Be Bop Baby Sitter

Vera And The Three Jays



Be Bop Baby Sitter

El Bee 162
1957

El Bee label owned by Chicago lawyer John Burton.  Its most collectible release is El Bee 157, guitarist and singer Freddie King's debut ("Country Boy"/'That's What You Think").

Regarding the identity of Vera, I have good reason to believe she was Vera Sanford, a member of Opus De Four, quartet led by John Outterbridge until 1960 and also the same Vera Sanford who later headed the roster of talent of Earl Washington's Bombay Records in 1964.  For a comparaison of the voices, here is a song from her 1964 album:

Shangri-La
From the album “10 Minutes to Midnight” (Bombay Records)

Vera=Vera Sanford?

Wicket Chicken

Duck Flowers

Wicket Chicken

This Cool label is probably the lesser known of the several labels owned by Charles A. Colbert, musician and restaurant owner in Chicago (Nike, Tip Top, Jive, Mellow labels plus the gospel Chapel label)

"Wicket Chicken" –  or "Wicket Cicken" (!) as found at the BMI online database – has been written by Donald Fola and Charles Colbert, Jr., son of the label's owner.

Fola (lyrics) & Colbert Jr. (music) collaborated on several songs in 1962.  Their answer to  'Duke of Earl' by Gene Chandler titled "I Out-Duked The Duke".and sung by Little Otis (Otis Hayes) was handed to Motown as ready-made master which was released on Tamla.

Donald Fola also wrote at an unknown date two (unissued?) songs with Nick Jovan : "The Heart Repair Man" and "If You Don't Want My Love"  

Duck Flowers=Donald Fola?

Someday You're Gonna Sing The Blues

Big Mack and The Shufflers



Someday You're Gonna Sing The Blues

b/w

Out Of My Mind

Tri-Mac 501
Tri-Mac Records Co.
3274 N. 14 St., Milwaukee
1958

"Chicago style" Milwaukee blues vocal with electric guitar on "Someday". "Out of My Mind is instrumental. One-off label owned by Samuel Trice later with Odessa Records.

No idea who is Big Mack or The Shufflers. Anyone?

(Straighten Up &) Fly Righ

Little Sammy Swinger



 Hot Pastrami W/ Mashed Potatoes

b/w

(Straighten Up &) Fly Right

Juvenile screamer on the Essar label from 1964.  Arranger and producer is S. R. Gardiner. 
The four known releases on this obscure label –  almost certainly from Michigan – were all issued in 1964 and the eight songs, curiously enough, are covers. 

Label discography here

If anyone know something on this label and/or its artists, feel free to share your info

Santa Has Rhythm

Joan Blackman

sings with the

Jack Ross Quartet



Santa Has Rhythm

Joan Blackman was 12-year old at the time of this record, her only record as far as I know.

Joan Blackman was bom in San Francisco on May 17, 1938. the only child of Ivy and Frank Blackman. Her father was a musician. At four, Joan took dancing lessons; she had her start singing (probably with the Jack Ross Quartet) in San Francisco at the Fairmont Hotel and other spots around the City.  After graduating from Lincoln High School in 1956, she became a model. 

Blackman appeared in her first motion picture, Good Day for a Hanging, in 1959. She had a significant role in two Elvis Presley films. She played Maile Duval in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii and the following year played Rose Grogan in Kid Galahad.

One of the scenes in Blue Hawaii is the Hawaiian Wedding Song, when she and Elvis marry. Very few actresses were allowed to sing opposite Elvis. Those few lines in that scene are the only words she was able to sing in his film, unfortunately. Ann-Margret and Juliet Prowse, on the other hand, had their own singing scene in Viva Las Vegas and GI Blues.

She also appeared with Dean Martin in Career (1959), and played Ellen Spelding, the love interest of Kreton, the character of Jerry Lewis in Visit to a Small Planet (1960). Her other film appearances included roles in The Great Impostor (1961), Twilight of Honor (1963), Daring Game (1968), Pets (1974), Macon County Line (1974), and Moonrunners (1975).

Joan Blackman page at IMDb

 

You Fascinate Me, Baby

Lowell Howell



You Fascinate Me, Baby

October 1955 : Mona C. Herren announced the forming of a new independent record com-
pany to be known as Monava Records.  "The company is contemplating a heavy recording schedule, and first releases will hit the market about the middle of October. " according to the Cash Box tidbit (October 15, 1955).

Despite the contemplated heavy recording schedule, there was not too many records issued, as apart from this Lowell Howell release, I've found only one other release on Monava : The Monettes accompanied by the Musicleers (on 78 rpm).

Lowell Howell was M.C. at the Dude Ranch in Long Beach in the early forties :"Lowell Howell, M. C, directs the shows and sings every night except Tuesday" [Why not Tuesday? The Dude Ranch closed every Tuesday, that's why]

Rock N' Roll Music Box

"Toad" Fraley With The Tadpoles

Rock N' Roll Music Box
Wr.: Charles Nathan, Dave Heisler (Chase Music Co.)

Singing-guitar player  Freddie “Toad” Fraley, who doubles as a professional wrestler, with his first release –  and possibly his last - on the Allied label, subsidiary of the Allied Record Manufacturing Company, one of the oldest independent pressing plant dating back to the thirties.

The Fraleys, a wrestling father and son team
Pat and Freddie Fraley (1958)

He Taught Me How To Yodel

Before the internet, before the telephone, before the telegraph and even before the tom-tom, there was the yodeling, according to Bart Plantenga and his book "Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World";

Plantenga suggests that yodeling most likely originated in Africa, "at the beginning of mankind, when man decided he could do different things with his voice. More practically, it probably began 10,000 years or so ago, when animals first were domesticated, [as] a way to keep the cattle together. It probably also had to do with people amusing themselves. The Pygmies [still] use it for many things, including feasts and playing. They have this method of singing back and forth between two voices, and it's just pure pleasure at that level."

.......

Did a centuries-old, Swiss mountain tradition make its way into American country music? As his fascinating book reveals; yodeling is not just a Swiss thing - everyone from Central African pygmies, Nashville hunks-in-hats, avant-grade tonsil-twisters like Meredith Monk, hip-hop stars De La Soul, and pop stars like Jewel have been known to kick back and release a yodeling refrain. Along the way, we encounter a gallery of unique characters, ranging from the legendary, such as country singer Jimmie Rodgers, to the definitely different, including Mary Schneider 'the Australian Queen of Yodeling' who specialises in yodeling Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, and the Topp Twins, a yodeling lesbian duo who employ the sound in their songs aimed at battling homophobia. 

Ethel Delaney was born and raised in a small coal mining town in Southern Ohio. People in this rural community had to make their own entertainment, so at an early age (5 years old) Ethel started to learn to play the guitar and began singing all types of songs and yodeling.
The guitar was finally ordered from the catalog and the days were full of anticipation and excitement waiting for its delivery. Yodeling came naturally and living in the beautiful hills of Ohio Ethel was able to yodel as long and as loud as she wanted. She performed whenever she could and did so for all the church socials and school naffairs.
Ethel's first songwriting attempt, "Echo Mountain" was published by B-W Music, recorded at a studio in Cleveland, Ohio and released on the privat DECO labl; several other songs have been written, recorded and released since that time.

More about Ethel here

Ethel Delaney & Pee Wee King

He Taught Me How To Yodel

Music For Testing False Teeth

Homemade compilation made of titles featured on the cover of a fictitious album published in Mad Magazine (November 1958). 

Let's look at the Record Dept. It all started with Jackie Gleason's LP "Music For Lovers.Only."  Now it looks like the latest trend in record albums... mainly these collections of songs for special people or special occasions or special purposes... is going a little too far. 

Track listing

01 - Karl Denver  - Wimoweh                                              
02 - Four Lads - Skokiaan                                                
03 - Julus La Rosa - Eh Cumpari                                          
04 - Thelma Carpenter - Diga-Diga Doo                                    
05 - The Hot Biscuits - Triskaidekaphobia                                
06 - Dudaim - Tzena, Tzena, Tzena                                        
07 - Al Jolson - Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula (Hawaiian Love Song)             
08 - Baldwin And The Whiffles - Sh-Boom                                  
09 - Susy Rose - Jambalaya                                               
10 - Louis Prima - Baciagaloop                                           
11 - Slim & Slam - The flat foot floogie                                 
12 - Vincent Niclo & The Choir of the Red Army - Funiculì, Funiculà  
13 - Cristina D'Avena - Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo                              
14 - Charley Pride -- Kaw-Liga                                           
15 - Peggy Lee - Bali ha´i                                               
16 - The Pied Pipers - Mairzy Doats                                      
17 - James Baskett  - Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah                                 
18 - The Merry Macs - Ashby de la Zouch By The Sea                       
19 - Trio Los Panchos - Quizas, quizas, quizas

link

Keeping You Alive

Rose Mary White And Grable Garrett

Keeping You Alive



Rose Mary White

Sugar Boy

One-off Detroit release from 1963. Both songs written by Othea George (also credited as the arranger), Gabriel Garrett & C. Washington.

George, Garrett & Washington were all members of The Four Tracks, of Tony & The Technics  and later of The Four Voices.

Rose Mary White is unknown to me, but Grable Garrett is probably Gabriel Garrett.

Her Phone Number On The Wall

Her Phone Number On The Wall

Don't Be Hasty

I'm only able to confirm what said Mr. Fab six years ago on his blog "Music For Maniacs" : There is almost no info on Tony Fabbri on the 'net, but all you need to know is that this is seriously some primo outsider awesomeness

Anthony Fabbri (Tony Fabbri, Tony Fabry) was born in 1925.  Out of Hollywood, Tony Fabbri operated, starting from 1961,  Fabbri Records, A Flat & F Sharp Records and Fanum Fortune Records.

In 1977, Tony performed "The. Phone Booth," on the Gong Show, a song he called "an unusual disco original song".  The Gong Show was an amateur talent contest created and originally produced by Chuck Barris, known for its absurdist humor and style, with the actual competition secondary to the often outlandish acts presented.


Too bad, the album Love & Inspirational Songs International posted by Mr. Fab is no longer available.