MP3:
1 Happy All the Time (1:45)
2 The Numbering Song (1:42)
Can you say "indoctrination," children?
I knew you could!
This is the fourth of a group of 7" singles I found at a yard sale (the others being Caprice Capers, Sigma 7 and The Triumph of Man). This one wasn't in a sleeve--I haven't tested its unbreakability, but it is evidently highly scratchable. And it's on red, see-through vinyl, which, frankly, doesn't seem very Christian to me.
Anyway, I haven't been able to find much info on Barth and Smith, Happy-Time Records or Singspiration, but what I have found indicates the label operated from the mid '40s through the early '60s. I've found multiple references to "Happy All the Time," some with different lyrics or title (a division of the Hong Kong Girl Guide Association has a version of the lyrics called "Inside Outside" that replaces Jesus with Guiding, which "took away all pain"), so I doubt this is the origin of the song. And I've found no references to "The Numbering Song," but hell, it's only the B-side.
- Contributed by: Andrew Lander
Image: Record
Media: 78rpm 7" Single
Album: Happy All the Time
Label: Happy-Time Records
Catalog: H-2501
Credits: Helen McAlerney Barth and Al Smith, Vocal Duo. Herman Voss, Organist. J. Harry Johnson, Pianist.
I have a rather prettier record on the same label (a charity shop find many years ago). The condition's too poor to play, though; the grooves are in a thin layer of lacquer which is flaking off. There's a scan -- which doesn't really do the colours justice -- here:
http://offog.org/stuff/pickwick.jpeg
Posted by: Adam Sampson | March 18, 2007 at 02:04 PM
Wow!! That's already great just to have a look at Adam!
Posted by: poesboes | March 20, 2007 at 06:40 PM
Wheaton, IL - where the record was published has the most churches per person in the nation and the home to Wheaton College, 'a private Evangelical Protestant, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles west of Chicago'
also ...
The college 'made national headlines on February 20, 2003 when it lifted its then 143 year-old ban on student dancing. In addition to allowing undergraduate students to dance, Wheaton granted "adult faculty members and grad students ... the freedom to choose whether they want to smoke or drink alcohol, at least while off-campus."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheaton_College%2C_Illinois
Posted by: Don | March 26, 2007 at 10:10 PM
Herman Voss is my uncle. My mother still has this record, plus more. We played this record so many times when kids, it's cannot be played anymore. Thank you for the memory.
Posted by: Nancy Love | June 08, 2007 at 12:54 PM