Do you ever Google yourself? Sure, we all do! After all, we have to make sure no one is posting any malicious rumors about us, don't we? (thank God my name isn't Britney Spears or Paris Hilton). So imagine my surprise one day when, with a lot of time on my hands during my longer-than-expected period of unemployment, a Google result of my own name turned up a listing for an old 7" vinyl 45 rpm single by an artist with the exact same name as me. I'm talking first and last name (although I've obscured the last name in the photo above to protect my identity, as well as the name of the song to prevent searches for it, sort of like a blogger protection program - not that I don't trust you guys). Even the spelling of my first name is the same, spelled with one "n" rather than two, which is unusual, but it's spelled that way because it's my nickname. It's really weird looking at the record label and seeing my own name on it. So of course I had to buy it from the online vintage record site on which I found it. The single dates from the very early Sixties. I did a search for "Dot Records" and came up with some information about the label. It was started in Gallatin, TN in 1950 and moved to Hollywood, CA in 1956, where it continued to release records in many genres, including gospel, soul, R&B, country, pop, and early rock and roll, until it was discontinued in 1977 (maybe disco killed it?). Dot recording artists included Pat Boone, Gale Storm, Liberace, Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Welk, the Andrew Sisters, Donna Fargo, Barbara Mandrell, and Roy Clark (of "Hee Haw" fame), as well as this person with the same name as me that nobody had ever heard of before or since.
The site from which I bought the single featured a short MP3 sample of the song, and upon listening to it, I could discern through the many crackles and pops of the old vinyl record that this Lyn was an African-American man, and not a white girl originally from Long Island, NY. Weird, huh?
What's even weirder is that I found another single on another vintage vinyl website by an artist with the exact same name as my sister, and using her nickname too. What are the odds? Needless to say I've got to get my hands on that one too. Maybe I'll make retro-looking shadow boxes, or buy those 12" album frames from Restoration Hardware and put vintage fabrics and postcards in with the singles to make some funky art for our apartment. After all, how many people could boast of owning a record with their name on it (unless their name happens to be John Lennon, or Barry White, or Diana Ross, or...well, I guess a lot of people could, actually).
So add to the many disappointments in my life my failed career as an African-American male soul/R&B artist of the early Sixties. But that's okay. Good thing I turned to blogging.
Who do you share a name with?
5 comments:
Uh--this is your sis. So we're both big time recording stars, huh? Apparently, I'm also a dentist from Illinois and a public access tv host somewhere on the east coast, as in The "my first name" "my last name" show. Unfortunately, any further info or images of this show were not forthcoming.
You have your own tv show? Get out! Is it anything like "The Brini Maxwell Show"?
Unfortunately, we're not big-time recording stars - far from it! But you've got to get more info on "your" public access show.
I share my name with the 2nd Vice-President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada. It causes untold confusion, I can tell you.
I'm sure it does. I bet the 2nd Vice-President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada is constantly being mistaken for the "gonzo nerd" author and music theorist of the same name (which sounds infinitely more interesting than being the 2nd Vice-President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada).
Apparently, as well as being me, I am also a internationally renowned Child Protection Lawyer.
Hmmmm.....
Fine blog you have here ma'am
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