Just when I think I heard it all. I haven't.
45s remain the ultimate outdated music storage units for cavemen like us to enjoy how life was before streaming. When I think I reached the end of looking for music, I haven't. It's like being in a mine shaft and falling till you hit the next round of debris, then everything falls taking you deeper in the music vaults of Crabb Music. It really does feel like the big black hole.
So once again I go up to Half Price Books and seek out things, go to the Salvation Army and find even more and even Goodwill had a couple of 45s. Sad to say there was a DJ 45 of The Nice America, with a crack in the record. Making it utterly useless.
I do miss BDW Records in town come to think of it.
1) The New Year Song-23 Skidoo (Mercury 72874) 1968
One of two singles found the batch of cracked records when I visited Goodwill yesterday, here's another underground garage rock song from a one and done band. Psychedelia was beginning to fade out but this song brings elements of a clarinet and a vibe that is one part New Vaudeville Band, one part When I'm 64 and another part of bubble gum, complete with a freak out ending. The main singer songwriter is Dick Toops, who along with Joel Cory recorded a variety of songs under different alias and band names for Mercury, Fontana, Phillips, Polydor and Barnaby as The Clean Sweeps, The Daisy Chain, Elgin Watchband and Toad Hall. Toops is best known for writing Delia's Gone, which Johnny Cash would make a hit during his comeback of the 1990s with Rick Rubin. B side Courtesy, adds a bit of The Buckinghams pop sound.
2) Caribbean-Mitchell Torok (Guyden 2018) #27 1959
Originally on Abbott, this song topped the country charts in 1953 at number 1. If you research the internet, you will find many people trying to explain that this version is the 1953 session speeded up or an alternative take. Torok was a songwriter by trade, and the story goes that he wrote Mexican Joe for Hank Snow but Fabor Robinson gave the song to Jim Reeves and that became a big hit for Jim. Mitchell thinking that the song would be a bust and would later submit the failed demo to Hank Snow later on but Mexican Joe became a big hit for Gentleman Jim Reeves. It seems that the melody would inspire Chuck Berry to write You Can Never Tell a few years later. Torok would record for Decca and Guyden and would revisit Caribbean once again when he remade it for RCA Victor in 1965, Chet Atkins producing. One of the more underrated recording artists that nobody remembers much anymore. But I do.
3) Feeling Of Love- Al De Lory (Capitol 2374) 1969
This is the guy that made Glen Campbell well known for the version of Gentle On My Mind. Somewhat polished but more slanted toward MOR pop muzak at times. Here Al tries for a hit on a song written by Mort Garson (Muzak inspired arrangements) which probably get played on muzak stations at that time. B side is lively instrumental take on Wichita Lineman, which might have been the better song. I can listen to both sides but I doubt if you could.
4) The All American Boy-Bill Parsons (Fraternity F-835) #2 1958
Bobby Bare under an alias. Brings up memories of The Big Bopper and Boyd Bennett's Boogie Bear. B side Rubber Dolly is probably done by the real Bill Parsons. Doesn't sound like Bobby Bare to me.
5) California Sun-The Rivieras (Rivera R-1401) #5 1964
One of the songs that would become a influence in my musical taste, a combination of surf and garage rock complete with Vox organ with twangy guitar. Found a decent copy of this at Moodog Music last weekend during the snowstorm that Dubuque never got but we got a foot of the white crap. I had two Apple 45s to which the old hippie wanted to look up on the internet and priced accordingly but I deferred the records over in exchange for California Sun. I don't see the need to complete my Apple Record collection and break the band. The Ramones would cover this later. B side H B Goose Step, echoes Johnny And The Hurricanes's Down Yonder. I'm surprised Steve Hoffman didn't include this on Beach Party, a CD that came out 30 years ago.
6) Some Things You Never Get Used To-Diana Ross & The Supremes (Motown M-1126) #30 1968
Basically ignored on various best of The Supremes compilations I remember this song playing on KWWL AM in Waterloo and it was a rare song written and produced by the Ashford/Simpson team. By then, Barry Gordy was readying Diana Ross for a solo career, Probably not one of the better songs that they did but looking at the archives I noticed that The Composer made it to number 27 and that song never gets much airplay anymore, if any. B Side You Been So Wonderful To Me was produced by George Gordy and one of the writers was another Gordy, Anna who was married to Marvin Gaye at the time. This might have been a decent A side.
7) The Weight-Aretha Franklin (Atlantic 2603) #19 1969
Featuring the slide guitar work of Duane Allman before he broke big with brother Gregg in the Allman Brothers, the Queen Of Soul really delivers big time on this Band cover version. The other side The Tracks Of My Tears, is a bit more overblown than what the Miracles would have liked. While Franklin had the bigger hit with The Weight than The Supremes, Motown still wins on Tracks Of My Tears. Can't win them all.
8) Friends-The Beach Boys (Capitol 2160) #47 1968
The spotty late 60s sound of The Beach Boys and as far as I'm concerned this title track was the best thing off that album. Of course this has Brian Wilson fingerprints all over it. Another find at Moondog Music. And I thank the old hippie for letting me sort through a lot of scratchy forty fives. I could use a decent clean copy of Do It Again. B side Little Bird, even for a minute fifty, is still boring.
9) Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep-Mac And Katie Kissdon (ABC 11306) #20 1971
A one hit wonder written by Lally Stott, whose version made number 92 in the US (on Phillips 40695), the record label didn't think it would sell in the US and offered it to two other bands, Middle Of The Road and Mac and Katie Kissdon, a brother-sister duo who had the highest chart. However Middle Of The Road would get the last laugh and their version made number 1 in the UK and Ireland and a few other countries, Mac And Katie's version only made number 41 in the UK. Still the song is very bubblegum pop. When I was growing up, it was one of those songs that didn't make much sense to me but 47 years later on, I admit it is a guilty pleasure. I think I like Mac and Katie's version over Middle Of The Road, which sounds a bit more cheesy. BTW, Middle Of The Road version was issued by RCA 74-0407 and didn't make the top 100.
10) Where Evil Grows-The Poppy Family (London 148) #45 1971
The only thing that Terry Jacks ever wrote that is worthy of hearing. The Poppy Family was Terry and Susan Jacks and their best known hit was Which Way Are You Going Billy? which made number 5. B side I Was Wondering made it to 100 for a week. Terry Jacks would have his big hit with Seasons In The Suna few years later. I Was Wondering sounds just as bad as Season In The Sun.
