Another Shower of Golden Records

Here's the second disc from the little Golden Records stash that I found in my office last week.

This time we get a different holiday tune: Parade of the Wooden Soldiers is a 1933 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop. This instrumental title theme (also known as "Parade of the Tin Soldiers") was composed by Leon Jessel, and is popular as Christmas music.

The flip side is Bob Merril's "Sparrow In The Treetop", originally published in 1951, with hit versions following by Guy Mitchell (the most popular version, reaching #8 on the Billboard chart), by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters (also reaching #8 on the Billboard chart), and by Rex Allen (reaching #28 on the Billboard chart).

The Sandpipers, Anne Lloyd, Mitchell Miller and Orchestra - Parade of the Wooden Soldiers

The Sandpipers, Anne Lloyd, Mitchell Miller and Orchestra - Sparrow In The Treetop

Clutch(Cargo)ing at Straws

Here's another edition of WUTK's "New Airwaves" Sunday night show, from around 1983. Special guest host is Todd "Clutch Cargo" Steed.


I had forgotten the heavy synth-pop focus of the early years of New Airwaves - I tend to listen more to my tapes of their punk hour/hardcore sets.



Again, enjoy the static - that's what we had to deal with in Murvil.

WUTK - New Airwaves 03

A Golden Shower of Records

(Well, that title should drive some search engine traffic here!).

Today's feature is an Easter two-fer from those little Golden Records of yesteryear.

These beautiful 6" yellow-vinyl children's discs played at 78 rpm. Since my current turntable doesn't have a 78 setting, I recorded these at 45 rpm and then pitch shifted them in software to get to 78 rpm. (For the mathematically inclined, the formula used was "45 is what percent of 78?". The solution is left as an exercise for the reader). An additional hour or so per side was devoted to attempting to clean up the sound, as these apparently were stored without sleeves but between sheets of 40 grit sandpaper inside a box of wood files.

Reading the fine print on the labels indicates that these were distributed by Simon and Schuster.

Side A is "Egbert The Easter Egg" and features Betty Clooney (sister of Rosemary, aunt of George), The Sandpipers, and Mitchell Miller and Orchestra.

Side B is "Bunny Bunny Bunny" and is billed only to The Sandpipers and Mitchell Miller and Orchestra, but it sure sounds like Ms. Clooney is on this one as well.

My copy has no sleeve, but I did find this image out on the intertubes:



Betty died young, and there is a foundation in her name: http://www.bettyclooneyfoundation.org/
(The Betty Clooney Foundation for Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury)

If you enjoyed these songs, maybe you could drop by and drop them a little contribution.




The Golden Records Sandpipers were consistently the same four singers — Mike Stewart, Ralph Nyland, Dick Byron and Bob Miller (as far as we know, no relation to Mitch). Other semi-regular singers included Sally Sweetland, Mary Jane Sutherland and Peter Hanley. They are not the same Sandpipers who had some easy listening hits in the 60's.

Music For a Different Different Society

Here's the second set of recordings from WUTK's early 80's show "Music For a Different Society."

It's from somewhere in 1983 (Nick Lowe's "The Abominable Showman" is said to be just released - and that happened on Jan 1, 1983) and the end of a winter quarter (the last hour is the "end of the quarter let out your frustrations hour").

Please enjoy the slight static as a remembrance of what it was like listening to the power of WUTK's 128 watts ("all the power of your average toaster") in Murvil.

Edit: It appears that Charlie Lytle was the main host of this program.


MFADS02A
MFADS02B

Glad to see that this off-brand "Hollywood" cassette was "PRO."

Edit: reading the fine print on the tape, it appears to be BASF, which is pro enough, though this particular brand is probably made from the floor scrapings at the BASF plant.

Giving Jeff another Hug(gins)

Here are two more recordings of "Waves" from WIMZ-FM. Listening to these, I learned (things that I should have remembered) some information about the show. To wit: it aired at midnight on every other Tuesday.


WIMZ Waves 02

WIMZ Waves 03


These were originally recorded on Sony CHF cassettes.

Those Famous Tennessee Beaches

Here's another limited-interest post (even more limited interest than usual!).
In the mid-80's WUTK ran a promotion called the Beach Bum Contest, where listeners had to identify a staffer dressed as the title character around campus to be entered into a drawing for a trip to Ft Lauderdale.

Below are some IDs and promos that I produced and that were cut by various station staff. A couple are me, at least one is the renouned Benny Smith, and the last guy sounds like someone who did some other Knoxville radio, but I can't ID him off of the top of my head. I don't know who the other voices are, either, so if you know, please leave a comment.

WUTK Beach Bum Promos

Looking Back Through The Glass

I've been meaning to post these high-bitrate versions of four recordings of What Alice Found ever since a digitization/remix last year. WAF was Scott Carpenter (guitar, vocals), Brad Deaton (bass, vocals) and Dave Tumblin (drums, vocals). Scott and Dave had previously played together in The Homeboys, and Scott and Brad would shortly-thereafter be part of The Taoist Cowboys.

These tracks were recorded on the Cutek 4-track cassete deck so often referenced in this blog - a stereo band track, with two tracks left over for vocals or assorted overdubs. Mics were mostly 57s. Recording took place in an upstairs apartment in the Fort. Pictures here.

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WhatAliceFound-Schoolgirl
WhatAliceFound-Graceland
WhatAliceFound-DebutantesInEconomyCars