Treasure Trove of Found Sound Vocal Workouts

MP3s: 30 of 'em, below the fold.

Back when WFMU's Professor was still producing The Audio Kitchen - the greatest found sound radio program of all time - he threw together a compilation for WFMU's record library called Sing Along With The Music. It featured 21 tracks of people singing along with music, usually in the privacy of their own homes. Those are the first 21 tracks I've included below, and I've added nine more that seem to fit in with the theme.

While it's easiest to refer to most of these recordings as karaoke, it's not that simple. Karaoke usually takes place in bars, with an audience. What sets most of these recordings apart is that they were, for the most part, recorded at home, usually without the intention of an audience ever hearing them. This gives most of the recordings a refreshing lack of self consciousness. Of course there are exceptions. Moritz' version of Bohemian Rhapsody (mp3) definitely sounds like a karaoke performance, and Biz Markie's version of Benny and The Jets (mp3) was intended to have an audience. Those singalong tapes were how Biz built his early career.

But the majority of these recordings were made singing along with records while playing with tape recorders or computers. The Fred Weber tapes ( 1 | 2 | 3 - mp3s) were made in 1949 on a wire recording device while Fred listened to the musical countdown on WNEW-AM. Fred gave the radio and wire recorder his undivided attention.

Many of these recordings were retrieved from thrift shops decades later by The Professor, his cohorts and assorted WFMU staffers and listeners.

Then there are the "mic in track" recordings. For a brief, glorious moment during the heyday of Napster, large numbers of homemade computer recordings were made available worldwide, through an accidental default setting on people's home computers. If people with Napster accounts made recordings on their computers and accepted the recording with the default title of "mic in track" then those recordings were made available to anyone smart enough to search the Napster network for those three beautiful keywords.

Here then, are thirty audio snapshots of people singing along with the music:

1 - Elton Ellen - Dont Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Cassette found in a Brooklyn junk store.

2 - Horse Guy - Singing In The Rain - Called "Horse Guy" because other tapes found with this cache indicate that the singer bred horses.

3 - Fred Weber - Powder Your Face With Sunshine Recorded at home in New Jersey in 1949, while Fred listened to Martin Block's musical countdown on WNEW-AM. Fred talks to the radio, his listeners and his German war bride. Thanks to Pea Hicks of Optiganally Yours for the amazing Fred Weber tapes.

4 - Giggle Sisters - Chug-A-Lug Recording made in mid-Sixties on reel to reel tape and mailed in by a WFMU listener.

5 - Helen & Sylvia - All My Bitchy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight OK, this qualifies as karaoke. Found in an Atlanta Junk Store, courtesy Georgia Todd Butler. Based on Hank Williams Jr's All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight

6 - Talent Show Girl - Inseparable Found in a Brooklyn junk shop. Get past the feedback and talent show girl really belts it out.

7 - Ernest Trotter - Laura - Some dispute about this one. The tape was mailed in by a WFMU Listener who claimed that Ernest Trotter handed him this cassette while peeing in an adjacent stall in a bathroom at a Ohio rest stop. WFMU's Irwin claims that the recording is a fraud. More to follow.

8 - Rocco Family Singers - Hey There - Found on reel to reel tape in a Brooklyn junk shop.

9 - Phoebe Snow Fan - Poetry Man - more from that Brooklyn junk shop.

10 - Fred Weber - I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - Another gem from Fred Weber's wire recorder, ca. 1949. On this one, he chats with his pal Ed and his German war bride, who you can also hear in the background.

11 - Chris Palestis - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? - The late Chris Palestis was a WFMU fan who made these tapes at home in the Seventies and Eighties, and mailed them to the station, where they received heavy airplay for years. Chris is possibly the greatest outsider guitar player of all time.

12 - Helen & Sylvia - Under The Boardwalk - Helen and Sylvia in a more subdued performance, again  courtesy Georgia Todd Butler via a junk shop in Atlanta.

13 - Mary Mae - Carry On My Wayward Son - Found by R. Stevie Moore in a box of cassettes which were traded in to a New Jersey Sam Goodys outlet for new tapes. Edited By Irwin Chusid.

14 - Phoebe Snow Fan - Harpo's Blues - Another track found in that Brooklyn junk shop.

15 - Ernest Trotter - Blue Velvate - Another track from that mysterious tape handed over the top of a urinal in Ohio.

16 - Elton Ellen - Captain Fantastic - More Brooklyn junk store fodder.

17 - Precious Twins - Aladdin Theme - Found in a Tampa, Florida thrift shop by Audio Kitchen contributor Echoboy.

18 - Miss Iannone - Wishful Thinking - Listener Brian submitted this with a batch of his own family's recordings.

19 - Karaoke Children - The Time of My Life - Another Brooklyn thrift shop find, and a huge hit on Irwin's program.

20 - Fred Weber - Some Enchanted Evening - Fred and family dig Perry Como, ca. 1949, back when people still watched the radio. 

21 - 20th Anniversary Mourners - Imagine - Recorded by The Professor in Central Park on the 20th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon.

22 - Biz Markie - Bennie And The Jets - Released by Grand Royal magazine on a flexi disk.

23 - Typical Nirvana Fan - Smells Like Teen Spirit - A classic "mic in track" recording uncovered and popularized by the Evolution Control Committee.

24 - Rajit - Looks Like We Made It - Rajit is The Professor's favorite bad singer of all time, and this track demonstrates the magic of the "mic in track" phenomenon. Rajit probably recorded this track at his computer, for himself, with no intention of ever sharing it with another soul. But the default settings of his PC and Napster made the track available to the whole wide world the second is was done recording.

25 - Real Brazilian Girls - Feel Me Up Buttercup - Another classic mic in track, from a batch of girls (and maybe one boy) singing in Portuguese,

26 - Carolines Girlfriend - A Kiss For Caroline - My personal favorite. Another mic in track recording from the Napster era, which was obviously intended to be included on a mix CD and mailed to Caroline.

27 - Moritz - Bohemian Rhapsody No story behind this one, but it was suggested by Listener Sarah, via the fun Music for Maniacs blog.

28 - Angry Mom - Strange Infidelity - Angry Mom sits at her computer with her baby and records a quick and good one.

29 - Russian Immigrant - New York, New York - At last, straight-ahead karaoke found in a Brooklyn junk shop.

30 - Thrift Store Annie - Doubleplusgood - Found in an East Village thrift shop. Not sure who did the original though, this is not the Eurythmics tune of the same name.

Comments

[fatty]

GREAT! THANKS! The audio kitchen was one of my favorite shows!

I love the pic of the jock-o guy in his jean shorts! HOTTTTTTT.

[biella]

that girl in the wig is me and i can't tell you how much i enjoyed that night of raoke... somewhat impromptu karaoke halloween 2002 on a truck in the mission, SF... those were the days. great songs btw.

biella

[blair sterrett]

I love The Audio Kitchen! I used to give airplay to the Proffesor's collection on Oddity Rock Radio and The Outsider Music Hour in Ogden Utah constantly :) Thanks for sharin' the Love!

- Blair

[ALex]

I only have one thing to say

KARAOKE FEST 2005!!!!!!!!

this year it is being held at the pleasent city of Athens, Greece, still ready even after the amazing events of the olympics earlier this year.

For more information please email me at [email protected]

KARAOKE FEST ORGANISER
Alexander Damianos

[demonipuch]

just a word....AWESOME

[John P Stodd]

I am eternally grateful to you for uncovering another Chris "Wizz-O" Palestis MP3. Thanks!

[J. D. Mack]

I just wanted to provide a little more info about the recordings of "All My Bitchy Friends" "Under The Boardwalk" and "Time of My Life." All of these were recorded at locations of the SuperStar Studios chain, though it's impossible to tell which ones from the recordings (many of them were in theme parks). I know this because I worked for the company and I recognise the backing tracks which were custom recorded for our use. I'm glad you all enjoy them. But hearing recordings like these just gives me stress : ).

[Noe]

The vocal of the little girl/boy singing along to Phoebe Snow's Poetry Man, is really eerie....but at the same beautiful and pitch perfect.

[mike hansen]

My name is Michael Hansen. I love stuff like this. Here is something I discovered:
"13 - Mary Mae - Carry On My Wayward Son - Found by R. Stevie Moore in a box of cassettes which were traded in to a New Jersey Sam Goodys outlet for new tapes. Edited By Irwin Chusid. "

Oh really???

http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/2003/150.shtml

A girl. A microphone. A Kansas song.

I am speechless over this recording. This came to me courtesy of a cassette mix I received from a friend in Iowa back in 1998 when I was doing tape trades. I have since lost contact with my friend and kept this cassette in a shoebox in my closet. When Otis asked me to curate a day or two I decided to blow the dust off this song and submit it.

For years I have always pondered the origins of this tape. It wasn"t until my involvement in this project that the answer to my question was answered. According to different sources this tape was rescued by R. Stevie Moore from a tape bin in the back of a Sam Goody. Several people have also contacted me that they too have a copy of this song and were wondering the origins of this. Well let"s not keep a good thing to ourselves, let us share this great musical find with the rest of the world!

- Jen

Jim Allenspach writes:
This version of "Carry On My Wayward Son" has been played on WFMU a few times, and was included on the show "The Audio Kitchen". The singer's name is Mary May, and the tape as played on WFMU starts off with her interviewing members of her family (who say her name a couple times) with the strange stereo separation that distinguishes the singing selection that was posted on 365 Days. (The host of the show, The Professor, indicates that this recording is one of the items that gave him the idea for his great WFMU show.) If you go to the Audio Kitchen archived shows at you'll hear a mono version of the same song starting the August 2, 2000 show. And if you go to the very end of the August 29, 2001 show (about 56 minutes into the one-hour program), you'll hear a stereo copy of the interview portion of the tape, before Mary May starts singing. So if anyone's wondering whether or not they are the singer, perhaps the interview portion will jog their memory.

N.N. writes:
has anyone else contacted you saying "that might be me!" vis a vis this song? i have this weird feeling that this actually *might* be me singing on this song. i was constantly making tapes of myself singing with records (as well as doing fake radio shows) through most of the 70s, and i have a vague recollection of doing this song. i had leftoverture. i played it a lot. i would have been 12 or 13 at the time. and it actually does sound somewhat like me. my husband has heard some of my other childhood tapes and agrees that there is a striking similarity. the only thing that takes me aback is just how gut-wrenchingly bad and off-key the singing is at times. but then again, i never figured anyone would hear the tapes i made but me, and i usually hammed it up with a devil-may-care attitude. i don't know if the geography is right, though. i lived in the baltimore-washington corridor, and isn't r. stevie moore from arizona or something? we did have a sam goody in the mall, though. (but didn't everyone?)

[Barbie Giochi]

Karaoke for kids :) I hope my son will be not a singer. Giochi Di Barbie

[Giochi di Ben 10]

I just wanted to provide a little more info about the recordings of "All My Bitchy Friends" "Under The Boardwalk" and "Time of My Life." All of these were recorded at locations of the SuperStar Studios chain, though it's impossible to tell which ones from the recordings (many of them were in theme parks). I know this because I worked for the company and I recognise the backing tracks which were custom recorded for our use. I'm glad you all enjoy them. But hearing recordings like these just gives me stress :=).