Good Feelin's

Hey Jude

Good Feelin's
The Happy Day Choir
Arranged by Wright & Carmichael, Inc.
Produced by Lee Young for Arthur James Productions
Dunhill - ABC Records
DS 50061
1969

Here's an album with a marketing problem. The cover features what looks like the backup singers for The Dean Martin Comedy Hour. If you look at the back cover you might think that this set might be some sort of "kids" record and or even a religious record. However, when you note song titles like: "California Dreamin'," "Hey Jude," "Let The Sun Shine In" and "Mrs. Robinson." and when you read the copy a little more closely you will understand that the creators made an effort to blend pop tunes with a black gospel sound. This approach seems like a disaster brewing but, God help me... it works. The pop songs feature strong vocal leads blended with killer gospel chorus.

Some tracks work better then others, but I've never heard a pop song cover set done up this way. Even during the cover of Hey Jude, I thought the song was going "off-course" and then the arrangers somehow manage to make it work.

California Dreamin'
Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show
Hey Jude
Little Green Apples
For What It's Worth
Son Of A Preacher Man
Green, Green Grass Of Home
Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In
Mrs. Robinson
Words
O Happy Day

Ron Baynum And The Islanders

Ron Baynum
The Islanders
Jewel Records
Rec. No 981
205431A

The Noxzema Rag

The Noxzema Rag
Auravision Columbia Specialty Products
CBS Records CSM-6820
1967

6 x 6 inch cardboard record torn out of a magazine (my best guess). Probably

I want the "Boobie" prize!

Organ Melodies

Quiet Village

Organ Melodies
From Hobby-Lesson Course For Wurlitzer Organs
Total Tone Series
Rite Records Cincinnati, Ohio

Promotional item from The Wurlitzer Company, Dekalb, Illinois. A two record set sol in a book-fold jacket that featured no printing on the inside. There is reams of copy on the back cover marketing the Wurlitzer Organ, but no real hint of how this set is supposed to help you learn to play, as a "hobby lesson course". There is no instructional material hear on the record(s).

Perhaps this set was meant to entice people to sign up for a "course" or there was additional printed material to be found package with this set that is gone now.

The Mystic Moods Orchestra - Love The One Your With

The Mystic Moods Orchestra
Love The One You Are With
Warner Brothers BS 2577
1972

This is Brad Miller's first record with Warner Brothers and apparently his 12th album. Miller's approach on this project like many of his works is one of mixing "found" natural sounds he recorded in the field with easy listening. This technique works to blend tracks together to form a "landscape" of sound that allows you to drift off into a Mystic Mood.

It works and there are some cool easy listening tracks on this album. Some of the best 60s/70s easy listening in my opinion. The set is simply well done and holds up musically.

Soul Groove

74 Miles Away

Soul Groove!
Programmed by Dave Dexter, Jr.
Creative Products/Capitol SL-6678

Nancy Wilson Uptight - Everything's All Right
Cannonball Adderley - 74 Miles Away
Lou Rawls - I Love You, Yes I Do
King Curtis - Soul Serenade
Bettye Swann - Willie & Laura Mae Jones

Nancy Wilson - West Coast Blues
Cannonball Adderley - I Remember Bird
Lou Rawls - Wee Baby Blues
King Curtis - Watermelon Man
Bettye Swann - Don't Touch Me

Music To Make You Misty - Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason Presents

Music To Make You Misty
Capitol Records W 455
1955

Terrific cover of a red head getting all dewy-eyed over something... probably the hair spray made her tear up.

Another great in the series of romantic albums released by Gleason. This set charted #11 on Billboard.

Blooming Hits - Paul Mauriat

Blooming Hits

Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra
Philips PHS 600-248
1968

This was a very popular set and therefore a common album to find in the bins around here. The tune, Love Is Blue, charted at #1 for 5 weeks. Sales where brisk and many where pressed.

Love Is Blue is the best tune on the LP. But there are a number of other 60s pop ear candy tracks to keep easy listeners awake!

Hawaiian Paradise

Aloha Oe; Hawaiian Paradise

Hawaiian Paradise
Leo Addeo His Orchestra and Chorus
RCA Camden CAS-853
1965

Leo Addeo was a key RCA house arranger for most of the 50s and 60. This is his 6th RCA album.

The record is a pleasant 60s blend of AM radio easy listening and Hawaiian flavored music.

RCA tries to sell this LP as "authentic" because Addeo uses all of the Hawaiian percussion instruments from steel guitars and tom-toms to native feathered gourds (Although the feathers probably don't actually contribute to the "sound." If you use your imagination you can picture the movements of the colorful instruments and there's a certain authentic flavor Addeo that adds to your listening enjoyment.). Really… that was copy found on the back cover.

Addeo features an organ on this set which is cool and adds a bit of interest to the music.

Claudine - The Look Of Love

Claudine
The Look Of Love
Arranger: Nick De Caro
Album Design: Perter Whorf Graphics
Engineer: Bruce Botnik
Producer: Tommy LiPuma
A&M SP 4129
1967

The Look Of Love
Man In A Raincoat
Think Of Rain
How Insensitive (Insensatez)
Manha De Carnaval
Love How You Love Me
Creators Of Rain
When I'm Sixty-Four
Good Day Sunshine
The End Of The World

Tahiti Dances

Vahine Anamite

Tahiti Dances
Authentic Tahitian Chants, Drum Rhythms and Songs
Actually Recorded in Papeete, Tahiti
HI-FI Tahiti Records TR-201
1961

From the back cover: Eddie Lund, in this album, has given the world its first discs of authentic Tahitian music as recorded in the islands themselves. He has studied the music ever since his arrival in Papeete in 1936 and is one of the leading authorities in this field. To insure absolute authenticity in these recordings, Lund traveled to some of the most remote of the Society Islands to assemble talent. Many performers never before had seen a microphone.

Eddie Lund is an interesting character. He formed a band, which is featured on this LP called Eddie Lund and his Native Tahitians. It would seem that he played with the local musicians, although it is not at all apparent what the role of his "band" had in the project. This is his fourth record of Tahitian music. He stayed in Tahiti permanently and became know as the Irving Berlin of Island music and the father of modern Tahitian folk Music. He died in 1973.

The music on this disc is varied. I simply picked, by way of example, the more "unique" track.

Raisins & Almonds Cha Cha Cha & Merengues

Sher Cha Cha

Raisins & Almonds Cha Cha Cha & Merengues
Johnny Conquet, His Piano and Orchestra
RCA Vicrtor LSP-1789
1958

Terrific cover. I think this record sets the bar higher for me when it comes to vintage Cha Cha. This is a great record. Conquet takes Jewish folk songs and dances and turns them "into mambo, merengue and cha cha cha".

Unusual, peppy and great fun!

Hungarian Folk Songs

Why Must I Not Love You?

Hungarian Folk Songs
Qualiton Recording
Hungary 1978

Who can resist this cover? This would be a Komondor, the largest of the Hungarian dog breeds? Known as the "King of the Working Dogs" the Komondor are perhaps one of the most unusual looking dogs in the world. After a bath this dog can take three days to dry.

Why is there a dog on the cover? I have no idea. The song titles, thankfully, are translated on the back cover (although the number of tracks on the record and the song title number do not match). One song, on the B side is titled "Little dog, big dog". That's it for the dogs songs. Other song titles are humorous. Titles include: My sweetheart is chic, Who knows why you have gone away?, Crying is not worthwhile, Maidens, maidens, maidens in the village, You are my woman, There is a ditch and there is a pit, The snow has covered the road, I don't need that, My boots are wrinkled and The raven is croaking... yes... My boots are wrinkled and The raven is croaking.

Three's A Crowd When It's Intimate Jazz

Alone Together

Three's A Crowd When It's Intimate Jazz
The Phil Moody Quintet

Cover Photo: George Pickow

Cover Art: Will Dressler

Recorded at Master Recording Studios, Hollywood, California under Direction of D. L. Miller
Somerset SF-10400
1960

Body And Soul

I Only Have Eyes For You

Romeo Digs Juliet

All Of Me

Two Sleepy People

Alone Together

Let's Fall In Love

The Way You Look Tonight

Rachmaninoff Sits In

You Do Something To Me

Bwana ã - Arthur Lyman

Blue Sands

Bwana ã
More Exotic Sounds Of Arthur Lyman
HIFI Record R808
1958

From the back cover: Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, with its face of civilization, attracts thousands of tourists, many of whom crowd the Shell Bar at Henry J. Kaiser's Hawaiian Village Hotel to see and hear Arthur Lyman's group. They listen spell bound to the exotic sounds and music that have made Arthur Lyman's first album Taboo a best seller everywhere.

The Lyman group "fits" together, each member instinctively knowing what the other will do – the success key to a successful group. As before, Arthur Lyman plays 4-mallet vibes with feeling and finesse, doubling on marimba, guitar, and often percussions. Allen Soares builds piano and celeste rhythm and harmonies. John Kramer keeps the string bass beat, sometimes taking off on flute. Harold Chang provides unending excitement and suspense with accurate, imaginative percussive excursions – in other words, he plays drums but good! Some of the less usual percussion heard are wind chimes, cow bells, castanets, tambourine, guido and all manner of bongo, conga, samba, snare and other drums. Assisting the group for this recording are Japanese vocalist Ethel Azama, pianist Paul Conrad and Chinese Chew Hoon Chang, who plays the rare butterfly, or moon harp, which must be re-tuned for each change of key. Chew Hoon Chang also plays a Chinese bamboo flute. Bird sounds heard are both real and imitative.

Also from the back cover: Once again, through the courtesy of Mr. Henry J. Kaiser, we have recorded in the Kaiser Aluminum Dome outside the Hawaiian Village Hotel. The dome is as nearly perfect acoustically as any place we have found in which to record. It's an auditorium in the shape of a half sphere, seating about 1,200 people, has no "peaks." Reverberation decay time is ideal – about 3 seconds. A pleasing sound phenomenon is that the sound reflective properties of the aluminum sections from which the dome is fabricated accent the 3kc to 5kc range, giving a particularly clean and accurate sound. The group was miked with three Austrian made AKG microphones and recorded with a custom built 3 channel stereophonic Ampex magnetic half-inch tape recorder. The three tracks were later mixed in cutting the master disc from which this record was made. 

Bwana ã

Moon Over A Ruined Castle

Waikiki Serenade 

La Paloma

Otome San

Canton Rose

Blue Sands

Malaguena 

Vera Cruz

Pua Carnation

Colonel Bogey's March

Orienta

Orienta

The Markko Polo Adventures
RCA Victor LPM-1919
1958

Occasionally, on this blog, I talk about the exotica musical form taking you on trips to fantastic worlds. Apparently, in 1959, RCA understood this (saying as much on the back cover). They (Gerald Fried) created this world with a few interesting tricks. Overlaying crowd noises, adding odd little sounds  and recording music that sounds like it was recorded in the distance (or in the next room).

This album was arranged by Gerald Fried who is know for arranging music for films and TV, including Star Trek. Apparently Fried went to high school with Stanley Kubrick and composed scores for his first four films.

One blog covering this work mentioned that some folks may consider this project a "parody" of exotica. To me, 1958 seems a bit early in the timeline to be doing a parody when the form only received it's "label" in 1957. Who would get the joke? In fact, exotica as a whole, could be considered a parody of world/folk music traditions. Could it be that Fried just wanted to make an "exotica" LP and this is what he came up with?

Whatever is the case, this record is a great addition to your collection.

Rome 35/MM Enoch Light

Via Veneto

Rome 35/MM
Enoch Light and his Orchestra
Originated and Produced by Enoch Light
Art Direction: Charles E. Murphy
Cover Art: Giusti
Command Records
RS 863 SD
1964

From Billboard - February 29, 1964: Another strong album for the stereo-conscious good music fan. The album is filled with continental charm of Italian melodies played by an large orchestra that includes strings, concertina and guitars. Close your eyes and your listening in Italy to tunes like "Solo Mio," "Anna," "Non Dimenticar" and "Arrivederrci Roma."

O Sole Mio
Via Veneto
Arrivederci, Roma
Per Tutta La Vita (I Want To Be Wanted)
Tango Delle Rose
'Na Voce, 'Na Chitarra, E 'O Poco 'E Luna
Scalinatella (Stairway To The Sea)
Parlami D'Amore, Mariu' (Tell Me That You Love Me)
Anna
Ciumachella (From "Rugantino")
Non Dimenticar (Don't Forget)
Nina

Take Me Along! The Ray Charles Singers

The Look Of Love

Take Me Along!
The Ray Charles Singers
Command RS 926 SD
1968

This record was made after Enoch Light sold his label to ABC in 1965. In 1968 ABC was still using the Light's gatefold jacket design. That's amazing and a good thing because there is enough space on the inside of the book-fold to explain who the Ray Charles Singers are. It is a long and complicated story.

Apparently the folks (featured on the cover) are the actual group members. Most of whom, after a recording session, ran out to the airport to have a photographer set up this photo. From the jacket notes: But on the bus back to town, they were a disgruntled group of girls. All that preparation and you can't even see their faces!

Ray Charles is seen on the cover. He is the fellow wearing the cap.

The music is easy listening with touches of 60s pop that help make most of the tracks interesting (if you are into 60s easy listening... that is).

Take Me Along
The Look Of Love
Summertime Sweethearts
Blame It On Me
This Heart (Paris)
I Can See It Now
Windy
Walkin' Lonely
Henry, Sweet Henry
Quiz Me
Watch What Happens
Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye

Music From Monitor

Wide Wide World

Music From Monitor
Alcoa
1960

Apparently a rare promotional record from The Aluminum Company Of America.

According to the jacket notes ALCOA decided that they needed to make "the home-buying and home owning public more conscious of the need for better housing and more willing to invest the necessary funds to obtain better housing." I'm not kidding, this is how it reads.

As a part of ALCOA's project to make people feel horrible about not living in an aluminum sided house... they lunched a radio program in 1959 on NBC called "Monitor". They used this program as a platform for all sorts of "experts" to spew about "housing as they see its problem and its effect on American life."

Man... Fortunately Monitor also featured music to help perk you up from the guilt you must have been feeling for living in a brick house. And some of that music is featured on this LP.

I must admit that ALCOA bought themselves an amazingly cool Space Age/Atomic Age record cover! "Aluminum Music Sphere Designed by Lester Beall for the ALCOA Forecast Collection. Now this is a great use of aluminum! Love it!

The music is not pure space age or as cool as the cover looks but Wide Wide World is awesome sounding along with Sid Bass's How High Is The Moon (a song from this Sid Bass LP). I would call the LP a mix of bachelor pad and easy listening. Overall, not a bad collection with a few dull tracks to give your time to ponder why everything you see in your house is not made out of aluminum.

Milva

Io Di Notte

Milva
Fiesta Records, NY/Dischi Ricordi, Italy
FLPS 1578
1967

Love the cover, don't understand the lyrics... grooving on the sound. There are many fun and varied pop tunes with a 60s flare on this set.

I found Milva on wikipeida. Maria Ilva Biolcati. She is fabulously popular and has made countless albums.

Stereo Dynamics! To Scare Hell Out Of Your Neighbors

Adolf Hitler (Excerpt from Edmond De Luca's "Conquerors of the Ages" The London Philharmonic

Stereo Dynamics! To Scare Hell Out Of Your Neighbors
Somerset SF-11400
1961 (stereo version)

Budget label release.

This record has it all that includes a weird looking cover and the number one track on the A side titled Adolf Hitler.  On further investigation, apparently Luca wrote an entire piece of music that featured all the most "popular" conquerors. Including Hitler. Very little information can be found online about this project.

The back cover states: To Test Your Stereo Equipment of Scare Hell Out of Your Neighbors.

I'm not exactly sure what the hell Somerset was up to... Surely they just wanted to make a buck packaging songs they paid nothing for.

The second track on the A side is Fire Goddess by The Surfmen is a very cool track is followed by a scary organ track and then.... WTF... La Paloma? An exercise in musical contrasts! I get it! Scare your neighbors! LOL!

What a fun record!

Sex ...should we wait?

Sex ...should we wait?
Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Willke
Hiltz Publishing Co.
Artist Recording, Cincinnati, OH
1969

Arguably one of my more rare local recordings I've found. A two record set made during a talk at The University Of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Memo Salamanca Cha Cha Cha

La Basura

Memo Salamanca And His Cha Cha Orchestra
Cha Cha Cha
Audio Fidelity AFLP 1813
1957

Terrific cover with lots of copy on the back describing how to do the Cha Cha. However, there is no information on Salamanca.

Apparently, Salamanca's first name was actually Guillermo. He died in 2008 at the age of 83.

Nice set that is as perky as the cover art. The vocals seem to have had a little reverb added giving the record an interesting sound (for the period).