Memorable Mono Media, Part 4: Riverieras, Joe Turner, Bill Haley, Johnny Preston, The Originals, more!

 

Another helping of memorable mono media, starting with Johnny (Running Bear) Preston's 1960 cover of Leave My Kitten Alone--according to their own testimony, the model for the Beatles' recording of the song, though the Fab Four version didn't surface until the first Anthology release.  Next, the Southerners (whoever they were) with 1957's Say Yeah, which sounds for all the world like an early soul release, though Google identifies the group as a rockabilly band.  Could be.  Then, from Bill Haley, a novelty originally written and recorded by R&B singer Daniel Dorsey "Danny" Overbea, and further covered nicely by Les Brown and His Band of Renown--Forty Cups of Coffee.  Dick Hyman, who is loved by UK collectors, next gives us a nice bit of Ferrante and Teicher-style Exotica with the 1956 Junglero on MGM.  Lowkey but highly effective.

Continuing, we have a Band of Gold-style shuffle ballad scored by Ray Conniff for Eileen Rodgers, 1957.  Rudolph Toomb's Gum Drop was originally done by Otis Williams and the Charms, and the Mills Brothers do quite well with their R&B-inspired rendition of the same year (1955).  Your True Love, which follows, is a terrific rocker by Carl Perkins, slightly sped up so that Carl sounds younger (that was the intention, anyway).  Can't Wait is a superior 1958 rock and roll ballad by The Del Vikings, and Yea Yea (In the Mood) is a blatant steal from/of I'm in the Mood for Love, sung by a very young-sounding group of kids.  Meanwhile, The Four Voices' 1957 Bon Bon, written by Bob Merrill, is a somewhat silly but effective R&B-style I-vi-ii-V ballad, beautifully sung.  Then, 1956's Over and Over by the all-time great Moonglows, featured in the film Rock, Rock, Rock! but not a chart success.  The elaborately-arranged Seven Come Eleven has an overworked background chorus giving a solid and heavy beat to the proceedings, and True Love Is Hard to Find is one of the Rivieras' (not to be confused with the California Sun group) less elaborate numbers for Coed (here in a Lost Nite reissue).

Next, the Shirelles on Decca in 1958 with I Want You to Be My Boyfriend, a side on which the harmony falters a bit in the bridge but is otherwise up to the group's later recordings.  I'll Be Around features Don Cherry duplicating the sound of his own Band of Gold, and 1960's Little Lonely Girl features a familiar minor-mode descending bassline.  This single, to my surprise, is quite collectable (at least, at Discogs).

Tarrantela Rock is a terrible but fun rock and roll instrumental (its flip, Somebody Loves Me, is even more fun and terrible), and Steve Lawrence's cover of Joe Turner's The Chicken and the Hawk (Leiber and Stoller) is surprisingly effective.  Great 1961 doo-wop by The Devotions with I Love You for Sentimental Reasons, preceded by Hugo Winterhalter's very R&B-style cover of Ollie Jones and Luther Dixon's Midnight.  A bit odd to hear such an effective treatment by Winterhalter, who famously didn't think much of teen pop.  He certainly did well with it here.

DOWNLOAD: Memorable Mono Media, Pt. 4.zip

Leave My Kitten Alone--Johnny Preston, 1960

Say Yeah--The Southerners, 1957

Forty Cups of Coffee--Bill Haley and His Comets, 1957

Junglero--Dick Hyman Trio, 1956

I Wish I Didn't Have to Dream So Far--Eileen Rodgers w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Gum Drop--Mills Brothers w. Sy Oliver, 1955

Your True Love--Carl Perkins, 1957

Can't Wait--The Del Vikings, Orch. c. by Carl Stevens, 1958

Yea Yea (I'm in the Mood)--The Rockin' Kids, 1958

Bon Bon--The Four Voices w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Over and Over Again--The Moonglows, 1956

Seven Come Eleven--Tony Rand (Anthony D. Ranucci), 1957

True Love Is Hard to Find--The Rivieras, 1960

Midnight Cannonball--Joe Turner and His Blues Kings, 1955

I Want You to Be My Boyfriend--The Shirelles, 1958

I'll Be Around--Don Cherry w. Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1957

Little Lonely Girl--The Originals, Featuring Tony Allen, 1960

Tarrentela Rock--Frank Sandy and the King's Men, 1958

The Chicken and the Hawk--Steve Lawrence w. Chorus and Orch. dir. by Dick Jacobs, 1955

Midnight--Hugo Winterhalter's Orch. and Chorus, V: Johnny Oaks, 1958

(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons--The Devotions, 1961

Lee

Ping Pong Percussion--in mono! (Is that possible?)

 

From Google's AI Overview:  "(The Stradivari Strings) recordings were actually made by uncredited, anonymous studio orchestras. While the musicians were competent professionals, they were churning out cheap, easy-listening covers of show tunes, waltzes, and movie themes rather than premium classical performances."  This is true, but I think the performances here are exceptional, considering.  Or, at least, much better than we might expect.  It helps to not expect the utmost, though the liner notes are no help in that regard:  "For you who dine by candlelight and toast your conversation with champagne...here are unforgettable moments...hauntingly beautiful melodies played with the romantic fervor captured only by superb strings in the hands of marvelous performers."  

Yes, nothing complements dining by candlelight like 99-cent vinyl.  That is, if we've already blown the budget on lighting and beverage...

And ping pong percussion in monaural?  Is that even possible?  Well, yes, obviously, since the Spinorama label did so here, but it's not logically possible, since ping pong percussion is, by definition, a two-channel effect.  It consists of the audio engineer panning between the right and left channels, which of course requires at least a pair of audible groove sides.  Monaural ping pong percussion is simply... percussion, I guess.

Of course, the clever cover design--courtesy of Harry and Marion Zelenco, Inc.--is just as fine in stereo or mono.  Meanwhile, savor the typical rack-jobber carelessness: "M-32" on the cover, but the longer matrix numbers on the label.  Also, the mismatched titles: The Sound of Leroy Anderson (jacket) versus The Music of Leroy Anderson (label).  At least the artist credit stayed the same, though "The Magic Strings" were credited on the first edition (on Promenade) of this work.

Suppose someone spent years performing in The Stradivari Strings, but since there was (technically) no such group in real life, that person's career would be unqualifiable, since there were no specific "Stradivari Strings" ensemble or ensembles.  Just whomever was available for a given gig.  ("I was a member of the Stradivari Strings."  "Who were they?"  "Um... Well, they never actually existed.  On the other hand, we were also known as The Magic Strings, Al Goodman and His Orchestra, and The Limelight Strings.  I played in all of those.")  It could be a thing for bragging... or not.

"Ask for 'Stradvari Strings' when you want the best in recorded enjoyment!" the liner notes invite us to do.  I'll have to remember that the next time I visit Giant Eagle.  I suppose I should take this album along.

DOWNLOAD: The Music of Leroy Anderson.zip FLAC

Blue Tango

Summer Skies

China Doll

Saraband

Fiddle Faddle

A Trumpeter's Lullaby

The Girl in Satin

The First Day of Spring

Syncopated Clock

The Blue Bells of Scotland

The Sound of Leroy Anderson (Aka, The Music of...)--The Stradivari Strings (Spinorama M-32)


Lee