Davi Again and a Collection Milestone

Today, once again, I get to treat myself to a single side I have owned for 45 years without giving it a listen. The disclaimer is that my way of doing things back then would have caused me to play the song as soon as I got it, but I remember pointedly ignoring this 45 every time it surfaced in the box, for reasons only three-year-old caithiseach could divulge. On this particular point, he’s keeping silent.

I do have one small set of tidbits to share about “Reason for Love” by Davi (Stark 110). In my search for information on the label, the song and the artist, I came across a guy in Brooklyn, Bobby, who stated in a forum post that “Reason for Love” is one of his favorite songs. I’ll listen to it in a moment, and then I’ll know why.

Sounds like old R&B, 6/8 time, doo-wop, sort of like “Sixteen Candles.” Occasional falsetto. Not bad. It was most likely too slow for three-year-old caithiseach to endure.

What I learned about the songwriters, F. Hill and D. Svitenko, is that they were in a band together in the Northeastern U.S. I’ve lost the details of that tidbit, because I didn’t write down the information when I first saw it. Now, my searches aren’t giving me the same results. Sorry about that.

Will I now play this 45 often? I’ll perhaps play “Go Charley Go” from time to time, but “Reason for Love” will show up when I make my next compilation of my old 45s, and that’s about it. I’m glad Bobby in Brooklyn likes it. Here’s the link to the song, after which I have more to say today:

Davi, Reason for Love

Since I can’t tell you which band included Hill and Svitenko, or the names of other songs they wrote, I figure I should appease you with more information about two aspects of this blog to which I refer often.

First, here are two photos of the former Big Top department store, where my Uncle Tom bought me all those 45s all those years ago. They are recent shots, from my August trip home for my high-school reunion. If you are kind enough to take a moment to look at them, you may gain some understanding of why I speak so nostalgically about the place. Photo 1 Photo 2

And second, I mentioned my affinity for the hits of 1970 a couple of weeks ago. I said I thought there was an unusually high concentration of classic tunes on the 1970 Top 40 charts, and that, as a result, I had collected more songs from 1970 than from any other year. While I had acquired every Top 40 hit from 2006 and 2007, that was easy, thanks to iTunes, Rhapsody and SpiralFrog. Most of my 1970 songs came long before I started buying digital files, however.

Since I owned 2006-07 complete, it seemed a shame not to have all of 1970. I identified 20 or so songs I didn’t own, and I bought them. If I counted correctly, I now own the 244 songs that debuted in 1970, the 12 flip sides that appeared on the charts paired with their A side, and the 36 songs that carried over from 1969. I counted 38 One-Hit Wonders, as well as 3 songs that spent just one week in the Top 40 (all by artists with at least one other hit).

In case you are collecting old recordings and would like a handy checklist of all 1970 Top 40 hits, here it is. The songs are listed by debut date, and the number to the left is each song’s debut position. I hope this list is useful to someone out there. It's long, so I may snip it out in a couple of weeks.

Next time, I’ll bring you a rock-and-roll classic, as well as what amounts to a 1956 fusion recording that features a vocalist who made it sort of big—thirteen years later. See you Wednesday!

1969 legacy hits on 1/3/1970:
1 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head/Thomas, B.J.
2 Leaving on a Jet Plane/Peter, Paul & Mary
3 Someday We'll Be Together/Ross, Diana/Supremes
4 Down on the Corner/CCR
5 Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye/Steam
6 Whole Lotta Love/Led Zeppelin
7 I Want You Back/Jackson 5
8 Venus/Shocking Blue
9 Holly Holy/Diamond, Neil
10 La La La (If I Had You)/Sherman, Bobby
11 Midnight Cowboy/Ferrante & Teicher
12 Come Together/Beatles
13 Jam Up Jelly Tight/Roe, Tommy
14 Eli's Coming/Three Dog Night
15 Don't Cry Daddy/Presley, Elvis
16 Take a Letter Maria/Greaves, R.B.
17 Jingle Jangle/Archies
18 Early in the Morning/Vanity Fare
19 Backfield in Motion/Mel and Tim
20 And When I Die/Blood, Sweat & Tears
21 These Eyes/Walker, Jr. & All-Stars
22 Evil Woman Don't Play Your Games with Me/Crow
23 Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday/Wonder, Stevie
24 Friendship Train/Knight, Gladys & the Pips
25 Up on Cripple Creek/The Band
26 Smile a Little Smile for Me/Flying Machine
27 A Brand New Me/Springfield, Dusty
28 She/James, Tommy and the Shondells
30 Baby, I'm for Real/Originals
31 Ain't It Funky Now Pt. 1/Brown, James
32 Wedding Bell Blues/5th Dimension
33 Cold Turkey/Plastic Ono Band
34 Cherry Hill Park/Royal, Billy Joe
36 Heaven Knows/Grass Roots
37 Wonderful World, Beautiful People/Cliff, Jimmy
39 Point It Out/Robinson, Smokey & Miracles
1/3/1970 debuts:
29 Without Love (There Is Nothing)/Jones, Tom
35 Winter World of Love/Humperdinck, Engelbert
38 She Belongs to Me/Nelson, Rick
40 I'll Never Fall in Love Again/Warwick, Dionne
1/10/1970
34 Arizona/Lindsay, Mark
35 Hey There Lonely Girl/Holman, Eddie
39 She Came in Through the Bathroom Window/Cocker, Joe
40 Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/Sly & the Family Stone
1/17/1970
31 Walk a Mile in My Shoes/South, Joe
36 Walkin' in the Rain/Jay & the Americans
39 No Time/Guess Who
1/24/1970
31 Blowing Away/5th Dimension
36 Baby Take Me in Your Arms/Jefferson
37 Let's Work Together/Harrison, Wilbert
38 Psychedelic Shack/Temptations
39 Cupid/Nash, Johnny
40 Part Two (Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn)/Brown, James
1/31/1970
30 Honey Come Back/Campbell, Glen
32 The Thrill Is Gone/King, B.B.
34 Rainy Night in Georgia/Benton, Brook
39 Fancy/Gentry, Bobbie
2/7/1970
18 Travelin' Band/CCR
28 Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)/Delfonics
33 Ma Belle Amie/Tee Set
34 Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)/Lulu
35 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother/Hollies
36 One Tin Soldier/Original Caste
37 Give Me Just a Little More Time/Chairmen of the Board
39 Monster/Steppenwolf
40 Evil Ways/Santana
2/14/1970
13 Bridge Over Troubled Water/Simon & Garfunkel
24 The Rapper/Jaggerz
35 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do/Welch, Lenny
36 Always Something There to Remind Me/Greaves, R.B.
2/21/1970
30 House of the Rising Sun/Frijid Pink
37 Never Had a Dream Come True/Wonder, Stevie
38 If I Were a Carpenter/Cash, Johnny & June Carter
39 Jennifer Tomkins/Street People
40 Kentucky Rain/Presley, Elvis
2/28/1970
24 Call Me/Franklin, Aretha
28 Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)/Edison Lighthouse
31 Gotta Hold On to This Feeling/Walker, Jr. & All-Stars
35 Do the Funky Chicken/Thomas, Rufus
38 Easy Come, Easy Go/Sherman, Bobby
40 It's a New Day Pts. 1 & 2/Brown, James
3/7/1970
33 Instant Karma!/Lennon, John
34 Celebrate/Three Dog Night
37 The Bells/Originals
38 Come and Get It/Badfinger
39 Spirit in the Sky/Greenbaum, Norman
3/14/1970
36 All I Have to Do Is Dream/Campbell, Glen/Bobbie Gentry
37 Something's Burning/Rogers, Kenny & First Edition
39 Up the Ladder to the Roof/Supremes
3/21/1970
6 Let It Be/Beatles
14 ABC/Jackson 5
38 Love or Let Me Be Lonely/Friends of Distinction
39 Shilo/Diamond, Neil
3/28/1970
32 Tennessee Bird Walk/Blanchard, Jack/Misty Morgan
34 American Woman/Guess Who
35 Long Lonesome Highway/Parks, Michael
37 You're the One/Little Sister
39 Temma Harbour/Hopkin, Mary
40 Who's Your Baby?/Archies
4/4/1970
31 Reflections of My Life/Marmalade
32 Turn Back the Hands of Time/Davis, Tyrone
35 Woodstock/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
36 Get Ready/Rare Earth
37 You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You)/Knight, Gladys & the Pips
4/11/1970
37 Everybody's Out of Town/Thomas, B.J.
38 Vehicle/Ides of March
39 For the Love of Him/Martin, Bobbi
40 Little Green Bag/Baker, George Selection
4/18/1970
37 Everything Is Beautiful/Stevens, Ray
38 Cecelia/Simon & Garfunkel
40 Love on a Two-Way Street/Moments
4/25/1970
31 What Is Truth/Cash, Johnny
35 Airport Love Theme/Bell, Vincent
38 Which Way You Goin' Billy?/Poppy Family
39 Come Running/Morrison, Van
40 Make Me Smile/Chicago
5/2/1970
30 Up Around the Bend/CCR
36 Viva Tirado/El Chicano
37 Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)/Ross, Diana
38 Puppet Man/5th Dimension
40 Come Saturday Morning/Sandpipers
5/9/1970
26 The Letter/Cocker, Joe
31 Daughter of Darkness/Jones, Tom
38 Hey Lawdy Mama/Steppenwolf
39 Let Me Go to Him/Warwick, Dionne
40 Oh Happy Day/Campbell, Glen
5/16/1970
33 Soolaimon (African Trilogy II)/Diamond, Neil
36 Hitchin' a Ride/Vanity Fare
39 Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)/Melanie
5/23/1970
26 My Baby Loves Lovin'/White Plains
30 United We Stand/Brotherhood of Man
33 Brother Rapp Pts. 1 & 2/Brown, James
35 The Long and Winding Road/Beatles
36 The Wonder of You/Presley, Elvis
38 Ride Captain Ride/Blues Image
40 Sugar Sugar/Pickett, Wilson
5/30/1970
29 Question/Moody Blues
37 Band of Gold/Payne, Freda
38 It's All in the Game/Four Tops
40 Love Land/Wright, Charles
6/6/1970
15 The Love You Save/Jackson 5
24 Ball of Confusion/Temptations
33 Mama Told Me (Not to Come)/Three Dog Night
38 Gimme Dat Ding/Pipkins
39 Hey, Mister Sun/Sherman, Bobby
40 (You've Got Me) Dangling on a String/Chairmen of the Board
6/13/1970
34 Spirit in the Dark/Franklin, Aretha
37 Mississippi Queen/Mountain
39 Check Out Your Mind/Impressions
40 Baby Hold On/Grass Roots
6/20/1970
32 A Song of Joy/Rios, Miguel
34 Are You Ready?/Pacific Gas & Electric
35 O-O-H Child/Five Stairsteps
37 Westbound #9/Flaming Ember
38 Teach Your Children/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
39 I Want to Take You Higher/Sly & the Family Stone
40 Mississippi/Phillips, John
6/27/1970
36 Save the Country/5th Dimension
37 (They Long to Be) Close to You/Carpenters
40 Go Back/Crabby Appleton
7/4/1970
20 Tighter, Tighter/Alive and Kicking
39 Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours/Wonder, Stevie
7/11/1970
20 Make It with You/Bread
30 Ohio/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
36 I Just Can't Help Believing/Thomas, B.J.
38 Spill the Wine/Burdon, Eric & War
39 Silver Bird/Lindsay, Mark
40 The End of Our Road/Gaye, Marvin
7/18/1970
37 Lay a Little Lovin' on Me/McNamara, Robin
38 Steal Away/Taylor, Johnnie
7/25/1970
25 War/Starr, Edwin
26 Why Can't I Touch You?/Dyson, Ronnie
32 In the Summertime/Mungo Jerry
38 Maybe/Three Degrees
39 Tell It All Brother/Rogers, Kenny & First Edition
40 Trying to Make a Fool of Me/Delfonics
8/1/1970
28 Overture from Tommy/Assembled Multitude
29 Patches/Carter, Clarence
30 Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like a) Sex Machine/Brown, James
33 Summertime Blues/Who
34 The Sly, Slick and the Wicked/Lost Generation
37 Everybody's Got the Right to Love/Supremes
38 25 or 6 to 4/Chicago
39 Do You See My Love (For You Growing)/Walker, Jr. & the All-Stars
8/8/1970
30 Big Yellow Taxi/Neighborhood
35 Hand Me Down World/Guess Who
38 I Want to Take You Higher/Turner, Ike & Tina
40 Groovy Situation/Chandler, Gene
8/15/1970
23 Lookin' Out My Back Door/CCR
25 Hi-De-Ho/Blood, Sweat & Tears
26 Ain't No Mountain High Enough/Ross, Diana
34 Solitary Man/Diamond, Neil
38 Julie, Do Ya Love Me/Sherman, Bobby
8/22/1970
23 Don't Play That Song/Franklin, Aretha
36 I've Lost You/Presley, Elvis
37 (I Know) I'm Losing You/Rare Earth
38 Snowbird/Murray, Anne
40 It's a Shame/Spinners
8/29/1970
29 I (Who Have Nothing)/Jones, Tom
33 Candida/Dawn
36 Rubber Duckie/Ernie
40 Cracklin' Rosie/Diamond, Neil
9/5/1970
35 Closer to Home/Grand Funk Railroad
36 Joanne/Nesmith, Michael
37 Peace Will Come (According to Plan)/Melanie
38 Neanderthal Man/Hotlegs
40 All Right Now/Free
9/12/1970
31 Long Long Time/Ronstadt, Linda
35 Out in the Country/Three Dog Night
38 Everything's Tuesday/Chairman [sic] of the Board
39 Express Yourself/Wright, Charles
40 Lola/Kinks
9/19/1970
34 Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma/New Seekers
35 Indiana Wants Me/Taylor, R. Dean
37 That's Where I Went Wrong/Poppy Family
39 Green-Eyed Lady/Sugarloaf
40 I'll Be There/Jackson 5
9/26/1970
37 It's Only Make Believe/Campbell, Glen
38 El Condor Pasa/Simon & Garfunkel
39 Still Water (Love)/Four Tops
40 Fire and Rain/Taylor, James
10/3/1970
18 We've Only Just Begun/Carpenters
37 Somebody's Been Sleeping/100 Proof Aged in Soul
39 Do What You Wanna Do/Five Flights Up
40 Stand by Your Man/Staton, Candi
10/10/1970
35 Our House/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
36 It Don't Matter to Me/Bread
37 Lucretia Mac Evil/Blood, Sweat & Tears
39 Deeper & Deeper/Payne, Freda
10/17/1970
30 God, Love and Rock & Roll/Teegarden & Van Winkle
34 Super Bad Pts. 1 & 2/Brown, James
38 Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite the World)/Temptations
39 See Me, Feel Me/Who
40 Montego Bay/Bloom, Bobby
10/24/1970
28 Cry Me a River/Cocker, Joe
29 Engine Number 9/Pickett, Wilson
39 Gypsy Woman/Hyland, Brian
40 Yellow River/Christie
10/31/1970
17 I Think I Love You/Partridge Family
27 The Tears of a Clown/Robinson, Smokey/Miracles
39 Make It Easy on Yourself/Warwick, Dionne
40 Heaven Help Us All/Wonder, Stevie
11/7/1970
33 Let's Work Together/Canned Heat
34 As the Years Go By/Mashmakhan
35 Share the Land/Guess Who
38 You Don't Have to Say You Love Me/Presley, Elvis
40 For the Good Times/Price, Ray
11/14/1970
30 5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years of Love)/Presidents
35 After Midnight/Clapton, Eric
39 I Am Somebody Pt. II/Taylor, Johnnie
40 Heed the Call/Rogers, Kenny and the First Edition
11/21/1970
22 Stoned Love/Supremes
28 One Less Bell to Answer/5th Dimension
36 No Matter What/Badfinger
37 Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?/Chicago
38 He Ain't Heavy…He's My Brother/Diamond, Neil
40 Black Magic Woman/Santana
11/28/1970
35 Be My Baby/Kim, Andy
39 Can't Stop Loving You/Jones, Tom
40 I'm Not My Brother's Keeper/Flaming Ember
12/5/1970
13 My Sweet Lord/Harrison, George
27 Domino/Morrison, Van
33 Knock Three Times/Dawn
35 Only Love Can Break Your Heart/Young, Neil
36 It's Impossible/Como, Perry
39 One Man Band/Three Dog Night
40 Do It/Diamond, Neil
12/12/1970
30 Groove Me/Floyd, King
32 Pay to the Piper/Chairmen of the Board
35 River Deep-Mountain High/Supremes & Four Tops
36 Immigrant Song/Led Zeppelin
40 Stoney End/Streisand, Barbra
12/19/1970
32 If I Were Your Woman/Knight, Gladys & the Pips
37 Border Song (Holy Moses)/Franklin, Aretha
38 Your Song/John, Elton
39 Love the One You're With/Stills, Stephen
40 Rose Garden/Anderson, Lynn
12/26/1970
26 Lonely Days/Bee Gees
39 Games/Redeye
40 We Gotta Get You a Woman/Runt

Debut: 45 after 45

I am so pumped about this post! I did a feasibility study for this blog in October, 2007. I pulled out all of my 45s, focused on the Survivors that I had owned since 1963 or so, and created a table in a Word document in which I slotted all of the old sides and newer material that resonated with me. And I knew last October that when I got to post number 69, this one, I would be very excited to be here.

Why? I own two 45s from my childhood that I never played. And one of the four sides gets its first spin for this post.

I said last time that I was going to do something I had never seen on a music blog. Correct me if I’m wrong, but has anyone else blogged about a song he or she has owned for 45 (or 30, or even 20) years without ever playing the song beforehand?

This sort of reminds me of Geraldo Rivera’s live-TV foray into Al Capone’s hidden vault. I will play this song file and react to it in real time. I recorded the four songs to a wav file on April 27, 2008, but I did not listen to them. I used the visuals of the recording program to make sure I was getting sound. Now, I will open that file, chop out the song I am after, and play it.

Ah, but first, I should admit that I may have listened to the song at some point. There was no particular reason for me never to listen to it. When Uncle Tom brought the record to me in 1963, I almost certainly did listen to it. And then something about it made me set it aside, and while I remember looking at it often when I was trying to find something else, I know I never listened to it past my fifth birthday.

I don’t know anything about the artist or the label yet. I am supposing that there’s not a lot of back story to go with the song. If I like the song, I’m going to be annoyed at myself. Here comes the first song in this odyssey, “Go Charley Go” by Davi (Stark 110).

Needle drops. Sounds like a Johnny Maestro clone. Late 1950s social references. Hand claps. Energetic but awkward drumming. Girls screaming. Sax solo. Unusual and weird story line. Dialogue overlay at end.

So. I do not remember the song at all. I suspect that three-year-old caithiseach listened to the very slow intro and yanked the needle off before the song got going. I also did not have any experience with “Runaround Sue”-type songs then, so this one would have involved a steep learning curve. Hence its relegation to the bottom of the box of 45s.

When you listen, you will hear some clicks. There is a scratch on the record from years of careless storage without a sleeve, but the groove is black and shiny. The overall sound quality shows that it got far less airplay than most caithiseach vinyl (or styrene).

Now, to do some digging on Davi. A search on “Stark 110 Davi” gives me two million hits. Darn. One hit is for “the biology of cleavage fragments.” A search for the title on the BMI site showed no songs named “Go Charley Go,” though the song, written by C. Liddell, was published by Liddell Publ. Co., B.M.I.

What about the songwriter? Aha! Charles Stark Liddell is listed with five published titles, though “Go Charley Go” is not among them. He wrote all five songs by himself, so I can’t cross-check his collaborators.

My guess is that Charley Liddell created a label and named it after himself. He wrote a song about something that happened to him, published it under his BMI auspices, got a kid named Davi to sing it, and sent the 45 to a hundred radio stations, most of which didn’t play it. But since my copy is not a DJ copy and is not an obvious cutout, it must have been for sale somewhere.

A search on Charles Stark Liddell shows via www.poparchives.com.au that Mr. Liddell wrote “I Thank You” for the Velveteens, released on Stark 105 in 1961 and Laurie 3126 in 1962. That gives a time reference for “Go Charley Go.” “I Thank You” is listed as one of his five BMI titles. The Laurie connection may have something to do with the song’s continuing documentation.

I finally teased out a bit more information on Davi, but it relates more to Saturday’s song, so I’ll talk about it then.

Here’s a scan of the label. The light color allows you to see the numbers I penciled onto the label when I took my record censuses; I considered the record part of my collection, but I really didn’t play it more than once.

Well, I made it this far in the post with the play-by-play of my “discovery” of “Go Charley Go,” but I have nothing more to add for now. Since Saturday’s post is likely to be rather short, I’ll add in details of something I acquired when I was in Indiana for my 30-year high school reunion. See you then!

Davi, Go Charley Go

13 Favorites and My Reasoning

As I noted yesterday, my friend whiteray over at Echoes in the Wind very kindly invited me to guest-post on his blog. The post, which I wrote a couple of weeks ago to give him time to load the music, is up now, so go take a look at what I listen to when I am not playing my obscure, scratchy 45s. Thanks!

Did You Say Something?

Before I delve into my post, let me note that my friend whiteray over at Echoes in the Wind very kindly invited me to guest-post on his blog. He has scheduled my Baker’s Dozen of favorite caithiseach singles for Sunday. If you happen to be a Great Vinyl Meltdown reader who doesn’t also read whiteray’s prose, you should check him out. If you do read his blog, you have seen the promo paragraphs. Being asked to pin myself down to 13 favorite singles was quite a task, but it was an enjoyable and revealing mental exercise. And now, on to the post:

Late Tuesday, I wrote that I wasn’t at all ready mentally for the school year to begin. Then I attended a two-day faculty/staff workshop, and the presentations my academic dean chose for the workshop performed some kind of magic: I am in a far better state of mind now, ready to take on the tasks before me. The ability of a few speakers to turn my brain around so completely makes me think I am somewhat more impressionable than I thought.

Hey! Being impressionable seems, now that I think of it, to have come close to playing a huge role in four-year-old caithiseach’s enjoyment of music. This trait nearly ended my enjoyment of music.

Twice I caused myself grief by mimicking things that happened in the media. There was a Saturday-morning cartoon in which, during the opening sequence, one of the main characters burst from a large drum. I had a full-size toy drum set (plastic rims rather than metal, for example), and I cut out one of the bass drum’s heads so I could burst through the other side. Mom didn’t find that move at all clever, but I did wind up getting a real drum set soon thereafter.

And there was a cartoon where one of the characters said, “Get the point?” and produced a pin, with which he stuck another cartoon character. Even though the pricked character yelled in the cartoon, I decided to test out that one as well. Mom really didn’t like that shtick, and there was no upside to that one at all.

Impressionable, yes. I stopped short of donning a cape and climbing a tree to see if I could fly, but I am a strong advocate of monitoring the video viewing of small children.

And so, I really wonder what my parents were thinking when they let me talk them into buying “Beans in My Ears” by the Music City Singers (Hit 129) and the Serendipity Singers (Philips 40198). If you know the song, you must know what could have happened if I had decided that sticking beans in my ears was a good idea.

Something about the drum and the pin must have given me a better reality filter, because I didn’t ever try to stick beans in my ears. If I had, I don’t know if I would have gotten much sympathy. My mom might well have said, “Figure this one out on your own, little caithseach.” And I wouldn’t have blamed her.

I was fond of the Serendipity Singers’ previous Top 40 hit, “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man),” a Top Ten offering from the spring of 1964. “Beans” was the follow-up, entering the Top 40 on June 13, 1964. It reached just #30, probably because irate parents of impressionable tots told radio stations to stop playing it, or else. Both songs featured nicely textured harmonies and gentle acoustic folky arrangements.

My first copy of the song was the soundalike on Hit Records. The makeup of the Music City Singers is probably lost to time, but they didn’t lack for talent. That 45, as well as the Serendipity Singers version, was a Victim of the Great Meltdown. I would be interested to hear the soundalike version again, for the sake of comparison.

The Serendipity Singers consisted of Jon Arbenz, Mike Brovsky, Diane Decker, Brooks Hatch, John Madden, Bryan Sennett, Tom Tiemann, Lynne Weintraub and Bob Young. Thanks, Joel Whitburn. I typed the names out so you could copy and paste them as needed. Do note, please, that spelling variations on several names exist online. The act started as a trio, popular at the University of Colorado in Boulder, but by the time all nine were together, they had left CU for the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. They managed just the two single hits, but Philips allowed them to record five LPs.

“Beans in My Ears,” the song that could have ended my blogging career 44 years before it began, was written by Len Chandler, who made a name for himself as a protest songwriter in the mid-1960s. As sweet-sounding as “Beans” is, the punch line anticipates a “Don’t trust anyone over 30” mind set when it states that all grownups have beans in their ears. Chandler was born in Akron, Ohio in 1935.

The Serendipity Singers were too clean to survive the onslaught of gritty Dylanesque folk, but they managed to entertain a kid who was steeped in the songs of the Highwaymen and such crisp folk tunes as “Washington Square.” They did not, however, manage to persuade me to deafen myself, and for that bit of timely good judgment, I thank whatever alignment of stars kept me away from the bag of beans.

Though I lost my 45 in the Great Meltdown of 1972, I reacquired it two years ago at Boardwalk Books in Duluth, Minnesota. Sorry about the pops, but I haven’t come up with anything better, and if it were my original single, it would crackle a lot more than this copy. If you happen to be in Duluth, stop by the bookstore and say hi to Bud and Heather. Tell them Seán sent you, and they may toss in a free 45 if you buy something.

After my Sunday guest post, I’ll be back here with a post that will do something I have not yet seen happen on a music blog. I would tell you what I’m going to do, but someone would surely beat me to it just so I can’t say I was the first to come up with this concept. I’m pretty excited about it, so come back Wednesday. See you then!

Serendipity Singers, Beans in My Ears