Monday, August 14, 2017

Singles Going Steady-Pick Of The Best From This Summer

This summer has gone by in record time.  I have kept busy doing music related projects and among the usual things, finally having a date for the first time in half a decade and then getting ghosted ever since.   I realize that being myself I may not be your kind even in dating and general interests. But I'm at the age that playing Casper is not time productive and if you're not in love with them, you will not convince them otherwise.  So I moved on, back to the music and back to the records that have kept my spirits up. Wasn't that Jim Morrison that screamed out Music is your only friend, until the end?  We never met in person but I feel that he speaks to me.

The Marion Antique Mall to which BDW Records was a part of is now history.  And whatever 45s were found is now in the history books.  BDW may not been very consistent but at least they did managed to have at times some vintage stuff that harken back to the days of my growing up years.  This summer there were more misses than hits but I did get lucky at a estate sale and finding a bunch of records that my mom used to have.  On the night that I got ghosted by the person of interest I found a bunch of off the wall stuff at the Iowa City Goodwill store and then of course Madison and whatever Davenport had to offer too.  But I am beginning to shy away from museum 45's for example, 45's over 6 dollars.  As much as I like going to CD's 4 Change or Ragged Records I am not fond of playing used CDs prices for scratchy records I'm not familiar with.   The Mad City Music Exchange findings were 4 dollars or less.  I realize it's supply and demand but when supply is priced too high, my demand will be low and not interested, unless it's a song that I have been looking for. There's still a few out there but I am getting picky.  Again, our CEO at our sinking ship company has threatened more layoffs but at this point I rather hang around another 11 months before being there 30 years and then put my name in for severance and living off their dime for a whole year.  The CEO has been doing this now for a whole decade.  If he was living in the states he would fit in great with the crap government we have today. Give us another tax break and fuck you all.

But enough of that.  The music today sucks, so for the imaginative record collector there's always a backward look at 45s long forgotten and donated to the thrift stores or museum record stores. This time out, I am posting the 10 best 45s that didn't make the SGS blog of earlier, nor the medley of empty songs.  Whatever the case may be.

1)   What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You-Mitchell Torok (Guyden 2034)  1960

B Side to Pink Chiffon (#60), this record was part of my mom's record collection that dictated on how my music tastes would vary over the years.  Pop, big band standards, rockabilly, rock and country, this turned out that the variety of music would be the norm.  I spent years trying to find a decent copy of this song, most that I came across were in bad shape.  Mitchell Torok might have been a teen idol of sorts, but he did score a deal with Paul Guyden so he had to be a teen idol with some bite. Pink Chiffon is a nice ballad but I enjoy the more uptempo What You Don't Know including a poppy sounding organ doing the hook and melody.  It might have been the better song, but Pink Chiffon was the A side.  Torok would not dent the top 100 after that again.

2)   Smoke Gets In Your Eyes-The Platters (Mercury 71383)  #1  1958

On the trip to Davenport last month, I ended up blowing 45 dollars on a used 45 storage box and had nothing to show for, but found a cheaper and more beat up collector's case for 2.88 over at Goodwill that had a bunch of scratched up records and I really didn't need most of them, so I tried to thin them out, however there was a few 45s that I overlooked, namely this 1958 chart topper from the beloved Platters.  While the record looked somewhat beat up, it played a lot better than the more deceptive clean looking but bad sounding records that I had to redonate back. Tony Williams remains one of the best vocalists of that time.  Of course when American Graffiti came out, that song was on the soundtrack which got it back on the top 30 in smaller radio markets.  Not one of my more favorite songs but I have come to like it more as time goes on. B side No Matter What You Are is a Buck Ram original and like most Platters records, is more uptempo.  Since The Platters are now one of the more forgotten acts of the golden age of rock era, the world continues to bury them deeper in the sands of time. But I think they are due for a decent box set of their classic Mercury era.  Bear Family anybody?

3)    Good Ole Mountain Dew-Dick Metko And His Boys (Polkaland 544X45)  1955

Polka music done bluegrass?  Heh!  This was the only free 45 that was in the other record box that I got from Ragged Music and came across among the dividers.  Only thing that is true judging from the label was it was a record label dedicated to polka music and it was based out of Sheboygan and a slew of Wisconsin polka acts on this label although the internet does not have a discography of Polkaland Records, not that people would care much for that anyway.  Most polka fans from that era are dead anyway.  The main acts might have been Cousin Fuzzy, Romy Goez and Dick Metko who had another hit with Fireball Polka.  Basically Mountain Dew is of interest since it draws from bluegrass and the mix of polka music with bluegrass is interesting indeed.  I was more familiar with Stringbean's version of this but these guys found a couple more extra verses on  this version.  But then again you will never this version anyway.  It's still a polka number.

4)    Run Run Run-Jo Jo Gunne (Asylum AS-11003)  #27 1972

For a song that hit number 27 on the Billboard chart, it did nothing at KCRG, in fact when I tried requesting it, they claimed they didn't have the song and instead played The Candy Man.  Jo Jo Gunne was Jay Ferguson going for a more boogie rock and roll after breaking away from Spirit. So basically this was heard on WLS, it might have gotten some airplay on KLWW. Not sure where I got my copy of the 45.  The guess might be in Lincoln at the place that used to sell records (Not Woolworth's) or perhaps it was a juke box copy from Ole's Ham and Egger.  Probably one of the most pointless set of lyrics ever penned in the FM rock era but compared to Florida Georgia Line, this is Einstein.  "You better ride on baby you were born outside of the law"......


5)   She's About A Mover-Sir Douglas Quintet (Tribe 45-8308)  #13  1965

One of the greatest if not the greatest garage rock song ever made with a Vox organ courtesy of Augie Meyers.  This is one song that if I have gotten on 45 years ago, the grooves would be worn off. This copy I found at a Estate Sale actually still sounds good, despite being manufactured by London Records.  Their records tend to get very scratched up after repeated plays. Doug Sahm never sounded more rocking than on this version.  A later version appeared on Mercury in a different style and not as potent.

6)   Shall We Dance-Bram Tchaikovsky  (Arista AS-0601)  1981

I do wish that Peter Bramall would have a more easier to spell name for his alter ego, Bram T.  He was part of The Motors, then went solo and did three albums, two for Polydor and had a minor hit with Girl Of My Dreams then over to Arista for the underrated classic Funland.  But Arista had no clue on how to promote him and while they could have some success with Stand And Deliver, they went with this song, which I've seen as a scratched up promo copy at the Waterloo St Vincent De Paul.  But I made a note of its existence by putting it in this top ten. Alas after label indifference and poor sales, Bramall dissolved the band and hasn't been heard from since.   A shame really.  Side note: Stand And Deliver was issued as a second single AS-0621 from Arista.  That too didn't chart.  Update: since the St Vincent De Paul store closed up, I'm sure the record got thrown into the trash and now is taking up space in a Waterloo landfill.  Too bad I couldn't save it, it was too far gone and scratched up.

7)    Ride Ride Ride-Foghat (Bearsville BSV-0016)  1973

It seems to me that Foghat might be the band with the most edits of their songs on 45. They edited Slow Ride, they edited Fool For The City, They edited Driving Wheel, hell, they even edited What A Shame as well.  So once again we get a 3:00 edit of a 4 and half minute song.  Not that anybody cares, you never hear Ride Ride Ride on the radio anyway.  Another 45 found at an estate sale, it goes to show that anything Foghat I'll pick up since I'm a fan of them for many years.   Imagine my surprise that the B Side It's Too Late is in it's full five minutes and twenty seconds.

8)    The Good, The Bad And The Ugly-Hugo Montenegro  (RCA Victor 47-9423)  #2 1968

You can't go wrong when it come to Ennio Morricone, a composer that was instrumental in shaping up the Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name movies, most likely The Good,Bad,Ugly. RCA does have an overview of Morricone's songs on a best of that is worth seeking out. Montenegro, has been a long time conductor of movie tunes and muzak songs for RCA as well and most folks did have a copy of Music from A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good The Bad And The Ugly as well.  I also favor this song as a 45, since I had a copy of it years ago and it disappeared and it would take a couple decades for me to find a so so copy.  Always loved the barking vocals of one two three four and whatever the hell they're singing.   This made number 1 on the local charts but number two on the Billboard chart.  Hugo would have less success with the followup single Hang Em High, which didn't make the LP.  That song struggled up to number 82 half a year later.

9)   Zip Code-The Five Americans (Abnak  AB-123)  #36  1967

Best known for Western Union,  The Five Americans recorded for Abnak from 1967 to 1968 till Johnny Durrill opted for a country career with some success here and there for United Artists.  Like Western Union, the song's hook is done by a Vox organ and might be my favorite Five Americans song of all time.  A later best of Five Americans has a longer version that goes slightly over 3 minutes, so it appears that this was a 2:25 edit.  But then again not too many people ever hear it, unless you hear on Cousin Brucie's show or Underground Garage on XM/Sirius Radio.  Fun fact: the Abnak label is a direct rip of the Atlantic black and yellow label of the mid 1950s, but surprisingly Atlantic didn't see fit to serve a cease and desist note to that label.  Didn't matter, Abnak went belly up around 1968 anyway.  Another fun fact, the song was produced by Dale (Susie Q) Hawkins, who was A and R for Abnak at that time.

10)   Oh, Pretty Woman-Andy Kim (Capitol 4234)  1976

Kim had the number 1 Rock Me Gently in 1974 but later singles didn't do much, in fact outside of Fire Baby, I'm On Fire, later singles didn't chart at all.  Now in 1976 I was really into buying 45s of that time and anything out of the ordinary I did buy, but I can say that I known nothing about Andy's cover the Roy Orbinson's oldies classic song till I found a promo copy in June.  In all fairness Andy does a note by note version close to Roy's but of course without that high falsetto that Roy is famous for.  It's not bad but folks would rather have the original version.  This would be Andy's last single for Capitol.   He is still around, he is friends with me on Twitter and hasn't unfollowed, unlike Kevin Montgomery, to which Kevin's CDs got donated to charity.  So be it.

On that, this blog is dedicated to the memory of Anita Anthony, beloved wife to Steve who passed away from a sudden illness.  Steve was gracious enough to let me start my career in blogging at his web site back in 2002 and now have moved on over here after About.Com shut down the Yardbird Roost in 2005 which lead to stops at the despised My Space and even worthless Multiply.  Steve has been a good supporter in my rant and raves and even though we may not see eye to eye on some things politically, our music interests have kept our friendship alive all these years. Anita will be missed.




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