RetroTrash

JOE LOSS


NOTES ON THE ABOVE
Joe Loss was probably single-handedly responsible for some of the worse covers ever. I think, if there is a moral to be learnt from these covers, it is: how NOT to sell your product. Would anybody seriously buy one of these records today? Admittedly people did not buy these records for the covers but for the music. Even so, by modern standards, examples of Joe's covers like the ones above are not persuasive enough for anyone to part with their hard-earned cash. If I was to give an award for some of the trashiest covers ever it would have to be for the first four alone. They are truly trashy and do not induce the belief in oneself that any serious forethought went into their design. It is as if someone at the design office just grabbed a picture of a girl cut from some fashion magazine, stuck it onto a plain neutral background and thought, "That'll do." It must have taken all of five minutes. And what about the music? Well, here's a brief biog of our old Joe. You decide for yourself. Born of Russian immigrant parents, Joe, real name Joshua Alexander Loss, learnt at a very early age to play the violin. He was good enough to be accepted at Trinity College of Music and whilst a teenager formed his first band, The Magnetic Dance Band. He then went onto play for various dance orchestras when swing and jazz were big in the thirties, before forming his first professional band to play at the London Astoria. By 1933 he had moved into a regular slot at the Kit-Kat club in the Haymarket, and was even offered radio air time before the outbreak of WWII. He somehow managed to keep his tightly knit band together during the war playing a blend of straight dance music that wasn't really jazz or swing. In fact, it couldn't really be classified at all, and Joe saw to it to make sure that if he was going to maintain his profession he had better adapt to the changes taking place, particularly after the war and with the advent of television. Not seeing this type of home entertainment as a threat, Joe grabbed the opportunity to play whatever was popular and gave the public what they wanted. In this way he was able to fill the dance halls, get people away from television, and onto the dance floor. He carried on doing this right up to the 1980's before ill-health took its toll. Joe died in 1990. Never as big as the Lasts, the Conniffs, the Kaempferts of this world, he still managed to keep working most of his life, producing an enormous output of recorded work, from his first recorded UK single (Have You Ever Been Lonely) in 1955 to Jive Bunny's single in 1989 who used his version of Glenn Miller's In the Mood as their sample. During his lifetime, Joe received many awards, including an OBE from the Queen in 1978. Today, I think he deserves the RetroTrash Award for Worst Covers Ever. God bless you, Joe. To view larger images use the Database
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