Vinyl Albums - Comments by guest star

Vinyl Albums - Comments by guest star

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
guest star 2nd Dec 2015		Vinyl Album Tommy Roe And Al Tornello - Whirling With Tommy Roe And Al Tornello	Review One of the only budget LPs that contains all of Tommy's early recordings for the Judd label, including the first version of his later hit "Sheila." The album from SPC's "Diplomat" label is worth having for the Roe cuts alone. It's interesting to compare this first take on "Sheila" with the ABC Paramount hit version, which had more of a Buddy Holly feel. As for the filler cuts, to quote from my book on budget LPs: "Someone at SPC must have been asleep at the switch when they decided to add songs by "Al Tornello." On some of the tunes the name disguises Perry Como sound-alike Johnny Kaye aka Johnny Kay, Johnny Cole. He's an excellent singer, but what in the world are songs like "O Marie" and "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" doing on a Tommy Roe Album???? Brian McFadden 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 30th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Cawanda's Group - Taboo (1959)	Review Very unusual record. It falls into the "Exotica" genre and consists of African/Haitian chants and drums. As is often the case with budget labels such as Promenade, "Cawanda's Group" is not the real name of the artist. These songs were originally recorded for the RKO record label and acquired by a host of budget labels after RKO went under. RKO credits Subri Moulin accompanied by his Equatorial Rhythm Group. Promenade put this out on its Pirouette label as a "Ping-Pong Percussion" LP by adding extra stereo sounds. One thing's for sure, the Promenade album cover is pretty cool! [YouTube Video] 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 29th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album The Candymen [Diplomat] - The Twist (1962)	Thanks for pointing that out 45stalker! I think I can guess why Diplomat was on the jacket and Promenade was on the label. In a rock rarity, "The Twist" made it to number one in 1960 and then made it to the top again in January of 1962, just as Promenade owner Synthetic Plastics was announcing the launch of its new label "Diplomat." In the rush to get this album out they probably had enough time to print the Diplomat covers but had to use the old Promenade labels on the initial run. On later versions of the album both the jacket and the label of this budget LP say Diplomat. Brian McFadden
guest star 29th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Roy Orbison And Bristow Hopper - Problem Child	Review This is a great record for rockabilly fans but DO NOT buy the alleged "Stereo" version unless you want to laugh yourself silly! Normally budget label "simulated stereo" simply involved slapping echo on one channel. But International Award decided to "enhance" Roy Orbison's "Domino" on this LP by having someone hit chords (badly) on what sounds like a child's toy organ on one track, while trying to play along with the original song on the other track! Nevertheless this is a good album. I can't go into it all here, but there's more in "Rock Rarities for a Song." Not only did this 99 cent LP mark the first appearance of "Domino" on an album, but the filler cuts here include Bristow Hopper doing "Hate That Bear," a rare rockabilly single from the obscure "Ko-Mat" label. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 28th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Perez Prado - All Time Dance Favorites	Thank you for posting. It's more than likely that there are actually only four songs on this album that are really by Perez Prado. Like other budget labels, Premier could at times be a little loose with the truth. Almost every budget label that featured original Prado recordings used the same four tunes - "Asi, Asi," "Tu Ve, Tu Ve," "Azuquita Con Leche," and "La Clave." Some budget labels used the English titles, but they were the same four tunes. Eli Oberstein acquired the rights to them for his own budget labels like Royale and Ultraphonic and then leased them to everybody else. Brian McFadden
guest star 27th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Perez Prado - Mambo Jambo (1959)	Review This is actually quite a good album, but - despite having his name in big letters on the cover - Perez Prado is nowhere to be found on it! If you strain your eyes to look very closely, what you'll find is that it says, in very small letters: "members of the PEREZ PRADO orchestra." This record was put out by the budget label Crown here in the states as both "Mambo Jambo" and "Prado Mania." The covers for both Crown versions are the same as for the Eros version. Brian McFadden 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 26th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Trini Lopez / Scott Gregory - Trini Lopez / Scott Gregory (1964)	Thanks 23skidoo. Another mystery is why Guest Star chose not to include "Yakety Sax," which was recorded at the same session, on either this album or its Bill Haley LP. As I point out in my book on budget record labels, "Rock Rarities for a Song," you need a secret decoder ring to figure out Guest Star's thinking on this one. They put out a Boots Randolph album but, of course, didn't have him doing "Yakety Sax." The liner notes on the back of the album indicate Bill Haley and the Comets are doing the non-Boots cuts but the front of the LP and the label attribute them to "George Cury." "Yakety Sax" is Rudy, but the Cury material sounds like lounge music! Synthetic Plastics, owner of Guest Star, also put "Yakety Sax" out as a single on it's Logo label, where it attributed it to "Bill Haley." Brian McFadden
guest star 25th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Rock & Roll Party (1963)	Review The doo wop songs that originally appeared on the Gee and Hull labels are, as expected, excellent. The surprise here is the quality of the cover versions of other hits of the day. Synthetic Plastics Company owned several budget labels including Guest Star and Promenade. Guest Star normally featured original hits by original artists and Promenade usually did sound-alike versions of current hits. This LP represents one of the few times that SPC mixed the two, combining sound-alikes of "I Don't Want To Cry," "Wild One," "Little Bitty Pretty One" and others with songs by Frankie Lymon, The Heartbeats and The Cleftones. Brian McFadden 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 25th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Trini Lopez / Scott Gregory - Trini Lopez / Scott Gregory (1964)	Review This is an unusual album with some rare cuts by not one but two stars, although you'd never know it from the packaging. The songs by Trini are some hard-to-find early tunes that were originally released on the King record label. Trini sounds good and the arrangements are excellent. But Guest Star couldn't get enough sides from King for a full LP and decided to flesh out the album with some Bill Haley cuts that it already had. The songs were recorded in Vegas, well after Haley's prime and Guest Star had already used them for an LP called "Bill Haley and the Comets, Rock-A-Round the Clock King." So the listener gets a two-for-one bonus on this record ... a chance to hear how far Trini had developed early in his career and an opportunity to appreciate how well Haley and his band continued to perform late in theirs. Brian McFadden 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 24th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Starring Chuck Jackson/Starring Charlie Francis	Review This record is a real gem, and not just because of the Chuck Jackson material. His songs were recorded for the Clock label just before he went to Wand, and they're quite good. But, as with so many budget LPs, there are bigger surprises. You'll notice that on the bottom of the album cover I posted it says "Also Charlie Francis." "Charlie Francis" is a fake name that Spin-O-Rama used to disguise the real artists on its budget LPs. There isn't room to discuss them all here, but they're in "Rock Rarities for a Song." Suffice it to say that "Elizabeth" and "Can't Get a Hit" are by Dave Ford and the Hollywood Flames and were released by Goldie Goldmark on his Goldie label. "Handy Man is Back in Town" and "There's No Insurance" (real title, "No Insurance for a Broken Heart,") are both demos for singer Jimmy Jones, whose biggest hits were produced by Goldie Goldmark. (Goldie just happened to be the A&R man for Premier/Spin-O-Rama!) Brian McFadden 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 24th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Etta James - Twist With Etta James (1962)	Review This is the cheap-jack way Crown originally tried to cash-in on the Twist craze. They took regular cuts by Etta, B.B. King etc., added the words "Twist With," and slapped on generic covers featuring dance steps. Crown really cheated on this LP by calling "Dance with me Henry" "Twist with me Henry." The good news is, when these failed to sell well, Crown put out some original Twist albums that were quite good. Two of them featured Duane Eddy'd sax player Steven Douglas. Brian McFadden 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 15th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album The Stingers - Guitars A Go Go (1964)	Review Excellent album that contains cuts Jerry Cole did on Crown's hot rod albums, but without the overdubbed engine and drag racing sounds. Jerry did most of the original hot rod LPs under various fake names and the songs on this album, minus the sound effects, have been renamed. The full identifications are in my book "Rock Rarities for a Song," but here are a few examples: "Dang Thing" on the A Go Go album is actually "Bad Rubber" by "The Blasters" (Jerry Cole) on "Sounds of the Drags." And "Ripple Blues" on the A Go Go LP is really "Down Lok," attributed to "The Winners" on Cole's "Checkered Flag" album. Under either title, the song owes more than a little to the main riff on the Ray Charles hit, "I'm Busted!" Brian McFadden 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
guest star 15th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Blues (1964)	This was among the first Crown albums I bought as a kid. It was the best purchase I ever made - just 99 cents from my lawn-mowing money! I became a budget record fan from the minute I realized Crown had priceless performers like B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Hopkins. Brian McFadden
guest star 15th Nov 2015		Vinyl Album Various Artists - The Dave Clark Five (1964)	This record was really put out by Mount Vernon Music (MVM.) Owner George Alpert wanted to give the impression this was an English disk and thought the label name "Cortleigh" would sound more "British!" The same with the name "Astor" for the filler cuts by "Ricky Astor and the Switchers." There was a little problem though. As I point out in the budget LP book, "Rock Rarities for a Song," the tunes "Ricky's" doing sound anything but British ... including a little gem called "Pizza Pie Baby!" Brian McFadden
guest star 24th Oct 2015		Vinyl Album The Dave Clark Five - The Dave Clark Five And The Playbacks (1964)	The "Studio Musicians" used as filler on this album consist mostly of Crown's go-to budget instrumental guy, the great Jerry Cole. He wrote and published almost all of the filler cuts. I refer to the album in my new book about rock rarities on budget LPs. But he didn't do "Umbachara," which is actually the often-recorded Doo-Wop tune "Hey Juanita." "Sittin' by the Ocean," meanwhile, is "Louie, Louie" sideways. Brian McFadden
guest star 21st Dec 2014		Vinyl Album Trini Lopez / Scott Gregory - Trini Lopez / Scott Gregory (1964)	Really amazing that this budget label would simply add the Haley tracks with a different name. I was really surprised when I turned the record over and realized these were the same cuts from a Hayley album I had on Guest Star. It was also released on the Ambassador label. They were all part of Synthetic Plastics of Newark, NJ.

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