fuzzyman
September 24, 2003 9:12 PM | WARNING! FUZZYMAN'S LINER NOTES! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
LOW FIDELITY:
FUZZYMAN’S THIRD MIX
When I was six or seven years old, my Aunt Betty gave me a stack of 45 RPM records from a radio station. I’ll never know how she got them (she worked at a bank) but they were a great source of entertainment to me. Most of the 45’s were labeled “Promotion Record†or ‘Special Disc Jockey Record†and as I child with a vivid imagination, I spent many hours playing these records while pretending to be a DJ. Some of them still have numbers written on the label – their ranking in my radio “Top Ten.†Because I had no allowance, this was pretty much my personal record collection until I was old enough to make money cutting lawns.
Since these were discarded records, the selections were obscure, unusual, and generally stuff they wouldn’t be caught dead playing on the radio in the Seventies. The concept of “oldies†had not yet taken hold, I guess. I’ve kept very few things from my childhood – the other remnants from those years could fit in a sandwich bag; a few Cub Scout medals, an award or two, and O.J. Simpson’s autograph (another gift from Aunt Betty). But long after I discarded the LPs I bought as a teenager, I still have these 45s. I think I’ve always known that this collection was, shall we say, unique and that I would be hard pressed to find these recordings again.
Thanks for giving me an excuse to finally preserve these recordings digitally. You’ve also given me a reason to do a little research on each of the songs or artists, the results of which you can enjoy below.
- JERRY LEWIS
Let Me Sing And I'm Happy
In 1956, after the break-up of Martin and Lewis, Jerry introduced released “Jerry Lewis… Just Sings!†an album of standards. This is an Irving Berlin song originally sung by Al Jolson.
- TED HEATH AND HIS MUSIC
Cloudburst
The Ted Heath Band, although less well-known in the U.S., was probably the first "World Music" band. From its inception in 1945, the band showcased the best musicians in Britain and Scotland. Band leaders and music critics in the U.S. dubbed Heath's band as extremely precise, polished and very professional. Even the great Count Basie said Heath's band "scared him to death" with its quality, precision and ability to swing.
- BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS
Rockin’ Rollin’ Rover
Bill Haley recorded an album of well-known standards re-imagined with a rock ‘n roll beat in 1957, presumably in an attempt to attract the older generation to the music while still retaining the youth interest. He filled out the album with this tune, a song about a puppy that alternately wags his tail, wiggles his ears and taps his paw in time with the music. Maybe Bill was trying to attract pre-teen listeners, as well! Still, it’s a fun little song.
- THE JODIMARS
Rattle My Bones
Several of Bill Haley’s Comets left to form their own band in 1955. They only had one hit. This isn’t it. My guess is that the lyrics were just too darn sophisticated for the audience of the times.
- GEORGE WILLIAMS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
You Can't Stop Love
One of the authors of this song (Fred Ebb) was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983. The vocals are by Mary Knolls. Outside of that, I can’t find out anything about this song or band – which is a pity, because this would make a great Broadway show tune.
- SNOOKY LANSON
Seven Days
Snooky Lanson was a performer on TV’s “Your Hit Parade†where a case of regular singers would sing popular tunes. Rumor has it that the show as almost cancelled after Snooky tried to perform several Elvis songs. Later, he had some modest success covering R&B tunes such as this one.
- MARVIN RAINWATER
So You Think You’ve Got Troubles
It turns out that this song was actually the B side. “Gonna Find Me a Bluebird†was Marvin Rainwater’s big hit, reaching number 3 on the country charts and number 18 on the pop charts. When I was a kid I thought this song was the funniest damned I’d ever heard. “So I put me a bar in the back of my car and drive myself to drink.†Heh.
- MIKE PEDICIN QUINTET
When The Cats Come Marching In
Mike Pedicin was a saxophonist who became somewhat more notable as a featured soloist with Dave Brubeck and Maynard Ferguson. He’s now the Musical Director at several Atlantic City casinos, including the Trump Marina, Tropicana, and Claridge Hotel & Casino.
- KITTY KALLEN AND GEORGIE SHAW
The Second Greatest Sex
This is the theme from the 1955 movie of the same name. The screenplay is loosely based on based on the theme of "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes. While the men battle for a safe containing important papers, the women decide to protest by withholding their affections.
- FATS DOMINO
What Will I Tell My Heart
Who sold the second highest number of rock and roll records in the 1950’s? Between 1952 and 1968, Fats Domino had 63 entries in the Rhythm and Blues charts. Thirty-nine of them reached the Top 10 and 9 of them reached Number 1. This fine little song from 1957 peaked at 64 on the charts. Ain’t that a shame?
- LOUIS JORDAN
Rock Doc
In the Forties, bandleader Louis Jordan pioneered a wild (and wildly popular) amalgam of jazz and blues with salty, jive-talking humor. The music played by singer and saxophonist Jordan got called "jump blues" or "jumpin' jive," and it served as a precursor to the rhythm and blues and rock and roll of the Fifties. Jordan not only supplied a good deal of the slang of early rock and roll but also directly influenced the freewheeling spirit of its progenitors, including Bill Haley and Chuck Berry. The latter paid tribute to Jordan with this simple declaration: "I identify myself with Louis Jordan more than any other artist." This is a tune of Jordan’s from 1957.
- THE NUTTY SQUIRRELS
Uh Oh! Part 1
The success of the musical Alvin and the Chipmunks in the late 1950's spawned numerous imitation recording groups, including the Grasshoppers and the Nutty Squirrels. The cartoon version of the Nutty Squirrels beat the Chipmunks to TV by a year. The story of the Nutty Squirrels began when jazzman Don Elliott and TV composer Alexander "Sascha" Burland, amused by the Chipmunks concept, joined together to record an album in the guise of a hip group of Chipmunk sound-alike rodents. Like Ross Bagdasarian (a.k.a. David Seville), they recorded their normal singing voices at 16 RPM, then played them back at 33-1/3 RPM--giving that unique Chipmunk-sound to the hip scat-singing style that Elliott had perfected during his solo work in the early 1950's. Backing Elliott and Burland's altered vocals were some of the best New York session men of the late 1950s, including Cannonball Adderley on sax. The Nutty Squirrels were signed by the Hanover label, owned in part by comedian Steve Allen. A cut from that first album, "Uh-Oh! Part 2" made it to number 14 in the Hit Parade for the week of December 28, 1959, almost exactly one year after "The Chipmunk Song" made the same list. I like “Uh Oh! Part 1†better, so here it is.
- ART MOONEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
A Face In The Crowd
This is the theme from the 1957 movie staring Andy Griffith. Elia Kazan's political melodrama explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. In Kazan's account, the common-man (Griffith) is no Gary Cooper-style aw-shucks paragon. Promoted to national fame as a folksy TV idol by radio producer Patricia Neal, Griffith's Larry Rhodes turns out to be a megalomaniacal rat bastard. The film turns apocalyptic as Rhodes exploits his power to sway the masses, helping to elect a reactionary presidential candidate. The theme is performed by Art Mooney and his Orchestra. Mooney started out by leading a band mostly in Detroit and the Midwest area during the 30s. After World War II he formed a new outfit with a similar style and sound to Glenn Miller. The big break came when Mooney recorded his version the song "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover.†The record sold over a million copies and put Mooney in the big money bracket. The vocals to this song are provided by a group called the Cloverleafs.
- JACKIE WILSON
For Once In My Life
They called him ‘Mr. Entertainment,’ and indeed Jackie Wilson was a gifted singer of considerable range and an athletic showman who commanded a stage like few before or since. He was a natural tenor who sang with the graceful control of Sam Cooke and moved with the frenzied dynamism of James Brown. With all the flair and finesse at his disposal, Wilson routinely drove audiences to the brink of hysteria. A mainstay of the R&B and pop charts from 1958 to 1968, Wilson amassed two dozen Top Forty singles. On record, he was often saddled with grandiose arrangements and dated material, but he transcended even the most pathetic settings with the tremulous excitement of his vocals. This is a 1968 cover of Tony Bennett’s hit from the year before.
- BRENDA LEE
Ride, Ride, Ride
Brenda Lee began as a child star and went on to become one of the world's best-selling recording artists. A professional singer by age six and a recording artist by age eleven, she launched her national career on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee. She had her first hit in 1957 with "One Step at a Time." Recording in Nashville, Brenda Lee hit the upper reaches of the pop charts through the mid 1960s with such hits as "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Through the mid-1980s she was a regular on the country charts. She was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997. This is a tune from 1967.
- TAB HUNTER
Young Love
This is Tab Hunter’s only Number 1 hit. A former Ice-skating champion, in 1952 he turned his attention to acting, both on television and in movies. His singing career began in 1957 and his first hit was by far his biggest. Young Love on the Dot label entered the charts on January 19, 1957 and pushed its way to the #1 position, replacing a version of the same song by Sonny James. It remained at #1 for six weeks and helped to establish Tab Hunter as a star. He continued to star in movies, including Damn Yankees. In 1960 he had a television series of his own. His popularity began to fade, and he made some B movies, notably Lust In The Dust. In 1972 he made a comeback in the movie The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean with Paul Newman. The following year, singer Donny Osmond resurrected Young Love and it returned to the top forty.
- KIMBO SINGERS
Baby Take A Bow
I had always thought that this was some sort of stock music intended as an introduction to a radio game show or contest. There was no vocalist or group listed on the record. All I knew was that it was on the Kimbo label, and the song was owned by the Movietone Music Corporation. It turns out that the Kimbo makes children’s recordings. Though this was recorded in 1934, it is still available from them (yes, they are still in business). This particular song seems to be intended for infants learning to walk.
- JOHNNIE RAY
Miss Me Just A Little
Called the Prince of Wails, and the Nabob of Sob, Johnnie Ray’s performances of his smash hit songs like "Cry" (1951) where he would occasionally break down in front of his audience, became legendary. He became deaf in his right ear at the age of twelve, and thereafter wore a hearing aid. He preceded rock and roll and was caught in the difficult transition time when rock became king and eclipsed nearly all other forms of music. Crooners like Ray were left to fend for themselves or find work in Las Vegas, which actually suited him very well, as his live performances were superb.
- JOHN ZACHERLE
Dinner With Drac – Part 1
Zacherle hosted Shock Theater with his sidekicks Igor and My Dear and reigned supreme on Philadelphia late night television in the late fifties. He also recorded on the Philadelphia based Cameo label. He had a Top Ten hit with "Dinner with Drac." An interesting footnote to the Dinner with Drac recording was that the 1st presses had it flipped with a song called "Igor." However, Dick Clark, who owned part of the Cameo label, thought that the original version of "Dinner with Drac" was too violent for his "American Bandstand" show, which went network just about the same time that Zacherele started Shock Theater. An alternate version was recorded and played on Bandstand. The problem was, once they heard it, everyone wanted the Bandstand version. So Cameo had to quickly re-press the song with the original version on one side and the Bandstand version on the other. They were entitled, "Dinner with Drac, Parts 1 & 2."
- FATS DOMINO
If You Need Me
Fats is da man. This little gem is from 1960 and was on the charts for a whole week at 98. The flip side, Country Boy, made it up to 25.
- RAY MARTIN ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS
The Grape Stompers
I don’t have much information about the Ray Martin Orchestra. They seemed to do a lot of movie music or orchestral versions of popular tunes. Still, with a single word in the lyric(s), this song paints an awfully prosaic picture of Italian people excitedly stomping the grapes while looking forward to drinking themselves absolutely blotto afterward.
- THE FIELD BROTHERS
Little Kitten
The Field Brothers’ music career was cut short by a sordid animal molestation scandal. After serving at twelve-year prison sentence they were never heard from again. People still remember their popular hits on the Carlton label: Snuggly Puppy, Little Kitten, and Shaved Gerbil. Actually, I couldn’t find any information about this group at all, so I thought I’d give them a bit of a back story. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
- LITTLE STEVIE WONDER
Monkey Talk
Born blind in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950, Steveland Morris cut his first disc for Motown Records in Detroit aged 12 as "Little" Stevie Wonder. It turns out that this is a rare recording that has only recently found it’s way onto CD compilations of Stevie’s early work.
- THE MCGUIRE SISTERS
Peace
Until I did some research, I had no idea that these women were still alive, let alone performing. Actually, they look pretty good for their ages, if unnaturally blonde now. This is a song from 1959, perhaps intended to be a Christmas song. They have great harmony, even if the lyric about finding “peace in daily prayer†makes my skin crawl.
- ELVIS PRESLEY
I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine
In search of a single to follow up his first (‘That's All Right’), Elvis proved his eclecticism by revamping Patti Page's 1950 pop hit, 'I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine.' It's Dean Martin's version that Elvis probably remembered, though. The horns that backed Martin are absent, of course, and Elvis' spare arrangement is ornamented only by a bongo-like effect as he slaps the back of his guitar.
- MITCH MILLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
The President On The Dollar
This popular conductor, arranger, and record producer was one of the most successful recording artists of the 1950's and 1960's. During his tenure as musical director for first Mercury and then Columbia records, he helped guide the careers of such artists as Frankie Laine, Guy Mitchell, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Johnnie Ray, and of such conductors as Ray Coniff; Frank DeVol, and Percy Faith. In 1950, Mitch began a series of successful recordings with his own orchestra which was to make his own name widely known to the public. In 1958, he found still more fame with his very successful series of Sing Along With Mitch recordings. These featured an all-male chorus singing turn of the century tunes.
- EDDIE TWISTER
Simple Twist
The youngest of the talented Twister brothers, Eddie started his solo career with this entertaining instrumental. Simple Twist launched the dance craze of the same name, much to the delight of butt men across the United States. The flip side of this record, Double Twist, cost Eddie his fortune after a class action suit in he was found liable for spinal injuries people incurred while performing the complicated dance maneuver. In the mid-Seventies, Eddie changed his last name to “Twisted†and had a brief comeback as an Alice Cooper-style Death Metal artist. His remake of his original hit, titled “Simply Twisted,†held the top spot on the Billboard Death Metal chart for sixteen weeks. Eddie now owns the successful “Eddie Nipple Twister†chain of S&M clubs in Las Vegas.
- KAY STARR
Bossa Nova Casanova
A solid jazz singer whose early recordings tended to be forgotten after her ascendancy into the commercial sphere during the mid-'50s, Kay Starr was among the first pop singer to capitalize on the "rock fad" with her 1955 novelty "Rock and Roll Waltz." Her biggest hit came with the era-defining "Wheel of Fortune," a prime slice of '50s adult pop with a suitably brassy reading. Born in Oklahoma, she moved to Dallas at a young age and made her debut on radio while still in school. A brief stay with Glenn Miller & His Orchestra precipitated her working with groups led by Bob Crosby, Joe Venuti and finally Charlie Barnet. She recorded a few numbers with Barnet that earned her a solo contract with Capitol. Her sister, Brenda Starr, had a successful career in newspapers. This song dates from 1963, several years after Kay’s radio career had peaked. Is that Mel Blanc doing the dance instructor’s voice?
- SWING AND SWAY WITH SAMMY KAYE
Theme Song
Sammy Kaye led what was known during the Big Band era as a "sweet" band. A sweet band played pleasant, inoffensive music aimed at audiences who preferred their music to be in the background. Sweet bands were popular with people who liked to dance but weren't too good at it: they could count on rhythms varying from ballads to mid-tempo, but nothing too fast, too loud, or too energetic. No blaring trumpets, no extended improvised solos, no dramatic shifts in volume or tone--just the gentle, almost syruppy sound of saxes playing the melody in unison. Sammy Kaye's slogan was "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye," but it was swinging like on the front porch, not like Duke Ellington had in mind when he wrote "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." Kaye's gift was for business, not music, which is probably why he was able to keep his band going pretty much continuously for almost fifty years (the band is still around), long after most better bands had been eaten up by a shrinking market and weak management. He slipped easily from touring to radio, and then from radio to television, where he had a weekly series for years in which members of the audience attempted to conduct Kaye's orchestra as part of a contest (still a part of their live shows).
- THE JIVE BOMBERS
Bad Boy
This New York R&B group was formed in 1948 from elements of two earlier acts, the Tinney Brothers (founded during the mid-30s) and the Palmer Brothers (founded late 20s). The group, recording as the Sparrows in 1949 and as the Jive Bombers after 1952, were pre-dated the rock n’ roll era. Thus, their age and repertoire of old songs kept them in staid nightclubs during most of their career, and their appearance in the teen rock 'n' roll market was very brief. In 1957 "Bad Boy" went to number 7 on the R&B chart and number 36 on the pop chart. It was written and recorded by Lillian Armstrong as "Brown Gal" in 1936, and had been recorded by the Jive Bombers twice before, in 1949 and 1952, as "Brown Boy". Ringo Starr had a minor hit with a remake of “Bad Boy†in the early Seventies.
- BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS
Farewell, So Long, Goodbye
Like the man says. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed yourself.
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