Howdy Folks! Welcome to The UnEarthed In The Atomic Attic album blog! Here you will find a wide variety of unusual Space Age Vinyl finds that feature good quality cover scans, jacket notes and audio samples for you to enjoy. I'm here to have fun and hope you will share in my process of discovery!
Hungarian Folk Songs
Qualiton Recording
Hungary 1978
The cover model? 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.
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.
Recorded in Hollywood, California, May 15, 21 and 31 and June 6, 1958
Recording Engineer: Thorne Nogar
RCA Victor LPM-1919
1959
From the back cover: There is really nothing with which to compare the music of ORIENTA. One might say it resembles the dreams of an imaginative person who has fallen asleep during a "Dr. Fu Manchu" movie on television. For these incomparable musical vignettes combine the sounds of the East with the wit of the West; the charm of the Orient with the humor of the Occident. They are the adventures of a sensitive traveler who wears glasses which are slightly out-of-focus and who is irrepressibly irreverent of Asiatic saws and clichés. But most important: these impressions are excellent music and hi-fi Fun with a capital "F"! Here are sounds and effects to gladden the tweeters and woofers of the most critical hi-fi addict, coupled with interesting melodies, exciting rhythms and adventurous, harmonies. ORIENTA is not without its serious moments. Indeed, it is primarily a serious artistic effort. Impeccably written, performed and recorded, the album is a study in mood and sound, delightfully combining music and sound effects to tell stories of humor, romance, intrigue and life in the Orient.
Arranger-conductor Gerald Fried has accomplished these ends by skillful writing and the use of a wide assortment of woodwind and rhythm instruments. During the recording sessions the studio was virtually filled with percussion instruments, as many as twenty-five of them at one time. These were played by five of the nation's top per- cussionists, each of whom "doubled" on several instruments. This astounding array of paraphernalia prompted one of the musicians to quip: "Why don't they hire that Oriental god with six or eight arms?" Many hours were spent in preparing, recording and editing the music and authentic sound effects to insure the finest high fidelity repro- duction.
Rimsky-Korsakoff's Song of India finds the ancient music of the Beg- gars' Procession vying for attention with the sounds of a country strug- gling to become modern. A light jazz inflection underlines the contrast. Yokahama Ferryboat takes the listener on a picturesque journey in an antique boat. Gulls, whistles and milling passengers accompany the musical tourist as the boat huffs and puffs into the slip, pouring the commuters into the teeming city.
Rain in Rangoon was composed for the album by Vernon Duke and depicts a Burmese maiden whose reveries in the garden are interrupted by a tropical storm. She seeks refuge indoors until a final clash of thunder marks the end of the storm and the resumption of her placid dreams.
When an American sailor wanders into the Singapore hot-spot called Madam Sloe Gin's, he finds Oriental honky-tonk jazz, booze and girls. Getting his fill of the first two, he leaves with the latter to seek further adventures.
When The Girl Friend of a Whirling Dervish asks a touring jazz group to accompany her dancer friend, the poor Dervish has a rough time catching the beat. He finally gets "hip," however, and turns out to be a swinger
The Raymond Scott composition, Mountain High, Valley Low, is used to frame the story of a Princess who periodically descends from her mountain sanctuary to address her Chinese subjects. Having intoned her benediction, she returns to the hills. Marni Nixon provides the voice of the Princess.
Scheherazade is music for dancing girls. The Arabian setting would not deceive the well-traveled American. Burlesque is burlesque even in a Sultan's court.
Limehouse Blues is an Oriental ballet version of the American classic, "Frankie and Johnnie." Frankie is now called Chin and Johnnie is Chan but the result is the same: Chin stops Chan, Chan stops a bullet, the police stop Chin.
The Night of the Tiger takes the listener to the interior of India where a festival is in progress. The roar of a tiger throws the celebrants into a panic which lasts until the "swish" of a hunting spear and the death cry of the big cat announce that the festival may continue in peace. In the Harry Warren song Nagasaki, humor runs rampant. The listener envisions the selection being played by a traditional Japanese orchestra, the members of which are gradually replaced by modern jazz and rock-'n'-roll enthusiasts.
Train to Ranchipur takes the listener on a hectic ride past dense jungle, through a tunnel and triumphantly into Ranchipur. The odor of the packed coaches defies even hi-fi description.
Runaway Rickshaw is a Leon Pober composition depicting the plight of a rickshaw boy pulling an overweight tourist. The going is bad enough uphill, and the downhill ride is brought to a wild end amid flying merchandise from a peddler's cart.
Rome 35/MM
Enoch Light and His Orchestra Originated and Produced by Enoch Light
Arrangements by Lew Davies
Associate Producer: Julie Klages and Robert Byrne
Art Direction: Charles E. Murphy Cover Art: Giusti
Recording Chief: Fred Christe
Mastering: George Piros (stereo), John Johnson (monaural)
Command Records RS 863 SD 1964
From the inside (gatefold) cover: During the steady advance in high fidelity stereophonic recording in recent years, the name that has always been out front, leading the way at every step, has been Enoch Light.
It was Enoch Light who produced the then new concept in musical sound that was introduced on that fabulously successful record, Persuasive Percussion. This record was not only literally heard 'round the world – it actually established a new world of sound recording, the so-called "percussion" recordings, some of which attempted to follow in the musical path that Enoch Light had blazed while others simply borrowed the key word in the title and let it go at that.
The musical concept that was at the heart of Light's innovation was the use of orchestrations carefully and specifically designed to take advantage of the exciting new recording possibilities that were being made available by developments in high fidelity and stereophonic reproduction. Until then, the engi- neers had been ahead of the musicians. The engineers had developed recording facilities to a point at which they were capable of reproducing much more brilliance and more realistic musical excitement than the musicians were producing.
The orchestrations by Lew Davies, put the advances made by the recording engineers to their first real musical test. These arrangements bristled with dramatic musical effects in which, for instance, high, high piccolos were placed in quick, exciting contrast to deep tubas, trombones and baritone saxophones. These were arrangements that were not only musically valid and musically provocative but they re- vealed for the first time the fascinating results that could be obtained with the new recording and play- back systems that the engineers had created.
So quick and spontaneous was the public response to this revelation that Light and Davies plunged deeper into their experiments with musical innovations, creating greater and greater refinements of the melodic, instrumental excitement with such records as Tony Mottola's ROMAN GUITAR (RS 816) and Enoch Light's FAR AWAY PLACES (RS 822) until, eventually, their challenge became too great for even the best that the engineers could accomplish. That was when Enoch Light turned his full attention to what the engineers were doing. He wanted a cleaner, more minutely accurate and completely realistic method of recording than Command's engineers were then getting from what was conceded to be the finest system of tape recording in the world. Fine as it was, it was not good enough to accommodate and capture the glittering brilliance and all the fine intricacies of the music that Light was producing.
The result of this search for new methods was the development of stereo 35mm magnetic film recording introduced on STEREO 35/MM (RS 826) which Life magazine hailed as "the season's biggest ear- opener." Stereo 35mm recording was infinitely more demanding because the very fact that it actually did record and reproduce every note played by every instrument in a huge orchestra with such total clarity, accuracy and with distinct separation from all the other notes being played meant that even the slightest little error became glaringly apparent. Stereo 35mm magnetic film meant that, for the first time, it was possible to hear a large orchestra on records even more clearly and more accurately than it could be heard in the finest auditoriums in the world.
Command's engineers have continued to refine and improve the stereo 35mm process, producing such magnificent records as the new recorded production of CAROUSEL, starring Alfred Drake and Roberta Peters (RS 843) which is "extremely sensitive and beautifully made in every way" according to its composer, Richard Rodgers. These engineers bring to the use of stereo 35mm film an accumulation of knowledge gained through experience that no other group of sound engineers can match.
Now that the technical end of recording has been lifted to this apex of perfection, Enoch Light has once again sought out the music that will bring out all the glories of this perfection by challenging it to the ut- most. But he insists on making that challenge, as he always has, in the most exciting musical terms.
To do this properly, he required vast, soaring melodies that were big enough and bold enough and glorious enough to carry and sustain the exciting musical ideas that were to be built into the orchestrations. Light found a veritable treasure of just such melodies in the incredibly romantic music of Italy -- music whose amazing melodiousness has been sustained in a tradition that runs from O Sole Mio to Arrivederci Roma.
Here are some of the most memorable popular songs ever written, songs whose great inherent me- lodic charm make them favorites whose popularity never diminishes as the years and even decades go by. Lew Davies has dressed them in spectacular orchestrations that not only expose and expand their basic loveliness but, in the brilliance of Stereo 35mm magnetic film recording, give them a dramatic impact such as they have never had before.
To draw out all of the musical flavor that is in the songs and also in these new arrangements... to project the excruciating musical intensity and the vast dynamic range which have been built into the arrangements in order to get the utmost in recording perfection from the Stereo 35mm process, Enoch Light has assembled and drilled a huge and magnificent orchestra made up of musicians who record under his baton regularly. Because of their specialized experience as members of Light's orchestra, these musicians, more than any other musicians anywhere in the world, understand and have the capabilities of responding to the demands that Light makes for creating the most exciting, the most unusual and the most over- whelming musical experiences ever placed on a record.
This record is the final result of years of technical and musical advances.
There has never been anything quite like it before. You, as a listener, may never be quite the same once you have heard it... once you realize what is now actually possible in the reproduction of brilliant, breathtaking musical excitement.
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
Originated and Produced by Loren Becker and Robert Byrne
Art Director: Daniel Pezza
Recording and Mastering Engineer: George Piros
Command RS 926 SD
1968
From inside the (gatefold) cover: The threads that tie our lives together often follow strange and devious paths. Sometimes we see these threads knitting things together. Sometimes we don't even realize that the fateful is at work.
Two of the threads in Ray Charles' life come into focus in this album. One of them, he's been watching for a long time. The other – well, that was just one of those things.
The thread that he's been watching goes back to the days when Ray was a 17-year-old college student in Chicago. One of his best friends at col- lege was another 17-year-old named Norman Luboff. Both of these 17-year-olds went on to become leaders of two of the finest contemporary choral groups. Despite their professional rivalry, they remained close friends. When they married and had children, their children became friends.
The Luboffs had two children – a son, Peter, and a daughter, Tina. There were three Charles children – Michael, John and Wendy. A couple of summers ago, Mike Charles and Peter Luboff began writing songs together. They were written specifically for a trio made up of Peter and Tina Luboff and Wendy Charles.
The two fathers followed their efforts with interest but from a discreet distance ("Dad stays out," as Ray Charles says). The trio performed a few times but eventually it broke up. Then, for the first time, Ray Charles stepped in. Since the trio, which was the reason for the songs, no longer existed, would it be all right, he asked, if he recorded some of the songs?
Permission was granted by Peter Luboff and Michael Charles. And so the thread that first appeared in Ray Charles' life so many years ago is being woven into a new pattern – the joining of two great musical families in the recording debut of the team of Charles and Luboff.
The other thread dates back to a Broadway musical that Bob Merrill wrote in 1959. It was a musical version of Eugene O'Neill's play, Ah, Wilderness, and it was called Take Me Along. In the show, the title song was sung by Walter Pidgeon and Jackie Gleason in a gentle, easy, softshoe style. The Ray Charles Singers did it then on television on the Perry Como Show, following the general pattern of the Walter Pidgeon – Jackie Gleason version.
Time passed and the song fell into that limbo of good songs that nobody sings anymore. Then someone at United Airlines with a keen ear for the message inherent in the lyric picked it up as the basis for an advertising campaign. The first time Ray Charles heard the United Airlines commercial version of Take Me Along, he realized that he had overlooked the lively potential of the song when he had first done it in 1959. Now he could hear it as a totally different kind of song for his Singers.
He not only heard it – he started writing an arrangement. He wrote the arrangement that night, had the Singers in the studio the next day and the resultant record, released as a single, became an overnight hit. (You'll notice that, like most "over- night" hits, it took eight years to reach fruition).
Needless to say, United Airlines was pleased that their commercial had inspired a hit record. United was so pleased that they put a plane at Ray Charles' disposal for the cover photo of this album.
It happened on a day when the Singers were recording some of the songs in this collection. They were all gathered in the studio – Lillian Clark, Lois Winter, June Magruder, Mary Sue Berry, Elise Bretton, Peggy Powers, Linda Whit- ney, Louise Stuart on the left channel, Steve Steck, Jerry Duane, Alan Sokoloff, Jerome Graff, Robert Hartman, William Ruthenberg, Chuck Magruder, Robert Eaton, Eugene Steck, Art Lang and William Elliott on the right channel.
When the recording session was finished, several of them had other assignments to go to but those who were free climbed into a bus and trundled out to John F. Kennedy International Airport. There the girls got dressed, carefully combed their hair, touched up their make-up and went out to join the boys at the plane. They lined up facing the waiting photographer.
"Turn around," the photographer told them. "Put your hands your in the air and wave to the boys."
They did. 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!
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
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 (aluminum sided housing) and more willing to invest the necessary funds to obtain better housing."
As a part of ALCOA's project to make people feel uncomfortable about not living in one of their aluminum sided houses... they launched a 1959 NBC radio program titled "Monitor". The program gave "experts" a chance to sell their vision about "housing as they see its problem and its effect on American life."
Fortunately, in this set, Monitor features music to help the listener perk up from the sad feeling one experiences from living in a brick house.
That said, however, the "Aluminum Music Sphere Designed by Lester Beall for the ALCOA Forecast Collection" is a great use of aluminum! Love it!
The set is not as cool sounding as the cover looks but Wide Wide World is one awesome sounding track as is Sid Bass's How High Is The Moon.
