Somethin' Smith & The Redheads

Sound Exchange was a weird place. It wasn’t quite downtown, and it wasn’t quite not downtown, sitting at the northwest corner of Portage Avenue and Young Street, about a block from the University Of Winnipeg. It was run by a middle aged married couple, his name was Tom, I can’t remember hers if I ever knew it. They had bins full of junk,

But they also had bins full of collectors items. And the collectors items were nice, and they were nice and expensive. These guys thought they were selling gold.

Under the bins they had boxes full of old singles, none with a price. So I’d take a bunch to the counter, get prices, put most of them back.

Now this place survived, when so many used LP stores came and went. Google it and it still comes up as an existing business. One thing is that he had a good insurance claim business.

So one day a guy came to see me in my professional capacity, and he had a claim with these guys, and he was having a bit of a conflict with them, so I gave him a bit of advice, and he paid me in old singles. Then I happened to be in the store, and Tom, not knowing of course that I already knew the story from the other side, started giving me an earful. And I gave him my thoughts, and I took a copy of In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town, and I said this will cover my bill.

See, this album, which is a best of by Somethin’ Smith & The Redheads, has 3 of their 4 top 100 hits on it. And the fourth, for reasons only record company executives can fathom, is missing. So that’s how I got that missing song. The LP comes from Pyramid Records.

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Somethin' Smith & The Redheads

• It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie – An old standard from the 30s, this version reached the top 10 in the summer of ’55. I used to have a version by Steve Goodman.
• I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire – The Ink Spots did this.
• Redhead – This is for you know who. “When she’s walking down the street… I’ll tell the world that she’s my best gal…”
• When I Grow Too Old To Dream – Another song from the 30s. Linda Rondstadt did this.
• You Always Hurt The One You Love – The Mills Brothers did this.
• Poor Butterfly
• Sweet Stuff – This song gets cut off at the end, but oh well…
• Heartaches – From the fall of ’56. Their rendition is similar to that of the Ames Brothers, but I like the brothers better.
• When All The Streets Are Dark – This is from the fall of ’55. This is innocent, unlike At The Dark End Of The Street.
• The Ace In The Hole
• A Hundred Years From Today
• In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town – From the summer of ’56.