MAYHAMS Peas Puddin/Amtrak/JEANIE Norridge Song Poem 45

$

25

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MAYHAMS Peas Puddin/Amtrak/JEANIE Norridge Song Poem 45

Artist: Norridge Mayhams

Label: MAYHAMS COLLEGIATE RECORDS

Comments:  I've not come across this one before and its not mentioned on Phil Milstein's American Song Poem Music Archive.

Side A: PEAS PUDDIN HOT (On the Amtrak Line)

Side B: JEANIE

both sides credited to NORRIDGE and The Seaboard Coastliners

Condition:

Record:VG+ A-side has a about 2 or 3 scratches which can be heard, otherwise plays strong VG+ with little to no noise. B-side same or better.

Label: VG writing on label in marker and pencil "5-6-83" and what looks like "SH" (labels on both sides have a faint impression of another Mayhams label- as if they were double-printed or stacked wet) see photos.

Description: PEAS PUDDIN HOT (On the Amtrak Line) starts "Peas Puddin Hot... in the pot 9 days old" and then inexplicably connects to Amtrak trains but we like it anyway. "Go, go, go on the Amtrak line" and weaves back n forth between Peas Puddin' Hot and Amtrak naming the various destinations.

JEANIE sounds like an older track than the flip, a traditional country western composition with a violin intro and for a dose of bizarreness " I went to see Elvis Presley" "Has anyone seen my Jeannie? Tennessie Ernie and Johnny Cash-if you see her send her back to me"

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Mayhams / Mayhams Collegiate
Below is some information about Norridge and the song-poem genre from the wonderful website " American Song Poem Srchives" by Phil Milstein

Mayhams Records / Mayhams Collegiate Records, 12 W. 117th St., Morningside Station, PO Box 46, New York, NY 10026

Mayhams Mayhem, by Phil Milstein

Norridge Mayhams was a first-class card. In a half-century-long career in which he toiled as songwriter, performer and record company executive, Mayhams authored a body of work that is staggering in its scope, quality and general strangeness, with a fast-and-loose approach to crediting his work that confounds discographical comprehension.

Mayhams's songwriting career stretched from the mid-'30s up until his death in 1988. His early songs, cut at various New York sessions between 1936 and '38, were lively but fairly conventional gospel and novelty blues. Even back then he was apparently subsidizing the recording of his own material; since song-poem companies had yet to evolve from sheet music to records, it seems that these early recordings were made with Mayhams' hands-on participation, as opposed to the strictly mail-order nature of the true song-poem companies.

Neither blues nor jazz purists know quite what to make of Mayhams' early recordings, their bewilderment compounded by the fact that he recorded for such highly-regarded labels as ARC and Decca. His records smell gutbucket enough, but if you sniff a little closer there's clearly something a bit off about them, and as a result they are of but slight interest to collectors today. To appease completists, Austrian archivists Document Records have released a CD comprising the bulk of Mayhams' known 78s, with a further four more included on a compilation CD. See our Miscellaneous Albums page for more information on these two collections, including ordering links.

One of the funny things about Mayhams' early stuff is how quickly it jags from straight gospel material ("Crying Holy Unto The Lord," "My Lord's Gonna Move This Wicked Race") to raunchy double-entredre blues (a cover of Tampa Red's "Let's Get Drunk And Truck," "Ash Haulin' Blues"). Still mingling the sacred with the profane, years later Mayhams would release, on his own Mayhams Collegiate label, a single of "Jesus Will Soon Be Coming" b/w "You're My Surfer Girl Forever," likely the world's only example of a mixed Jesus/surfing 45. In Mayhams' typically convoluted fashion, the Jesus song kicks a lot harder than the surfer one.

As living proof of the song-poem entrepreneur's enduring claim that, given the right breaks, any songwriter can have a hit, Norridge Mayhams did just that. His lone tale of success began with a song called "We'll Build A Bungalow (With War Bonds And Stamps)," a keep-the-home-fires-burning World War II song originally written in 1942. Revising it as "We'll Build A Bungalow (You Spell It For Two)" for peacetime possibilities, the song was taken up by bandleader Johnny Long, whose recording was released on King around December 1949. Johnny Long is little-remembered today, but in the '40s he was quite popular, and his recording of "Bungalow" went to #22 in Billboard in early '50. Exactly two years later "We'll Build A Bungalow" rose to even greater heights, when it was featured on I Love Lucy, then the top-rated TV show in the nation. In the episode entitled "The Benefit," first aired on January 7, 1952, "We'll Build A Bungalow" was performed vaudeville-style as a duet between Lucy and Ricky, complete with interjected jokes. This version is included on the Babalu Music! I Love Lucy's Greatest Hits compilation. In 1966 "We'll Build A Bungalow" made its final real-world appearance when it was included in Sidney Lumet's film, The Group, based on a novel by Mary McCarthy.

Sharks being as indigenous to the legitimate music industry as to its shadier fringes, Mayhams got boned for both credits and royalties on "We'll Build A Bungalow," and eventually filed a lawsuit before he could get the situation straightened out. By 1978 he was once again free to try to cash in on his song, and revived "Bungalow" for a disco rendition, self-released as a 12" single credited to The Seaboard Coastliners.

As a songwriter and a record company executive, Norridge Mayhams was a guy who lacked a little something in the way of consistency, which is one of the secrets of his greatness. Frankly, the guy was all over the map. He was unafraid to draw from nearly any musical genre or lyrical topic, and he was especially beholden to those currently in vogue. From his cycle of World War II songs he next turned to booze -- writing songs about booze, that is -- then dance crazes, surfing, then, during Vietnam, back to war songs again. Early on he hit upon his all-time favorite subject: college. The theme runs rampant throughout his catalog, and you will spot many examples in the discography below. In keeping with the college lietmotif, he named his publishing company Sorority Fraternity. In typical fashion, he registered it with both ASCAP and BMI, a music business two-for-one that is almost never done.

Mayhams' songwriting credits reveal a torrent of variations on his own name. He was born in 1903 as Norridge Bryant Mayhams, but he came to use the given name Norridge interchangeably with Norris. His performing career was mostly under the name Norris the Troubadour, but even there he sometimes went by Norridge the Troubadour. Either Troubadour variant might also turn up as a writing credit. He often substituted his wife Shirley's name in place of his own for his songwriting credits, although it's possible that she also occasionally joined him in his songwriting efforts. Even when using her name, he would shift it, with no apparent rationale, from Shirley to Betty, sometimes to Julia Betty, and so on. The name Smalls -- probably his wife's maiden name, as his son was named Norridge Smalls Mayhams -- would show up as either a middle or last name, either for himself or for his wife. Occasionally he'd even write under one of his children's names, Benjamin, Blondell or Norridge. When crediting his songs to just a single name, he would use Norris, Norridge (sometimes Noridge), and Bryant (sometimes Bruant). The combinations are far too numerous -- not to mention far too confusing -- to fully list here.

Spelling, syntax and punctuation all take a beating in Mayhams' world, perhaps deliberately so. The title of his 1950 song "My Christmas Time Philosophy; Theme Of The Apostropheis" (previously published as "I Want A Coed By My Side") is a telling one, for Mayhams delighted in dropping apostrophes from the ends of words. It's unfortunate that its lyrics haven't materialized, for I'd love to see the thinking behind his ongoing apostrophe catastrophe. Ones he removes from certain titles he deposits in others, as if he were holding them in some sort of apostrophe bank -- witness "I'Am Back From Vietnam (Hold The Elevator My Baby Is Coming Down)." Dan Quayle might agree that the all-time best Mayhams title is "Poontang Poontang Rankytang, My Sweet Potatoe" (from 1942, credited to "(Norristhe Troobador) Mayhams)". A few years later, after running that one through a spell-checker, he republished it as "Yamtang Yamtang Rankytang, My Sweet Potato."

Little is known about Mayhams' performing career. He apparently sang lead on at least some of his own recordings, but he was as likely to farm his songs out to a song-poem factory like Globe Recording Studios -- where they'd be sung by the likes of Sammy Marshall (as "Professor Marcell") -- as he was to take the mic himself. It's unknown whether or not he played any instruments on his recordings. My guess is that as Norris the Troubador he spent many years playing coffeehouses and college-town pubs in the Northeast, but the only actual evidence of that is a 21-page booklet he self-published in 1947 entitled Experiences Of A Collegiate Singer by Norris, The Troubador. Locating a copy of that would certainly be a valuable addition to the field of Mayhams scholarship.

Norridge Mayhams' world started crumbling in 1977, with the death of his wife Shirley. In 1979 his son Benjamin was murdered in a grocery store hold-up. In tribute, Mayhams wrote his final song, "God's Heaven's Heavenly Grocery Store," which he didn't register for copyright until 1986. It's unlikely that a recording of it was ever made. In '81 his other son, Norridge Smalls Mayhams, died. His musical endeavors wound down. In 1988 Norridge the Troubador Mayhams himself began strolling the aisles of God's heavenly grocery store, where they are known to maintain a well-stocked apostrophe aisle.

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I am an eBay power seller and lifelong record collector who has been selling collectible vinyl on eBay for over 9 years. I pride myself in grading accurately and conservatively and only deal in original, U.S. press releases unless otherwise indicated. I DO NOT deal in modern re-issues. Please bookmark our auctions for a steady stream of uncommon L.P.s and 45s as well as classic issues in uncommonly high-grade condition.

GRADING GUIDE

MINT....PERFECT RECORD, CLEAN GLOSS, NO MARKS, BEAUTIFUL IN EVERY WAY. VERY FEW RECORDS WILL MAKE MINT.

MINT-....VERY CLEAN, ONLY LIGHT MARKS which do not affect play.

EXCELLENT or (EX) : The "collector's condition": everything has been done right by way of playing, storing and handling this record and it shows. Record still retains most all of its gloss. May show minor scuffs, blemishes, and superficial scratches under direct light.

VG+......USED RECORD WITH LIGHT SCRATCHES ONLY, SHOULD PLAY AND LOOK VERY NICE WITH MINIMAL SURFACE NOISE.

VG....STILL A NICE RECORD,LOOK A BIT USED, LIGHT SCRATCHES NO GOUGES, STILL PLAYs WELL, SOME SURFACE NOISE.

VG-......A BIT ROUGH BUT WILL PLAY OK, FILLS THE COLLECTION.

G..PLAYS ROUGH, HAS MULTIPLE SCRATCHES, WHAT A BARGAIN!

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