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10-19-99:
With all that in mind, our eyebrows perked up considerably when we recently logged in Film City 2065, "Barefoot Boy And Girl" b/w "Come Home," and noted that our field rep had listed the recording artist as Dick Martin & The Swinging Strings. What was odd was that we already had a Film City 2065, with the same song titles but with the artist credited as Rod Rogers & The Swinging Strings. (On both sides of both reported versions the songwriting credit was to Dick Martin.) Holding firmly to our premise that song-poem companies do not use the same catalogue number to release alternate versions of a record, our initial inclination was to doubt the accuracy of our field reports. But a double-check of the owners of the two versions confirmed their initial information, that FC 2065 had been released bearing two different artist credits. This may all seem quite trivial to you, but we don't get out much, so a revelation like this really comes as something of a seismic shift to our usual way of thinking.
We had to get to the bottom of it. We considered the possibility of getting the two field reps together and having them arm-wrestle it out -- "I still say it's by Dick Martin!" "Oh yeah? Well me and your mama say it's by Rod Rogers!" -- but then we remembered that violence never solved anything. The next best choice was to pester them for further documentation. Label photocopies and cassette tapes of the songs would hopefully allow us to figure out just what in the hell was going on here. Fortunately, both Steve Propes and Ellery Eskelin were gracious enough to comply, and generous enough to do so on their own dimes. Last night we finally sat down to compare all the data, and when we did it didn't take us long to break the case.
As it turns out, the two versions of Film City 2065 are identical recordings of the respective songs, with the artist credits being the only differences between them. The version credited to Rod Rogers was apparently the original. Had this been a standard song-poem record, with the company supplying the vocalist, odds are the customer would have never noticed a mistaken credit in that department. But in this case the customer himself was the singer (over the company's backing tracks, making this a vanity/song-poem hybrid), who of course would have quickly noticed such an error and asked Film City owner Sandy Stanton to correct the mistake. The matrix numbers of the two versions match, indicating that they were from the same pressing, and that Stanton simply printed new labels to use on the remaining copies of the press run. Case closed.
Alas, "Barefoot Boy And Girl" b/w "Come Home" is not a particularly good record -- not terrible, but nothing special either, its so-so songwriting rescued by Film City's wonderfully rickety Chamberlin sound, most likely played by Rod. Songwriter Dick Martin, of course, was a different person from TV star Dick Martin, of Rowan & Martin's Laugh In fame; ironically, after Rod split up with his third wife Suzie, she went on to cohabit with TV star Dick Martin for a number of years. Songwriter Dick Martin, from Shreveport, Louisiana, had already experienced a touch of success for himself via a 1962 recording of his song "The Call Of Summer," by the Crosby Brothers on Dot.
Many thanks to field reps Propes and Eskelin for helping us get to the bottom of this song-poem mystery. Ellery Eskelin, it must be noted, is the son of Rod Rogers, and his copy of Film City 2065 is from Rod's own song-poem record collection.
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Without even the pleasure of hearing any of them, it's clear that the most interesting recordings on Star-Light are a pair of acetate demos by Hasil Adkins & His Happy Guitar. In 1957 Hasil boogie-bopped around, "just going from here to there trying to get a break," as he told Wisconsin rock 'n' roll researcher Gary Myers, recording his own material at various song-poem studios around the country. Among the half-dozen songs he cut with Star-Light are "Song Of Death" (the label of which you'll see a ghostly scan of on the Star-Light page), and "Your Picture On The Wall." Hasil would later sing about wall hangings displaying far more sinister vestiges of his girlfriends. We are currently working on a more complete version of Hasil's fascinating experiences in the song-poem netherworld.
Many thanks to Gary Myers for passing along his information on Star-Light.
9-21-99:
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Most importantly, we completely revised the Mayhams discography, adding a bunch of new items tracked down by ace field rep Michael Greenberg. You might gather from reading over their discography that Mayhams was a little ... um, shall we say, quirky. In the coming weeks we'll be adding an introductory note to that page in which we'll try to make just a little bit of sense out of their strange story.
8-27-99:
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8-26-99:
We are still investigating whether Jody, a Brooklyn label for whom Hasil cut the brain-stomping "She Said" /"Is This The End" back in 1964 (Jody 1000, probably the label's debut release), has any song-poem ties or not. The only other release we've seen on Jody is "Almira"/"A Place To Go" (Jody 9001), a 45 by Arthur Braun, who later headed the semi-song-poem Exotic label. Until we find information definitively indicating that Jody was a song-poem label, we will refrain from listing it in our discographies.
8-24-99:
Also new are a batch of ten singles from the Kasberg kollection, including two on Kay-Em, one on Columbine (HV-41, an EP, with only one of the four songs written by him; one of the others is entitled "I Am A Little Bit Country"), and seven on Preview (3032, 3042, 3043, 3068, 3069, 3070 and 3071). In the coming weeks we hope to have more information on Kasberg, and perhaps even deign to answer the musical question, posed on Kay-Em 501, "Who Broke Our Mailbox Last Night?"
8-19-99:
8-18-99:
We are now adding 178 new releases, all 45s. Because of the incompleteness of Billboard's information, and more importantly because some of these labels vacillated from song-poem companies to true vanity companies and even to legitimate record labels, we cannot guarantee that every one of these additions is a true song-poem release. We've tried to indicate the cases where we could make an educated guess that a record is not a song-poem record. A further complication is the fact that, since by their nature most song-poem companies choose extremely generic names for their labels, sometimes it's hard to differentiate when there is more than one company using the same name from when all records under a given label name are in fact from the same company. Again, in those cases we've tried to provide our best guesses.
One benefit of the nature of this new information is that, as opposed to taking information from the actual records themselves, taking them from a dated publication allows us to fix at least an approximate date of release to each item. With that in mind, we've indicated alongside virtually every new item the year of the Billboard issue in which we found it listed.
Here are the labels and numbers taken from Operation Billboard: Air 1003, 5054, 5060 and 5075; Air-Loom 102; Anton 103 and 105; Arco 4616, 4620, 4623, 4628 and 4630; Big Ben 1578, 1614 (including an interesting discussion concerning two conflicting listings for this same number) and 3261; Boney 101, 201 and 204; Brite Star 201, 747, 763, 764, 766, 767, 768, 769, 771 and 772; Bryte 224, 226, 240, 251, 306, 307 and 308; Carellen 110; Caveman 81462 (new label); Clinton 1001; Crescendo 195, 198 and 305; Dial 2210 and 2215; Dub 2252; Frank Lyle Buck 101 and 103; Globe 400, 401 and 1258; Hi-Lo 2251; Igloo 803/804 and 1003; Inner-Glo 102; Iris 1002; Jabar 103; Jerome 7348; Kama 13, 33 and 35; Kondas, unnumbered demo; Mayhams 049-094, 115-120, 1598 and 1958; Novart 21; Nu-Sound 1016; Pledge 102, 103 and 108; Process 107 (new label); Ranchwood 2243; Ronnie 1010, 1011, 1015, 1020, 1024, 1026, 1027, 1029, 1030, 1031, 1032, 1033, 1034, 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1043, 1044, 1045, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2043, 2045, 8511 and one with an unlisted number; Roxie 245, 303, 307, 310, 312, 314, 315, 318, 320, 321, 323, 330, 334 and 335; Sale 2246; Silver 101 and 103; Spin 934, 956 and 989; Star X 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, 511, 512, 516 and 518; Sterling 221; Stripe 2242; Stylecraft 5100; Top Fifty 100, 127, 135, 137, 138 and 141; Top Rock 003, 6701 and 7037/7038; Wanderlust 1110, 1111, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2098; Whirl 2234 and 2254; Advance 1514, 1515 and 3933; and Carib 1001, 1002, 1003, 1003 and 1004.
The following are items we've already had listed but for which we are now adding to or otherwise altering that information: Anton 101/102 and 107/108; Carellen 101; Carol 1001; Frank Lyle Buck 102 and 104; Jabar 101; Laresco 709; Mayhams 1960; Roxie 246, 301, 304, 305 and 319; Spin 912, 967; Star X, number unknown; and Vale 1004.
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8-5-99:
It's been a productive day.
8-3-99:
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6-29-99:
Added 33 new singles: Hollywood Artists VEP-2, Y-76, Y-91, Y-116, Y-227, Y-231, Y-233, Y-254, Y-263, and Y-172; Christo et Ecclesiae, number unknown (new label); Touch 9128 (new label); Columbine HV-36, EP-43, EP-52 and EP-101; Preview 1143; Sterling 278, 595, 610, 663, 672, 686, 756, 769 and 809; Songuild 931; Fable 588, 613, 630, 632 and 655 (also, further information added on Fable 587, 604 and 611); and Cape 104 (new label).
Added three cassettes, all on Hollywood Artists: RZA 4492, RYE 9442 and RZA 4764.
Added 11 albums: Kay-Em 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 510, 512, 513, 514, and one of an unknown number; and Grace 101 (new label).
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Finally, we located this week a single on the Ranchwood label which we'd previously only seen listed in an old issue of Billboard, and thus had only partial information on. It's always fun when this happens, when a record for which evidence had only been hazy and half-baked finally materializes in actual vinyl reality. It's sort of like watching a photographic print going into the developer bath, where its details gradually but quickly come to life. It's one of the sweeter pleasures of discographic research.
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6-9-99:
The new Preview entry is the highest number we've yet seen from them, 385, with the oddly-syntaxed title Feelin' Like Singin' Country. The new numbers on Columbine are: 73, 74, 110, 114, 146, 151, 162, 225, 238, 242, 264, 266, 271, 281, 283, 285 (all with Columbine's main CRH prefix); plus G-15 and G-24 (in the Gospel series); K-16 (Kay Weaver series); L-2 (our first entry in the Love series); and M-9, M-32 and M-38 (this M series, for Music Of America, seems to have been started in '76 to handle the rash of patriotic submissions Columbine was receiving in honor of the Bicentennial, but proved so successful that it was continued indefinitely).
There is some frustration in entering all this new information, as the aforementioned albums include a staggering array of brilliant titles which we'll probably never get to hear. In theory they can all be listened to at the LoC, but to do so one must endure a dishearteningly complex request process, and even at that one only is allowed to hear the record, never to touch it or even see it. Until any of these albums materialize in a more hands-on form, we'll have to content ourselves with simply marveling at some of these titles: "The Bar Is Where I Live," "The Tenderness Of Misused Love," "That's My Black Woman," "Let Me Grow Up And Be A Man," "Troubles And Bubbles," "The Girls Who Bowled On Four," "The Burning Girl," "I Won A Beauty Contest (And Lost The Man I Love)," "Baby, I Refuse To Let You Go," "The Time For Parting Is Here Now," "Use Me As A Fool, But Please Don't Go," "I Thought You Would Be Superfine," "The Rose Colored World Of Rosey" [a Rosey Grier tribute?], "Never Disdain Destiny," "Living A Lie Of Love On You," "Hell Express," "Biggest Gossip Town Around," "The First Time Is Free," "You Said Our Love Wouldn't Be Hurting," "Ha Hou Ho Ho," "Jesus Still Makes House Calls," "Bubbling Over With God's Love," "What Would Jesus Laugh At?" [the obvious and far superior forerunner to the contemporary catchphrase "What would Jesus do?"], "Wild Whirlwind," "Merle Babe" [a Haggard tribute?], "Dancing In The Shadow Of The Blues," "I Am Crossing The Atlantic," "I'm In Love With Jesus," "Big El," "Shut Down This Nuke," "School, Peace And Prayer Power Now," "He's Call Raymond," "Truck Driver's Daughter," and "Diesel Smells, Vapor Trails."
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5-27-99:
Tin Pan Alley, founded in the 1940s in New York City by Jack Covais, is a good example of a company that has fallen through our cracks -- until now. They have been a song-poem powerhouse over the years, yet only now, thanks to collector Bob Purse, are we finally able to introduce a page for them. Purse found a batch of nine nearly-consecutive singles, all in one place ... the lucky dog.
Although the years of their importance are long over, Tin Pan Alley, along with its affiliated company Broadway Music Productions, continues to limp along to this day. They are now owned by Jack's nephew Sal Covais, who runs the companies out of his home in Sarasota, Florida.
5-25-99:
Albums on Preview (112, our earliest Preview LP), Columbine (CRH-3, our earliest Columbine LP, which was recorded by the brilliant Rave-Ons, with two cover versions sung by Columbine's founder Bob Grummer; and K-22, a Kay Weaver album which ends with James Wilson, Jr.'s most astounding title yet, "Gyrate For Physicet Beam Dreams, Kay" -- yes, a conversation between song-poet and singer!), Hollywood Artists (HAR-84, which includes another Wilson classic, "The Glossy Came Hued") and Sunrise (HS-051).
Singles on Safari (SR 111), Preview (1051, 1272, 1326, 1382, 1698, 1845 and 2004), MSR (2131, 2808, 3076, 3080, 3084 and 3088), Nu-Sound (1256, 1257, 1261 and 1385), Ronnie (2409), Spin (901), Rainbow (504, the first single discovered on this label) and Halmark (ARP 3343/3344 and G-1864). Apart from the aforementioned Wilson additions, many excellent titles turned up in this batch, including "Message Of Advice, Young Blood," "As Usual, I Pray," "I'm Not Going To Be A Bachelor Till I Die," "Giant Mines," "Happinessville," "Velvet Eyes And Satin Lips," and my favorite, "Musical Collision."
5-23-99:
Our most important discovery was finding copies of Songwriter's Review, Syde Berman's journal for amateur songwriters published between 1946 and 1976. This publication was a breathtaking treasure-trove of song-poem information! It began as a stern anti-song shark crusading rag, but even in the early issues was already complaining about the lack of steady interest among readers in their ripping the lid off the song-poem industry. We suspect that that's because the average amateur songwriter would rather keep the dream alive a little longer and find out the hard way that the song-poem companies are not really paying attention to their labors.
By the end of its run, Berman's resolve had completely disintegrated, and Songwriter's Review had devolved into a thoroughly shark-friendly publication, to the extent that the sharks themselves were on the editorial board and were writing puff pieces about their own companies. So fascinated were we by the beginning and ending numbers of this magazine that we did not get time to find out when and how that transition took place, only that they were 100% anti-shark at the beginning and 100% pro-shark at the end.
Speaking of crusades, the New York Public Library is presently giving us a hard time over getting facsimilies of these issues. We requested that they copy for us the first two bound volumes of an approximately 30-volume run. We've already agreed to have them microfilm them rather than photocopy, which is supposedly gentler on the originals but is doubling an already-suffocating bill. But now they claim they have a policy to only fulfill duplicating orders of an entire run of a given title, rather than isolated issues, even if the latter amounts to a complete bound volume. We're not sure who this policy is intended to help, but we are appealing to their sense of reason and hoping they reconsider. It's worth a bit of a fight, because Songwriter's Review really is the motherlode.
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AS/PMA field rep Terry Gordon has been documenting these lists for his own (rockabilly-oriented) purposes, but he has also been taking note of song-poem items that he comes across. We are awaiting a large batch of discography additions from him. These items will generally include label name and number, artist names, song titles and BB issue dates, the latter giving us an approximation of their release dates. Unfortunately, BB did not usually list songwriter credits; also, their lists are riddled with typos, but ya takes it wheres ya can get it.
For now we don't have any new items to post, but we are adding dating info to a batch of 45s that have already been in our discographies. Those records are: Air 5044; Arco 4629 and 4630; Big Ben 1614 (Jimmy Drake as Nervous Norvus); Blue Hill 102/103; Carellen 2, 7 and 107 (with a brief note on Carellen's release chronology added to the intro text); Crescendo 102 and 104; Dial 2231; Echo 5040; Fable 600; Inner-Glo 101; Pleasant Valley 101; Ronnie 1021, 2105 and 2044; Roxie 306, 324, 325, 326 and 331; Spin 923; Unique 2241; Vellez 1401, 1402, 1403, 1404, 1507, 1508 and 1511.
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This concludes the ongoing graphical overhaul of this site; for a while to come, updates will mostly be in the form of discographical additions. I hear Don Bolles has found a new Rave-Ons LP!
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