Gino Soccio

Artist: Gino Soccio

LP: S-Beat

Song: "The Runaway"

[ listen ]

Here's something bright and bouncy for a perfectly sunny and warm Seattle Sunday afternoon. I came upon Gino Soccio's 1980 LP "S-Beat" while weeding through some old LPs to see if I could find some worth getting rid of. I couldn't remember what it sounded like and thought it had potential for the 'out' pile, since the cover isn't all that exciting (no offense, Greg). But it turns out the record is awesome, so back on the shelf it goes! You can read about Canadian composer, arranger, producer, keyboardist, vocalist, and acoustic guitarist Gino Soccio on Wikipedia here. The album credits and fan club address are included below, and here's a neat photo of DJ Ron Hardy I found on the web while browsing for pics of Mr. Soccio. 

Alex North

Artist: Alex North

LP: The Misfits

Song: "Main Theme"

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Sarah and I arrived at Rag and Bone 2 just a few minutes before they closed, but it was long enough for me to find this soundtrack for the 1961 film THE MISFITS and a neat old gypsy music LP. THE MISFITS was not an easy film to make, as you can read here, but it's one of the best films of the 1960s. It is Marilyn Monroe's last completed film, and also the last film starring Clark Gable, who died of a heart-attack shortly after filming was completed. You can find reviews for THE MISFITS here. Alex North's Main Theme for THE MISFITS is a highly dramatic piece of music, and could have additionally served as the soundtrack for the scenario that unfolded as the movers were trying to get Sarah's piano out of her second-story apartment on the day before our trip to the Oregon coast. Her instrument was lodged in the building's front stairwell for over four hours. Highly dramatic! Alex North was one of the first composers in Hollywood to write a jazzy film score—for this film. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards between 1951 and 1984, but his name was never the one pulled out of the envelope on stage. The Academy finally gave him one of those Oscars they hand out to elderly people who've been nominated an embarrassing number of times without ever winning, even though they usually deserved it way more than the folks who actually ended up with the coveted statue. You can read about Alex North's life and career here and go here to visit the Alex North website maintained by his family.

[ Alex North: December 4, 1910 — September 8, 1991 ]

 [ Rag and Bone 2 — Seaside, OR ]

Sweet

Artist: Sweet

LP: Desolation Boulevard

Song: "The 6-Teens"

[ listen ]

Continuing northward on Highway 101 up the coast of Oregon last weekend, I asked Sarah if she would mind stopping at Rag and Bone, the little shop in Seaside where I'd found this vinyl gem when I passed through town several years ago. I figured it was probably too much to hope for a similar stroke of good luck this time around. But to my surprise, not only did I find this 1974 U.S. release of Sweet's "Desolation Boulevard" (there was evidently a different version released in the U.K.) and several other great LPs, but I also found a wide variety of delightfully odd vintage postcards, all of them still blank on the writing side. Here are some of my favorites:

[ Azir Mountains - Gardens near Abha ]

[ Downtown Los Angeles ]

[ Young Icelandic ladies ]

[ City Hall - Alhambra, California ]

[ Riyadh - The University ]

[ The Arid Garden - Fort Worth, Texas ]

[ Volendam - Interieur ]

 [ Los Angeles, California - View from City Hall tower ]

The good luck wasn't all just mine, as Sarah found the perfect green blazer for graduate school at the outlet mall right next door! Also, the friendly woman at Rag and Bone mentioned that her son was manning the nearby sequel to her store, Rag and Bone 2, and they had just received a bunch of old records! You can go here to read all about Sweet's rise to fame (they're sometimes called The Sweet), see their Sweet discography, and find out who has been in the group over the years, as well as the subsequent Sweets started by Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, and Andy Scott. I'll stick the track on DivShare as soon as the site gets fixed.

 [ Rag and Bone — Seaside, OR ]

Monica Lewis

Artist: Monica Lewis

LP: Sing It to the Marines

Song: "Rough Ridin'"

[ listen ]

After spending the night at the Mar Clair Inn in Tillamook, Oregon, Sarah and I had breakfast at the Dutch Mill Cafe and toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where we enjoyed some refreshing Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream, in waffle cones! We then started our drive northward to Seattle, stopping along the way for refreshing beverages, to dip our toes in the ocean, or to hunt for hidden treasures at thrift and antique stores along Highway 101. The Frugal Crow Vintage Market in the cute little resort town of Rockaway Beach was having a sale; LPs were just $1 each! This marvelous 1957 Monica Lewis record, on which she sings it to the Marines, is one of the things I found there. I can't really think of anything more to add to the immortal words of General Mark Wayne Clark from the LP liner notes: "I'm one Army guy who feels the more Marines I have around, the better I like it. Because Marines are men rarin' to go—men with their tails up." You can read about the life and career of Monica Lewis here, buy a copy of her biography, "Hollywood Through My Eyes," here, 'like' her on Facebook here, and visit her official website here.

 

[ Monica Lewis — A beauty in 1951. ]

[ Monica Lewis — Gorgeous as ever in 2011. ]

 [ The Frugal Crow — Rockaway Beach, OR ]

Marilyn Mattson

Artist: Marilyn Mattson

LP: 7" single

Song: "He Means So Much To Me"

[ listen ]

My good friend Sarah and I took a little road trip together down the Oregon coast this past weekend, and of course I managed to gather a few vinyl gems along the way. This mid-to-late '60s (1967?) single by the delightful Marilyn Mattson (not to be confused with the other delightful pop star whose name sounds about the same when you pronounce them both out loud) is one of the things I found in a rumpled, floor-level box of cat-hair-covered 7" singles at Bach 'n Rock Music, Movies, and Espresso in beautiful Astoria, Oregon. I was excited when I saw the picture sleeve with Marilyn posing gaily on the cover...and my joy was only slightly diminished when I discovered that Allied Records evidently didn't have the time and/or money (or maybe just the inclination) to stick something equally alluring on the single's back cover. 

According to the Garage Hangover blog (see the comments section), Marilyn once resorted to soliciting unsuspecting and naive young music fanatics by mail in order to jump-start a fan base that would, in turn, organize a Marilyn Mattson fan club that would, in turn, catapult her to international stardom. I'm not sure if you're still out there, Marilyn, but I'm perfectly willing to start a fan club for you now. I'll just need you to send me a few more photos, a short biographical paragraph (200 words max.), and tell me your favorite food!

 [ Bach 'n Rock Music, Movies, Espresso, and Cat Hair – Astoria, OR ]

George Jones [1931-2013]

Artist: George Jones

LP: The Lone Star Legend

Song: "Vitamins L-O-V-E"

[ listen ]

I wasn't born in Texas, I can't play the guitar, and I've never driven a lawnmower to the nearest liquor store in desperation, but there is one thing George Jones and I do have in common: The Hair. Whenever I've let my hair grow too long without being cut, I complain to anyone who will listen that I'm starting to have "George Jones hair," where it gets really poofy on the sides right next to my face. I made this remark to my friend Alicia at work recently, but she'd never even heard of George Jones. I sent her a picture of the famous country star and his poofy hair, and then about a week later, George died. This 1985 British compilation features some of Mr. Jones' earliest songs, along with a neat cover fashioned in the style of the country LPs of the '50s. You can read all about the wonderfully rambunctious life and career of George Jones on Wikipedia here and find his complete discography here. Go here to read his obituary in the New York Times, and the liner notes from the back of "The Lone Star Legend" are included below.

George Jones

[ September 12, 1931 — April 26, 2013 ]

We will miss you, George, and we will miss your hair.

Annette Funicello [1942-2013]

Artist: Annette Funicello

LP: Hawaiiannette - Annette Sings Songs of Hawaii

Song: "Pineapple Princess"

[ listen ]

Song: "Hawaiiannette"

[ listen ]

I didn't hear the sad news last month that Annette Funicello had died until a week or so after it had happened. I still haven't seen any of her famous beach movies with Frankie Avalon, but they're certainly on my movie bucket list. Annette's cheerful 1960 Hawaii-themed LP on Disney's Buena Vista label is one of my favorite records to listen to in the springtime. A "Hawaiiannette" must be a sort of cute little half-Hawaii that you might find in an exotic restaurant in Utica, NY or somewhere, just like how a "kitchenette" is a little half-kitchen in the room of a nice motel. You can read all about the life and career of one of the most famous Mouseketeers ever on Wikipedia here and go here to find Annette's obituary in the New York Times.

Annette Funicello

[ October 22, 1942 — April 8, 2013 ]

We will miss you, Annette.

Lene Lovich

Artist: Lene Lovich

LP: 7" single

Song: "Say When"

[ listen ]

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here—busy with school stuff, work, and have been spending much of my free time weeding through my LPs in order to get rid of the ones that just don't cut the mustard anymore. Meanwhile I've missed posting about the passing of a few musical celebrities (a country legend with bad hair and a former Mouseketeer, at least) and I've found some neat stuff in my collection that I'll hopefully be posting soon. This 1979 single is one of three by Lene Lovich that I picked up last weekend at Georgetown Records after enjoying a delicious breakfast at the Square Knot Diner around the corner. When I expressed my excitement about the singles to several friends later that day, I discovered they had never ever heard of Lene Lovich. If there's one thing that September 11th, 2001 and Lene Lovich have in common, it is this: WE MUST NEVER FORGET. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1949, Lene Lovich started out life with the wonderful and amazing name of Lili-Marlene Premilovich. When she was 13 years old, her Serbian father had health problems, so her English mother took the kids and went back to Britain. Lili-Marlene spent the next decade bouncing around Europe, doing things like going to art school, appearing as an "Oriental" dancer in a cabaret, visiting with Salvador Dali, recording screams for motion picture sountracks, and writing hit songs for Euro-disco superstar Cerrone. As Lene Lovich, she released a trio of LPs on Stiff Records in the late '70s and early '80s and the rest, as they say, is on Wikipedia. 

[ Lene Lovich ]