Singles meaning of forty fives found at various locations in the great AZ, desert. I posted a few of them last week on the poorly received top ten of the week but since I like to showoff my self indulgence in the art of finding 3 minute ditties on 7 inch plastic, I continue to do this against the better judgement of the internet community.
Most of the finds were at the Half Priced Bookstore in downtown Phoenix on a quiet Sunday morning if you can believe that. Some have some value for me, Hawks, Need Your Love has been a highly sought after collectible since they hailed from Iowa and further proof that CBS Columbia screwed up in promoting them. Others like Tommy Roe's Sheila is a nod back to the past of being a small child but still being fascinated by the ABC Paramount logo spinning around to the point of being under its spell for the rest of these years. Some of the 45s found were replacement copies of long overplayed ones in my collection (Sunday Morning comes to mind). I think I quit buying 45s around the mid 80s when the labels decided to add that ugly barcode to the label, their own way of 'tagging' but further research revealed that the vinyl used simply wasn't as strong or good sounding of the 45's of the 60s. Even though the public eventually quit buying them, forty fives were still made for the juke boxes of the 1990s. But today independent labels continue to put things out on 7 inch vinyl and forty fives are making a comeback of sorts. No, they won't be as plentiful as they used to be, none of the department stores sell them anyway. But your local record store provided if you're lucky to be near one might still have them.
Nice to see my computer mess up, I just lost a couple paragraphs along the way, Thank you Firefox. Guess we'll move on to ten notables.
1. Dancing In the Ruins-Blue Oyster Cult 1986 Columbia 38-05845 Classic rock radio only plays two BOC songs and you know which ones they are. One of them isn't this. It came out later in the mid 80s to which BOC was a parody of itself and Club Ninja the worst album they ever done. Losing the Borchard Brothers didn't help much either. However this song may have been the best highlight of that album sung by Buck Dharma to which if you think about it, the hits were sung by him. I'm surprised this didn't do better on the charts than it did although it does sound like a rewrite of Burning For You.
2. Chasing You Into The Light-Jackson Browne 1989 Elektra 7-69262 This was one song that I liked so much that I ended up buying World In Motion on CD which was a big mistake and when I sold that cd off forgot all about it till I saw the 45 at the shop. There's so much more to Jackson and Running On Empty or Doctor My Eyes that classic rock radio tends to overlook his later stuff (Lawyers In Love, That Girl Can Sing) and why Browne never included this song on his best ofs remains one reason why he has sold one less copy of his greatest hits.
3. House Of The Rising Sun-Frijid Pink 1970 Parrot 45-341 Had the old jukebox copy from Ole's Ham And Egger when they stock that jukebox with the hits of the time and then when their time was up you could buy them at Town Square Bookstore (now gone) five for a dollar. Hell the grooves were worn off when I finally got it and basically played the other side Drivin' Blues to which has been given some Top Ten love back in the past. This was heavy metal before heavy metal was born and although Uriah Heep and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath have been given the HM tag, Frijid Pink should be included just on this said song which was a three and half minute edit from the album. I remember they had the jukebox cranked up loud at Ole's and you could hear plenty more of bass to it. Great times, great memories, playing pinball at Oles and eating some of the greasiest food ever made known to man.
4. Jimmy Brown-George Richey 1966 Hickory K-1441 The biggest fun of going singles hunting is the unknown stuff out there and there was two Hickory singles that caught my eye. One was Maurie by the Swinging Gentry Singers (Hickory 1498) which may have been the inspiration from A Mighty Wind and less said the better, Jimmy Brown on the other hand was sang by a then unknown country singer who would go on to produce Sonny James and Tammy Wynette to which he would marry years later. I can see why he went into production, he's not a great singer and this sounds like he's trying to sound like Johnny Cash and ends up more like Del Reeves. In other words a novelty song. Not much is known about this record outside Dorsey Burnette produced this and co wrote it. You can't find it on You Tube so you're on your own. When I'm on my bargain hunting adventures I tend to seek out certain labels, ABC Paramount one, Hickory the other. They tend to have some interesting history behind their music. Including the Swinging Gentry Singers whoever they were.
5. Night In My Veins-Pretenders 1994 Sire/WB 7-18163 Further proof of 45's in the 90s was this hit single from Crissie Hynde and friends and it featured the return of Martin Chambers on drums too. B side is a very moving version of Angel Of The Morning to which didn't make the album.
6. Best Friend-Puppet 1969 Date 2-1666 Remember Courtship Of Eddie's Father, that old show with Bill Bixby? Not too many do, but this song was used for the opening theme. Written by Harry Nilsson, Puppet actually did it note for note but sounds a bit more poppier. Sandy Salisbury is the vocalist on this, not Harry by the way. (duh).
7. Living In A Dream-Arc Angels 1992 DGC/Geffen 7-19135 Life after Stevie Ray Vaughan Double Trouble hooks up with Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie (Beats So Lonely) Sexton to record a down and dirty hour long album to which I still like a lot to this day. Too bad the band didn't last very long, Double Trouble went on to another band Storyville for a couple more blues based albums rather than the rock n roll of Arc Angels the album. B side Sent By Angels also got plenty of airplay on the radio, mostly from "real rock" knowitalls KRNA before Cumulus brought them out to be just another crappy radio station playing same old shit everybody is sick of hearing. No Arc Angels though.
8. Compared To What-Ray Charles 1980 Atlantic 3762 Disco Ray, doing a disco version of the Gene McDaniels protest song done better by Les McCain/Eddie Harris and Brian Auger. Strange though, I never seen the 45 till last week.
9. Melody-David Johansen 1979 Blue Sky ZS9-2781 Another artist of the past that I never did see any of their singles till later in life, David was the voice and vision of New York Dolls a band I didn't get into till sometime the last five years ago and then filled in the blanks with albums from the Dolls and Johansen. Another head scatching single that didn't do better on the charts although I do admit I've never heard anything off the radio from David, nor the Dolls.
10. Peter Gunn-Ray Anthony 1957? Capitol F4041 Finally to conclude the AZ singles, comes from a 45 that I used to have as a child and played it a few times before it got cracked and found a much better copy later. Anthony specialized in cover versions of muzak versions but once in a while he could rock the orchestra such as this 1 minute forty six seconds of a cover of Henry Mancini's song. Thought it was definite till I heard Duane Eddy's version. Then all bets were off.
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