Memorable mono media, Part 2! Mike Pedicin Quintet, The Impacts, Dixiebelles, Joe Dodo and the Groovers, more!

 

For the sake of alliteration, I should have called this post "More Memorable Mono Media," but the "more" is kind of ambiguous, so "Part 2" it is.  And my favorite track of the bunch, the Mike Pedicin Quintet's version of Shake a Hand! (played in fast tempo, unlike the Faye Adams and Elvis versions) presented restoration challenges, since someone at some point point must have played it with a bent needle.  Here's the VinylStudio display, complete with numerous splices, about 19 in all:

I just ordered a new Shake a Hand! from Discogs, though I did manage to get acceptable audio from my battered copy.  Shake a Hand! is the 16th track in this playlist, while things start out with the Dixiebelle's Rock, Rock, Rock ("...put it in a pock"), the flip side of (Down at Papa Joe's).  Wikipedia reports that, at least for the hit side, the Dixiebelles were members of the Anita Kerr Singers!  Then, ? and the Mysterians' Midnight Hour, which is not a cover of the Wilson Pickett hit but pure garage-band drone.  This is followed by an alternate take of the Five Satins' In the Still of the Night flip side, The Jones Girl, featuring a single-note sax solo for the ages.  Next, the early (1952) r&r number, There's No Other Way by the Jackson Brothers Orchestra on RCA Victor, a track which strongly anticipates Bill Haley on Decca, then the Lenny-Dee-cowritten Plantation Boogie by Buddy Cole and the Wood Sisters, and then the marvelous 1956 Ooo-Poppa-Doo by former Louis Prima vocalist Lilyann Carol on the Mercury label.

We move on to Angel of Love, an almost-rock-and-roll number rendered by the superb Four Voices, co-written by Fred (Big Ten Inch Record) Weismantel, and featuring brilliant work by tenor Allan Chase, who unfortunately failed to launch a successful solo career at Columbia.  The Four Voices were the all-time perfect pop-vocal/doo-wop hybrid of the 1950s, and it's a shame they weren't encouraged to record more sides like this one and their one big hit, Lovely One (the remake of which I previously featured).  Then, C&W/r&r with Pee Wee King--the 1956 Ballroom Baby, followed by the Ray Charles Singers with Al-Di-La (one of my all-time favorite singles), Ronnie Hawkins with a 1959 retitling of Chuck Berry's Thirty Days (adding ten days for Forty Days), and then Steve Lawrence in teen-pop mode singing Gene Pitney's Tears From Heaven.

Co-written by Percy Faith (!), Rockin' and Yodelin' is, true to its title, an exercise in rock and roll yodeling, with Cathy Johnson skillfully managing both aspects, and then it's on to pure doo-wop with the Impacts (Canadian Sunset), a disc I first owned on its original label, RCA--and I believe it was the very first doo-wop side of my collection.  Then, Jonnie Ray with Such a Night, accompanied (according to Google's AI) by Paul Weston, a fine cover of Long Lonely Nights by Kitty Kallen, and the Mike Pedicin Quintet with their classic fast-tempo take on Shake a Hand! (see label and VS images).

The final five numbers: The eccentric Groovy by Joe Dodo and the Groovers (sounding like something concocted by Ray Ellis or Johnny Douglas), the Five Stars' Pickin' on the Wrong Chicken, Don Cherry's Rumble Boogie (written by Eddie Curtis), June Valli out-melodramatizing Elvis with Bob Merrill's Tell Me, Tell Me, and Snooky Lanson providing a fine r&r vocal for 1955's Stop (Let Me Off of the Bus), a Dot side most likely inspired by Rock Around the Clock (and cowritten by Billy Vaughn!).  Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Memorable Mono Media, Pt. 2.zip FLAC

Rock, Rock, Rock--The Dixiebelles w. Cornbread and Jerry, 1963

Midnight Hour--? (Question Mark) and the Mysterians, 1966

The Jones Girl--The Five Satins (Alt. take), 1956

There's No Other Way--Jackson Brothers Orch., 1952

Plantation Boogie (Lenny Dee-Vaughn Horton)--Buddy Cole w. the Wood Sisters, 1955

Ooo-Poppa-Doo--Lilyann Carol and the Jan Raye Quartet, 1956

Angel of Love (Fred Weismantel-Jack Schell)--The Four Voices, 1957

Ballroom Baby (Dick Glasser-C.J. Hall)--Pee Wee King and His Band, 1956

Al Di La--The Ray Charles Singers, 1964

Forty Days (Chuck Berry)--Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, 1959

Tears From Heaven (Gene Pitney)--Steve Lawrence, Arr. and Prod. by Don Costa, 1960

Rockin' and Yodelin' (Carl Sigman-Percy Faith)--Cathy Johnson and Friends, 1955

Canadian Sunset--The Impacts, 1958

Such a Night (Lincoln Chase)--Jonnie Ray, 1954

Long Lonely Nights--Kitty Kallen w. Chorus and Orch. dir. by Sid Feller, 1957

Shake a Hand! (Joe Morris)--The Mike Pedicin Quintet, 1955

Groovy--Joe Dodo and the Groovers, 1958

Pickin' on the Wrong Chicken--Five Stars, 1958

Rumble Boogie (Eddie Curtis)--Don Cherry w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1955

Tell Me, Tell Me (Bob Merrill)--June Valli w. Henri Rene's Orch. and Chorus, 1954

Stop (Let Me off of the Bus)--Snooky Lanson w. Orchestra, 1955

Lee