Pop Records

Carmen (Andy Griffith; Capitol). The slow-talking star of No Time for Sergeants does one of his wide-eyed explanations, this time of grand opera. The singers, he drawls, are high-priced and have "high roofs to their mouths." As for Carmen, she's "looking at this 'Escamilla' like she was stuck on him, and you can see why ". . . because he's a rale spowart. He lives about as far up town as you can get.''

The Come Back (Peggy Lee; Decca). A rocking blues that turns out to be really blue. Wonderful Peggy starts out confidently, but quickly sinks into a throat-catching mood, using a high, thin voice of ultimate sadness. "Hold out, baby," she keens. "I'll be back one day."

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (Verve, 2 LPs). Thirty-two sophisticated songs, sweet, hot and tough, sung with the utmost simplicity by the queen of popular singers. The Fitzgerald method, in her own words, is to "just sing," and at least half of her poignance comes from the fact that she sings right in the heart of the note (instrumentalists like to say they tune up to her notes). Strangely enough, she can breathe right in the middle of a phrase and get away with it--a nice way of suggesting that she is not so sophisticated as the songs.

Hart Brake Motel (Homer and Jethro; RCA Victor). The funnymen from the hills take off from Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel in a red-hot tin lizzie. "My room it was so small,'' one of them croaks, that "evertime I tried to smile my teeth would touch the wall." No more vulgar than the prototype.

Ivory Tower (Gale Storm; Dot). Another waltz in the rinky-dink style that seems to go with the rock-'n'-roll idiom. The simple-minded but bestselling message: "It's cold, so cold, in your ivory tower, and warm, so warm in my arms."

The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen (Stan Freberg; Capitol). A parody of the well-publicized hypnotic journey into previous incarnations to search for Bridey Murphy. This Bridey declares she lives outside Rome in 200 A.D., and is an usherette at the Colosseum. And she has a hot tip: put a bundle on Ben Hur in the fifth.

Second Fiddle (Kay Starr; RCA Victor). A thrush with powerful pipes tells how she got her present fella because both were castoffs. From her unhappy tone, Kay seems uncertain that that is the best reason to set up housekeeping.

Taking a Chance on Love (Helen Forrest; Capitol). A popular songbird of the swing era who starred with the Goodman, Shaw and James bands, Forrest, after a long time in the woods, swings back in fine condition. She sounds smoother and more confident; she still has plenty of life and the same sweetly nasal voice.

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