"Sure The Boy Was Green" Horslips (1977)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!,

Today, I thought I'd dig up something from an Irish rock band just about most rock fans in the US have never heard of. But in the pantheon of '70s Irish rock, if Thin Lizzy was on top, then Horslips were in a sound second place.

Horslips (yeah, weird name I know. According to Wikipedia, the name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse"), while huge in Ireland, were criminally overlooked in America. They only had one LP released in the US in 1977 called Aliens. 

Aliens came right on the heels of Thin Lizzy's 1976 album Jailbreak album, which went multi-platinum (I'm sensing somebody thought with the Thin Lizzy craze that Irish rock was The Next Big Thing) and while Aliens was Horslips most accessible album commercially, it was largely unheard of in the US. "Sure The Boy Was Green" was the only single from it.

Horslips disbanded in 1980.

Eric Crapton?

South Korean pressing (Creato Records, 1980)

Apparently, this is a pirated copy.....

This wouldn't be Mr. Clapton's only problem album in South Korea....

"Good Vibrations" The 101 Strings Orchestra feat. The Alshire Singers (1976)

"C.B. Savage" Rod Hart (1976)

"Have A Nice Trip" Merv Griffin (1968)

If there's anyone I always wanted to have a hit of Geritol with, it was Merv Griffin.....

"Give Just A Little" Seattle Helps The Hungry (1985)

The release of Band Aid's 1984 single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" raised a new consciousness of the devastating famine in Ethiopia in which several million Ethiopians died after years of drought and the unimaginable horror and suffering the Ethiopian people were enduring.

The success of the single inspired an American response single, "We Are The World" by USA For Africa and soon, artists from other countries and music communities began releasing what has become known as The Benefit Single. In which artists, producers, recording studios, labels, distributors and retail outlets would donate their talent, time and resources in bringing these singles to market with no compensation and 100% of the proceeds from the single would go to the charities in which they were intended.

After seeing a similar benefit single released by local artists in another city, Seattle producer and songwriter David Perry created Seattle's own benefit single for Ethiopia. This single, "Give Just A Little" was a sort of who's who of Seattle's local music talent and media personalities of that time. Including Annie Rose & The Thrillers, The Eagertones, The Dynette Set, Rail, The Cowboys, Chuck Conlon, Eric Tingstad, Michael Tomlinson, Mondo Vita and Red Dress. Radio and TV personalities Wayne Cody and Nick Walker of KIRO-TV, KUBE Radio's Truck Rogers, KHIT Radio's Maureen Matthews, KPLZ's Jeff King, KNBQ's R.P McMurphy and local legend Merrilee Rush (who sang the original version of the pop classic "Angel of The Morning"). As well as The Neville Brothers and many others.

The single benefitted the USA For Africa aid charity as well as local food bank Northwest Harvest. Reminding us that hunger exists right around the corner as well as halfway around the world.

This single (like many others) got some brief media attention, but it was also becoming apparent the market was becoming saturated with benefit singles and while local sales were good, they were eclipsed by the "We Are The World" single which inspired them.

However, as we are approaching the 30th anniversary of "We Are The World" (and it still seems like yesterday!), these singles still stand as an irrefutable testament to the fact that were it not for the music communities, Ethiopia would have starved while the politicians just talked. And every little bit helped.

"Christmas Rappin'" Kurtis Blow (1979)

PLAY IT LOUD!!!

"Yellow Submarine" Milton Berle (1970)

'"The Be-Bop Santa Claus" Babs Gonzales (1955)

 

The Worst Christmas Song EVER

 

"An Old Fashioned Christmas (Daddy's Home)" Linda Bennett (1975)

It starts out like your typical sleepy MOR Christmas ballad. But then comes the "Breaking News" radio reports. And from here, this record really goes to hell.

What were they thinking?

"Jingle Bell Hustle" Wayne Newton (1979)

"Merry Christmas" Melanie (1968)

Melanie Safka (usually referred to as simply "Melanie") was a singer/songwriter who was considered a hippie pop singer who sang hippie pop songs, but she never personally identified with being a hippie. And she was signed to bubblegum pop label Buddah. And Buddah wasn't exactly Vanguard or even Reprise in the echelons of hippie rock.

But while wannabe hippie girls everywhere loved her. She was the Jewel of her day.

But before Melanie had her famous Woodstock appearance and her 1970s mega-hits "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)" and "Brand New Key", she recorded a Christmas song called "Merry Christmas", based on the traditional carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". It was originally on her debut LP in 1968 Born To Be. After her Woodstock appearance and the success of "Lay Down", Buddah re-released Born To Be, retitled as My First Album.

On this track Melanie, changes the "We" in "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to "I". And literally demands her figgy pudding and her cup of good cheer. Now.

She still performs and releases new music and her old classics independently.

"Merry Christmas You Suckers" Paddy Roberts (1962)

Yes, it's the same Paddy Roberts who gave us this..

"Close To You" The Clams (1974)

This, like "Why Daddy" Ronnie Dove, has to be amongst the strangest records to ever bear any involvement from Motown Records.

This is a novelty version of the Carpenters classic "Close To You" - done in Spike Jones style

Turn it up....


The flip side has another Spike Jones treatment, this time To Roberta Flack.

"Running" Chubby Checker (1982)

You're probably listening to this and thinking "Hey wait a minute, this isn't a song you can twist to!"

And that's what Chubby Checker was aiming for on his 1982 comeback LP The Change Has Come. To prove he wasn't just a one trick act and he could be a modern Adult Contemporary pop singer as well as as the master of an all time dance classic.

But there's no escaping The Twist and the only single from this LP, "Running" stalled at #92 on the charts. It just wasn't the Chubby Checker we know and love. And Chubby returned to twisting....

"Existential Blues" Tom "T-Bone" Stankus (1979)

The original classic!

"Poisoning Pigeons In The Park" Tom Lehrer (1959)

"The Frito Twist" Euel Box (PAMS Recording, 1962)

Yours in a specially marked bag of Frito's corn chips in 1962 (The Year of The Twist).....

"Up Up and Away" Rajput & The Sepoy Mutiny (1968)

 

 

In the late 1960s, to bolster your hippie credentials, one needed an album of South Asian sitar music.

But alas, Ravi Shankar records (as well as good pot) were hard to find in Heartland America. So leave it to Design Records, a subsidiary of the budget record label giant Pickwick Records and the biggest purveyor of pure cheese this side of Kraft Foods in the 1960s to fill that niche.

Often played by Fred Norris of The Howard Stern Show when discussing or introducing a guest of South Asian heritage, this track has also appeared on the out of print Incredibly Strange Music Vol. 1 compilation CD.

Like most of Design's product, it had no musician credits, liner notes or session information.

The back cover was a typical stock back cover for most Design albums, extolling the virtues of Design's catalog, with the helpful mention "The record you hold in your hands, made to standards as critical as any set in the industry, consists of pure vinyl."

"Let the rules go hang" never really made it into the hippie vernacular.

Happy Election Day!