Dance Discotheque Dance

Moon River Monkey

Dance Discotheque Dance
Go-Go-Go to 16 Great Tunes
Pricewise 4006

Curious LP from a budget label. Each side features eight tunes with the next track playing the instant the preceding song finishes. All of the tunes seem to have been recorded by the same session group. The music is laid over a continual crowd noise, to somehow suggest that the music is being recorded live.

For your money you get pleasant cheesy music and the blurry photos of adult models on the cover dancing on strips of aluminum foil.

A Clockwork Orange - Music From The Movie

Singing In The Rain & Title Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary

Music From The Movie A Clockwork Orange

Pickwick SPC 3302
1972

There are a number of odd "electronic" tracks on this album, some performed by Monte Cross. These are sandwiched between straight orchestrated tracks that may more closely mimic the "originals".

I'll just say that this album is good quirky fun and I recommend grabbing a copy if someone was kind enough to leave a copy for you in the discount bin.

Zither South Of The Border - Ruth Welcome

Estrellita

Zither South Of The Border
Ruth Welcome
Capitol ST 1397
1960

One of the numerous Welcome albums on Capitol. My favorite will always be Zither Magic. But this project also strikes me as being one of her better projects. The "Latin" selections work nicely as zither arrangements.

Songs Made Famous By The Beatles

Michelle - Ray Martin

Songs Made Famous By The Beatles

Produced by Ethel Gabriel
RCA Records Stereo CAS 2438
1970 

Hey Jude - Living Strings - Arranged and conducted by Johnny Douglas

Michelle - Ray Martin and His Orchestra - Arranged and Conducted by Ray Martin

The Fool On The Hill - Living Jazz - Arranged and conducted by Phil Bodner

The Long and Winding Road  - The Living Trio - Arranged and conducted by Al Caiola

Eleanor Rigby - Living Marimbas - Arranged and conducted by Leo Addeo

Yesterday - Ray Martin and His Orchestra - Arranged and Conducted by Ray Martin

Let It Be - Arranged and conducted by Al Caiola

Ol-la-di, Ob-la-da - The Electric Harmonica with the New Group - Arranged and conducted by Alan Black Schackner

Mediterranean In Perspective - Judd Solo and the Italiano Quartetto

 In Old Lisbon

Mediterranean In Perspective
Judd Solo and the Italiano Quartetto
Studio 2 Stereo TWO 108
E.M.I. Records - Hayes - Middlesex - England
1966

This is another example of why I buy records that most people don't look twice at. There is always a chance the you hear something fun regardless of what the jacket suggests.

This set plays like a groovy space age Three Suns album.

From the back cover: Guest soloists: Hugo D'Alton, Kenny Baker, J. E. Buck, Jnr., Ronnie Price, Ernie Shear and Manny Winter.

Also from the back cover: ...This system was used in the making of this record – Judd Solo's second LP for E.M.I. Judd has become well-known through his radio and television work, together with his appearances at the London Hilton Hotel. He sings in no less than eight languages, and plays guitar as well as leading his Italiano Quartetto.

Kenny Baker, listed as the trumpet player on the album.

Gypsy Magic - The Kardos Trio

Zigeuner

Gypsy Magic
The Kardos Trio
Harmony Columbia HL 7207
1959

This album could be a reissue from a 10 inch issue to this 12 inch LP? There is a lot of unused space on both sides the disc.

From the back cover: Ernest Cards, leader of this spirited trio, is concert master of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and assistant concert master of the Cleveland Orchestra as well. At thirteen he won the the violin contest of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs, and he joined the Cleveland Orchestra at nineteen as its youngest member. Service with the armed forces interrupted his playing for a few years, but he returned in 1946. In 1947 he also joined the faculty of the Cleveland Music School Settlement. Lucile Cards was director and staff organist of a large radio station in Texas when she married Mr. Kardos. Upon moving to Cleveland with him, she continued her active musical career which included appearances at the Hotel Cleveland. Alice Chalifoux, third member of the trio, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Carlos Salzedo, and was later appointed first solo harpist with the Cleveland Orchestra. She also established the Harp Department of the Cleveland Institute of Music.

From Billboard - October 12, 1959: The tunes are for the most part pop selections, but they are done with sobbing violin approach that typifies gypsy music. Sound is good and packaging is attractive enough. It can find a market with economy buyers and on the racks. Tunes include "Autumn Leaves," "Hungarian Dance No. 1" and "Two Guitars."

Autumn Leaves
Hora Staccato
The Gypsy Fiddle Plays No More
Zigeuner
Play Gypsies, Dance Gypsies
Two Guitars
When A Gypsy Makes His Violin Cry
Hungarian Dance No. 1 (Brahms)

Sensational! - Mario Said

Spooky

Sensational!
Mario Said
Orchestra Conducted and Arranged By Tommy Oliver
Producer: Tommy Oliver
Engineer: Woody Woodward
Cover Photography: George Jerman
Liner Photography: John Engstead
Piano Courtesy of Baldwin
Liberty LST-7562
1968

From the back cover: Mario Said can't hide his classical roots. For years he looked across a keyboard at Bach and Brahms, and ended up playing about the best classical piano anyone has heard in Panama, where he was born and raised. He studied at the Conservatory Of Music in Panama for eight years, and performed classical concerts in places like the National Theater (Latin America's answer to Carnegie Hall). – Al Stoffel

Don't Sleep In The Subway
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Hey Girl
Scarborough Fair
Walk Away Renee
Free Again
We Can Fly
Spooky
Theme From "Valley Of The Dolls"
Release Me
Moonlight
The Importance Of The Rose

Many Splendored Themes - The Fantastic Strings Of Felix Slatkin

Peter Gunn

Many Splendored Themes
The Fantastic Strings Of Felix Slatkin
Liberty Premier LSS 14011
1961

This album was fun for me to collect if only for the amazing packaging. Both the front and back cover feature fragile die-cuts that allow the colorful inner sleeve to peak through. Terrific graphic design for 1961.

The music is lush orchestrated easy listening with nice space age touches. The cover of Peter Gunn is one of the "funkier" selections from this fine Liberty release.

Exciting Sounds From Romanic Places

Strange Enchantment

Exciting Sounds From Romanic Places
Leo Diamond's Orchestra
Cover Design by Matt Schutz
ABC- Paramount
A Product Of Am-Par Record Corp.
ABCS-268
1959

From the back cover: Only a master musician and performer, gifted with the patience and quest for perfections as is Leo Diamond, would and could have attempted the scope of this album. Like many a noted contemporary of his instrument, Mr. Diamond is a graduate of the internationally-famed Borrah Minnevitch and his Harmonica Rascals, and has performed in almost every corner of the world. He is regarded by critics as among the topmost virtuosi of the harmonica, and has, to a great extent, been responsible for the elevation of the mouth organ to a position of prominence in the realm of recognized instruments, as opposed to a mere plaything.

A peerless musician, Mr. Diamond is also esteemed as a composer, having written the score of the beautiful Skin Divers' Suite and the recent musical delight, Off Shore. He has appeared on the concert stage, as guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras, in the world's most exclusive night clubs and in theaters all over the globe, establishing himself as an international favorite.

To add to this formidable alignment of credits, it should be noted that, for this album, Mr. Diamond personally used in the recording, some of which are shown in the photographs at right. (back cover).

From Billboard - February 16, 1959: Diamond is literally a "one-man ban" on this interesting package, which features the harmonica virtuoso playing all 12 parts, via some effective multi-tracking. By recording the entire album on 35-mm motion picture sound film, the over-all effect is smoothly harmonious mood music. Selections are travel-keyed standards – "La Vie En Rose," "Sleepy Lagoon," "Lili Marlene," etc. Fine jockey wax.

La Vie En Rose
The River Sene
Arriverderci, Roma
Domani
Strange Enchantment
Sleepy Lagoon
The Petite Waltz
Lili Marlene
The Girls In Brazil
The Breeze And I
King's Serenade
To You Sweetheart, Aloha

So What's New - Horst Jankowski

Highway At Night

So What's New
Horst Jankowski
Mercury MG 21093
1968

The music is sparkly just like the cover model. Light space age glitter.

Read more about Jankowski on his wiki page.