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?

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Volume Ten-Ten Years On

Here I am again, back with another installment in the For Hi-Fi Living series.  This one is quite different from anything else in the series because it's performed on the organ instead of using an orchestra. The name on the front cover is Jocelyn McNeil, but popular scuttlebutt is that this is actually well-known organist George Wright.  You never know how true these stories are, but it's certainly not the first artist in this series that performs under a pseudonym.  This is actually not the record that I bought over a year ago when I found all twelve records in the series in one go.  I found this copy yesterday at a dollar record sale up in St. Pete.  And it looked like it was in really good shape and happened to be the very next installment in the series, so I went ahead and picked it up.  Some of the records I have in this series aren't in the best shape, especially the covers, but I thought this one was pretty nice.  And I think the music came out pretty good.  Download it and let me know what you think!  This is Jocelyn McNeil At The Pipe Organ-Very Hi-Fi Organ (RCA Custom RAL-1010, Mono, 1957).

1. Who's Sorry Now?
2. Sophisticated Lady
3. Pavanne
4. Star Dust
5. The Creole Love Call
6. Home
7. Blue Mirage
8. Jealous
9. I Got Rhythm
10. Emaline
11. Stormy Weather
12. The Dream Of Olwen


PS-I originally wrote that Dick Leibert was the famous organist moonlighting as Jocelyn McNeil, but someone pointed out that I was mistaken.  It's most likely George Wright, another prolific organist.
The earlier shares are right here, in case you missed them:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9