First up, both sides of a Chapel Recording Company 45, two
songs written by Katherine Dills of East Rutherford, New Jersey. Chapel, if you
didn’t already know, was an imprint of Ted Rosen’s Halmark song-poem outfit –
something that becomes abundantly clear the second one hears the A-side of this
ridiculous record. The music bed is exactly the same one as used for countless
other Halmark releases, and the voice is clearly Mary Kimmel, Halmark’s go-to
female singer.
Mary’s stentorian delivery and the ridiculously overblown
backing beautifully enhance the stupidity of Ms. Dills’ daft lyrics. I’m still
trying to work out who the ‘friend’ is that she’s buying My Christmas
Poinsettia for. Judging by the coda, that poor plant has a rather long
journey ahead. Flip side My Christmas Day Prayer is even better. A rare
song bed is used this time, in fact I cannot immediately call it to mind (although
I’m positive I have heard it before), but any song-poem that not only starts
with a spoken intro but breaks off for a spoken-word bridge too, is a winner
in my books.
Next, from the Hollywood Artists Record Co., is Stephanie
Allen and Poor Little Christmas Tree. Composed by Edward E. Regina and
S. Mravik, like the vast majority of song-poem discs this carries no publication
or copyright date, but judging by the quality of the pressing I’d pitch it at mid-80s.
Finally for today, both sides of a 45 issued by Vanity
Records in Jo Ann Lear’s (A Child’s Lament) Leave My Toys Alone and Let’s
Have A Happy New Year. Vanity is an interesting label, and over the years I’ve
managed to procure several of their releases for my collection. It was not a
straight song-poem company, although several of their discs definitely fall
into that category, and this particular one appears to be a bit of a hybrid.
Vanity Records was more a custom producer that a straight
song-poem outfit, used by established songwriters to produce top-quality demos
in an effort to find new takers for their material, or by people who wanted a
professional-sounding product that they could then distribute in whatever way
they wanted. They also had their own distribution arm, and many of their discs
were advertised in the pages of Billboard. The A-side of this particular
disc was co-written by pianist Jack Betzner, who wrote the tunes for a number of
minor hits in the 1940s but whose career was in the doldrums by the time this
particular cut was issued, which I believe was around 1958.
He worked with
lyricist Tommy Schifanella on a number of songs, including You’ll Never Hurt
Me That Way in 1951, (A Child’s Lament) Leave My Toys Alone, and
the pair were still collaborating as late as 1970 with I’m Wealthy (This Is
Like Money In The Bank). The flip side, Let’s Have A Happy New Year,
was penned by the otherwise unknown Sal Maldonato. Singer Jo Ann Lear performed
for a number of small record companies, including Nicholas Gilio’s Gira (What
Would I Do/Tell the World I Love You, 1953), and the rather
wonderfully-monikered Startime Sound Of Beauty in 1965.
And that’s your lot. Have a fantastic Christmas, and I’ll
see you soon!
Download Poinsettia HERE
Download Prayer HERE
Download Tree HERE
Download Toys HERE
Download New Year HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment