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Friday, September 5, 2014

Music For Bathroom Baritones & Bathing Beauties

Where Or When
Music For Bathroom Baritones & Bathing Beauties
Walter Schumann and The Winged Victory Chorus
American-Standard Plumbing and Heating Division
RCA Custom Records

Dancing In The Dark
My Buddy
A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody
Love's Old Sweet Song
Where Or When
Paddlin' Madelin' Home
I Only Have Eyes For You
The Whiffenpoof Song
Stardust
Flirtation Walk
Great Day

Where There's Life - Russ David

Where There's Life
Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
Where There's Life…
Orchestra And Chorus Conducted By Russ David
Conceived And Produced By Bob Johnson
1960

The cover art was created to support the album's title tune Where There's Life (sample above), a song that was used, in jiggle form, as part of Budweiser's 1950s Where There's Life ad campaign.

The cover art and set seems slightly dated for a 1960 release. However, competing with mid-to-late 50s sets of the same nature, this is an excellent release. David's arrangements are full of life, engaging, and the sample track above features that wild and dreamy "reverb" vibe.

From the back cover: The man responsible for the lively sounds heard within is Russ David. The Missouri-born musician cut his arranging teeth with such pioneer swing bands as Isham Jones and Ben Pollack. He has appeared as piano soloist with the St. Louis Symphony and is currently the musical director of that city's NBC outlet. On this recording he not only conducts the orchestra and vocalists, but also claims the credit for arranging all of the numbers. And if that weren't enough, the quadruple-talented Russ also assists at the piano and serves as vocalist for Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries.

Where There's Life
All Of My Life
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall
Give Me The Simple Life
If I Had My Life To Live Over
Love The Life I'm Living
Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
These Will Be The Best Years Of Our Life
There's A Lull In My Life
The Best Things In Life Are Free
Life Is So Peculiar
Ah, Sweet Mystery Of Life

Flowers Of Love

In Memory Of The Sweetest Little Dog
Flowers Of Love
Music - Will Gentry
Vocals - Ramsey Kearney
Nashco Records
1982

Song poem album.

I Just Came Back For You - Kitty Simpson
Love That Didn't Last - Lottie Larson
A Song To Feed The Chickens By - M. I. Farrahay
A Letter To Her Heart - Russell McKenzie
Winnescheika - Dorothy Weinsteiger
Kathy's Everything To Me - Mel Schlieff
I Cried The Tears - Mary Williams
Loving Wife - Frank Kempton
Thank God For The Little Things - Marlene Wanner
In Memory Of The Sweetest Little Dog - Opal Wilson
Dont' Cry - Mary Slody
Everybody's Got To Have A Real Feeling - Francis Earl Williams

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Raymond Lefevre And His Orchestra

Whiter Shade Of Pale
Raymond Lefever And His Orchestra
Major Minor Records MMLP4
London, England

A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Ame Caline
Think Of Summer
Release Me
Notre Roman
Puppet On A String
L'important C'est La Rose
Nous Ne Sortirons Qu'au Printemps
Quand On Revient
Groovin'
Adios Amor
Les Gens Du Nord

Swing Low Great Clarinet - Francis Bay

Summit Ridge Drive
Swing Low Great Clarinet
The Bay Big Band
Conducted by Francis Bay
At The Brussels World's Fair
Omega OSL 21

Omega pressed a good number of Bay sessions and produced jackets that featured creative art. This cover features one of the more fantastic structures built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair

From the back cover: Francis Bay plays trombone, clarinet, alto saxophone and flute with equal ability and his regular programs on the Brussels N.I.R. Radio conceived by program manager Bob Boon can be heard weekly on the powerful station throughout England, France, Belgium and surrounding countries.

Begin The Beguine
Dancing In The Dark
Cross Your Heart
When The Quail Comes Back To San Quentin
Temptation
'S Wonderful
Stardust
Frenesi
Summit Ridge Drive
Moonglow
Nightmare

Los Xey

El Gitano Poliglota
Los Xey Con La Orqueta De Ray Montoya
Musart M54


I Need You So - Ivory Joe Hunter

I Can't Get You Off My Mind
I Need You So
Ivory Joe Hunter
Cover Photography By Lester Krauss
Lion L70068

From the back cover: In the present album, you'll find a round dozen of the greatest hits Hunter ever set down on disk.

Don't Make Me Cry
If You See My Baby
Rockin' Chair Boogie
I Need You So
I Almost Lost My Mind
Why Fool Yourself
I Can't Get You Off My Mind
Wrong Woman Blues
I Can't Resist You
You Thrill Me
I Had A Girl
I Thought I Had Loved

Monday, September 1, 2014

The Champs & The Fabulous Cyclones

Lowdown
Design Spotlight Series
DLP 159
1962 Pickwick International

Split LP featuring The Champs and The Fabulous Cyclones

The Champs

Too Much Tequila
Streamliner
Wing Ding
Club House
Lowdown

The Fabulous Cyclones

Boogie Guitar
Rocking & Picking
Moon Journey
Blue & Mean
Gone & Out

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Living Vocies

Old Cape Cod
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Living Voices
RCA Camden CAS-764
1963

The Living Voices take no chances on this LP. However, the graphics department risked printing this "bad habits" cover art on foil. Foil printing was (and is) an expensive, four color, plus white process. Generally, ink coverage like this over foil would have been considered unnecessary, but perhaps all of the covers in this series were scheduled for foil stock. The cover was successful as that art does have a unusually rich look to it.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Shake Me I Rattle
The End Of The World
Be My Love
This Is All Ask
Over The Mountain
Linda
The Three Bells
Starry-Eyed And Breathless
Old Cap Code

Mahatma Gandhi Spat Here - Dick and Anne Albin

Stranger Danger
Universal Song
Mahatma Gandhi Spat Here
Anne And Dick Albin
Fultz Studio, Fairdale, Kentucky
Phonygraph ADA-1
1975

According the credits found on the back cover, the ham sandwiches were provided by Helen Fultz (who, I assume was hanging out at the studio during the recording session). This is a serious "folk" album that doesn't take itself seriously.

Old Crooked Highway
NYC
Jack And Jill
Financial Affair
Universe Song
Uncle Watt's Original Fantascinatin'
I Wana Be A Roller Derby Queen
Back To West Virginia
The Tomater Of Decatur
Stranger Danger
I Am A Maker Of Songs
Higher Education

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Baby, Don't Go! – And Other IN Songs

I Got You Babe
Eve Of Destruction
Baby, Don't Go!
Modern Sound MS 551

Baby Don't Go
You've Got Your Troubles
I Got You Babe
This Town
You Make The Decisions
Hang On Sloppy
Catch Us If You Can
Eve Of Destruction
One Fine Day
She's Come Of Age

Charanga Pachanga

Un Lejano Amor
Charanga Pachanga
Vocalists – Yayo el Indio, Frank Souffront and Tony Molina
Columbia EX 5051

From the back cover: The Charanga is New York's newest Latin dance craze. Charanga means a small band, a typical Cuban orchestra with a prominent flute, a rhythm section and a vocal group. Pachanga means a lively fiesta or party. In 1960 the song "La Pachanga" became a spectacular hit throughout Latin America. It had a new kind of rhythm – like a fast merengue – and people started to do a new step to it. Along with the popularity of "La Pachanaga," the word charanga began to be used in describing the new beat, and the two words are now used interchangeably in the New York Latin music world.

Oscar M. Bouffartique is one of Cuba's best known composers and arrangers. His song "La Burundanga (Witchery) sold over half a million copies. Bouffartique spent his early years in the Cuban countryside, where he absorbed the native rhythms so evident in his compositions. At the early age of 11 he had already formed his first charanga. He later studied music and composition, taught music at the Conservatorio Municipal In Havanna and started composing early in his career.


Good and peppy Latin. The sample has a slightly different, and more "exotic" sound than the rest of the set.

Charanga En New York
Senorita Catalina
Con Dulzura
Guapacha En Orbita
A Saltar La Reata
Un Lejano Amor
Charanga En Puerto Rico
Que Siga El Ritmo
Charanga Road March
Morena Escultural
Llego La Pachanga
Volvere, Cielo Azul