This made-in-Holland ten-incher showed up during my latest Goodwill trip, and how could I pass up that fabulous cover? And, it turns out, the music is terrific, too, especially if you're in the mood for a Sh-Boom cover by a popular Dutch singing duo (the Melody Sisters). I'm giving some thought to posting Sh-Boom at Lee's Fake Hits (YouTube), except that it doesn't really qualify as such, since it's not a budget knockoff. Still, I could stretch the rules--it's my channel, after all.
And I just now realized I had misread "Wally Stott" as "Wally Scott," which explains why I couldn't find anything out about her, despite conducting what I thought was a thorough Google search. Seems Stott was Angela Morley, born Walter Stott in England and working as an arranger and recording director for the Dutch Philips label. She became a transgender woman in 1972. Here, Stott's orchestra performs the Dave Cavanaugh number The Cat From Coos Bay. As a composer, Stott/Morley was best known for The Goon Show, The Little Prince, and Watership Down.
And... an excellent mood music rendering of Charlie Chaplin's Smile by Orchestra Michel Legrand, as the credit reads. Then, the internationally successful Dutch Swing College Band with Muskrat Ramble in excellent hi-fi mono. Thus ends Side 1.
Side 2 opens with Trinidadian pianist Winifred Atwell's Let's Have a Party, featuring the 1920s hits If You Knew Susie..., The More We Are Together, and That's My Weakness Now, plus Knees up Mother Brown, a British music hall classic credited here as a folk (traditional) number. Mother Brown was memorably recorded by Merv Griffin with Freddy Martin in 1950, most probably as a follow-up to Merv's smash hit, I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.
Then, Danish violinist Sven Asmussen's orchestra and chorus with Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do It Again, covering (far as I can determine) The Four Tunes. After which, harmonicist Jean Wetzel performs The Touch (from Touches pas au Grisbi) with Jean Wiener and His Trio. Things conclude with Giampiero Boneschi directing the Melodicon Children Chorus in Aveva un bavero, with the Children sounding more like over-18s. Come 1970, Boneschi became known for his electronic music. At least one of his electronic pieces (The Latest Fashion) was utilized as soundtrack music for Space: 1999.
DOWNLOAD: Continental Juke Box No. 1, 1954 (?)
The Cat From Coos Bay--The Wally Stott Orchestra
Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)--The Melody Sisters and Black and White w. Orchestral Accompaniment
Smile (From the film "Modern Times")--Orchestra Michel Legrand
Muskrat Ramble--Dutch Swing College Band
Let's Have a Party: If You Knew Susie.../The More We Are Together/That's My Weakness Now/Knees up Mother Brown--Winifred Atwell and Her "Other Piano"
Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do It Again--Svend Asmussen and His Orch. and Chorus
The Touch--Jean Wetzel, Harmonica With Jean Wiener and His Trio
Aveva un bavero--The Melodicon Children Chorus, Dir. Giampiero Boneschi
(Philips B 10156 R)
Lee