Monday, March 12, 2018

The Answer!

I have made a discovery that will rock the world!  Many of you are probably familiar with the Phil Harris classic "The Thing" (1950), but the identity of what's in the box Phil finds on that beach has long been a mystery.  Well, I've figured it out.  It turns out the answer is in a song that Phil released the year after "The Thing" came out.  That other song is "Oh, What A Face" from 1951. It's not very PC, but maybe not as bad as some of it's contemporaries.  I've uploaded both songs so you can give them a listen and see if you agree with me.  Just listen to the end of "Oh, What A Face" and you'll see it lines up pretty well with what happens in The Thing.  Give it a listen, then tell me what you think in the comments!

Zippyshare
And now that I have your attention, I have a request.  I've been trying to put together the complete Phil Harris discography on RCA Victor.  I had a couple of good weeks after several years of putting together a record here and there, and I found almost 20 records that I needed, either stuff that was completely new or 7" 45 RPM versions of things I previously had on 10" 78 RPM.  Thinking I must be getting close to having it all, I spent a few hours making a list of all the records I still need to find, and it turns out I'm quite a way from having the complete collection.  Perhaps you have something from the list below?  If so, let's talk.  Some of these things I've never heard, some of them I just want an original single of, on 45 if possible, but many of them came out before the 45 was invented, so I'll take what I can get.

47-2770 Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens b/w Woodman, Spare That Tree (1949)
47-3064 Row Row Row b/w I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None O’ This Jelly Roll (1949)
47-3216 Chattanoogie Shoe-Shine Boy b/w That’s A Plenty (1950)
47-3260 Smoke Smoke Smoke (That Cigarette) b/w Crawdad Song (1950)
47-3781 Play A Simple Melody b/w On The Mississippi (1950) Looks like I have this one!
47-4124 The Letter (with Alice Faye) b/w Possibilities (1951)
47-4224 Golden Train b/w Tennessee Hill-Billy Ghost (1951)
47-4584 Hambone (with The Bell Sisters) b/w Mama’s On The Warpath (1952)
47-5615 Take Your Girlie To The Movies (If You Can’t Make Love At Home) b/w I Know An Old Lady (1954)
20-2163 It’s A Good Day b/w The ‘Possum Song (1947) I have this one, is it on 45 anywhere?
20-2198 Poppa Don’t Preach To Me b/w Necessity (1947)
20-2401 Fun And Fancy Free (B-side is by Louis Prima)
20-2614 One More Time b/w Old Time Religion (1947)
20-2715 He’s His Own Grandpa (I’m My Own Grandpa) b/w Never Trust A Woman (1948)
20-3393 The Mountaineer And The Jabberwock b/w Elmer And The Bear (1949)
47-3477 Thank The Man Upstairs b/w I Wish I Were A Goldfish (1949)
20-3708 God’s Country b/w Lazy River (1950)
47-3825 Dig-Dig-Dig Dig For Your Dinner b/w I’ve Been Floating Down The Old Green River (Jul 1950)
20-4225 The Musicians b/w How D’ye Do And Shake Hands (both sides with Betty Hutton, Dinah Shore & Tony Martin) (1951)
47-4750 Potato Chips b/w Under The Lamp Post (1952)
47-4993 Piece A-Puddin’ b/w Hi-Diddle-Diddle (both sides with The Bell Sisters) (Oct 1952)
WBY-87 The Thing (with sound effects) b/w The Mountaineer And The Jabberwock (1958)
599-9048 If You Got Someplace To Go, Go Ahead b/w Pass Around The Basket (two tracks from The RCA Victor Platter Party SPD 6) (1955)

Not a list for the faint of heart, that's for sure, but I think I'm more than halfway. Any help is much appreciated!Once I get the whole collection, which is running about 100 tracks, I think, well, that's going to be a nice share, don't you think?

11 comments:

  1. The list isn't showing up on the site - might need to change the font color or something.

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  2. Some days I really don't like HTML... :(

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  3. The list is there. Hang fire - I might have a couple.

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  4. So you're saying he couldn't get rid of the thing so he kept taking her to places like the horse race and pig farm? Nutty

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  5. Here you are, Ernie:
    Chattanoogie Shoe Sine Boy
    Crawdad Song
    I’m My Own Grandpa
    Never Trust A Woman
    Play A Simple Melody
    Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette
    Woodman, Spare That Tree
    Martin, Shore, Harris, Hutton – The Musicians
    Link:
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/v962u7v2p6ulnwr/Hill_Farris.rar

    And if you’re looking for any other old stuff look at this list:
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/u6s37fg3ilw4lll/nostalgoldies+A-Z.rar
    Anything you want from it, let me know.

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  6. an answer song, no doubt. i think i would have issued these in yellow plastic. but that’s just me. i must say, your appetite for phil harris is far greater than mine. i can only add the ex-collector’s standard lament (“i used to have…”) for a few of the titles. but they shouldn’t be hard to find.

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  7. Thanks for the files, Mel. Couple in there that I hadn't heard, but now that just makes me want to find hard copies even more. I think I can grab scratchy copies of some of them at archive.org, too.

    Doug-Yes, that's exactly it! Good job! ;)

    Barba-Yellow was for kiddie records. Surely you're not saying...

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  8. What a terrific blog! Sad that I hadnt seen it before today. We have so few music blogs still chugging along, that for keeping at it!

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  9. I'm an old Jack Benny fan so Phil Harris brings back memories.
    Thank you Mr. Not Bert!

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  10. Oh, that's great! Thank you. You're right in that the end does line up well with "The Thing." I do believe that does pretty much answer the question. LOL!

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