Updates Archive: 1998

12-28-98:

Added one single, MSR 2495, "The Roamer" b/w "Horror Scope."
12-18-98:
Added one single, MSR 2241.
12-16-98:
Added the following 45s: Hallmark 15773, Halmark (same company, different spelling) SH 1029/1030, SH 1503/1504, 750333 and OV-666 (includes a Jesus song!); Sterling 291 and 693; Silver 108; MSR 2549, 2565, 2566, 2568, 2575, 2580, 2582, 2584 and 2592; Ronnie 2015; Sherwood 1325; Endeavor Starsong HD 2-206; Nu-Sound 421 and 1304; Top Fifty 132/133; Suncoast (new label) 20725/20726; and Lydian (new label) 555.
12-15-98:
Added the following 45s: Air 5050; Bryte 227 (two different 45s w/ same number!), 299, 230, 6677 and 7777; Brite Star 770, 2457 and 2862; Ronnie 1018, 1019, 2024 and 2025; Roxie 316; and a single on Star X of no known number. Revised information on Brosh 500 and Jerome 6082.
12-4-98:
Replaced an illustration on the George Liberace Songsmiths page with one of the company's ads, to demonstrate how tiny they'd sometimes run the word "George" in relation to the word "Liberace." Thanks to Ernie Clark for finding such an extreme example.
12-3-98:
Added Royal Master LP 3939.
11-30-98:
Reworked the AS/PMA home page yet again. I think I got it this time. A thank-you to Tammy Howell for spotting that I'd left out the "Links" link the last time -- a big "duh" from this corner for that oversight.
11-25-98:
Yet another reworking of the AS/PMA home page.
11-13-98:
Modified some of the info for Brosh 501 and 700; no claim, though, that we've got the story on these completely straight yet.
11-12-98:
Added Cinema 7422.
Shamed by a sweeping wave of beautiful web design I've been seeing lately, I have rejiggered the AS/PMA home page in an effort to decheesify it somewhat. I will try to resist the urge to do the same to the whole site. Today's upgrade precipitated the creation of a new "Shadow World" jumping-off page. The "Shadow World" subsection is my favorite part of the site.
11-11-98:
Made a big dent in our discographical update project, although we're still sitting on a lot of bumpy info yet to be processed. Added 39 new entries to the lists, 45s all: All Star 7267 (new label); Brosh 200, 300, 500 (we now have two different singles identified as Brosh 500; will try to straighten that out, if possible), 625 and 900; Bryte 229; Cheyenne (new label; number not known); Dottie 1008; Hollywood Music Productions (unnumbered acetate); Inner-Glo 103; Lane 101; Mayhams 212 and Mayhams Collegiate 10101 (latter seems to be same label as former, but with modified name and different numbering scheme); MSR 2464 (compare titles of the A-sides of MSR 2464 and 2463!) and 2888; Pledge 105; Ranchwood 2230; Ronnie 1012, 1013, 2126, 2176, 2383 and 2411; Roxie 246, 301, 302, 324, 325, 326 and 329; Sky-Hi 1307 (new label); Special 3001; Star-Crest 1; Sterling 331 and 998; Sunrise (unnumbered acetate, and the first 7" we've seen on this label); and World's Fair 1001 and 1004 (new label).
11-9-98:
Added a scan of a song-poem "royalty check" -- in the wallet-busting amount of $1.12 -- to the Preview page.
Added further information (B-side titles, approximate dates, writer credits ... that sort of thing) to the following singles: Brosh 100, 800 and 1000; Bula 301; Mayhams 213; Roxie 328; TJB Brandes 101-T (second one); and Vale 1001.
11-8-98:
Added to the Advance discography a scan of a small display ad promoting their single "What Times Does The Last Moon Leave?", taken from the February 6, 1971 issue of Billboard. Song-poem labels would almost never spend money to advertise their product, and that remains true here as the advertiser was not the label but the song-poet, Henry J. Sommers of Silver Spring, Maryland. Sommers' copy states the inarguable premise, "Very Apropos for the Moon Shot!"
11-3-98:
The AS/PMA has uncovered, from the deep recesses of the Library of Congress archives, a song-poem "how-to" booklet (in three complete lessons) from 1937.
10-28-98:
Former president Jimmy Carter gave his thumbs-up to song-poem classic "Jimmy Carter Says 'Yes'" today. Read all about it in the News. Includes photo.
10-20-98:
With the McGregor project temporarily wrestled into submission, I can finally get around to sprucing up the discographies. MSR 255 is the first addition of this new batch.
10-16-98:
The AS/PMA today announced the signing of an exclusive contract that enables curator Phil Milstein to engage in a one-hour festival of rarely-heard song-poem records on WFMU's Incorrect Music program just prior to the Christmas holiday.
Revised some of the introductory text to the Ellery Eskelin on This American Life page. The show is now available on cassette.
10-2-98:
No new revelations on the Singing Jimmy Drake (aka Nervous Norvus) front, but I went ahead and punched up the text a little on his AS/PMA page anyway.
9-25-98:
Stole a great color photo of Ramsey Kearney from his own website (note the gold chain at the bottom of the picture -- it kind of fades out there, so it's a bit hard to see) and added it to our "Blind Man's Penis" page. Also linked our Nashco page (Ramsey's label) to his website and e-mail address.
9-17-98:
I have not forsaken this website, I have merely been sidetracked researching and writing the liner notes for the Dion McGregor sequel release. Hang in there until I'm done with that project, and then I'll have lots of new items to add to the discographies.
8-27-98:
Added an illustration to the Bryte / Brite Star page.
8-25-98:
Added a great illustration to the Tiny Tim / Vic-Tim page, and tightened the introductory text.
Corrected and tightened language on both the new Madden page and the Donnie Elbert story on the Command Performance page.
8-24-98:
Added a new page documenting in full an exchange between a song-poet and a song-poem company from 1906 and 1907. The scam as it was run then is nearly identical to the way it's still done today.
Modified the This American Life page -- which features a poignant interview Ellery Eskelin gave to that radio program about his father, Rodd Keith -- to link to a new text transcription of the interview. Also available on that page is a link to a RealAudio file of the full episode the interview was from.
8-19-98:
Added four new singles: Preview 2271, MSR 579 and 581, and Fable 712.
8-6-98:
Added eight new singles: Preview 1201, MSR 645, Halmark LH-9146/9147, 20767/20768 and 20909/20910, Bryte 7002, and Canary 6413 and 6420.
8-5-98:
Moved the segment entitled "Ellery Interview About Rodd Available In RealAudio" from the News page to its own page. The text was modified slightly, but still links to KCRW's website offering RealAudio files of This American Life, where the interview originally ran.
8-2-98:
Modified introductory notes to reflect new information on both Cuca 3004 and Command Performance 110.
7-31-98:
Deleted the introductory text from the updates page, as it has progressed from the experimental state to the applied, and is now self-explanatory.
7-30-98:
Added a new page, Ken's Corner, wherein Ken Eglin, late resident of the Duplex Nursing Home, delivers the geriatric perspective on a pair of song-poem records. Only problem is that Eglin hardly represents the music taste of your typical old guy.
Rearranged the Hot Links page, mostly to organize this growing list by category. Don't hold us to these groupings, though -- a lot of these sites could just as easily be listed in one category as in another.
7-22-98:
Added MSR 2652, a single.
7-21-98:
We get a lot of e-mail -- about a piece per day -- from people soliciting us with their lame song lyrics. Since we make it fairly obvious that we are only researching music production companies and not acting as one ourselves, it strikes us that these same people who can't write also can't read. In a probably-misguided attempt to clarify this misconception, we've added a strong disclaimer to the AS/PMA home page.
Added ten new singles: Anton 101/102 (two sides of the same record); Cinema 7476; MSR 165, 346, 522 and 2433; Nu-Sound 1089 and 1089; Preview 1232 and 1332.
7-17-98:
Added a new cassette label, Talent, with two interesting titles listed. Talent is the direct descent of Halmark, one of the strangest and most interesting of the song-poem record labels.
Added Preview 1366.
7-15-98:
Added a new label, Star X, with one single. Good titles!
7-14-98:
Added Sunrise HS-068.
7-13-98:
Added Command Performance 217.
7-10-98:
Created two new pages under the "shadow world of song-poem music" section, both adapted from documents unearthed in the depths of the Library of Congress music department: a sheet music from 1901, which sets a new standard for the earliest-known song-poem artifact; and a strange song-poem brochure from 1913. Both pages are illustrated.
7-9-98:
Added pages for As-Is and Big Ben, both with records by Jimmy Drake, aka Nervous Norvus. Consequently, tinkered with the Jimmy Drake page.
Added some complicated text about Donnie Elbert's song-poem recordings to the Command Performance page.
Added a page for Air-Loom Records.
Added a page for Tiny Tim's Vic-Tim record label, complete with accounts of the great one's various brushes with song-poem victimization.
Modified the Bryte/Brite Star page, which had previously included an abridged version of Tiny Tim's stories. Those stories have been fleshed out and moved to the new Vic-Tim page, which is now linked to from the Bryte/Brite Star page.
7-8-98:
Added three singles on Preview: 1559 (recorded by "Jerry Lee"), 2887 ("House Full Of Pain"), and 2893.
7-1-98:
Added two singles, each on a new label: Lectron and Carmen. The respective singers, Mary Kaye and Kris Arden, are one and the same person.
6-30-98:
Added two singles: Kama OV-567 by Tiny Tim (!), and Preview 1876.
Further modifications to the Bryte/Brite Star page.
6-26-98:
Modified some text on the Bryte/Brite Star discography page, probably muddying rather than simplifying this complicated story.
6-20-98:
Added two singles: MSR 530 and Preview 3117 (highest number Preview single logged so far).
Added subsite reprinting song-poet biographical blurbs from back cover of album MSR 290.
Added page reprinting a strip of classified ads for song-poem companies from a 1955 issue of Popular Mechanics.

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