WACKY WEDNESDAY: A Musical Battle Royal

Last week's Wacky Wednesday, where I toasted Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, whose hilarious repertoir incudes several tunes dealing with pro wrestling, got me thinking about other odes to the grunt-and-groan biz.

So this week I present several of my favorites about wrestlers and, in many cases, by wrestlers.

Let's just call it a loser-leave-town musical battle royal. Watch out for flying chairs!

Let's start with one of my favorite rasslers, the late Sputnik Monroe, who I saw wrestle many times at Stockyards Coliseum in Oklahoma City in the early '60s when I was but a lad. Sputnik was the Heavenly Body from Outer Space, The Body Men Fear and Women Love. In 1959  released one of the first, maybe the very first record by a professional wrestler, "Sputnik Hires a Band." WKNO, a Memphis NPR station, did a story on the song a few years ago, 

Here's his lone single, "Sputnik Hire a Band"



Here's a 1960s garage-rock classic, "The Crusher" by The Novas.



Tampa rocker Ronny Elliot does this heartfelt tribute to one of the titans of the field, Gorgeous George,



NRBQ pays tribute to their "manager," the great Capt. Lou Albano.



Thanks to Dr. Demento, this tune by Fred Blassie probably is the most famous wrestling song of all. Sell it to the circus, what the heck?



Former Main Event magazine editor Mike Edison shares his thoughts on the sport.



Here's perhaps the worst wrestling song ever recorded.



And, yes, I'll let Rev. Billy C. have the last word.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 14, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist below

Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

My Christmas Gift to the Internet: 2014 Big Enchilada Christmas Special

The Big Enchilada: Fighting the War on Christmas since 2008! Indulge in some holiday cheer with some magical Christmas sounds from The Reigning Sound, The Chesterfield Kings, Das Black Milk, The Polkaholics, Jonny Manak, Deep Sombreros, Joseph Spence, Linn & Linda, Jim Terr, Snoop Dogg and more. 

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Jackie & The Cedrics)
I Don't Believe in Christmas by Tallboy
Santa Stole My Whiskey by Jonny Manak
Keep Christin' Christmas by Geary Joe Wood
All I Want for Christmas is a CB by Jim Hubler
Yakov the Polka Reindeer by The Polkaholics
On a Good Time Sleigh Ride by The Peerless Quartet 

(Background Music: Little Drummer Boy by Jimi Hendrix & The Band of Gypsys)
O Santa by Thee Fine Lines
Brother Sylvest/God Rest Ye by Deep Sombrero
Christmas by Das Black Milk
Christmas Orphan by Linn & Linda with the Jordanaires & Millie
Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight) by J.B. Beverley & Buck Thrailkill
Blue Xmas by Snoop Dogg
Frosty Balls by Jim Terr

(Background Music: Here Comes Santa Claus by Los Straitjackets)
Hey Santa Claus by The Chesterfield Kings
Good King Wencelas by The Butthole Surfers
Ice King Christmas Ninja Party by Jonathan Mann
Santa Won't You Please Bring Me Some Beer by Mojo Gurus
If Christmas Can Bring You Home by The Reigning Sound
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town by Joseph Spence

Play it here:

BIG ENCHILADA 79: 2014 Christmas Special by Steve Terrell on Mixcloud

Find ALL my Christmas podcasts HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December 12, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:


Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Christmas at the Dawn of Sound

Yikes, it's only two weeks until Christmas!

So for this Throwback Thursday, I'm featuring a compilation of Christmas songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries by a cool vintage audio blog called Dawn of Sound (which I found via The Free Music Archive.)

Voices of Christmas Past actually was released as an album back in 1998. The Free Music Archive wrote:

The recordings were cylinders and acetates from 1898 to 1922. Every year after the release, the website was inundated with requests for the CD. Once it was out of print, Dawn of Sound released it online for free.

The 23 tracks include religious songs, kiddie songs (Did you know that Santa hid inside the phonograph?), stories, comedy routines, some visions of sugar plums and herald angels, a little Nutcracker Suite, and an early, early version of "Jingle Bells."

But it wasn't the first recording of that song.  According to Peter Nagy of Dawn of Sound, a banjo plunker named Will Lyle recorded the first  “Jingle Bells”in 1889, It was "the very first Christmas record," Nagy said. (The song was written back in 1850 by a Massachusetts man named James Pierpont.)

No known copies of the Will Lyle recording exist, Nagy said, But Track 3 in this collection, an 1898 Edison brown wax cylinder titled, “Sleigh Ride Party,” featuring the Edison Male Quartette is centered around "Jingle Bells.

The original liner notes said:

This collection of carols, songs and monologues from the original vintage recordings capture the essence of the Christmas spirit as it was in the opening two decades of the 20th Century. So gather up the family, wind up the phonograph and take a trip back in time to the early 1900’s and celebrate the holidays with the “Voices of Christmas Past”.

You can play it below and download any or all of the songs at FMA.




Alas, it looks like the Dawn of Sound blog has been inactive for a few years. But it's still up for all to enjoy.

So merry Christmas to all!