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wGame Of 'Chance'The recording busim a ticklish affair ai bc-t.setlinf feather* these dapNot too long ago it was fairly common for a small independentcompany wiih an unknown artist to come up with 9 hit ami a nice profit. A couple of recent development* have clouded that pfovpdet. Like with chickens in the chuken txikiness. the suppiy of unkmwn arUata ami records has outdistanced the demand. Major eompfllttM, too, in protecting their own investments, have purchased the successful independents signed the tetter “unknown artists and made ft increasingly hard for the small fellows by saturating the market.On top of all this, many experts have noted signs in recent months of dwindling strength in demand for 45 r p.m. discs. Actual sales figures have not dropped, but neither have they kept pace with sales of LP albums. It Is felt In some quarters that the day of the 43 r.p.m. single is almost o\er and that limited productions of 33 tingles will become the style.Whether this is true or not, aFayetteville record company,headed by Phil Eagle, took a shot at the elusive best idltaf chart tWsmonth with the release of a 43single on the home-grownChance** label. The artist, (torfrom unknown in these parts I isJohnnv Tnlleson. who led one of the most popular dam e combat |®this area for a number of years.Toll (son. who is 24 and currently emploved by a Fayetteville Insurance concern, is the whole showon the platter, lie leads his comboon both tunes, sings lyrics on boih sides, wrote one tune and helped pen the other, and shines as pianist on the off fide.The No. One track is ‘.Summer love if* Summer Kfssfct* 11 writ* ten bv Tollcson and Charles Coo inc. Canine also plays drums m the session. This tune features I rock-hard beat at medium tempo The flip side has You'ie In l-ove With Yourself*’ which is faster, andstand as a dancer, seems a bit tetter to me as a listener,An odditv of the two sides rt the so-oid-it's-airao«t-new effect of vocal subjugation In this day of electronic marvels the normal vocalrecording boosts the voice up to a commanding position on thesound track. With multiple pickups and a good mixer “Whispering Smith sounds bigger than (.’arum. Not since the early days of the big band era, when single and double pickups were used from well in front of the band has the vocalist tended to merge with hr* surroundings, Some early Sinatra recordings illustrate this, and it was fewer*./OH\ TOLLESONH;rpos«-fniiyin those dasWith the advent of the name vocalist and the unidentified sidemen.the instrumental work slipped into shadow .I don't suspect the Toll (‘son record will start a trend, but I do apyit's not a bad gimmick, specially since there Is no loss of clarity. Tolleson confesses that the de-etnpfiasis of his singing wax not actual-ly premeditated: “A good many takes wore made and the one selected was just the best of the bunch ’*Eagle, who is head man of Chance Records, has been on the road promoting the disc the past week or so and has placed copies as fareast as New England and throughout this general area. Some scatter* ed sales have been reported, but nothing really indicative yet. Tolleson says.Both tunes on the platter have teen played at dances in Fayette* 'die. hut not very often, arcoiding to the author *’ ‘Summer' was only completed this summer,' he says, ‘ and to tell the truth we never ready had an arrangement of You’re In lane With Yourself, The later song was written about four years ago.Tollcson says he startl'd play mg piano at 6. with his mother as teacher. I’ve had some good teachers tinea then and even minortd on piano at the University. Tolleson holds a pair of degrees from the ||. of A., taking a B. S. in music tn Mi and a B S. to Business Administration in 1961. His major while working on his musk* degree he confides, was on trombone. **I gtiii like to play the trombone, but it isn’t as much fun to work around on by yourself as the piano.”Being a rec ording artist hasn't made too much of an impression chi Tolleson. yet. He has no additional plans In that direction, preferring to wait and see what happens to tins one In the meantime he continues to lead his combo, a group te has led for the tost five years. Even that is being kept strictly a sideline or hobby so as not interfere with his insurance career.As a piano player. Tolleson sticks pretty closely to the i hy tlimnand blues (or rock and roll) idiom. Ho refuses to pick out any one in*fluem-e as beine dominant in his stvle hut ranbstM m a oarUsHt* furiftwood and Fats DomPlaying with Tollcson on the record. in addition to Corona on drums, are Chalky Dearien, Springdale. on guitar; Ken Clark, has*, and Troy Brand, the regular sax man who handles special effects.| The record is being stocked at area record shops, and while it may never be pressed in gold, it merits attention in this area as a noble effort.
Newspaper Details
Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville, Arkansas, US
Fri, Aug 18, 1961
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AR, USA 03 Jul 2019
Other Publications Near Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville Democrat
Fayetteville Daily
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville Daily Democrat
