This curious 7" single showed up in the marketplace in recent years, causing some speculation as to its authenticity. The existence of a single like this has been mentioned before by a reputable source, however. The Dent posted this article from Record Collector magazine late 1999, which was later updated to display a letter to the editor by a man who had apparently spoken directly to the writer of the lyrics of "It's a Happy Day," Ms. Camilla Wharton. According to Ms. Wharton, Tori (then Myra Ellen Amos) was asked to write the music, arrangements, and play the piano for the song. As the letter states, around 500 copies were pressed onto 45 RPM vinyl discs and sent out.

Discerning whether the pictured vinyl is the genuine single described on the Dent webpage is of course the interest of this site. The vinyl has some oddities, such as a misspelling of Myra Ellen's name as "Ellin." Also, the name of the B-side on this single is called "Baltimore" by a band named Contraband, which is not to be confused with one of Tori's first self-penned singles written two years later with the same name. The songs are unrelated.

Baltimore
US • 7" Vinyl • Single

Fortunately, our admin team was honored to be contacted by Larry Adler, a recording engineer in 1978 at the Hallmark Studios in Owings Mills, MD where Tori Amos recorded "It's A Happy Day." Adler was an engineer at Hallmark Recordings from 1976 to 1983. He has personally confirmed for us that this record is indeed the genuine article, and compared it to his own personal copy, which he received in 1978 directly from the pressing plant (he confirmed there were a total of 500 pressings). He shared that The Music Bank label was created by Phil Brecher, the owner's son of Hallmark Recordings.

Adler was able to fill us in on some interesting backstory about the misspelling of "Ellen" as "Ellin." He recalls the spelling error on the 16-track 2" master tape box label, and theorized that since Millie Wharton had contracted Hallmark to produce the entire project and the order form to the record pressing plant was submitted with the misspelling, no one caught or realized the error until the records came back. Since the misspelling of "Ellen" was initially one of the more confusing details in determining the authenticity of this record, knowing more of the backstory has definitely been valuable to us.

When "It's a Happy Day" showed up in the marketplace, the seller transferred both songs from the record to digital form, so you may hear a recording of it below:

soundcloud.com/mindcrimemadness