Tom Jones "Act of Mercy"

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Tom Jones
Do You Take This Man
LP
(EMI Columbia, 1979)

Yeah, I know . . . I've posted two Tom Jones songs already. I can't help it; I am obsessed.

The lil' goodie today comes from what would appear to be Tom's rarest album, Do You Take This Man. As you might guess from the cover, it's quite discofied. Normally, I can't stand disco, but I'll make the occasional exception.

It's impossible for me to say with absolute certainty that this his Tom's rarest, but I can say that it took me years to find a copy. For the longest time, based on the lack of information about it on the 'net, I thought it might be one of the 57 bazillion compilation albums out there. In addition, it was released in 1979, the same year that Rescue Me was released over here on my side of the pond from Wales. If you think the front cover's something, you should see the picture inside the gatefold. Tom is resplendent in chesty hirsuteness, and that belt buckle you can see on the front? It's enormous! The cover pic does not do it justice. It'd probably be quite handy for hand-to-hand combat. Oop! Pun not intended.

Much as I love Tom, I'm not sure if I would be able to decide between Do You Take This Man and Rescue Me which has the ickiest cover.

Anyhow, today's track was apparently originally done either by disco queen Vicki Sue Ring My Bell Robinson or Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison, formerly known as Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds; both released versions in 1976. I listened to a bit of a clip of VSR's recording on YouTube, and I have to say Tom's version is better. Then again, with Tom, that's usually the case.

Now, I'm just not familar enough with disco to know if the repeating string figure is common, or if Madonna flat out stole it for Vogue. I'll let you be the judge. Sorry the clip below isn't the original video, and is a different mix. Madonna won't allow embedding from YouTube, so we head to Vimeo for Robert Jeffrey's version:

I performed to MADONNA's VOGUE in the Summer of 1991 when my parents took me to Hampton Beach Casino in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. A business in the casino at the time gave tourists the chance to lip-synch to their favorite pop songs in front of a blue screen background, and I was lucky enough to partake that summer.

The Vigs "Evil Eyes"

The Vigs
Somebody Loves Me
LP
(Dobre Records, 1976)

Ever buy a record/CD/whatever just because it looks terrible?

Me, too!

Today's tune comes from an album I bought at BestBuy a number of years ago. They had several boxes of vinyl LPs all priced at 25¢, and further marked down another 50%! I saw the cover of this one and it jabbed a barbed icepick in my eye, forcing me to pick it up. When I flipped it over and read the liner notes, well, it was just a given that it would be mine!

Mia and Tommy met on the revolving stage at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas where she was headlining and generally having a fabulous show business career, appearing on national television many times, and he was featured soloist and arranger with Esquivel. Tommy started to write musical arrangements for her while he continued working with other top stars as conductor, instrumental soloist and orchestrator. They were married and eventually moved to Los Angeles where Roger Vig was born, and weighing in at 10 lbs. 7 oz. he started to play the drums almost immediately . . . This is their first album together.

Not long after, I headed back to the office with a lovely pile of dreck*.

Leader Tommy Vig (still active 35 years later!) penned most of the material on the album, but, sadly, 3½-year-old Roger appears only on a special arrangement of the Theme from S.W.A.T. (his favorite song). I'll let the liner notes fill y'all in on today's song:

Mia is featured on this movie theme song. Tommy composed it for his original score for the Gerald Cormier film, The Barn of the Naked Dead starring Andrew Pine. (The film is about a satanic psycho who terrorizes innocent young women in an abandoned barn somewhere in the Nevada desert.)

Sounds like a lovely family film.

Now, here's the freaky thing . . . this record is somewhat collectible! It apparently goes for around $30 on eBay, according to PopSike. I can't imagine the folks who've paid that much have actually heard it in advance. I mean, my 12½¢ (plus tax) was well-spent, but I would not have been happy had I spent 240 times that.

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*It wasn't all bad. I got the second Dwight Twilley Band album, Twilley Don't Mind, 'cause I remembered seeing him on Saturday morning TV when I was a kid, with Luanne Platter's then mostly unknown future husband Lucky on bass, and bought it for the heck of it. I've been a big fan ever since.