gts193 “beeshee”
No Brooke songs, but Barbie gets her dream house.
01-01 Rudy Vallée And His Connecticut Yankees – Victor 22473 – Betty Co-Ed (1930)
— one of the first “teen idol” singers, back when panties were too heavy to throw on stage.
01-02 Bobby Freeman – Josie 841 – Betty Lou Got A New Pair Of Shoes (1958)
— he was 18 here, but started out singing for The Romancers at age 14. This disc came right in that magical time, when you could buy it either on 45rpm or a 78rpm.
01-03 Bob Seger – Against The Wind 203 – Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight (1980)
— my whole life, up until now, thought that Betty Lou was gettin’ Down, not Out.
01-04 Bettye Jean Washington – Peacock 1578 – Bettye Jean’s Blues (1951)
— recorded the prior year in Houston, here with George Sanford’s Orchestra. Peacock released “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton, which nobody paid any attentiom to, until it was covered by a kid named Elvis.
01-05 John Prine – Bruised Orange 204 – Iron Ore Betty (1978)
— he’s got rug burns on his elbows, hers are on the knees. Been trying to visualize it, best guess is they do a lot of mouth stuff, or perhaps it was an early version of what the kids today call “pegging”.
01-06 Rob McClure – Honeymoon In Vegas OBC 02 – I Love Betsy (2015)
— in a backwards cannibalization, this show was based on an earlier movie (Nicholas Cage, James Caan 1992). For this Broadway remake, Tony Danza played the menacing Caan role.
02-01 Inez Johnston & The Florios – Brunswick 55169 – Big Bad Betsy (1960)
— as found, named Big Black Betsy, but the label on the 45rpm disc agrees with the lyrics: it’s Big Bad Betsy.
02-02 Mitch Ryder – Got Change For A Million? 202 – Betty’s Too Tight (1981)
— originally only released in Europe, recorded in Michigan but mixed in Germany, 14 years after his band The Detroit Wheels broke up.
02-03 The Rip Chords – Three Window Coupe 102 – Bonneville Bonnie (1964)
— out of Los Angeles 1962 to 1965, they didn’t play instruments, instead relying on the famous Wrecking Crew (including Glen Campbell). Two band members of note: Bruce Johnston was concurrently a Beach Boy, and Terry Melcher was the son of Doris Day.
02-04 The Degrads – Ronto 730 – I Saw Bobbie Sobbing In The Lobby (1983)
— screwball snotrock out of the dark suburbs of Rochester NY. Lasted from 1982 to 1984, but managed to score opening gigs for The Chesterfield Kings.
02-05 Popdefect – Scooch Pooch Records P012 – Everyday Is Brenda Day (1993)
— out of Seattle, this was a natural for Rump to cover on their Hating Brenda disc.
02-06 Rump – Hating Brenda 06 – Dylan’s Choice (1993)
— an EP with a 24 minute bonus track, all clever parodies of bands popular at the time. Nirvana, Snoop Dogg, this one is a great mock of Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Dylan” was, if memory serves, played on BH90210 by Jason Priestly.
03-01 Jimmy Evans And Jesters – Shimmy 1054 – Messy Bessy (My Girl’s Name) (1962)
— started out at Sun Records playing bass but not vocals, moved on to play for Conway Twitty.
03-02 Steve Earle – I Feel Alright 10 – Billy And Bonnie (1996)
— product of Virgina, nearly 30 albums under his belt.
03-03 The Skeletons – Nothing To Lose 08 – Charmin’ Billie (1997)
— don’t blame her, for slapping him silly.
03-04 Michael Jackson – Thriller 202 – Billie Jean (1982)
— the album did a whopping 37 weeks at #1, the “Making Of” documentary was directed by John Landis. Album is creeping back up the charts in 2026, thanks to the recent sanitized biopic.
03-05 The Siegel-Schwall Band – Sleepy Hollow 205 – Hey, Billie Jean (1972)
— it’s Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall out of Chicago, bass here by Rollow Radford who started with The Vandellas and spent his 1980’s with the Arkestra.
04-01 Anita O’Day & Roy Eldridge & Gene Krupa Orchestra – Barrelhouse Bessie From Basin Street (1942)
— recorded April 2nd, this went unreleased for nearly 50 years. Get those crazy drums, daddy-O. Krupa was the prototype of the madman drummers of the 1960’s.
04-02 Chuck Bernard – Zodiac 1014 – Bessie Girl (1969)
— began with The Blue Notes, became a stalwart of Chicago Soul.
04-03 Larkin Poe – Peach 03 – Black Betty (2017)
— had always assumed the bandname was the name of the singer, but this is Megan Lovell and Rebecca Lovell, sisters of Jessica Lovell who no longer plays with them. Yes, they are descendants of Edgar Allan Poe.
04-04 Four Tops – Motown 1104 – Bernadette (1967)
— starting as The Four Aims in 1953, they smartly stayed in Detroit when Motown moved to LA. Four Tops are notable for 42 years of performing with zero personnel changes.
04-05 Mary Swan – Swan 4028 – My Girl Friend Betty (1959)
— apparently not her daddy’s record company, Mary released three 45rpm records on the label which was at the heart of radio’s Payola Scandal because it was part-owned by Dick Clark.
04-06 Connie Francis – My Best Friend Barbara (1963)
— written by Neil Sedaka. Recorded for MGM Records, they put it in the vaults, finally escaped on her 1987 album RockSides.
04-07 The Beach Boys – Beach Boys’ Party! 205 – Barbara Ann (1965)
— a cover of the song by The Regents, the only single off this album, it reached #2. A studio recording, the sounds of background chatter were dubbed in later, to give the impression that the album was taped in someone’s living room.
05-01 Jessie Murray – The Folk Songs Of Britain Vol 4: The Child Ballads 1 – Barbara Allen (1961)
— one of the preservation efforts of Alan Lomax.
05-02 Jimmy Castor Bunch – Atlantic 3232 – The Bertha Butt Boogie (1974)
— the third song in his series of Troglodyte tunes.
05-03 Grateful Dead – Winterland 1977-06-07 01 – Bertha (1977)
— first song from the first show of an epic legendary three-night stand.
05-04 Amos Boynton & The ABC’s – The Ballad Of Bertha Glutz
— nearly nothing known about this band, even the year this was released is unknown.
05-05 Ben Folds & Nick Hornby – Lonely Avenue 11 – Belinda [excerpt] (2010)
— Hornby called writing this song “a hell crossword.” It’s a decent 6-minute tune, but that includes 40 seconds of silence after which it bursts back to life with this 50-second endpiece.
05-06 Looking Glass – Looking Glass 102 – Brandy (1972)
— techically not a one-hit-wonder, their tune “Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne” made the Top 40 the next year. But you ever hear that? Me neither.
06-01 Ray Stevens – We The People 203 – Caribou Barbie (2010)
— the “2” in the tracklisting above refers to a companion DVD for the CD of this album. This is obviously a dig at Sarah Palin, and in case you cared, his real name is Harold Ragsdale.
06-02 Aqua – Aquarium 03 – Barbie Girl (1997)
— the song everyone loves to hate! But it made Aqua the top-selling artist out of Denmark, of all time.
06-03 The Jesus Lizard – Shot 08 – More Beautiful Than Barbie (1996)
— born out of the coals of Scratch Acid.
06-04 Mars Moles – Invite Punk Religion Back Into The Unknown 201 – Barbie Girl (1998)
— German punk outfit, also known as Sexy Bacterias.
06-05 Octafish – Doktor Fleisch 10 – Barbie Girl (2008)
— another German band, who bill themselves as “Industrial Fake Jazz”.