Space Chasin'

Bat Man

Space Chasin'
The Starliners
Bowie High School, Bowie Maryland
Edgewood Recording Studio, Washington, D.C.
MM-273 Vol. 1

Cooking jazz LP from a high school band "average age: 15 1/2".

The album was recorded in 3 1/2 hours on 21 May 1967.

Very good music and cover art from a very youthful production. There is one fun standout track (for me) and that is the theme from Batman.

Enjoy!

Git Along Little Dogie

Git Along Little Dogie
Vocalist: Andy Gainley and Doug Martin
The Record Guild Of America, Inc. N.Y.

6.5 inch 78 rpm children's picture disc.

Home On The Range

Home On The Range
Vocalist: Rue Knapp - Guild Chorus
The Record Guild Of America Inc. N.Y.
6001P

6.5 inch 1940s children's picture disk

Night Herding Song

Night Herding Song
Vocalist: Doug Martin
The Record Guild Of America, Inc. N.Y.
6001P

6.5 inch 78 rpm children's picture disc

Blue Chiffon - George Shearing Quintet

Kinda Cute

Blue Chiffon

The George Shearing Quintet and Orchestra

Arrangements by George Shearing and Billy May

Orchestra Conducted by Billy May

Produced by Dave Cavanaugh
Capitol Records ST1124
1959

From Billboard February 16, 1959: The quintet is backed by the Billy May ork in a series of exciting performances. The set is exciting and offers a fresh, new and securely "new" Shearing sound. Top tracks are "Young And Foolish" and "My One And Only Love." Displayable cover. Top pop and jazz potential.

Love-Wise

For Heaven's Sake

Nocturne

Young And Foolish

Nina Never Knew

Kinda Cute

I'm Old Fashioned 

I Love You

Welcome To My Dreams

My One And Only Love

I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Our Of My Life

Like Wild! - Ray Anthony

Fall Out

Like Wild
Ray Anthony
Produced by Lee Gillette
Capitol Records T1304
1960

From Billboard - February 15, 1960: Arrangements emphasize snarling trombones and insistent saxes along with a driving rhythm section and Anthony's own potent horn work. The combination produces one of the best high-pressure big band collections, which includes such well-known Anthony efforts as "Peter Gunn" and "707," as well as new rocking arrangement of a former hit, "Bunny Hop Rock." The impact of this outfit is akin to Ingemar Johannessen's right hand.

Room 43
Fall Out
Kukie Bird
Dark Eyes
Peter Gunn
Wrong Number
707
Swanee River
Fly Now, Pay Later
Bunny Hop Rock
Rock-Umba
Walkin' To Mother's

Dances Wild - Russ Case And His Orchestra

The Salior's Dance

Dances Wild
Russ Case And His Orchestra
Arranged by Russ Case
Produced and Directed by Herman Diaz, Jr.
Photograph by Murray Laden
Recorded at Webster Hall, New York City, December 4, 12 and 20, 1956
Vik LX-1085
1957

Russ Case, at the time of his death (1964), was handling arranging chores on The Jackie Gleason Show. He was also involved in arranging a number of concept albums Gleason produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Sabre Dance
The Doll House
War Dance For Wooden Indians
Danza Lucumi
Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy
The Kerry Dance
Spanish Dance
The Dagger Dance
Ritual Fire Dance
Gypsy Dance
The Sailor's Dance

WIth Bells On - Sid Bass And His Orchestra

The House Is Haunted

With Bells On
Tintinnabulation
Sid Bass and His Orchestra
Vik LX-1112
1958

Original Vik cover and first release. Bass was an inventive artist/arranger. I have two of his albums now (see From Another World). The gimmick Bass features on this album are "bells" and no, the concept doesn't become annoying. There is a wide range of bells tones played throughout, and for the most part, they are used sparingly. The LP is cool.

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York City, July 18, 26 and August 1, 1957.

The engineering on this LP is very good.

With Bells On
Sid Bass and His Orchestra
RCA Camden CAS 501
1959

Korla Pandit - Latin Holiday

Latin Holiday
Korla Pandit
At The Pipe Organ

Who would have thought "Latin" flavored music played on a pipe organ by a self-created mystical character could be so much fun? Pandit pulls it off on luscious blue vinyl. This was his third album on the Fantasy Label.

The rear cover notes, written by Terrence O'Flaherty, go on at length concerning Pandit's "hypnotic" effect on women.  He paints a picture of women staring at Pandit on a TV screen seen in an appliance shop window on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA, between a funeral parlor and a hamburger stand which features something called "Fun On A Bun."

"He's a real experience," sighed one woman as she lifted her shopping bags and walked off into the night.

All this might seem humorous and "made-up". But you need to watch video that exists of Pandit doing his show. The surviving footage is fabulous and if you put yourself into a 50s mindset you can easily understand that Pandit's performance was unique and could have easily held the attention of common housewife.

Korla Pandit Album Covers

I'm posting the Pandit albums I have in my collection to help me keep track of what I've got. But also to aid in indexing my Pandit Blog Posts. You can click on the title and load that post if you are interested

Korla Pandit - The Universal Language Of Music - Vol. 1 - 1954

Korla Pandit - The Universal Language Of Music - Vol. 3

Korla Pandit Selections From The Grand Moghul Suite - 1951

Korla Pandit's Musical Gems - 1951

Korla Pandit Plays Music Of The Exotic East - 1958

Korla Pandit - Tropical Magic - 1959

Korla Pandit (stereo) - At The Pipe Organ - 1960

Korla Pandit (mono) - At The Pipe Organ - 1960

Korla Pandit - Music Of Mystery And Romance - 1960

Korla Pandit - Latin Holiday - 1959

Love Letters - 1960

Hypnotique - Fantasy 8075 - 1961 (blue vinyl)

The Grand Moghul Suite - Part 1 - 1971

Tropical Magic - Korla Pandit

Tropical Magic
Korla Pandit
At The Pipe Organ
Fantasy 3288

Pipe organ music make you all bored? Then you haven't listened to Korla Pandit!

This is another exotic release from the wonderful and mysterious Pandit playing the organ at The Whitney Studio in Glendale, CA. The pressing is on a nice translucent red vinyl.

There is mention on the jacket notes of Pandit's hypnotic eyes that "Wilts women and makes men nervous." Apparently Pandit made such an impression for his appearances on a San Francisco TV station (KGO-TV) that he won a popularity poll 6 months after he was off the air.

You can't help but love the mystic Pandit built up around himself. On this album Pandit is quoted: "Music may not save your soul, but it will cause your soul to be worth saving."

Pandit's percussive style is at the forefront of this album. This is an wonderful exotica effort with exotica staples such as The Beeze And I.

Cowboy Two Step

Cowboy Two Step

Cowboy Two Step

Melody House Publishing, Oklahoma City, OK
MH-35

This record was created to teach "western swing dancing". If you don't care about western swing dancing, then the first track is all-at-once hypnotic and annoying.

If you learned how to cowboy dance from this LP. Good for you! I have no idea how you managed it. The instructions quickly go from the simple to the complex.

Jackie Gleason - Music, Martinis and Memories

Yesterdays

Jackie Gleason Presents

Music, Martinis And Memories
Produced by Richard Jones

Bobby Hackett (featured trumpet)
Capitol Records SY-4518

Jackie Gleason Presents

Music, Martinis And Memories

Capitol W509 (High Fidelity)

1955

The back of the LP (top image) is the one featured with a simple track list and a note that the LP is a "Special Re-Issue". There is also an EMI logo on the back cover.  SY-4518 doesn't appear on the Wikipedia Gleason Discography.

I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
My Ideal
I Remember You
Shangri La
It Could Happen To You
Somebody Loves Me
The Song Is Ended
Once In A While
I Can't Get Started
Yesterdays
I'll Be Seeing You
Time On My Hands

Hal Aloma - Songs Of The Islands

Song Of The Islands

Hal Aloma
Songs Of The Islands
Pickwick SPC-3099
1968

Hal Aloma was know for his steel guitar work.

Million Sellers - The Today People - Grazin' In The Grass

Grazin' In The Grass

More Million Sellers
The Today People
Vocalion VL 73883
1969

Covers, but the set doesn't strive to be exact copies of the originals. They are expertly done and nicely engineered. There is a cover of "My Way" on the LP. That song that is almost always butchered as a cover but this one sounds pretty good.

Even a cover of The Beatles, Get Back, is catchy. Above is a dreamy cover of Grazin' In The Grass composed by Philemon Hou and first recorded by Hugh Masekela, released in 1968 and reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The only mention I can find on the web concerning this album is a listing in September 1969 issue of Billboard.

Apparently the recording was made in England by Shaftesbury Production.

18 Golden Hits Of 1971

Maggie May

Proud Mary

18 Golden Hits Of 1971
Million Selling Songs
The Sound Effects
Alshire International / QMO Products QMO-111

The Fantasy Film World Of Bernard Herrman

The Fantast Film World Of Bernard Herrmann
Conducting The National Philharmonic Orchestra
Phase 4 Stereo Decca/London Records
1974

The Day The Earth Stood Still, spanning 11:15 on the B side, followed by Fahrenheit 451 are particularly wonderful mood setting pieces. Both tracks flow nicely together. The music is full of engaging experimentation and complex twists and turns.

Much can be found online about Herrmann. I just wanted to mention this LP because I collect exotica and like music that takes you for a journey.

The Phase 4 engineering is excellent on this record.

Disco Gold Atomic Bomb

Disco Gold
Top Tunes Of Today
Dimensional Sounds
Goldendisc Industries

Out of all the goofy things I find that reflect my actual life... this find today makes a great mirror.

This is a disco record with very little disco on it, the tracks are recorded by a fake band and the cover sports a bad atomic bomb explosion photo that requires a moment of study to figure out what the blob represents. Unbelievably, there are at least SIX albums in this series, but this copy found at the thrift has Disco Gold number TWO inside. God knows where number six is today.

How does this find reflect my life? Most days I feel like I don't fit my skin. As if I am an old AM pop song done over by a lame cover group and served up smothered in cheesy atomic age icing. I'm the wrong person in the wrong number 6 jacket lost on a sagging shelf in a run down thrift. Worse yet...  my life appeals to me.

All that aside... this is both the wrong record in the right jacket and the right record in the wrong jacket. I love fake "top hits" cover albums. And there are some great horrible tracks on this one.

Korla Pandit - Music of Mystery And Romance

Korla Pandit
Music Of Mystery And Romance
A Concert Performance Of The Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ
Fantasy 8061
1960

Pandit, if anyone, can make the Wurlitzer Pipe Organ sound like anything more than a droning machine built to play Church music.

And on top of exotic music coaxed out of the pipe organ Pandit throws in this exotic cover and, of course, lush blue vinyl!

Pagan Festival

Pagan Festival
An Exotic Love Ritual For Ochestra
Dominic Frontiere
Columbia CL 1273
1959

Pagan Festival is included, on Wikipedia" as one of the 13 "prominent albums of the exotica genre". It's lovely, but I have to note that none of Arthur Lyman or Korla Pandit's or a number of other artist's albums to be found on the list.

Due to the style of orchestration, this record sounds a bit more to me like a soundtrack.

The cover was hard to scan as this is an "Alcoa foil" jacket. The foil reflects light strangely. So you will find all kinds of weird reproductions. Foil print jobs required 5 colors on the press, one for white and then four process colors. In other words, this was an expensive jacket to print.

Dominic Frontiere worked on many TV and film projects, including The Outer Limits, Rat Patrol, The Immortal and Hang 'Em High.

He was also charged and convicted in a big time ticket scalping scheme in which he obtained 1980 Super Bowl Tickets from his wife and Los Angeles Rams Owner, Georgia Frontiere.

Frontiere worked on the film Color Of Night as recently as 1994. He lived a colorful life to say the least.

Korla Pandit Universal Language Volume 1

Korla Pandit

The Universal Language Of Music Volume 1
400 Series Private Collection
India Records
Recorded By Korla Pandit Productions
1954

This is the red vinyl release of Pandit's excellent three record "Universal Language Of Music" set of records.

This is a great exotica album with spoken word voiceovers. Pandit experimented with his instrument, the organ and piano to create something that goes beyond your typical exotica offering. The music is quirky and the voiceovers simply add to the strangeness.

Pandit, very early on in pop music history, understood how to package himself for maximum effect. He created a mystical personality cult. His work is wonderful and highly interesting to collect.

The Sounds Of Exotic Island - The Surfmen

Orchid Lagoon

The Sounds Of Exotic Island
The Surfmen
Recorded under the direction of D. L. Miller
United Recording Studio, Hollywood
Cover Photo: George Pickow
Cover Art: Will Dresser
Somerset SF-10500
1959

Also issued as The South Sea Serenaders - Tradewinds: Romance From Hawaii To Tahiti (Somerset SF-25100).

From the back cover: The arrangements in this album were scored by two very capable musical beachcombers – Joe Kuhn and Bob Louden. The Surfmen include such top west coast musicians as Paul Horn, Roland Bundock, Jimmy Rowles, Al Hendrickson, Alvino Rey, Jack Sterling, Sam Weiss, J. Castonza, Mike Holland, Gene Estes, Ann Stockton and Emil Richard.

Special percussion instruments used were: Tahitian log, Chinese wind glass, Guatemalan gourd, coconut shells, lava stones, bamboo rods from Hawaii, bamboo puppet stakes from Hong Kong, and congo drums from Tanaganyika, Africa, Tropical bird calls, surf and jungle sounds are authentic recordings of same.

Quiet Village
Tahiti Sunrise
Bali Hai
Bamboo
Jungle Romance
Forbidden Island
Taboo
Moonlight In Paradise
Luau
Orchid Lagoon
Fire Goddess
Moon Of Manakoora

Study In Blue - Blue Skies & Alice In Blue

Blue Skies & Alice In Blue

Study In Blue
By The Hour Of Charm All Girl Orchestra Under The Direction Of Phil Spitalny
Vogue Picture Record

This is a nice set of Vogue Picture Records found in their original cardboard jacket. The jacket is made out of heavy cardboard. The notch you see at the top allows for you to pull out card board "flats" that contains the record.

Enjoy the lovely versions of Blue Skies & Alice Blue Gown (records pictured above).

Vogue Picture Record Set - Study In Blue

Rhapsody In Blue

Study In Blue
By The Hour Of Charm All Girl Orchestra Under The Direction Of Phil Spitalny
Vogue Picture Record

I was very lucky this week to find an actual set of Vogue Picture Records in their original cardboard jacket. I've never seen an actual jacket before, so this is very exciting. The jacket is made out of heavy cardboard that you find on other 78 jackets of the time. The notch you see at the top allows for you to pull out card board "flats" that the record sits in.

Enjoy Rhapsody In Blue parts I and II (the art for Rhapsody In Blue is the same on both records). Check my next post for very lovely versions of Blue Skies & Alice Blue Gown (records pictured above).