Genius marketing

At eBay, which used to be run intelligently, I get this exact same "People who shopped for this item also looked at..." image each time I buy records.  This time, I bought a set of Hit label sound-alikes.  So, naturally, I want to see John and Yoko in the nude.  What a pleasant sight.

And I want an LP by the British "post-punk" band The Slits.  And a 10-incher by a guy who sings with his hand over his mouth--one Max Shrager, who looks, in his publicity photo, like he's sitting on a pile of broken dinner plates.  Brilliant, brilliant marketing.

I've made over 2,000 eBay purchases.  eBay used to generate very useful recommendations based on those purchases.  Now they have "Today's deals," "Trending on eBay," and other useless crap.  Have these folks forgotten that they sell mostly used stuff?  Are they out of their minds?  I'm serious.  Are they?

"For your parties and entertainment": Juke Box Classics (Broadway 1037; 1963?)

Unusual fake-hits collection here--we get everything from the 1953 Ricochet to the 1963 Young Lovers.  I think 1963, in fact, was the year is when this LP was released, though I'm not absolutely positive.  99 percent absolutely.  Of course, in real life there are no degrees of "absolutely," but why get technical, especially when the subject is so silly?  The era-hopping makes this an interesting collection, and some of the tracks are quite good--Stagger Lee (I've added two "bonus" versions), Blue Monday (plus two "bonus" versions, again), and the Fats Domino Country Boy, which, oddly enough, is the Prom label fake we heard recently.  It shouldn't be, but it is.  I've also included the Gilmar EP Country Boy version, which was likely a Broadway reissue, meaning it was the original Broadway version.  And, if you were able to follow that, congratulations!  I'm not sure there's any way to make that make sense.

In other words, Broadway originally issued its own version of Country Boy, one unique to its label, at which time Gilmar did its own issue of the same track, but, by the time of this LP (1963), Broadway decided for some reason to use the Prom (Synthetic Plastics Co.) version.  Instead of its own original version.  The, uh...  Er, I.... Um....  Yeah.

Why do I collect these things, exactly?  I forgot.

One cheap detail I really love on this LP is how the letting doesn't align on Side 2.  Note how "Juke Box Classics" was printed slightly a few degrees to the right of the track titles.  Teresa Brewer is covered again with Jilted, a 1954 hit I'd never heard of before.  Now I can no longer say that--at least, not honestly.  And I kind of like this fake better--Brewer's voice was never my favorite.  The 1955 I Hear You Knocking is the same counterfeit version that showed up on Allegro-Royale, which makes for another weird label group crossover.  Great fake, but what is it doing here?  Funny how my ears immediately picked up where I'd heard it before.  Handy talent, but a bit odd.  My inability to remember significant details is only matched by my ability to remember which fake version is which.  Meanwhile, my foster father, a mathematician, forgot practical things all the time but auto-remembered Broadway lyrics.

I did miracle photo work on the front jacket, removing the signs of the sloppy Scotch taping and the missing piece at the upper top right.  And there was an "R7" written in red felt tip just over the guy's head--it is no more.  It made for a weird effect, because the girl seemed to be looking up at it, as if to say, "Look, someone's written on this jacket."  And dig the huge straws in those soda shop glasses.

The final bonus is the Prom version of Poor Little Fool, credited to one Bob Mitchell.  Makes more sense that crediting it to two or more, I suppose.  The Don Raleigh Stagger Lee is the same as the Prom label version, only pitched up by about a quarter tone.  That, or Prom pitched it down.  You'd think tape recorder capstan size would have been standard in those days, but perhaps not.

The Loren Becker Blue Monday on Waldorf is outstanding--way better than I expected.  Waldorf gets an unfair rap--or, I should say, Enoch Light gets one.  The idea is that Waldorf never quite got the hang of covering rock and roll hits, but that was true only at first.  Many of its earliest attempts at rock and roll are odd big band-r&r hybrids, but before long Waldorf was putting out some of the best r&r fakes on the market.  And its pressings were way better than SPC's.

Nine tracks, plus six extras.  Soon to appear at Amazon....




DOWNLOAD: Juke Box Classics (Broadway 1037; prob. 1963)




Young Lovers
Stagger Lee
Never Be Anyone Else but You
Poor Little Fool
Blue Monday
I Hear You Knocking (At My Front Door)
Jilted
Ricochet
Country Boy

Juke Box Classics--Vocals and Orch. by Popular Radio and TV Artists (Broadway 1037)

Blue Monday--Big Boy Burns (EP 4 Hits 345--EP Records; 45 rpm)
Blue Monday--Loren Becker w. Enoch Light and His Orch. (8 Top Hits--Waldorf Music-Hall, 78 rpm EP)
Country Boy--No artist credit (Gilmar 243--45 rpm EP)
Stagger Lee--Charles Ellis (Big Buy 4 Hit Tunes 244--45 rpm EP)
Stagger Lee--Don Raleigh and His Orch., v: Jimmy Perry (8 Top Hits--Plymouth P-724; LP)
Poor Little Fool--Bob Mitchell (Promenade A-54-1--45 rpm EP)


Lee

Hymntime Sing-Along w. Jerry Barnes and the Kurt Kaiser Singers (1962)

Some folks would find this 1962  LP cover funny, or even hilarious.  I find it refreshing--it shows ordinary-looking people in an ordinary setting (for the time).  And, to my eyes, the shot is superbly composed.  The liner notes on the reverse don't have much to say--you can read them in the download, which also includes the song sheets for this LP.

Like Mitch Miller's Sing Along Gang, the Kurt Kaiser Singers are an all-male affair--strong, clear voices, with Jerry Barnes providing excellent lead.  Toss in an organ, and you have the perfect sacred LP.  This has been one of my favorites since I thrifted it back in, oh, 1990 or so.  It was one of Bev's favorites, too.  The LP's title may seem to promise something novel or even campy, but this is first-rate choral singing without a gimmick in earshot.

The mono sound is great, and the light scratches were no challenge to VinylStudio--it cleared out nearly all of them.  I manually fixed the four or five remaining light pops.  Light pops?  Wait a minute--now we're talking Arthur Fiedler.  How did we get from Mitch Miller to Arthur?

A better song lineup wouldn't be possible.  In addition to two Fanny Crosby masterpieces (she did the words, of course), we get Charles H. Gabriel's very famous My Savior's Love, the marvelous 3/4 Ira Sankey gem, Faith Is the Victory, and the best version of Lily of the Valley I've ever found on vinyl.  Though the label says "English Melody," a phrase which usually means a folk tune, Valley's music is from 1881, composed by one William Shakespeare Hays.  The title of the tune itself, in case you're interested, is Salvation.  At one time in gospel music, tunes had their own names.







DOWNLOAD: Hymntime Sing-Along, w. Jerry Barnes, Kurt Kaiser Singers





Medley 1: Lily of the Valley--Trust and Obey
Medley 2: Shall We Gather at the River?--Come, Thou Fount--I Will Sing the Wondrous Story
Medley 3: More About Jesus--Wonderful Words of Life
Medley 4: The Great Physician--Faith Is the Victory
Medley 5: My Savior's Love (Gabriel)--Jesus Loves Even Me
Track 6: Near the Cross (Crosby-Doane)
Medley 6: Glory to His Name--When We All Get to Heaven--No, Not One!
Medley 7: He Hideth My Soul (Crosby-Kirkpatrick)--Blessed Assurance (Crosby-Knapp)--Hiding in Thee--refrain

Hymntime Sing-Along with Jerry Barnes and the Kurt Kaiser Singers (Word W-3176; 1962)


Lee

More early fakes--Tops, Varsity, Top Tunes, and Waldorf Record Corp. 45s and 78s, 1948-1956

Greetings!  This is a follow-up to this 2018 post, whose link I just returned to life: Early fake hits

I'm in the process of reviving earlier links, but it's slow going, of course.  I had a time finding the zip file for the above post, as I had stored it carelessly on my hard drive--it was in a folder within a folder, and the main folder title didn't tell me much.  But I found it, nevertheless.  Yee ha.

Today's tracks--all fake hits of the non-rock and roll type--span the years 1948 to 1956, with an emphasis on the early 1950s.  Let me say for the record (no pun intended), that restoring acoustical 78s is a waltz in the park compared to pulling sound out of these things.  Reasons include the lousy quality of the cheap-label vinyl and shellac, the less than loving care from past owners (folks who bought Tops, Varsity, and Waldorf discs probably didn't own top-of-the-line hi-fi sets), and, in the case of Eli Oberstein's Varsity label, dreadful engineering.  The Varsity 78s, even after the recording curves are tweaked, sound muddy as heck and... well, muddy.  Rescuing the sound on these requires two or three levels of correction.  But it's always a nice feeling to end up with passable Varsity files.  I can't say it's the nicest feeling in the world, but it's better than a boot in the keister.

These sides are great fun, including the misfire that opens the set (an awful cover of Tony Bennett's Until Yesterday), with the performances--other than the first one--ranging from competent to much better than we have any right to expect.  The latter category would have to include the two amazing Les Paul-Mary Ford knockoffs on Tops (I like that phrase), The World Is Waiting for the Sunshine (brilliantly parodied on Capitol by Stan Freberg) and Tiger Rag.  I would have assumed the cheapo labels would have avoided the challenge of trying to copy Paul's multi-layered sound.  And I would have been wrong.

Knockoffs on Tops.  That almost sounds like the name of a cove in Scotland or something.  "I'm writing from the Knockoff on Tops.  How are things in Zanesville, Ohio?"

Anyway, we also have two Leroy Anderson numbers from the era when his ingenious instrumentals were jukebox items--Blue Tango and Syncopated Clock (Varsity omitted the "The").  I ripped the former from an LP but pretended it was from the original 45 issue, so don't tell anyone.  (It's our little secret.)  And we get musically solid imitations of Secret Love, Be My Life's Companion, Wheel of Fortune, and Till We Two Are One.  That last title, amazingly, is as good as the Georgie Shaw original on Decca.  Who was this Wayne Sherwood guy?  Why didn't Tops use him more often?  He was fabulous.  (Hm.  He has seven matches at Discogs.  That's too bad.  He deserves more!)

The possibly less familiar hits of yesteryear include Until, a hit for Tommy Dorsey whose lyrics are much like those of the similarly titled Till of 1957 (but far less moving), and 1948's Love Somebody, a hit for Doris Day with Buddy Clark.  Also, Just Reminiscing, which was recorded (or at released) in 1949 by Ray Noble, Jo Stafford, and Jack Fina.  A Cash Box ads lists our Varsity label version (by Barbara Brown) along with the others, which seems to support my theory that cheap knockoffs, at least in the early days of the practice, were seen as a normal part of the market.  It wasn't until rock and roll--and the notion of a correct or definitive version of a song--that cheap knockoffs started to seem anachronistic.  And hilarious.  But, as I've noted before, I personally believe the evolution of the definitive version concept was more gradual than people think.  Maybe I should have typed "cultural trope" instead of "concept," just to sound learned.  And have people say, "Wow, he must know his stuff."  Terms like "cultural tropes" make conjecture sound like fact. You always want to sound like you know what you're talking about.  Anything else is bad form.

Fake Perry Como, Doris Day, Guy Mitchell, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Mantovani, Kay Starr, and Les and Mary.  Why limit the fun to fake Elvis, Little Richard, Silhouettes, and Frankie Avalon?

To the music....





DOWNLOAD: More early fakes--1948-1956




Until Yesterday--Art Rouse w. Herbie Layne's Orch. (Top Tunes 4-1007; 1954)
Charmaine--The Hal Lomen Orch. (Tops 313--45 rpm)
Jealousy (Jalousie)--Stewart Rose w. the Hal Lomen Orch. (Tops 299--45 rpm)
Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle (Bob Merrill)--Bud Roman and the Toppers, the Freddy Laine Orch. (Tops 299--45 rpm)
Because of You--Burd Roman w. the Freddy Laine Orch. (Same)
Wringle Wrangle--Dave Burgess and the Toppers (Tops R302--45 rpm; prob. 1956)
Blue Tango (Leroy Anderson)--The Hal Lomen Orch. (Tops 322--45 rpm)
Syncopated Clock (Leroy Anderson)--Elliot Everett and His Orch. (Royale 322--78 rpm)
Tiger Rag--The Toppers w. the Les Morgan Quartet (Tops 318--78 rpm)
Until--Johnny Frank and Barbara Brown (Varsity 125--78 rpm; 1949)
Just Reminiscing--Barbara Brown with Orchestra (Same)
Be My Life's Companion--Mimi Martel w. the Hal Lomen Orch. (Tops 317--45 rpm)
Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)--Tyler Duo w. Orchestra (Varsity 124--78 rpm; prob. 1949)
Till We Two Are One--Wayne Sherwood w. the Toppers, Lew Raymond Orch. (Tops 392--45 rpm)
Make Love To Me--Gayle Larson w. Lew Raymond and His Orch. (Tops 392--45 rpm)
Secret Love--Gayle Larson w. Lew Raymond and His Orch. (Tops 391--45 rpm)
Wheel of Fortune--Mimi Martel w. the Les Morgan Orch. (Tops 318--78 rpm)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me--Betty Harris w. Enoch Light and His Orch. (Waldorf Record Corp. A114)
The Roving Kind--Bud Roman w. the Tops Choristers and Hal Lester's Orch. (Tops 272--78 rpm)
The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise--Mimi Martel w. Freddy Laine Orch. (Tops R106--78 rpm)
Maybe You'll Be There (Gallop-Bloom)--The Varsity Orchestra, Vocals by Frank and Chorus (Varsity 102--78 rpm; 1948)
Love Somebody--Barbara and Frank w. Orchestra (Same)
Forever and Ever--Barbara Brown w. Chorus and Orch. (Varsity 135--78 rpm; 1949)
Red Roses for a Blue Lady--Johnny Frank and Orchestra (Same)


Lee

Claiborne Brothers Quartette at the World's Fair (Word W-3191; 1962)

What about that cool cover?  So Sixties.  Sorry about the slight glitch in the stitch (hey, that rhymes!)--because LP covers are larger than my scanner face, I scan in four sections, then I use Scan-n-Stitch Deluxe to join them.  Since there's a slight depression between the frame and the glass (no reason for it--just is), it's just about impossible to keep the jackets perfectly level when scanning.  So we sometimes get stuff like this:

Oh, well.  Still a pretty awesome gospel cover--probably an official painting of the fair--and some very good quartet singing on the vinyl disc within.  When I Googled this LP, two 1962 newspaper (!) references came up, so I knew the year right away.  Furthermore, this is (or was) the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, aka the Century 21 Exposition.  Seven years in planning.

The five guys pictured on the back jacket include the four singers, two of whom--Gifford and Byron Claiborne--make up the "Brothers" portion of the quartette (not sure why they're using the old-fashioned spelling of "quartet").  Ken Martin is the lead, and George Melton is the first tenor, while Roger Kling is the accompanist and arranger.  I was happy to find the link to a Claiborne Brothers Quartette website, but not so happy to click on it and find a pharmacy page selling Wellbutrin SR and other drugs.  Anyway, some gospel mega-standards here: On the Jericho Road (the composer being Donald S. McCrossan, not "Crossan"), Until Then, The Old Rugged Cross, and Oh, How I Love Jesus.  The Roger Kling originals, including The Sunshine of His Love, are all unfamiliar to me, but they fit in just fine stylistically, and the playlist is smooth as butter, just like the expert harmonizing.  I'd have preferred a few more traditional numbers, but no one asked me.  At least there's the one 19th century number--1855's O How I Love Jesus, which uses an anonymous melody from that century.  I won't quibble over the O vs. Oh.  Though it is O How I Love Jesus.  Without a comma.  But I won't quibble.

To Me He Is So Wonderful, which is mixed in, descant-style, with O How I love Jesus in the first medley, was composed in 1955 by Ralph H. Goodpasteur (1923-1996), under the title It's So Wonderful.  I just now found the hymn in my 1975 Baptist Hymnal.  It's a black gospel number, and here's a YouTube video from the First Church of Deliverance in Chicago, where Goodpasteur served as music director.  You'll notice that the first line is actually, "To me, it's so wonderful."  Who changed it, and why, I do not know.

Update: I can see why It's So Wonderful was merged in a medley with O How I Love Jesus--the former's verse is very close to O How....

Anyway, on to the Century 21 gospel....









DOWNLOAD: Claiborne Brothers Quartette at the World's Fair (Word S-3191; 1962)








I Believe in the Old Time Way (J.D. Sumner)
On the Jericho Road (Donald S. McCrossan)
Medley: Oh, How I Love Jesus (Anon.), To Me He Is So Wonderful (Ralph H. Goodpasteur)
Peace Like a River (William Burton Walbert)
In the Still of the Night (Roger Kling)
Medley: My Soul Is Going Higher (Roger Kling), When the Saints Go Marching In (Trad.)
If the Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side (Henry Slaughter)
Heaven, My Home Sweet home (Roger Kling)
Until Then (Stuart Hamblen)
The Old Rugged Cross (George Bennard)
I'll Never Be Lonely (Audrey Mieir)
The Sunshine of His Love (Roger Kling)


Lee