I have written before about great little gems you can find on eBay. I have found magazines, High School yearbooks, pictures of meaningful locations and more. One of my more favorite things to search for are out of print, obscure records.

Recently, I discovered a 45 rpm tune that has so many quirks to it.

Photo from Moon Mullins
Photo from Moon Mullins
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Now, first the stamp date on the record is incorrect. This record was released in 1968. I was music director at KCKN (now KFKF) in Kansas City when the tune came in the mail.

I was quite taken with the melody, the tragedy of the lyrics and the fact that there was no way KCKN or any other radio station was going to play this song.

It describes -- in the first person -- a young woman is picked up at the train station, taken into the woods and murdered. The song's character warns other girls not to fall for the charms of a wicked man who says, "Miss, may I drive you home."

The song is written by Jean Surrey. Music enthusiasts of the late 1950's top 40 trivia will know she also composed, "Teen Angel", a 1959 million seller by her brother, Mark Dinning. That song, too, had a morbid curiosity about it. A young woman is killed by a train as she attempts to retrieve her boyfriend's ring from a car stranded on the tracks.

Ginger (Jean's twin sister) and Jean recorded -- as far as I know - only this song as a duet. In the 40's they performed along with sister Lucille as The Dinning Sisters.

amazon.com
amazon.com
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You can see LOTS of videos where you can hear their siblings harmonies.

What you won't find is the truly obscure, "Miss May I Drive You Home".

 

 

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