Singles Going Steady 72-Naked Vinyl From The Vinyl Emporium

It is my yearly return to the Vinyl Emporium in New Bo Cedar Rapids to see what sort of 45s that he has in the cheap bin, although 50 cents per record is par for the course for used 45s.  I like the guy that he gives you a discount when you buy in bulk.  12 45s for 5 dollars, but today he threw in two more for free.  Last time, he took pity on me and gave me three of them for free.  I do think there was a bit of turnover from the last time since I found a few more that were not there the last time.   Since they are sleeveless, I will have to stop at Analog Vault and see what they have.  

All were sleeveless, therefore we have naked 45s Hahahahahaha......

He did have a few Atlantic 45s, one was a P P Arnold that had seen better days.

I Love My Baby-Archie Bell and The Drells (Atlantic 2612) #94  1969

Take Me (as I am) -Solomon Burke (Atlantic 2416)  #49  1967

Movin On Out-Eddie Harris (Atlantic 2667)  1969

Sweet And Sour-The Changing Scene (Avco Embassy AVE-4538) 1970

Las Vegas-Two Ton Baker (Sunny SR-504) 1968?

From The Bottom Of My Heart (I love you)-The Moody Blues (London 9764)  #93 1965

Have You Ever Loved Somebody-The Searchers (Kapp K-783)  #94 1966

Every Step That I Take (Every Move I Make)-The Hassles (United Artists UA 70258)  1968

Freaky Billy-The Wheelie King-Loose (Nocturne HR-1909) 1969

We Can't Go On This Way-Teddy And The Pandas (Musicor MU-1190) #103 1966

Walk With Me-Calvin Cooke (Revival R-124)  1969

Singles Game-Jay And The Techniques (Smash S-2171) #116 1968

My Town, My Guy And Me-Leslie Gore (Mercury 72425)  #32 1965

My Pledge Of Love-Joe Jeffries Group (Wand WND-11200) #14 1969

For the most part this collection stems around the 1968-70 year with a couple of mid 60s minor hits from The Moody Blues and The Searchers.  Two Ton Baker's Las Vegas is a Dixieland jazz romp for a minute fifty two seconds. When My Sugar Walks Down the Street is another minute quickie. Somehow that goes right into Sweet And Sour, how this doesn't differ from Two Ton Baker is beyond me. Bubblegum Dixieland pop?!  Since when. B Side Sit Down Lorraine is actually better, complete with fuzzy bass.  But Sweet And Sour Baby has an infectious hook to it that grabbed my attention the second time I heard it. .  The Hassles are better known as having Billy Joel in their band and Every Step I Take managed to bubble under the top 100 in 1968. It's kinda a cross of Dusty Springfield and the Young Rascals.  I Hear Voices owes more to the Vanilla Fudge in execution, but all fairness The Hassles were in the same league as the Fudge or Rascals.  The Razor And Tie compilation proved that.

Continuing the silly pop and rock we have Freaky Billy The Wheelie King from Loose, a band and record that I never heard of.  Walk With Me is gospel blues, further proof that gospel blues with a blues guitar riff is worth hearing.   We Can't Go On This Way is a lost bubblegum pop classic, the b side is the mysterious Smokey Fire   Strange how we come across singles like these and never heard these on the radio.  The Moody Blues with Denny Laine was more toward Gerry And The Pacemakers than what they would become and Go Now! was a different style and sound, the followup Bottom Of My Heart scraped the bottom top 100, And My Baby's Gone probably would have been a better plug side, eventually Denny Laine would move on to better pastures with Paul McCartney and Wings and The Moody Blues would get John Lodge and Justin Hayward and of course you knew what happened after that.  The reliable Searchers came up with the infectious Have You Ever Loved Somebody, and in reality of the British Invasion bands, The Searchers held their own. 

The Lesley Gore single was once part of that classic box of 45s that I grew up with, My Town, My Guy And Me was the A side but I wanted to hear A Girl In Love, My Town is a bit on the scratchy side but A Girl In Love plays better.  Singles Game is another song that I may have heard up in Waterloo in the summer of 68. Underrated soul classic.

The Atlantic sides are probably the biggest of finds, anything from the soul side of Atlantic is worth seeking out. Movin On Out is one of the lesser known soul jazz classics from Harris, tho Funky Doo,the B Side borrows  the Jumbo Starks stutter beat.  Solomon Burke's Take Me is another certified soul classic done in his trademark preaching singing.  I Stayed Away Too Long, continues more of the soul balladry, tho I wish Solomon would have picked up the tempo a bit more.  Archie Bell takes on the Gamble Huff team on I Love My Baby, which would sounded better had Jerry Butler covered it, still a fun song, however B side Come A Little Closer reveals that Archie should just stick with up tempo dance numbers.   And finally, Joe Jefferies, My Pledge Of Love has the most grooviest hook ever put on record. And probably the reason why I bought this batch of 45s.

For naked rekkids, they do sound very well, despite their age and wear.  It always seems that anything from London Records have a poor quality of sound and the Moodies are no exception.  Usually in my case, I tend to be careful of buying scratched up records of fifty plus years old and exposed to the elements.  Come A Little Closer is probably the worst in terms of wear and tear. The Vinyl Emporium did have a decent selection of these naked vinyl goodness that did bring a few surprises.

Visit them at 1120 2nd Street. SE.  in Cedar Rapids. 

(Bill Cary: photo credit)