Bass: How Low Can You Go?

This only arrived this morning, but it is so horrendous I just had to share it with you, my loyal partners in crime, as soon as I could.


All Alone, performed here by Phil Celia, comes from one of my all-time favourite song-poem outfits, Tin Pan Alley. Busy since the early 50s, and gaining a bit of a reputation among doo-wop collectors for the quality of some of the company’s earliest output, Tin Pan Alley churned out hundreds of singles over the next three decades – so many that no-one has yet managed to pull together a complete discography: given the company’s confusing cataloguing system that’s hardly a surprise.


Tin Pan Alley was founded, initially as a sheet music operation, in 1941 by Jack Covais a songwriter who, unable to hook up with an established publisher, wound up self-publishing instead. By 1943 he was already dabbling in song-poem publishing, and by 1953 Tin Pan Alley had become a full-blown song-poem operation - their first release came out on both 10” 78 and 7” 45 a year earlier, with both sides penned by Covais himself. It didn't seem to both the Brooklyn-based Covais that there was already an outfit called Tin Pan Alley, run by Frank Capano in Philadelphia, which issued its first recordings in 1946. For a full history of the company, go to Phil Milstein’s essential song poem website where you’ll also find a decent stab at a discography (although I have or know of several TPA releases which are unlisted there, including this one).

Like many of the Tin Pan Alley releases this 45 must have been recorded in just one take and in one hell of a hurry. No attention has been paid to the finer details of the recording process: Phil is out of tune, the band come in late, the bassist is woefully inept (he must be the same useless bass player who plucks the terribly out-of-tune bass line on one of my other favourite TPA releases Who’s Going To Kiss You by “Lance”) and that accordion player clearly wishes he was somewhere else. And before you ask yes, it IS playing at the right speed. The b-side, included here for completeness’ sake, is almost as dreadful: Forward Into Peace is a dirge (and that’s putting it nicely) about an unnamed war, I’m guessing Vietnam considering the approximate release date of 1965, employing the same useless bass player but thankfully not the accordionist.

Incidentally there is another Phil Celia still actively recording today. At least I assume it’s a different Phil Celia, as our hero began recording for Tin Pan Alley around 1956 – 55 years ago – and the jazz singer of the same name only turned 50 a few years ago. I wonder if it’s his dad though?

Enjoy!