Pop Records

Not long ago, the thinkers on the RCA Victor staff were invited to invent a name for a new teen-age pop singer. Among the suggestions were "Erpsil Clevinger," "Ellie Oopman," "Cahn Edison" and "Rod Reel." None of these quite filled the bill, but the company soon hit on one that did --"Rod Lauren." Last week, big as life, Rod was climbing the charts with a pop hit called If I Had a Girl, having almost forgotten the fact that his real name is Roger Strunk.

With another record on the way and his first movie contract already signed, 19-year-old Singer Strunk-Lauren is the solidest new prospect in the teen-age market since Fabian uttered his first gosling cries. He is also an example of how a record company can create a singer out of next to nothing. Roger was a small club performer with an instrumental group called The Buddies when RCA spotted him on the West Coast last summer and signed him. The company budgeted $50,000 to launch Rod's first disk, bombarded dealers with promotional material, emphasizing the sullen good looks the kids are supposed to go for. For six weeks Rod toured the country wooing the jocks, bouncing from teen-age dance to teen-age dance, and occasionally refreshing himself from one of the inspirational books he always carries with him, e.g., The Greatest Thing in the World (love, naturally). No rock 'n' roller, Lauren delivers his ballads in a nappy, relaxed voice with the meticulous articulation and slightly teary quaver that Johnny Mathis made popular. Not the greatest thing in the world, but not too bad for a 19-year-old who was almost called Ellie Oopman.

Other pop records:

So Much (Jackie Wilson; Brunswick, mono and stereo). Singer Wilson, who bears a startling physical resemblance to Sammy Davis Jr., is presented to his fans as "Mr. Excitement." The excitement consists of a bludgeoning Neanderthal style, and the package should be labeled "For Unregenerate Rock 'n' Rollers Only."

Running Bear (Johnny Preston; Mercury). There was an Indian brave named Running Bear who loved an Indian maid named Little White Dove but was separated from her by a raging river. He plunged in, and she plunged in, and "The raging river pulled them down/ Now they'll always be together/ In that happy huntin' ground." The arrangement lags and lurches, but it has carried Singer Preston into his own happy hunting ground on the pop charts.

High Spirits! (The Four Lads; Columbia, mono and stereo). One of the nation's best vocal quartets swings with infectiously high spirits through a selection of familiar spirituals--Ring Them Chimin' Bells, Bound for Glory--giving each one a fresh sheen without sticky studio gloss.

Swinging '30s (Earl Bostic and his band; King, mono and stereo). Pleasantly informal arrangements of the songs that are firmly lodged in the consciousness of most adult Americans: Dancing in the Dark, Stars in My Eyes, All the Things You Are. The band swings as loosely as a troupe of sleepy dancers, summoning visions of garlanded proms and lights slowly revolving over the dance floor.

Katyna Ranieri: Italian Love Songs (Capitol, mono and stereo). Florence-born Singer Ranieri offers a selection of Italian pop hits--Volare, Non Dimenticar --giving them the air of tremulous yearning that seems to be part of the Italian climate. The voice is fresh and appealing, the phrasing exact, and the message as obvious as a languorous wink.

Every Inch a Sailor (Oscar Brand; Elektra, mono and stereo). Guitarist Brand offers a largely unprintable tour through the racier passages of Navy mythology in a series of songs sung by the fleet in World War II--Guantanamo Bay, Subdivision Nine, Zamboanga. The cast of female characters includes such wonders as Miss VD of Guam: "Admiral Nimitz gave the order/ Better keep your noses clean/ But Miss VD was waiting/ Like a bloody sex machine."

Delia (Delia Reese; RCA Victor, mono and stereo). In a style that is not pretty and voice that is not sweet, one of the most exciting of the newer girl singers expresses her rather tigerish devotions in numbers such as If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight and You're Driving Me Crazy. There is a growling, brassy quality under even the floating notes, and the words and phrases are often bitten off or stretched into a kind of slurring leer, but at her best Singer Reese projects a vivid image--that of a tender roughneck who wears her heart square on her agitated chest, where it belongs.

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