The incredible Grace Jones turned 76 one month ago today. Did you know that in 1968 she worked in Philadelphia as a go-go dancer under the name Grace Mendoza? Imagine happening upon her then! And while modeling in Paris in the 1970s, Jones roomed with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange. There's lots more you can learn about Grace Jones right here.
When I was in junior high, my friend Denny Kibbe and I were always excited when we got to visit Tower Records in Seattle. We usually had a hard time finding the place, but once we did we would spend hours inside, just digging through all of their 7" singles. Here's one that I picked up back then, in 1984. Having never heard of I Am Siam, I selected it solely because of its cover.
Even now there's not much information about the band online. Their bio on LastFM tells us what we already know, and provides no information about the group:
With the New Wave scene so active in the mid-eighties, many one-hit-wonders appeared on the charts for a brief, one-time stab at the big time. I Am Siam was one of those. Their record "Talk to Me" received only limited club and radio play, and the band faded from the scene as quickly as they appeared.
I should note that other online sources indicate I Am Siam was a trio based in NYC.
Here's another one of the singles I was forced to purchase with my recent Discogs order from Europe so that my total order cost would be worthy of overseas shipping. According to Wikipedia, Snoopy was a short-lived Dutch disco duo formed in 1978, featuring Ethel Mezas and Florence Woerdings...until Florence left in 1979 and was replaced by Maureen Seedorf. In any case, Snoopy "ceased activities" in 1980, just two years after they had formed. "It's All In the Bible" was released in 1979, so one of those lovely ladies on the cover could still be Florence, or instead she might actually be Maureen. In any case, this song was a top-10 hit in both Belgium (peaked at no. 9) and The Netherlands (no. 10).
I recently ordered the "I Have Love" single by Typhoon Saturday online so I'd have their complete set (I'd found the group's other two singles at a store in the University District years ago, but I didn't have "I Have Love!").
(Un?)fortunately, my order didn't meet the seller's minimum dollar amount required for shipping something all the way to the USA...so I had to browse through their catalog to find eight or so late-'70s and early-'80s disco and new wave singles for my collection to make it worth their while! "Afromerica" by Continent Number 6 is one of the best of the bunch I got. CN6 is described online as, "an afro-funk outfit group composed of studio session artists." (Un?)fortunately, they also released an entire LP in 1978 (the same year as this single) that includes songs with titles like "Jungle Jamboree," "Eh Yeh Oh," and "Hunky Funky Lion," so...last night I had to place an order for THAT one too!
Nancy Nova is one of my top favorite recent musical discoveries! (Nowadays, "recent" means sometime within the past twelve years.) I found two of her singles at the local record shop a while back, and then ordered all of her other singles online. "No Way" is her very first one, released in 1978.
There's not a heap of information online about Miss Nova (real name: Carol Ann Holness), but she was one of the founding members of Toto Coelo (Nancy Nova's sister remained in the band!), and she wrote songs and sang background vocals for Lena Zavaroni!
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.
Here's a happy little ditty from 1980 that I picked up on my trip to Norway with my sister back in 2017. "I See the Moon" has Eurovision Song Contest written all over it...which makes sense, because that's where Debbie and Tommy worked together to create pop music magic in 1979, representing Denmark on the show. Incidentally, Tommy and Debbie both had the same birthday, September 14th, though he was born nine years before she was.
Last weekend Jan and I decided to go for a Sunday drive to West Seattle for breakfast (the big West Seattle Bridge is out of commission since it's evidently cracked, so we had to go the long way around). We ate at Easy Street Café, then I suggested we browse in the record store to practice for our upcoming trip together to Minnesota. I've got quite a few record stores on my list in Minneapolis and St. Paul, so I wanted to be sure we'd manage.
I'm happy to report that things went well! Also, I found some pretty amazing records. Someone had brought in a nice bunch of early '80s (1980 to 1982) British goth/new wave 45s, similar to the earliest releases on 4AD, but on other labels that were also around at the time. One of them is this incredible version of "Puppet On a String" by Big Hair, released on Fresh Records in 1980. Discogs doesn't list any other records by Big Hair, which is unfortunate for my collection...but I suppose it's good news for my pocketbook.
My best friend in the world (maybe even the universe!) got his Green Card last week, and so no longer lives in fear of having his life upended by suddenly being abducted and shipped out of the country. I'm so relieved and excited! Thank you, Joe Biden.
The cover of this 1978 single by French disco band Voyage isn't very exciting, granted, and so it may seem like my celebration is muted...but I think actually it's supposed to look like the side of one of those big wooden boxes that gets loaded onto a ship, stamped with its international destination on the side: LADY AMERICA! But since my friend is already in Lady America, his wooden box will have something more thrilling stamped on the side, like LADY TURKEY!
This, of course, brings up the question of undocumented astronauts. If someone is in the USA without documents and they leave the country, they aren't allowed back in. So if someone without documents becomes an astronaut and they leave the planet, are they likewise barred from returning?
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.
