Thomas Wayne

K-Tel and Rondo would gather up sad songs into collections called Tear Jerkers and that kind of thing. The quality was never great, and you had to be careful or you’d end up with a “rerecording by one or more members of the original group.” Some of the most notorious collections were silly; they would be called Loony Tunes and they were the butt of many a joke. Finding old copies in second hand shops, though, was a great source of otherwise unavailable songs. And, if blogs are any indication, K-Tel has actually acquired a kind of retro cool. It had to happen…

My one and only Thomas Wayne hit comes from just such a collection, though I can’t absolutely promise that it’s the one in the picture…

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Thomas Wayne:

• Tragedy – The loss of romance described as “tragedy” isn’t such a leap when one considers the scope of the subject as it’s covered in pop songs. Still and all, it’s a bit silly. From the winter of 1959.