Well, it's good ol' Lorem Ipsum--the "dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry."  From the 1500s.  Read about it here.

Wow.  In fact, it's over two millennia old.  However, right now I'm debating exactly what I should label today's music: Southern gospel or country gospel?  I'm inclined to go for country gospel, though the two styles can come pretty close.  The Knox Brothers of Oregon don't have a bluegrass sound, but neither do they have (in my opinion) a true southern gospel sound.  So I'm calling them country.  I have yet to decide whether country gospel, as I call it, is an offshoot of southern gospel or if it's been around all along.  "All along" meaning, since about 1900 or so.  

At any rate, I also regard The Sego Brothers and Naomi, Dottie Rambo, and (maybe) the Speer Family as country gospel, if that helps.  And/or if you wondered.  Now, lots of folks would say, "What the heck--it's all gospel.  Who cares about labels?"  And to those people who ask any version of the question, "Why worry about labels?" I say, "Okay, then let's call Homer and Jethro modern jazz."  Then, suddenly, labels become very important.  Funny how that works.  Or, "Let's just use one label for Frankie Yankovic and Pink Floyd.  What?  Let's not?  But you said labels mean nothing!"

Okay, I've stalled long enough.  Are these good tracks?  Yes, very good.  Not great, but this is very solid bop gospel... er, country gospel.  And it's yet another thrift gift from Diane, who gets less expensive and better thrifting where she is.  I'm not jealous, mind you--except when I get envious.    From the "Lorem Ipsum" notes, we learn that the group, um... Actually, we don't learn anything about them.  Well, except stuff like "Et tamen in busdam," which can be a real problem in winter before the roads have been salted.

As done by the Lewis Family, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem was one of my late foster mother's favorite gospel numbers, and the Knox Brothers do a very good job, too.  Just a Little Talk with Jesus is a 1937 standard not to be confused with the earlier A Little Talk with Jesus, which is a fine song, but in much more of a Sunday school vein.  My Soul Has Been Set Free, Meet Me Over on the Other Side, It Made News in Heaven, and A Song Holy Angels Can't Sing make for fine titles and fine numbers, though isn't I'm Gonna Sing a Song a little redundant?  What else is one going to sing, besides a song?  "Oh, my pretty Lorem Ipsum, She's got me all perplexed.  She writes me every evening, But she's using dummy text."

To the gospel...

DOWNLOAD: The Knox Brothers--Good News (KBR KLP-14)

Lee

World's Finest Stereo Sound by Grand Award--Stereophonic Spectacular--Demo, Volume 2

 

A limited edition Stereo "Phase X" sampler from 1959--post-Waldorf Enoch Light.  "In your travels throughout the world--Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, or on the Rue de la Paix--you will find that Grand Award Recorded Sound is enjoyed and treasured by the person who demands 'Perfection in Sound.'"  Just have your phonograph with you at all times.  On the Rue de la Paix...

"Umm, er, I really need to get back home..."  "Yes, but not until you have provided us with 'Perfection in Sound.'  We demand it."  

The roaring 20's, Hawaiian hits, Rodgers and Hammerstein, bullfight music, the Torchy Thirties, Cha Cha's, accordion sounds from Italy, and Dvorak's New World Symphony.  Except there's no Dvorak.  I guess that makes this LP a less than perfect demonstration of Perfection in Sound, but when it's the world's finest stereo sound, who can quibble?  Well, some folks may have.  Let's take a peek back in time--back to 1959...

"Honey, there's no Dvorak on here."  "Well, it's just a sampler."  "Yeah, but they show the album jacket on the back.  I'm going to complain."  "Well, make sure you do it through the proper channels.  Ha, ha!  Get it?  Channels?"

Even if none of this music is proper Space Age Pop, the "Phase X" stereo would make it so.  I'm pretty much on the same page as David when it comes to stereo--I regard it as a menace to 1950s and 1960s pop, generally speaking.  There are exceptions, however.  Well, I can think of one.  I have Guy Mitchell's Heartaches by the Number in stereo, which sounds great, and there are early Who and Rolling Stones tracks I prefer in stereo.  Plus, later Beatles, the Hollies, and select early Beach Boys sides.  But, generally, mono is my preference, at least until it started sounding less engineered.  I think I'm still suffering trauma from my stereo copy of Eugene Ormandy's superb 1958 version of Grand Canyon Suite, which can only be described as, "What were they thinking?"  The mono has a million times more punch.

But we were talking about Grand Award.  Someone was, anyway.   This is 1959, and so there's no mention of Waldorf anywhere on the jacket or label--Enoch Light had left Waldorf (and its fun but chintzy 18 Top Hits EPs) behind.  By "chintzy," I mean the vinyl--many of those EPs were well done, but the vinyl quality was dreadful.  No more junk vinyl, no more mail-order packages (unless this was mail order)--just wonderful, spectacular, glorious "Phase X" stereo.

My verdict on the stereo?  For its day, very good.  The engineers didn't mess with the sound (pointlessly panning anything, or the like), and while I find the separation a bit too artificial, Grand Award's "spectacular" version was still better than the norm--to my aging ears, anyway.  In this demonstration record, which (in tiny print) is identified as Volume 2, we get mostly big band, Twenties, Broadway, and easy listening, though the back cover shows a greater variety of genres.  I didn't notice any "torchy Thirties," for example, but maybe I wasn't listening closely enough.  

Every time I encounter a budget-label promo, I have to wonder if anyone actually read the hype--I mean, really read it.  Whether anyone sat around the table and discussed it.  "I enjoy and treasure GA's stereo sound."--Dad. "Well, I don't."--Son.  "Of course not --you like that rock and roll junk.  They don't even engineer that noise--they simply turn the knobs all the way up.  Someday, you'll learn to appreciate real music--real high fidelity."--Dad.  "That's Squaresville.  Dion, Fabian, the Falcons, and Frankie Ford are the most, Dad.  I mean Daddy-o."--Son.  "The most what?"--Dad.  "I don't have to take this."--Son, leaving the table.  "Hey, show some respect."--Dad.  "Let it go, honey."--Mom.

Meanwhile, I'm almost done with a Top Hit Tunes follow-up, but EP-compilation posts take forever to finish...  Meanwhile, I wonder if the "SD" in this Grand Award catalog number stood for "Stereo Demonstration"?  And, in the interest of not mixing moral judgements with my pop music history, I won't call out Enoch Light for making dough from all those rock and roll fakes, only to turn his back on the music when it came time for serious, glorious, spectacular Grand Award stereo.  He could have at least gotten Artie Malvin, Loren Becker, and the Brigadiers together for a "Wonderful Days of Fake Hits" stereophonic extravaganza.  With So-and-So and His All Star Rockers.  As a thank-you to all the Top Hit Club members.

At least we get a more or less fake hit with the I Want to Be Happy Cha Cha (originally the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra starring Warren Covington).  I say "more or less," because the Covington hit was actually the Tea for Two Cha-Cha--but why get technical?  Covington sounded downright sluggish next to Enoch's cash-in.

DOWNLOAD: Stereophonic Spectacular, Volume 2 (Grand Award GA 402 SD; 1959)

Lee

The LeFevres--A Man Who Is Wise (1968)

 

Today, we have the superb LeFevres, and while I don't recognize most of the titles, I enjoyed every one.  I didn't have time to confirm composer data, though I can report for certain that J. Cook is not the author of 1868's Whispering Hope--that famous number (hard to find in hymnals, btw) was penned by Septimus Winner, who also gave us Listen to the Mockingbird and Ten Little Injuns (an adaptation of a folk song).  The sound is fresh out of the package--this was still sealed when I got it.  I don't think this was a Diane thrift gift, but if it was, my thanks to Diane.  Recorded in 1968 at LeFevre Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

DOWNLOAD--The LeFevres--A Man Who Is Wise (1968)

Lee

Beanie Topps, Otto Born, The Low Notes, The Swivel Hips--Twin Fakes

 

You came to the right place for Otto Born, The Low Notes, The Swivel Hips, and the ever-popular Beanie Topps.  "Beanie Topps" sounds like some failed clothing line, doesn't it?

So, what can account for the fake hits which were issued concurrently on Top Hit Tunes and Pickwick's Bravo label?  You're asking me?  Well, Both Sides Now reports that Enoch Light's labels were purchased by Am-Par in 1959, but I can find nothing in writing that mentions either Waldorf or Am-Par doing co-releases with Pickwick.  But we have the evidence before us.  Neither of these photos were faked.  Nor was I faked.  I am who I say I am.  Well, as far as you know, anyway.

Today (or tonight, actually), I offer a fun program of fake hits that showed up on both Top Hit Tunes (Waldorf) and Bravo (Pickwick), though the word "Waldorf" had been dropped from the Top Hit Tunes labels by this time (1960-61).  It did appear on earlier Top Hit Tunes EPs.  Some of today's tracks showed up on LP, too--credited to the Bobby Krane Orchestra and Chorus.  Credits, schremdits.  Top Hit Tunes, Tops in Pops--what's the difference?

We've heard far worse fakes than the ones in today's playlist, and you can't beat the aliases for cleverness and oddness: the aforementioned Otto Born, The Low Notes, The Swivel Hips, and The Bleecker Street Regulars (after Arthur Conan Doyle's Baker Street Irregulars, I'm sure), plus Anna and the Kings (yuk, yuk!), Sunny and the Moonlighters, Slim Downes, Big Legs Jackson, The Star Glazers, and Arthur Poem.  Actually, these names are from a master list of my Top Hit Tunes EPs, and they're not all on hand today, but just to show you that Am-Par, Pickwick (or whoever) was having some fun concocting excellent bogus sobriquets.  ("Hey, Bill, you need to slim down."  "Perfect!!  Slim Downes.  Thank you.")

Bill, the man in charge of the Aliases Department.  Nickname: Josh Handle.

Despite a few instances of mildly painful vocalizing ( such as I've Told Ev'ry Little Star), these are good, solid fakes.  The backgrounds are all very professional, and we should note that it's Bill Wooley who loses the rhythm at one point in Hot Rod Lincoln, not his accompanists. To his credit, he doesn't stop for a retake--he simply carries on, finding his way back into the proper meter.  Losing the beat on a spoken-text song would mean an automatic redo on a legit label, but this is Top Hit Tunes (and Bravo, and who knows who else?).  The three Elvis fakes--It's Now or Never, Surrender, and Little Sister--are respectable attempts at copying The King, and long before it became an industry, though I really wanted Marty French to go up an octave, Elvis-style, at the end of Never, and I don't know if he chickened out or if he simply decided, for the wages he was receiving, why bother.  But it's kind of a false build-up.  But six hits on one EP, so stop complaining, already.

Come to think of it, there is one major (or, more accurately, minor) instrumental goof-up: It's on Peter Gunn.  The riff is supposed to be F-F-G-F-A-F-Bb-A, with an Ab grace note before the first A.  In this version, we get a Dick Dale-style guitar, with the guy playing F-F-G-F-Ab-F-Bb-Ab, and maybe because he couldn't find the right notes or hadn't heard the theme song.  The latter would have been weird, given what a huge hit it was.

Ah, the "good old" days.  I remember hearing the 1960 Larry Verne hit Mr. Custer quite often on AM radio around 1965, which is why I'm surprised to discover it's from 1960.  They must have had it on nonstop oldies play.  It seemed hilarious at the time, though of course it's only mildly funny in a Tim Conway way--plus, it's outrageously un-PC by today's standards.  That'll happen over the course of decades.  The real fun lies in listening to a no-budget attempt to copy a novelty where the production was everything.  Like Custer, this ultra-cheap venture was doomed.

Whatever I just typed.  Actually, while not un-PC in any way, Yogi (originally inflicted on the Top 40 by The Ivy Three) is maybe the lamest novelty in history--and I say this after listening to the genuinely agonizing Dinner with Drac over the Goodwill speakers today.  The problem isn't that it's a one-joke novelty (Yogi Bear as a practitioner of Yoga)--one-joke novelties are fine, as far as that goes.  The problem is the idiot beginning--"Hey, Boo Boooooo!"  And with the Yogi and Boo Boo voices, very badly done on both the original and here (making this a successful fake, I suppose).  Maybe the chief problem is that Yogi Bear is an instance of word play to begin with, being a take on Yogi Berra, of course.  No one loves stupid-for-their-own-sake novelties more than me (Dickie Goodman's Ben Crazy, for ex.), but I just find Yogi too hard to (wait for it) bear.

Overanalyzing a forgotten novelty is one of the many services I provide at this blog.

Another theory: Maybe the Top Hit Tunes label was a tax write-off for Pickwick.  Pickwick: "Can we use the label?  You guys aren't doing anything with it."  Am-Par: "Be our guests.  Just remove the 'Waldorf.'"

Along with such goodies as the tracks already mentioned, plus the immortal Transistor Sister, you'll hear a full, six-selection EP in all its full-selection-ness: Top Hit Tunes THC-10-3 (third disc in set), which appeared on Bravo in a different order, and which has Beanie Topps singing The Twist.  And you'll hear Side A of Top Hit Tunes PH-70-2, which came out on Bravo with the exact same tracks and catalog number.  You've already heard the three Side A tracks in stereo in this post: Barbara Ann (The Essex), Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong (The Bearcats), and Raindrops (Dave Pidor).  Junk-vinyl triumphs--all very well done.

I've invested a lot of time into establishing to my own satisfaction that Waldorf, in its post-Enoch Light period, was partnering with Pickwick.  Or vice versa.  But I can't explain why.  Was it simply the usual see-if-we-can-sell-the-same-tracks-twice routine?  Did it happen by accident?  That is a possibility, you know.  As I'm always saying, the fake-hit operations never planned anything, and simply because planning takes time.  And time is money.

To the fun fakes.

DOWNLOAD Top Hit Tunes--Bravo fakes

Peter Gunn--Happy Harry
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?--The Bleecker Street Regulars
Yogi--The Three Phases
Angel Baby--Anna and the Kings
Mr. Custer--Charlie Sonder
Baby, Oh Baby--The Low Notes
Hot Rod Lincoln--Bill Wooley (Top Hit Tunes THC-10-3)
Kiddio--Brother Ray (Same)
Volare--Pete Studer (Same)
Mission Bell--J.T. Bruce (Same)
The Twist--Beanie Topps (Same)
So Sad--The Parkers (Same)
Surrender--Bert Summer
It's Now or Never--Marty French
Transistor Sister--Bob Packer
Walk, Don't Run--The Swivel Hips
Stay--Dion and the Dreamers
Little Sister--Unknown (Bravo P-201-6)
Runaway--Bucky Charles
Apache--The City Boys
I've told Ev'ry Little Star--Unknown (Bravo PEP-201-4)
Take Good Care of My Baby--Phil Barad
Barbara Ann--The Essex (Top Hit Tunes PH-70-2)
Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong--The Bearcats (Same)
Raindrops--Dave Pidor (Same)
Spanish Harlem--Emil Morgan

Lee

Enoch Light--All the Things You Are (Grand Award G.A. 236-S.D.; 1959)

 

Enoch Light, in Stereo Phase X, with arrangements by Lew Davies--a lucky thrift find from a few months back.  I had to come up with an ID-tag category, so I decided on "Mood Music," though these excellent tracks could also be called easy listening, instrumental pop, almost-Space Age Pop, or Great American Songbook (as in, from the...).  Space Age Pop and Great American Songbook both have unfortunate abbreviations--SAP and GAS, respectively--so I'm always careful not to abbreviate.  Me, I regard this collection of lushly-arranged standards as easy listening, which is a subsection of instrumental pop, which is, in turn, a subsection of light orchestral music.  Sometimes I capitalize, sometimes I don't.  These day, capitalization rules are pretty much whatever one decides.  We have cyberspace to thank for this.  Proper nouns (specific persons, places, or things), in particular, are taking a beating.  I once had someone argue the rule (to capitalize these), and I realized that engaging in such an argument was taking time away from more important things, like watching Time Life ads on cable TV or seeing if I can still gargle the National Anthem.  There's no shortage of people who think that established rules can be passed over, and just because.

This is first-rate mood music--as good as it gets, meaning on a par with Andre Kostelaentz and Percy Faith.  And only $3.98 at the late Columbus-based department store chain Lazarus.  Most of us are familiar with the gems that make up this playlist--standards, all.  If I had to pick my favorites, they would be Stairway to the Stars (co-composed by Paul Whiteman's own Matty Malneck), the Kern masterpiece All the Things You Are, and Dancing in the Dark.  One reason I love Dancing... so much is because Fred Waring's version sold it to me.  I refer to Waring's amazing 1931 version, when his group was still called Waring's Pennsylvanians.  This version is terrific, too.  I wish they'd have put a Victor Herbert song in here, but they didn't.  Victor seems to get shortchanged in the standards department, and he's the great talent who pretty much started the ball rolling when it comes to modern standards.  Or, to the GAS.  Whoops--I said I wouldn't use that abbreviation.  Speaking of bending the rules.

What about the sound?  Well, the notes have a lot to say on that topic.  I quote: "'Grand Award's spectacular stereo sound includes a key element that is not found in other two channel recording systems--the newly developed Grand Award 'Phase X' process. 'Phase X' is an engineering achievement which creates a complete panorama of sound and eliminates the 'hole in the middle' effect which gives the impression that unrelated sound is coming from two separate side sources."

Isn't that a famous nonsense song from way back?  "No more hole in the middle of the sound.  No more hole in the middle of the sound. Grand Award's new Phase X is a very great success.  No more hole in the middle of the sound." Playground song, I think.

My favorite line: "The world's greatest artists possess an ability to achieve exciting musical interpretations."  You don't say.  Grand Award Records are for the "discerning, discriminating and appreciative person."  No complainers allowed.  The main liner note essay, however, is very well written.  Cliched, but not your usual budget borderline word salad.

Funny how the notes promise stereo with no hole in the middle, in light of the vocals-on-one-side/ instruments-on-the-other stereo to come in the rock era.  I'm thinking Capitol, of course.  That's why I made a point of getting all of my early Beach Boys vinyl in mono--the stereo is intolerable.  Everything is high-class on this LP--I want to say that it's amazingly so for a budget disc, but Grand Award's $4.98 list price wasn't all that budget, as far as I know.  I was just looking at 1956 prices, and maybe things were different in 1959, but this LP is no cheap production.  It would appear that any Waldorf/G,A, connection was over when this stereo disc came out.  My copy came with a Grand Award inner sleeve, which I scanned for you as part of the zip.

Grand Award.  Hm.  Maybe Light won a thousand bucks for his Phase X stereo--hence, a "grand award."  No, I'm sure that wasn't the case.  Now, to redo the HTML for the title listing.

Oh, and I just bought a number of post-Enoch Top Hit Tunes EPs.  I need to go through the painstaking process of comparing tracks--the goal is to get a bead on what group created the tracks, or at least who may have been trading off with Waldorf.

DOWNLOAD: All the Things You Are--Enoch Light and His Orchestra (1959)

Someone to Watch Over Me (Gershwin)The Song Is You (Kern)
What Is This Thing Called Love (Porter)
My Heart Stood Still (Rodgers)
Everything I Have Is Yours (Lane)
No Other Love (Rodgers)
Tenderly (Gross-Lawrence)
All the Things You Are (Kern)
Stairway to the Stars (Malneck-Signorelli)
Dancing in the Dark (Schwartz)
The Night Is Young and You're So Beautiful (Suesse)
Penthouse Serenade (Jason-Burton)

Enoch Light and His Orch. Play All the Things You Are (Grand Award G.A. 236-S.D., 1959)

Lee

The Singing Kolandas (Light Records LS-5689; 1976)

 

For this Sunday, another thrift gift from Diane.  This is very pleasant, beautifully professional gospel, though not a type I'm crazy about.  However it's a type whose history interests me a lot, so I'm happy to have this.  It seems like a significant early example of the genre known as Jesus Music, aka Contemporary Gospel, aka (to use the most common phrase) Praise Music.  I recall that such music wasn't well received by older folks at the time (1970s), though this gentle example, with its Adult Contemporary edge and general lack of rock and roll feeling, would likely have gone over better than, say, Petra.  This is from 1976.  Light Records was connected with Word, as the back jacket's Waco, Texas address suggests--and I've always wanted to type "Texas address suggests."  

It's tempting to regard this LP as possibly an attempt to placate the enemies of Praise, but it seems to have been a standard brand of gentle (and, clearly, black-influenced) Praise.  I say this after listening to the original version of Side One, Track 5--It Wouldn't Be Enough--by the Archers.  So, this is Praise Music when it first hit the big time.  Cool.

The other originally-by-the-Archers track is You Are My Inspiration.  An André Crouch number starts the LP, and there are four tracks penned by arranger/conductor Don Norville.  A second black gospel number follows the Crouch track--Danniebelle Hall's All Things Work Together.  The sole "traditional" track is by good ol' Charles H. Gabriel, with lyrics by the Canadian-born Civilla Martin--the 1905 masterpiece, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, a gospel song frequently mistaken for a spiritual.  Certainly an interesting treatment, with something close to a Herb Alpert feel in the "Sing because I'm happy" part.

As I noted, these tracks couldn't possibly be more skillfully produced and performed, though I did find the second side slightly soporific.  To be fair, that could be the fault of my suffering sinuses and not the music.

And as I reflect on my short essay, it occurs to me that Praise Music (I'm on a capitalization kick tonight) appeared at least a decade before the 1970s.  Two very important examples occur to me: The songs of Bill and Gloria Gaither and those of Doris Akers.  They definitely belong to the genre.  And I see there's yet another label in use for modern gospel: Contemporary worship music (CWM).  Now, that's certainly specific.  Anyway, Wikipedia says that CWM goes back to 1960.  Also known as "praise and worship music," says Wiki.  That seems closer to reality, but too many labels.  However, labels come from the world of marketing, not scholarship, and those of us interested in history shouldn't worry about them when they clash, overlap, or otherwise don't cut it.  Enjoy this excellent example of whatever-it's-called gospel!

DOWNLOAD: The Singing Kolandas (Light Records LS-5689; 1976)

Take Me Back (Crouch)
All Things Work Together (Hall)
You Are My Inspiration (Masters)
Lord, You Know I Love You (Norville)
It Wouldn't Be Enough (Aldridge)
Just to Know He Loves Me (Norville)
His Will (Kolenda)
I Love My Lord (Norville)
Walkin' Love (Norville)
His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Martin-Gabriel)

Lee

A Mess of 45s: The Teeners, Steve and Eydie, Chuck Miller, Sally Sweetland, the Jeweled Recordings label

 

Yes, a mess of forty-fives--hopefully, I haven't made a mess of them. Yuk, yuk.  I'm so fast on the wordplay.

I'm happy, by the way, to discover that I'm hardly the only person unhappy with the new Blogger.  I thought maybe I was overresponding, but I guess not.  Creating a post has become so cumbersome, it's not funny.  I have to make HTML changes for my track listings, for example, and in HTML mode, all the text is bunched together.  Someone had a beef against the world when they made these changes...

Anyway, I recently went to an outdoor/indoor antique show and flea market, and there was the usual crazily-priced stuff, plus some welcome bargains.  I came across one of the latter inside one of the buildings--boxes and boxes of 45s, four for a buck.  (Discs, not boxes.)  The dealer kindly provided me with a chair (at my age, those can be godsends), and I was in flip-through heaven.  Thrifters and show-goers know what flip-through heaven is, and how there's nothing else quite like it.  I even got a free 45 carrier after spending only ten bucks for more than forty of the little records.  Later, I found a "$1 each" sticker inside, suggesting that the discs hadn't moved at that price, so the tab was reduced.  Priced to move.  My favorite pricing scale.

No earth-shaking finds, but lots of cool stuff, including upgrades of vinyl I already have.  Oh, and prior to discovering the table of 45s, I'd bought the "Teeners" and "Rockets" on the Prom label at an outdoor booth.  The banged-up EP was sitting atop some magazines, and I figured it was worth a 50-cent gamble.  Both group names are pseudonyms for the Limelighters, the subject of this great page by Marv Goldberg.  Goldberg gives us a glimpse into how the budget labels worked--I would never have guessed the Today's Records label as the starting point for a group of budget masters.  The two sides--Church Bells May Ring and Little Girl of Mine--are superbly raw and lively 1956 doo wop, and the singers were high school kids!  I hope they got paid more than the spaghetti dinner mentioned...

Two levels of filtering and my 1.2 mil mono stylus rescued the tracks, though it took me three tries.  "I'll get you yet, my pretty," I cackled at one point.

And we get to hear former Artie Shaw and Harry James vocalist Kitty Kallen sing a very nice pop version of Long Lonely Nights (when this turned up, I knew I was in for a fun search), and we also get Doris Day singing a movie title song, Tunnel of Love, which registers close (closely?) enough to rock and roll to be considered same, I think.  We hear two Top 40 Steve Lawrence numbers written by Gerry Goffin and the great Carole King--the so-so Poor Little Rich Girl and the marvelous Walking Proud.  Plus, the also Top 40 I Want to Stay Here, a King-Goffin number I've always loved but didn't realize had been so successful.  In the UK, it was Steve and Eydie's biggest-ever hit, going to #3.  Dusty Springfield was one of the artists who later recorded this gem.  As for the Jeweled Recordings label, this was a new one on me.  I immediately recognized it as one of Tops' stranger attempts at disguise, but it must be uncommon, as Discogs doesn't have it.  The same ol' Dick Warren version of Rock Around the Clock is included on this six-title EP, and it's just a fun mini-mix overall.  

Sally Sweetland is someone I knew from children's recordings, if at all.  Here she is, singing with Hugo Winterhalter's Orchestra from the 1955 RCA Victor set, Platter Party, and dear Lord, what a fabulous voice.  I was not the least bit surprised to discover that her voice was dubbed into a number of 1940s films--she did the singing for many an actress.  That was her speed, and then some.  Her two numbers are total gold, and it's cool to discover that this magnificent singer lived to the age of 103!  So, I just had to start out the set with Sally.  The light surface noise was no match for VinylStudio's filter.

The excellent Mitch Miller instrumental A Very Special Love has a harmonica solo that must be Larry Adler.  Does anyone know?  And I swear I've heard a doo wop version of this tune.  Pat Boone's big hit version of A Wonderful Time up There helped this gospel classic (also known as Gospel Boogie) become widely known, I believe I've read.  It was the first version I ever heard, at least, and I loved it--Boone is superb.  As for Chuck Miller, some folks find his vocal gimmicks hard to take, but you can't complain about his boogie-woogie piano--I wouldn't, anyway.  His eight-bar got him to the Top Ten with The House of Blue Lights, and even though the lyrics describe a party and food, I believe that a "house of blue lights" is a house of, um... you know.  And I was happy to get into my collection the single version of the Bacharach-David Ooooh, My Love, as sung by Vic Damone.  It's kind of bland but pleasant enough, though it doesn't seem to have gotten anywhere on the charts.  The Gateway Top Tune fakes of Teen Age Prayer and Dungaree Doll were especially badly recorded, but I coaxed the fidelity up to mediocre, and the hum-heavy Barry Frank Moonlight Gambler--very well done, imo--showed up for me on a Bell 7" 78, and I wanted to offer my rip, even though Eric was kind enough to share the track a couple months back.  There's likely no difference in sound quality, but I'd had it ripped before I remembered Eric's share, and...

I cannot waste a rip, I guess.  Merv Griffin's horribly engineered The World We Love In (I have five copies, all of them featuring the same oversaturated audio) was the flip side of his almost-Top 100 Banned in Boston.  I didn't include Boston, but I'm sure it's on YouTube.  Georgia Gibbs' 1953 Thunder and Lightning is what critics like to call "dated" (I don't like the term, since styles naturally fall out of fashion--it's a function of the passage of time), but it's very well done.  Nothing remotely like what you'd hear on the radio today.  I never feel older than when I catch the closing acts on The Tonight Show--bizarre synchronized swaying with something remotely like singing happening someplace.  I think modern pop vocalizing is inspired by EVP.  The influence of Ghost Hunters on the Top 40.

Eddy Arnold's The Rockin' Mockin' Bird begs to be placed in the "No way!" category, but I think it works quite well as a rock and roll novelty, with Arnold handling the rhythms with his usual casual skill.  The title alerts us that it wasn't meant to be taken all that seriously, and it's all very professionally done, so lay off it, okay?  Oops--sorry.  Too much caffeine today.  Forgive me.  Anyway, the fidelity is quite vivid for 1956, in contrast to the fidelity on my other copy, which is kind of murky.  Maybe that one came from the end of a pressing cycle.

DOWNLOAD: A Mess of 45s

Autumn Rhapsody (Leight-Alstone)--Sally Sweetland w. Hugo Winterhalter and His Orch. (1955)

I Hope to Remember (Rox)--Same

Long Lonely Nights (Uniman-Abbott-Andrews-Henderson)--Kitty Kallen w. Sid Feller Orch. and Cho. (1957)

I Want to Stay Here (Goffin-King)--Steve and Eydie, 1963

Poor Little Rich Girl (Goffin-King)--Steve Lawrence, Arr. and Cond. by Marion Evans, 1963

Walking Proud (Goffin-King)--Same

Thunder and Lightning (Campbell--Barer)--Georgia Gibbs w. Orch. c. by Glenn Osser, 1953

Tunnel of Love (P. Fisher-Roberts)--Doris Day w. Frank De Vol and His Orch., 1958

Rock Around the Clock--Fred Gibson (aka, Dick Warren)--Jeweled Recordings, 1955?

Seventeen--Chuck Morgan (Same)

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing--The Toppers, Bill Cornell Orch. (Same)

Ain't That a Shame--Tony Benson (Same)

Yellow Rose of Texas--Unknown (Same)

Wake the Town--The Toppers, Ray Charles Orch. (Same)

Church Bells May Ring (Willows-Craft)--The Rockets (The Limelighters), Buddy Lucas Orch., 1956

Little Girl of Mine (Goldner-Cox)--The Teeners (the Limelighters), Buddy Lucas Orch., 1956

A Very Special Love (Song for the Ninth Day)--Mitch Miller, 1957

Teen Age Prayer--Eileen Scott w.Herbie Layne's Orch. and Chorus, 1955

Dungaree Doll--Art Rouse w. Herbie Layne's Orch., 1955

The World We Love In (Raye-Mogol-Toang)--Merv Griffin w. Side Bass Orch. and Chorus, 1961

The Rockin' Mockin' Bird (Charlie Singleton-Rose Marie McCoy) Eddy Arnold, 1956

Ooooh, My Love (Bacharach-David)--Vic Damone w. Jimmy Carroll and His Orch., 1958

The House of Blue Lights (Don Raye-Freddie Slack)--Chuck Miller, 1955

A Wonderful Time up There (Abernathy)--Pat Boone, Orch. and Chorus c. by Billy Vaughn, 1958

Moonlight Gambler (Hilliard-Springer)--Barry Frank, Jimmy Carroll and Orch., 1957

Lee