jim henson

Tra-La, It's May! That Lusty Month of May!

May 1st has long signified many and diverse traditional celebrations all over the world.

The day has always put me in mind of Camelot's Julie Andrews, and in recent years Seattle's
Jason Webley - - but this year I've been pointed in the direction of Brooklyn's
Jonathan Coulton and a brilliant song from his 2003 album,
Space Monkey.

Many thanks to
my dear friend Oon
for turning me on
to "JoCo", this song, and the video below.

This song contains some strong and
charming language that may be NSFW.

The songs in the links posted below are from an old 45 of quirky but charming music originally heard as part of 'The Love Song of Barney Kempinski', a one-hour teleplay that aired on September 14th, 1966 as the premiere episode of an anthology TV series, ABC Stage 67.

For his performance in the title role, actor
Alan Arkin received an Emmy award nomination. (- - And has the program been seen since??)

- From the synopsis posted at TV.Com:
"Barney Kempinski, thirtyish and contentedly
self-unemployed, leaves his Lower East Side apartment smiling and happy.
"On this fine sunny day he is to be married - -
3 o'clock at City Hall - - to his girl Francine.
"In the few remaining hours of his bachelorhood, Barney goes off to tour the city and sing his love song - - exuberant, irresponsible and frequently dangerous - - to life, love and the city of
New York."

The photo at right, ▶
taken during production for 'Barney Kempinski' comes from a profile article on Arkin,
"Actor's Jump To The Top", that appeared in the July 22nd, 1966 issue of LIFE magazine.
- Click here to read that article.

Also appearing in the cast were John Gielgud,
Alan King, Lee Grant and Arlene Golonka.

(An item of note for those of who've never had the pleasure of seeing this production is that there's no listing of anyone in the cast playing the role of Barney's fiancé, Francine. Presumably the character doesn't appear in the story - - ?)


- Listen to:
Alan Arkin - I Like You
(Columbia Records 45, 1966)
(click for audio)


- Listen to:
Alan Arkin - Barney's Love Song
(Columbia Records 45, 1966)
(click for audio)


- Anyone who recalls having seen this program or has more information to share is invited to leave a comment. Better yet, if you know where / how to view 'The Love Song of Barney Kempinski' nowadays, it'd be great to hear from you. It might be fun and worth a pilgrimage to The Paley Center for Media someday to try and track it down in their archives, but in an ideal world it shouldn't have to come to that. (Don't get me started on my rant about how the history of television shouldn't be slipping into the realm of archaeology...)

Looking over highlights of Alan Arkin's career, the chronology of 'The Love Song of Barney Kempinski' falls in between Arkin's breakout film appearance in 'The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming' which had premiered just a few months earlier, and his villainous turn the following year opposite Audrey Hepburn in the thriller, 'Wait Until Dark'.

◀ At left; from the LIFE article, Arkin on set with
'Barney Kempinski' author Murray Schisgal.

Beginning in 1964, Arkin had appeared on Broadway in the original run of Schisgal's play, 'Luv', directed by Mike Nichols.

Nichols would direct Arkin again in the 1970 film, 'Catch-22'.

Both also shared roots to improvisational cabaret theater in Chicago; Alan Arkin with The Second City, and Mike Nichols to its precursor, The Compass Players.







Arkin's musical roots go back still further; at least as far as a folk-singing record, 'Once Over Lightly', released on the Elektra label in 1955. ▶

That release would lead him to the ranks of several folk groups before joining Second City, including
The Tarriers, Jeremy's Friends, and The Babysitters.

- Many of those early folk recordings can be heard at an Alan Arkin fansite (follow link), though you may want to beware of possible sporadic 'malware' warnings popping up...

(Please Note: In preparing this post, I was initially excited to have figured out the origins for 'I Like You', a song I'd heard years ago but had never known the story behind. While gathering information, further excitement arose upon finding not only a superior recording to the one I had, but the B-side of the record as well. Credit and many thanks for that goes to (like a) Fish Out Of Water, a wonderful blog of celebrity recordings. This post expands upon that one.)

"Where the Arkin is. On Columbia Records" - - Below, ▼ a print ad promoting the 45 and the TV program appeared in the September 17th, 1966 issue of Billboard Magazine.

I've just received word that the topic for next week's installment of The Contrast Podcast will be a return to songs pertaining to
Parts of The Body.

So far I've managed to take part in the previous 'body part' episodes, focusing on
The Eyes, The Skin, The Arms, The Lips, The Feet, The Stomach & Guts and The Heart, so I'd hate to miss out on doing The Hands next week.

When struck by the thought, "Eventually we'll run out of body parts and will have exhausted that topic", I got to thinking about songs on the topic of leaving the body behind.

I thought of 1968's 'Absolutely Free' by Frank Zappa & The Mothers, and then remembered this odd little novelty song, recorded by a Buddhist nun around 1980.

The LP, 'Awakening: Ancient Wisdom For Modern Ears' was an independent pressing originating from The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a large Buddhist community and monastery near Ukiah, California.

"...Based On The Teachings Of Shakyamuni Buddha And The Venerable Teachings Of Master Hua", the album attempted to make some concepts and dogma more palatable to Western ears.

Carrying a folky / new age-y vibe overall, the music takes a couple of detours into other genres, including this peppy and charming number, with whimsical lyrics regarding the decay of the human body after the spirit departs.

From the LP
'Awakening: Ancient Wisdom For Modern Ears'
(Wondrous Sounds Records, circa 1980),
Listen to: Bhikshuni Heng Yin - My Body
(click for audio)

The singer, former bhikshuni (now Dharma Master) Heng Yin studied under Hsuan Hua and spent many years translating Buddhist texts.

- To hear more songs from the 'Awakening' album, click here.
I can recommend the selection 'Gotta Do Something/Might As Well Cultivate', which sounds slightly reminiscent of early releases of Timbuk 3 from the last half of the '80s.

When re-watching vintage 1960s episodes of 'The Flintstones', a heaping portion of the cozy,
comfort-food nostalgia it kindles comes from the familiar background music heard throughout the run of the series.
As with so much of the TV I was glued to in my youth, the soundtrack to the show has been part of the soundtrack to my life.

Hoyt Curtin had been Hanna-Barbera's primary composer and arranger, responsible not only for the Flintstones underscore and its immortal theme song, but for the music heard in almost all of the animation studio's many productions, from their origins in the mid-1950s until Curtin's retirement
in the '80s.

For a while, much of Curtin's H-B music was commercially available on various cartoon music CDs released by the Rhino label, but sadly and shockingly it looks like they've all lapsed out of print.

From one of those discs, the background music cues posted below all go back to the original Flintstones series.
As a finicky nerd, it had bothered me that Rhino had chosen to tack each of these brief themes onto the end of the 'primary' songs-from-the-series tracks, as sort of unlisted 'mystery bonus fun'.

- - So, for the sake of my own dork-tastic needs (and maybe even yours) I futzed with them, to bring some focus to just those Curtin instrumentals.

All of the listed titles are ones I made up, just as a referential aid for the different files, previously unnamed on the Rhino releases.

- If you have knowledge of any 'real' titles for these cuts, or have more info to share about Hoyt Curtin's cartoon music, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.

Enjoy!


(click for audio)

1. Reedy Saunter (1:22)
2. Quarry (0:30)
3. Short Chirpy Bridge (0:09)
4. Mischief March (0:23)
5. 'Oh Brother' Punchline (0:09)
6. Jaunty Stroll (0:55)
7. Harried Exit (0:11)
8. Brassy Exit Fanfare (0:10)
9. No Brakes! (1:00)
10. Bouncy Exit (0:18)
11. Driving Into Bedrock (0:41)
12. Stumbling Xylophone (0:27)
13. Morning After Pomp (0:32)
14. Walking Dino, Fred Follows (1:04)
15. Military Maneuvers (0:30)
16. Quizzical Exit Fanfare (0:07)

(click for audio)

- - OR click here to grab all 16 tracks in one 11.8 Mb zipfile.

- For a bit more of old Hanna-Barbera cartoon music by Hoyt Curtin, you might try here, or at a post about 'Jonny Quest' music at If I Only Had...

- And while listening to Flintstones music, you could do far worse than to peruse the dozens of fascinating Bedrock screen captures and other edifying wonders on display over at John K Stuff.

As a young man, puppeteer
Jim Henson was bursting with creative ideas and wasted no time in making things happen.

In the mid-1950s, he was making puppets for children's television before he was out of high school.

He created his first muppet TV show, Sam and Friends, during his freshman year of college.
The five-minute program aired daily, and ran for six years.

Simultaneously, Henson's muppets were making other TV appearances on variety shows and in assorted commercials.

But it wasn't all about muppets all the time...

When Henson graduated from college in 1960, he was married, had a new-born daughter, and had been working in TV and advertising for several years. He was 23.

That same year, Jim Henson released an odd, jazzy little 45 single.
On the A-side, 'Tick-Tock Sick', he complains of being 'bugged' by the relentless ticking of the clock.

Listen to:
Jim Henson - Tick-Tock Sick
(Signature Records 45, 1960)
(click for audio)

(label image via Muppet Wiki)




On the flipside...

Listen to:
Jim Henson -
The Countryside
(Signature Records 45, 1960)
(click for audio)

Regarding this 45 and a recurring motif of 'racing time' in Henson's work, Karen Falk, historian and head archivist for The Jim Henson Company said:
"Jim Henson accomplished an amazing amount in his life, but given the large number of files on unrealized projects that are in the archives, he clearly didn't have enough time to do all that he wanted to do. And 'Tick-Tock Sick' tells us that he was already feeling the crunch just six years into his career."

As the 1960's progressed, amidst increasing exposure of The Muppets, Henson also began working with experimental film.

'Time Piece' was a short film that Henson wrote, produced, directed and starred in. He began production in 1964 and took about a year to finish, working on it in between TV projects.

It premiered at New York's Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, traveled the film festival circuit, and was nominated for a Best Live Action Short Subject Oscar in 1966.

Incorporating animation, reverse motion, rapid edits and a rhythmic, percussive soundtrack by
Don Sebesky, 'Time Piece' continues some of the theme explored by 'Tick-Tock Sick' a few years earlier.

Below, ▼ view 'Time Piece'...



- This post is a companion piece to one posted at Video Cabinet in Limbo, also regarding Jim Henson's muppetless productions.
Follow link to: Richard Schaal in Jim Henson's teleplay, 'The Cube' (1969)

See also:
Circa 1965, Henson made two Muppets, Inc. industrial promo films pitching to Wilson's Meats, an advertising account, filmed in a tongue-in-cheek, mock-documentary style.
Follow links to:
- Wilson's Meats #1
- Wilson's Meats #2

Les Lolitas were a Berlin-based band who sang primarily in French.

Their sound was a combination of influences that included American garage rock, rockabilly and French yé-yé, played with a punk sensibility. They formed in the mid-1980s and split around 1993.

Lead singer Françoise Cactus met Brezel Göring soon after, and they founded the fabulous multi-lingual
French-German electronica pop/rock duo, Stereo Total.

'Fusée d'amour' was the third Lolitas LP, recorded in Memphis, Tennessee in August of 1988 and produced by music biz chameleon
Alex Chilton.
Chilton plays just a bit of piano on the album, as does his friend and fellow Memphis legend Jim Dickinson.






(click on image to enlarge in a new window)

On the album cover, from left to right:
Olga La Basse - bass

Coco Nut - guitar

Françoise Cactus - vocals, drums

Michele Tutti Frutti - guitar, harmonica





- Follow link to view track listing & production credits.


From the Lolitas album
'Fusée d'amour' (New Rose Records, 1989),
Listen to:

Mummy
La Fille Qui Se Promene Sur Les Rails
Joli Johnny
Les Cactus

(click for audio)

- - OR download the full album (16 tracks) in one 46.5 Mb zipfile.





See also:
- Les Lolitas on MySpace
- StereoBio, A history of Françoise Cactus
- Stereo Total website

- As of this writing, the rest of the Lolitas catalog (and a Coco Nut solo record) are posted at cosmozebra. (This post hopefully improves upon Cosmo's slightly noisy vinyl rip of 'Fusée d'amour' - - unless you're a fan of clicks and pops)

In the early 1970s, record producer-promoter-song writer Jerry Ross tried on another hat, releasing a few records of lightly progressive pop and smoothed-out covers of rock hits, all crafted to be palatable for airplay on easy-listening radio stations.

This single release from early 1971 featured the theme from The Twelve Chairs, the second feature-length
Mel Brooks film, released the previous autumn.

In collaboration with his long-time 'house' composer John Morris, Mel's lyrics to the song are as timeless as ever...

Hope for the best, expect the worst
Some drink champagne, some die of thirst
No way of knowing
Which way it’s going
Hope for the best, expect the worst!

Hope for the best, expect the worst
The world’s a stage, we’re unrehearsed
Some reach the top, friends, while others drop, friends
Hope for the best, expect the worst!

I knew a man who saved a fortune that was splendid
Then he died the day he’d planned to go and spend it
Shouting “Live while you’re alive! No one will survive!”
Life is sorrow - - here today and gone tomorrow
Live while you’re alive, no one will survive - - there’s no guarantee

Hope for the best, expect the worst
You could be Tolstoy or Fannie Hurst
You take your chances, there are no answers
Hope for the best expect the worst!

I knew a man who saved a fortune that was splendid
Then he died the day he’d planned to go and spend it
Shouting “Live while you’re alive! No one will survive!”
Life is funny - - Spend your money! Spend your money!
Live while you’re alive, no one will survive - - there’s no guarantee



Hope for the best, expect the worst

The rich are blessed, the poor are cursed

That is a fact, friends, the deck is stacked, friends

Hope for the best, expect the – -
(even with a good beginning, it’s not certain that you’re winning,
even with the best of chances, they can kick you in the pantses)

Look out for the - - watch out for the worst!
Hey!

(The lyrics above are as heard during the film's opening credits. Not all of them are found on this Jerry Ross Symposium 45.)




(Note the title typo on the label!)
◀




Listen to:
Jerry Ross Symposium -
Hope For The Best (Expect The Worst)
(Colossus Records 45, 1971)
(click for audio)








Jerry Ross (not to be confused with an older showbiz Jerry Ross, the musical theater composer of Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game) had been a DJ and radio & TV announcer in Philadelphia in the late 1950s before becoming a record promoter there.

Branching off into composing and producing records, he also discovered teenage singer Kenneth Gamble.
Ross managed Gamble's career and was instrumental in teaming him with keyboardist Leon Huff.

The three collaborated as songwriters for several years before Gamble and Huff went on to huge fame as a team, writing and producing records, and helping to pioneer the 'Philly Soul' sound .

Ross went to New York in 1965 when he was hired as an A&R man by Mercury Records, where he soon had great success with acts like Jay & The Techniques, Spanky & Our Gang, Dee Dee Warwick, Jerry Butler, Keith, and Bobby Hebb.

Ross had also founded his own small record label, Heritage, in the early 1960s, releasing music by some of his Philadelphia acts.
He revived the label in 1968 after leaving Mercury, and put out records by Bill Deal and the Rhondels, Cherry People and
The Duprees, among others.

When a distribution deal with MGM ended around 1970, Ross went abroad to seek European distribution for the now independent Heritage label. While visiting Amsterdam he was taken with the Dutch music scene, and was able to secure the North American distribution rights for several acts.

Upon returning to the U.S., Ross started his new Colossus label (named after his miniature poodle) and began releasing records by his new 'Dutch Invasion' groups; Shocking Blue, The Tee Set, and The George Baker Selection.

Never one to put eggs in one basket, one function of his
'Jerry Ross Symposium' records was to provide MOR cover versions of hit songs by artists on his labels.

See also:
- Fellow music biz maven Artie Wayne interviews Jerry Ross at Spectropop.

- Jerry Ross at MySpace.

- As of this writing, the second Jerry Ross Symposium LP (with arrangements by Claus Ogerman) can be found at fullundie.


Chuck Sagle was the arranger / conductor on this single. As a bandleader, Sagle released a number of 'space-age pop' records in the '50s and '60s, often under his 'Carl Stevens' alias.

The flip-side of the 45 has sort of a 'Washington Square' / 'Midnight In Moscow' sound, accompanied by a watery shadow chorus.

Listen to:
Jerry Ross Symposium -
First Love
(Colossus Records 45, 1971)
(click for audio)









The Symposium performs the sentimental theme to the 1970 film First Love, written by
Don Black and composer
Mark London, who'd previously collaborated on 'To Sir With Love' in 1967.

Oscar-winner Don Black was the lyricist on many successful movie theme songs - - He worked with composer John Barry on 'Born Free' and several of the James Bond themes, including 'Thunderball' and 'Diamonds Are Forever', and he wrote Michael Jackson's hit, 'Ben' with Walter Scharf in 1972.

- Follow link to the Official Don Black Website.

Here's the second LP by Ira Ironstrings; The name was a pseudonym used on a string of albums recorded by bandleader / guitar innovator Alvino Rey.

In the earliest days of Warner Bros. Records, the label had something of an 'anything goes' attitude while they were establishing themselves.

Alvino Rey was brother-in-law to WB exec
Jim Conkling, and had the idea for recording campy, light-hearted (though not quite 'novelty') hi-fi Dixieland music.

The pseudonym was used because Rey was still under contract to Capitol Records, but the name and the mystery around it added to the fun.

Produced and arranged by Warren Barker, the quality of the music surpassed many expectations.

As part of the label's initial round of releases, the first album ('Ira Ironstrings Plays for People with $3.98') sold surprisingly well.

From the LP
'Ira Ironstrings Plays:
With Matches'
(Warner Bros. Records, 1959),
Listen to:

Heartaches
Ivory Rag
Twelfth Street Rag
Johnson Rag
Guitar Boogie
Third Man Theme

(click for audio)

- - OR download the full album (12 tracks) in one 57.6 Mb zipfile.

Click here to read back cover liner notes and full track listing.

The following year, Warner Bros. Records signed The Everly Brothers and released two Grammy-winning stand-up comedy LPs
by Bob Newhart.

See also:
- A previous post; from 1946, the Alvino Rey and his orchestra's recording of 'Sepulveda'.

- Alvino Rey featured in a post at Visual Guidance, Ltd.

- Speaking of the early days of Warner Bros Records, the previously-posted
'Music To Read Stan Cornyn's Liner Notes By'.

- Thanks to The Space Age Pop Music Page for valuable info.

When this 45 was released in 1971, singer Della Reese was in a period of transition, adding 'actress / TV personality' to her list of achievements.

A couple of years prior, she became the first black woman in America to host her own television variety series, and in 1970 she was the first black woman to guest-host
Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

Throughout the 1970s and well beyond,
Della Reese became a familiar sight on television, whether appearing as a panelist on game shows, in guest slots on dramas and sitcoms, parts in TV movies and several
co-starring roles in established series, all while still maintaining a touring schedule as a headlining nightclub singer.

Her ties with music began as a child, singing Gospel music in church.
At age thirteen she was 'discovered' by Mahalia Jackson and hired to be one of her backing singers.
After forming her own group, The Meditation Singers, she eventually moved into singing Jazz and Rhythm & Blues, and received a recording contract with Jubilee Records in 1953.
A move to the RCA label in 1959 yielded a great string of albums and some of her biggest hits.

Still active in her seventies, the actress / singer / minister now presides over her own church in Inglewood, California.

Listen to:
Della Reese - The Troublemaker
(Avco Embassy 45, 1971)
(click for audio)









'The Troublemaker' was later a hit for
Willie Nelson, when it became the title track to the gospel-themed LP he released in 1976 on the Columbia label (though it was recorded three years earlier for Atlantic).

Is the Della Reese version more successful in not telegraphing the 'surprise twist' ending of the song's lyrics? There could be an argument for that, but the difference in arrangement and the verve of her delivery make for an interesting change.

Perhaps you can help clear up the mystery of who was the first to record 'The Troublemaker' - -?

There were at least three versions of it released on 45, all in 1969.

- One by Chris Morgan (who he?), as 'Troublemaker' (one word) on a Bell label single produced by
Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers.

- One by Country singer Johnny Darrel, on United Artists, as 'Trouble Maker'.

- And one by Lee Hazlewood, on his own LHI label, as 'Trouble Maker'.

Who released their version first? And were there others?

Any information you can share is much appreciated, leave a comment or drop an e-mail. Thanks!

The song was written by Bruce Belland and Dave Somerville, former members of the pop vocal quartet The Four Preps.

Bruce Belland had been a founding member of the group, formed in the mid-1950s by four friends all enrolled at Hollywood High School. They enjoyed their greatest fame in the late '50s and early '60s. Their song '26 Miles (Santa Catalina)' reached #2 in the U.S. pop charts.

In the '50s, “Diamond” Dave Somerville had been the lead singer with Rock & Roll vocal group, The Diamonds (whose hits
included 'Little Darlin'' and 'The Stroll').

Somerville left The Diamonds in 1961 to pursue a solo career as a Folk artist (and sometime actor), changing his name to
David Troy. He joined The Four Preps in 1966, replacing one of the original members.

◀ At left: Belland & Somerville, sometime in the 1990s.

When The Four Preps disbanded in 1969, Belland & Somerville performed for a time as a duo.

According to Wikipedia, they appeared in concerts with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mathis, and were a regular act on the CBS-TV comedy series 'The Tim Conway Show'.

Judging by the song's lyrics, it seems likely that Belland & Somerville wrote 'The Troublemaker' sometime in this period, but there doesn't appear to be any evidence that they recorded it. Maybe it's something that they performed in concert or on TV? Again, feel free to chime in...

Belland & Somerville have each remained busy over the years, performing in various reunited configurations of their old groups, and in assorted solo projects, including successful ventures writing songs for TV and film.

- See also:
Another funky Della Reese 45 on Avco Embassy - - From 1970, a cover version of 'Compared To What' can be heard at Flea Market Funk. (follow link)

Blues singer / pianist Marcia Ball has become something of an institution in Austin, Texas, and down in New Orleans, and at all the music festivals and venues she's played all over creation in the past thirty years or so, rocking audiences like a force of nature.

Born into a musical family, playing piano since childhood, she began playing professionally sometime during her college years in the late 1960s.
She went from playing in Gum, a psychedelic rock band in Louisiana to leading 'Freda and The Firedogs', a progressive country band in
Austin, Texas.

After that band's breakup, she began using her own name in her own band.

Her first solo LP was released in '78, and though a fine effort, it featured a country sound that (like Marcia herself, then ▼) bore little resemblance to the distinctive Gulf Coast R&B sound of the artist she'd become.

- Click here to see the full track listing, songwriter credits and session personnel for this album, featuring a fine array of musicians like Albert Lee,
Rodney Crowell, Buddy Emmons, Carlene Carter,
Janie Fricke, and Nicolette Larson.

From the Marcia Ball LP
'Circuit Queen' (Capitol Records LP, 1978),
Listen to:

Never Been Hurt
I'll Be Doggone
Circuit Queen
Big River
Good Times, Good Music, Good Friends

(click for audio)

- - OR download the full album (10 tracks) in one 68.4 Mb zipfile.

-See also: The Official Marcia Ball Web Site

Singer Chubby Checker was a Philadelphia teen-ager still in high school when his recording career began.

In the late 1950s, his talent for mimicry of pop records caught the attention of Dick Clark, host of the American Bandstand TV show, still based in Philadelphia at the time.

Clark helped get him a contract with Cameo-Parkway records, and used him as something of a 'utility vocalist' from time to time on the Bandstand show, performing some of the rising chart hits of the day. Occasionally Mr. Checker performed more 'palatable' versions of popular songs from the R&B charts that were deemed too wild for the relatively conservative show.

Such was the case with 'The Twist', written and first recorded by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, to moderate success.

But when Chubby Checker performed the song on Bandstand, he created a sensation by incorporating dance moves that Philadelphia teens had been doing to the Hank Ballard version.
Checker's subsequent 1960 cover recording of 'The Twist' was a smash hit, and he was at the forefront of a dance craze that swept America and the world in the sixties.

Other hit records followed for Mr. Checker, many of them capitalizing on other popular dances of the era, though none would quite reach the heights of his first chart-topper.

Some of his hit singles also began to incorporate more nonsensical lyrics and song titles, taken from folk songs and nursery rhymes, which is where the song featured here comes in.

'Lazy Elsie Molly' was only a minor hit, reaching #40 in the U.S. charts in 1964, but its bit of pop music history comes from it being the first commercial success for the songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and
Bobby Hart.

Boyce & Hart took an old Mother Goose rhyme, re-worked and embellished it, changed the title from 'Elsie Marley', set it to a melody reminiscent of Chubby's '62 hit, 'Limbo Rock', and came up with a song perfectly suited to be a new Chubby Checker single.

Listen to:
Chubby Checker - Lazy Elsie Molly
(Parkway Records 45, 1964)
(click for audio)

Prior to this single, Boyce and Hart had each had some fair amount of success (and failures) as writers and performers on their own. They met in Los Angeles in 1959.

(In the photo, ▶
Tommy Boyce is seated on the right,
with the guitar)

Following 'Lazy Elsie Molly' they had a much bigger hit with their song 'Come A Little Bit Closer', which became a top-ten record for
Jay and the Americans later that same year.

By the end of '65 they were working for
Don Kirshner, writing, producing and performing music for the TV pilot of what would become 'The Monkees'.

When the Monkees' TV series and records began appearing in 1966, essentially what we heard was Boyce & Hart (and their own band, The Candy Store Prophets) backing lead vocals by The Monkees.

It would get a little bit confusing as Monkeemania continued, but many of the Monkees songs we heard were written by Boyce and Hart, including 'Last Train to Clarksville', 'I Wanna Be Free', 'Valleri', and several that had initially been recorded by other bands, like 'Words' by The Leaves, 'Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day' by The Astronauts, 'I'm Gonna Buy Me A Dog' by The Gamma Goochee, and '(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone' by Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Beginning in 1967, Boyce and Hart began performing and releasing their own records as a duo, their biggest hit being 'I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight' in 1968.

Their music biz and TV connections continued to merge for the next few years, and they made several TV appearances, including guest shots on 'The Flying Nun',
'I Dream of Jeannie', and perhaps most memorably, on 'Bewitched', performing 'I'll Blow You A Kiss in the Wind'.







See also:
- Boyce and Hart at AllMusic.Com

- Boyce and Hart's single, 'Out & About' at The Devil's Music

- A site devoted to the 1970s post-Monkees group, Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart


See also:
- Chubby Checker at AllMusic.Com

- Chubby Checker was also featured in director Ron Mann's 1992 documentary film, 'Twist', a fun and fascinating movie, all about popular dance crazes and their effect on culture. Worth seeking out!

Curious and kitschy old 45's like this one are pretty much the epitome of the Thrift Store Find - - the sort of 'vanity project' record originally intended to be given as a gift or maybe a give-away 'premium'.

You might find it further down the road at a garage sale, but when it was new you probably never saw it at your local music emporium or heard it on your radio.

This 1980 single celebrates the city of
San Francisco in two similar songs that capitalized on that era's surge in the popularity of jogging, in the wake of efforts by running guru/author Jim Fixx and other fitness advocates of the time.

It sounds like it was recorded just for fun by non-professional musicians.

A bit of googling regarding the principal artists supports this theory, revealing very little to suggest that they stuck with the performing end of the music industry.

It appears that the Passantino family has a rich San Franciscan background, and that Regina's daughter Angelica has worked a bit in art history and acting in more recent years.
Since his performance on one side of this record, Konrad Dryden has distinguished himself as a classical music historian and author.













Listen to:
Konrad Dryden - San Francisco Guys & Girls
(Golden gate Records 45, 1980)
(click for audio)













Listen to:
Angelica Passantino -
Mommy, Daddy Jog With Me
(Golden gate Records 45, 1980)
(click for audio)


See also:
- Though you'll still see plenty of joggers in the vicinity of San Francisco's Marina Green, Crissy Field and its Presidio district, this record brings to mind the days when it was still a 'craze', and also the beginnings of the 'Parcourse' fitness trails, some of which appeared first in San Francisco and nearby cities.

- That 'newness' of jogging might for a few in turn conjure up a scene from Albert Brooks' cynical 1981 comedy 'Modern Romance'.
Click over to YouTube to watch the running store scene, in which Bob Einstein (a.k.a.
'Super Dave Osborne' and Brooks' real-life older brother) outfits Brooks with all the 'serious' equipment he'll need to 'start a new life'.

Groundhog Day is coming around again; It's celebrated in the U.S. and Canada every February 2nd.

As folks begin to anxiously anticipate an end to the Winter season, it's time to haul out a traditional batch of tunes honoring an often under-appreciated friend of ours.

Whether viewed as folklore's harbinger of Spring or as maligned garden pest, whether as a euphemism for a
triflin' woman (?!?), as merely a handy lyrical device or just plain good eatin', the groundhog stands tall in American song.

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!






- Click here for a
big mess o' Groundhog Day Carols...
(posted for a limited time)

- ... and here's a playlist.
(follow link)


See also:
- Groundhog.Org: The Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club

'Afro-Exotica' percussionist/vocalist Chaino
(pronounced “Cha-EE-no”) was born Leon Johnson in Chicago, Illinois in 1927.

As a bongo-playing nightclub performer in the 1950s, he encountered record producer Kirby Allan, who sought to make records capturing the feel of traditional African rhythms he'd heard while visiting Kenya.

- Follow link to Space Age Pop.Com for a Chaino bio page.




- Follow link to the liner notes from Chaino's 'Jungle Echoes' LP
for some of the 'Tarzan in Reverse' version of his bio that was presented to the press.






Beginning in 1958, Chaino and Allan recorded a series of albums that were released in rapid succession by different labels.

The tracks on the 45 posted here appeared on the '59 'Africana' LP, but it looks like they were left off of Chaino CD reissues.






Listen to:
Chaino - Afro Cha Cha
(Terra Records 45, circa 1959)
(click for audio)














Listen to:
Chaino - Congo Serenade
(Terra Records 45, circa 1959)
(click for audio)














See also:
- Bio, discography and more at Kirby Allan's Exotica & Beyond.

- Chaino listed at AllMusic.Com

- Stills and audio from Chaino's appearance in the 1961
horror film 'Night Tide', at Dwrayger Dungeon's Music From
The Monster Movies site.

- As of this writing, music from Chaino's
'New Sounds in Rock & Roll' is available at Xtabays World.

- More music from Chaino can be found at Last.fm.