WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Moving the Reel to Reel Catacombs to a New Site - A Very Special Last Post - Featuring Dora Hall!!

There is pure magic to be experienced, at least when you're in luck. Here's how it starts: Turn on the reel to reel tape recorder. Take the tape out of the box. Put the empty reel on the right spindle, and the full reel on the left spindle. Wind the tape through the mechanisms - including the pinch rollers, the capstan and the rest. The tape is pressed against the heads and moves at a certain number of inches per second. Start the machine. And sometimes... if you're lucky... magic comes spilling out of the speakers. 

For over five years (of my total of 7 1/2 years of posting here), I have been sharing treasures, finds, weirdness and the indescribable from my basement reel to reel catacombs, under a series going by that title. It began in March of 2010 with this post, and ends (for this blog), with the 67th entry, which is today's post. This blog is closing in a matter of days, and there will, at that point, be no further posts, changes or ability to comment. 

Before getting to today's post, which is a true favorite of mine, I want to say that it is my intention to continue this series, perhaps on a even more frequent basis, at a new site which I have started up this week, a blog I'm calling "Inches Per Second". That site can be found here, and I have already started posting with an initial post titled "A Gaggle of Giggling Twelve Year Olds". Please stop by, if you're of a mind to, and let me know whether or not the audience is there for me to continue sharing this particular area of collecting. 

As mentioned last week, I also hope to expand my current blog, "The Wonderful and the Obscure", beyond its current focus on song-poems, and bring in some of the other, non reel wonders from my collection. 

And now, on with the countdown: 

Several times, over the years, both in the 365 days project and in my own posts, I've mentioned the wondrous, late and lamented ALS Mammoth Music Mart, which ran in Skokie, IL, for 25 years, every fall. The most magical tapes I found at that sale are the ones featuring Merigail Moreland, You can read about the ALS sale and some initial information about Merigail in this post, and read the rest of the Merigail story in this post. 

But the second most wonderful find I made at the ALS sale is one I've rarely mentioned to anyone, and for which I've only shared the actual recordings with two people that I recall. For these tapes contain the sessions for an album by everyone's favorite Vanity Singer, Dora Hall, sessions that, as far as I can tell, were never released. And that's a shame because, for once, she was backed by a small combo of crack musicians, and, for one session, an big jazz band. Here's what I saw on one of the tapes I bought: 

Not familiar with Dora Hall? Read about her here, here and here, hear her within this site here and here, and search youtube for all sorts of amazing Dora material.  

The man behind these sessions was Chicago jazzman Larry Taylor. I have previously featured multiple posts featuring Mr. Taylor, and those tapes were also found at the ALS sale - clearly someone in his family dumped all of his tapes on the good people at the ALS fundraiser, because at the same time that I found those tapes, I also found close to a dozen tapes labeled "Dora Hall Session" and "Dora - Memphis" and "D.H" Session", and "Instrumental Takes - Dora". I gave them a spin, and heard.... magic, just as described at the start of this post.

These were the session tapes - with dates on them from the Fall of 1961 - at the studio speed of 15 inches per second (a few were 7 1/2 safety copies)  and featuring multiple takes of many songs (many more repeated songs by the band on the instrumental tapes than there were on the tapes where Dora overdubbed vocals, but just in general a lot of material). The band was made up of crack jazz musicians, with much of the material having a Dixieland feel. I own a ton of Dora Hall's albums and singles, and most of it has been captured online over the years, as well. If this material was ever released, I haven't found it. And it's better than anything else I've heard from her. 

First, before we get to Dora's vocals, here is one of the instrumental tracks from the Larry Taylor group that show just how good this band could be. Sadly, this one wasn't chosen for use under a Dora Hall vocal overdub, because I adore this track. It's my favorite from the tapes, actually, over any of the vocal tracks. It is just a backing track, but I love the back and forth between the "rock and roll" (twist) verses and the swinging bridge. But most of all, the trumpet solo - which sounds like it could have come from Clifford Brown - just kills me. It's sexy as hell, smooth and full of just amazing little melodic ideas. The last two bars of that solo are otherworldly. I also can't get enough of the little hi-hat and snare shot at the 2:19 point. I'm blathering, but these are the last thing I'll be posting to Beware of the Blog, and this particular track is one of my favorite things I've ever heard roll off of a reel of tape. 

The Larry Taylor Band - Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street (Instrumental) (MP3)

And now, a few samples from Dora's vocal sessions - I wouldn't be opposed to putting all of this out in some manner, and if anyone out there has the means to do so, in a larger venue than a blog, feel free to contact me at the e-mail address below. But for the time being, here are a few wonderful samples. The first three tracks are with the jazz combo (the first being over a different, swing take of "18th and 19th), and the fourth is from what's labeled as the "United Session", whatever that means - the tracks on those tapes feature Dora with a full jazz ensemble. To my ears, these tapes show Dora to have considerably more talent than her subsequent covers of pop hits (or later, less well made covers of these standards) demonstrate. Or maybe it's just the first-rate quality of the band(s) involved. 

Dora Hall with the Larry Taylor Band - Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street (MP3)

Dora Hall with the Larry Taylor Band - Nellie Bly (MP3)

Dora Hall with the Larry Taylor Band - Shine (MP3)

Dora Hall with Orchestra - That's a Plenty (MP3)

Back of Tape Box (JPG)  | Side of Tape Box (JPG)

Why wasn't this material ever released? Who knows? - most of those involved have been gone for decades. it is curious to me that Dora Hall released mediocre and just plain lousy material for more than a decade, while this material languished somewhere in Larry Taylor's home. 

You should be able to leave comments until July 30th. After that, you can contact me via either of my blogs, or via the e-mail address below. 

[email protected]

Thanks to everyone who read, liked and/or commented on my posts for the past several years. Having the chance to be a part of this blog has been one of the best things to have happened in my life. 

Bob Purse

Scotty Scott and his Vanity 45 (MP3's)

The Film City label is one which utterly fascinates me. It was the label Sandy Stanton created after The Fabulous Fable Label, which I've written about here a few times. And it's where song-poem God Rodd Keith got his start and made many of my favorite song-poem records, using The Chamberlin as a one-man band project like no one else has done before or since. (I've posted many of them on my own site, and I'd link you to them, but unfortunately, recent problems with Divshare have rendered nearly all of the files on my site unplayable.)

Every now and then, Film City seems to have done business with someone who wanted to record his or her own material. More often than not, this seems to have involved utilizing the abilities of that same Chamberlin, which was, quite likely, played on those records by Rodd Keith. They typically feature the same wording as the song-poems that Film City produced, with such backing bands as "The Film City Orchestra" or, as in today's case, "The Swinging Strings". All such fictional bands actually being one man playing one unusual instrument. 

I've previously posted two Film City vanity 45's, one created by a man who clearly didn't know how very little he knew about songwriting, and one by a woman who seems to have known that she was making something fairly goofy. It also seems likely, as a friend of mine has pointed out, that the fabulous record I posted many years ago - "Can I Pawn My Teeth to You" / "Man Do I Like Fridays", by Roy Esser, has the sound and feel of Rodd Keith's Film City productions. Although it did not appear on Film City (Stanton created all sorts of tiny labels as offshoots of Film City), I'm betting that one came out of the Stanton/Keith file, too. 

Today, another Film City record from the vanity file, and again it's someone who was from the amateur end of things. His name was Scotty Scott, and captured on the two sides of this 45 are a multitude of stultifying couplets. Having written my share of lyrics over the years, I know the feeling of needing to come up with something that rhymes, scans well, makes sense and sounds good. With the lyricist of this record, it often sounds like he settled for "well, it rhymes", including phrases which seem pulled out of thin air, random and non-sequitorial. 

An example: The A-side is titled "Chattanooga, Nashville, Battlecreek Trek", and if you can manage to figure out the point of this song, please let me know. He rambles on about people getting jobs and where they've been and where they are for 2 1/2 minutes, along the way offering up this magnificent rhyme. 

"One man gets a job, then his brother gets one, too

Then his Uncle Bob, with or without a shoe."

The B-side is "Antique Hunter's Craze". This tells the story of a married couple who threw away all their old things way back when, only to become antique collectors later in life, sung from the perspective of the couple's son, who is none too happy about this development. We are told: 

You ought to see them when the find a bauble that's rare

Their eyes light up with a smile that before wasn't there. 

I particularly like that one because it just doesn't scan with the melody at all. 

Scotty Scott and the "Swinging Strings" - Chattanooga, Nashville, Battlecreek Trek (MP3)

Scotty Scott and the "Swinging Strings" - Antique Hunter's Craze (MP3)

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

Incidentally, this record was pressed on translucent dark red plastic, with a splash of yellow in one spot along the edge. I don't know how much you can make out, but here is a scan of the entire record: 

Film City 45 (JPG)

That English Sound!!! Sounding Not At All English!!!! (MP3's)

Here's one of the myriad albums which came out in the wake of the British Invasion, purporting to contain hits by your latest favorite groups, particularly the Beatles. While I found a few sites which shared this marvelous album cover, and several sites trying to sell the album (which I picked up for a quarter), it doesn't look like the material itself has been shared anywhere, with one exception (I'll get to that in a few paragraphs). While most of the other albums that I've seen or owned which tried to glom onto the Beatles magic are from 1964, this one would appear to date from some point after December of 1965, given the presence of both sides of the Beatles 45 release in that month. 

This is, as you might expect, as half-assed as they come. At no point do the performers sound anything like the original artists, OR like they are from anywhere in England. We are treated to one song each by the Rolling Stones and by Herman's Hermits (the latter featuring a truly atrocious attempt at Peter Noone's accent, and no attempt to recreate his vocal tone), and four Beatle songs from 1965. Amazingly, they manage to mangle key lyrical phrases in both "Help!" and "Day Tripper".

Three of the remaining four songs are mysteries, perhaps included to try and fill out what ended up only being a 25 minute album. On "Where Were You", the performers seem to have made the questionable decision to try to emulate the group I'd pick as the worst major group of the era, Jay and the Americans - not only an awful group, but also certainly not English. "You Make the Decisions" seems to want to be a Peter and Gordon song, while "Just Give Me Time" is clearly a Beach Boys pastiche - again, not noted for being British.

That leaves the final track, and the real mystery of this album. Because "Bless You Little Girl" turns out to have actually been released - and this performance of it, too - not once, but twice, under two different artist names. The song was co-written by well known songwriter Bobby Russell, and came out under the name Bobby and Buddy and also by Peter and the Rabits (sic). I've listened to all three releases, and believe they are all the same track. How did that song end up on this album? 

And did any of these labels make their money back. There was clearly talent involved in these releases - bands, string sections, etc. Were enough people fooled to help earn the costs of such a product back? 

1.) We Can Work It Out (MP3)

2.) As Tears Go By (MP3)

3.) Yesterday (MP3)

4.) Where Were You? (MP3)

5.) You Make the Decisions (MP3)

6.) Help! (MP3)

7.) Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter (MP3)

8.) Day Tripper (MP3)

9.)Just Give Me Time (MP3)

10.) Bless You Little Girl (MP3)

Front Cover (JPG)  |  Back Cover (JPG)  |  Record Label (JPG)

Oh, and COMMENTS ARE BACK!!! Have Your Say!!!

Greetings from the San Fernando Valley, 1965: An Audio Letter (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 64) (MP3's)

In my vast collection of reel to reel tapes, there are dozens, perhaps even a few hundred, audio letters. I've shared several of them here over the years, and today, here's an admittedly mundane one as another example of the sort of "day in the life" quality that these tapes present. 

The one thing I do find sort of fascinating about this particular tape is the woman's accent. It sounds close in certain ways to Jack Nicholson's drawl, without being quite the same, and she also has a way of adding a pause in the middle of a word after certain vowel sounds, especially "O", essentially adding another syllable as a result. 

This is just life as she knew it in the mid 1960's - wondering about the effectiveness of those new Teflon pans, theater shows she and her husband had gone to at the local theater, sharing her life and asking about that of the person receiving the tape. 

The woman making the tape mentions her difficulty in using reel to reel tape recorders a few times, and, in fact, I've had to boost the sound quite a bit in some sections of the recording, as she left the volume far too low for nearly half of the recording. This accounts for the changes in sound quality that take place. After using the entire length of side one of the tape, she turned it over and recorded for a few more minutes on the flip side. 

This tape is from 1965.. She mentions that it is June 20th (coincidentally, my birthday!), and that it was Father's Day. The mention of the increasing numbers of soldiers being sent to Vietnam makes this the only likely year in which Father's Day was on June 20th. In addition, she mentions going to see Buddy Ebsen in "Paint Your Wagon" at the Valley Theater, which I've been able to confirm took place at a theater by that name in Woodland Hills, CA, the same week this tape was recorded. This also places the speaker somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. 

Unknown - Audio Letter from the San Fernando Valley Side One (MP3)

Unknown - Audio Letter from the San Fernando Valley Side Two (MP3)

Tape Box (JPG)

A Few Mysterious Rock and Roll Obscurities, Circa 1959 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 63) (MP3's)

STOP THE PRESSES: All of the songs featured in the post have been identified by several helpful correspondents. Read on for the answers, in Bold, below!!!

Over 15 years ago, I was at yet another large rummage sale somewhere, and came across a tape in a metal cannister (the type more typically used to hold 8mm films), labeled simply "Rock and Roll". This, of course, could have been anything from early Rock and R & B, to Beach Boys albums to 1970's stadium rock and beyond, but it certainly the sort of thing I would take a chance on. 

It turned out to be a recording of about 60 (mostly) rock and roll singles, many apparently recorded off the radio (based on snippets of DJ chatter and AM electrical interference here and there). But the odd thing was that these were not the standard "biggest hits" I've come across on nearly every other tape featuring old rock and roll that I've come across.

A handful of songs would be immediately familiar to anyone who enjoys the music of the era - all of them from 1959, dating the tape nicely. Another quarter of the songs might be known to people with a more intimate knowledge of that period - non-hits by Chuck Berry, The Poni-Tales, Ritchie Valens, Bobby Darin, Bobby Day, Art and Dotty Todd, and several others that I've been able to identify with the help of the internet in the ensuing years. What was remarkable to me was the sheer number of non-hits and tracks I still can't identify. Whoever made this tape managed to capture - in about 40 of the 60 tracks - records which were not national hits. And yet most of these seemed to be off-the-radio recordings, meaning that either the area in which they were recorded had a ton of regional hits, or that the person recording was lucky enough to listen to a station which had an unusually large playlists. 

As I've winnowed the songs I can't identify, over the years, I've been left with about a dozen, including a few that I really enjoy, and one that I just adore. So I'm putting the word out to all of those out there who also know and love this period in American music, and might know who/what a few of these are. I'm offering up six today. 

The second track on the tape - and the one I've never grown tired of listening to - is an alternate version of a song recorded by Robin Luke in 1959 or 1960, titled "Well Oh, Well Oh (Don't You Know)". It seems unlikely that someone would do a cover a of a song which was on a failed 45 by an artist who had only had one hit, so perhaps this was the original version and/or perhaps regional hit. I have tried, on two occasions, to find out who this performer might be, from noted experts in early rock and roll, and they were both stumped. I love the energy of this record, the vocal - which owes something to both Elvis and Buddy Holly - the Bo Diddley beat of the verses, and rimshot kicking it into the swinging chorus. I could do without the honking sax, but otherwise, it's just about perfect, and immeasurably better than the rather toothless Robin Luke version, which you can hear here.  

Unknown - Well Oh, Well (Don’t You Know) (MP3)

As it turns out, I was unable to find this song because Robin Luke's people changed the title. The above is the original track, titled "Well Don't You Know" performed by the song's writer, George Weston, in 1959!

My second favorite track on the tape was a nonsense/novelty record which I've titled "Great Scott", which is probably not correct. It's full of silly, fake words, and someone shouting more ridiculous verbiage with a ton of reverb. 

Unknown - Great Scott (?) (MP3)

This is actually "Crazy Talk" by the Loafers!

There are four more tracks from the tape that interest me enough to want to know what they are. I have guessed at the titles of three of the four, and have no idea on the fourth. I hope these (and the two above) are of interest to readers/listeners like me who love this era of American music (despite, in my case, the fact that these records come from the year before I was born!!). Most of the tracks start moments after the actual start of the record, and those are technically incomplete. But the final track, below, seems to be missing perhaps half of its length, and, being that it's an instrumental, I have no idea how to identify it, unless it's by someone who knows the track already. 

Unknown - Wanna Dance (?) (MP3)

That's "Wanna Dance" by Frank Pizani!

Unknown - Tra La La (?) (MP3)

That's "Ooh-Sha-Lala" by Mickey and Kitty!

Unknown - Sweet Shop (?) (MP3)

That's "Sweet Shop" by Randy Stevens!

Unknown - Unknown Instrumental (incomplete) MP3)

That's "Rockin' Crickets" by Hot-Toddys (featuring Bill Pernell)!

Rock and Roll Tape Can (JPG)

If anyone knows the remaining mystery song, or if you just want to offer up a comment - at [email protected].

Special thanks to Lee R., Ken E., Steve C., Stewart B., Bruce M., Rich M., and Hellodes, who each offered up suggestions and/or answers to the mysteries of this obscure roll of tape!

A Birthday Conference Call: August, 1966 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 61) (MP3's)

Here's a tape that I found fascinating. It's not an easy listen - the sound quality is abysmal, even after I worked on it quite a bit to eliminate a lot of humming and buzzing - but if you can get past that, and are the type to like things like audio letters, you may also find something to enjoy here, even if once is probably going to be enough.

I've certainly been on my share of conference calls, but here's something I didn't know until I played this tape: you could arrange a conference call via the telephone company way back in the dial phone era, at least back to the date on this tape, which is nearly 50 years ago. I'm not talking about party lines, which were common back then, and in some cases were the only phone lines people had, but actual, prearranged conference calls. This tape not only demonstrates what those primitive conference calls sounded like, it also captures the clunky, time consuming way one had to set the call up in the first place. 

What's captured here in the last 25 minutes of this 30 minute tape is a group of friends all calling yet another friend to wish him a happy birthday.

But as mentioned, it starts with a recording of the long-winded process of setting up the call. The person whose idea it was calls the operator, gets transferred wrong and starts over again, before finally ending up with the conference call operator. He then has to spend three minutes giving the names and phone numbers of all of the people who will be on the call - to be made later in the day - and setting up the parameters of that call, which includes making sure the operator calls everyone NOW to make sure they know there will be the conference call later in the day, and at what time. I can only imagine how much this must have cost...

Then it's on to the actual call, which - aside from some terrible phone connections - sounds much like any other recording of a group of people all coming together to say Happy Birthday to someone they all know. That it's all over some fairly shaky phone connections adds a touch of weirdness to the proceedings - one participant is thought to have missed the call, only to show up as if there all along near the end - and it is, as mentioned, hard to listen to. But I thought I'd pass it along to others who might enjoy this moment in time. 

I note about the date: the person who set up the call quite clearly gives a date of August 9, 1966, at the start of the tape. A different date is written on the tape box, and I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but I'm going with the date heard on the tape. 

A Birthday Conference Call, August 9th, 1966 (MP3)

Tape Box (JPG)

Comments can be sent to [email protected]

A Trio of Weird and Obscure Christmas 45's (MP3's)

Perhaps, after a solid month of Christmas music, you're now thoroughly Binged, Burled, Perryed and Thurled out (although I personally wonder if anyone could really get Thurled out...). 

Well, here is a set of three Christmas records I'm guessing you haven't heard before. At least two appear to be vanity releases, and the third is on a Chicago label which may have been tiny enough for that release to also be something of a vanity production. 

First up is our old friend Harold Duncan, last heard around these parts singing his patriotic tune "Be American". This record came out on the "American Sound" label, which I suspect was Duncan's label, as "Be American was on the same label".Mr. Duncan was from south Florida, and appears to have made a variety of attempts to break into the music business, judging from the number of times I've discovered his name turning up on an obscure record or piece of sheet music. Of the four records I own that have a direct Duncan connection, his Christmas concoction is by far the worst, in both composition and execution. 

The song is called "Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney (Upside Down)", and it is just as stupid as that title suggests. But the problems only start there. Mr. Duncan enlisted a group called "The Rusch Sisters" to sing this song, and its flip side, and they are, simply put, unbearable. They sing in what I suppose is supposed to be a cutesy style (perhaps even supposed to sound like young girls), at times at the upper end of their ranges. Ecch. 

Worse yet is that flip side, "Rudolph Stopped to Rock 'n Roll", particularly the bridge, where they very nearly squeal on the high notes. The fact that the backing has nothing in common with " Rock 'n Roll" certainly doesn't help. 

My copy of this record came with a similarly self-produced book, complete with a drawing of Santa in the chimney, and the sheet music of the song inside. When I find that book, I'll add that image to this post. 

The Rusch Sisters - Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney (Upside Down) (MP3)

The Rusch Sisters - Rudolph Stopped to Rock ‘N Roll (MP3)

Rusch A-Side (JGP)  |  Rusch B-Side (JPG)

 

Given my love of song-poems, I'm quite intrigued by this next offering. Credited to "The Ping Pongs", it contains two Christmas tunes as well, "Pinky Tail" and "The Things I'd Like for Christmas",. While I can't find anything that makes it clear to me that this is a song-poem, it sure looks and sounds like one to me. I'm sure that, at the very least it is, as I've mentioned, a vanity project.

But the label (Sunkist Records) looks like any number of small song-poem spin-off outfits, the label number (102) indicates this is one of the first discs on the label, and the performances sound like a song-poem group - specifically, it sounds like the less-than-enthused group which showed up on many of Norridge Mayhams later projects (the melody of "Things I'd Like" actually sounds quite a bit like a couple of Mayhams' songs), a group I believe came out of the Globe Records song-poem emporium. 

Regardless of the back-story, these songs are an interesting listen, with a tossed off feeling and homespun instrumentation. 

The Ping Pongs - Pinky Tail (MP3)

The Ping Pongs - The Things I’d Like For Christmas (MP3)

Ping Pongs A-Side (JPG)  |  Ping Pongs B-Side (JPG)

 

 

 

Finally, out of Chicago's small IRC label (most famous, if that's the word, for releasing Dick Biondi's "Pizza Song", and some of Ronnie Rice's earliest records), comes the fabulously named "Leonard at the Thomas Organ", with a misbegotten attempt to glom onto the success of the Chipmunks, although whoever is doing the sped-up vocal goes completely unacknowledged on the record label.

Unfortunately, no one told the performers or producers of this record that if you're going to record at half-speed for comical effect, you have to enunciate extremely clearly, nor did they learn that whatever you're singing while doing that enunciation needs to be funny.

I had to slow this track down to half-speed to figure out all of what was being sung, and once I did, I could make out all the words, but I still couldn't figure out what was supposed to be cute, funny or endearing about a very pedestrian description of some not very interesting events. Actually, I get a kick out of the billing of the performer (see above) and the extraneous quotes in the song title more than I do out of the song. It's listed as "Cross-Eyed 'Little' Santa Claus". 

The flip is an instrumental titled "Jingle Jam".

Leonard at the Thomas Organ - Cross-Eyed “Little” Santa Claus (MP3)

Leonard at the Thomas Organ - Jingle Jam (MP3)

Leonard A-Side (JPG)  | Leonard B-Side (JPG)

For those who might like more obscure Christmas music, I've been featuring Christmas song-poems all month at my own site. 

Comments can be sent to [email protected] 

A Pair of Fun Female Vocal Demo Reels (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 56) (MP3's)

Somewhere along the collecting path, I managed to acquire a stack of tapes labeled "JW", and containing a variety of singing performances by a woman who presumably has (or had) those initials. 

These are a bit unusual in the world of demo tapes. Virtually all demo reels I've heard have a single purpose, usually one of three. They are either to display someone's singing talent, perhaps to sell him or her as a performer worthy of signing or hiring to perform live, to demonstrate the songs themselves for someone who might want to perform them, or to market the commercial voice-over (or singing) potential of the performer, in order to seel him or her as a commercial voice artist. 

The JW tapes seem to combine the first and third of these purposes, with song excerpts alternating with full commercials  that the singer had done (the selling of the songs themselves seems unlikely, given that no complete songs are heard, and that at least one of these is a very familiar (former hit) song). 

The songs are generally nothing to get worked up about, although a few of them have promise. My guess is that it is the commercials here (most of which are complete) which will be the attraction. A lot of them are quite fun. One thing that's interesting to me about the commercials selected is that "JW" is not always a solo start on them, or even clearly discernible from other vocalists. 

The first of the two tapes heard here is labeled circa 1967, runs about six minutes, and contains the following tracks, as labeled on the box: 

1.) Must Be Love (song excerpt)  

2.) Out of Love (song excerpt)  

3.) Junket (ad for Fudge)

4.) WELM (38 second Elmira station ID jingle) 

5.) 'Cause I Was Mad (song excerpt - my favorite one on either tape - love the echo!)

6.) Polka Dot Pigs (Crispy Critters cereal ad)

7.) I Hear a Melody (song excerpt)

8.) Losin' Heart (song excerpt)

9.) KLRD ("here's the time" radio jingle)

JW - JW Sing Reel Circa 1967 (MP3)

JW 1967 Sing Reel Tape Box (JPG)

The second tape is labeled 1975, runs about 9 1/2 minutes, and contains the following tracks, as labeled on the box: 

1 & 2.) Cougar (two ads: A. Final, and B. Fever (i.e. in the style of the song "Fever"))

3.) Hunts (sauce ad)

4.) Oo La La (Air France ad? - can't make out if that's what she says or not!)

5.) Little Blue Star (song excerpt)

6.) I Knew (song excerpt)

7.) Wedding Bell Blues (song excerpt)

8.) Please Stay (song excerpt)

9.) Pokla Dot Pigs (same track as on the 1967 tape)

10.) (Title is Illegible on Box) (song excerpt)

11.) Sky Bar (candy bar ad - and it's great to hear an ad for the mighty Sky Bar - haven't had one in YEARS!)

12.) When I Am With You (song excerpt)

13.) Munch (Post Toasties ad)

14.) Sugar Pops (cereal ad)

15.) Are You Early (the same jingle identified as "KLRD" on the earlier tape, minus the final stinger)

JW - JW Sing Reel Circa 1975 (MP3)

JW 1975 Sing Reel Tape Box (JPG)

Incidentally, I do have more of these tapes - these are labeled # 2 and # 6. If there is interest, I can post them. Assuming, that is, that I can find them in the catacombs - these two got separated from the bunch, and I'm not sure where the others are. 

Comments are still disabled - feel free to contact me with any clarifications, corrections, thoughts or requests for more at [email protected]

"Placenta Preview", with The Green County Boys (MP3's)

Back in April of 2007, during the second 365 project, The ToD was nice enough to share an interesting album by a group of doctors from the Ozarks, who called themselves The Greene County Boys. Some time later, I was able to acquire copies of the two other albums by this group. One of them, titled "Borborygmi", was also part of 365 days, by the equally nice Mr. Fab, and that can be found here. To round out the set, I thought I'd let everyone in on the wonders of the Green County Boys album "Placenta Preview". 

Everything I know about this album, which isn't much, comes from the paper insert which was included in the sleeve (a scan is below). The sleeve itself (also scanned, below), is just a generic blue through and through, and the album label has nothing more than the album title and side markings. 

The songs, by the way, run virtually right into the next track in most cases. This is why most tracks stop abruptly, with very little time for empty surface noise before the next track (a la "Sgt. Pepper", an album this collection will never again be compared with). And a few tracks (such as "Halitosis") seem to start mid-phrase from the pianist.

To my ears, the album is hit and miss, more miss than hit, with a few truly cringeworthy bits of singing, as well. For example, although I am pleased to have been introduced to the term "Aciphidity Bag" (also known as an Acifidity Bag), the last note sung on that song is amazingly awful. My favorite here, by a wide margin - most likely because of the peppy calypso setting - is "Pass-a No Gas". 

1.) The Greene County Boys – A Toast to the Doctors (MP3)

2.) The Greene County Boys – A Doctor Ain’t Got a Friend (MP3)

3.) The Greene County Boys – It Must Be a Virus (MP3)

4.) The Greene County Boys – Thanks for the Referral (MP3)

5.) The Greene County Boys – AFL-CIO-AMA (MP3)

6.) The Greene County Boys – T he Doctors’ PR Man (MP3)

7.) The Greene County Boys – I Married an Aciphidity Bag (MP3)

8.) The Greene County Boys – Halitosis Beats No Breath At All (MP3)

9.) The Greene County Boys – Pass-a No Gas (MP3)

10.) The Greene County Boys – A Doctor Needs a Wife (MP3)

11.) The Greene County Boys – Here’s to the Doctor (MP3)

Album Cover (JPG)  |  Album Label (JPG)  |  Album Insert (JPG)

The Amazing Backstory to "The Most Unusual Voice on an Audio Letter" (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 49) (MP3's)

Today, a follow-up. Two weeks ago, I wrote an entry about "The Most Unusual Voice I've Ever Heard on an Audio Letter"

Being currently unable to accept comments to this site, I invited comments about these mysterious tapes to my own e-mail address, and was happy to hear from more than a half-dozen commenters. 

Many suggested that the person speaking had undergone a tracheostomy. I was previously only familiar with the machine used by people with this impairment, which makes sort of a burping, low toned vocal sound, but I guess the sound on these recordings is an earlier method of assisting someone who has had this procedure to be able to speak. 

I also got a least five suggestions as to the language being spoken. The correct answer appears to be Estonian (explained in a moment)

But one intrepid writer went much further, and by searching for the return address on the tapes, and then for the name that site turned up, found something truly amazing, and equally horrifying. 

Remember that the sender of the tapes, and presumably the primary person talking, was listed as A. Mere at 180 Mere Rd. in Leicester, England. Using that information, this led my researching correspondent to a site which indicates that the person at that address, Mr. Ain Mere, was an Estonian who retired to England, and who was a collaborator with the SS during World War II. Here is the first site found.

That led both my correspondent and me to check Wikipedia, and we came up with even more information - which you can see here - that after retiring to England he was accused and convicted of war crimes, by a Russian court, and sentenced to death. As the page goes on to say, due to lack of evidence, English authorities refused to extradite him.

Several writers, intrigued by what is on these tapes, have asked where I got them. While I don't keep close records of where I've come to own most of the myriad tapes in my collection, there is really only one place I would have acquired a large collection of tapes sent from one person to another, and that is eBay. When and from where the seller was located, at this point I haven't a clue.

But this is just another reminder that you literally can never know exactly what's going to come out of the speakers on the next reel of tape you spool up. And why I'll be continuing to explore this amazing world of sound for the rest of my days. 

And now, for your dining and dancing pleasure, here's another one of Ain Mere's tapes, featuring the dulcet tones of Mr. Mere. On this tape, the other person who appears on these tapes (a younger woman, I'm guessing) speaks about as much as the sender does, which is unusual for these tapes. She even briefly lapses into English a couple of times. 

This tape only features two songs, but what numbers they are, first an early number by The Beatles (I think I hear him say "Beatles" in the comments just after the song ends), and the other a lovely yodeling tune - She Taught Me to Yodel - as sung by Friank Ifield, whose version was memorably lip-synched by Craig Ferguson (although my favorite version is by Rod Erickson). (The hiccup heard during the song on this tape is from a splice in the tape.) 

What occurred to me, while digitizing this tape, is that there are few things that have less in common with the allegations against Ain Mere than the do either the joyful sound of the early Beatles or the good cheer found in "She Taught Me to Yodel". 

Ain Mere - Greetings From England, Side One (MP3)

Ain Mere - Greetings From England, Side Two (MP3)

Tape Box Front (JPG)  |  Tape Box Back (JPG)

Thanks to all who wrote, and many, many thanks to GM in cyberspace for filling in the blanks!

Comments still appear to be disabled, so if you'd like to say something, please write to me at the address you can find on this page, and I'll try to add some of those comments to this post, when I get a chance.  

 

 

The Most Unusual Voice I've Ever Heard on an Audio Letter (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 48) (MP3)

Somewhere along the way in my collecting travels, I picked up a collection of audio letters, recorded and mailed in the mid 1960's, from someone living in England to a family member living on Staten Island. Both share the same last name, and the resident of England even lived on a street which carried her own last name  (see scans of the tape boxes, below). 

The tapes typically contain conversation from the sender (occasionally there are two voices on the tapes), interspersed about evenly with various pop songs from a variety of countries, languages and styles. 

And that's where what I know about these tapes end. Because the people on the tapes are not speaking English - I don't know what language this is - and the person who does about 90% of the speaking on the tapes has, by far, the most unusual speaking voice that I've ever heard on the hundreds of audio letters I've collected over the years. I don't know if it would sound quite so otherworldly if I understood her language, although I suspect it would. And without knowing the story behind the reason her voice sounded this way, I'm not going to speculate on the reasons for her unusual sound. She sounds quite elderly, but even on that I could be mistaken. 

These tapes - like the vast majority of audio letters I find - are on 3 inch reels. I've made copies of two of the apes here. One is labeled "birthday greetings", and the other one says nothing more specific than "rec'd 6/9/64", which is written on an inner flap of the packaging. 

Like most of the tapes, each of these four sides starts with a musical offering. In each case, the tapes alternate between music and talking, with 2-3 minutes of talking in between each 2-3 minute song. The first tape has about 13 minutes to a side, the second one ("Birthday Greetings") only about 7 minutes to a side.  The second person I mentioned who also speaks on these tapes, is only heard here, briefly, on the second side of the Birthday Greetings tape, speaking presumably the same language as the primary speaker. 

I find the variety of the music shared here fairly interesting - while much of it is pop music which I think I'd describe as a "continental" style which I associate with the time period, I do find it interesting that several languages are represented - this person did not limit her tastes in music to her own language. By coincidence, the last song offered up is the German remake of "Memories Are Made of This", sung by Freddie, and retitled "Heimweh", which I shared a few years ago in this post. 

If anyone wants to offer up information as to what language is being spoken, and even better, some of what's being talked about, I'd be very appreciative! I cannot seem to make the comments to this entry open, so if you want to contact me, please write me via the link on this page. 

Greetings from England, Side One (MP3)

Greetings from England, Side Two (MP3)

Birthday Greetings from England, Side One (MP3)

Birthday Greetings from England, Side Two (MP3)

Tape Boxes:

Image 1  |  Image 2  |  Image 3  |  Image 4  |  Image 5

The Black Book: Spooky Opening Segments for an Unknown Program (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 47) (MP3)

Here's yet another weird, unexplained bit of reel to reel recording tape which migrated to my collection at some point. I have been unable to determine anything about the purpose for which this tape was recorded, and if it rings a bell with someone out there, by all means, say so. 

The tape contains a series of introductions for some sort of show which was likely titled "The Black Book". These are appropriately spooky, with tense music and scary sound effects, and a very effective narrator. That said, there is a somewhat amateur feel to the recordings. Weirdly, all that is here are what appear to be an  intro, followed by narration segments, seemingly meant to go between segments of a story - but what story, and what medium? The only hint is a notation in the upper right corner of the box cover (seen to the right) which indicates that the first section of narration belongs "over film". 

At first, I thought this might be related to an Old Time Radio show titled "The Black Book", hosted by Paul Frees. But the narrator sounds nothing like Frees, and there are multiple examples on line of that show,  none of which sound remotely like this tape. Also, the dates on the box make it clear that this couldn't have been recorded prior to 1962.

However, a bit more digging shows that the narrations do fit the plot of a 1949 film, "Reign of Terror", about an attempt to stop a man's bloodthirsty grab at power during the French Revolution. Again, though, this tape would have been made nearly 15 years after that film, and the production level is not at the level of a big budget film. 

The tape runs nine minutes or so. First up is an introduction that focuses first on Dr. Guillotine,before tying together a variety of images which seem to me recited almost at random. The second segment is a brief scene involving the Guillotine. The next section takes place on the night streets of Paris, which as in the description of the film, is about to be taken over by a dictator. The next narration specifically focuses on the importance of The Black Book, and how it needs to be destroyed. This section and the two that follow I find almost impossible to follow, not surprising given that these segments seem likely to have been meant for interludes between parts of the story, without the story itself to explain them.

See what you think! 

Unknown: "The Black Book" Intros (MP3)   |   Tape Box (JPG)

Got Snow? Get Sno-Wings by Blazon!!! Or Would You Rather Impress James Darren? (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 46) (MP3's)

Here in the suburbs of Chicago, we're sitting under more than a foot of snow, much of which fell during the New Year's Eve/New Year's Day festivities. What better time to haul out the old SNO-WINGS BY BLAZON!!! And if you don't have any of those any more, what better time to hear a vintage recording an old style pitchman working his way through the recording of an advertisement for Sno-Wings!

This tape came to me in a lot containing a variety of advertising, network and local TV audio, etc., many years ago. No doubt a perfect version of the commercial could be edited together from elements of this seven minute tape, but I think it's more fun to hear the raw, unedited tape of the pitchman.

Unknown: Sno-Wings By Blazon (MP3)

Sno-Wings Tape Box (JPG)

Sno-Wing (JPG)

Oh, and what did a Sno-Wing look like? Well, the only ones I can find online are for sale, so trying to link to a website featuring a picture would probably include sites which will be expired soon, but I did find a picture to share, which is linked above, and pictured below: 

 

While I'm offering up old time advertising rarities, here's a short tape containing three aspects of an ad for Liquid Gold Halo Shampoo, "leaves hair so glowing clean, it stops even James Darren, young co-star of 'Reach for Tomorrow'!" (By the way, this film appears to have been retitled "Let No Man Write My Epitaph", by the time it was released, in 1960.) 

Here, you will hear the ad with backing music, the ad copy without backing music, and a longer version of the backing music, minus the voice-over. 

Unknown: Liquid Gold Halo Shampoo (MP3)

Liquid Gold Halo Shampoo Tape Box (JPG)

Finally, here's a 15 second ad for the Plymouth Fury, which I got a kick out of because of the dealership owner's name: 

Unknown - Plymouth Fury (MP3)

The Role of a Division Marketing Manager (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 45) (MP3)

The most interesting thing about this tape, to me, is that I have no idea for what purpose it was recorded. It was part of a huge batch of tapes I bought a few years ago, most of which contain raw audio tracks from various media recordings from the 1950's and early 1960's. I've shared several other tapes from this batch, including an interview with Albert Gore, Sr., a Sound Effects tape and a CBS radio sales presentation. 

This tape is clearly of the same vintage, and yet I can't fathom what its purpose was. It portrays a very 1950-60's management meeting, in which the hiring of a new Marketing Manager is being considered, and like some of the other reels, this  may have been audio from a film or video piece. There are no clues on the tape box, seen at right - the edge of the box says "Stock OK for Tests". 

It's fun to hear the interplay here, and the way these marketing men spoke to each other, jockeying for position, alternately agreeing with and disagreeing, with various levels of sucking up to the boss (who finally tells one of them to call him by his first name), and their "honest" appraisal of their chances when the boss leaves for a minute or so. 

But it sure is an oddball recording: They seem to go out of their way to not mention what product they work for. And this certainly couldn't have been intended for broadcast in that era, not with the use of the words "piss" and "shit" each being used once - both were clearly right in the script, too. And yes, this is all from a script - as you'll hear, there are a few places where they stop to get a line right, and after the "meeting" stops (which is quite sudden), the tape ends with several edit pieces, re-recordings of lines that were flubbed, unclear or otherwise needed to be read again. 

Who and what was this for???

Oh, and the first line, directed to "Mr. Wagner", seems to be unrelated to the marketing meeting, but I left it there, right before the meeting, because it seems to make it just a bit weirder. 

 Unknown - The Role of a Division Marketing Manager (MP3)

I've left the first minute of this tape for last, because it seems to be more of an "odds and ends" piece. Before what you've heard above, there is a small segment in which a man adopts what is apparently a fake Italian accent, to render a rewritten version of the last line of the famous poem about Gunga Din, in this case paying tribute instead to Italian World War I hero Enrico Toti. Another mystery!

Unknown - Tribute to Enrico Toti (MP3) 

Tape Box (JPG) 

 

"A Boy and a Clock" - A 1950's Boy Scouts Promotional Piece (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 44) (MP3)

Today's tape contains a few minutes of fascinating narration, from some time in the 1950's. The initial material on the tape was recorded in 1953, but some time after that, someone recorded over it, capturing a brief monologue for the ages, one which I suspect people who like to manipulate sound - particularly those who play with things said in sound clips - will have a field day with. 

On the box, it's identified as "A Boy and a Clock", and as you'll hear, it is an entreaty for the listener to be aware of the boys in his life - his children, those in his extended family, in his neighborhood, and for God's sake, get them into Boy Scouts just as fast as you can. 

I suspect that if someone where selling this message today, he wouldn't choose some of the turns of phrase chosen here, but I don't think I'll say anything more about that - I'll let the gems on this tape speak for themselves.

I will mention that it takes about 30 seconds to get going, while whoever did the recording messed with different ticking sounds, before getting one that was just right. Oh, one more thing - moments before the narration begins, is it my imagination, or does someone say "damn it!"? 

Unknown - A Boy and a Clock   |   Tape Box Front Cover  |   Tape Box Back Cover

Following this monologue, the rest of the tape contains the rest of what was originally recorded on it: what I believe are performances from a high school or other amateur band, playing a variety of band pieces at a moderate level of competence. They aren't nearly interesting enough to share here...

A Wonderfully Incompetent Vanity Record (MP3's)

The Tin Pan Alley record label, of New York City (and later, of Sarasota, Florida), is known - if known at all - largely by two groups of people. First, there are doo-wop collectors and fans, who enjoy the records earliest releases, some of which have even been put together in a few anthologies one can find here and there.

Then there are those like me, who collect the much longer and broader section of Tin Pan Alley's history of releases, their song-poem output. Actually, my understanding is that even the majority of the doo-wop releases (many of them quite valuable) were actually song-poem records, but made with the involvement of some of the top talent in the doo-wop world of the day, leading to considerably better quality than might otherwise have been the case.

One thing I'd never seen before on a Tin Pan Alley record was a vanity recording - someone's own performance of his or her own song. These crop up on some of the other large song-poem labels, but judging from the American Song-Poem Music Archives Tin Pan Alley page, there was, at the time that that site stopped updating, only one confirmed vanity record on the label. I now have another, with a very similar label number to the one previously confirmed.

And it is, I must say, a doozy. Someone named Frank Geramita wrote both sides of the record, and is the credited performer on both songs, as well. The really amazing track is the one identified as the A-side, a recording so filled with incompetence it's hard to know where to start, but the obvious place is with the misspelled title, "I'm So Sad Your (sic) Gone". Then there's the first thing you'll hear, which is the recording cranking up to speed (the record similar comes to a sudden - and more rapid - shutting down at the end).

But the real fun is in listening to the guitar part which seems to have been grafted on, over the strumming and singing that make up the majority of the track. First, this track is recorded loudly enough to dominate vocal sections here and there. But more than that, it is played by someone who clearly has a rudimentary idea of how to solo, and even apparently some decent improvisory ideas, but who just as clearly was nowhere near learning the techniques necessary to pull off what he or she intended to do. Bum notes fly out in almost equal number with good ones at times, the "lead strumming" overpowers the rest of the track at other points.

Almost obscured by all the guitar weirdness is the sort of droning, ponderous nature of the song and performance, which stretches out to nearly five minutes. Be sure to listen for some very odd, and out of place ho-ho-ho-ing just before the song's sudden termination.

Frank Geramita - I'm So Sad Your Gone (MP3)  |  Single A-side Label

The flip side, "As the Time Ticks Away", should absolutely have been the A-side, to my ears. I don't like it much, but I like every aspect of it more than the flip side. While it's still very much a drone, it's a bit more lively, the vocal interplay (where it occurs) is more effective, and it's a better song than "I'm So Sad".

Frank Geramita - As the Time Ticks Away (MP3)  |  Single B-side Label

Another Set of Radio JIngle Demos AND a Advertising Sales Pitch (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 43) (MP3's)

Back in June, I posted a tape containing some radio station and advertising jingles, from circa 1957, all of them apparently demos. There was a nice response, and I got to thinking that there was at least one other tape from the same batch which was similarly marked. 

Well I've found that second box this week, and while it doesn't have the variety or length of the first tape, there are still some nice items. These are also all radio jingles, and from seemingly all over the country, too. but there are no products advertised here. And again, based on the box, it appears that these are demos, rather than finished products.

These are SO short (there are 13 jingles in barely 5 1/2 minutes), that I did not separate them into separate tracks, but I will list here the radio stations which are advertised, with the cities where mentioned:

KMYR 710 Denver - WIL 1430 - KJOE 1480 Shreveport - WINS Weather Jingle - KOIM 1290 - KDOK 1330 Tyler - WHB 710 - KCBQ - WKDA Sports Jingle - WQAM 560 Miami - WSAI 1360 News Jingle - KLIF Dallas (two jingles for this station)

Radio Stations Jingles Demo Reel (MP3) 

And now, here's another radio related tape which may be of interest. Whoever owned this tape used it again to record some fairly awful country music (and they didn't even record it very well), but through the magic of half-track recording, the original material is still present on the second side of the tap, so we all get to here it here. 

This is a tape from an advertising jingle company called Pepper Sound Studios, from some time in the early to mid 1960's. The tape begins with some testimonials from satisfied customers in the radio industry (heard in part one, below), then moves on to the meat of the material, a series of commercials done for a variety of products - examples of the work that Pepper Sound Studios was capable of. This can be heard in part two, below, followed by a sales pitch, also in part two. 

Pepper Sound Studios Presentation, Part One: Testimonials (MP3)

Pepper Sound Studios Presentation, Part Two: Sample Ads and Sales Pitch (MP3)

A Slice of Weirdness from WFMT, Chicago (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 42) (MP3)

It's vacation week for me, so I'm offering up text and audio that are both short and sweet. I have a reel of tape which contains four totally unrelated segments of programming from the legendary classical station WFMT in Chicago. The two sections I can date are both from 1968, so I'm guessing that the others are, as well. They are edited together on a reel at random, so that if you play the reel, two of them are heard backwards, and two forwards on each side. 

One track contains Tom Paxton talking about, then playing, a song he wrote for a memorial TV show after the death of Robert Kennedy. Another contains a dull interview with a classical conductor. The third is nothing more than part of a coloratura soprano aria. 

Ah, but between the last two mentioned segments is some real weirdness. Clearly this was meant to be funny, but it's far less humorous than it is very peculiar. It portrays a phone call of complaint from a man, to a harried sounding WFMT announcer, who has taken the call while the currently scheduled record is playing. Perhaps this was met with great laughter at a WFMT staff meeting - that's one reason that occurs to me as to why it exists - but as I said, I just find it sort of intoxicatingly odd. 

 A Phone Call to WFMT (MP3)

Green Giant, SpaghettiOs, Swanson, Chevy and More - Another Collection of Ads (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 41) (MP3's)

Last month's 1950's ads and jingles were well received, so for this month's reel, I got out a non-descript five inch reel - one that came to me with no writing, and no box - which contains nearly 20 nice radio ads and music beds. 

I assume that the tape originated with whatever advertising agency produced all of these commercials, perhaps as a demo reel. The ads flow one after the other, with no leader between them, and sometimes virtually no tape space between them.

They range from barely 15 seconds to a few which go well over a minute (those that do almost fade out at the one minute point then come right back for another 10-15 seconds, perhaps for use by announcers who have more to say over the music.

The commercials are for both extremely well known brands, such as Green Giant, Chevy and Keebler, to companies I've never heard of, including Nekoosa Paper and Bernie Brothers (and I can't tell what the name of gas company is, in track two).

There are four tracks which are simply music beds (presumably for whatever use the station had in mind) and a fifth which only mentions the product at the end. There are even two ads which seem to be advertising the general use of an item, rather than a specific products - specifically, use of electric products (track 9) and use of sugar (track 16).

Enjoy! 

1.) Green Giant Music Bed (MP3)

2.) Gasoline (MP3)

3.) SpaghettiOs (MP3)

4.) Keebler (MP3)

5.) Chevy Trucks (MP3)

6.) Allstate (MP3)

7.) Music Bed (MP3)

8.) Bernie Brothers’ Bakers (MP3)

9.) Bright New Ideas (MP3)

10.) Music Bed (MP3)

11.) Music Bed (MP3)

12.) Swanson (MP3)

13.) Standard Oil Yellow Tag Tire Deal (MP3)

14.) Green Giant (MP3)

15.) Music Bed (MP3)

16.) Sugar (MP3)

17.) Nekoosa Paper (MP3)

18.) SpaghettiOs (MP3)

19.) Solo Suzuki (MP3)

A 1950's Radio Station And Advertising Jingles Audition Tape Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 40) (MP3's)

Here's a wonderfully interesting little four inch reel of tape that arrived with a lot of other media tapes that I bought somewhere, a few years ago. This seems to have been the property of a jingle company, rather than a radio station, because there are jingles and ads for four stations and eight products (well, not all of them are products -  one ad is simply a jingle encouraging folks to cook their food using electricity instead of gas). More than one customer seems to be represented here, perhaps (based on the radio stations involved) all in the Northwest US.  

These jingles - which range from a few seconds to a minute (the sixteen of them total about seven minutes) - may or may not have ever seen the light of day on any radio stations. The box makes it clear that these are demos, labeling them as "audition only" in two places. It looks like a company called SRP was responsible for them. 

As for the stations involved, only one has an identified location within its jingles: KRLC, in Lewiston-Clarkston, Washington. This station still exists, still at 1350 AM. As for the other stations, KYTE was in Pocatello, ID, KIMA was at 980 in Yakima, WA (where the call letters still exist as a TV station), and I KZUN was at 630 on the dial in Spokane, WA.  

My guess is that this is from about 1957-58 - the style of the ads, and in particular the one which uses a calypso setting ("Bogie Brothers Bread") would seem to put them in that range.  

I love everything about these ads and jingles - the musical styles, the peppy vocals, the thick echoes - actually, I wish radio still sounded like this.  

Three KRLC Jingles (MP3)

Two KZUN Jingles (MP3)

Two KYTE Jingles (MP3)

KIMA Jingle (MP3)

Better Baked Brownie Cookies Ad (MP3)

Diamond Fuel Ad (MP3)

Oil Heat Ad (MP3)

Bogie Brothers Bread Ad (MP3)

Dairygold Ad (MP3)

Cook Electrically Ad (MP3)

Moose Charities Hole in One Ad (MP3)

Columbia TV Service Company Ad (MP3)

Taoe Box Front (JPG)  |  Tape Box Back (JPG)  | Tape (JPG)

As a bonus track, here are the complete contents of another tape from this batch of tapes, in this case, a group of sound effects people spend about ten minutes gathering sounds for a TV or radio show (probably TV, judging from the other tapes of this sort that I've found in this haul). They start with breaking glass, then go on with some atmospheric recordings (this section is quite soft - they seem to be trying to get a realistic ambient sound of the background noise heard while in an apartment building - then we get into some slamming doors and other sounds.

Sound Effects Reel (MP3)  | Tape Box Back (JPG)