Wayne and Marin Foster: To-Get-It Together, ca. 1972, Happynest Records. Click for Bigger!
Please Note! The recordings reproduced here originally carried neither a date nor copyright information. They are featured here as part of an activity for learning and discussion.
This week's audioblogging selection, an independently-released album by upbeat San Diego husband and wife team Wayne and Marin Foster, occupies a strange place between the amateur and the professional. Wayne Foster was obviously a player in the "we need a big band for the cotillion" scene in Southern California, and a quick Google search reveals that his professional touring orchestra still keeps quite busy.
We all know, however, that life isn't all VFW balls and awards ceremonies, so Wayne and Marin also developed a more intimate stage show starring themselves and a small band... a kind of low-budget Donny and Marie/Sonny and Cher/Captain and Tennille affair for smaller venues. And although this record isn't dated, it obviously comes from a time when variety shows ruled television, for that is the esthetic chased here, with theme-medleys and an Up With People "Free to Be You 'n' Me" cheeriness.
Back cover. Click for bigger!
So while this record seems, at first blush, to be what is known as a "DIY" (Do-it-Yourself) amateur "vanity" recording (like Sandra and Cindy), that's not the case. Obviously, their band is professional, and their arrangements are slick. These records were presumably made as a kind of business card, probably sold for a low price at their gigs, but more likely handed out free to potential customers.
And the music? Well, to call it Vegas-damaged would be an understatement. I imagine most of you will find this stuff to be too corny, too Care Bears to get through. And it is for you I weep. The rest of us, a small minority I'm sure, will listen to Wayne and Marin over and over until we have rainbows and gumdrops streaming out of our collective asses. Enjoy!
To Get it Together (4:07, 4.8mb mp3)
Little Green Apples (3:38, 4.3mb mp3)
Cha Cha Choo (Medley) (3:00, 3.5mb mp3)
Show Medley (4:06, 4.8mb mp3)
To My Friends (3:54, 4.6mb mp3)
Brotherhood Medley (3:35, 4.6mb mp3)
Huge thanks go out this week to Pony Pal™ James Call for, years ago, giving me this album (he had two shrink-wrapped copies!).
9 comments:
"The Way to Get the World Together is... Together!" Profound!
I'm doing a little hop! A profound little hop!
OMG, isn't it a sun-shinier day already?
Dear James Call:
Please don't send me any albums.
Dear Peteykins,
I am shooting rainbows all over the house here in Tampa! I didn't think I could have a more sunshiney day, but then I listen to your post! The sun is now like 'shards of glass' shining across the world. I feel like 'war, hatred, and blame' can now be over!!
Also, I just have to note that you have made a musical discovery! The Foster's version of 'Little Green Apples' is the root of hip hop....just listen to the first percussion section after the initial rap. It rocks.
Ah, Princess, the posts brought back memories of wearing wine color slacks and white turtlenecks in swing choir. Happy times. I was so butch.
Well, got to go and get the hubby to mix a nice cocktail for the sunset.
Your biggest and brightest pony fan in Tampa!!!
Chandra Leer
Apples. Indianapolis. Genius.
And then I hit the Brotherhood Medley.
So, like, 'luudes were popular in the 1970's, right? It sure sounds like it.
"Do you remember dancing to this popular cha cha of the fifties?" I like it when people ask me questions in songs. My stuffed animals are dancing. They're doing the electric slide.
Normally, I can't say much of what I've heard you feature so far in your delightful Monday Audioblogging has stuck with me, in the sense that I'll remember the lyrics or tunes and be humming it for a few hours. The notable exception to this is the music box guy, who has, indeed, become the John Williams of my darkest nightmares -- in a good way. Because even terror needs a soundtrack.
But this morning -- two days later -- I'm. Actually. Singing. These. Songs.
I'm . . . just . . . oh, god . . .
RULE OF THUMB: No publishing date on a record means it's from before 1972, which is the first year that publishing dates were required. (you probably knew that already)
This is great stuff. But I'm surprised you didn't include their cover of Satisfaction?? :)
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