History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
And I'd STILL take Chuck Barris
anyday over Ryan Seacrest. The Gong Show wasn't about sappy wannabes
singing lame Whitney Houston or John Mayer covers, The Gong Show had
talent....and REAL (future) stars. Like this little unknown act called
The Mystic Knights of The Oingo Boingo.
And if you're any fan of classic alternative rock.....well, you knew who this group became:
This was from 1976, LONG before Oingo Boingo went New Wave, they were a performance artist troupe from L.A......
I'm no fan of child recording stars in any way. I just can't handle the
high, shrill frequencies that leave me screaming for a Fiona Apple
tune. But this record bears a special horror to me, as my mom once
owned a copy of this album.
If you're not familiar with the name
Lena Zavaroni, you probably weren't around in 1974. Because for most of that year, this Scottish girl was "The
Next Big Thing", appearing on American variety shows and telethons and
scoring a debut album at the tender age of 10 with Ma! He's Making Eyes At Me.
But
beyond who this girl who seemed to come out of nowhere was, it
was the impact it had on an American R&B institution.
This
album was most shockingly released in America in
1974 on Stax Records, the once mighty home of powerhouse soul like Otis
Redding, Booker T. & The MGs, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus
Thomas, Issac Hayes, etc, etc, etc.
But by this time, all of
Stax's biggest artists from the '60s had been stolen by Stax's former
distributor, Atlantic Records by 1968 and Stax was left with only a
handful of lesser soul acts on the label. Even the original master tapes
of Stax's most successful '60s hits were taken. The label virtually had
to start all over again from the beginning.
How do you recreate such a massive institution Stax was?
After 1968, Stax had
floundered so badly in a lopsided distribution agreement with CBS Records
that in a Faustian deal (it's the only way I can describe it) Stax
quickly signed this girl for American distribution (I'm not sure whether
it was Stax themselves that signed her as a last ditch attempt to bring
their sorry financial house back in order or CBS that forced them into
it in the hopes of killing off a potential rival to CBS's own home
roster of R&B acts - the story varies.) But thanks to the crappy CBS
distribution deal, the only way they could promote this album was
through a massive TV campaign of commercials for the album (which my mom
succumbed to), and other TV appearances because most record stores had
trouble even getting Stax's regular R&B output.
Stax was also considered
the bratty stepchild within the CBS household and with the exception of a few token spins of her only charting single (the album's title track) American radio simply
would not play her songs. (10 year olds singing songs that only
grandmothers liked has a way of doing that.)
And even more
embarrassing for Stax, which was once one of the biggest and most
respected R&B record labels in America were some of the blackface Al
Jolson songs this little 10 year old white girl sang on this album,
including "Mammy" and "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With A Dixie Melody)"
The
gambit failed - HORRIBLY. Stax suffered a massive backlash from it's
loyal base of hardcore R&B fans over this album and Stax went
bankrupt in 1975. It's name and remaining assets were picked up by Fantasy Records and aside a few releases every so often, was mostly dormant until the 2000s.
But she disappeared as quickly as she came in
America.
She maintained a small cult following in Europe (where she
became more or less the Connie Francis of the '80s, still singing pop
standards at a time when most young women her age were singing far more
edgier rock material.) While considered a throwback in the '80s, she would probably seem very mainstream today.
She had a variety show in the UK (where the variety TV show format survived well into the '80s.)
However, she suffered from anorexia. Her weight dropped to a deadly 70 lbs. On top of struggling to maintain a fading career. At the end of her life, she was living on UK government benefits. She also suffered from chronic depression, at one point begging for doctors to operate on her brain so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore (This was before the days of newer medications and treatment programs.)
The eternal tragedy of the former child star. Perhaps the most Faustian deal there is.
The Ran-Dells were a doo-wop group from New Jersey. They scored a #27 hit in 1963 with this song. But they would be a one hit wonder, as their further singles didn't chart.....
