Singles Going Steady-The Fifth Installment

I sure like finding and documenting those scratchy 45's of yesterday.  Even to the point of including two of them in the last top ten.  If you think about it a lot of the choice cuts used for the top ten have come from singles.  It really boggles the mind to see how many have come out on labels that even I don't know about.  And some of those will pay big bucks to get them in.  I didn't get The Tempests Look Away since I hit my limit of 35 dollars but could have went up to fifty bucks.  But I was in Madison and found plenty enough to keep my attention span going over there.

So here's ten more found at various places or came from my collection.  Most come from the glory years and even one makes it that came out in 1994.  They're still making them as we speak.

1.   Tear It Up-Johnny Burnette & The Rock And Roll Trio   1956  Coral 9-61651  For music collectors you have sort through a lot of scratched up 45s and a lot of pop and country stuff to even try to get to the rock and roll 45s that collectors play top dollar to get in their collection regardless of shape.  The hardcore will for go any of the pop stuff to get to the rocking stuff but if you're open minded like me you might take a chance on a Billy Williams Sit Right Down And Write Myself a letter.  Or Ken Noble, Or Teresa Brewer. But it is the rock and rollers that get the big bucks.  I sometimes come across a Buddy Holly It Don't Matter Anymore or Peggy Sue but rarely if ever do I find a Johnny Burnette anywhere.  The only one I did find I picked up at Goodwill in Marion of all places.  The condition is a step up from the road grated Jack The Ripper from Link Wray (Swan 4137) but still it's a original version. However most of Johnny Burnette's Coral 45s have been reissued via Amazon and has the same orange label although slight variations.  Plus they're not as scratchy as the original either.

2.  Inside Looking Out-The Animals 1966  MGM K-13468  If you have been following the history of record collecting from myself, you may have noticed that I always have had a fondness of the songs that I grew up listening to in my kid years.  And don't we all wish for the days to go back to the four for a dollar or 29 cent records Wells or Arlans used to have.  Now the kids of today and their downloads don't know of all the good fun of discovering the library or the junkshop for music.  This record dates back to our first time living in Waterloo on Huntington Rd to where the orgins of this record came from, may have been Wells Department Store.  Back then I was trying to find a replacement copy of Gonna Send You Back To Walker (MGM K-13242) that got broke years ago and although the label looked the same, the song wasn't.  One of the most wildest songs that Eric Burdon and company came up with and although it would take another 40 years to get the first Animals record, Ragged Records had a nice replacement copy for Inside Looking Out, to which I played so many times back then, there were no grooves left to play.

4.  Alley Cat-Bent Fabric And His Piano 1962  Atco 45-6226   Part of the fun of going to Ragged is to see the look on Bob's face as I show him what was found up there. Trying to find a connection between Bent Fabric, Duane Eddy, The Wailers and Link Wray may have concluded that either I was trying to get back to when radio and records were fun to listen to, or just some crazy scarey old guy hoarding things.  Could be worse, I could have about 100 cats running around the house as well.  Atco in the early 60s was basically used for pop recordings from abroad (Acker Bilk and Bent Fabric) done as instrumentals.  And then they started using Atco for soul and rock.  At this time Fabric climbed the top of the charts with this infectious tune that climbed all the way up to number 7 on the Top 100.  Originally called  Omkring et Flygel in Denmark (translated Around A Piano) and came out on his Metronone label.  Follow up Chicken Feed made it to number 63 and each single sold less but Fabric remained on Atco throughout the 60s releasing such interesting stuff like Never Tease Tigers, The Drunken Monkey and The Happy Puppy.  Taragon released a Best Of The Atco Years for those who wasn to seek more than just Alley Cat.  Won GrammyTM as Best Rock Album in 1962.  Fun fact: Jorgen Ingmann, fellow Metronone recording artist and discovery also recorded for Atco in the 60s.   http://www.spaceagepop.com/fabric.htm

5.  Mirrors Of Your Mind-The Definitive Rock Chorale  1967  Phillips 40486  This record was tucked away at the CR Goodwill store for a while so on a return trip there, it was still there so I picked it up.  To most, a DJ Promo copy doesn't say much, but if you dig a bit deeper into the net or You Tube, chances are good that somebody else knows more about it than you do.  This outfit recorded a couple of 45s for Phillips and the vocalist on this record just might be Ron Dante, later of The Archies and a solo career.  One of the female vocals in the background is Ellie Greenwich who was one of the finest backing singers rock has ever known.  Toni Wine might figured in this too since she worked a lot with Ellie and Ron Dante.  This song sounds like a cross of On Broadway if the Mamas and Papas covered it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xrxZwgSG-Y

6.  Motherless Child-Eric Clapton  1994  Reprise/Duck  7-18044   I thought they quit making 45s in the 1990s but I found a copy of this song that got plenty of airplay in the 1990s but somehow classic rock radio doesn't play it anymore.  Guess it don't fit CCC rules.  From...from the cradle album to which Clapton decided to revisit the blues that he loved so much.

7.  Noah-Bob Seger System  1969   Capitol 2576  The Best Of Bob Seger has a very noticeable gap between Ramblin Gamblin Man and Beautiful Loser, as if those years never existed.  I know Seger loves those Over The Top ballads and rockers that made Night Moves and Stranger In Town and Live Bullet must haves in your collection of 70s music.  I also think Seger shortchanges himself as well, after all his late 60s and early 70s rockers were just as good if not better than his Detroit brothers Grand Funk, The Stooges or MC5.  In fact Ramblin Gamblin Man, the album shows why Detroit had some of the toughest stuff coming out at that time.  With Noah, the album, something happened and Seger disowned most of that album and perhaps he had a point but I think at that time Noah was the answer to Marti Gras, the CCR album to which everybody chips in on writing and singing.  Good idea in theory but didn't translate well on the record results.  B side Lennie Johnson shows why Seger may have wanted to forget the whole thing, it stinks.  But Noah, the title track and A side of the 45 is a pretty good rocker in it's own way.   The link to you tube doesn't work anymore.  Third party involvement.

8.  Muskrat Love-America  1973  Warner Bros WB 7725  The Captain and Tennile may have ruin this song forevermore with Mr. Dragon's bizarre sound effects to the point that Willis Alan Ramsey may have disown writing the thing in the first place but his version and America's was more folk and easier to take.  While this made it on America's Greatest Hits or History, I have no recall of hearing it on the radio and thought it was a album cut till I found a Promo 45 of it at St Vincent De Paul Junkshop in Mad City.

9.  You Really Got Me-Van Halen 1978   Warner Bros WBS-8515  Where the world first heard Van Halen, on a 45 that the folks at Marion TV and Records had up there when it first came out but I never did buy it till Ragged Records had the promo.  If I would have known back then, I probably would have bought the record and wore the grooves out, but waited till a trip to Nashville and we bought the Van Halen 8 track.  The 45 mix and sound is still awesome.

10.  Peter Gunn-Duane Eddy  1965  Jamie  1168 If I seen this song on the jukebox, I be playing this about 10 times in a row.  I grew up listening to Duane Eddy and although the RCA and Reprise albums tended to be too pop than rock, I don't think he ever topped this version.  Mixed loud to be played loud, Peter Gunn was played to me by a baby sitter when we lived in Waterloo years ago and I did find a 45 of it at a Goodwill a few years later and played the heck out of it.  Here's your turn to enjoy it too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=296wS9ome4M