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
6 comments:
Thanks, Lee. I dream of walking into the thrift store and finding a selection of 45s like this. Of course it'll only happen on the day I don't have any money in my pocket... :( Records like this are getting harder and harder to find, so thanks for preserving these!
a fine collection indeed! thanks for sharing them
Thanks, Ernie--and I thrifted (most of) these over a number of years! It would be great to score all of them over a few trips. Oh, and a few of these were flea-market finds. I wish I kept a log, since I can never quite remember when and where I bought a given piece of vinyl.
Anonymous,
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed.
Probably one of the most Rock-oriented playlists you have put together in quite a while. The Devotions "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons" is so much better than the hit flip side of "Rip Van Winkle." Don Cherry's version of "I'll Be Around"(the flip side of his hit "Ghost Town") is probably the only up-tempo take of this standard out there; most other singers have done this song in a standard ballad style. Hugo Winterhalter as a Rocker was quite the surprise, and a good one at that. I thought the Steve Lawrence Leiber-Stoller number was surprisingly good, a lot better than most of his Coral sides in this style. The Mills Brothers Pop-oriented take on "Gum Drop" is excellent; I managed to score my own copy of the record at a flea market 19 years ago. I played it last night on my turntable and it is a real swinging' treatment of a Doo-Wop classic. The Eileen Rodgers song was good; however, it could have been better had it not been so overdone vocally. Out of the sides you posted here, I know I have the Don Cherry and Mills Brothers 45s. Had Del Vikings for a while. Good playlist. Thanks for sharing.
musicman 1979,
My pleasure! Interesting comment re "I'll Be Around," since I was wondering just that--i.e., how often (or not often) the song has been presented in an upbeat arrangement. Not surprised. And, yes, Eileen overdoes things, but that was a hallmark of her style! And, while I like "Rip Van Winkle," it doesn't compare to the flip-side ballad. I also find the Steve Lawrence to be above and beyond the quality of his other Coral sides--this version genuinely rocks, and Steve sounds more like a rocker than crooner on this. Glad you enjoyed!
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