
The Shirts

The Pirates 
Homer
& Jethro 
Sleepy
LaBeef 
Spike
Jones 
Frankie
Laine 
Silly
Sisters 
Queen
Ida |
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Artist
Index Songs
from Off the Wall Other
Music Links Page
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The purpose of this
site is to share some musical oddities and rarities, records that
I've acquired over the past half century and more. There were
so many songs, I needed several pages, so click on Page
1, Page 2
and Page 4 to make sure you access the entire Off the Wall collection.
Click on the artist name
below the pictures in the left and right frames to go that artist's
section on this page. The artist name and song title are at the top of
each section. There are additional links to other information about
the artist in some sections.
Clicking
on the artist name and song title opens a new window. The song
should start playing automatically. If it does not, click on the
play button. Near the top right there's an option to download
it.
Click on any picture for a larger image. Pictures open in a new window. To view
photo in Full Screen mode, press F11 to enter and exit Full Screen mode.
Comments, questions or
suggestions via Email are
welcome.
--Dick
Estel, January 2009; updated September 2022
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Artists
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Songs from Off the Wall
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The Nice:
America
You may not recognize the name of this group, but you've probably
heard of the keyboard player, Keith Emerson, who went on to fame
with Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
The band was formed in
England in 1967. Early work tended toward psychedelia but classical and jazz influences
soon manifested themselves both in short quotes from C.P.E. Bach (Sinfonietta) and in more elaborate renditions of Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la
Turk."
For their second single, The Nice created an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America" which Emerson described as the first ever instrumental protest song. It not only uses the Bernstein piece (from West Side Story) but also includes fragments of Dvorák's New World Symphony. A 3-CD anthology is available from Amazon. |
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The Shirts: Poe
This record
came along back in the "new wave/no wave/now wave" days.
Whenever I run across it in my collection I think, "Why did I
buy that?" Then I play it and enjoy nearly the whole
album.
The
Shirts were a Brooklyn band, active from 1975 to 1981, and got
their start in New York's famed CBGBs.
Like
so many other off the wall artists, they are still
around, having re-formed in 2003. They released a new album in
2006, available at Amazon. |
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The Move: The
Last Thing on My Mind
The Move was
lead by guitarist, singer and song writer Roy Wood, who
went on to head a group called Wizzard. Evolving from several
mid-1960s Birmingham based groups, the Move's final line-up included
Wood, Bev Bevan, and Jeff Lynne, who is credited with transitioning
the group into The Electric Light
Orchestra.
A number of CDs are available from Amazon. Although
they wrote a number of original songs, my favorite Move track is this classic
Tom Paxton composition. |
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The Pirates:
Gibson Martin Fender
Shakin' All Over
The Pirates claim to be England's first rock
band, and it's hard to dispute that, considering they got their
start as Johnny Kidd & the Pirates in 1959, preceding the
Beatles and the Stones.
They served
up a combination of rockabilly, electric blues and R&B, but the
audience was not quite ready. However, Kidd did stake his claim to
fame by writing "Shakin' All Over," later covered by the
Yardbirds, the Guess Who, and others. The
group disbanded after Kidd's death in 1966, but re-formed with the
remaining original members to make this album, Out of Our Skulls,
featuring a combination of new material and their early hits. This
and a number of other CDs, including early Johnny Kidd material, are
available at Amazon. |
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Toots
& the Maytals: Pomp and Pride
Pressure Drop
Reggae is
certainly not obscure, but it's probably underappreciated. One
listen to this group should put a smile on your face and raise your
reggae appreciation level...well, appreciably.
Toots
& the Maytals are credited with coining the word "Reggae" on their 1968 single "Do the Reggay." Until that time Reggay was a dance fad in Jamaica and was not associated with the style of music played by bands we now consider Reggae musicians.
Happily,
Toots is still around, and still playing, although I'm not really
familiar with anything but this 1974 album. Many of their albums are
available at Amazon,
or from Amazon associates.
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Homer
& Jethro: I Love Your Pizza
She Was Bitten on the Udder by an Adder
Homer
& Jethro are not obscure, but they are certainly "off
the wall." Although they presented themselves as a cornball
country comedy act, Homer Haynes and Jethro Burns were in fact
excellent and highly
acclaimed musicians.
Listen to their fine musical approach to "I
Love Your Pizza," to the melody of "Across the Wide
Missouri."
Amazon
offers a selection of CDs and LPs. |
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Jason
& the Scorchers: Absolutely Sweet Marie
This
band, sometimes known as the Nashville
Scorchers, was one of those
bands that was not quite sure if it was country, rock, or somewhere
in between.
Leader
Jason Ringenberg recognized this dichotomy when he named one of his
albums One Foot in the Honky Tonk. Regardless, their music
has a good beat and you can dance to it.
Amazon
has
a number of Jason & the Scorchers CDs. |
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Sleepy LaBeef:
Tore Up Over You
Not enough
people are familiar with Sleepy
LaBeef, but if you read this, you
won't be one of them. He's been appearing in concert halls and
honky-tonks since the 1960s, and had chart success as recently as
2000.
He has one
of the most powerful voices of anyone who ever called himself a
rockabilly singer, and you can find plenty of his CDs on Amazon.
Sleepy died
December 26, 2019.
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Les Brown:
Talk About a Party
Les Brown was one of the best known and most popular
band leaders of the 40s and 50s. He's certainly not obscure - but
this jive-talking vocal by Butch Stone is as "off the wall" as they come.
Brown
performed with Bob Hope for nearly 50 years, and had ten number one
hit songs during that time.
This song
is listed on Discogs,
and the band is well represented on Amazon.
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Spike Jones:
Cocktails for Two
The Sow Song
Members of the older generation need
no explanation
when it comes to Spike
Jones, but for the kiddies out there, I will just say that as a
song parodist, he defined "off the wall."
"Cocktails for Two" may be his most famous
recording, but there were many more that kept folks laughing in the
40s and 50s.
CD versions of most of his recordings are
available from Amazon.
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Mary Kaye
Trio: Baby Knows Best
Mary
Kaye was a guitarist and performer in the 1950s and 1960's. She
was descended from Hawaiian royalty, and was born into a show business family.
I don't
recall being a big fan, but I bought this LP new at full retail
price, and when I played it recently, I gave it four stars. You can find CDs and vinyl on Amazon
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Elizabeth
Lands: Snow White Gown
Elizabeth
Lands is one of the more obscure artists represented on these pages.
Great things were predicted for her on her first (and apparently
only) album, where she was described as having "an Yma Sumac range with a
Mahalia Jackson
soul!"
Her Internet
presence is sparse; this
link offers a discography. There's another cut on You
Tube.
She is
absent from Amazon, but you (yes, YOU) can buy this very rare LP on Discogs.
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Frankie Laine:
Cry of the Wild Goose
Swamp Girl
For people
of my generation, Frankie
Laine requires no introduction, and "Cry of the Wild
Goose," as "off the
wall" as they come, was nevertheless, a fairly big hit for him.
"Swamp Girl" is equally strange, and not nearly as well
known
Laine, who
died
in 2007 at age 93, was hugely popular in the 1950s, scoring hits
with fans young and old even after the advent of rock & roll. He
has a nice entry on All
Music Guide, and his CDs
are readily available.
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Siegel-Schwall
Band: Sleepy Hollow
I Think it Was the Wine
A friend and I discovered the Siegel-Schwall Band on
some long-forgotten TV show years ago. We became hooked, and soon I
had two LPs of their hip blues.
The two namesake artists
played together
for over 40 years. A 2005 album came out 30 years after
their previous effort! Amazon
offers a selection of CDs and vinyl. Jim
Schwall died at age 79 in
June
of 2022
, but Corky Siegel was still performing at that time.
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Silly Sisters:
Singing the Travels
Silly Sisters
was a collaboration between Maddy
Prior, vocalist of Steeleye Span, and June
Tabor, the queen of British folk. Originally formed in 1976, the
pair teamed up for rousing versions of traditional ballads and rave-ups.
If you're not familiar with these names, you can
find plenty of samples on YouTube.
Or check out their offerings on Amazon,
including Prior's solo work.
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Queen Ida:
Bayou Polka
Grand Basile
"Bon
temps" is French for "good times," and the Bon Temps
Zydeco Band lives up to that definition. Queen Ida and her group
are one of the foremost practitioners of the lively accordion-based
Cajun music mixture known as Zydeco.
Her majesty
and her band mates have a nice selection on Amazon, including
CD, vinyl
and cassette.
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Off
the Wall Page 1
Page
2 Page
4 |
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The Nice
The Move
Toots & the
Maytals
Jason & the Scorchers
Les Brown
Mary Kaye Trio
Elizabeth Lands
Siegel-Schwall
Band |