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Rock-A-Lolita

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Bobby Jones

(Ook A Jook A Jook A Jook A)
Eddie Curtis, Amelia Music ASCAP
Arranged, conducted and produced by Marty Edwards

Kitten 707
Division Of Bearcat Productions
1961

Not the soul Chicago singer.  This was possibly his sole record.   Also possibly the sole record on this Kitten label.

Eddie Curtis, the songwriter (and owner of Amelia Music) was also an arranger and a singer. He was born in Galveston, Texas, on July 17, 1927.  He became interested in music at an early age, and by the age of 15, had led his own band.  Curtis composed hundreds of songs, including the R&B hits “Lovey Dovey” (recorded by the Clovers and other artists) and “It Should've Been Me” (made famous by Ray Charles). He also wrote several songs that were recorded by Connie Francis. 

His records can be found on Gee (as Eddie "Tex" Curtis), Atco, Okeh, Dot, Bear Cat, etc.  
 
Curtis died of prostate cancer on August 22, 1983, in New York.     

Marty Edwards is a much obscure figure.  One thing is intriguing : his name is only found on Eddie Curtis related records (as composer or singer), including a credit as music composer and lyricist on the Raftis single "The Louisville Lip" issued in 1971.  Marty Edwards was almost probably a Eddie Curtis pseudonym, I guess.





Bony Maronie

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The Sentinals
(Larry Williams, Venice Musi BMI)

Point 5101
1964


The Sentinals made a couple of albums for Del-Fi in 1963-64 and achieved a good deal of regional popularity, although only drummer Johnny Barbata (later in the Turtles and Jefferson Starship) would go on to name groups. They formed in 1961 in the Californian Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo.
 
More info, band line up and discography here



The Sentinals
cover of the Sundazed re-issue of their second single

Justine

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The Hi-Fi's
with The Reveleers

Justine
Harrington, Blue Hill Music Pub. ASCAP

AVR 5001
A production of Audio Visual Record Co. Hingham, Mass.
1960


Information below courtesy of Lennie Petze :
The HiFi's on AVR only recorded the one single. "Mr. Bee" and "Justine". 
The group consisted of three girls and a boy all in their young teens. They were Judi Harrington, Judy Harris, Carol Finch and Billy Mossman. The girls were all from North Weymouth but I'm not sure where Billy was from. During that time I had a band called The Rhythm Rockers and we would do record hops together and she introduced us to Lenny Collins who eventually joined my new band The Rondels.  
 Judi also married the lead guitar player in my group my cousin Jimmy Petze. Sadly Jim passed away in 1993. Judi lives on Cape Cod and we see each other frequently.  

Carol Finch tragically was killed in a car accident at 16 probably a year after the record  came out.
As far as The Reveleers, Len and Bobby Collins are doing well, Woody Cope became a Weymouth policeman now retired and I did hear that Jimmy Olsen had passed away.
The label was owned by Bud Winsloe (William E. Winsloe) who issued at least another 45 on the label by The Cymbols, also with the Reveleers backing (but Lennie Petze has no recollection of the Cymbols). Billboard magazine was rather pleased by the record which was reviewed in the Good Sales Potential section on April 25, 1960 :
THE CYMBOLS WITH THE REVELEERS   A False-Hearted Lover— AVR 5002 — Fresh-sound group does a folk-flavored piece of material. Lads have a good style here, with beat and zest. (Blue Hill, ASCAP)
  Springtime—  Fresh-sound vocal group does a ballad in legit style.  Group needs a more commercial arrangement, but has a pleasing effect nevertheless (Blue Hill, ASCAP)
More info about the Rhythm Rockers / Reveleers / Rondels here at their own website.



Pink Shoelaces

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Honey Gabore 
and Coastiers Hot Shots

A Coast To Coast Top Hit Records 1275
1959

A cover of the 1959 Dodie Stevens hit. 

 This record is not listed in this Coast To Coast discography.
This label is a continuation (in the same series) of the Gateway Top Tune label owned by Rite Records of Cincinnati.





Walkin' In My Sleep

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Connie Snow
C. Snow, Alfay Music Co. (BMI)
Midas UN-04
Midas Record Company
607 S. Aspen, Roswell, NM
1961
Connie W. Snow (1935-2009)
    “Snowball” Connie Snow 74, was born in Henryetta, OK on June 8, 1935. On August 27, 2009 he lost his battle with cancer and joined his Lord and Savior. After growing up in Artesia, NM area he moved to Washington State and went to work for the Boeing Company, retiring January 1, 1995 from the Auburn plant.

He is survived by his wife Darlene Snow after 25 years at their home on South Hill Puyallup. He is also survived by 8 children, Jaime (Bev) Snow, Roby (Patti) Snow, Cindy Snow (Hosam) El Dakhakhni, Hayley (Kevin) Klein, Theresa (Doug) Barr, Tammie (Gene) Hoffert, Lori (Scott) Resop, Tom, Jr. (Tammy) Osborne, several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Sue Snow,
once his wife, was murdered in 1986, in an horrific poisoning case :
She was the innocent pawn in Stella Nickell's plot to kill her own husband, Bruce, by lacing his headache capsules with cyanide.   After Bruce was dead and buried from what the doctors thought was natural causes, Stella bought more bottles of headache medicine and put cyanide-laced capsules in them, also.   Afterwards, she placed the bottles on the store shelves of local grocery chains.

Sue Snow was unlucky enough to buy one of the tainted bottles and died from the effects of the poison.   Stella's scheme was to wait for the media attention surrounding Sue's death from the poisoned capsules, then claim her husband was also the victim of product tampering.   She would then receive a substantial amount from Bruce's life insurance, due to accidental death, and any amount the drug manufacturer might pay in a lawsuit.   Stella's plan was foiled by good detective work, and she was sentenced to ninety years in prison.

The case was the subject of the book "Bitter Almonds" by Gregg Olsen and was also featured on the TV program "Medical Detectives" on The Learning Channel.  (bio by: Karen Valentine)
At Sue funeral, her longtime hairdresser did her hair.  She looked pretty, almost as she did when she was alive.  

Connie Snow's recording of an old “beer-drinkin' country tearjerker” he had written, called “Darlin' Sue,” [the flip of Walkin' In My Sleep]  was piped in after some music by the Judds, Sue's favorite musicians  :
Dark clouds again 
Shadows are falling
I keep remembering Darlin' Sue.




Obieshabooten Baby

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Tony De Feo

Marculli-DeAngelis
Myers Music Inc (ASCAP)
 
Richloy 45-103
1956 (or early 1957)

Of Tony De Feo I known nothing.  He was perhaps the Tony De Feo who was a member of The Hallmarks (Ricky and the Hallmarks on Amy Records, early sixties).

Owner of Myers Music and Richloy Records was James E. Myers.  James Myers started as drummer and performer, leading his own band, Jimmy DeKnight & His Knights of Rhythm.  
My father made portable metal bandstands for us, put lights on them, with a drawing of a knight in armor, holding a lance, riding a musical note, and that was our trademark. For a long time we went under that name and performed all over the Delaware Valley. We had a 22 piece orchestra at some locations and if they couldn't afford that, we'd cut down to 15 or whatever they could afford. Sometimes, we'd play clubs with just a trio or a quartet.

In 1946, after four years of combat in the South Pacific, and being away from performing music for so long, Jim Myers didn't feel like going back to playing drums.  He became a music publisher, a record producer and a promoter.  Then he wrote his first big hit :
 I wrote and copyrighted "Rock Around The Clock" in 1953.   I had written the melody and about half of the lyrics, but I was having trouble with the rest of it.   Max Freedman, who had written some other songs with me, walked into my office while I was fooling around with it one day and said, "That sounds pretty good, can I help you with it?"  I said, "Why not?" When we finished it he said, "What are you going to call it?" I said, "Rock Around The Clock."   And he said, "Why Rock, what's that mean?  Why not "Dance Around The Clock? And I said, "I just have a gut feeling and since I'm half writer and whole publisher, I'm the boss! Right!" So, we called it "Rock Around The Clock."  
When I showed it to Bill Haley he flipped over it, but his record company at that particular time, said it would never sell.   He recorded two versions of it, but they never released them.  
Then Jack Howard, who had Arcade Records at that time, said he wanted to record it with a group that he had called, Sonny Dae & His Knights.   They were first to release the song and it was a big hit locally.   It sold thousands of records in the Delaware Valley, but Jack didn't know how to promote it nationally.  
A year later, Haley came to me and said, "Jim, my contract is up, can you get me on a major label?"  I said, "I think so, what's the deal?"   He said, "I'll record one of your songs on one side of every release." I said, "That sounds good to me!"
The major label was Decca and the first song recorded by Bill Haley was "Rock Around The Clock", It's sold over 200 million copies to date, it's been recorded by more than 500 artists in 32 languages, 




Just For You

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Rick And The Islanders

Just For You
Lew Hanson, Bryden Music, Inc BMI

H & G 185
Distributed by Glory Records, Inc
157 W 57, NYC
1962

The Glory label folded in 1959 but Glory Records was still in business in the sixties apparently, distributing records like this one.

Lew Hanson wrote both sides of this release.  Llewellyn (Lew) Hanson, born in 1942, was a Jamaican raised Englishman who wrote Calypso songs in New York.  "He Give Me A True, True Heart" and "Ba-Ra-Ba-Ra-Bi-Ni, The Maroon Love Chant" were among his first songs (copyrighted in 1959).

There was an album titled "Just For You" issued in 1974 by Audio Fidelity Records as by "Lew Hanson and The Islanders"

At some point, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, working for his own insurance business and, in the same time, producing artists for his Insurance City Records, such as F. Roy Taylor, Rhythm Force, Mary Mundy and Ron Surrey

He died in 1988 at age 45. His last known residence was at Bronx, New York.




Mother's Old Rocking Chair

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Swingin' Granny
and The Skyliters Band


Irral Berger, Duane Music (BMI)

Irral 800 
1964


Irral Berger, born Fredericks, was no stranger to the world of show biz. In 1908, she worked as an extra in silent films.  Later she was a model and a soprano on the famed Orpheum circuit.   She wrote songs since at least the thirties (Little Gypsy Mine, 1932) and with her husband, Johnny Berger, some patriotic songs such as "United Victory" and  "Halted Victory" in 1943.   She was friend with Garrie and Clara Thompson, talent scout and promoters in Sunnyvale, California who managed Benn Joe Zeppa and Joe Simon. 


Mrs. Irral Berger, 80, better known as "Swingin' Granny"

Swingin' Granny to Sing for San Quentin SNOQUALMIE, Wash.- - The boys at San Quentin prison are in for a New Year's treat with an old-fangled beat.   Prison officials have booked "Swingin' Granny" as head-liner for their New Year's Eve show. 
Granny, or off-stage Mrs. Irral Berger, 80, may give them a little "Hard Day's Night" or flip into some of her originals,   "Mother's Old Rocking Chair" and "Alwaiys of You Alone."  "I don't really like to go on the road, but I keep getting all these bookings," Mrs. Berger explains.   
The gently - smiling great-grandmother would seem an unlikely entertainer for prison inmates, but her piano ditties and tinkling voice are a favorite in the Northwest and have already drawn two television appearances. 
Mrs. Berger says she was born in Peshtigo, Wis., and left there as a baby with her mother to join her father, employed in Washington as a section foreman.   She says she has no relatives living in Wisconsin now. She began having unlikely experiences right after the move.  "My parents moved to Issaquah (Wash.) before the turn of the century.   We were here only a few days when some gypsies stole me."  The gypsies returned her a year later, Mrs. Berger said, leaving her with a wandering spirit.  
She and her husband settled near here and built a log cabin, in which she still lives.   She tried her hand at nursing, switched to teaching music, and when her husband died 16 years ago, began doing road shows.  
"One day my daughters asked me to record some of my songs for my great-grandchildren," she says.   The record was played for some show-business producers "and before long I was touring the country."   What are the inmates likely to hear as the old year fades? The little, white-haired lady pulled her crocheted shawl over her shoulders and began beating out her newest tune, "Do Dipty."

Irral Records was a vanity label set up by Irral Berger with the help of Garrie and Clara Thompson

Discography 

Singles
777 - Tom And Jerry And The Skyliters       
778 - Joe Simon And Eugene Blacknells Band
779  - Tom And Jerry The Skyliters Band
800 - "Swingin' Granny" And The Skyliters Band
801 - "Swingin' Granny" With Hugh The Drummer Boy And The Galunts  
GSR-702/GSR-7695 -  Irral Berger
Album
810 "Swingin' Granny" LP







Wah-Wah Doozie

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 Bill Page


Bob Ballard, Kriss Music Co. ASCAP
Tower 349
1967




BILL PAGE was born in Chicago, IL on September 11, 1925.   A World War II veteran who served in the European stage; Bill attended Wright Junior College and played with several bands such as Del Courtney and Boyd Raeburn before joining Lawrence Welk in 1951, playing about 14 woodwind instruments including not only all the saxophones, the clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, piccolo, bassoon, oboe, and English Horn.   He was often featured in numbers in which he played about 11 instruments going through all of them as the band accompanied him.   Plus, he was know to have played two clarinets at once!  

After leaving the Welk organization in 1965, he continued to perform with famous artists such as Barry Manilow, Ted Mack, Frank Gorshin and Judy Garland.   

Bill Page recorded a few albums under his own name. Pros and Conns (meaning Conn horns) on Dot. That one featured a tune called, "Conn Artist From Elkhart Indiana"!  Another one on Dot simply titled "Bill Page". Then there were two records on Tower featuring electronic effects and octaviders, wa-wa, etc. "Sounds of the Sonic Sixties" and "Way Back Now".  

Producer and composer Robert Hudson (Bob) Ballard (1913-1992) was one of the  musical arrangers for the Lawrence Welk Band until 1982. 




The Lawrence Welk Show: Saxophobia (1957)
One of the several videos available on YouTube
featuring Bill Page



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Colonel Daniel F. Cunningham's Absolute Cure All - The Wonderful Elixer Of Life

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The King Twisters

 Sax Kari, Kari Music Co. BMI

MasterCraft Productions 103
 1961

This short-lived label was located in Detroit  The Magnolias and The Mighty Cravers are the two other groups issued by the label.

I think it's safe to assume that MasterCraft Productions was owned by Sax Kari.

Isaac Saxton Kari Toombs was born in Chicago in 1920.  Sax Kari, according to Preston Lauterbach [*] had done it all to make a buck in the entertainment business: payola bagman, stand-up comedy second banana, composer of blaxploitation film soundtrack—for The $6,000 Nigger to be precise—emcee, leader of a big band, record producer, and talent broker, for starters. He’d worked in virtually every city relevant to 20th century American music, Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago, Miami, and New York, and in every genre from swing to hip-hop. 
Sax Kari died in Florida in 2009.

Sax Kari discography
Sax Kari as songwriter see the the BMI database online here (548 songs!)


[*] author of the book "The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll"


 

Dave Remington (Gateway Top Tune)

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Dave Remington and his Orchestra



A Gateway Top Tune 1224
1957
 
Who needs to hear the Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis original hit versions when you can have good old Dave Remington and His Orchestra covering these songs for a cheaper price (and in my opinion not doing here a bad job) ?  

Dave Remington's Orchestra is credited to only a few records on Gateway (all in 1957) on which as a backing band.  That year, the orchestra was behind Earl Robbins and the Remington Brothers.

Is this Dave Remington, later Chicago Dixie jazz pianist/trombone and band leader ?  Who knows ? Possible, but then he's probably not the vocalist on these two covers.
Dave Remington, a native of Rochester, N.Y., decided in 1955 to end the road  routine and settle in Chicago after his wife presented him their first child.  He worked as "a slave laborer" in an ink factory until his local AFM card was issued, then returned to jazz.  One of his first jobs came to an end when, in a burst of Capone-era revisited competition, an angry faction tossed a few sticks of sizzling dynamite through the club's window.  The event convinced Dave that better jobs existed and he moved on to work with Muggsy Spanier and George Brunis and with Dixie groups at the suburban Red Arrow and at Jazz Ltd. in Chicago.  Until mid-1956, he played piano on all jobs.



Pioneer Records Discography

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Pioneer Records
Kobe, Japan
2050 Ludlow St. Philadelphia, Pa.

(All releases from 1965)

6621  The Virgos 
ZTSP 104661 — Humpty-Dumpty (Leroy Roebuck,Ray Herbert Music BMI)
ZTSP 104662— You're A Stranger (John Davis, Ray Herbert Music BMI)

Produced by Herbert Ray Ostrow

6622   Tommy Swanson, His Guitar and The Sound Men
? — Baseball 
?— That's Boss  
Both written by Thomas R. Swanson and Herbert Ray Ostrow
© Herbert Ray Ostrow; March 25, 1965
6623   The Castaways   (Billboard 12 Jun 1965; ©April 22, 1965)
ZTSP 104993 — Comin' Back For More (Henry Hoffman, Harris Lasky & Barry Richards)
ZTSP 104994 — I Gotta Hankerin'   (Lendy Alvarez)
Produced by Tears & Laughter & Herbert Ray Ostrow

6624   The Virgos    
ZTSP 105665 — Cost of Love
ZTSP 105666 — Do The Sway 

Both written by John N. Davis,  Ray Herbert Music   © June 7, 1965
Produced by Herbert Ray Ostrow


6625   Vocal by Lucy / Vocal By Faruk  
ZTSP 105668  — Faruk #One    Vocal by Lucy
ZTSP 105669  — Faruk #Two    Vocal By Faruk
Written by Billly Martin, William Martin Music Co Inc
Produced by Martin-Murphy


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Faruk #One (clip)


Cruel World

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Bible Time today at Dead Wax  :   Demigod Andy Starr  (real name Andrew Zachar,Jr.) was born in Bethlehem, recorded  in Nazareth, in a place called the Holy Family Gym.   More info at his Paradise Hall of Fame page.

Just A Walkin'  is readily available but not the flip (which was the hit side locally) Cruel World.

Andy Zachar :
I went on to record "Just A Walkin'" and "Cruel World". We went to Philadelphia to the Tony Star Studio along with a group called the Sinceres who was going to cut their first record with my band backing them.   In the Sinceres group was a backup singer called Jay Procter who later became Jay and the Techniques who had 2 million selling hits with "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie" and "Keep The Ball Rollin'".

Going back to my record, as I said "Cruel World" was to be the B side. Lee Andrews [ed.: of  Lee Andrews and The Hearts]  was in the studio watching us record that day and as I was finishing up with "Cruel World", Lee liked the song so much that he came over to the mike and moved me aside and finished the last part of the song which sounded great. When it was over he said ' I know this was the B side which probably won't get played but I love that song and it's my kind of music. I just had to be part of that. I hope you don't mind '.


Discography
1959    Arcade 115     I Love You Baby / I Know It's True        Andy Starr
1959    Casino 111      My Love For You / Why Am I A Fool.   The Casinos
1960    Valiant 101     Just A Walkin' / Cruel World                  Andy Starr And The Casinos


The Casinos : Joe Defulvio, Jim Tulio, Sam Gentile and Andy Starr.


Candy Man

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The Deacons

Re-Car 9012
1965

This is a cover of the Roy Orbison song.  Writers are incorrectly listed as Ron and Mills (?!). publisher is (correctly) January (BMI)

In 1962, five Johnson High School students on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota, pooled their collective musical talents and formed a band called the Deacons (named after lead singer Jim Reiff, who had acquired the nickname “Deacon” – his father was a minister).

This is their third (and last) single for Re-Car, recorded in January 1965.  Jim Reiff had just left the band and was replaced by Earl Pritchard.   Dick Weeks (sax),  John 'Chico' Chinchilla (drums), Rick Youngberg (lead guitar) and Gary Starzecki on bass were the four other Deacons.

Their last record was for Soma Records in 1966 with "Empty Heart", a cover of The Rolling Stones.
A quality picture of the band can be found on "On The Flip Side"blog, provided you're able to scroll down which is not an easy thing to do !


Each Little Bit Helps

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Horace Whatley, Acuff-Rose

Larco
Louisiana Record Co.
Pineville, Louisiana
1956

 
I'm sorry to say that nothing is known of the singer or of this Larco label.  But there is some good news for the Pineville residents or its visitors  :
Pineville had long been a fully dry city with no alcohol available legally in the community.     Liquor is now available in Pineville, according to a special vote held in 2013,  first in restaurants since January 1, 2014.

Where Is My Heart

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Bee Gee Stans
 of  Detroit

Where Is My Heart
B.G. Stans, Peer Inter., BMI

A Joseph Turnage and Edward Green production

Tal-Vert 1802
1964

Artist is from Detroit according to the label which was located in Virginia (Richmond). 


Big Bad Betsy

It Aun't Right

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Lee Sharpton
Writer : Roy Sharpton

Shoals Record Company
806 George Wallace Blvd
Tuscumbia, Alabama


All I can find is that Lee Sharpton composed two songs for Tim Sharpton (her son?) which were issued at an unknown date on Shoals Music.   
 
Tuscumbia is one of four municipalities known as the Quad Cities, the others being Florence, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals, all in Alabama.   So Muscle Shoals Music it is !



Beau Geste

The Blues Walked In

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Gerry Carr

    Written by G. Carr & D. Horning
Robbie Mus. BMI

Top 20 Records EP-120
Pop div. Top "10" Record Co.

Mid-fifties


Gerry Carr. the Girl of the Golden West, and her husband, Al Stewart, fiddler and vocalist, joined Jerry Behrens, formerly of the Renfro Valley Gang, in 1949.  For five years she was leader of an all-girl band billed as the Wanderers which disbanded in 1956.  She also appeared with the Pee Wee King combo and on various Louisville radio and TV stations.  At one time, she was deejay for WGRC in that city.
She  died  at her home in Louisville in 1959 after a three-month illness.   

The Top "20" label was started in Wichita, Kansas by Morton Levand, a veteran in the newspaper business turned songwriter, publisher and record company owner.  He was the son of the publisher of The Wichita Beacon.  Also started at the same time was the Tex label in January of 1955, releasing two singles on Bill Wimberly's Western Swing Band.

Morton Levand left Kansas in 1956 to settle in Phoenix, Arizona to permit his wife to regain her health.  The Tex and Top "20" labels were reactivated early in 1957.  One of the songs he wrote, "Cryin' Thru The Night",  was recorded by Wanda Jackson for Capitol Records.

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