Sixteen Hits a Poppin' (Promenade EP set)

I hear the hits a poppin'--they're rollin' 'round the bend, And I ain't heard the real sides, Since I don't know when.  But the blog is stuck on fake hits, the tracks keep pilin' on.  But this is not a problem, if you find these things fun.  (Guitar solo)

I know--"on" and "fun" don't rhyme, but I was in a hurry.  And... sixteen more fake hits today!  And, as Gilmarvinyl pointed out, a lot of the same stuff (at least from the same period) has been showing up at MY(P)WHAE.  This is sort of inevitable, because not long after rock and roll became a presence in the pop charts, the same fake versions started showing up across label groups.  Not just the same titles (as we would expect), but the same versions!  Bell stuck to its own versions, and there doesn't seem to have been any "version hopping" between Broadway and Tops/Promenade/Song Hits & Hit Parader.  But the probability of putting together several playlists of fake hits from the Elvis/Jerry Lee Lewis/Silhouettes era without a significant degree of duplication is pretty low.

But, following this post, I will be focusing on the 1960s, fake-hit-wise.  (Check my past posts for c. 1957 fake hits--tons of them.  I checked--they're still up at Zippy.)  I personally feel a significant decline in cover quality happened in the 60s, but there were still some amazingly good copycat efforts to be found.  So stay tuned.

Back to the sixteen hits (more like thirteen; read on).  Fun versions, all, and I followed the order in which the titles appear on the three discs (Hit 25, 26, and 27)--the sleeve listing is way off, even for a budget effort.  Three of the sixteen tracks have "filler" written all over them: Humoresque, When the Saints Go Marching In, and Bongo Polka, the latter sounding nothing like the title, save that it's a polka.  But the rocking Humoresque could conceivably have been a late 50s hit--unfortunately, my searches bring up nothing.  The polka is pure filler, but fun filler, so what the heck.  Polka!!  Saints is filler, also.  Of the three, I'm not sure which is more absurdly out of place--I'd have to go with Saints, because I like the polka track too much to diss it.

As usual, surface noise presented restoration challenges: these things had noisy enough pressings to start with, and some of the previous owners failed to realize that needles were things to be set upon the disc, not pushed across it.  (Some of the crosscuts in question were accidents, of course, or malfunctions of a given changer.)  But I was able to correct these things.  Exception: the extreme needle damage toward the end of Short Shorts.  Someone must have forgotten to lift the tonearm, pushing it down instead.  Repairing this was hopeless, and this is my only Promenade Short Shorts copy; I figured Tops released the same version, but turns out I don't have it.  The Allegro-Elite and Gilmar EP versions are different (I tested them), so I was stuck with this one.

So I resorted to an early fade-out, and it doesn't  sound bad at all.  Also, right after the massive needle dig occurs, the sax player lost his place in the solo, so you're not missing anything.  I probably would have gotten lost, too, this being one of the truly soporific classic r&r tracks of the time.  It's in twelve-bar blues form, and slow-tempo blues can work, and work well, but not when the rhythm is essentially clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk.

Oh, and a very good vocalist on All the Way.  And Perry Como sound-alike Johnny Kay (credited here as Bob Mitchell) does a superb job on Catch a Falling Star.  For Star, I subbed an LP pressing, from Tops Hits (Parade SP-101), and it sounds gorgeous.  I did this because all my three or four EP copies of Catch a Falling Star have playback issues.  Along with Star, my candidates for the best tracks are the marvelous copies of At the Hop and Get a Job--the former because it beautifully captures the energy of the original.

Fun track credits include Dick Stetson, The Wright Bros. (again), Allan Freed (again, and not to be confused with Alan Freed), The Mac Sisters (have we heard them already?), and the Grasshoppers.  Note that the Grasshoppers predate the Beatles.  Dunno why that's relevant, but just thought I'd type it.

To the fun sounds:


DOWNLOAD: Sixteen Hits a Poppin' 

Get a Job--Promineers
Stood Up--Dick Stetson
Humoresque--Promenade Orchestra
Bongo Polka--Promenade Orch. and Chorus
Catch a Falling Star--Bob Mitchell (Johnny Kay)
Oh Oh I'm Falling in Love Again--Michael Reed
At the Hop--The Wright Bros.
Raunchy--Johnny Logan
Peggy Sue--Allan Freed
All the Way--Michael Reed
You Send Me--Par Brook
When the Saints Go Marching In--Promenade Orch. and Chorus (Chorus?)
Sugartime--The Mac Sisters
Short Shorts--The Promineers
La Dee Dah--The Grasshoppers
Oh Boy!--The Grasshoppers

Sixteen Hits a Poppin' (Promenade Hit 25, 26, and 27)


Lee

Paul Whiteman--1925-1928: Electrical "Whispering," more!

Buster, at Big 10-Inch Record, just put up ten Paul Whiteman tracks, providing me with an excuse to put up some of the 150 or so Whiteman 78 sides I ripped last year.  Here are twenty of them, nearly all arranged by the brilliant Ferde Grofe.  This I know because last year the arranger listings were still up at the Williams College Paul Whiteman Collection website--they're since been taken down, unfortunately.  The site notes that the PW collection is being "fully processed" next year, but I wish they'd kept up the info they had.  Oh, well....

Update: Ernie found the page in question on the Wayback Machine--"a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the internet" (Wikipedia).  Link: Whiteman Collection.  The Wayback Machine reference is to the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  I grew up on the show, but I don't know how familiar with it young'uns are or aren't.  (Please take "young'uns" in context--I'm 61.  And I've probably watched too many Waltons episodes.)  So, thank you, Ernie.

This set includes the electrical-era remakes of the huge 1920 Whiteman hits Whispering and The Japanese Sandman, in new (1928) Ferde Grofe arrangements.  Both charts are exceptionally well done, imo.  And we have Ben Selvin masquerading as Paul Whiteman on the Columbia label (What D'Ya Say?)--I think I knew the story behind that at one time, but if I did, I've forgotten it.  Bing Crosby's voice can be heard on a number of these, but he sings lead only on the first--Irving Berlin's Sunshine.  Standing out like a sore thumb, stylistically, is 1925's The Kinky Kids Parade, which is every bit as racist as the title suggests.  It doesn't sound especially Whiteman--I've heard nearly everything recorded by Paul, and I don't know I'd have identified it as him in a blindfold test.  Meanwhile, I've seen the Dancing Shadows arrangement credited to both Grofe and Tom Satterfield, and I tend toward Grofe, though my ears are not positive.  (Come on, ears.  Get with it.)  And I was a major fan of that eccentric soap opera.  Yup, ran home every afternoon to catch it.  (No, wait--that was Dark Shadows.)

I may or may not be the first music blog (er, blogger) to feature That Saxophone Waltz.  I really like it.  The superb Whiteman band musicianship probably has a lot to do with that, plus Grofe's ultra-smooth arrangement, plus the lovely vocal chorus (trio?  quartet?  I'd have to listen closer to discern).  Or maybe I just have corny tastes.  Nah.  That can't be.  Anyone who has followed my blog for a while knows I despise corn.  (Sound of tin cans crashing.)

Anyway, these were all ripped by me from my Whiteman 78 collection, the response curves chosen on my VinylStudio software, and the declicking performed on both my VS and MAGIX programs.  Enjoy!


DOWNLOAD:  Paul Whiteman, 1925-1928

Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra

Sunshine--vocal: Bing Crosby, 1928 (A: Grofe)
Collette --with vocal refrain, 1927 (A: Grofe)
Broken Hearted--with vocal refrain, 1927 (A: Grofe)
Broadway --vocal: Austin Young, 1927 (A: Grofe)
Manhattan Mary--with vocal refrain, 1927 (A: Grofe)
Why Is Love?--1925 (A: Grofe)
Dancing Tambourine--1927 (A: Grofe)
Whispering--1928 (A: Grofe)
The Japanese Sandman--1928 (A: Grofe)
Everything's Made for Love--1927 (A: Grofe)
The Kinky Kids Parade--1925
I'm in Love Again--1927 (A: Grofe)
Like You (Dark Eyes I Dream of)--1927 (A: Grofe)
When I'm in Your Arms--1926 (A: Grofe)
I Always Knew--with vocal chorus, 1926 (A: Grofe)
It All Depends on You--1927 (A: Grofe)
That Saxophone Waltz--1927 (A: Grofe)
What D'Ya Say?--Ben Selvin, recording as PW's Orch.!
Lonely Eyes--1926 (A: Grofe)
Dancing Shadows--1928 (Arr: FG?  Tom Satterfield?)


Lee

For Buster--"Keep a Knockin'"--Rufus Brown (Gateway Top Tune 1230; 1957)

Little Bobby/Boobie's excellent, energetic Keep a Knockin' (fake version of Little Richard's hit) is credited here to Rufus Brown with Billie Driscoll's Orch., and the echo gives it more more energy than the Promenade versions (credited to the two "Little"s).  Gateway Top Tune was a Cincinnati OH label owned by Carl Burkhardt, and I read someplace that Ohioans, as a rule, know how to spell Cincinnati, but I keep misspelling it.  And I'm a lifetime Ohioan.  What can I say?  Three n's, one t.  Come on, dude, it's not that hard.  I'll try it again:

Cincinnati.  There, I did it.  I had it burned into my brain that there are two t's.  Wrong.  An important turning point in my life here.

I read something, somewhere (or thought I did), about where Gateway Top Hits were mainly sold.  Hm.  Discogs doesn't tell me, but the great site otherwise gives us the usual excellent info.  Elsewhere, I see that Burkhardt also owned the Hep and Variety labels!  I did not know that.  Somehow, I thought that Variety was in the Hollywood family of labels.  I get confused quickly with the details of cheap label history, because 1) there were umpteen labels in any given group family, typically featuring the same material and 2) by this point in cheap label history (late '50s), tracks were hopping between label groups like crazy.  Just like in this case--same side on Promenade and Gateway Top Tune.  On which label did it originate?  Or... were both labels leasing the same master?  In which case, who produced the master?

Label groups were getting bought up, too, to add to the confusion.  Cheap labels historians are nuts to even consider getting into these things.  Problem is, we're hooked before we know what we're in for.  Then it's... too late.

Click here to hear: Keep a Knockin'--Rufus Brown w. Billie Driscoll's Orch., 1957.


Lee

Rock 'n Roll--Promenade RR 21 and 22 (with the Promenade Orch. and Chorus)

Promenade couldn't make up its mind.  This two-EP release was titled Rock 'n Roll, whereas the following two-EP release was titled Rock n' Roll.  So I guess their budget only allowed for one apostrophe--just pick a side (right or left).  The contraction of and should be 'n', of course, but that knowledge 'n' $1.49 will get you a cup of coffee at McDonald's--if it's open.

For those of you new to these budget-label fake hits, be advised that none of these are the originals (hence, "fake hits," though technically the hits themselves are real enough), even if a few sound vaguely like the performances they ape.  EPs like these featured the big hits of the day/week/month on cheap pressings and typically with as many tracks per side as the company could manage to fit, and who cares if the result was a noisy pressing, even in mint shape.  They didn't care, that's for sure.

Before I forget to mention it, the de-clicking function on my VinylStudio program continues to amaze me--one pass, and all I had to do, mostly, was edit the start and end points.  Had to remove a few noisier pops is all.

The Promenade, Tops, Bravo, etc. EPs typically came with a  paper sleeve, though these show up far less frequently than the discs--I'm lucky in owning a number of these sleeves.  In the case of Promenade, the problem is properly matching sleeves with vinyl, since the numbering systems were very weird, and the sleeve numbers didn't always match what was on the vinyl. Today's offering is a perfect example--the sleeve says "A-12-D," while the labels read RR 21 and RR 22.

I typically store discs and pic sleeves separately, so they become strangers fast.  And so my major project of the moment is to reunite them.

Fake hits also came out as regular singles--i.e., with one track per side--but mostly we're talking about EPs.  It's hard to impossible to make general observations about these labels--they seem to have operated outside of the realm of rules as any rational person defines rules.  The slapdash nature of these copycat operations almost make them seem like maverick operations, but they had no desire to act independently--their survival depended on conforming as rigidly as possible to current recording industry trends, budget (barely) permitting.

Some funny artist credits here--"Little Bobbie" doing Keep a Knockin', The Melon Sisters wishing us a Happy Happy Birthday Baby, Eli Whitney (but he died in 1825!!) giving us Jail House Rock (not be confused with Jailhouse Rock--wait a minute....), The Wright Bros. (oh, please....) flying high with Only Because, and Allan Freed giving us Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On.  Actually, it's "Lotta," and the famous DJ was Alan Freed, not Allan Freed, but nice try, Promenade.  Can't say they put no work into their fakery.

Just Born (To Be Your Baby) was a Perry Como hit, by the way.  Only Because was the Platters.  Why Don't They Understand--George Hamilton IV.  Lot of Lovin' is actually Gene Vincent's Lotta Lovin'. The year for this EP, then, is probably 1957.




LINK:  Rock 'N Roll (Promenade RR 21 and 22)




Great Balls of Fire--Billie Case
Just Born--Michael Reed
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine--Johnny Logan
Why Don't They Understand--Johnny Logan
Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On--Allan Freed
Only Because--The Wright Bros.
Lot of Lovin'--Tony Castro
Keep a Knockin'--Little Bobbie
Happy Happy Birthday Baby--The Melon Sisters
Jail House Rock--Eli Whitney
Diana--Bob Robbins
April Love--Pat Boone

Rock 'n Roll, with the Promenade Orch. and Chorus (Promande RR 21 and RR 22)

Family Library of Recorded Music 1044--Six-selection EP (probably 1953)

I know nearly nothing about the Family Library of Recorded Music label, except that this R&B vocal group recorded for it (on another issue), and that it had very cool picture sleeves.  I don't have the one that came with my disc, but I found this one on Google Images:

I suspect the sleeve to my disc looked about the same, as there seems to have been a standard design for the the label's"Your Family Library Hit Parade" series, which I think my disc is a part of.  Granted, the words "Your Family Library Hit Parade" do not appear on my label, but inconsistency between sleeve (or jacket) and label are almost the rule with these cheap outfits, so the absence of this phrase on the label may not mean a thing.  I hate having to do so much suspecting and guessing and "may not" and "seems to have" but that's a big part of the torture of collecting cheap labels.  I mean, that's a big part of the fun of collecting cheap labels.

On track 4, we have the famous Perry Como sound-alike vocalist Johnny Kay, but, oddly enough, not on either of the Como hits (Say You're Mine Again, Wild Horses).  Kay, of course, is known for his stuff on Synthetic Plastics Co. labels like Promenade and Diplomat; Premier Albums, Inc. labels like Coronet and Spin-O-Rama; and Sutton.

Here are the singers on the 1953 originals being faked on this EP:

Side by Side--Kay Starr
Say You're Mine Again--Perry Como
Till I Waltz Again With You--Teresa Brewer
Pretend--Nat King Cole
Your Cheating Heart--Joni James
Wild Horses--Perry Como

We get the fakes.  By the way, I recently talked about how much better my MAGIX filters work compared to the VinylStudio filters, but I have to take that back--the VS click scanner is far superior to M's DeClicker and far less work.  Sorry about that, MAGIX.  One application of VS click filtering on this noisy EP and I was left with only a handful of clicks to manually remove.  Unreal.

Wild Horses, of course, is a rip of Schumann's The Wild Horseman, from Album for the Young.  I was a piano student, so I caught it right away when I first heard the track about 35 years ago, around the start of my Perry Como phase.  As noted before, the closest we get to Perry on this EP is Mr. Kay.  Fun fakes, uncommon label.

Click here to hear: Family Library of Recorded Music 1044 (prob. 1953)


Side By Side--Lucille Dane
Say You're Mine Again--Fred Peters
Till I Waltz Again with You--Pat O'Dea
Pretend--Johnny Kay
Your Cheating Heart--Lucille Dane
Wild Horses--Johnny Dane


Family Library of Recorded Music 1044, prob. 1953

Lee