Current Hits Volume No. 13--Dawn, Please Please Me, My Bonnie, more! (Hit Records HLP 413; probably 1964)

Volume 13, already!  And we're only at the starting point of the Top 40 British Invasion, so you know Hit Records was really churning these things out.  Given that most of these fake hits were rush jobs, they're generally highly energic and catchy--these musicians took their task seriously.  And some titles capture the sound of the originals quite well (e.g., Navy Blue, See the Funny Little Clown), while others capture, not so much the exact sound, but the exuberance of the official hits--I'm thinking especially of the "Jalopy Five" treatment of Fun, Fun, Fun, which I love in this version, despite the slightly rough harmonies and a few stumbles in the lyrics (they fumble "she walks, looks, and drives like an ace, now," for instance).  But it has to be said that the Beach Boys' harmonies were (imo) the toughest to emulate, at least in 1964--even tougher than the classic McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison blend.  And I doubt the Hit Records gang had a generous rehearsal schedule--I'm sure it was more like "Do these.  See you in a couple hours."  Anyway, the Carl-Wilson-imitating-Chuck-Berry opening guitar is memorably faked here.

By far, the LP's most spot-on imitation--perhaps with even more drive than the original, if that's possible--would have to be My Bonnie, possibly my favorite Hit Records fake of all time.  It's a killer cover, and the history of the original is probably known to most of you, but it's worth reviewing: recorded in 1961 in Hamburg, Germany, then released in 1962, making a decent showing on the German charts.  Tony Sheridan is the lead singer, backed by "The Beat Brothers" (guess who). The U.S. co-release, on Decca, didn't do so well, far as I know.  Come 1964 and Beatlemania, the single was reissued on MGM in the U.S., credited to "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan," and it obviously charted well.  (MGM even put out an LP featuring all the Hamburg Sheridan/Beatles tracks, with filler by "The Titans."  A downright budget-label thing to do.)  Anyway, the Hit Records My Bonnie rocks the needle out of the grooves--this version still amazes me, ever since I thrifted my first VG-- thrift copy.

Dawn (Go Away), my favorite Four Seasons track, is given a not-too-shabby treatment here, and while the vocals wobble (weeble?) here and there, the overall production sounds fabulous--beautifully engineered and produced.  Similarly, the other two Beatles tracks (She Loves You and Please Please Me) won't have you mistaking the singers for John, Paul, and George, but in terms of capturing the vitality of the originals, these succeed very nicely.  Compare (if you dare) these versions to the tired-blood fakes featured on the dreadful Palace label LP, Beatle Mash (by "The Schoolboys," to whom Palace simultaneously assigned two other group names!), featured last year in April at this blog.  May I be forgiven in the afterlife...  

The Dave Clark Five's Glad All Over was apparently easier to fake than the Fab Four and BB sides, though the engineers should have added a couple extra layers of echo to make things sound more authentic.  The final two tracks--Columbus Stockade Blues, and Saginaw, Michigan (is that Bobby Russell on the latter?)--are expertly done, and they initially appeared on the Country & Western Hits label, a Spar sublabel, of course.  And this was a gift from Diane, who found a number of Hit Records LPs on the cheap after I'd mentioned my continuing search for these LP comps.  Thanks, Diane!

Oh, and no artist listings on the labels, but it was easy enough to locate the original credits (mostly fictitious, of course) via Discog's section of Hit Records singles.  I included these on the mp3 tags and down below.

DOWNLOAD: Current Hits, Volume No. 13

Dawn (Go Away)--The Chellows

She Loves You--The Bugs

Please Please Me--The Boll Weevils

My Bonnie--The Boll Weevils

Navy Blue--Connie Dee

Stop and Think It Over--Dotty and Dan

See the Funny Little Clown--Bobby Brooks

My Heart Belongs to Only You--Bobby Brooks

Fun, Fun, Fun--The Jalopy Five

Glad All Over--The Jalopy Five

Columbus Stockade Blues--Jack Bond

Saginaw, Michigan--Jack White

Current Hits Volume No. 13 (Hit Records HLP 413;  Probably 1964)

Lee

Hallowed Moments--Ralph Carmichael Choir and Orchestra (Sacred 8010; 1959)

I was a little surprised when I checked into my blog history and saw that I haven't presented much in the way of sacred choir music (save for Christmas).  With this post, I will start on the path to correcting this oversight.  (Whatever I just typed, there.)  And, when you see Ralph Carmichael's name on a gospel LP, you know you're going to hear some superbly professional singing and playing--and that's just what we get on this 1959 effort from the Sacred label.  Spectraphonic high fidelity, no less, from the "world leader in religious records."  The back cover has a little box which explains "Spectraphonic Sound," and I'm sure everyone will be rushing to the scan (included in the zip) to find out more about this fascinating process.

Nearly all of these twelve selections are "standard" hymns--that is to say, no There Is Power in the Blood or He Will Set Your Fields on Fire in the playlist.  More mainline Protestant classics, and all excellent.  The liner notes, however, divide the numbers into three categories: 1) Simple hymnals (hymnals?)--When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, This Is My Father's World, Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand, and In the Cross of Christ I Glory; 2) Anthems as used on Sunday mornings--All Creatures of Our God and King, A Ballad of the Trees and Master, For All the Saints, and Now Thank We All Our God; and 3) Gospel songs (capital G) with string background--The Old Rugged Cross, Wonderful Peace, Ivory Palaces, and I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say. 

Well, I've never regarded Now Thank We All Our God as an anthem, though For All the Saints definitely qualifies.  But why didn't they do Saints in choir-and-organ hymnbook fashion, following Ralph Vaughan Williams' magnificent setting as written?  A big missed opportunity, there.  The Old Rugged Cross has since graduated to the ranks of standard hymns, though I'm not sure about Ivory Palaces.  Depends on the mainline denomination.  And mainline hymnals are becoming more inclusive by the year, so... And, for some reason, I thought I Heard the Voice... was in our main UMC hymnal, but I guess not.  (Okay, I'm remembering all the way back to my Presbyterian days--it was, and maybe still is, in that hymnal. But with a different tune for the words.)  And I'm sure this internal dialogue is totally fascinating.

Some superb music and singing for the first phase of Operation Post More Sacred Choir Fare.  Nice to have such a distinguished example to start things off.  Oh, and on the MP3 tags I did some corrections on the author/composer credits, which mostly involved including the names of the former (the text writers).  Additions and a couple of corrections.  To the Sunday sounds...

DOWNLOAD: Hallowed Moments--Ralph Carmichael Choir and Orchestra (1959)

The Old Rugged Cross
All Creatures of Our God and King
A Ballad of the Trees and Master
For All the Saints
Ivory Palaces
Now Thank We All Our God
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
This Is My Father's World
Wonderful Peace
Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand
In the Cross of Christ I Glory
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

Hallowed Moments--Ralph Carmichael Choir and Orchestra (Sacred 8010; 1959)

Lee

Pops for America (aka, 18 Top Hits)--Enoch Light, Vincent Lopez, Artie Malvin, and the rest (1956 or 1957)

 

Pops for America--isn't that a snazzy jacket?  (Seriously--it rocks.)  Another used-vinyl gift from Diane, this Grand Award fake-hits comp is kind of an upscale 18 Top Hits.  In fact, 18 Top Hits is (by no coincidence) this LP's subtitle.  In addition, this fancy-looking package uses a stock Waldorf image (the girl and jukebox), but here the pic is better lit and more detailed than usual.  And the border (with its "World's Greatest Music/Art" brags) really adds something in the way of class.  However, this is basically a spruced-up regular release, the tracks all having appeared on 18 Top Hits EPs and various Waldorf Music Hall LPs.  None of which, far as I know, claimed to be the "world's greatest."  But you've got to love the extra care in packaging.

At first glance, I calculated that I'd already posted most of these, but it turns out I've pre-posted fewer than half--44.444... percent, to be exact.  The new-to-the-blog numbers include You Don't Know Me (Bob Eberly), Don't Be Cruel (Loren Becker), Happiness Street (The Brigadiers), and six more.  No individual artist credits, for some reason, but the names were easily tracked down using Discog's 18 Top Hits listings.  And, I should note, even if most of these had been repeats, I'd have posted this anyway, due to the incredibly attractive packaging.

I'm guessing (and it's purely a guess) that our LP hails from 1956 or 1957--it doesn't have a standard Grand Award catalog number, which might mean... mail order, perhaps?  As ever, we get to hear the teen pop hits of the 1950s in much slicker, more pop-conventional arrangements (though, to be fair, at this time the label was gradually moving toward truer-to-r-and-r fakes).  The previously posted Stranded in the Jungle is almost humorous in its contrast to the raw original, especially with the Lawrence Welk style vocals, but there's nothing inherently wrong with big band-style teen pop; and, in fact, Jungle manages to rock pretty effectively, despite the clean-cut sound.  And, again, we're about a year away from Waldorf finally fully giving in to the r&r sound.

The liner notes are the usual why-this-is-a-great-deal type of essay, but we do get priceless info about the top-flight musicians who backed the singers.  Best of all, we learn that the man responsible for those great guitar solos was George Barnes, who had a genuine feel for r&r guitar.  Read the notes (included in the zip) for info on the other big names, all of whom seemed to be having a good time.

And a note about my use of "Waldorf" (and/or "Waldorf labels") as a catchall for Enoch Light's early stuff: There is disagreement between two major discographical sources, Discogs and Both Sides Now, over the (what's the best term?) label order when it comes to Enoch Light.  For instance, Discogs doesn't even connect Grand Award with Waldorf (Correction: It states that GA started out as Waldorf Music Hall--my bad), whereas Both Sides Now lists Audition, Colortone, Command Performance and Waldorf Music Hall as subsidiary labels of Grand Award.  Maybe there simply wasn't any logic or order to this stuff.  It's very possible, since budget labels existed solely to move product by any means possible, which inevitably resulted in a confusing organizational scheme.

Fine, highly entertaining material here, and some of the less effective tracks are actually pretty charming in their less-effectiveness.  I refer, for example, to Jerry Duane's inadequate vocal on Rip It Up and Artie Malvin's spirited but missed-the-boat vocal for Hound Dog (though the cheery, squeaky-clean arrangement is probably the main issue--few songs lend themselves less to Dixieland treatment than this Leiber/Stoller classic, made famous, of course, by Big Mama Thornton and Elvis P.).  Not to knock Artie Malvin, by any means, who often did great work (for instance, When My Dreamboat...).

As for Somebody up There Likes Me (from the Paul Newman flick), it's nice to have the Waldorf knock-off, but it ranks with my least favorite Perry Como hits--and I'm a Como mega-fan.  Just saying.  This version is well done, as far as that goes.

A word on my Sunday posts--I'll be getting back in gear the next Sunday after tomorrow, but I've been feeling under the weather this week, which has me running behind.  That'll happen.

Don't forget--these were all acclaimed by music critics, approved by music educators, and treasured by music lovers.  Just Grand Award's subtle and very humble brand of self-praise.

DOWNLOAD: Pops for America (aka, 18 Top Hits) (Grand Award G.A. 33-POP 5; 1956/1957)

Canadian Sunset--Enoch Light and His Orch.

You Don't Know Me--Bob Eberly

Rip It Up--Jerry Duane and the Rhythm Rockets

Friendly Persuasion--Mike Stewart

Song for a Summer Night--Enoch Light and His Orch.

Don't Be Cruel--Loren Becker

Happiness Street--The Brigadiers

After the Lights Go Down Low--Artie Malvin

Hound Dog--Artie Malvin

Somebody up There Likes Me--Loren Becker With Enoch Light and His Orch.

Love, Love, Love--Rhythm Rockets

Soft Summer Breeze--Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

Stranded in the Jungle--The Rhythm Rockets

Tonight You Belong to Me--Dottie and Lois

Honky Tonk--Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

When My Dreamboat Comes Home--Artie Malvin

The Fool--Loren Becker With Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

When the White Lilacs Bloom Again--Vincent Lopez and His Orch.

Pops for America (aka, 18 Top Hits)--Various (Grand Award G.A. 33-POP 5; prob. 1956/1957)

Lee

Shivery Shellac, Part 3!--Beatrice Kay, Harry Reser, Marek Weber, Eugene Goossens! (1907-1958)

 

A cryptful of shiver-producing shellac, and I had a devil of a time finding my copy of Spooky Spooks, that 1916 classic by Charles Prince's A. Band.  And, wouldn't you know it, the first place I should have checked was exactly where the thing turned up, but did I look there first?  No, of course not--I went through my entire 12" 78 stash--twice, no less--before checking my first choice.  There's a moral there, someplace.  You've heard, "It was in the last place I looked" (which some regard as redundant, since, as a rule, people stop searching once they've found something), but this time, it's "in the first place I should have looked."  A lesson for us all.  Go with your guts.  And not in the gore-picture sense.

So, I need to hurry here, lest I drive myself sane.  And, you know, I was afraid I might end up with thirteen tracks in this list (I'm not superstitious, but...), but I wound up with fourteen, so... whew!  I'm in for good luck on Sunday, I reckon.  Frankie says, "Arrrrrghhh!!"  I'm sure we all appreciate his input.

In the scary-titles-for-music-that-turn-out-to-not-be-scary sweepstakes, the winner has to be 1955's The Theme from Dial "M" for Murder, which starts out in a horror vein but quickly moves into a Morton-Gould-mood-music mode.  Nice selection, but it must depict one of the less suspenseful moments in the Hitchcock film.  And we have one of my best-ever thrift finds--the "Theatre Lobby Spot" for the classic Japanese horror flick, The H-Man (1958).  I presented it in a single file, though it's really two bands on (what looks to be) a vinyl 78, with no lead-in groove to the second part.  I spliced them together, shouting "Live! LIVE!" having forgotten, for a brief moment, that I'm not Victor Frankenstein.  We have some concert "horror" fare, too: Rachmaninoff's C-Sharp Minor Prelude, as played by Marek Weber's orchestra in 1928, Manuel de Falla's The Fire Dance, as conducted by Eugene Goossens in 1928, and Chopin's famous Funeral March, Op. 35, as played on the pipe organ by Mark Andrews in 1928.  Clearly, 1928 was a good year for spooky background music.

And we have (straight from the 78) Beatrice Kay's 1947 Hooray, Hooray, I'm Goin' Away, which very possibly influenced a certain 1966 novelty hit.  Plus, a companion piece to last post's Little Nell--another mini-melodrama called No! No! A Thousand Times No! as provided by Harry Reser's Orchestra in 1934.  On the Level You're a Little Devil (no comma in sight on the label) is a 1918 novelty that'll have you saying "Awwww."  Or not.  1919's A Cat-Astrophe features cartoon sound effects before there were such things, and Vamp Me is yet another charming Byron Gay novelty from the days of the proto-big bands (as in, 1922).  Then we have the wacky 1907 novelty Gesundheit! (To Your Health), because nothing says "Halloween" quite like sneezing.  (Wait a minute...)  Actually, I'm not sure why I included this one.  Wait, I know--it puts the playlist count up to fourteen, from thirteen.  That must be why.

Happy Halloween!

DOWNLOAD: Shivery Shellac, Part 3! (1907-1958)

A Cat-Astrophe--Columbia Orch., Dir. by Charles A. Prince, 1919
Vamp Me--Rega Dance Orchestra, 1922
On the Level You're a Little Devil--Irene Farber and Lewis James, 1918
Gesundheit! (To Your Health)--Arthur Pryor's Band, 1907
Spooky Spooks--Prince's Band, 1916
Funeral March (Chopin, Op. 35)--Mark Andrews, Pipe Organ Solo, 1928
Prelude (Rachmaninoff)--Marek Weber and His Orch., 1928
Dance Macabre--Lew White, Organ, w. Xylophone and Piano, 1942
My Friend the Ghost--Jill Whitney, 1954
No! No! A Thousand Times No!--Harry Reser and His Orch., V: Tom Stacks, 1934
The Fire Dance (Manuel de Falla)--Hollywood Bowl Orch., c. Eugene Goossens, 1928
Hooray, Hooray, I'm Goin' Away (Skylar)--Beatrice Kay w. Mitchell Ayres, 1947
The H-Man (Theatre Lobby Spot)--1958?
Theme from Dial "M" For Murder (Tiomkin)--Dimitri Tiomkin and His Orch., 1955

Lee

Shivery Shellac, Part 2!--Little Nell, That Hypnotizing Man, Ah-Ha!, Storm, The Ghost of the Violin (1904-1936)

 

From J.W. Myers' gender-inclusive rendition of Come Take a Trip in My Airship (1904) to Frances Langford's jazzy reading of Cole Porter's Swingin' the Jinx Away, today's 11 titles cover 32 years, thirteen short of the 45-year span of Part 1.  Wait a minute--did I say "thirteen"?  Buwa-ha-haaaa!!!

I knew there was a thirteen in here someplace.  Anyway, don't be surprised when J.W. Myers sings, "...and right near the Dipper, I gave him my heart," since gender-blind vocals were a thing in the early days of recording.  In fact, I used to have a dance band version of The Man I Love which featured a male vocal refrain, so the practice was still in place come the late 1920s.  (And, for some odd reason, early renditions of The Man I Love often took brisk tempos.)  Meanwhile, hypnotism is a Halloween trope--instances of hypnotism, anyway (Bela Lugosi: "Come... here!")--and we've got two examples today/tonight: That Hypnotizing Man (Dolly Connolly, 1912) and Hypnotized, which can be taken as a standard love song or a song about possession.  As in, being possessed ("One look at you, and I was hypnotized").  Why doesn't the singer simply say he was enchanted, or attracted, or that something was stirred inside him?  The man isn't simply captivated--he's been mesmerized.  The gliding, shimmering organ chords (played by Ted Fio Rito) very subtly suggest something supernatural at work.  It's there, if you listen really closely.  But not too closely...

Everything wraps up with an unusual grand organ solo, and I still have my 2016 blog notes regarding it (which is good, since I won't have to retrace the info).  This organ solo, called Storm, includes storm imitations (you read that correctly) on the organ pedals, and apparently this was an actual concert genre around the turn of the last century--storm pieces on the organ.  Clearly, the tradition didn't age well, since, by the time the British Arthur Meale committed his Storm to shellac (on HMV) in 1926, Gramophone magazine was less than charitable in its review, calling Storm "a ludicrous piece of theatricalism," and "a demonstration of the worst excesses of which the organ is capable." Hm. Other than that, did they like it?

Anyway, I've traced Storm back at least as far as 1905, and it may have originated as an organ improvisation, and... it doesn't appear to have been published. It seems to have originally been called Storm at Sea (which would explain the stanza of Eternal Father, Strong to Save), and the sections (quoted from a 1906 recital announcement) are as follows: Calm at Sea--Distant Thunder--Rising Wind--Hooting of Sirens in the distance--Hymn, "Eternal Father, strong to save"--Tempestuous Sea (theme on the Pedal Organ during the storm)--Thunder rolls away--Thanksgiving Hymn, "O God, our help in ages past," etc.  

Now you know as little as I do.  I think that select moments in Storm would make a terrific accompaniment for a Lon Chaney horror silent, and so I offer it as a classic example of shivery shellac.  More to come, believe it or don't.

DOWNLOAD: Shivery Shellac, Part 2

That Hypnotizing Man--Dolly Connolly, 1912
Graveyard Blues--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orchestra, 1918
The Ghost of the Violin (Two-step) (Ted Snyder)--Prince's Band, 1913
Come Take a Trip in My Airship--J.W. Myers, 1904
Ah-Ha!--Oriole Orchestra, V: Mark Fisher, 1925
Ah-Ha!--California Ramblers, V: John Ryan
Little Nell--Eliot Everett and Orch. (Joe Haymes), 1932
The Devil Song--Ed McConnell, 1927
Swingin' the Jinx Away (Cole Porter)--Frances Langford w. Jimmy Dorsey and His Orch., 1936
Hypnotized--Ted Fio Rito and His Orch. V: Muzzy Marcellino
Storm (Arthur Meale)--Arthur Meale, Grand Organ Solo, 1926

Lee