For a quarter I didn't expect much but they were such in good shape.
Nobody played them.
1) Wimoweh-Wilder Brothers (Wing 90046) 1955
The basics of this song would become The Lion Sleeps Tonight and it's basically a big band stomp. Corny as it gets, but puts a smile on my face when I hear it. B Side Love That Melody is more cornball based on Here Comes The Bride. Smarter teens went for the R and B and Elvis, and to a lesser extent, The Crew Cuts.
2) Baby Girl Of Mine-Bobby Sharp (Wing 90056) 1956
Best known as a songwriter (he wrote Unchain My Heart, a big hit for Ray Charles and later Joe Cocker) Sharp did a one off single for Mercury's second tier label Wing, Somewhat of a country number with harmonica too. Other side Flowers, Mr. Florist Please might have been pitched to a Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra,it has that Pop sound among the doo wop backing vocalist.
3) The Jogger-Bobby Bare (Columbia 38-03809) 1983
Bare continued to record Shel Silverstein's songs late into the 1980s and scored a minor country hit with this song, which sounds like The Winner Part 25 of something like that. B side The Gravy Train is passable Silverstein fun.
4) Smiles-Crazy Otto (Decca 9-92403) 1955
Fritz Schulz-Reichel was his real name and he was a German jazz pianist, who had a knack of playing the melody with his left hand and the rhythm with his right. Johnny Maddox had a hit of doing Reichel's Crazy Otto songs with the Crazy Otto Melody. Fritz's songs were recorded via Deusche Grammophon in Germany and on the fledgling Polydor later on, but Decca picked up his recordings in the 1950s. Smiles is ragtime jazz as well as Glad Doll Rag, which does owe a bit to Kansas City Jazz, via Germany. Reichel passed away in 1990.
5) Tropical-Stanley Black (London 45-1720) 1956
Another jazz pianist, this time from the UK, Black recorded many recordings for Decca/Phase 4 in his career and is probably the most heard of piano player on the muzak side of things. Tropical is a Mort Gould composition. B side is the piano work Begin the Beguine, the Cole Porter standard. Not rock and roll but it's fun if you take it in its muzak context.
6) You're Driving Me Crazy (What Did I Do) Buddy Greco (Coral 9-60979) 1953
Cheesy lounge pop complete with female backing vocals (The Heathertones) Greco enjoyed a Vegas' style career of cheesy lounge pop songs. B side I Predict is more boring cheese pop crapola. Big Joe Turner had a much more swinging version of You're Driving Me Crazy from his classic album The Boss Of The Blues. Start there to hear this song.
7) I'm Dancing With Tears In My Eyes-Ralph Flanagan (RCA Victor 47-4078) 1951
X did a cover version of this song, which in no way is similar to this big band version. Dancing On The Ceiling is the stuff of Guy Lombardo legends made of.
8) Rap Your Troubles In Drums-George Shearing Quintet (MGM-K-11600) 1953
Bossa Nova with Bongos as drum solo by Cal Tjeder. More jazz slanted than the big band stuff of this blog. Probably was the inspiration for Bongo Rock by Preston Epps a few years later. B side Easy To Love is muzak jazz. George Shearing always seemed to be more in line with easy listening jazz anyway.
9) Drive In-Nelson Riddle (Capitol F2648) 1954
A missing entry in 45 Cat, the guess is this song was heard at drive in's at intermission time. Somehow the melody was incorporated in the American Bandstand theme. B side You Won't Forget Me is background noise for a movie soundtrack.
10) Dragnet-Ray Anthony (Capitol F2562) 1954
A big band remake of the theme of a certain detective show that I used to watch growing up and have most of those shows. Anthony would score a hit with Peter Gunn. It's debatable who had the better version,him or Henry Mancini but I tend to have lots of fun when I play Dragnet or Peter Gunn. Worthless trivia: I had one of those EP 45's, where they cram 3 songs on one side. The Waldorf 45 was red vinyl and that version of Dragnet done by Enoch Light, who would be one of more better known muzak arrangers, with plenty of his albums that still can be found in the dollar bins at your local junk store or St Vincent De Paul.
With that, these record finds were the best of the batch, but not rock n roll, not by a long shot. I doubt that we won't get much of a following from those who want to seek these records out. Except for a couple of these, most of these records will be returned to the St Vincent De Paul as soon as I make another donation.
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