Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours

 Artist: Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours

LP: Country Dance Time

Song: "Detour"

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Song: "Leon's Guitar Boogie"

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I'm back. Here are a couple of tunes from this Ernest Tubb (with his Texas Troubadours) record I picked up at Fat Cat Records for just $.99 the other day. I'm willing to guess this record once belonged to someone with the initials "JHN." (John Henry Nashville? Jeb Henry Nistlethwhite? Who knows!) A lot has happened over the past four months while I haven't been posting. I wonder what some of the titles would be if Ernest Tubb and His Texas Troubadours were still around to write an LP full of songs about everything that's going on right now.

[ Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours ]

Tony Orlando & Dawn

Artist: Tony Orlando & Dawn

LP: Greatest Hits

Song: "Candida"

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One of my mail-carrying colleagues at the Wallingford Post Office is named Don. He delivers mail on route 4. The other day I asked him if he's ever worked with someone named Tony Orlando, but he says he has not. I found this gem at The Junk Drawer tonight on my way to get a chicken caesar sandwich at Palermo Pizza and Pasta. 

[ Tony Orlando & Dawn ]

Los Carabelas

Artist: Los Carabelas

LP: Los Carabelas

Song: "Asi Se Baila La Cumbia"

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Well, rats. I found all sorts of neat stuff in the Christmas used vinyl bins last month, but with six-day work weeks, the bustle of the holidays, and 11-to-12-hour workdays, my plan to regularly post things throughout the month of December failed to materialize. Guess I'll save them for next year, when I'll hopefully have two days off each week.

Here's something else I found in the bins last month—the dollar bins at Daybreak Records, to be exact. I figured I'd get an early start at my resolution to post here more regularly in 2020, and as a bonus it's nice to have at least one solid idea for my Halloween costume in the bag so early in the year! You can read (in Spanish) about Los Carabelas here.

Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres

Artist: Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres

LP: 7" single

Song: "Un, Dos, Tres...Responda Otra Vez"
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I did finally make it to Vinil Vintage, also on Carrer de Ramón y Cajal. It's a good and messy little store with a lot of vintage vinil to dig through, but I only ended up leaving with seven singles and a copy of Throwing Muses' "The Real Ramona" LP on 4AD (CAD 1002), which was something I was hoping I'd find on my trip to Europe. Seven singles may sound like a lot, but I'd just picked up 25 at the previous store, so I hope you appreciate my exercise in self-control. 

When I saw the cover of this 1972 single by Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres it hardly mattered that there was no listening station on which to give it a spin. I would have bought it with no record inside! These Chicas didn't actually form a music group, from what I can gather, but were actually contestants (or stewardesses?) on some sort of Spanish TV beauty pageant that ran in the '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000s. This single is from the premiere season of the show, and it was evidently N. Ibáñez Serrador who decided to set these lovely ladies to music. The girls were always easy to recognize by their huge glasses of pasta, and many of them went on to make a hole in the television star system. Actress Victoria Abril got her start as one of Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres! You can read more about Las Chicas and their television show in an awkwardly translated online article here.

[ Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres ]

[ Vinil Vintage — Barcelona, Spain ]

Ruby and the Romantics

Artist: Ruby and the Romantics

LP: Ruby and the Romantics

Song: "I Cry Alone"
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The next record store I went to in Victoria was Cavity (aka. Cavity Curiosity Shop), which is right around the corner from Fan Tan Alley on Pandora Avenue. Another vinyl shop called Talk's Cheap was listed as having the same address as Cavity, but the guy at the Cavity counter said the owner of Talk's Cheap now sells music out of his house, usually only by appointment. The Cavity was filled with lots of neat old vinyl, comic books, posters, crystal balls and other curiosities. I picked up a handful of records; my favorite is this Ruby and the Romantics LP from 1967. 

Singer Ruby Nash and her fellow Romantics, who all went to school together in Akron, Ohio, hit it off big when their debut single, "Our Day Will Come," went to #1 in 1963. Sadly, it was their only top ten hit; their singles stopped making it into the top 20, then eventually began peaking outside the top 40 before the group ultimately called it quits in 1971. Still, as you can see here, the group had a profound influence on lots of other musical artists of the '60s and '70s. Ruby and the Romantics were finally given their due when they were inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in the summer of 2013.

[ Cavity Curiosity Shop — Victoria, BC, Canada ]

Society of Seven

Artist: Society of Seven

LP: Simply Ourselves

Song: "I Gotcha"
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Song: "Love Theme from 'The Godfather'"
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"Society of Seven" has become a household word around my apartment over the past 48 hours, ever since I found this LP of theirs in the bargain bin at Sonic Boom in Ballard the other day. And they're still performing! ...as you can read here. "I Gotcha" is actually kinda' rapey, and "Love Theme from 'The Godfather'" actually sounds more like the theme to a low-budget early-'70s Bond film, but it's still got a sort of rinky-dink classy kind of charm.

OXO

Artist: OXO

LP: OXO

Song: "Wanna Be Your Love"
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At one point I felt it was vital that I hunt down and obtain all four versions of this terrific 1982 OXO album—green, red, yellow and blue—but now I simply haven't got enough space on my shelves to keep them all. I'm saving the one that's my favorite color...and that doesn't feature an annoying blue "Contains the Hit Single..." triangle sticker on the front. Not known as a Latin band, per se (all they're really remembered for is this), Ish, Orlando, Freddy and Frank dig into their Spanish-language roots on "Wanna Be Your Love" and the results are fantastic!