Un-Note-Able

Today, a couple of racks from a 1977 album that was recently brought to my attention by the head honcho at Sheena’s Jungle Room, and former host of the Music For Maniacs blog, Mr. Fab. And I’m so glad he did, because it is rather marvellous!

 

The Note-Ables were a polka band that probably hailed from St Paul, Minnesota. Neither of their albums give much of a clue as to where the four men – brothers (or possibly cousins) Jeff and Craig Dahlberg, Ken Trombley and Tom Johnson - originated from, but the labels on their debut mention KNOF, a studio facility in Minnesota that specialised in Christian and polka recordings. Jim Reynolds, who engineered both albums, was chief engineer at KNOF before setting up his own studio, Custom, nearby.

 

That first album - Meet the Note-Ables ­– is entirely instrumental, featuring 14 polkas and waltzes. It was recorded in September 1976 which dates the release of this second effort, Flipside, to 1977 at the earliest (not 1974 as Discogs would have you believe).

 

And my goodness, what a record Flipside is. The Note-Ables were desperate to prove that the four of them were capable of more than imitating Lawrence Welk at local hootenannies and shindigs: the notes on the reverse of their debut state that their polka and waltz repertoire made up ‘just a fraction of the many songs and styles of music the Note-Ables produce. Polka, Waltz, Fox Trot, Country Western, Swing, Rock – ALL done in their own special sound.’

 

And what a special sound it is – assuming the word ‘special’ is being used here in the same sense as we might have referred to a certain place of learning as a ‘special school’. Flipside consists of 13 tracks, the majority covers of popular standards, all played by a band who have more in common with the Shaggs than the Stones. Clearly recorded in one take, perhaps in an effort to capture the excitement of a live Note-Ables concert, it finds the band stumbling – like blind men in a particularly crowded subway station – through inept, out-of-tune versions of popular standards including several written by or popularised by the Beatles (Roll Over Beethoven, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and Can’t Buy Me Love) as well as two originals written by Jeff Dahlberg, Lost and Found and Love’s Not Always Kind, a song that features the kind of trumpet break that makes you want to set fire to all of your Tijuana Brass albums.

 

Flipside is truly mesmerising, it’s little wonder that Mr fab refers to the act as the ‘Note -UNables’, but the whole process must have proved a bit too much for the lads, as after destroying ten pop and country favourites they suddenly perform an about-face and switch back to accordion-led dance music, a genre in which they are clearly more comfortable.

 

Here are a couple of tracks from the brilliant Flipside, the Note-Ables’ supremely ham-fisted attempt at the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven, and the equally delightful She Loves You. You can find the whole album on YouTube should you so wish.

 

Enjoy!

 

Download Beethoven HERE

Download Loves HERE

Rock Me, Amadeo

A pair of tracks from Maltese lounge singer Amadeo Carmel today, both sides of his third single, something I was overjoyed to find in the warehouse of a house clearance company in North Wales recently.

 

Who is (or was) Amadeo Carmel? I cannot tell you much: he has zero presence on the internet, and a trawl of online newspaper archives in the UK, US and Malta revealed nothing either. His discs turn up fairly frequently though, often in the States (and almost always autographed), so I feel it’s safe to assume that Amadeo worked as a singer in the cabaret bar of a hotel on the island, signing copies of his mediocre warblings for tourists grateful for any souvenir from their trip that did not come with the obligatory Maltese Cross emblazoned upon it.

 

Despite being one of the most inept lounge singers of all time, Carmel issued at least four singles, all of which are stunningly bad. Search them out: this is the man for whom the phrase ‘flat as a pancake’ was invented.

 

It seems as if Amadeo only ever had two photographs taken during his career, one where the young man looks not unlike the late Stuart Adamson - and which appears on the rear cover of his singles – and a more formal shot, with our boy affecting a Rat Pack-esque air, used on the front of each sleeve. In fact, apart from the song titles, the only thing that differentiates one disc from another is the background colour: his debut, Wonderful Illusion coupled with Begin the Beguine (MLT 257) appeared in a blue sleeve, then came MLT 258, All Or Nothing At All backed with Dream (in a fetching green), MLT 259, So Young backed with his rather unique take on the classic Try a Little Tenderness (the very yellow one that appears here), and the only other disc I have seen so far, MLT 261, My London backed with So Young (in orange). 

It’s reasonably safe to assume that there was a fifth release, MLT 260, but I have yet to uncover any details of that particular coupling, should it have ever seen the light of day.

 

All of Carmel’s releases come from Melita Records of Paola (or Pawla, as it is known locally) and all come in near-identical sleeves. Melita Records was a small operation, possibly Amadeo’s own vanity label. No other discs have surfaced on the label and all of the discs were pressed in France or the UK. Melita’s address, 23 Nazzarene Street, does not exist. There is a 23 Nazarene Street (one less ‘z’), and a company, Charles Vella And Sons Limited, that has existed at that address since at least 1985. It's a tiny street that does not even appear on Google maps. Did Amadeo have an office or even reside at that address, or was it just a useful rented mailing address?

 

I have nothing else, although there appears to be a UK connection: Amadeo’s own compositions, including My London and So Young were copyrighted to a publishing house based in Honiton, Devon, the Daylight Company. That same company ran a studio in the town for a period from 1979, which leads me to wonder if his recordings were made there, rather than on Malta? The discs are all undated, but were clearly manufactured in the early 1980s.

 

Anyway, here for your delectation, are both sides of the third single from Malta’s Amadeo Carmel: So Young and Try a Little Tenderness. Enjoy!

Download Young HERE

 

 Download Tenderness HERE