There are parallels to be found in everything…in every age.
When I was a kid, vinyl was 45 rpm discs, one or two songs on each side. And, there were LPs, 33 & 1/3 rpm; long playing records with, typically, several songs on each side.
If you couldn’t afford to buy the hit “45” performed by a major artist, you could buy a version of the song by an unknown singer on a “bargain” label, specifically created to sell records at a cheaper price. It was like today’s pharmaceutical industry that sells a cheaper, generic version of a popular more expensive drug. Owning the hit version of a song rather than the generic version was, to my innocent senses, a status symbol.
Growing up in the 1950s, few ordinary families had TV sets, and there were no shows like American Idol or The Voice. Kids today can’t wrap their minds around what life was like with no TV, no iPod, no smart phone, and no streaming service. I try to stimulate the thinking and appreciation in my younger voice students, some of whose mouths fall open in disbelief when I show them an LP and a turntable.
In the mid 50s, a country singer, Bobby Bare, recorded a spoken word, bluesy rock-a-billy song called “All American Boy.” It was a huge hit. One day when I was 17, a large man decked out in white from head toe, including a white western hat, showed up at a recording studio in Utica, NY, where I was laying down a jazz performance. He was there to convince me to record the answer to Bare’s “All American Boy.” It would be, of course, “All American Girl.” (Another parallel: an early attempt at an entertainment franchise?)
I think the two men who were my managers arranged the meeting without telling me. The managers and the Texan in the white suit said I would have a hit record with “All American Girl.” I hated the idea, as I was a confirmed jazzer. (It would be another 20 years before I would open my ears to rock and R&B, thanks to my two musician sons, Steve and John Conte.)
As I write this, I’m listening to “All American Boy.” I wonder----what in the world of the 50s would “Girl” lyrics have to say. And, if I had recorded it, would it have found air play beyond Utica, NY!
Rosemary Conte is a singer, voice teacher, freelance writer, and clinical hypnotist in Matawan. She can be reached at [email protected]
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