Ask “Mr. Music”
Jerry Osborne



FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 23, 2001

DEAR JERRY: The ladies in our office got quite a chuckle from your recent column about the boxer (shorts) blooper in the underwear section of the 1975 Sears catalog.

But when we searched the Internet for the photos you described, we could not find a single site that had them. I told everyone that you would be able to point us in the right direction, and I know we would get a great laugh to see this page.

How can we locate it?
—Sharline Carnahan, Harrisonburg, Va.

DEAR SHARLINE: Yours is but one of dozens of letters from folks now curious about this catalog photo, and wanting to view it online.

To make the giggles as convenient as possible, and eliminate the searching, I have posted it HERE.

Now you and the gang at work can really yuk it up.


DEAR JERRY: Who were members of the Rays, the vocal group who did “Silhouettes”?

What other songs did they make?
—Karen from Glendale, Calif.

DEAR KAREN: Since a fellow Californian, Aana Pregliasco, of San Jose, asks almost exactly the same question, let's answer two for the price of one.

The featured vocalist you hear on “Silhouettes” is Harold “Hal” Miller. Other members of the Rays are Walter Ford, David (or Davey) Jones, and Harry James.

“Silhouettes” (Cameo 117), issued in late 1957, reached No. 1 on countless regional surveys, but stalled at No. 3 on Billboard.

Though not generally regarded a 1950s classic equal to “Silhouettes,” the flip side, “Daddy Cool,” got a tremendous amount of air play and charted right along with “Silhouettes.”

Neither of the follow-up Cameo singles landed at any position on any of the charts. They are “Triangle” (Cameo 128) a “Silhouettes” knock-off, and a smooth version of “Rags to Riches” (Cameo 133).

The Rays never had another hit in the '50s, though they did manage a pair of minor “moon” hits in the early '60s: “Mediterranean Moon” (XYZ 605) and “Magic Moon (Clair De Lune)” (XYZ 607).

DEAR JERRY: Help! Help! I really need your expertise.

In the early '80s, I heard a song that is to this day still haunting me. I do not know the artist or title, but it begins with some lines about a girl “working as a waitress in a small bar.”

I would truly appreciate any information you can give me, so that I can purchase this recording. Thanks a jillion!
—Charlene J. Kirschsieper, Hammond, Ind.

DEAR CHARLENE: For a jillion I can rid you of that haunting. The song is “Don't You Want Me,” a 1982 issue by a British band named the Human League.

“Don't You Want Me” is one of the Human League's two No. 1 hits, the other being “Human.”

Oh yes, the young lady is working in a “cocktail” bar, which may or may not have been small.

IZ ZAT SO? As you see from today's musical ramblings, the two Rays hits from the '60s are on the XYZ label. Interestingly, “Silhouettes” first came out on XYZ (102) in mid-'57, but without success. Only when Cameo picked the tune up for national distribution did it hit pay dirt.

The XYZ original can now fetch $100 to $200 — about 10 times that of the Cameo single.






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