Françoise Hardy [1944-2024]

Artist: Françoise Hardy

LP: The Best of Françoise Hardy

Song: "Only You Can Do It (Je Veux Qu'il Revienne)"

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Song: "I Still Love Him (Pourtant Tu M'Aimes)"

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I was sad to hear that French singer-actress-icon Françoise Hardy died on Tuesday of this past week after a years-long battle with cancer. Hardy passed away on the same day I was with my mother, celebrating her 81st birthday. 

 

I really didn't know very much about the life and career of Françoise Hardy until reading all about her today on her Wikipedia page. But what I did know is that whenever I found any of her records for sale, I should just go ahead and buy them. They're guaranteed beautiful, moody, ultra-cool pop tonic every time. There's a wonderful piece here from The New York Times that explores what it means to the French to have lost at this particular time their "voice of melancholy cool." 

 

Françoise Hardy

[ January 17, 1944 — June 11, 2024 ]

We will miss you, Françoise.

Charles Magnante

Artist: Charles Magnante

LP: Percussion Italiano

Song: "Sicilian Tarantella"

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Charles Magnante was an American piano-accordionist, arranger, composer, author, and educator who first began performing with his amateur musician father, singing at weddings and dances, at the young age of five. By the time he was seven, he had learned to play his father's accordion, and, fewer than ten years later, he was being offered opportunities to play with various orchestras...opportunities he turned down at the time in order to focus on his studies. 

By the 1940s, Charles was leading a successful trio that also featured George Wright at the organ and Tony Mottola on guitar. (Mottola and his guitar are also featured on the recordings collected for this LP.) Magnante worked to expand the types of music that featured the accordion beyond the stereotypical Italian-American "O Sole Mio" image that audiences of the era always expected to hear. The "bright and sparkling new sounds" featured on this 1961 "Percussion Italiano" LP do, indeed, seem to break free of that old tradition. 

All the information above about Charles Magnante—and more—can be found at Wikipedia here. Did you know accordionist Charles Magnante was also an avid big game hunter? He wrote articles detailing his hunting expeditions that were published in hunting magazines!

[ Charles Magnante: December 7, 1905 — December 30, 1986 ]

Sons of the Pioneers

Artist: Sons of the Pioneers

LP: Sons of the Pioneers Sing Hymns of the Cowboy

Song: "Lord, You Made the Cowboy Happy"

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I found a copy of this 1963 Sons of the Pioneers record at The Shady Lady antique store in Centralia over the weekend. It ended up being one I already had on my shelves...but this copy is mono, rather than stereo, and it also doesn't have the previous owner's name streaked across the top of the cover in permanent black ink...so I've unintentionally upgraded my collection! 

I know it probably seems like I'd think this about all of the songs on this record, but I can't help feeling that "Lord, You Made the Cowboy Happy" would make an excellent soundtrack to a homoerotic soft-core Western-themed short film. And to anyone who would accuse me of not honoring "Reverence in the Western Tradition," I have just two words: Brokeback Mountain. I bet there are lots of lesser-known Western Traditions these lonely, rugged cowboys engaged in that didn't make it into the final cuts of all those John Ford Western films.

[ Sons of the Pioneers in 1963 ]

Connie Francis

Artist: Connie Francis

LP: 7" single

Song: "Whatever Happened to Rosemarie"

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A funny thing happened as we were nearing Hymie's Vintage Records in Minneapolis, the third record store I visited on our Minnesota Road Trip. While waiting for a seemingly endless line of vehicles to pass so we could turn left and park the car, I muttered loudly, "Come on...come on!!" Jan wisely replied, "Don't worry, the records will still be there when we get there." I responded with, "But what if, when we finally get in there, someone else has all the Connie Francis singles in their hands that I wanted to buy!?" (I had found one Connie Francis single at each of the two previous Minnesota record stores we'd been to, so I guess that's why she was on my mind.) 

Well, I needn't have worried. Nobody was digging in the Connie Francis section when I got to it, and there were NINE beautiful 45s in her bin that I'd never seen before...with glorious picture sleeves to boot! "Whatever Happened to Rosemarie" was one of those; it was released in 1963. 

[ Hymie's Vintage Records — Minneapolis, Minnesota ]

Dick Mine

Artist: Dick Mine

LP: Dick Mine's Favorite Song Collection

Song: "Hell Blues"

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Here's something nice and mellow from classic Japanese crooner Dick Mine for a nice and mellow Sunday afternoon in spring. I really was going to try to not make fun of Mr. Mine's unfortunate name, since that seemed a little too obvious... but then I was faced with this sort of thing, even with the 'safe search' turned on, when trying to scrounge up images of the singer on the Web. Oh well. 

 

Dick Mine had his first hit with "Dinah" in 1934, and his last big number was "Modern Age," a duet with Noriko Awaya in 1982. More on Mr. Mine can be found on Wikipedia here, and "Hell Blues" lyrics are included below in both Japanese and English, the latter thanks to my Google Translate app...though the English version reads a bit like the lyrics to a Cocteau Twins song.

 

[ Dick Mine: October 5, 1908 — June 10, 1991 ]

Oscar Brown, Jr.

  Artist: Oscar Brown, Jr.

LP: Between Heaven and Hell

Song: "Hazel's Hips"

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Song: "Forbidden Fruit"

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Song: "World Full of Grey"

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Ugh! I've been trying to post this thing for the past three days, but always in the evening at the end of a long day at work and I literally keep falling asleep! It's not Oscar's fault though...he's fantastic! 

 

I first heard of Oscar Brown, Jr. after I moved to Seattle back in 1997 and listened to "daytime jazz" on the local NPR station, including, occasionally, one of Brown's hits called "Signifying Monkey." Since then, I've snapped up any record of his that I happen upon, and I recommend that you do too! ...Unless you're with me, and then I recommend you get out of the way or you're going to get hurt. 

 

It wasn't easy to choose just three songs from this 1962 LP to post: "Hazel's Hips" is an ode (with an arrangement by Quincy Jones) to the "concert of contours and curves" featured on a popular waitress named Hazel who works at the local diner (fortuitously, "hips" rhymes with "tips!" This was back in the old days, when a man could openly admire a sexy woman's body and offer up flirtatious banter about it in public, even in broad daylight (no pun intended), without having his life subsequently destroyed); Nina Simone later recorded and had a hit with Brown's "Forbidden Fruit," a playful retelling of what really happened between Adam and Eve in that very first garden on Earth; "World Full of Gray" seems just as strong now as it did when it was put on wax nearly 60 years ago. The "World Full of Grey" lyrics are included in the excellent liner notes by publicist Billy James, included below. The talented, versatile, and sadly under-appreciated nowadays Oscar Brown, Jr. passed away back in 2005; you can read his New York Times obituary here.

 

[ Oscar Brown, Jr.: October 10, 1926 — May 29, 2005 ]

Marisol

Artist: Marisol

LP: 7" single

Song: "Corazón Contento"

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Here's a neat little 1968 Spanish number that I picked up at 10,000 Records in Barcelona back in August of 2018. My copy was badly warped, so when I tried to play it, the needle on my turntable was tossed to and fro...or maybe fro and to. Anyway, I finally got around to ordering a replacement copy—from Spain!—and it was waiting at my doorstep this evening when I got home from delivering mail in the snow!

Marisol was born on February 4, 1948, and was an international singing/dancing sensation by the time she was 11. She has appeared in a number of films, including BLOOD WEDDING and CARMEN, both directed by legendary Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura. Marisol, who worked under the name Pepa Flores as an adult, retired from public life in 1985 and has reportedly worked for charitable causes ever since.

[ Pepa Flores, aka. Marisol ]

The Five Blind Boys

 Artist: The Five Blind Boys

LP: Can I Get a Witness

Song: "Shall We Come?"

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Song: "I'll Trust In God"

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Song: "Come Up the Back Door"

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I can only assume that, after losing their first five copies of this terrific gospel record by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama to theft by sticky-fingered staff and students, the folks at Tufts University Radio (WTUR) were forced to take extraordinary security measures regarding their WTUR-property-labeling protocols upon acquiring this subsequent copy of the record.

 

The Five Blind Boys of Alabama (not to be confused with the five blind gospel-singing boys from the state next door) released more than one LP under the "Can I Get a Witness" title. According to Discogs, the one I've posted above is from 1969. The other is from 1965 and then there's yet another one from 1970 that has the same tree-and-clouds cover as the one from 1965:

 

According to the Discogs listing, my Buddah Records release of the LP with the farming cover is a 1969 reissue of the 1965 release on Vee-Jay Records that features the tree-and-clouds cover. (The track list titles are slightly different, but they seem like they might still be the same songs.) And then the 1970 release, with the tree-and-clouds cover again, on Exodus Records has the same track list as the 1965 listing, but for some reason Discogs doesn't list that one as a re-issue of the earlier releases. (Discogs also says there's yet another re-issue with the tree-and-clouds cover on Trip Records, release date unknown.) So it seems there are at least three LPs released by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama on three different labels over the span of five years, all with this same title. I suppose this points to the difficulty of securing a witness when nobody in the group is able to see. 

 

Speaking of dates unknown, the group photo below may or may not include actual members of The Five Blind Boys of Alabama at around the time this LP was recorded. But based on hairstyles, I'd say there's a good chance the photo was taken sometime between the years 1965 and 1970.

 

[ The Five Blind Boys of Alabama ]