No particular theme to this VA playlist: From John D. Loudermilk to Piano Red (aka, Willie Lee Perryman, aka Dr. Feelgood), from Villa-Lobos to Julius Fucik to Carole King, and from Si Zentner to Leadbelly to Pat Boone, it's pretty much any LP track or single I've looked at recently and said, "This would make a nice post." Or a portion thereof. Any VA playlist featuring the Checkers, Larry Williams, and Tony Bennett is (in my utterly unbiased viewpoint) a playlist to be cherished.
In addition to Bud Shank's jazz take on I Am the Walrus, there are at least three other Beatles links: 1) Donna Lynn's version of I'd Much Rather Be With the Girls (originally Boys), a Keith Richard-Andrew Loog Oldham number slightly controversial for its day in sexual-orientation terms, with the Stones (along with the Dave Clark Five) having been maybe the Beatles' chief rivals, and with Donna Lynn's chief claim to fame her Top 100 novelty, My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut, and 2) Pat Boone's 1965 Say Goodbye, penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David--the link being the Burt song included (along with Carole King's Chains) on the Beatle's first album and 3) Larry William's 1958 classic Dizzy, Miss Lizzy, which is usually associated with the Beatles' cover from Beatles VI (U.S.) and Help! (UK). Then, 4) the Dr. Feelgood (Piano Red) recording of Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo, which the artist had recorded earlier (in 1950), and which dates back at least as far as 1929. The Beatles connection? Right String was recorded in 1958 by Carl Perkins, who played a huge role in the early sound of the Beatles. Our four Fab Four connections. Well, five, actually (including Shanks). And a sixth, if we want to get technical: 6) Leadbelly's 1944 In New Orleans, a bordello ballad better known as House of the Rising Sun (often, with the female narrator switching gender). Sun, of course, was a huge hit for another major British Invasion act, The Animals. Is there a seventh link?
Yes, a desperate one: The fact that Tony Bennett and The Beatles both abbreviate to T.B. No, I won't go there.
The other gems: Susie's House, an excellent rockabilly number by John (Tobacco Road) Loudermilk on Columbia during Mitch Miller's reign (!), and the early (1953) doo-wop classics Without a Song and The White Cliffs of Dover (the versions, not the numbers)--a King single thrifted by me maybe 25 years ago, while the Tommy/Jimmy Dorsey Bell label Marie and Green Eyes single was originally thrifted by me about 50-plus years (!) ago. That copy has since been replaced.
Yes, a desperate one: The fact that Tony Bennett and The Beatles both abbreviate to T.B. No, I won't go there.
The other gems: Susie's House, an excellent rockabilly number by John (Tobacco Road) Loudermilk on Columbia during Mitch Miller's reign (!), and the early (1953) doo-wop classics Without a Song and The White Cliffs of Dover (the versions, not the numbers)--a King single thrifted by me maybe 25 years ago, while the Tommy/Jimmy Dorsey Bell label Marie and Green Eyes single was originally thrifted by me about 50-plus years (!) ago. That copy has since been replaced.
I was a huge Tommy Dorsey fan as a kid, and I remember, when I finally thrifted an RCA Victor TD 78 set, deciding that these 1954 Bell remakes were far superior to the originals (even prior to hearing the 1941 J.D. Green Eyes). Had I heard the originals first, maybe I'd be declaring the newer versions inferior. We'll never know. And my ATFV (Alternate Time Flow Viewer) is on the fritz.
The 1962 Dr. Feelgood (Piano Red) Right String... sounds very much like the same artist's 1950 rendition, the main difference being the louder dynamics here. As for the flip--What's Up, Doc--we have some of the most blatantly suggestive lyrics since Howlin' Wolf's Mr. Highway Man. Red's two 1957 RCA Victor sides, taken from a promo EP (with June Valli on the flip!) have Perryman's style tweaked to sound like the then-current r&r. It didn't take much tweaking.
Don't expect an avant-garde jazz rendering of I Am the Walrus--It's nice, but more like the lite or smooth variety. And from the Pickwick Happy Time label, and thrifted in the wrong jacket, there's Julius Fucik's classic circus march, Entry of the Gladiators (as Gladiators March) played at an amazing tempo and recorded without much treble--and I see that I ripped it under the proper title. I'd correct this, but that would mean having to redo the mp3 tagging and image-inserting. Ain't modern tech amazing?
Also, two cool TV spy classics, with (who else?) the Harmonicats giving us the Avengers theme and Si Zentner with a terrific rendering of Pete Rugolo's Fugitive title music. Then, Bacharach and David in pop-folk mode with 1958's Ooooh, My Love, beautifully crooned by Vic Damone--and, for contrast, a rocking 1955 version of Bernice Petkere's 1933 Close Your Eyes by Tony Bennett. Next, in the further service of disunity, Andre Kostelanetz with an excellent reading of Heitor Villa-Lobos's 1930 The Little Train of the Caipira, and Jan Garber's Orchestra in an outstanding 1961 rendition of the Dixieland classic, That's a Plenty, in plenty stereo from a Motorola/Decca demo LP (which hawks "the phantom third channel"). Plenty started life as a 1914 ragtime piano solo by Lew (Charmaine) Pollack.
DOWNLOAD: Various Artists for May 2024
Susie's House--John Loudermilk, 1958
Wild Fire--Piano Red, 1957
Rock, Baby--Same
Devil or Angel--The Clovers, 1965 (Lana Records remake)
Marie--Tommy Dorsey and His Orch., Feat. Jimmy Dorsey, V: Gordon Polk, 1954
Green Eyes--Same, V: Johnny Amoroso, Lynn Roberts, 1954
Ooooh, My Love--Vic Damone With Jimmy Carroll and His Orch., 1958
The Little Train of the Caipira--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch.
Gladiators March--Unknown (Pickwick)
Say Goodbye--Pat Boone, 1965
Until Yesterday--Tony Bennett With Percy Faith and His Orch., 1953
The Fugitive Theme--Si Zentner and His Orch., 1964
Theme from The Avengers--Jerry Murad's Harmonicats, 1967
In New Orleans--Leadbelly, 1944
That's A Plenty--Jan Garber and His Orch., 1961
I'd Much Rather Be With the Girls--Donna Lynn, 1965
Without a Song--The Checkers, 1953
Dizzy, Miss Lizzy--Larry Williams, 1958
I Am the Walrus--Bud Shank, 1968
Randy--Earl-Jean, 1964
Close Your Eyes--Tony Bennett, 1955
Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo--Dr. Feelgood and the Interns, 1962
What's Up, Doc--Same
White Cliffs of Dover--The Checkers, 1953
Lee
19 comments:
This is a glorious mix of genres, artists and song versions. I think I know most of these tunes, but not necessarily in these versions. Will be fun to listen - thanks!
Like Buster said: Will be fun to listen ! Thanks Lee for taking the time ...
Buster and Ravel,
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy.
Love these crazy collections, Lee. Thanks so Much!
Quite the musical feast to snack on here! Looking forward to listening to some of this and commenting later. It's been a while since you have done a post like this. Quite a few of my faves are included here!
No wonder you like the Bell "Marie" so much; it looks like they kicked up the tempo and made it twice as fast than the original RCA recording, with a Jimmy saxophone solo instead of the muted trumpet solo by Bunny Berigan on the original RCA recording. Johnny Amoroso does a great job on "Green Eyes", while the band's playing and Jimmy's solo in the bridge brings to mind the great work the band did on their final album, The Fabulous Dorseys in HI-FI. Lynn Roberts does a great job on the Helen O'Connell parts, perhaps even better than Helen, and certainly better than the "Fontanna Orchestra"
"Susie's House" was a real surprise. The few times I have heard from this prolific singer-songwriter are usually tame Country-Pop numbers, yet this record is so different; it sounds like Loudermilk is demoing a song for Eddie Cochren, that he could have done had he lived a lot longer. great Rockabilly sound on that one.
While "Rock, Baby" is pretty much standard R&B with a Rock twist, with a vocalist that sounds like a forerunner of Chubby Checker's vocal style, "Wild Fire" is a solid instrumental piano stomper. This song would have been perfect for B. Bumble and the Stingers to record in the wake of their success with "Nut Rocker". There is also some solid Jazz mixed in with the R&B.
BTW, which artist is on the flip side of the Piano Red 45? Those '50's RCA promos usually have two singles on the same EP.
"ooh, My Love' is a repost. Great side from the former Vito Farinola. That song appears on LP on the Harmony compilation album Vic Damone Sings:
Theme From The Avengers is probably the most hip I have heard the Harmonicats play since their What's New Harmonicats?It could have done without the sound effects, though. Kind of a cross between the Ventures and The Three Suns.
Really good, and different, take on The Fugitive from Si Zentner. I have long considered Mr. Zentner the best successor of Tommy Dorsey's original trombone style. He had some great Big Band sides in the wake of his huge success with "Up A Lazy River." Like the guitar licks on this!
"Close Your Eyes" is one of the few sides that Tony Bennett did that has an actual "Rock" beat behind him. Good saxophone solo on this. It is real good, however I still prefer Doris Day and Paul Weston's version of the tune, released three years later on Doris' Day By Night album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bufTt76DQ8
Really, really like the Pat Boone selection! he had so many great tunes released after the charts largely ignored him after "Speedy Gonzalez", that he has a vast archive of lost gems and should-have-been hits like the one featured here.
Also, I have my own copy of the Tony Bennett Blue Velvet album. Mostly previously released B-sides of his big hits that are more of the heartbreak variety, with the exception of the previously unreleased I'ts So Peaceful in the Country, recorded during the sessions for The Beat of my Heart album.
Hell, yeah!!
How about Bill Brown's bass voice on the Checkers sides!
Ernie,
You're welcome! I love coming up with hodgepodge playlists.
musicman1979,
I have that Harmony LP--"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" is probably its best track, though I bought it for the Burt. Later, I landed the 45, though I don't remember where. The Loudermilk is also interesting in the context of "Mitch Miller never allowed rock and roll," which he in fact did on a number of occasions. I think his main beef with r&r was his inability to profit from it. And June Valli is the flipside artist! Her two tracks are a more-or-less rocker, plus a Leiber-Stoller song. I'd thought of including them.
Agree on the "Avengers" sound effects, and I can't say enough about the "Fugitive" theme. Zenter does it completely in the spirit of the actual title music, which a swinging, eight-to-the-bar pulse. A UK reader told me that, after hearing "Close Your Eyes," for years he though of Tony as a r&r singer! Glad you like the Bell Dorsey--It still backs an aural wallop 50 years after I first heard it. And I can't believe I just typed "aural wallop."
I'm a big fan of Pat--his music, at least. It's ridiculous that he's not in the R&R Hall of Hype--er, Fame. He did much to bring the music to the charts, and the critical hatred against him shouldn't trump the historical record. But it will continue to, of course.
lafong,
I love Brown's voice! Nothing like bass-lead R&B vocal music. The Checkers were a more rocking version of the Ravens, really.
Boone has been bad-mouthed by the cognoscenti for the last 50 plus years for having the audacity to cover R and B songs.."ripping them off", you know. Sniff, sniff.
Truth is, he's no different than uncounted others who have dared to cross genres.
Did they bitch when Faron Young recorded "Don't Take Your Love From Me"? Or when Gene Krupa cut "Panhandle Rag"?
Or when Wynonie did "Bloodshot Eyes" or when Cootie Williams did "Shotgun Boogie"?
They did not. Gee.....I wonder why?
It seems political correctness has been around longer than you might have thought.
Pat's "Moody River" remains on my all-time top 100. You should all go check out writer Gary Daniel Bruce's 2 versions...both under the name "Chase Webster".
I wondered about the lyrics to that song for over 50 years until I finally found the sheet music. It's "vainest knife" rather than "vainest knight".
Get off my lawn.
lafong,
I totally agree re Boone, and why on earth isn't Elvis blasted for the same reason? For instance, his version of "Trying to Get to You" is very much like the R&B original, and of course EP's vocal style at Sun owed a huge debt to Little Junior Parker, whose "Love My Baby" is the obvious template for "Mystery Train." And at the same label, no less. There's no logic to giving Elvis and any number of Brit Invasion stars the right to plunder Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, et al. with no damage to their "authenticity," while God forbid a "pop" act venture into blues, country, or R&B territory. Anyone not beloved by the critics had better stay in his or her niche, whereas Zepp, the Stones, and Elvis could take any stylistic turn they chose. Insanely hypocritical.
musicman1979,
I meant to mention the UK popularity of Eddie Cochran, at least when I was stationed in Scotland years ago. I remember my amazement at encountering an entire ROW of Cochran LPs at a Scottish record store--whereupon I learned that Cochran had been a major inspiration for the neo-blues/R&B/rockabilly of the Beatles and the rest. I used to own a Cochran reissue with a 1961 side that could have easily passed as a 1965 Manfred Mann or Searchers track. It's Rolling-Stone-sanctioned for the Fab Four to have been inspired by the Everlys, Chuck Berry, and Leadbelly, but forget the more obvious IN THE MOMENT inspirations like Cochran, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, or (no way) Bobby Vee. Only the correct influences are officially acknowledged. Forget the teen idols, girl groups, or "minor" rockabilly names.
I do have to agree with you on the Vic Damone cut on the LP. That is probably my favorite version of that song, even though Carmen McRae did a decent treatment of it over at Mainstream Records, appaearing on the LP's Second To None and Alife. Some of the Damone cuts on that Harmony album come from the LP's That Towering Feeling! and On the Swingin' Side, which Collectables reissued on CD 24 years ago; I was able to get a copy in the Spring of 2001. His opening version of "Out of Nowhere" is probably one of my favorite versions of that particular song, if not my all-time favorite.
Great comments on Pat Boone. I do share the same religious beliefs as he does, plus he was a great singer. A lot of his albums are really good. There are still several mid-'60's Dot albums from him that I am still looking to add to my collection.
And I do remember a Piano Red/June Valli 45. However, I thought it was a collaboration than two 45s together. From what you commented, her two sides could be "Strictly Sentimental" and "Will You Still Be Mine."
musicman1979,
Those are the titles! I think the first has something of a r&r feel, with its "stop-time" opening, a la "Hoochie Coochie Man." Columbia and RCA both attempted to find a rock-and-roll middle ground but mostly failed at same. At the same time, between the two labels, Guy Mitchell, June Valli, The Four Voices, and even Doris Day did some acceptable straight-on R&R. And, of course, RCA recorded its share of rocking blues numbers. Columbia's great missed opportunity, imo, was in not allowing the Four Voices to stay in an R&B/R&R mode, which they did so superbly with "Honest Darling" and "Lovely One," both of which received Alan Freed and Porky Chedwick promotion. The FV could easily have captured the teen audience for C., and I think they were far more capable than even the Crew-Cuts.
And back to lafong's point about genre-crossing. RS, NYT, NPR, et al. make a huge deal out of stylistic combinations, treating a dirt-common pop music event as if it were epic and out of the ordinary. It's insane to posit an everyday phenomenon as the lifeblood of rock evolution.
I have the original stock copy of the Valli 45. And I just saw today on E-Bay an album that Jimmie Haskell did called Sing A Song of the Beatles on Tower Records, using the same backing track concept as the album you posted here a year ago on Capitol Records. I prefer The Beatles' version of Dizzy Miss Lizzie over Larry Williams, primarily because of John Lennon's expressive lead vocals, coming a close second to the worn-out, yet wild treatment, he gave to Twist and Shout.
Eddie, Gene Vincent, Bill Haley and Buddy Holly are held in such high esteem in UK/Europe because they toured there...unlike nearly all USA-based rock and rollers of the period. Eddie was killed there and I think there is a monument at the accident site.
Lee:
"why on earth isn't Elvis blasted for the same reason?"
Have you spent any time perusing the comments section under various Presley-related posts on Youtube??
Blasta-plenty!
Many, many of them are polluted by agenda-driven born-yesterday mouth breathers who have swallowed whole the previously referred to cognoscenti pablum.....with immediate references to Crudup or Roy Brown or The Eagles or Penniman, et al. "Ripping them all off".........
Like millions of Americans born before or during WWII who had even a remote interest in music, Elvis grew up twisting the dial on AM radio during a time when extensive variety was to be had on AM alone.
He was exposed to and fluent across genres. Se habla Bing Crosby, Bob Wills, The Mills Brothers, Harry Owens, Louis Jordan, Mahalia Jackson, Jo Stafford, The Ink Spots, Hank Snow and on and on.
It would have been astonishing if he were not fluent and if his recording career did not reflect that.
It's quite convenient that the agenda-driven mouth breathers either:
1: Do not know that, in which case they should be summarily dismissed from any further consideration
or
2: Do know that, but prefer to be disingenuous in the name of the agenda and maintaining their credentials. To do otherwise would be the worst of form, don't you know? Sniff sniff. To quote my childhood friend Ernest Tubb: "That won't do, neighbor".
Kindly continue to remain off my lawn.
lafong,
I wasn't aware that the "cognoscenti pablum" had switched from "Elvis invented rock and roll" to "Elvis was a crook." And please don't twist my words. My comments about Little Junior Parker's vocal style (which Elvis was instructed by Sam Phillips to mimic) are in answer to the idiot trope that r&r started at Sun. In other words, nothing personal against Elvis, who never claimed to be the originator of the music. And I have never in my life trashed any artist, musical or otherwise, for displaying versatility. If you want to debate, try doing it in the real world.
Lee:
We are on the same side of all of these issues as far as I can see.
I guess maybe you've misinterpreted my posts. Possibly because I facetiously refer to my lawn? Not that I have one.
Yes, it is an idiot trope that R and R started at Sun. I can't imagine Elvis or Sam would say that with a straight face. Although Sam was a character. Did you see his drunken appearance on Letterman?
I'm not debating anyone. I'm just venting my spleen about the predictable knee-jerk reactions about Presley I see on Youtube.
The people I refer to on Youtube do contend that Elvis is "ripping off" whoever. That's their simplistic point. They parrot the cognoscenti opinion that has arisen post-1970 about R and R in general and Elvis specifically.
I suppose they would prefer that he had never recorded Junior's "Mystery Train"? To Junior's benefit.
At any rate, peace. I enjoy this forum and your posts specifically.
lafong,
Thanks, and sorry for misreading things.
A diverse conglomeration of genres & record labels. I am grabbing this download, mostly because I want to hear Donna Lynn's version of a classic Stones song.
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