My 45s Collection, Part Two (of Three)

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In Part One of this Reminiscence, I listed the first two groups of records in my 45s collection from 1955-60 which at one time seemed to have been my favorites.  First, I kept forty-five 45s in a little brown box that I could take with me to my friends’ houses; I listed the current contents.  Second, I listed a group of “slow tunes” that I admitted I listen to more now than to the R & B and pop tunes in the boxed collection.

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Next in my cabinet is another group of “slow tunes” that I guess didn't make the first cut. There are a couple of surprises even for me among these records, but I simply must have bought all of them in the first place and later I must even have considered putting them in the "favorite slow tunes" stack…

Anyway, here are the "also-ran" slow tunes:

My Heart Stood Still   by The Four Freshmen

If I Give My Heart to You   by Doris Day

                                                        and The Mellomen

No, Not Much   by The Four Lads

                                             with the Roy Ennis Orchestra

Memories Are Made of This   by Gale Storm

It’s Almost Tomorrow   by Jo Stafford

                                         with the Paul Weston Orchestra

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing   by Don Cornell

Fools Will Be Fools   by The Four Preps

My Desire   by The Cliques

Teach Me Tonight   by Jo Stafford

                                      with the Paul Weston Orchestra

Tell Me, Tell Me   by June Valli

Forgive My Heart   by Nat “King” Cole

A Story Untold   by The Crew-Cuts

Picnic   by The McGuire Sisters

All the Time   by Johnny Mathis

                                           with the Ray Ellis Orchestra

Until the Day I Die   by The Teen Queens

The End   by Earl Grant

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing   by the Four Aces

                                                          featuring Al Alberts.

2

Oh my! Yes, there are actually still lots more 45s, in separate stacks, for some reason. The first two records in this next bunch are unusual. The first is by a girl in the high school class ahead of me. It was her second (and, I believe, last) commercially produced recording, following one released by the local group "The Four Roses." These kids performed around town for a time as "Joyce Webb and the Four Roses." The second record here - “Pet Cream Man” - I haven't listened to in a long time. I think I bought it when I was sixteen or so, thinking it might be one of what we in the racially divided South imagined were sexually suggestive "black" tunes (like “Switchie Witchie…” in the box). Mainly it's just not very good, if I am remembering correctly.

Not all the records in this particular stack were my own…including the first four, I promise! It will perhaps be obvious that the records in this stack, unlike the ones above, are not in order of which the first ones are the best. Even Chuck Miller's "Bye, Bye, Love" (last in this list) is probably not the worst record in the group.

Ain’t That Just Like a Man   by Joyce Webb

Pet Cream Man   by J. B. and His Hawks

Long Tall Sally   by (gasp) Pat Boone “with orchestra”

I Almost Lost My Mind   by Pat Boone “with orchestra”

Ain’t That a Shame   by Pat Boone “with orchestra”

Tutti-Frutti   by Pat Boone “with orchestra”

Nola   by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadiens

The Sand Dance   by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadiens

Ricochet   by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadiens

That’s Amore   by Bud Roman

                                  with Lee Raymond’s Orchestra

The Eagle and the Bear   by Jimmie Flagg

The Man with the Banjo   by Bud Roman

     with The Four Rhythmaires, and Lee Raymond’s Orchestra

Tribute to Hank Williams   by Joe Rumore

                      with J. T. Adams and The Men of Texas

Tain’t Nice   by Bill Carlisle and The Carlyles

A Full Time Job   by the Rhythm Rangers

                                            with Rusty Howard

Shake a Hand   by Rusty Howard

                                  and the Rhythm Rangers

Mexican Joe   by Rusty Howard

                                   and The Texas Playboys

Caribbean   by Rusty Howard

                                    and the Rhythm Rangers

Lazy River   by Roberta Sherwood

Because You’re Mine   by Hal Ross

                                          and the Les Morgan Orchestra

In Jerusalem (“sung in English”)   by Jane Morgan

                 with the Joe Sherman Orchestra and Chorus

My Screamin’ Screamin’ Mimi   by Ray Campi

Bye, Bye, Love   by Chuck Miller

                                          with the Earl Stevens Orchestra.

In many cases in this group, the names of both the singer and the orchestra are not familiar. I may be one of the few who do recognize "The Texas Playboys," however.

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The next stack seems to be a continuation of the records I might have considered taking in my little brown box to a party... but didn't, more often than not. These records also still sound pretty good to me:

Steam Heat   by Patti Page

                                and the Jack Rael Orchestra

Let’s Write Our Own Love Story   by The Four Lads

                                             with Ray Conniff’s Orchestra

Day by Day   by The Four Freshman

                                     with the Dick Reynolds Orchestra

Rollin’ Stone  by The Fontane Sisters

                                        and the Billy Vaughan Orchestra

I Must Be Dreaming  by The Hilltoppers

                                       featuring Jimmie Sacca

Most of All   by Don Cornell

Could This Be Magic?   By The Dubs

Have Mercy Baby   by Ella Mae Morse

                               with Big Dave and His Orchestra

Blue Star   by Charlie Applethwaite

                                              and the Victor Young Orchestra

49 Shades of Green   by The Ames Brothers

                                        with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra

Why Do Fools Fall in Love   by Gale Storm

Something’s Gotta Give   by The McGuire Sisters

Mostly Martha   by The Crew-Cuts

Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You   by Nat “King" Cole

                                              with Nelson Riddle’s Orchestra

Teen-Ager’s Crush   by Tommy Sands

You’re Mine   by The Dream Weavers

                                    featuring Wade Buff

A Teenager’s Romance   by Rick Nelson

                                              with Barney Kessell’s Orchestra

It’s Only the Good Times   by Tommy Edwards

                         with the LeRoy Holmes Orchestra and Chorus

It Isn’t Right   by The Platters

I Love My Girl   by The Hilltoppers

                                                featuring Jimmie Sacca

Love Me to Pieces   by Jill Corey

                             with the Jimmy Carroll Orchestra

Cry   by Johnny Ray and The Four Lads

Young Love   by The Crew-Cuts

                              with the David Carroll Orchestra

Let Me Go, Lover   by Theresa Brewer

                                            with the Lancers

My nominee for the worst lyric in this whole collection, including the B sides, is: “Blue Star, when I am blue/All I do/Is think of you.”  And why do some labels list the orchestra but others do not?  And did anyone remember that Johnny Ray’s smash hit “Cry” included The Four Lads?

There's a Part Three still to come!

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My Collection of 45s, Part One (of Three)

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I have quite a few of my 45 rpm records from about 1955-60. A particular group of friends in high school got together once or twice a month for a "dance." One of us would invite a girl- or boy-friend and five or six other couples over to her or his house about 7 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday. The furniture would be moved back so that we could dance, and only a lamp or two would be turned on - near the 45 player, naturally - and we would all bring with us any records we especially wanted to be played.

I kept mine in a small, brown, fake-leather box (which might have cost $1.50 at the Winn's Five and Dime about eight blocks away from my home). I still have it... full. It holds - well, let's see - forty-five 45s. I hadn't realized that clever touch until just now.

And I have a lot more too.

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My guiding principles in record-collecting in those days were to have only songs I really liked (not to please or impress someone else), to end up with a collection that was generally different from anyone else's, and to buy songs recorded by the original artists, rather than by one of the many who recorded "covers" of the most popular hits.

Still today, when I mention "Ain't That a Shame," for instance, my wife thinks I'm talking about Pat Boone! That would be like my thinking of Fats Domino when she mentioned "Love Letters in the Sand" or "Bernadine." I don't think I was prejudiced in those years against white performers, but it sort of seems that way looking back. I didn't ever buy "Hound Dog," for example, but if I had it would have been Big Mama Thorton's, not Elvis's.  I wouldn't have bought Peggy Lee's "Fever" (great though it is), but Little Willie John's.

Twenty years ago or more, I spent some time with my 45s, and I put in order in my little brown case what seemed to me at the time my favorites. They all hiss and some crackle a little, as they probably always did. Three or so are actually scratched, chipped, or even broken: "Peggy Sue" and "Ruby Baby" are examples. The records in the box have labels like Chess, Atlantic, ATCO, Decca, Coral, Mercury, Capitol, and Dot. Fats Domino is on Imperial, and Little Richard on Speciality. Some of the labels may have brought out only the one song I bought, labels like Friendly and Bell, for instance.

You may want to skip over this next part. Here's the whole list of records in the little box, in order of the best first:

Maybellene   by Chuck Berry

Only You   by The Platters

Ain’t It a Shame   by Fats Domino

Rock Around the Clock   by Bill Haley and His Comets

Heartbreak Hotel   by Elvis Presley

Blue Monday   by Fats Domino

Speedoo   by The Cadillacs

Short Shorts   by The Royal Teens

Seventeen   by Boyd Bennett

Little Darlin’   by The Gladiolas

All I Have to Do Is Dream   by The Eberle Brothers

Jim Dandy   by LaVern Baker

Don’t Be Angry   by The Crew-Cuts

Dream Boat   by The Drifters

My Blue Heaven   by Fats Domino

Don’t You Know I Love You   by Bobby Charles

Long Tall Sally   by Little Richard

Switchie Witchie Titchie   by The Midnighters

Burn That Candle   by Bill Haley and His Comets

Smokey Joe’s Café   by The Robins

Honky Tonk Song   by Webb Pierce

I Feel Good   by Shirley and Lee

The Girl Can’t Help It   by Little Richard

Whispering Bells   by The Dell-Vikings

Young Blood   by The Coasters

The Chicken and the Hawk   by Joe Turner

Sweet Little Sixteen   by Chuck Berry

Breathless   by Jerry Lee Lewis

I’m Walkin’   by Fats Domino

Ruby Baby   by The Drifters

Muskrat Ramble   by The McGuire Sisters

Thirty Days   by Chuck Berry

When My Dreamboat Comes Home   by Fats Domino

From the Bottom of My Heart   by The Clovers

Send Me Some Lovin’   by Little Richard

Chain Gang   by Bobby Scott

Fools Fall in Love   by The Drifters

Don’t You Know I Love You   by Fats Domino

Sixteen Tons   by “Tennessee” Ernie Ford

Why Do Fools Fall in Love   by Frankie Lymon

                                                         and The Teenagers

Train of Love   by Johnny Cash

Sh-Boom   by The Crew-Cuts

Peggy Sue   by Buddy Holly

The Green Door   by Artie Malvin

I’ll Never Stop Loving You   by Doris Day

                                     with the Percy Faith Orchestra

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There are a couple of "slow tunes" in that group, of course, but that was not my main interest in that selection process some years back. But at the same time as I selected those for the box, I did make a separate stack of my favorite (or my other favorite) slow tunes. Not all, but more of them were by traditional singers... In other words, my parents would have recognized their names.

The labels were from the bigger companies too: RCA Victor, London, M-G-M, and Columbia, along with more of those big-name labels I mentioned in the first group: Mercury, Capitol, Decca, and so on. But there are a few other, smaller labels too even in this group, like "X" (the label included the quotation marks), Cadence, and Epic.

Frankly, I listen to the slow tunes more these days than those in the box. This stack seems especially terrific:

Cara Maria   by David Whitfield

                                   with the Orchestra of Montavani

Johnny Darling   by Sandy Stewart and the Excels

11^th Hour Melody   by Al Hibbler

The Great Pretender   by The Platters

It’s All in the Game   by Tommie Edwards

Hey Little Girl   by Gary Stiles

Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup

                                                    by Nat “King” Cole

It’s Almost Tomorrow   by The Dream Weavers

Born to Be With You   by The Cordettes

Over the Mountains, Across the Seas   by Johnnie and Joe

How Important Can It Be?   by Joni James

                                               and the Ray Charles Singers

Oh, My Papa   by Eddie Fisher

                                with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra

The Miracle of Love   by Eileen Rogers

                                          with the Ray Conniff Orchestra

Band of Gold   by Don Cherry

                                 (also) with the Ray Conniff Orchestra

Eddie My Love  by The Fontane Sisters

                                      with the Billy Vaughan Orchestra

Don’t Stay Away Too Long   by Eddie Fisher

                              with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra

The Magic Touch   by The Platters

Love Me Tender   by Elvis Presley

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing   by The Four Aces

                                                              featuring Al Alberts

Little Things Mean a Lot   by Kitty Kallen

Unchained Melody   by Roy Hamilton

                                       with the Don Masingill Orchestra

Hold My Hand   by Don Cornell

Moments to Remember   by The Four Lads

                                          with the Ray Ellis Orchestra

You’re the Apple of My Eye   by The Four Lovers

Smile   by Nat “King” Cole

                                  with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.

Even the names of the orchestras here are familiar... and of course, for slow tunes, having an orchestra is important.

...And I still have quite a few 45 records to list in Part Two of this Reminiscence.  

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Reminiscence: Landmark Birthdays

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1

On my 10th birthday, my parents gave me a puppy. 

That afternoon they mysteriously directed me to go out into the front yard.  An unfamiliar car drove up, and a stranger carrying a puppy - six months old or so, we learned later - came up across the yard smiling broadly... and handed me the puppy!

Mom and Dad had appeared behind me by then, and Dad explained that the dog was my birthday present.

He was half-collie and half-chow, a pretty reddish brown color, with white feet, a white tip on his tail, and a white streak down the highest part of his nose.  We named him Sox because of his paws.  (Years later, I came to understand that when they were first married, my parents had owned a cat with white feet whom they called "Boots.")

It was 16 years later when I was in grad school in California that my five-year-old niece telephoned from the family home in Texas to tell me excitedly that poor old Sox had finally died.  She was excited because she and my parents had buried him in the backyard, apparently with appropriate pomp and circumstance.

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I don't actually recall my 20th.  I was a sophomore in my Midwestern state university.

On my 21st birthday, though, it is impossible not to remember that I rented four cars.  Yes, four.  It was February of my junior year in Paris.  My JYA group had lunch together every weekday.  One day as the break between semesters approached - which happened to coincide with Mardi Gras - we were all discussing where we would go during the one-week break.  Several were concerned about the costs and inconvenience of relying on public transportation.  Three of the women and I were talking in particular about traveling together to Spain.  Someone else reported that in order to rent a car (at American Express) one had to be at least 21 years old.  No one in the group seemed to be 21 yet.

My own birthday was to come about a week before the vacation began, as I pointed out.  That settled it for my own travel group; we would rent a little car.  Fine.  Soon, one by one, various others who were hoping to travel in different directions came to me to request that I rent a car for them to use.  One group was headed to Germany, one to Italy, and one to Belgium and Holland.  The first who approached me was my friend "Frank," and I said I would if he would accompany me to the rental office at the American Express building and help me through the bureaucracy, which we anticipated to be complicated.

So, on the day itself when I turned 21 - as indicated in my passport - I rented the four cars.

Everything went fine.  No one had an accident.  All the cars returned on time in good shape. 

In my own case, only one unexpected event occurred.  I was to pick up our Spain-headed group's car in early afternoon the day before we were planning to leave.  I was very concerned about driving in the heavy, unpredictable Paris traffic.  My plan was to head to the mouth of the road to Madrid and park near a Metro stop.  All of us would take the Metro to that spot early the next morning so that we could be on our way directly and without my having to face much city traffic.

With that plan fully scoped out, I still had one serious concern: the address where each car was to be picked up was near the Arc de Triomphe.  Traffic around the circle at the arch was the most terrifying in the city, as far as I could tell.  Everyone drove fast, sometimes with five cars side by side.  And, oh, by the way, there were no lanes marked; you drove wherever there seemed to be room for you.  Counter-intuitively as well, the cars coming into the circle "had priority," as they said in France.  They had the right of way, and if they darted out in front of one of the cars speeding around the circle so there was an accident, it was presumed to be the fault of the driver of the circling car.

I knew all this because I often negotiated pedestrian crossings near the arch, since my JYA headquarters was only two blocks away.  The thought of trying to negotiate a car through all that chaos... well, I was determined to avoid that at any cost.

To that end, I studied my detailed Paris street map carefully.  I memorized the names of all the streets and just how they were related to each other.  I planned that I would drive out from the address where I was to pick up the car and turn right - in the opposite direction from the arch circle - even though that direction was nowhere near the straight line one might draw on the map from the rental address to the destination Metro stop.

I would proceed a certain number of blocks, crossing the Champs-Elysees several blocks south of the arch, go on quite a ways straight ahead to one particular intersection where I would turn north and, after an even longer stretch, I would arrive at the road to Madrid where I could turn left and proceed a couple of blocks to the rendezvous. 

Complicated, inefficient, but perfect!  I figured it would take 30 to 45 minutes.  (If I were just to head straight from the rental address to the highway by going through the arch circle, it might take 15 minutes...)

That afternoon, the paperwork at the car pick-up office was far more complicated than the original rental papers had been at American Express.  I couldn't help but get a little impatient, so when the man waiting on me started leading me to the auto itself up and down and around, all underground, I barely noticed that we had gone several buildings over.  I didn't know where we were, of course.

But we found the car, a Simca 1000.  It looked fine, small, yellow.  It started, so the monsieur who'd given me the keys pointed out what direction to take to exit the garage and said turn left when I reached the street outside.  It was sens unique, i.e. one way.  But since I didn't know what street it was, that didn't bother me... yet.

I drove where he had said and turned left.  One block and I had nowhere to go but into the Arc de Triomphe circle!

There was nothing for it but to grit my teeth, accelerate into the fast-moving traffic, and head two-thirds of the way around the circle, exiting onto the road to Madrid.  I more or less just said to myself that everyone else would just get out of my way.

They did, and ten minutes later, I was headed down into the Metro after having found a parking spot on the street right where I'd planned.

3

To many Americans, the 21st birthday is the big one.  For my generation the even bigger one was the 30th.  That was the time in history when everyone knew "Don't trust anyone over 30."  In other words, at one second past midnight on my birthday, I was going to move from being a cool young dude to being a reactionary, selfish and intolerant bastard.  We didn't look forward to our 30th birthdays in the '70s.

"A-----" and I had married by that time.  We were both working, avant les enfants, in our nation's capital, living in Bethesda.  We had some pretty good friends, whom we knew from my job: two other couples who with us had developed the custom of getting together one evening now and then to play board games or maybe charades, have some snacks and some wine or beer, and enjoy each other's witty and lively company for two or three hours.

I was the first to hit the big 3-0, and "A-----" invited the others to join us at our apartment that evening for my birthday party.  They came, and we had a good time.  I can't remember for sure, but that may have been the time that "A-----" and I had gone to Toys Are Us in search of a new game, and had come home with a toy roulette wheel and a lot of poker chips.  We had a lot of fun horsing around with that.  One couple gave me a book that I still have, with the inscription:  "To 'Derrick,' on his thirtieth year to heaven."

4

Frankly, I don't remember my 40th birthday at all.  I'm sure that the family had a little, appropriate celebration, the children being 5 and 3 years old.  There would have been cake and maybe ice cream, a nice card - perhaps home-made - and a suitable, modest present...  Nice, but unremarkable, I would imagine.

I do remember one thing: thinking, "At last I'm an adult."

5

Now, my 50th birthday - that was rather different.

For one thing, it was at work.  The workplace at that time was torn by controversy and strife.  Times were hard for us, and on top of it all, there was a heartfelt labor-management dispute.  On the Friday before my birthday, my assistant - a non-nonsense young woman ("P-----") - was waiting, grim-faced, in my office when I returned from a meeting across the hall.

"You gotta see this," she said.  When I asked what it was, she repeated: "No, first you should see it yourself."

The tension had been high enough that, besides sending nasty letters to the editor of the local newspaper, the employee hot-heads (a small minority) had taken to pasting hostile signs on light-poles and outside doors.  I was thinking that was the kind of thing I "had to see" at that point.

As we left the office, "P-----" suggested we go out through the big lounge upstairs, so that we might reach the site of the supposed outrage without being seen.  She stepped aside when we arrived at the door to the lounge.  I pushed the door open.

The place was packed with thirty or 40 colleagues, including some of the employees who reported to me.  They shouted gaily, "Surprise!"

Now, I don't like to be surprised.  Maybe especially for a party.  But this was an exception.  "A---" was there, with our two children, now 15 and 13.  I was presented with a big card everyone had signed, and two presents: a six-pack of my favorite imported beer and a Louisville Slugger with the signature of "Byron Derrick" on it.  I suppose the beer lasted a couple of weeks at our house, and the baseball bat was prominently displayed in my office until I retired at 66.

The company photographer was happily snapping away.  The expression on my face as I first opened the door was particularly rich.

6

By the time I turned 60, the children were on their own so that "A-----" and I were living by ourselves again.  My birthday was unremarkable, so far as I recall, as I expect all future ones to be. 

As far as age is concerned, I seem to have already passed all the landmarks... Or should I look forward to my 100th?

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Wise Sayings 9 from Ron Lucius

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"Me first" means "Us last."

……………………………………………………….................Ron Lucius


Show us a big-business executive,

     and show us a selfish, greedy bastard...

             but I repeat myself.

(Did I get it right, Mark?)

……………………………………………………… .................Ron Lucius


Safety second!

……………………………………………………… .................Ron Lucius


"Do for yourself what you need or want, and can do."

"Do for others what you'd want them to do for you."

One rule is silver, the other gold.  They are of more value joined than disconnected.

……………………………………………………… .................Ron Lucius

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