Florne Nesmith on Sterling

 

Vocal Florne Nesmith / Dale Brooks · Melody Aces

CP-2444 - I Cried A Tear
CP-2445 - Stupid Cupid      

Sterling S-199

1959

Norman Burns (Sterling 524)

Norman Burns And Singers

27287 -  Friendship
Virginia Wiech And Lew Tobin

27288 - Is It Wrong
Isaac Mandel And Lew Tobin

Arranger Art Kempel

Sterling 524


From http://bobpurse.blogspot.fr/2016/07/he-dont-wanna-be-right.html

Let’s Beat The Clock

Norm Burns & The Five Stars

29045- Let’s Beat The Clock 

Martin Willcott & Lew Tobin

Shelley Stuart, Norm Burns & The Satallites
29046 – Give Me Another Chance

Dennis Haynes & Lew Tobin

Arranger : Roger Baker

Sterling Records #565
Ace Distrib. Box 64
Boston, Mass.
1972

Norm Burns, regular warbler from the Lew Tobin's song-poem stable, seems here to be a little more concerned than usual.  NORM ROCKS!

Frenchy And The Underground Railroad

Frenchy And The Underground Railroad

26941 - We're Lonely /(Frenchy, ASCAP)

26942 - Trip (Real Carpentier, ASCAP)

Sterling 518

1970

★ 

At the time of the recording, the personnel (13-14 years old, except Frenchy, eight years older) of the group consisted of Frenchy (Yves Carpentier) on vocals, Real Carpentier on vocals and bass, Gene Daigle on vocals and guitar, Bob Fissette on guitar, Rob St. George on drums, and Dave LaCasse on vocals and percussion. The band was managed by Ron Bachand and Alfred Brissette.  

 

The band story is told by Mr. Bellino in his latest post (at Rip It Up R.I.)  a blog celebrating the glory of rock and roll and garage bands from the state of Rhode Island in the 1960s.

 ★

 

If confirmation was needed, this is a proof that Lew Tobin's Sterling Records wasn't just a song-poem operation,   If the bulk of the label ouput was amateur poems put in music by Lew Tobin and "sung" by Norm Burns, Gary Roberts, Mel Moore and al. ,  occasionally local bands were recorded. 

 

Real Carpentier today

http://www.reverbnation.com/realcarpentier

The Firesiders on Sterling

 

The Firesiders

 

9881 ~  Spring

9882 ~  Jump And Twist

 

Sterling Records #268

1963

Two instrumentals

 

Quite surprising but, yes,  this is on the same song-poem Sterling label owned by music veteran Lew Tobin in Boston, Mass.

Lew Tobin had operated Five Star Music Masters since the early forties and  Sterling Records since 1954.  The earliest record on Sterling I was able to find is #103,   "His Final Address" sung by Roy Jones with Lew Tobin's orchestra.  "This tribute to Hank Williams is both late and unimpressive" simply wrote the Billboard reviewer (Billboard, February 27, 1954).  Hank Williams, incidentally also recorded on Sterling Records, obviously a different label (out of New-York).

 

Lew Tobin and Sterling Records were still active as late as 2002 : that year, in September, they recorded "America's Song" a poem written by Blanche Shipley (1914-2002), a retired teacher, who pieced and tied many quilts after her retirement. 

 

Sterling label discography

Robert G. Kiko, Massillon song(poem) writer (Sterling 585)

Norm Burns and the Five Stars

27841 – Hard Head (Charles Starr & Lew Tobin, ASCAP)
27842 – Star Bright (Robert G. Kiko & Lew Tobin)

Sterling 585

Arranger : Roger Baker

1971

<--- Massillon song writer Robert G. Kiko holding the record "Proud Town," a song about Wilmot and the Wilderness center (Preview Records 1990)

Robert G. Kiko, 53, a custodian at Lorin Andrews junior high school, wanted to write lyrics for he had been thinking of doing records. Two of his records recently were sent to disc jockeys across the country. Another is being waxed.

His friends encouraged him to publish some of his poetry. Kiko has written a lot of poetry. Along with fishing and traveling, poetry has been a way to relax for him. He began writing poetry while in the Air Force in 1941 and he hasn’t stopped. Back in Massillon after the war, Kiko wrote poetry and used to leave it on desks of teachers.

Miss Edna Dix, an English teacher at Lorin Andrews, encouraged Kiko to do something with his poetry, he said. After talking it over with his wife, Anne, he wrote away to four or five record companies.

His first record, « Star Bright, » is a song about our times.

« I don’t expect to be a rich man over it, » Kiko said about his newly realized dream.

[Above information is edited from an article published in the Evening Independent, Massillon, Ohio, January 26, 1972]


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Norm Burns (Sterling 336)

Lew Tobin’s Orchestra
Vocal : Norman Burns

Sterling 336

14415 – A Moment of Happiness (Marin H. Gonzalez & Lew Tobin)
14416 – Seaman Blues (Hattie Clayton Fields)

1965

Source: The Wonderful and the Obscure

There is a Marin H. Gonzalez on YouTube singing "cucurucucu paloma"

"cucurucucu paloma is one of the sadest songs in our latin language,i have been asked to try and translate the mening to the inglish language ,it is not easy,but i think i have come close,it is a hard song for me to sing ,but i did the best that i can,i hope some boby likes it.marin"

My intuition is that is the same Marin Gonzalez who is the writer of the Sterling A-side.

.

Norm Burns (Sterling 615)

Sterling 615

Norm Burns And The Satellites

30863 – What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am? (Ronald Scott-Lew Tobin

"...a much more typical example of the run-of-the-mill bland side of the Norm Burns experience..."

Norm Burns And The Five Stars
30864 – Since You Came Into My Life (Frank G. Williams-Lew Tobin)

"Norm's painfully uncomfortable vocal - possibly the worst I've ever heard from him..."

Information, picture and comments are from "The Wonderful and the Obscure" blog.
See "The Soulful Norm Burns" (and hear both sides).

.

Lonesome Al Down On the Farm

Gary Roberts

Sterling 734

36501 – Lonesome Al Down On the Farm
(Albert Mullenax & Lew Tobin)

36502 – I Am A Six Wheel Man
(Barbara A. Ellefson & Lew Tobin)

This was found at the Wonderful and the Obscure blog.

Bob Purse, purveyor worldwide of good bad records :

Compared with many of the other song-poem stalwarts, [Gary Roberts] didn't make all that many records. (…) On the other hand, the percentage of his records that score high on the weirdness scale is remarkable.

Here's a good one that might just make your mouth drop open. How could it not be special with a title like "Lonesome Al Down on the Farm".

Hear both sides HERE

.

Norm Burns (Sterling 594)

Norm Burns And The Satellites

Sterling 594

30245 - Vote McGovern sample
30246 - How Much I Miss You

Both Sides Written By Aurelio E Mata And Lew Tobin.

Song-poem from Boston.

In the [1972] general election, the McGovern/Shriver ticket suffered a 61%-37% defeat to Nixon– at the time, the second biggest landslide in American history, with Electoral College totals of 520 to 17. McGovern's two electoral vote victories came in Massachusetts [ed.: home of Sterling Records] and Washington, D.C..

Norm Burns (Sterling 449)

Norm Burns & Singers
23443 - Baby Give Me Some Lovin’
(Roy Lee Lewis & Lew Tobin)
Arranger : Ted Casher

23445 – Golden Moments
(Dorothy Taylor & Lew Tobin)
Arranger : Lew Tobin
Sterling 449

Both sides of this song-poem record can be heard HERE., courtesy of Bob Purse
(The Wonderful & the Obscure blog)
[A look at some of the more remarkable items found during 25 years of collecting all manner of recordings]

Removed

Content removed according to the wish (injunction?) of the artist received through his Business Manager (?).

All this material is copyrighted by the author. Mr. X... does not wish to have his cover art nor his album listed on your blog. Please remove at once.

Be happy, Mary. it's done. Your wish come true.




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Shelley Stuart & the Satellites

Sterling 602

30467 - You Will Reap What You Sow
[dead wax info : 111 30467 PMB Sterling S-602 11-30-72]

30468 - Little Black Shoes
[dead wax info : 111 30468 PMB Sterling S-602 11-30-72]

Weird teen tragedy song "You Will Reap..." about taking too many pills and jumping off a high building - The flip side is Little Black Shoes which has the feel of an old country ballad - not exactly but the general feel.

Ack. : Bruce Smith/Cassidy Collectibles

Norm Burns (Sterling 620)

Norm Burns & The Five Stars
Sterling 620

31049 – Gonna Keep You Warm (David R. Joseph, Lew Tobin)
31050 – I Ain’t Got Nothing (A. Russell Henderson Sr., Lew Tobin)

Arranger : R. Baker


Song-poem record found HERE today.

Norm Burns - Sterling 656

Norm Burns & The Five Stars
Sterling 656
1974

33113 - It's Nice To Know You
33114 - Deep Love


Update (Jan.22, 2011) :
Label shots and audio files posted HERE (The Wonderful and the Obscure blog)



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Julius Thomas

Julius Thomas
Wild 907
36875 - I Gotta Change My Ways (If I’m To Keep Her) (Part 1)
36876 - I Gotta Change My Ways (If I’m To Keep Her) (Part 2)

Boston, Mass., 1976

Scored and conducted by Roger Baker
Engineer : Mike Golub
Produced and arranged by Julius Thomas for Lew Tobin Enterprises
A « Skippy White » production

"Skippy White" (real name Fred LeBlanc) grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts. He fell in love with the doo-wop sound when he was young. He started working in Boston in 1960 as a deejay at WILD-AM, where he became, reluctantly, Skippy White.

White rented a storefront for $50 and opened his own record store. Both store and radio show clicked. White stayed at WILD for eight years before moving on to a series of other stations.

He also owned at least three record labels : Wild, Bluestown and Silver Cross. He was also certainly involved in production for others local labels such as the Ditto label (the C-Quins) and for the Stop label.

For the Julius Thomas release, the Wild label, likely dormant for years, was revived in association with Lew Tobin, owner of Sterling Records, a song-poem concern.