PAUL FREES as PETER LORRE: "HEY JUDE"

Imagine combining Peter Lorre and Paul McCartney! Paul Frees (lower right corner photo) did. Paul Frees was a genius, arguably the finest voice-over talent of all time, capable of vibrant Orson Welles-type movie narration as well as silly cartoon and commercial voices (Boris Badenov, Ludwig Von Drake, Captain Peachfuzz, Pillsbury Doughboy...)
He gave me an enduring thrill when, in response to a fan letter, he CALLED ME UP to say hello. That'll make an impression on a kid!
He did his legendary Peter Lorre impression on radio in front of Peter Lorre himself (on the Spike Jones show) and as a "pet project," got a chance to revisit Lorre on "Paul Frees and the Poster People," where he imagined classic movie stars singing contemporary tunes.
My favorite album track, and your sample, is "Peter Lorre" suavely singing and periodically going ballistic on Paul McCartney's "Hey Jude."

No Rapidshare. No gimmicky codes or link-protect porno ads. Instant download.
RIGHT HERE.

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

The last gasp from The Ivy League Trio has turned out to be an enduring death rattle, the lp "Folk Songs from the World of Edgar Allan Poe." The trio landed at the tail end of both the folk craze and the Famous Monsters of Filmland horror-novelty era, and this Reprise gem was neglected. It was the debut for newest trio member Ronn Langford (replacing Bev Galloway) and also the farewell. Ironically he, of all other members, has ended up with a long and prosperous life outside of show biz.

At least one rocker (Greg Kihn) has listed this as a very influential album. The trio flirted with macabre material during their Coral/Decca era, including "Ballad of Springhill," "Ballad of Tim Evans" and "Delia's Gone," but surpassed themselves as they adapted and in many cases re-wrote the original material given them by their new record label. The album ranges from poignant ("Eleanora") to spooky ("House of Usher") to ludicrous ("Tell-Tale Heart" re-written as a Western!) with this sample falling in between. It combines lusty folk balladry with over-the-top guignol as one might expect (and even demand).
"Folk Ballads..." is one of the finest ill folksong albums, and if you like "Pit and the Pendulum" then reward the record dealer who has been waiting for years to unload it on someone, cheap. Why, the moody album cover painting is suitable for framing....

No more Rapidshare. No codes. No downloads detoured for porn ads.
INSTANT Gratification PIT & THE PENDULUM

SHE'S SO FLEXIBLE - MARTIN BRILEY

This is a rare re-post. I don't want you ill folks out there to forget about Martin. Not when he was nice enough to leave a comment the first time!
Responding to my July posting and picture:

"There was I trying to write a beautiful, heart-felt, sincere song about a very considerate woman and you lot with your filthy minds go and turn it into something sordid and disgusting.
Kind Regards
Martin Briley."
Instant Download Instant Download, no code words or porn ads. Listen on line, too!

ILL FOLKIE: FRED ENGELBERG

Finally, some nine months into the blog, here's an actual ill folk! The seed that germinated this blog was to chronicle obscure folk singers, but...things sort of drifted.
Fred issued only two albums (both on Crestview/Elektra). One was ethereally titled "Smoke Dreams of Fred Engelberg" and on the other, his name was spelled wrong on the cover ("The Songs of Fred Engleberg"). Neither release had a single biographical word about him. His self-penned liner notes for "Smoke Dreams" didn't even mention his roles in three films "The Lost Missile" (1958), "The Beat Generation" (1959) and "Dinosaurus" (1960).
Instead, the obscure folkie baffled any would-be buyer by a lengthy rumination on the album title: "smoke dreams...in a manner of speaking...(is) somewhere between talking and singing...somewhere between you...whoever you are...and me...whoever I am." Then a rumination on his influences "...because there was Mark Twain and Jazz and Woody Guthrie...there was Hayakawa and Kabuki and S.J. Perelman...there was Thurber and "doggerel" and Pirandello...there was Bullfinch and the Bible and Joe Gould and the writings on bathroom walls...and there was what they have done to my head..."
The burly, bearded folkie's singing style is similar to bearded Burl Ives...quite understated, especially compared to sweaty stablemates Shel Silverstein and Judy Henske. Fred's quiet singing is mated to some subversive songs. Beyond typical topical folkie protest (a candy machine becomes a symbol of our tin-hearted culture) he wrote grimly ironic murder ballads and a song challenging Christianity.
Circa 1963, folkies were running to the library hunting up murder ballads, but 30 year-old Fred wrote his own, "Hangman," a brilliant piece of quiet pessimism. When folkies were chasing after "Go Down Moses" and other spirituals, Fred offered the dispirited "Everybody's Talkin' about Jesus and Mary, Nobody's Talkin' about Joe."
The genius of a songwriter is often in expressing what nobody else dares to say, and doing it in an artistic way. How many of you, upon hearing the story of Jesus, thought, "Hey, wait a minute...she's married...she's a virgin...WHAT is the deal with Joseph??"
Fred seems to have quit "the business" a short time later for various other pursuits. Supposedly he spent many years running a hotel. A Fred Engleberg died on January 7th, 2003 in Oregon, a few weeks short of his 72nd birthday...apparently not THIS Fred (updating from the comments received). Fred, oh brother, where art thou? Why not say a few syllables in the comments??
I'll slip you five...mostly because my vinyl's in embarrassingly bad condition (I found both albums used, of course) and some other tracks are a little too crackly. Listen...and you will not forget the forgotten Fred Engelberg.
Oct 20: New Rapidshare link for Engelberg not Engleberg

3 C&W SUICIDES

Some say country tunes are morbid. Hey, it's not like these people had easy lives. In some cases, even fame could not prevent a very sorry end. Here's three "old school" singers the average music fan may have vaguely heard of, offering numbers with evocative titles such as: "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down," "I see the Want in your Eyes," and "I've Hurt Her More than She Loves Me."
Not to mention numbers that seem a bit grim considering the way these guys ended up: "I Don't Hurt Anymore," "There Goes My Everything," "I Found Heaven," "Lovin' on Borrowed Time" and "Empty Glass." You get a lucky seven from each of these late greats. 21 titles in all.
FARON YOUNG was a honky tonk legend, born in Louisiana and nicknamed "The Hillbilly Heartthrob" when he joined Capitol records at age 20. His biggest hit, written by Willie Nelson, was "Hello, Walls." Young was aging badly and having health issues when he decided to end his life via gunshot, December 10, 1996.
GARY STEWART of Kentucky grew up in Florida where he married his favorite girl Mary Lou (he was 18, you can bet she was younger). He kicked around from 1965 till 1975 when he reached #1 with "She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles." His pure C&W style went out of favor, leaving him simply a touring musician in the 80's, fighting pills and booze. His son killed himself, but Gary still had his beloved wife to lean on. That was until Thanksgiving, 2003, when Mary Lou succumbed to pneumonia. Stewart cancelled a holiday concert, and about three weeks later, cancelled himself with one gunshot, December 16, 2003.
MEL STREET, born King Malachi Street, was from West Virginia, and in the late 60's and early 70's hosted a local TV show there. "Borrowed Angel" was a local hit that brought him national attention in 1972. He followed it with "Lovin' On the Back Streets," and his career was moving forward. He hit a new high in 1978 when he signed with Mercury records, but later that year, the depressed alcoholic hit a fatal low, killing himself on October 21, his birthday.

The songs Live On via RS
UPDATE: December 2006. The suicide file died of natural causes...a Rapidshare purge of files not downloaded in 30 days. Or was it 15. or was it 5...SECOND UPDATE: Re-Upped for the last time, July 2008. If it dies again, it's terminal.

THIRD UPDATE, May 2009. OK, it died again. R.I.P. guys, you're not getting re-upped.

THE END OF THE WORLD x 12

A sad and simple ballad, "The End of the World" has out-lived Skeeter Davis, the woman who in a never-ever-topped feat, brought the song to the Top 4 of all four major Billboard charts: country, pop, contemporary AND rhythm and blues. The song was played at Skeeter's funeral, which is appropriate for another reason. The song is as much about death as it is the end of a relationship. Skeeter felt that way; when she sang it, she called up the memory of a friend who had recently died in a car accident.

Under her pseudonym Sylvia Dee, lyricist Josephine Moore sketched the words after the death of her father. Gradually it smoothed itself out to a ballad that could be about death or just a break-up: "it ended when I lost your love." The survivor sings, "I wake up in the morning and I wonder...how everything's the same as it was. I can't understand — no I can't understand — how life goes on the way it does."
Life goes on, and many singers have taken their turn with this song that touches on that tragic situation when finality comes a little early, and leaves another behind...grateful to still be alive, but forever dealing with emptiness and heartache.
No other song proved a bigger hit for Skeeter Davis or for Sylvia Dee, who also wrote the lyrics for "Angel Lips, Angel Eyes," "Puschart Serenade," "Moonlight Swim," "Somebody Nobody Wants," and "Please Don't Talk to the Lifeguard." Nobody touches Skeeter's version, though the download has many worthy attempts and moving arrangements of this enduring, humble tune.
Skeeter died of cancer, September 19, 2004. "The End of the World" was played at a memorial service for her at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, a service attended by contemporaries including Vince Gill, Bobby Bare, Marty Stuart, Martina McBride, Connie Smith, Jan Howard, Jeannie Seely, Jean Shepherd, Del McCoury, Lorrie Morgan, Sammy Kershaw, Donnie Fritts, Dickey Lee, Jack Greene, Billy Walker, Bill Anderson, Jimmy Dickens, Charlie Louvin and George Hamilton IV. In June of 2005, one thousand fans came to an estate sale at her Kentucky home to buy her clothes, memorabilia, and other items she left behind.
Your download offers a dozen versions, (some ripped from rare vinyl just for your listening misery) including Claudine Longet, Leigh Nash, Sonia, Brenda Lee, Vonda Shepard, Agnetha Faltskog and The Carpenters. While the tune is more in keeping with a woman's emotion of woe, there are two male versions here...the teen angst of Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits) and a take from Jerry Lanning which...well...you hate to hear a grown man sing this song...

Oct 20: New Rapidshare Link END of the WAITING

Sgt. Pepper's MAX MILLER

One of the many faces you probably didn't recognize on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band belongs to... Max Miller.
The Stone Age Benny Hill, merry Maxie was known as "The Cheeky Chappie" for the saucy tunes that got him banned from BBC radio for five years.
Probably all of The Beatles wanted him on the Pepper cover. Lennon and Harrison must have loved Miller's vaudevillian bravado (a style that may have later influenced Spike Milligan and the Monty Python troupe). McCartney and Starr probably also loved Miller's musical styles, ones that your mother would know, and still make for a sentimental journey.
He died in 1963, just before The Beatles changed the music world. He remains a beloved figure in England and has been the subject of a few TV documentaries and other belated huzzahs.


No Rapidshare. No codes or ads. Just "MARY FROM THE DAIRY"
By MAX MILLER

Mr. Flood's Party - Horror-Psych Album

A late 60's psych band naming itself after a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson? They would either become the darling of college campuses or an obscurity on the illfolks blog. 
You guessed the latter.
A remarkably unknown band, nobody seems to know what the members did before they got their one-shot contract on Cotillion, and few know anything about their life after it. 
Some amateur blogs and dubious websites insist that Mr. Flood's Party sprang from a group called The Now, which recorded two singles for Embassy in 1968.  Not likely. No members of Mr. Flood's Party have a writing credit on the few singles The Now made, including this one:

The singing by The Now also doesn't sound much like the guys in Mr. Flood's Party.

For the record, the members of Mr. Flood's Party were Tom Castagnaro, Michael Corbett, Jay Hirsch, Rick Mirage, Marcel Thompsen, and Freddy Toscano.
The album has a strange but pleasing mix of  Crosby-Stills-Nash harmony (most notable on the song "Deja Vu," which is not to be confused with either the CSN tune or one on a single by The Now) and most any overwrought psych band of the era, including Long Island's beloved and melty Vanilla Fudge. "Northern Travel" would be an example of that, and of course you have songs titled "Liquid Invasion" and "Mind Circus." Heavy, man. A B-side of one of their few singles was "Alice Was a Dream." 
Add a dash of Zappa; the band wasn't averse to drifting off into tongue-in-cheek chant ("Tangerine...tangerine...kiss my tangerine...") or mocking the "Evil Prince of Darkness" with saucy lyrics and a dash of doo-wop.
The best song is the shortest, probably the only one that might've had a shot at being a single. Not a hit single, but a single. It's "Simon J. Stone," which is the only song on the album that references Tilbury Town, where Edwin Arlington Robinson's characters lived in their anguish, chagrins and occasional glory.
After Mr. Flood's Party, Corbett & Hirsch put out a fairly obscure album, and Freddy Toscano a VERY obscure album. (I have the former, but the latter isn't even on eBay for a few hundred bucks).
"Simon J. Stone, you're a good man, what is there left for a good man?" Or an obscure 60's psych band that put an old man on the cover of their album years before "Aqualung."
UPDATE 2019:
Mr. Flood's Party finally got a CD release, but apparently the source is somebody's M- vinyl, as one reviewer heard a click or pop now and then.
Another blog reviewed it and for some reason, included several lines from THIS blog's review without credit. Gosh, imagine that, people on the Internet not caring about plagiarism, credit, or anything...

Join......the party.

GENE BARRY & BURKE'S LAW

He had Klass. Until he changed his last name to Barry.
The debonair Jewish actor became a star as TV's Bat Masterson, and then Amos Burke, both law-keeping dandies who regretted fist-fights if it soiled their expensive clothes.
Only Robert Vaughn made better use of 60's Hero Take #48 (mouth open, no sound coming out, followed by a mild glare and an exasperated grimace).
A closet vaudevillian, Gene Barry loved any opportunity to sing, and he did so in nightclubs, on episodes of "Burke's Law" and ultimately on Broadway in "La Cage Au Folles."
Here, you get Gene's somewhat gross version of the theme song with leaden lyrics ("Hey, Lovuhhh...") The original posting included "The Burke's Law Suite," a bombastic collage of great music from the original TV soundtrack. It's a lounge classic, and the rest of Barry's album, but it timed out via Rapidshare around Oct. 15th when they had their infamous file purging. "If nobody downloads in time, tough luck for us all." Illfolks Law.
"Burke's Law," produced by Aaron Spelling, is still great fun to watch. Ironically, the character first appeared on an episode of "The Dick Powell Show." The episode "Who Killed Julie Greer" starred Dick Powell as Amos Burke. That was in 1961. In 1963, with Powell suffering a terminal illness, Gene Barry stepped into the role and "Burke's Law" began it's two year run. When the spy craze hit TV, the show was re-tooled as "Amos Burke: Secret Agent," and retired after 17 episodes. In 1994, "Burke's Law" had a brief revival with Gene Barry once again in command, surrounded by a new team of sidekicks.
Despite the cad image, Gene Barry has had one of the longest marriages in Hollywood, and he capped his long acting career with a cameo in "War of the Worlds" (having starred in the original.)
Gene Barry is always a suave, humorous and compelling presence. Nobody has his voice or, come to think of it, those unusually sculpted ears. Your ears may get re-sculpted listening to the jaunty baritone of a man so in love with crooning he probably takes an extra shower each day just so he can sing in it.
"It's..." ...Burke's Theme sung by Gene Barry
No Rapidshare or Porn-ad click-throughs. Instant download.

BOB DILDYN RADIO THEME HOUR : VAGINA

Premiering the same day as the release of "Modern Times," the BOB DILDYN RADIO THEME HOUR offers a compilation of songs about the Vagina.

Bob's cogent commentary on "the mighty quim" prefaces many of the selections, which include:

It's All Right It Won't Bite
Cameltoe
Pretty Purple Panties

Shave 'em Dry
My Girl's Pussy
Red River Sally
We Are the Tampons
Rotten Fish
My Vagina
Step Inside Love
I'm a Lesbian
The Pussy Cat Song

As well as Bob's own "When Dogs Run, Freak," which evidently is on his Debasement Tapes release. As John McEnroe used to say about cable radio, "You can NOT be SIRIUS!"


Bob Dildyn!

French is a Loving Tongue

Here's a lot of French-singing ladies from Canada, France and Europe. It's a pretty smooth and lush collection. No distracting ye-ye girls, no punque babes, not even the gurgling trill of Piaf. The idea is not to necessarily give you an overview of every popular French babe, but a good compilation album of fun covers, as well as moody and exotic and erotic originals.

1. Carole Laure. Nyuk, a Canuck. "Save The Last Dance for Me" in French. Primarily a sexy actress, she began recording in the 70's, so her albums wouldn't quite be ancient volumes of forgotten Laure.

2. Francine Laine. I don't believe she was named after Frankie Laine. Have you ever had a French girl talking urgently and emotionally to you? Me neither. This may fulfill your fantasies: "Moi Sensuelle." Your imagination may be better than the real lyrics.

3. Annie Villeneuve. "Tomber a l'eau." I was drawn to any song with "Tomber" in it, till I learned it has nothing to do with tombs. It's one of the catchiest pieces of power pop I've heard in years. She's Canadian. She makes me want to go over the border.

4. Julie. Why go by one name? It makes an Internet search impossible. I found this on a compilation lp of French hits. "Maria Magdalene" may be a religious tune but it has a nice bossa nova rhythm to it. It also has a timeless quality. Meaning, I don't know when it was recorded. I could do without the guys in the backing chorus but it's too late to do anything about it.

5. Marie LaForet. "Marie Douceur (Paint it Black)." In the 60's she was a stunner, the kind you'd buy just for the album cover. And yes, she could sing, too.

6. Nicole Rieu. "Have You Never Been Mellow" in French? "Me Maison Au Bord de L'eau"

7. Dalida wasn't French or Canadian, but sang very often in French. The selected tune, a polished Abba-esque commercial pop piece, will get you bouncing your baguette. The song is "Mourir su scene." At the time I figured any song with "Mourir" in it had to be morbid in some way. OK, she's dead, that's morbid.

8. Jane Birkin. "Le Sex Shop." You all know their more obvious and orgasmic hit single (which is on the blog in the Bardot version, elsewhere) so here's another Serge Gainsbourg duet, the one that ended a film's humorous if slightly melancholy look at a guy's brief entry into the skin trade.

9. Zizi Jeanmaire. A legendary old broad. This is a Serge Gainsbourg song nastily called "Merde a l'amour," and it's sung in a vaudevillian way. You can just imagine the visual, a cakewalk on a street full of dog poop. Or am I romanticizing?

10. Maurane. No, that isn't a weather forecast, that's her name. "Prelude de Bach" takes a classical theme into lush territory (ie, a saloon where you'll drink and sob imagining your own sad translation).

11. Monique Gaube. "To Sir With Love" in French. You'd take a French lesson from this teacher.

12. Christien Pilzer. "Dracula." This was 40 years ago. Why she was singing about le vampire is probably a buried secret by now.

13. France Gall. "Resiste." Do you have the gall to resist a woman who is such a credit to France?

14. Veronique Sanson. "Longue Distance." In France, she is a living legend, as huge there as Carly or Joni was here in the 70's and 80's. Her great melodies were spiced with Island rhythms at times, and flirtations with syncopation. In America she's vaguely known as "wasn't she married to Stephen Stills?"

15. Sandrine Kiberlain. "Le quotid." This heartbreaker is also an actress, and she starred in the cult film "Monsieur Hire" as, what else, a heartbreaker. Based on aGeorge Simenon story, the mystery is moody, erotic and being French, depressing.

16. Mylene Farmer. "L'amour n'est rien." She took her last name as an homage to Frances Farmer. She's written a song about Edgar A. Poe. Her videos are strange, erotic, and often gothic. I could write endlessly about her, with a pen dipped in blood.

17. Francoise Hardy. "Tant de belles choses." The trifecta of French pop superstars
would be Francoise, Veronique and Mylene over the past 40 years. They overlap, and if you're listening or watching them, you'd overlap, too.

18. Julie Zenatti. "Toutes Les Couleurs." We end with some sweet French pastry.

Various ladies could be here, including Lara Fabian, Zazie, Nathalie Cordonne, Alizee, the duo of Lily Margot, Vanessa Paradis, etc. etc.. So, assemble your own compilation and upload it, nu?

That's FRENCH! Via Rapidshare

And if you want a quick pick-me-up, here's the sprightly Dalida pop tune:
Instant Download or listen on line.

CARROLL O'CONNOR - Remembering You

"It's all over now." I mean, the controversies over "All in the Family," where Carroll O'Connor and cast had to defend their show against charges of promoting bigotry. Today, the show is remembered, and still watched, as a "classic." Though so much praise went to Carroll O'Connor he modestly said his "Archie Bunker" character was merely a cross between Jimmy Cagney and Jackie Gleason.

During the run of "All in the Family," O'Connor was inspired to write lyrics for Roger Kellaway's closing theme song. The opening sentiment: "Gotta feeling it's all over now, all over now, we're through. And tomorrow I'll be lonesome remembering you..."

He got a chance to record this wistful number on an album called "Remembering You," a collection of 30's hits with spoken introductions for each song. As you download this and play the opening line, "It's all over now..." may the memories of all the great work Carroll O'Connor did come back to you. It's a good song, too. Here's "Remembering you," sir.

Fresh Link Instant Download HERE. No codes, Rapidshare or confusion

ISTANBUL NOT CONSTANTINOPLE

If they told you once, they told you five times:
ISTANBUL, NOT CONSTANTINOPLE!
The Four Lads told you in the 50's, and so did
2. Caterina Valente (so many ways to spell her name wrong!)
3. Trevor Horn
4. Moxy Fruvois
5. They Might Be Giants
The question...why such continuing enthusiasm for a novelty song about ethnic identity?
Having a white person faking a Middle Eastern yowl is not very PC, nor is the use of snake-charmer woodwinds and a camel-clop boogie beat. It's remarkable that nobody's called for this dopey, catchy song to be banned (like, say, a certain bunch of novelty newspaper cartoons).
Do you know why it's ISTANBUL and not CONSTANTINOPLE?
Well, Students, centuries ago the city was named for emperor Constantine, and was part of the conquering empire of Greece. This didn't thrill the Turks, who got tired of bending over to the Greeks. When Greek road signs announced "Stanbulin" (meaning, "To the City"), some Turks made it "Islambol" ("Islam abounds"). "Stamboul" became a popular nickname for the place.
Around the 1920's, the Ottomon empire officially collapsed (terrible news if you were sitting on an ottoman at the time). Mustafa Kemel, who himself preferred another name (Kemel Ataturk, aka "Father of the Turks") officially proclaimed Turkish independence from past rulers and changed the name to Istanbul. But around the world, it was still Constantinople.
As late as the 50's, Turkey was roasting with hostility over this insult, and that led to...a novelty song that went a long way toward setting everything straight! With radio-commercial repetition ("Instanbul! Not Constantinople!") and a jocular basso refrain ("people just liked it better that way") The Four Lads told the world and the world...listened!
The power of humor! A musical elbow in the ribs got the world to call Constantinople Istanbul! Handling things with a dash of comedy worked wonders!
Right?
Somehow despite Middle East tensions, this tune with it's stereotypical Persian Market (!) instrumentation and air-rending Arabic (!) yodels, still gets covered. Perhaps it still needs to be. In Greece, Turkey's town is still called Konstantinopolis by those who feel "after all we did for you" the place should still acknowledge its past. Some Greek-made maps don't even add Istanbul in parenthesis. But most everywhere else (all together) it's ISTANBUL not CONSTANTINOPLE.
That's your lesson in trivia, ethnic sensitivity and pride. Download or not. It's nobody's business but your own.


Update: the Rapidshare link died around December 15th, from lack of activity, and the UPLOADED file expired on a re-up. Not a popular entry on the blog?? Well...so it won't be a total loss, here's two tracks upped as singles:

FOUR LADS! Download or listen on line.
AND THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

Karla DeVito & Pat Benatar do Martin Briley

Karla and Pat earned their M.B. -- by covering Martin Briley.
Briley was known for misanthropic songwriting, and unlike goofy, teddy-bear Randy Newman, he looked like he meant it. You might remember his piercing stare and lone MTV video hit "(You ain't worth) The Salt In My Tears."
When sung by WOMEN, Martin's vicious songs become feminist anthems. Oh, the irony of it. "I'm Just Using You" is power pop slapping you in the face. Pat Benatar is even tougher with "Take It Any Way You Want It."

Also here: two other vintage Briley songs, "Someday, Someway" covered by Jeff Healey and "Can't Keep Running" by Greg Allman. Briley toned himself down to become a very successful songwriter (Celine Dion and N'Sync) but his real fans are buying the 2 CD re-issue set featuring all three of his classic Mercury albums (and a few demo and bonus cuts), songs from when Briley was that bitter twisted lemon floating in the cocktail of the 80's. Or something like that. It's always a salty download if it involves wryly briney Martin Briley.

KARLA DEVITO

PAT BENATAR

JEFF HEALEY

GREG ALLMAN

ALL THE NUNS WITH GUNS

Here's a G.E. Smith song with Paul Simon on backing vocals. Even most Paul Simon fans don't know about this rarity. In fact, if you listen closely, you can hardly hear him in the mix. But he's there, and that's part of the quirk on this obscure but catchy tune.
Thanks Jim Delehant (Hit Parader/rock mogul) for handing this to me one day. Many days ago.
G.E. Smith was the somewhat crazed-looking guitarist leading the "Saturday Night Live" band (1985-95). He also married Gilda Radner, worked with Dan Hartman and toured with Hall and Oates. That's probably the best way for George to have handled those folks.
Smith's stinging guitar is very evident on this track, but the guy was capable of other guitar stylings, having co-written the metal-moron "Wayne's World" theme song.
NUNS WITH GUNS

CATS IN THE KETTLE - Harry Chapin parody

Harry Chapin wrote good songs. Chinese food is safe 'n tasty. Cats are great.

So why do a parody about 'em? Oh, why not. Manic Larry Baker's "Cats in the Kettle" is short and sweet (and sour). A little tasteless, a little un-PC, but it doesn't really harm Harry, cats, or the reputation of Chinese kitchens.

With novelty songs, often taped off the radio or just tossed on P2P sites, the credit gets lost, or worse, ends up tagged as Weird Al Yankovic or Anonymous. That name again is: Manic Larry Baker.

Hear him quick as a cat Instant Download or Listen on Line

MORE DIANA RIGG & THE AVENGERS

"Mrs. Peel, We're Needed...on the Ill Folks Blog again!"
Gracing us with an obscure gem, Diana Rigg sings Sondheim! It's not easy for even the best singers to handle the intricacies...so bravo for this appealing performance. The other Diana Rigg song is still alive and well in the archives. Emma's replacement, "Tara King" (Linda Thorson), helps pads things out with her pair. Songs, that is.

Back in the archives you'll find a 4-pack of Honor Blackman. Honor Blackman never pretended to be a singer, but her solo songs were received well. She assumed Patrick MacNee would have no problems either: “Patrick said he had no sense of rhythm and couldn’t sing but we thought that was absolute nonsense until we actually got there and found it was absolutely true!”

You get the silly novelty hit "Kinky Boots," which is the least sexy song ever to have "Kinky" in its title. And also part of the download, a bright stereo rendition of "The Avengers" theme from the composer himself, Laurie Johnson. You even get some oddball theme song versions, including one that samples dialogue from John and Emma.
There won't be a time when Steed's words don't ring true: "Mrs. Peel, We're Needed."

1. Diana Rigg "Could I Leave You?"
2. Avengers (Disco Version)
3. Avengers "Peel the Reel" theme song with dialogue
4. Avengers (Magnetic Remix)
5. Avengers (Impulsion Remix)
6. Avengers (Laurie Johnson & Orchestra)
7. Linda Thorson "Here I Am"
8. Linda Thorson "Bad Time to Stop Loving Me"
9. Patrick MacNee and Honor Blackman "Kinky Boots"

Emma 'bout ta download dis...
Update: This one timed out due to Rapidshare's "10 days of inactivity" purge. But...re-upped as singles...

KINKY BOOTS
DIANA RIGG "Could I Leave You"
LINDA THORSON "Here I Am"
4 Songs by Honor Blackman

DOODLES WEAVER

Unlike his brother Pat (president of NBC and father to Sigourney Weaver), Winstead Weaver looked like a "doodlebug" (his own mother's opinion!) and acted like one, being a cornball comic/singer all his life.

The dude named Doodles gained fame with a manic William Tell horse race routine on a Spike Jones novelty single. He did a sequel, "Dance of the Hours" as a car race. Doodles also loved spoonerisms, mispronouncing song lyrics in frantic gibberish till he'd clear his mind with a bellowing "OOOOH!" That, along with deliberately awful jokes, made a hit out of "Man on the Flying Trapeze." You can hear Spike Jones ask "Are you in voice, Winstead," at the beginning.

He worked with Jones on stage and on radio for many years, but was fired for a lethal combo of alcoholism and natural nutsiness. He had bit parts in movies, notably the 1940 version of "Li'l Abner," and in 1951 prevailed upon brother Pat to help him land a summer TV show on NBC which went nowhere. He turned up on "You Bet Your Life" as an unknown contestant. After Doodles admitted his profession was a comedian, Groucho sympathetically hoped he'd get somewhere with it. In 1965 Weaver briefly had a notoriously desperate 6-minute "Day with Doodles" syndicated kiddie show. Nothing worked too well.

Throughout the 60's The Dood took minor roles in sitcoms, from "Dick Van Dyke Show" to "The Monkees" to "Batman" (as "Crier Tuck). His curly hair, tubular head and large eyes helped the comic ambience of any scene, even if his lines were few.

The older he got, the more bitter and disillusioned he became. 1948, when he issued his novelty tunes with Spike, was probably Doodles' best year. 1983 would be his worst...in fact, despite of or because of alcohol and pills, be couldn't stand to live more than a few weeks into 1983.

Not too many years earlier, Doodles went into the studio one last time to make a solo disc. He offered some updated spooner routines and he even tried to work his dentures through his classic Feetlebaum routine...which was now more of a trotter than a horse race.

Here's a six pack with samples of Doodles' hit singles, radio tunes and final recordings. All Weaver wanted was to get some laughs, and even if you're not a corn-comedy buff, he Dood it. He succeeded mightily several times, and in every sense of the word, he was always trying.



Cop a Doodles... DO! (Right here)
Update: the mid-October "inactivity purge" doomed Doodles at Rapidshare, but here's an upload of two rarities for you, Doodles doin' it on the old Spike Jones radio show. No Rapidshare waiting, either. Instant gratification
TWO DOODLES!

TORCHBURN with JULIE LONDON

Carrying a torch, watching it burn. Having an aching heart. Or just heartburn.
Here's a selection of tortured torch songs and love-sick laments. "Do not fall in love, therefore. It will stick to your face." (A line from "Deteriorata").
It could be worse. On Del Shannon's version of "Big Hurt," there's a drum gunshot after "this time the big hurt will end." A bit too grim for this compilation. But there are plenty of old flames and smokey ruins here...
We turn to Julie London for songs of despair, loneliness, anger, and lovelorn lust. Ok, and we have to end with a little touch of vengeance. The first ten are from early in her career, when her whispery voice was best augmented by a simple trio. As she got a little bolder and better, she was more than capable of holding her own with a full band, as you'll hear on the back eight.
The tracks are from seven different albums.
1. The Thrill is Gone
2. Everything Happens to Me
3. Say It Isn't So
4. Gone With the Wind
5. What'll I Do
6. When Your Lover Has Gone
7. Don't Take Your Love From Me
8. Lonely Girl
9. All Alone
10. Mean to Me
11. Don't Smoke in Bed
12. Baby Won't You Please Come Home
13. There Will Never BE Another You
14. Get Set for the Blues
15. About the Blues
16. The Blues is All I Ever Had
17. The End of the World
18. I Wanna be Around

Listen to the ebb and flow of sighs, insensitivity and sorrows. O. Henry once said "Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating..." And in the next life he became a candy bar. Life is sweet after you're dead.


Who broke your heart?
Keep that Torch Light Burning

SPIKE MILLIGAN

Sapristi!


A tribute to the clown warrior Spike. Yes, Milligna, the well known typing error. At the time of his passing, he was acknowledged as the Godfather of British comedy, the man whose style could be heard and seen in everything from radio's "Round the Horne" to TV's "Monty Python's Flying Circus." First known as a member of The Goons (the only one of the three who wrote the radio trio's material) he went on to a busy solo career on radio, TV and via best-selling books.

One of the most complex and contradictory of comedians, Spike was the eye of a creative hurricane, capable of surreal jokes, aching poetry, whimsical nonsense and gut-wrenching letters to the local papers. Both manic and depressive, Spike was a Don Quixote who sometimes seemed to enjoy the battle and his victories, and was sometimes the victim of unseen and demonic enemies.

What you'll find here, are some vaudevillian and eccentric numbers written and mostly performed by him (one includes fellow Goons Secombe and Sellers). You know his name, now look up the download! John Lennon loved The Goons, and you might recognize some absurdist touches that later figured into John's more light-hearted numbers. Lennon even wrote a review in the New York Times for the first volume of Goon Show scripts.

Get Gooned on strange comic songs. With no further dew, try to digest this six-pack of strangely Spiked music:
Eeh Ah Oh Ooh
Ning Nang Nong (India Version)
Sewers of the Strand
I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas
I'm Walking Out with a Mountain
Finale
He's GOON BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Update: SAPRISTI! This one timed-out for inactivity.
Will try and re-up when I get some time. Rapidshare, you great leaping crabs, you!
In the meantime, at least here's a live instant download for...
SEWERS OF THE STRAND