YOUR HOLIDAY GIFTS ARE HERE! TWO FAB ALBUMS FROM THE SWINGIN' 6TS!

Happy holidays, good tidings, endless cheer and plenty of turkey sandwiches in your immediate future, if you partake of such things! Whatever you call this day, here's my little gift to you: two of my favorite LPs. Not one note of holiday-type music on either one, but you've heard the 11 Christmas songs 1,000,000 times by now (this year). Let's get down to cases...

1) an augmented version of the 1962 Golden Crest Records LP The Fabulous Wailers! 14 terrific tracks from these Tacoma, WA legends, whose versatility will surprise you. From the classic oomph of "Tall Cool One" and "Beat Guitar" to the forlorn jazz melancholy of "Driftwood" to the boss vocal rocker "Dirty Robber," this album is a testament to these five frenzied fellers who tore it up six decades ago.
    Culled from various singles, the album includes two later tracks not on the original 12-incher..."Mashi," the A-side of their first single for Etiquette Records and "Mau Mau," a slice of intense exotica from a Golden Crest 45. (I replaced the weak-sounding LP version of "Beat Guitar" with the 45 mix from the other side of this single. For whatever reason, the LP mastering tends towards the muddy, and this poor track, a right corker, suffers the worst.)
        Click on that LP cover to claim your first musical gift, and then proceed...

2) Riding High was the third album by New Orleans charmers The Dixie Cups. It's their best work, with a soulful Crescent City feeling not present on their ear-candy hits of 1964. No "Chapel of Love" heard here. 

          From start to finish, this is a delightful album that was made under terrible circumstances. Barbara Hawkins related in her memoir the monstrous behavior of their manager and producer, Joe Jones. The 11 performances on this album represent the group in their natural New Orleans style--not the candy-floss pop of their Red Bird 45s. Excellent songs--some ahead of the pop bell-curve--fill this album.
           As well, the girls have much more harmony singing on this LP than on their Red Bird sides. Their unison vocals were never steady, and their former label leaned on that angle far too much. (I like the Red Bird sides, mind you.) This is what The Dixie Cups really sounded like on their own turf.
           Some tracks approach the baroque style of Allen Toussaint's productions for Minit Records. NOLA sidemen do their beautiful thing throughout this album, which includes an attempt to better "Iko Iko" in "Two-Way-Pockaway," but with thundering percussion in an unrecognized dancefloor filler.
          The weakest track, "Chances Are," benefits from the sidemen going off a jazzy deep end. All the original tracks are first-rate; one appealing song after the other. My faves here are "What Goes Up...," "Promises, Promises," "Sugar That I Need," "Here It Comes Again" and the beautiful melancholy of "I'm Not the Kind of Girl (To Marry),"
           A big, rich, earthy sound runs through this album; the thin, crisp productions of the Red Bird era are nowhere in sight. This album was ignored when new, but to these ears it's the best work these talented singers ever did. Well worth hearing and savoring. I'm sorry Joe Jones was such a monster to the three women; that scenario played out too many times in the 1950s and '60s. They deserved respect and fair treatment.
          Rounding out the original 11-track LP are two post-LP singles-only tracks from 1966, "Daddy Said No" and "Love's Gone Bad." There are three other tracks they recorded for ABC-Paramount, but I don't have them; one was only issued on a British 45, so who knows if I'll ever nab that one?
          If I could do a CD reissue of any LP from the '60s, I'd vote for this and its satellite non-album tracks. Again, click on the album cover art and this earthy girl-group soulfest is yours for the taking.

We'll see you tomorrow with our regularly scheduled daily post. May your day be merry and bright, and all that good stuff!

Tomorrow: we head to Texas, where Chicano rockers Mike and The Del Rays deliver a pair of old-school lowrider goodies, sources from favorite records of the group. One has an interesting provenance. From the regional Jox label, 1964.