The Virtues

When I was growing up my parents had friends, and to us they were always Mr. and Mrs. But for some reason there was a handful of people whom we addressed just by first name. Looking back, it seems that the common thread was that they were all unmarried. Hmmm.

One of these unmarrieds worked in the electronics world. So he is the guy we’d call on if we needed something. And so in 1966 when we graduated from mono to the world of stereo, it was Robert, for that was what I shall say was his name, who brought a portable stereo to which we had to attune our less than delicate ears. And as an added bonus, he brought records for the bunch of us. My older sister got some kind of waltz album, my younger sister got Woody Woodpecker, and I got William Bendix Sings And Tells Famous Pirate Stories, from which I derived hundreds of hours of pleasure. I still have it, and I can still sing the songs.

But as a bonus to the bonus, he threw in a 45, which happened to be Guitar Boogie Shuffle by The Virtues. The B side was Guitar In Orbit. It was years and years later that I discovered the origin of the record. The record label (oh my goodness, what label was it? This is Canada remember, records were often on different labels here) anyway the record label had a picture of some dude conducting an orchestra, which set me up for some dissociation, because that’s not what I heard.

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The Virtues:

• Guitar Boogie Shuffle – Not much more than going up and down the scale, but how it rocks... From the spring of 1959.