Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band

Artist: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band
[ Merle Evans, Conductor ]

LP: Circus Time [10" EP]

Song: "The Purple Carnival (Wild Animal Act)"

[ listen ]

I know I'm a few days late (I haven't been meeting any of my 2013 blog posting goals), but the music from this 1953 10" circus EP I found in Seattle's White Center neighborhood a few weeks ago seems like the perfect fanfare to usher in my favorite month of the year—October! The sun is shining, a cool breeze is blowing, the leaves have started turning red, yellow, and orange, and it all makes me so happy inside! I feel like the clown face on the cover of this record. Circus band conductor/cornet-player Merle Evans, known as the "Toscanini of the Big Top," was with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for over fifty years! His music once even saved thousands of lives, during the Hartford Circus fire of 1944. Upon discovering the fire, Evans instructed his band to play the disaster warning song, alerting other circus performers that it was time to evacuate the public. You can read more about Merle Evans, his career, and his musical life-saving techniques here and go here to read more about the Hartford fire.

[ Merle Evans: December 26, 1894 — December 31, 1987 ]

Toni Bishop

Artist: Toni Bishop

LP: 7" single

Song: "The Clown"

[ listen ]

Here's a single I picked up for a buck because of the far-out cover. Turns out it's just your typical overblown circus-themed love song from the early-to-mid 1980s. My Toni Bishop 'clown' image search turned up horrible things like this, this, and even this (!), but no other photos of Bishop. I can't find any videos either, but I did come across this lovely performance of Mendelssohn's "On Wings of Song" by a different, younger, home-schooled Toni Bishop at the Witehead Flute Recital in Memphis.

Toni Bishop on YouTube:

[ "On Wings of Song" ]

Nektar

 

Artist: Nektar

LP: Down to Earth

Song: "Nelly the Elephant"
[ listen ]

German-based psychedelic rock band Nektar created this circus-themed album in 1974 as a follow-up to "Remember the Future," which had been a hit the year before. "Down to Earth" spawned the group's only charting single when "Astral Man" peaked at #91 on the Billboard Hot 100. You can read more about Nektar here and find notes and photos from the back of the LP below—along with a very '70s Nektar music video.

Nektar on YouTube:

[ "Remember the Future" ]