Willie and Rising Dick

It’s MY fecking birthday today, and I’m sharing the presents with you, in the form of this crappy 1960s party record featuring Richard Sandfield and his randy little puppet, performing as “Willie and Rising Dick”. Don't you love the puppet's John Waters pencil-thin moustache?

It's exactly what you'd expect, some very un-PC and mostly unfunny (but precisely because it's unfunny, it's kinda funny) routines that seem to crack up the highly inebriated crowd at the Tip Top Room in Anaheim, or whatever the hell it was, I'm not going to go back and listen to it if I don't feel like it....it's my fecking birthday, remember?? But it's blue comedy with a PUPPET. Quite a turnaround from our last puppet experience here, with those Christian pirates.



I am nearing 100,000 hits on my blog (which is probably mostly me obsessively checking back and making minor corrections, and then changing it back). In my shameless quest to speed up that milestone, here is the track list on the album:

Side A

Soul Food
My Old Lady
Your Sister
The Cricket Game
Telephone Dating
Stuttering

Side B

Filthy Hand
Raping a Woman
Making Panties
Cock For Sale
Lickety Split
Rising Dick

Willie & Rising Dick
Dooto Records DTL-843

Below are some of the other fine entries in the Dooto catalog....you KNOW I'll be watching for them!

Limbo? In This Boat?

The first rule of maritime safety according to Lord Jayson's Limbo Stars: "Don't Shake the Boat When You Limbo".

Today we offer a veritable cornucopia of Island bowsers, beginning with the U.S. Navy Steel Band who perform such perennial favorites as "Stars and Stripes Forever" and Greensleeves by whacking repeatedly on dented 55 gallon drums. Now THAT'S entertainment!

Side two continues to carry the torch of quality entertainment with a collection of tunes that attempts to prove that you can make a limbo song from anything, including Row Row Row Your Boat and Jimmy Crack Corn.


Fiesta en San Thomas
Gozo International GLP-19, Gozo International Ltd. Delaware Trust Building, Wilmington Delaware (surely a hotbed of calypso activity)

U. S. Navy Steel Band:
Stars and Stripes Forever
Greensleeves
Brown Skin Girl
Siboney
Jean and Dinah
Pendemoniac Calypso

Lord Jayson Limbo Stars:
Limbo Rock
Don't Shake the Boat
Limbo Wobble
Wandering
Jimmy Crack Corn Limbo


There are some interesting looking albums offered on the back cover I wish I could get my hands on....in what language is that an obscene gesture?



I didn't provide a back cover image because it is completely paint spattered, as though someone used it as a drop cloth or something.

Ping Pong Percussion

Oooh. I like this little cheapie, such a low-budget production that there are no liner notes, nor musician credits.
The music ranges from Hawaiian to out of tune honky tonk, out-weirds Perez Prado, explores the “Hot Diggety” side of “Espana”, and drags out practically every imaginable kind of percussive instrument.

The Pinnacle of Percussion
Pirouette Records, manufactured at Synthetic Plastics Co. of Newark N.J.

Blue Tango
Mambo Viva
Hawaiian Sea Chant
Cordoba
Asiwanda
Meet Me in St. Louis, Louie
China Doll
La Paloma Cha Cha
Chanting Guitars
Espana
Sha Sha Calor
Red Wing

Magic Touch of Buck Ram

I was expecting the music of a man called “Buck Ram” to be a little more....penetrating. Probing, perhaps. But it’s quite saccharine sweet with little aftertaste, guaranteed to prevent Great Aunt Ethel from getting startled into dropping her teeth in the soup tureen when you play it for her at Sunday supper.

The liner notes say that Buck Ram was the manager for the Platters, which would explain the choice of the tunes on the album. Apparently Buck was pining to do a “personal display of his own music—he way he wants it to be played”. I'll stick with the vocal versions, thanks.

The Magic Touch of Buck Ram Mercury MG 20392


Only You
Whispering Wind
Remember When
At Your Beck and Call
Twilight Time
Heaven of Earth
Helpless
But Not Like You
I'm Sorry
My Serenade
Great Pretender
Magic Touch

Pirates for Jesus

Ahoy mateys, today’s album reflects my commitment to the one Saviour, the Holy Overlord of the most horrifically awful albums imaginable.
This album is chock-full of piping childen’s voices singing about being Christian pirates and long-winded sermons about not spending all your money at the proverbial circus and missing the train to Heavenville and such. The best part is a surly puppet sidekick "Sharkey" who likes to refer to the good Cap’n as “fatso” and is guilty of the eighth and ninth deadly sins of interrupting and backtalking. I want to be just like Sharkey when I grow up, mommy!

The letter from Colonel Sanders on the back cover tells the backstory of Captain Hook, AKA Von R. Saum, who lost his left hand and leg in a motorcycle accident at age 17, and then naturally made the decision to start a pirate ministry as Captain Hook.

Dig the video of him below! It like goes on forever!



The Mr. doesn’t usually go junking with me, but I twisted his arm, and it paid off in a big way…HE was the one who found this doozey, for a lousy $3. I would have spent more for the cover alone. Yo ho ho!

Ship Ahoy! With Captain Hook and His Crew

Iva Bittová 1986

Friends of this blog are really coming through lately with tons of fabulous finds—for which I am eternally grateful. Today’s music is courtesy of toonz cat who presented me with the earliest recording by a musician I have loved for a very long time, Iva Bittová. This is Iva’s first three recordings recording from 1986, and features frequent collaborators Pavel Fajt and Karel David.

Iva Bittová (1986)

From all the Iva fans, thank you toonz cat!!!

Japanese Cha Cha rumba mambo conga

heroine, originally uploaded by baikinange.

A few years back I came across some of these vintage 1950-60s Asian (mostly Japanese) pop songs, and managed to lose them despite my best efforts. So I was thrilled when they recently reappeared in my life—with many more new songs I’d never heard. Some highlights: Michiko Hamamura’s cover of the Lord Melody song “Mama Look a Boo Boo”; “Unfinished Rockambo” by the Black Cats; Izumi Yukimura’s “Mambo Italiano”; and “Tokyo Conga” by Toshiko Yamaguchi. Hope you dig ‘em as much as I do.


Japanese Latin

Pride of the Poconos

As the song says, “If I can make at the Nippersink Manor Resort, I can make it anywhere”, so I guess that would mean that today’s featured artists Felipe Campos and Renée Nole should have had the seventies wrapped around their collective little finger. (s). Just read the rave reviews from such lions of the entertainment industry who attest to their excellence, ranging from the Sun Newspaper of Omaha to the Bangkok Post:

Though sadly history seems to have forgotten both Campos and Nole, and by “history” I mean “perfunctory Google search”.

Despite unfortunate childhood traumas that rendered my incapable of enjoying Vegas wannabe lounge “pizzazz” (ballet lessons at Miss Renee's School of Dance, and Shriner Circuses to name two), I put needle to vinyl. I nearly lost my resolve during the medley of two of my most loathed songs, “Come Saturday Morning” and “Only Just Begun”, and finally drew the line at a six minute version of “Mr Bojangles” (so it’s not made available here, sorry). Verdict:

Felipe Campos would have had to severely dial back his delivery to tone it down to “over the top”—his “Sinner Man” is a story about the end of the world for the godless, which I’m sure got a boffo response form the drunks at the bar.
Renée Nole was surely one of those people who insists on singing all the high notes to the Star Spangled Banner, even at school assembly in the third grade.

Felipe Campos and Renée Nole TLH Records (1973)

Who Will Buy
Snake
Come Saturday Morning/Only Just Begun
San Francisco
Sinner Man
Starting Here
Matador
It's Not Unusual
Song of Israel



Fun fact: This album was produced by Les Baxter.

Door of Dreams

Pooooor neglected little blog. While I am gobsmacked by a 12 hour day/some weekend hour work schedule and am too unmotivated to write anything clever, I will post this perfectly charming album by Joe Reisman and his Orchestra called "Door of Dreams". I'm sure all of you lounge experts will have appropriate anecdotes to share about the time Joe and Les Baxter and Roger Roger rolled Harry Breuer's marimba into rush hour traffic on Sunset Boulevard and then they all ran home and wrote a song to commemorate the occasion and Les' ended up in a nightclub scene that was cut from a Jerry Lewis movie or something. La la la.

Oh are you still here?

The saccharine string arrangements on "Door of Dreams" have been deemed safe for consumption by hypoglycemics, though some HAVE been linked to cancer in lab rats. "Front Row Center" is one of those peppy pizzicato numbers that I love so well, and "Joey's Song" could have been the theme song had there been a spinoff from the sixties show "Family Affair". OK! Let's go!

Door of Dreams - Joe Reisman & his Orchestra

Door of Dreams
El Dorado
Covered Wagon
Mi Corazon
Sunday Afternoon
Mi Vida
Front Row Center
Cheryl's Dream
When Sunny Gets Blue
Day Dream
For My Love
Joey's Song

3/22/09 update: A regular reader of this blog thinks I may have been a little heavy-handed on the noise reduction, so you can also download the untouched version of this album--broken down by side 1/side 2 only, just as digitized.

Lord Russell's Bongo Percussionists

Lord knows I should be happy to have a job, AND one that is offering tons of overtime, but when my physical and mental exhaustion from working too much prevents me from coming up with clever ways to make fun of poorly done calypso albums THEN we have a problem.

I've had this album ready to post for several days now and the thing is just RIPE for abuse. Vocalist "Ernesto San Miguel" (I'm betting a pseudonym for some guy from Jersey named Ernie Michaels or something) and his Chiquita banana accent sound pretty bogus to me. The best song was "Pull the Curtain (Close the Blind)" and it's in horrible condition at the beginning, but I had to include it anyway. The first cut, "Bamboo House (or as is says on the label "Bambo House"--is this a cheapie or what?) was a complete wash--you know when I reject a song you know it's in bad shape.

Anyway...no more energy for clever today, so here's the album:

Caribbean Holiday Lord Russell's Bongo Percussionists Vocals by Ernesto San Miguel - AlFi C-4078

They Never Say No in Jamaica
Banana Boat Song
Marianne
Happy Man
They Cry for Love Love Love
Who's Gonna Cry?
Fire in the Eyes
Pull the Curtain (Close the Blinds)
Day-O

Shakin' All Over

Josephine Siao literally kicks ass.

Lee Tung Foo the Chinese baritone

Lee Tung Foo the Chinese baritone, originally uploaded by baikinange.

I've owned this vintage photo for many years, but never knew Lee Tung Foo had a movie career as well as a vaudeville career. Thanks to Soft Film: Vintage Chinese Cinema for introducing me to all kinds of great movie stuff!

Flying Down to Rio via Spinorama

Good things about today's album include....



...it's on the Spinorama label (shout out to Greece!)



It has one of the swell "Employ Epileptics" stickers!

Did I already mention it's on Spinorama records?

Let's turn to the liner notes for great things to say about the music!

Mike DiNapoli, the featured pianist on this record, began studying piano at the age of seven in Roxbury, Mass. He started playing professionally at the age of 14 (when he realized that if he started practicing during his Nana's "stories" that she'd give him a quarter to go away?). From 1954 to 1956, Mike was the Musical Director and one of the featured performers on the "Swan Boat Show" on WBZ-TV in Boston.
Not only is Mike an outstanding pianist, as this record will indicate, he is also a member of the organization called ASCAP -- a composer organization. (A composer organization?? OK, maybe the meaty part of his resume is coming up....)

Mike is a resident of Newton Heights, Mass. -- is married and has four children.

Alrighty then! Here's the father of four who belongs to a composer organization: Ladies & Gents, I give you Mike DiNapoli Flying Down to Rio!

Flying Down to Rio
Orchids in the Moonlight
Carioca
Hasta Luego
Amarillo
Valparaiso

Aye Aye Aye
Chanson Boheme
La Paloma
Capriccioso Espagnol
Cielto Lindo
Clavelitos

With Strings Attached

Music today from 1957, from composer/arranger Richard Maltby, including four of his originals, "Isotopes 'n' Isobars", "Ballad for Trumpet", "Birth of a Melody", and "Pensive Mood". There are some clever arrangements, artfully performed--I recommend.

Play Fiddle Play
Isotopes 'n' Isobars
I'll String Along With You
Sambaloo
Zing Went the Strings of My Heart
Ballad for Trumpet
What Is This Thing Called Love
Birth of a Melody
Fit As a Fiddle
Hot Buttered Rum-Ba
Dancing on the Ceiling
Pensive Mood

Maltby with Strings Attached - Richard Maltby and His Orchestra VIK LX-1074