Let’s get the lounge started off with a modest offering. Disc No. 3 of a 5-item set, cut from the back of a circa 1971 Post Super Sugar Crisp cereal box much like the one shown herein. “Feather Balloon” is a lightweight but mildly charming bubblegum tune from “The Sugar Bears” the kind of manufactured band common in
the days of The Partridge Family and The Archies. The ensemble is somewhat well-known among obscurant aficionados for including a young Kim Carnes, who would have a smash a decade later with “Bette Davis Eyes.” On this earlier outing, Carnes’ hoarse deep voice has not yet emerged. The overall effect is a bland female-dominated vocal harmony. It’s hard to imagine kids really
digging this; I can’t really remember listening to the record on my squat little “record player” (we didn’t call these all-in-one cheap, toy-like units turntables). Considering it’s pressed on thin cardboard, I’m surprised that the record has held up as well as it has and sounds as good as it does. I probably cut this one out myself, as I did the other handful or so of these cereal box records that I still own. Because they were made on paper with just a very thin coating of a plastic/vinyl material, these records are, needless to say, fragile and prone to crinkling if bent, rendering them in a lot of cases unplayable. If a cartridge hits one of the resulting ridges it skips and makes an awful noise. This one, fortunately has no ridges. Because of the light weight of these records and the heavy arms of record players of the day, it was often suggested that a coin be placed on a circle on the record to prevent slippage as the record spun. This one doesn’t have such a circle drawn on it.
I like the “Full Fidelity” claim on the disc.
Evidently this recording was part of a proper vinyl LP of songs by The Sugar Bears issued by Post around this time.
“Feather Balloon” in MP3 format can be had via a Rapidshare link by clicking on the song title.
-Evan
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