It's easy to think of America in the 1960s as a rock-obsessed, LSD-chugging, free-loving Dionysia. The reality was much more conservative. Hungover from the Eisenhower-Kennedy hi-ball years, artists and consumers alike were obsessed with two minute ditties centered around good looking vocalists and patriotic material that could distract the boys coming home from the horrors of battle. For the pipe-smoking dad there was exotica, son John Jr. daydreamed of shooting the curls with his Sears Silvertone, little Jane lugged her portable Victor to sleepovers to play the latest girl group 45s, and half-pack-a-day mom was content with whatever floated in on the AM band.
Exotica was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with a scantily clad woman on the album jacket for best results. Our Technicolor Paradise box set is the soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, mai-tai-sipping, armchair safariers. Go deeper with a fresh remaster of Modesto Duran's 1959 Cuban percussion clinic The Fabulous Rhythms of Modesto, if the tiki spirit implores you.
A holdover from the sock hop era, The Girl Group Underground celebrates the high hairdos, dreams and schemes, tender camp, wedding bell fantasias, and chaste tragedies of the early-'60s woman. Breakout 45s from The Belles, Vickie & The Van Dykes, and The Contessas are sure to help you fall in LUV.
The crooning '50s might've been in the rearview mirror by the time The Beatles played Ed Sullivan, but high-tone pop stayed on the radio long after Woodstock. Margo Guryan watched this transition, and documents the arc of the American songbook on our new Words and Music box set. Birdlegs and his wife Pauline cut a smoking vocal jazz session for Sauk City's Cuca label that we've recut from the original tapes. Don't sleep on the soundtrack to Neil Hamburger's Entertainment and its Wu-Tang ready Frank Sinatra Jr. sample.
Margo Guryan - I Ought To Stay Away From You b/w Why Do I Cry 7"
The first entry in Numero’s Margo Guryan series arrives as a limited edition pic sleeve 45. Side A features the previously unreleased 1966 yé-yé inspired burner “I Ought To Stay Away From You ,” paired with her latter day viral smash “Why Do I Cry.”
Margo Guryan - Words and Music
Witness to revolutions in jazz and pop, Margo Guryan earned her place in the songwriting pantheon and then some. That she was largely unknown for decades is not the stuff of crushed dreams, but a result of her own choices and priorities. From humble beginnings to the peaks of her 1968 baroque pop masterpiece Take a Picture and the collected Demos to the recent viral ubiquity of “Why Do I Cry”, Words and Music captures the entirety of Guryan’s career, featuring 16 previously unreleased recordings and a 32-page booklet telling the whole story.
Basement Beehive: The Girl Group Underground
Who do we become when we live our dreams? It’s all here—the high hairdos, the dreams and schemes, the tender camp, the wedding bell fantasias and chaste tragedies. Sister acts, studio receptionists, classmates, angelic voices of the 1960s; some legendary, many hidden in the basement of expired rainbows. Gathered on this deluxe double CD are 56 (28 on the 2LP) foiled escape attempts, now free to soar in girl group heaven.
Bailey's Nervous Kats - The Nervous Kats
Isolated at the rural fringe of Northern California, Bailey’s Nervous Kats took Shasta County by storm in the early ’60s. Combining surf, rock n’ roll, exotica, and R&B, the Kats were a teenage dream draped in Magnatone amplifiers and crisp white polo tees. Their self-titled—and only—LP came at the dead end of the band’s run, issued on Orville Simmons’ one-shot Emma imprint in 1965. The mid-century modern LP of your dreams.
The second of Louis Wayne Moody’s trilogy of mid-century noirs, 1966’s runaway adventure They Move In The Night follows the escapades of “The Kids”—teenage siblings Cara and Applejack Seaworth—as they set out across America by thumb, rail, and bicycle in search of their long lost father—”The Man.” Hunted by the F.B.I., P.T.A., C.T.A., animal control, and a wicked grandmother dead set on claiming their inheritance, The Kids must come to grips with their orphaned reality and an unyielding future.Discovered after spending 58 years on a dusty shelf in the Louis Wayne Moody Pictures vault, this previously unissued soundtrack contains a backpack’s worth of grieving guitars, somber surf, and haunting hiss, zipped tight with the teeth of abandonment, dashed dreams, moral ambiguity, fate, tearful goodbyes, and lukewarm diner coffee. Because the long arm of society nips at their heels... They Move In The Night.
The first of Louis Wayne Moody’s trilogy of mid-century noirs, 1964’s cloak-and- dagger drama You’re Not From Around Here follows the exploits of a reformed stickup artist known only as “The Man.” After rambling into Needles, Calif., with a burdensome secret and a chip on his shoulder, he develops an unquenchable appetite for recently widowed land baroness Adeline Tully. Ghosts of his train robbing past and abandoned family in Peoria, Ill. drive The Man’s mind towards the lonely plains of madness and regret, culminating in a deadly shootout with a crooked Sheriff and his double crossing lover.Discovered after spending 55 years on a dusty shelf in the Louis Wayne Moody Pictures vault, this previously unissued soundtrack wraps up a hobo’s bindle full of traumatic tremolo, restless reverb and existential echo, knotted with the ropes of alienation, paranoia, dark alleys, prison, prostitution, roulette, and feminine betrayal. The isolated dirt roads of self-discovery are never too far when… You're Not From Around Here.
Tucked deep into the wilds of Wisconsin, Cuca Records was the custom recording and pressing outfit for the Badger state. From its opening in 1959 until its closing in 1973, Jim Kirchstein recorded nearly 2,000 sides—ranging from polka and gospel to country and R&B—and issued over 1,000 45s on his Cuca, Sara, Age of Aquarius, Night Owl, Citation, Psalms, Top Gun, and Jolly Dutchman imprints. Though the studio was located in rural Sauk City, Cuca quickly became a go-to destination for black artists looking to cut on the cheap. “Black musicians, especially the young R&B bands, loved to come to this little town, since there were treated as royalty,” Kirchstein said. “Often I would hear, ‘Hey, there ain’t no black people here!’ My folks’ grocery store next door was always opened for bread and bologna before the late seasons started, with a quick trip downtown for wine. One could buy carry-out liquor up to midnight in those days. It really was a lot of fun then—not work, even, though the sessions were long.”
The Chieftones - The New Smooth and Different Sound
Billed as “Canada’s All Indian Band,” the Tsimshian Nation garage band The Chieftones stormed the U.S. in the mid-’60s with their own brand of native rock n’ roll. Led by guitarists Billy Thunderkloud and Albert Canadien, the band was filled out with Jack Wolf on lead guitar, Barry Clifford on bass, and Richard Douse on drums. Their repertoire was a heady mix of guitar instrumentals; Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Duane Eddy, and Brazil’s Los Indios Tabajaras, but through the lens of the American sock hop.
Modesto Duran - Fabulous Rhythms of Modesto
A disciple of mambo innovator Perez Prado, the Cuban-born Modesto Duran was a pivotal figure in Latin dance music’s transitionary mid-century period. His gentle slaps can be heard across dozens of 1950s mega-sellers, from Esquivel to Belafonte, Eartha Kitt to Lena Horne. On his 1960 solo debut, Duran gathers a who’s who of conga-men, including Mongo Santamaría, Willie Bobo, and Juan Cheda, delivering a cinematic and percussive melange of afro-cuban, cha cha, and exotic jazz styles for the discerning listener.
Entertainment: Original Soundtrack
Experience the soundtrack to Neil Hamburger’s existential dread. Entertainment is the unnerving film account of a traveling comedian lost on the brink. A broken, aging comic tours the California desert, cast away in a sea of third-rate venues, novelty tourist attractions, and self-serving attempts to reach his estranged daughter. By day, he drags across the barren landscape, inadvertently alienating every acquaintance. At night, he seeks solace in the animation of his onstage persona. Fueled by the promise of a lucrative Hollywood engagement, he confronts a series of increasingly surreal and volatile encounters.
The Contessas - Broken Heart b/w Gimme Gimme
Beehive sisters The Contessas only experienced a fraction of what could have been. "Broken Heart" b/w "Gimme Gimme" simply describe their short lived experiences through ghostly string, soulful vocals, and funky rhythms.
Vickie & The Van Dykes - I Wanna Be a Winner b/w Outcast
New York's Cleopatra label gets the Numero treatment. Hailing from Tommy Falcones swarm, Beehive lead Vickie & The Van Dykes were the sound of the coming youth revolt—Vickie had rock ‘n’ roll in her bones and rawhide in her voice. ”I Wanna To Be a Winner,” and “Outcast.” were songs tailored to her rebellious personality.
The Belles - Melvin b/w Come Back
North Miami Beach’s Belles were remarkably free of any masculine influence—an all-girl, teen rock band that played instruments, wrote songs, and were a good representation of multiculturalism in the 60s. The Belles’ lone single featured “Melvin,” is a gender-swapped rewrite of Them’s “Gloria,” b/w “Come Back.” is pure representation of girls in the garage.
Recognized by genre aficionados as one of the greatest singers and most riveting stage presences in soul music, Jackie Shane has remained largely unknown outside Toronto, where her career briefly flowered in the 1960s. Ms. Shane is a star without parallel—a pioneer of transgender rights, living her entire life as a woman at a time when to do so seemed unthinkable. Any Other Way is the first artist-approved collection of Ms. Shane’s work, collecting all six of her 45s and every highlight from the legendary 1967 live sessions at the Sapphire Tavern, including three mind blowing, previously-unreleased tracks. Any Other Way marks Jackie Shane’s first communication with the public in nearly half a century. Extensive liner notes tell, for the first time ever, Jackie Shane's story in her own words, copiously illustrated, with never-before-seen pictures from a career and life unlike any other.
Sanford Clark - They Call Me Country
Propelled by his 1956 Lee Hazlewood-produced hit “The Fool,” Sanford Clark was already a rockabilly legend in his own right by the time he swapped his hair gel and switchblade for a pair of cowboy boots on They Call Me Country. Recorded between 1965-67 and originally released as a series of singles for Phoenix’s Ramco label, the 12 tracks on this LP borrow Bakersfield’s outlaw sound and ignore Nashville’s countrypolitan flair, standing as a true lost masterpiece of country music’s third generation. Clark’s booming baritone tells tales of bar fights, heartaches, and drinking til you can’t stand, while Waylon Jennings provides a backdrop of fuzzed out guitar twang. Mastered from the original session tapes and back on vinyl for the first time since the Nixon administration.
Following in the wake of baroque chart toppers by the Zombies, Beatles, and the Left Banke, a dandier approach to garage rock flowered in the back half of the ’60s. Awash in majestic harpsichords, lilting guitars, melancholic organs, and middle school orchestras, Soft Summer Breezes captures the decade’s last gasps of optimism via 16 gentle moments of soft psychedelia.
The Shades - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town b/w Prancer's Got Some Red Spots
Girl group greatness for your holiday soiree! Figuring it would take a Christmas miracle to break them out of rural Indiana, the Shades—Cindi, Jannie, and Suzi—traveled to Chicago’s RCA Studios in 1966 to cut the holiday perineal, “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.” Backed with the original “Prancer’s Got Some Red Spots” and released on Indiana's tiny Fujimo label.
Bernadette Caroll - Laughing On The Outside b/w Heavenly
Though not a household name, Bernadette Carroll is one of the more successful teen vocalists of the girl group era. She charted as a member of the Angels, as a solo act, and as a for-hire backup singer. She performed on at least two #1 hits, selling over a million copies of each. You’ve heard her voice, whether you know it or not.