Brady Brats

Did we ever 'get' the Brady Bunch in Britain? I have vague memories of the spin-off cartoon series, The Brady Kids, airing on a Saturday morning in the mid 70s – but maybe as we already had our own version of the kids from broken homes coming together (in the fondly remembered Wendy Craig sitcom And Mother Makes Five) it’s probably not surprising that the show, made between 1969 and 1974, didn’t air in the UK until 1975 (according to www.televisionheaven.co.uk) and even then was mostly ignored.

But it was a reasonable success in the US, especially with kids, and sure enough it wasn’t long before someone had the genius idea of pushing the young cast (and their TV parents) in to a recording studio. After all, the same thing had worked wonders for the Partridge Family. 

First up was the reasonably safe A Very Brady Christmas, issued in 1970. The kids combo Christmas caterwauling is reasonably listenable – although once they head off to do a solo, as Bobby Brady did with his version of The First Noel or little Cindy did with Frosty the Snowman (included below) the result is particularly disturbing. The poor girl sounds positively petrified. 1972’s Meet the Brady Bunch is an offensive little collection, with pop classics American Pie and Badfinger’s brilliant Day After Day crucified by the kids. This was followed the same year by The Kids from the Brady Bunch, a horrifying record that includes a ghastly big band version of the Beatles’ Love Me Do. The album is mostly made up of original songs written specifically for the kids, including the terrifying You Need That Rock 'N Roll (included here) and Merry-go-Round, but also includes a rather unpleasant cover of Michael Jackson’s ode to his pet rat Ben.

The parents were back for their final outing, the 1973 collection The Brady Bunch Phonographic Album which, for the most part, is actually quite a listenable bubblegum pop album, but there would be no more, although actors Chris Knight (Peter Brady) and Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady) did issue an album, funnily enough titled Chris Knight & Maureen McCormick (also in 1973). The following year the show was cancelled and that was that.

A few TV specials (one produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, another concentrating on the Brady girls’ marriages) would follow and, in the 90s a brace of po-mo films brought the Bradys (this time portrayed by different actors) back in to the public consciousness. But nothing can compare with the originals - and here, for your delectation, are four cuts that prove the fact.

Enjoy!

Apologies - it looks like there's a copyright infringement on posting the other two songs here. Never mind - here are links to them on YouTube (where, apparently, copyright issues do not apply)

Don't Dilly Dally

Updated April 2024, with new links and the A-side added

Today (20 January 2017) is one of the darkest says in world politics; it’s also the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles recording their masterpiece A Day in the Life – and should the tangerine hate machine push the button, I would be quite happy if that apocalyptic piano chord at the end of the song were the last thing I ever heard. Incidentally, it was a discussion with a friend about A Day in the Life that reminded me of the tracks I present for you today. I figure a few of us will need some cheering up, so here is a fun favourite to help you pass the day with a smile on your face and an earworm in your head.

Those of us of a certain age will have fond memories (well, memories at least) of the Dilly Sisters, the Mariachi moppets who regularly turned up on the Banana Splits Show to sing Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay or somesuch. Well, in 1968 the pair of little darlings released a one-off 45, coupling the classic Cu Cu Rru Cu Cu Paloma with a nutso cover of the Standells song Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White - a top 50 US hit for them on September 1966. Written by Ed 'Tainted Love' Cobb, the song was also later covered by US hardcore band Minor Threat.

Research would suggest that the sisters, Maria and Toni were just six and five years old respectively in 1968, the same year that they first appeared on the Banana Splits Adventure Hour (which itself made its television debut that September). Advertised as 'the world's youngest guitarists, in their short career they performed at Disneyland, the Hollywood Palladium, in Mexico City. and across the States from San Francisco to New York.

Legend has it that only 500 copies of this brilliant 45 were pressed by Mexican music specialist Gordo Enterprises (tagline: ‘Chicanos are Happening!'), part of Eddie Davis’s Rampart Records company. Certainly it’s a rare thing, and copies usually fetch in the $60-$100 region. 

After their brief brush with televisual fame the Dilly Sisters spent a few years touring the holiday resort circuit before they vanished: sadly there’s nothing else I can add (don’t get confused by the existence of another 60s girl group called the Dilly Sisters from Washington), but if you know anything about what happened to Las Dilly Sisters after their moment in the spotlight, do let me know. 

Enjoy!

Download Paloma HERE

Download Good HERE

From Cyprus With Love

Emin Hassini (or possibly Hussini) was born in Cyprus in 1948. In 1965 he moved to New York as a 17-year-old to join his brother, Anthony Hassini who, in 1968, would become the founding member of the International Magicians Society. Looking alarmingly like Kevin Godley of 10CC, Emin enrolled in the New York University, fell in love and married a woman named Hulya Aziz.

In late 1970, as Marc Mundy, Emin recorded his only, eponymous, album. Produced by his brother, the disc is distinguished by Marc’s rather amateurish Middle Eastern-accented vocals and the equally amateurish playing. The record features his wife on backing vocals, but Paul and Linda McCartney they ain’t. A vague Middle Eastern melodic flavour permeates the collection, though the musical arrangements are fairly typical of those found on early-‘70s singer/songwriter albums. Guitarists Robert (Peppermint) Arlin (variously known as Bob or Bobby Arlin) and John Beck, drummer Tom Ambrose Ray and bass player Jim Pons had all previously been members of psych-folk band The Leaves. Pons also played with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Beck appeared on recordings by Judee Sill. The playing on the record is mediocre at best, so I'd guess that the boys - clearly seasoned musicians - had very little rehearsal time.

Just 500 copies of the album were pressed. Called ‘a truly unique, private-press curiosity rescued from obscurity’, Marc Mundy was reissued on CD (with historical liner notes) by Companion in 2006. Anthony Hassini remained in New York and, as Tony Hassini, worked as a cameraman and director, filming ads for, among others, Burger King. Tony has also overseen the growth of the International Magicians Society, which has since become the world's largest magic society (as recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records) with over 37,000 members worldwide. Emin/Marc returned to his native Cyprus to become a maths teacher in high school and vanished.

Still, he did leave us with this one album. Have a listen for yourself and see what you think.

Enjoy!

Yellow Peril

The Ballad of the Green Berets is one of the most famous pro-Vietnam songs of all time, Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler’s patriotic march was a hit around the world, making Number One on the Billboard charts, going Top Five in Germany and Australia and reaching Number 24 in the UK. The song was written by Sadler while he was recuperating from a leg wound suffered as a medic in the Vietnam War, and co-authored by Robin Moore, who published a book, The Green Berets, in 1965. The lyrics were written in honour of Green Beret US Army Specialist James Gabriel, Jr., the first native Hawaiian to die in Vietnam, killed by Viet Cong gunfire while on a training mission on April 8, 1962.

Covers of the song have proved particularly popular, and have been made by everyone from Dolly Parton, Teresa Brewer and Kate Smith to Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Horton Jr. and the Lonesome Valley Singers. There’s even an instrumental, twangy guitar and rocking sax version by Duane Eddy.

But we’re not concerned with that today – oh no! Here instead is The Ballad of the Yellow Beret, a mish-mash of parody, answer record and protest, although this time the disc is clearly protesting against those protesting against the war – if you see what I mean.

Performed by The Beach Bums and written by D. Dodger (Draft Dodger, geddit?), what makes this disc particularly interesting is that it is one of the earliest outings for famed rocker Bob Seger, recorded when he was a member of Doug Brown and The Omens: the Beach Bums and the Omens are, in fact, the same group. Draft Dodger is reputed to be Bob Seger himself. Within two years Bob would have an about turn in his attitude towards the war and would write another song, the resolutely anti-Viet Nam psych-rocker 2+2 = ?,  issued as a single on Capitol by the Bob Seger System in 1968, and an inspiration on The White Stripes’ 2003 hit Seven Nation Army.

Soon after the release of The Ballad of the Yellow Beret Sadler and his record label (RCA) threatened a lawsuit and the recording was withdrawn. Copies now sell for upwards of $100.

Unfortunately I’ve not been able to track down a copy of the B-side, Florida Time. If anyone out there can help, do let me know. Instead here’s folk singer Nancy Ames, with her The Ballad of the Green Berets answer record, He Wore The Green Beret. UPDATE! Thanks  to the rather excellent DAYS OF BROKEN ARROWS blog I am now able to bring you the flip to The Ballad of the Yellow Beret, so here are The Beach Bums with Florida Time!

Enjoy!