Nazareth

Artist: Nazareth

LP: Nazareth

Song: "Fat Man"

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Nazareth's 1972 debut album is the only record I've ever purchased in Minnesota, the 12th largest state in the union. When I was in Fargo last July, I drove over the Main Avenue Bridge (aka—Veterans Memorial Bridge) which took me to a little Minnesota town called Moorhead and a record store called Mother's. Unfortunately, Mother had pretty bad taste in music, and this is the only thing I found worth buying. You can read about Nazareth here, find info on some of the best Minnesota travel destinations here and go here to see a picture of the bridge I used to get from North Dakota to Minnesota. I was hoping to post a photo of Mother's—Moorhead's only record store—but my Google image search just kept giving me pictures of Endora.

Sonny Lester, His Orchestra and Chorus

Artist: Sonny Lester, His Orchestra and Chorus

LP: How to Belly Dance For Your Husband

Song: "Boom Boom"

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Little Egypt's instructional belly dance bonus booklet wasn't included with my copy of this terrific Sonny Lester LP, so I guess my husband will just have to suffer through my earnest attempts at improvised simulation. Be sure to check out the funny liner notes below (as a conscientious blogger, I would be remiss in not advising that as a woman and a wife, something in your life is lacking...), and you can learn all about the life and career of musician, producer and WWII veteran Sonny Lester—who now lives in Florida and will be turning 86 this year—on Space Age Pop Music here.

John Travolta

Artist: John Travolta

LP: Can't Let You Go

Song: "Easy Evil"

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After earning much acclaim and his second Oscar-nomination for his comeback performance in PULP FICTION in 1994, John Travolta used his powerful, newly-acquired Hollywood connections (and his entire paycheck from WHITE MAN'S BURDEN) to have all remaining copies of his 1977 "Can't Let You Go" LP collected and destroyed. Like most Americans, however, Travolta had forgotten about North Dakota—which is where I picked up this still-sealed copy of his rare and elusive album. The record had been a thorn in Travolta's side ever since its release nearly 20 years earlier, when thousands of people snatched it up mistakenly thinking it was the new Cher LP. Reportedly, Travolta and his producer had settled upon a space-walk theme for the album-cover art, but at the last minute and without permission, the designer instead decided to go with a photo of Travolta that had been clandestinely taken by a crazed fan with a hidden camera in the men's dressing rooms at the Nordstroms in San Bernardino. You can read all about the exciting life and career of John Travolta on Wikipedia here and go here to visit his official website.

Giannis Parios

Artist: Giannis Parios

LP: Erhonte Stigmes

Song: "Pote Den Se Xehno"

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Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feeling exceedingly independent today. Giannis Parios (also "Yiannis Parios") is a Greek singer born in March of 1946, which you can confirm on Wikipedia here. You can also visit Parios' website here... I just hope you're able to make more sense of it than I could—it's all Greek to me!

Dengue Fever

Artist: Dengue Fever

LP: Venus on Earth

Song: "Oceans of Venus"

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Song: "Integratron"

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Every now and then I come across a used LP released in the past few years that's just as good as any of the best stuff I've found from the '50s, '60s or '70s. This 2008 Dengue Fever record I picked up at Easy Street in Seattle's Lower Queen Anne neighborhood a few months ago is one of them. I didn't know much about Dengue Fever (the disease) until yesterday, but while doing an image search for Dengue Fever (the band), I found lots of pictures like this, so I figure this particular illness is the sort you can catch if you go camping and forget to bring your repellent. It's not a fun disease, as you can tell from pictures like this and this. On Wikipedia here, you can read more about Dengue Fever (the disease) and find out what you should do if you catch it, then go here to read all about Dengue Fever (the band) and find out what you should do if you end up catching them too. Before moving the the USA, after which she was discovered in some nightclub in Long Beach, California and recruited to sing for Dengue Fever (the band), Chhom Nimol was a famous karaoke singer in Cambodia!

Earth Quake

Artist: Earth Quake

LP: Earth Quake

Song: "Summer Song"

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Lately I've had natural disasters on the brain (don't know if you've heard, but I'm currently a tropical storm making my way across northeastern Mexico—yesterday I was a hurricane!) so this Earth Quake song seemed appropriate. Also, "Summer Song," since it's supposedly summertime...though here in Seattle it's cold and wet and feels like the first day of March. Bay-area band Earth Quake is known for their poppy IBM music (involuntary body movement). They released several LPs throughout the 1970s, starting with this one in 1971. You can read about Earth Quake here and visit Earth Quake guitarist Robbie Dunbar's web page here.

Ruby and the Romantics

Artist: Ruby and the Romantics

LP: Our Day Will Come

Song: "Stranger on the Shore"

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This lovely and sentimental ballad seems a good fit for a cool and cloudy last day of June in Seattle. Formed in Akron, Ohio in the early '60s, Ruby and the Romantics were an all-male quartet briefly known as The Supremes before singer Ruby Nash joined up with them and they changed their name. Though today they're primarily known for their 1963 #1 hit, "Our Day Will Come," all the songs on this Kapp LP are terrific. After releasing a handful of flop followup singles throughout the remainder of the 1960s, Ruby and the Romantics split up in 1971. Ruby reportedly now works at the Barberton, Ohio Salvation Army thrift store and earns no royalties from the use of her group's songs. You can read more about Ruby Nash and her Romantics (Edward Roberts, George Lee, Ronald Mosley, Leroy Fann) by clicking here and here.

[ Ruby and the Romantics ]

Ruth Olay

Artist: Ruth Olay

LP: Olay! O.K.!!

Song: "Gonna' Build a Mountain"

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Song: "I Concentrate on You"

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Jazz singer Ruth Olay was born in San Francisco, California in 1924, but her family moved to Los Angeles when she was just 18 months old. Her father was a Hungarian rabbi born in Yonkers, her mother a classical singer who performed in the chorus of Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy movies. You can read more about Ruth Olay on Wikipedia here—where they think she was born in Los Angeles—and you'll find a terrific 1999 interview with Olay for Songbirds magazine here. In the interview, you'll find out how Ruth first got started singing, read about her friendships with Benny Carter and Judy Garland, learn how she used to "pass" as a black singer and find out what she's been doing since retiring from her singing career. Notes and pictures from the 1963 "Olay! O.K.!!" LP are included below, along with a YouTube clip of Ruth Olay performing "The Best Is Yet to Come" on the Johnny Carson Show.

Ruth Olay on YouTube:

[ "The Best Is Yet to Come" ]

 

 

[ Ruth Olay ]

Rosalind Russell

Artist: Rosalind Russell

LP: Wonderful Town

Song: "One Hundred Easy Ways"

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Song: "Conga!"

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Along with the corporate sponsorship takeover of the Seattle Gay Pride parade and festivities, and the rivers of rainbow-colored vomit flowing through the streets of Capitol Hill after late-night block parties this past weekend, I've noticed yet another disappointing trend that signals the decline of the traditionally intellectual, non-conformist nature of the gay community of decades past: indifference to Broadway musicals! According to the date listed on the price tag, this terrific and campy soundtrack for the 1958 TV show "Wonderful Town"—based on the 1953 Broadway hit for which gay icon Rosalind "Auntie Mame" Russell won her only Tony Award—had been gathering dust at a store in the heart of Seattle's gay district for nearly two years before I finally snatched it up for just .99¢ last month. 

"Wonderful Town" concerns the plight of sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood, who've fled from Columbus, Ohio to New York City in search of love and fortune. The stage show debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on February 25, 1953, starring Rosalind Russell as Ruth, the more sensible sister, and Edie Adams as Eileen, the blond bombshell (in the TV show, and thus on my LP, Eileen is played by Jacquelyn McKeever). With music by Leonard Bernstein (WEST SIDE STORY) and song lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green—the duo responsible for songs in popular musicals like ON THE TOWN, as well as story and screenplay for SINGING IN THE RAIN—"Wonderful Town" went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1953. You can find production details and the entire delightfully-convoluted "Wonderful Town" plot synopsis, in two acts, on Wikipedia here.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1907, actress Rosalind Russell went on to a prosperous career in movies, television and stage. Initially typecast by Hollywood studios as an elegant and wealthy lady, Russell voiced her frustration with these roles in a 1936 interview: "Being typed as a lady is the greatest misfortune possible to a motion picture actress. It limits your characterizations, confines you to play feminine sops and menaces and the public never highly approves of either. An impeccably dressed lady is always viewed with suspicion in real life and when you strut onto the screen with beautiful clothes and charming manners, the most naive of theatergoers senses immediately that you are in a position to do the hero no good. I earnestly want to get away from this. First, because I want to improve my career and professional life and, secondly, because I am tired of being a clothes horse—a sort of hothouse orchid in a stand of wild flowers." Rosalind Russell eventually did get to take on a wider variety of roles, starting with her breakout performance in THE WOMEN in 1939; she went on to earn four Oscar nominations for Best Actress—first with MY SISTER EILEEN in 1942 (from which "Wonderful Town" is adapted) and lastly for AUNTIE MAME in 1958. Russell had an active career right up until just a few years before succumbing to breast cancer at the age of 69. You can read all about the exciting life and career of Rosalind Russell here and find her complete filmography and list of television appearances on IMDB here. Liner notes from the back of the "Wonderful Town" soundtrack LP are included here:

[ Rosalind Russell: June 4, 1907 — November 28, 1976 ]

Meco

Artist: Meco

LP: The Wizard of Oz

Song: "The Wizard of Oz — part one"

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Song: "The Wizard of Oz — part two"

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Yesterday morning on NPR's StoryCorps series, I was moved as I listened to Michael Levine describing what it was like to witness the Stonewall riots in New York City on June 28, 1969—an event which marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. You can listen to Levine's account of the events on that fateful and historic evening here. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to commemorate the Stonewall riots of the year before. You can read all about the Stonewall uprising and the various phases of the gay rights movement since then on Wikipedia here. Tomorrow, the "Over the Rainbow" pride parade and festivities here in Seattle will be marking the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Gay Pride March. Unfortunately, I won't be at the parade tomorrow, since I have to play the organ for some Christian church out in the suburbs. But if they start singing hymns about gay people going to Hell, I promise to make lots of mistakes. In solidarity with the movement, and to show my support for equal rights for the LGBT community—including marriage, adoption, and the right to be tacky and annoying—I'm posting this fabulous and overlong disco version of "The Wizard of Oz," produced by Domenico "Meco" Monardo in 1978. Meco, who you can read about here, reportedly says of this LP, "This is my best work, bar none!"—and what I think he means is that, unlike most of his other work, he can stand listening to this one without getting stone drunk down at the local watering-hole first.

 [ The Stonewall Riots — June, 1969 ]

Hyksos

Artist: Hyksos

LP: Metal Massacre II

Song: "The Kings"

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Gay Pride Heavy Metal Week comes to an end with this energetic-yet-moody metal ditty by short-lived California group Hyksos. "The Kings" comes from the Metal Massacre II LP, which also features songs by metal bands with names like Surgical Steel, Warlord, Trauma, Molten Leather and...Aloha. Hyksos released just one LP, back in 1982, which you can read about here; you can visit the band's MySpace fan page here, and if you have no idea what a Hyksos is, find out by clicking here.

Hellanbach

Artist: Hellanbach

LP: Now Hear This

Song: "Kick It Out"

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Summer has finally arrived in Seattle, which means warm, sunny bike-rides in the morning. It's not all that far from my apartment to my work, but when I arrived this morning I was sweating like I'd just ridden to Hellanbach. Anyway...often considered little more than a cheap Van Halen imitation, British metal band Hellanbach released just one LP in the early '80s before calling it quits while working on their second record in 1984. (My copy of 1983's "Now Hear This" was pressed in Italy!) You can read more about Hellanbach on their fan-based MySpace tribute page here. Though "Kick It Out" is mostly a fairly standard rock song, it features a bizarre percussive interlude that includes blasts of gay-disco police-whistle!