And here it is--biggest hits of '59 vol. 2, in living stereo! Sorry for the delay, but I spent the past six days struggling with a mild but persistent bug (I suspect light stomach flu) that had me a bit too queasy to sit long at the PC. I took a Covid test yesterday (just to be sure), and it was negative. As I expected.
Now that I'm almost well, here is/are the utterly fictitious "RCA Camden Rockers" presenting ten (!) entire sound-alikes which also appeared on the Prom label, except these are in stereo. Well, except (ironically) for the opening track, which for some reason features only one channel. Kind of a novel way to start out a "Living Stereo" LP--in mono!
By the way, this is yet another thrift gift from Diane, so... thanks, Diane!
Anyway, all of these were co-released on Prom. But here's the horrifying part--these recordings also appeared on Eli Oberstein's bottom-of-the-barrel Ultraphonic (Record Distributors of New Jersey) label! I do not kid. In short, tracks which passed the nonexistent quality test for Eli's labels were deemed good enough for RCA Camden. My brain is still reeling from this discovery (unless it's my virus at work). Ultraphonic, Prom, and RCA Camden!! I did direct comparison-listens to Mack the Knife, Red River Rock, and the especially awful Put Your Head on My Shoulder, and... perfect Ultraphonic matches. Apparently, come the late 1950s, budget labels were sharing their sound-alikes as never before. Think of it as a budget-label conspiracy.
Did I say awful? Well, Shoulder definitely qualifies in that department (it makes the young Paul Anka sound like Vic Damone), though the rest are reasonably competent--and, most importantly, the stereo sound (save for Bells) and the decent RCA Camden vinyl quality has these cuts sounding far better than they play on the junk SPC and Eli Oberstein pressings. It's amazing how much a performance can benefit from a decent presentation.
I'm not sure I care much for the cover art--it looks like a bunch of people holding a sqaure dance in a phone booth. And there's at least one spot in the composition that makes no sense at all.
Look at the couple on the left--someone seems to be sporting a double face. Then, there's the guy and gal to their right--is the guy wearing a mask, or...? Of course, I expect the ultimate in jacket illustration when it comes to the RCA Camden Rockers. Anyway, rock on!
LINK: biggest hits of '59 vol. 2--RCA Camden Rockers (RCA Camden CAS 552; 1959)
The Three Bells
I'm Gonna Get Married
Sleepwalk
I Ain't Never
Put Your Head on My Shoulder
Mack the Knife
('Til) I Kissed You
Primrose Lane
Red River Rock
Just Ask Your Heart
Lee
20 comments:
To give you an idea how things changed in a few years, Camden's Biggest Hits of '57 featured Robert Alda, Tex Beneke, Stuart Foster and Johnny Guarnieri. There was a nod to country ("Why, Baby, Why") and country-flavored rock 'n' roll ("Teddy Bear," "Bye, Bye, Love," "A White Sport Coat"), but the rest were pop.
Just goes to show that the r&r takeover wasn't instantaneous. I mean, it had been happening by degrees since 1951 or so. You touched on a cool point--namely, RCA's switch to outsourced "fakes," the label evidently deciding that it didn't make financial sense to use its own artists to cover the hit parade.
Lee - Right. Looks like they continued to do mainly pop covers in 1958:
https://www.discogs.com/release/10451148-Various-The-Biggest-Hits-Of-58-Vol-1
At this time, except for the return of Stuart Foster, they assigned a lot of the selections to Hill Bowen of England. There were only a few rock-ish items, among them "The Stroll" and "Betty and Dupree," given to Dave Martin and the Strollers. Has he turned up around here before? The name sounds familiar.
one good thing about this version of "Primrose Lane" is that this version has the second verse which SPC cut on their version on Hits A Poppin 109. I strongly believe that that is King Curtis playing the saxophone solo on this version.
You can certainly tell a little difference in the Stereo Version of "Just Ask Your Heart", (which is John Logan regardless of him being labeled Michael Reed on the original label). You can really hear the instruments a little more clearer compared to the in-your-face Mono version on the SPC original, plus it is also a couple of minutes more than the version found on HAP 109.
By far the best cover on the record is surprisingly their take on the Webb Pierce hit "I Ain't Never", however, SPC did a really good job capturing the flavor of the Lloyd Price sound on "I'm Gonna Get Married." However, the singer brings to mind Sam Cooke's style rather than Lloyd Price. Aside from a few cringe-worthy notes, they did a good job re-creating Paul Anka's "Put Your Head on My Shoulder."
Five of the cuts here--"Primrose Lane", "Till I Kissed You", "Sleepwalk", "The Three Bells", and "Just Ask Your Heart"--also appear on Hits A Poppin 109, so there is half of that record here.
Surprisingly, I had this record in 2008 (in MOno) before I found out that these were SPC cuts; If I would have known that, I would have kept it; now I am on the hunt for another copy.
BTW, the cover artist also did the front cover art for the 1958 RCA LP Let's Dance with The Three Suns.
Thanks, Diane and Lee for a great post! Great to hear these in Stereo.
Dig that crazy art, man! Your ultra close-up section makes MY head reel.
Buster,
Looks like I posted Dave Martin's "The Stroll" from the 1958 LP. Along with Martin, there's Earl Sheldon of Parade, Prom, and (wow!) Capitol. So, it looks like, with the exception of Foster, RCA outsourced. Hill Bowen did a lot for RCA Camden and Readers Digest, didn't he? RCA Camden is the first label I think of when I see his name.
musicman1979,
Thanks for the HAP 109 information--I have a not-so-gently-used copy of that. Your memory is far more precise than mine. While I'm always able to tell whether or not I've heard a particular sound-alike before, I usually can't pinpoint the source. Glad you enjoyed these, and I love your detailed reviews. And I think I know of which Three Suns LP you speak. Oh, and did you notice that, on "I Ain't Never," the label misspells Tillis as "Tellis"?
Diane,
It's one Gonesville cover! Oh, and I just now discovered another phantom face in that tangle of dancers. I hope I'm not hallucinating... Thanks again for this stereo gem.
Buster,
Come to think of it, Sheldon was obviously working for RCA--no outsourcing involved, in his case, even though he had also worked for key "Brand X" labels. Looks like Sheldon joined RCA in 1956.
I've got a few of the entries in this series, but never paid too much attention to them. Shocked to find out that RCA licensed the tracks from elsewhere, though, I really felt that was beneath them. Or was it the other way around, and they licensed the tracks out? Either way, it's very odd and out of character.
7/1/22
RobGems68:
Re: Buster: I have the Camden's Biggest Hits Of 1955. 1956, & 1957, and they all have the artists listed that you described on the album (Robert Alda, Tex Beneke, Stuart Foster, Johnny Guarianeri, and a couple of other performers) but I don't have this album yet in Living Stereo (I have seen it in a couple of thrift shops, but didn't bother to pick up on it. My loss.) All of the performers on the two RCA Camden Rockers albums are anonymous and are not mentioned by artist name like the other Camden albums. Lee's description of the artists as Dave Martin, Earl Sheldon, and John Logan (alias Michael Reed) seem to be correct, as Parade & Prom did lease the tracks. The Camden album does sound much better than any Prom or Parade album in terms of vinyl fidelity, that's for sure.
Re: Lee: RCA's "Brand X" label or "Madame X" label; (whatever the Madame X description was for I don't know, it was RCA's project, so maybe they knew) were usually printed on the labels as simply as "X". They were usually white labels with red logos, except for white label promos, which were white with black logos. The label started in 1953 and ended around 1957. RCA had two counterparts to "X" Records: Groove (for R&B artists) & Vik (for pop & international artists.) R&B pioneer Bob Rolontz was in charge of the Groove imprint from 1954 to 1958. I have yet to find this album again, since I passed up this album (twice!) in a couple of thrift shops. I'm not worried, though, I'm sure it will turn up again in a used record store or antique store.(hopefully in Living Stereo, since mono copies with a "CAL#" prefix also exist.) The album cover's drawing can be described as wild and unsettled, looking like the artist only had a half hour or so to come up with a cover illustration. Maybe a little sloppy, but I've seen much worse album cover photos and drawings. It's surprising that "The Three Bells " is in pure mono on a Living Stereo album and not Stereo-Electronically Reprocessed, an obnoxious gimmick that RCA came up with in 1962 to reissue older mono recordings in fake ersatz stereo. Two other gimmicks that RCA thought up that were equally as annoying to record collectors was 1963's too loud and brassy "Dynagroove" sound and 1971's too flimsy to be believed that it bends "Dynaflex" vinyl. what do you think of these annoying gimmicks RCA conjured up? By the way, my favorite song on this Camden album is "I Ain't Never". "Sleepwalk" is almost as good. Of course they can never match Webb Pierce or Santo & Johnny for being the perfect versions, but they come close. The worst one by far is just what you described. Whoever did "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" cannot match Paul Anka's original. Ironically, of course, Paul Anka would re-record the song for RCA Victor in 1962 on his "21 Greatest Hits", so go figure. Surprisingly, the re-recording would appear on a number of RCA various artists collections.
Ernie,
I was surprised when I first discovered RCA's use of SPC (and Eli Oberstein!) tracks; I don't remember what clued me in. I probably recognized a few of the tracks and then did a comparison. I doubt that these originated with RCA, as they have the standard sound of the SPC/Oberstein cheapies. I think RCA was simply saving money!
RobGems68: Oh, by "Brand X" I was referring to James Koenig's excellent catch-all phrase for the generic-type budget labels (Prom, Masterseal, Tops, Gateway, etc.). I have a few RCA "X" 10-inchers: vintage jazz material, I think. And I've got a handful of Groove 45s--thanks for the background on those. And I agree that the cover artist was likely rushed--that would account for the odd inconsistencies in the composition, though they're kind of fun, actually. Glad you agree on "Shoulder"--I mean, that vocalist was way out of his range--or something. As for RCA's worst contribution to sound recordings, it's kind of a close tie. I mean, the micro-thin LPs are a major pain to deal with, and Dynagroove rivaled Capitol's zero-modulation mono of the 1960s (the engineers must have maxed out the dynamic range for AM radio and cheap phonograph play), but I suppose the winner would have to be electronically reprocessed stereo. There's no excuse for that offense to audio!
Well, I ain't listened to any of these yet, but I did get 'em, so I'll get around to them later, but , got a lot going on right now, so they'll be there when I get there. Here's something nobody's mentioned yet, even though someone (maybe Buster, can't remember, it's all running together right now) talked about the nod to Country in the previous years. The Three Bells was a hit for The Browns that year, but it was recorded previously here.
1952 HITS ARCHIVE: The Three Bells - Les Compagnons de la Chanson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3WAAKIDn7c
Oh and I didn't know Mel Tillis wrote I Ain't Never. I knew he recorded it, but reckon that was some time later. Y'all takin' me back a ways for some of these, love and praying for y'all!
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Phone Ministry: (563) 999-3967
Josh,
Thanks for the fascinating link! I learn something new every day at this blog.
Lee,
You're welcome and reckon I do, too, because, either on that link or the other one I looked at on Youtube on that song, I found out that the same group recorded it even before that, in 1946 (I believe), in French! That's understandable, pardon the pun. Oh and the English version was actually recorded in 1950 (as noted in the first link), but didn't make it across the pond for two more years. Have a blessed Independence Day, love and praying for y'all!
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Phone Ministry: (563) 999-3967
Josh,
"The Three Bells" was also a hit in the US under the name "While the Angelus Was Ringing" in the late 1940s, recorded by Sinatra among others.
I do like the couple in the front dancing in the cover photo.
If you also noticed on your beat-up copy on HAP 109, on side Two, SPC Got away with listing their own soundalike group the Browns on their cover version of "The Three Bells!"
Here is the cover art of the Three Suns LP I mentioned:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184689400440?hash=item2b00589a78:g:AlUAAOSw8btgPMYp
Have a great holiday weekend.
Josh,
Thanks, and same to you!
Buster,
Thanks for that information. I think that, at one time, I knew of that connection, unless I'm having a false-memory memory. (The worst kind!)
Thanks, Lee and Buster, for the info and as Lee said, ya learn something new every day! Oh and that song was recorded by others in the late 40s as well, info in this link.
Les Compagnons de la Chansons - The Three Bells(1952) (Wenn die Glocken hell erklingen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S1vHxuFq2c
Just got back from our church's July 4 (on the 2nd) Picnic and need to shave for tomorrow, so 'til later, love and praying for y'all! P.S., Lee, those false memory memories get me too, especially when Jess says, no, that's not how it happened, or, what are you talking about LOL!
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Phone Ministry: (563) 999-3967
If you ever decide to do a bunch of random fake hits for a post. Unless you have it on one of your Prom EP's, you need to consider sharing with your blog audience the Grasshoppers version of "Poison Ivy" from Hits A Poppin 109. I like it slightly better than the Coasters original. Thanks in advance.
As I listen to Prom's version of "Mack The Knife", the amazing thing is that the singer sounds more like Frankie Laine than Bobby Darin!! But MAN, this has so much energy!! The band is really kickin', and this gives us a glimpse of what a Frankie Laine cover of this song sounds like. Dare I Say it, this "Mack" is even more Jazzy than Bobby Darin's original version!! Great surprise on this disc.
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