This is a clever and very catchy novelty song. Izzy is ill in bed and verses end with:-

" I am Izzy's lawyer and I called around because
I want to know is Izzy worse or Izzy azzy woz"

Great stuff!

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The US London label shows the artist as: The Multiple Voices of Frann Weigle.
The A side is like the Ink Spots and the flip is like the Mills Bros.
The male vocal group sound would clearly have been created by multi-tracking. For 1949 it's a great effort and very enjoyable.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Certain artists fail to impress me when they play in a straightforward country music vein, but really light up when they move into the rockabilly style. Bill Haley is one. Carl Perkins is another. "Let The Juke Box Keep On Playing" is Perkins in his straightforward country style. It is no doubt a competent foray in that genre. I will leave it to somebody who's into that to rate it, because I would not do it justice for those people. "Gone, Gone, Gone" is another matter, however. It is Perkins at least halfway to his ultimate rockabilly persona. The rhythm is more urgent, his voice is more dominant, his guitar is more clearly a part of his personal musical voice when he plays this kind of material. I don't know if this track pre-dates "Blue Suede Shoes", but it feels like it does by just a little. It's not as good as it gets, but whoever gave it an 8 was pretty much on the money. It's far better than merely good, and it ought to whet your appetite for more Perkins.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A charming record which (to me) sounds like a cross between 'The Laughing Policeman' and a Billy Williams record. (I assume it isn't Billy pretending to be Harry). The volume is surprisingly loud I think, compared to say Zonophones from the same year.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I have just played 'Murder In The Moonlight'.

It is one of those magical songs which immediately transfixes and transports you back in time and to a different place. Where ? I will have to listen a few more times to be sure.

Leslie Hutchinson has such a unique voice. I knew nothing about him and enjoyed reading his Wiki entry.

I think that this track is essential for any collection so I am extremely pleased to have it.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Who cannot agree ?? Is this possible to like ??? Has anyone EVER liked it ?????

The bugle is appalling but not only that. Maybe it just might have been bearable if it was way in the background to give the effect of a bugle call way over the hill in the distance. But the studio wasn't capable of doing this.

I tend to wonder whether they had the capability to dub this on and re-record the acetate in this way. It was possible by playing back the original acetate in the studio. I remember that Modern did this with a Pee Wee Crayton disc. But Cosimo's original studio was very basic at this time. Also, if this was done, I'd think Cosimo would get a better balance than this.

Every 5 years or so I try to 'like' this but it remains unlistenable. A real shame because Fats does a great blues beneath the noise, so bad it hurts my teeth. Maybe this was originally intended by Bartholomew to actually be the "A" side (gasp) but I'm sure Imperial immediately swapped it round. Why didn't they use "Hey Fat Man"? Maybe they deemed that Korea was topical. But, if so they should have remade it. I'm left wondering if Bartholomew actually heard the results played back?

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

So, there I was this morning, ferreting around with some of my Parlophone records to decide which to keep and which to not keep.

I listened to 'The Cuckoo In The Wood' and was entranced. It immediately cut through the silence and quickly established it's haunting effect. Very much so on my modest floor-standing Geisha gramophone. There is a lovely occasional deep echo. I wonder how they achieved that effect ?

I have never heard anything like it before. But then again, the only other Yodelling record I believe I have is by 'The Yodelling Cowboy' and, some-what bizarrely, there is no actual yodelling on that one. Anyway, I digress ...


... and so, it is a 'keeper' and very worthy of a place in my humble collection.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Re the Locomotive name:- There was a locomotive of the coronation class which was named"Coronation". This was LMS No 46220. I am not sure which locomotive was involved but in the mid to late 1930's, the LMS was in competition with the rival LNER company for the fastest run between London and Scotland. During an attempt at the record by the Coronation Scot, the train went through the complex junctions south of Crewe way over the speed limit. The panic braking then required, managed to smash a lot of crockery in the dining car!

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Beautifully sung by Anne Sheldon one of my most listen To's

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Tremendous band and excitement on this and Frankie Lee Sims' Ace 527 from the same session. Mercy Baby was not a great vocalist and had some strange phrasing on his later Mercy Baby label but he sure could pound the drums - and never more so than here, right to the crash at the end.

He just bawls out the lyrics and the wild band, complete with Frankie, makes for two no-fail sides for dancin' around the floor after a couple of beers...and making a fool of yourself.....

Mercy Baby's follow-up on Ace 535 is good as well and his only true Blues side but the flip starts to get somewhat strange.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Ultimate classic "Walking With Frankie" is the "A" side! Mods informed.

When Westside (UK) put this on CD it had more than an extra 30 second extended ending.

Tremendous band and excitement on this and Mercy Baby's Ace 528 from the same session.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

An excruciating record of a young white singer covering the Earl King (R&B) and Jimmy Swan (Hillbilly) originals for Ace and Trumpet resp. As I remember, the accomp is just organ and chimes and was the brain child of Lillian McMurry, who had recorded both of the original sides.

Lillian's idea was for an Ace pop series which Johnny Vincent abandoned after this one sunk like a lead balloon. Nice blue label though...

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Rosco had a real tough band on this one and a fine outing on "Just Love Me Baby". After many crying records for several years Rosco's outrageous entry probably killed off the trend for good!

To some, the record is so bad it's good, in fact great for a laugh. But the full backing, including baritone sax, is still superb. I wish he had done more with this instrumentation.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

"I'd Never Forgive Myself" is an appealing ballad with a strong melody, delivered in a very mannered vocal style by Billy Ford, who over-enunciates in a slightly irritating fashion. He is supported to good effect by a male vocal group, The Bel-Aires, but the arrangement on the track is clunky and heavy-handed. It isn't a bad record, but it would have benefited from an overall lighter approach.

This song was also recorded by various other acts, including Kitty Kallen, Jerry Martin, and the under-rated female vocalist Jo Ann Tolley, whose superb take on it is my favorite and was the only one to enter the Top 100 (no. 29 in 1953).

Billy Ford subsequently teamed up with Lillie Bryant to form the duo "Billy and Lillie," and they had two U.S. Top 20 hits ("La De Dah," no. 9 in 1958; and "Lucky Ladybug," no. 14 the following year). Billy Ford died in the mid '80s, but Lillie Bryant (born in 1940) is apparently still active in the music business to some extent.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This version of "The Roving Kind" from down under is more or less contemporaneous with the hit version by Guy Mitchell in the US. (By way of comparison, I went and found the Mitchell version on YouTube. It was preceded by a bizarre commercial for a product called Poo-Pouri... but I digress.) It is considerably looser in its attack than the Mitch MiIller produced Columbia issue. In fact, after an awkward few bars at the beginning, the Ray Quintette settles into a nice jump groove that closely emulates the early Nat King Cole sound, including group vocals by the musicians interwined with the Lester Sisters efforts. There is a mild disconnect between the band and the Sisters sound, but not enough to spoil the track. It was a pleasant surprise.

"I'll Never Be Free" is really more of the Lester Sisters' vehicle than the Ray Quintette's. The accompaniment is mostly limited to sparse support from what sounds like an accordion. The tune is an ordinary ballad and not nearly as interesting as the first side.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I have to agree with the Billboard review. The instrumental "All The Way" is a decent swing piece. "Beyond The Sea's" greatest strength is Marion Morgan's beautiful voice. Overall, however, that song disappoints because of the weak arrangement. At times, the orchestra is barely audible. Nothing like the original Charles Trenet version.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Skinnie Minnie (Fish Tail): What an amazing song! A great up-tempo, danceable track which sounds absolutely fabulous. However, there is an apparent lack of bass. Still, it's a very catchy tune beautifully sung by Teresa Brewer. It's a kind of rock-n-roll / Jazz hybrid.

I Had Someone Else: What a LONG title! This is a nice ballad, again, beautifully sung.

As a side note: This record, along with another Teresa Brewer Promo record came as throw away discs to protect another disc I ordered on ebay. They were both sticky and terribly dirty and hardly playable. I scrubbed both discs with a sponge and a little dish soap and water and air dried in front of a fan. The difference was amazing. These discs play perfectly, with no scratches or pops, and very little crackle.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Break-In Master would perhaps be a better person to review Side A of this disc. The "break in", if you aren't familiar, is a kind of shtick, mostly practiced by disc jockeys, which it would appear Mad Milo is, or aspires to be. The disc jockey-narrator throws out straight lines and then delivers punch lines/answers in the form of snippets from popular recordings. Perhaps the best known examples were on Luniverse. In this case, the disc jockey purports to interview people on the subject of wanting Elvis Presley for Christmas. One of the interviewees is apparently a chicken or possibly a pigeon. When done well, break-ins can be moderately clever, but in my experience they're rarely very funny. I think you can decide for yourself if Side A is worth sampling.

Side B is no way related to Side A. The combo appears to include a bongo drummer, who is the main musician heard, playing a hipster style beat rather than any discernible Latin beat. A small group of not particularly sophisticated male vocalists sing a reasonably pleasant New Year song that, as Break-In Master correctly states, has a more than passing resemblance to Come On Get Happy, both melodically and rhythmically. Of course, it substantially pre-dates the Partridge Family. If you liked the Beatles' "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time", you'll probably like this, too.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Bell solo and Xylophone solo records are so anachronistic there may be little point in reviewing them. Nobody records anything remotely like them anymore. People don't even show up to play bells or xylophones on America's Got Talent, although I seem to recall occasional acts of this sort on Ed Sullivan in his day. Still, there's something oddly refreshing about listening to these unsophisticated performances by musicians who obviously had pride in what they did. "Snowdrops" is an attractive tune worth at least one listen. "Keep On March" is less melodic, the more so because the xylophone is such a limited instrument to begin with, but it recorded well in the 1920s and it was rhythmically alluring by the standards of the day, as well. I won't bother to rate these, but when you're tired of hearing the same old blues licks over and over again, pop over to this and give a listen. It'll help purge your synapses and you may find something you didn't expect.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The last time Iheard this one was on my Grandfathers Phonograph , he used to have a large chest of Edison Bell cylindrical records. I was allowed to play them now and again. This was around 1940.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Side 'A' is really a comical novelty record.

If you like cats, then this one is for you. Albert Whelan does a very passable and amusing impression of two screeching cats talking to each other - "Are you coming out tonight ?" .... "No, I'm not" ...."Why not ?" ......... "I can't get over the wall" .

Lots of innuendo otherwise (referring to human liaisons over walls) and a jolly good, merry tune too ! Xylophones. Trumpets for the naughty bits - or is that just my over-active imagination ?

Anyway, if you like cats..................................

Oh, the 'B' side....... In my personal opinion, two parts of this song sound similar to a different and still well known song written several years later. Now there's a thing to think about.................. can you recognise it ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aUR1ANsvrA

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

'Fools Like Me' is a wonderful composition and maybe his finest Country Music performance. 'High School Confidential' was maybe a bit of a let-down after the dynamite start but still a treasured performance.
Dick Jacobs was upset that it made the charts, forcing him to play it on his Sunday evening show. He assured us it would drop out the charts by next but he was wrong again.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I remember this from my childhood. When I listened on YouTube, it really took me back in time. Tommy Dorsey had a great orchestra and Ray Wetzel was a great vocalist. I would really love to own a noise free version, as the YouTube vinyl is noisy, but I still loved it. I give it a 10 for a great recording from the Pop/Big Band era.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The B side is The Trolley Song. Both are definitive versions. My #1 prize recording.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

These are two very manly attempts to translate onto an accordion what the Original Dixieland Jazz Band was doing at about the same time with five guys. As such, they are not entirely successful, but then, they probably were doomed to that from the get go because that was a very ambitious notion. That Guido Deiro and whoever did his arrangements (Deiro himself?) got as close as they did is quite remarkable.

Deiro's touch on the accordion is surprisingly light and his rhythm is nimble. He handles the ragtime elements of the tune adroitly. Of the two sides, "Ostrich Walk" is the more successful. "Jazz Band Ball" is marred (at least to my mind) by the recurrent "crashes" at the end of particular phrases. I suspect it is some element of the ODJB's rendition that doesn't translate well (or that I would probably find jarring on their record, too).

I would give "Jazz Band Ball" a 7 and "Ostrich Walk" at least an 8. Dyed-in-the-wool accordion fans might well go higher.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This was Georgia White's most successful record. It is a striking combination of a sexually charged feminist statement with a gospel-like blues hoping for relief. Both sides were recorded on May 12, 1936 in Chicago, IL, with the singer accompanied by the veteran jazzman and producer Richard M. Jones on piano, the young white guitar virtuoso Les Paul and the in demand session bassist John Lindsay.

On "I'll Keep Sittin' on It (If I Can't Sell It)" the singer comes up to expectations with some of the more risqué material that she had successfully delivered since "Get 'Em From the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)". Written by Alex Hill and Andy Razaf, the lyrics describe a woman contemplating selling a chair but only for the right price, and it is hard to ignore the sexual innuendo:

If I can't sell it, keep sitting on it
Before I give it away
You've got to buy, don't care how much you want it
I mean just what I say

Just feel that nice old bottom built for wear or tear
I really hate to part with such a lovely chair
If I can't sell it, keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away

If I can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away
You've got to buy, don't care how much you want it
I mean just what I say

When you want something good you've got to spend your jack
I guarantee you will never want your money back
If I can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away

If I can't sell it, keep sitting on it
Before I give it away
You've got to buy, don't care how much you want it
I mean just what I say

When you want something good you've got to spend your jack
I guarantee you'll never want your money back
If I can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away

Some sources take it for a song about prostitution, but this view seems too narrow for me. The singer does not say that she wants to sell her goods more than once, only that the potential buyer has to pay the appropriate price. So it looks much more like the manifestation of female self-confidence and pride than the willingness to prostitute herself. White presents her serious message in a most humorous way, accompanied by her highly competent trio, featuring Les Paul's acoustic guitar in the bridge. (Ruth Brown's version of some years later is much more explicit.)

"Trouble in Mind", written by Richard M. Jones, is today mostly associated with Bertha "Chippie" Hill who recorded it with Louis Armstrong (cornet) and Jones (piano) in February 1926 (though it was first sung around May 1924 by Thelma La Vizzo, again with Jones, on Paramount 12206), but the song was largely forgotten in 1936.

It was however not forgotten by Georgia White who in 1929 began performing "Trouble in Mind" regularly with Jimmy Noone's jazz combo at Chicago's Apex Club and, as Big Bill Broonzy once reported, was giving the song great visibility until she finally got around to recording it.

Her seminal recording started a new game. After an extensive instrumental introduction, White's powerful contralto voice delivers the sad yet hopeful message most convincingly:

Trouble in mind, I’m blue,
But I won’t be blue always,
For the sun's gon' shine
In my back door someday. ...

As said by Lea Gilmore: "You may have listened to an infinity of versions of this classic, but Georgia's melancholy, world-weary vocal approach over Les Paul and R.M. Jones delicate guitar-piano dialogue belongs in the Twentieth Century Music (any Music!) Hall Of Fame, if there is one."

It was an extraordinary seller for a "race" record and "Trouble in Mind" became Georgia White's signature song, followed by variations like "New Trouble in Mind" and "Trouble in Mind Swing".

From then on, hundreds of cover versions were recorded and "Trouble in Mind" became a blues standard, crossing over to country (Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys made an impressing Western swing version in the same year), pop (Dinah Washington and Nina Simone had chart hits with it in 1952 and 1961 respectively) and jazz.

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Even more primitive and uncommercial than the John Lee Cooker on King and even rarer as a result. These were recorded by his first manager, Elmer Barbee, in early 1949 with members of Hooker's first band. (He never performed solo on stage until 1959).
Very primitively recorded with the band rockin' like crazy on the instrumental 609 Boogie and an intensely harsh vocal from JLH on the flip with slashing guitar. Chance added applause to beginning and end of 609 in an attempt to hide the surface noise present on Barbee's acetate.
How does one rate a record like this? You basically love it or hate it which translates into a grading of a 10 or a 1.
Musicians: Hooker, gtr; James Watkin (aka Watkins), pno, Curtis Foster, dms. This could even have been a demo recorded in 1948 to send to Bernie Besman of Sensation Records.
Composer credit again given as the non-existent C. Fowler on the flip.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I've had this 78 for many years, since I was a child (I'm now 53) I always loved this song, but it played pretty lousy. However, since I bought a new turntable and a dedicated mono 78 cartridge, it sounds 100 times better than I remember. Lots of ticks, but pretty clear throughout. I LOVE this song.

SOOO politically incorrect in this day and age - that what makes it even better! :)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I had never encountered the Esquire Boys before this record. I was led to believe they were a rockabilly group, but there is no indication of that on this disc. "We Drifted Apart" is a mediocre sentimental song. It isn't made any better by the Esquire Boys' attempt to emulate the Ink Spots with a lengthy spoken recitation by the deepest voiced of their number. It comes off as an exercise in kitsch. I doubt that I would play this side twice if I owned it. "Caravan", on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. It is a neatly arranged instrumental, faithful to the spirit of Duke Ellington, but original in its adaptation to the context it finds itself in. Each member of the band gets his chance to make his statement and they all contribute something of interest. In its best moments it reminds me of Les Paul's solo guitar sides on the back of the multi-tracked Mary Ford vocals. Swinging, tasteful, a nice overall sound. I would gladly listen to more of this.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Piano Red comes across in this disc as a competent pianist. It appears that he was playing a "prepared" (like when they put thumbtacks in the front of the hammers to give the piano a tinny sound) instrument. Some people think it gives a honky tonk feel to the music. You either like that or you don't. It happens that I don't. If you do, you might have given this record a higher score than I did. "Rockin' With Red" is a half piano/half vocal novelty style tune of the type that itinerant piano players such as Piano Red is supposed to have been were quite fond. "Rockin" has a thinly veiled sexual connotation, but Red doesn't push it too hard and you can choose to think of it as referring to the music if you want to. Red's Boogie is the more interesting of the two pieces to me, largely because it is all piano. Most of the itinerant piano men were exponents of the boogie sound to one degree or another. "Red's Boogie" is something of a surprise in that the boogie takes an unexpected back seat to a spritely and imaginative ragtimey approach. I think it was a more enjoyable record because of that.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?