Get It On!

The Pink Panther

Get It On!!
Loveland Middle School Stage Band
1980

Direct from sealed shrink wrap, it's The Loveland (Ohio... I think. I bought this LP in Cincinnati) Middle School Stage Band!

Music To Help Clean Up Stream Pollution By

Music To Help Clean Up Stream Pollution By
Columbia Special Products CSM 480
Created Exclusively For Union Carbide

This is an interesting compilation LP produced by Columbia Records by request. All of the tracks have something to do with water, including My Dirty Stream, by Pete Seeger and Stranger On The Shore by Anita Bryant.

At quick glance I assumed that this record project was a way for Union Carbide to paint a happy face on some bad publicity they may have received when waterway pollution was grabbing the headlines. But, no... this record is some sort of promotion for a chemical "Tergitol S (surfactants). Apparently this chemical is biodegradable while other surfactants of the time were not. The surfactant was used in the production of paper, leather, textile and detergent products.

The jacket notes indicate that "...the problem is ugly foam in our water resources." And Tergitol S will cure that.

All said... I still do not yet know how these exclusive specialty albums were distributed. Who would buy, at a record store, an album like this? This record must have been seen at the time as an advertisement. Additionally, the title is so weird and the songs so divergent that I can see little appeal even as a give-away.

Songs Of The Pogo

Go Go Pogo

Songs Of The Pogo

Words by Walt Kelly

Music by Norman Monath (with a few exceptions as noted below)

Orchestra and chorus direction by Jimmy Carroll

Arrangements by Jimmy Carroll
Simon And Schuster 1956

From the back cover: About the Pogo - Just as the understanding of Nibelung lore enriches the listener's comprehension of Wagner's great operas, so a familiarity with the history of Pogo will furnish a Weltanschauung which cannot but enhance the enjoyment of this record (you'll like it better).

From the beginning, Pogo, a possum by trade, has had strong musical tendencies. His first appearance was in 1943, was a spear carrier in a comic book. By 1951 Pogo already had a sizable following, for a possum. They followed his adventures daily in 196 newspapers with a fever displayed by early discoverers of A. Rimbaud or P. Rabbit. 

In the ensuing years Pogo has experienced almost every possumble triumph. Ten books about him have sold more than a million and a half copies. He now appears in 450 newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 50 million readers, according to reliable Pogo-maticians.

Now at last the growing Pogo culture has found musical expression. These 18 songs are the first songs of the Pogo to be written, sung, played, and recorded. We have only two more words to say about these songs: Play them.

Go Go Pogo - Sung by Walt Kelly (Music by Kelly)

Whence That Wince - Sung by Mike Stewart, Fia Karin and chorus (Music by Kelly)

Northern Lights - Sung by Fia Karin (Music by Kelly)

Slopposition - Sung by Bob Miller

A Song Not For Now - Sung by Fia Karin and chorus

Twirl, Twirl - Chorus

Parsnips - Chorus

The King And The Queen Quing - Sung by Fia Karin and chorus

Man's Best Friend - Chorus with recitative (Music by Kelly)

Don't Sugar Me - Sung by Fia Karin

Whither The Starling - Mike Stewart and chorus

Willow The Wasp - Sung by Fia Karin

Truly Truly - Chorus

Many Harry Returns - Sung by Fia Karin and chorus

Potluck - Chours

The Hazy Yon - Chorus

Evidence - Sung by Mike Stewart (Words by Lewis Carroll)

Lines Upon A Tranquil Brow - Sung by Walt Kelly

A Swingin' Safari

Swingin' Safari

A Swingin' Safari
Billy Vaughn And His Orchestra

Produced by Randy Wood
Dot Records DLP 25458
1962

A Swingin' Safari

(It's No) Sin

Born To Be With You

Alone

Glow Worm March

In The Chapel In The Moonlight

Sunday In Madrid

Love Letters In The Sand

Blue Flame

A Fool Such As I

Throw Another Log On The Fire

When The Saints Go Marchin' In

Isle Of Golden Dreams

My Isle Of Golden Dreams

Isle Of Golden Dreams
Wayne King And His Orchestra
Decca DL 78496
1959

From the back cover: As everyone knows, Wayne King has been famous for years. He was a skilled musician even before someone discovered that his initials, as well as his love for three-quarter time music, earned him the title of Waltz King. After graduating from Valparaiso University, King directed a band for local dances and began playing in Chicago ballrooms. The radio made Wayne King and his organization nationally celebrated. Voted radio's Number One musical show, the Wayne King Band was also heard in the finest nightclubs and hotels. When it appeared on television it was a spontaneous hit and received awards from clubs and critics.

The "Isle Of Golden Dreams" will delight all listeners. The titles are familiar to all Wayne King lovers – and any listener who may be hearing King for the first time will be equally enthusiast. One of the features of this album is the brilliant trombone work by Tommy Shepard. Although Tommy is not exactly a newcomer, he snow attaining the eminence as a soloist which he rightly deserves. A new Coral album, "Shepard's Flock," is devoted to him... Equally noteworthy are the arrangements by Wayne Robinson. They bring out unsuspected depths and beauties of Wayne King's individual style.

Maria Elena

Honolulu Eyes

Miss You

Valse Bluette

I've Forever Blowing Bubbles

My Isle Of Golden Dreams

Alice Blue Gown

Beautiful Ohio

Melody

Have Pity

Evening Star

Three O'clock In The Morning

Songs Of Hawaii - Lani McIntire

Songs Of Hawaii

Songs Of Hawaii
Lani McIntire and his Aloha Islanders
Varsity EP 177 (extended ply 45 r.p.m.)

Lani McIntire (1904 - 1951) worked with Jimmie Rodgers to pioneer a sound from the Hawaiian guitar that laid the foundation for the steel as a standard country music instrument.

Paradise Isle

My Isle Of Golden Dreams 

One, Two, Three, Four

Moonlight In Hawaii

The Twist Goes To College

Sabre Twist

The Twist Goes To College

Les Elgart and His Orchestra

Produced by Mike Berniker

Cover Photo: Columbia Records Photo Studio / Henry Parker

Twist Fashions selected by Mademoiselle 
Columbia Records CS 8585

1962

Hawaiian War Chant Twist

Boogie Boogie Twist

You Came A Long Way From St. Louis

Frenesi Twist

Bandstand Twist

Turkey In The Straw Twist

St. Louis Blues Twist

Was That The Human Thing To Do

One Mint Julep Twist

Sabre Twist

In The Mood Twist

Accordeon De Paris Aimable

Paris Je T'Aime

Accordeon De Paris
Aimable son Accodeon et son Orchestre
Vogue 1980

I couldn't resist the cover image featuring our artist posed over Paris moments before he unleashes an atomic death ray from his radioactive accordion!

OK... that's a stretch. Maybe he'll just destroy Pairs the old fashion way... knocking down one building at a time while he wrestles Godzilla.

The accordeon music is simply non STOP on these TWO disques. And, frankly, the music isn't all that bad. A number of tracks are early 70s easy listening throw backs that are cheesy good fun.

Things To Come - Ted Heath

Ringside Suite

Things To Come

Ted Heath And His Music
Londo Records LL 3047

1959

From the back cover: "Those eminent American jazz critics, Leonard Feather and Nat Hentoff – both very good friends of mine, by the way – sometimes criticized my band for leaning towards commercialism." Ted Heath paused for a moment, then smiled; he was sitting at a desk in his office high above Albermarle Street, talking about 'Things To Come'. "In their hearts, of course," he went on, "Leonard and Nat both appreciate the problems facing the leader of any big band. He can either play jazz all the time to a small audience, or else slant his music a little more commercially and capture a wider public – and thereby keep his orchestra intact.

"But this LP," Ted continued, "is for Leonard and Nat. We've made it for them and we hope they like it. Not only does the band play the way it wants to, but we've also go together some of the fine jazz men who've worked with us in the past. Unfortunately, when some of them were with the band it wasn't always possible to feature them as much as their talents deserved; even here  there isn't enough space to display them as fully as I'd have liked. But at least the record gives a fleeting glimpse of them and of us."

Ronnie Roullier's Fours presents three famous ex-members of the Ted Heath orchestra, each of them now a bandleader in his own right, as Don Rendell, Ronnie Scott and Tommy Whittle join Red Price to make up a section of four tenor saxophones. Don Rendell takes the fist solo, after which comes a four-bar bridge passage, followed by twenty bars from Red Price. Twelve bars by the full band ushers in a set of two-bar exchanges between Ronnie Scott and Tommy Whittle. After Whittle has taken a twelve-bar solo, all the tenor players join in on a set of "fours".

Kenny Baker and Stan Roderick were both members of Ted Heath's original band, staying with it until 1950, while Ronnie Hughes played with Heath from 1950 to 1955 and Joe Hunter has often deputized on occasions when someone in the Heath trumpet section has been sick or absent. Ronni Roulleir's arrangement of Stompin' At The Savoy displays the four visitors playing on their own, the section led by Kenny Baker. In the first chorus the regular Heath trumpet team (using Harmon mutes) alternate with the visitors (using cup mutes); the release is taken by Kenny Baker playing with a plunger mute. Eddie Blair, his trumpet tightly muted, and Joe Hunter, playing open, split the second chorus between them. The theme is then taken up by the full orchestra, with Kenny Baker again playing the release.

Waterloo Bridge, one of the most ambitious works to be written so far by Ken Moule, finds the composer exploiting an eight-piece reed section, for Roy Willox, George Hunter and Ronnie Ross were all added to the regular Heath reed section on this track. Willox and Hunter both worked with the band for a number of years, while Ronnie Ross, until quiet recently a member of Don Rendell's Jazz Seven, was chosen to represent Britain in the international band at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. The reed section actually heard on this track comprises Ronnie Chamberlain and Roy Willox (soprano saxes), Lee Gilbert and George Hunter (alto saxes), Red Price and Henry Mackenzie (tenor saxes) and Ken Kiddier and Ronnie Ross (baritone saxes). The composition begins gently, the higher-pitched reeds replying to Ronnie Ross's baritone solo. some particularly intricate passages for reeds can be found towards the close of the middle section, with soprano and tenor saxes – scored together – answering phrases form the baritones. Two bars from Johnny Hawksworth set the slower tempo of the final section, leading the band back to the original theme.

Ladd Busby, Harry Roche, Jackie Armstrong and Maurice Pratt – all former Heath sidemen – brought the trombone section up to eight strong for Out Of Nowhere. Ronnie Roullier's score not only used all eight trombones in concert but also opposed them in sections. Keith Christie, Ladd Busby and Maurice Pratt, in that order, can be heard playing short solos during the second chorus.

The renaming tracks all present the regular Ted Heath orchestra. Ernesto Lecuona's Taboo, arranged by Johnny Keating, features Eddie Blair's trumpet while Stan Tracey plays piano in his own arrangement of I'll Remember April. Tracey's style differs from that of his predecessor, Frank Horrox; instead or using light, rippling phrases, Tracey is fond of inserting heavy, stabbing chords, rather in the Thelonious Monk manner. Ken Moule's score from Sometimes I'm Happy swings lightly and easily; Bobby Pratt plays the release in the first chorus, and Eddie Blair takes the final sixteen bars of the next chorus.

"I think it gets a different sound, something that hasn't been done before," says Ted Heath of the vibraphone-clarinet-soprano sax scoring heard in Frank Horrox's arrangement of Just You, Just Me. This voicing, incidentally, has now become familiar through the success of Ted Heath's version of Swingin' Shepherd Blues. Stan Tracy (vibes), Henry Mackenzie (clarinet) and Ronnie Chamberlain (soprano sax) from a trio that moves nimbly against the full orchestra, creating a formal relationship rather like that in a concerto grosso.

Ronnie Roullier's musical tribute to "the noblest art", the Ringside Suite, is divided into five sections. Weighin' In, the opening section, happens – fittingly enough – to have been loosely inspired by Dizzy Gillespie's tune, The Champ. Seconds Out has a snatch of trumpet form Eddie Blair, while the slow, sensual theme of Lady Admirer is stated by Ronnie Chamberlain's soprano saxophone and later echoed on Don Lusher's trombone. Les Gilbert can be heard playing an alto saxophone solo in the faster, more extravert Below The Belt, and the suite comes to a brassy, exciting climax with Fighting Finish.

"I hope the record gives some idea of the band as it is at the moment, as well as letting people hear a few of the wonderful musicians who have played with us in the past." Ted Heath pushed the bundle of scores to the side of his desk. "And then there are the arrangers," he added, "They've all been writing for the band during the past couple of years.

"You know," he went on, "we've had remarkably few changes in the band's personnel over the years. With just a few exceptions, you might say that this LP presents nearly everybody. You could almost describe it as a gathering together of old friends.

"And don't forget –" Ted Heath wagged a finger at me as I rose to leave, "Don't forget to say that we hope Leonard and Nat enjoy the record!" – Charles Fox

Four Fours

I'll Remember Paris

Sometimes I'm Happy

Ringside Suite

  Weighing In

  Seconds Out

  Lady Admirer

  Below The Belt

  Fighting Finish

Stompin' At The Savoy

Waterloo Bridge

Just You, Just Me

Out Of Nowhere

Taboo

Enoch Light - Discotheque Vol. 2

Goldfinger

Enoch Light and The Light Brigade
Discotheque Vol. 2

Originated and Produced by Enoch Light

Arrangements by Lew Davies

Associate Producers: Julie Klages and Robert Byrne

Recording Chief: Fred Christie

Mastering: George Piros (stereo), John Johnson (monaural)

Art Director: Charles E. Murphy

Command RS 882 SD
1965

Love Potion Number Nine

Downtown

Sha-La-La

Too Many Fish In The Sea

The Girl From Ipanema 

Come See About Me

I Feel Fine

Goldfinger

Eight Days A Week

The Jerk

Easy Baby, Go Easy Baby

Any Way You Want It

La Bostella (Viens Danser La Bostella)