[78-L] three riddles

[Michael Biel]

RAY KILCOYNE wrote:
> From: "Jan Hovers"
> Thanks to Kristjan and Bertrand I know that Les Paul was (co-)writer and 
> before Piaf. Hope to find out more details on Les Paul’s recording.
>   
> I don't know if this helps, but I have a Les Paul and Mary Ford LP that says 
> VA YA CON DIOS was first released on June 1, 1953.  In the U.S. JOHNNY was 
> on the flip side.
> RayK 
>   

This was one of the first records I bought with my own money at the 
Teaneck Record Store -- I got the 45.  But there is another story that I 
have told here before but it goes along with the Russian question that 
Jan asked.  When I was in Moscow in 1995, one of the things I was 
especially hoping to find was an X-Ray recording.  I did get a chance to 
see and videotape a large collection of them at Valarie Safooshkin's 
apartment, so this told me that the film was not the thick film used in 
the U.S. for x-rays, but film of the same thickness as regular snapshot 
film.  A few days later I was at the Izmilova Flea Market, and while 
looking thru a small group of 78s there were a few floppies there too.  
I noticed that one of them seemed to have a mottled appearance, and I 
just slid a tip of an edge beyond the pile -- it was an x-ray!!  So I 
slid it back with the other floppies -- I certainly didn't hold it up to 
the light!  The guy sold me the 4 or 5 78s for a dollar each and threw 
in the four or five floppies for free, including the x-ray!  It was of a 
spine.  Written in pencil was just the word in cyrillic "DZANNIE".  
There is no J in Russian.  I had no way of knowing what Johnny this was 
referring to.  I had no way of playing it till I got home a month later, 
and it was the first thing I did when I got in the door.  It took only 
two or three notes before I knew it was "Johnny (Is the Boy For Me}".  
If you listen to it like a Russian would, you will know why.  It sounds 
like a balalaika.  I bet there was no interest in Russia in "Via Con 
Dios".     

Mike (no longer spineless) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com