The Singing Inventor

The disc I’m sharing with you today is a recent purchase (in fact, it only arrived at WWR Towers yesterday) but one I have been aware of for a while, and one I have played on the World’s Worst Records Radio Show in the past.

 

I’ll Walk With God, backed with a stunning rendition of the Sound of Music showstopper Climb Ev’ry Moutain was issued in 1969 on the tiny Palaske Records label of Portland, Oregon, by singer Tony Villa, credited both on the sleeve and disc as ‘Tony Villa From Manila’.

 

Christened Antonio-Euclid C. Villa-Real, Villa was born in Manila, capital of the Philippines, in March 1935. ‘A versatile young man from the Orient blessed with a golden voice, whose great love for music and wide berth of inventive brilliance make him a truly unique personality’, according to the sleeve notes of one of his albums, The Sensational Tony Villa: the Singing Inventor, our man was also ‘a promising composer, dance originator, and an up-and-coming novelist and script-writer, whose talents never spoil his sincere and friendly radiance.’ The gushing praise came courtesy of Ed and Retta Palaske, owners and operators of Palaske Records.

 

Ed Palaske was also the proprietor of Portland’s Hillvilla Restaurant, which opened in 1954 and, later, Palaske’s, which opened in November 1982, when Ed was 69, but only operated for four months before it closed without warning. A handwritten note sellotaped to the front door simply announced, ‘Closed for one month: illness.’

 

The album notes continue to elevate out crooner to new, outlandish heights. ‘Critics believe he has the makings for a meteoric rise to singing stardom. A sensational singer of a variety of songs ranging from semi-classical numbers, Broadway musical tune, popular, religious, folk, country and western to his new creation called Spacetronic Rock.’

 

Apparently our boy was ‘once sponsored by Mario Lanza's mother, the late Mrs. Maria Lanza Cocozza,’ and ‘thrilled thousands of listeners when his recording in memory of the great Lanza was aired over radio WJMJ-AM in Philadelphia.’ Ed also reckoned that he had ‘recently been a guest singer in Hawaii on the "DON HO SHOW" at the Polynesian Palace, and on the "KIT SAMSON SHOW" at the Kahala Hilton,’ and that the former singer with the Morgan Baer Orchestra of Washington, D.C., was ‘currently preparing for his first international concert tour.’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, I can find little to no evidence to back up any of these claims, although a photograph of Tony and Don shaking hands backstage was included on the liner to his album.

 

What I can tell you is, at the time of recording The Sensational Tony Villa, Tony was working as a technologist in the haematology department of a Baltimore hospital. He was also hard at work perfecting his latest invention, a plastic, drip-preventing ice cream cone holder, and working on several novels. How he and his wife Lydia, who he met at university, found the time to have three children – Maria-Lourdes Stewart (after Our Lady of Lourdes), Apollo-Euclid G. Villa-Real (after the Apollo moon shot), and Antoinette-Euclideana Mora - I do not know, but they did, and they remained married for 57 years. I’ll bet they had a fun life.

In 1976 Tony issued a second album, Mountain of Love which also included Satellite Mouse as well as several other space-themed tracks, including Moon Cat and Spiral City In a Martian Moon. He resurfaced around a decade ago as Antony Starluck, with his own YouTube channel. 

 

The single I’m featuring today was issued in June 1968, ‘in memory of Three Great American Martyrs’, drawn for the 7” sleeve by Tony himself. In case you’re not quite clear on who he’s referring to, the men are, from left to right, Bobby Kennedy, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The back of the sleeve features another rambling, self-aggrandising message, this time from the pen of Mr Villa himself, in which he hopes that ‘with Divine Guidance, may our creative capabilities, courage and spiritual convictions perpetuate the eternal seed of goodwill’, and he declares that he ‘humbly offer[s] this inspired recording as a tribute to these Three Great American Martyrs of Our Time’ (his capitals, not mine).

 

JFK would remain an influence (of sorts) on his life for a number of years. In 1974 the brazen hussy had the temerity to send a copy of his album, along with a letter begging for financial backing, to shipping magnate - and then-husband of the former First Lady - Aristotle Onassis.

 

As an extra, I’m also including a track from The Sensational Tony Villa: the Singing Inventor, Tony’s own composition Satellite Mouse, which Ed Palaske described as having ‘the beat and the pulse of electrifying rhythm spearheading a new dance craze ― his own SPACE MOUSE DANCE that will soon be rockin' the nations.’ It’s bonkers and brilliant, and you will love it.

 

Tony died in June 2020, aged 85. He may not have made an international hit of his Space Mouse Dance, but he left behind an incredible legacy powered by his boundless hopes and dreams.

 

Enjoy!

 

Download Walk HERE

Download Climb HERE

Download Mouse HERE

Mon Petit Isabelle

A short post today, which seems apt given the physical stature of the singer involved, although that is primarily because there is absolutely zero information about her out there on the old internets.

Isabelle seems to have come from Belgium - at least that where this particular 45, Magicien backed with Mon Petit Begin, originated. Issued on the tiny Baby Records label, the company put out several other 45s and EPs, and although none of their releases are dated, you can tell from the sound of the instrumentation - as well as the way Isabelle has been styled for the cover shot - that it must have been issued sometime around the early to mid-1980s.

The plug track, Magicien, is a perfectly acceptable slice of kiddy-synthpop, a bouncy little ditty that the slightly flat singer handles reasonably well. But the flip side, which I featured on the World's Worst Records Radio Show this week, is another matter altogether. It's exactly what you would want from a precocious pre-teen trying to sing pop. The poor little mite is completely out of her depth, and although she makes a decent fist of it in the chorus, her voice just doesn't have the range necessary to carry off the verses of the song with any authority. I believe the title was recorded as a tribute to the recently ousted Israeli Prime Minister... 

The lyrics to both songs were penned by Christelle Bascour, who wrote songs for a number of Belgian kiddy stars, including baby Chouchou. The music was composed by Vincent Algeri, who worked with dozens of artists through the 70s and 80s, and again was involved in the baby Chouchou project.

Isabelle issued at least one further 45, the Sylvester Stallone-inspired Rocky (backed with Petit Arlequin), but her history is confused by the fact that several different Isabelles have issued records in Belgium over the years... her Discogs entry includes another 45 which is clearly by a different singer: you only have to look at the photo of the weeny pop moppet on the cover to realise that.  

If anyone out there has any more information on our Isabelle, I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Download Magicien HERE

Download Begin HERE

Easter Theatre

Described in the Tampa Bay Times as a ‘recording artist, country music showman, flea market huckster, roller-rink operator and newspaper publisher’, today’s post seems timely, both because of the season and because of the performer’s heritage.

 

Born Boris Max Pastuch to Ukrainian parents in Largo, Florida but raised in New Jersey, Buddy Max, the name behind today’s 45 release, ‘learned country and bluegrass from Ukrainian records’ played by his father, before ‘I bought a guitar and a book for 35 cents, called Sing Like Your Favorite Cowboy Stars.’

 

He began his recording career in New York in 1949. Over the next couple of years he appeared on stage with various country greats, including ‘singing cowboy’ Gene Autry, and then moved to Hollywood in the hope of becoming a star. It was there that young Boris Pastuch became Buddy Max, but by 1955 he found himself back in Florida, where – apart from summer trips back to the east coast - he spent the rest of his life.

 

He made his second recording, in Tampa, Florida, in 1955 and landed a job performing live on a local radio station. Around that same time he met Freda, an accordion player who, in 1957, would become his wife: the couple would stay together for the rest of Freda’s life. The pair, who had a son, John, became goat farmers, setting up home in Lecanto in Florida’s Citrus County. They ran a highly successful flea market twice a week from the farm, the same market that gave Buddy, who sadly died in 2008, the nickname ‘America’s Singing Flea Market Cowboy. he built his own roller skate rink on the farm and, when another (better equipped) rink opened up nearby, he built an amphitheatre on his land where he and Freda (and, on occasion, son John) would act out religious plays.

 

Buddy liked a conspiracy (the Government was run by the Mafia, and they wanted to take his land from him), and he was also open to being scammed. He spent a fortune on having his music published by song-sharks, and proudly boasted of having won a gold award from the International Biographical Centre, an organisation that creates ‘awards’ and offers them to anyone gullible enough to cough up the readies, hundreds of dollars for a Commemorative Medal or a laminated certificate... and Buddy had both.

 

During his career, Buddy issued ten albums in various formats and a whole bunch of singles on his own Cowboy Junction label, most of which he sold - or gave away - at the flea market. The only other artist I have found that signed to Cowboy Junction was Buddy Pastuck, ‘the Roller Skating Cowboy’, which appears to have been nothing more than an alias for our own Buddy Max.

 

Here’s Buddy, with both sides of his 1986 Easter-themed release, Easter Bunny – Buddy Max, and the rather fabulous Easter Day.

 

Enjoy!

 

Download Bunny HERE

Download Day HERE

I Hate That Duck

I have featured Orville, the not-so-little green duck sidekick of the late ventriloquist Keith Harris, on the blog before, but only in passing on a 2017 Christmas Cavalcade post. Today I shall go into more detail about his stellar career.

 

For those of you who don’t know, Orville was the neon-green baby duckling puppet worked by Harris from 1978 until the ventriloquist’s untimely death in April 2015. Born in Bristol (the duck, not Harris: the vent act was inspired by some green material he found backstage at a Black and White Minstrels gig in Bristol, which he passed on to his mother), Harris had already received a level of fame on stage and on TV with his orang-utan puppet Cuddles.

 

By the time of Orville’s birth, Harris was already 30 and had been working on stage since he was a teenager, winning a children’s talent show in Rhyl in 1961 before appearing in a production of Babes in the Wood In Chester in January 1962 and in pantomime, as the Timmy the Cat in Puss In Boots, later that same year. In 1963 he made his stage debut as a ventriloquist, appearing with his dummy Charlie Chat on stage in Kent during the finals of a talent competition hosted by Weekend magazine. He came second: the cash prize of £50 was presented to him by Bristol-born pianist Russ Conway.

 

Harris made his first TV appearance in 1965, on the television series Let's Laugh, and became a popular act on television variety shows. Following a spell as the host of The Black and White Minstrel Show, he also appeared several times on BBC TV's long-running show The Good Old Days. In the early 1980s, Keith, Cuddles and Orville had their own show, Cuddles and Company, which became the Keith Harris Show.

 

By the time Harris hit his third decade, he boasted a collection of well over 100 dolls, all designed by him and made by his mother, Lila, a former wardrobe mistress. As well as Cuddles and Orville, Keith’s characters included a Pakistani snake, a 10ft tall brontosaurus and a Chinese mouse. ‘My parent's home in Chester is like a zoo,’ he told The Stage. ‘but they remain as enthusiastic as me when it comes to creating new dolls. At times it's almost an obsession, but I have always held the view that originality counts for a lot in show business.’

 

Orville was a massive success, and firmly established Keith Harris as a television star. Tours and record deals followed: in January 1983 Orville’s Song hit number four on the UK singles chart, but subsequent releases would fail to have the same impact. the first of three albums, At the End of the Rainbow peaked at number 92. The others failed to chart.

 

The end of the television show coincided with a period of depression: Harris drank heavily and was arrested for drunk driving. Then his third marriage collapsed and the clubs he had invested in in Blackpool and Portugal failed, leading him to declare bankruptcy twice. However, like a number of ‘has beens’ of the period, the nostalgia boom was good to him: his career recovered and he began performing in clubs, in pantomimes and at holiday camps, in what The Stage called ‘a new era of knowing post-modern irony’.

Harris made guest appearances in a number of television shows during the 2000s including Harry Hill, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Little Britain, Al Murray's Happy Hour, and The Weakest Link. In 2002, he was the subject of a Louis Theroux documentary When Louis Met... Keith Harris. He and Orville won the Channel 5 reality TV show The Farm in 2005, and that same year he featured in Peter Kay and Tony Christie’s (Is This the Way to) Amarillo video. His cult status was confirmed with appearances in Ashes to Ashes and Shameless and his adult show, Duck Off, was a huge hit with students.

 

In 2013 Harris had his spleen removed and underwent a course of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer. Although he subsequently went back to work, the cancer returned in 2014 and he died on 28 April 2015, at the age of 67 at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

 

I’ve been playing a fair old but from At the End of the Rainbow on The World’s Worst Records radio Show recently. In case you missed it, here are a couple of cuts for you: the pair’s cover of the James Taylor classic You’ve Got a Friend, and If Wishes Were Horses

 

Enjoy!

 

Download Friend HERE

Download Horses HERE