Connie & Lee, "Cool, Cool, Baby" c/w "Maybe You'll Be Mine," Gone 5035 (rel. 6/1958)
To kick this week off, here's a delightful disc I junked last week, as a warm-up for what I knew would be a physical, emotional and mental challenge. Records shows for me are a margin of what the experience is for "regular" record fiends. The percentile of 45s to LPs is finite: I can get through every seller's boxes at ordinary events. But this one...there must have been a couple million records in this VFW hall. Way too much to plow through, even in the two days of the event.
More on that throughout the week. Here is a delightful, earthy one-record wonder by two gals from Boston, Connie Marques and Lee Mollomo. They waxed these two winners for Beantown label Look Records in the spring of 1958. The record made enough regional noise for Gone Records in New York to pick it up and give it a nationwide release. It got good reviews in the two major trade mags (seen below) and charted in the Northeast but got lost in the summertime sauce of the third year of rock 'n' roll's ascendancy into American pop culture.
These Latino teens deliver a stirring sound on two of the best sides from a fabulous year in vernacular music. This Boston-made platter displays how to do teen rock 'n' roll right. It doesn't have to be screaming and brassy; it doesn't need a pop orchestra or professional musicians. All it needs is heart and soul and a spirit of fun. These women provide that in spades, aces and clubs.
"Cool, Cool, Baby," with too, many, serial, commas, runs close to three minutes and doesn't waste a second. To a loping slower beat, it celebrates the singers' winning of a swell guy's attention. This side is a bit over-recorded and blasts in loud spots, but not to a fault. This is ground-level teen pop-rock done with enthusiasm and sincerity, and the two singers have excellent presence. They sound Latino and whomever backed them (high school friends?) have a great sound.
A few Sundays back, we played the lone release by Billy Boss and The Boss Tones. The B-side of that single, "Jones," has a similar piano opening. For those into trainspotting, here's that post for comparison's sake:
"Maybe You'll Be Mine" abounds with atmospheric percussion on a Latina loper that showcases the girls' rich, down-to-earth vocal harmonies. Their vocals are most appealing and it's sad that these two sides are all we get. SPOILER ALERT: this side gets an extra point for a false ending--a clever touch that resolves with a sweet, lumbering instrumental coda. No big professional studio could (or would) make a record like this; there aren't enough of them and I cherish each and ev'ry one.
The two singer-songwriters walked away from the music world after this 1958 single's small success. I would so love to have more records by them, but this is a bittersweet part of 45-rpm music; you don't often get a large body of work by talented unknowns. C'est la vie.
Tomorrow: the gritty mood continues with a beautiful 1957 Old Town single by The Keytones. Another one-record wonder that got four releases over 30 years.
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