OPEN POST: Music Manor Monday With The Powerful Miss Toni Fisher!

Greetings music lovers, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, this entry being, I hope, a brassy antidote to the mess that has become The Met Ball, or the East Coast's most famous Jerk Parade, tonight with Extra Jerk and Tupperware Titays (with apologies to dearly departed Tupperware). Can anything work to counter this gory dumpster fire of tacky, mess and blurgh? DJ Li'l Scratch believes so, and tonight at the Manor's exclusive after hours club, "Huh? Wha? I'll Have That With Sloppy Oral," he'll by spinning delicious tunes by a brassy singer you're guaranteed to be delighted by.

Yes, it's Miss Toni Fisher, a performer who's giving us serious "growl, snarl, snap" above. Don't mess with Miss Toni amirite? Her time in the spotlight was brief. She was a Hollywood nightclub singer for only five years, recorded just one LP - 1960's "The Big Hurt" - and scored only two Top 40 hits, the first one being "The Big Hurt." You'll know it when you hear it, because it sounds unlike any of the other tracks on the LP, the result of a fabled "happy accident" wherein the mono and stereo versions were mixed together - and slightly out of sync.

The accident was caused by her engineer, Larry Levine, who was mixing the track from two different tape machines, and because the machines weren't perfectly synchronized, the two signals drifted apart, creating a "comb filter" effect, now known as flanging or phasing. Later, to control this newly discovered sound, engineers began either using a screwdriver wedged between the tape machines or manually pressing on the the rim of the tape reel to slow it down. This sound soon became the hallmark of psychedelic rock in the late 1960s, but Fisher’s track is recognized as the first commercial hit to utilize it.

And, yes, it's a very good song, but I prefer the other tracks where her voice is clear and brazen and loud, like the LP's absolutely smashing opening number, "Speak Of The Devil." You might sense a slight similarity in tone to Kay Starr, but she's a complete delight on her owns terms, her powerful contralto voice all but shock-putting each lyric into your heart and soul. Give a listen: 

Following her chart success wth "The Big Hurt," she performed on TV shows like "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "American Bandstand" (early in her career, she also appeared as an uncredited extra in the 1949 movie musical "Make Believe Ballroom"). She also hit the club circuit in a big way. Sheformaly been only a Los Angeles jazz and supper club staple, but now the entire club circuit nationwide wanted to see her. Romantically linked to Wayne Shanklin, a noted songwriter and producer who wrote most of her material and founded Signet Records specifically to showcase her talent, she was bereft when he later died and almost immediately retired from the music industry. 

This was very much our loss. Their collaborative efforts, not to mentions her sultry vocal intensity, created an irresistible vocal, sonic and orchestral sound we'll never hear again. You want more, don't you? You can hear the rest of Toni's LP RIGHT HERE, or via Spotify from this preview link: 

What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾

Photo Credits: Signet Records/Era, Getty Images