An RV Kind of Christmas

Leonard & Sandra
The Santa Claus Song
RV - 101
1978


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Extremely odd Christmas sounds from Athens, Tx. Probably very few copies of this exist and with good reason.

Theme from Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary and Little Andy
Lullaby from Rosemary's Baby
Columbia - 44586
1968

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Here's a radio promo copy of the theme from Rosemary's Baby. I can't believe this wasn't a big hit! #1 in all markets, Rosemary and Little Andy!!

Whispering Pigg?

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Whispering Pigg
Darlene
EastWest - 111
1958
Whoa. Here's a weird and creepy offering from someone calling themselves Whispering Pigg (actually Larry Randall). According to my minimal research, he released one forty five. What? You've never heard of him? Produced by Norman Petty.

Bell Labs Speech Simulation Demonstration Record - He Saw The Cat

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This little demonstration record is pretty fascinating. It's popped up in a couple of other places before like WFMU's 365 Days Project
and the excellent Airform Archives Blog.
but I figured that it's interesting enough to share with Y'all here. Released in 1963, this record demonstrates Bell Laboratories emerging speech simulation program. Strange that after almost 50 years this technology doesn't seem to have improved much. What is really compelling though is how they programmed the computer to sing the song "Daisy" a full 5 years or so before the movie 2001 was realesed, in which the homicidal computer HAL sings the same tune. Apparently Stanley Kubrick did his homework...

Happy Ghoul Tide

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Brice Armstrong & the All American Ghouls
Happy Ghoul Tide
Duchess - 1020
1962
Here is a very odd release from Duchess records, which I normally associate with New Orleans R&B/Soul. There is nothing New Orleans sounding about this record, but it's still pretty fun. Anyone know the story behind this one?

My Gift To You

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Leonard & Sandra
The Santa Claus Song
RV 101
1978
Here is perhaps the greatest Christmas 45 I have ever found. I have never heard it anywhere but on my record player. I can find no information about it anywhere. Everything about it smacks of vanity pressing. Leonard croaks about Santa, his voice breaking all over the place. I can only guess that Sandra must be the one noodling on the casio keyboard. This definitely falls into the category of so bad it's good. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's so bad it's GREAT. One of my all time faves. Consider this my contribution to the World's Christmas Canon. May it find its way onto mixed CDs everywhere...
p.s. If you have ever heard this song, or have any information about it, PLEASE let me know!

Moving Forward by Going Backward

Yes, I know... it's been too long since my last post. The jukeboxmafia got married last month and has been neglecting his blogging duties. Sorry for the prolonged silence, but here at last is something interesting.

Kasenetz and Katz were two of the most prolific producers of bubblegum music in the late sixties. They produced the Ohio Express, 1910 Fruitgum co. and many, many others including this one: the Kasenetz-Katz Super Cirkus. Side one of this disc is a pretty straight forward bubblegum confection (featuring Joey levine on vocals) called I'm in Love With You. Flip it over however and something dark and disturbing is going on here. Something like a depressed walrus singing on his deathbed. I was pretty intrigued when I heard this and very curious about what the hell I was hearing. Whatever it is, it is not only recorded backwards but it's also recorded at the wrong speed.

A little digital trickery reveals that To You With Love is simply about one minute of the middle of I'm in Love With You played backward at 16 rpm...

Whether this was a joke, a rather lame stab at psychedelia or an attempt to insure that only the A side received radio airplay I have no idea...

Kasenetz-Katz Super Cirkus
To You With Love (original)
Buddha - 82 - 1969

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To You With Love (altered)

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Misogyny Mix & Mystery Song Contest! Warning: Offensive Content Alert

Extended Misogyny Mix

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As a furtive baby step toward creating an official podcasting blog, I have prepared the above extended mix MP3. This is a compilation of songs from my collection that are all related to misogyny, wife beating and/or murdering one's baby. Note: I am in no way condoning these sentiments. I only put this together because I thought it would make an interesting mix. Oddly, over half of the songs here are from Louisiana and/or New Orleans. Hmmmm, makes you think...
Track List:
1. Smiley Lewis - Jailbird
2. Lonesome Sundown - You Better Learn to Treat Me Better
3. Raymond Lewis - I'm Gonna Put Some Hurt on You
4. Bobby Bland - Cry, Cry, Cry
5. Aaron Neville - Over You
6. Blue Charlie - I'm Gonna Kill That Hen
7. Pat Hare - I'm Gonna Murder My Baby
8. Sugarboy Crawford - Watch Her Whip Her
9. The Crystals - He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss)

CONTEST!!
Bonus Mystery Song
????????????

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As a bonus, I submit to you the following mystery song in the same theme. This is a song that I put on a cassette tape many years ago, the title of which I can no longer remember, nor the artist. The first listener to correctly identify song title and artist will win a mystery prize pack (basically whatever stupid crap I have sitting around my desk) Good Luck! (with apologies to Red Kelly for stealing his bit, from Soul Detective)

*Editor's Note* Many of these songs are outrageously offensive. Not for the overly sensitive. Listen at your own risk!

Little Gary Ferguson

I first heard of Little Gary Ferguson on the excellent Bear Family DVD Series: The Beat!!!!
Available Here

On the video (from 1966) Gary appears to be about 8 or so and does his best attempt at a James Brown style stage act. A few years later this single was released and he appeared on a bill with Frank Zappa, the Count Five and others (see poster above.) After that, who knows? I can find very little info about him online. Anyway, this funky track, in kind of a Jackson 5 groove, is pretty cool with Gary singing (a little creepily perhaps) about loving those kisses and hugs from Mom! Check it out...
Little Gary Ferguson
A Mother's Love

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*edit* Okay, so upon further consideration, maybe I played down the creepiness of this song too much. Gary is singing in a very adult, sexual sounding way about loving his mother. Perhaps his handlers thought this would play off as cute, since he is a child, but something went wrong somewhere...

Drugstore Cowgirl

Debbie Brimer
I Turned To the Bottle

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This one's pretty funny. I first picked it up thinking it was going to be one of those classic drinking songs, like Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" but it turns out it's really a song about a woman who likes to dye her hair instead of popping pills or smoking grass! Debbie Brimer is listed as both writer and performer and after hearing her sing it's not surprising that a google search turns up practically nothing...

Mystery 4 Stomper (pt. 2)

Two Crows & the Diggers

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Here's the flip...

Mystery 4 Stomper (pt. 1)

Willie Snow & the Diggers
You Upset Me Baby
dig (this record) 779

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This one is really a mystery. I haven't been able to find any info on the artists or the label. This appears to be one those those cheap budget labels like Hit or Prom records, where they threw some anonymous studio musiscians together to cover whatever songs were popular at the moment, hoping that you wouldn't notice or care that it wasn't the original artists. Anyway, anonymous or not, these guys (whoever they may be) are pretty blistering! Listen to that guitar... Again, if you know anything about this one, please comment below...

Soul Je T'aime

Sylvia & Ralfi Pagan
Soul Je T'aime
Vibration - 525

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Ooh, boy. this one's a doozy. I initially picked this one up because it was cheap and because I was intrigued with the wrting credit, which lists co-composers Sylvia Robinson and Serge Gainsbourg. That alone is a pretty weird combination and worth checking out, I figured. Anyway, I got it home and filed it away without even listening to it and kind of forgot about it, until I got into a conversation with a friend at work about Serge Gainsbourg. Well, yesterday I pulled it out and gave it a spin and oh, brother! This one got moved up to the top of the stack quick. I'm not sure what exactly is going on here, but it seems like whatever they were attempting didn't really work out. I think this was supposed to be sexy, but to me it just sounds ridiculous, like some bad porno soundtrack gone horribly wrong... A brilliant disaster.
**written on 4/09/08