Singles Going Steady 55-St Vincent De Paul Waterloo Finds

I haven't been to Waterloo in over a year.  It's not a go to place for records and usually what is found is crap or cracked or scratched.  There's a new record store called Electric Underground and they're mostly into vinyl, tho they did have new CDs for sale at 7.99 and I thought it would be a good time to check out Slayer's Reign In Blood.   Stuff Etc in Waterloo isn't selling CDs anymore and basically when I did go to check out what they had, they had shit.  Goodwill is hit and miss but I did find the long lost Cactus World News on CD and a couple others.  The Waterloo Salvation Army is no more, they closed in June.  Which meant the St Vincent De Paul Store remains the number one destination.

Over the years the St Vincent De Paul managed to get some interesting old 45s up there but they were so hit and miss that it took me over a year to decide to see if they have enough turnover to make this trip worth going to.  This time out, I managed to find some vintage rock and jazz 45s, tho a few of them needed a good cleaning.

It's hard to tell if some of these singles came from the closing of the Salvation Army.   Since my last visit, the St Vincent De Paul cleaned up the music room.  It was so cluttered and chaotic that it was impossible to locate anything, and most albums were missing their records.  There was more 45s located in a box and of course the jackets and records were not with each other.  I found a Gerry Mulligan Fantasy EP and stuck it back into it's rightful jacket.   There were plenty of EP 45s, from the likes of Jackie Gleason, Nat King Cole and a few others.   Usually, Waterloo is famous for having R and B 45s at St Vincent De Paul and this time I managed to find some cool stuff, tho they were, once again, in need of a record bath.   To which turned the faucet on and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.  The problem of cleaning 45's from the 50s is that some of the labels are red and getting them wet would not be a good thing.   This applies to the Charles Brown, Aladdin 45 of Trouble Blues.  This one was the worst looking of the batch.  But I'd never seen a copy of anything from Charles Brown.  I could save that but not Flip Flop and Fly from Johnny Ray.

I do think I found the most R and B and Doo Wop songs this time around.  Despite without record jackets, all forty fives play VG+ to VG-

So here we are, yet another batch of selections you might not hear on radio.  Cuz Spotify doesn't have them.


1)   Only One Love-George Hamilton IV  (ABC Paramount 45-9782)  #33 1957

Lonesome George seemed to be ABC's answer to Ricky Nelson in the teen idol department, they had Paul Anka and Johnny Nash.  George's time with ABC he was groomed as a teen idol, sometimes he had some good songs (A Rose And A Baby Ruth) and some not so great (The Teen Commandments damn near ruined it for all involved)  Only One Love is lackluster, a pale imitation to Ricky Nelson's ballads and the B side If I Had A Printing Press is just as forgettable.   George's best years would come later, when he went to RCA and went country and discovered Gordon Lightfoot in the process. This crappy song doesn't do him justice.


2)   I'll Make Every Day Christmas (for my woman)-Joe Tex (Dial 4068)  1968

A Christmas song that made it to Soul Christmas.  Joe Tex is one of my all time favorite soul singers and most of my 45s got chewed up in the process.  This record is not in the best of shapes either but it actually fairly well.  It's soul good.  B Side Don't Give Up is another slow groove.  Joe is in need of a decent overview, or at least a A and B side of his Dial singles and I pitched the idea to the folks to Real Gone Music.  Hopefully they get compile one up in the future.

3)    Wrapped Tied And Tangled-Lavern Baker  (Brunswick 53311)   1967

Her Atlantic years passed by and she moved over to Brunswick and Carl Davis to update her music to a Chicago R and B sound that Davis had been favoring for those who were on the label. He had good success with Jackie Wilson (higher and higher) but with Lavern, this style didn't fit her well. B side Nothing Like Being In Love is better, Davis goes for a Motown style sound, which works about half way through the song.

4)    Trouble Blues-Charles Brown (Aladdin 45-3342)  #1 R&B 1949

The oldest record of the batch, it charted at the top of the charts in 1949 but it was regulated to a B side to Confidential in 1956, a so so ballad to which Brown was trying to find a suitable style for the R and B crowd.  Trouble Blues is the better of the two.  This is the record after I cleaned it up, still plays a bit rough but I can probably say it's a keeper.

5)    I Adore You-Johnnie And Joe (ABC Paramount 45-10079)  1960

Forever known for Over The Mountain Across The Sea, Johnnie And Joe pingponed between Chess and J & S, to which my guess is Zell Sanders owned the latter label and Chess purchased some of the masters.   This is one of two singles recorded for ABC Paramount, neither did much on the charts.  I Adore You does sound a bit too much like Over The Mountain including Johnnie's rap at the end.  B Side, Rex Garvin gives them the rocking R and B I Want You Beside Me.   A shame Johnnie And Joe didn't do more of this.

6)    I Can't Put My Arms Around A Memory-Al Hibbler (Decca 9-29543)  1955

A side was the MOR They Say You're Laughing At Me (while I was crying for you) but I like the B side better and decided to use that one as the plug side.  It really doesn't matter, This didn't chart except on the R and B side of the charts.

7)   Moonglow and Theme From Picnic-Morris Stoloff (Decca 9-29888) #1  1956

Since I had 9 45's with me, I decided that this song would be the 10th purchase of the day.  It's jazzy muzak, kinda like Beyond The Reef or what Earl Grant was putting down.  The other side George Duning, who wrote Theme From Picnic leaves out the jazz.  I remember this a few times growing up.

8)   Boom Boom Boomerang-The De Castro Sisters (Abbott 3003)  #17 1955

A nice fun novelty pop jumper with Tony Tiger (Thurl Ravenscroft) doing the bass vocals, Thirl could do anything.  B side Let Your Love Walk In, is big band pop without the novelty.

9)  Just Another Face-The Blades Of Grass (Jubilee JB-5590)  1967

They charted with Happy (#87 in 1967) but I have know nothing of this band.  The most psychedelic from this batch of 45s, it owes a bit to Traffic or The Moody Blues.  B side  Baby You're A Real Good Friend Of Mine, with the kiddie choir owes more to 1910 Fruitgum Company.  Take it for what its worth.

10)  Midnight Ride-Red West (Dot 16268)  1961

This one was another 45 that needed a good cleaning.  This single had my interests up to the point that I needed to hear this one.  West patterned this song after Duane Eddy's signature guitar sound and revved up sax and this one is the most fun and rocking of the bunch.  Unforgiven, (Listed as an A Side, but again Midnight Ride is the better version) could pass for a Quentin Tarantino movie background music.  This was the only single Red West recorded for Dot Records, who at that time also was into surf and guitar instrumental music (as well as Lawrence Welk and Billy Vaughn).

11)  Heart Of A Rose-The Charms (Chart 613)  1956

It's hard to tell if these singles are valuable.  I've seen the Chart single start at 28 dollars at bid time but are there any takers?  Perhaps, Otis Williams led the Charms to some hit singles for DeLuxe/King (Hearts Of Stone) but the Chart singles, didn't chart.  Heart Of A Rose is a uptempo R&B number and not so much Doo Wop but the B side I Offer You, hard core Doo Wop.  I don't believe this version of The Charms is the one from Ohio and Williams leading them.  The guess is that Henry Stone produced these guys and they may have come from Florida.  The other guess is that Richard Parker leads this group.  This is the second of two single releases from Chart Records (no relation to the Nashville Chart Records, but that's another story).

Post script:

The original intent was to go to Marshalltown to check out their record store Wax Xtatic since the owner mentioned that they had a good selection of 45s that came in. On Sunday Night, thieves came in and ransacked the place, stealing many video games, players and vinyl. They'll be close for few days while the owner figures out the next step.  In the past year, they had a tornado that ripped through downtown and blacken out alleyway to which the city officials drag their feet of getting lights back to that alley.  We do hope they will reopen and hope that they too get better luck.  It's getting very tiring to have assholes taking away people's hard work to keep a record store open.

Later arrivals:

12)   It's Too Late To Run-Dennis Smith (20th Century Fox 499)  1964

Unknown singer that made a one off single.  Interesting for the Acker Bilk type of lead oboe sax including fart noise at the end.  The best part of the song.  B Side: Maria Elena, more farting around.

13)   Carol Of The Drums-St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir (Roulette R-4204)  1959

Roulette was famous for this type of Christmas tunes.  Better known as The Little Drummer Boy. Not exactly recorded very well. Of course it's a dirty record too, a cleaning didn't help much either.  B side is Carol Of The Bells. Very shrill sounding.  Time to donate this one back to the Salvation Army

14)   You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked At Me-The Dixie Cups (Red Bird RB 10-012)
#39  1964

Another scratchy 45, with a bad needle ruining the start of the record.  You can only do so much cleaning.

15)  Dr. Jon (The Medicine Man) Jon & Robin With The In Crowd (Abnak AB-127)  #87 1968

This one spent a lot of time at The Salvation Army.  There was a write up about this single at another Blogspot site, so this one was yet another cleaning attempt, it had some dirt marks buried in the grooves.  Plays so so.  Dr Jon is some of freaky folk song, kinda corny kinda fun.  B side Love Me Baby is more Psychedelic fun, based on the Gloria riff.  It's the more fun side.  And the keeper of the final four dumpster forty fives from the Salvation Army in CR.

Singles Going Steady 54-Hats Off To Larry

I haven't kept score on how many editions of Singles Going Steady that I have out there but the logical guess is 54, give or take one or two or ten.   In the era of the vinyl revival the finds have been not as plentiful as it was say about five years ago but if I stopped in at Goodwill or The Salvation Army every day I might have better luck getting tabs on who donates forty fives.  But after a while I would get bored with it.  After all, one can only tolerate so much trying to find juke box 45s that don't sound like shit or having their grooves wore off.    But last week, somebody donated a bunch of 45s  and I picked and choose the ones that still looked fairly decent.  To be truthful, only one 45 didn't make the cut after cleaning and trying to buff out the scratches.   I documented them and begin to plan my next Madison bargain hunt trip for next week, but for some reason I decided to go into town to get a bite to eat and perhaps return to our beloved Salvation Army for more surprises.  And dammed if I didn't find a few more of them. 14 to be exact.

There was a Tokens' Laurie single that I was going to see if it was still there but the 45 selection looked much bigger than last week.  Somebody thought highly enough to bag some of the mini vinyl but what caught my eye was a Motown 45 of Henry Lumpkin, that I didn't see before in the new batch of 45s.  Old Motown records of the early 60s are highly sought after collectors items.  If you look hard enough on the internet, there are websites dedicated in the preserving of Motown music, even the lesser known get some attention.  In this decade of record finding, Motown 45s remain hard to find and even if you do find any of them, they're scratched up to oblivion.  There were other Motown sides from The Supremes, Four Tops and Martha and the Vandellas that were beyond repair and even a good cleaning would not help.  Plus a couple were cracked.  But the Henry Lumpkin single looked fairly new despite not having a record jacket.   Further research showed that this record was a promo.  It was easier for somebody to take a magic marker and write PR on the label.  So the guess remains where did this record come from.  It had to come from a radio station.  Certainly not from a casual music consumer, it looks too good for that.  So the guess may be it came from KRNL the college radio station from Mount Vernon.  How they managed to hang on to this for 55 years remains a mystery of its own.   Nevertheless, old Motown singles are special that they give the address of Hitsville USA as well as the telephone number back in 1961, something that nobody would ever do nowadays, certainly not Universal who owns Motown and hopefully somebody kept most of the masters away from the great fire of 2008 that destroyed many many recordings of the past.

I look at record collecting at like digging for gold or looking for something in the pile of music people would overlook. I don't think people would get excited like me if I came across a Fairport Convention 45 or Henry Lumpkin.  I keep a close eye on Atlantic Records of the 50s and 60s, next to Motown or Chess the one label that connects me with my past.  Or ABC Paramount, tho that label might have a few too many pop acts I could do without.   Then again, I tend to be more liberal minded than the rest of the collectors out there.  This collection of 45s found came from somebody named Larry, who had great taste in music but played the hell out of his mini vinyl.  There were some Dave Clark 5 that seen better days.  His copy of Surfin Bird looks fairly beaten up, probably perfect for Peter Griffin of the Family Guy to annoy his family with.  But this looks like somebody might have put it in the microwave and set it to full cook for five seconds.

Five years ago, the finds at the Salvation Army became the reason why I go dumping for old vinyl. At times, it's a hit and miss but this batch of finds might rate right up there with that wonderful day in Davenport.  To which I gleefully document the selections and move on to the next bargain hunt. When ever that might be.

I also included the 45s found at Analog Vault that I found last Saturday.


1)    Live-The Merry Go Round  (A&M 834)  1967  #63

The beloved Emmett Rhodes led this band to one of the more power pop songs of the late 60s.  Of course The Bangles covered this.  I have Emmett's albums over the years and a best of that still gathers dust in my collection.  I wouldn't consider this bubble gum, this feels more at home on the Rhino 1988 collection More Nuggets (followup single You're A Very Lovely Woman is also on that comp).  Judy Schoonover, must love this song, she played a lot and it sounds like it.  B side Time Will Show The Wiser was later covered by Fairport Convention and their version is better.  More about them later on in the blog.

2)    Something's Burning-Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (Reprise 888)  1970 #11

A singles band if there was any, The First Edition made some great singles but their albums were quite boring.  And if Kenny didn't sing the songs, nobody gave them a second thought be it Terry Williams or Mike Settle.  Written by Mac Davis, it's slightly corny but the buildup to the chorus is classic gold.  And Mikey Jones was a damn good drummer.  B Side Momma's Waiting is more country than you can imagine.

3)    Can't Stop Loving You-The Last Word (Atco 45-6498)  1967  #8

Despite it's high chart position, I can't remember hearing this song on the radio.  Somewhat in the style of the Buckinghams.  B side Don't Fight It, is a so so cover of the Wilson Pickett number, however this arrangement reminds me of Elvin Bishop's version, done later on.

4)   Days Gone Down-Gerry Rafferty (United Artists  1298)  1979  #17

One of the mysteries of life is why EMI didn't bother to include this song on the best of that they put out in the early 80s.  Of course Gerry was the driver behind Stealer's Wheel and then went on to a solo career that he wouldn't tour behind the songs, or so it seems.  He was one of the first people to use videos to promote his music,  I wasn't a big fan of this song but it has grown on me over the years and yes it should have been on a best of.  You can still get it...via import that is.  This record I have must have came out of a juke box.  It's sounds quite scratchy.

5)    There Won't Be Anymore-Charlie Rich (RCA APB0-0195)  1974 #18

Recorded in 1965 (originally RCA 47-8536)  RCA took a chance of reissuing this song to capitalize on the success of Behind Closed Doors or number 1 followup The Most Beautiful Girl.  Of course the 1965 release is harder to find, it didn't chart high on the country chart. Out of all the Sun Record Artists, Charlie Rich is the most frustrating, he was too hard core R&B for country but not R&B enough for pop rock radio.  The polished Nashville production of Chet Atkins may have complicated things as is or perhaps Anita Kerr Singers made him too MOR.  The newer mix has the singers a bit further in the background but you can notice them.  This would be Rich's final RCA single before moving on to Smash for a year and then to Hi Records which should have broken him bigger but didn't.  Strange twist of irony:  This song would hit number 1 on the country charts in 1974.  B side It's All Over Now would be reissued as a single of its own in 1975, peaking at number 23. This may have been another jukebox copy, it plays very rough.

The Salvation Army Finds (thanks to Larry and others)

6)    What Is A Man (without a woman)-Henry Lumpkin (Motown M-1013)  1961

Ah, good ole Motown, when it down and dirty?  While Harry was somewhat like Shorty Long, he had a more grittier vocal more like Wilson Pickett.  You can feel the drum beat of Benny Benjamin and the piano of Earl Van Dyke.  It's a bit more rougher than the better known Motown stuff but you can't fault Barry Gordy for trying.  I dig it.  B side Don't Leave Me got raked over the coals from a Motown review site.  They can't decide to go doo wop or early R and B so it sounds more like a demo.  A search for a sound that doesn't quite materialize.  The record plays quite good for 58 year old record without a record sleeve.

7)     You Are The One-Sugar Bears (Big Tree BT-122)  1972  #51

A manufactured pop band based from a commercial (I used to eat Sugar Bears Cereal), but you can get this record from a box, back then the novel idea of putting record grooves on a back of a cereal box,  good ideal but the sound always sucked.  A combination of the drum groove of Shelia with a melody of Be My Baby.  A bubblegum song that nobody remembers much anymore, tho it did make a K Tel Comp.  Written by Baker Knight, and probably a step ahead of the Archies or The Osmonds. B side Someone Like You was written by Mike Settle (The First Edition).  More sunny bubblegum for those who like sunny bubblegum.  Think I'll take a pass.

8)    Another Smile -The Hot Dogs  (Ardent ADA-2905)  1973

Produced by Terry Manning, The Hot Dogs are on the Ardent label, home to Big Star. Greg Reding and Bill Rennie figured into the lineup, but perhaps this record is best known for the Ardent sound and Terry Manning figured greatly into the sound and music.  Another Smile, the single, is country rock tho I hear elements of Wishbone Ash, kinda sleepy tho' .  Way to Get To You the b side, is more country rock, gets the nod for better song.

9)   Surfin Bird-The Trashmen (Garrett 4002)  1963  #4

This is where punk rock begins, even more than Louie Louie.  Unfortunate that this record is too warped to play.  Dammit Larry, take better care of your fucking records.

10)   I'll Always Love You-The Tokens (Laurie L-3810)  1963

Their sole Laurie release, which is straight Doo Wop aka Dion And The Belmonts. This was the record I picked up today after forgetting about it yesterday, Even in 1963 this was five years behind the times   B side Please Write made it to #108 on the charts.  This might have been the inspiration to Cheap Thrills by Ruben And The Jets.  Record was kind of dirty, so I cleaned it up a bit.  A slight improvement tho' it might another bath to make it play better, but then again I'll might file it away, or donate it back to Salvation Army.

11)    Don't Go Home-The Playmates (Roulette R-4072)  1958 #32

I've noticed that I have been getting more Playmates records into this collection.  They remind me of the Four Preps, tho they get a bit more arrangement from Hugo Leigi.  I'm not exactly impressed with this song.  B side, Can't You Get It Through Your Head sounds creepy.  Record didn't clean up either, still fairly scratchy overall.

12)   Loddy Lo-Chubby Checker (Parkway P-890)  1963 #12

I was more familiar with Leroy Jones' cover on Hit Records.  But we did have a Chubby Checker record in the house (The Twist) and Popeye The Hitch hiker.  More of a sing a long rather than Limbo Rock or The Twist, tho this song is more to the former.  Larry took better care of this record than of the Trashmen's Surfin Bird.   B side Hooka Tooka My Soda Kracker is too silly for my liking.

13)   Java-Al Hirt  (RCA Gold Standard 447-0712)  1964 #4

Al takes on Chet Atkins and the Nashville sound for this sax classic.  Record is a bit too scratchy, sad to say.

14)   Adios Adios-The Blue Chips (RCA 47-7935)  1961

Their first single I had gotten for an inflated price and got donated back due to it sounding like crap, this is The Blue Chips second and final RCA Offering with  Hugo & Luigi producing and another Chuck Sagle arrangement.  Uh huh, I can tell you their inspiration was The Hi Los.  Let It Ride, is white guy jive, something you probably seen on Dean Martin or Ted Mack's Amateur Hour   A perverse charm to it, but not as creepy as Don't Go Home.  Adios Adios indeed.  UGH

15)   The Things You Do To Me-Wynona Carr (Specialty 628)  1958

I don't see much of Specialty Records out and about, they're usually Little Richard 45's all scratched up but this one is rare sight to see  Carr is a pure soul singer, in the style of Lavern Baker.  She recorded a few sides for Art Rupe before moving on to Reprise and then into obscurity.  Sonny Bono wrote this and the B side. Touch And Go and probably produced the sessions as well.  Touch And Go is more uptempo and more fun.  Record was kind of dirty but it cleaned up great. Sounds like a new record.

16)  The Lone Twister-The Lone Twister (Atlantic 2130)  1961

I love finding odd ball sides from Atlantic Records. A few of them got away but this one stood out in the crowd. So who was the Lone Twister?  Some say it was Murray the K (Murray Kaufman, legendary DJ) but it was Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote this song.  Yeah, it's a novelty song and if you like that song, you might tolerate Twisting Up A Storm.  But if you haven't heard it, you're not missing much.


17)    Buchanan And Ancell Meet The Creature (Flying Saucer 501)  1958 #85

This record seen better days, but I thought if I cleaned it up it might play.  It's a novelty record to which Buchanan would play certain songs to the story line.   Bill Buchanan did work with Dickie Goodman and had a better story line  (Flying Saucer From Outer Space) in that time frame but this was a one off with Bob Ancell and to sum it all up, the last song is from Wake Up Little Susie by the Everly Brothers (The movie wasn't so hot, it didn't have much of a plot)  Which basically sums up The Creature.  Record looks rough, plays VG-.

18)   It Ain't Me Babe-Johnny Cash (Columbia 4-43145)   1964 #58

There were two sun copies of There You Go but both were chewed up so I took this one over Orange Blossom Special which had seen better days.  June Carter adds vocals too but it's Johnny's single.  Usually Columbia singles of the 60s always sound rough and it's a judgement call to even purchase them.  B side Time And Time Again, is a Johnny and June song, rarely heard.  Larry didn't play it much, plays like a VG Plus record.

19)   Dottie-Danny And The Juniors (ABC Paramount 9926) 1958  #38

Their last chart showing for ABC Paramount tho they would continue with four more releases that only stayed under number 100.  They were very good at the uptempo doo wop numbers, not so much with the slower number such as In The Meantime.  It's passable.

20)   Hippy Hippy Shake-The Swinging Blue Jeans (Imperial 66021)  1964 #21

The last offering from Larry comes this Beatles like rock and roller and does  a better version than the original by Chan Romero. And then The Georgia Satellites come out of nowhere and blows both versions out of the water.  B side Now I Must Go, pays tribute to Freddy And The Dreamers better than the Fab Four, or Gerry And The Pacemakers (ha ha ha)

21)   The Journeyman's Grace-Fairport Convention (A&M  1333)  1972

By then Richard Thompson had left them and they moved on with Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol taking over the vocals and songs.  By then they were getting more into folk songs and adding arrangements to them to varying degree.  This song was written by Richard and that's him guest starring on guitar.  Dave Mattacks on drums too.  This was Fairport's wilderness year before Sandy Denny would return with new members tho the results weren't not that exciting.  B side The World Has Surely Lost Its Head is mellower but didn't attract much interest to include on the 2 CD Best of, that A&M issued in the 1990's Meet On The Ledge.  Further research showed that The World was the A side but FM stations preferred The Journeyman's Grace instead. A&M would try again with John Lee for the next single but that too bombed.  The copy that I found is fairly rough even after cleaning it up.  I know my record player is going to rebel if I continue to find rough scratchy forty fives that have seen better days, but I remain convinced that this record is a keeper.  I doubt if I'll find another copy in this lifetime.

22)  Sun Arise-Rolf Harris (Epic 5-9567)  #61  1963

Like Gary Glitter, Rolf's life has been turned upside down for the worst, disgraced by sexual assaults.  So basically Rolf's music has been blacklisted from oldies playlists.  I had Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport a while ago but that song has gotten too damn silly for me to revisit it.  This song, I didn't put two and two together till I heard The Godfathers doing a cover version of this song from Hit By Hit. While this record wasted away for about three weeks after this posting, it actually plays fairly good with the usual surface scratches and a speck of dirt on a couple grooves.   Do we really want to hear the B side Somebody Pinched My Whiskers?  Not really.

Singles Going Steady-Mini Vinyl Finds

It's been a fast three weeks away from my place of employment and I haven't achieved a Goddamn thing.  My piece of shit Lenovo continues to hang and drag (five years of this shit and I'm surprised I haven't taken a hammer to it, it's very tempting) my chair's bolt continues to loosen and fall off the chair and I spend countless hours trying to fix the thing.   While I'm supposed to down size, I ended up buying a bunch of CDs from Stuff Etc for a dollar and this week, somebody dropped a bunch of scratchy mini vinyl (45's) and I found about six worth getting, and going back to my archives of 45s, and decided to try to bring them back to life by cleaning them.  Basically, I have some of these for over 50 years and they have enough boogers, crater scratches and smudges from years of no sleeve and abuse.  So I turned on the faucet and washed it down good.  Not a good idea since the label gets ruined but finally Call On Me can be played.  I also managed to save a couple more singles.  There was a compilation of USA soul singles that omitted Call On Me but added the more pedestrian  Power Of Love.  I probably should have called it a night sooner but I was on a roll and therefore decided it was worth blogging about.  Only God knows why.  Or record collecting fanatics.

I think in the past 15 years my Mini Vinyl (45s) collection has doubled in size.  The kindness of strangers giving up their collection so I can bring some of them in and make them part of the family of records and CDs here at Hoarders Are Us.  Alas, nobody had Call On Me, tho' Ragged Records did have Cruel World (Don Hollinger) for the price of a new CD.  Get it before it's gone.  At the moment, Ragged Records is still cleaning up from the flood mess of 2019 and it will be another three months before they open up that place.  Their second location in Rock Island is open for business.

After a quiet five months, I have been finding some 45s at the usual locations.  This week was the Salvation Army having a cart full of 45s, mostly in sad shape but I did buy six of them and five did play, the sole exception: Free Movement's I Found Somebody Of My Own which despite looking fair, the grooves were muddled and sounded bad.   I resisted for years of buying scratchy records, but when I got a decent turntable and needle, I decided to experiment.  And it turned out that records are slightly more tougher than originally thought.  Some of my most played vinyl from years ago, sounds pretty good, especially after a good  cleaning.   But if there's deep scratches, then that defeats the sense of purpose.  A shame that I couldn't save the two Freddie King Federal 45s, and while the Willie Maborn USA single did worked, that too have a lot of surface scratches that could still be heard.   Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl, a prized 45 from the The Barbarians simply had dirt buildup that managed to get scrubbed away and sounded like new.   Which then gave me the bright idea of why not clean more records?  The success rate I'd say about 75 percent.  I still would love to find a better version of Call On Me, but the last time I bid on one from EBAY, the final price was 40 dollars and I finished runner up.  Since then, I have yet to see another one listed.

So we have to make due what we got.  But I still remain hopeful that in my next vinyl adventure, I'll find that, and a few more to boot.  I have not been disappointed in my adventures when I did strike it.  

What I did find was.

1)   Open Up Your Heart-Buck Owens  (Capitol 5705)

2)   Where Does The Good Times Go-Buck Owens (Capitol 5811) 

3)   Dumb Blonde-Dolly Parton (Monument MN-982)

4)   Saturday Night At The Movies-The Drifters (Atlantic 2260)

5)   Ruby Duby Du-Tobin Matthews Orchestra (Chief 7022)

In this collection there was actual record sleeves available, and I took the six best sleeves.  Four of them were Hit Records sleeves, to which there was a few Hit Records in the cart, most were scratched up, or probably needed a bath.  I'd go back to check if there's still in the cart or some that i could save but that would be a waste of time.  But I have been known for a followup,   The Buck Owens 45's were the best in shape, The Drifters needed a bath and sounded better afterward.  The Tobin Matthews record a curio since I rarely see anything from Chief Records.  The Dolly Parton was found inside a trashed Buck Owens picture sleeve and it plays VG-. Tobin Matthews would later have ambitions of being the next Buddy Holly and his sides for USA shows some promise, but later efforts for Columbia and Warner Brothers, it sounds like them trying to turn him from Buddy to Steve Lawrence, with ridiculous arrangements this side of Mitch Miller.   And so it goes.

Of course you knew this but I had to make a return trip back to pick up more records but this time taking them home to clean them up.  Alas, the third Buck Owens single Before You Go had a scratch that kept skipping over and over so that one will have to go back to the donation pile.   The rest of the batch.

6)   Guitar Country-Anita Kerr/Chet Atkins (RCA 47-8246)
7)   So Long Dearie-Louis Armstrong (Mercury 72338)
8)   Things In This House-Bobby Darin (Capitol 5257)
9)   What A Price-Fats Domino (Imperial X-5723)
10) Wheels-The String A Longs (Warwick  M-603)
11)  That's How You Treat A Cheater-Dobie Gray (Cordak C-1605)
12)  8 Great Hits On Gilmar (G-242)  1960

These 6 singles, had to be cleaned up.  I had reservations about the String A Longs and Louis Armstrong but after a good clean, the playback was much better, tho. Wheels had a bit of wear on the grooves,   The Louis Armstrong single was quite dirty, but played much better after its bath.   Louis had a nice hit with Hello Dolly, Dearie made number 56 in 1964.  As a child, I did have Mame, which sounds lot like Hello Dolly, So Long Dearie, but of course Jerry Herman wrote all them songs.  Not a lot of thought on the banjo, Marti Gras like arrangements and the b side Pretty Little Missy, Louie writes his own Hello Dolly.   Both Wheels/Dearie were on hard plastic, to which with a paper label I had to be careful not to wet that down unlike the soft plastic of the Capitol/RCA singles.

The ones that needed to be cleaned the most was the Fats Domino/Bobby Darin singles.  The latter I wanted for Wait By The Water, which a few dirt clots in the grooves but they washed out well and there was no major cuts or scratches on that record.  Better was the What A Price 45 with Ain't That Just Like A Woman that played just about like new.  Usually, Fats Domino forty fives are chewed up and people played them on a regular basis.  There was some Ricky Nelson sides but I came to the conclusion that they were beyond repair.  You can only wash out the dirt and dust but mold is another story.  The Dobie Gray single was warped a bit but played VG-.  I had to buy the Anita Kerr single just because I wondered if it was the muzak inspired Nashville sound that purists frowned upon back in the early 60s.  Anita Kerr did polished up most of the RCA acts with her vocal group sounds and the Chet Atkins song is polished Nashville. For better or for worse.  But then again I was brought up on RCA and the Nashville sound.  So I tend to listen to just about everything.

The curio was the Gilmar 8 song EP, to which we heard faceless singers sing the hits of Tall Oak Tree, Baby You Got What It Takes, El Matador, Midnight Special and Puppy Love.  Not as polished as say, the artists that recorded for Hit/Giant/Country Western Hits out of Nashville. But back in those days, you can send 89 cents to a PO BOX number in Encino California for the record of the month.  If the record was damaged you can send a postcard for a replacement but you could keep the defective record.  Kind of a nice set up from a minor label specializing in covering songs made famous.  It's hard to know how long Gilmar Records stayed in business. The internet has been vague about that.  There were some key HIT Single covers of Beatles numbers but once again it was deemed that the records weren't not savable due to mold, mildew and worn out grooves.  They would have paled next to the originals but if you look hard on You Tube you can find those covers.  The Gilmar stuff, not so much.

With that, I managed to open up my can of old records that I have had all these years but couldn't play and decided to clean up Desert March from Jorgen Ingmann (Atco 6305).  This record has been a part of my collection for over 55 years and where it came from, I'm not sure.  It may have been bought at a Lincoln Illinois liquor and smoke store around 1964, or it might have been part of a box of 10 singles bought by my folks in Waterloo a year later, but my guess remains it's more from Lincoln. I've found multiple copies of Cherokee and Apache, but never Desert March.

Which out of all these forty fives that have been cleaned, Call On Me and Desert March are the two that reconnect me from the childhood years of playing them on VF record players on a plastic record arm. To which I am surprised the sound quality of these beaten classics are still good. I also cleaned up Mexico by Bob Moore.  The jury is still out if this will be kept in the collection or sent down the road.  

Rock And Roll And Neil Young

I continue to write of my latest adventures in my band's blogspot site to document the songs and the feeling of how I felt.  While The Record World Blog hasn't completely shut down, I haven't found much time to really comment on the things out there.  Somehow people think this is a porn site, judging by the 12 views of a certain blogspot that promotes getting popped in the pooper.  To which I don't not approve of that so called site that shall remain nameless.  Despite the lack of recent content except the forty five finds, this still averages about 2200 per month per views.    It seems the porn crowd are getting their singles sites mixed up.  This is about records  and not find a fuck buddy dot com.  The Singles Going Steady name was taken from the Buzzcocks 1979 best of.  To which I'm sure the porn faithful are going to be disappointed by their results that's it's not a place to hook up, unless they have a record collection you can pore through, and maybe if there's a connection, go from there.

I didn't participate in the World Naked Bike Ride of last month.  Three times was enough for me.  Judging by what I've heard the turnout was less than last year but the St Louis, Chicago had 2,000 of them running through the city butt naked on bikes.   Problem with the WNBR is that it falls on our busy week at work and then Father's day is the next day.  I'm sure the 11th installment of WNBR Madison will take place on the same weekend.  For clean family fun, you could do worse.

Confederate Railroad has been around for 3 decades.  Their classic years was on Atlantic and while their Greatest Hits is the route to go, their first remains my go to album.  All of a sudden, in this P.C. world, the Duqoin County Fair in Illinois announced that The Railroad will not be playing since Confederate is now a dirty word and even this liberal minded person finds that to be ridiculous.  It's bad enough that Illinois folks now have to dig deeper into their pocket to pay the 19 cent gas tax increase and cigarette tax as well.  You can quit smoking but you can't stop driving.  I'm due to return to that state on the next Quad Cities River Bandits trip to see the aftermath, but outside of that, unless I want to pick up some marijuana or cannibus oil.  But I find it dumb for them to forbid a country band with the same damn name for years to play at their local county fair.

While Woodstock 50 continues to spin its wheel on where to play, other venues are prepping up the 50th anniversary at the local areas.  My good friend Jim Jacobmeyer decided to put together one at Lowe Park in Marion on Aug 20 to which local acts Zoot And Newt, The Beaker Brothers, Winterland and the band that I sat in with in January-March The Boy Scout Hippies will be the acts that will play a 40 minute set.  Like Woodstock a chance of rain will be in the air. Last week, Jim announced that Neil Young would finish up the evening after talking to somebody from MoTown Records that said Neil would be there. A big red flag since 1)  Lookout Management is Neil's management team (Eliot Roberts recently passed away but Lookout Management keeps an eye on things) and 2) Neil never recorded for MoTown nor Motown tho' the Myna Birds, recorded a demo for them (Rick James was leader, Neil might have had something to do with that).   After the Sanctuary announced that, I had to look up Neil's website to see if Neil was really coming, I had doubts right off the bat and they were confirm when there was nothing mentioned of the Lowe Park show.  Finally, Lookout management confirmed what we all knew, Neil wasn't coming and he wasn't going to play for a bunch of well respected musicians for 20 dollars.  Add another zero and they'll talk.  By no means, that Neil should be blamed from the acts of a scammer, who has now disappeared into the night and probably will surface somewhere down the line to take advantage of another naive non profit place with more bullshit.  The way life has become in the age of social media.  Hell, I would have gone if Neil was coming but even when Jim told me about this, I couldn't believe it.  Alas, he had to take on criticism which I hope doesn't come back and bite him on the ass.

To those who just wanted to see Neil and not the other bands, you are the blame of not supporting the local acts.  These folks worked long and hard to get to even play at this venue. I took exception at one person who didn't want to waste his time and money on the others and told him to stay home and listen to Live Rust then.  Even if he did make it, he probably would stare at his smart phone all night and not pay attention.  In the meantime, Neil's latest archive release Tuscaloosa is his 1973 show with the Stray Gators and Neil has always had a profound hatred of Time Fades Away, a better album then he might expect.

Woodstock Revisited will be held on August 20 at Lowe Park in Marion.