County and Western Hits (Diplomat D2398)--The Green Valley Singers (yeah, right)

 

This turned up on a recent thrift trip, and I was a little dismayed when my Stanton 500 failed to coax good sound from these grooves, even when I employed my wider, 1.5 mil needle.  As a last resort, I tried my light-tracking stylus and cart, and... bingo.  Acceptable audio.  Now, all I had to do was widen the spindle hole so I could properly position the off-center pressing.  (The majority of turntables, unfortunately, fail to employ the genius innovation of those old Dual tables: a removable spindle.)  So, I used one of these:

Very handy tool for widening spindle holes.  It did the trick, and thus the LP was saved from a trip to the Failed Thrift Find File, also known as my bedroom wastebasket.

So, we have to wonder, does Country & Western Hits deliver on the promise of the title?  Well, it depends on how technical we choose to be.  Because, yes, the playlist does contain country hits, but we're only talking four out of the ten tracks--though forty percent isn't bad for SPC, I don't suppose.  The genuine county fakes (genuine fakes?) consist of Wolverton Mountain, a huge 1962 hit for Claude King, Young Love, a big hit for Sonny James and a number of other folks, including (gag!) Donny Osmond in 1973 (Despite that awful 1973 memory, I like the number), Four Walls, a huge hit for Jim Reeves, and always nice to hear in any halfway competent version, plus Heartaches by the Number, a country hit for Ray Price, and a monster pop hit for Guy Mitchell (maybe my favorite Mitchell record).  And... that's it.  Those are the four actual country hits.

The other six?  A very amusing Willie Francis reggae number (!) called I'm Going to Change Everything, which may or may not have been covered by a country artist or two, though I've found no evidence one way or the next.  (Correction: With the slight title change, I'm Gonna Change Everything, this was recorded by Jim Reeves and Dean Martin.  Oops!  Thank you, Anonymous.)  Plus, Cheyenne (aka, Shy Ann) and San Antonio, both of them early-1900s novelty hits by Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alystyne (the former recorded in 1906 by Billy Murray), which are probably here only because of their P.D. status.  Also, a Frankie Avalon number, Don't Throw Away Those Teardrops, which sounds more or less like country in treatment, though the actual title is Don't Throw Away All Those Teardrops.  Then we have J. Fred Coots' (!) Boy in Buckskin , which was a standard SPC/Premier Albums, Inc. budget filler track.  It has a nice Mitch-Miller-chorus feel to it, and composer Coots is the man who gave us Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, so it's kind of nice to have.  Lastly, there is Country Boy, a 1960 hit for Fats Domino that SPC must have tossed in because it has "country" in the title.

So, we get four (correction: five!) fake-hit country sides and six  five fake country numbers.  All part of what SPC calls "the best in recorded entertainment."  Well, it was entitled to its own self-estimation.

A fun budget rip-off, and I'm happy I was able to sound-save it.  As for the Green Valley Singers, there was no such outfit, of course.  Had there been, we might expect them to perform "Good Things in the Garden" (the Jolly Green Giant jingle).  

To the fakes...

DOWNLOAD: Country & Western Hits (Diplomat D2398)

Wolverton Mountain
Young Love
Don't Throw Away Those Teardrops (aka, Don't Throw Away All Those Teardrops)
Boy in Buckskin (J. Fred Coots)
Cheyenne (Williams-Van Alstyne)
I'm Gonna Change Everything
Four Walls
Country Boy
Heartaches By the Number
San Antonio (Williams-Van Alstyne)

Country & Western Hits--The Green Valley Singers (Diplomat D2398; Synthetic Plastics Co.)

Lee