How could I possibly have passed up a Singing Science Records "Ballads for the Age of Science" LP called Space Songs, with Tom (pre-On Top of Spaghetti) Glazer, Dottie Evans, and the Tony Mottola Orchestra directed by Hecky Krasnow, with lyrics by Hy (Unchained Melody) Zaret and music by Lou Singer? I ask you. I think Volunteers of America wanted $1.20 for it, and I thought, "This'll be different." And it is.
Label: Motivation Records, a division of Argosy Music Corporation, and packed with clever, catchy songs for the classroom. My favorite is probably Gravity, which Guy Mitchell and Mindy Carson would have had a ball (no pun intended) with: If the Earth is a ball, why don't we fall off, While it spins around; If the Earth is a ball, why don't we all go flying off the ground? Yeah, why is that? Well, the Earth has a force that pulls and draws all matter toward its core. And the pull of the force called "gravity" is why we don't fall off. Ahhhh... now I see.
Dottie Evans I know as a singer for Enoch Light on the Waldorf label, and she is excellent here. Unusually clever lyrics and ingenious melodies (many P.D.-familiar) combine to make a highly entertaining offering. And I had to promise myself to limit my manual click repairing to the loudest clicks--otherwise, I'd have been another week fixing this. Well-recorded but not the best pressing. Actually, when the label is "Motivation Records," the experienced collector isn't expecting background silence.
Other gems: What Is the Milky Way, Beep Beep (Here Comes the Satellite), and Why Does the Sun Shine? And the second number had me curious as to how many satellites we had in orbit when this LP was made (in 1959). Answer: Only 14. Imagine when the space-junk count was that low, way back when I was two.
And What Is a Shooting Star? (A shooting star is not a star, Is not a star at all; A shooting star's a meteor that's heading for a fall) has confirmed my correct guess that a meteorite is a meteor after it has burned and/or broken up in our mesosphere. Anyway, a surprisingly entertaining classroom album, or maybe not so surprising, given the talent involved. Other LPs in this series include Energy and Motion Songs, Nature Songs, and Weather Songs.
DOWNLOAD: Space Songs--Tom Glazer, Dottie Evans.zip FLAC
Zoom a Little Zoom (Rocket Ship)
What Is the Milky Way
Constellation Jig
Beep Beep (Here Comes the Satellite)
Why Does the Sun Shine
What Is a Shooting Star?
Longitude and Latitude
It's a Scientific Fact
Ballad of Sir Isaac Newton
Friction
Why Are Stars of Different Colors
Why Do Stars Twinkle
What Is Gravity
Planet Minuet
Why Go Up There
Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans, Tony Mottola Orchestra, 1959
Lee
12 comments:
Great find, Lee! In all my years of collecting, I think the only record in this series I've ever come across was the Weather one. No idea where it's at in my collection now, but I remember being excited to find it at one point. Thanks for rescuing it!
This is excellent! Thanks! Is there anyway we can get this in mp3, please and thanks?
Ernie,
That's interesting--I didn't realize these were so rare, though I'm not surprised. It was a pleasure rescuing this one, since it's so ingeniously done.
Anon.,
Here's the album in MP3 format: https://1drv.ms/u/c/d9eca755aac45d10/IQBLEH9oY1eMRpwtFH4aozl3AShKXkDoLqVgXj19PrBiThQ?e=YEWTZc
The song "Why Does The Sun Shine" was recorded by the alternative rock group They Might Be Giants in 1993 and became famous in certain circles. They later recorded an updated version, "Why Does The Sun Really Shine", which changes the lyrics to better reflect our current understanding of the science. The original goes "the sun is a mass of incandescent gas", while the later version changes it to "a miasma of incandescent plasma".
Anyway, very cool to encounter the original version!
Did not know the Tony Mottola / Enoch Light connection! Thank you for posting.
Thanks, Lee, for sharing this. The MP3 version I collected some years ago has no Snap, but a lot of Crackle and Pop to it. So, this will gladly replace that version.
I thought I had the Energy and Motion Songs album too, but currently, I cannot locate it. So, maybe it was only a dream.
Anyway, glad you are back. I, like many others, have missed you and your collection of copy-cats and covers.
I must say, this is a real treat. Thanx......
Maybe this post will inspire Buster to finish up his 20-song Dottie Evans post in the back room on his blog. Fascinating find.
Brett--
Thanks! That's very interesting.
Domenic--
Yes, Mottola had a long run on Enoch's labels, including Grand Award, Command, and Project 3.
Byran--
Thanks for the welcome back, and happy to get a better rip of this excellent LP to you!
Timmy--
My pleasure!
musicman1979--
Glad you enjoyed. Having only heard Dottie on Enoch-Light-produced fakes, I didn't realize how very gifted she was!
I never knew this album exisisted, thanks for postinhg it.
lordofthebotsale,
Sure. And this was new to me, too.
Post a Comment