Saturday, April 25, 2015

Candy Man


The Deacons

Re-Car 9012
1965

This is a cover of the Roy Orbison song.  Writers are incorrectly listed as Ron and Mills (?!). publisher is (correctly) January (BMI)

In 1962, five Johnson High School students on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota, pooled their collective musical talents and formed a band called the Deacons (named after lead singer Jim Reiff, who had acquired the nickname “Deacon” – his father was a minister).

This is their third (and last) single for Re-Car, recorded in January 1965.  Jim Reiff had just left the band and was replaced by Earl Pritchard.   Dick Weeks (sax),  John 'Chico' Chinchilla (drums), Rick Youngberg (lead guitar) and Gary Starzecki on bass were the four other Deacons.

Their last record was for Soma Records in 1966 with "Empty Heart", a cover of The Rolling Stones.
A quality picture of the band can be found on "On The Flip Side" blog, provided you're able to scroll down which is not an easy thing to do !


Monday, April 20, 2015

Cruel World




Bible Time today at Dead Wax  :   Demigod Andy Starr  (real name Andrew Zachar,Jr.) was born in Bethlehem, recorded  in Nazareth, in a place called the Holy Family Gym.   More info at his Paradise Hall of Fame page.

Just A Walkin'  is readily available but not the flip (which was the hit side locally) Cruel World.

Andy Zachar :
I went on to record "Just A Walkin' " and "Cruel World". We went to Philadelphia to the Tony Star Studio along with a group called the Sinceres who was going to cut their first record with my band backing them.   In the Sinceres group was a backup singer called Jay Procter who later became Jay and the Techniques who had 2 million selling hits with "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie" and "Keep The Ball Rollin'".

Going back to my record, as I said "Cruel World" was to be the B side. Lee Andrews [ed.: of  Lee Andrews and The Hearts]  was in the studio watching us record that day and as I was finishing up with "Cruel World", Lee liked the song so much that he came over to the mike and moved me aside and finished the last part of the song which sounded great. When it was over he said ' I know this was the B side which probably won't get played but I love that song and it's my kind of music. I just had to be part of that. I hope you don't mind '.


Discography
1959    Arcade 115     I Love You Baby / I Know It's True        Andy Starr
1959    Casino 111      My Love For You / Why Am I A Fool.   The Casinos
1960    Valiant 101     Just A Walkin' / Cruel World                  Andy Starr And The Casinos


The Casinos : Joe Defulvio, Jim Tulio, Sam Gentile and Andy Starr.


Saturday, April 18, 2015

Pioneer Records Discography


Pioneer Records
Kobe, Japan
2050 Ludlow St. Philadelphia, Pa.

(All releases from 1965)

6620  John Mical Orchestra
ZTSP 98731 — For Pete's Sake
ZTSP 98730 — Soft Touch
written by J. Mical - H. Ostrow
produced by Herbert Ray Ostraw

6621  The Virgos 
ZTSP 104661 — Humpty-Dumpty (Leroy Roebuck,Ray Herbert Music BMI)
ZTSP 104662 — You're A Stranger (John Davis, Ray Herbert Music BMI)

Produced by Herbert Ray Ostrow

6622   Tommy Swanson, His Guitar and The Sound Men
? — Baseball 
?— That's Boss  
Both written by Thomas R. Swanson and Herbert Ray Ostrow
© Herbert Ray Ostrow; March 25, 1965
6623   The Castaways   (Billboard 12 Jun 1965; ©April 22, 1965)
ZTSP 104993 — Comin' Back For More (Henry Hoffman, Harris Lasky & Barry Richards)
ZTSP 104994 — I Gotta Hankerin'   (Lendy Alvarez)
Produced by Tears & Laughter & Herbert Ray Ostrow

6624   The Virgos    
ZTSP 105665 — Cost of Love
ZTSP 105666 — Do The Sway 

Both written by John N. Davis,  Ray Herbert Music   © June 7, 1965
Produced by Herbert Ray Ostrow


6625   Vocal by Lucy / Vocal By Faruk  
ZTSP 105668  — Faruk #One    Vocal by Lucy
ZTSP 105669  — Faruk #Two    Vocal By Faruk
Written by Billly Martin, William Martin Music Co Inc
Produced by Martin-Murphy


*
Faruk #One (clip)


Sunday, April 12, 2015

Dave Remington (Gateway Top Tune)


Dave Remington and his Orchestra



A Gateway Top Tune 1224
1957
 
Who needs to hear the Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis original hit versions when you can have good old Dave Remington and His Orchestra covering these songs for a cheaper price (and in my opinion not doing here a bad job) ?  

Dave Remington's Orchestra is credited to only a few records on Gateway (all in 1957) on which as a backing band.  That year, the orchestra was behind Earl Robbins and the Remington Brothers.

Is this Dave Remington, later Chicago Dixie jazz pianist/trombone and band leader ?  Who knows ? Possible, but then he's probably not the vocalist on these two covers.
Dave Remington, a native of Rochester, N.Y., decided in 1955 to end the road  routine and settle in Chicago after his wife presented him their first child.  He worked as "a slave laborer" in an ink factory until his local AFM card was issued, then returned to jazz.  One of his first jobs came to an end when, in a burst of Capone-era revisited competition, an angry faction tossed a few sticks of sizzling dynamite through the club's window.  The event convinced Dave that better jobs existed and he moved on to work with Muggsy Spanier and George Brunis and with Dixie groups at the suburban Red Arrow and at Jazz Ltd. in Chicago.  Until mid-1956, he played piano on all jobs.



Saturday, April 11, 2015

Colonel Daniel F. Cunningham's Absolute Cure All - The Wonderful Elixer Of Life


The King Twisters

 Sax Kari, Kari Music Co. BMI

MasterCraft Productions 103
 1961

This short-lived label was located in Detroit  The Magnolias and The Mighty Cravers are the two other groups issued by the label.

I think it's safe to assume that MasterCraft Productions was owned by Sax Kari.

Isaac Saxton Kari Toombs was born in Chicago in 1920.  Sax Kari, according to Preston Lauterbach [*] had done it all to make a buck in the entertainment business: payola bagman, stand-up comedy second banana, composer of blaxploitation film soundtrack—for The $6,000 Nigger to be precise—emcee, leader of a big band, record producer, and talent broker, for starters. He’d worked in virtually every city relevant to 20th century American music, Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago, Miami, and New York, and in every genre from swing to hip-hop. 
Sax Kari died in Florida in 2009.

Sax Kari discography
Sax Kari as songwriter see the the BMI database online here (548 songs!)


[*] author of the book "The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll"


 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Wah-Wah Doozie


 Bill Page


Bob Ballard, Kriss Music Co. ASCAP
Tower 349
1967




BILL PAGE was born in Chicago, IL on September 11, 1925.   A World War II veteran who served in the European stage; Bill attended Wright Junior College and played with several bands such as Del Courtney and Boyd Raeburn before joining Lawrence Welk in 1951, playing about 14 woodwind instruments including not only all the saxophones, the clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, piccolo, bassoon, oboe, and English Horn.   He was often featured in numbers in which he played about 11 instruments going through all of them as the band accompanied him.   Plus, he was know to have played two clarinets at once!  

After leaving the Welk organization in 1965, he continued to perform with famous artists such as Barry Manilow, Ted Mack, Frank Gorshin and Judy Garland.   

Bill Page recorded a few albums under his own name. Pros and Conns (meaning Conn horns) on Dot. That one featured a tune called, "Conn Artist From Elkhart Indiana"!  Another one on Dot simply titled "Bill Page". Then there were two records on Tower featuring electronic effects and octaviders, wa-wa, etc. "Sounds of the Sonic Sixties" and "Way Back Now".  

Producer and composer Robert Hudson (Bob) Ballard (1913-1992) was one of the  musical arrangers for the Lawrence Welk Band until 1982. 




The Lawrence Welk Show: Saxophobia (1957)
One of the several videos available on YouTube
featuring Bill Page



---

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Mother's Old Rocking Chair


Swingin' Granny
and The Skyliters Band


Irral Berger, Duane Music (BMI)

Irral 800 
1964


Irral Berger, born Fredericks, was no stranger to the world of show biz. In 1908, she worked as an extra in silent films.  Later she was a model and a soprano on the famed Orpheum circuit.   She wrote songs since at least the thirties (Little Gypsy Mine, 1932) and with her husband, Johnny Berger, some patriotic songs such as "United Victory" and  "Halted Victory" in 1943.   She was friend with Garrie and Clara Thompson, talent scout and promoters in Sunnyvale, California who managed Benn Joe Zeppa and Joe Simon. 


Mrs. Irral Berger, 80, better known as "Swingin' Granny"

Swingin' Granny to Sing for San Quentin SNOQUALMIE, Wash.- - The boys at San Quentin prison are in for a New Year's treat with an old-fangled beat.   Prison officials have booked "Swingin' Granny" as head-liner for their New Year's Eve show. 
Granny, or off-stage Mrs. Irral Berger, 80, may give them a little "Hard Day's Night" or flip into some of her originals,   "Mother's Old Rocking Chair" and "Alwaiys of You Alone."   "I don't really like to go on the road, but I keep getting all these bookings," Mrs. Berger explains.   
The gently - smiling great-grandmother would seem an unlikely entertainer for prison inmates, but her piano ditties and tinkling voice are a favorite in the Northwest and have already drawn two television appearances. 
Mrs. Berger says she was born in Peshtigo, Wis., and left there as a baby with her mother to join her father, employed in Washington as a section foreman.   She says she has no relatives living in Wisconsin now. She began having unlikely experiences right after the move.  "My parents moved to Issaquah (Wash.) before the turn of the century.   We were here only a few days when some gypsies stole me."   The gypsies returned her a year later, Mrs. Berger said, leaving her with a wandering spirit.  
She and her husband settled near here and built a log cabin, in which she still lives.   She tried her hand at nursing, switched to teaching music, and when her husband died 16 years ago, began doing road shows.  
"One day my daughters asked me to record some of my songs for my great-grandchildren," she says.   The record was played for some show-business producers "and before long I was touring the country."   What are the inmates likely to hear as the old year fades? The little, white-haired lady pulled her crocheted shawl over her shoulders and began beating out her newest tune, "Do Dipty."

Irral Records was a vanity label set up by Irral Berger with the help of Garrie and Clara Thompson

Discography 

Singles
777 - Tom And Jerry And The Skyliters       
778 - Joe Simon And Eugene Blacknells Band
779  - Tom And Jerry The Skyliters Band
800 - "Swingin' Granny" And The Skyliters Band
801 - "Swingin' Granny" With Hugh The Drummer Boy And The Galunts  
GSR-702/GSR-7695 -  Irral Berger
Album
810 "Swingin' Granny" LP






Thursday, April 2, 2015

Just For You


Rick And The Islanders

Just For You
Lew Hanson, Bryden Music, Inc BMI

H & G 185
Distributed by Glory Records, Inc
157 W 57, NYC
1962

The Glory label folded in 1959 but Glory Records was still in business in the sixties apparently, distributing records like this one.

Lew Hanson wrote both sides of this release.  Llewellyn (Lew) Hanson, born in 1942, was a Jamaican raised Englishman who wrote Calypso songs in New York.  "He Give Me A True, True Heart" and "Ba-Ra-Ba-Ra-Bi-Ni, The Maroon Love Chant" were among his first songs (copyrighted in 1959).

There was an album titled "Just For You" issued in 1974 by Audio Fidelity Records as by "Lew Hanson and The Islanders"

At some point, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, working for his own insurance business and, in the same time, producing artists for his Insurance City Records, such as F. Roy Taylor, Rhythm Force, Mary Mundy and Ron Surrey

He died in 1988 at age 45. His last known residence was at Bronx, New York.