Wilf Carter

Another find from yesterday's boot sale. I assumed he was a member of the legendary Carter Family but this K-Tel compilation was printed in Canada and some of the songs are about Canada which made me think otherwise. A search on the internet came up with-

"Although he is largely forgotten today outside of Canada, where his commercial career lasted far longer than it did in the United States, Wilf Carter was a unique presence in country music and cowboy music from the 1930s until the end of the 1950s. Rare is the mid-century yodeller whose background predates the start of Jimmie Rodgers' career -- Carter represented one of the longest surviving links with country music before there was a recording industry. Although Canadian by birth, he was seduced by country music and, specifically, by the wonder of the American West, and created a body of work as unique and distinctive as any singer/guitarist of his era, romantic, playful, and upbeat.

He was born Wilfred Arthur Charles Carter, one of nine children. The family was poor, and by the time he was eight or nine, Carter was helping to support them by working in the fields in the nearby Annapolis Valley. By age 12, he was working away from home. It was a traveling show and the presence of a performer known as "The Yodeling Fool" introduced him to country music and inspired him to learn to yodel. Carter worked farms in central Nova Scotia during his early teens, and when he was 16, he left home in a dispute with his father, a strict Baptist and missionary, over attending prayer services. At age 17, he came to the United States to work in Massachusetts for a time, but he later returned to Nova Scotia. He later headed to Western Canada to work the harvests out in Alberta, and he became adept at breaking horses. It was while in Western Canada that Carter began singing at local dances, and he auditioned for a spot on the radio in 1925. At the time, he usually sang and yodeled without accompaniment, or occasionally added an autoharp. "

Discover more about Wilf Carter HERE.

Wilf Carter - Little Two Acre Farm

Wilf Carter - Pub With No Beer

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Roger Dee

Slim pickings at the bootsale today although I did find this oddity which is on the Toby label from early 70's I imagine judging by some of the impersonations Mr. Dee is attempting pictured on the back of the sleeve - like Tiny Tim, Rolf Harris and Frankie Vaughn. This sounds like a live show in front of an enthusiastic audience at Pontins Holiday camp as they get a name check on the back in the sleeve notes which state-

"Roger was born in Pontins - the son of a lady and gentleman - obviously a marriage of convenience. He merrily tap danced his way up the Ladder of Fame, to become the famous tap dancing window cleaner that he is today!!"

No mention of him on the internet so assume he went back to window cleaning after this record was made!

Roger Dee - The Motorist

Roger Dee - Never Had A Girl Like This

Roger Dee - The Supermarket

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Oliver Mtukudzi

Another Brick Lane find from the 90's. Recorded on the Gramma Records label in 1989. This LP called "Granpa Story" was inspired it says on the minimal sleeve notes based on a story told to Oliver by his grandfather Elijah.

"Oliver Mtukudzi is the best-selling artist in his home country of Zimbabwe, Africa. Lovingly called "Tuku" for short, Oliver began recording in the mid-1970s as a member of Wagon Wheels, a band that also featured Thomas Mapfumo. After Wagon Wheels rolled to fame in Southern Africa, Tuku formed Black Spirits, the band that has backed him throughout his career.

Tuku has been heavily influenced by chimurenga, the genre pioneered by Mapfumo that is inspired by the hypnotic rhythms of the mbira (thumb piano). However chimurenga is just one of many styles performed by Tuku, as his music also incorporates pop influences, South African mbaqanga, the energetic Zimbabwean pop style JIT, or the traditional kateke drumming of his clan, the Korekore.

While Tuku’s music is undeniably contagious, it is his lyrics that have captured the hearts of his people. The words to his songs, performed in the Shona language of Zimbabwe as well as English, invariably deal with social and economic issues. In the face of political turmoil and a horrific AIDS epidemic that has swept the African continent, Oliver's humor and optimism creates an appeal that crosses generations."

Find out more HERE.

Oliver Mtukudzi - Deep Pleasure

Oliver Mtukudzi - Mean What You Say

Oliver Mtukudzi - Teach Them Fine

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Rusty Warren

I found this in a local charity shop recently for a few pence. A dodgy party record from the early 60's I imagine. Heres a few words I found about Rusty gleaned from the internet-

"Bawdy and risque, the comedy of Rusty Warren was daring and revolutionary; one of the few successful female performers in a business historically dominated by men, Warren pushed the envelope further by dealing explicitly with sex, a taboo topic for any mainstream comic of the 1950s and 1960s regardless of gender.

Born Ilene Goldman in New York in 1931, she was raised in Milton, Massachusetts, and after graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1952, she became a teacher. On the advice of a boyfriend, Warren spent a summer performing in a piano lounge in upstate New York; she immediately fell in love with show business and never returned to academia. Her explicit style began to develop soon after, influenced by underground recordings by Sophie Tucker and Ruth Wallis.

After signing to the Jubilee label, Warren issued her debut record, Songs for Sinners, in 1959. While performing in Toledo, Ohio later that year, she introduced her trademark number, "Knockers Up," a call for women to shed their sexual inhibitions. Her next LP, also dubbed Knockers Up!, followed in 1960; the album became a surprise word-of-mouth smash, reaching the Top Ten and remaining on the charts for over three years. Overnight, Warren became a notorious figure, the queen of the party records; Sin-Sational! and Rusty Warren Bounces Back, both issued in 1961, hit the Top 40, and a fervent cult following emerged."

Discover more about Rusty Warren HERE at her website.

Rusty Warren - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Rusty Warren - Frankie & Johnny

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Cocky

Found this little gem ina charity shop this morning for a couple of quid. Recorded in 1976 on the little known Red Rag Recordings label based in Teddington in Middlesex. It has the unfortunate title of "Twelve Inches Of Cocky" and you can imagine the kind of websites that appeared when trying to track info. down on this band! Needless to say I didnt find out anything atall and so will have to use what little there is on the sleeve notes.
It says -" All songs played by the members of Cocky apart from Harmonica Henry who bribed us to play harp on Maggie Campbell, and Stan Arnold who didn't bribe us (tight sod!) to do a duck call on Jollity Farm.
Recorded at Riverside Studios with the help of David Le-Neve Foster. Produced by Dave "Hot Licks" Peabody.
Luncheon vouchers and cold coffee supplied by Stan Arnold. Pains in the arse caused and treated by Alan Robinson. Sleeve design by Mike "Toulouse" Walsh. Sleeve snapshots by Brownie 127 Studios - director D. Peabody."

It has been signed by all members of the band in lovely blue biro.



Cocky - Jollity Farm

Cocky - Cocaine Habit

Cocky - Draft Dodger Rag

Cocky - Medley a la Cocky

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George Van Dusen

Little is known of George Van Dusen and despite extensive searches on the internet have failed to find anyone who knows anything about him except that he was a renowned yodeller held in high regard and a contemporary of Harry Torrani and Ronnie Ronalde in the 30's and 40's. His "Yodelling Chinaman" track is probably his most well known and popped up on several compilations of novelty songs over the years. These tracks are from 1937 and kindly supplied by Jim Benson who will doubtless phone me up to tell me I've got it all wrong and that infact George was a dutchman who died in 1929! I love this photo of him from the only one I could find. If anyone knows anymore about him - please do tell!

George Van Dusen - Izzy Izzy Izzy

George Van Dusen - The Yodelling Sailor

George Van Dusen - The Yiddish Yodeller

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The Goodies

"Put simply, The Goodies was a live-action version of a typical Warner Bros cartoon, replete with speeded-up footage, film trickery and violent slapstick. The characters bore the same names as the players and were caricature exaggerations of their real selves, hence Tim was the respectable establishment figure, an effete man who grew into a manic royalist; Graeme was the scatty, back-room boffin, the inventor of all manner of weird devices; and Bill was an aggressive, earthy, hairy individual who eventually tended towards environmentalism, socialism and feminism. Each week the three climbed aboard and promptly fell off their customised bicycle for three (the 'Trandem') before remounting to pedal off to their task.

Initially there was a traditional sitcom element to the shows, the characters starting off each episode in their huge all-encompassing office suite, where they would be employed by someone to undertake a difficult task. Later, though, the format became diffused and in the show's classic period, 1973-76, it was a joyous, unrestrained, lightly satirical festival of visual humour, with models, special effects, explosions, giant props and camera tricks combining to produce a variety of fast-paced wild antics rarely seen since the heyday of the slapstick silent movies. The plots always veered towards the surreal and very often storylines lurched off-course to explore unrelated areas, just to get laughs. And most of the time it worked. Most episodes also included one or a few mock TV advertisements, which delightfully sent up the genre.

There was also a musical element to the shows, Bill Oddie providing songs or instrumental routines to fit in with the capers. This led to a long-lasting spin-off success for the team, with successful album releases and high-ranking chart entries for their singles 'The Inbetweenies', 'Funky Gibbon', 'Black Pudding Bertha', 'Nappy Love' and 'Make A Daft Noise For Christmas'. (Several such songs had first been performed by Oddie in the BBC radio sketch comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, in which all three Goodies appeared.) Like the Monty Python team, the Goodies also published books that re-created their style of humour in print form. Successful though they were, however, critics never accorded the Goodies the same degree of cultural standing as the Pythons, probably considering their corny jokes and blatant slapstick less worthy than the Pythons' verbal artistry. If this snub bothered the Goodies they did not show it, and in one famous sequence they even featured John Cleese in a cameo role, as a genie taunting them with the jibe 'Kids' programme!'. Such celebrity appearances were a feature of The Goodies, episodes of which often spoofed other programmes and so were tailor-made for cameos, with all manner of unlikely TV personalities turning up, including presenters Michael Aspel, Sue Lawley, Michael Barrett, Raymond Baxter, McDonald Hobley, David Dimbleby, and Terry Wogan, DJs Tony Blackburn and John Peel, soccer commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, quizmaster Magnus Magnusson, astronomer Patrick Moore and, perhaps most memorably of all, the rugby league commentator Eddie Waring."

Found at Crewe flea market yesterday for 50p. I have fond memories of this show in the 70's and it's a shame the BBC have never seen fit to repeat the series despite endlessly repeating nearly everything else!

Discover more about The Goodies HERE

The Goodies - Stuff That Gibbon

The Goodies - Mummy I Don't Like My Meat

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Nellie Wallace

"Nellie Wallace was a music hall star who made her name playing comic characters and singing comic songs such as 'I was the early birdie after the early worm' and 'I've been jilted by the baker Mr White'. Nellie began performing in pantomime when she was only seven years old and added a comic fall to her tiny part in the pantomime, to get more laughs. She did attempt serious roles, but her performance in Little Willie's deathbed scene in East Lynne was received with so much laughter that Nellie was finally convinced she should not attempt to be a serious actress.

This is one of Nellie's music hall characters - a spinster with buck teeth and heavily drawn eyebrows who wore an ill-fitting tweed suit, a hat with one feather protruding at the top, and a fur which she referred to as 'me little bit of vermin'. Her exaggerated dress sense, bordering on the grotesque, made her one of the few women who appeared successfully as a pantomime dame."

Discover more about Nellie Wallace HERE.

Nellie Wallace - Let's Have A Tiddley At The Milk Bar

Nellie Wallace - Three Times A Day

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Round The Horne

"Round the Horne crackled out of the nation's wirelesses Sunday afternoons from 1965, becoming one of the most popular comedies of the era until it finished in '69.

With its ground breaking mixture of innuendo, camp comedy and word play, it netted a regular audience of more than 15million listeners and was one of the best loved programmes in radio history.

A colourfully bizarre collection of characters and memorable catch phrases burst across the airwaves from the pages of its brilliantly inventive and sometimes outrageous scripts, the majority of which were written by zany duo Barry Took and Marty Feldman.

Kenneth Horne as the straight man anchored the whole careering, seething, teaming, chaotic hullabaloo emitted from the likes of J Peasemold Gruntfuttock, Rambling Syd Rumpo, Daphne Whitethigh, Shamus Android, Binkie Huckaback and Dame Celia Molestrangler (played by Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick, Bill Pertwee and Kenneth Williams). This mad-cap bunch mercilessly sent up the establishment via a combination of bawdy jokes and surreal literary invention acted out in a series of sketches. Kenneth Williams camped his way through the script as limp-wristed Sandy, normally introduced by Hugh Paddick's character saying "Hello I'm Julian and this is my friend Sandy", making homosexual double entendres that allowed British suburbia to laugh openly about what had been strictly taboo."

Kenneth Horne - Oh, Lucky Jim

Round The Horne - Nice Cup Of Tea

Round The Horne - Cucumber Song

Kenneth Williams - The Marrow Song

Round The Horne - Rhymes

Kenneth Williams - Early One Morning

Round The Horne - Among My Souvenirs


These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Billy May Orchestra

I found this a few weeks back in a charity shop. I have fond memories of this and others on Childrens Favourites on the radio in the 50's.

"The last of the great arrangers who wrote regularly for Frank Sinatra, Billy May had several varied
careers in and out of jazz. His first notable gig was as an arranger/trumpeter with Charlie Barnet (1938-1940), for whom he wrote the wah-wah-ing hit arrangement of Ray Noble's "Cherokee." Later, he worked in the same capacities for Glenn Miller (1940-1942) and Les Brown (1942) before settling into staff jobs, first at NBC studios, then at Capitol Records, where he led his own studio big band from 1951 to 1954. His arrangements for Sinatra, beginning with Come Fly With Me (1957) and ending with Trilogy (1979), are often in a walloping, brassy, even taunting swing mode, generating some of the singer's most swaggering vocals. May also did extensive scoring for television, film, and commercials"

Henry Blair and cast do the voices. Narration by Verne Smith. Music by Billy May and His Orchestra.

Billy May/Henry Blair/Verne Smith - Sparky's Magic Piano

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Hank Snow

Two boot sales this bank holiday weekend but not a single record was found at either. This luckily was from the second hand record shop at Lady Hayes Antique Centre near Frodsham who had a box of albums - 50p each or 3 for a pound. I could have had The Chipmunks Meets Dr. Dolittle but settled for this one by Hank Snow from 1963. The title track was a big hit for him back then but I only remember the Rolf Harris version!



Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was born on May 9th, 1914 in the sleepy fishing village of Brooklyn, Queens County, on Nova Scotia's beautiful South Shore, just down the tracks from Liverpool.

"As a boy, Hank faced many difficulties and shortcomings. He had to face the trauma of his parents' divorce at just eight years old and he was forced to stay with his grandparents. He then had to deal with an abusive grandmother who forbid him to see his mother. He regularly sneaked out at night and walked the railroad tracks to Liverpool where his mother was living. Not willing to return to his grandmother, who would often beat him for visiting his mom, he would sometimes seek shelter in Liverpool's railway station, now home of the Hank Snow Country Music Centre.

Both his parents had musical talent and Hank picked up his basic guitar-playing skills from his mother. In 1926, Hank went to sea as a 12-year-old cabin boy on fishing schooners based out of Lunenburg to escape his abusive step-father and never returned to school. With his first earned income he bought his first guitar, a T. Eaton Special for $5.95. While at sea, Hank would listen to Jimmie Rodgers on the radio and began to imitate him and entertain the crew. It wasn't long before Hank had picked up his own style."

Discover more about Hank Snow HERE.

Hank Snow - I've Been Everywhere

Hank Snow - When It's Springtime In Alaska

Hank Snow - Melba From Melbourne

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Millie Small

A rather distressed LP from Brick Lane I bought many years ago. I went through a phase of collecting old Ska and Reggae singles and albums from the 60's and 70's. This has Millie Small of "My Boy Lollipop" fame and several male stars of the Jamaican reggae scene back then. Owen Gray, Jackie Mitto, and Roland Alphonso amongst others.

"Born Millicent Small in Clarendon, she was the daughter of an overseer on a sugar plantation and she was one of the very few female singers in the early Ska era in Clarendon. She was already recording in her teens for Sir Coxone Dodd's Studio One label with Roy Panton (as the duo Roy & Millie), together they produced the hit "We'll Meet." She was brought her to England in late 1963 by Chris Blackwell who would later discover Bob Marley. Her fourth recording, "My Boy Lollipop," cut in London by a group of session musicians including guitarist Ernest Ranglin and featured Smalls childlike, extremely high-pitched vocals became of the few international ska hits reaching number two in the U.S. and number one in the U.K. in 1964. It remains one of the biggest-selling reggae or ska discs of all time with more than seven million sales.

She was perceived as a one-hit wonder novelty artist and she only made the Top 40 one more time, with the "My Boy Lollipop" sound-alike "Sweet William." She released an entire album with these two hits. In a trivial piece of information legend has it that popular British singer Rod Stewart played the Harmonica on "lollipop", more significantly the earnings from the sales of "lollipop", Chris Blackwell's first hit helped him to secure a strong firm hold in the music industry to later cultivate the likes of Reggae legend Bob Marley and Rock groups such as U2."

For more about the history of ska music go HERE

Roy and Millie - We'll Meet

Owen and Millie - Sugar Plum

Roland Alphonso - Backbeat

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Frankie Howerd

"Frankie Howerd was born Francis Alex Howard in York. He grew up in the Woolwich and Eltham area of South East London, where his father was a sergeant major in the Army. Howerd's father died when he was three, and his mother was forced to take cleaning jobs to pay for her three children's upkeep.
Howerd's trademark stammering and hesitation was, at that age, natural; in later years he exploited these afflictions to great comic effect; they became the comedian's trademark and, far from natural by this time, each and every one was included in his scripts.

He joined a church dramatic society at the age of 13 and made his stage debut in Tilly of Bloomsbury. Five years later, he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but was turned down; his next ambition was comedy. Nevertheless, he performed badly at talent contests and ended up as a junior insurance clerk in London. He pursued his dreams of comedy, but continued unsuccessfully. When in the Army during the Second World War, he failed the auditions for both ENSA and Stars in Battledress. Undaunted, he practiced his routines in the canteen and the barracks, overcoming his stammer and perfecting the bumbling humility for which he later became so famous.

After the war, Howerd was spotted at the Stage Door Canteen in London, and signed to appear in the For the Fun of It roadshow. It was during his time here (at the bottom of the bill) that he changed the spelling of his surname from Howard to Howerd. The logic behind this minor change; there were so many funny Howards around and he wanted to distinguish himself.
Many minor stage roles followed, but as with so many of today's great comedians, it was the advent of radio variety that launched him to fame. He became a regular in the hugely popular Variety Bandbox, with Eric Sykes acting as his scriptwriter. He remained with the show for 5 years, during which time he topped the bills at theatres around the UK, culminating in his first Royal Variety Performance in 1950.

As the 1950s became the 1960s, music hall waned in popularity and Howerd's own career followed suit. Following an acclaimed performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and several not so well received shows, he began appearing at Peter Cook's Establishment Club in London; a showcase for the most topical and up-and-coming comedians. His performance, scripted by Till Death Us do Part's Johnny Speight, led to an appearance on That was the Week that Was and a starring role in the stage version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His fortunes were on the up.

This string of success was followed by the comedy with which Howerd has become synonymous; the classic Up Pompeii, in which he played the downtrodden slave Lurcio. Three spin-off films followed (Up Pompeii, Up the Chastity Belt and Up the Front).
Howerd was awarded an OBE in 1977 and was the winner of two Variety Club of Great Britain awards. Howerd was a much celebrated comedian, who enjoyed perhaps his greatest success in his later years; it was while riding on the crest of this wave when he was asked to appear in Carry On Columbus. Sadly, he suffered a heart attack and died shortly before filming."

Discover more about Frankie Howerd HERE

Frankie Howard - Song and Dance Man

Frankie Howard - It's Alright With Me

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Norman Wisdom

"Norman Wisdom was born in the London district of Marylebone to Frederick and Maude Wisdom. His father was a chauffeur and his mother a dressmaker. After a difficult and poverty-stricken childhood he joined the 10th Hussars and began to develop his talents as a musician and stage entertainer

After he left the army he went into show-business, gradually becoming one of Britain's most successful stars. In 1954 he released the best-selling single that is still closely associated with his name, "Don't Laugh At Me (Cause I'm A Fool)".
Moving into film in the 1960s, he created an accident-prone, clownish character called Norman Pitkin, a lovable fool who appeared in several successful films, most notably The Early Bird (1965). His famous and widely imitated cry as Pitkin was "Mr Grimsdale! Mr Grimsdale!

In 1967, he was widely praised for his performance as a serious actor in The Night They Raided Minsky's, but his career began to decline in the 1970s and he was out of favour with British tastes in comedy for many years. On 11 February 1987 Norman Wisdom was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life.
He became widely popular again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was heavily influenced by Wisdom's work. The highpoint of this new popularity was the knighthood he received in 1999 from Queen Elizabeth II.
After he was knighted, true to his accident-prone persona, he couldn't resist pretending to trip on his way out off the platform."

Discover more about Norman Wisdom HERE

Norman Wisdom & Joyce Grenfell - Narcissus

Norman Wisdom - The Joker

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Eddie Cantor

"Eddie Cantor was born in New York City in 1892. After becoming a smash hit in vaudeville, Ziegfeld signed him for his Midnight Frolics and then the Follies of 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1923.

From there he went to films in the 1920s, starring in Whoopee, Kid from Spain and Kid Millions. After an appearance on Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Hour in 1931, Cantor's radio career began to soar.

By the early 30s, Eddie Cantor had become the highest-rated star on radio. For seven years, his Chase & Sanborn Hour on NBC garnered immense ratings. Cantor was the second most recognizable person in America—second only to President Roosevelt, for whom he created the March of Dimes to help in the fight against polio.

Cantor’s sign-off line—“I love to spend each Sunday with you”—was followed frequently by a pitch for a charitable or patriotic cause. He received a Presidential Citation for his dedication to charity. A union activist, Cantor was the first national president of AFRA and SAG.

Cantor also made the successful transition to television on the Colgate Comedy Hour, making him one of the few performers to reach star status on stage, screen, radio and television.

Eddie Cantor died on October 10, 1964."

Discover more about Eddie Cantor HERE.

Eddie Cantor - Josephine Please No Lean On The Bell

Eddie Cantor - Yes Sir, That's My Baby

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

George Melly

A record on the Decca label from 1973 but featuring Melly in the 50's playing with the Mick Mulligan Magnolia Jazz Band. His outrageous stories about these early days, travelling with the band are told in the very entertaining and funny book "Owning Up". On the sleeve notes it says-
"From being something of a hell-raiser, George became a critic for the Observer, TV personality and took over from Humphry Littelton writing the script for the FLOOK comic strip in the Daily Mail......"

Here's a recent article about George in the Guardian.

George Melly - I'm A Ding Dong Daddy

George Melly - Send Me To The 'electric Chair

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Les Paul & Mary Ford

Found this today at a charity shop for a couple of quid. I think I have a Les Paul & Mary Ford cassette somewhere but hopefully some different tracks here. It always sounded like the records of Les were being played at the wrong speed until I learned he speeded up the tracks in his studio. Surely this is cheating? But a fascinating sound nonetheless. Heres what the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame has to say about him-

"The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. As a player, inventor and recording artist, Paul has been an innovator from the early years of his life. Born Lester William Polfus in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Paul built his first crystal radio at age nine - which was about the time he first picked up a guitar. By age 13 he was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist and working diligently on sound-related inventions. In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. He also worked on refining the technology of sound, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo delay and multitracking. All the while he busied himself as a bandleader who could play both jazz and country music.
His career as a musician nearly came to an end in 1948, when a near-fatal car accident shattered his right arm and elbow. However, he instructed the surgeons to set his arm at an angle that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. Paul subsequently made his mark as a jazz-pop musician extraordinaire, recording as a duo with his wife, singer Colleen Summers (a.k.a. Mary Ford). Their biggest hits included "How High the Moon" (1951) and "Vaya Con Dios" (1953), both reaching #1. The recordings of Les Paul and Mary Ford are noteworthy for Paul's pioneering use of overdubbing - i.e., layering guitar parts one atop another, a technique also referred to as multitracking or "sound on sound" recording. The results were bright, bubbly and a little otherworldly - just the sort of music you might expect from an inventor with an ear for the future.

In 1952, Les Paul introduced the first eight-track tape recorder (designed by Paul and marketed by Ampex) and, more significantly for the future of rock and roll, launched the solid-body electric guitar that bears his name. Built and marketed by Gibson, with continuous advances and refinements from Paul in such areas as low-impedance pickup technology, the Les Paul guitar became a staple instrument among discerning rock guitarists. This list of musicians associated with the Gibson Les Paul include Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman and Mike Bloomfield. Over the ensuing decades, Paul himself has remained active, cutting a Grammy-winning album of instrumental duets with Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester in 1977, performing at New York jazz clubs, and continuing to indulge his inventor's curiosity in a basement workshop at his home in Mahwah, New Jersey."

Les Paul - Little Rock Getaway

Les Paul - Goofus

Les Paul & Mary Ford - The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Hoagart

"Hoagart Smith was born in 1924 in Plainsville, New York in 1923 and spent his early life going from town to town in a travelling vaudeville and medicine show his parents ran until 1938. His father, Haggio Smith was a contortionist and trombone player and his mother played the accordion whilst juggling small animals, mostly rats or any small rodents they could lay their hands on. This was the height of the depression and sometimes they had to make do with dead rats and sometimes even cockroaches. Hoagart grew up in this atmostphere of freewheeling lunacy and this he shaped into an act of his own by the time he was 9. Having taught himself to yodel and play the tuba he was billed as the Infant Prodigy - Hoagart.
When he was 23 he dropped the Infant Prodigy and became just Hoagart. He made several obscure and rare recordings for the defunct Prattle label in the 50's and these rare acetates came to light just recently in the basement of a dried fish stall being demolished in Brooklyn."

Hoagart - Oh Suzanna

Hoagart - Accordion Tune

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Arthur Mullard

The archetypal cockney geezer and heavy who used to pop up on TV sit-coms throughout the 50's 60's and 70's. Typecast as the East End thug in Hancock's Half Hour to The Benny Hill Show etc. he could always be relied upon to look the part even if his dialogue was limited to "Yus!" "Cor Blimey!" and "Do you want a punch up the froat?" He made several novelty records, none of which were big hits as far as I know. One with Hilda Baker was a terrible version of "Your The One That I Want" that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had a big hit with. On these two tracks he's backed by Chas 'N' Dave.

Arthur Mullard - One Fing 'N' Nuvver

Arthur Mullard - I Only Have Eyes For You

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Alvino Rey

"b. Alvin Henry McBurney, 1 July 1908, Oakland, California, USA, d. 24 February 2004, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. An accomplished guitarist, Rey learned to play several stringed instruments as a teenager growing up in Cleveland, most notably the banjo. He started his professional career on this instrument in 1927. Rey played guitar with various dance bands, including those of Phil Spitalny, Russ Morgan, Freddy Martin and Horace Heidt, before forming his own band in the winter of 1938/9. With Heidt, Rey had been featured on the steel Hawaiian guitar and also on an early form of electronically amplified guitar. He continued to play guitar in his own band, and also brought from Heidt the vocal group the King Sisters, one of whom, Luise, he married.
Rey toured extensively in the early 40s and eventually became popular with dancers across the USA. His orchestra, which was the house band for Mutual Broadcasting during this period, featured comedy, lots of vocals and highly competent musicianship. All this, allied to the unusual effect Rey created by miking Louise King's vocals through the guitar amplifier, helped to build a following for the band and they enjoyed national hits with "Deep In The Heart Of Texas", "I Said No", and "Strip Polka". "

A cassette I found last week in a charity shop for 60 pence. It would be churlish not to share two tracks here. The King Sisters remind me a bit of the Andrews Sisters.

Discover more about Alvino Rey HERE.

Alvino Rey - Rockin' Chair

Alvino Rey - 12th Street Rag

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