TeenBeat Mayhem Blog

TBM rankings; OK, we're at the bottom of the barrell right now, but Jesus H Christ, the two tracks by The New Generation
ARE GOD HISSELF. The best "new" teenies I've heard in YEARS. All my "best of" have to be rewritten.
What is the source of these?
 
TBM rankings; OK, we're at the bottom of the barrell right now, but Jesus H Christ, the two tracks by The New Generation
ARE GOD HISSELF. The best "new" teenies I've heard in YEARS. All my "best of" have to be rewritten.
What is the source of these?
I bought the 45 a few months ago from a guy who found it in a thrift store. I have not been able to locate any members as yet. It sounds like it was recorded over a payphone. Like the Young Souls on C.A.V.U.
 
The last two bundles were rather tough/difficult to rate, because there was a lot of (GREAT) soul stuff in there,
that I know would be top ranked among soulies (if they knew of the existence of these records.....)
 
The ranking is a schizo job. If this had been a "rank these obscure soul songs", I'd been given out many 7 and 8:s
But since they're supposed to be teenbeat, I gave them a 4.
 
The ranking is a schizo job. If this had been a "rank these obscure soul songs", I'd been given out many 7 and 8:s
But since they're supposed to be teenbeat, I gave them a 4.
I wonder if that's the right way to go about it. A great song is a great song. This is probably why so many killer folk-rock sides only got a 3 or 4.
Oh well, the rating score is the least interesting part of TBM for me anyway.
 
Don't know if it has been pointed out yet but in the pdf, the catalog number for the first Bitter Sweets single "Cry Your Eyes Out" is listed as Hype 1001 where the 45 label shows L-102
 
Yes, that has been corrected already, thanks.
A couple collectors contacted me thru the TBM website and were nice enough to send me missing / unrated tracks. I auditioned each one and roughly half are TBM worthy, so we will have another rating session ready to start in a day or so.
I never knew that there were two released versions of "Midnight Hour" by ? & The Mysterians. The original is the "96 Tears" B-side on Pa Go Go, it was released as well on Cameo. However, some Cameo pressings use a re-recorded version, has louder organ and a different lyric in the opening verse. Probably recorded for the 96 Tears LP. As I only have the original "Midnight Hour" version on my Cameo label "96 Tears" 45, I will need to investigate as how to visually identify the variants, if possible.
 
Yes, that has been corrected already, thanks.
A couple collectors contacted me thru the TBM website and were nice enough to send me missing / unrated tracks. I auditioned each one and roughly half are TBM worthy, so we will have another rating session ready to start in a day or so.
I never knew that there were two released versions of "Midnight Hour" by ? & The Mysterians. The original is the "96 Tears" B-side on Pa Go Go, it was released as well on Cameo. However, some Cameo pressings use a re-recorded version, has louder organ and a different lyric in the opening verse. Probably recorded for the 96 Tears LP. As I only have the original "Midnight Hour" version on my Cameo label "96 Tears" 45, I will need to investigate as how to visually identify the variants, if possible.
To my knowledge the version of "Midnight Hour" on the Pa-Go-Go 45 only ever was released there. I have never heard of that take appearing on a Cameo release - that more familiar version (apparently from the same session cut at Art Schiell's Bay City home studio) is on every Cameo 45 and LP I've owned. Question Mark once told me he was going to do the "Pa-Go-Go version" at a concert, so he is aware they used a different take for Cameo as well (the Cameo 45 also features a shorter edit of "96 Tears,' though the original longer cut is on the LP). If somebody can prove there are two takes of "Midnight Hour" that came out on Cameo, I'd love to see proof! One other note, when ABKCO finally released a CD of the band's Cameo material a few years ago it did have previously-unissued stereo re-recordings of both "96 Tears" and "Midnight Hour" which were evidently cut after they signed with the label (perhaps for use on the stereo LP?). But those are quite different sounding and don't have the originals' funky groove (the Bay City recording featured a different bass player, for one). And, that CD does not include the Pa-Go-Go version of "Midnight Hour," just the Cameo 45 take - mono only - indicating to me that perhaps when the tapes were acquired from Pa-Go-Go they sent a different take by mistake (or intention - I like the Cameo version a little better).
 
Thanks FrankU for the info!
I played my Pa Go Go version, and my Cameo 428 version of "Midnight Hour" when I was made aware of different versions. They seemed to be exactly the same. I will check again. My Cameo 45 is a vinyl press done by the NJ plant that pressed vinyl east coast copies. Has the EY two letter hand etched code in the vinyl trail-off area.
Here is what one of the TBM contributors e-mailed to me a few weeks ago. Until I received this, I had no idea of different versions on 45. I figured they just re-recorded the song for the LP but did not bother messing with releasing a re-recording of "96 Tears".


Here's another possible update for Teen Beat Mayhem.

There are two different versions of "Midnight Hour" that appear on the B-side of "96 Tears". One of them is the same version that appears on both my mono and stereo copies of the LP with the opening line "I'm gonna tell you 'bout a story 'bout a girl by the railroad track". The alternate version has the opening line "I'm gonna tell you a story about a girl who lives by the railroad track". This is the version of my single with the alternate version:

https://www.discogs.com/release/3714970--Question-Mark-The-Mysterians-96-Tears

I had assumed all singles had the alternate version until I recently bought an upgraded copy and it had the common version. This 45 has songs credited to Rudy Martinez. The one with the alt. version has the songs credited to The Mysterians.
The alternate version sounds like an entirely different take to me. The keyboard part differs as well. Here is the alternate version on youtube:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWdKcdXeTy8
 
Looking at the many variants of this single on Discogs, I see that all the "Midnight Hour" sides are shown as being 2:21 long, including both Cameo and Pa-Go-Go copies (though there clearly were two different takes used). There were actually a couple label variants on Pa-Go-Go, but the one I have shows "96 Tears" as being 2:57 long. The many Cameos I scanned past have the hit listed as 2:38, corresponding to the shorter edit, but I was quite surprised to find a styrene press that shows the song timing of 2:53 (though this could be a typo and the song is actually still 2:38?!). But I guess it's possible that somebody got a copy of the Pa-Go-Go tapes for mastering that particular press...? Here grabbed from discogs are labels from the longer Cameo, the shorter one (both styrene, though most of the ones I see are vinyl), and one of the Pa-Go-Gos. Weirdly the first one with the longer timing also credits the pub co as Cameo-Parkway, but most copies say it was Ed Arguello.

96TearsMonarch.jpg96TearsStyrene2.jpg96TearsPagogo.jpg
 
I played my Pa Go Go and vinyl East Coast pressing of Cameo 428...both versions of "Midnight Hour" are exact. No differences.
And of course, "96 Tears" is full length on Pa Go Go, but has the early fadeout, time is also shown as 2:38
The deadwax has a Bell Sound raised relief stamp, and the EY letters hand-etched. There is also another tiny imprint stamp, but it is difficult to decipher...3 M's, perhaps?
Bell Sound in NYC then mastered and created stampers of both songs for the pressing plant.
Credit on Pa Go Go is Rudy Martinez, both songs as pictured above. The Cameo vinyl pressing credits the Mysterians for both songs. Ed Arguello is also noted.