LITTLE CINDY, Happy Birthday Jesus, 1959

Another record I picked up for a dollar in Brattleboro last summer. Little Cindy might be a little more well-known because John Waters put Happy Birthday Jesus on a CD  collection of his favourite Christmas songs a couple of years ago. Yes, this is creepy.

Exploiting kids is never a good idea, no matter how talented they may be, especially not in the name of religion. On Happy Birthday Jesus Little Cindy is not even singing but basically just reciting a prayer in a very cute southern voice:

“Happy Birthday, Jesus!, Momma said that you was near, And that you had a birthday, This time every year.

She told me how you listen , To  every word we say, And that you hear us calling, In the night … or in the day.

She ’splained how bad they hurt you, those awful naughty men.
But said you let them do it, For girls like me … what sin.

She said about the manger, they took and put you in. I’d let you have my blanket, If I was here back then.

She said that you were watching, Everything we do …
Her, and daddy and Granny, And our new baby, too.

I like what momma told me, Of how you healed the lame. And that they didn’t have to have any wealth, Or fame.

She told you was so awful good, And then she made me cry …
She said they nailed you to the cross, They wanted you to die.

She said that you forgave them, cuz you was dying for our sin. And then it made me happy, when she said you came back again

Momma said that Christmas is what we celebrate
Because on that day you was born.

So I hope I’m not too late, To wish you a Happy Birthday. Dear Jesus, I”ll be true, cuz momma said if I was good you’d let me live with you.”

Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

LITTLE CINDY, Happy Birthday Jesus, 1959

LITTLE CINDY, He´s Around When Everybody Turns You Down, 1959

(These illustrationa are from a comic book called Merry Christmas published by Classics Illustrated in 1953/repr.1969)

DINAH SHORE, You Meet The Nicest People, 1960

If you like cool Rock´n´Roll Christmas songs please go to Record Collector´s Hot Platters because he has posted some excellent records over the past weeks.

I think You Meet The Nicest People is a decent song but apart from the sleeve design and the fact that it is advertising for Chevrolet this Dinah Shore record is pretty terrible .  So I´ll spare you the really boring songs on the B side.

After recording the music, scanning the sleeve and writing this I just found out that somebody else has already done the same thing yesterday on youtube:

DINAH SHORE, You Meet The Nicest People

DINAH SHORE, Jingle Bells

TONY McKAY, The Island Hog Pt.1+Pt.2, 1969

Some years ago I found a whole bunch of Northern Soul/Funk 45´s in a thrift store in my street.  I don´t know how they ended up in that store but those were my biggest finds ever, at least when it comes to US 45´s : ANDRE WILLIAMS It´s Gonna Be Fine In ´69/Do the Popcorn on Checker, VERNON GARRETT & MARIE FRANKLIN Second to None/Without You on Venture, ESTHER WILLIAMS He Don´t Appreciate it/Mama on Flying Dutchman and many more. Most of them  DJ/white label copies in very good condition with company sleeves. I was virtually able to start dj-ing Northern Soul sets with that small collection I bought on that day in my little street.

This particular record was one of them and it turned out to be quite interesting. From listening to it I couldn´t quite put a label on it. It´s not Soul, not Rock´n´Roll, not Rhythm & Blues but what a racket! IT IS WILD!

Then I did a little research and found out that Tony McKay is really Exuma.

It made more sense when I read what Wikipedia said:

Exuma was known for his almost unclassifiable music; a strong mixture of carnival, junkanoo, calypso and ballad.

Mac Farlane Gregory Anthony Myckey, who recorded as Exuma, was born February 15, 1941 on Cat Island (Bahamas) to Ms. Daisy Mackie and died in Nassau in the Bahamas on January 25, 1997.

In his early days in New York’s Greenwich Village, Tony McKay (his self-given name) performed in small clubs and bars. Later, along with his then-partner and lifelong friend, Sally O’Brien, and several musician friends, Tony launched EXUMA – a 7-person group that toured and recorded albums, starting with Exuma: The Obeah Man in 1970 and ending with Rude Boy in 1986.

So this is Exuma as an even wilder young man in New York where he recorded another earlier version of Island Hog in 1967 for the Josie Label. On these two Brunswick sides from 1969 he´s wailin´and screamin´like all the  Isley Brothers put together but with a  Caribbean twist (and Shout,  Pt.1 and Pt.2)…

Now, everybodde, let´s do the HOG, ISLAND HOG! Like ROCK´N´ROLL!!!  OINK,OINK,OINK!!! EVERYBODY OINK OINK!!! SCREEEEEAm BABY!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaHHh!!!

TONY McKAY, Island Hog Pt.1, 1969

TONY McKAY, Island Hog Pt.2, 1969

For those who like the song I pieced Pt.1 and Pt.2 together for one long screamin´ Island Hog-a-thon…

TONY McKAY, Island Hog Pt.1+Pt.2, 1969

One more thing I found about a possible reason for the name of the song:

Paradise Island is currently the most expensive place to stay in the Bahamas. The small island was not always so glamorous, however. Paradise Island in the Bahamas was once known as Hog Island and was a major site for farming in the Bahamas. Paradise Island in the Bahamas is situated near New Providence, and the two islands are connected by a bridge between Paradise Island and Nassau Harbor.

Hog Island first became Paradise Island in the Bahamas when the island was purchased by Huntington Hartford in 1959. Huntington was the A&P Supermarket Heir and paid more then $11 million for the island. Huntington was the first entrepreneur to begin developing Bahamas Paradise Island and built the first major hotel on the site. Huntington changed the name of the area from Hog to Paradise Island, and was also responsible for obtaining a gambling license for Bahamas Paradise Island. His opening of Paradise Island in 1962 was covered in Newsweek  and Time magazines.

Paradise Island was purchased in the 1980s by Donald Trump for $79 million, then sold to Merv Griffin for $400 million. It was last sold for $125 million to the current owner, Sol Kerzner. The current estimated value of the island is about $2 billion USD.

Both the Beatles´Help! and James Bond´s Thunderball were partially filmed on Paradise Island.

Exuma named himself after a district of the Bahamas consisting of 360 little islands. He must have heard of Hog Island becoming Paradise Island too. That could have inspired his song.  And could have been a possible reason for a little voodoo spell…

SOUNDS OF SAMAROO, Mr. Sandman, 1968

I found this 45 in one of the record stores in Brattleboro last summer.  Julia always seemed to be waiting for me so I  listened to a couple hundred records really fast.  A couple of seconds per record had to do.  But otherwise I might have spent a couple of days in those stores instead of an afternoon.

Most of the 45´s at one of the stores seemed to have come from a radio station. They had little notes or, as in this case where both sides have the same labels, corrections written on them.

I´m still not sure, but I think this might be Jit Samaroo´s first record. Jit Samaroo is an arranger, composer and Steelpan musician from Trinidad. He would have been 18 years at the time. On both songs the steelpans are prominent but also backed by horns and other percussion instruments arranged and conducted by veteran orchestra leader Frank Hunter.

But I might be completely wrong. There was no information about this record on the internet. Anyway, nice cheerful tunes.

Like Herp Albert goes Calypso…

SOUNDS OF SAMAROO, Mr. Sandman, 1968

SOUNDS OF SAMAROO, Trinidad Jack, 1968

THE DYNAMIC 6+1, Moyambé, 1966

I´m not going to pretend to know anything about Africa or African music. There are a lot of blogs who specialize in that and know much more than I can find out on the internet in a short time. I aquired these records randomly over the past years because I thought they looked interesting. I post them because I haven´t posted any records from Africa yet.

The Dynamic 6+1 were formed in Liberia in the mid-60´s but when they came to Hamburg in 1969 changed their name to the Soulful Dynamics.

They hit number 1 in Germany with Mademoiselle Ninette in 1970. The group is still touring in Germany playing various Oldies shows.

I really like these two songs recorded for the Swiss Elite Special label.

THE DYNAMIC 6+1, Moyambé, 1966

THE DYNAMIC 6+1, Babalazi, 1966

KEITHA FODEBA, Laicima, 1963

Keita Fodeba was born on January 19, 1921 in Siguiri (Republic of Guinea). After completing his primary education in Conakry , the capital of Guinea, he attended William Ponti institute in Dakar (Senegal). In 1944, he graduated with a teaching degree from Dakar. After teaching high school students a couple of years in Senegal, he moved to Paris  and became an avid researcher of theater and dance. Eventually, in 1949, he founded “The African Theatre of Keita Fodeba”.

The first Les Ballet Africains  performance was staged at the Theatre Etoile de Paris on November of 1952. It was an instant success. After touring inFrance  for a couple of years, Fodeba brought his company to  Africa  in 1955 and produced an extensive tour among French colonies of West Africa. During that trip, he was selected to be Minister of Interior of the Republic of Guinea by Guinea´s former President Ahmed Sekou Toure.

Fodeba later was invited to be the head of Defense and Security of Guinea, during the country’s war to gain independence. After changing several positions within the government, he got arrested for political reasons on March 21, 1965 and was killed in prison.  Keita Fodeba  pioneered a dance company, that connected African  culture to the rest of the world and introduced its legacy with style and elegance.

Les Ballets Africains founded by Keita Fodeba is still touring around the world to this day.

This is a Czechoslovakian EP issued on the state-owned Supraphon label.

KEITHA FODEBA, Laicima, 1963

KEITHA FODEBA, Arissa, 1963

Here´s the second EP by Keita Fodeba and his African ensemble issued by the Czechoslovak label Supraphon. Arissa is a song in praise of a wrestler from the Diola tribe.

KEITHA FODEBA, Arissa, 1963

NASHIL PICHEN & PETER TSOTSI, Kondakta (Make The Bus Go Fast), 1962

Recorded by Nashil Pichen & Peter Tsotsi on the beautiful Equator label from Nairobi, Kenia. I have another Equator 45 , Malaika by Fadhili William & the Black Shadows from 1963, but I suppose that is a little too famous so I didn´t record it.

I wish I could listen to one of the Twist-related 45´s (Bush Baby Twist, Bachelor Boy Twist, Sukuti Tribal Twist) that are listed in the Equator records discography here.

But I´m not complaining, I´m happy with these two guitar-driven dance tunes. Found in a Berlin second-hand record store some years ago…

NASHIL PICHEN & PETER TSOTSI, Kondakta (Make The Bus Go Fast), 1962

NASHIL PICHEN & PETER TSOTSI, Wote Wanipenda (They Still Love Me), 1962

I.K.DAIRO & HIS BLUE BOYS, Yekeyeke, 1962

I.K.Dairo & his Blue Boys were one the innovators of Nigerian JuJu music. I.K.Dairio played a amplified accordion and was the first high profile musician to use this instrument in JuJu songs.

I.K.DAIRO & HIS BLUE BOYS, Yekeyeke, 1962

I.K.DAIRO & HIS BLUE BOYS, Oyewuyewu, 1962

HARUNA ISHOLA & HIS GROUP, Won Nse Ko Baje, 1962

Haruna Ishola was one of the most notable players of Apala music. First developed in the 1930s and 1940s amongst the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Apala was originally purely religious music, used to rouse those who had fasted during the holy month of Ramadan. Later, during the 1960s, the style became less religiously based, took some influence from Afro-Cuban percussion music, and became increasingly popular as professional groups began playing and recording Apala music. The genre would become one of the main precursors to the Fuji music of the 1970s.

Apala music takes little influence from Western music, featuring no Western instruments and players who remain seated during performance. The main instruments are omele talking drums, the sekere rattle, the agogo bell and finally the agidigbo, a thumb piano generally played by the lead singer.

Some heavy drumming on these  songs…

HARUNA ISHOLA & HIS GROUP, Won Nse Ko Baje, 1962

HARUNA ISHOLA & HIS GROUP, Osika Ranti Ola, 1962

DAVID PHILOE, Pauvre Malheureux, 1970

From looking at the sleeve I would have guessed that this is traditional music from the  Seychelles. Some light  intrumental music at best. But not the wild drums and hectic rhythms that David Philoe plays. This is very interesting music from this archipelago nation of 115  islands in the Indian ocean some 1,500 miles east of mainland Africa.

DAVID PHILOE, Pauvre Malheureux, 1970

DAVID PHILOE, Mon Bourreau, 1970

SERGE LEBRASSE, Ding Dong Banané, 1970

You have to listen to this yourself as I have no idea how to describe it right now. No idea who Serge Lebrasse is either.

SERGE LEBRASSE, Ding Dong Banané, 1970

SERGE LEBRASSE, Seychelles Bijou de L´Océan, 1970

DIE BAMBIS, Mini-Kini-Baby, 1964

Just to complete the Mini-Kini thing from last week here´s the Bambis from Austria. Decent song but would have been much better with a guitar break than an organ.

DIE BAMBIS, Mini-Kini-Baby, 1964

BEATE HASENAU, Sie trug den Mini-Bikini, 1964

Beate Hasenau (1936 – 2003) was a German actress and comedian who played with the Berlin cabaret Die Stachelschweine. Starting in 1961 she did voice-overs for Claudia Cardinale, Anita Ekberg, Gina Lollobrigida and Raquel Welch.

Beate Hasenau sings in a cutesy voice and musically this does not rock at all, but this is a much more liberated and care-free take on the Minikini fashion than that of the male groups. Sie trug den Mini-Bikini (She wore the Mini-Bikini) is about going topless and in  Beha-beha-behalt das Ding (Keep that thing) she tells everybody and her boyfriend to keep her bra, she is going without it.

BEATE HASENAU, Sie trug den Mini-Bikini, 1964

BEATE HASENAU, Beha-beha-behalt das Ding, 1964

DER TEXTIL-SPARVEREIN, Minikini, 1964

This song is a strange hybrid of the German genre of  Stimmungsmusik, used for parties and for the Karneval, and Rock´n´Roll. These two musical styles usually didn´t mix because of the generation gap. Stimmungsmusik, mostly marches with sleazy lyrics, was music for old people. Squares.

Well, this slightly rocks. Textil-Sparverein means Textile Savers Club. Minikini is about a guy complaining about his girlfriend because she is not wearing a Bikini. She is wearing a Minikini – no Bikini. Nimm keine Frau aus Kansas is a silly Cowboy song. Don´t take a woman from Kansas, because she carries guns when you´re kissing…

In 1964 the Bambis from Austria hit with Mini-kini-Baby. The lyrics were similar: a guy is telling his girlfriend, you can wear a Mini-Kini,  but only when we´re alone…

Squares.

DER TEXTIL-SPARVEREIN, Minikini, 1964

DER TEXTIL-SPARVEREIN, Nimm keine Frau aus Kansas, 1964

BOTHO LUCAS, Uns´re kleine feine Familie, 1965

This is German Ska music, a cover version of the reggae classic  Shame & Scandal. Botho Lucas was the founder of the Botho-Lucas-Chor, who had a long career recording and performing.

Lyrically this German version stays pretty close to the original:

The story follows a young Trinidadian man in search of a wife. In each of the verses, the young man asks his father for permission to marry a different woman, only to be told he can’t marry the girl as “The girl is your sister but your mamma don’t know”. However, the tables are turned during the last verse, where the young man’s mother tells him that “Your daddy ain’t your daddy, but your daddy don’t know”, clearing the path for him to marry any of the girls. (Wikipedia)

The b-side, sung by the whole group, is a silly song about a guy drinking and then seeing little white mice.

BOTHO LUCAS, Uns´re kleine feine Familie, 1965

DER BOTHO LUCAS-CHOR, Ja, die kleinen weißen Mäuse, 1965

BRIAN DIAMOND AND THE CUTTERS, Keine Angst Little Woman, 1965

The British group Brian Diamond and the Cutters recorded this German version of their own song Big Bad Wolf for the German Vogue label. It was their 4. single out of five. The German songwriter left the title: little woman don´t be afraid of the big bad wolf. But a lot of the wolf metaphors are missing in the German version. Thankfully musically it´s just as rockin´.

Like many other Rock´n´Roll  wolf songs (Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs´Lil´Red Riding Hood, Lord Dent and his Invaders´Wolf Call ) this has a great wolf call and guitar break…

BRIAN DIAMOND AND THE CUTTERS, Keine Angst Little Woman, 1965

BRIAN DIAMOND AND THE CUTTERS, Daisy Lu, 1965

MALEPARTUS II., Ei Lorche, 1966

Last week I found a record in a local thrift store that is exactly the kind I had in mind when I started Berlin Beatet Bestes:  silly, German and with a cartoon sleeve. It even rocks.

I posted the first Malepartus II. record last November. This, the second Malepartus II. single, was recorded by an entirely different band to cash-in on the success of  Lisbeth, a cover version of Wild Thing. The original Malepartus II. group was actually the Kingbeats from Frankfurt. Their drummer Jürgen Zöllner later joined BAP and is still playing with them.

The cartoon sleeve was drawn by Will Halle, a cartoonist from Berlin. I already wrote a bit about him here.

Both songs stay within the initial novelty concept of mixing primitive Troggs-style Beat with silly German lyrics sung in the Hessian dialect. Fraa, bring de Äppelbrei! is about a hungry kid demanding his apple porridge. Ei Lorche is even more silly with lots of funny noises and lyrics about a parrot called Lorche that is driving his master crazy because it is talking too much.

MALEPARTUS II., Ei Lorche, 1966

MALEPARTUS II., Fraa, bring de Äppelbrei!, 1966

AUKTION/DESTRUKTION today!

Thanks for all the mails that I got from concerned readers. I was mostly occupied with the weekly Berlin Beatet Bestes radio show and the weekly Berlin Beatet Bestes column that I write for Jungle World. They are just spin-offs of this blog but they took up most of my free time. One can only work so much.

The radio shows were a lot of fun. On Tuesday we talked with Martin, who does Brotbeutel blog, on the phone for 90 minutes. He played some of his weirder music off his blog and in general seemed like a really nice guy. I had never met him and it was a pleasure to talk with someone who had inspired me to start this blog.

Then last week we had Peter Schimmelpfennig on the show. His biography is quite impressive but he is most well-known for producing and managing East-German Rock groups Karat, Puhdys and City in West-Germany in the 70´s and 80´s. Originally from Hamburg, he was a regular at the Star-Club in the 60´s  and then moved to Berlin in 1963 to work for the independent record label Metronome when he was only 19. In the 70´s he started his own record label Pool records. His most successful artist was Georg Kranz. Surprisingly he also made a record with Horst Koch, a re-recording of Lachen called Rocklachen. I only saw the record in the bag of records that Peter brought to the show, but we didn´t get to play it. Now I have to find that record.

Peter Schimmelpfennig also produced the Berlin Rock group Bel Ami. I posted one of their records here. Andy actually got Peter to call up Lutz Walzberg, their original vocalist, in the show. I thought it was a little pushy but Peter assured us that it was okay and that they were still friends after more than 25 years. It was really great talking to Lutz. Altough he is paralysed and tied to the bed because of multiple sclerosis he sounded very energetic. He still knew the Turkish lyrics to Bel Ami´s hit song Berlin bei Nacht (the one I´ve posted) and even started to sing them. Cool!

Before I´ll get to the music, I`d like to announce that we´re doing AUKTION/DESTRUKTION again today, Friday, November 20th at the Kollage, Yorckstrasse 22 in Kreuzberg. Show starts at 10. This time Mario is joining me. We´ll be spinning, auctioning and destroying 45´s again – rarities, hits and total garbage. Starting bids are 10 cents.

Also,  Kleingeld nicht vergessen! Ich hab diesmal wirklich schöne Platten in der Kiste!

BERNHARD FRANK, Der Zirkusdirektor, 1974

I found another Bernhard Frank 45 recently. Actually I saw it on Ebay and then had a friend of mine, who regularly buys stuff there,  bid on the record for me. Sometimes I look  at records on Ebay to check prices and to see what is being offered. But when it comes to buying records I go to thrift-stores and flea-markets. At least there I can see the record up close. From the blurry picture on Ebay this record didn´t look too promising. Nothing like the great Beat records Bernhard Frank did in the 60´s but I kept my fingers crossed and took a chance.

When the record finally came in the mail I was very happy. As I´ve written before, Bernhard Frank only wrote good songs. These two songs are no exception. Obviously by the mid-70´s he had developed into a Folk singer. Der Zirkusdirektor is about a ringmaster at a circus, a melancholy tale that takes a rather surprizing turn. The B-side Einmalig is a funny up-beat tune with great lyrics.

BERNHARD FRANK, Der Zirkusdirektor, 1974

BERNHARD FRANK, Einmalig, 1974