A 1950's Rock Session, TV Variety from 1962, Some Odd Interviews, a Truly Bewildering Acetate, and 1980's Radio Jingles

What a wondrous cornucopia of sounds I have for you, this last night of  January, 2002. Let's get right to it. 

First up, a tape which is probably the most fascinating (to me, at least) that I've shared in some time. The box states that it contains excerpts from "The Brazilian Suite", but rather than that, this seven minutes of tape features a small combo, making an attempt to record a song, sometime very likely in the late 1950's, judging from the style of the song and the design of that Scotch tape box that housed it.

I can find no indication that this is a "known" song, and I've labeled it "Blue Tears". And a lovely little number it is, bathed in echo, with a soft backing of a few instruments and a female trio adding some "oohs" and such, and fronted by a lead singer who sounds frozen in 1957-58 or so. There is one complete take, followed by a few breakdowns, and another take is starting just as the tape runs out. 

What a lovely, mysterious little wonder. 

Unknown - Blue Tears (multiple takes)

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Okay, that's the tape that I was most excited about. Here's one that many other readers may find even more fascinating. It's from a collection of tapes that I bought a few decades ago, and am still going through (!), by someone who recorded television shows and performances which were of interested to him or her fairly incessantly in the 1960's. There is a photo of the inside of the tape box, below, but here is a rundown of what you'll hear, during the nearly 90 minutes contained in this recording: 

1.) Mort Sahl hosting the Tonight Show - the last show of a week of hosting duties, while NBC was waiting for Johnny Carson to be available. The date is June 15, 1962, and lengthy excerpts of the show are heard, including an interview with the secretary for the Gemini astronauts, and conversations with someone who appears to be a professor, about some fairly weighty subjects. The recording of this show takes up more than half of the tape. 

2.) The Dave Brubeck combo performing on The Ed Sullivan Show on June 17, 1962

3.) The next subsequent episode of the Tonight Show - from the following Monday, June 18th (hey, that was my brother's eighth birthday!), featuring Steve Lawrence hosting, Steve Allen and songwriter Billy Rose as guests (Allen sings) and, believe it or not, Mort Sahl returning, as another guest.

4.) Oscar Peterson performing on The Today Show (undated)

5.) And my favorite segment, at the end, the wonderful, incomparable Limeliters, performing a few songs on what appears to also be The Today Show (also undated) 

Download: TV Recordings, 1962 - Mort Sahl, Dave Brubeck, Steve Allen, Oscar Peterson, tThe Limeliters

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And here's the inside of the tape box, with The Limeliters' name spelled incorrectly!: 

 

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Here's a tape which is more than a bit of a mystery to me. It sounds like a series of interviews for various positions, but the variety of positions makes me think that this was something else, perhaps even a rehearsal or practice at either interviewing people or being interviewed. 

There are a few references to the Indianapolis Hilton, so I suspect that's where this was being recorded, and most of the jobs being interviewed for involve hotel work of some sort. But not all of them, and not a single one seems to be for the same specific job as any of the other interviews. So it's sort of strange. Strange enough that I thought I'd share it with you. See what you think!

Download: A Series of Interviews at the Indianapolis Hilton

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". Now if you thought the purpose of the interview tape was inscrutable, or if you thought the "Blue Tears" tape was mysterious, that all may be true, but neither is as inscrutable or mysterious as today's Acetate. 

Imagine my surprise and bewilderment when I heard the following sounds - clearly and entirely backwards - coming out of an unlabeled acetate. 

Download: Bizarre Backwards Acetate

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My guess is that this was made for use as some sort of effect on some radio program. 

Now I'm sure a lot of you have the ability to turn this around, using one type of software or another, but I've done it for you, and the results are just as bewildering - here we have an old woman singing a sort of nonsensical folk song - one I am unfamiliar with, in which one of the key words is "pumpernickel" - with her performance chopped up so as to make the rendition all the more incomprehensible. Then, of course, they flipped it backwards for the acetate recording. Wow. 

Download: Bizarre Backwards Acetate (reversed)

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Finally, our very short reel, and a return to normalcy. What we have here is the production of a company called Continental Recordings, with a little more than three minutes of jingles and production music for WGAN, AM 560 in southern Maine

Download: Continental Recordings - WGAN Jingles and Production Music, 1982

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And here's that tape box: 

Comments are welcome and encouraged!

See you next time....