Memories of Alma Cogan

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember listening to some old 78 rpm records on our record player. Even thinking about this makes me feel old. But, this was in the early seventies and not as far back as some of you may think. This was in India and we had a collection of 78 rpm records that I used to love to hear whenever my parents would pull out the turntable.

One of these songs was called Sugartime by a British artist called Alma Cogan. There were a few other Alma Cogan songs that we had. If I remember right, Sugartime was backed with Mambo Italiano, but I can't be completely sure. But, I do remember listening to these songs many times. It is amazing how limited our media options were back then.

I found that Alma Cogan was a socialite in 1950s London and apparently carried on an affair with John Lennon. She was known to be close to the Beatles and even recorded an entire album of Beatles covers. She died at the young age of 34 of cancer. More on Wikipedia here. There's a very preliminary web site for her fan club here.

Some years ago, I found an Alma Cogan CD Box Set on Amazon.co.uk and I couldn't resist buying it. Of course that box set is now available on Amazon in the US cheaper here. Look for the Alma Cogan discography on Amazon here.

Here are those two songs from my childhood.

1. Alma Cogan - Sugartime (1.67 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Alma Cogan - Mambo Italiano (2.2 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Tony Brent - The Anglo-Indian Crooner

Here's something you probably have never heard. This post again refers to music that strikes a chord with me purely because of nostalgic reasons. Growing up in India, I used to listen to several 78 rpm records in my dad's collection. One of these was by a singer who was very popular in India and reached his real fame in the UK. Tony Brent was an "anglo-indian" (one parent English and another Indian) singer who moved from India in the 1950s and reached some acclaim as a singer. I think he also moved later to Australia but there is surprisingly little informatoin on the man on the Internet. I have memories of my Dad singing this song off-key in a loud voice and both of us laughing hysterically when my mom would complain. That would only encourage him to sing louder and even more off-key which, for some strange reason, would delight me.

You can find a CD of his greatest hits on Amazon here. There's another CD with less information here. The song featured here is really quite good and has nice lyrics and a catchy melody. As you can guess, his contemporary in the US was Pat Boone.

Anyone who can fill in more information on Tony Brent, please post here.

Tony Brent - Don't Save Your Love [For a Rainy Day] (2.09 MB; 192 kbps MP3)