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...
Hmmm...Not really knowledgeable about diamel, Rd. But when you mentioned the Doxidan Cowboy, you hit solid gold.
Everybody sing!:
When I’m irregular Here’s what I do I take Doxidan because it works When I expect it to Doxidan, gentle Doxidan, I get no surprises I feel better in the morning Sure as the sun rises Doxidan, Doxidan When nature needs a helpin’ hand Get overnight relief with Doxidan As sure as the sun rises.
The Doxidan Cowboy was a 30 second TV spot, circa 1987. And from the YouTube comments on this commercial, I'm starting to think if Doxidan's parent company had released this as a promo 45/cassette single with each package of Doxidan, it might have been played at weddings.
He's not quite George Strait. More like Don Williams in a porn 'stache. As smooth as, well, the effect of this product. But really, this should've won the CMA award that year.
Tragically, the Doxidan Cowboy remains anonymous. So it's unknown if he made any recordings of this jingle. Or has any albums. But here at History's Dumpster, he'll always be our Roy Rogers.
I've been asked this question now and then and to be perfectly honest, the 78 RPM speed is still with us. Mostly for collectors items and not as general releases. But it does occasionally surface.
But as general releases, 78 RPM was largely passe in America by 1957. In 1957, sales of 78 RPM records accounted for 4,500,000 units in 1957. In 1958, it plummeted to less than 500,000, less than 5% of overall sales and the writing was on the wall.
But it still had a visible, if fading market for children's records (mostly because kids inherited hand-me-down phonographs from their parents and many kids phonographs also still had that speed.)
Phonola Record Player, 1950s -60s Note the case is pure Vanity Fair/Imperial Party Time, but the tone arm is a plastic gramophone reproducer that used steel needles. These players (which also sold under Woolworth's house brand, Audition) had two speeds, 45 and 78 (which were the speeds of most kids records available at that time, 45 by the 1970s, but many 78s from the '50s and '60s. still existed.) These players were sold well into the early 1970s. Image: Etsyspot
But what I'm going to focus on here is what were the last general release singles worldwide at 78 RPM.
Image:
While 78 RPM was all but abandoned in America, (save for certain budget, independent, promo releases and oddities (The "Just Like Gene Autry; A Foxtrot" track on Moby Grape's Wow album is one example.) In South America, 78 RPM was still in use until the early '70s for certain pop releases.
But by this time also, 4 and 3 speed record changers were in twilight and practically non-existent outside a very select range of high-end turntables in the '80s and '90s.
"You're The One For Me, Fatty" Morrissey (1992, UK) Image: Discogs. Morrissey was the former lead singer of the British pop group The Smiths, best known for their 1984 alternative rock mega hit "How Soon Is Now". In 1992, he released a few 78s with selections from his solo album Your Arsenal.
"Millennium" Robbie Williams (2000, UK) Limited Edition of 999 numbered copies issued to commemorate the opening of the new HMV store in Oxford Street, London. Image: Discogs
The speed reemerged in the 2000s on some newer Crosley type junk players for playing old 78s. But some better quality turntables also began including it as the vinyl renaissance swept the country and anything with grooves fascinated Millennial hipsters. But most turntables still offer only the standard 33/45 speeds.
So to sum up, the last official general release new Western pop single on 78 that isn't a reissue, novelty, oddity, collector's item or promo is one that may never truly be known, even among collectors and they're still searching. The 1973 Brazilian Latimore 78 mentioned above is the most recent I've seen yet. I have heard of others that extend into the disco era, but I've never seen any as of this writing.
"Terraplane Blues" Robert Johnson (2019 Record Store Day reissue) Image: Discogs
Freakout!!: The Great New Guitar Sounds Freakout Guitars (Spin-O-Rama, 1967)
This super-cheesy whammy-bar fueled version of the Rolling Stones classic has always been a personal guilty pleasure of mine. In fact both sides of this album are worth a listen (it's department store budget albums like this one that also have some of the most kickass talk-over music for your community LPFM radio show.)
I think this was as close to a psychedelic album as Spin-O-Rama Records ever got.
Greetings again my naughty readers. Today, we're going to look at one of the most bizarre non-music records of the 1960s.
Not much is known about this album. Yet it remains one of the most collectible non-music LPs for it's rarity and, um, oddness. Tortura was produced by Los Angeles based Flag Publications, noteworthy for it's um, kinky products. Which of course includes “adult and juvenile discipline, transvestism, home movie and Polaroid hobbyists, exotica, sunbathing groups, male models, leather and rubber apparel, restraint, male and female domination and bondage." So there. The other thing about the Tortura album was that it was mentioned in a 1969 obscenity trial, United States v. Baranov which ruled against the album along with several pornographic mail-order publications. Could it have been Flag Publications themselves that were on trial? Listening to Tortura, it's not much more than whipping sounds and lots of "Ooooh"s, "Ahhhh"s "Ohhhh"s. But hardly anything worth making a federal case over. These utterances are more like the commentary you would make at a 6 year old's crayon drawing than anything illicitly sensual.
This 1989 cover of The Easybeats' 1966 classic should have been released in America. Seriously.
Elliot Goblet is a persona of Australian comedian Jack Levi. And why Apple and/or Amazon never used Elliot Goblet's voice instead of Siri and Alexa should be worthy of a federal investigation.
"Big Jim" Buchanan was an alter ego of Paul Frees, a legendary voice over actor, best known for his voices in several unforgettable Rankin-Bass cartoon and stop-animation holiday specials of the 1960s and '70s.
Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends was named in a 1998
BBC poll as the worst album of all time, a status it also held in Colin
Larkin's book The Top 1000 Albums of All Time.
A lost early sampler for Dr. Hook's 1975 LP Bankrupt. This was a free giveaway on record store counters to demonstrate the LP to potential buyers.
Bankrupt was Dr. Hook's first LP on Capitol Records. With their name shortened to simply "Dr. Hook" from the clunkier "Doctor Hook & The Medicine Show". The album contained their hits "Only Sixteen" (a cover of the Sam Cooke classic ) and "I Got Stoned And I Missed It."
Black Rose was a rock group Cher sang lead vocals for. Most people and many of Cher's own fans aren't even aware of this album because it's never listed amongst most Cher discographies. And for collectors, it's a holy grail to find the original 1980 Casablanca vinyl release with record, jacket and sleeve in pristine condition. Only 400,000 copies were sold worldwide.
In 1980, Cher was romantically involved with rock guitarist Les Dudek and this led to the musical collaboration that became Black Rose. Cher had just released two disco records for Casablanca in 1979, Take Me Home and Prisoner. But Black Rose was different. It wasn't disco, it
was actually something closer to a mainstream rock album for that time.
On the album, Cher sang vocals, but only appeared in a group photo on the back of the LP.
She was not even mentioned on the cover. Cher and Dudek were conscientiously trying to avoid the spotlight on Cher and make Black Rose a group effort rather than just another solo Cher album.
In spite of Cher's incredible network of connections in Hollywood that could have INSTANTLY made them nationally famous stars, Black Rose took the high road, playing gigs at smaller LA nightclubs. Everything the hard way.
Well, almost everything. They got an A-list team of songwriters, such as David Foster, Valarie Carter, Bernie Taupin, Mike Chapman, Carole Bayer-Sager, Vinnie Poncia and Allee Willis. As well as a deal with the one of the biggest record labels in the world at that time. The other members in Black Rose were seasoned LA session musicians. With side help from members of Toto (who would also appear on Cher's later '80s albums.)
The music was very well produced for it's time, as you could imagine. In fact, it was overproduced really. No catchy hooks. Everything really sounds forced to it's limits.
And comically beyond, as Cher's vocals on "Never Should've Started" painfully prove. It was the first single from the album and it was largely ignored by the radio.
But the new sound was alienating to her '60s and '70s pop fans as well as her disco era fans. Some critics thought they were trying to clone Blondie. And that Cher's voice was unsuited to the material she was singing. She went an a small tour to promote the album as The Black Rose Show.
It was darn nigh
impossible for women in rock in the 70s. There wasn't a mold if you were
a woman and you were in the entertainment in the 70s. You were probably
a disco diva or a folk singer, or simply ornamental. Radio would play
only one woman per hour. Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/903004
It was darn nigh
impossible for women in rock in the 70s. There wasn't a mold if you were
a woman and you were in the entertainment in the 70s. You were probably
a disco diva or a folk singer, or simply ornamental. Radio would play
only one woman per hour. Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/903004
It was darn nigh
impossible for women in rock in the '70s. There wasn't a mold if you
were a woman and you were in the entertainment in the '70s. You were
probably a disco diva or a folk singer, or simply ornamental. Radio
would play only one woman per hour. Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/annwilson412555.html
It was darn nigh
impossible for women in rock in the '70s. There wasn't a mold if you
were a woman and you were in the entertainment in the '70s. You were
probably a disco diva or a folk singer, or simply ornamental. Radio
would play only one woman per hour. Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/ann_wilson.html
It was darn nigh
impossible for women in rock in the '70s. There wasn't a mold if you
were a woman and you were in the entertainment in the '70s. You were
probably a disco diva or a folk singer, or simply ornamental. Radio
would play only one woman per hour. Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/ann_wilson.html
But sales of Black Rose were still very low and copies of the LP could be found in the cut-out budget bins at your local record store nine months after it's release for $1.99.
British comedian Marty Feldman is best remembered by American audiences as Igor in Young Frankenstein. (and his eyes, a product of a bad operation for his Grave's disease as a child.)
Feldman released some UK comedy albums and novelty singles in the late 1960s. This single failed to crack the UK charts and didn't get much (if any) airplay (not many comedy singles do.)
"The B-Side" is a poke at the flipside of a 45 RPM single...
This is probably the world's best known Christmas album. Nearly every household with a collection of Christmas music has a copy. And it still sells briskly 70 years after it's original release.
It was originally released in 1942 as a 4 record set of 78 RPM discs, later a 10" LP and 4 disc 45 RPM set in 1949. In 1955, the album was expanded to include 4 more songs on the 12" LP.
