The Turtles! Golden Hits. White Whale Records. This one was in heavy rotation in my room circa 1970. Perfect AM radio pop that, when I hear it today, still brings back those feelings of buying and playing my first records. Lead singers, Flo and Eddie, (named after a stint with Frank Zappa and the Mothers), went on to record together and sing back-up throughout the seventies and eighties. They also hosted a KROQ radio program in LA in the nineties.

(15 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)

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Chaino and his African Percussion Safari “Jungle Echoes” on Omega.   (See Chaino Africana post for more)

(47 votes, average: 4.28 out of 5)

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“CHAINO AFRICANA” on Dot Records. “Spellbinding primitive rhythms by Chaino, percussion genious of Africa”. The music here and from other Chaino records is on a CD reissue called “Chaino Africana and Beyond”.

Chaino is one of the elusive figures of space age pop. After growing up in Chicago, Leon Johnson left home and lived a fairly wild life, eventually taking up the bongos and making a name for himself as “Chaino” (taken perhaps from the great Cuban conga player, Chano Pozo?) on the “chitlins” circuit of black nightclubs. In the late 1950s, he went to Hollywood and met producer Kirby Allan, who had recently been inspired by African tribal music during a trip to Kenya. Allan and Johnson went into the famed Gold Star studio in early 1958 to try to create an American-ized version. They eventually succeeded in getting jazz impresario Norman Granz to release some of these cuts on the luridly-titled, Jungle Mating Rhythms. At the same time, they were able to sell tracks to three different small West Coast jazz labels, Score, Tampa, and Omega, and all four albums were released virtually simultaneously. A few months later, Allan signed with the Silent Majority label, Dot (home to Lawrence Welk for a fifth album, Africana. A sixth album, Temptation, was recorded for Omega but was barely out the door before the label went bankrupt.   — Space Age Pop

(53 votes, average: 4.77 out of 5)

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Frank Frost (1936-1999) and the Night Hawks on the Phillips label (via Sam Phillips of Sun Records).   Here’s a set of electric, Delta blues and juke joint jumpin’ from 1962 by legendary blues harmonica player, Frank Frost, Jack Johnson and drummer Sam Carr (son of Robert Nighthawk).   Together as the Nighthawks, they played together until 1975.

(16 votes, average: 3.13 out of 5)

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Guy Warren of Ghana on British EMI Columbia Records. African-inspired jazz from the cream of 1960s Brit jazz musicians . Guy Warren is joined by Don Rendell , Ian Carr, Trevor Tomkins, Dave Green, Amancio d’Silva and Michael Garrick to produce a memorable and rare meeting of two worlds. Beautiful moments from Rendell on tenor and soprano.

(20 votes, average: 3.20 out of 5)

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Another 49th State record release in “full color high fidelity” (and on red vinyl).   “The Far East Today” with Priscilla Lee and The Filipino Rockets!

(18 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)

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“…the dynamic, Bobby, Bobby Bland!”   One of the greatest intros ever to a blazing first song: “36-24-36” and followed by an all-time great album of dynamite blues!   On Duke Records.

(14 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)

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Jan & Dan “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” on Liberty Records.

(17 votes, average: 2.59 out of 5)

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Vol. 2 on Alegre Label.

(17 votes, average: 2.24 out of 5)

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