Subtitled Authentic Strip Music for the Discriminating
Stripper, the hoots, whoops and whistles
from the studio audience were clearly added to give the album a 'sleazy joint' sound, yet the entire album was recorded not on location (the Club
Sina, as the anonymous announcer claims) but at the Jaysina Sound Studios in Brooklyn, run
by Morty Jay and Sandy Sina. Jay was an organist, arranger and conductor who
had also worked with vocal quartet the Crew-Cuts; Sina (real name Santo Nessina) was an engineer who
specialised in the Latin American market. Strip Along With Us was issued by Strand Records, who also issued Jay’s
solo album Organ Favorites. Morty
is probably best known for the tittyshaker/surf instrumental Saltwater Taffy, although both men were invloved in breaking JFK impersonator Larry Foster, co-writing and producing Foster's 1962 hit My Christmas Message to the World.
The sleeve notes are a hoot: ‘the concept of this album is
authenticity’, they proclaim. ‘This “on location” treatment puts the emphasis
where it belongs – on the bumps and grinds.’ The author attests that the
mistakes made by the band are intentional, included to accentuate that
‘authenticity’, although I would argue with his claim that ‘it’s been every
woman’s hidden desire to try a strip routine, and every man’s hidden desire to
watch one.’ As the sleeve announces, ‘the cover photo was used with permission
of one of the country's foremost performers, Miss Libby Jones, The Park Avenue
Playgirl’. Libby (real name Adlyn Morris) does not actually appear on the record itself, although one
track, My Heart Belongs to Daddy does
feature a vocal from a fake stripping chanteuse going under the guise of ‘the
lovely Arlene Bartell’.
The Strand label, which specialised in bargain bin dross,
cheaper-than-cheap reissues and cash ins was only in existence for around six
ears (1959-65); in 1960 they issued Sick Along With Us, an album of mental health-themed ‘humour’, and the
rest of their output included recordings of hymns, easy listening jazz and
exotica, a tribute to the late Clark Gable (Dear Mr. Gable, by Karen Chandler: the title song had originally been
sung by Judy Garland) and, of course, the aforementioned Organ
Favorites.
Anyway, here’s the whole album for you, split over two files (side one and side two). Make of it what you
will! The track at the end of side one, which purports to be Night Train, is hysterical.
Enjoy!
Thanks for this! Consider this comment the blog equivalent of slappin a bill down on the runway for ya, Darryl.
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you, sir! *blush*
DeleteThat is terrible - the saxophone player can barely hold a note!
ReplyDelete