Mostly German Old Used 45s That Metal Mike Saunders Mailed To Me

Chilly - "Have Some Fun Tonight"/"We Are The Popkings" (Polydor 1979) Same group, except the black guy in the band looks more like a transvestite on the cover this time, and the white guy and black woman have more space-age type outfits. This might be even better! The A-side is basically a megaphone vocoder type chant thing (the whole lyric appears to be the title) with a Bo Diddley beat underneath, and "We Are The Popkings" is more of glam-rock songs, with a catchy fuzzy guitar riff and a silly lyric brag about the fact that the pop kings are in town and it is then in an uber-macho Tom Jones type "rock" voice, and tinkly keyboards come in and then a radio announcer voice sneaks in from behind and starts namedropping Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison and Billy Joel and rock stars like that.

The Buggies - "Julie July"/"All Right She Said" (Philips, year unknown) Boring ballad on the A-side, but a good Ides of March/Looking Glass-style macho fake boogie-rock pop song on the B-side. A keeper!

http://hitparade.ch/cdimg/chilly-we_are_the_popkings_s.jpg

Yay Scott! That's the best sleeve so far, too!!

Baccara - "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"/"Cara Mia" (RCA, 1977) Two overmadeup ladies jumping on the Silver Convention Teutonic disco bandwagon, near as I can figure. You can't blame them, and they do it good, even if the meaning of boogie has changed since then!

Oops, actually maybe "We Are The Popkings" was the A-side not the B-side of the 45 Scott pictured -- oh well! Both sides are still excellent!

http://www.czejarek.pl/baccara/bacc190.jpg

i was in amoeba a few weeks ago and heard a Supermax track over the system and found it they were playing a comp called DISCO DEUTSCHLAND DISCO Disco, Funk & Philly Anthems From Germany 1975-1980. i actually didn't like most of the rest of the cd, but man, supermax is one of my faves right now.

http://www.marina.com/images/ma68.jpg

http://www.marina.com/ma68notes.htm
click on the image and you can listen to clips of all the songs.

i didn't know that Silver Connection were german, and also didn't know that Penny McLean (who's record i have) was in that group

Silver Convention were very German! They were almost Kraut-rock, when you really think about it!

Anyway:

Alexandra "Sensucht"/"Was Ist Das Ziel" (Philips, year unknown.) I didn't like this much. Just some traditional cabaret lieder thing, or whatever it's called. The Alexandra on the cover, who is strumming an acoustic guitar, looks rather androgynous.

Graham Bonney "Scheneewittchen"/"Wahle 3 3 3" (Columbia, year unknown) This is slightly sillier and catchier and less traditional than the Alexandra one, but still not silly or catchy or untraditional enough for my tastes. Pretty dull, in fact. Wasn't Graham Bonney some kind of huge star somewhere?

http://www.werkverzeichnis.de/004/141.jpg

http://www.abcrecords.ch/webyep-system/daten/172-116-im-Cover-5693.JPG

Chicory Tip "What's Your Name"/"Memory" (CBS, 1972) They have some huge crazy proto-Haysi Fantayzee or whatever European hit that I totally love on some German K-Tel-like compilation that I own, but I can't think of its name right now. This isn't nearly as zany as that one -- in fact, the B-side, which is a too serious protest-like ballad seemingly about demonstrating in Trafalgar Square if I heard it right (though wasn't that a few decades later??), is kind of boring. But the comparatively energetic singalong A-side is a keeper by virtue of its undeniable Chicory Tipness, I guess. Though I don't really understand what Chicory Tip were -- proto disco bubbleglam guys or something? (Weird note: the back of the picture sleeve is an ad for their version of "Son Of My Father," which was a small early proto-disco hit for Giorgio Moroder in the United States. Unless it's a different song!)

http://hitparade.ch/cdimages/chicory_tip-whats_your_name_s.jpg

Giorgio wrote and produced all of chicory tip's big numbers!

Him and Pete Bellotte.

and, um, they kinda were going for glam stardom just a teeny tiny bit:

http://www.glam-rock.de/chicory.jpg

they were basically one of the coolest groups that ever lived.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp2/features/wallpaper/images/800/chicory_tip.jpg

Holy Toledo! I need to hear more Chicory Tip, I guess!

Cyan - "Misaluba"/"My Little Ship Louise" (RCA, year unknown) Boring ballad B-side; TOTALLY FUCKING EXCELLENT Barabas/Kongas-style fake-"Soul Makossa" proto-I assume-disco Euro-Afro drum polyrhythm and chant A-side. Wow! If I ever do a DJ night again, I think I'll play this!! Plus two of the guys have Afros, ha!

xpost
that dreaded picture again

http://www.mitscher.de/records/c/384.jpg

Fox - "He's Got Magic"/"The Juggler" (GTO, 1975) Eh, this is okay, but just barely. Passable Top 40 pop/soft-rock, with a girl singer plus five guys in the band and false endings. Both songs about how great some guy is -- he is apparently a magician and a juggler. Actually, the vaguely reggae rhythmed B-side sounds kind of ominous I guess, thanks to the scat singing by the lady singer (who is actually pretty good). I dunno. I'll come back to this later to decide whether I should keep it. (The magic song says he has magic and his lips and in his fingertips, and he can turn some kind of other animal into a whale. But why would you want somebody to do that? Heart's magic man was more interesting.)

http://www.mitscher.de/records/nov/166.jpg

Future "Isabelle"/"Pubertat" (Teldec, 1986) Wacky cover! Four verge-of-teenage boys dressed up like a "rock band," except the sax player (who appears to be the eldest memeber of the group) has his hair greased back '50s style and is wearing a leather jacket. Both of the songs sound fake '50s too (like, I dunno, Showaddywaddy? Is this what they sounded like? I get the idea this sort of revivalism is popular in foreign countries. Like somewhere between Sha Na Na and pub rock maybe, with the singer always trying to get a little bit growly in totally unconvincing way, maybe because real rockabillies never actually sounded like that.) Anyway, totally generic (if this is a genre) but still vibrant and catchy and lots of fun, especially the B-side, which I'm guessing is about puberty but I can't translate the German lyrics. Also, every one of the band members autographed the back of my picture sleeve! Or somebody pretending to be them did, anyway.

http://i7.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/a7/dc/941d_1.JPG

Gloria Gaynor "Reach Out I'll Be There"/"Searchin'" (MGM, 1975) Hey, she's not German! I don't think! (Donna Summer was, right? Or at least I think she was born there.) Anyway, early disco, obviously. A-side is a Four Tops cover given a very cool beat (it hadn't yet been decided what "the disco beat" would sound like, not that it was totally decided later either of course, but in '75 things were really up for grabs, as long as you could dance to it.) B-side's sort of orthodox, not super memorable, but 1975 disco = historical artifact by definition, right?

http://www.iwillsurvive.ru/photoalbum/disk-covers/single-06.jpg

(Gaynor single still has a price sticker on it -- 6 Deutschmarks at Woolworth, apparently. Not sure how that would translate exchange-rate wise. Or 6.00 something, since maybe it was bought in a different country. And somebody named "Andy" has inked his name on the front and back of the sleeve, in a heart. So I assume it belonged to Andy at some time.)

Spookily enough I heard 'Yes Sir, I can Boogie' in a shop th eother day for the first time in several years. Not fading it about a minute earlier killed the good vibe I had when it came on.

Gitte "Freu'Dich Bloss Nicht Zu Fruh"/"Sheldon Bloom" (Global, 1980) Ick - more post-lieder cabaret ballad schlock by a short haired fraulein. Okay, not that short I guess. Only that one word in the title is not really "Bloss"; the - er - "ss" part is one of those cool letters (called an "esset", I think?) that look sort of like a cursive capitol B. And "fruh" has an umlaut. And the B-side has a sax part, and in the A-side Gitte keeps saying "es tut mir lit" or however you spell "I apologize" auf Deutsch. But sorry, I still don't like the record. (Both sides written by A. Lloyd Webber, I now see.)

Dschinghis Khan "Himalaja"/"Rocky Marciano" (Jupiter, ) I vaguely remember these guys (three male--two with insane mustaches--plus two girls) already having some kind of cult following on ILM, but maybe I'm confusing them with somebody. Never heard them before myself. Anyway, I kind of like this, though the slowed-down art-rock disco Europop or whatever the hell it is of the song about the mountain is better than whatever you call the song about the boxer. (The latter is also slow, but with less of a beat, and a sort of space blastoff at the end.) Worth keeping for the titles, the band's name, the facial hair, the mystery, and maybe the music.

(The year on Dschinghis Khan is unknown, too.)

Andrea Horn "Ring-E Ding-E Dong"/"Mrs. Hooligan" (Decca, year unknown.) A major disappointment; those are really promising song titles! I thought this would be like Abba or something. But it is not even catchy at all. I guess I am just a lieder hater.

Hot Shot "I Can't Stand It No More"/"Love Is A Drag" (Polydor, 1983) A-side is mediocre dancey '80s pop; B-side is very good dancey '80s pop of the post-Eurodisco/post-early-MTV-hit fake-rock kind that I frequently heard in Bad Kreuznach and Mainz between 1982 and 1985, with whipcrack electronics and very pretty and energetic hooks. Like say F.R. David or whatever that guy's name was. ACtually it reminds me of some big early '80s hit I'm having trouble placing -- Um, I think maybe the melody is similar to "In A Big Country" or something, but I feel like there might be some synthier hit that it sounds like more than that, even. (This is clearly not a guitar and bagpipe band.) Picture sleeve has two bubbly girls in tight gym clothes and one guy in a leisure suit, and the colors of all the aforementioned clothes are very bright (blue, yellow, and purple).

Hot Shot "Fire In The Night"/"Fire In the Night (Instrumental)" (Strand, 1981) Better sleeve than the other single by them (they look a lot less wimpy on this one), but despite some nifty electronicizing and a lyric so early-'80s cliched and histrionically sung (by one or both of the two girls) it would make Survivor, Loverboy, and Bryan Adams all run for cover, this isn't too good a record. Better than the other one's A-side maybe, but not as good as the other's B-side. Also, the instrumental version has almost as many vocals as the non-instrumental, weird.

Siw Malmkvist "Harlekin"/"Prinz Eugen" (Metronome, 1968) I kinda knew I wouldn't like this one just by looking at it, despite Siw's pyschedelic bodysuit that looks like a box of Crayolas melted on her. But actually, compared to most of the other liederen I've hated in this pile so far, the A-side of this single actually has a smidgen of oompah to its rhythm. Still not nearly enough, though. (And I have no idea, really, if I'm using the word "lieder" correctly. I'm taking it just to mean "slow showtune-like ballads sung in German with no influence from rock'n'roll or any music after rock'n'roll." Which might totally be the wrong way to define the stuff.)

Jeanette "Porque Te Vas"/"Seguire Amando" (Polydor, 1974). Was pretty sure, and correct in thinking, I wouldn't like this one, either. But at least the A-side has horns. And Jeanette has sort of a sweet voice. Also, they're not lieders! More like sub-par Janis Ian album tracks or something. But, um, in a foreign language. (Actually, maybe more Joan Baez than Janis Ian. But I've never really listened to Joan Baez, I just realized, so I really wouldn't know. Also, this kind of record has as much to do with Jane Birken or Brigitte Bardot as folk-rock, so forget I mentioned Janis and Joan entirely, okay? And I'd expect that Jane and Brigitte had German equivalents that I've never even heard of as well. Though come to think of it those titles don't look German. Not that I'm sure what language they are. But either way, I'll never play this record again.)

John Kincade "Till I Kissed You"/"Pie In The Sky" (Bellaphon, 1973) Man, we are totally on a losing streak of shitty ballads now. Also, John is not a handsome man, and I'm not so sure being kissed by him would be a good thing, but I hope he found someone regardless. Anyway, this really sucks, but at least the A-side starts with a promising riff.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/178446.jpg

http://www.siw-malmkvist.de/harlekinbunt.jpg

Jeanette looks cool!

http://www.newlog.com.ar/7AL/Jeanette-Estoy-triste-PS.jpg

http://hitparade.ch/cdimg/jeanette_%5Bes%5D-porque_te_vas_s.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Picnic.jpg

Amanda Lear "Rockin' Rollin' (I Hear You Nagging)"/"I Am a Photograph"/"Follow Me"/"Run Baby Run" (Amiga, year unknown though probably circa 1977 or so) An EP by a flat-voiced Eurodisco singer beloved by Michael Freedberg, and only one of the four songs (the second one) is on the only LP I own by her, neat! She sounds extremely...Teutonic. Like, so much an Aryan ice queen she makes Grace Jones sound like Sylvester in comparison. I kind of hate the vocal style, but I appreciate her in theory. And EPs are always cool -- especially 7-inch ones. The "Rockin Rollin" song is my favorite cut so far, I think. Also, her name rhymes with chandelier. And she is probably a lot better than Madleen Kane.

you guys are so cute together. chuck writes, scott pics..

i really like what i've heard of Fox. super cute bubbleglam. posted a track to my site http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/SssingleBed.mp3 I found one of their LPs recently, but it was totally scratched and kind of expensive.

Siw Malmkvist looks like Jerry Blank

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/StrangersWithCandy.jpg

Jeanette is kinda hott.

kinda very fucking hott.

the guy at my favorite record store told me that a lot of people thought Amanda Lear was a tranny, so inside the cover of her album Sweet Revenge, she's posing topless. from wiki:

Despite modelling nude for Playboy Magazine in 1977 and the photos very effectively proving that Lear was all woman, she was and still is widely rumoured to be either a transsexual or an intersexual because of her height (6ft/183 cm), her masculine facial features and most of all her exceptionally low baritone-like vocal timbre.

also, didn't realize until right now that she was the model on the cover of Roxy Music's "For Your Pleasure"

funny, i also recently posted a track by Madleen Kane to my site too. this is a really sexy, sleazy, slow disco/soul number.
http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/CestSiBon.mp3

In another spooky, but not so much I guess, coincidence I downloaded that Amanda Lear album from this blog: http://jimicaramail.blogspot.com/ just the other week.

Have to say I was a tad underwhelmed by it, the Grace Jones comparison is a good one, but sounds a lot like Broken English period Marianne Faithfull. I remember Jimmy Somerville picking one of her songs as one of his desert island discs and it had a more definite sleazy hi-nrg/eurobeat vibe to it and I was hoping it would be something like that, but I suspect it was from later in her career. He has another Lear album on his blog which I'll probably check out, hopefully that'll be the one.

Lear spent 15 years with Salvador Dali, supposedly the originator of the tranny joke which stuck, that she later used for publicity, any kind being good as is well known.

From M.I.A. Kala thread, about what's probably my favorite track on the album:

I can already tell Jimmy is going to be awesome.

ha ha, you've gotta be kidding. sounds like a campy "Dschinghis Khan" cover. ouch.

-- Jeb, Monday, 28 May 2007 23:44 (3 months ago) Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dschinghis Khan" > Half the shit that gets <rep>ped around here.

-- The Reverend, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 03:31 (3 months ago)

Manuela "Prost, Onkel Albert"/"Mir Gefalt Die Welt" (Telefunken, year unknown) First off, she is a long-haired brunette wearing a gingham blouse, and there is something very crooked about her smile. Second, this is the closest thing to a lieder (see "lieder" definition caveats above) that I've liked enough to keep -- Both sides have plenty of forward motion and swing, almost, in their polka/oompah beats, and the A-side goes even further by sounding halfway like a hardy ale-drinking sea chantey, which would explain the "prost" (= toast, right?) in its title. But what's even cooler in that tune is that the staticy maritime voices seeping in from the background going "ha ha ha" and "aye aye sir" remind me of, like, "I Am the Walrus" or something, which might explain why the guy being toasted is Uncle Albert, who showed up in a martime Wings song once, right?

I meant "maritime" (and "hearty", perhaps.) And maybe it should be noted that the background voices are male, and sound old enough to be Manuela's dad.

Manuela "Das Haus Von Huckleberry Hill"/"Morgen Kommt Der Tag" (Telefunken, year unknown) Manuela (who has a competent but not noticeably distinctive voice) looks prettier on the cover of this one, but she slows down in these songs and I don't like them anywhere near as much. B-side does have wobbly horn orchestrations though, so not a complete stinker.

And I have no idea, really, if I'm using the word "lieder" correctly. I'm taking it just to mean "slow showtune-like ballads sung in German with no influence from rock'n'roll or any music after rock'n'roll."

lieder just means 'songs'. i think what you mean is schlager.

Okay, I will call them schlagers (schlageren?) from now on.

Kelly Marie "Feels Like I'm In Love"/"I Can't Get Enough" (Pye, year unknown but clearly sometime in the early '80s) The A-side is one of the all-time cute New York not German fake Euro (or fake Montreal maybe? Sort of Lime-like) late-bubbledisco classics, of course. I already own it on a vinyl LP of that name and a greatest-hits CD, but why shouldn't I own it on 45, too? Might come in handy sometime! B-side is slower and slightly (very slightly) jazzy. Cool!

lied is a genre though. poems + classical music.

but, yeah, he means schlager.

x-post

Kelly Marie "Loving Just For Fun"/"Fill Me With Your Love" (PRT, year unknown) More bubbledisco! Both of these are already on the LP I have, and they both sound super duper catchy. It is sort of redundant to keep the 45, but I won't quibble yet -- 45s don't take up much shelf space. Kelly's makeup is kind of creepy on the front of the picture sleeve. On the back of the sleeve she is laying down in a big round bed, and is in bondage (tied at the wrists and ankles). Same photo session, apparently, as the two photos on the cover of the best-of CD I've got, but on that one you can tell the bedspread is bright red, and in the black-and-white 45 sleeve photo she is wearing what I first took to be goggles but I now realize is probably a blindfold. I'm going to take a wild guess here and theorize that her music was really big in gay bars, but I have no concrete evidence to prove it. (Possibly big in England, too?)

http://hitparade.ch/cdimg/kelly_marie-loving_just_for_fun_s.jpg

Wencke Myhre "Komm Allein"/"17 und 4" (Polydor, year unknown). I don't even know if I'd call this a schlager, but it is definitely pre-rock pop of some sort. But of the '60s (post-rock'n'roll pre-rock pop!) sort: Like, you know, "Georgy Girl" or "Windy" or something, but not nearly as catchy as those examples. And Wencke looks quite That Girl- spunky on the sleeve, with her spunky '60s haircut and spunky '60s (actually, older -- retro!) dial phone and spunky plaid pantsuit or whatever it's called (matching jacket and slacks and hat) on the other side. And the music's sort of spunky, too, with her la la la's and stuff, but maybe not spunky enough to keep it. (I bet "17 und 4" is about being 21, though. As she looks like she approximately is.)

Ottawan "D.I.S.C.O. (English Version)"/"D.I.S.C.O. (French version)" (Carrere, 1979): Very cool. Dense and primal Afro-Carribean-rooted Eurodisco, more a chant than a song, with a bunch of guys spelling out the title, and both-gender voices piping in from the background saying other stuff (one emotionless girl: "incredible." "sensational." "outstanding."
"irresistible." "such a cutie."). I like this a lot; the backing polyrhythms remind me of Cerrone in his Kongas days (though its Africanness is not nearly as blatant as the Cyan one up above.) Also, it's sort of hard to tell by listening to much of the song which version's the foreign one. (Song is credited to Vangarde and Kluger, which names sound more German than Ottawan to me. Did Ottawa have its own disco style, though? Maybe some Canadian person would know. Quebec sure had its own style.)

(Or wait, maybe they were French? Which would explain there being a French version, I guess.)

Paper Sun "Hey Willy"/"Gold Gold Gold" (Global, year unknown) Good '70s journeyman Top 40 style almost-hard rock, though without looking at a photo of the band (there's none on the sleeve), I can't tell if they were trying to be glam or boogie or neither. Sounds somewhere between. The A-side might have a smidgen of Sweet in it, though maybe I just imagined that 'cause of the title. B-side has more wah-wah. It's clear why the A-side got chosen for that slot.

this is my new favorite thread!

Olivia Pascal "Glad All Over"/"I'm A Tiger" (Polydor 1980) Slowed-down and porn-breathy semidisco Europop cheese cover of the Dave Clark Five classic, backed with an equally breathy but actually catchier song about how Olivia is a dangerous ferocious jungle cat who has known lots of men in her time and can't be caged in. Complete with tiger roar sound effects!

Rockettes "Baby Come Back"/"The Hip" (Lollipop, 1979) Okay, this is weird. I assume the three gals on the cover (two blonde white girls, one black girl) are the ones who sing the competent (but with this song, competent is good enough!) Europop cover of the great Eddy Grant/Equals ska-garage classic on the A-side. But whoever is singing "The Hip," which appears to be about both a dancestep and about "hip lingo", is definitely male. Maybe two males; no female voices at all. One guy sounds like a soul singer (and reminds you to bring your licking stick), and the other one, interjecting spoken lines like "soul brother!" and "I'm your main man!" and "just like that, that's where it is!" and "you got the message, funky funky!" is like a Venus Flytrap type '70s radio DJ or something. Way cool. And then toward the end one guy starts doing this "hum mumma mumma" scatting, like in "Rubber Biscuit" by the Blues Brothers or toons of that ilk.

Oops... Rockettes single is 1978, actually. And the producer is Jurgen Kordelutsch, who as everyone knows was the man responsible for the great album by Disco Circus, which was also on the Lollipop label.

Pop Tops "Happiness Ville"/"Suzanne Suzanne" (Bellaphon, year unknown) "Happiness vile, happiness ville, losing your mind, in happiness ville"..."and everybody knows everything thing and everything about NOTHING"...This is clearly the darkest record in the batch so far. The A-side is actually about the ghetto, "a place where the people are poor" (or "born" maybe?). Basically they look like mods and hippies, a couple of whom (especially the dude with the pageboy hair and crucifix) seem to have stepped in from the Rennaisance Faire, but they also have a black guy to do vocals and make the songs soulful and relevant to the current plight of urban America even if they are recording in Germany. He has a good voice, too -- he's probably a fan of psychedelic (shack)-era Temptations. The B-side is just as dark, melodically, though with vocals that lean more to post-Yardbirds goth madrigals (though with the soul guy still in the forefront). Nice.

(Also strange they called themselves "Pop Tops," seeing how they're less "pop" than anybody else here, and you get the idea they're proud of that.)

Rudlf Rock Und Die Schocker "Halbstark"/"Blue Jeans Image" (Philips, 1976) Totally rocking full-band '50s revivalism auf Deutsch, with the band looking fairly normal on the front of the picture sleeve (with Blue Jeans Inge, apparently, dancing in blue jeans) but totally decked out American Graffiti/Happy Days /Lenny and Squiggy/Sha Na Na style on the back (with blue jeans Inge in her poodleskirt, being courted by a guy in a fly blue rental tux). A-side is full-band doo-wop clearly taking "Little Darlin" by the Diamonds as its template; B side is wild sort-of-Jerry Lee-rooted rockabilly. Awesome. Also, another band with a token black guy -- must be a trend among those Germans.

(That should have been RUDOLF Rock, by the way.)

(And Blue Jeans INGE, not Image, if you didn't already figure that out. Not to be confused with Blues Image.)

The main Ottawan guy was one of Daft Punk's dad (so yeah French I guess!)

Sanra & Andres "Ich Will Dich Fur Mich Fur Immer (Let Me Love You Like Before)"/"Liebe Treu Wie Gold (Land Of Gold)" (Hansa, year unknown) Man and woman, both with long hair, both with boots, but his boots are merely black are hers are this amazing pair of green, gold, red, and silver knee-high ones. A-side aims for quiet intensity, as Frank Kogan would say -- as much folk as schlager -- but it's incredibly slow and didn't pull me in and twice I didn't get through it. B-side's better: starts out with central European gypsy wedding flamenco horn fanfare or something in that neighborhood; slows down; gypsies back up with swirling horns and castanets; slows down again; ends with shouted "hey!" from Sandra. If it had, say, a disco beat behind it, I might like it more -- it strikes me that these are the sort of dark Euro-traditional songs that may have inspired some of Boney M's darker moments. But on their own, I don't like them enough to keep them -- even the gypsy parts seem more or less pro forma to me.

SANDRA & Andres, that is. Sorry.

I think Kelly Marie was Scottish, but I haven't the faintest where she recorded her records.

In my mind she was Scottish and in my mind her records sound like really paper-thin weak Brit disco slathered with syndrums. I don't want to get on the internet and find out the truth because I will be crushed if I've mis-remembered any of the above.

(Donna Summer was an American who married a German fellow called Sommer, incidentally, and she got the name Summer as a result of an typo on her very first single, awww.)

http://home.online.no/~tokern/myhre/mwp52850.jpg

http://213.160.67.42/AAM/AAM748A.jpg

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/175805.jpg

But I only have the Ottawan 7-inch! (That's the 12-inch, apparently, the cover of which looks way different. Mine doesn't even show any people on it.)

And oops yeah, Kelly Marie is Scottish not New Yorkese, my bad. (Not sure where I got the idea for the latter.) She's not "weak," though -- or at least "Feels Like I'm In Love" isn't (and I wouldn't call her voice or syndrums "thin", either, not that thinness is automatically damning in a disco realm; as Europopdisco goes, she sounds pretty full-bodied to me. And her syndrums are unbelievably catchy.):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Marie

Wow, crazy, I never knew this:

Her biggest hit by far was "Feels Like I'm in Love" (1980). That track was written by Ray Dorset, originally as a potential song for Elvis Presley who died before it could be given to him.

Xhuck, I'm sure you're right, I think I'm mostly talking about the sound of Britdisco coming through TV speakers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Can it be that my memory of US disco sounding fatter and fuller is an inadvertent disco-r*ckist retro-fit on my part? I don't know whether to hope so or hope not.

Syndrums are pretty much always great under all circumstances.

Saragossa Band "Big Bamboo (Ay Ay Ay)"/"I Like It" (Ariola, year unknown) The only single so far that didn't come in a picture sleeve of any kind, and the A-side may well be (after Cyan's "Misaluba") the second-most-likely song so far for me to someday work into a DJ set. Listening to "Big Bamboo" the first time, I guessed that the band might actually be authentically African (no idea what part of Africa they sound like they might be from -- I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to African music beyond the obvious big touch-points), but the "big bamboo" (see: Cheech & Chong!) chorus (not to mention the "ay ay ay" one) gave their song a hook like African music rarely gives me (which isn't to say African music lacks hooks; just that I'm not very skilled at hearing at them.) The title for some reason also made me think of "Black Superman" by Johnny Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band (isn't that subtitled "Ali Bombaye" or something?); not sure if they were actually from Africa or not. More likely, they were Africans recording in Europe, though I could be wrong; I bet (especially after hearing the less exciting dime-a-dozen disco English language B-side) that's what these Saragossa guys were too. (Also reminds me of a Kedzie Records compilation LP I have called Tonight At The Discotheque from 1975, the cover of which claims it's an "original French import" , but all the songs on which -- by such as The Lafeyette Afro-Rock Band, Francois Nyombo, Krispie and Company, New City Jam Band, even Roy Gaines -- seem to be explicitly "African-sounding"; I assume that sort of stuff got played in discos a lot in disco's early years, after "Soul Makossa" had been a big worldwide hit.) Also reminds me of a 12-inch single I have from 1985 (It Records) called "Je Suis Bamboo" by a trio named Bamboo!!!, one of whom looks like Greg Norton, the handlebar-mustached guy in Husker Du. But I know it's not him.

Various (Lafayette Afro-Rock Band family): Tonight at the Discotheque; Kedzie (France); 1975 (in Mexico as Various: The Other Sound of Philadelphia; Peerless; 1975):

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hipwax.com/music/patch/P_fig/afrobeat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hipwax.com/music/patch/afr_beat.html&h=200&w=200&sz=26&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=2mRA5MF_1RGN7M:&tbnh=104&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2527tonight%2Bat%2Bthe%2Bdiscotheque%2527%2Bkedzie%2B1975%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

And oops, Saragossa not African apparently, shows what the hell I know (translation courtesy Alta Vista Babel Fish):

The SARAGOSSA VOLUME set itself this from the outset to the goal. These musicians let their fans with unrestrained play joy and ease the concerns of the everyday life forget. Their musical brand name is a South American Feeling that it processes into melodische Songs with Pop and skirt elements haben.Happy sound purely! Their most well-known hits: "Big Bamboo", "Zabadak", "Malaika" and "Rasta one".

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.showconnection.ch/bilder/rockundoldiesbands/saragossaband.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.showconnection.ch/print.php%3Fsi%3D%26site%3Dkuenstlerangebot%26typ%3Drockundoldiesbands&h=348&w=228&sz=26&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=DR_fPwUWpERwcM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2527saragossa%2Bband%2527%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

And Johnny Wakelin turns out to be a white guy from the U.K.:

http://www.answers.com/topic/johnny-wakelin?cat=entertainment

Bamboo!!!, meanwhile, would appear to be Italian:

http://www.thecollector.it/mixmania/single.html

And now that I really think of it, Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band's Ali song doesn't even sound especially African, in any way I can figure, and never did. (But I always think it's going to.)

there is a band called Bamboo that has connections to german disco group Supermax through way of Kurt Hauenstein

http://www.discogs.com/release/245741

I think I have a Supermax 45 or two around the house somewhere, too. I should pull them back and out and re-listen sometime. (Unless I'm confusing them with, like, the Spider Murphy Gang or somebody. Definitely saw tons of records by both of those acts in the record stores all the time when I was in Germany in the early '80s. Had know idea who they were.)

On second listen, "Big Bamboo" was sounding a little thinner and less percussively exciting than the first time. (Second listen was also after I'd seen the Saragossa Band's photo on line, but I don't think that was why my opinion slipped a little.)
I'll still keep the 45, but DJ play is unlikely.

Kirsty Shaw "Yummy Yummy Yummy"/"Breakaway" (CBS, 1988.) Flimsy disco, from a British looking lady, though the fact the Frank Farian (of Boney M/ Milli Vanilli / Far Corporation whose album I've still never heard if they actually made one fame) gets the writing credit on the B-side suggests she's more likely German. Anyway, anybody who thinks Kelly Marie is thin-sounding should definitely stay away from this trifle. But I like it. B-side actually has the feel of a mid '80s Boney M album track, come to think of it, plus a sax part. A-side is of course a cover of one of bubblegum's all time oral sex and/or pregnancy classics, from the Ohio Express. Not a bad number for a bubbledisco dolly to cover, obviously, and the beats here are done yummy Hi-NRG/Italo style.

"Far Corporation whose album I've still never heard if they actually made one"

not that great once you get past the genius of Stairway...

this is backtracking way up to the top of the thread but have you heard Chilly's "For Your Love" cover? it's great. a 10-minute rock disco workout ... it's on the full length Johnnylovesjenny LP on German Polydor. been discussed a bit on the beardo disco thread and elsewhere ....

Nope! Though obviously I should. Only disco cover of "For Your Love" I can think of is the one on Claudja Barry's 1983 Personal Records No La De Da Part 2 EP (on which she also does "I Got You" by Split Enz. No idea if there was ever a Part 1 EP.) Boney M did do a wicked "Still I'm Sad," though.

Sheila And B. Devotion "Spacer"/"Don't Go" (Carrere, 1979.) Okay, everybody knows this one already, right? So reiterating that the A-side is one of the most beautiful records in human history, Italodisco space-rock produced by Chic or otherwise, would just be redundant. B-side, which I hadn't listened to since the last time I'd played her whole album (which was definitely a few years ago), sounded gratifyingly great as well. I still have trouble remembering where the "B" goes in the act's name, though (I always think she's named Sheila B.!)

Hank the Knife And the Jets "Stan the Gunman"/"Catharina Serenade" (Electrola, 1975) Ha ha, these guys look totally badass! Definitely the most punk looking 45 in the batch. Five guys, mostly with furry mustaches and/or thick sideburns and/or receding hairlines and all with matching leather jackets like a street gang, standing in a deserted alley waiting to kick your sorry ass, sucker. I was hoping they'd sound hard pub rock like Dr. Feelgood or the Count Bishops (especially since they're singing about a man with a gun), and they come pretty close -- rockabilly updated with really tough riffs, for an age where punk's just around the corner. Fans of Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette, I bet. B-side's an ominous and film-ready spaghetti-western-style twang instrumental, though it starts out like a cross between the beginnings of "Dream On" and "Last Child" by Aerosmith. Who were punks in 1975, too: Last childs, just punks in the street. (Well, that was technically '76, but you get the idea).

On youtube they're more Slade (who had done a song called "My Friend Stan") than Dr. Feelgood though:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ihk4Jp5yO4g

Or maybe Slade with Feelgood guitars? (There's also this little horn hook half a minute or so in that was seemingly later stolen by Adam Ant in "Goody Two Shoes," unless it was Wham in "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" or some other MTV pop smash from that era.)

Secret Service "Ten O'Clock Postman"/"Hey Johnny" (Strand, 1980) Heavily accented English-as-second- language keyboard-hooked pop new wave, which description I know sounds promising so far, but this is pretty flaccid, even if they are dressed like Tommy Tutone or the Cretones or somebody like that. (Both of whom were generally pretty darn flaccid themselves, come to think of it. Besides that telephone song of course.) '70s soft-poppers trying to go new wave instead of '70s hard rockers trying to go new wave, the latter of which were almost always preferable. Plus what postman shows up at 10:00? I hope the keyboard guy found a better band.

Supermax "Don't Stop the Music"/"I Am What I Am" (Weateque, 1976) Okay, I am totally cheating here; Metal Mike didn't send me this. (At least not in the batch he sent this summer, he didn't. I may well have received it from here in some previous year's annual package of thrift-bin bargains. Or maybe I bought it way back in Germany myself. But maybe once I'm done with Metal Mike's pile I should just let this thread evolve into other mysterious foreign 45s on my shelves -- that'd be fun, huh?) Anyway. Sounds excellent. If this is 1976, they are helping invent Eurodisco, right? Tempo is kind of slow and sleazy on the A-side, with unexpected congas underneath and an eerie flute or something wafting through. Would obviously segue excellently into the Yarbrough and Peoples if not Bits and Piece song(s) of the same name. Also, at five minutes flat, pretty long for a 7-inch. B-side is a manly-vocaled even slower one that suggests Eric Burdon helped inspire the concept of disco-dude vocals (though Santa Esmeralda already proved that, right? But these guys might have come first.) Also, "I Yam What I Yam" = Popeye, obviously.

Oops, actual label of Supermax would be Atlantic, and actual label of Hank the Knife and the Jets would be EMI. Info on 45 sleeves can be confusing.

Supercharge "Get Up And Dance"/"Rip It Off" (Virgin, 1976) Metal Mike didn't send this one, either! Soon I will get back to our regularly scheduled program, I promise, but these guys were next to Supermax on my 45 shelf and I wanted to hear them. Plus: both songs produced by Robert John Lange, who apparently wasn't even a Mutt yet! A-side is tough macho-voiced brass-based minstrel rock getting funky like white boys evolving into disco, or trying to, and actually (especially the singer) winding up sounding a lot like the Electric Six would a quarter century hence. B-side is a funk instrumental, Average White Band-style I suppose, with guys chanting "rip it off" and pretending they are George Clinton now and then. Synth guy steps in and takes a proggy break. Seven dudes in the band total, and dudes is what they are, especially the bald kingpin in the middle, in beard and square shades and leopardskin, with legs crossed.

Evelyn Thomas "High Energy"/"High Energy (Instrumental)" (Ariola, 1984) Another classic (the vocal version anyway) that's somewhat redundant to keep, since it's already on TSR's excellent Music For a Hot Body" aerobics compilation among other places, but it's swell to finally own the 7-inch. I am so not the demographic for records like this (since I, um, don't do aerobics!), but who cares, it's great. Plus it had an entire genre named after it (unless the genre name came first: which was it?)

Tight Fit "Fantasy Island"/"Wildfire" (Jive, 1982) Not positive, but I think I heard of these kids (two cute girls plus one slimy looking guy) before, in a roundup or two that Ken Barnes and/or other writers wrote in New York Rocker or Trouser Press or Creem in the early '80s about some sort of "new pop" "revival" that was supposedly going on back then, definitely involving Bucks Fizz, and possibly also involving Tight Fit, wherever they were from, and other such acts. Anyway, both these songs have good intricate melodies, sweet and clear, and plenty going on in the production department. Unquestionably lots of skill at play here, even if I didn't pay attention to the words. My only complaint is that the guy on the A-side doesn't sing as good as the girls in the A-side or himself on the B-side.

Tight Fit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"/"I'm Dancing In The Street" (Jive, 1982) The guy looks even slimier on the cover of this one, seeing how he's not wearing a shirt and he stole Loverboy's headband. The girls also don't look as cute as on the other one (though, I now realize, the brunette is cuter than the blonde on both). "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," despite also being based on African music and getting an okay rumble beat underneath, is a pretty pointless song to do history's millionth cover of. B-side is a dull midtempo, too slow to actually dance in the street to, though it's not hard to picture somebody making a video out of it back then. Bleh.

Vicky "Klipp Und Klarr"/"Medzen Fur's Herz" (Philips, year unknown) A-side is mere dreary boring schlager, B-side relatively more upbeat and full-throated boring schlager with some semblance of what slightly almost recalls a Motown bassline. Vicky's blouse suggests something a lady goatherd might wear.

Vicky "Sieh Die Welt Mit Meinen Augen"/"Halt Die Welt An" (Philips, year unknown) Vicky seems to be attempting to look sexier on the cover of this one, as opposed to the other one, on which she seemed to be attempting to look merely cute, if that. A-side is her dullest schlager yet. But B-side has enough oompah to suggest that somebody might hoist a stein to it in the gasthaus, albeit not in any especially memorable way. (And I just turned the picture sleeve over and there's a zany picture of Vicky rolling around in a giant gyroscope thing! What the hell?)

Waterloo & Robinson "Meine Kleine Welt (My Little World)"/"Superstar" (Gema, 1976) One of these guys -- I'm going to take a wild guess and assume it's probably Robinson, since it's the guy on the right and his name comes second -- looks totally absurd on the cover, with his giant red scarf/tie and pointy little curled up mustache and striped sleeves: Like maybe some early '70s sitcom idea of "flamboyant," not that I can actually tell what his motives are. Music is duo-schlager schmaltz for grandmas. Maybe some hausfraus somewhere find it extremely romantic.

Waterloo & Robinson "Eleonora"/"Running Bear" (RCA, 1980) Now it is a few years later, and they look like old unwashed hippies who just stepped in from the desert with Mad Max, and Robinson (who might actually be Waterloo since now he's on the left--so much for that theory) still has his pointy mustache. Also, now they are singing in English, about all the battles that Eleonora fought for freedom in a small town along the shore so we should raise a glass for her and her baby on the way; it's more singer-songwriter folk than schlager this time, and there's a spoken recital part toward the end. I definitely prefer them in this mode. But I really prefer them in "Running Bear" mode, where they go Boney-disco over Rufus/Blue Swede ooga-chuckas and cheese synths and sing about what I assume must be a brave Native American hero, or possibly an actual bear who runs. Their voices are too thin to really carry the song; they get lost, which is okay, because it's not like their voices were great to being with. But somehow they make it sound rather sweet regardless.

(Also, I just noticed that on the first of those two Waterloo & Robinson 45 covers, it says "Eurovision Den Haag '76." Does that mean they won, or what?)

Windows "How Do You Do"/"Nobody's Baby" (Golden 12, 1972) Gruff, somewhat boogiefied cover of early '70s McNeil and Whatever The Other Guy's Name Was country-rock Top 40 hit. Not bad; possibly even better than the original, which I probably have around here on some '70s compilation but heck if I know where. B-side was so scratched it was threatening to destroy my stylus, so I didn't play it all the way through.

Plus it had an entire genre named after it (unless the genre name came first: which was it?)

The genre name came first, somewhere around the middle of 1983 as I recall, and as a sexuality-neutral alternative to "Boystown". "High Energy" was UK composer/producer (and DJ at Heaven, London's biggest gay club) Ian Levine's self-conscious attempt at taking the genre overground by means of an "anthem" (and by means of *very* quickly recycling the rhythm of the original "Relax" 12-inch, to boot).

When Levine tired of the term in 1985, he attempted to re-name it "Eurobeat", and tried the same trick again - with markedly less success - with Eastbound Expressway's "You're A Beat" (geddit?)

Great thread. When do we get Geiersturzflug's "Bruttosozialprodukt"?!

On subsequent listens, the 45s by Fox, Amanda Lear and Wencke Myhre all grew on me a little. Fox benefit from having a good lady singer and creatively constructed songs about men with special powers. Lear's Nazi Nico bullshit gets more interesting if you think of her as possibly being musically influenced by Roxy Music (i.e., Bryan Ferry's rigid inflections and sundry electronic weirdness), who used her photo on their LP cover at least once; also, her song about rocking and rolling is audibly an attempt at a rock-disco move, plus it's also about being nagged, like that Halos song Joan Jett covered once. Myhre, meanwhile--like the first Manuela single documented above--is evidence that not all schlager is created equal. Which is a good thing to know.

This isn't a joke thread?

I'm not sure, actually.

Anyway, just noticed ABBAphiles Tight Fit get rootsy and authentic in "Like Wildfire"!: "He plays the bottleneck guitar, he must love those Delta blues."

Also, the electro-opening to Waterloo & Robinson's wonderful "Running Bear" sounds like the opening to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" 7 years early!

But sadly, that means I've gotten through this year's entire Metal Mike pile twice, which I guess means that I need to switch gears now and start documenting other mysterious old 45s on my shelf that look like Metal Mike could have sent them to me (and some of him, he undoubtedly did, in past years, but I have no idea which ones anymore.)

So:

Afrique "Hot Mud"/"Soul Makossa" (Mainstream, 1973) A fusion band pretending to be Afro-funk maybe-- presumably French because of their name, but maybe they're just pretending to be French, too? Manu Dibango cover much better than noodling on A-side.
Both sides have horns, but the makossa has more. (Is "makossa" a kind of music, by the way? Or what?)

"...and some of them, he undoubtedly did..."

AJL Band "Classical Salsa"/"Sweet Sticky Thing" (Baal/Pye, 1976) This is the first single on this entire thread that has a little hole instead of a big one! But it is still a 7-inch! A-side sounds like neither classical nor salsa, but rather a lush and smooth post-fusion semi-disco instrumental. B-side is an Ohio Players cover, presumedly mellowed out (haven't listened to the original for a while, but I doubt it was this laid back), but still sweet and sticky. Label says "manufactured and distributed by ATV House. GT. Cumblerland Place. W.1". I don't know where that is. Not in the U.S., I don't think.

"Soul Makossa" is one of the most influential songs on the face of the planet. especially when it comes to the development of disco. and the development of great michael jackson songs. and even the development of amazing baltimore club anthems.

manu dibango and the fania all stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7yRQAici7zU

Anerican Eagles "Kokka"/"Tonk" (Carrere, 1977) "Made in France." And definitely more salsa, on both sides, than the AJL Band's "Classical Salsa," though possibly not more salsa than Manu Dibano and the Fania All Stars! (Thanks, Scott!) Both sides are competent or better, though I definitely prefer the B-side thanks to its profusion of hard rock guitars. Neither side, though, is anywhere near as weird as the picture sleeve, which against a pink background shows a double-vision photo of this naked guy playing guitar (covering up private parts), and he has either a bird or flower head, it's hard to tell. Back cover shows his backside. Including his butt.

Androsingers "Androgynous Sound"/Androgynous Theme" (Barclay, 1977) Swishy male voice: "Anita, I'm thirsty. Do you want something to drink? Maybe some orange juice?" Catty female voice: "No way, you're much too gay...It's the andgrogynous sound, we both can play." Cover: two bald manequin heads, one with makeup, both from the shoulder up, naked inasmuch as you can see them. Music after the opening dialogue: Percolating semi-symphonic synth-disco with mostly incomprehensible voices easing through, light as air.

Archaeopterix "Barbarella"/"No More Living Without Loving" (Polydor, year unknown) "Made in Germany." Named after a prehistoric bird with teeth, or maybe a winged reptile with feathers, but they spelled it wrong. "Barbarella" is dancey soul-rock about a girl who's been giving the manly singer problems, and has hooks stolen from "Barbara Ann" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)." B-side has a slower tempo, more horns, and also appears to be about one of the singer's women. Decent minstrel-rock, though.

And ps: The Eagles doing "Kokka" and "Tonk" call themselves "American" (though I doubt they literally are), not "Anerican" as mis-claimed above.

Terrific thread, Chuck--you should keep it going till you run out of interesting, little discussed (on ILM) 45's to write about! And who cares about whether they fit the title concept or not?

Fox's "Only You Can" showed up last May on the League Of Pop over in Poptimists, which means we were listening to it blindfolded. Daddino, who was the judge that week, guessed it was J-pop. It sounded vaguely familiar to me; I wondered if it was by latter-day art bohemians going for '70s naff, but I cheated and did a lyrics search and found out it was actually '70s naff shooting for '70s naff and hitting the bullseye. Also found out that this was a top five hit in the UK, from whence Fox originated, though I suggested that if the singer had actually been raised in the UK she must have been hidden in a basement and denied human contact through age 13, since I was damned if I could work out how her pronunciation originated in social interplay on the British Isles. (A thought: perhaps as a wee'un she'd been left in the forest to die but was adapted by a pack of foxes, hence the group name.) William Bloody Swygart, who'd supplied the track, then informed us that the woman was originally Australian, "and this is by no means the oddest she ever sounded." Anyway, the reason I first thought "Only You Can" might have been recreated rather than original '70s naff was that its '70s naffness was scarily precise, and I figured that actual '70s naff wouldn't try to be '70s naff so precisely (since why would it need to?). I got caught up in my own convoluted reasoning, I guess. Song comes off as a teen girl with speech impediment and a drive towards infantilism doing a countryish tuba two-step accompanied on keyboards by Captain of Captain & Tennille. "You can fly my heart like a bamboo kite/Make it twirl and gyrate just like a tribal delight." Tribal? "You can see as far as an eagle bird/See right through my head to my every word." An eagle bird! About perfect of its type. "Sssingle Bed" sounds on first listen a bit funkier (relatively speaking) and more stuttery; concept seems to be that the evening is promising but the bed's not big enough for the both of them.

adapted = adopted

Don Backy "Mama Che Caldo"/"Io Che Giro Il Mondo" (Clan, year unknown) On the front single cover young Don is sensitively tending to his beloved horse in his beloved stable; on the back cover, he (Don, not the horse) is sitting spread-legged on a small stool in his black vest and peg pants and white socks and black shoes, smoking a cigarette like a tough young Italian guy. Except I don't know if he's Italian, or Spanish, or Mexican, or what. "Mama Che Caldo" catchily goes back and forth between blatant Tex-Mex border-style two-step and crooning parts; "Io Che Giro Il Mondo" is like a European version of Dion-style doo-wop, but with mariachi horns and bel canto (or whatever) croon parts, again. I like both sides. And oh yeah, the single sleeve is actually a sort of foldout thing, with one part that has all the other slicksters in Don's band surrounding a silhouette of some lady. Another part proclaims "La ragazza del Clan sta per incidere un nuovo disco. Il primo di Voi che lo avvistera' telefoni subito alla polizia. Quelli del Clan." Whatever the heck that means.

Carl Barok "Blue Nights In Granada"/"The March Is Over" (Mustang, 1977) Not to be confused with "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head, and also I think they spelled Grenada wrong. A-side is a melodically beautiful Eurodisco almost-instrumental, the only words being some guy who monotonally asks once or twice whether he listener remembers those blues nights in granada. The B-side is some precious mix galactic funk (only funky for a second or two at the start) and post-Carl Stalling-cartoon-soundtack proto-video-game proto-electronica, and I find it annoying. Though maybe Carl was just a big Meco fan.

"the listener remembers those blue nights in granada" (where maybe blues got played?)

and precious mix of etc etc etc

Waterloo & Robinson and Supermax (to the extent that they were mostly a one-man show, that man being Kurt Hauenstein from Vienna) were Austrian. They're also still active. I saw Waterloo, the pseudo-Native-American, carrying his guitar into a hotel a short walk from my cabin in the Vienna Woods this past May Day.

Baccara were Spanish, but their stuff was produced in Munich. "Sorry I'm a Lady" was their other big hit, and I think they did a Eurovision Song Contest entry later as a failed come-back attempt. I think that they, too, are still active.

Archie Bleyer "Hernando's Hideaway"/"S'il Vous Plait" (Cadense, year unknown) I have a feeling now that this is probably too old to really qualify for this thread, but I already played it, so I'll put it here. (Was going to follow it up with "Draussen Auf Kaution"/"Jet Set" by Blumfeld, Big Cat 1995, seeing as how they are apparently actually German, but I decided that's definitely ineligible both because it's too new and because my copy was clearly sent to me as a promo in the mail, judging from the press release inside. I'll play it again someday, though, I'm sure.) Anyway, Bleyer's got "Maria Alba clarinet soloist" helping him out on the A-side, and "James Burke trumpet soloist" on the B-side. Don't like the latter -- it's a kind of mid-century elevator-vocaled American EZ Listening that's actually worse than schlager, imagine that. As for "Hernando's Hideaway," I'm guessing this is far from a definitive version (have no knowledge of the history of the song, though the label on this 45 suggests it was from the "The Pajama Game"? But does that mean this version was, or just the song?); Bleyer's a notably stiff singer, for one thing. (Or he employs a notably stiff singer -- apparently Bleyer's who conducts the orchestra and chorus.) But the music (considered a tango, I guess?) is almost-not-stiff by definition. And I'm not sure I own any other versions. So this fills a much-needed void in my collection, in some way.

Bombitas "My Boy"/"My Boy (Instrumental)" (Sanii, 1986). Label based in Madrid; marketing and distribution in Belgium. Beat, very obviously, stolen from "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." Hair on two girls on the cover is piled high and messy in a slutty-disco-dolly-trying-to-look-new-wave way, like Company B on the cover of their debut album, but wasn't that a year later? Still, probably, not an unpopular style at the time. Song written by the great Herman Brood...who was from Holland, right? Song is perfectly serviceable, if not especially distinctive, mid '80s rock-oriented-dance (as oppposed to dance-oriented-rock), a good genre to be generic to. Vocals are, um, tart, don't fade into the background--extroverted, not in an uselessly overblown diva-like way, but still in a way that suggests the singer isn't afraid to make a spectacle of herself. At one point the singer seems to discuss her mother's opinion of her boy's lovemaking technique, but I probably heard that part wrong.

http://adaptivepath.com/images/services/casestudies/blogger/blogger1_500.jpg

Nah.

(Proper Bombitas label probably would've been Sanni/Carrere, actually.)

Boule Noire "Lion Lion De Va Ville"/"Miss Lanny" (Magique, 1977) Dapper soul brother with Afro and bushy mustache and jeans and jean jacket sits on a throne on the cover; I assume he's Mr. Noire, who does a pretty decent foreign-language approximation of '70s (Philly, maybe? But don't quote me on that) soul on the B-side. The A-side is weirder, harder to peg: A mistranslation of early '70s pop-rock trying to get funky, and winding up more light on its feet, halfway to disco, maybe? He doesn't really pull it off, but it's sort of singular, which is a plus. And I'm not even beginning to adequately describe it.

Bouzouki Disco Band "Disco Bouzouki"/"Do Re Mi Fa Soul" (Polydor, 1977) Probably the worst record so far on this thread that I can't pull myself to part with. Just some middling hack instrumental easy-listening ensemble trying ineptly to jump on the disco bandwagon -- on both sides, though on "Disco Bouzouki" they at least manage to paste a by-the-book "disco beat" underneath. No bouzouki I can hear, though. But what can I say? The name of the band and the song titles are too neat to get rid of.

Alberto Camerini "Tanz Bambolina"/"Maccheroni Elettronici" (CBS, 1982) Great great great great great proto-fuzzdance (= post-new wave) (= Telex-like) (= better than Gary Numan--who I like, don't get me wrong--because prettier and funnier and less cold and static) Italodisco robot bubble-pop about automatic clowns and, um, "macaroni baby oh oh oh" and rock and roll from an apparently androgynous android with a nifty geometric haircut. Probably my favorite record on this thread so far, give or take Sheila B's "Spacer," which doesn't really count since everybody already heard of it. (Also, the B-side is a better macaroni song than "Yankee Doodle.")

I only just noticed this thread! I am v. happy.

Claudio Cechetto "Gioca-Jouer"/"Giouca-Jouer (Instrumental) (Hit Mania, year unknown) Another great one, also "made in Italy"--in fact, I'm pretty sure I bought it on the exact same day and at the exact same store as the Camerini 45, though don't ask me the specifics. Anyway, Claudio looks like a sort of hearththrob on the cover, and the sort of dancey backing music behind his voice mixes cute toybox synth diddles with a repeated (seemingly sampled, if that's possible) smooth jazz hook, and on top of it Claudio jubilantly says a few sentences here and there but mostly, even more jubilantly, shouts out to the beat what seem to be dance-step instructions (for little kids, maybe?) that match the sign-language semaphore signals demonstrated with faceless drawings of a guy on the back cover of the 45 sleeve: Dormire! Salutare! Autostop! Starnuto! Camminare! Nuotare! Sciare! Spray! Macho! Clacson! Campana! Okey! Baciare! Capelli! Saluti! Superman! They look like easy steps to learn, too.

Chavaan "Wanene Wanana"/"Mom's Lion" (Atlantic, 1977)Excellent Latin boogaloo (or what sounds like it) (or maybe just a salsa band inching toward disco?) (though maybe I just say that because of the year) pressed in Spain, with call and responses between the warm-sounding male lead singer and a bunch of exuberant gals on the A-side. Then on the B-side, the guy happily keeps telling us it's a mambo then something like "buggalo buggalo buggalo buggalo" over an Eddie-Palmieri-reminiscent piano hook. Actually his vocal chant there sort of reminds me of certain African music I've heard (like, I don't know, Obed Ngobeni, whose 1985 My Wife Bought a Taxi album I stupidly no longer own? Or Rod's immortal 1980 Afro-disco single "Shake It Up [Do the Boogaloo]"?) So it's some kind of boogaloo.

Chilliwack "I Must Have Been Blind"/"Chain Train" (Parrot, year unknown) Are Chilliwack mysterious enough for this thread? They don't seem as unknown as most of the acts whose 45s I'm pulling off myself, seeing as how they actually had a hit once in the United States (the diddybopping semi-acapella soft-rock pop song "My Girl [Gone, Gone, Gone]," which I get the idea might be from after they kinda mellowed out), plus it is common knowledge that they were Canadian. But not being Canadian myself, that is pretty much all I really know about them, even though I also have two albums by them on my shelf (1981's Wanna Be A Star, which has "My Girl" on it, and 1982's "Opus X." Judging from those album covers, they are a trio.) Anyway, on the 45, the A-side is a very likeable country-rockish choogle (by which I mean easily rolling rustic rock not mellow or aimless enough to be Grateful Dead-style hippie music but, um, too unmacho to be redneck Southern rock, or something like that), and the B-side starts off with a Chuck Berry riff then gets a wee bit tougher and proggier. Judging from this music, they were very friendly guys. But not wimps by any means. Which would put them in the same Canadian genre as Bachman-Tuner Overdrive and the Guess Who, probably.

"pulling off my SHELF" (not self), I meant.

And obviously Creedence Clearwater Revival invented and named the choogle genre. (I'm not sure if it's ever been officially declared a "genre" by the Officical Genre-Naming Society, but it should be.)

Jeffrey Dahl "Rock & Roll Critic"/"Janine"/"I Heard" (Doodley Squat, 1977). Wow. Forgot I had this one. Metal Mike definitely did not send it to me, but Dahl was apparently in some early version of the Angry Samaons, not to mention, if I'm remembering right, at times also in Powertrip (first band I ever heard call themselves "speedmetal") and early '80s L.A. noise punks Vox Pop. But this is before then. And "Rock & Roll Critic," recited in a swishy, sarastic voice more glam than punk, is a hoot: "You hate my songs, you say that they're d-d-d-dumb." "Go practice your typing." Opening riff sounds like "Clash City Rockers," kinda, which might mean he got it from "Can't Explain," given the year. Or not. Eventually the proto-punk greaser chug falls out, though, and for quite a while the music just slows down to this repetitive strum rhythm, sort of like the opening of "Walk on the Wild Side." Then it cranks back up. Two songs on the B-side -- the first one more a Peter Laughner gloom-folk-metal kind of ballad thing about a girl, the latter one more proto-Samoans Vommishness. Both good. On the disc label -- I don't know if this was Dahl's publishing company, or what -- it says "NEWAVE MUSIC." Spelled like that. In 1977. I wonder if this 45 is worth money! Though probably less than it could be, since whoever owned it before me scrawled some words like "hiya hiya hiya" and "speedoo" (with the "o"'s made to look like eyes) in black and orange magic marker on the picture sleeve (where Dhal's got his jean jacket open exposing his bare chest, and looks like a true punk in the '60s beat-you-up sense, on the back, and on the front he's driving his car with shades on.)

chuck i should mail you this weird 7 inch i found. it seems like something u would like...it's rockin' rod and the strychnines...i guess pacific NW early 80s suburban garage punks...the A side is "Kill the Milkman" and the b-side is "We Stand United"...the cover on one side is rockin' rod pointing a gun at you...and the other side is them in front of some suburban houses on cheap old kawasaki 150cc motorcycles sneering and dressed in real dorky clothes..one guy flicks off the camera.

in the we stand united they complain about how their parents harsh their mellow.....including the fact that their parents took away their fishing nets, which really pisses them off i guess.

Joey Dee and the Starliters "Hot Pastami And Mashed Potatoes Part I"/"Hot Pastrami And Mashed Potatoes Part II" (Roulette, year unknown) Okay, not that obscure an act, but nobody ever talks about them, and they're still pretty much a mystery to me, even though I also have their Peppermint Twisters LP on my shelf. Were they from Philly? Was he a teen idol? Was the idea just to be a squeaky clean white boy version of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters? Whoever they were? Except Dee's band does not sound squeaky clean, and neither does he. They sound raunchy, and they earn their pastrami and taters. Mostly just an instrumental with Dee (I assume Dee) shouting out the title. But it rocks and it rolls. A lot. If Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion were any good, they probably would have sounded something like this.

Oh man, that swounds awesome, Chuck!

xp - Dahl 45.

*swounds* sounds awesome too. Dibs on the copyright.

Dancing Panther Danceband "Cement Mixer (Put-Ti Put-Ti)"/"Tropic Love" (Warner Bros., year unknown.) Was there a vout revival in the early '60s? Is "vout" even what stuff by Slim Galliard (who wrote the A-side, though I'm not sure I've ever heard his version) was called? He was, like, a beatnik jazz dada nonsense rapper from, more or less, the swing era or thereabouts, right? Anyway, A-side slings hipster slanguage about cement mixers: "A bottle of reet/con-creet." Mix up the gravel with water and "see the melorooni come out…keeno!." "Who wants a bucket of cement?" Words hit me as sort of scatological, somehow. Music starts out sounding like a fairly fake version of jump-blues-like dance jazz at first, but then the sax comes in and it's very real. (Not as wild as the sax dance of Joey Dee's song, but close.) B-side's an instrumental mixing up lounge, Latin, jazz, and Hawaiian music -- related possibly to Martin Denny's exotica or maybe Esquivel's space-age bachelor pad music, which is why I'm guessing early '60s.

chuck i should mail you this weird 7 inch i found

Sure, why not? I will email your my address! Thanks, M@tt!

Deer Hill Range Riders Square Dances (Promenade EP, year unknown.) Four songs. First and fourth ones, “Couples To the Right” and “Cut Off Six,” seem to mix in naval toot-toot music from “Popeye”, or cartoons about tugboats. First one, especially, is almost a rap, and speeds up as it goes: Your corners all Around the hall Promenade home Wait for the call,” though maybe not in that order. “Your pretty girl is my old maid.” Second song, “Spanish Cabiliero,” doesn’t sound particularly Spanish beyond its title. Third song is “Red River Valley” with dance instructions on top.” The caller, if that’s what he’s called, talks in a monotone – not necessariy like he’s bored, but definitely like he’s businesslike.

D.D. Sound "Disco Bass"/"Disco Bass Instrumental" (Baby, 1977) Italian. Cover also says "Disco Delivery"; can't tell if that's part of the band's name or not. Credited to A & C Libionda and C. Ricanek; pretty sure I've seen the former name(s?) on other records; just blanking out on where. Music seems functional, generic, as much post-swing-band as Eurodisco electronics. Subliminal girl voice, and a deeper male voice grumbling "disco bass!" now and then, so clearly the bass is as much his voice as the bassline (which is fine, don't get me wrong.)

yeah, Slim Gaillard was in and out of the music biz between the 30s and 80s (b. 1911?-d.1991), and was back in by the late 50s, so may well have inspired an early 60s album. Originally known for singing, playing guitar and tap-dancing simultaneously, and Slim and Slam (Stewart, bassist) had a hit,"Flat Foot Floogie (Was A Floy-Floy)" in late 30s. Orig "Flat Fleet Floogie," and for that dis to military, was drafted (change to"Flat Foot" albili didn't keep him out). Recorded with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and stole the show live, at least according to Brian Priestley's notes to Laughing in Rhythm: The Best of the Verve Years (the fleet/foot thing is mine, not BP's) No "F.F.F." here, nor "Cement Mixer," (maybe those weren't on Verve), and I'd need to find some more Gene Krupa cigarettes to get into all of this, but I do dig most of it. "Arabian Boogie" might've inspired Professor Longhair; "Serenade to a Poodle" woofs eloquent; "Soomy Roomy (Song of YXabat)" is a great parody of Yma Sumac and the whole exotica thangette; "Genius" (AKA "Ride Slim Ride") has him as a one-man-band and vocal group, overdubbing eight instruments and a bunch of mouth sounds(incl. harmonies), and making it sound comfortable, in 1951, when overdubbing was something of a chore. There's also "Yo Yo Yo," "Yip Roc Heresy," "Chicken Rhythm" (chorus: "Buk Buk Buk Buk!").Also in the booklet, Harvey Pekar and Joe Sacco's cartoon essay spots him between Charlie Christian and Chuck Berry, Priestly has him early associated with other swing-to-bop teadrinkers like Harry The Hipster Gibson,and Leo Scatman Watson, King Cole Trio(I'd say Cab Calloway before that, and Louis Jordan along side in the later 40s, and even Bob Wills, when he starts bouncing the falsetto around, and of course he invented his own language before Magma)(okay, more like Beefheart, because it twists English to its own purposes) "Gomen Nasal" indeed, and Gezundheit.

but Dahl was apparently in some early version of the Angry Samaons, not to mention

He was in a mid-period version of the Samoans, after Saunders first decamped for the Bay Area.

The only thing he's still on is a live recording -- very rare-- Return from Samoa, which was a Euro bootleg which pressed a Samoans show in NYC, at the Mudd Club, if memory serves. I have it. It's not very good.

I had a 7 inch of "Permanent Damage" which the Samoans played while he was in the band. Another version of it, or perhaps only a slightly different mix, wound up on the Powertrip record, which was reissued as a CD a few years ago.

Quite a bit of Jeff Dahl, as a solo artist, was released through Triple X and Sympathy for the Record Industry well after he left the Samoans.

My favorites from Dahl were the Powertrip record and his "I was a teenage glam fag," self-releases, of which there were two. The "Glam fag" releases were cover versions of his favorite glam rock tunes, most of which he did justice to.

Dollar, "Takin' A Chance On You"/"No Man's Land" (WEA, 1981) Okay, I'm pretty sure we're back to a bunch of 45s that Metal Mike did send me, albeit a few years ago. Even more than the Tight Fit people mentioned above, I'm pretty sure these guys were part of some mysterious early '80s post-Abba "pop revival" (in England, at least, and maybe all of Europe) forefronted by Bucks Fizz (who I think I still have a good LP by.) Anyway, both sides of this sound lighter than air and whiter than that. Pretty downbeat, actually. B-side concerns being haunted by somebody's memory. A-side has a title that sounds like an answer record to a big Abba hit, and has "ba ba ba" parts chiming like bells. Cover has a boy and girl, both extremely blonde and fully blow-dried and fresh from the ski slopes. Even the boy's shirt is white. You hear them both, and they are impeccably produced and entirely free of germs.

Dollar "Mirror Mirror"/"Radio" (WEA, 1981) Both of these Dollar singles have small holes on them, by the way. "Radio" has a more bell-chime vocals and a more Abba-worthy bounce than either of the sides of the previous one, but "Mirror Mirror," which I'm pretty sure was their big U.K.-maybe-transcontiental hit, is produced by Trevor Horn has lots of ornate little sounds filling it out and bringing it to life; some parts are weird and artsy in an almost pop-pomp 10cc kind of way. The vocals are layered like crazy, a house of mirrors I guess, especially when the boys says "the mirror always echoes... echoes.... echoes ...echoes". So: onomatopoeia pop.

Dolly Dots "We Believe In Love"/"Who Is That Waiting At Your Door" (WEA, 1980) Definitely got this one and the next Dolly Dots 45 from Metal Mike. This one's a Dutch pressing, and Dolly Dots, judging from the cover, are six girls -- two black haired, two brown haired, two blonde. Prettiest one is the black haired one who looks like Kate Bush. Anyway, A-side of this one sounds like a cross between Boney M "El Lute"/Abba "Fernando"-style Spanish revolution Euro- bubblegum and some old hymn that used to get sung at Catholic church, but the words are about neither Spanish revolution nor anything especially saintly. B-side, though, is a truly angelic girl-group rip. Picture on the back cover shows the cover of Dolly Dots' album, whereon they wear roller-derby uniforms (or some kind of uniforms, anyway. I was thinking hockey, but then I noticed one of the album's songs is called "Rollerskating," so roller derby it is.)

Dolly Dots "P.S."/"So That's Why" (WEA, 1981) Dolly Dots get funky! "P.S." has a propulsive "Rapper's Delight"/"Another One Bites the Dust"-type funk groove (not a "Good Times" bassline, exactly, but close), and the six girls (Spice Girls prototypes, maybe?) ride it just fine, telling you to "get up!" until you do and eventually doing a cute little rap -- pretty early in the game for white girls (or, to be precise, five white girls and one possible woman of partial color, juding from the photos), though I think "Rapture" had been '80s and "Square Biz" was also '81. B-side's more Abba-bop, very very catchy.

(Latter 45's made in West Germany. Not sure which country, if either, the gals actually come from.)

Dyn-O-Mite De Luk "Mon Nom C'Est Dyn-o-mite"/"Mon Nom C'Est Dyn-o-mite (Version Instrumentale)" (Able, 1977). Not from Metal Mike, I don't think. Early funktional disco indebted to Isaac Hayes and Jimmy Walker. Slight African tinges. Some wah-wah. Not bad.

Earth & Fire "Twenty Four Hours"/"In A State of Flux" (Polydor, 1981). Yeah, that's right -- no Wind. They don't look like Earth Wind & Fire, either, though it's true some of them (the Raffi-like one with the scarf for instance) have darker complexions than other ones. One of them, also, is a girl, posssibly wearing pajamas. The one with the longest hair also has the most receding hairline, and is leaning on his keyboard on the cover. One of the guys has a song sheet on his lap (so I'm going to guess he might be the songwriter), and the guy with the drumsticks has an Afro and looks a little crazy. (None of this is remotely getting across how wacky they all look, but I'm trying.) At any rate, they all also look like they'd be good neighbors. Pressing says West Germany, but the back sleeve says "Benelux," which I know from Armed Forces Radio weather forecasts means Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Oh yeah, the music's good, too. A-side is fun and silly post-Abba polka-pop; B-side is much less happy sounding, almost prog-rock-leaning, instrumental. Weird. And definitely from Metal Mike.

Earth & Wire "Weekend"/"Answer Me" (Vertigo, 1979) Same formula, more or less: Bubblegum polka-pop backed with wordless prog-fusion movie soundtrack possibility. Both less energetic than their counterparts on the other Earth & Fire single, but that's okay. "Weekend" allegedly "Nr. 1 in Holland," according to the sleeve.

(Earth & Wire was obviously a mistake. To my knowledge, Earth have never collaborated with Wire at all, and probably never will.)

Fancy "Wild Thing"/"Fancy" (Big Tree, 1974) This was actually a hit, right? And bizarrely, I also have their 1974 album. But I can't remember anybody ever talking about them, ever. Three guys (one tough guy, one college professor looking guy, one proto-disco Jewfro looking guy) plus a longhaired gal in cutoff shorts on the cover of the LP; single has no picture sleeve, but the LP cover is info enough. ("Fancy, a New Band, great guys, fantastic chick.") Troggs remake has the girl panting suggestively, a proto-disco synth break into a hard funk guitar break, plus the Troggs riff done good. (Big Tree, judging from the album notes, was some sort of Atlantic subsidiary; Brownsville Station were on the same imprint, right?) Self-titled B-side theme song, which is not on the LP, has a good catchy riff and a swings in a decently glammy way with a vaguely sexy whispered vocal from the lady of the house. Not much of a song at all, but it's okay. LP cover indicates the "Wild Thing" cover was already a "chart record" before the LP came out -- so I wonder if these were maybe studio dudes who had to quickly toss an album together to capitalize on their hit single (which capitalizing I assume was never very successful, since it hardly ever is in such cases) -- you know, like (non-studio dudes but you get the idea) M, or the Shop Boyz or whoever. Anyway, I just decided that Fancy (not to be confused with Fanny, who seem more famous) remind me of Ram Jam (on their first LP of course, not their second one) for some reason.

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders "Game of Love"/"One More Time" (Fontana, year unknown though it would be very easy to look up.) "The purpose of a man is to love a woman, and the person of a woman is to love a man." A huge hit, way bigger than Fancy's, but again, who the hell were Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, and how come, in the many decades I've been paying attention to people paying attention to music, nodody has ever said one word about them? Damn, this song is pretty funky too: Square white guys (squarer than Mitch Ryder or the Soul Survivors, I bet) getting soulful for frat boys, or for bizzers trying to appeal to frat boys, or what? I have no idea. Is it my imagination, or did Phil Collins badly cover this in the '80s? (Or maybe even not so badly?) B-side is convincingly sweet blue-eyed soul, assuming these guys actually had blue eyes. (Maybe they were British??) Anyway, the two main things I know about Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders are (1) In the first review I ever read of an Elvis Costello and the Attractions album, which would have been Armed Forces, probably in a college newspaper (The Varsity News, I guess) at University of Detroit or a high school one (The Spectrum) in West Bloomfield, Michigan, the writer compared the two bands, and then nobody ever has since, as far as I can tell. (With Get Happy that might actually have made sense! But this song is better than anything on that album.) [2]"Game of Love" was definitely a staple on "Cruisin' Music", the Sunday night '60s music show on KCOU at University of Missouri-Columbia in the early '80s. Beyond that, I know about as much as you do about them, and possibly a whole lot less.

Gary's Gang "Keep On Dancin'" (Sam/Columbia, 1978) Okay, another actual hit -- sorry, this is getting ridiculous, but I know nothing about these dudes either, and suddenly I'm curious. Not to be confused with "Keep On Dancing" by the Gentrys, which is probably an even better dance song, and which I wish I also had a 45 of but strangely I don't, though I know nothing about the Gentrys, either. Anyway, this is funky ethereal bubble-disco (same neighborhood as Dan Hartman's "Instant Replay" or Paul Nicholas's "Heaven on the Seventh Floor" maybe), with an excellently polyrhythmic drum break in the middle. I have a '79 LP called Gangbusters by Gary's Gang also, but neither Gary nor his gang are shown on the cover, just a '30s Chicago-style gang murder scene. (There is a gang in the inner sleeve, dressed '30s Chicago style with snazzy striped suits and machine guns and mustaches and molls, but I have no idea if the gang is Gary's or if he's one of them.) 45 is a little odd, too -- a "DJ Reservice" promo with same song on both sides.

Fancy was Ray Fenwick's (guitarist) band of studio hacks. Fenwick was kind of a jazzoid plus rock guy. The project also included Les Binks who drummed for Judas Priest for one, maybe two, albums. Definitely a one-off type act fishing for hits outside what they really wanted to play --which was something tuneless that few wanted to hear.

By explanation: Fenwick subsequently became part of the Ian Gillan Band, the murky, tuneless stumbling funk and jazzoid rock band that did Clear Air Turbulence and a self-titled one which didn't do well with the punters, as opposed to later albums which returned to Gillan's more familiar hard rock/metal roots.

I used to see a CD of Fancy's stuff quite frequently. I remember the single, which was competent, but never had any interest in hearing more from it. Definitely the kind of act that would fit in my Sludge in the 70's scheme if they'd actually have made a few records and become a more real band.

Jimmy Gibson "Oh Why (Sag' Warum)"/"Swing Love" (Disques Motors, 1978) Pretty funky for a German guy, or French guy, or whatever Jimmy is. (45 sleeve says "Original American Version", so maybe he's American, actually. But Disques Motors is sure not an American label.) A-side's a lush sort of Barry White/Isaac Hayes-style seduction-mumble soundtrack; B-side as its title suggests more a swing-era croon done disco style. But on both of them, Jimmy's vocal accrues more red-clay soul depth toward the end.

Thanks, George (and for the Jeff Dahl info up above, too...)

ps (Also the whole idea of Gary's Gang of course reminds me of "I'm the Leader of the Gang [I Am]" by Gary Glitter, which Brownsville Station covered.)

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders look pretty British I guess:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IWJYMaOwNNg

Gary has a pretty big gang, it turns out:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7iHaP6XIAp4

The Gentrys keep on dancing faster:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a9ylOFfdRRw

Bay City Rollers version:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fui_R2mVlH0

Dolly Dots:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EOMg3gL6lkA

Dollar:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fqkI2VBiLgg

Chilliwack's big hit:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yahBtp_1jWE

Claudio Cechettto (I guess his song was for aerobics class!):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NOyXvsTA5tQ

Alberto Camerini:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wHoCv1G4Prk

SCTV Chilliwack parody (!?):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ddIq7p-nAVQ&mode=related&search=

Just got another HUGE box of weird old foreign vinyl in the mail from Metal Mike. So here's some more:

Aneka "Little Lady"/"Chasing Dreams" (Hansa UK, 1981) Shares her name with my youngest offspring (now sleeping in this room) and the singer of the Gathering (now not sleeping in this room), but spells it differently. Scottish, with a red Cleopatra haircut. Her song "Japanese Boy" supposedly went #1 in the UK in 1981 (according to words Metal Mike has penned on the sleeve) and this (according to the liner notes) is the followup (not as big a hit -- only #50 sez Mike.) Mike has also attached a post-it note that says "Make It Stop!" I think that's a warning that this is gonna suck. Synthy gurgle, squeaky voice, not real catchy or poppy to my ears: "Treat me like a lady on TV. Leave me alone leave me alone..." Post-early-Kate Bush/Lene Lovich yelping hiccups. Not very good. Ballad B-side is worse.

Cardinal Point "Come Out And Say It"/"I Won't Let You Go" (Phillips, year unknown) Four guys with colorful shirts and jackets and sweaters and Bay City Rollery hair (most of them). The coolest guy is obviously the one in shades. A-side is softy-rocky with slightly good-time-glammy chorus, forgettable. B-side slower, almost liedery (though not German), a snooze.

Jackie Carter "Treat Me Like A Woman"/"Mama Don't Wait For Me" (Atlantic Germany, 1976) Sorry, but I gotta say -- on the 45 cover Jackie (who also sang for Silver Convention I think) is sitting perched on what looks like some kind of antique table, with her legs spread like she's about to relieve herself. With gold platform shoes no less. I guess a toilet wasn't handy. Music on the A is more disco than the last couple singles, but generically and not compellingly so. Second woman out of three 45s who tells you how to treat her. Toward the end of the song she starts gasping and moaning in a suggestive manner. A lot. B-side is sprightlier sub-Abba pop -- "I'm the happiest girl in the world....I'm 16...my homework is done...Don't keep the dinner warm, I'm gonna eat out tonight...I've found someone who knows how to hold me tight." Boys doo wop in the background as she discusses being asked out on a date. Weirdly innocent after the A-side (unless she's lying to Mom), but still not distinctive enough to keep.

Jackie Carter "Stay For The Night"/"Let's Have A Party" (Global Germany , 1979) Three years later, same Jackie, more disco still. More NRG, too. Still not grabbing me. A-side outwears its welcome quick, even though her vocal inflections recall Elton John once, and there's some mini-orchestrations and sax during a break. She sounds breathier on the B, still sounds like she's going through the motions. More so-what sax. Not much of a song, or groove, or hook. Nobody's gonna stay the night for this party. A ways in she starts whispering sweet French nothings, but by then it's too late.

Chanter Sisters "Talking Too Much About My Baby"/""Just Your Fool" (Safari Germany, 1977) One curly haired brunette sister, one long-haired blonde sister. Light-rocking, slightly countryfied smooth-jazz Euro-soul on the A-side. Pretty harmonies. One of the singers reminds me of Maria Muldaur, I think; groove might even have a little "Midnight At the Oasis" (from 1974) in it. Weird lyric -- they say they're talking too much about their baby, but they never really tell us anything about him. Warmer sax than the last song, though, and the song is nicely short: 2:45. B-side is more upbeat, a Donna Summer move, and it's clearer that both girls have rich voices, but one of them sounds a lot huskier than the other one -- in a rock (like, post-Joplin) way almost. Boogie woogie piano, just real propulsive in general.

Tina Charles "I Love To Love (But My Baby Loves To Dance)"/"Disco Fever" (CBS UK, 1976) Tina looks kind of tomboyish, and this is catchy like Kiki Dee or somebody going disco. Plus the predicament with her dance-loving boyfriend is kind of cute too: "Instead of going downtown, we'll stay at home and get down." Still sounds kind of like disco-by-numbers (real early in disco's tenure for that, I would think), but by more likeable numbers than most of the previous songs. Then the first line in "Disco Fever" is "walking sideways like a crab"! And there are macho men behind Tina chanting the title ("disco fever! disco fever! everybody got disco fever!") and having a boogie party, and there's some Rufusy funk to the horn and bass parts. And the song stretches out its groove pretty well, and the guys start grunting "hungh!" Goofy enough to keep. (Though maybe not -- I just took it off the turntable and noticed the vinyl is cracked, totally split in half, almost across the whole side. Must have
played right through it.)

Tina Charles "You Set My Heart On Fire"/"Fire (Instrumental)" (CBS Germany, 1975) This one sounds even better! And older! With lots of old time rock'n'roll "bop she bop she bop"s! Yet still totally disco! And apparently not cracked! And Tina has a real big nose on the 45 sleeve, which gives her lots of character! Her life was a room full of gloom, then a "knight in armor shining" came along, to set her heart on fire and take her higher. Wow, Europeans really caught on to disco early. Assuming she was one. B-side instro retains the doo-wop, the horns, the syncopation, and Tina repeatedly saying "fire! fire! higher! higher!" And now I'm realizing it sounds kind of like "Rock The Boat" by the Hues Corporation (1974 again), rhythmwise. Somebody should have rapped over it.

Why is Saunders sending you stuffs?

No idea. Just a generous guy, I guess. I assume lots of them are duplicates, or maybe just records he's tired of taking up space, who knows. Seems like I mysteriously get a big box about once a year; it just shows up, no explanation. This year's (mostly LPs, actually) was the biggest yet.

Anyway, here are more:

Fox "Only You Can"/"Out Of My Body" (Gema Germany, 1974) A couple other Fox singles are discussed upthread, first by me, later by Frank Kogan. I think they came up on some other thread lately, too. Assuming this is the same Fox. Metal Mike post-it note says "#3 UK early 1975: Is this were guitar rock took downers, rolled over and croaked?" Maybe -- it's pretty slow, and weird as fuck -- but I'm not sure this is "guitar rock." Teutonic proto-gothic possible love child of an affair between Nico and Yoko (possibly the woman with the tassels and metal snake bracelet on her bare skin on the 45 sleeve) tells you that "only you have a right to be you," plus something I couldn't quite catch about gyros. Is this what Savage Rose sounded like? How the hell was this a hit, especially in a place where people supposedly speak actual English? Rhythm is a soporific approximation of reggae, sort of. And that's only the first side. The second side is still Teutonic (she's talking about switching on her TV set, plus something I keep mistaking for "take me out to the ballgame"), but has more skips and pops on it. Probably not great for my stylus, so I'm gonna take it off, but this one still belongs on my shelf.

Full House "Standing On The Inside"/"Johnny" (CBS Holland, 1976). Songwriting credit on the A-side goes to Neil Sedaka, who was still writing great songs in the mid '70s, but probably not this one. Full House are apparently five people -- two guys (one w/ big 'stache, one w/ Afro) and three girls. Sedaka song is slightly foreign-accented, keyby post-Brill pop of no notable distinction; would be better if faster. Talks about it being bad times for rock'n'roll, which it wasn't, really, but I don't see how this would have helped even if it was. "Johnny" switches to one of the girls singing, about a little boy who will be a star if he practices his guitar, then meets a girl named Marlene. Chorus is sorta drink-worthy, if not exactly rousing, about how we'll be your friend if you need one. A little oompah to it. Actually like it better than the A, but not enough.

Pete Heyn & The Fleet "Holland Disco"/"The New Dutch Organ Group" (Gip Holland, 1979) Awesome band name and song titles, obviously. Three guys (all dressed in white, a couple with actual guitarish instruments) and three girls (in sparkly outfits, and dancing awkwardly with their hands) on the sleeve. "Holland Disco" is not disco, in any way I can tell, but is a wacky instrumental with lots of windup grandfather clock noises stuck in there over the obligatory oompah. After an introduction three times as long as the actual song part, the Euro ladies start chiming in like automatons: "We love disco dancing in Holland. Disco dancing in Holland. Disco dancing in Holland. Dancing in the street." Only I swear to God I thought they were saying HARLEM, instead of Holland. Flipside is, well, organ-y. Another semi- instrumental, and unfortunately the girls don't start chanting about being the new Dutch organ group. But they do say "The silver fleet is coming in" as as the rhythm starts to get a
little more boing to it. Neat!

Kincade "Dreams Are Ten a Penny (Jenny Jenny)"/"Counting Trains" (Bellaphon Germany, year unknown) Think I already hated a single by this over-mustached guy upthread. And the A-side here is pretty sappy -- a guy remembering the girl next door (who has apparently since gone astray, or maybe not, though that seems implied in the don't-give-up type advice he gives her), and the tree they used to play under as kids, which I guess is now dead -- though the tune does have half a smidgen of early '70s Edison Lighthouse/Spiral Staircase bubblegum to it. Or maybe even Terry Jacks writing a suicide note to Michelle his little one who gave him love and helped in find the sun, but really, not nearly that good. "Counting Trains" is a sort of flatly sung fake-country wanderlust ballad that starts out talking about "feeling as if the bomb has dropped," with a capella wah wah parts later. Every train Kincade misses is a lost chance to escape. So okay...has the potential of pushing my Lee Hazlewood buttons, maybe. Worth another listen sometime, at least. Just not right now.

Also been liking these 12-inch singles from the new Metal Mike box this morning:

Dalla Morandi "Dimmi Dimmi"/"Pomereggio In Uffico" (RCA Italy, 1988) beautiful spacey dreamy Italo air-disco; songwriting of A-side partially credited to M. Malavasi, which I assume means Mauro Malavasi, the Change guy.

Paso Doble "Comupterliebe" (WEA Germany, 1984) beautiful sad dreamy Kraut-disco from co-ed duo with excellent Aryan cheekbones but an un-German name

Mamie Van Doren "State Of Turmoil" (Corner Stone, 1984) Autographed!! Though I have no idea how I'd check to find out whether that's Mamie's real signature. Also, I never even knew she ever made a record. Surprising thing is, it's actually good, in a decadent halfway-between-Marianne Faithful circa Broken English and Cyndi Lauper circa She's So Unusual new wave war-zone post-disco sung in a wordly weathered seen-it-all-and-been-all-over-the-world kind of way.

Band I'm most curious about so far from all the European K-Tel-type albums Mike sent: Sailor, whose "Stiletto Heels" really does sound like a less arty version of Roxy Music. Can't believe I never checked them out before.

Favorite Heavy Metal Kids song so far on all the European K-Tel-type albums he sent (almost every one of which seems to have one): "Chelsea Kids."

footnotes:

* Paso Doble actually sound more synth-pop than disco (their A-side reminds me of A-Ha or Alphaville), and the single also has a B-side (unmentioned on the sleeve) called "Stadthyăne", which is more upbeat but not as good. Perhaps that short-vowel hash mark over the "a" is an indication of their nationality.

* "Only You Can" actually is the Fox 45 discussed by persons other than me upthread, where it is explained that their strange Teutonic woman singer was actually from Australia.

* In the other Kincade single upthread, he has a first name (= John.)

Claudio Cechetto "Gioca-Jouer"

Later translated into English in the Black Lace Euro-hit "Superman," according to Mike T-Diva on this very related thread:

I Have Never Heard Entire Albums By These Bands Who Have Excellent Songs On Late '70s/Early '80s European K-Tel-Style Compilations

Otherwise, I decided that Kincade's "Jenny Jenny" does (inexplicably) have enough 1910 Fruitgum in its sound to get by. And the lovely whirligig rhythm of Pete Heyn etc.'s "Holland Disco" totally pulls me in.

Anita Karlsen "Bli Med"/"Natt Of Dag" (Slager Norway, 1986) The hole of the 45 is little not big, and Anita is riding a motorbike (or scooter, maybe? She doesn't look dangerous at all, despite her slight overbite, so probably) on the sleeve. Music is...pop! With sparkling synths working as drama more than rhythm. Sounds very sweet and sparkling, with massed-vocal verses. Chorus seems to have Anita coo-ing the line "Mr. Hard Booty" in a slightly husky voice, but I'm probably hearing her wrong. Flipside starts out slower, spacier, with plenty of echo on the drum machines. Eventually it picks up in, um, a '80s teaming Euro-studio-pop ballad sort of way. Eventually a sorry excuse for a "rock guitar solo" enters the picture. Not bad! Though the songs are probably duller than the sounds, to be honest.

Daliah Lavi "Wer Hat mein Lied So Zerstort, Ma?"/"Akkordeon" (Polydor West Germany, year unknown) Figured out the title was an Aryanization of "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma" (always secretly loved that song ever since my secretly emo childhood, though for some reason I keep thinking it's by Melanie or Yvonne Elliman when really it's by the New Seekers) just by reading the sleeve; good for me! And long-haired pensive beauty Daliah schaglerizes it wunderbar; some dark Nico ice-queen cabaret stuff in there, neat. Also deduced that the B-side would somehow involve accordions, but didn't know it would start out like a cross between "Love is Blue" and, well, either "The Windmills Of Your Mind" or "As Tears Go By" I guess. Which is to say...dark! depressive! in the afternoon! yikes! And actually, the accordion is way back in the background, though it's there.

Olivia Molina "Das Lied"/"Antwort Auf Alle Fragen" (EMI West Germany, 1973) More rainy Mittwoch afternoon fraulein schlager, in a mod speckled dress no less! After a while these songs start to make me sleepy, even when they pick up halfway through and get all bombastically orchestrated and stuff. Too much emotion for me, or something. Second song has "warum"s and "blumen"s and "fragen"s and "sonnenschein"s (all of which I am probably gespelling wrong) in it, but this still bores me more than the previous two.

Monica Morell "Ich Fange Nie Mehr Was An Einem Sonntag An"/"Ice Weine Nicht" (Columbia West Germany, 1972) That last record apparently was made in Koln, this one in Munich; wonder if that makes a difference. Well, this one, on the A-side anyway, has some horns. And a choir. And a really long title. And the singer looks more like Marcia Brady, but it's still making me want to reject the tone-arm. Which I did, only to find some toy-shop sounds opening the other side, then the music slowing down for more words about sonnenschein that sadly don't sound sonnescheiny at all to me. Zzzzz.

Nanna "Call Me"/"I Love You" (Replay, 1983) Okay, whew, this one looks way less morose and suicidal. And more '80s! She even has a nice smile. Nation of origin unknown, but published by "Great Dane Music," so maybe Holland. "Baby don't you have a phone?" she sarcastically asks (in English), over cute little synth beats. She could call him, but says (in a very friendly and non-egotistical tomboy voice) that she won't. A few minutes in, completely unexpectedly, Nanna starts making lots of popcorn hiccups with her mouth that sound like Lene Lovich under the influence of Hot Butter, cool!! "I Love You" has just as simple a title, and is an even more upbeat and bopping slice of Eurobubblemotown pop, with whipcrack studio effects and sexy catching-of-breath parts and the kind of post-Elton teeny-rock guitar you'd hear...where? Kim Wilde records, maybe? Rick Springfield records? Somewhere like that. Somewhere good. I totally-otally love this one.

(Wait, "Great Dane Music" would imply Denmark not Holland, right? Duh.)

Nanna pop >>> Anita Karlson pop btw; Anita's just keeps going in one and ear out the other. Doesn't cut it. But the Nanna one is loaded with cute hooks.

Daliah Lavi's New Seekers cover thankfully balances its ice-cold Nico schtick with warmer Al Jolson phrasing (if Al Jolson was German and rolled his r's), at least whenever she says "mama." And her accordion song has a palpable...wurlitzeriness? hurdy-gurdiness? caliopiopity? or something to its rhythm. None of which might come from the squeezebox (which doesn't do a whole lot til the song's end.)

Nena "Leuchtturm"/"Kina" (CBS Schalplatten West Germany, 1983). Yeah, that Nena. And boy is she cute. No one dances on logs in videos about nuclear annihilation like Nena does, I'll tell you that. The boys in her band are pretty cute, too, though they're not my type despite looking almost as girly as she does. Anyway. This is the year before "99 Luftballons," and Nena and her Nena-boys are still hungry, and "Leuchtturm" starts with plenty of post-Kraut-rock dub echo before the guitar hooks and synth bubbles kick in and Nena manages to be entirely nonchalant and entirely exuberant at the same time. "Kina" is more conventional synth pop, but with that pretty pretty pretty gurgle the Krauts were so much better than the Limeys at putting in there at the time (do I believe that? well it sounded opinionated either way) and Nena says "All ist klar" (but not "Der Kommissar") and "Cary Grant" and "mitternacht" and stuff like that. Yay!

Nena "Feuer Und Flame"/"Woman On Fire" (CBS Schalplatten West Germany, 1985) Now on the other side of luftballon stardom, Nena delivers a concept single. She and her band look significantly more alternative (scarves! new wave haircuts!) and jaded (sitting on the floor! surrounded by candles!) on the 45 sleeve; fame has clearly taken its toll. "Feuer Und Flame" has her mainly repeating the title over and over and over, over intermittently bumptious Killing Joke tribal drums and noisy dance-metal riffage. "Woman On Fire" is a translation, it turns out, though clearly not a literal one, and Nena seems less assured singing in English, obviously not her native tongue, though the stuff about "body heat" recalls Olivia Newton-John circa "Physical," and of course the title rhymes with "danger and desire," this being the '80s and all. "And the woman on fire...is me." Hot!

Pat & Paul "Beim Kronenwirt"/"Wenn Der Toni Mit Der Vroni" (Telefunken West Germany, 1973) Paul is prettier than Pat (the girl) (blonde) on the cover, a nice touch. At first I thought they were both wearing knit sweaters, but it's just that Pat's arm is around Paul so you can't see his suit. Anyway, this is schlager. But heartily tuba-farting schlager, at least in "Beim Kronenwirt"'s case. with lots of singalongable "yoo-biddy-yoo-biddy-yoo"s and "ya-ha-ha-ha"s in the singing. In fact, that's mostly all it is. And the singing isn't even much in the way of singing -- hell, I can sing better than that, and the nuns used to make me lip-synch in church not to throw off the rest of the class (true story), but it kinda doesn't matter. Big fat ugly German guys nostalgic for anti-Semitic passion plays drank so much bier to this song they couldn't see straight, I can tell. Which is interesting, because Pat & Paul are young people. B-side goes a little too far in the "we're all having so much fun aren't we" department to be convincing (Pat's "yoo hoo!" exclamation give you the idea she's not all that into it), and falls apart when it slows, blegh.

Actually, the A-side of that Pat & Paul single sounds like a totally forced brand of "fun", too, the more I hear it. Maybe old Germans didn't drink to it after all. Perhaps they tossed their steins of beer in the annoying couple's faces instead.

And it's my civic responsibility to point out that, despite my eternal infatuation with Nena, none of those four tracks above has hooks anywhere near as undeniable as "99 Luftballons." (Few songs, do, but still.) Still wonder, though, what Alex In NYC would think about the very Killing Joke opening to "Feuer Und Flamme" (which Nena and band pretty quickly turn into actual pop music, of course.)

Metal Mike, via email:

the only truly odd thing is that in Berlin, when i dug through close to 1,000 (or way more -- had to be 12 to 15 "boxes" stacked w/45s straight up, easy to flip straight through) 45s at the store where most of the 45s came from (they're stickered with yellow -- i think -- typed/printed stickers that read like

e 0.50 ( = 75 cents last spring)
or e 1.00 ( = 1.50)

there was NOTHING by Arabesque, nothing! now, the pricier (like slade, sweet in good condition) stuff was in equally massive boxes behind the counter/back room, which i didn't even have time to put in "want this act" queries for (save Slade, for our guitarist who now wears an old Slade design at every gig on stage) -- but gonig by Ebay , Arabesque is decidedly NOT collectible, not even vaguely. they just have nominal value (except maybe a little moreso for the endless Japanese pressings/lps which are many more albums than the german/euro issues).
((ALSO, nothing by the Newton Family, huh)

some clever guy who likes their stuff, cleared it all out at that store years ago! some disco-music dance music fan richfuck from Japan on a leisurely european vacation huffing drugs in amsterdam and taking pictures of the old Berlin Wall! (which is my favorite neighborhood in the whole world, the bohemian old Keuzberg and Friedrichshain neighborhoods, especially the former. now that is one trippy/spooky/trippy-assed little section of god's green earth. i don't think there's anywhere in america that compares to it -- except maybe one of the deep south towns/areas razed to the ground by the North in the Civil War. (we hiked Civil War trails in mississippi, ponds/lakes that had been filled with blood, but i always say = no tanks, no credibility!)

i have a rough Youtube checklist (of the best, supposedly, per my hacking around) on Arabesque and (also) the Newton Family if you want to put some interns on it to find those goddamn 45s that weren't there in Berlin.

(i did pick up a $2 copy of the very first Arabesque lp in Oslo, a norway pressing with the early disco-era hits, not half as interresting as their shortly-later ABBA-clone poppier/dancier/rockiers hits)

ReBop -- "I Werd Des G'fuhl Net Los"/"Dagegen Is Koa Kraut G'Washen" (EMI West Germany, 1985) Their name reminds me of Lester Bangs writing about Jethro Tull. And I like their song titles because one almost has the words "net loss" in it, and the other one has the word "Kraut" in it. Their pop is only slightly sprightly, though, despite hints of sax and doo-wop. Boy and girl, yellow shirts, her in plaid suspenders, both having a really bad hair day. Meh.

Roby & Brina "OK Disco Italia"/"Canta Anche Voi OK Disco Italia (Instrumental)" (Baby Germany, 1986) OK, this is more like it. This duo looks cuter, for one thing. He's pretty nerdy looking in his glasses and all, but with an ironic Confederate flag truckers' hat (?) a couple decades early almost, and she's got a short bob haircut and an oversized T-shirt that says "BOY" on it in really big letters like in one of those old Wham! videos. And they have Italian flag colors behind them, and the music is Italo disco. But not what would be called Italo disco now, probably. It's a medley of hits, in Italian -- starts with a short snippet of "Gloria" which Laura Branigan had covered, followed by a snippet of "Ti Amo" which Laura Branigan had also covered, but they don't boom the song out like Laura would have, and then there are other songs I never heard before, one of which goes "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma Maria" or something, and in between there's a chorus about it all being "OK! Disco Italia!", just like the title says. And the B-side is the same thing, except with no words beyond the chorus, though it does keep the tune parts to "Gloria", et. al.

Roxette "Soul Deep"/"Pearls Of Passion" (EMI Sweden, 1987) I interviewed these two for Request magazine back in the early '90s (Per was completely friendly; Marie more an ice queen), but I swear I never realized until a few minutes ago that they actually had a Swedish (and Canadian, and other places) album before Look Sharp! (Actually a couple album, apparently -- one a remix album, according to Wiki.) Anyway, it was called Pearls Of Passion, and these were both on it (in some form -- the "Soul Deep" here says "remix"), and though I'd have to go back to the U.S. debut to make sure, off hand I'd say both cuts seem possibly rawer and definitely punchier than what they first showed up here with. Especially "Soul Deep," which I might take over the Box Tops song of the same name -- just a really cool glam-rock/blue-eyed-soul hybrid, with a tough, hard, non-icey vocal from Marie, and "hey hey hey"s in the background taken blatantly from some soul classic I can't place right now. B-side's more a power ballad, and has Per singing lead about December feeling like July, but there's a sort of '80s Springsteen feel to it, somehow, and when Marie comes in, some Scandal or Benatar. Neato.

Amusing tidbit about "Soul Deep" from Wiki: "The song was originally written in Swedish and was called 'Dansar ner för ditt stup i rekordfart' but that title was considered too silly." No kidding!

(TS: Roxette Look Sharp! vs. Joe Jackson Look Sharp.)

So, just noticed (not sure how I missed this before) that that Roby & Brina 45 breaks down the elements of its medley on the back: "OK Disco Italia/Gloria/ Ti Amo/La Bombola/L'Italiano/Felecita/OK Disco Italia/Mamma Maria/Sara Perche Ti Amo/OK Disco Italia." The eat keeps pumping ("Stars on 45"/"Hooked On Classics" style sort of) and Brina keeps things happy and chirpy throughout, but gets especially joyous on the OK!" parts, as she should. My favorite part otherwise is probably "Mamma Maria"; need to track down the original someday.

Realized that the song Roxette's "Soul Deep" (and especially its hey-hey-hey's) really reminds me of (and this is a huge compliment by the way) is the Osmonds' great own glam/Motown juncture "Yo Yo."
Love it. Favorite line in "Soul Deep" (hey I'm Catholic): "Save a prayer for a sinner and a saint, my baby's coming back." Favorite line in "Pearls of Passion": "Now's the time for weary minds, the moon is northern bound." And Per gets off good concise hearty pop-rocky guitar solos in both songs.

The eat keeps pumping

Not eat. The beat. The beat. The beat.

btw, the '80s Springsteen in that Roxette B-side was probably more '80s John Cafferty. Which is fine.

Scool "Roll Baby Roll"/"Downtown Lights" (Telefunken West Germany, 1980). Four cute (or at least cute-ish) white girls wearing roller skates on the sleeve, but only one has a skating helmet on. (One has a pith helmet like she's going on a safari, one has a visor, the one showing the most skin is also hatless.) So, no surprise, roller disco music, about how even the police chief and the businessman roll and skaters wear exotic skintight duds and bathing suits. Real bouncy 1980 disco-pop bounce to it, plus some proto-Aqua deep German guy voice that comes in once in a while to say "rolllllll" with his r's and l's rolling. B-side is actually funkier -- harder bassline, extended sleek disco sax solo -- yet sung with more lightness. Less of a song, too, but good.

Sugar & Candy "Come To The Party"/"Chapel Of Love" (Hansa International West Germany, 1977) Two more cute white girls, somewhere in their 20s I guess, but this time wearing pajama-like baseball uniforms (one sky blue, one red) with stars all over, like they're on a barnstorming women's novelty team. Also a mitt, and a ball. Their vocals are smaller and less assured than Scool's, but they have wackier, more specific words: "Watch the guy with burning hair/He's dancing with a bear/A rocker dressed in black/Has a coffin (?) on his back." (Not really sure if it's "coffin" -- sounds like "com finn," but I assume English isn't their native language.) That image reminds me of those disco LP covers with all kinds of partying freaks and weirdos, like Silver Convention's Madhouse. And Sugar & Candy's deep German proto-Aqua/Toy Boy guy is weirder and freakier than Scool's guy: "velcome to the party!!", very "Barbie Girl". Okay sax and guitar parts, too, and the girls unsuccessully try to rhyme "heat" with "get it." "Chapel In Love" is a cover, with wedding music and disco orchestrations mixed in, and the girls don't seem real into it, but it'll pass.

proto-Toy Box guy, I meant (not Toy Boy).

Shepstone And Dibbens "Shady Lady"/"China Heat" (Polydor West Germany, 1973) Talk about weirdos -- I don't know if these two guys on the cover (one with a receding hairline and sleazy mustache and a fur coat slung over his shoulder and ill-fitting blue-jean overalls over a red T-shirt, and a shorter guy with longer hair and knit sweater under his blue jean jacket and a camera slung over his shoulder) are trying to look like they're in Midnight Cowboy or what, but they really do look like they just got out of prison for some sex-related offense, especially the tall guy. Figured this would be some skiffly kind of schlager mush, and for the first few seconds that's how "Shady Lady" hit me (they're the shady ones! not the lady!), but then I noticed how snotty and slimy the sexist spurned-male vocal over the folk boogie was -- reminds me of "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" or "Hey Little Girl," or (maybe this is more along the lines of what they were aiming for) some Dylan-wannabe garage punks like Mouse and the Traps. I'm betting they were going for Dylan (as in say "Positively Fourth Street"), not the garage bands, but the effect is the same, and it gets me, even if the part where they say they're going to call the FBI and KGB (and CID? what's that?) to hunt down the girl is sort of dorky. B-side is more twee, with pretty semi-racist fake Asian music mixed in.

B-side actually "China Heart" (not "Heat")

Tonight "Money That's Not Your Problem"/""No Sympathy" (Warner Bros. West Germany, 1978) Fake punks! Not in the accidental Shepstone & Dibbens sense, but in the "pretending to be punk rocker" sense, like the Vibrators or early Boomtown Rats, both of whom "Money That's Not Your Problem" reminds me of -- only 2:04, totally energetic and catchy and ridiculous: something like "Money makes the world go black! Money money money makes ya fat! Now tell me what you think of that!" In snotty British accents. I'm not sure why they don't think money is their own problem (maybe they're rich), but it's timely 30 years later nonetheless. B-side is a bit slower, not as catchy, but not bad; vaguely pub-rockabilly -- reminds me of "Work Shy" by the Fabulous Poodles sort of, and might be about the same thing (i.e., hating working). Wikipedia informs that "Tonight were a five piece new wave band, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Although only active from June 1977 to January 1979, they played a small but significant part, in the ever-changing music scene in the late 1970s...Tonight along with The Rich Kids, were the first acts to be described as power pop, a new UK music genre term in 1978, initially mentioned by Charles Catchpole, in the Evening Standard, 'Rock Notes' section, on 17 January 1978. The term was borrowed from Pete Townshend's description of The Who's music in 1967, and in 1978 put forward as a musical genre, by the press/promotion office at WEA in London, to describe their new upcoming acts at that time. As punk morphed into new wave (December 1977 - January 1978) Tonight scored the first hit for the power pop movement in February 1978, with "Drummer Man" reaching No.14 in the UK Singles Chart. Their next single 'Money (That's Your Problem)' charted well outside of the Top 40; but two more singles were released plus an album was recorded." (I'm skeptical about the term "powerpop" being invented in the UK; wasn't it already being used in the States for bands like the Raspberries and Badfinger? Always figured somebody like Greg Shaw had come up with it, but I could be way off.)

Vanilla Ice "Road To My Riches"/"Hooked" (SBK West Germany, 1991). Last one. Not sure if this was a single in the States or not; supposedly off his Extremely Live CD. Can't believe I didn't hear "Road To My Riches" before (or at least never noticed it) -- AC/DC "Back In Black" riff all through, like the Beastie Boys' "Rock Hard," with a Bowie "Let's Dance" hook or two mixed in like Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines." He throws a wet towel and the girlies go wild, and he talks about his "thigh pole" I think I heard him say once. Kind of love his white urban wannabe street-tough voice introducing the song at the beginning -- it's a voice that goes back at least as far as the Belmonts (or even further, in movies), and really not that far from what House of Pain or even Ice's nemeses 3rd Bass were doing a couple years later. (I think he also uses the word "nemesis" somewhere.) On the 45 sleeve, he's sort of lurking in the shadows, flashing a fake gang sign and showing off his rings. Also, says he's not like Milton Bradley (didn't catch why) but is "like Charley, I like the good and plenty." Song is suppposedly live, but doesn't sound live at all except during Ice's intro, and when some hypeman comes in a ways into the song to hype up the non-crowd. B-side, which actually sounds slightly more familiar, has a wobbly "Brass Monkey" sort of horn thing going on, and Ice scolding his buddy who is is hung up on some girl who treats him "like a dirty diaper/Use ya once and then tries to wipe you...out!" Recommends his friend visit a shrink -- helpful advice, what friends are for!

(Fwiw, Tonight do think money is your problem. I got the title wrong the first time. They hence seem to imply that their own problems, assuming they have any, are something other than monetary.)

hey chuck. do you still have that jeanette 7" around? i really want it, but don't want to pay for european shipping costs.

Probably not... Don't see it on my 45s shelf, and if it's one I didn't seem to like on this thread, I most likely donated it to either a thrift store or a waste receptacle before moving away from NY. If it turns up, though, I'll say so here.

ack!

seriously. listen to this shit. so great. and she's still so hot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxrrE6wC5I

xhuxk throws away more music than more people keep before 9 AM...

friend compared her to lio, who i already had a crush on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuS1lKnkUWo

her band Pic-Nic recorded some sweet, delicate folk-rock singles and EP's in the late '60s, and some of their songs were re-released under her name once she went solo. love these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoA1LIQ6dfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdZhFIdza4s