"Thrift store shellac scores"--say that ten times.  ("That, that, that, that...")  Yes, we find some of the least usual shellac in thrift stores.  Alongside the common-as-dust platters (Frankie Laine on Columbia, etc.). I'll start with two "Arabic" 12-inch 78s which, after any number of listens, I find quite interesting.  However, no need to apologize if your response is closer to "Was the needle stuck in the groove?" or "Yikes!" or "Huh??"  It's the kind of ethnic music which radically departs from the ways of Western music--Western form, anyway.  An ..read more

  Actually, Merv's birthday was the 6th, but I'm within a week.  And I've been wanting to feature this 1952 EP set (which also appeared as a 10-inch LP) for some time.  And the 1952 release year is contained in the matrix #: E2PW.  In case you were wondering. Six excellent Merv-with-Freddy numbers which, along with some others, don't show up on Jasmine's Early in the Day – The Singles Collection CD.  So, I could call them blog exclusives.  I think I will.  (Ahem.)  These are blog exclusives.  There, I said it. The two instrumental tracks are a ..read more

  Wow--Blogger has made things even more of a hassle.  It has added an utterly pointless extra step to uploading images from a PC.  There's some reverse-logic idea that increasing the number of necessary steps is somehow helpful to the user.  After all, the greater the number of options, the better.  In reality, no one wishes to be deluged with choices.  An intelligent scheme would consist of basic options, with advanced choices accessible upon demand.  Options are not options when they are forced upon us.  (Argggh...) But, to the matter at hand ..read more

  You have a choice: I Love that West Coast Sound, by The Jalopy Five or That West Coast Sound, by The Jalopy Five.  That is, you can go by the front jacket or the back.  And, of course, some of these are not by the Jalopy Five (a Hit Records alias, anyway), which means I'll have to track down the original artists and dates by referring to the Hit Records singles.  Easily accomplished with 45cat and Discogs. And, good grief, Blogger must be on its last legs.  It took me several minutes to get those two images in their proper place AND properly enlarged.  Blo ..read more

  This made-in-Holland ten-incher showed up during my latest Goodwill trip, and how could I pass up that fabulous cover?  And, it turns out, the music is terrific, too, especially if you're in the mood for a Sh-Boom cover by a popular Dutch singing duo (the Melody Sisters).  I'm giving some thought to posting Sh-Boom at Lee's Fake Hits (YouTube), except that it doesn't really qualify as such, since it's not a budget knockoff.  Still, I could stretch the rules--it's my channel, after all.   And I just now realized I had misread "Wally Stott" as "Wally Scott," wh ..read more

  No particular theme to this VA playlist: From John D. Loudermilk to Piano Red (aka, Willie Lee Perryman, aka Dr. Feelgood), from Villa-Lobos to Julius Fucik to Carole King, and from Si Zentner to Leadbelly to Pat Boone, it's pretty much any LP track or single I've looked at recently and said, "This would make a nice post."  Or a portion thereof.  Any VA playlist featuring the Checkers, Larry Williams, and Tony Bennett is (in my utterly unbiased viewpoint) a playlist to be cherished. In addition to Bud Shank's jazz take on I Am the Walrus, there are at least three oth ..read more

NOTE: My April 18, 1918 text, with a new link.  Thanks for musican1979 for reminding me to revive this: So, why did I buy this Goodwill album?  Well, after going through eight or nine boxes, I'd picked a small group of LPs and 45s.  My brother-in-law was standing next to me.  I thought this jacket was kind of cool (it is--surprisingly so for a cheapo label), so I held it up and said, "Do I want this?"  "Yes, you want this," he replied.  So I bought it. The label is Hollywood, and here Hollywood is pulling the standard budget-label read-the-smaller-print scam: a ..read more

  Don't let the cover scare you: This is terrific country-gospel quartet singing, and this quartet has already seen time at this blog, though the earlier link is now kaput, thanks to Workupload.  But here are some group pics from the previous post (alliteration unintended), plus my explanation... Quoting me: "We can assume we're seeing the four singers plus three musicians. (I've never understood why 'musicians' doesn't include singers. It should.) I don't think we have a family group this time, though (going by another Conveyors LP), it seems the group was headed by a husband ..read more

  Internet sources give 1949 as the release year for this boxed set, despite the 1948 date on the cover.  And, in fact, the matrix numbers for the 78 rpm set reveal that these were recorded in 1947.  Anyway, I'll go with the release year, though I sometimes favor the recording date.  It's always a toss-up. "Music has many powers, but scarcely any more potent than the ability to evoke in the listener dozens of personal memories, some of them romantic, some amusing, some poignant, and many of them half-forgotten until brought to vivid life by some melody."  In the re ..read more

So, what do we call phrases like "happy banjos"?  Are they an example of anthropomorphizing or personifying?  (Clock ticking; buzzer.)  Right!  Personifying!  In this case, we're talking the happy sound of banjos, which is a human perception/experience.  As personified in the form of "happy banjos." Aren't you glad I cleared that up?  And this was a problem LP.  Namely, with some bad engineering on Side 1, plus all-over-the-place Googling required to determine the probable recording dates.  I had to do some comparison listening, at least for o ..read more