Art Reblitz wrote in 010202 MMDigest:

> It's interesting to hear that certain Clark A rolls did have 4X
> xylophone arranging.  It seems that the only Ray Siou A-roll recuts
> in my collection with "xylophone roll" as part of their title are
> rolls that he renamed; none has the 4X-style arranging.  I'll keep
> my eyes and ears open for the real thing.

Hi Art,  This may also be something you know, but I've gotta stick
up for Ray Siou: there _were_ 'A' rolls specifically designated
'Xylophone'!  Ray did issue some of these and they are scored for
xylophone.  I love these arrangements; they have what I call 'twiddley
bits'.  You can't miss 'em.

The rest of the story is that Ray did issue some recuts with the word
'Xylophone' on the label.  I asked Ray about one of those which did
have the xylo designation, but was lacking the twiddley bits.  He said
that if the roll labels had that word, they sold better!

I don't know if 4x and A rolls have similar 'twiddley bits' (I don't
listen to many 4X G's, if any) but I bet they do.  And here's why:

Clark especially titled some of the A rolls to clue in the folks owning
coin pianos with xylophones.  Here are some examples, and if you don't
have any of them, I'll make a tape.  Hell, I like these arrangements so
much that I have even rated those with twiddlies!  To help, I've
included the titles of the first tunes.

Clark 656 1) Clap Hands Here Comes Charley - Siou recut -
  Marked ' Xylophone' but it's _not_

Clark 898 1) My Blue Heaven - Original, titled: "Xylo-PeP"
  Rating = Good

Clark 1114 1) Whoopee Hat Brigade - Original, titled "Splittin'
  Kindlin' (Xylophone)"  Rating = Good

Clark 1268 1) Truly - Siou Recut -Title is "Zillo Zephyrs"
  Rating = Super

Clark 790 1) Hello Swanee, Hello - Rand recut - Title  is "Crisp
  Crackling Tunes (Xylophone)"  Rating = Super

Auto A 1352 1) Gid-Ap (sic) Garibaldi - Freyer recut -
  Rating = Super

Cap 2210 1) Sonny Boy - Play-Rite recut -
  Marked 'Xylophone" but it's _not_

Auto A 1260 1) Breezin' Along With the Breeze - Freyer recut -
  Rating = Super!!

That's most, but not all of my twiddlies.  I hope you have a couple.
If not, lemme know.  Clark's catalog has quite a few takeoffs of
'xylo' titles, like "Splittin'" and "The Musical Woodpecker", one
of my unfound favorite titles.

Cheers, Ed Sprankle