Archives

It’s Mashed Potato Time/Do The Bird

The teenage Dee Dee Sharp (born Dione LaRue) was by far the biggest female star on the Cameo Parkway roster, and in fact was the first black female teen idol, thanks to her prodigious vocal talent and her string of appearances on Dick Clark’s ‘American Bandstand’ show. And this pair of 1962 mono albums capture her just as her star is streaking across the pop music firmament; they include three of her five Top Ten hits between them, and with their colorful packaging and hilarious sleeve note from Chubby Checker, they offer an early course in how to package a teen pop star (in this case, a very gifted teen pop star)! Includes ‘Gravy (for My Mashed Potatoes); Slow Twistin’; Gee; Two Loves; One Hundred Pounds of Clay; Eddie, My Love; Mashed Potato Time; (Dee Dee) Be My Girl; I Sold My Heart to the Junkman; Remember You’re Mine; Hurry On Down; Splish Splash; Let the Sunshine In; I Will Follow Him; Rockin’ Robin; He’s So Fine; You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Nothin’; Reet Petite; Do the Bird; Be Ever Wonderful; Our Day Will Come; Just to Hold My Hand; Why Don’t You Ask Me’, and ‘South Street’. 24 tracks, with notes by Ed Osborne!

For Your Hully Gully Party/You Can’t Sit Down

1962 and 1963 albums by this Philly vocal group led by Len Barry! ‘Hully Gully’ built off the dance-craze success of the Dovells’ first hit single, ‘Bristol Stomp’, with a series of dance-oriented tracks (most penned by Parkway’s resident songwriting geniuses, Kal Mann and Dave Appell), three of which (‘Do the New Continental; Hully Gully Baby’, and ‘Jitterbug’) hit the charts. The original liner notes on this one call it “the best party album ever,” and that’s not that big of a stretch! ‘You Can’t Sit Down’, meanwhile, was the group’s lone charting album, thanks to its #3 hit title track. Gene Sculatti supplies the notes to this 24-track, all-mono twofer. Other songs include ‘Kissin’ in the Kitchen; Stompin’ Everywhere; Time for the Madison; Hully Gully Square Dance; Country Club Hully Gully; Cheat; Why Not You; Hully Gully; Stop, Look and Listen; Short Fat Fanny; 36-22-36; Maybelline; Miss Daisy De Lite; Hey, Beautiful; Baby Workout; Wildwood Days; If You Wanna Be Happy; Lockin’ Up My Heart; Summer Job’, and ‘Havin’ a Good Time’.

Cameo Parkway Holiday Hits

Like any self-respecting independent label of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Cameo Parkway recorded its share of holiday-themed recordings, and this 18 track collection wraps ‘em into one tidy package. In that only four of the songs have been on CD, Christmas really has arrived for collectors. The compilation includes “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Rydell & Chubby Checker; “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”, “Winter Wonderland” and “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” by the Rudolph Statler Orchestra; “Joy to the World”, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, “The First Noel” and “Deck the Halls” by the International Pop Orchestra; “Merry Christmas” and “New Year’s Eve” by the Cameos; “Auld Lang Syne” by Beethoven Ben and “White Christmas (3 O’Clock Weather Report)” by Bobby the Poet; “I’ll Stay Home New Year’s Eve” by the Jaynells; “Twelve Days of Christmas” by the Mexicani Marimba Band and “Donde Este Santa Claus (Where Is Santa Claus)?” by Toni Stante; “Auld Lang Syne” by Bob Johnson And The Lonesome Travelers and “Sock It to Me Santa” by Bob Seger And The Last Heard. Plus, as a special bonus, Collectors’ Choice has unearthed an uproarious duet between Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell: “Jingle Bells Imitations”.

JOHN ZACHERLE MONSTER MASH

Monster Mash/ Scary Tales

Straight from the crypts, er, vaults of Cameo Parkway comes this fiendish find, a gruesome twosome of vintage albums from the Cool Ghoul himself, the original TV horror host, Zacherle! The first of these albums hit #44 on the charts, as it boasts Zach’s Top Ten Hit, ‘Dinner with Drac’, but his sleeve notes are worth the price of admission alone—and these come to you in original “scareo!” None other than Zach acolyte (Zacholyte?) John Sebastian chips in with new notes, too. Includes ‘Monster Mash; Hurry Bury Baby; Let’s Twist Again (Mummy Time Is Here); I’m the Ghoul from Wolverton Mountain; Gravy (with Some Cyanide); Popeye (The Gravedigger); Limb from Limbo Rock; Weird Watusi; Pistol Stomp; Dinner with Drac; The Ha-Ha-Ha; The Bat; Scary Tales (from Mother Goose); A-Tisket, A-Casket; Hansel and Gretel; Clementine; Happy Halloween; Monster Monkey; The Spider and the Fly; A-B-C; Little Red Riding Hood; Surfboard 1-0-9’, and ‘Dear, Dear Valentine’.

* Bonus Tracks

She Said Yeah

The Rolling Stones’ “She Said Yeah,” a track from their album December’s Children (And Everybody’s) that was recorded and released in 1965, serves as the soundtrack for a short advertising film for BLEU DE CHANEL, the new men’s fragrance, directed by Academy Award ® winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese. ABKCO Records is offering the original song via iTunes bundled with a video of the band performing the number with live vocals from the November 15, 1965 episode of the nationally broadcast NBC Hullabaloo series.

Director Scorsese’s relationship with the Rolling Stones and their catalog of songs dates back to Mean Streets, his breakthrough film that included the band’s “Tell Me” in a key scene. No fewer than three Rolling Stones songs, “Gimme Shelter,” “Monkey Man” and “Memo From Turner” are heard in Goodfellas while The Departed includes both “Gimme Shelter” and “Let It Loose.” Scorsese directed the 2008 Rolling Stones concert film Shine A Light.

Typifying the early Stones’ high energy approach, “She Said Yeah” propels the action in the film, titled Bleu de Chanel, in which rising international star Gaspard Ulliel plays the role of a young actor whose artistic talent, rebelliousness and luck have recently catapulted him into the public eye, but who refuses to conform to the lifestyle and expectations his newly found fame has forced upon him. As he struggles with new demands and expectations, he encounters his first love who, for years, supplied him with the passion and turmoil that fueled his work. Faced with a choice, he pushes aside convention to embody the bold energy and elegance of BLEU DE CHANEL by daring to be unexpected.

The song was recorded by the group in September of 1965 at RCA Studios in Hollywood, the very same facility where their epochal “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” had been recorded a few months earlier. “She Said Yeah” was written by Sonny Bono and west coast rockabilly performer Roddy Jackson, and had been a single for Larry Williams in the late 1950s. Williams skyrocketed to fame with such early rock ‘n’ roll hits as “Bony Maronie,” “Dizzy Miss LIzzy” and “Slow Down,” the last two of which were covered by the Beatles.

Created by CHANEL Master Perfumer Jacques Polge, BLEU DE CHANEL is a woody aromatic fragrance for today’s modern man. The provocative fragrance features notes of grapefruit, dry cedar and labdanum.