This summer has been sizzling with amazing finds of forgotten 45s from different places. While I have yet to frequent Madison this year, I managed to do quite well staying close to home from the St Vincent De Paul and Salvation Army stores. For the last three weeks, I have been a regular at the CR SA store and sorting through the same scratched up 45s and thinking I can save a few more, but in reality, the majority of the 45s are in poor shape, and no matter how much I try to clean them up, the majority of them are too far gone. It's sad that I can't clean up Last Night by the Mar Keys, that would have been the find of the week, but then again I can live without Sun Arise by Rolf Harris.
The truth remains, that there's not much turnover for me to continue to hang at the thrift stores since 45s are few and far between, unless they're worn out juke box copies. Bored with the surroundings, it was time to return to Dubuque and see what the thrift stores and Moondog Music had in store. The other record store I haven't been much to, they have outpriced themselves for me to really go in there. In the final overview, chances are that Moondog will retain the number 1 place to go. Wax Estatic in Marshalltown may finally get to see me there but for now I have remained east of Cedar Rapids and probably will do so for some time.
While hanging at Moondog, I found another record collector really combing through the 45 section. He had a pile about 20 to 30 records of varying degree but he did put a couple of them back, to which I picked up. To which he gets special thanks for doing that, but he did snag somebody on Modern Records to which I don't know who the artist was. But I may have overlooked that on my last visit.
With the fifth anniversary of the best 45 finds ever, I'm always compelled to try to find the next batch to be memorable. There are classics in this one, best ever? Well, time will tell.
1) Stormy Weather-The Four Casts (Atlantic 45-2228) 1964
If there's a connection to Ruben And The Jets and The Rivingtons, this would probably be it, tho I doubt Frank Zappa ever heard of The Four Casts. They were from Philadelphia better known as The Ly-Dells and recorded a few sides for various labels and paired with Freddy Cannon on the song Broadway. This is their only Atlantic 45 and this was the single that the dude sorting through them at Moondog passed up. I get a kick out of finding the one off Atlantic singles of the 50s and 60s. The Lone Twister got props from the last blog and we uncovered him as Murray The K Kaufman. These guys, somebody managed to do a bio on them. http://doo-wop.blogg.org/four-casts-c26502672
There was crumbs lodged in the grooves, but a nice bath took care of that and it played without skips.B side Workin' At The Factory is more of a hardcore doo wop number. The Four Casts might have been unknown but these two songs are quite worth seeking out. Stormy Weather can be found on You Tube.
2) Mystery Train-Elvis Presley With Scotty And Bill (RCA 47-6357) 1955
Oh the Sun Sessions, and what begin the rock and roll era. Good luck trying to find the original Sun single, or for that matter the Preview Copy from RCA. My copy is the first generation stock copy and is in fairly decent shape. For a 65 year old Elvis record, I'm impressed that the folks did sell this to me for a dollar. I've seen worse being sold at five to ten dollars. The booby prize of the last Moondog visit gave us Orion, not the same thing at all. Nevertheless, the RCA issue of any Sun recordings are a must buy, Blue Moon was the other Sun Sessions 45 that I found and I think that was from the last Madison visit. I need to go up there soon. The song itself sounds a bit more polished than the rough and tumble Sun version but then again I didn't have the stereo up too loud. I didn't want to wake my brother. This Friday marks the 42 year that Elvis left the world. Somehow I managed to find a Elvis 45 in the process.
3) Gypsy Pilot-Rick Nelson (Decca 32906) 1971
The teen idol become a solid country rock and roller in the early 70s but nobody was buying his singles whatsoever. Rick have a chart placement here and there, beginning with She Belongs To Me (#33) and Easy To Be Free (#48) but this song was ignored. It's really one of Rick's harder rocking numbers about life on the road, but this record might be autobiographical, especially on the final lyric When they claim my body
They won't have much to say
Except that he lived a good life
He lived every day
The Ending has to be heard to be believed.
4) Daisy Mae (And Daisy May Not)-Terri Lane (Monument 8565) 1973 #37 Country
A country 45 that my dad had in his collection and I may have gotten it for him after finding a bunch of old jukebox forty fives. I tend to give the country records to my dad for fear of being ridiculed by my schoolmates, real people don't listen to country, they listen to rock. Bullshit, I have tend to enjoy the songs that Dad used to play, even tho this song is kinda slight, somewhat a lighter Lynn Anderson number.
5) Happy To Be Unhappy-Leroy Van Dyke (Mercury 72198) #54 Country 1964
Written by Bobby Bare, it managed to top some of the local country charts and it's uptempo in the way of Walk On By but it's unremarkable and hasn't stood the test of time. Not that country radio plays it much if at all. Leroy's Mercury songs have been on my record player including scratchy ole favorite How Long Must You Keep Me A Secret. Like Dave Dudley, I tend to buy the Mercury singles if they're in reasonable shape. Even without a record sleeve it does play like new. B side Now I Lay Me Down shows Leroy going toward a more mellower sound. With so so results, tho I give him credit, the song is only 2 minutes long.
6) You Talk Too Much-Frankie Ford (Imperial X-5686) 1960 #87
Frankie benefited from Huey Piano Smith and The Crowns backing him up when he was with Ace Records and moving over to Imperial resulted in some fine New Orleans rock and roll. Once again, Ford lost out to another person in covering songs, this time to Joe Jones who made number 3, while Frankie's toiled down near the bottom. Some say that Ford had the better version had they heard it. B Side If You Got Troubles Frankie co wrote with Huey Smith and does rock.
7) Oh Julie-The Crescendos (Nasco 45-6005) #5 1958
Prime choice rockabilly doo wop that has been featured on a couple of Excello best ofs. In a way reminds me of Gene Vincent's Wear My Ring (don't ask why).
8) Anti-Protest Protest Song-David Winters (Mercury 72537) 1966
Thanks to Bob Dylan, there were plenty of protest songs and parody protest songs. This one escapes me tho', Never heard of it before finding a decent copy at the St Vincent De Paul. Working with Shelby Singleton and Alan Lorber, this is actually a decent pop rock song. Not much is known about Winters, he did record for a few minor singles for minor labels and this was his only Mercury single.
9) I Don't Miss You-Shoes (Elektra E-46598) 1979
The third and final single from Present Tense, Zion Illinois' very own Shoes were too power pop for the radio, Single number 2, Too Late went to number 75 on the charts but radio didn't play them much over here. I'm not sure why I kept passing up on this single over at Moondogs, unless I kept overlooking it, or somebody did bring it in for trade. I Don't Miss You is a bit more harder rocking complete with fuzz guitar. When Real Gone issued a best of, this song didn't make the cut but it can be found on Shoes Best. But Real Gone tacked on B Side In Your Arms Again, which is okay but a bit out of the 3 minute comfort zone. Hmm
10) Gone Long Gone-Chicago (Columbia 3-10935) 1978 #73 (79)
After a long night of scouring for 45s and unlike my record hunting buddy, I didn't dig very deep, I decided to grab something on the way home, Kwik Star had nothing of note so I went over to Taco Bell and hung out with the teenagers, and not one of anybody in that place was born before 2000. Including the help. It begin to dawn on me that perhaps going to Taco Bell at 9 30 at night isn't a good idea if you over 50. Eventually they all cleared out to go hot rod'ing on JFK Drive in DBQ. Which really has nothing to do with this song. The third and final single off Hot Streets, this is Chicago beginning to be taken over by Peter Cetera's vocal work and Donnie Dacus had the tough task of replacing Terry Kath, who lost out to a shotgun. The beginning of the wilderness years? I still like this song, tho the 45 sounds a bit too scratchy for my liking.
11) Brooklyn Roads-Neil Diamond (Uni 55065) #58 1968
The beginning of Neil's Uni career and a song that managed to pop in the top 60. The Velvet Gloves And Spit album is strange Uni debut, including the Pot Smoker's Song. Brooklyn Roads is a sweet ballad that Neil would be famous for later on down the road. Neil's bizarre Holiday Inn Song shows a more playful side shall we say? Kudos to arranger Howard Johnson for this one. *wink*
12) Hey Little Girl-Del Shannon (Big Top 3091) #38 1961
Del may have been a walking contradiction, (Geoff Redding says working with Del was a pleasure, local legend musician Timothy said he was a A hole) but his songs are always been paranoid and tortured, Hey Little Girl is something like Runaway but a bit more optimistic on the chorus tho in this PC age anything with Little Girl in it is frowned upon. Damn republicans anyway. The song isn't as urgent as Runaway was but it's a passable listen. B side I Don't Care Anymore is textbook Shannon songwriting, sounds like it was written for the Everly Brothers. But probably a bit too dark for their liking.
13) MTA-Kingston Trio (Capitol F-4221) #15 1959
Protest music 1959 style. In the years of collecting 45s, The Kingston Trio seem to make their way to the Singles Going Steady Series. This was the third single bought at the St Vincent De Paul (3 for 50 cents). I could have swore I have the Tom Dooley single but have yet to find it, or maybe I donated it back to the thrift store? Certainly the Kingston Trio did make a few duds, but MTA is not one of them. B side is All My Sorrows. Record plays better than the Neil Diamond and Chicago singles.
14) It's Nothing To Me-Jim Reeves (RCA PB-10956) 1977 #14 Country
The last song, comes from my dad's collection, I think I gave this to him when I moved out of the house the first time but I could never locate another copy that wasn't chewed up and so I went back home and found this 45 once again. By then Jim was thirteen years removed from this world, but RCA continued to put out his songs in varied form. Originally from 1960 thereabouts, Bud Logan overdubbed a rock guitar to update the sound. It was chart fairly high on the country charts, even beyond the grave, Reeves still made the country charts, his next seven selection made top 40 country. However the writing was on the wall and after a disappointing number 54 pairing with Patsy Cline's I Fall To Pieces, RCA would issue one more single, the number 70 The Image Of Me in 1984. We're still waiting on a decent best of from RCA on Gentleman Jim.
UPDATE: Five years after the big find, I returned to the Salvation Army Davenport Store and found nothing. They still have a few of the scratchy juke box records from the last couple visits but I went away empty handed. One thrift store had 45s but the only one that looked good Sam The Sham' Oh That's Good No That's Bad I didn't buy. I figured I would get my record player a break from the scratched up wonders I found last month and this month. I didn't go into Illinois to seek out records, but stayed in Davenport and watch the CR Kernels beat the River Bandits in a 6-2 game that took three and a half hours to complete. It was so boring that one of the Kernels outfielder asked me what time it was, I said 9:30. Turns out I was right for a change. The game was three hours and thirty six minutes long.
Fact: Both Austin Shaffer and Felipe Tejada started the July 8th game at the QC which Cedar Rapids won 6-5. On this game, both were relievers Tejada got rocked for 4 runs in the fifth inning and lasted 2/3 of a inning. Attendance of this game was 3,400, tho' most of them left before the 9th inning, to which Josh Winder pitched 6 stellar innings and striking out 9 River Bandits. For the first time I didn't see any home runs by either team this year. In the games I watched of this rivalry, Cedar Rapids won both.
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