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

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=