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On
The Turntable - July 2007  |
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Music
From The Antique Phonograph Show |
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click
on the label to hear Merrill Moore - Rock Island Line Capitol 3397 - 1956 |
click
on the label to hear The Keynoters - Darktown Strutters Ball Owl 3001 - 1951 |
| I featured
Merrill Moore last month in the Rockabilly tribute announcing my visit to
Rock Fest III. Signed by Capitol in 1941, he was still going strong fifteen years later. I picked up this Owl recording to add to my label collection. |
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click
on the label to hear The Cardinals - She Rocks Atlantic 972 - 1952 |
click
on the label to hear The Daps - When You're Alone Marterry 5249 - 1956 |
| It
always has seemed to me that The Cardinals have been given B-list status,
despite the great recordings. They had a fine run on the Atlantic label
in the early 1950s. Marterry was a subsidiary of Chess records. In 1956 the label name was changed to ARGO. The Daps sound is the epitome of slow ballad style doo wop. |
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click
on the label to hear Pat Boone - At My Front Door Reo 8056 - 1955 |
click
on the label to hear Jo-Ann Campbell - I'm In Love With You Gone 5014 - 1957 |
| I already
have most of the Pat Boone American issue 78s. When I saw this Canadian
release, I just had to have it. Here's Pat struggling through the El Dorados
big hit. Here's the B-side of the better known hit, Wait A Minute. Jo-Ann Campbell was featured on many of Alan Freed's stage shows and had a nice string of uptempo teen tunes. |
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click
on the label to hear Pete Pike - I Can See An Angel |
click
on the label to hear The Original 4 Aces - I Can See An Angel |
| This
one has me stumped. Which record company issued this? The publisher is 4
Star, which would indicate a Country & Western company, but that could
be anyone from RCA Victor to 4 Star itself. Whatís being featured here? With the same song on both sides, it would seem like the song rather than the artist is being plugged. Since this was a promo given to disc jockeys for air play, it looks like they were given a choice between the Country weeper side by Pete Pike and the Pop ballad side. And just who are the Original 4 Aces? They're not the well known Pop quartet that had a number of well known glee club style hits in the 50s. I have one other record by this 4 Aces too, a group I have yet to identify. Anyone with knowledge is welcome to contact me with information. |
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click
on the label to hear Kid King's Combo - Banana Split Excello 2009 - 1953 |
click
on the label to hear The Charioteers - Along Tobacco Road Decca 420 - 1935 |
| Kid
King's Combo is an excellent example of the Rhythm & Blues combo style
music that was popular as dance music from the late 1940s into the 1950s
One of my favorite pioneer groups, along with the Ravens, the Charioteers made some fine recordings, starting in the 1930s. Here's a nice ballad done with a spiritual style. |
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click
on the label to hear Lou DeMarco - Careless Love Ferris 903 - 1956 |
click
on the label to hear The Sheiks - Walk That Walk Cat 116 - 1955 |
| More great doo wop from the show. It's finds like these that make digging through all the Rudy Vallee 78s worth while. | |
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click
on the label to hear Lee James - I Ain't No Beatnik Globe acetate |
click
on the label to hear Arkie Shibley - Hot Rod Race Gilt-Edge 5021 - 1950 |
| The
Globe acetate is a somewhat unusual Country novelty tune. Beatniks were
a counter-culture fad in the late 1950s. The demo is on a 78 rpm disc, so
I presume from before 1960. The other side is a typical Country & Western
cry-in-your-beer ballad. For anyone who doesn't know, Hot Rod Lincoln is the fourth in a series of Answer songs to the much earlier original by Arkie Shibley. Here's a nice copy of the original Hot Rod Race. Shibley also wrote and recorded the first three answer songs, each done from the point of view of the three drivers. The kid that was driving the Model A in the original race was brought back by Charlie Ryan, first in the mid- 1950s and again as a hit along with the Johnny Bond version in 1960. Charlie Ryan also had a series of his own Answer songs including Side Car Cycle and Hot Rod Hades. Commander Cody then resurrected the tune again in the early 1970s. Flying low and flying wide for over twenty years - not bad! |
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click
on the label to hear Dewey Groom - Teardrops In The Chapel Richtone 352 - 1953 |
click
on the label to hear The Peppermints - Shuf-A-Lin Shoes Mercury 70681 - 1955 |
| Here's
another Country weeper, found on the Richtone label out of Texas. It has
the sound of a Gene Autry recording and was much the norm for Country &
Western music going back to the 1940s and 1930s. Even though the modern age of Country is considerd to have begun when Chet Atkins was made the RCA A&R director of Nashville, they're still making these songs of heartbreak today. The Peppermints were a Pop glee club style female group much like group style of the Chordettes and later the Lennon Sisters. |
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click
on the label to hear Four Chicks & Chuck - High School Jubilee 6031 - 1953 |
click
on the label to hear The Dixieairs - Long, Lean and Lanky Gotham 163 - 1948 |
| While
it might have been expected that Mercury Records would issue a Pop group
recording, Jubilee also came out with music that could have been featured on the Lawrence Welk Show. It should be remembered that these small independent companies like this got their start by targeting a certain audience but many attempted to make it in the mainstream as well. No doubt who was the target audience of Gotham Records - urban blacks. Yet it was this music that became increasingly popular with middle class white youth as dance and party music. Alan Freed identified this aspect of Rhythm & Blues and renamed it Rock n Roll - sixty years later here I am writing about it. |
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click
on the label to hear The Cues - Burn That Candle Click here to hear the flip side - Oh My Darling Capitol 3245 - 1955 |
click
on the label to hear Petula Clark - Tell Me Truly Jubilee 6031 - 1953 |
| The
Cues are known more for being a studio back up group, but they made really
fine recordings on their own. I like them so much I've made both side of
this Capitol recording available here. Burn That Candle is the group version
of the Bill Haley hit. Oh My Darling is the flip side - a great Doo Wop
ballad.
Most Americans know Petula Clark's music from the mid-1960s, but the British audience would have known her music beginning in the early 1950s. She had her own radio show when she was eleven and was featured on television in England throughout the 1950s. She signed with Coral in 1951. Here is a typical early 50s style - much like Betty Johnson, Sonny Gale, Gale Storm and all those other young-ladies-in-cocktail-dresses. |
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Rock
Fest III - Green Bay, Wisconsin |
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| My wife, the lovely Miss Jane, and I had a blast at the Rock Fest III concert, held this past May at the Oneida Casino in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You've never seen so many pompadours in one room at the same time since 1959. The music was great. The crowd was fun. I bought a ton of CDs and a pile of records too. Here are just some of the performers. There were something like five dozen acts in all. | |
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Jack
Scott |
Glen
Glenn & Fans |
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Linda
Gail Lewis |
Sid
King |
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Sleepy
LeBeef |
Charlie
Gracie with fan |
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The
Collins Kids (Larry & Laurie) |
Wanda
Jackson |
All
photographs courtesy of Mean Mountain Mike Muskovitz |
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| This is the first concert I've ever attended and it was quite a thrill to hear these people perform live. Although I went to see the main headliners, the more well known names from the 1950s, there was plenty of music being done by some really good young musicians. Some of the vendors gave away free sample CDs of performers on their label who were performing at the show. I got this one from Goofin' Records. Click on the following titles to hear the tracks: | |
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I
will be at Rock Fest IV! |
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