The Marathons had one hit, and that was in the summer of 1961. It was called Peanut Butter. It is subsumed here under the collection by The Olympics, because The Marathons were actually The Olympics, and the song is on the same collection. There is another story, though, that The Marathons were actually The Vibrations. If so then it’s the same group that did The Watusi and My Girl Sloopy (the original, later released as Hang On Sloopy by The McCoys). And they may also be The Jayhawks. Whitburn insists that The Marathons were The Vibrations / Jayhawks, but the liner notes of my LP said no, they were The Olympics. Go know.The album is called The Official Record Album Of The Olympics, and it played up the Olympics association It was a Rhino album, which is no longer in print, which sucks, Rhino used to be so cool, but the album, it had 12 of their 14 hits, or 13 of their 15 hits, if you count Peanut Butter, which I guess you should, because it’s on here. Their biggest was their first, Western Movies in 1958, which placed them firmly into The Coasters’ territory, where they seemed to find a comfort zone for the greater part of their chart career, which lasted until late 1966.
Searching for the group, though, on Google or YouTube or EBay, sucks.
The Olympics:
• Western Movies – Before there was texting and social networking there was just sitting there in front of a console black and white TV and watching Bat Masterson and Have Gun Will Travel and Cheyenne. Our poor narrator can’t divert his girl’s attention to save his life, literally – he just got hit in the head with a brick. Oh! Says his girl. Thanks for reminding me. Maverick’s on. From the fall of 1958.
• The Bounce – The piano strides in with a riff slightly reminiscent of What’d I Say, but the song takes off in a different direction. And it’s a direct line from The Twist to The Bounce. From the summer of 1963.
• Dooley – The story of a mountain hick. Porter Wagoner did this, but not like this. From the summer of 1961.
• Peanut Butter – Quick! How many songs can you think of about food? I thought so. A variation of (Baby) Hully Gully, just to prove that not only can one write a song about anything, but one can do it well. This song was officially by The Marathons, so called because of some kind of label issue. From the summer of 1961. Scarf now!
• Dance By The Light Of The Moon – Uptempo, and while Western Movies intruded into The Coaters’ territory, this one was clearly in the same universe as The Drifters. Ok shoot me, no way, say the pundits. Too bad, I hear what I hear. And meanwhile our heroes contemplate the romantic evening of which they sing, when they will dance with the darling “with the hole in her stocking.” From the winter of 1961.
• Mine Exclusively – By the time of this record, spring 1966, the group was sounding fairly Motownish.
• (Baby) Hully Gully – The original, a dance going ‘round like an awful disease. It seems that nothing these guys did was serious. That’s alright. The Beach Boys covered this on their Party album. From the winter of 1960.
• Good Lovin’ – This isn’t bad, swings a bit, and the group took it to number 81 in the spring of 1965. But a year later, The Young Rascals put it into overdrive and sent it to number 1.
• Big Boy Pete – Another cartoon story set to music. Another song that could have been straight out of The Coasters’ repertoire. Covered by The Righteous Brothers, among others. From the fall of 1960.
• Private Eye – Here we have Western Movies updated to include occupation envy; not only does he commiserate watching his girl who is now watching detective shows, but he thinks that he can divert her attention by being a dick himself. “I wanna be a private eye!” he intones, as his baby watches Peter Gunn. From the fall of 1959, the flip side of (Baby) Hully Gully.
• Shimmy Like Kate – A song about dance envy. I can shimmy like Kate! insists our hero. Sure. We believe you. From the fall of 1960.
• Workin’ Hard – Yackity Yak, adult style.
• Little Pedro – Another humourous tale, this one about a diminutive psychopathic killer from Mexico. From the spring of 1961.
• Baby Do The Philly Dog – Their last hit, from the fall of 1966. By this time, of course, the group was no longer competing with The Coasters; they were competing with The Four Tops and The Impressions and The Temptations and all those singers from Memphis, and it shows – somewhat. They still have quite a bit of their style intact, as they sing this tribute to a recipe, in common with The Mak-Keys, who did a song called Philly Dog.
Well he played piano, I can tell you that, in a kind of piano-roll style. He was popular in England, unheard of in America. Not to be confused with Joe Henderson who did Snap Your Fingers.
Another jazz man. He was big in the 30s and 40s, still kicking in the 50s. I don’t have a collection by him, just this one song that I picked up off The Best Of Dixieland.
I can’t say much about Faron Young; I have a collection called Faron Young’s Greatest Hits, I got it on a prerecorded cassette and I have reason to believe that it was only ever released in that format. The label is Capital and it’s designated SM. There is no indication as to what that might stand for, or perhaps there is, but it’s too small to read. Special Marketing perhaps? Super Music?
This has been all about discovery. Friends talk to me about finding new stuff, listening to new sounds, discovering unheard delights. My discovery has been about what was going on that I didn’t hear, back when I was listening to radio. It’s been about what went on before I was old enough to listen.
Let me explain. The first Jan & Dean album I picked up was called The Very Best Of Jan & Dean. The first track was Jennie Lee.
I didn’t always have all this stuff. I didn’t always know all this stuff. I didn’t always know about all this stuff.
Another girl group, The Poni-tails, for sure, and their name is sometimes rendered as The Ponitails but the records label clearly says “Poni-tails.” The group actually put 3 singles into the top 100, Born Too Late which was in the top 10, and 2 more neither of which made it higher than 85: Seven Minutes In Heaven in 1958 and I’ll Be Seeing You in 1959.
His one and only hit top 90 hit comes to me from an obscure soundtrack album that belonged to a friend of mine, whom I have not seen since 1981.
The Record Baron was a store on Grant Avenue, in River Heights, in the big strip mall at the corner of Kenaston. I didn’t get there often, it wasn’t exactly my home territory, but I remember the few times I did go, I got The Zombies, The Spencer Davis Group, Roger Miller, and Bobby Darin.
This is apparently genuine. I say it like that because there are no references to The Graduates on Billboard, and very little information is available. A google search of ‘Graduates “What Good Is Graduation” turns up 6 pages of results.
I was a stamp collector for one year. That’s when I was 12 years old. I got a stamp album, and I went to stores like Peg Stamp And Coin, and I bought big envelopes full of stamps at book stores. And I got approvals. That’s when some company sends you sets every month in the mail. And you keep the ones you want and send the money, and return the one you don’t want.
One after another after another. The Danleers, the last entry, they were a one hit wonder doo wop group from the late 50s. The Elegants were a one hit wonder doo wop group from the late 50s.
Another not-exactly-household name. They had 1 top 10 single and that was it.
No relation to Jann.
Odds and end, odds and ends…
Boys, Herbie and Hal. I can’t imagine where Three O’Clock Thrill comes from, it wasn’t a hit or anything. I can’t remember where the other one comes from either, but at least it makes sense here.
Jody Reynolds, who was male, popped into the top 100 twice in 1958, his first record reaching number 5, his second reaching number 66. Then he disappeared forever…
Sheb Wooley had quite the career as an actor and comedian, besides 4 top 100 hits between 1955 and 1962, and besides 5 more top 100 singles as Ben Colder between 1962 and 1966. All I’ve ever known of him, though, was his one big success, the “one eyed one-horned flying purple people eater,” which I used hear on the radio periodically as an oldie. I got it myself from a K-Tel album called Goofy Greats.
Bobby Freeman, who wrote and recorded Do You Want To Dance, did more for rock and roll dancing than all the Chubby Checker records combined. He put 9 hits into the top 100 between 1958 and 1964. I have 3, one of which came from the American Graffiti soundtrack, one of which came right off the single, and one of which came from a K-Tel LP.
His big moment in the sun was not the 2 hits he snuck into the charts in 1958; it was his appearance as co-writer and producer of Let’s Get It On By Marvin Gaye.
The original Sonny & Cher? Well, they were married, and to each other to boot. They only ever had one hit, and I got it straight from the single.
He made straight comedy records under his real name, Ross Bagdasarian, but as David Seville he created the nexus between rock and roll and cartoons, and he did it with speed.
Her entire top 40 collection is here. Besides that she had 2 more hits on the top 100.
Here is the truth. Jack Scott, whom most people have never heard of, is noted in Whitburn’s Top Pop Artists & Singles 1955 – 1978 as “one of Pop music’s all-time most popular singers.” (The capitalization of “pop” is his, not mine.) I don’t know what qualifies him for the distinction, given that, as I say, few people know who he is.
Originally by Sons Of The Pioneers, also done by Marty Robbins.
I didn’t take piano lessons. My sisters did; I didn’t. I took guitar lessons, but I didn’t get very far. But piano, I wonder. I wonder how difficult it is to do what Floyd Cramer does. The songs, one could learn. The style, not hardly likely…
I grew up with I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles as a fact of life. Oh Lonesome Me entered my life when I heard Neil Young sing it on the radio in 1970, and Sea Of Heartbreak came about 8 years later, when I picked up a collection by The Searchers. And I discovered Sweet Dreams when I discovered Patsy Cline.
