About six months ago, I posted the six songs which make up a wonderful album of 78's, titled "Abe Burrows Sings?". I mentioned at that time that I had a 10" album by Burrows somewhere, hidden amongst my parents' records (now stacked virtually at random in my basement). I promised to post that album when I found it. Well, now that day has come.
The album is titled "The Girl with the Three Blue Eyes and other Typical Type Songs", it dates from 1950, and it is Burrows' trip through the various genres of songs (as well as the travelogue) that he deemed worthy of satire. Most of what I know (and learned from various commenters) is in my previous post about Burrows, but I'll offer a few comments on this material.
My clear favorite here is "The Pansy In My Garden", which was a family favorite before I was born, and got frequent plays throughout my childhood. This is a great parody of the sort of Parlor Song which was popular over a hundred years ago, although I associate them more with female singers than baritones.
The title song (heard in a near-medley with two other songs, within the first track) is another favorite, as is the Travelouge, "Waukeshaw Natural Bridge", which is full of great lines.
Worth noting from the liner notes to this album is that Burrows claims to have created the often sung parody lines "oh, how we danced on the night we were wed, I needed a wife like a hole in the head".
I apologize for the terrible sound quality. I have two copies of this record, and both play with a ridiculous amount of surface noise. I even tried playing it with a 78 needle, and while that cleaned up the constant rumble, it introduced an equally constant (and louder) level of tics and pops. The scans of the covers are also clearly composites, something I'm not very skilled at doing. If I get someone to improve these, I will replace them.
Finally, at the time that I posted the early 78 collection, I could not find the cover to the collection ("Abe Burrows Sings?"). I have now found that cover, and along with the posts for today's offering, I have attached the cover and text from that collection, both of which were sadly damaged by a flood in our home, early last year.
1.) Abe Burrows - Memory Lane, The Girl with the Three Blue Eyes & The “Hello” Type Song (MP3)
2.) Abe Burrows - The Pansy in My Garden (MP3)
3.) Abe Burrows - Tokyo Rose (MP3)
4.) Abe Burrows - Ron Ron Ron (MP3)
5.) Abe Burrows - The Stationery Type Song (MP3)
6.) Abe Burrows - The Hospital Type Song (MP3)
7.) Abe Burrows - Waukeshaw Natural Bridge (MP3)
8.) Abe Burrows - The Rock and the Rose & I Saw You (MP3)
"The Girl with the Three Blue Eyes" Front Cover (JPG)
"The Girl with the Three Blue Eyes" Back Cover (JPG)
"Three Blue Eyes" Album A Side Label (JPG) - "Three Blue Eyes" Album B Side Label (JPG)
"Abe Burrows Sings?" 78 Collection Cover (JPG) - "Abe Burrows Sings?" Text (JPG)
Bliss!
Posted by: Dwight Casey | January 10, 2010 at 03:55 PM
Abe Burrows was distantly related to Woody Allen; Woody's uncle was married to one of Abe's aunts or some such (according to the 1990s Eric Lax Allen bio)...
Posted by: Andrew | January 10, 2010 at 06:56 PM
The sound is a lot more listenable if you sum the 2 tracks to mono - quite a bit of the rumble is cancelled.
Posted by: Evan | January 12, 2010 at 07:42 AM
hey you can make photoshop make your composites, it's called automate>photomerge, and it's usally works quite good
Posted by: tw | January 12, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Fantastic, thanks!
Posted by: Martin Gumucio | January 18, 2010 at 04:36 AM
I had this album (actually my older sister had it)when it first came out and I managed to get a copy a few years later. It got lost over the years. I would dearly love to have a copy to give to my sister for her 80th birthday.
Julian
Posted by: Julian P Stubbins | July 02, 2010 at 07:17 PM
Thank you!, Bob Purse, Thank you! In a terrible moment of inept thinking and garbled directions, I had my sons clean out my storage locker, without supervision. Out went my collection of 78 RPM shellac records, forever crushed and buried in the Agoura Hills landfill. One of the most hurtful losses was Abe Burrows' "The Girl With Three Blue Eyes" album. Never again would I hear Abe's Brooklynese baritone intoning Three Blue Eyes, Ron-Ron-Ron, Pansy In My Garden, or my favorite, "you forgot what they learned you at UCLA", Tokyo Rose. Now my sadness is over! Once again I marvel and laugh at Abe's brilliant sense of humor, musicality, and on-target commentary. Thanks to WMFU and Bob Purse.
J F Fields
Posted by: John Fields | January 21, 2012 at 07:35 PM