With the hoopla about World Naked Bike Ride 2021 in Mad city and St. Louis as well, questions have been asked why I haven't returned back to St Louie since the 2014 trip, and certainly I'd love to return there and Granite City to see what the Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores had for 45s. Of course Record Exchange would be a day long event, they left me alone upstairs for four hours. I rook home 25 of the singles, but the Record Exchange ones were museum pieces and priced accordingly. Had I gone there this time, chances are I would have not been so selective.
It's five and a half hours to St Louis from Cowpie Iowa, a pain in the ass when I went there in 1999, but by 2014, you could take the Avenue Of The Saints and go four lane all the way. St Louis has always been good to me. Starting in 1999 when I attended my first Mingles Singles get together and then in 2009 and meeting my future and later ex there and her showing there's more to life than bargain hunting for singles. Meaning records that is. There are no plans for a St. Louis return, the older I get, the more tiring it gets just to plan the day of going to Vintage Vinyl or Record Exchange and besides FYE closed down their music store that made finding cheap CDs a passion. Besides, Madison still has Strictly Disc, Sugar Shack, B Sides and Mad City Music X and the St. Vinnies thrift stores and it's 2 and half hours getting there. It's cost effective for me just to stick close to home. As long as we have a Half Price Books in town, rest assured the house will be full of 2 dollar bargains and 25 cent 45's from Mad City Music X. Hoarding is fun.
The First Ten
Nobody But You Baby-Steve Miller Band (Capitol B-5671) 1986
Green Eyed Lady-Sugarloaf (Liberty 56183) #3 1970
Tightrope Ride-The Doors (Elektra EKS-46757) #71 1971
Rock And Roll-Led Zeppelin (Atlantic 45-2865) #47 1972
She Let Her Hair Down-Don Young (Bang 574) 1969
Please Don't Sell My Daddy No More Wine-The Greenwoods (Kapp K-742) #64 1966
The Jolly Green Giant-The Kingsmen (Wand 172) #4 1965
Peanuts-The Sunglows (Sunglow SG-107) 1965 #64 Hot 100
Caravan Part 1-Cozy Cole (Grand Award 45-1023) 1958
It's Wonderful-The Young Rascals (Atlantic 45-2463) #20 1967
The Cozy Cole and Don Young singles had multiple copies. The ones that I bought were from St. Vinnies but my guess is that these originally were from Mad City Music X. They tend to donate certain 45's when they do not sell. The Don Young had no sleeve but was in VG shape, Cole's was a bit more rough but played okay. The Greenwoods County Singers was shortened to The Greenwoods and was more toward the New Christy Minstrels, but by 1966, the folk scene was over. This charted much to my surprise since I've never heard it before, it's very silly and B side Southbound was better. However this record was not put together very well, who ever pressed this record had it way off the mark and I had to manually adjust the 45 so it could play right. The Jolly Green Giant is the Kingsmen's better selling record next to Louie Louie, but the quality of the song tails off. I did get this for the B side of Long Green, to which pales in comparison to The Fireballs' remake of it a few years later. The record is pretty decent shape since Wand Records have a limited amount of plays due to inferior record vinyl.
Finding a decent copy of Green Eyed Lady was easier said than done. Half Price Books Madison had this listed for 5.99, this one was a quarter and plays in a VG sound quality. Tightrope Ride, perhaps the best of the Post Jim Morrison era singles was hard to find even fifty years onward. None of the stores sold this record and the look at a Arlan's employee and his reply was they couldn't get the record and besides it's not the Doors since Morrison was dead and gone by then. Rock And Roll from Led Zeppelin suffered the same fate, nobody had it unless you ordered it. Out of all the L.Z singles, this was the most elusive. This one cost 4 dollars. If I looked hard enough I could have found it sooner. I did collect the Led Zeppelin 45s but Dyer Maker and Whole Lotta Love both had a crack on them, Immigrant Song had a nasty crack on the B side but somehow Trampled Underfoot and Over The Hills And Far Away managed to survive the years of abuse and play fairly well. I'm surprised The Steve Miller song didn't chart. KUPD played the hell out of it when I lived in Phoenix in 1986.
A long story about It's Wonderful, which is the last 45 credited to the Young Rascals. I remember seeing plenty of copies of this song in the 29 cent bin at Arlan's or 3 for a dollar down at the Woolworth's store around 1968, kinda like Tell It Like It Is from Aaron Neville. It's Wonderful is unique for it's banding of the sound effects at the end of the song, tho pressed 45's from Columbia (CP) had both grouped together. The Columbia CP master is different from the Atlantic mastered banded number. For an unwanted single dump back then, its value has gone up quite a bit. Another Rascals single A Ray Of Hope also had lots of copies in the cheap bins as well, that one was one of the last 45's that I bought at the now gone St. Louis FYE store. A Ray Of Hope would be the first single under The Rascals' banner, to which Felix Cavilarie decided to grow a full beard. B side Of Course is a forgotten gem. It's Wonderful may have been their most freak out single. Weird but I like it.
The Second batch
Journey To The Center Of The Mind-The Amboy Dukes (Mainstream 684) #16 1968
Good Luck Charm-Elvis Presley (RCA 47-7992) #1 1962
Won't Give It Up-Sue Saad And The Next (Planet P-45912) #107 1980
Hypoactive-Thomas Dolby (Capitol B-5321) #62 1984
Sail Around The World-David Gates (Elektra EKS-45968) #50 1973
Yellow River-Christie (Epic 5-10626) #23 1970
Barefootin'-Pete Townsend (Atco 7-99499) 1986
Thank You Girl-John Hiatt (A&M AM-2950) 1987
Goin Away-The Fireballs (Atco 45-6569) #79 1968
Love-The Lettermen (Capitol 3192) #42 1971
John Drake, the original lead singer for The Amboy Dukes a Detroit band that featured Terrible Ted Nugent passed away Monday. I used to have the single but when I was playing it one day, my old man came in drunk and basically being a pain in the ass flicked his cigarette ashes on the record player which enraged me while I tried to get the wipe the crap off, cracked the record as it fell on the floor. I have no idea why he did that, but turnabout was fair play when me and my brother took a few of his records and played Frisbee with a baseball bat with them. Eventually we did replaced his records but I never did find a suitable copy of Journey. I'm not sure where I heard Won't Give It Up from the obscure Sue Saad (KRNA perhaps) and bought the cassette of their S/T album. It might have been a regional hit but Billboard didn't have it in the top 100 pop charts. A dated power pop hit, I think I donated their next single Gimme Love/Gimme Pain. The cassette fell apart a long time ago and I might the vinyl album somewhere. Planet Records was Richard Perry's label and he attempted to cash in on the new wave market with a compilation album that had The DB's during a song or two but I didn't think the songs were that great and a comp of their early years proved that. Perry had better luck with the Cretones with Snap Snap making a splash but the first Plimsouls album is classic power pop. Saad made one more single for Warner Music, the bombastic Looker and disappeared soon after. Won't Give It Up still has a nice hook to it, tho the lyrics are a bit gag, but the chorus line has a hook that will be yet another earworm should you get to hear this timely track. Despite that, Richard Perry gave up new wave soon afterwards, the only act that did anything on Planet would be The Pointer Sisters.
Barefootin from Pete Townsend got airplay on KRNA in 1986 but I find it hard that it didn't make a chart showing on the Billboard. John Hiatt's Thank You Girl is one of his finer singles but John never did receive very much love on the charts. Goin Away, was the third of a string of top 100 pop hits for the Fireballs, tho they'll be forever known as the band that back Jimmy Gilmer up on Sugar Shack but Bottle Of Wine, Say I Am, Come On React! and Long Green (with Gilmer still on board) are fine hard rocking singles. In this case, I might be just a completest just to have this single. Love, is The Lettermen's final top forty pop hit and their MOR sound fits well with the John Lennon number, The Lettermen did have some fine muzak type of ballads. KLWW did have have that song charted on their top 30. KCRG didn't.
When David Gates left Bread, he did have a somewhat successful solo career tho Sail Around The World was kinda bland. B side Help Is On The Way, is more rocking and somewhat more memorable.
The video for Hyperactive remains a music video classic tho I never warmed up to Dolby's music all that much. Of course She Blinded Me With Science is an 80's classic and Hypoactive comes close.
I usually find a lot of RCA singles when I do the Madison trip but this time around, only Elvis' Good Luck Charm was the only single worth saving, tho the record did get plenty of plays. Still a nasty earworm, I've been hearing it all day since playing it.
The last ones
Honey Love-The Drifters (Atlantic 45-1029) #21 1954
From The Bottom Of My Heart-The Clovers (Atlantic 45-1107) 1956
Lover Please-Clyde McPhatter (Mercury 71941) #7 1962
Joey's Song-Bill Haley/Comets (Decca 9-30956) #46 1959
One Of Us (will weep tonight)-Patti Page (Mercury 71639) #31 1960
Devil Woman-Marty Robbins (Columbia 4-42486) #16 1962
Mr. Custer-Larry Verne (Era 3024) #1 1960
Mountain Of Love-Harold Dorman (Rita 1003) #21 1960
Ramblin' Rose-Nat King Cole (Capitol 4804) #2 1962
The Happy Reindeer-Dancer, Prancer And Nervous (Capitol 4300) #34 1959
The third group comes from the golden age of rock n roll and fits in better There are six different labels for Honey Love by the Drifters (a number 1 R and B hit in 54). A calypso tune with the crazy Harry Van Walls on piano, Open Your Eyes the b side, is close to blues as they can get. One of those rare co writes from Tom Dowd. The vintage vinyl captures a warmer sound that makes you feel part of the recording sessions, pops and clicks included. Lover Please done 8 years later features a young Billy Swan on piano.
The beloved Clovers cover Chuck Willis on From The Bottom Of My Heart, which didn't even dent the R and B charts. B side Bring Me Love is interesting since it was written by Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield ( wonder who Whitman was, Slim? probably not) and probably should have been the a side, since it's a doo wop number and better suited than FTBOMH. The ha ha hook is unique and strange at the same time.
One Of Us is a western ballad probably for a western movie by Patti, who actually is going through a more country and period. B side What Will My Future Be returns her back to her big band pop roots. Which I can take or leave. Which leads to Mr. Custer from funnyman Larry Verne, who would go into motion pictures. Bob Keene passed on the song, he didn't think it was funny but the guy from Era loved it and so it got released on that label and hit number 1. B side Okenfokee Two Step was a hillbilly take on The Madison. Even by 1960 standards, I still find it hard to believe Mr. Custer made it to number 1. It's not exactly very much fun to listen to.
Nat King Cole was doing a bit more R and B with The Good Times, which apes This Magic Moment and Stand By Me, It wouldn't sound out of place with The Drifters, but Ramblin' Rose is Cole's modern sounds in County and Western including hokey backing singers. Part of the chart of the song.
The Happy Reindeer you don't hear on Christmas radio,but this was a part of our growing up songs. Yes, it's a knockoff of the better known Chipmunks but as a 5 year old 55 years ago, this was one of the ultimate Christmas songs. Mad City Music X has had this single up there in the quarter bins for a long while and it's not in bad shape. One of the box of 45's from Grandma's collection in Illinois. I used to disown this song but fifty years later on, it's good Christmas fun. And they don't overkill it during the Holiday season, in fact I have yet to hear it on radio.
Overall, the sound quality of the forty fives found were pretty good. Unlike the previous Independence finds which the jukebox ate a few of them and The Return Of The Red Baron too scratchy to keep. I tend to think that Ramblin Rose wasn't exactly mastered very well, some distortion from the recording itself. Mountain Of Love was well worn but it still played VG. Outside of the oblong Greenwoods single not being centered. This collection is probably the best sounding finds.
