Car Boot Christmas Countdown 2016 - Day 5

It's Day 5 of the Car Boot Christmas Countdown, which means that we're halfway to Christmas Eve already.  As promised, today we're going Totally Tijuana with a trio of budget label Yuletide parp-fests.

Let's start with this, bought at a car boot sale during the summer of 2015 for a pound.

The Border Brass & Singers - Tijuana Christmas (1968)

Released on Hallmark the same year as Herb Alpert's festive offering, Tijuana Christmas by The Border Brass & Singers is a fun collection of twelve familiar tunes in a pseudo-Mariachi style.  The title track that opens Side 1 is not especially Christmassy, but it's very jaunty, with clip-clop percussion, a neighing horse (obviously) and some breathy "pah-pah-pah" female vocals.  In fact the clean cut chorus of guys and girls provide a slew of pah-pah-pahs, da-da-das and even some bum-bum-bums to go with the fa-la-la-la-las; and with all the bells, chimes, maracas, and of course that twin trumpet sound, this record is a kitsch delight.  Deck The Halls features strident harpsichord, as does the rattling arrangement of We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Angels We Have Heard On High incorporates ringing barrelhouse piano, and the clip-clopping reappears for the one-horse open sleigh in Jingle Bells.

The album was released without the overlaid vocals as by just 'The Border Brass' in the US and 'La Nouvelle Génération' in Canada:

In addition, there are a couple of other versions the same as the UK release i.e. with vocals, but with variations of title, band name and cover art.  These are a US release called 'Tijuana Voices With Brass Sing Merry Christmas' and an Australian one named 'Jingle Bells Tijuana Style':

Bought last summer for 50p is another album called Tijuana Brass, this time by Louis Gomez Mexican Brass.

Louis Gomez Mexican Brass - Tijuana Christmas (1979)

It was released on Chevron Records, a UK budget label exclusively licensed to the Woolworth's chain.  There was no Loius Gomez of course; the arranger was one Pete Winslow, who also played trumpet, and he's accompanied here by session musicians on Hammond organ, marimba, twangy guitar and jazzy percussion.

Although the sleeve notes claim "Louis Gomez and his Mexican Brass play some of those songs that will always be associated with Christmas", there are quite a lot you wouldn't, including ones called Snowbird, Post Horn Rock, Londonderry Air a.k.a. 'Danny Boy', and There Is A Tavern In The Town which you'd most likely recognise as 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'.

Some are perky and some mellow, but they're all groovesome and the jazziest of the Tijuana cohort, especially their arrangement of the perennial Winter Wonderland.  If you see it hanging around in a charity shop try not to let the cover put you off buying it, as it's a really fun, swingin' record.

Not quite as swingin' is the album by the genre's originator, Christmas With Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, sent to me last December by dear pal and fellow car boot botherer Beany.

Christmas With Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (1968)

This 1971 reissue of what was originally titled "Christmas Album" is on the Mayfair imprint, a budget series belonging to Herb's own label A&M.  It was distributed by Pye, and when held up to strong light the otherwise black-looking vinyl disc becomes red and translucent, like much of Pye's output in the 1970s.

Original US cover

The voice and string arrangements on this mixture of mostly secular standards are by Shorty Rogers, with brass arrangements by Alpert, and include Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride and Jingle Bells, along with Herb giving voice to The Bell That Couldn't Jingle and Christmas Song.  More unusual are Las Mañanitas (a traditional Mexican birthday song that translates as "The Little Mornings"), Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire, and the rather odd choice of My Favourite Things from The Sound Of Music.

It's a pleasant enough record but a little too... well... tasteful for my tastes; far more restrained and even muted in comparison to his usual Tijuana Brass albums, and often not even very Christmassy.  But it still reached no.1 on the US album chart every year between 1968 and 1970, so it clearly hit the spot for many.

I'll be back tomorrow (Tuesday the 20th of December) with more festive car bootery, but until then you can listen to me introducing and playing over an hour of all-vinyl Christmas tunes on Car Boot Christmas 2016.   It's totally family-friendly, and you can use the player below or click the link to go directly to Mixcloud.

https://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/car-boot-christmas-2016/

Little Box Of Horrors - Part 3

This third part of Little Box Of Horrors is a bit later than intended due to a bout of the lurgi that absolutely floored me. So much so that I had zero desire to listen to any kind of music for a couple of weeks, and certainly not the type found in the scary Box. So, with strength now returned - and boy did I need it for this next record - let's resume.

First out was this rather dog-eared and much Sellotaped copy of 12 Tops - Today's Top Hits:

12 Tops - Today's Top Hits (1972)

Stereo Gold Award was founded by budget label giant David Leonard Miller, who was previously responsible for the gigantic 101 Strings series in the late 50s and early 60s, as well as other mega-cheapo releases that undercut the prices of the bigger labels. The 12 Tops series ran from 1972-76 and used cheesecake covers and a 50p price tag to sell exploito albums featuring hits of the day (much like Hallmark's TOTP albums, but even worse).

This particular record is the fourth volume in a series that put out an album every month or so during its run. You can see all 30 and read more about them here: http://hitcovers.weebly.com/12-tops.html (the site as a whole is well worth perusing, too).

It's complete dross of course; songs ruined by sub-standard sessioneers include the Bee Gees' Run To Me, Bill Withers' Lean On Me and Procul Harum's Conquistador.  The worst though are a horrible version of Rod's You Wear It Well, the singer apparently chosen for his husky voice but not his vocal ability (he sounds like he's being made to sing from beneath a thick blanket whilst suffering from acute asthma), and an atrocious Too Busy Thinking About My Baby that I'm sure even I could improve upon at karaoke.

This kind of trash sold by the truckload in the 1970s, which just goes to show that sex sells, as do pocket-money prices.

If you see it on your travels for pennies it's almost worth getting for the spiffy version of Popcorn, but otherwise best avoided.


Next out of the box was this offering from The Mike Sammes Singers:

The Mike Sammes Singers with Orchestra -
Love Is A Happy Thing (1968)

During the 1960s musician and arranger Mike Sammes, along with his troupe of trusty singers, was one of the most (if not the most) in-demand and prolific musicians of the period. They  appeared on countless pop songs, radio jingles and advertisements, TV themes and film soundtracks, most notably the Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds themes, The Beatles' I Am The Walrus and many Disney albums. The Mike Sammes singers were also the voices of Pinky & Perky and Ken Dodd's Diddymen. According to spaceagepop.com  "Virtually every "doo-doo-doo" to be heard on a pop recording made in the UK between 1955 and 1975 came out of the mouth of Sammes and his colleagues".

Singers in the group varied over time, but there were six core members (three guys and three gals) as well as Mike himself, and they specialised in delivering perfectly polished harmonies to order. Although they were terribly busy working for others (often putting in 6-day weeks with several sessions a day), they found time to make 7 albums under their own name.

Love Is A Happy Thing is chirpy easy listening of the best kind; a mainly up-tempo mixture of covers and originals, with a little bossa nova, pretty strings, a dash of big band swing and of course those oh-so-smooth vocal harmonies. It's the kind of record you'd be sure to find in the collection of Austin Powers. Have a listen to the irresistible title track to hear what I mean (I couldn't find it on youtube so digitised and uploaded it myself):

The record also features a lovely version of Up, Up And Away plus a far-out Summertime. Although it's from the Box Of Horrors, it's actually very enjoyable if you're a fan of the groovier end of easy, and if you are, you'll also love the neat album cover. Daddio.


Part 4 of Little Box Of Horrors is due shortly, but in the meantime if you missed the first two installments they can be found here:
Part 1: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/little-box-of-horrors-part-1.html
Part 2: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/little-box-of-horrors-part-2.html

Little Box of Horrors - Part 1

A few weeks ago me and my other half finally got round to the long overdue task of clearing out the cupboard under the stairs. (When I say "we", what I really mean is that he did most of the work while I pointed at each item as it came out, shouting "KEEP!", "RECYCLE!", "CHAZZA!" or "DUMP!" in an authoritative yet endearing manner.)

Lurking at the back was a box full of old records which once belonged to his parents. You must know by now that such a thing is like catnip to a crate digger like me, so in I went, completely unprepared and with no warning of the horrors it contained. Actually, there were some good records mixed in with the crap; half a dozen Dean Martin LPs and a handful of budget disco and soul compilations, but these were in the minority. Over the past few days I've been cleaning the least-scratched ones and giving them a spin. It's been quite an education. Let's have a look (don't worry, listening is not compulsory) at the worst offenders.

We begin with a name I'd never seen before: Gerry Monroe and his 1970 album Sally - Pride Of Our Alley:

Gerry Monroe - Sally - Pride Of Our Alley (1970)

Gerry (real name Henry Morris) was from South Shields, and after some time as a singer in working men's clubs he entered the ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks where he found favour and was signed to Chapter One Records. This was his first and most successful album and features three Top 40 hits, the best known being a cover of Gracie Fields' Sally.

The rather disturbing cover image (What's he looking at? Why doesn't she run away?) gives little clue as to the contents. Yes, he's head-to-toe in man-made fibres; yes, the rear sleeve lists mainly popular standards such as Danny Boy and Johnny Ray's Cry, and even as the first track began, it all seemed like very predictable, rather dull MOR. And then it happened. The man began to yodel. Not every word, but just now and then, carefully timed to cause maximum startlement and alarm in the poor, unsuspecting listener.

Doris Day's Secret Love is an early casualty and I'll never again be able to enjoy Gene Pitney's Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart without it inducing flashbacks of the performance here, but the most heinous crime is that inflicted on Bridge Over Troubled Water. Luckily for you, dear reader, it isn't on youtube, so here's the title track instead:

The final track on the album is called She Taught Me How To Yodel. Oh did she Gerry, DID SHE?

The next slab of vicious vinyl to land on the turntable was by a face familiar to us all; Des O'Connor:

Des O'Connor - By Special Request (date unknown)

Chestnut-hued family entertainer Desmond Bernard O'Connor was a mainstay of British television from 1963, beginning with The Des O'Connor Show on ITV (that channel has a lot to answer for) and ending with Today With Des & Mel in 2006. This compilation on Music For Pleasure represents just a (mercifully) small proportion of his 36-album singing career, and is quite, quite dreadful.

Side 1 of By Special Request opens with a tune named Dick-a-dum-dum (I shit you not), which has to be heard to be believed, and managed to reach number 14 in the UK singles chart in June 1969, where it nestled between Jethro Tull's Living In The Past at 15 and Cliff Richard's Big Ship at 13. Number 1 that week was Tommy Roe with Dizzy. 

What follows is some very accomplished and cheesy crooning which includes another 1969 Top 20 single Loneliness, blooming Danny Boy again and a God-awful cover of George Harrison's Something.

Here's Dick-a-dum-dum, brought to you on the very same album by some mad person on youtube. Don't say I didn't warn you:

That's all for today - the second part of Little Box Of Horrors will be with you soon. Come back if you dare!