What's It All About, Johnny?

 A couple of song-poems for you today which I hope that most of you will not have heard before. They come from  my collection and I have not ripped them nor blogged about them before, so the chances are pretty good that, although they were released over 40 years ago, they will be ‘fresh’ to you.

Starting today, and for the next three Fridays, I shall be sitting in for DJ Jan Turkenburg, hosting three, two-hour specials. If you wish to join me the show starts at 7pm (BST) or 2pm (EDT), but you can also stream it at your convenience: https://wfmu.org/playlists/WR

Today’s show (3 July) is a space-themed special, featuring mostly-instrumental music (although I have thrown a Geoff Goddard vocal and a song-poem 45 into the mix) from the 50s and 60s. The following week I am hosting a two-hour audio documentary dedicated to the marvellous Mrs. Miller and, on 17 July, a two-hour song-poem special, featuring several discs from my own collection that have not been heard before.

Including this one.

Issued by Columbine record in February 1977, these two cuts come from one of the many four-track EPs issued by the company. Perhaps not as well known as Preview, Halmark or MSR, Columbine was, in fact, one of the most productive of all the song-poem labels, issuing hundreds of 45s, EPs and albums, and more through its’ associated labels Century 21, Hollywood Artists and others.

Both of today’s tracks come from Ralph Lowe, one of the busiest of all song-poem stylists, and both are fairly self-explanatory. The wonderfully-titled What's It All About - Our Bicentennial Year actually arrived a few months too late to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the founding of the country we now call the United States, and John F. Kennedy was a late addition – by a good decade at least – to the countless tributes to the assassinated President.

Ralph Lowe, the lounge singer from hell, is one of my favourite song-poem performers, along with Halmark’s Bob Storm and the ubiquitous Rodd Keith, of course. For years he was Columbine’s go-to guy for anything out of the ordinary; Kay Weaver usually got the mopey, dull country or Christian rubbish but it was Ralph who got the mangled and the mad, off-the-wall nonsense like the brilliant I’m The Cat or The Lottery Freak. And these two of course. He was Columbine’s Gene Marshall – until, of course, they brought Gene Marshall into the stable: Marshall (real name Gene Merlino) recorded for Columbine under the name John Muir.

Anyway, here are both What's It All About - Our Bicentennial Year, penned by Wilhelmina McClellan and, from the pen of Michael McDonald (no, not THAT Michael McDonald) John F. Kennedy.

Enjoy!

Download Bicentennial HERE

Download Kennedy HERE