Monday, March 24, 2014

Kalamazoo, My Home Town (PAMS)


Terry And The Melody Laners
vocalist Terry Lea
8365 - Kalamazoo, My Home Town

The Melody Laners
8366 - Kalamazoo, My Home Town

produced for the people of Kalamazoo by
WKMI
1360 Melody Lane

Lyrics: Howard D. Steere
Lyrics copyrighted 1962 Steere Broadcasting
Musical rights publications Meeks Publications
Recorded by PAMS of Dallas
Arranger-composer : Euel Box
For air use on Radio Station WKMI (Dial 1360)

July 1962


Bill Meeks started the PAMS Advertising Agency in the mid-fifties.

While the concept of using catchy tunes to promote a product was nothing new, the idea of using a full length song to promote a radio station was. In 1960, Meeks came up with the idea of creating a standard 1:30 music bed, entitled “My Home Town” (in the “Sound of the City” – Series 16 jingle package). The song bed, written by Euel Box, was pitched to radio stations from Abilene to Winston-Salem. Localized lyrics would be penned by the jocks, or other staffers. However, more often than not, the amateur songwriters would cram as many words as they could into the canned music bed. 

It’s estimated that there are over 100 different versions of “My Home Town.”
 
While Terry was consistently the main voice on  the "My Home Town" PAMS jingles series, her name credit on the singles is anything but. Variations on her name have included “Terry Lea," "Terry Lee,” “Terry Lea Jenkins," and "Terry Lee Jenkins."
 
For as long as Marie Therese Leahy could remember, she was always performing.

“I first sang at the Capitol Theatre, in Austin, on the kiddie show,” she said. “If you were asked to perform, you got in free to the movie that day, and got two passes for later in the week. America was in the middle of a depression so I went to the kiddie show every Saturday and got on, and got my tickets.”

By 1941, she would find herself entertaining on another stage – in front of the troops, at one of the several bases around Austin. “Mr. John Peninger, who was a friend of my dad’s, was head of the USO in Austin and asked if I could be on the USO shows – I was only 14 at the time,” she said. Terry, as she was starting to be called at the time, would find herself singing before thousands of soldiers at Camp Swift in Bastrop, or at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin. “I would perform on a flat bed truck, driven out into a field, and there would be five thousand young men waiting to be entertained.” She would later be crowned Queen of Melody of Camp Swift. “What a treat that was, but I well chaperoned as my dad was quite strict.”
 
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Eric and the Vikings on Zip


Eric and the Vikings

20563 ~ Chinese Soul
20564 ~ Vikings Theme

Zip presents
W.S.M. 102167

Zip Music Co.
Scranton, Pa.
October 1967


A-side is is actually "Ling Ting Tong" which was done by The Five Keys for Capitol Records in 1955.  B-side is an instrumental.

Unless some family relatives of Eric or of The Vikings band come to me with info (and please don't say just "Hi, that's my dad!"), Eric and the Vikings will be doomed to perpetual internet darkness.


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Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Modern Age on Hellam


The Modern Age

35723 – The Bullfrog Rock
35724 - Glenda Cheryl
Glenn D. Hake, ASCAP
Produced by Glenn D. Hake
Hellam
1975
Note : date of copyright 1957 on label is obviously wrong. The two songs were copyrighted on October 11, 1975.

From Hellam, a suburb of York, Pennsylvania.  'The Bullfrog Rock' has been re-issued in 2003 on "Rockin' And Stompin'" (Collector 4479) credited to Glenn D. Hake.

Glenn Daniel Hake was born in 1933 in Martinsville, Pennsylvania. His father died when he was a 3 year-old and his mother had to support the family.   Truck driver, free-lance photographer and country music singer, he operated Hellam Records and Majestic Air Photo in Hellam. 

In 1965 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to seven charges, • including cheating by false pretense. Authorities said Hake failed to deliver on promises to have aerial photographs he took of various properties painted in oil after he received $450 from property owners.
 
 In 1978, Glenn Hake found a 2-year pit bull terrier in the streets of dowtown Harrisburg and went home with the dog.  One time when Hake was playing the old piano that he bought at a yard sale, Boopie jumped on a stool by the instrument and began tapping the keyboard with one paw.  "A light went on in my head. I thought it was a great thing, a dog playing the piano," Hake recalled.  So, he went about teaching Boopie to play the piano. At first Boopie would only use his left paw, but two weeks and many doggie treats later, Boopie was tickling the ivories with both paws. "With his talent, I could use him to make a profit. I decided I'd rather make it non-profit I'd like to use his talents to help poor people," Hake said.   So he decided to found Man's Best Friend Charities Inc., with the purpose of raising money during charity events where Boopie will be the star performer.

Glenn Hake died in 1993, but The Modern Age 'sans' Glenn Hake still performed as recently as two years ago at Hellam Fire Company  pic :
After dinner, couples may take to the dance floor to dance the night away to the tunes of local band The Modern Age. “The event is meant (to give people the opportunity) to dance, attending couples are not required to dance.   However, even people who are not planning to dance may change their minds when they hear The Modern Age, which has been performing an assortment of country rock from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, on and off locally since 1970.   The band currently consists of Jim Haugh of Hellam on rhythm guitar and vocals, Bill Dunlap of Yorkana on bass guitar and vocals,  Jeff Winter of Wrightsville on drums and vocals, Mike Hubler of Wrightsville on lead guitar and vocals, and special guest Logan Kinard of Craley on guitar and vocals.