Billy Vaughn

Billy Vaughn was the musical director of Dot Records, and his arrangements are all over recordings by Pat Boone and The Fontane Sisters. And he released plenty of records under his own name, and he had 28 records on the top 100 between 1955 and 1966, 12 of them on the top 40.

The album is called Golden Hits: The Best Of Billy Vaughn, and it was released in the early 60s, it has 11 tracks, and I believe that I picked it up at Pyramid Records. The first two track are from a double sided hit single reissue, which I probably also picked up at Pyramid.

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Billy Vaughn:

· Raunchy – Three versions of this battled their way up the pop charts in late 1957, this one, and Bill Justis, and Ernie Freeman, and Justis’ is the one people remember, and the one that placed highest.
· Look For A Star – Four version of this battled their way up the pop charts in the summer of 1960, this one, and Garry Mills, and Garry Miles, and Deane Hawley, and I only know the last one from the Whitburn book, I don’t have it nor have I heard it. Both Garrys sing the words, Billy just plays the tune.
· Sail Along Silv’ry Moon – An old chestnut, Billy’s version found itself in the top 10 as 1957 sailed into 1958
· Melody Of Love – A biggie, early 1955. Also a hit for Frank Sinatra, and David Carroll.
· Moon Over Naples (Spanish Eyes) – Bert Kaempfert wrote this, and he recorded it of course, and Al Martino put it on the charts, something that Billy didn’t do, in 1966.
· A Swingin’ Safari – One of the great underrated singles. Another Kaempfert composition, but it was Billy who had the hit, in the fall of 1962.
· Theme From A Summer Place – It was Percy Faith who had the hit; this doesn’t really belong here, but it may have helped sell a few more copies.
· Blue Hawaii – so many people did this, Elvis did this, The Ray Charles Singers did this, Billy did it and it was a hit in early 1959.
· The Shifting Whispering Sands, part 1 – This is kind of bizarre. Ken Nordine is the narrator, and no, I don’t know anything about him. The song was a hit on the fall of ’55, and there was a competing version by Rusty Draper. “How I escaped from the valley I do not know” says Ken. Isn’t he curious?
· The Shifting Whispering Sands, part 2 – The Sequel
· Wheels – a hit for Billy and for the String-A-Longs in early 1961.
· La Paloma – reached number 20 in fall ’58; I think I have a version by Catarena Valente but I’m too lazy to check.
· Orange Blossom Special – Billy’s version doesn’t quite do it justice. Ah well, it still made number 63 on Billboard in March of 1961. This is our second encounter with this song, and we are keeping track. The first was Bill Monroe.

The Chordettes

Quality Records was a Canadian label. (They released The Guess Who between 1964 and 1967.) In the late 80s, they released a series of LPs, each called "Greatest Hits," each with 10 tracks, and each with the same cover design. They featured mostly 50s and 60s artist from Chess (Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley), Roulette (Tommy James & The Shondells), Cameo Parkway (Fabian, Frankie Avalon) et al.

And The Chordettes. Some of these albums were ubiquitous; some weren’t. The Chordettes album wasn’t. It was damn hard to find.

I found my copy at Records On Wheels, a record store on the north side of Portage Avenue that specialized in imports. I was always interested in the 50s and 60s section, and they had Rhino, See For Miles, Sundazed, etc. I’d spend hours there, checking out the latest arrivals, the not-so-recent arrivals, salivating over LPs that cost $20 and up, and that was a lot.

So I didn’t buy records there very often. But The Chordettes was only about $10. And I never saw it anywhere else, which was a bit strange, because, as I say, the series was everywhere.

The Chordettes had 14 top 100 records from 1954 until 1961 (originally on Cadence) and 10 of them are on here. This was one of the few 50s girl groups that wasn’t sisters. And they were kinda sexy in their own dorky kind of way. Beautiful harmonies…

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The Chordettes:

· Mr. Sandman – what a great record. Vaughn Monroe did this, and The Four Aces, and Emmylou Harris, but no one did it like The Chordettes. It was number one at the end of 1954. “yeeesssss?”
· Never On Sunday – the theme from the movie. From the summer of ’61. This was also a hit by Ray Anthony.
· Zorro – from the TV show, spring of ‘58
· Just Between You And Me – at least it’s not between you and I. This was in the top 10 in the autumn of ’57.
· Born To Be With You – from the summer of ‘56. What a beautiful recording this is. Dave Edmunds covered it.
· Lollipop – this must have raised a few eyebrows. Went all the way up to number 2 in winter / spring ’58.
· Eddie My Love – three versions of this fought there way up the charts in early 1956, one by The Fontane Sisters, one by The Teen Queens, and this one. This one gets my vote, though the TQ’s are no slouches.
· No Other Arms, No Other Lips – not the Pat Boone song, this is from the spring of 1959.
· Lay Down Your Arms – some military relief. This was a hit in autumn of 1956.
· Teenage Goodnight – I wonder how many teenagers refer to their parting ceremonies as teenage goodnight. Maybe 9. This was the flip of “Lay Down Your Arms” and it reached number 45 on its own merits.

Bill Haley & His Comets

I am in awe of Bill Haley. He is probably the first rock and roller to show up on the pop charts. “Crazy Man Crazy” reached number 12 on the Billboard chart in mid 1953. 1953!

Elvis’ first record came out in 1954, his first hit in 1956. Chuck Berry and Fats Domino didn’t show up until 1955, Little Richard in 1956, Buddy Holly in ’57.

He doesn’t get the credit of course. Maybe the “experts” think he was too derivative, or too tame, or too old. Well he was kind of paunchy in his heyday. But it doesn’t matter, he was there before anyone else and it’s time to set the record straight.

This collection comes from three sources.

Golden Hits is the main source and it’s here in its entirety. 14 of his 24 hits are there. I got the album at Music City.

I used to hear Music City ads every night on the radio when I was a kid. Music City in the Mall Centre they said. Jack Skelly was the owner, and they said his name a lot. Where is the Mall Centre I asked my mother. Polo Park she said, referring to what was then the biggest mall in the city.

But she was wrong. The Mall Centre was a small strip of stores between the Mall Hotel and the bus depot, diagonally across from The Bay. But when I bought this LP the store had moved more into the centre of downtown. And I don’t know whether it was the same store. I didn’t go in there very many times. I bought Bill Haley, and Eric Burdon & The Animals, and The Irish Rovers, all at the same time, a long time ago, late 70s probably.

I got a tape, can’t remember the name, with about 9 tracks, I think I bought it at Sears Polo Park (funny how these things go) many years later, and 3 songs are here: “Rudy’s Rock,” “Mambo Rock,” and “Hot Dog Buddy Buddy.” And “Crazy Man Crazy,” the song that started it all, I got from an ancient compilation album called Rock And Roll Dance Party, and I found that at Pyramid Records, which is a story unto itself, so it will have to wait.


Haley hits missing in action: “Birth Of The Boogie,” “Joey’s Song,” “Lean Jean,” “Teenager’s Mother (Are You Right?),” Skokiaan.”

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Bill Haley & His Comets:

· Rock Around The Clock – the granddaddy of all rock and roll songs. If rock and roll has a signature tune, this is it. (Well, this and “Johnny B Goode.”) The song was written by Max Freedman and Jimmy De Knight, whose real name was James Myers, and I know nothing about either one of them. Haley recorded it and released it in 1954 but it stiffed. Then in ’55 it was used for the movie Blackboard Jungle and the rest is history. They can’t count how many records it’s sold from then till now. It’s been covered of course, and I can think of Sha Na Na (well duh), and Harry Nilsson did it with John Lennon by his side on Pussy Cats, but it wasn’t his most stellar performance.
· Burn That Candle – “mother” is the object here, the one who is supposed to keep the candle burning, while she awaits Bill to waltz in with his sweetie. It was a hit late in 1955
· Forty Cups Of Coffee – Bill is worried sick while his sweetie is out late, and he ODs on caffeine. But the ending is happy, Bill is not angry with her for coming late or not calling. Still, I wanna know, where the heck was she. The song was out in the spring of ’57, when I was just a wee’un.
· Two Hound Dogs – one of many gimmicky songs that Haley did, the dogs are named Rhythm and Blues. And they dance. I guess.This was from the summer of ’55, but it only made number 50. I wonder why. This was the flip side of “Razzle Dazzle.”
· Tonight’s The Night – not The Shirelles song and not the Rod Stewart song, but the theme is the same, surprise. Oh, and not the Neil Young song. This is a group vocal.
· Dim Dim The Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere) – first he wants to burn the candle, then he wants to dim the lights. Make up your mind. How can I love you with the room so bright. This hit before “Rock Around The Clock,” in early ’55.
· Shake Rattle And Roll – one of the most famous rock and roll songs ever. The song was written by Charles Calhoun (I know I know, who?) and was done originally by Joe Turner, whose version is a bit slower, and which has a more loping rhythm. Haley cleaned up the words and managed to reach the top 10 in the fall of 1954. Arthur Conley put the song back on the charts in 1967.
· Rip It Up – Bill Haley does Little Richard. He cleaned up these words too – ‘we’re gonna ball tonight” becomes “at the ball tonight.” Oops.
· (You Hit The Wrong Note) Billy Goat – from the summer of ’57. A dumb song. Sorry
· Rockin’ Rollin’ Rover- more about dogs
· Rockin’ Little Tune – an instrumental, and not a very rock and roll one either.
· Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie – The flip of Burn That Candle, this managed to scurry up to number 23 at the end of ’55.
· Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town) – Haley’s dream. It was in the wake of nuclear holocaust, and now he’s a stud. Too bad about the radiation.
· Saints Rock ‘N Roll – everybody had to have a stab at “When The Saints Go Marching In” and so did Haley. He doesn’t do a bad job of it, but it’s still an annoying song. Was in the top 20 in the spring of ’56.
· Corrine, Corrina – Joe Turner did this one too, and so, later, did Ray Peterson, and Bob Dylan, and Taj Mahal, and many others.
· Crazy Man Crazy – the one that started it off, in mid 1953, on Essex Records (the rest were on Decca).
· Rudy’ Rock – Rudy is Rudy Pompilli, the sax player, who took over as band leader early on, as Haley descended further into mental illness. From autumn 1956.
· Mambo Rock – Haley’s contribution to the mambo craze. From early 1955.
· Hot Dog Buddy Buddy – a real rocker this one, From spring, 1956.
· Calling All Comets – an instrumental, not as strange as the other one.
· Hide And Seek
· Rockin’ Thru The Rye – an adaptation of the song that gave Catcher In The Rye its name. From the summer of ’56, the flip side of Hot Dog Buddy Buddy
· See You Later Alligator – a top 10 hit from early 1956. Did the song come from the expression, or did the expression come from the song?
· R-O-C-K – From spring 1956, he sings about himself

Strauss discovered waltzes
The Handyman brought the blues
Then came Haley
With Crazy Man Crazy
Dig that crazy news

· Skinnie Minnie – from spring 1958
· Razzle Dazzle – from summer ’55. I remember a TV show called Razzle Dazzle.
· A.B.C. Boogie – a swinging teacher
· Don’t Knock The Rock – this was the name of a movie, and I guess Haley was in it and so was the song. Surprisingly this song does not appear to have made the charts.

Another 10 More Random Albums

Just a reminder that these are all vinyl records that I can’t play anymore. They are sitting in limbo, and they are acknowledged here…

Daphnis et Chloé: Choeur et Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit

I bought this for my daughter, and she was much younger then than she is now, and she like to watch ballet on television so I bought this ballet music thinking she’d be interested, but she wasn’t so interested. She did, however, take the picture of the cover. Thank you daughter.

The first classical record I ever bought was another recording of this music, by Charles Munch possibly, and it was unusual in that it featured the entire ballet, not just the suites. This is also the entire ballet, and this was one of the first ever digital recordings. It was released in 1981. Wow.

John Denver – Take Me To Tomorrow

I bought this by accident, well not exactly. I bought Rhymes And Reasons on eBay, and this came along for the ride. I had it already, so I wouldn’t have bought it, and I have since replaced R & R with a CD copy. I like this album, though, for what it’s worth; it was an early LP, maybe his second, and way way better than Rhymes And Reasons anyway. But now I have them both.

Chris de Burgh – Spanish Train And Other Stories.

This is my wife’s. It sucks. She doesn’t even like it anymore. I liked Chris de Burgh for a while.
First time I heard of him was I think in 1976; he had just released Perfect Day and he was coming to Winnipeg. He seemed kind of cool, kind of hip. But he wasn’t really, he was just tiresome.

An Evening With John Denver

Considered by those that make such judgments to be one of the suckiest albums ever. Sorry, but I like it.

Musical Mother Goose

I don’t know about this one. I don’t know where it came from. Obviously a children’s album, but I don’t think any of my kids ever listened to it. It’s one of those cheap kids’ albums that every family used to have.

Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg

The music from 2001. Of course that’s only the opening bars, but that’s all you need really. It was Karl Boehm whose recording was used in the movie. Strauss was yet another Nazi, though he was quite old when he joined the party, and probably senile. But it’s not so surprising that he set Nietzsche to music. Of course you can’t set Nietzsche to music, but that didn’t stop Strauss…

Britten, Serendate For Tenor, Horn And Strings with Robert Tear and Alan Civil,
Les Illuminations with Heather Harper (soprano), Northern Sinfonia, Neville Marriner cond.

I have been in love with Britten’s Serenade since the first time I heard it. The version I heard originally, and which I still have on MP3, had Britten himself conducting, and Peter Pears singing, and Barry Tuckwell playing horn. Alan Civil plays horn here, and he played on “For No One” by the Beatles, on Revolver.

Brahms, Symphony No. 1, Academic Festival Overture, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti

I may have actually bought this one new, that’s all I can tell you…

The Bach Album, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra

A double album with transactions and orchestral works by Bach. All his greatest hits seem to be here: Toccata And Fugue in D Minor, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Air On the G String etc. I hear that they play that last one in strip clubs…

Petite Sings

Ok, I don’t even know how to describe this. There was this TV show, ok? A TV show, a kids’ show, and it was called “Archie Wood And Friends.” Archie Wood was a puppet; he was made of wood, hence his name, (Archie?). And the ventriloquist, his name was Uncle Bob. And see, Uncle Bob, he wasn’t very good, you could see his lips move. He didn’t make any effort to hide it. I guess when you’re a kid you look at the puppet. Of course Archie had friends, like Marvin Mouse.

And Petite. Petite was a dog. And every week she sang. It seems to me, and my memory may be faulty here, but it seems to me that every week she sang "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window." So imagine how surprised I was to find this album at Value Village. A whole album of Petite singing contemporary pop: “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” “Me & Bobby McGee,” “Rose Garden,’ etc. I kid you not. Of course she also does “Safety Song,” “Little White Duck,” and “Fun In The Fall,” but still…

It doesn't get more surreal than this.

Little Walter

Sears was never the best place in the world to get records, but at one time they had a serious record department. I got my first record there. Well, we had the odd Lp or 45 that our parents had gotten for us or that one my sisters had gotten here or there, but this was the first time I was in the store buying a record. I was 12, and it my parents bought it for me, but I asked them to; it was “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. That was at the Polo Park store.

They were Simpsons Sears back then, and I don’t know exactly when they dropped the Simpsons but they did. There was a store closer home, at Garden City Shopping Centre, that opened in 1970. It seems that I got a lot of clearance items and cutouts there.

That’s where I got Boss Blues Harmonica by Little Walter. It was a double album, a best of, and it cost $1.98. It is the only copy I’ve ever seen.

Little Walter (Walter Jacobs) played harmonica, he played on his own records and on others'; and he sang. Compared to, say, Muddy Waters, he was a second tier blues artist, but he was no slouch. And I don’t think he was so little.

About half the songs on this collection are instrumentals. the other half are not.

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Little Walter:

• My Babe – A Willie Dixon song. Ricky Nelson did this, so did Gerry & The Pacemakers, and so did dozens more.
• Sad Hours
• Just Your Fool
• You’re So Fine – not the Falcons song
• Last Night – not the Mar-Keys song
• Blues With A Feeling
• Can’t Hold Out Much Longer
• Juke
• Mean Old World - Chuck Berry covered this on his early 70s London album, the one that had "My Ding-A-Ling."
• Off The Wall – not the Michael Jackson song
• You Better Watch Yourself
• Blue Lights – not to be confused with “The House Of Blue Lights”
• Tell Me, Mama – not the Bob Dylan song, at least not as far as I can tell
• Back Track
• It’s Too Late Brother
• Just A Feeling
• Teenage Beat
• Flying Saucer – not the Buchanan & Goodman stuff
• I Got To Go
• Shake Dancer
• Too Late
• Thunderbird
• Ah’w Baby
• Boom, Boom, Out Go The Lights – a lighthearted song about domestic violence. It was covered by King Biscuit Boy.

The Harptones

I hate Wal-Mart. That’s not just because they are union busters, though that’s reason enough. I hate Wal-Mart, because it is crass, because there are too many people shopping there whenever you go, because they don’t have what you need notwithstanding their claims to the contrary, because it is too big without a the corresponding benefit of versatility.

Where Wal-Mart stood until a few years ago, there used to be a store called Woolco. Woolco wasn’t so bad. It was a bit smaller, and lot more civilized. It was never The Bay or anything, but it was manageable.

I bought a tie at Woolco, the one I got married in.

There wasn’t much of a record department there. But every so often they’d get some kind of a clearance going on. And so I remember, it was in the early 80s I guess, I was with a friend and we discovered boxes of LPs selling for $1.25 each. And we were looking for lost treasures. We were looking, we said, for “another Mood Jga Jga album,” referring to an album by a one time Winnipeg group that we regarded very highly, but whom nobody would have heard of anywhere else. Most of what I picked up was fairly junky, but I did get Ramsay Lewis, and The Five Keys (keep reading), and The Harptones.

And so it was that The Harptones never had a hit, not on the pop charts, not on the R& B charts, but among aficionados they are considered to have been very influential. Maybe they were and maybe they weren’t. But here they are, on a collection called Harlem Hit Parade.

And my friend? He got married in 1981, and he became a doctor, and he moved to Toronto with his family, and he is still there, and we are not so much in touch, although we called him when we were in TO in 2006…

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The Harptones:

• Forever Mine
• What Is Your Decision
• Loving A Girl Like You
• Since I Fell For You – This became a hit for Lenny Welch in 1960.
• Sunday Kind Of Love – a hit for The Del Vikings, after “Come Go With Me,” and Jan & Dean had a crack at it.
• It Was Just For Laughs
• I Depend On You
• My Memories Of You
• I’ll Never Tell
• Mambo Boogie – keep track, mambo was big for a few months at the end of ’54 and beginning of ’55.

Muddy Waters

The Chess Boxes are good. I discovered Chuck Berry first. They also had Bo Diddley and Willie Dixon – and Muddy Waters.

This is another find from the West Kildonan Library. I kept about half of it. You can actually have too much Muddy Waters.

The songs here span the years 1948 – 1973. And Muddy never had a hit on the pop charts; he was a no hit wonder.

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Muddy Waters:

• Gypsy Woman – kind of a prewrite of “Hootchie Cootchie Man.” Not Gypsy Woman by The Impressions
• Mean Disposition
• I Can’t Be Satisfied – The Stones covered this, but they missed the humour
• I Feel Like Going Home – a slow down-home blues, the title of which was used for a book about the blues.
• Rollin’ And Tumblin’, Part 1 – covered by Cream, by Canned Heat.
• Rolling Stone – I wish I was a catfish, this song went by a number of different titles, and of course the Stones named themselves after this song
• Evans Shuffle – sounds suspiciously like the song that Cream called “Cat’s Squirrel”
• Walkin’ Blues – most notably covered by The Butterfield Blues Band
• Louisiana Blues – covered by Savoy Brown
• She Moves Me
• Stuff You Gotta Watch – not so well known, The Band did this on Jericho, their not-quite comeback album, sans Robbie Robertson
• Standing Around Crying
• Baby Please Don’t Go – the Joe Williams song, covered by Them on the A side of the single that would bear Gloria, and in psychedelisized version by The Amboy Dukes. Dylan recorded but never released it; it’s on bootlegs.
• Hoochie Coochie Man – many covers of this, by Steppenwolf, and most notoriously by The Allman Brothers
• I Just Want To Make Love To You – The Stones did this on an early b-side, and Foghat put it out as a single in 1974.
• I’m Ready – a well known blues, covered by George Thoroughgood among others – not the Fats Domino song
• Smokestack Lightning – Howlin’ Wolf also had a crack at this. There are covers by Manfred Mann and The Yardbirds
• Mannish Boy – maybe his best known recording, thanks at least in part to his performance of it on The Last Waltz, and by the Stones’ cover on Love You Live recorded at the El Mocambo in Toronto. This is a rewrite of Bo Diddley’s I’m A Man.
• Trouble No More – The Allman Brothers did this one too, live at the Fillmore East.
• Don’t Go No Farther – The Doors did this, with Ray Manzerik singing. It was the b-side of, I think, Love Her Madly, and it was titled “You Need Meat (Don’t Go No Farther)”.
• I Like The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love – Mose Allison did this
• Got My Mojo Working– more recordings of this that you can shake a stick at. Carla Thomas did a female version.
• Rock Me – the quintessential blues, more famous by B. B. King, recorded by everyone from Otis Reddng to Robin Trower.
• Good News – not to be confused with Sam Cooke’s “Ain’t That Good News.”
• Evil – not the Stevie Wonder song. Another one that Howlin’ Wolf did.
• Close To You – not The Carpenters’ song. The Doors did this on Absolutely Live. Ray Manzerik sang this one also.
• Walkin’ Thru The Park
• Southbound Train
• I Feel So Good
• You Shook Me – yes it’s the one that Zeppelin did on the first album, and by the way, the Jeff Beck Group beat them to it.
• You Need Love – Zep rewrote this, called it “Whole Lotta Love,” and took credit.
• My Love Strikes Like Lightening
• My Home Is In The Delta
• Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – the most widely recorded dirty-old-man song ever. The Yardbirds did this, Rod Stewart did this, Ten Years After did this, Johnny Winter did this, etc etc
• The Same Thing
• Making Friends
• Birdnest On The Ground
• Country Boy
• Lonesome Road Blues
• All Aboard
• Going Down Slow – The Animals recorded this on Animalism
• Who’s Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I’m Gone
• Can’t Get No Grinding (What’s The Matter With The Meal) - worth the price of the package