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

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