David Cassidy [1950-2017]

Artist: David Cassidy

LP: Rock Me Baby

Song: "Song For a Rainy Day"
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Why does it always seem like so many people up and die during the holiday season? Was sad to read that Partridge Family heartthrob David Cassidy passed away yesterday—right before Thanksgiving! Looks like Kim Carnes provides some of the backing vocals on this, David's second solo LP, from 1972. You can read about David Cassidy here, go here to see one of the Annie Leibovitz photos from Rolling Stone that David hoped would help get rid of his squeaky-clean, teeny-bopper image, and go here to find David's obituary in The New York Times.

David Cassidy

[ April 12, 1950 — November 21, 2017 ]

We will miss you, David.

Patty Duke [1946-2016]

Artist: Patty Duke

LP: Don't Just Stand There

Song: "Don't Just Stand There" 
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Song: "Everything But Love" 
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I slipped into a melancholy state when I read yesterday that actress Patty Duke had died. What immediately filled my head was my former LDS missionary buddy Troy Tingey singing "...it will blow your miiiiiind!" after I had warbled, "Cou-sins. Identical cousins, and you'll find...they look alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike..." then Troy: "It will blow your miiiiiind!" Turns out we didn't even have the lyrics right. It's interesting to read just now that Sidney Sheldon created the roles of identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane especially for Patty Duke after noticing that she had two very different sides to her personality. Nobody knew then that she suffered from bipolar disorder. 

In 1962 Patty became the youngest actor ever to win an Academy Award in a competitive category for her performance in THE MIRACLE WORKER. She was playing the young Helen Keller, a role she had originated on Broadway. There's a picture of Patty Duke in 1962 with the real Helen Keller here. Three years later found Patty releasing "Don't Just Stand There," her debut LP. It spawned two top-40 hits, including the LP title track which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1965. You can read more about Patty Duke, aka. Sean Astin's mother, on Wikipedia here and go here to find her obituary in the New York Times. 

Patty Duke

[ December 19, 1946 — March 29, 2016 ]

We're going to miss you, Patty.

Luisa Fernandez

Artist: Luisa Fernandez

LP: 7" single

Song: "Lay Love On You" 
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This past weekend I escaped the big city for a little mini-vacation in Long Beach, WA with Martin, a new special friend. I poked around in the dusty thrift shops and antique stores of the area and picked up some interesting records, but my favorite find is probably this 1978 German single by young disco star Luisa Fernandez, which I dug up during a return visit to Rainy Day Records in Olympia on our way home. (This time I took my own photos of the place.) As you can read in German here (and English here), darling Luisa was only 16 years old when she won a talent contest in an Alveslohe disco, paving the way for a handful of Luisa Fernandez singles in the '70s and '80s that were especially popular with the Austrians.

 [ Rainy Day Records — Olympia, WA ]

[ Luisa Fernandez ]

Millie Small

Artist: Millie Small (The Blue Beat Girl)

LP: My Boy Lollipop
Song: "Sweet William"
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Song: "Don't You Know"
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This past Saturday my friend Elizabeth and I attended a health and safety resource fair for work at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Federal Way, a suburb about 20 miles south of Seattle. Along with resource information for the community, the event featured delicious Mexican food and dancers wearing colorful dresses in the tradition of the Jalisco region of Mexico! I was able to get some neat pictures of the dancers with the camera on my phone.

I'm not sure where or when, but at some point I'd heard about a record store located in a Federal Way strip mall—advertized as "the only record store between Seattle and Tacoma!" After several u-turns, Elizabeth and I found Al's Music (Games & Video) after our outreach event and both of us left the place with musical treasures in our hands. (I had to dig through lots of Cher and Dan Fogelberg albums, but it was worth it.) My best find is probably this 1964 ska-pop record by talented Jamaican youngster Millie Small. Born in Gibraltar, Jamaica on October 8, 1948 (LP liner notes) or on October 6, 1946 (Wikipedia), Millie won a local talent contest when she was 12 years old. She was "discovered" by producer Chris Blackwell who became Millie's manager and legal guardian (!). Chris took Millie to London and, before long, her hit single "My Boy Lollipop" was sailing up the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The song peaked at #2 on the British and the American pop charts, and it's even been featured in relatively recent Hollywood movies like this one and this one. Ms. Small's subsequent singles didn't match the success of "Lollipop," but she continued to record and perform into the early 1970s. Rumor (well, Wikipedia) has it that Millie may be staging a comeback, planning her first performances in over 40 years. I hope it's true. More information about Millie can be found in the liner notes, included below. 

Millie Small on YouTube:

[ "My Boy Lollipop" ]
 

[ Millie Small — The Blue Beat Girl ]

[ Al's Music, Games, Video — Federal Way, Washington ]

Shelley Fabares

Artist: Shelley Fabares

LP: The Things We Did Last Summer

Song: "Johnny Loves Me"
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The records at Meridian Underground Music are tucked into the back corner of the place (CDs, DVDs and posters are also sold at the store along with a wide variety of incense, as you can see here...

...and they also sell guitars and drums and other musical stuff). The owners of the store are super friendly and gave me lots of free stickers and other things with the store's logo on them. Unfortunately, several of their heavy bins full of vinyl are stored overhead, and I couldn't think of any way to retrieve them without breaking either my spine or—even worse—most of the records in the bins! I went ahead and dug through some of the lower bins though, and I found this terrific 1962 summer-themed LP by Shelley Fabares. Popular at a young age (her first single, "Johnny Angel," went to #1 when she was just 18 years old), Shelley is also an actress, appearing in no less than three films with Elvis Presley (GIRL HAPPY, SPINOUT, and CLAMBAKE), which is more than any other actress can claim! "Johnny Loves Me," released the same year as "Johnny Angel," went to #21 on the charts. You can read more about Shelley Fabares on Wikipedia here and I've included notes and pictures from the front and back of the album below.

 [ Meridian Underground Music — Meridian, Mississippi ]

Annette Funicello [1942-2013]

Artist: Annette Funicello

LP: Hawaiiannette - Annette Sings Songs of Hawaii

Song: "Pineapple Princess"

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Song: "Hawaiiannette"

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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.

David Cassidy

Artist: David Cassidy

LP: David Cassidy's Greatest Hits

Song: "I Am a Clown"

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I don't usually buy greatest hits albums, since I like hearing all the songs that weren't hits too. But when I came across this David Cassidy record in Sioux Falls during my road trip through the Dakotas a few summers ago, I just had to add it to my collection. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the picture on the back cover—what a gorgeous vintage sofa! Read about David Cassidy here and go here to visit his official website.

Frankie Avalon

Artist: Frankie Avalon

LP: Summer Scene

Song: "Summer Scene"

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The last and final record store I went to in Ohio was Magnolia Thunderpussy. Several people in Columbus had recommended it, but I think they were mostly just excited to say the name of the place out loud. They had lots of used CDs, DVDs, and new vinyl, but there wasn't much used vinyl to be found compared to other stores I'd visited. The only other thing I picked up besides this 1959 Frankie Avalon record was a Victor Buono comedy LP called "Heavy," on which he makes lots of jokes about being fat. Frankie Avalon, the ideal buddy-buddy and wonderful dream-guy next door, really lets his (leg) hair down on this collection of musical summertime ditties. Someone stole the full details of the "Win a date with Frankie" contest out of my copy of the record, but I don't usually date guys with ugly feet anyhow—and Frankie's feet must be ugly or they wouldn't have had to stick a fake beach ball on the front of the album to cover them up. You can read about the life and career of the talented teen trumpeter-actor-singer Frankie Avalon on Wikipedia here and see another sexy picture of him here. Liner notes from the album's paper insert are included below. 

 [ Magnolia Thunderpussy — Columbus, OH ]