Is Crosley At A Crossroads?

There's talk on reddit's /r/vinyl/ about a new Crosley turntable. There's always talk about Crosley in general there: they're cheap, they eat your records, wouldn't give one to my worst enemy, etc.

But what's all this? Adjustable counterweight? An Ortofon cartridge? What happened to the Crosley we all know and hate? It doesn't even have this table on its site yet. Is it a late April Fool's joke?

Judging from the number of hits I got about it on Google, there's a chance. But our tipster reports it's true because there's a link to a record presser that is apparently selling this suspiciously respectable turntable...like right now. Want a look for yourself? Here you go.

Rumor is - and again, it's just rumor at this point since like I said, Crosely itself is virtually mum about this table - it might be a rebadged Pro-Ject. Which is indeed a good table.

A new version of its Keepsake now sports an Audio-Technica cartridge and diamond stylus. So if there are any rumors about Crosley gaming up its overall quality, they might be true. And I, like a lot of others, would be glad to see Crosley finally changing its tune.

Back in action

It's August...the students are moving back into their dorms and the football players (who are also students) are readying up to take the field here in my NEW location! What a long, strange trip it's been. What a hideoulsy expensive move. What a disappointing area for thrift stores. What stories I have to catch you up on.

And of course, what music I have to talk about. I just got a nice load of it the other day from a flea market a friend took me to. And there may be another load of it next weekend if I'm not careful. I found out the seller has an album that's much sought-after in certain circles. With luck he'll still have it by the time I see him again. We're both hoping I do see him - we had a nice conversation as I dug through his massive collection to make some of it part of my massive collection.

I'll be digging more through that massive collection...and I'll also be looking for some kind of alternative to Deadshare - other bloggers like me have turned to Google Drive for uploads, but since Google owns Youtube, and Youtube is the way it is with copyright claims, I'm hesitant. Ideas are welcome so I can restore what many people consider the main reason for blogs like this.

facebook is no substitute for the real thing, but you'll be entertained there between the posts you see here (and there have been a couple lately). So good to have you back if you've gone, and welcome if you're just joining.

Please Stand By...

Things are a-changin' 'round here. Even the "here" is changing.

Yup, I'm makin' a move. As I pack up, I may have some goodies to throw up on our facebook page. I just got a few tasty things I'll share with you there. Once I'm re-situated I'll go deeper with some of them...and I'll continue the search for a replacement to Divshare.

So sit tight, hang loose, and wish me luck. I'll be back here by summer.

An Older Guy Buys Vinyl At A Young Person's Store

I'm sorry. Divshare went down hard a few weeks ago. It says it's "relaunching its services" now and you at least for now have to be a premium member to upload things. So if you were expecting to hear some of the Walter Raim album I featured in the last post...it's gonna be a while. Mean time, just so you don't think I've abandoned you, I'm gonna talk a little bit. After all, I did intend for this blog to be about more than just showing off.

I had a birthday a couple months ago...almost to the day. So I treated myself to a day at a mall that had an Urban Outfitters. A lot of people hate Urban Outfitters for the sole reason that they cater to hipsters. Others hate them for selling Crosley turntables. I, who could almost pass for said hipster, had no opinion because I stick to thrift stores for my vinyl. But I decided to splurge and get some records that were fresh-off-the-presses new rather than just-donated new. How did I like it?

For the most part, I enjoyed my experience. Per my nature, I stuck to the $9.99 clearance section. And lo and behold, I found some things. Some familiar, some not. A lot of albums ended up in weird places; misclassified by genre, alphabetized by album name rather than artist name, or by first name rather than last name. Some albums were even alphabetized by the second word in the band's name. I saw some albums that were definitely used, which was a little strange to me.

We have two Outfitters in my area, and I witnessed the same things at the other one. So maybe their workers aren't quite as educated in music as they could be. But for those who are, there are plenty of rewards. I'm a sucker for production music, or "library music" for you British "readres." I lucked into a sweet 2-volume set called TV Sound And Image on Soul Jazz Records. Basically it's a 4-record set of British produc library music that spans from the '50s to 1980. If you're familiar with names like Barry Stoller, Brian Bennett, or the king himself, Keith Mansfield, search this one out.

I discovered Calexico a few years ago when they teamed up with Iron & Wine for a few songs, most notably their cover of Love's Alone Again Or. I'll be listening to Calexico by itself on its Algiers album.

I have a lot of listening to do when it comes to Syl Johnson. Poor guy didn't want to have his Complete Mythology box set released because of his distrust of record companies. But the Numero Group did him justice. 6 LPs and 4 CDs chronicle the height of his career, from 1959 to 1972.

Urban Outfitters will never be my main source of vinyl, but it'll be worth a check-in or two once in a while.

The Classics For Now

Last time, I showed you what happens when classical music gets tangled up in rock 'n' roll. This time, the classics have a tryst with the "Now" sound.

The front cover's pretty much the same, minus the track listing.

What we have here, according to the liners, is music "utilizing modern instrumentation, tone colors, and the kind of rhythmic support to which our ears have become widely accustomed." Basically, it's classical rearranged for the modern ear. It's noted that "only rigid purists are likely to find anything but enjoyment, and a measure of discovery, in listening" to these pieces.

Speaking of discovery, the liners also reveal that many classical composers did the same thing Walter Raim did here: they rearranged and rewrote their own pieces according to purpose and the availability of musicians. In this case, Raim rewrote these pieces for the 65-piece 21st Century Orchestra commissioned for this album.


Divshare's been down for a few days, but when it comes back up, I'll have a couple tracks for you. I think you'll like them.

The Earliest in "Classic" Rock

What have they done to my song, ma? And don't get me started on the price tag stuck on this cover!

Now for a 180 of sorts from the last post. Here's that rock 'n' roll feel of the 1950s...applied to music from the 1750s. Or thereabouts.

101 Strings' Back Beat Symphony was famous for trying to meld the rock 'n' roll sound to classical music. This album, J. Gaines's Rockin' The Classics Suite, was not quite as famous for doing the same thing, but it does have a more interesting backstory.

Rockin' The Classics Suite was on Golden Crest Records, a Long Island label known mainly for its classical releases. But one major exception to that was a high-school-age group that Golden Crest's owner discovered on a trip to Washington state. The group was The Fabulous Wailers, and their hit Tall Cool One made rock 'n' roll history after the group drove cross-country to record it. If not for The Kingsmen, many say The Fabulous Wailers probably would have been the ones that made Louie Louie a hit.

The pieces here on Rockin' The Classic Suite were hits a couple hundred years before The Wailers. In fact, this album was released a couple years before The Wailers got their first national exposure. This 1957 Billboard blurb calls the album "very amusing," and if you're into stylistic mashups like this, it is. The liner notes (written by "Punk Cadenza") play the rock bit to the hilt. The last paragraph: "The guys on this date are some of the greatest. They really are. On one of the playbacks one of 'em thought he heard a funny whirring noise comin' outa the speaker. At first they couldn't figure out where it was comin' from - then one of them pinned it down. He said it must be the noise of these composers rockin' in their graves!"

J. Gaines gets the credit for this album, but the supporting players are lost to history since they went under names like Serge Sputnik and Mose Ligature.

As for Golden Crest, they're still around. Music historian and author John Broven married the founder's daughter and has great info on his site. Much of Golden Crest's back catalog is still available, but this album doesn't seem to be part of it.

Here's Liebestraum:

You might recognize this one from Allan Sherman's Hello Muddah:

The Latest In Rock 'N' Roll: The Earliest in Counterfeit Music

It's not always easy to tell a counterfeit. But sometimes you come across something that just screams it's fake. Even if you have to turn it around for it to start making noise. And this album's gonna get loud. Oh, it's a real record, and there's real music on it...just not the exact music '50s kids were clamoring for. And as you'll find out later, the music's not all that's loud on this album - one of the earliest from a genre I call "rocksploitation."

You've probably seen it on TV innumerable times: Now That's What I Call Music has done over 50 albums of repackaged hits. K-Tel, Ronco and Adam-VII used to do the same thing. They were pretty top-tier since they were all from the "Original Hits, Original Artists" school. Lesser labels like QMO and Pickwick had in-house bands to re-record popular songs, and occasionally rewrite a few lyrics to avoid having to pay royalties.

Then you had the bottom of the barrel: the strictly no-name bands on strictly no-name labels trying their damnedest to cash in on whatever was popular at the time, artistic integrity or even ethics  notwithstanding.

OK, let's dissect all this:

16 COMPLETE SONGS
That's the first clue you've got something a little bit special. They're bragging that you get to hear 100% of every song!  They recorded every note. In fairness, I point out that that didn't always happen with albums like these.

ALL OF YOUR FAVORITES
"OK, uh...Let's Go? The crystal ball lady said that won't be a hit for a few years yet. Round Robin? I don't remember the words exactly, but that doesn't sound right. Low Man? Stampede? Blazing Home? Well, now it sounds like I bought a country-and-western album! What's going on here? And I've never heard Moon Dream and Sky Rocket on my transistor radio before. I must have the wrong station on. Where are those 'top hits and current favorites' I thought I was getting?"

MUSIC FOR DANCING
I know I didn't ask for any of these songs, but yes, I guess you can dance to them, so technically they may have been honest about that.

And speaking of "technically:" I cleaned this record before I dubbed the two tracks you're about to hear. These budget labels were not well known for sound quality, despite what some of them would have you believe. I've even heard of some labels recycling their vinyl, melting it down to be pressed into other records. I can't help but wonder if this happened here...or whether people who bought this record wished they could do.

Here's that little-known gem, Jump The Gun. How many defenseless sax reeds had to die for this one?


I think someone deserves a Time Out:

The Album Of Aquarius

You might not be 36 Today, you might not remember 1969, and you might not even be an Aquarius. But since I am (and we're almost on the cusp of Pisces), I thought I'd post a little about this astrological album.

Really, there's not a lot going on here but easy-listening covers, so the music's actually not real important this time. What steals the show is the concept: a famous astrologer explains each sign of the zodiac with music in a 12-volume series. And even then, it'd already been half-done: Moog maven Mort Garson did something similar for A&M about the same time, sans the astrologer. And the music was much more interesting.

Carroll Righter, astrologer to the "stars," literally and figuratively, was sort of the Jean Dixon of his day (yes, like Carroll O'Connor and Carroll Shelby, Righter was a man). One claim to fame was warning Marlene Dietrich of impending trouble on a movie set. She ignored him...and broke her ankle. Since then, he'd consulted with practically every star in Hollywood...and he still had time for this series...and possibly a second cup of coffee. (He never had time for a second cup of my coffee...)

Inside each album (I have 4 of them) was a book by Righter, telling you more than you ever knew about yourself. Gotta tell you, he was pretty spot on with my description. Among the revelations (yuk yuk ): "This man has a genuine flare [sic] for a deep and lasting friendship, but finding one is a rare occurrence because he is so seldom understood."

"Aquarius is an emotionally wracked sign and the native Aquarian is not allowed the daily life of happiness in common things. His sight is aimed on the high and the flawless and his energies are geared to their attainment."

In other words, we're neurotic loners.

There's more surprisingly accurate babble like this in the notes to each of the songs on this record. I'll spare you that, but I'm obligated to present the most obvious songs.

First...yeah. I know. But why not?


And second...but this time you get to hear the whole song on its own! Minus the words, of course.

Are You 36 Today?

Or perhaps a little younger or older? Is it even your birthday? Well, I just had a birthday (not my 36th), and if I got this album for a present I'm not sure how I'd react.

36? She doesn't look a day over 29.

 This is a collection of 36 great songs...that somehow turned maybe a little less great through a Columbia Records house band, trying to get "The 'Now' Sound Of Young Music" to appeal simultaneously to the "now" set and people with "then" musical sensibilities. As you'll hear, their efforts met with varying success.

On the other hand, maybe the band should've stopped at 29.

It's likely that the group you hear here is called The Copycats. I discovered an album of theirs recently, also on Columbia. Ray Conniff and Percy Faith did enough of this type of work that The Copycats weren't really necessary, but here you go.

And in answer to Jimmy Ruffin's question, this is what becomes of the brokenhearted:


As for The Yardbirds...I wonder whatever became of them:


What kind of song is this? Columbia always got little digs in at their own acts on these records. Respectable? Not really:

A Song-Poem Christmas

Love, Christmas, political views...whatever it is, nothing sums it up like a song poem. But in this case, it's Christmas, and I have two songs written by just-plain average folk who saw an ad in the back of a magazine and decided it'd be cool to hear their sentiments in song.

There's a lot of mystique behind song poems. There's a website with loads of information and history, and like just about everything else these days, there was even a documentary about them. This otherwise unassuming "1977 Christmas Album" is chock full of holiday song poems, all sung by The Sisterhood, a female trio who, if you believe the note on the back cover, seemed to appear on just about every TV and variety show in existence.

The first song is not so much about the holidays as winter itself.


The second starts off "holiday" enough, but after the first couple of lines...wait, is this actually a song about Elvis Presley?

Boy, someone had a Blue Christmas that year.

LINKS FOR FURTHER LEARNING
The American Song-Poem Music Archive
Off The Charts: The Song Poem Story

'Twas the day after Christmas...

And all through the - nah, I can't. But I can share a couple more unusual, if not downright rare, Christmas 45s.

First, Dodie Stevens, who trades her tan shoes and pink shoelaces for a holiday gown as she croons Merry Merry Christmas Baby:


And a surprise from Brook Benton. I never knew he recorded any holiday songs, and I've never heard this one: This Time Of The Year, on Mercury.

Christmas In The Country

A couple country 45s for you now.

First up, Jimmy Dean and the story of Little Sandy Sleighfoot. God has a place and purpose for everyone:

And here's Buck Owens. Li'l buckaroo's confused about Santa:

I think we're good

Some of you know I have a real thing for educational albums. And the holiday tracks you're about to hear are a couple of reasons why.

Here's Steve Clayton and Gail Contini, pair extraordinaire, with some good tidings not just for Christmas, but for Hanukkah too. These come from an album of holiday songs featuring holidays you never knew there were songs for.

Everybody's Good For Christmas


Hanukkah

Christmastime Down Under

They do things a little different in Australia. Christmas is no exception. This may look like a regular Christmas album, but there are a couple of differences. For one, look at the way they spelled Faithful. For another, listen to the changes in The Holly Singers' 12 Days Of Christmas. There are a couple of things on the list that I've never heard in the song before. Maybe 1976 was a bad financial year and Aussies had to cut back a little. Or everyone was out buying colour TVs, which were relatively new there. Ah, priorities.

This year, I've managed to assemble a collection of holiday songs you might not have heard before, and this album has one. It's called Christmas Year. You might like this one, mate.

The 12 (or so) Songs Of Christmas

I'm not one for holidays anymore. But surprise, surprise, here I am posting Christmas music. And guess what: after a 3-month drought, I get to pick right back up from where I left off: with a radio album!

Radio station albums were generally compilations of current-day hits popular with the station's audience. But there were exceptions. This is a particularly nice one, and as it happens, it was put together under the auspices of some of the people who worked at PAMS, who I mentioned in September. In other words, there's a little extra "jingle" in these Jingle Bells.

The folks you'll hear on these tracks are called the Associate Singers, and if you're a jingle fan, you'll know the names: Dan Alexander, best-bass-in-the-business Jim Clancy, Brian Beck, Frank Bloebaum, Chris Kershaw, Bob Biegler, Clark Womack, Trella Hart, Judy Parma, Libba Weeks, Abby Hamilton and Linda Harmon.

All these great voices sing against vibrant musical backdrops provided by Bob Piper, who was responsible for the sound of many PAMS jingle packages in the late '60s and early '70s. The sound is bright and beautiful and deserves to be shared.

Here's Trella Hart out in front, calling for Jolly Old St. Nicholas.



A cheery rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas. I wish this song always sounded this good.


Let's go Up On The Housetop and hear what the singers are up to:



An a cappella original by Bob Piper: The Warm Sound Of Christmas


Although the singers are primarily known from PAMS, they did business with most of the other jingle producers in Dallas. Toby Arnold worked in sales for PAMS and eventually started his own company, which produced this album. His company still exists as TAA Music.

A note on the radio station: WGPA is alive and well in Bethlehem, PA and plays a pretty eclectic assortment of music and talk shows. It's currently owned by polka magnate Jolly Joe Timmer.


This post is dedicated to Judy Parma, one of the wonderful voices you hear on these tracks. She passed away recently, so sharing these songs has taken on extra meaning. Rest well, and thank you for making the world sound so nice.

Restructuring

It happens a lot as businesses look for a way out from under the weight of crushing financial obligations. It also happens in people's personal lives. And when it does, priorities change.

My restructuring is a little different. See, I'm staring down the barrel of my 40th birthday, and as I alluded to at the first of the year, I want to make some changes to myself. Those changes go deeper than just losing a few pounds (and by that, about 50 so far), but that's been the main priority. Workouts + 12-hour nights = less time for a lot of things. And unfortunately for you, this blog has been one of those things there's been less time for. I already have a new year's resolution in place to try to balance it into my spare time a little better. I'm rethinking the workstyle I've been using to put the posts together...and I have another idea - one that'll get you more involved, too.

There's a facebook page that goes with this blog. Some of you know that, and I appreciate you liking it and making your visits. The page's intent was to let you know about new posts here and keep you entertained while you wait. I'm taking that to a new level. Any time I'm listening to something blogworthy, I'll let you know about it there. Then, if you like it and/or comment, I'll do a post on it. I might even tell you about the more mainstream stuff and post conversation starters about other things. What you do there will influence what I do here.

In short form, I want to "communitize" this blog. I want to be a more active member of that community, and your input will be a huge help in me becoming one. So in the spirit of the holidays, I thank you for hangin' in and enjoying what I offer. There's more to come...however sporadically. Help me keep it coming.

The (W)ABCs of HOA: the Morning Mayor Of NY

I'd like to think I saved the best - and most interesting - of Radio Records month for last.

If you're of a certain age, you probably listened to 77 WABC. Practically everyone of that age did. And if you listened in the mornings, chances are you heard Herb Oscar Anderson, aka The Morning Mayor Of New York. Herb was a one-of-a-kind DJ. The housewives loved him. The teenage girls exchanged socks because he told them to. And he sang. Every hour on the hour, he'd sing, "Here's my best to you/Are your skies gray? I hope they're blue."

HOA sang well enough to record an album in 1967, toward the end of his reign on WABC. You could tell it was going to be a great album just by the names behind it: produced by Creed Taylor. Most arrangements by Don Sebesky. A couple of the songs were recorded in Nashville (and they were arranged by Bill McElhiney), but most were done in New Jersey, most likely at Rudy Van Gelder's famed studio in Englewood Cliffs given the Creed Taylor connection.

Some people might also have been able to discern that there was a dichotomy in play: HOA was playing the latest and greatest on one of America's biggest stations...but he had little knowledge, or even appreciation of it. Rick Sklar, WABC's ace program director, had to coach him on the songs and artists. In fact, that's what led HOA to leave WABC in 1968: he just didn't like the music, instead preferring the type of music here on this album. It's an interesting mix of standards like Pearly Shells and Long Way To Tipperary and country-flavored songs, with maybe a little folk squirted in here and there. It's a comfortable mix.

HOA's rendition of I'm Movin' On. He's having a lot of fun here with the scatting:


The title track, What Would I Be. An interesting question for sure, in this context:

There Was Only One...

Radio has always been in a state of flux. But some stations refused to change, and swam upstream like salmon, against the trends. For a time, WBBM, the CBS station in Chicago, was like that. This 1963 album gives you a taste of what WBBM was putting down: vibrant local talent doing live music shows well after most other stations had moved on.

WBBM sure was proud of what they had going on...so they produced this album in 1963. How they came up with the time to do it, nobody knows for sure: WBBM produced 35 hours of live "showmanship" each week. This album may have been a special gift to advertisers, who, as the liner notes claim, spent more advertising dollars on WBBM than any other Chicago station at the time.

On this record, we hear Chicago standouts like The Hal Kartun Orchestra, an 8-piece big band with a fiery sound that belies their size. There's The Skynoters, fronted by a harp. The King's Jesters (in the red jackets and bowties) is a trio with a multitude of styles in its repertoire. And solo artists like Bob Vegas, who sang every morning. That's him on the bottom right. Carole March is the redhead you see front and center on the album's cover. Between them is Gini Patton who according to the liner notes, "does more than interest the listener when she sings...she bewitches."

Here's the Hal Kartun Orchestra, off to an auspicious start with the first track of the album, "Something's Coming:"


And now, Carole March fronting the Skynoters with the torchy "Guess Who I Saw Today:"

The All-American Sound

What better way to extol the virtues of radio...than with radio? The National Association Of Broadcasters (NAB) uses a few different campaigns each year to do that. At least they used to. Some of the campaigns were downright catchy: singers, celebrities and even the brilliant Stan Freberg created great reminders to "take a portable radio along" or to enjoy "the sound of year-round pleasure."

Unfortunately, the specifics of this campaign are lost to history: no singer or production credits here. And frankly, this campaign's not as catchy as many others. Also, an all-American theme in the winter?

Radio commercial and PSA records get a little repetitive at times. For one thing, this one is the same on both sides so if a track on one side gets damaged, it could be dubbed to tape from the other side. For another, these records contain variations on a theme: a minute-long cut, a :30, a :10, a :60 with a "donut" (there's a hole in the middle that the station fills with its own copy). I'll pare this down to the essentials: the full :60 and the :30 with the girl soloist. And I hope you'll enjoy them.

The full :60


The :30 with the female singer:

The following is (about) a public service announcement

 A while ago, I showed you how a radio show looked on vinyl. But hot hits and countdown shows weren't the only things radio stations got on vinyl. They also got commercials and PSAs that way. And here's a package of PSAs you won't soon forget. It's a collection of Brite Spots: uplifting PSAs with various themes for various station formats. Believe it or not, this was produced in 1981. Jesus Christ, Superstar! There were still MOR stations in 1981? People still called soul "black music?" "What even was MOR?" a young visitor asks.

Let's take a left turn and answer that question. MOR stands (stood) for Middle Of The Road: "not too hard, not too soft...just right," to qoute a popular radio station slogan of the time. Think of it as a precursor to soft rock. You'd hear Jack Jones, Johnny Mathis (possibly with Deniece Williams), The Carpenters, Bread, maybe some Andy Williams...in short, most of what you'd find these days in a better thrift store's record bin.

Unlike most of my records, though, this one didn't come from a thrift store. It came from the college radio station I worked at...20 years ago.




I have to let that sobering thought sink in a little. Jesus, that long?




Being a college station, we relied on donations of not only money, but equipment and music. Someone donated a roomful of albums to us, and it sat there for years. I had the lack of sense to ask if I could go through it, and my professor allowed me to. Guess where most of it ended up. Anyway, this record (actually a 2-record set) was in that room with folks like Big Buddy Lucas & The Wigglers and King Richard's Fluegel Knights (don't laugh, that's become a favorite of mine). Warning: these PSAs are not for the lactose intolerant. Apols. for not featuring more...I'm subject to the sound quality of the records and sometimes they just don't measure up.
Brite Spots: Rock (I enjoy WHAT?!) [I suspect someone screwed up the Rock and MOR spots - the MOR tracks definitely sound more "rock" for some reason.]


Brite Spots: Black (I know, right?)