WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Over Before You Know It: Two Remarkably Short 45 RPM Sides (MP3's)

Back in the days when the 45 RPM record was the dominent method of selling music, it wasn't all that unusual (particularly in the '60's) to find a b-side, or sometimes even an a-side, which was under 100 seconds long. In fact, a few 45's from that era timing out at 80 seconds or less managed to make Billboard's hot 100, including the 60 second release "Little Boxes" by The Womenfolk. 

Today, two far less well known records than "Little Boxes", each of which runs under a minute. First up is Dick Boyell and his Orchestra, featuring singer Don Shelton. This appears to me to be a vanity label, and the short song involved is the A-side, with the catchy title "Oh Sweet Bubbles, You Make Me Feel So Good". As you'll hear, this lyric would have qualified as a shaggy dog story, were the story long enough to grow shaggy hair. The label reads one minute - played at exactly 45 RPM, the song lasts about two seconds less, and shows up at 0:59 here to allow for a bit of run-off at the end. 

Dick Boyell and Orchestra, with  vocal by Don Shelton - Oh Sweet Bubbles, You Make Me Feel So Good (MP3)

Dick Boyell Record Label (JPG)

From another universe altogether comes a piece of insanity which has been in my collection since early childhood. No surprise - it's from the world of Children's Records, and more specifically from the intersection of Little Golden Records and Hanna-Barbera. 

The record is credited to Don Elliott and the Cartoon Cowboys with Jimmy Carroll Orchestra, and is titled "Ooch, Ooch, Ouch!". It appears that this is the same Don Elliott who is primarily known as a jazz trumpet player, but who is also listed as a vocal talent in some searches, and was one of the hipsters behind the Chipmunks-meet-Bebop project "The Nutty Squirrels", in late 1959. Here, he is doing the voice of Quick Draw McGraw, who was voiced in the series of cartoons by Daws Butler - who most certainly would have been available to the Hanna-Barbera people, so what is Elliott doing as the voice here?:

This record always seemed weird to me. Several of my childhood records seemed at least moderately strange, but this was weirder than most of the others. For one thing, it's FIFTY THREE SECONDS LONG!!! It's the whole side of the single, and it times out at well under a minute! I can literally see the spaces between the groove as it moves towards the center of the record.

Just as odd is the performance of the song. First, there is the fact that (to me, at least), it sounds like we join the song in progress, almost in mid-breath of the singer, and certainly after some sort of music has already been played.

Then there is the deeply weird lead vocal, the overly peppy chorus, singing in such jolly spirits about being conked on the head (I particularly like the happy way they sing "He's a grouch", which is repeated three times), and the wacky sound effects. Not unheard of in kids records, but the feel of this one is sort of different, and the sudden ending just makes it weirder.

Don Elliott and the Cartoon Cowboys with Jimmy Carroll Orchestra - Ooch, Ooch, Ouch! (MP3)

Record Label (JPG)

There actually is a postscript to the Don Elliot record. After I posted this song to my own blog, several years ago, my brother did some searching, and found out that, yes indeed, this is a crudely excerpted set of segments, edited into those 53 seconds, from a longer piece (nearly 3 1/2 minutes), one which appeared on a Hanna-Barbera album.

The longer has a weirdness of its own, but is at least fairly cohesive, and the segments pulled out for the 45 work within the confines of the full track. Plus you get to hear ridiculous lyrics such as "floor-de-floor-de-floor-de-floor", which would have made me crack up at age six, had they bothered to put the whole song on the 45. 

Don Elliott and the Cartoon Cowboys with Jimmy Carroll Orchestra - Ooch, Ooch, Ouch! (Album Version) (MP3)

The mystery remains, though - why edit down a song for a 45, to roughly 1/4th of its original length, removing all context from the song, making terrible edits and slapping it on a 45 that could easily have handled the original length without those edits? Who was it that listened to the edited version and said something along the lines of, "yup, that's perfect - that'll be GREAT for our next kids' 45"?

Please feel free to send comments to [email protected] - I will add those comments to this post. 

The Fascist Stand-Up Comic by Kliph Nesteroff

Frank Fay is considered the very first stand-up comedian. Prior to his emergence in the early 1920s, comedians accompanied their act with props and funny costumes. Even those without gimmicks rarely appeared onstage alone. Comedians had their punchlines set-up by another person, a straightman. To be a comedian meant you performed with the help of a costume or an instrument or another guy. “A comedian without a prop can’t click,” said actor Wesley Ruggles. “I learned that back in the days when I pushed the props around for Charlie Chaplin. Great pantomist that he is, Chaplin realizes the necessity of props.”

Frank Fay realized that as long as you knew what you were doing, as long as you had confidence in your material, props weren't necessary at all. The comedians insisting on props and costumes did so out of conformity or out of fear. Fay started with gimmicks like everyone else, wearing baggy pants, squirting seltzer, delivering straight lines for a comedian that circled him on roller skates - and he hated it. After humiliating himself onstage for two years, Fay decided to use the same persona he had offstage. No props, no costumes, no partner, he took to the stage wearing a well-tailored tuxedo and told jokes alone. It was so unconventional that The New York Times frowned: "“Fay needs a good straight man, as before, to feed his eccentric comedy." There was initial resistance to a man just standing and talking, but Fay's success would transform stand-up as an artform. Fellow comedians saw Fay succeed and they abandoned their props and emulated his style. Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Bob Hope and Jack Paar all cited him as an influence. Fay became one of the most influential stand-up comics of all time.
     
He was also comedy's most notorious racist. In January 1946, several months after Germany had been defeated, a rally of ten thousand white supremacists gathered at Madison Square Garden. They delivered speeches in support of Franco, Mussolini and their fallen hero Adolf Hitler. They promised that the defeat of Germany would not go unpunished. The podium was beneath a banner that saluted their guest of honor. The event was called "The Friends of Frank Fay."

A Trio of 1940s True-Life Musical Comic Book Stories

Todays Comic Supplement spotlights three now-obscure 1940s entertainers, as depicted in the magazines Doc Savage ( v.2 #4, June 1943), Picture News ( #10, February 1947), and Melody Lane ( #01, Feb-Mar 1950).

The personalities we will learn about are Fanny Brice, Margaret Whiting and Johnny Desmond. These gripping TRUE comics are unrated and absolutely REAL, so get set for a thrill-packed comic book read - right after the jump!

Cigarettes and Beer: Bob Hahn Radio Commercial Presentation Reel # 2 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 52) (MP3's)

Last month, I offered up the contents of the first in a group of reel to reel tapes I recently purchased, sampler reels of the work of Canadian ad-man Bob Hahn. Today, volume two of those tapes. All but two of the 12 ads on this tape are for or cigarettes (two ads) or beer (eight ads).

The most interesting aspects here, to me, are in the five Molson ads, with their varying focuses on what people in different fields would consider to be two things which go together perfectly - I wonder at what point advertising would cease making reference to Minstrel shows. Also of interest is that these ads are each 70 seconds long, a length which I've not generally seen in the hundreds of ads I own.

I also get a kick out of the slogan at the focus of the two ads for Dominion stores: "It's Mainly Because of the Meat!" I'm sure those of you who play with sound can use those cliips. I know I will. 

As with the previous set, these are dated October, 1961. Without further ado, the Bob Hahn Presentation Reel, Volume 2: 

Comments can be sent to [email protected]

TRACKS REMOVED AT REQUEST OF COPYRIGHT HOLDER