Cool 78 of the Month

Indescribable... Indestructible! Nothing Can Stop It! An alien lifeform grows and consumes everything in its path. Even before Oprah Winfrey came onto the scene, however, movie fans were treated to the horror/ sci-fi classic The Blob starring a young Steve McQueen in one of his early on-screen roles, his first as the film's star. Credited as Steven McQueen, he plays the part of the film's hero Steve Andrews. But Steve isn't the only one known by a different name to be connected to this movie. Musically, we are treated to The Five Blobs.

The Five Blobs are in fact one person over dubbed to create the gelatinous quintet who sing this Bacharach and David composition. The vocal talent of Columbia Records' session man Bernie Nee is what you hear telling us about Mister Globby. Bernie had recorded several solo outings for Columbia, only to have none of them chart. This record spent 3 weeks in the Billboard charts in the USA making it to number 33 in October 1958. In Canada it spent 8 weeks on the CHUM chart in Toronto, peaking at number 14 a month later.

Don't let the credit of Bacharach and David throw you on this song, which is reminiscent of Tequila by the Champs. You are correct to say that it is Burt Bacharach, who would later pen classics for people like Dionne Warwick, credited on both sides. Don't, however, assume that David refers to Hal David. That credit belongs to his brother Mack David, who was well known as a composer of TV and movie themes, among them the theme to the Bugs Bunny Show.

The Blob was a product of the famous Brill Building and was featured under the closing credits to the film. It is a fun little tune, deserving of at least some airplay around Halloween. I leave that battle up to you, the reader to fight with the narrowcasting media conglomerates who run radio these days.

With all these facts in hand, could this record possibly get any cooler? In fact, it can, and does. To the best of my knowledge it did not appear on 78 in the USA. It did show up at 78 rpm in Canada, and even better yet, on the unique Canadian Columbia "four eye" label. This label style is found only in Canada and was used during the closing days of the 78 rpm era in that nation.

Shown below is an image of the B-side of the 78.