George Liberace, Song-Poem Pioneer (MP3's)

"I Wish My Brother George Was Here."

For those of us past a certain age - and any who are younger, but have a fondness for Bugs Bunny - this phrase will at least conjure up a 1955 Looney Tunes cartoon, and very likely a memory of Liberace. The reference was to the pianist's older brother George Liberace, a legendarily bad violinist and band-leader for his younger brother.

But George Liberace was also a pioneer in the song-poem field, at least as far as allowing his name and image to be used to both pull people into the scam, and to appear on albums released under the George Liberace Songsmith's banner. You can read an excellent overview of the story here.

What I have to today is one of two George Liberace Songsmith's Song-Poem albums that I'm lucky enough to have in my collection. The cover to this one was gone by the time I found it, but the covers to all of the GLS albums were identical, and a scan of the back cover, which assures the customers that they are not "song-sharks" is here.

I don't know what the deal is with the test tones which occur throughout this album, at exactly 30 second intervals (this may not be the case for those who download the album, as I've shortened the spaces between the tracks). Perhaps it was to drive home the point that these tracks were not for broadcast or sale. I can't find my other GLS at this moment, but I'm fairly sure these beeps were not present on that album.

The highlights on this album, for me, all come on the first side. For one thing, there is the author of the  poorly-titled song "My Los Angeles, L. A." listed as "By George". Does this, perhaps, mean that the elder Liberace submitted a song to his own company? Then there is the surprisingly peppy "Rockin' and Rolling", the second track on the album. But the real keeper here is at the end of the side, the enderingly goofy "Some Folks Say He's Not All There"

For those of you who love song-poems, by the way, there are a whole lot more of them at my blog, as well as a bit of self-celebration I did recently, upon the occasion of my 50th birthday.

1.) Walking Because of You (MP3)
2.) Rockin' and Rolling (MP3)
3.) Summer Love (MP3)
4.) My Los Angeles, L.A. (MP3)
5.) Spider Web (MP3)
6.) Love's Game (MP3)
7.) I've Never Met a Girl Like You (MP3)
8.) Some Folks Say He's Not All There (MP3)
9.) You Must Be Very Good (MP3)
10.) Needed -- Love (MP3)
11.) I'm Only Dreaming (MP3)
12.) The Time Has Come (MP3)
13.) Lonely Night (MP3)
14.) Twilight Serenade (MP3)
15.) The Magic of Your Kiss (MP3)
16.) Pal of Desert Trail (MP3)

 

Album Label A-Side (JPG) - Album Label B-Side (JPG)

 

 

Comments

[Darryl W Bullock]

Thanks Bob. I've not heard much of the George Liberace stuff before, so I'm really grateful for this post. Would love to know who the vocalists are though - a couple of the tracks sound suspiciously like Rod Rogers/Rodd Keith (especially Pal of Desert Trail) and as MSR owned the George Liberace imprint from the mid-60s onwards I guess it's possible that Rodd would have been involved somewhere down the line.

But God, those bleeps are annoying!

[Stu]

"Rockin' and Rolling" sounds like a slightly more mannered Gene Merlino, no?