Picky-picky-pick-pick

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts.

10/03/63 : Caribbean Guitar - Chet Atkins

Skipping over a week where Cliff was #1, we also have to skip over our second Joe Brown album of the year - it just doesn't seem to be available anywhere. And that brings us to Chet's first proper visit - he's previously had a couple of mentions for new entries in the lower reaches of the chart but, as far as I'm aware, this will be the first time I've ever heard anything by him. I'm assuming he's a guitar player and he adopts a Caribbean style here, but the title might just be to throw me off the scent.

Well, he's certainly a guitar player - I'm not sure I quite the Caribbean influence on all the tracks, but there's certainly a sense of palm trees and dancing girls from time to time. It's a bit more of a classical style than I was expecting, but it's interesting enough to avoid being musical wallpaper and he's obviously a skilful player - although I'd struggle to say I actively listened to all of it. I'd say it was interesting from a "gap in my musical knowledge" way more than anything else, but I'm glad I caught up with it.

We're at #17 in the chart this week on the last week of a three week run, with them all spent at #17. The top five this week were Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Frank Ifield, Frank Sinatra & Count Basie and West Side Story with the highest new entry being Richard Chamberlain (#16).

Somewhat to my surprise, Wikipedia does have an entry for the album and it tells us that it's his eighteenth album - I say "to my surprise" because, if I've previously thought Bobby Vee and Duane Eddy were prolific around these times, then Chet takes things to a new level because he released 28 albums in the 60s (although he's not quite up to Sinatra's level - he churned out 33!). 

There's remarkably little else there, except for a somewhat surprising name appearing with a writer's credit on a somewhat surprising song - the actor Alan Arkin is credited on "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)", which I always assumed was a traditional Jamaican song from back in the day. Digging into it a little bit more, it is a traditional Jamaican song, but Chet used the arrangement based on The Tarriers' version from '57 - and Alan was a member of that group before quitting in '58 to pursue acting, where he experienced slightly more success including one each of Academy, BAFTA, Tony and Golden Globe awards.

Back to the album, it wasn't exactly a smash with the critics, with New Record Mirror giving it an unprecedented mere three stars and Allbox declaring "you would think that his talent would be able to encompass calypso and other Caribbean styles as well. Alas, he isn't given much of a chance here" - but it did get to #27 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you're going to have to spend three quid to get a decent mono version of this, but if you want a stereo version you're going to have to splurge and throw a tenner at the problem. I struggle to imagine too many people think about Chet's music these days, but his Wikipedia entry makes it clear he was a big thing and both influenced and encouraged many other artists, including, courageously for the mid-60s, signing country music's first African-American singer, Charley Pride to RCA. All in all, he sounds like quite the dude so I'm pleased to have learned a little about him, although I can't say I'll be rushing back to this and it appears we're not going to meet him in the charts again.

24/03/63 - More annoying than it should have been