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Showing posts with label Girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Girls. Show all posts

Thursday, November 12, 2015

L'eggs, L'aura & L'erin

Somewhere suspiciously next the ubiquitous L'eggs pantyhose display stand in any supermarket of the early '80 was the L'erin cosmetics stand.

Most people already figured this was a natural place to put the makeup. But for L'eggs, it was uniquely important; They owned L'erin.

L'eggs is a product of underwear conglomerate Hanes. They were introduced in 1969 with their famous plastic egg containers, which had zillions of uses (some women would keep jewelry in them, some people made arts and crafts out of them. In fact, some people bought them just for the big plastic egg containers, which sadly, they have long since phased out.)

Seeing an complimentary advantage to their very successful pantyhose line, in 1980, L'eggs created the L'aura cosmetics line.

Wait....What?



L'aura was the original name for L'erin. But everybody got it mixed up with that big French cosmetic conglomerate, L'Oreal. It was quickly renamed L'erin.


But L'erin cosmetics as a product? Well, the verdict wasn't good.

First, most women were used to the idea of makeup being a distinctly personal art. They wanted something glamourous and luxurious. And all other cosmetic companies were working overtime to accommodate this image.

But L'erin just wasn't that. At all. L'erin's commercial tag line for it's first few years was "Put Your Face On And Forget It". Which sounds like something their dads would say when he needed to use the bathroom.

L'erin was trying to be simpler and more practical, aiming for the young, active woman who wanted less drama and fuss in their makeup kits. But being sold primarily in supermarkets and discount stores (this wasn't exactly Estee Lauder), the cosmetically savvy ladies just weren't impressed. They viewed L'erin as cheap and chintzy.

And it was. The makeup quality itself was also notorious, as millions of raccoon-eyed girls staring back from their '80s high school yearbooks can testify. The mascara was clumpy right out of the bottle, the eyeliner and eye shadow ran under hot lights or in the hot sun. By this time, boys were getting into makeup (the Duran Duran thing and the first wave of glam metal had hit) and I remember girls experimenting on us with their once-used L'erin cosmetics....And then laughing their butts off when we walked outside on a hot day.

The eternal price of trying to be cool (Sigh!)

L'erin lasted until 1984. It was sold in 1983 by Consolidated Foods (now Sara Lee) to another makeup company and after a few attempts to resuscitate the brand, L'erin was discontinued. 


Sunday, October 11, 2015

"Please Don't Ask Me To Go Away/With Every Beat of My Heart" Shawn (1971)

It's like this; You remember an old record and you finally drop everything and go on a mission.

The record in question came to our family in a box of 45s my uncle gave my mom. He worked for an amusement company which serviced jukeboxes. Every now and then, he'd bring us a box of random 45s. There were a few well worn hits ("Ode To Billie Joe" Bobbie Gentry, "I Love You" by People) and a few lesser Jeannie C. Riley and Otis Redding songs. But one 45 in particular stuck out.

It was a single released on Kapp Records in September of 1971 at the peak of the Donny Osmond craze shortly after he struck teenybopper gold with his cover version of Steve Lawrence's "Go Away Little Girl".


The artist was someone (or some group) named Shawn. Who this monosyllabic Shawn was is completely unknown as far as verifiability goes. I simply hit dead ends everywhere I go trying to track down any deeper session information.

The A-Side was an answer song to "Go Away Little Girl", titled "Please Don't Ask Me To Go Away"



The B-Side was also a cover version. "With Every Beat of My Heart", which was probably better known as a 1970 song from Josie & The Pussycats.


Both of the Shawn songs had some popularity, the novelty A-side of course. But Shawn's B-side cover of "With Every Beat of My Heart" appeared on the 1995 Varese Sarabande compilation CD Bubblegum Classics Volume Two.

The A-Side, "Please Don't Ask Me To Go Away", remains available only on the original Kapp 45.



From the number of these Shawn singles with holes drilled in the label area, which is nearly every copy I have ever seen, it didn't do very well in sales as most "answer songs" tend not to. Drilling holes in the 45 RPM label area or cutting a corner of an album was a practice amongst record labels with returned stock of records that didn't sell initially to prevent retailers from reselling them at full price. These records were what occupied the "cut-out" or "budget bins" for $2.98 or lower in record shops.

But a look at the credits on the single reveals two important clues; Producer Danny Janssen and arranger Jimmie Haskell. Janssen had produced the original Josie & The Pussycats album and was the producer of several early '70s TV based pop acts including The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch LPs. Jimmie Haskell was a pop arranger, best known for his TV work as well as with '60s pop band The Grass Roots. He also arranged horns and strings on Blondie's Autoamerican album.


It was pretty much a one-off novelty single to cash in a pop fad as "Go Away Little Girl" was one of the biggest hits of 1971.

Shawn never had a follow-up single or released a full album. And was never heard from again.

Friday, March 07, 2014

WHER.....1,000 Beautiful Watts


Ladies, if you ever needed something to play on the stock car radio of your brand new 1955 Dodge La Femme, then Memphis was your kind of town.

Because also debuting in 1955 was radio station WHER. At 1430 on the AM dial, WHER was the first radio station completely staffed, programmed and operated entirely by women. The only Y chromosomes at WHER were there to write the checks and fix the transmitter whenever it got wonky. The women controlled everything else.

A terrestrial radio station with a mostly female staff is still a very rare thing. But in the 1950s, it was extremely rare to hear a female DJ with her own program. The 1950s were a pretty sexist time and the ceiling wasn't glass in the radio industry. Most women in air positions at that time were network voice actresses or they were local socialites who read recipes during the midday show. But most women overall however remained behind the scenes, doing office work.

WHER was owned by local record mogul Sam Phillips of Sun Records and Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson. Phillips used the money he got for Elvis Presley's recording contract from RCA Victor records as seed money for WHER.

But surprisingly, WHER played no rock. Probably because of the uncomfortably close link between Sun and WHER (the payola scandals around the country were just beginning to simmer.) The music on WHER was a mix of easy listening, jazz and country swing.


WHER became an instant sensation and inspired many imitators (including KPEG in Spokane, WA.)
An early press release for WHER described the station as this : 

“The studio and offices have been feminized from front door to rear exit. The disc jockeys are called jockettes, the studio is known as the doll’s den, the control rooms are called playrooms, the hallway is mirrored, the equipment room has been decorated with murals depicting the evolution of feminine clothing, the stationary is perfumed, the advertisers are listed in a date book, and the exit to the parking lot is labeled “Bye, Bye ‘Till Next Time”.

You were clearly in their world.

WHER was managed and programmed by Becky Phillips (wife of Sam Phillips) and Dottie Abbott. And from 1955 to 1966, WHER was exclusively operated by women. However after Abbott left, it seemed time to let the guys in. The station changed call letters to WWEE, or "We" radio.

1430 kHz in Memphis today is WOWW, a repeater for country music station "95.3/97.7 The Rebel" WEBL.  


More info on WHER:

WHER Radio Station

The Kitchen Sisters documentary on WHER (Complete with audio!)


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Picking Up Girls Made Easy! (Symphony Press, 1975)


If there's one product that illustrates the very lengths of what some men will do to keep from being lonely, it's mail order records like this.


Now I'm not sure how many copies this sold, but I would love to hear some 2014 female critiques of this record. For example, I imagine "The Women's Clothing Store Pick-up" would send sirens going off in the minds of store employees alone before he even got within 50 feet of you.

"Huh-uh-huh-uh-huh....Hey Beavis....We're gonna score....."
And when was the last time you met an, ummm, persuasive (and presumably straight) guy at the ballet.... 

Listen to it here (from 365 Days Project.)














Tuesday, January 07, 2014

"Teach Me Tiger" April Stevens (1959)



For those of you in the Midwest right now, I thought this might warm you up a bit.

It's April Stevens, of whom would be better known a few years later as part of a duo with her brother, Nino Tempo when their single "Deep Purple" rocketed to #1 in November 1963 and would have stayed there a few more weeks had fate kept Lee Harvey Oswald at home....


  


Saturday, January 04, 2014

"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" Tiny Tim (1982)


Originally sold as a flexi-disc part of a novelty card (I would hope so), here's Tiny Tim with his rendition (?) of the Rod Stewart classic.

No "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" falsetto here. If you're too scared to click on the YouTube video, imagine Al Jolson on amyl nitrate and backed by the Mos Eisley Spaceport Cantina Band and you'll have an idea of what this sounds like.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Kawaii Crush


You know, it's the creepy weird crap they make for little girls these days that really makes me take back every bad thing I ever said about Holly Hobbie.

Or at least Holly Hobbie never wore outsized animal carcasses over bubble gum pink hair. And some of you also have young daughters who have begged you or Santa for this.  

Now look, I know we live in edgier times. But what the hell is Kawaii Crush?

I had to investigate.



Oh dear. For those of you who just ate Christmas candy, you're probably going to need an insulin shot in 4-3-2-1.....

And who sings this soundtrack? Maroon 5? (I can't tell anymore through all the AutoTune they use in commercial pop music these days.)

Finding no answers from YouTube (and Wikipedia has no current entry on it.)



I went to Kawaii Crush's web site.

A Flash video popped up with "What is Kawaii Crush?" above the player and feeling a bit of relief, I watched my relief turn to horror as apparently, these dolls or whatever are, are supposed to be cute and they have cute crushes on cute kitties, cute pandas, cute birds and cute bunnies and cover their craniums in cute cuddly carcasses of cute critters. They live in a world where everything is cute and everyone has a crush. ("Even on candy!")

They have names like Sunny Bunny Hop Hop, Katie Cat Meow Meow, Owlena Hoot Hoot and Amanda Panda Pop.

It's enough to make Hello Kitty look like G.I. Joe.

Fortunately, the web site had a "Grown Ups" link. Unfortunately, it has the only information a parent needs to know from a toy company: Like, Follow, Subscribe and BUY!!


I stopped right here. This is about as far into Kawaii Crush cuteness as I could go without going into catastrophic diabetic shock.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Canoodle


You know how it is.

You hear an odd and unfamiliar word......And promptly embarrass yourself around the world.


That's what happened to CIVI-TV anchor Andrew Johnson in 2012. The video of this went viral, all over an obscure word.....


Friday, October 04, 2013

Halloween Hits "Oops! I Did It Again"

Imagine this body........


.......with this voice.

Sweet dreams guys.......

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Growing Up Skipper


She's two dolls in one.

You just moved her arm to make her an inch taller.....And her breasts grow.

Amazing what passed under the radar in the '70s...... 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Jacques Dutronc

This one's for the ladies.....


Clearly, nothing says "sex appeal" like some dude with a cigarette hanging nonchalantly out his mouth.

Meet Jacques Dutronc, he was one of France's hottest stars of the '60s and '70s. He scored a number of hits there and in French Canada (he's probably best known amongst American music fans as the husband of singer Francoise Hardy.) I once found a 45 of this song "J'aime Les Filles" or "I Love The Girls"


I found it at my favourite thrift shop in a random bag of 45s, some 40 of them for $1.00 

The lyrics.....

J'aime les filles de chez Castel
J'aime les filles de chez Régine
J'aime les filles qu'on voit dans "Elle"
J'aime les filles des magazines

J'aime les filles de chez Renault
J'aime les filles de chez Citroën
J'aime les filles des hauts fourneaux
J'aime les filles qui travaillent à la chaîne

Si vous êtes comme ça, téléphonez-moi
Si vous êtes comme ci, téléphonez-me

J'aime les filles à dot
J'aime les filles à papa
J'aime les filles de Loth
J'aime les filles sans papa

J'aime les filles de Mégève
J'aime les filles de Saint-Tropez
J'aime les filles qui font la grève
J'aime les filles qui vont camper

Si vous êtes comme ça, téléphonez-moi
Si vous êtes comme ci, téléphonez-me

J'aime les filles de la Rochelle
J'aime les filles de Camaret
J'aime les filles intellectuelles
J'aime les filles qui m'font marrer

J'aime les filles qui font vieille France
J'aime les filles de Cinéma
J'aime les filles de l'Assistance
J'aime les filles dans l'embarras

Si vous êtes comme ça, téléphonez-moi
Si vous êtes comme ci, téléphonez-me...


I ran these lyrics through Babelfish and got this translation......

I love the girls from Castel
I love the girls from Régine
I love the girls one sees in "Elle"
I love the girls of the magazines
I love the girls from Renault
I love the girls from Citroen
I love the girls of the blast furnaces
I love the girls who work with the chain
If you are like that, telephone to me
If you are like Ci, telephone me

I love the girls with dowry
I love the girls with dad
I love the girls of Loth
I love the girls without dad
I love the girls of Mégève
I love the girls of Saint-Tropez
I love the girls who strike
I love the girls who will camp
If you are like that, telephone to me
If you are like Ci, telephone me

I love the girls of the La Rochelle
I love the girls of Camaret
I love the intellectual girls
I love the girls who make merrier
I love the girls who make old France
I love the girls of Cinema
I love the girls of The Assistance
I love the girls in embarrassment
If you are like that, telephone to me
If you are like Ci, telephone me…


Wow.....I've been through every type of girl he mentions...except for those girls of the blast furnaces. Who knew?

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Dodge La Femme

It's pretty much a 1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer with a pretty pink paint job, it's own nameplate and a few extra goodies.
The Dodge La Femme was the first car specifically marketed towards women.

It was a gorgeous car. And it had everything the modern woman of 1955 could want. Including a matching shoulder bag/purse, matching makeup case, matching rain cap, matching cigarette case, matching umbrella and matching raincoat. (Matching dream house extra.)



While finding a 1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer is easy, the La Femme's are much harder.

In spite of the dealer hype, few women felt the need to change their entire wardrobe around a car. Even back then, this vehicle probably evoked horrifying images of matching poodles in their minds as well.

But this car was, after all, a patronizing appeal to the classic male ideal of femininity, rather than how the woman of the 1950's actually saw herself.

It wasn't a real model either. The La Femme was a $143 option for the Lancer. So it's hard to tell how many were actually made, but it's presumed something around 2,500. It was discontinued in 1957.


Saturday, February 09, 2013

"Emma Peel" The Allies (1982)


Back in 1982, there was a Seattle rock group called The Allies. They weren't a grunge band by any means, as you can see here, but they were a kickass power pop band that seemed to have a lot of potential.

This song, "Emma Peel" (about the heroine spy in the British TV series The Avengers) became a REALLY popular song locally in the Seattle area, gaining lots of airplay on influential Seattle rock radio station KJET, who's airplay helped get them national exposure.) The video even made it on MTV in it's early years. It's still a catchy tune after all these years



('60s superbabe Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers)

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Curly Toes

Back in the '70s, someone found a homemade recording on a cassette that was thrown out, lost or abandoned. The story of how it was found....and who found it...and where is unknown.

The recording, which had circulated in the tape underground for decades, was that of a woman with a Southern accent, probably middle aged (or a young smoker.)

She sings an a cappela song on a cheap cassette recorder of doing a burlesque striptease for her boyfriend, some, um...lucky guy named "Ben"

Nobody knows who sang this. Or who our lucky Ben is. But everyone who's ever heard this wonders if she really wrote this or just ad-libbed her way through it. But they all had the same look of catatonic shock you'll probably have upon hearing this, before busting out in uncontrollable laughter. Or have to swallow a whole bottle of Advil just to cope with this woman's migraine-inducing singing in their heads the rest of the day...

You can find this on Irwin Chusid's Songs In The Key of Z, Vol. 2 compilation of outsider music. LOADS of bizarre musical oddities on these discs.

The YouTuber who posted this dedicated it to Bettie Page:

Monday, February 04, 2013

Lost '90s Pop Classic: "That's What Love Can Do" Boy Krazy (1991)



Boy Krazy were a girl group, like Bananarama that were also proteges of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, a British pop music production team with a name that sounded more like a law firm.

They produced other hits for Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Cathy Dennis, George Michael, Dead Or Alive, Sonia, Samantha Fox and countless others. This song was originally recorded and released in the UK in 1991. A few months before grunge blew up......

What made this record stand out was the time it was finally released in America: 1993. Virtually every other song on the Top 40 chart in 1993 was grunge, alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B.

This song however was a sheer unadulterated and unapologetic throwback to the '80s Brit-pop that Stock, Aitken & Waterman made famous from 1986-1990.

It actually sounded exactly like a song you would have heard on Top 40 radio in 1987. And had the planets aligned then, Boy Krazy would have had at least a platinum album to show for it.

However, it might have been too much too late. While it was a refreshing, ear-candy break from the usually depressing stuff on the American radio in 1993 (4 Non Blondes anyone?), and did score a respectable #18 on the US charts, it didn't last. Boy Krazy did release a follow up single that stiffed at #59, and disbanded a year later......

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Lena Zavaroni

I'm no fan of child recording stars in any way. I just can't handle the high, shrill frequencies that leave me screaming for a Fiona Apple tune. But this record bears a special horror to me, as my mom once owned a copy of this album.

If you're not familiar with the name Lena Zavaroni, you probably weren't around in 1974. Because for most of that year, this Scottish girl was "The Next Big Thing", appearing on American variety shows and telethons and scoring a debut album at the tender age of 10 with Ma! He's Making Eyes At Me.

But beyond who this girl who seemed to come out of nowhere was, it was the impact it had on an American R&B institution.

This album was most shockingly released in America in 1974 on Stax Records, the once mighty home of powerhouse soul like Otis Redding, Booker T. & The MGs, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Issac Hayes, etc, etc, etc.

But by this time, all of Stax's biggest artists from the '60s had been stolen by Stax's former distributor, Atlantic Records by 1968 and Stax was left with only a handful of lesser soul acts on the label. Even the original master tapes of Stax's most successful '60s hits were taken. The label virtually had to start all over again from the beginning.


How do you recreate such a massive institution Stax was?

After 1968, Stax had floundered so badly in a lopsided distribution agreement with CBS Records that in a Faustian deal (it's the only way I can describe it) Stax quickly signed this girl for American distribution (I'm not sure whether it was Stax themselves that signed her as a last ditch attempt to bring their sorry financial house back in order or CBS that forced them into it in the hopes of killing off a potential rival to CBS's own home roster of R&B acts - the story varies.) But thanks to the crappy CBS distribution deal, the only way they could promote this album was through a massive TV campaign of commercials for the album (which my mom succumbed to), and other TV appearances because most record stores had trouble even getting Stax's regular R&B output.

Stax was also considered the bratty stepchild within the CBS household and with the exception of a few token spins of her only charting single (the album's title track) American radio simply would not play her songs. (10 year olds singing songs that only grandmothers liked has a way of doing that.)


And even more embarrassing for Stax, which was once one of the biggest and most respected R&B record labels in America were some of the blackface Al Jolson songs this little 10 year old white girl sang on this album, including "Mammy" and "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With A Dixie Melody)"


The gambit failed - HORRIBLY. Stax suffered a massive backlash from it's loyal base of hardcore R&B fans over this album and Stax went bankrupt in 1975. It's name and remaining assets were picked up by Fantasy Records and aside a few releases every so often, was mostly dormant until the 2000s.

But she disappeared as quickly as she came in America.

She maintained a small cult following in Europe (where she became more or less the Connie Francis of the '80s, still singing pop standards at a time when most young women her age were singing far more edgier rock material.) While considered a throwback in the '80s, she would probably seem very mainstream today.


She had a variety show in the UK (where the variety TV show format survived well into the '80s.)


However, she suffered from anorexia. Her weight dropped to a deadly 70 lbs. On top of struggling to maintain a fading career. At the end of her life, she was living on UK government benefits. She also suffered from chronic depression, at one point begging for doctors to operate on her brain so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore (This was before the days of newer medications and treatment programs.) 

The eternal tragedy of the former child star. Perhaps the most Faustian deal there is.

She died in October 1999 at 35.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Halloween Hits: “The Witch” The Sonics (1965)



The Sonics were several years ahead of everybody. Compared to everyone else in 1965, they were most likely the very first American hard rock band. They didn't have any fancy name to call their music other than rock n' roll....

And that alone suits it perfectly.......


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Hey Love



I LOVE this commercial.

Three dudes and three chicks, they're at somebody's house, sitting SEPARATELY, doing nothing else but listen to the clock tick.

They are all silent, nobody is busting a move. Detention in Catholic school isn't this bad. And this is supposed to be a party. 

Then one of the guys mentions, almost as an afterthought "Hey y'all, I got a great new album in the mail today"

He puts the needle on the record, the girls begin to smile and everybody begins to dance.

Well, in spite of the fact that in real life, the girls wouldn't have even gotten out of the car, let alone put up with guys this lame. I guess it did sell some records. The selections on this 3 record set looked pretty good......