Music From Planet Earth - Volume 2 / Aliens, Teenie Weenie Men, Moonbeams & The Gayway To Heaven

Second in a series of three 10”-es!

No poster. Sorry.

It’s a perennial starting point for conspiracy theories, the perfect excuse for lost homework or any kind of irrational behavior. Alien intervention solves everything. Things from other planets are a sustainable reason to many unanswerable questions and, across the music industry in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, in the wake of a slew of space-based exploitation movies, a series of 45s and suitably unearthly concept albums emerged to capitalize on this burgeoning, bizarre and mysterious idea.

Everyone was viewing far off planets with wonder, amazement and the occasional well-directed sound effect. No-one really knew what aliens could do, so the potential for music to accompany whatever they did was limitless.

Joe Meek’s huge success with The Tornadoes’ ‘Telstar’ fired many an imagination and several Meek-produced vocal versions of the song were released including Kenny Hollywood’s euphoric ‘Magic Star’, which arrived alongside a gaggle of covers and “interpretations” on that distinctive melody line. Holland’s Skyliners were led by vocalist John Lamers but their homage to Meek, the surf-esque ‘Rocking To Telstar’, is all about guitarist Cees Dingen, with not a peep from the band’s singer.

Elsewhere on planet earth, Sandy Stanton was at the heart of the Hollywood Fable label where he’d toyed with outer space on ‘What They Sing About On Mars’ in the mid-‘50s, his rockin’ country style being more than fitting for a host of novelty 45s that followed. In 1958 he teamed up with Danny Wheeler, for the unnerving left field ode to the ‘Teenie Weenie Man’ which is scarily sung and suitably screwball by turns. Also on the back porch and howling at the moon, was Rusty Wellington with his ‘Rocking Chair On The Moon’, a one miss wonder that ended up being the only release from this Canadian born cowpoke.

Of course, the moon holds a special place in romantic hearts as well as providing ammunition in the wider stratosphere of space discovery. The Spindletoppers’ Carl was doo wop veteran Carl Spencer whose biggest hit was ‘Nag’ under the guise of The Halos. The Spindletoppers’ ‘Hey Moon’ retains The Halos’ rootsy sound while lamenting the moon’s hypnotic power, while Joe Maphis’ guitar is the driving force behind the raucous country instrumental ‘Moonshot’, a rambunctious twanger with no real lunar connection other than the title. Also wordless is Dr Samuel J Hoffman’s Theremin guided ‘Mist o’ The Moon’ from his ‘Music Out Of The Moon’ album from 1947. A mysterious dreamlike concept set of some note it stands chin-strokingly proud alongside Russ Garcia’s esoteric gem ‘Fantastica’ from 1958, a true classic of orchestral strangeness and modern arranging.

Similarly offbeat is Attilleo Mineo’s bizarre 1962 album ‘Man In Space With Sounds’ which was commissioned as the soundtrack to a 21-minute ride at the Seattle World’s Fair. As a start point to the madness, his welcoming of punters to the “Gayway” of Heaven hasn’t dated particularly well dialogue-wise, but sonically it’s as sound as it gets.

Fittingly, Jean-Jacques Perrey’s early synthesizer experiments are represented on side two here by ‘The Alien Planet’, while the “other-worldly” Sun Ra’s ‘Solar Symbols’ is one of his less structured jazz moments from the album ‘Secrets Of The Sun’, a piece that complements Perrey perfectly.

Over 50 years after these sides were released in a fit of futuristic creativity, we’re still asking about the potential of water on Mars, puzzling of the rings of Saturn and wondering if anything really did happen at Roswell. “Aliens stole my dog” screams the headline in the National Enquirer. Of course they did.

Dave Henderson, MOJO magazine, 2014