Music From Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - Electric Moog Orchestra

Music From Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Electric Moog Orchestra
Musicor Records/Springboard- MUS-8803
1977

This album is available by digital purchase download. So I won't be posting a sample.

This album was a bit of a surprise! This recording was made some ten years after Wendy Carlos commercially successful Switched On Bach LP which paved the way for many more moog albums. So this album is a bit late to the moog party if you ask me. However, I love this album because it reminds me of early university sound lab experimental electronica that I've collected. The retro science fiction sound appeals to me. This isn't cartoony sounding moog stuff. The music is rich and serious.

The album also plays nicely from song to song, holding your interest while painting a terrific soundscape.

Because of that I would have to recommend the LP so that you can (or will be more or less forced to) listen to the work the way it was intended to be heard (rare than by-the-track download)

Main Title And Mountain Visions
Nocturnal Pursuits
The Abduction Of Barry
The Arrival Of Sky Harbor
Galatic Force
The Conversation
The Appearance Of The Visitors
Resolution And End Title
Space Symphony

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - The Wonderball Orchestra

I Can't Smile Without You

Space Out Disco Fever
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
The Wonderball Orchestra
Wonderland Records - WLP-315
1977

The covers of Close Encounters, Star Wars and Star Trek aren't all that spaced out and the rest of the tracks were left begging for alien intervention of some sort.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Star Wars
Star Trek
Name Of The Game
Stayin' Alive
Short People
We Are The Champions
Emotion
Jack And Jill 

I Can't Smile Without You

Quietly Wild - Billy Vaughn

St. James Infirmary

Quietly Wild
Billy Vaughn
DOT Records SLP 25857
1968

Apparently this is a Mono copy (sticker applied to the cover) with a stereo catalog number.

Vaughn made records for decades. Most of his efforts, if you are into the "space age" sound, won't appeal to you. I've picked up copies of a few albums that he released in the 60s that are very cool. This is one of those "groovy light pop" albums.

Check out this great Vaughn album: The Windmills Of Your Mind.

Honey And Other Hits - Living Trio

Lonely Is The Name

Honey And Other Hits
Living Trio
Camden CAS 2265
1968

Shades of The Three Suns. Pleasant light pop with a touch of space age. Although not mentioned on the jacket, I believe the guitarist is Al Caiola.

Thomas Organ Program Presents The Magic Of Color-Glo

Caravan

Thomas Organ Program Presents The Magic Of Color-Glo
1966

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.