Joyce Taylor, Waxmate of the Month

How Will I Know (If I Love You)
 Liberty 55090

(1957)

Born in Taylorville, Illinois as Joyce Crowder.  Most online sources indicates a year of birth in 1932, but 1936 is the most probable year.  Joyce looked and acted older than she was. A coal miner's daughter [or according to another source, her father was a singer with his own radio show in St. Louis]  she attended public schools in Taylorville and was the top baton twirler at Taylorville High School.  Her performance in a school talent show led to a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1953.  Roy Rodde, one-time manager of Joni James, was her personal agent.

Her first record, “You’ve Got Something” for Mercury Records, was written by Joyce while sitting at a table in her mother’s restaurant called Pauline’s Place on South Washington Street. 

Mercury Records issued four singles on Joyce Taylor in 1953-1954 :

53 Mercury 70243 : If I Cry / You've Got Something  
54 Mercury 70317 : Babe In The Woods / Take My Love
54 Mercury 70345 : Sealed With A Kiss / If You Only Knew
54 Mercury 70461 : Your Mind, Your Lips, Your Heart /No Happiness For Me

She is also rumored to have recorded as Joyce Bradley (not confirmed)

55 Mercury 70769 : A Dangerous Age / Take Your Time With Me Lover (as Joyce Bradley)
55 Mercury 70716 : Why Don't You Write Me / Love Is A Many Splendored Thing as Joyce Bradley)

 

 
Under contract to Howard Hughes' RKO Pictures in the 1950s  she was only allowed by the eccentric and enigmatic tycoon to act in one picture, a small part in "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" in 1956.  After seven frustrating years being “bottled up” by the eccentric and enigmatic Howard Hughes, she became a regular on the TV sci-fi/adventure series, “Men into Space” (1959) and acted in many other TV shows in the late fifties and early sixties including “Sea Hunt,” “Bonanza,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “77 Sunset Strip” and “The Untouchables.”   Joyce’s movie titles include: “Atlantis the Lost Continent,” “Ring of Fire,” “Thirteen Frightened Girls,” “F.B.I. Story,” “Windsplitter,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Rappacinni’s Daughter.”   In addition, she made numerous television commercials, some of which were for VO5 hair spray and cream, Rambler, Ford, Coke, Spic and Span, and Folgers Coffee.

She later married a stockbroker and left the business. Now makes her home in Colorado where she writes poetry.

Several paragraphs in "Howard Hughes: The Untold Story" book by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske describes the Joyce Taylor's RKO years:

Thirteen Men

Meg Myles

with Harry Geller

and his Orchestra

Thirteen Men
(Dickie Thompson,Fisher Music ASCAP)

Liberty 55038

1956

To the best of my knowledge,this is the very first recorded female version of "Thirteen Women", before Dinah Shore [1958] and before Ann-Margret [1962].  


The song was first recorded by its composer, guitarist Dickie Thompson :

"Thirteen Women and Only One Man" — it sounded like a good idea to Dickie Thompson when he wrote the song in the early 1950s.

"The lines went something like, 'I had two gals every morning serving me breakfast in bed/I'm telling you, Jack, one rubbed my back while the other one rubbed my head,'  But the idea proved too salacious for the early rock 'n' roll generation — or perhaps their parents.  Disc jockeys played Thompson's song [Herald Records 424, 1954) for a couple of weeks, then decided it was too risqué and pulled it off the air.

Music producers didn't give up on it, though. The song was rewritten for Bill Haley and His Comets. The rock-'n'-rollers recorded "Thirteen Women" as their A-side — "Rock Around the Clock" was on the B-side.

The Haley version is an atomic fantasy song about a working guy dreaming of being the only man to survive an H-bomb attack.  Audiences and radio stations found the hit a vast improvement. Nuclear annihilation, it seemed, was an acceptable reason to have multiple lady friends.

The change in lyrics didn't seem to faze Thompson, though. The musician received residual checks for decades even though most performers recorded the H-bomb version. 

Meg Myles

Meg Myles was a popular model and pin-up of the 1950s.

As noted by  the Billboard reviewer of her Mercury album from 1962 cut at New York's Living Room :

Miss Myles is a young lady of limited vocal talent but she's abundantly endowed otherwise, a fact which helps fans overlook her vocal limitations.

And Steve Allen had teasingly noted in 1957 : 

She's appeared on my TV shows several times and I've noticed that our crew, a pretty casual group - not easily impressed - always pays strict attention when she's out there, standing with her feet slightly apart, her head tilted a little to one side.  There's no doubt about it - Meg is one singer who's fun to look at.  (Steve Allen, notes to Liberty LP Just Meg and Me, 1957)

For your desert island enjoyment, here is a selection* of 13 covers, 5 female, 6 male and two instrumentals :

1 - Dinah Shore - Thirteen Men
2 - Ann-Margaret - Thirteen Men.
3 - Girlicious - Thirteen Men
4 - Jane Wiedlin  - Thirteen Men
5 - Melina Soochan - Thirteen Men

6 - Dickie Thompson - Thirteen Women
7 - The Renegades - Thirteen Women
8 - Chance Halladay - Thirteen Women
9 - Danny Gatton - Thirteen Women.
10 - Darrel Higham - Thirteen Women
11 - The Fuzztones - Thirteen Women

12 - Tommy Oliver - Thirteen Women
13 - Electromaniacs - Thirteen Women

Not included are the versions by Bill Haley, Col Buckley & The  In-Crowd (Australia), Marty Rhone And His Soul Agents (Australia), Eddy Mitchell (in french), The Heroes, Rock-A-Dials, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy,  The Flaming Sideburns, Christina Aguilera,  Cub Koda, Dixie Gunworks,  Vidar Busk & His True Believers,  The Breeze Kings,  Dagmars, Pete Turland, Quinn Lemley,  Michael Feinstein, Rockin' The Joint and  Gina Haley  (daughter of Bill).... and probably some more...




* for pw see comment

Every Night

 

Rita Renay

with the Eddie Beal Orchestra

Every Night

Liberty 55073

1957

Penned by Ronnie Rae, Ed Townsend and Scott J. Johnson, Jr.  "Every Night" is a song first recorded by Peggy Lee for Capitol Records and issued about one month before the Rita Renay version.  Etta James also recorded the song the following year for Kent Records.  According to some, the Rita Renay version is the best one.

Her Liberty record was also issued on London Records in Australia just before her tour in that country with headliner Billy Eckstine in October 1958. The Australian release was credited to Renee Renor, the name whereby she was most widely know.

Born Tia Camarillo,of Mexican-american lineage. she mainly performed in night-clubs with bands such as Franke Rapp, The Exciting Singing and Rhythms of Ed Domingo, Jack Costanzo...). in Texas, Nevada, Arizona and California during the fifties and the sixties, using various aliases.

 

She recorded as Renee Medina for 4 Star (1963) and Challenge (1964). 

From 1964 to 1972, she was Harla Day on stage (Las Vegas, Santa Cruz, El Paso, Pasadena, Phoenix,...).

And finally she settled down in Phoenix, Arizona (1972) after a last (?) single for RCA.  She had at that time the same manager as Charley Pride :

TIA CAMARILLO Vocal, single act. Concerts, Fairs, Night Clubs, Club Dates. Jack D. Johnson Talent, Inc., Don M. Kelrns, responsible agent. Jack D. Johnson, personal manager. RCA Records, "Somewhere In This Town". 

★ 

In 1955, she had a small part in "Guys and Dolls", a movie directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz,, starring Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons (1955) : she sings in the Havana Cafe scene (see picture below).

But is she also the dancer ? (I'd like to think that the answer is yes, but I'm really not sure)

Rita Renay

 a.k.a. Renee Renor, Renee Medina, Harla Day and Tia Camarillo

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