Less Common Burt, Part 6!--Immaculate Conception Combined Choirs, The Stereo Sound Orch. and Strings, Bells of Stone Mountain

The perfect post for those who have longed to hear Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head performed by the Immaculate Conception Combined Choirs of Dayton OH (hope they were spared the terrible storm damage which just hit the city) and the world's largest electronic carillon--the Bells of Stone Mountain, in Georgia.  Look no further.  Your search is at last over.

Plus, three Burts apiece by singer Jerry Vale and guitarist Billy Strange, though not together, plus Vikki Carr's rendition of One Less Bell to Answer, an ungrammatical song title that wouldn't have worked with "fewer" substituted for "less."  Who's complaining?  Me?  Nah.  We also get some instrumentals and semi-instrumentals (semi-instrumentals?) in addition to Billy Strange and the John Klein carillon track--April Fools by the Longines Symphonette Society, The Look of Love by the budget-label Stereo Sound Orchestra and Strings, The Green Grass Starts to Grow by the great Percy Faith, and Bond Street (from 1967's Casino Royale) by Columbia Record Club easy-listening mainstay Terry Baxter.

I'm not sure what I think of Steve Lawrence's What's New Pussycat? which he recorded with the ? at the end, something many artists don't do.  I'm tempted to call the arrangement pretentious, but Steve can make just about anything work, so I'll give his version a B+.  There's worse--much worse.  Such as George Chakiris' rendition, which I may not be able to bring myself to post.  When Roger Williams recorded Lost Horizon in 1973, the movie didn't yet have "disaster" written all over it (and it's not even a disaster flick--at least, not technically), so it was just the usual get-the-Burt-songs-out-there kind of optimism going.  Whatever I just typed.  Anyway, I forgot to include it in my list of instrumentals, so I'm doing so now.  Sorry, Roger--the omission was not intentional.

Not sure what I think of Al Martino's I'm a Better Man, which certainly doesn't compare to Engelbert Humperdinck's fabulous version, but I can't be comparing everything to the best.  It's just that, when you have an A+ recording of something, everything else seems... less than A+.  Ever notice that?

The late Jerry Vale had a genuinely good voice, but what is that quality that's so annoying?  Was it a sing-through-the-nose kind of thing or was it an issue of vibrato?  I find Jerry pleasing and annoying at the same time, which gives him a unique spot in my opinion of singers.  Sue Raney is fabulous, and she could've doubled for Britney Spears, had 1) Sue been born in 1981 or 2) Britney been born in 1940.  Doubled physically, I mean--I see a very similar face and face structure.  Britney wouldn't have had Sue's vocal chops in any era....

This instrumental arrangement of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is from a 1970 Sunset (Liberty budget reissue) label LP called Showdown: Great Western Film Themes.  It seems to not have first existed as a Liberty LP.  And I'm likely the first person in cyber-history to type "It seems to not have first existed as a Liberty LP."

To the Burt!  Let me know if there are any playlist errors--I did some last-minute juggling and hopefully did it without a hitch, but you never know.






DOWNLOAD-- Less Common Burt, Part 6



All by Bacharach-David unless otherwise noted

April Fools--The Longines Symphonette Society, 1974
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head--John Klein, the Bells of Stone Mountain
Any Day Now--Tom Jones, 1967
The World Is a Circle--The Sandpipers w. the Mitchell Singing Boys, 1972
The Look of Love--The Stereo Sound Orchestra and Strings (Premier 1009)
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head--Immaculate Conception Combined Choirs
What the World Needs Now Is Love--Billy Strange, His Guitar and Orch., 1965
What's New Pussycat?--Steve Lawrence, 1965
Trains and Boats and Planes--Billy Strange, His Guitar and Orch., 1965
Odds and Ends--Lenny Dee, Prod. by Owen Bradley, 1969
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me--Sue Raney, Arr. by Eddie Karam, 1966
What's New Pussycat--Billy Strange, His Guitar and Orch., 1965
This Guy's in Love with You--Jerry Vale, Arr. and Cond. by Jimmy Wisner, 1968
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--Sunset Strings, 1970
The Green Grass Starts to Grow--Percy Faith, His Orch. and Chorus, 1971
Do You Know the Way to San Jose--Jerry Vale, Arr. and Cond. by Joe Gardner
Bond Street--Terry Baxter, His Orch. and Chorus
One Less Bell to Answer--Vikki Carr, 1971
Walking Backwards Down the Road--Buddy Greco, 1970
Lost Horizon--Roger Williams, Orch. Arr. by Al Capps, 1973
The Look of Love--Jerry Vale, Arr. and Cond. by Jimmy Wisner, 1968
After the Fox--Ferrante and Teicher, Arr. by F&T; 1967
I'm a Better Man--Al Martino, Arr. and Cond. by Jimmie Haskell, 1969
Any Old Time of Day--Sue Raney, Arr. by Eddie Karam, 1966


Lee

Memorial Day, 2019--A Ballad from Vietnam, The Trumpeter, March for Americans

The playlist starts with the profoundly moving A Ballad from Vietnam (The Rain on the Leaves), recorded by Mitch Miller and His Gang in 1965 for Decca.  Not exactly what we expect from Mitch--unless, of course, we know that The Beard was a Democrat and an opponent of the Vietnam War.  This affected me so deeply the first time I heard it, it was a while before I could play it again.  It's gorgeous.  Ferde Grofe's superb Over There Fantasie doesn't have quite the emotional impact for me, but I do get high hearing such theme-and-variations genius in action.  1942's Come Josephine in My Flying Machine may seem like a strange choice, especially since it's Spike Jones doing it, but the brilliant arrangement, which switches from barbershop to boogie in the kind of flawless segue this band could have patented, really speaks to its era.  Or is it "of"?  Whichever, it's a fine, genuinely patriotic number, despite the occasional goofy touch.  Actually, by Jones standards, this qualifies as virtually unadorned. Then it's 1901, and the magnificent Columbia Quartette is singing Good Bye, Dolly Gray, which pulled double duty, war-wise (Boer and WWI).  Since this was a number of years before WWI, it obviously wasn't functioning as WWI song here, but we can pretend.  Gray became a pub standard, or whatever the British term is.  I've completely forgotten.  My brain is officially 62 years old.  Music hall, maybe?

Grofe returns with the 1941 March for Americans, and the sound quality is quite good--better than the pressing, by far.  Ray Conniff's fabulous instrumental The Hop is one I can't find a year for, but we know it's 1944 or earlier, because 1944 was the year Glenn Miller was tragically lost.  The Hop (No At...) is what I call a "jam tune," and jam tunes go back at least to the 1910s.  They are riff-based and blatantly African-American, whatever the ethnicity of the writers or players on a given side, and consist of chord progressions that move around or toward the tonic--essentially, one long I section--with a circle-of-fourths bridge.  Sometimes they have an extended section in twelve-bar blues form, and that's what we have here.  This record rocks like crazy, and anyone surprised to hear a rocking Miller/Conniff combination has listened to too few 78s.  (Always wanted to type "...to too few.")  Next up is My Dough Boy, a charming one-step by Hugo Frey, who was also Joseph C. Smith's arranger.  Then it's Morton Gould's 1942 American Salute, one of the greatest light works of the 20th century, imo, in a take-no-prisoners rendition by Howard Mitchell conducting the National Symphony Orch. as part of a record series for children.  Why is it that sometimes the kids get the best stuff?  Mitchell knows that the way to play this thing is with a driving beat throughout and quadruple forte on the final When Johnny Comes Marching Home chorus.  I haven't heard another version that touches this one, and the mono mix works so well, I don't even want to hear the stereo mix.  I read that Gould never understood the popularity of this piece, that he just dashed it off to meet a deadline, and maybe that's so.  Often, masterpieces just happen.  Gould's painfully lame Yankee Doodle of 1945 proved he was capable of doing a similar theme-and-variation piece of far lower quality.

The Spirit of This Land is a fun Hit Label oddity that appears to have been written specifically for it.  The narrator may have been trying to sound like Walter Brennan--dunno--but he ends up sounding like a Gunsmoke extra.  ("Any coffee left?  Uh-oh--there comes Dylan.")  Hearing Vaughn Monroe sing Jimmie Driftwood's The Battle of New Orleans (big hit for Johnny Horton, of course) may be a surreal experience, though I could swear Monroe is less phlegmatic than usual here.  He sort of sounds like Tennessee Ernie Ford with throat congestion.  Then the street organ called The Thunderer plays The Stars and Stripes Forever, and the playlist wraps up with Raymond Newell and Ion Swinley's elaborate 1929 rendition (with sound effects and actors) of the 1904 anti-war art song, The Trumpeter (J. Francis Barron--J. Airlie Dix).

Update: Philip informed me that Glenn Miller's The Hop (composed by Ray Conniff) was also known as Victory Hop and V for Victory Hop and was featured in many of Miller's live performances.  Using information from John Flower's Moonlight Serenade, he dates the recording at Feb., 1942.  This is definitely the same number--a live recording can be found on line.




DOWNLOAD: Memorial Day, 2019






A Ballad from Vietnam (The Rain on the Leaves)--Mitch Miller and the Gang, 1965
Over There Fantasie (Grofe)--The United States Army Band, Colonel Samuel Loboda--Leader and Commanding Officer, 1975.
Come Josephine in My Flying Machine--Spike Jones, v: The Boys in the Back Room and King Jackson, 1942
Good Bye, Dolly Gray--Columbia Quartette, 1901
March for Americans (Grofe)--March for Americans (Grofe)--Meredith Willson and His Orch., 1941.
The Hop (Ray Coniff)--Glenn Miller and His Orch.
My Dough-Boy--One-Step (Hugo Frey)--Joseph C. Smith's Orch., 1918
American Salute (Morton Gould)--Howard Mitchell c. National Symphony Orch., 1961
The Spirit of This Land--Charlie Rogers (Hit Records 155; 1964)
The Battle of New Orleans (Driftwood)--Vaughn Monroe, w. Norman Leyden, his Orch. and Chorus, 1959
The Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa)--The Thunderer, 1959
The Trumpeter--The Trumpeter--Raymond Newell, Baritone; Ion Swinley, Narrator, 1929.


Lee

The Nash Family Trio--I Heard a Voice (1962)

Twice I looked for this LP in my stacks, and it was nowhere to be found.  I'm sure I kept it (at least, I think I'm sure), but things do have a way of vanishing into the void here in the Media Room.  Luckily, I ripped the tracks to CD-R a few years back, so here they are, straight from that rip.  The cover and label scans I had to get from an eBay ad.  The scans are of the mono edition, but you'll be hearing the stereo Columbia Special Products reissue of the 1962 original.

I can't say this works for me like last week's astounding offering did.  Maybe the trio set the bar too high for themselves with that effort.  I'm not sure.  But what matters is your opinion, of course, not mine.  This is a good LP, to be sure, but I guess I was expecting a repeat of Lord, Hear Us Sing.... Let me know what you think. 





DOWNLOAD: Nash Family Trio--I Heard a Voice








The Circuit-Riding Preacher
Amazing Grace
I Went to the River to Pray (C. Nash)
I'll Meet You in the Morning (A.E. Brumley)
I Heard a Voice
Noah (Found a Grace in the Eyes of the Lord)
The Lord's Prayer (C. Nash)
He's Leadin' On (C. Nash)
Happiness Is Just a Prayer Away
The Wanderer (C. Nash)
Wasted Years
Gonna Talk with Jesus (C. Nash)


I Heard a Voice--The Nash Family Trio (Columbia CSP--8545; re. 1962)


Lee

Top 6 Hits, or Music for Those Who Think Young (Startime 1145)--Barbara Ann, Travelin' Man, more!

Something--I don't know what--suggests that this EP was somehow connected with Pepsi.  It's subtle, but it's there, if you look closely for it.  What I don't get is the blank box and lines on the back cover--who was supposed to fill those in?  The recipient?  The seller?  Were these fake-hit EPs supposed to be given as gifts, along with a bottle of Pepsi?  Why is the girl on the cover hugging an LP?  Didn't she know you're not supposed to touch the grooves?

When this photo was snapped, did the photographer say, "Now, look as unnatural as you possibly can.  There.  Great!"?

And since these were for those who "think young," did you have to submit proof, when sending for these, that you thought young?  How would one go about verifying such a thing?  Fascinating questions, all.

So, I thought it would be neat if the four titles in common with the last post (Barbara Ann, Travelin' Man, Raindrops, and Stand By Me) turned out to be the same versions, but they're not.  Which is cool, either way.  It means that someone besides Pickwick was doing fake hits in 1961.  So far, I've discovered nothing about the Startime label, except that it was named Startime.  That much I know.

These versions are pretty decent, with the Valiants' Barbara Ann livelier than the version by the Essex (last post).  I seriously doubt these Valiants are any of the "name" Valiants found at Discogs, such as the group that recorded with Billy Storm, but who can say.  Hm.  "Art work furnished courtesy of Pepsi-Cola Co."  Again, a subtle clue that this EP was somehow, in some way, connected with Pepsi.








DOWNLOAD:  Top 6 Hits (Startime 1145)







Boll Weevil Song--Roy Robinson
Barbara Ann--The Valiants
The Writing on the Wall--Monty Brooks
Travelin' Man--Scott Alan
Raindrops--Chuck Byron
Stand by Me--Floyd Williams

Top 6 Hits (Startime 1145)

Hurrah! Top Hits--Big Legs Jackson, The Freckles, Titus Rock, and Grainger T. Worthington--in stereo!

Big Legs Jackson, The Freckles, Titus Rock, and Grainger T. Worthington.  What does that sentence tell you?  That I believe in using the Oxford comma.  What else?

So, somehow the Hurrah! (Pickwick group) label managed to cram 24 tracks onto this LP.  And without editing things down.  The sound restoration challenge was steep, as this thing is coated in little cross-cuts, and I'm still not sure why I spent the six or so hours necessary to make it sound good.  But, seeing as how I did spend that time, I may as well present it.  Apparently having run short on fake hits, the Hurrah! label appended six utterly unrelated (but pretty cool) numbers by "Umberto and His Caballeros."  I find them very enjoyable.  There are two or three jumps in that portion of the disc, but I left them in (while smoothing them out), too popped at that point to consider switching needles (and adding weight) or substituting my 1.2 mil mono needle, as I did to get through the skip in the Side B Running Scared.  For that track, I edited in the corrected portion, which is just a fraction of a second, but if you listen really, really closely, you might hear things switch to mono for a tiny moment.  Boy, these methods are hard to describe.  Even harder to do right.

Like I said, this required an incredible amount of work, since the clicks and pops never stop.  (That almost sounds like a jingle.)  I first ripped this on VinylStudio, that great (but bug-ridden) software with the amazing declicking filter, then I migrated the tracks to MAGIX, where I took out the really loud pops, of which many still remained.  VinylStudio only declicks so far--not enough to harm the music.  So I had plenty to do by hand, using MAGIX's (quote) "Draw wave shape" tool, which allows me to fill in the sound spikes that go with clicks and pops, thus smoothing them out--and, hopefully, silencing the noise.  I used other tricks.  Somehow, I got this to a solid B- from a D/D-.  And, as I type this, gas prices are declining in the U.S.  Coincidence??

It's cause and effect, I tell you.

1961 tracks.  According to rock historians, only .02 percent of whom can describe the ascending and descending versions of the melodic minor scale but who nevertheless act like they know everything, the years between Elvis and the Beatles aren't worth considering.  Sorry about that, Carole King.  Sorry about that, Marcels.  And so on.  Actually, a lot of cool stuff happened between the time Elvis was made "mainstream" (what was he while riding the pop charts--an outsider??) and the moment the Far Four invaded us.  And we get to hear fake versions of some of that cool stuff, and not bad fake versions, either.  Best of all, the tracks are in stereo.  I guess that's the reason I went to all this trouble.  Because, as best as I can tell, this LP is not common--I have no idea what the jacket looked like, and so far all I've found on line are listings for the 45 and 78 rpm versions of the Hurrah! label's Top Hits series.  And those weren't in stereo.  If I anticipated ever turning this one up again, I wouldn't have put this much time into it, but I did, and it's done.

Since I've blabbed enough already, I won't go into who the original artists were on the original hits--that info is easily found.  As for the "Umberto and His Caballeros" tracks, which include Rooster Cha Cha, and Pretty Pussy Cha Cha, your guess is as useless as mine.  Umberto gets five entire Google matches, so his life story remains a mystery.

With Grainger T. Worthington, the Freckles, Big Legs Jackson, and the Dream-Alongs.

Annnnnnd... I just discovered that this also came out, LP-wise, as America's Favorite Music on Top Hit Tunes 33-PHLP-70 (same number as this!), which must mean Pickwick had absorbed Waldorf Music Hall by 1961.  Now watch me find a mint copy of that version, after having slaved over this.  (But something tells me that LP doesn't pop up a lot, either.)











DOWNLOAD: Hurrah! Top Hits






Barbara Ann--The Essex
Rama-Lama-Ding Dong--The Bearcats
Raindrops--Dave Pidor
I'm a Fool to Care--Titus Rock
It Keeps Rainin'--Grainger T. Worthington
You Always Hurt the One You Love--Freddy Tell
I Feel So Bad--Bert Summer
Every Beat of My Heart--The Calumets
Little Devil--Bernie Bridges
Moody River--Al Benard
Halfway to Paradise (Goffin-King)--Matt Marina
Little Egypt--The Freckles
Tragedy--The Dream-Alongs
Travelin' Man--Freddy Howard
That Old Black Magic--Pete Studer
Stand By Me--Big Legs Jackson
Running Scared--Joe Warren
Hello Walls--Daryl Hicks

Umberto and His Caballeros

Hot Cha Cha
South American Pachanga
Pretty Pussy Cha Cha
North American Pachanga
Rodney's Cha Cha
Rooster Cha Cha


Hurrah! Top Hits (Hurrah! 33-PHLP-70; 1961?)


Lee