I Like It Like That

 

For a good overview of Dora Hall musical career, see The World's Worst Records.  Not all her records are bad, as Darryl Bullock readily admits : 

The difference between Dora and other similar artists is that Dora could actually sing. When she sings kid-friendly songs such as Tony the Pony she’s actually quite charming. Her failings, if you will, become most apparent when she tries to sing pop songs; her vaudeville-trained voice just isn’t right for contemporary music and it’s here she starts to sound ridiculous.

For a Dora Hall enthusiast's point of view, it is better to go to hallofdora blogspot :

Dora created a body of work that is diverse, entertaining, and sometimes questionable [...] The work of Dora Hall is flawed, but it's very entertaining.  The fact that she was shooting to become a pop star when she was well past the average age for such pursuits is questionable, but it's made all the more fascinating because her husband (the founder of the Solo Cup company) freely gave her the financial backing to make her dreams come true.  Her singing abilities have been widely criticized and dismissed, and yet she's often backed by amazing session musicians.  For many people, the draw of Dora Hall is that her song choices and abilities are often just plain bad.  If they can get beyond that, however, they'll find a body of work that is charming, enthusiastic, and entertaining in ways that they might never have expected.

Another opinion is expressed by the Left and to the back blog :

There appear to be two popular views on Hall's output. The first is that the woman was dire, couldn't sing or perform very well, and wasted her life pursuing a ridiculous fantasy. The second is that actually some of her output is pretty good with superb production values and some of the best session musicians available (The Wrecking Crew were known to be involved with some Dora Hall sessions). 

In this 1966 cover of  "I Like It Like That" (Chris Kenner, 1961) Dora Hall, in my opinion, sounds good and absolutely charming.

 download link

 

 

Free Shots

Wolfman Jack - Free Shots.mp3   

 
Debbie Sabusawa- Something For Nothing 

CAVDA Records 333
Citizens Alliance For VD Awareness
222 West Adams St.  - Chicago

CAVDA : organization promoting prevention of sexually transmitted diseases

Arranged and conducted by Charles Colbert
Published by Star Point 7 (BMI)
1975

In those heady days, when the worst sexually transmitted disease you could get was VD (venereal disease), which could be erased with a free shot, The Wolfman actually seems to be encouraging kids to sex it up. There is no mention here of preventive measures (condoms, foam etc.), but hey... it was a safer, cleaner world. "Safe Sex" wasn't even on the horizon.

 

Robert Weston Smith (1938–1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. Famous for the gravelly voice which he credited for his success. [Wikipedia]

1st. Lt. Don Knepp - The Complete Recordings

1st. Lt. Don Knepp - The Complete Recordings (6 tracks)

 

"Bad Breath Carl," "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba is My Home," and "Hello, Leeward Tower," are records made by Ist Lt Don Knepp, a versatile officer stationed at Guantanamo Bay. The three, along with "DEFEX Blues" and "Big Iron," were cut on 45 r.p.m. records and went on sale, with the profits going into a college scholarship fund for deserving seniors graduating from Gitmo's W. T. Sampson High School. The lieutenant is a Sunday school teacher,

Below, article from The Gitmo Review, US Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, October 24, 1964

The Glory Of Love

 

 "Honey" Brown
Tommy Jones Orchestra

The Glory of Love

Kiss Me Baby

M and M Records
1961

Her last record, as far as I known, after few records on Derby (with Freddie Mitchell), Fortune (with Choker Campbell) and Club 51 (with the Lefty Bates Combo. 

For more info see http://campber.people.clemson.edu/club51.html

Oh Mona

Wayne Pav & the Orphuns



Oh Mona

Pav Records 650
1966

That Jive

That Jive

Vitacoustic unissued

Kitty Stevenson (1918-1952)

Born in Thompson, Georgia, Kitty Stevenson came to Detroit in 1929. She started out as a dancer and her first singing job in Detroit with Lorenzo Lawson at Lee's Sensation. Under the management of Al Green she toured widely in 1950 and 1951.  Kitty Stevenson was known as the "Blues Bombshell" in her brief career.  Her son is Motown producer & songwriter Mickey Stevenson

Vitacoustic recording from December 1947.  Vitacoustic was a Chicago independent, associated with the up-and-coming Universal Recording operation. It collapsed into bankruptcy in less than a year, amid nasty management disputes, after investing heavily in recorded material that would never see release.  [...] Because it spent freely on Billboard ads, and its riches-to-rags story attracted a lot of coverage, the company's story is much better documented in contemporary sources than was usual for small labels.
http://campber.people.clemson.edu/vitacoustic.html

Potato Diggin' Man

Andrew "Blueblood" McMahon

1926-1984

Potato Diggin' Man

Recorded for Cadillac Baby in Chicago, December 1971 : Andrew McMahon, vcl, Little Mac, harmonica, Hubert Sumlin & Eddie Taylor, guitars, Sunnyland Slim ,piano, Odell Campbell, bass and Willie Williams, drums

Andrew McMahon joined the Howlin’ Wolf Band in 1960, as bass player. Blueblood worked with Wolf for over 13 years, appearing on a couple of 1964 sides and on the 1972 album The Back Door Wolf. In the 60’s he also backed Morris Pejoe and Freddy Young on record. In the 1970’s he recorded two albums: Blueblood on the Dharma label in 1973, and Go Get My Baby on Storyville in 1976.

Easter Bunny Song

Easter Bunny Song

Baby Pam in the recording studio
 (1953)

In 1953, seven-year-old Baby Pam was already an experienced trouper. Before her debut as a singer with such catchy little items as "My Daddy Gave Me Choo Choo Trains for Christmas and Now He's Having Fun.", she was an accomplished drummer with a troupe of six-year-old musicians called The Rhythm Babies, who entertained Middle Western television audiences over a Chicago station. The Rhythm Babies broke up two years before during a legal wrangle over which tot was the leader of the band.


In 1953, the trend of recording young and very young artists has been noted generally with sympathy by various magazines and music trade papers.  A little less moved by the junior performances, a columnist from New York wrote:

They sing (if that is the word) not to other children but to adults. Not since the days of Shirley Temple, Bobby Breen and Baby Rose Marie have tiny tots and teenagers commanded such an impressive part of America's craze-ridden, fad-conscious entertainment industry. 

On television, radio and records they are lisping and sighing, screeching and crying their way through such musical gems as "Too Old for Toys, Too Young for Boys," "My Daddy is in Korea and Mommy Cries All Day," "Three and Four is Eight," and "God Bless Us All."

The youngsters ‒  Jimmy Boyd, 14, "Brucie" Weil, six, Gayla Peevey, eight, Baby Pam, seven, Charlie Applewaite, 13, and several implausibly named little dears, Molly Bee, six, Texas Sunshine Ruby, nine, Sonny Boy, five, Nelly Honey, of Missouri, seven, and Kansas Pete, who is alleged to be three ‒  now fill the airwaves from New York to San Francisco with their piping renditions of the latest of Tin Pan Alley's vocal nightmares. 

The most curious aspect of all this is that people are prepared to pay enormous sums for what many consider to be sheer punishment.

More potential punishment for your pleasure here

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?

Rock And Roll King

Rock And Roll King

Carl Jones pays tribute to Elvis, the King of Rock & Roll (1977)

Morris “Carl” Jones (1913-1985)

Musician and Chicago-based record producer, Carl Jones was born in Waxahachie, Texas.  As a teenager he took up the banjo and eventually addet trumpet and trombone to his instrumental repertoire. He got a show on the local radio station, WXA, singing and playing. Jones soon joined the Carolina Cotton Pickers, the first of many groups to which he belonged.  He moved to Chicago in 1937 and in 1945 recorded two sides for Mercury.  He founded the C.J. label in the late fities, eventually followed by two more, the Colt and Firma labels.  He is best known for his output in the blues field, having recorded Earl Hooker, Mack Simmons, Hound Dog Taylor, Homesick James and Detroit Junior.

Jones's record company was never more than a boutique operation, and he maintained his nine-to-five job in the liquor distribution business and worked on Sundays as a bartender at a famed South Side blues bar, Theresa's.

When Jones died in 1985 he was still operating his record company.


[Info above from Robert Pruter]

Playboy

Born in Memphis, Tennessee around 1935 Charles Jones, better known as Jeb Stuart, had a long musical career.  From the beginning of his career, Stuart seems to have oriented himself toward the white audience. He grew up idolising Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Elvis, Fats Domino, and Little Richard, and left Memphis to study at the Chicago Conservatory of Music under Frank Lavere, one of the writers of Nat King Cole's hit ''Pretend''.  This Zale single is missing from his various  discographies available online.

While in Chicago and before he came back to Memphis, he recorded these four singles :

My Dearest Treasure / My Silent Heart  ~ WING 90068 -1956 (As Charles Jones)

Bring Down The Curtain / Playboy  (As Charlie Jones)   ZALE 1301-2 -  1957

You Forgot About Me / All Broken Up ~ (As Jeb Stuart) MAESTRO 1004/5   1959

Ichaban Josan / What A Beautiful Face ~ (As Jeb Stuart) SHAR 2 - 1959

Also, while in Chicago, Charles Jones/Jeb Stuart managed Faith Taylor & The Sweet Teens (Federal and Bea & Baby Records).

More info:

http://thatsallritemama.blogspot.com/2015/10/jeb-stuart-on-cotton.html

 http://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/S/jeb_stuart/index.php

http://koti.mbnet.fi/wdd/jebstuart.htm

Playboy

Boom Boom Boom

Boom Boom Boom

1965

Cover of John Lee Hooker by uncredited band on the last disc of the fifth set in the Discoteen series issued by the mighty Chicago's Seeburg Corporation in 1965.

DiscoTeen, which released 5 sets of 10 discs with a red label, culled

all the recent hits from the Discotheque Series and added a lot more,

with only occasional slow songs. Mixed in with the instrumental versions

of hits were 1-3 originals on each album (as was the case for the other

series, also), usually quite competent and danceable instrumentals.

The music itself included no hit versions, but the musicians were quite

competent and the sound quality was excellent. The artists were not

identified, so we have called the various artists the same name Seeburg

used for their generic music in the past, The Seeburg Spotlite Band.

Actually, according to those around Seeburg at the time, bands such as

David Carroll and Boots Randolph and their orchestras were hired to

record these tunes, and recordings were done in first-rate studios such

as Universal Studios in Chicago (Seeburg's home city) and Nashville's

top studios. All the recordings were well-separated true stereo.

 Info taken from the excellent Both Sides Now website HERE

 

Lucille

Lucille
Bobby Oliver and his band

Second single of the artist on Lucky Four, a Chicago label owned by Lennie Lacour.  According to

Doowop: The Chicago Scene (Robert Pruter), Bobby Oliver was a white performer  :

[Another] notable act of Lacour was a white rhythm and blues performer by the name of Bobby Oliver.  He had some success with "Where Do Dreams Go" on WGES but not on any white outlet.

Topless

"Rolls" Royce and The Wheels

Topless

Constellation Records #133
1964

Musician/drummer Royce McAfee toured with Johnny Carroll and the Spinners in the 50s and 60s, for Warner Bros. and Capitol Records. He led The Unique Three and the Royce McAfee Combo in the 60s and 70s. He owned Royce McAfee Music and was publisher and producer on his ARA Record label. 

Rolls Royce & The Wheels were sessions players in Dallas Texas mostly doing commercials and jingles for radio.  They were also the band to back Mary Smith..aka Lady Wilde (born Mary Murray, March 1942 in Liverpool, England). on "Poor Kid" (ARA, 1965).

Royce met Judy Glenn at high school in Ft. Worth, TX. and they later married in Childress, Texas in 1959, 1959. Royce McAfee, born in Oklahoma in 1941, passed away at his home in Kaufman Co., Texas on January 6, 2015.

Judy McAfee, Royce's wife, is the composer of the song featured here and also probably the female heard on the record.

Discography

1963 Warner Bros 5397
Royce McAfee Combo Featuring Joe Davis / Royce McAfee Combo
Once There Was Love / Hot Links

1964 Constellation 133
"Rolls" Royce And The Wheels
The Frog / Topless

1965  ARA 640J-1913
"Rolls" Royce And The Wheels
1 - 2 Many / Above And Beyond

1965 ARA S4KM-8318/9
"Rolls" Royce And The Wheels
Afro-Au-Gogo / Ahh Phooey ‎

ARA label 1965-1966 see
http://www.45cat.com/label/ara-records-us

https://www.discogs.com/fr/label/746927-ARA-Records-5

Whats The Matter Baby

Jerry Mundo & The Hounds

Whats The Matter Baby

Betty Records 1200
Sonny Sawyer/Vaughn Morrison Productions
1967

What's a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You) was written by Clyde Otis, Joy Byers and was first released by Timi Yuro in 1962

★ 

An ambitious entrepreneur, Sonny (or Sunny) Sawyer was running a small record-pressing plant in Chicago called Apex at 2009 W. 69th when, around 1965, he partnered with an older recording engineer, Vaughn Morrison, who designed and built a studio one door west. Most people knew it as Sunny Sawyer's studio and others simply called it Apex, but its proper name, painted on its glass-brick facade, was Morrison Sound Studio. In '61 Morrison had produced a top-ten pop hit, "This Time," for Indiana native Troy Shondell.  That's where Jerry Mundo landed a job as a writer/arranger and co-producer.

★ 

Jerry Mundo & Galaxies (1963)
Tower 91363 : "The Chimp" / "Sweet Barbara"

Born and raised in Chicago, Jerry fronted numerous local bands and eventually landed a job as a writer/arranger and co-producer at Apex.  Playing guitar and singing at clubs around the midwest and Canada, he eventually moved toward warmer weather.  He travelled throughout the south as a solo performer, wrote songs and honed his unique style of blues/rock. After working the cruise line circuit and numerous venues in the southern states, he finally headed for Las Vegas.   

Working with several bands and keeping his day job, he went into the studio with some great  new songs and came out with "Hard Money"

★ 

Betty label listing

Named after the wife of Sonny Sawyer, owner of the label

(Betty, along with another woman operated the machinery at the pressing plant while Sunny ran the studio) 

Related labels : Palos, New Breed

1200 Jerry Mundo
1204 Gloria And The T-Aira's
1207 Jim And Monica
1208 Jimmy Bruce
1209 Jim & Monica
1210 Jim & Monica
1211 Jim & Monica
1212 Billy Stocker
1213 The Shadows
1214 Rochelle And The Classmates

Jack Metnick (The Man From Mars)

Jack Metnick

(The Man From Mars)

Mars Oldsmobile 5027

1968

Chicagoans who tuned into radio or TV in the 1950s and 1960s likely remember the inventive, offbeat car-dealership advertising pioneered by Jack "Bubble-head" Metnick.

Mr. Metnick created a rocket- fueled marketing campaign in an era in love with all things space- age. He named his Oldsmobile dealership "Mars" and billed himself as "The Man From Mars."   His commercials  — for the first Jewish owner of a General Motors Oldsmobile Division franchise —   pioneered wacky car advertising with lines such as: "Crazy Bubble-head has just landed from Mars with three antennas coming out of his head. … Mr. Metnick delighted young visitors to Mars Oldsmobile, 5027 W. Madison, by donning a space helmet in the showroom. 


Jack Metnick died in 2000, at 83.

Mars Oldsmobile Inc.

5027 W. Madison Street, Chicago

Work It Out

Savoy's

Work It Out
John Kluska

Orlyn 502

1967

Band named after the Plymouth Savoy model they drove to gigs in.  (The Savoy model itself was named, like the Plaza and Belvedere models, after an upscale hotel, the Savoy Hotel in London).  They had at least another record on Summit Records (out of Harley, Illinois) : "Can It Be" / "Now She's Left Me", songs also written by John Kluska.

The Orlyn label were named after its owner Oren Stembel and his wife Marilyn.

 

As one of the most intriguing and revered independent record labels from Chicago, Orlyn specialized in teenage garage-punk and psychedelic sounds.  The label existed from about 1965-1969 and it was an extension of the Records Unlimited Recording Studio located near Wabash and Lake Streets in downtown Chicago.

Gary Knaus, Graf Zepplin's rhythm guitarist, who recorded there in May 1968, recalls  :

The studio was quite an interesting place.  As I recall, Orie Stembel,
who ran the studio, was a cigar chomping bald headed guy with a
diamond pinkie.  He had a guy who did the mixing and the sound;
he was really good.  The engineer was great, he added a lot.

Hey Little Girl

Johnny Dane

and the Impala Singers

Hey Little Girl

Vision Records

Late 1958

Perhaps produced by Tommy "Madman" Jones who owned the Josette Publishing company. Or perhaps by Bill Sheppard (owner of the copyright according to the December 1958 registration) ?

Anyway, whoever produced the record, it was certainly a local hit as it was issued at least three times under the Vision logo and leased to Vee Jay Records.

Johnny/Johnnie Dane discography (1957-1959)

Stepheny 03/04 (1957) and 1801 (1958)
Johnny Dane And The Discorders : Why Did You Leave Me? / Shootin' High
     B Side Wr Donald L. De Lucia

Vision V-620/M117 (1958)
Johnny Dane And The Impala Singers :Joany/Hey Little Girl

Vee-Jay 312 (1959)
Johnny Dane.: Joany/Hey Little Girl

Cha Cha 703 (late '59)
Johnnie Dane :  Give Me A Chance (J. Dane, D. De Lucia)   / Prize Of A Fool (N. Kaehn-R. Binnie)

Dumb Dumb Bunny

Cal Starr

Dumb Dumb Bunny

Erman, Venetian Music, BMI
Arr. by A. Kavelin

Ermine 779

Ermine Record Co.

Chicago, Illinois

1960

The earliest copyright date for Dumb Dumb Bunny is from February 1955, words & music William Thomas Erman & Helen Saltiel Erman.  This Cal Starr recording predates the Steve Bledsoe and Johnny Cooper versions of the same song (on Witch Records and, again, Ermine Records)

Somewhat surprising is the presence here of Al Kavelin as arranger.  Does that mean that it was recorded in Los Angeles ? Probably.
Further association between songwriter and label owner Bill Erman and Cal Starr, singer resulted in two singles : 

• Yes, I'm Robbin' the Craddle, on Sam Wigler and Henry Tobias' Rego label in October 1960 (with the backing of the Anita Kerr Singers and orchestra led by Chet Atkins).
• Pain Of Love / Little Bride, on Thanx Records, a label located in Skokie, a Chicago suburban city.

CAL STARR was born in Chicago, IL but grew up on a small farm in Kentucky. He was taught a few chords on the guitar by his father and began to develop a love of music. This led to him entering and winning a talent contest with Bob Parsons, a highschool friend. His first performance was on a live radio show in Huntington, WVA.. During the early years that followed he worked as a disk jockey on KEBE radio in Jacksonville, TX and had his own program on KFLA TV in Shreveport, LA. He eventually moved back to the windy city of Chicago to pursue his love for music and the world of entertainment.