Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast

 

" Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me"(cover)

Among the 31 short love poems read by Jane Mansfield, I have selected from her album Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me"  (MGM Records, 1964) the one by Robert Herrick : Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast


HAVE ye beheld (with much delight)
A red rose peeping through a white ?
Or else a cherry, double grac'd,
Within a lily centre plac'd ?
Or ever mark'd the pretty beam
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream ?
Or seen rich rubies blushing through
A pure smooth pearl and orient too ?
So like to this, nay all the rest,
Is each neat niplet of her breast.

Almost forgotten in the 18th century, and in the 19th century alternately applauded for his poetry’s lyricism and condemned for its “obscenities,” Robert Herrick is, in the latter half of the 20th century, finally becoming recognized as one of the most accomplished nondramatic poets of his age.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-herrick

Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast

No one really knows for certain what prompted Jayne or MGM Records to make this album in the first place. No one, to this day, knows what to make of it.  She certainly wanted to be taken seriously. But no one did:  how could that have been possible :

The photography on the cover is one of the worst Jayne picture I have ever seen, Earl Wilson, the author of the liner notes contributed juvenile breast jokes, and finally few people admitted to have listened to it.

One of the few reviewers to admit he had lstened to it, Nick Jones of the Indianapolis News, wrote : If the idea is a gag - then P.T. Barnum has a new rival, [...] but if she's taking herself seriously, well, it's downright embarassing.

 

A better cover

Beti Webb

Beti Webb in 1955

Beti Webb (born in 1935) was a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in english and drama with an emphasis on media production, advertising , marketing and journalism. She has acted in or directed over 180 plays. In 1959, she was the featured vocalist with Warren Covington and the Tommy Dorsey orchestra. Her first record, produced by Stan Kesler, was on the XL label out of Memphis and was also issued nationally by MGM with a different flipside.

Beti Webb discohraphy

A: My Marine
B: I Know (You Can Be Happy)
    XL 359    1966

A: I Have, I Have
B: I Know (You Could Be Happy)
    MGM K 13715    Apr 1967

A: Tic Toc
B: It's Not Me
    MGM K 13847    Nov 1967

Busy Line

Billy Williams Quartet
MGM Records K11117

1951


 Busy Line

 

Bio/discography can be found here

Putzie Putz The Octopus

Geene Courtney
MGM 12712
1958

Putzie Putz The Octopus

Geene Courtney, Miss Sausage Queen (1955)

Geene Courtney was born Geene Radko in Pennsylvania in 1921. Model, starlet, entertainer and singer, Geene was also an advertising-oriented beauty queen whose titles included New York Miss Cheesecake of 1951 and Miss Sausage Queen of 1955. 

Geene passed away on July 6, 2000 in a nursing home in Saxonburg, Pa.

Her only record (I think)

Duck Walk

Judy Cross

Duck Walk

Miller-Rene, Wilco Publ. Co. BMI

MGM 12902

1960

✔ Spotted this one en ebay today described as "hilarious insipid teener".   Auction 

✔ Wanted to know more.  

✔ Searched YouTube.   

✔ Found "Duck Walk" by Youtuber Puddlebacky.

✔ Wanted to know more about Puddlebacky.  

✔ Found out that is a genuine crapdigger (see video of him digging in the woods HERE).

✔ Found out that he is also Puddleboy on Flickr where he exposes some of his finds.

And what about Judy Cross ?

Judy Cross was a morning radio show producer (and assistant-librarian) at WINS in New-York and probably in need of some attention decided to make a career in music.  Joe Rene, owner the tiny Claro label in New-York was glad to help and she recorded her first single (Mrs. Billy Brown b/w Old Enough to Know) for Claro which was issued in mid-1959 (probably in July).  She promoted her single on the Hy Lit show on July 30th and on American Bandtstand on August 20.

"Duck Walk", her second single followed in the latter part of 1959 backed with  "When's He Gonna Kiss Me".   She approched Bruce Wendell,  WINS' chief librarian, attempting to bribe him for pushing her record on air.   That's probably why she had to resign in December 1959 and came back only when WINS program director Mel Leeds left. (Mel Leeds and other staff members were caught up in the web of the Payola scandal hitting the entire radio industry in 1959-1960).  MGM Records re-issued the single in 1960.

And what about Joe Rene ?

Joseph René, born September 4, 1924, Amsterdam, Holland. Father radio violonist. Mother : concert pianist. Studied violin, harmony and orchestration with the famous professor W. Buescher . Trumpet player and arranger with big bands.  Career was interrupted by Mr Adolf Hitler. Went into hiding and remained 3½ years in an attic three doors down from Anne Frank.  Resumed career after Liberation in 1945 and became musical director for United States First Army.   Came to the United States in 1949.  Big bands, radio, T.V. etc arranging and conducting recording dates and went into producing.

Was A&R for Beltone Records, 1960-1961 ("Tossin' and Turnin'," Bobby Lewis, a song co-written by his wife Malou Rene)., for RCA Victor (mid-sixties) and recorded himself with his orchestra a number of albums on Manhattan, Tops, Epic and other labels.

Joe Rene, here with Les Surfs, a sextet from Madagascar (1964)