365 Days #271 - The Postelfonia's BmG 223 - Eerste Bestelling (First Delivery) (mp3s)

These are female employees of the former Dutch national post and telephone company PTT, singing foreign tophits on side A and Dutch traditionals on side B. I transferred the A-side for you, as they are the most peculiar, at least in my opinion. According to the sleeve notes they were known from television performances at the Protestant Christian Broadcasting Society, NCRV. Perhaps that explains why this was released by BmG records, a label only known by religious recordings: BmG = Band met God = Bond (or link) with God.

Furthermore it says that they also sang a lot at "relaxation and party evenings". By looking at both the titles and at the dresses we can pinpoint the period in which this was released quite adequately.

MP3:
1 Selectie Mary Poppins (3:06)
2 Congratulations (2:23)
3 Let The Sunshine In (2:11)
4 Hava Naguila (2:26)
5 Puppet On A String (2:27)
6 As Tears Go By (2:48)
7 A World Of Our Own (2:06)
8 There's A Kind Of Hush (2:12)
9 Casatchok (3:09)

Sometimes small parts of lyrics are in Dutch. Casatchok is completely in Dutch. The song is about a Wolga boatsman falling in love....

- Contributed by: Jan Turkenburg

Images: Front, Back

Comments

[Dale Hazelton]

The sad thing is that the vocals aren't much varied, there's no call and response, no solo stars, just everybody singing the same words in the same key at the same time. The dresses are cute, though. And is that Dickie Smothers up on the coach?

[Jan Turkenburg]

"Since when do we all play in the same key?"

I agree the music would have been so much more interesting if they all had been singing different words in different keys and in different rhythms but these songs just aren't multi-tonal, like with Xenakis or Boulez. Well, if you listen closely, the singing sometimes is out of pitch enough to call it bi-tonal ;-)

I love this record because this obviously is a group of enthusiatic amatures, both band and choir, in fact just not quite good enough, but they pulled it off to release a record with a religious label and to perform for radio and television. The innocent side of the Dutch sixties...