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Interplanetary Melodies -- Doo Wop From Saturn & Beyond Vol 1

$12.99 ... CD

Doo wop era spaceways travel from Sun Ra and soulful mid 50s vocal recruits -- including The Cosmic Rays, Crystals, Nu Sounds and Juanita Rogers -- a motherlode of rarities and never before issued recordings! Interplanetary Melodies includes doo wop numbers of earthly concern, and space theme tunes, and it's jaw dropping that such top notch recordings were still deep down there in the vaults after the excellent earlier era Ra collections from the Atavistic and Evidence labels -- and Norton's efforts here are just as wonderful! The vocals are excellent, with some straighter songs, that could have been huge hits numbers with some sweetness and soaring qualities -- particularly the Cosmic Rays tunes, but others are more playful, spacey, with odder lyricism and rawer performances. Soulful harmonies or strange mannerisms, rollicking piano or eerie harmonium, it's fantastic stuff and essential early Sun Ra! Most tunes are culled from unreleased studio or home recordings from the vaults, plus a couple rare releases on Saturn and Pink Clouds, and titles include "Daddy's Gonna Tell You No Lie", "Bye Bye", "Somebody's In Love" (unissued home rehearsal) and more with Cosmic Rays, "Honey In The Bee Box" (unissued home rehearsal) with The Crystals, "Spaceship Lullaby" (unissued home rehearsal) and "I'm Through With You" (unissued home rehearsal) with Nu Sounds, "It's Christmas Time" by Qualities, "Teenager's Letter Of Promises" with Juanita Rogers and Lynn Hollings, "Tony's Wife" by Sun Ra and more.  © 1996-2010, Dusty Groove America, Inc.