Ted Knight Is 'The Candidate'

The Republicans are in my home town this week to nominate a candidate for President, and I can think of no more appropriate way to mark the occasion than by posting this soundtrack from a 1964 exploitation film called The Candidate.

This is not the film of the same name that starred Robert Redford; the US Senate candidate here is none other than Ted Knight, who would later become famous as the narcissistic news anchor on American television's Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Knight was then a television and voice-over actor. This was his first lead role in a film, albeit a low-budget one. Billed above him were sex bombs Mamie Van Doren, from the US, and June Wilkinson, from the UK.

The plot, if not ripped from the headlines, was at least suggested by them. It centers on influence-peddler Buddy Barker and his procurement of women and other objects of desire for the men who run Washington. The Barker character was "inspired," shall we say, by the contemporary scandals that revolved around Congressional aide Bobby Baker, a former Lyndon Johnson crony.

I won't go into the plot (mainly because I haven't seen the movie), but I will note that my favorite part of the plot summary on the back of the soundtrack is the climax (so to speak) where Ted Knight's character, who has fallen in love with June Wilkinson, discovers that she has made a stag film at the behest of Buddy Barker. Seeing this film gives him a heart attack and he dies on the spot.

I can't promise that this soundtrack will stimulate any such dramatic response in you. It is middling quality crime jazz from the pen of the young composer Steve Karmen, who then specialized in sleaze films. (This score is bookended by his work on Hollywood Nudes Report and The Beautiful, the Bloody, and the Bare.) He later became a prolific composer of advertising jingles - perhaps his greatest hit is "I Love New York."

June Wilkinson and Mamie Van Doren

Despite their prominence on the cover, Mamie, June and Ted do not appear on this LP. However, Jubilee, which issued the album, enlisted the women to record a single at the same time - "Bikini with No Top on Top" b/w "So What Else Is New," written by Sid Robin and backed by guitarist Billy Strange and the Senators. (Apparently this was part of the promo activity for The Candidate. Despite a claim on IMDb, I doubt these songs were included in the film.) I call tell you that the bikini song demonstrates that neither Van Doren nor Wilkinson could sing. Mercifully, they only make a cameo appearance on the flip side, an enjoyably frantic instrumental by the Strange crew. I've included the single in the download (not my rip, although I did clean it up some).

The sound on the LP is good. If my synopsis has somehow awakened a desire to see The Candidate, it's on DVD and the trailer is on YouTube.

In another nod to the election season of 52 years ago, my singles blog is posting the promotional single "Hello, Lyndon!", the Democrats' attempt to stimulate enthusiasm for their Presidential candidate by offering pop singer Ed Ames in a curiously lifeless rewrite of "Hello, Dolly!" done by composer Jerry Herman.

Frankie Yankovic - Early Columbia LPs

Not too long ago I posted one of Slovenian polka king Frankie Yankovic's Columbia 45s on my singles blog - a cover of one of Malcolm Arnold's tunes from The Key. Reader Mitch responded, "This is such happy music that is needed in this much too serious world today."

Well, I won't go so far as to say that Yankovic's music will solve the world's problems, but I agree it is happy music - polka lovers are fond of calling it "the happiest music on earth."

I will admit I am biased because this music is intensely nostalgic for me. Yankovic and his band were from Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood, where both my parents were born and near where I grew up. My folks were not of Slovenian descent (and didn't even like polka music), but these sounds were inescapable when I was young. I literally just had to open the window to hear it - the guy across the street played the accordion.

This package includes Yankovic's first and fourth Columbia LPs ("All-Time Hits" from 1950 and "Polka Parade" from 1951, both 10-inchers), along with an EP, "America's Polka King" from circa 1952. All compile songs recorded earlier. I've also included a transfer of the "Blue Skirt Waltz," one of Frankie's greatest hits, which doesn't appear on the LPs or EP.

When was the last time a polka was a national hit? Maybe 50 years ago with "Peanuts" by Art Perko (also from Cleveland). In the 1940s, however, polkas were popular. The first big hit may have been the "Beer Barrel Polka" as recorded by the German bandleader Will Glahé and covered by the Andrews Sisters (and included here in Yankovic's version).

In the years after the war, the best-selling records were Yankovic's. His biggest seller was "Just Because" in 1948 (actually recorded in late 1947). It was a country tune that virtuoso accordionist Johnny Pecon had brought to the band, after hearing it when he was in the armed services during the war. The song had been written in the 30s, but Pecon was familiar with a version from circa 1941 by the Shelton Brothers, a country duo from Texas. (The Sheltons' effort is included in the download.)

The Yankovic group didn't content themselves with a straight version of the song. They added an astonishingly catchy instrumental break based on an old Italian motif. You will hear this famous break (played here by Pecon) in many polka songs.

The unit's second big hit, from 1949, was completely different, but had an equally eclectic background. The "Blue Skirt Waltz" was originally the "Red Skirt Waltz," written by Bohemian composer Vaclav Blaha. Yankovic's producer, I believe, brought in the tune to him, and then had Mitchell Parish ("Stardust") add lyrics. As with "Just Because," a spectacular instrumental break adds to the appeal of this superb record.

So in these two big hits, we have country and Bohemian songs and an Italian tune, played by Slovenians from Cleveland. Assisting on the waltz were the Marlin Sisters, who were actually Goldie and Gittile Malavsky, daughters of Cantor Samuel Malavsky. Yankovic's music was more cosmopolitan than it might appear on the surface.

The musicians on these early records, besides the leader and Johnny Pecon, were Georgie Cook, the hyperactive banjo player who was an important element of the sound, Al Naglitch, the keyboards player who usually was heard on a Hammond Solovox, and Adolph Srnick, bass (Stan Slejko on "Blue Skirt Waltz"). The arranger was Joe Trolli.

The band on "Just Because": front from left, Cook, Yankovic, Naglitch.
Rear, Srnick, Pecon.

This lineup only lasted until 1949. On some of the later records heard here, the musicians were possibly Tops Cardone, accordion, Carl Paradiso, banjo, Buddy Griebel, keyboards, and Al Leslie, bass - these personnel listings are according to Yankovic biographer Bob Dolgan.

Yankovic's success led to other record companies rushing to sign Cleveland polka bands - Johnny Pecon by Capitol, Johnny Vadnal by RCA Victor and Kenny Bass by Decca.

The sound on all these sides is very good. "Blue Skirt Waltz" and the Shelton Brothers record are not my transfers, but I have refurbished the sound.

I originally transferred these records years ago for my own amusement - perhaps they will captivate a few of you as well.

Scandinavian Special: Music by Larsson, von Koch, Fernström, Nielsen and Schultz

Two LPs of 20th century Scandinavian music today. The first contains music by the Swedes Lars-Erik Larsson, Erland von Koch and John Fernström, transferred in response to a request on another site. The second is of short works by the Dane Carl Nielsen and his follower Svend Schultz.

Larsson, von Koch, Fernström

Lars-Erik Larsson

The highlight of the first LP is the first recording of Lars-Erik Larsson's Violin Concerto, as performed by its dedicatee, André Gertler, relatively soon after its 1952 premiere. The score is in an attractive mid-century modern style. I find the pastoral slow movement particularly enjoyable. Gertler employs his own cadenza; Larsson was to eventually write his own, which was utilized in Leo Berlin's 1976 effort.

The LP is filled out with works by two of Larsson's Swedish contemporaries. Erland von Koch's folkish Oxberg Variations, from 1956, is built on a march theme from Dalecarlia. John Fernström's Concertino for Flute, Women's Chorus and Chamber Orchestra, dating from 1941, is a entertaining but kitschy exercise in exotica. It is a setting in translation of Carl Sandburg's poem "Early Moon," which reads as follows (thanks to Derek Katz for finding this):

THE BABY moon, a canoe, a silver papoose canoe, sails and sails in the Indian west.
A ring of silver foxes, a mist of silver foxes, sit and sit around the Indian moon.
One yellow star for a runner, and rows of blue stars for more runners, keep a line of watchers.
O foxes, baby moon, runners, you are the panel of memory, fire-white writing to-night of the Red Man's dreams.
Who squats, legs crossed and arms folded, matching its look against the moon-face, the star-faces, of the West?
Who are the Mississippi Valley ghosts, of copper foreheads, riding wiry ponies in the night? — no bridles, love-arms on the pony necks, riding in the night a long old trail?
Why do they always come back when the silver foxes sit around the early moon, a silver papoose, in the Indian west?

Sten Frykberg leads the Stockholm Radio Orchestra in the Larsson and Fernström works. Stig Westerberg conducts the Stockholm Symphony (other sources list it as the Stockholm Philharmonic) in the von Koch.

This transfer is from a 1974 Turnabout LP, but all the recordings are from years earlier. As noted, the Larsson is from 1952 or soon thereafter. It was first released by London (and, I believe, Discofil) on the same LP as the 1954 Fernström recording. (That album also contained a work by Karl-Birger Blomdahl, missing here). The Oxberg Variations were taped in May 1960 by Grammofon AB Electra.

The Larsson and Fernström items are mono. I have added an ambient stereo effect to help alleviate the boxiness of the Concertino recording. The von Koch is in good stereo sound.

Nielsen, Schultz

The main work on second LP is a magisterial performance of Nielsen’s 1903 Helios Overture. Nielsen is one of my favorite composers; it’s surprising that he hasn’t appeared here more often than the lone appearance of his Symphony No. 3. The other work on the LP is Svend Schultz’s Serenade for Strings, a much different work from the Nielsen but pleasant enough. Eric Tuxen leads the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra in these works. Michael Gray’s discography dates the Nielsen to 1952; presumably the Schultz is of the same vintage.

The transfer is from the original issue on a 10-inch Decca LP, sourced several years ago from the European Archive site and remastered recently by me. The sound is very good.

Robert Irving Conducts 'The Sleeping Beauty'

I have had it in mind for some time to transfer this recording, and was reminded of it by the recent request for Robert Irving's LP of Lecocq and Glazunov ballet scores. This double-LP set finds that conductor leading the orchestra of the Royal Opera House in Tchaikovsky's score to "The Sleeping Beauty" ballet.

This was based on the Sadler's Wells Ballet's 1955 production. Irving was at that time the troupe's music director. The recordings were made in June, and originally issued on HMV. My transfer comes from the RCA Victor set produced under license in the US.

Irving provides a lithe reading, keeping things moving along, which is to my taste, and hopefully was to the liking of the dancers. The Covent Garden orchestra is responsive but sounds a trifle underpowered in the strings.

The sound is well-balanced mono. It's possible that this was recorded in stereo, but I have not seen evidence of such a release myself. The download includes scans of the four-page insert.