Sounds Sights Smells Links Books Compilation CDs
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From my childhood
My first concert. I went with my friend, Jon, and we had a mighty fine time for two naïve New York teens. Nile Rodgers came out and played a brief solo during "Lay Your Hands On Me", and O.M.D. was awful.
A real fortune from a Chinese restaurant, dating back to high school sometime in the early '80s.
My only 8-track. My cousin Heidi had 2-XL, a little robot toy that would play 8-track tapes and would ask you educational questions, but I never had one.
Front | backThe Pet Rock. Someone made a lot of money from us Americans.
My slide rule. I took a high school physics test with this, just so I could say that I used a slide rule on a high school physics test.
An attachment from inside a Donna Summer LP (Live And More, I think.) [Hit "back".]
A Pee Wee Herman plastic bag. This is a dumb thing to own, but I scanned it in anyway.
The text from the back cover of an Ariola 12-inch single, explaining what a 12-inch single is. If you grew up in New York, you needed no explanation, and I still get a chuckle out of this.
From college in Rochester, NY
A flyer from "The Graveyard", my first show on WRUR's FM station. This was the precursor to "Crap From The Past", while I was still trying to imitate the slick, talk-in-the-big-voice DJs of wacky morning shows. Fortunately, I was able to get all that out of my system when no one was listening. This was from around early 1989.
Promotional buttons from WRUR. My denim jacket was covered with these.
A flyer promoting a Tiffany concert in upstate New York. Poor Tiffany was a favorite target of mine, and I even went so far as to co-write and record the song "I Shot Tiffany" with the New York band Dëth Böät (helmed by the supremely talented Jason Candler; see next entry).
A short piece that Jason and I submitted to the University of Rochester's satire magazine, the Norm. We originally wrote "Some Days You Die" as lyrics to a loopy song, sort of like "Alice's Restaurant", but we never recorded it.
A nice promotional compass sent out by Warner Bros. Records to promote R.E.M.'s single, "Stand". Carry a compass to move you along...
From grad school in Tucson, AZ
I used to do weddings and other live stuff for a guy named Wayne Zimmerman. We were (apparently) the only Jewish DJs in Arizona, and we did quite a brisk business. He later opened up a bar/restaurant ("Beef and Beer") named "Wayne's World", and he got me to emcee a Halloween party at the bar. This is an ad that ran in Tucson's weekly paper for it. The party was poorly attended, but fun.
Miscellaneous
Meredith Brooks used to be in a band called The Graces, then had a lone solo hit of her own, called "Bitch". Apparently, I got this cheapie promotional item for free.
A promotional card for short-lived KSMM, a small AM station in a Minneapolis suburb that understood pop music, only to be sold by a greedy owner that did not understand pop music. Notice some of the insane names in their list of "core" artists, including Honeymoon Suite. I miss them...
From here until the bottom of the page is some serious music-geek stuff. If you're a casual listener who's more comfortable with the Eagles than with Thomas Dolby, then you might want to skip the rest of this page. If, on the other hand, you appreciate the minutia of pop music, then welcome aboard! This is a random walk through some of the odds and ends in my collection, and is not intended to be completist in any way.
Thomas Dolby
I was quickly obsessed with "She Blinded Me With Science", and it provided the soundtrack for the summer of 1983. I was a 15-year-old in summer camp, and we all got silly to "Science". It was only a few years later that I realized that Mr. Dolby's musical vision was much sharper than one would guess from a novelty hit. Here, then, are some odds and ends that you may have missed in your Thomas Dolby collection.
Computer music article from Enter magazine.
His first single, on Armageddon Records. If I had half a brain in my head, I would have gotten this autographed when I met Mr. Dolby in 1989.
Some of the various incarnations of the "She Blinded Me With Science" single.
UK 7": Sleeve front | Sleeve back | Label front | Label back
US 12" promo, sent to radio: Label front | Label back | Sticker on jacket
Bizarre US 12" promo, with Dolby on one side and Duran Duran on the other.
Ticket stub, from the "Aliens Ate My Buick" tour.
Thomas Dolby's autograph, which I shoulda gotten on the "Urges" single. Fooey.
Duran Duran singles
Girls On Film (promo; same on both sides)
Label frontPlanet Earth
Label front | Label backHungry Like The Wolf, original release
Label front | Label backHungry Like The Wolf, second release on Capitol
Label front | Label backHungry Like The Wolf, second release on Harvest
Label front | Label back
The wrong label?
Occasionally, a single will be released on a small label, then will be picked up by a larger label to simplify the single's distribution to stores. Here are a few such examples.
AH LEAH - Donnie Iris
Originally on Midwest Records (the same label as La Flavour, with whom Donnie Iris had sung backup): Label front | Label back
Later on MCA Records: Label front | Label back
THE CURLY SHUFFLE - Jump N The Saddle
Originally on Acme Records: Label front | Label back
Later on Atlantic Records: Label front | Label back
DANCE DANCE DANCE - Chic
Originally on Buddah Records: Label front | Label back
Later on Atlantic Records: Label front | Label back
GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER - Elmo and Patsy
Originally on Oink Records, 1979: Label front | Label back
Later on Soundwaves Records, 1982 (same version as on Oink): Label front | Label back
Finally on Epic Records, 1984 (new recording): Sleeve front | Sleeve back | Label front | Label back
Release and re-release
It can be the same song, assigned to two different numbers, or two different versions on the same number.
SAUSALITO SUMMERNIGHT - Diesel (fine track from Dutch band)
Original pressing on Regency 96001: Label front | Label back
More common pressing on Regency 7339: Label front | Label back
CHAIN REACTION - Diana Ross (fine Bee Gees composition, big UK hit)
Original mix on RCA 14244: Sleeve front | Sleeve back | Label front
Remix, also on RCA 14244, with same B-side: Label front
The one-sided single
Arista Records tried a handful of these in the late 1970s, then CBS Records tried them in the early 1980s. I don't remember seeing them in the stores, and they clearly didn't sell very well. I've seen one-sided singles by Toto, the Clash, Men At Work, Kenny Loggins & Steve Perry, Jeff Lynne, and a wide variety of CBS artists. The most common (or maybe the least desired) of the one-sided singles may be Steve Forbert's "The Oil Song", which turns up everywhere.
ON THE LOOSE - Saga
And an explanation from an astute Steve Forbert fan, Mike Anderson from Iowa:
"The Oil Song" was never actually released as a one-sided single intended to chart on Billboard. "The Oil Song" was given away with the first 100,000 copies of the 1979 album "Jackrabbit Slim" as a promo item and the reason that you see it everywhere is due to the fact that so many copies were given away for free. The single itself was never actually for sale. It's my understanding that Steve wanted the song released, but the album was ready to press so they decided to give the single away with the album for free instead of hold up the release of the album. "The Oil Song" can now be found on the cd "What Kind of Guy? The Best of Steve Forbert" released in the early 1990's. I hope this explains why you see "The Oil Song" one-sided single in every used record shop in America. Now if we're talking one-sided singles...the flop I remember is "Don't Fight It" by Steve Perry and Kenny Loggins...oh the horror.
Huh?
Exactly.
The follow-up to The Curly Shuffle?
The follow-up to Sausalito Summernight?
Gary Portnoy?
Lynda Carter? (Yes, that's Wonder Woman.)
Huang Chung? (It's Wang Chung's first single, even before their Huang Chung album on Arista!)
Matthew Wilder from 1982? (Break My Stride was 1984.)
Eddie Murphy? (This was well before Party All The Time.)
A Michael Jackson single on Epic that's not on any of his Epic albums? (It was pulled from the MCA soundtrack to The Wiz, and was released just before Off The Wall's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough".)
A Weird Al Yankovic single on T.K. Records?
Suzy Andrews? (I don't know who she is either. The singles are all cover versions, and they're produced by Peter Hauke, the same guy who produced Tony Carey and Planet P. Now you know as much as I do.)
K.C. and the Sunshine Junkanoo Band? (That's how the Sunshine Band was billed on their first single from 1973.)
Bruce? (Mercury Records dusted off some vocals that Rick Springfield cut for them in 1978 with out his permission, put a new backing track behind him, and hit the top 40 with Bruce in 1984. He also recorded for Columbia, Capitol, Chelsea, and had all the hits with RCA.)
Donnie Iris doing "The Rapper"? (It's from a terrific promo-only live EP. Donnie Iris was a member of The Jaggerz, who had a hit with "The Rapper" in 1970.)
The hairiest man in Canada? (Yep - Gino Vannelli. This single is from 1973, and pre-dates all his US hits.)
The Police singing in foreign languages? (Yep! I don't know why it was recorded at all, but it was also released in the U.S. on A&M 25000 in 1981.)
The Sounds Of Australia? (This was sent to Australian Radio stations to promote the 1991 album "Woodface" by Crowded House. It's so rare that Neil Finn himself asked me, "What's this?" He autographed it, though, and it's the only one I've ever seen.)
Sleeve front | Sleeve back | CD
Although it's one 44-minute track, the index marks on the CD correspond to the following:
- 0:00-2:57 TALL TREES (Live)
- 2:57-4:15 interview
- 4:15-8:07 IT'S ONLY NATURAL (Live)
- 8:07-9:59 interview
- 9:59-14:58 CHOCOLATE CAKE (Live)
- 14:58-16:21 interview
- 16:21-20:31 WEATHER WITH YOU (Live)
- 20:31-20:47 interview
- 20:47-25:04 DON'T DREAM IT'S OVER (Live)
- 25:04-27:58 FOUR SEASONS IN ONE DAY (Live)
- 27:58-28:23 interview
- 28:23-31:57 ITALIAN PLASTIC (LP version)
- 31:57-32:03 interview
- 32:03-34:24 FAME IS (LP version)
- 34:24-37:58 WHISPERS AND MOANS (LP version)
- 37:58-41:16 FALL AT YOUR FEET (LP version)
- 41:16-44:11 AS SURE AS I AM (LP version)
Neil Finn also autographed my One Step Ahead single, which is the sparkliest of the Split Enz singles. What a cool guy!
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Every single thing on this website is © 2000-2005 Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber. All rights reserved. Problems, corrections, questions and comments should be directed to me. |
