Al Caiola and his Big Guitar

(Updated April 17, 2014)

Al Caiola is the pop guitarist who made hits of The Magnificent Seven and Bonanza themes in 1961. He had large orchestral backing from the United Artists label, and he adopted the style of Duane Eddy at the time - a twangy bass lead guitar sound. He was with UA thruout the 60s, releasing loads of records besides his hits. There was an import CD available from Australia at amazon titled "Bonanza - 1960-1969", which I can recommend.
It's another one of those situations where you'll never find all his good stuff reissued. Here is a complete list of his UA singles for the record. Highlighted titles have audio samples.


The Magnificent Seven / The Lonely Rebel _ _ _ 1960
Bonanza / Bounty Hunter - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- 1961
Autumn In Cheyenne / Speak Low
Rollerama / Stampede - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1962
Experiment In Terror / Sergeants 3 March
Katusha / Love Is Like Champagne
Guitar Boogie / Kalinka - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1963
Mexicali Rose
Gunsmoke / Ciao
Guns Of Navarone / James Bond Theme
Women Of The World (La Donna Nel Mondo) - - - - - - -
- - - - -/ Redigo
Burke's Law Theme / Smoke Signal
From Russia With Love / Mexican Summer - - - - - 1964
The World Of the Brothers Grimm .........................
....../ Baby Elephant Walk
On the Trail / Wheels West
Tuff Guitar / Hound Dog
Bash Brannigan / Hunky Funky ...........................1965
Ring Of Fire / Gabrielle
Glory Guys / Forget Domani
The Trials Of O'Brien / Walking Down the Line
Batman Theme / Karelia ......................................1966
Duel At Diablo / Sugar Me Sweet
Hill Country Theme .............................................
...../ Stay Awhile (Quedato Un Rato Mas0
Return Of the Seven / Rat Patrol
Eight On the Lam / Sailor From Gibraltar ...............1967
Tiny Bubbles / Stag Or Drag
Never Pick Up a Stranger / Sleepwalk
Bossa Nova Noel / Holiday On Skiis .............................
.......(with Riz Ortolani)
Here Is Where I Belong / Sound Of Music ..............1968
Scalphunters Theme / Theme For November
High Chaparral / Master Jack .................................1969
Infinity Blue / Soul American
Stiletto / Guitar Woman .........................................1969


There are some singles here that I'd still like to add to my collection.



Samples: Jezebel, Two Guitars, Big Guitar




Samples: Tall Man, Gunslinger, The Deputy



See his wikipedia article for a list of his albums.

The Diamonds - rare recordings

(Updated Oct.19, 2020)

You know The Diamonds from their 1957 hit "Little Darlin'". There are a couple of CD compilations now which present a lot more. Many of their releases of course weren't hits, and won't be found in collections. For the record here is a list..

Complete singles discography:

Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _/ Nip Sip (Coral) 1955
Smooch Me / Be My Lovin Baby (Coral)
Why Do Fools Fall In Love / You Baby You .. (Mercury...) 1956
Church Bells May Ring / Little Girl Of Mine
Love Love Love / Every Night About This Time
Soft Summer Breeze / Ka-Ding-Dong
A Thousand Miles Away / Every Minute Of the Day
Little Darlin / Faithful and True ...................................1957
Words Of Love / Don't Say Goodbye
Zip Zip / Oh How I Wish
Passion Flower .. (dj only) Merc #71194 .....1957
Silhouettes / Daddy Cool
The Stroll / Land Of Beauty
Straight Skirts / Patsy (uncertain)
High Sign / Don't Let Me Down (Chic-lets) ................1958
Kathy-O / The Happy Years
Walking Along / Eternal Lovers
She Say / From the Bottom Of My Heart ....................1959
Gretchen / A Mother's Love
Sneaky Alligator / Holding Your Hand
Young In Years / The Twenty-Second Day
Batman Wolfman Frankenstein or Dracula / Walkin' the Stroll
Real True Love / Tell the Truth ..................................1960
Slave Girl / The Pencil Song
The Crumble / You'd Be Mine
You Short-Changed Me / I Sho' Lawd Will (Merc 71782) ..1961
The Munch / Woomai-Ling
One Summer Night / It's a Doggone Shame
The Horizontal Lieutenant / The Vanishing American ...1962

Highlighted titles can be heard by pressing. It's probably your only chance to hear them.


ALBUMS


Their greatest album was this 1959 Wing label compilation of 12 of their best rock&roll singles. Not fully a greatest hits album, it was very enjoyable, and features my favorite picture of them.




The Diamonds' western album

A very rare 1959 album you probably never even heard of. Twelve traditional western songs in standard arrangements with Pete Rugolo's orchestra. I found it at California Albums.
Here's a link to the complete album. Otherwise it will never be available, regardless of quality


Their first album

In 1957 following their smash Little Darlin', this album contained all original songs without any hits. The song Zip Zip was then released as a single hit.








Here is a link to the other 11 songs of the complete ALBUM.


The Diamonds Meet Pete Rugolo album can be sampled HERE.


" The Diamonds 1970s " album

This is sometimes seen in their discographies. It was in 1971. Lead Dave Somerville was no longer there, but original member Mike Douglas was leading it. Under Douglas they were moving into the Blood Sweat And Tears style. Click any picture to see it larger.








Sample the entire album.

 

 References:

The Diamonds CD that I would recommend is "The Diamonds Collection" on the Stardust label.

The official website for the original group:
http://www.min7th.com/diamonds/

A new authorized website at www.thediamondsmusic.com is no longer available as of 2020.

Nancy Sinatra and her Boots

Nancy Sinatra was one of the outstanding female singers of the late 1960s in the US, Frank's daughter of course. She's still going.
She had six Billboard US top 40 hits and more above that, plus duets with Lee Hazlewood and Frank.
These days she may sometimes be called a one-hit wonder because only Boots is remembered, but that's a typical today's error. That term is thrown around when people don't know enough, at singers who had more that one top 40. Besides, I say why does one national hit make a person a queer "wonder". It's a big accomplishment.



Here are some musical questions and comparisons. Press a selection to hear it.

These Boots Are Made For Walking - #1 1966
Arranged by Billy Strange, like all her other hits, and written by Lee Hazlewood. The descending bass intro has made it famous. Lee used to be a radio dj and had experience at mastering and processing songs to sound best on radio. I'm not saying he did this, but here's an example of what analog AM radio did for this song. The album version sounds lame in comparison. Who can comment on what radio did? Digital versions today are even more lame. It shows that mastering method is more important than bitrate. Stereo sources here have been merged to mono.

Boots - radio recording
Boots - album recording

Friday's Child - #36 1966
One of those frank anguished songs of that era like "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian. By Hazlewood again. Too depressed for me, but well arranged. However, her hits album had a version which was not the hit single version. Can Warner Brothers/ Reprise explain why? That's a strange ripoff. Was there originally a different recording on an album? The hit version is the impressive one.

Friday's Child - Greatest Hits version
Friday's Child - hit single version

You Only Live Twice - #44 1967
The James Bond movie theme. The movie music was on the United Artists label. They rerecorded it for their own Reprise label and had it on the flip of Jackson, and it charted. I think the soundtrack song turns out more impressive.

movie version
Reprise version

Name the Song?

(Updated September 4, 2018)

Some music I've recorded off air in past years without identification. They're good enough to try to find out. Press any highlighted title to hear.
Who, title, when, etc.

1. Strange Things Happen
Is this Bobby Vinton? UPDATE: It's Johnny Tillotson from 1967~.

2. ?~Love Is Gone~?
Maybe from the 80s. Could this be a tribute to Karen Carpenter? Maybe produced by her husband? Maybe in Canada?
ANSWER: It's Karen Marklinger of Winnipeg Canada in 1971. Moment Of Love from the album Colours Of The Rainbow.

3. If I Found a New Girl
By who? Sounds like ~1959. UPDATE: This is by Little Caesar & The Consuls from 1963 in Canada. This is a revised edition.

4. There was also a mid-50s female R&B song with the line "Everybody made merry...and Mary got mad". I think about a Christmas party. UPDATE: It was "Christopher Columbus" by Dinah Washington in 1957.

5. Butterfly instrumental.
Which orchestra? This is the early 1970s international hit written by Danyel Gerard. From the beat I'd say German. It's not James Last, I checked his. This is a partial recording from Shaw Cable background music.
UPDATE: I now know this is the Werner Muller orchestra with Bob Powels on trumpet. The LP Golden Trumpet.

6. LAURA - who is the singer etc. ANSWER: Eileen Farrell, US opera singer.

7. OUT OF THIS WORLD - singer etc.

Press "comments" below to reply.

The Comedy of Ray Stevens

(Updated December 21, 2007)

Y'all probably know the songs Ahab the Arab and Guitarzan from the 1960s. What's worth checking out is a lot of his unknown obscurities that weren't hits. How do these titles sound: Rockin Teenage Mummies, Mr Baker the Undertaker, The Old English Surfer, Mary My Secretary. These were non-hit singles from the 1960s.


Ray started out at the beginning. Uhh, I mean in the late 50s. He tried some teen rock + roll ballads that weren't successful. He recorded a novelty song called Cholly Wolly Chang, about the Chinese inventing R&R. It wasn't a hit, and I don't even know if it was released as a single, but it appeared on some compilation LPs. The song was inspired by the hit Ling Ting Tong by the Five Keys.
In 1960 came a glimmer of success, with Sergeant Preston Of the Yukon. It was the first of his musical joke style records. It didn't chart but is found on some CDs now.
In 1961 he charted with, get this: Jeremiah Peabody's Polunsaturated Pleasant-Tasting Fast-Acting Green and Purple Pills. Based on the medicinal commercials that were heard on TV at the time. He was using a solid R&R beat as backup. Next was Scratch My Back. Then came his big breakthru with Ahab the Arab in 1962.
I know of three versions of Ahab: There's a long full version found on LPs; the single was shortened with the end cut; and there's a live version. Get this: when he went into Mercury studios to record Ahab he saw Clyde McPhatter recording in another room. He then changed the song words to call the camel Clyde.


Some of his singles are extremely rare and weren't on albums. You'd never find them, so here's a chance to hear samples. Press a title:

Cholley Wolly Chang (unknown origin)
Rockin Teenage Mummies (1965)
Mr. Baker the Undertaker (1965)
The Old English Surfer (1965)
Mary My Secretary (1967)


And Furthermore ....

Ray has kept recording to the present. Some are hard to find because all albums haven't been chosen for online purchasing, and they don't choose just individual songs.
In 1983 he had a good album titled "#1 With a Bullet". Here are two good samples:
The Sheik Of R&B
The Pirate Song - a takeoff on Laurel and Hardy, and on the British "Carry On" movie series. There is also a live version called The Gay Pirate Song, not as good as this original. And this one has been edited in some releases to eliminate a homosexual implication. Mine is complete.

Then in this millenium he has given us:
Osama Yo' Mama
The New Battle Of New Orleans - a takeoff on the chaos in NO after hurricane Katrina.


(posted September 2, 2007)

Do you remember Jack Scott

(updated May 1, 2009)

The great Jack Scott, one of the original damn hard rockers of the late 50s.
His first hit was My True Love in 1958, a slow moody gem of a rock ballad. It went to #3, and is one of the basic classic oldies. Followed by With Your Love, #28, a similar style. Then Goodbye Baby, a #8, with a rousing B-side Save My Soul. With Goodbye Baby he established a style of a hypnotic repetitive medium rock beat which he used well the rest of his career.
Jack was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, but moved to Detroit, USA at age ten. Both nations would like to lay claim to him. He has a strong following to this day, and reissues are not hard to find. It was a time when Conway Twitty was doing similar things in rock+roll. Elvis was in the army 1958-1960, and they helped fill the gap. It seems like when Elvis returned, these two singers stopped having big hits, as if they were no longer needed. Is that fate?
Some other notable Scott hits were The Way I Walk (#35 1959), What In the World's Come Over You (#5 1960), and Burning Bridges (#3 1960).
Jack did spend 1959 in the army, but single releases on the Carlton label continued, including the #78 I Never Felt Like This. It had a haunting ballad on the B-side, "Bella", a great example of that style.
In 1960 he was on the Top Rank label. At the same time as Conway Twitty he had a single of What Am I Living For, without charting...talk about similarities. Plus he made an album of that name, very rare but good rock+roll. Another rare LP was What In the World's Come Over you. I know someone who found it for $1 in a stack at a Goodwill thrift shop. The definition of jealousy.
There was an album titled "I Remember Hank Williams". I was disappointed that he concentrated on slow ballads, and it didn't work well for his style. But a great LP the next year was "The Spirit Moves Me". That collection of uptempo spirituals worked very well.
He switched to Capitol in 1961 and released there until 1963. Some had a country tendency, but he was never far from that rock style, at least putting some good ones on B-sides. Examples of these are Sad Story, Strange Desire, Grizzly Bear. In 1963 came Laugh and the World Laughs With You, a non-hit which was played in my area, which is on a par with From a Jack To a King by Ned Miller.
In 1963 he was on RCA's Groove label. Among others, there was a Christmas release of There's Trouble Brewing/ Jingle Bell Slide, plus another hypnotic rock song Wiggle On Out.
That was it for his rock fame, but he has never quit making appearances. In Winnipeg Canada, home of the famed Burton Cummings, Burton has insisted on inviting him to rock revival events there. Burton can't get him out of his head either.


Click to hear a sample:
Save My Soul
Bella
Grizzly Bear
Laugh and the World Laughs With You
Wiggle On Out


The Spirit Moves Me 1961 album

This has to be one of the greatest gospel albums of the rock era, but it's so so obscure. It should be known. Sample the ENTIRE ALBUM here. It's uptempo and compares with Elvis', but contains a few songs you've never heard. Click the cover image to see it larger.

Did you know Conway Twitty was a rocker

Before he started singing country in the mid-60s, he was one of the biggest rock stars. He had chart hits between 1958 and 1960, plus other good releases outside that.
Conway tried out with Sun Records around 1956 but wasn't accepted. While there he wrote and recorded "Rockhouse", later done by Orbison on Sun, and by Buddy Knox on an LP. His real name was Harold Jenkins, which he changed in 1957. Then he recorded 3 or 4 singles on Mercury, which were not successful.
It started in 1958 on MGM records when he wrote his first big hit, It's Only Make Believe, a #1. Followups were The Story Of My Love (#28), Hey Little Lucy (#87), Mona Lisa (#29), Danny Boy (#10), Lonely Blue Boy (#6), What Am I Living For (#26), Is a Bluebird Blue (#35), C'est Si Bon (#22) in 1960.
He rocked up some of those old standards, to the extent that some radio stations rebelled against his "desecration" of a song like Danny Boy. Now "Lonely Blue Boy", not to be confused with Paul Anka's Lonely Boy, was an altered version of a song Elvis Presley sang for King Creole named "Danny" (not "Danny Boy"), which was not included in the movie or released until recently. This was one of Conway's slower sexy style rock songs, which he was good at, similar to Elvis on his "Elvis Is Back" album. That style was also shown in Make Me Know You're Mine, flip of Story Of My Love, and others.
In fact I'd say that while sexy Elvis was in the army 1958 to 1960, and ran out out of prerecorded hits mid-1959, Conway played the role of a replacement during that time.
Look at Conway's cover portraits of the time and you see that same curled-lip demeanor. Jack Scott was another similar singer at the time.
By the end of 1960 Conway ran out of big hits even tho his MGM recordings continued til 1963, with some good collectables in that period. He was then in the category of "whatever happened to ..?". In 1961 his record of "A Million Teardrops" was played where I lived and got noticed, but didn't make the charts nationally for whatever reason...the gods and dj's only know.
Pictured is his 1961 LP "The Conway Twitty Touch" with a great portrait. In 1963 he released an album "R&B '63" with great renditions of classic hits, including a good version of Shirley + Lee's "Let the Good Times Roll". But it wasn't being noticed.
So let's pay attention again and not forget. Let's get those reissues going, play them all on oldies radio, not just It's Only Make Believe, and keep Conway Twitty on the rock and roll pedestal he belongs on.

To hear a song sample press the title:
A Million Teardrops
Rockhouse
Let the Good Times Roll
Make Me Know You're Mine
Lonely Blue Boy
Danny (Elvis)

Do you know you can download any of these photos by right-clicking on them.

Reference:
Here is a good website (non-English) with descriptions and samples of his hit singles:
http://www.die-rock-and-roll-ag.de/html/conway_twitty.html