I recently had a listen to a reel to reel tape that was one of a stack of tapes I bought a few months ago. The only writing on the box was the words "Junk Recording" on the back of the box. Largely, I would agree with this summary: the tape contained some brief home recordings apparently made on or around Christmas, a few professionally recorded Christmas carols, and, for the last 2/3rds of the reel, a remarkably badly recorded children's birthday party (much of which appears to have been recorded by microphones placed in a different room than the one where the party was being held).
I was, however, glad to have taken the time to listen, because buried between all of the above was a segment of just a few minutes, in which three siblings (dominated by one), and egged on by their father, sing a camp song most kids knew (in those days), followed by a few recent hit songs (entirely Beatles' songs) and tunes from Hollywood musicals with which they were familiar.
Unfortunately, for the first portion of this recording, the child who is taking the lead is either too close to the microphone, or the record level is too high, because there is quite a bit of distortion, especially during the camp song. If nothing else, this recording is worth it to hear (about halfway through) the misheard lyrics to "Norwegian Wood", and the replacing of the edgy lyric (well, edgy for pop radio in early 1966, anyway) "It's Time For Bed", all of which are sung by our lead performer.
For top 40 radio fans, there are two brief bursts of WLS heard near the end of this segment, including one of the longer jingles which used to be common.
The names of these children, and even their home address (on the Northwest Side of Chicago) is present on the original tape, but I've edited those moments (as well as a few moments of tedium) out of this version of the tape.
i've heard a lot of these found recordings over the years and this mightbe the best - lots of energy!
Posted by: Jay Pegg | February 10, 2009 at 05:02 PM