Website Updates

12-27-01:

Added Amsco 580/581. The label is new to us, and is affiliated with Halmark.
12-24-01:
Completed information on Tin Pan Alley 194-1281 and 200-1321 (info courtesy John Fitzpatrick); added a note to Allstar 7243 claiming that "Johnny Dee," the credited artist on that record, was actually code for the songwriter/singer John D. Loudermilk (info courtesy new field rep Kees van der Hoeven, of Eindhoven, Holland); and added a stunning, purple-tinted picture sleeve graphic, depicting the foxy Barbara Gray (whose involvement with the record, if any, we know not of), to the World's Fair page (scan courtesy Michael Greenberg).
Added an MP3 for the haunting Rodd Keith/Bonnie Graham/Grace Brainerd collab "I Just Knew In My Heart." Find it in batch #8 of the Singles section.
12-19-01:
Added a slew of new MP3 files, including some red-hot Columbine tracks, wonderful collaborations from the legendary song-poem teams of Mayhams/Marshall and Finley/Blake, and a seasonal classic-to-be. These finds originated from the collections of field reps Robert Dayton, John Trubee and Michael Greenberg, whom we thank profusely. Most are album tracks, and can be found in batch #8 of the Albums section of the MP3 page; the others can be found in batch #8 of the Singles section. As today's posting is so large, we'll indicate it here in list form, with some descriptive text.
Wish I Could Shoot A Gun: "How in the world do you kill a truck?," blares Kay Weaver, "How do you shoot and kill a truck?" How indeed?
Ripoff U.S.A.: Song-poet Dan Moon's bitter euphemism for Reno, NV.
An Old Man's Life: When Ralph Lowe sings "Old man, you're gonna die / Old man, we're gonna cry," you know he means it in as nice a way as possible.
Becky: Ralph again: "Although you are gone / I protected you from harm / When I named you Rebecca of Sunnybrook Far-r-r-rm."
Joe Goes Disco: About "a 14-year-old fox named Lisa," who hangs out where "all the rocknrollers look like Jimmy-Bop fans."
Sleep On: As best we can deduce, this one is about obscuring oneself from the ravages of pollution, and others of the world's ills.
Grow Up And Go Away: A cautionary tale of young love, drug addiction and worldly resignation, from the point of view of a dead man.
Jingle Mint Twist: A dance number, with one of the rockinest intros in all song-poemdom, a smokin' guitar solo and one of Sammy Marshall's finest performances.
Four And Twenty Big Black Crows: Chester T. Finley ("Betsy And Her Goat"; "Gretchen's New Dish") at his best, with Bobbi Blake taking a valiant stab at a Scottish burr, and nearly nailing it.
The Rocking Disco Santa Claus: Not yet notated nor linked from elsewhere. Consider it your Christmas bonus.
12-18-01:
Added MSR 307, with Rodd taking a whack at Joanne Zuppan's "Rain Ring." This item is currently up for auction on eBay, with a deadline of 9 pm (Pacific time) this Friday.
12-17-01:
Yet another delay for the Studio&360 report on song-poem music. We are now assured it will run during next week's program, although after two delays we now realize that we won't know for certain when it airs until it actually airs. See News page for the latest information.
Completed information on Sterling 565.
Posted an improved version of the "Beat Of The Traps" MP3, as we'd been dissatisfied with the results of the original conversion on that one.
12-12-01:
Added a mystery single on Film City, "It's Shindig" b/w "Beatle Boys." The original record has been passed down to field rep Jim Blanchard only in cassette fom, and with but minimal information at that; in fact, there's no certainty it was even on Film City at all, nor that the artist credit on the record is, as we've listed it, Rod Rogers, but the aural evidence does lean towards those conclusions. We hope to mount MP3s of both tracks soon, but that's contingent on several factors which, at present, remain unresolved.
12-10-01:
Added Tin Pan Alley 303 ("Doggone! My Dog Is Gone"), and Columbine CRH-51, the latter an LP. The album, a find of new field rep Robert Dayton (of Vancouver's Canned Hamm band), includes such finery as "Wish I Could Shoot A Gun" (with its immortal couplet "How in the world do you kill a truck? How do you shoot and kill a truck?)," three songs about aging (including "An Old Man's Life," in which Ralph Lowe intones, "Old man, you're gonna die / Old man, we're gonna cry"), and "Ripoff U.S.A.," a tribute to Reno, Nevada. The listing is accompanied by a graphic of its lovely cover.
12-4-01:
Added Royal Master 1111, with "Just A CB'er" and "Boy In A Bar Room." This album is going up for sale on eBay tonight. The link should bring you directly to the auction page; should it not, search for dealer name "recordmonger." Bidding concludes at 8p on December 11.
12-3-01:
Added MSR 492, a single. Shifted Vale 1004 to Vale 1001. The original information had come from a listing in a 1961 issue of Billboard, a magazine gracious enough at that time to list new releases from minor (and even sub-minor) independent labels, but not patient enough to bother getting that information correct. The info on Vale 1001 comes from a recent eBay auction, the posting for which included scans of both sides of the label, and is thus verified. As the artist and song title information matched up between Billboard's 1004 listing and the scans for 1001, we concluded that Billboard most likely printed the wrong catalogue number. It's possible, however, that the same record was issued both as 1001 and 1004. A scan for the B-side, "The Bender Song," accompanies the listing.
Replaced the graphic for "Freedom One" from the Tin Pan Alley page with one for a more intriguing title, "The Cry Of The Dead."
11-30-01:
Further info on Tin Pan Alley 41-501, 194-1281, 200-1312 and 207-1350; and Wolf-Tex 104.
Added two albums, neither of them true song-poem albums. Safari SR 105 (a CD), a concept album on the plight of the American Indians, is a hybrid, showcasing label owner Ramsey Kearney's personal material alongside a few song-poems. And, an unnumbered 1971 album on Hit Records International by the legit Florida band Bolder Damn. Their Mourning is considered a hard rock classic, and trades in the low four figures if in VG condition or better. In recent years the album has been reissued a couple of times, but as it's not a song-poem record there's no need for those incarnations to be documented here.
11-29-01:
French field rep Michel Proost sends along info on Tin Pan Alley 155, 187 (by famed jazz and R&B arranger Teacho Wiltshire), 202, 211 ("Teenage Rock And Roll"), 238 ("Honey Bee Bug"), 408, 41-501 ("I'm Gonna Travel, Travel"), 167-1148, 167-1149 (with graphic for A-side; B-side is a Streisand tribute), 194-1281, 200-1312 ("The Cry Of The Dead"), 207-1350 and one of unknown number; and Wolf-Tex 101 ("Werewolf") and 104.
11-28-01:
New field rep Steve Boone provided info on Preview 1642 ("Dig, Dig, Girl"), and we completed information on Whirl 1079 and the bottom Tropical 106 (as there are two). The Whirl item comes with a label scan, a little faded but notable for Whirl's wonderful logo.
Field rep Barbara Economon submitted an MP3 for Preview 1737, the insomniac's lament "We Are The Men Counting Sheep." It's a gasser.
11-23-01:
Added several short articles from the mid-1960s to the Songwriter's Review page. Included are bits on JFK as lyricist, Richard Nixon as composer, electronic music in colleges, one-sided records as a way of cutting back on royalty payments, zippier music for circus elephants to dance to, Irving Berlin vs. Mad magazine, and Connie Francis vs. stockyard field recording.
Completed a massive discographical housecleaning, adding 75 singles and two (fragmentary) albums, information for which had been kicking around in the dark corners our notes for some months. Most of this information is taken from ads in early 1960s issues of Songwriter's Review, which tend to contain only spotty data. Added are two singles of unknown number on Caveman; 38 singles (including "Cool Doll," "Twisting On The Moon," The Girl From The Upper Class," "We're Going To Separate" and "Four Martinis And Me") of the same sort, plus a photo of songwriter June C. Ballard, on Cowtown; seven singles (including "Don't Ask Me No Questions") of the same sort on Globe; 10 singles (including "Santa Claus Loves Me") and two (fragmentary) albums of the same sort on Allstar; three singles of the same sort on Star-Light; one single ("I Wish I Were A Christmas Tree") of the same sort on Tad (new label); one single of the same sort on Check; one single of the same sort on Jerome; one single ("Dollars For Satan") of the same sort on Inner-Glo; one single of the same sort, with accompany graphic, on Fun; two singles of the same sort on Ranchwood; one single ("The Witches Twist") of the same sort plus numbers 104 (with accompanying graphic) and 105 on Jabar; Pledge 108 (duplicating the number of an earlier single); Wolf-Tex 102; Circus (new label) 1108 and 1109 ("From Burbank Cal. To Philadelphia"); and Preview 1123. Also added further information on Inner-Glo 110; Jabar 103; Sky-Hi 1306/1307; Fun 7012; Roxie 328 and 329; Rodeo Int. 3156; and Ranchwood 2243.
11-21-01:
Added two items to the News page one on an upcoming radio piece about song-poem music to air on the nationally-syndicated Studio360 program, and the other on the online availability of a 1980s music video collection produced by Columbine Records.
11-20-01:
Uploaded a revised MP3 of "The Crime Shows," replacing a series of slightly flawed ones. Hopefully this one will pass muster. Find it in batch #6 of the Albums area of the MP3 page.
11-16-01:
Added one LP and one 45, both of them exciting finds. The single, Preview 1737, is a discovery of new field rep Barbara Economon. Its B-side, we are told, lives up to its great title, "We Are The Men Counting Sheep." The LP, from Howie Pyro, is Sunrise HS-042, and includes songs entitled "I Am Water," "Lady Snow" and (despite being from the 1980s) "Samuel Jackson." But it is a song bearing the rather unremarkable title "Sentimental Music" that most attracts our interest here. Rather than that, it is the name of its song-poet, Marty Lott, that most strikes us about this one. As "The Phantom," a singer and songwriter named Marty Lott in 1958 recorded the demented rockabilly anthem "Love Me," released, under Pat Boone's auspices, by Dot Records. "Sentimental Music" had heretofore eluded Phantom discographers, yet they agree to a one that its writer most likely is the same Marty Lott of The Phantom fame. A photo of The Phantom is included at the album's entry point on the Sunrise page.
While an important discovery, for sheer musical quality, however, "Sentimental Music" is surpassed by "I Am Water." Pyro reports:
i am water is just ... there are no words ... it's the one ya wish for! it's a funky little number sung from water's point of view!! "they use me to wash their garments & i make them clean ..... but when they annoy me i boil over & make them die"!!!!
11-13-01:
Have a vague report of a 2000 CD on Magic Key, ES-1004. Information is scant, but enough to warrant posting.
11-6-01:
Added two singles, Ronnie 2356 and Carellen 123. Info on these items comes from a recently-concluded eBay auction; if you're the lucky winner, please check in with songwriting credits when the records arrives. Also, we'd like to discuss with you the Alshire items included in the same lot.
Added MSR 2178, a single.
Added Sterling 565, a single which includes a rare Norm Burns/Shelley Stuart duet.
Added Carellen LP 128. Carellen seems to have included both albums and singles in the same numbering sequence.
Added several pieces of information, courtesy new field rep Jaye Barnes-Luckett, to the Nervous Norvus discography page. Most of Jaye's finds are included under the new heading "BMI database."
11-5-01:
Northern Soul collector David Flynn checks in from London with Preview 1183.
11-3-01:
Posted a very important item to the News page on the availability of a recording Rodd Keith made in the guise of his flipped-out alter ego, Shome Howe Jehovason.
Added Columbine GJ-1, a gospel album.
11-2-01:
Added Royal Master LP 4444, the so-called "Summer Edition" of their Hit Songs Of The Future series. Promising titles include "Whiskey Friend," "Ecstasy Greeted Us," and "Heading Out Of This World." The latter number field rep Jon Murphy reports is from the POV of a fellow going to the electric chair because he "shot a man the other night / 'cause I didn't like the color of his tie."
Added information on a couple of 8" (!) acetates discovered by field rep Pea Hicks. Neither bears the label of any actual song-poem concern, but one of the discs is by Rod [sic] Keith, and all of the songs are at least song-poem-like, so we've listed them according to United Recording, a Hollywood studio whose label sticker one of them bears. Pea has also contributed MP3s for all four tracks, and the non-Rod ones are even better than the ones by him.
11-1-01:
Finally got around to adding a number of records we've been sitting on for a while. Singles are MSR 359 and 464; Preview 1055; Songuild 969; Cinema 7609 ("From A Teen To A King"); and Co-Ed 409 and 4246. We added unnumbered cassettes on Five Star (six of them, all of songs written by Mrs. Barbara Jean Fields); Ramsey Kearney (a new label, obviously affiliated with Kearney's usual Nashco, and this one also of a song by Mrs. Fields); and HillTop (Tyrone Boyd's excellent "The Tour"). And albums MSR 276 (with a fantastic cover art scan); Royal Master 6262 (with "Silky Skin" and "The Ballad Of Wayne Gretzky"); and Columbine CRH-94. For the latter Will Louviere of Show and Tell Music kindly provided a pair of MP3s -- you will not want to miss "Junkies And Monkeys" -- which can be launched either from the Columbine page or from LP batch #7 of the MP3 page.
10-31-01:
Revised 10-29-01 text below concerning the three versions of Norris The Troubadour's "Midwifery (Norman Casserley)," and uploaded an MP3, courtesy Michael Greenberg, for the third of them. (Direct link to the MP3 is below.)
10-30-01:
Added Ralph Lowe's "The Crime Shows" to the MP3 collection. Locate it at batch #6 of the Albums area of the page.
10-29-01:
We have located a fascinating discrepancy on a Mayhams Collegiate 45, A-1975/B-1976, which includes two variations of a song called "Midwifery (Norman Casserley)."
Make that three variations, as the record exists in two different versions, both of which offer two different recordings of the song. The A-sides of both editions feature the same recording, with a male singer (recognized as the usual Seaboard Coastliners lead voice) against a rock trio dominated by acoustic guitar. The B-sides, however, differ. On the copy owned by field rep Narkspud, the flip is sung by a warbly female, against piano accompaniment. A note handwritten on the label refers to it as the "1949 version," adding (unconvincingly, in both cases) "female opera singer, honky tonk piano." (The corresponding notation on the A-side reads, "1975 version, male vocalists, guitar & drum, medium rock.") The B-side of the copy owned by field rep Michael Greenberg was produced by the Sandy Stanton song-poem factory, with what sounds like Frank Perry singing lead. Throughout this version Perry pronounces the title word midwiffery, which Greenberg points out is an acceptable alternate pronunciation of the word.
MP3 files of all versions are available for download. Thanks to Narkspud and Greenberg for their contributions here:
1949 version
1975 version
"Midwiffery" version
We also have a listing for a record titled "Natural Homebirth (Norman Casserley)" on the Mr. Midwife label, but that information was gleaned from a pre-release notice in the April/May 1977 of the song-poem tipsheet Songwriter's Review, and hasn't been confirmed by the appearance of an actual disc.
Who was this Norman Casserley? As "the world's only male midwife" (to quote Mayhams' lyric), was he simply someone whose work Mayhams admired, a personal friend to whom Mayhams wished to pay tribute, or had he hired Mayhams to write a theme song to promote his midwifery business? We may never know. What we do know about him, though, is plenty interesting. According to a relative, he was born in Ireland, and served in the British armed forces during World War II. Following the war he emigrated to the U.S., where he eventually morphed into Mr. Midwife. Casserley was also a dedicated naturist, managing nudist colonies in Florida and New York and starring in two of legendary director Doris Wishman's Grade Z nudie flicks, Diary Of A Nudist in 1961 and Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls the following year. According to the relative, Casserley is probably still alive, but "is a bit of a wanderer."
10-22-01:
Added a Rodd Keith single, "Gloria," to the MP3 collection (go to batch #4 of the Singles area). From Preview 1262, "Gloria" uses the same backing tracks as the Northern Soul hit "Like The Lord Said," which is also available for downloading.
10-19-01:
Posted an item to the News page of a song-poem contest sponsored by the London band The Tiger Lillies.
10-5-01:
Added the Songs In The Key Of Z CD, which includes Halmark's "Virgin Child Of The Universe," to the Miscellaneous Albums page.
9-28-01:
Added a new item to the Nervous Norvus discography, a 1956 Swedish split-artist EP that includes, on its back-side, Norvus' "Transfusion" and "Dig." The record is treated as an addendum to the "Dot singles" section at the top of the page, which includes a graphic of its very pretty picture sleeve. Thanks to Ernie Clark for bringing this item to our attention when it was originally put up for adoption on eBay.
9-17-01:
Today we happily announce the completion of information on the Rodd Keith single "Like The Lord Said," well-known from its inclusion on a British Northern Soul compilation (see 4-4-01, below) but otherwise undocumented. Not surprisingly, the info comes to us from a Northern Soul collector, David Flynn, who owns a copy of the record. The listing can be found at Preview 1296.
Added a scan to the George Liberace Songsmiths page of an 8x10 glossy George autographed to the great Lucia Pamela, two of whose songs were included on one of the label's compilations. The illustration, generously provided by Dutch Pamelologist Danielle Lemaire, is from a video capture of the original, and so is a bit rough. It reads, "To Lucia Pamela, All my musical wishes always," whatever that means.
9-14-01:
Posted some new MP3 files. The infamous "Beat Of The Traps," although available on two different editions of MSR Madness, has been posted in MP3 format at the special request of Ellery Eskelin; what he wanted it up for we have no idea, but it gives us a good excuse to "re-release" this stunning track. You'll find it in Batch 5 of the Albums section of the MP3 page. Also added were a slate of great singles, provided by field reps Jeff Miller and Narkspud. Highlights of Batch 3 of the 45s section are "Five Feet Nine And A Half Inches Tall," Norm Burns' "Checker's Blues," and both sides of Norris The Troubador's "Midwifery (Norman Casserly)" single. Happy listening.
9-10-01:
Added four singles: Preview 1855 ("Living By The Track"); Ronnie 2065; Sterling 433; and Tin Pan Alley 13-390 ("I'll Never Quit Livin").
9-7-01:
Added two albums, Columbine CRH-205 and Hollywood Artists HG-1.
9-3-01:
Added Hollywood Artists EP Y-98.
8-29-01:
Added an unnumbered acetate on Music City Songcrafters, "Why Do I," from 1959. In an AS/PMA first, the info comes to us from the song-poet's great-granddaughter.
8-27-01:
Added an unnumbered acetate on Globe, "Boy, You Can't Fool Me" b/w "Moonlight Shadow." Info comes to us directly from song-poet Della M. Flucker.
8-22-01:
Added "Marie, Marie," an unnumbered Globe demo, and a graphic of its label. Thanks to Michel Proost for the find.
8-20-01:
Added two new LPs, Hollywood Artists HAR-20 (with "The Dancing Polka" and "Hello Charlotte Meet Cindy") and Rainbow HG-588 (with "Why Am I A Poor Romancer?" and "It's Just A Homeroom Romance").
Added a cross-referencing feature from the song-poem label discographies to the Miscellaneous Albums page, the idea being that someone browsing the discographies can click on a linked song title and be taken to information (such as it may be) on its availability (such as it may be). These being but humble hypertext links, however, there is nothing to indicate what they mean.
8-17-01:
Filled out the rest of the info on Jody 6703/6704, and also discovered that one of its sides appears on a garage compilation album.
8-16-01:
Added further info to Jody 6703/6704, which had previously been listed as of unknown number.
8-14-01:
Added a Rodd Keith find (Preview 1582). The up-side, "How Can I Wait," is a nice remake of "First Comes The Rain," with a tense spoken-word break in the middle. The item is a discovery of new field rep Rob Pleshar.
8-3-01:
Added a single, MSR 2999, and an album, Major Label L-1277 (which includes Helouise Maynard's "The Playing Of Sweet Music" and Eustolia Calaycay's "Excitation And Satisfaction"). Also, added Rare Male Group Northern Soul, Vol. 4 to the Miscellaneous Albums page, although we suspect the item on it from our discography may not have been a song-poem record to begin with.
8-2-01:
Added an interesting note to the Nervous Norvus discography page about some variations to his 1961 single "Does A Chinese Chicken Have A Pigtail."
8-1-01:
Added two new songs to the MP3 collection, including our first-ever post of a Norridge Mayhams track. The new songs can be found in batch #4 in the albums section of the page. Both files are contributions from ace field rep John Fitzpatrick, and come from John's fabulous Oddball Auditorium site; while there, don't forget to visit his song-poem area.
Added Nu-Sound 422 ("Somewhere Elvis Is Smiling") and Jody 9000.
7-31-01:
Added Amerecord CD SR-275, sent to us by song-poet Tyrone Boyd, aka "Sagascend."
7-30-01:
Added Odle 112, and Columbine albums M-6 ("I Am Going To Get Rid Of You") and M-8 ("Christmas Trance"). The latter two are finds of new field rep Phil Drenth.
7-23-01:
Added MSR 815.
7-19-01:
Completed info on a Film City single, "Viet Nam" b/w "The Viet Nam Song" by Dick Martin, which had previously been listed as number unknown. The item, Film City 3008, is currently up for grabs on eBay.
7-10-01:
Added Halmark G-1754, Dolly-O 1023 ("Write Your Congressman"), Tin Pan Alley 81-717 ("Serpent In The Night") and MSR 2377 ("Wicked Woman").
7-6-01:
Added Tin Pan Alley 338.
7-5-01:
Added MSR LP 205, Sunshine And Soul by Rodd & Terry. This completes a string of registered MSR albums from 202 to 213.
7-3-01:
Added Neale 101/102, Brite Star 6767 and Spin-Out EPL-282. The latter two are also newly represented on the Miscellaneous Albums page.
6-27-01:
Added Tin Pan Alley 11-381 and Song Artists 5001. The latter, on a new label, is sung by a "Chris Hillman," but who field rep Art Longmire assures us is not the same Chris Hillman as was in The Byrds.
6-26-01:
Added Allen King Keller Sings, an excellent LP on the Hit Records International label out of Ft. Lauderdale. Highlights include "Let's Rock N' Roll Tonight," "Pickin' Chicken Bones," Eugene Deluca's "Spring Tonic" ("If your condition is chronic / ... Don't use your antibiotic / What you need is some of my spring tonic"), and Phil Carroll's "Groovy Groovy."
6-21-01:
Added MSR 3002. Of the A-side, "Five Feet Nine And A Half Inches Tall," field rep Narkspud comments, "After the first verse Dick Kent gives up even the pretense of trying to turn this into a song; from there on he narrates, with a seemingly forced interest." Sounds good to us!
6-20-01:
Added Abbey 701 and 704, and Fable 650, 688 and 690. Added further info on Fable 520/521 and 700. All are from the collection of new field rep Judy Donofrio, who was given them c.1960 by Abbey/Fable owner Sandy Stanton during visits to his studio.
Added two more items to the Miscellaneous Albums page: The Nightcrawlers' The Little Black Egg CD, which doesn't include any song-poem music but does include some song-poem war stories in its liner notes; and a 1991 Columbia/Legacy compilation that includes a pair of Norridge Mayhams' gospel sides.
6-19-01:
Added Columbine LP CRH-287, including James Wilson, Jr.'s "Lens Cycle Of Gismosologistics," which previously appeared on an EP. If you know of a greater song-poem title, we'd like to hear about it.
Also added a single on Jerome, Rod Barton & The Rocketts doing "Rotating Mama."
Added a couple of items to the Miscellaneous Albums page, "I Don't Want To Cry Over You" on Collector 4452 and "Rockin'-Chair Blues" on Collector 4455, both 1999 CDs from Holland.
6-12-01:
Revised the Songs For Sale article on the Not Quite page to mention a promo for the show's debut episode, located on a tape of the late '40s/early '50s hardboiled detective show Broadway Is My Beat.
6-11-01:
Added Jesus Made Me Do It, a various artists compilation of crypto-Christian favorites including our own "The Will Of God," to the Miscellaneous Albums page.
6-8-01:
Added a CD by Ike Perry & The Lyrics to the Miscellaneous Albums page, despite the fact that Perry is not known to have made any song-poem records. The note accompanying the listing explains. The single shred of discographical information in the packaging to the Perry CD caused us to delist the Mama label, as it reveals Perry to have written at least one of the two sides of the solitary Mama record we know of.
Added MSR 2211, "Hi Liz B" (which is scheduled to come up for bid on eBay soon) and Noval 138, "Proon Doon Walk."
6-7-01:
Added quite a large batch of discography items, including several very interesting ones. New 45s are Preview 1250, 1487, 2682 and 2881 (this brings to 618 the total number of Preview singles inventoried, by far the largest haul of any song-poem label); Tin Pan Alley 179/180 (the patriotic "Keep On Smiling! Pay Your Taxes!") and 39-494 (and when Billy Grey proclaims "Let's Really Rock," you'd better stand back and let the man come in and rock); Ronnie 2112; Lectron 10889/10890 ("Our Space Ship," described by field rep John Fitzpatrick, its lucky owner, as consisting of "Joe Meek-style electronic blips and zips, rocketship launch SFX, multitracked Cara Stewart, orchestrated detuned strings and wordless choir clusters, rich echo reverb, plus a lovely melody and interesting words"); Brite Star 7966; Halmark 750788; Little Bear 214 (new label); R-V-B 2021 (another new label; both this and Little Bear are custom imprints from Globe); and Madre 1903.
New albums are Columbine CRH-90; Hollywood Artists HAR-9 (with Lance Feldspar singing James Wilson, Jr.'s "Permits Toni"); and Royal Master 3003, 2121 and 9001 (the numbering sequence on the RM albums is a bit confusing, because they gave their post-mortem Elvis series its own numbering system, but the system's numbers overlap those of the label's regular releases). Field rep John Fitzpatrick, whose find it is, sent us a scan of the RM 9001 liner photo of LaDonna Magness, authoress of "Back To Bed, Feeling Dead," so that scan's been added to the RM page.
Posted additional info to several already-listed 45s: Tin Pan Alley 129/130; Preview 1007 and 1237; Staff 210; World's Fair 1001; Belle Meade 421; MSR 526; Brite Star 2862; Endeavor EN 4022; Allstar 7217; Jody 9060; and Fable 547/548.
6-6-01:
Added two Norris The Troubador items, incorporating material he cut in the 1930s, to the new Miscellaneous Albums page. Both albums are currently available (ordering links provided), and the text includes a fairly detailed commentary about the first of them.
6-5-01:
Mass Media Day: added an item to the News page about two movies that each include a song-poem in their soundtrack, and about a radio program named after a song-poem. Not coincidentally, the three song-poems in question are among the most popular of them all.
5-30-01:
Created a new page, imaginatively titled Miscellaneous Albums, which documents anthology and other albums that include in their lineups one or two or a few song-poem recordings. Illustrated.
Yesterday's introduction of a record on the Claudra label led us to add three other releases on that label today, despite the fact that we don't know for certain that any of them are song-poem records (we don't know that they're not, either). All four were identified in a Claudra ad in the March 1957 issue of Songwriter's Review.
5-29-01:
Added three singles: Cinema 7341; Rodeo Int. (new label) 3156; and one of unknown number on Claudra (also a new label). The latter item has been included in our Jimmy Drake/Nervous Norvus discography since that page first launched, but is only now being added to the song-poem discography due to the discovery that its flipside was recorded by Roger Smith, a singer otherwise affiliated with the Air label. Drake did a lot of work that can't really be classified as song-poem, but the news that the B-side was by a known song-poem singer seems to flip that release over into the song-poem category.
5-22-01:
The debut version of our Henry Darger page included an open call for further information on the song-poem he apparently submitted to The Simplex Company, particularly for someone to search through the copyright records of the Library of Congress, which can only be done on-site in Washington, D.C. We really didn't expect anyone to answer this call quite so quickly, but Darger researcher Matthew Michael just happens to live in the D.C. area, and just happens to enjoy searching through the LoC card catalogues. He followed up on the request, and today's revision of the Darger page reflects what he found. The result is a more definitive and more readable story.
5-21-01:
Added Columbine LP CRH-16. The Rave-Ons who perform two public domain songs on this album is not the same group as the Rave-Ons whose lead singer literally laughs at a couple of the songs she sings on CRH-14. Her palpable disrespect provoked customer complaints, and the fact that that group was not around just two albums later indicates that they were fired right around this time. We look forward to turning up CRH-15 someday, which should allow us to more completely piece together the mystery of the disappearing Rave-Ons.
Added Halmark G-1659.
5-18-01:
Added two Hollywood Artists cassette albums, T-223 and B-277. Besides sharing three songs in common and including between them a number of promising titles (e.g., "Hype In Rhythm," "To The Young Black Male," "Domestic Violence Is A Deadly Sin") and ludicrous writer credits (Steady Breeze, Acid Reign Canada), these two albums also bear one especially intriguing writing credit apiece.
T-223, a 1998 release, includes a song entitled "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling," co-written by Julia Hasell and J. Chas McNeil. What's notable about this credit is that J. Chas McNeil was one of the most prolific song-poem composers of the 1940s! In light of this fact, what we'd like to know is who in the hell is Julia Hasell, to have been submitting a song in 1998 co-written with this long-dead composer? Is she some sort of song-poem parlor medium, who's resurrected poor old McNeil from wherever it is that hack songwriters go when they die? Few plausible explanations for the inclusion of this song at this time come to mind.
B-277, from 1999, includes "America's Love Carrier," by James Wilson, Jr., the only serious challenger to Thomas Guygax's crown as the greatest song-poet of all time. While we have not yet had a chance to hear "America's Love Carrier," the news that Wilson, whose song-poem career dates back to 1972, was still active as recently as two years ago is an encouragement that while the hacks might die off (if only temporarily), the true greats go right on ticking.
Our deep appreciation goes out to French song-poet Marie-Marjorie Tremel for contribution information on these two very intriguing tapes.
5-17-01:
Received perhaps the largest batch of fresh goodies in one sitting since we started this shebang, most of them supplied by ace field rep Michael Greenberg. We'll get the one album out of the way quickly: Rainbow HG-572.
The rest are singles: Action 1092 (four new Phil Carroll songs!); Belle Meade 1615; Canary Yellow Bird 1 (spinning this label, previously listed with Canary proper, onto its own page); Command Performance 178; Crescendo 103; Fable 606; Halmark JH-422/423, LH-8264/8265 ("The Rod Rider's Song"), SH-1780/1781, 23357/23358 and 750911 (one song written by "Gertrude Stein"); Jay Bird 1043; Kondas 111/112; MSR 110 ("The Ranger Had Too Much To Drink"), 115, 167 ("The Moon Is A Moon"), 179, 182, 403, 435, 470, 472, 473, 493, 498, 505, 541, 543, 546, 553, 555, 568, 2391, 2402 (a Chester T. Finley two-fer!), 2454, 2707 and 2876; Nu-Sound 436; Odle 116; Preview 1087, 1101, 1125, 1141, 1268 (Rodd telling us all about a "Night Club"), 1483, 1564, 1643 (by "Fairey Bell"), 1678, 1690, 1727, 1748, 1902, 1916, 1984, 1997, 2148, 2175, 2210, 2221, 2421, 2700, 2702, 2751, 2861, 2878, 2889 and 2982; Ronnie 2122, 2146, 2193 and 2290; Royal Master 9111; Sherwood 1311; Silver Star 1018; Sterling 184 (earliest Sterling yet), 361, 420 and 934; Super 2236; Tin Pan Alley 143/144, 193/194 ("Come On And Right, Right, Right The Wrong You Done Me, Baby!"), 218, 360, 10-379, 24-433, 26-441 ("King Luther" b/w "The Political Polka," as recorded by Madelyn Buzzard), 34-473, 39-493, 65-632 and 80-711; Windy-City 550 and 556.
Additional info on Air 1506 (confirming it's "our" Air), 5002, 5043, 5051 and 5056; Carellen 122; Command Performance 113; Film City 2040; Preview 1185, 1462, 1479 (date info), 1785, 2263, 2473, 3030 and 3046; RCI 3013; Tin Pan Alley 115/116, 127/128 (date info), 142/143, 167/168, 221 and 32-465 (date info).
5-11-01:
Added a new page in which AS/PMA curator Phil Milstein attempts to parse a form letter sent to Outsider Artist extraordinaire Henry Darger in 1921 by what may have been a song-poem company. The originating party was The Simplex Company, a New York outfit whose motto was "Free Distribution of Orchestrations." We know nothing about Simplex apart from what's revealed in their letter to Darger, yet that amounts to very little, and the information that is there presents numerous problems of interpretation. Milstein gives it his best effort, and song-poem fans and Darger fans alike will find something of interest in his article. The letter, previously unpublished, was located in a portion of the Darger collection now held by the Museum of American Folk Art, who have generously given us permission to present it here.
Posted a graphic, scanned by field rep Jeff Jobson, to illustrate the Hallmark acetate of label owner Ted Rosen's own song (see 5-7-01 below).
5-10-01:
Added a single on the mysterious Noval label, #13/14, the earliest from them we've yet found. Both sides are "arranged by Fred." Both sides are "side 1." One of the side 1s is "Underneath The Peek-A-Boo Moon."
5-9-01:
Added Preview 3010 and MSR 2785 ("One Day On Monday") and 2799.
5-7-01:
Added a handful of singles, all from "major" labels: MSR 366 (Rodd doing "You're Groovy"); Sterling 515 ("Jiver's Street"); Fable 713; Preview 1421 and 2469; Tin Pan Alley 127/128, 28-449 and 32-465 ("My Lug"); and an unnumbered acetate on Halmark (spelled "Hallmark" this time), this one written by company owner Ted Rosen. Welcome to new field reps Ed Innes and Jeff Jobson, whose finds are included in today's update.
5-1-01:
Added a healthy batch of newly-discovered 45s: Air 5053 (a "crude group ballad" currently up for auction at a starting price of $1500); Allstar 7232; Sterling 859, 871 and 989; and Preview 1644 (marking the return of "Rood" Keith), 1771, 1961, 1994, 2118, 2120, 2208 (including a rare Gene and Teri duet), 2219, 2275 and 2277.
4-26-01:
Added a single on Canary Yellow Bird. Although Canary Yellow Bird is new to us, it is nearly identical in format and name to Canary proper, and so it is included on the Canary page rather than get its own.
4-23-01:
Added two new MSR singles, 768 and 778. Also improved the clarity on Matt Vincent's voice on the MP3 of "Sky Diver's Lament" (see 4-18-01, immediately below), so those who had trouble hearing Alvin W. Fink's lyrics on the version posted last week should try again.
4-18-01:
Added five new songs to the MP3 collection, contributions from Canadian field rep Brian Linds. They can be found in batch #3 in the albums section of the page. All five are from the Royal Master label, and are excellent examples of the Royal Master style, which is based on their use of pre-recorded musical beds. The highlight of this set may be "Sky Diver's Lament," on which singer Matt Vincent's deathless lethargy brings a calming influence to Alvin W. Fink's tale of parachutic woe.
4-4-01:
Added 17 new songs to the MP3 collection. To allow downloaders to tell at a glance which ones they've got already and which are new, we've modified the page to indicate batch numbers; today's adds are batch #2 (this indication appears both in the singles and album tracks sections). Our MP3s can be launched from the MP3 page as well as the song's entry in its respective label discography.
All but one of today's batch are from the collection of field rep John Fitzpatrick. Among John's contributions are Joe Gallucci's "Scat Car Scat," "Common Sense Of LOVE," our first Kasberg MP3, the terrifying "Furdee" (see 3-28, below), the smokin' rockabilly novelty "Rockin' Little Eskimo," and, with "What Love Is All About," you will finally be able to sample Billy Grey (see 2-1, below). John's comments on his discoveries, as well as links to the MP3s, can be found on his Oddball Auditorium song-poem page. Many thanks to John, and to our ace MP3 technician Rob Coleman, for these great tracks.
The 17th of today's new MP3s is a Rodd Keith number, "Like The Lord Said," which has found new life as a hit among England's Northern Soul club scene. See immediately below for further information on this discovery.
Added five new singles: MSR 843 ("The Chess Board"), 2928 and 3018; Sterling 352; and one on Preview of unknown number.
The Preview record, "Like The Lord Said ," has an interesting story behind it. No one we know has ever seen an actual copy of it, and we only know of its existence from its appearance on an English CD, The Stafford Story: 24 Northern Soul Tracks That Broke The Mould (Goldmine/Soul Supply). The CD compiles some favorites of England's Northern Soul scene, which concentrates on obscure sub-Motown dance records from all over the U.S. Stafford was the home of Top Of The World, a popular '80s venue, and "Like The Lord Said" was a discovery of a Stafford DJ named Guy Hennigan. Northern Soul is a snobbish scene, where DJs will routinely mask their rare finds by announcing them under bogus artist names and song titles; Hennigan would "cover up" Rodd as "Kenny Smith," and the song itself, as best we can tell from the album's cliquish liner notes, as "As The Lord Said." Once word got out, copies of the Preview original -- of which probably 100 or less were manufactured -- traded for £120. "Like The Lord Said" is a good number, but there are better Rodd Keith records out there with even more of the propulsive energy and meaty bass licks Northern Soul fans are after. It'll be interesting to see what happens if song-poem collectors ever meet up with Northern Soul DJs eager to find more from where "Like The Lord Said" came from. (Unrelated to song-poem music, The Stafford Story is worth tracking down for Marsha Gee's "The Peanut Duck," one of the most warped dance numbers you'll ever hear.)
4-1-01:
Added a new page listing all known song-poem cover versions. (That is, covers of song-poem material.) The list, a subsection of our discography area, includes a number of interesting surprises, and is not without illustrations.
3-28-01:
Added a 1993 CD on the new (to us) Mark 21 label. The album includes the brilliantly creepy "Furdee," which we hope to be adding to our MP3 collection soon. Also posted news of a new all-song-poem Internet radio site, Stewart Mason's Send Us Your Lyrics.
3-27-01:
Added Action 1109, Dick Lee singing "A Weird Melody."
3-14-01:
Added MSR 2101, a find of new field rep Matt Kelley.
3-13-01:
Major upload bonanza, including some fine-lookin' song-poem hoo-ha. New LPs are Century 21 CTO-7067, Columbine NST-31 and Nashco 655. New singles are Tin Pan Alley 147/148, 324 ("If Butch The Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro") and 27-445; Check 2271 ("She's A Campus Queen"); MSR 2125, 2127 and 2128; Spinout (new label) 1088; Preview 1776; Ronnie 2197 (this item bears a date inscription of Jan. 2, 1968, which should anchor approximate dates for nearby Ronnie numbers); Sherwood 1074 and Sylvan (new label) 1. Further info on Tin Pan Alley 153/154, 23-428 and 73-674; Allstar 7163 and Kama 500. Thanks and happy listening to John Fitzpatrick, from whose collection all of today's items come.
3-12-01:
Added Vandalia 116. The info we got was a bit sketchy, but, based on Arpaia's consistent M.O., we took some educated guesses to flesh out the rest of the listing.
3-7-01:
With today's addition we get one step closer -- with but one step left to go -- to divining the Root Source of the Columbine album discography. That's our rather inelegant way of saying that Don Bolles has located CRH-2, an album whose name of The Now Sounds Of Today will come as a surprise to no one who's been following closely. It remains to be seen (heard) whether the Rave-Ons group represented here is the same combo who would be fired a little ways down the road for the soporific wretchedness of their playing. Yes, even song-poem entrepreneurs had standards, although you had to get up pretty late in the morning to meet 'em.
2-26-01:
Delisted Brite Star 12269, which now seems to be from a different label with a similar name.
This website has been named one of Yahoo's Picks of the Week for the week starting today.
2-22-01:
Many singers called themselves Soul Brother Number 2, but only one of them recorded for Jody. Further info on Jody 9014.
2-14-01:
Added two 45s, Fable 557 and Fable 617. Both were found in sale lists, so the information is incomplete.
2-8-01:
New field rep Paul Williams sends us news of his two Preview singles, 1146 and 1149, both by Rodd Keith. Paul says that Biki Baker's "You Are My Love" is especially great.
Tyrone Boyd (aka Sagascend) sends us the demo version, recorded by Hilltop, of his song "Brooke" (see 2-1-01).
Claudia Ann Reame, the singer known for bringing song-poet Hardie W. Daniel's music to life, informs us that she has her own Internet talk radio station, webtalk4today.com. She says she hopes to make the recordings she did for Hardie available from the site at some point.
2-7-01:
Field rep Dave Brown has turned up the first known song-poem 10-inch album, the redudantly-titled New Songs Of Today on Ronnie.
2-1-01:
Added a bunch of new stuff, mostly singles but also a CD, Amerecord SR-291, which includes Sagascend's tribute to the lovely Brooke Shields. The singles: MSR 2699 and 2715; Preview 1427, 1462, 1785, 2263, 2473, 3030 ("In The Land Of Early Burly") and 3046; Brite Star 12269 (although there's some evidence that this record might be from a different Brite Star); Odle 149; Tin Pan Alley 73-674 and 428 (if the owner of this latter record could send us its prefix number, we'd be much obliged); Mayhams 1958-AA (including "Wee Wife," which Mayhams advertised as "A Scotch Novelty and Instrumental Twister"); and Planet Earth 1007 (a wonderful addition to the album described on 01-01-01 below). Also, posted further info on Tin Pan Alley 153/154; Songuild 925; Belle Meade 1118 and 1903 (and discovered that Belle Meade was owned by Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore!).
The AS/PMA sends out special thanks to field reps Michael Greenberg and Josh Pollock, who each sent us tapes of their respective halves of the "Vietnam Sweetheart" mystery described on 01-01-01 below. Not only do the tapes allow us to confirm that both releases were of the same recording, but we also get to enjoy a spectacularly maudlin death-rock song-poem, climaxed by Rodd Keith/John Dough reciting dramatically, "Shrapnel just hit me. I can't finish this letter to you. Maybe somewhere there's a buddy left who will send this on to you."
Finally, the AS/PMA is issuing an official Buy Alert on all Billy Grey recordings on Tin Pan Alley. One can only conclude, upon listening to his unique treatments, that he was hired strictly to make fun of the customers' lyrics.
1-25-01:
The AS/PMA proudly launches our new MP3 Project, a presentation of 74 future song-poem classics in (duh) MP3 format. Can't wait for the next MSR Madness CD? Now you can make your own!
1-22-01:
Added further info to Big Ben 101, by Nervous Norvus.
1-5-01:
This Sunday, January 7, 2001, will be the 100th anniversary of the founding of song-poem music. See "The Song-Poem Century," on the News page.
01-01-01:
We start the new year off with a huge upload of new listings, some of them quite exciting indeed. We've got two albums on Columbine, NST-51 and G-13; Rainbow HG-524, which has a few interesting titles; our first-ever album for Tin Pan Alley, a cassette entitled Profiles In Music; and an album on Planet Earth Records which is one of our most interesting new finds in a long time. Las Vegas Souvenir, credited to Rod Rogers and the Travis Jay Jones Orchestra, is a theme album in which nearly every song is either about gambling or Las Vegas. It appears to be a song-poem/vanity hybrid, with about half the songs co-written by this Travis Jay Jones cat, who is billed elsewhere on the album as "Planet Earth President." We believe that Jones had the recordings made in some sort of collaboration with Sandy Stanton at Film City, which would explain how Rod Rogers was brought into the picture. As far as we're aware, this is the only album in the world made in "Las Vegas Sound," which we eagerly anticipate hearing. We hope to also provide a cover scan in the near future.
The most interesting 45s to turn up in our New Year's haul are Preview 1241 and PAMI 70597, both of which include a song entitled "Vietnam Sweetheart." At first glance it is only the common title that relates the two, as neither of the other main clues -- namely, the songwriter and artist credits -- match from one record to the other. While Rodd Keith is the singer on the Preview version, John Dough is listed as the vocalist on PAMI. But a listen to the latter shows that John Dough is just another in a growing line of Rodd's punning noms de song-poem. A comparison of the songwriting credits is equally interesting, revealing (as if it needed further revelation) the shoddiness of the song-poem industry. The writer listed on the Preview version of "Vietnam Sweetheart" is Irana Dellar Hoffner; on the PAMI single, it is Irene Dollar Heffner. Three names, none of which conforms from one version to the other. Amazing. We await a chance to do a comparison listen to these two versions, to see if they're the same recording, a rerecording of the same song, or perhaps the same recording with additional overdubs.
Another interesting find is Film City 4012, "Tell It To My Heart" b/w "Head'n South To Nashville," both written and recorded by Dick Shuey with the "Swinging Strings." Since the "Swinging Strings" (or, alternately, "Singing Strings") usually refers to Rodd Keith or another Film City studiohand playing the Chamberlin, we wondered about the logistics of Mr. Shuey's collaboration with Film City. Dick Shuey is presently in the music industry in Nashville, with an extensive website, so we were able to put the question to him. His response: "I was very pleased with my business deal with Film City. I cut the tape and sent it to Film City and they added all the pretty things. They did everything they said they'd do. I cut that tape in 1966 aboard the USS Canopus {AS 34} while I was serving in the Navy, while floatin' down in the Carribean Sea. It was recorded in the ship's dispensary, better known as sick bay." What's especially interesting about this fact is that for a period of years Sandy Stanton had his Film City studio rigged up aboard his houseboat, docked in Long Beach, California. While it's not certain that the overdubs to Shuey's record were made in that floating studio, it's quite possible; if so, it would mean that both underlying tracks and overdubs were each cut on water, with neither side knowing that about the other.
Here, en masse, are the remaining New Year's finds, all singles: Film City 2009 and 2055; Preview 1259 ("He's A Beast"), 1630, 1872, 1999, 2146 and 3075, and additional info on 1579 and 2249; Tin Pan Alley 191/192, 12-384, 83-728, 103-828, 104-834 and 106-842 ("Fat Person"); Vandalia 108; Action 1001/1002, 1136 and 1143; ("Kisses" b/w "Bottle," both written by Cowboy Joe Albe); further info on Allstar 7213 and 7307; Blue-J 3 ("Don't Want A Bracelet Or Diamond (I Just Want Elvis Instead)"); Boney 207; Brite Star 2429; Chapel LH-9220/9222; Columbine 7406; Fable 605 and further info on 599 ("Don't Tell Me That Jive"); Halmark 750710; Jody 9060; Kondas 113/114; Mayhams Collegiate 214-22/215-NBM, A-1975/B-1976 ("Midwifery (Norman Casserly)" -- see update for 8-9-00) and further info on M-212; MSR 164, 334 and 2461; Neale 724-101/724-102; Nu-Sound 1418 through 1421 and 1439, all by song-poet J. Lambert; Odle 127 and 139; RCI 3003; Ronnie 2124 and 2198; Sherwood 1218 and 1222; Silver Star 1001; Stylecraft 5049/5050 and 5067/5068.

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