Given the loving care that Diplomat (Synthetic Plastics Co.) devoted to the cover design, it's obvious that huge sales were anticipated. I mean, every detail spells "excitement," from the barely noticeable upper-margin font, "Greatest Instrumental Hits," to the square turquoise border, inside of which we find a blue border, plus green and blue font. This release screams "Buy me!" By not calling attention to itself, it, um... calls attention to itself? Wait a minute...
$2.99 at the nearest Goodwill (better than the $5.99 vinyl over at Goodwill Unlimited), and I grabbed this because 1) It was senior discount day, plus 2) I knew that these were genuine fakes. Meaning, except for the two big-font titles (which we'll have to assume were provided for this release by "Tony Vincent"), all of the rest are previously-issued Promenade label knockoffs. For-real knockoffs. The real fake deal.
Not surprisingly, I was unable to track down any previous instance of Washington Square on Promenade, even at 45cat, nor any Promenade release of More (The Theme From Mondo Cane), and so we can be reasonably sure that their release year was 1963--that these are the first (and, probably, only) pressings of these fakes. Ye olde routine of placing the titles of two current hits in huge font, with everything else in not-so-huge font--but, for once, the LP was not padded with retitled filler numbers. All but one of these were for-real instrumental hits. Fakes thereof...
We get the "Promenaders" covering the Ventures' Walk, Don't Run, and the "Promenade Orchestra" with Humoresque (and sounding for all the world like a small jazz combo with an amazing Carmen Cavallaro-style ivory tickler). I can't honestly say that I ever possessed such keyboard skills, though I could always lie. Also, there's Josh Logan (normally credited as a vocalist) apparently providing the alto sax for a swipe of Billy Vaughn's 1958 La Paloma, and a twangy guitar for his cover of Bill Justis's Raunchy. That, or else S.P.C. was being especially careless with its attributions. Nah, that's not possible...
Bert Kaempfert receives the knockoff treatment from the Promenade Orch. and Chorus for Wonderland By Night, and Bill King (Bill King?) covers Manhattan Spiritual. And the Roger Williams hit (penned by Norman Petty) Almost Paradise is knocked off by Harvey Jay, for whom this fake is Harvey's (you guessed it) sole Discogs credit.
Works for me: The perfect means by which to get clean pressings of some classic Promenade knockoffs, and at half off of the unreasonable GW price of three bucks. Of course, had this not been mono, I'd have left it in the bin (placed, as ever, on the floor), since the only thing worse than S.P.C. fake stereo is, say, Pickwick's. Anyway, despite my snarky observations, a decent group of classic instrumental hits, reasonably well simulated.
DOWNLOAD: Washington Square--Tony Vincent Orch.zip
Washington Square--Tony Vincent and His Orch., 1963?
Wonderland By Night--The Promenade Orch. and Chorus, 1961
La Paloma--John Logan, 1958
Walk, Don't Run--Promenaders, 1960
Humoresque--Promenade Orch., 1958?
More (From Mondo Cane)--Tony Vincent and His Orch., 1963?
Manhattan Spiritual--Bill King, 1959
Patricia--Jose Gonzales, 1958
Raunchy--John Logan, 1957
Almost Paradise--Harvey Jay, 1957
"Fine Records Need Not Be Expensive."--Back cover.
Lee
7 comments:
"Fine Records Need Not Be Expensive." That's all there's to be said Lee. Thank you for this piece of not so expensive but great piece of musical history.
Always nice to fill some Promenade (NJ) EP gaps. I'm working on a massive re-up of Hit (TN) after many requests Dean at https://anorakrockabilly45rpm.blogspot.com
Record Collector,
That was the classic SPC motto ("Fine records..."). Especially helpful on the SPC fake-hits LPs which used the album title in place of the company name! Yes, a nice time capsule.
Apesville,
Glad this helped fill some gaps--And I think I have all of these in EP form, though I can't swear to it. Can't wait to check out your Hit post when it arrives! I've grown to love that label series (Hit, Modern Sound, et al.).
Do you think they meant for the 'Q' to be askew, or did the typesetting machine drop the letter and they just said to go with it? :) Hard to stomach the Goodwill prices lately, I've certainly had to cut back on buying stuff just to have it. But I don't need anymore records anyhow... :(
Fortunately, my Goodwill is still offering records on the cheap: during the (almost) three weeks when I was unable to post comments, I was able to get quite a few records on the 14th of April. Several of them had 99 cent stickers on them; one was $1.99 (a mid-'60's Mono copy of Andy Williams Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes that still had opened shrinkwrap on the cover), while the unmarked ones were still a quarter. I was able to pick up a handful of Ken Griffin tribute albums from Diplomat, Coronet, and Spin-O-Rama for that price, with the Coronet one (by Charles Rand) being a big surprise.
I am really looking forward to listening to this one! I do want to add that there actually was/is a real singer named Tony Vincent. He was a dance Pop/Rock Christian singer who had several hits between 1995 and 1997 before switching over to a career on Broadway.
Ernie,
Same here. The last thing I need is more vinyl--though that didn't stop me from grabbing this one! And it's all the "vinyl is back" hype. It never occurs to the thrift store managers that 1) the market for vinyl is a tiny one, and 2) most LPs are simply not being sought by anyone. If everything was collectible, there'd be no such thing as "collectible."
musicman1979,
Glad to hear from you. And I enjoy your thrift-store prices--I haven't seen 25-cent thrift LPs since... wow. Forever!
Yes, I encountered that Tony Vincent when checking Discogs. The "real" Tony Vincent, we could call him. And I'm remembering my childhood Salvation Army days (1967 or so): The "little records" (45s) were a nickel, 10-inchers were 10 cents, and "big records" (12-inch) were a quarter. I once tried to argue with a cashier that 12-inch 78s shouldn't cost as much as LPs, since they contain far less audio, but she just repeated, "Big records, 25 cents."
musicman 1979,
Er, I mean, I ENVY your Goodwill prices...
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