Milsap Songs I've Never Heard

 You would think, that as big of a Ronnie Milsap fan as I am, that I have heard every single song he ever sang.  

You would be actually thinking wrong. 

There are two known recordings that he has done that I have never heard.  

The first I came across was "A Loving Background".   It's an instrumental.   I only know of one other instrumental of his and that is a version of "She Loves My Car" that was released in the UK.  (I happen to have a copy of this on a long play single and have uploaded it to You Tube and included it here for those of you who are keen on listening.) 

Anyway "A Loving Background" is on the flip side of "Wish You Were Here" on Pacemaker Records (Crazy Cajun.)  So he would have recorded this at the start of his career in the mid 1960s.  Records exist but they are hard to find.  I have not given up my search.  At some point I will be able to snag a copy of it. 

Who has a copy of this for sale?  Let's negotiate! 

Another song of his I've never heard is "When The Boys Talk About The Girls".  He recorded this one in about 1966 and it's on Scepter records, on the flip side of "Ain't No Soul Left In These Old Shoes", for Scepter records.  I have a Scepter record with "Ain't No Soul Left In These Old Shoes" but the song on the B side is "Just Another Branch From The Old Tree".    I have heard versions of this song by The Shirelles and  Valerie Carr, but never Ronnie's version.   I have to wonder if it actually exists.    I have only heard it in my head, when I imagined his voice singing this song as I heard other artists singing it. 

I get teased about revoking my fan card all the time because there are actually songs I've never heard but in my defense, this is because they are just hard to find. You can hardly fault me for that one. 

Also few, if any people have ever heard Ronnie's songs he did with The Apparitions. He was just a teenager when he formed that band with some of his school mates, so if any recordings exist those are going to be incredibly rare. 

I will also say that Ronnie has covered a lot of songs by other artists in his live shows and there are probably half a dozen or more songs that he did that way, that were exclusive to the road show and they are lost only to the memory of those who were in attendance.  Unless somebody snuck a tape recorder into these concerts, the likelihood of them ever surfacing is pretty slim, sadly but it's that way with every artist. 

No doubt, he also has a few songs in his personal archives that he's not released yet and he, wife Joyce, and those closest to him are likely the only people who have ever heard them so far.    I know he just released an album but I know I am not alone when I express a sincere desire to actually hope he has many more albums in him.  

Only recently I came across his recordings of "Dixie" and "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" which he did for the "Pa's Fiddle Project".  It was various artists (including Randy Travis) and the album was about songs that were mentioned in or inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. 

Ronnie has even sung the national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner" for the opening of a basketball game but I've never heard that either.  Somebody somewhere is sitting on a gold mine of this stuff they don't realize they have and hopefully at some point maybe it'll surface. 

While we are on the subject of songs I've never heard, you may be surprised to know I don't own every album of his yet either.  I have all of his RCA country hits, but a lot of what I am missing are foreign editions.  I have most of them.  I don't have all of his 45s either.     I wish I could find a hard copy of "My First Ride" which he did with Trace Adkins for Bleve Records.  He picketed outside of Capitol Records over that one, because Capitol reneged on their deal to pay into a firefighters and police officer's fund with the royalties as promised and so they tried to get the song pulled from airplay and all streaming services.  Ronnie responded to that by climbing up on top of the firetruck and using it as a stage to perform the song. 

I'd also like to know where to get my hands on a hard copy dance mix of "If You Don't Want Me To".  It is on You Tube to listen to as long as You Tube allows it to be up though so I can just listen to it that way if I want and in the meantime I just downloaded it to a file on my computer for safekeeping. 

One cassette tape in particular I want though is called "Golden".  All of the songs are his stuff from the 60s, when he recorded with Scepter such as "House of the Rising Sun" and such and I already own all of those songs in some capacity.  I just like the cover art, shown here.  

Where can I find this gem? 

I am also missing "Kentucky Woman".  I'm not talking about the Buckboard records version which I have, but a later version with 22 songs that was released only on CD.  I can't get my hands on that because even though the songs are commonly found and have been released many times by many independent recording companies, a copy for sale on Amazon is going for close to $1000.  I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy!  

This CD costs HOW much? 

There is lots of great Ronnie Milsap music out there.   His early stuff is definitely worth a listen and fortunately if you can't get them on original vinyl, there are lots of copies of all his greatest hits available.   Even if  something is out of print, there is another version that is easy to find.

 I was lucky to get my hands on his RCA box set, purchased via mail order from a record store in Russia. It took five months to get to me.  I never really could afford the price tag on that when it first came out but I managed to save up some money so I got it last year.

I actually HAVE this one! 

Ultimately I am happy with what is out there and I am pleased to have what I do have in my collection.  If anybody knows where I can find the things I am looking for, please comment below.  

Love Beth   29!