Calypso Rose

Artist: Calypso Rose

LP: Splish Splash

Song: "Me Ein't Going"
[ listen ]

Record Archive is humongous. When I first laid eyes on its Tweety Bird yellow exterior walls, I figured there was simply no way that the entire building could be filled with record store. But it is. I felt like Charles Foster Kane in Xanadu when I stepped inside. It's got to be one of the vastest record stores I've ever seen. Anyway, after recovering from my awestruck state, I had only about 45 minutes to browse before they closed for the day. So of course I was back the next morning when they opened the doors to pick up where I'd left off. Even then I was only able to dig through a small fraction of the records they have for sale. 

It was at Record Archive that I finally found the ever-elusive 7" of Missing Persons' "Walking In L.A.," which I'd been hunting for since the 1980s; I found a Bohannon record I hadn't seen before, a couple of Billy Williams LPs, and a few other goodies too—including this 1970s album by Calypso Rose (she was called Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis, when she was born, so you can hardly blame her for the name change). Rose has been living in New York City since before I started looking for that Missing Persons single, and even earlier than that she was the first woman to win the Trinidad Road March competition. That was in 1977, and she won again in 1978 too! There's more to know about this dynamite diva on Wikipedia here.

[ Record Archive — Rochester, NY ]

Ray Anthony and His Orchestra

Artist: Ray Anthony and His Orchestra

LP: Young Ideas

Song: "Coquette"

[ listen ]

According to the drawing on the back of this 1957 Ray Anthony LP, one young idea—admittedly not a very good one—is to bring your records and a record player with you to the beach and set them on the ground next to your towel so people can kick sand all over them. The album's front cover shows a woman in a bathing suit laying on top of a scantily-clad man who's holding a ukulele. Other "young ideas" are undoubtedly being formulated here, but for the life of me I can't imagine what they are. Ray Anthony, who celebrated his 90th birthday this past January, was at one time married to Mamie Van Doren, who's been giving fellows young ideas for the past 60 years, and who apparently doesn't take very good care of her records either. Van Doren divorced Anthony in 1958, citing cruelty, but the candid photo I've included below reveals what was really going on in the relationship. You can read all about talented trumpeteer extraordinaire Ray Anthony on Wikipedia here.

 [ Mamie & Ray ]

Boney M.

Artist: Boney M.

LP: Oceans of Fantasy

Song: "Calendar Song"

[ listen ]

Happy New Year! I took a little road trip up to Bellingham for the occasion—a small, fairly quiet coastal college town near the Canadian border. I stayed at the charmingly dumpy Aloha Motel (they advertise free wireless internet, but it only reaches rooms 1—12 and I was in room 15) and I had my last 2010 dinner and my first 2011 breakfast at downtown Bellingham's neat old 24-hour diner, The Horseshoe Cafe. Of course I also found some records on my trip, including this 1979 LP by Boney M. If you still haven't got your 2011 wall calendar up, this song can help you keep track of what will be happening over the next 362 days.

 

[ Aloha Motel — Bellingham, WA ]

 

 [ Horseshoe Cafe & Ranch Room ]

 

 

 [ My first breakfast of 2011. ]