Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Category: Countrypolitan +/- country pop

Capitol Records
Zeroto180

Molly Bee – Cited Zappa Influence – Could Yodel

This full-page ad in Billboard‘s “World of Country Music” special edition gives every indication that 1967 promised to be a break-out year for Molly Bee: Billboard October 28, 1967 The previous year, inside the gatefold sleeve of 1966’s Freak Out – the groundbreaking debut double album by Frank Zappa‘s Mothers

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"Blues Stay Away From Me"
Zeroto180

“Countrypolitan” – 1st Sightings

Paul Hemphill‘s The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights and Country Music — published in 1970 during a particularly vibrant musical era — includes this passage about the pushback against attempts to de-emphasize country’s less “polished” elements in order to increase the music’s appeal in the (more lucrative) “pop” marketplace: It isn’t

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"Hip Cat's Weddin'"
Zeroto180

Grandpa Jones & His Swingin’ Grandchildren’s Sole 45

Grandpa Jones‘ toe-tappin’ countrypolitan “Hip Cat’s Weddin’” is one of Zero to 180’s recent discoveries: “Hip Cat’s Weddin’” Grandpa Jones & His Swingin’ Grandchildren Recorded November 1960 Too little has been written about Boudleaux Bryant‘s clever composition and its fetching arrangement — virtually nothing, in fact.  “I Don’t Love Nobody”

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"I Get the Blues When It Rains"
Zeroto180

1969: Bethlehem’s Last Session?

As noted in Zero to 180’s recent history of Bethlehem Records in the “Post-Syd Nathan” era (i.e., starting in 1958, when Nathan had acquired 50% of the label), Ruppli’s King recording sessionography indicates that some new recording had taken place at King’s Cincinnati studios in a few instances connected to

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"Mr. Mailman"
Zeroto180

B-Side: Called Up to the Majors

I forget where I picked up my copy of 100 All Time Country Hall of Fame Hits – Vol. 2, double-LP set from 1977 that was originally “nationally advertised on TV!”  The friendly price tag comes at a cost, though — 12 (even 13) songs per side, thus, a noticeable

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"Gonna Get Along Without You Now"
Zeroto180

Bossa Country -or- Honky Nova?

On my one and only visit to Northampton, Massachusetts (NRBQ‘s 35th anniversary show in 2004), I ducked into a second-hand vinyl shop and came away with a K-Tel country collection from 1976 — Country Superstars – 20 Greatest Hits This collection of early-to-mid 70s hits includes 1976 dieselbilly hit “Roll

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"I've Got a Happy Heart"
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“I’ve Got a Happy Heart”: Love’s Bullet-Proof Armor

Yesterday’s piece about Mayf Nutter included a link to the January 13, 1973 edition of Billboard, that happened to feature an adjacent news item naming all the artists who played with Buck Owens at a recent Christmas event in Bakersfield: Buck Owens and his group drew more than 5,000 with

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"Lost Highway"
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“Lost Highway”: Hank Williams + Chet Atkins & Friends

One other prominent (and tragic) artist from country music’s early years to get the cosmetic posthumous remix is Hank Williams, whose death in 1953 in no way stopped MGM from issuing new product for the marketplace (often multiple albums per year) through 1981 and beyond.  Hank Williams, for instance, was

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"Baby Rocked Her Dolly"
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“Baby Rocked Her Dolly”: Frankie (Miller) & Johnny (Horton)

Merle Kilgore really brings the pathos on an original composition that absolutely could have come from the canon of Johnny Cash: * <streaming audio no longer available> * “Baby Rocked Her Dolly” was also covered by Starday labelmates, Frankie Miller (1960) and Red Sovine (1967).  However, for his own version,

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"Johnny Zero"
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“Johnny Zero”: Reduced to Nothing

Recorded by Merle Kilgore in early November, 1963 at Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville and released January 1964 as a single by MGM: “Johnny Zero“ Merle Kilgore (1963) Does Merle Kilgore sound like Johnny Cash because they were such good friends, or were Merle and Johnny good friends because their

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