Spectropop - Digest Number 2003

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005

________________________________________________________________________
      
               SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
________________________________________________________________________


There are 6 messages in this issue.


Topics in this digest:

      1. Re: Tony Christie's "Avenues & Alleyways"
           From: Roy Clough 
      2. "How Golden Those Oldies? The Bids on EBay Will Tell"
           From: Phil X Milstein 
      3. Re: Bacharach & David's "Lost Horizon"
           From: Bob Rashkow 
      4. Marty Pekar, founder of Ambient Sound
           From: Ed Salamon 
      5. Re: Phil's Spectre II - A Wish For Vol. 3
           From: Tony 
      6. Re: Tony Christie's "Avenues & Alleyways"
           From: John Stewart 


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________



Message: 1
   Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:44:00 -0000
   From: Roy Clough 
Subject: Re: Tony Christie's "Avenues & Alleyways"

Paul Richards wrote:
> Here's a link to the video for this great track, which is released 
> in the UK next week. Starts off great with James Bond-esque 
> graphics, but goes a bit downhill when the chorus comes in. Great 
> tune though; brilliant to hear it regularly on Radio 2. Another 
> number 1 for Tony? http://tinyurl.com/94ko3

If Peter Kay is not on it, then it will be a miss, but good song well 
sung




-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------

Message: 2         
   Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 22:54:08 -0400
   From: Phil X Milstein 
Subject: "How Golden Those Oldies? The Bids on EBay Will Tell"

...from the N.Y. Sunday Times, an article on Marty Pekar, founder of 
Ambient Sound Records:

How Golden Those Oldies? The Bids on EBay Will Tell 
by Peter Applebome - New York Times, July 3, 2005
Greenwich, NY

Maybe there are 35,000 singles by the Beatles and Bing Crosby, 
Phyllis Diller and Daddy Dewdrop, the Four Tops, the Four Freshmen, 
the Four Preps and the Four Lads, Brenda Lee and Kendra Lee and 
thousands of others great and small in boxes and shelves in Marty 
Pekar's basement. Maybe there are 20,000. Maybe there are 40,000. No 
one knows.

Marty Pekar, a former advertising copywriter, among thousands of 45's 
in his basement in Greenwich, N.Y. "Don't call it a collection," he 
said. "It's an accumulation." But as he pokes around aimlessly 
through 50 or so brown cardboard boxes of country singles, Mr. Pekar 
stops and pulls out one, "Mr. Painter, Paint My Dad" by someone named 
Jean Peloquin. "Here's someone who got signed to Decca, big label, 
thought her career was made, did at least two records and no one ever 
heard from her again," he says. "For every Tammy Wynette, there's a 
thousand Jean Peloquins. For someone looking for 'Mr. Painter, Paint 
My Dad,' there's only one place to go. And it's right here."

O.K., maybe it's not the only place. Maybe you could poke through, 
say, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville and turn up something 
by Ms. Peloquin or "It's Too Soon After Too Late Last Night" by Willi 
Beery or the heartwarming "I Hate Hate" by Razzy and the Neighborhood 
Kids. And so on. And so on. Still, for those with a taste for 
cultural vertigo and obsolete technologies, there were few more 
alluring places last week than Mr. Pekar's insanely cluttered 
basement, where his astounding singles collection - we'll get back to 
that in a minute - was the most viewed item on eBay. When the auction 
ended Saturday night, it had been viewed by 70,570 visitors. All you 
needed, besides the winning bid, of course, was a desire to take home 
many, many thousands of old singles, a place to store them and a 
willingness to abide by Mr. Pekar's catch: hauling them away yourself 
and taking every last one of them.

Now, back to Mr. Pekar, a 60-year-old former advertising copywriter, 
who mostly worked for Columbia Records, and a somewhat obsessive fan 
of music (particularly doo-wop and 50's music), comics and old 
tabloid magazines. "It's not a collection; don't call it a 
collection - it's an accumulation," said Mr. Pekar, who lives in a 
cedar house on 42 acres near Saratoga at the end of a long, rutted 
dirt road - the better to escape all things urban. "I have a 
collection of LP's, ones I've collected one by one, everything by 
Ricky Nelson, everything by Fats Domino; I consider that a 
collection. This is a lot of junk, a lot of half junk, quite a lot 
that's interesting, but it's not a collection; it wasn't put together 
piece by piece. I don't even know most of what's in it."

You could say Mr. Pekar's path to eBay greatness began back in 
Brooklyn, when he bought his first record, a 78 of "The Flying 
Saucer" by Buchanan and Goodman a half-century ago. Soon he was 
hooked. Most of his collection, the real stuff, is in his living room 
and basement, lovingly preserved LP's, "The Unforgettable Jesse 
Belvin," "There's a Moon Out Tonight" by the Capris, albums by Ernie 
K-Doe, Tommy Sands, Fabian, Elvis, all encased in clear plastic 
sleeves. That's augmented by piles of CD's and box sets, many never 
opened, that sit in forlorn piles. "I buy everything meaning to 
listen to it," he said. "But I just never get around to it."

HE does have a small singles collection, about 100 of his own that 
he's including in the sale. But the beast in the basement, officially 
Lot 4741601339 on eBay, is almost all boxes and boxes that he 
purchased over the years to resell and barely looked at. Not that 
he's totally in the dark. "Here's something you'll never see," he 
said, opening a box full of Beatles singles. In addition to 
conventional pressings of "I Feel Fine," and "She Loves You" and 
"Hey, Jude," there's a plastic bag full of obscure Eastern European 
pressings, Beatles songs with labels for Poles, Russians and East 
Germans. Elsewhere are old extended play 45's by Doris Day, The 
Andrews Sisters, the Lennon Sisters, Jimmy Dean, or the RCA Victor 
Encyclopedia of Recorded Jazz, that to the uninitiated look like 
collectors' items.

Workmen came to deliver new towering speakers he'll pay for from his 
proceeds (the winning bid was $9,223.45). He put on a few favorites: 
"Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by the Jive Five, a bracingly anarchic 
"Bila" by the Versa-Tones, "Tain't it the Truth," by Ernie K-Doe. We 
try "I Hate Hate" (think Archie Bell and the Drells with a message) 
and "Martian Hop" by the Ran-Dells, from his singles collection.

You think maybe he'll have second thoughts. But, no, he figures he 
has what he wants on CD's and LP's. He'll be glad to clear the 
basement out for the comics he's now selling, and even he can live 
without hearing "The Teens in Jeans from New Orleans" by Lillian 
Briggs or "Hula Star" and "Ballad of Honest Abe" by Johnny Bailes. 
"I'll wave goodbye when the truck pulls out and hope it doesn't come 
back," he said.




-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------

Message: 3         
   Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:36:44 EDT
   From: Bob Rashkow 
Subject: Re: Bacharach & David's "Lost Horizon"

John Frederick Brown: 
> To Bacharach and David: I have always been an admirer of "Lost 
> Horizon"......

Although IMO that musical film was a disaster waiting to happen, 
there were several good things that came out of it, most notably the 
last Top 30 for The Fifth Dimension, "Living Together, Growing 
Together"--their arrangement on the Bell 45 sounded much warmer and 
sweeter than the arrangement written for the movie soundtrack.  To 
give Burt and Hal their due credit for brilliance, it isn't the only 
song I liked.  But Ross Hunter must have taken a wrong turn somewhere 
because it all just seemed to fall flat compared to the Hilton novel 
and the '37 flick.  

Bobster




-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------

Message: 4         
   Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:18:01 -0000
   From: Ed Salamon 
Subject: Marty Pekar, founder of Ambient Sound

Previously:
> ...from the N.Y. Sunday Times, an article on Marty Pekar, founder of
> Ambient Sound Records:

When we started the United Stations Radio Networks, Marty brought The 
Capris, The Harptones and Randy and the Rainbows from his Ambient 
Sound label to play our kickoff party at One Times Square. When he 
left CBS, I hired Marty to write some of our trade ads. He was/is a 
brilliant copywriter. When he lived in Queens and I in NJ, we would 
trade records. He had a great LP collection even then (25 years ago). 
He ran auctions in Goldmine as "Steal-A-Records" with 99 cent minimum 
bids.  

Ed Salamon




-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------

Message: 5         
   Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:07:29 -0000
   From: Tony 
Subject: Re: Phil's Spectre II - A Wish For Vol. 3

How about the obscure, one shot 1965 disc by L.A. home-girl, VICKY 
GOMEZ on ABC PARAMOUNT entitled, 'Boy's Are A Dime A Dozen'?  The 
tune was recorded at GOLD STAR under the direction of the late, great 
GENE PAGE.  Huge brass section, clacking castanets, shaking maraccas, 
tambourine, handclaps and the magic of Gold Star's echo chamber make 
this a contender in my opinion.  (I've got a video copy of Miss Gomez 
singing it on the L.A. based teen dance show, SHIVAREE with her 
teased-up, combed-out and heavily laquered coiffure.  Very cool!) 

Other suggestions for Vol. 3 are:

HE MAKES ME FEEL SO PRETTY - Shirley Matthews
WHO AM I - Jerry Ganey
HE'S HURTIN' ME - Beverly Williams
LITTLE BOY - Karen Verros
I WANNA MAKE YOU HAPPY - Margaret Mandolph
I'D BE SO GOOD FOR YOU - Joanie Sommers
IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO - Ashes
THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (When a Girl's In Love) - Sweet Three
GOODBYE BABY - Maureen Gray
LONELY GIRL - Gwenn Stacey
I MISS MY SURFER BOY TOO - Westwoods







-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------

Message: 6         
   Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 01:34:26 +0100
   From: John Stewart 
Subject: Re: Tony Christie's "Avenues & Alleyways"

Frank:
> Wasn't it a regular theme tune for a British series in the eighties?

In the interests of being pedantic, The Protectors was made in 1972-3.

John




-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------


      SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!

End

• [Prev by Date] [Next by Date] [Index] [Search]
• Spectropop Discussion Group Main Page