The Crew Cuts - Music Ala Carte - On The Campus

The Crew Cuts
Music Ala Carte
Mercury MG 20199
1957

This album was a fun find today with the super cover photo of The Crew Cuts in a fab vintage 1956 Arnolt-Bristol Roadster!

Read about The Crew Cuts on their wikipedia page.

The Whiffenpoof Song

The Crew Cuts On The Campus
Mercury Records
MG 20140

Also released on Mercury Wing MGW 12145 - 1959.

Mantovani - Tangos

Mantovani And His Orchestra
Tangos
London LL 768

Spiced With Brasil - Nancy Ames

Meditation

Spice With Brasil
Nancy Ames

Highlighted by the Guitar Artistry of Laurindo Almeida (courtesy of Capitol Records)

Arranged and Produced by Stu Phillips

Cover Painting: Sid Maurer

Cover Design: Michael Mendel
Epic LN 24238 & BN 26238
1967

From the back cover: IN THE jungles of American music, the Brazilian (Bossa Nova) revolution has flared and smoldered off and on for several years, and recently, new developments along the Brazilian frontier have again stirred up national interest. In the past, the Brazilian force has made substantial, though somewhat sporadic, hits in the top-40 areas, but a new movement seems to have gathered additional followers, weapons, means and ability to strike hard in the realms of popularity.

The established leaders of the Brazilian force are seeking to form new alliances with other kinds of music to further strengthen the already formidable and compelling sounds of the Brazilian style.

In this latest report, Miss Nancy Ames, a veteran of several albums, most notably the Latin Pulse campaign, has not only furthered the cause of the Brazilian expression, but has also established herself as a true leader in the cause.

Aided by the brilliant guitar maneuvers of Generalissimo Laurindo Almeida and a small, outstanding band of musicians, and guided by the strategic arranging and conducting of Stu Phillips, Miss Ames has succeeded in making ten successful raids on music to establish ten strongholds for your enjoyment.

She and her band brought new supplies and support to the exhausted numbers of "Meditation" and "So Nice." In "Reza" and "Mas Que Nada," two hotspots along the Brazilian front, her forces established them permanently as munition sources for future en- counters.

In a frontline interview with Miss Ames, she reportedly said: "I'm looking for 'Someone to Light Up My Life" as a part of my endeavors. It has never been voiced to my knowledge, and I think it is an important issue." Shortly thereafter it bore her banner, and then, hearing of concentrated action around the title song from the film A Man and a Woman, Miss Ames sashayed in quietly one night to capture it beautifully.

Even though her record, as it stood, was one to be proud of, she enlisted to undertake more difficult tasks. Vast uncertainties lay ahead, for she elected to invade several areas of music that could possibly resist and defeat a Brazilian exposition.

In the camp of "Love's Like Wine," she parlayed until she had convinced the song that it would best achieve its aims with Miss Ames. In the songs "Cherish" and "I Feel Fine," after much de- liberation, they surrendered to her unconditionally. Nancy then reached out for "Reach Out I'll Be There" and out reached any of the existing attempts made on this far out region.

In a final interview with Miss Ames she said: "I love the Brazilian movement, and I have done my best to serve it well, but I could not have done it alone. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the many that have helped me." When asked if she had received any injuries in these coups, she replied: "Of course, all of these songs knocked me out." 

Pow, Pow, Pow (Mas Que Nada)

Love's Like Wine

Cherish

Laia La Daia (Reza)

Meditation (Meditacao)

I Feel Fine

A Man And A Woman (Un Homme et Une Femme)

Reach Out I'll Be There

Someone To Light Up My Life (Se Todos Fossem Iguanas a Vocé

So Nice (Summer Samba)

Tahiti - Yesterday And Today

Taora Mai Te Hei (side one) & No Oe Hei (side two)

Tahiti
Yesterday And Today
Quinn's Combo
The Tahitian Native Group
RCA Victor LSP-3344
1965

Side one features Quinn's Combo covering tradition Tahitian songs in their "swing style". Side two "...brings you the "old Tahiti" style of Tahitian Native Group, also recorded in Papeete."

The is no information on Quinn to be found online. From the back cover: Everybody who goes to Tahiti and its capital city of Papeete eventually winds up at Quinn's Club, a water-front rendezvous that's a "must" for tourists.

Many of the songs are credited to Gaston Guilbert, who from the back cover, was a "knowledgeable Tahitian musicologist, who co-produced this album with RCA Victor's Herman Diaz, Jr.

Guilbert was a French cinematographer, producer and collector of Tahitian recordings. He founded the first professional recording studio on the island. His archives are preserved by "Institut de la communication audiovisuelle".

Winter World Of Love

Sazella De Rio

Bossa Nova
Winter World Of Love
Without Love
Santo Rel Brazileiros
Diplomat DS 2480

Cool music released to take advantage of the Bossa Nova craze that hit the U.S. in the early 60s. The pressing seems uneven, or at least, the audio quality of my copy is not the best.

The Grasshoppers

I've Been Working On The Railroad

Sing Along With The Grasshoppers

The Chipmunk And 11 Other Songs
Featuring Eddie Maynard
Spin-O-Rama ML 3074

Chipmunk Song

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

On Top Of The Old Smokey

Little Tin Soldier and Little Toy Drum

Glow Worm

When The Saints Go Marching In

Alvin's Harmonica

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Counting Song

I've Been Working On The Railroad

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I'm A Yankee Doodle Dandy

Let Yourself Go! - Various

Let Yourself Go!

Let Yourself Go!

Limited Edition Collector's Album
Created Exclusively For American Express by Columbia Special Products and Stanley Arnold & Associates with Norfolk Productions, Inc.
Columbia Special Products CSM 477
1960

Tony Bennett - Come Once In A Lifetime

The New Christy Minstrels - Downtown

Jerry Vale - Arrivederci, Roma

Bobby Hackett - It's A Fine Life

Steve Lawrence - People

Barbra Streisand - The Shadow Of Your Smile

Robert Goulet - On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

Julie Andrews - How Are Things In Glocca Morra?

Ray Conic - Volare

Eydie Gorme - Small World

Johnny Mathis - Warm And Willing

The Brothers Four - Try To Remember

Christmas In Hawaii

Christmas Island

Christmas In Hawaii
Hawaiian Instrumentals
The Paradise Islanders
Decca Records DL 4122

This record is a bit obscure. Jerry Byrd released a Decca album with the same title (with The Paradise Island Trio) featuring about half the same song titles. One song I sampled on Amazon doesn't sound like the song from this album.

MMM Nice! - Bob Thompson

While We're Young

MMM Nice
Bob Thompson His Chorus and Orchestra

Produced by Neely Plumb

Cover: Shoes courtesy Salvatore Ferragamo, Beverly Hills

Recorded at RCA Victor's Music Center of the World, Hollywood, California

Recording Engineer: Al Schmitt and John Norman
RCA Victor LSP-2117
1960

From the back cover: A native of California (he "Thompson" was born in San Jose), he's been part of the world of music since he first joined a school band. He acquired an impressive enough background in music to finance his way through college (the University of California at Berkeley) by serving as conductor-arranger for stations KMBC and KCO in San Francisco.

In 1950, he worked with singer Jacqueline Francois in Paris. (He's maintained a fondness for world travel along the way, too. Early in his career, he played piano on the President Wilson bound for the Far East.) Later, he conducted and arranged in a string of top east coast bistros. Returning to his west coast home, he turned to record sessions, working with Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and others.

As he progressed, Thompson kept in touch with the vigorous big-band sounds of the day. When the time came to prepare for this LP, he turned to the best musicians he could find, complementing the great band with a hand-picked chorus. This vocal group is precisely in tune with Thompson's aims, one of which is to utilize the voices in a colorful instrumental sense. This isn't an orchestra-plus-chorus LP; the chorus, thanks to Thompson's astute conception, becomes an integrated section of the orchestra.

– Don Gold, Assistant Editor, Playboy Magazine.

MMM, Nice!
The Song
Younger Than Springtime
People Will Say We're In Love
They Can't Take That Away From Me
While We're Young
The Best Thing For You
Ain't We Got Fun
Hello, Young Lovers
Do It Again
Joie De Vivre
I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face
Playboy

Satin Strings Of Steel - Jerry Byrd

Ebb Tide

Satin Strings Of Steel

Jerry Byrd
Monument MLP 8033

When I did a search today I could find no copies of this LP on ebay, amazon or gemm. This version of the Monument label came into use in 1963. So I can make a good guess (from the catalog number) that the release date was '63.

From spaceagepop.com:

Jerry Byrd created some of the finest exotica ever recorded in Nashville. Having paid his dues as a guitarist with Ernie Lee's Pleasant Valley Boys and Ernest Tubb's band, he settled in Nashville and became one of the core group of session men who played on an enormous number of country recordings from the early 1950s through the height of the "Nashville Sound" era of the 1960s.

Byrd earned his mention in the rolls of space age pop history, though, as a prolific Hawaiian guitarist, producing some of the earliest mainstream American imitations of Hawaiian hits, starting with his 1951 album for Mercury, "Shores of Waikiki." Although he moved from label to label through the early 1970s, his specialty remained the same: dreamy steel guitar sounds that provide the perfect accompaniment to a quiet evening of flipping through Hawaiian postcards.

Spellbound - Heindorf

As Performed By Heindorf

Music Composed By Miklos Rozsa

Accompanied By Dr. Samuel Hoffman, Theramin

Warner Bros. 1213

1958

Capitol Records P456

Yoga - The Ancient Art Of India

Yoga

The Ancient Art Of India
#2 Intermediate
World Of Health Inc.
Rite Records, Cincinnati Ohio #30747
1973

The mailing address for World Of Health in the very non-exotic Mt. Healthy, Ohio. (Cincinnati).

Velvet Brass And Percussion

Sabre Dance

Velvet Brass And Percussion
Percussion All Stars
Crown Records CST 230
1961

Budget label, budget cover.

This would have been Crown's attempt to cash in on the percussion trend that was successful for Enoch Light.

Brazil Now - Les Baxter

Brazil Now
Les Baxter
GNP Crescendo Records GNP 2036
1966

Baxter rules! This album is total 60s fun! Light Latin pop with the Baxter touch.

The stereo engineering is excellent.

Hawaii In Hi-Fi

Hindustan

Hawaii In Hi-Fi
Leo Addeo and His Orchestra
RCA Camden CAS-510
1959

Get The Blues When It Rains

Sweet Leilani

Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula

Aloha Oe

Hindustan

Blue Hawaii

My Little Grass Shack

Oh Miami Shore

Drifting And Dreaming

Hula Blues

Living Guitar Play

Theme From Route 66

Living Guitar Play

Arrangements by Al Caiola

Produced by Ethel Gabriel 

Recorded in RCA Studio A, New York City

Recording Engineer: Bob Simpson
RCA Camden CAL 733 & CAS 733
1963

Baby Elephant Walk

Wheels

Chop Sticks

The Jitterbug Waltz

Rapid Fire

Theme From "Route 66"

I'm Movin' On

Steel Guitar Rag

Spanish Fireball

Ritual Fire Dance

The Latin Sound Of Henry Mancini

Guarare (Cumbierus)

The Latin Sound Of Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini and His Orchestra
Produced by Joe Reisman
Arrangements: Henry Mancini
Recorded in RCA Victor's Music Center of the World, Hollywood, California
Recording Engineers: Jim Malloy and Dick Bogert
RCA Victor LSP-3356
1965

From Billboard - June 12, 1965: Henry Mancini combines his talents as an orchestrator with his ability as an orchestra leader to come up with with smooth and sophisticated arrangements of such Latin standards as "Baia" and "Tico-Tico." He stays in the Mancini groove by letting the melody dominate and using special effects to enhance rather than obscure the tune.

Senor Peter Gunn
Baia
Carnavalito
Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)
Vereda Tropical
Guarare (Cumbierus)
La Raspa
The Breeze And I (Andalucia)
Preciosa
Come To The Mardi Gras (Nao Tenho Lagrimas)
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Quizas, Quizas, Quizas)
Tico-Tico

Les Baxter - Young Pops

Misty

Young Pops
Les Baxter
Capitol Records T1399
1960

Here's a great cover, don't you think? This image reminds me of my living room, except all my records are in jackets. What was wrong with teenagers back then?

It is hard to put myself back in the day (I was only four years old when this release hit the stores), but I'm wondering if this music appealed to young folks over The Twist, Hot Rod Lincoln, Chain Gang or any number of tunes?