This week I have a disc for you that, I’m sorry to say, I did not know existed until a few days ago. Not, in fact, until regular WWRRS listener Dennis Bookwalter brought it to my attention. And I will never forgive him!
Issued at the height of Batmania, Burt Ward’s 1966 45 Boy
Wonder I Love You had somehow passed me by. Odd as I’ve ever-so-slightly
obsessed with the recording carers of the actors and actresses who appeared in
TV’s first (and, let’s be honest here, best) Batman. I’ve already featured Adam
West, Burgess Meredith and Frank Gorshin on this blog and have for some time
been planning a special Batman-themed episode of the WWRRS, which will also
include some cuts from the ridiculous Jan and Dean Meet Batman.
What makes this insane spin-off even more delicious is that
the A-side, based around Burt – as Robin – reading a parody of a fan letter –
was written, arranged and conducted by Frank Zappa! The flip side, a godawful
off-key rendition of the standard Orange Colored Sky (credited on promo
copies as Oranged Colored Sky), was again arranged and conducted by Zappa,
and features several members of the Mothers of Invention including Jimmy Carl
Black and Elliot Ingber, who would later join Captain Beefheart and the Magic
Band under the name Winged Eel Fingerling. Both sides were produced by Tom
Wilson, who also produced the Mothers and the Velvet Underground. It’s just
nuts. Batman himself, Adam West, performed Orange Colored Sky on TV show
Hollywood Palace, in full Bat-drag, but does not appear on these recordings.
As Burt himself recalled in his autobiography, Boy Wonder,
My Life In Tights: ‘I should have had the wisdom I now have when I signed a
recording contract with MGM Records - I wouldn’t have signed it. MGM staffer
Tom Scott [sic] was assigned as my producer. He brought in one of the visually
wildest groups imaginable as my backup band, the Mothers of Invention. What a
sight! Neanderthal. They had incredibly long, scraggly hair, and clothes that
appeared not to have been washed in this century if ever. These were musicians
who became famous for tearing up furniture, their speakers, their microphones
and even their expensive guitars onstage. They were maniacs!
‘Of all the people in the world to team with this wild and
crazy bunch, I can’t believe I was the one. The image of the Boy Wonder is all
American and apple pie, while the image of the Mothers of Invention was so
revolutionary that they made the Hell’s Angels look like the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir. Even I had to laugh seeing a photo of myself with those animals. Their
fearless leader and king of grubbiness was the late Frank Zappa. After
recording with me, Frank became an internationally recognized cult superstar,
which was understandable; after working with me, the only place Frank could go
was up.
‘Although he looked like the others, Frank had an
intelligence and education that elevated him beyond brilliance to sheer genius.
I spent a considerable amount of time talking with him, and his rough, abrupt
exterior concealed an intellectual, creative and sensitive interior. For my
records, the plan was to record four sides and then release two singles prior
to producing an album. After listening to me sing, Frank got a wild idea to
make use of my hideous voice to do a hilarious recording with a song that had
some of the Batman feel to it. He picked “Orange Colored Sky.”
‘I can’t bear to think of this song. The memories are too
embarrassing. Though the intent was to create comedy by putting my lousy
singing to good use, the actual result was so disastrous that the studio
thought the tape had been left out in the sun and warped. They insisted on
re-recording. But first, MGM took a radical step as an insurance policy that my
next session would sound better. They sent me to an expensive vocal coach—and no
doubt hoped for divine intervention. Back in 1966 they were shelling out about
$1,000 a week for those lessons. That was a lot of money, more than three times
what I was bringing home after working twelve hours per day in my monkey suit
for an entire week. With the coach raking in that much, even I am surprised
that after two weeks of training, the lady politely asked me not to come back.
I’m not sure if she felt that having me as a student was damaging to her career
or if listening to me sing was destroying her eardrums, or both.
‘In an attempt at self-preservation, the record company had
me just talk on the second two sides I recorded. That I could do very well! The
material for the song was a group of fan letters that had been sent to me.
Frank and I edited them together to make one letter, which became the lyrics
for the recording. Frank wrote a melody and an arrangement, and we titled the
song, “Boy Wonder, I Love You!” Among the lyrics was an invitation for me to
come and visit an adoring pubescent fan and stay with her for the entire
summer. She wrote, “I will even fix you breakfast in bed. I love you so much
that I want you to stay the whole summer with me!” The lyrics ended with “I
hope you know that this is a girl writing”.’ Just brilliant!
Zappa himself
expunged any mention of these sessions from his own story; thank goodness Ward
had the good sense to record his memories for posterity. Although the disc was recorded and issued in 1966, Zappa did
not register his copyright in the A-side until July 1968.
Ward, who also made a guest appearance on Adam West’s 45 Miranda,
issued another 45, I’ve Got Love For My Baby, on Soultown records in
1970 (he did not feature on the instrumental flip, Robin’s Theme, credited
to Burt Ward’s band) – a pretty awful record which is now something of a
collectable in Northern Soul circles. A bonus for lovers of the bad: Orange
Colored Sky was co-written, back in 1950, by Milton DeLugg. DeLugg also composed
Hooray for Santy Claus, the theme song for the dreadful – but essential
- low-budget 1964 motion picture Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and
was a long-time collaborator of TV producer and host Chuck Barris, working on The
Gong Show, The $1.98 Beauty Show and many other projects.
Enjoy!
Download Wonder HERE
Download Orange HERE
Burt Ward also produced a 45 on his wife, Kathy Kersh, former Miss Rheingold of 1962 and actress. Married in 1967, they divorced two years later.
ReplyDeleteSee https://www.45cat.com/record/pr710
Do you have a link to Burt Ward's Band-Robin's Theme? Thank you
ReplyDeleteI don't, sadly. But as soon as I manage to turn up a copy I shall update this post
Delete