Zdravko Čolić

Artist: Zdravko Čolić

LP: Ako Priđeš Bliže

Song: "Glavo Luda"

[ listen ] 

This is the second LP, released in 1977, from "the Tom Jones of the Balkans," Zdravko Čolić. I got my copy in the mail today from a guy named Vladan in Jagodina, Serbia. What happened was this: A few weeks ago I found a copy of this record by Yugoslavian group Srebrna Krila up at the Aurora Antique Pavilion in Lynwood, WA. Along with that record, there was also a nice copy of Zdravko Čolić's fourth LP, "Malo Pojačaj Radio," inside the sleeve. I went online to find a copy of "Malo Pojačaj Radio" with its own outer sleeve, and found Vladan's shop on Discogs. He had "Malo..." and a copy of this amazing-looking earlier record by Čolić too! And a bunch of Yugoslavian disco singles! Anyway, now they're mine. Enjoy!

[ Zdravko Čolić ]

John Doté

Artist: John Doté

LP: 12" single

Song: "Gypsy Jane"
[ listen ]

There's a dog named Gypsy on Wallingford Route 75 that barks ferociously at me from behind the gate of her yard when I deliver the mail, but she's a sweetheart when I meet her on the street when she's on walks with her owner. Her owner told me that Gypsy speaks Spanish, so when I deliver mail there, I try calming her nerves by greeting her in her own language: "Hola, Gypsy. ¿Como estás, perra bonita?" It doesn't really seem to make any difference, probably because of my accent. I've tried singing "The Gypsy" to her, which seems to briefly confuse her, but then she goes right back to barking at me again. This week I'm going to try singing "Gypsy Jane," since I have a hunch she prefers late-'80s disco to classic ballads by The Ink Spots.

John Doté was born in the Bronx (why do I feel like I could have guessed) in 1955 and then moved to San Francisco in the '70s (why do I feel like I could have guessed) and became a popular drummer in the music scene there, working with Buddy Miles and Gregg Allman. Doté had a knack for music production, with credits including the theme songs for the popular TV shows "Dallas" and "Dynasty." He also handled promotions for big hits by both Janet and Michael Jackson...but not for Elmo and Patsy. You can read more about John Doté here.

Irwin Goodman

Artist: Irwin Goodman

LP: Si Si Si
Song: "Si Si Si"
[ listen ]
Song: "Pannaan Menemään"

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I tried stumping Shazam this morning with a track from this 1973 LP, but the app didn't take long to figure out it was something by Irwin Goodman (born Antti Yrjö Hammargerg), the Finnish folk-rock singer whose favorite themes were poverty, taxes, drinking, and money troubles. You can read about Irwin here. I picked this record up at Råkk og Rålls in Oslo when I was on that trip to Scandinavia with my sister back in the spring of 2017.

[ Irwin Goodman: September 14, 1943 — January 14, 1991 ]

Rodney Arias

Artist: Rodney Arias

LP: Rodney Arias

Song: "I Believe In Love"
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I Believe In Love...and white tuxedo shirts unbuttoned all the way down to there! According to the Bizarre Records Blog Rodney Arias was a Hawaiian lounge legend in the 1970s. "I Believe In Love" is probably the best song on Rodney's self-titled album—so, you know, you can imagine what the others are like. Even so, Rodney reportedly used to roam the halls of Maui Memorial Hospital, strumming his guitar while loungingly serenading the sick and afflicted, so he gets some big kudos for that. I found this autographed copy of Rodney's record at a junk shop in Dallas, Texas a while back and, as is often the case, I was completely captivated by the hair.

 

Lasse Wellander

Artist: Lasse Wellander

LP: Electrocuted

Song: "Hotel 167"
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Here's something I found at Råkk og Rålls in Oslo on my trip to Norway back in May. I was taken in by several beguiling factors: 

1. Lasse played guitar for ABBA for lots of their studio recordings, and for a bunch of their live shows too! So naturally, I figured he probably sounded exactly like ABBA, but without any words. Unless maybe he sang!
2. On the back of "Electrocuted," his 1975 solo debut LP, Lasse uses a series of symbols to indicate which musicians are playing on each of the tracks—symbols that immediately brought to mind the system of enigmatic codes and symbols Bob Mizer always used to indicate the personality traits and sexual proclivities of his hunky male AMG models for their photo spreads (no pun intended) in monthly issues of Physique Pictorial. 
3. Lasse is super handsome and I like the way his pants cling to his hips. I wanted to take him home with me.
4. Lasse, come home!

But alas, this record sounds nothing like ABBA. And frankly, Lasse pretty much lost his looks soon after this LP was released (those poor Scandinavians hardly stand a chance!). And now that I've got photo documentation of his 1975-era bedroom eyes, hip-huggers and hairy chest, "Electrocuted" has been unplugged and put into my 'trade-in' pile of LPs. You can read about Lasse Wellander in Swedish here and go here for information in English.

[ Lasse Wellander ]

Rick Springfield

Artist: Rick Springfield

LP: 7" single

Song: "I Get Excited"
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The fire's ignited down below—it's burning bright.

I remember getting excited too when I saw this Rick Springfield single at the record store when I was 13 years old. Look at that hairy chest! He's practically naked! I was too scared to even take it to the counter. It would be like buying gay porn! Everyone would know! I finally picked up this used copy years later—after I'd grown accustomed to the idea of buying gay porn in a public setting.

Art Garfunkel

Artist: Art Garfunkel

LP: 7" single

Song: "A Heart In New York" 
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Speaking of things that aren't my bag, if I had to list ten male musical celebrities whose chest hair I'd most like not to see, Art Garfunkel would be right up there with Roy Orbison and Buck Owens. "A Heart In New York" peaked at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981, marking Garfunkel's last appearance on that chart.

U.N.

Artist: U.N.

LP: U.N.

Song: "Get It On"
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The last and final record store I visited in Buffalo was Revolver Records on Hertel Avenue. I had saved the best for last. The store's owner, Phil, told me that he's only had his shop open there since November of 2015. Before that he attended record shows and sold records out of his garage. There was tons of stuff to look through at Revolver Records, and all of it was reasonably priced. The most I paid for an LP there was $15; the bulk of it was between $3 and $8. I bought so many records here, Phil had to give me a box instead of a bag. 

He'd recently gotten a bunch of great disco records in, including this sexy 1979 U.N. LP on Prelude Records, written and arranged by Tony Green. It was $6. If you'd asked me if it was possible for a great disco track to feature a saxophone solo, I would have said that it was not. But according to the U.N., I would have been dead wrong. I've just read a terrific interview with Tony Green by Seattle's own Kelly Wayne Hughes, where Tony reveals that those are models (not musicians) on the U.N. cover, and that lead vocals on the LP are handled by Goldie Alexander.

[ Revolver Records — Buffalo, NY ]

Hi Rhythm

Artist: Hi Rhythm

LP: On the Loose

Song: "Superstar"
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After leaving Huntsville on Wednesday afternoon, I headed south toward the little Alabama town of Arab, where there's a record store Ashley and Andy at Vertical House Records had told me about. Arab is a cute little place with a funny name that provides some humorous signage that makes it seem like the town segregates Middle Easterners, who have to use separate recreational facilities from everyone else. 

The Arab record store, called The Spinning Groove, would have been more aptly named The Scratchy Groove. Quite a few of the records I was excited to find there were so scratched up or moldy that I ended up putting them back in the bins for someone else to buy. Also, a water leak in the ceiling above the R-Z portion of the Soul/R&B section had pretty much completely ruined all those records. I tried to browse through them anyway, but the record covers were all moldy and stuck together and when I tried to pull them apart they would rip. Still, I found a few neat records starting with A-Q, including this 1976 LP by Hi Rhythm, also known as the Hi Rhythm Section at Hi Records in Memphis. 

Willie Mitchell, who ran the label in the 1970s, employed the Hi Rhythm Section for backing on releases by Al Green, Ann Peebles and others who recorded on the label. Hi Rhythm was comprised of three Hodges brothers—Charles, Leroy, and Mabon—along with Howard Grimes on drums and Mitchell's stepson, Archie Turner, on keyboards. Though Charles Hodges went on to become an ordained minister, the group does still get together from time to time. In fact, Archie Turner and Howard Grimes stopped by The End of All Music in Oxford, Mississippi two months ago—just a few weeks after I was there on April 7th! They were in Oxford with their new group, The Bo-Keys, who are also going to be playing in Portland, Oregon on July 4th! You can read more about Hi Rhythm on Wikipedia here and go here to read about Hi Records. Individual photos of the Hi Rhythm guys from the back of their LP are included below, but I'm not sure who's who, aside from Howard Grimes. If anyone out there can clear this up, it would be appreciated.

PS. I was bummed to hear just now on NPR that Mabon "Teenie" Hodges passed away in Dallas, Texas this past Sunday, the day after I posted this LP. RIP Teenie Hodges, and condolences to all those who knew and loved him.

[ Hi Rhythm, relatively recently ]

L to R:

Leroy Hodges, Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Archie Turner, Charles Hodges, Howard Grimes 

w/ Willie Mitchell (seated)

[ The Spinning Groove — Arab, Alabama ]

Harvey Scales

 Artist: Harvey Scales

LP: Hot Foot: A Funque Dizco Opera

Song: "(Show Up) For the Showdown"

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With November coming to an end, the thermometer's mercury has started to drop and my heating costs are going sky high. I put Harvey Scales' "Hot Foot" LP on this morning in order to keep myself from freezing. I ended up ruining a perfectly good pair of shoes, but the flames did keep my small apartment at a cozy temperature for about 45 minutes. Known as Milwaukee's "Godfather of Soul" for his work with The Seven Sounds in the 1960s, Harvey Scales was co-writer of "Disco Lady," the very first platinum single in the history of the USA. Released in 1979, "Hot Foot: A Funque Dizco Opera" was Scales' second album on the Casablanca label, after "Confidential Affair" from the year before. Much to his fans' chagrin, his followup LP didn't appear until 1997. There's more information about Harvey Scales, his career, and his Seven Sounds on Wikipedia here.

Ricardo Ceratto

Artist: Ricardo Ceratto

LP: Me Estoy Acostumbrando a Ti

Song: "Un Minuto de Silencio"

[ listen ]

Argentinian singer Ricardo Ceratto wore neat shirts (equally stylish in color or black & white) and enjoyed much musical success in his home country as well as in Mexico before he converted to Christianity in the 1980s. As we all know, Christians aren't supposed to be sexy or interesting, and they're not supposed to have hit records, so Ricardo donned some boring duds, started releasing records like this one, and discontinued the distribution of his earlier, non-religious LPs. I liked you better the other way, Ricardo. I hope God gave that cool shirt back to you as a reward when you got up to heaven. You can read about Mr. Ceratto in Spanish here, in English here, and go here to listen to one of his songs about God.

[ Ricardo Ceratto: July 18, 1939 — March 29, 1995 ]