In The Night When The Moon Shyly Winks

In The Night When The Moon Shyly Winks

Oh Cecilia
Lyric Quartet
Victor 17546
1914

Lakota High School 1969

Up, Up And Away

Lakota High School Chorus Spring Concert
March 6, 1969

It is always fun to find a local private press. This copy is a jacket blank signed and dated by alumni from 1969 to 1972.

Sudan & My Sahara Rose

Sudan
My Sahara Rose
The Happy Six
Columbia A2934
1920

Why Shouldn't I Cry Over You

Why Shouldn't I Cry Over You
Sweet Indiana Home
Artuelle 020839
Golden Gate Orchestra

Just A Girl That Men Forget

Just A Girl That Men Forget
Wait Till You're Blue
Georger Beaver
Cameo 409
1922

Here we have a vintage song that admonishes the "fun" girl in town. Followed by a song about how she (possibly the same tramp) gaily dumps you only to come back later, crawling on her knees no less... begging to be taken back.

George Beaver, you're so funny!

Hits From Latin America

Beguine For Lovers

Hits From Latin America
Jaun Del Oro And His Orchestra
Dyna-Disc CH-807

Here we have an obscure album from a Juan Del Oro. I can find several more LPs by Del Oro on the Somerset label with 1964 release dates.

This album features a great vintage cover and nice fully orchestrated smooth or somewhat light Latin numbers.

Send Me Softly

Lullaby Of Leaves

Send Me Softy - Milt Buckner
Capitol Records T938
1957

This album was a bit of a surprise. First and needless to point out, any album featuring an image of a smoking hot model, or should I say, hot model... smoking is collectible.

This is my first Buckner album. Close your eyes and the music seems to be coming from the depths of a smoky basement lounge. A place that you might go to buy a lady a drink so that she will talk to you as long as your money holds out. The band plays a bit of exotica, a touch of stripper jazz or a tune from a B movie soundtrack featuring an obscure private eye that you've never heard of.

Excellent and inventive percussive organ playing by Buckner.

Highly recommended!

The Adventures Of Captain Sky

The Adventures Of Captain Sky
AVI 6042
1978

For those of you who say... Manic Mark, why is it that you never feature funk albums? Well... I feature what I find. And I hardly ever find funk records around here. But today I found this album with a cartoon cover in the 50¢ bin at a used record store. At first I wasn't sure that it wasn't a kid's record. But on closer examination... probably funk. And the record is apparently a rare bird for funk collectors.

Enjoy a fun track from this inventive LP.

Over The Rainbow - Jesse Crawford

Ebb Tide

Over The Rainbow
Jesse Crawford
At The Pipe Organ
Decca DL 78984
1960

The August 8, 1960 Billboard gave this Crawford LP a good review. I picked it up because of the interesting "percussion" styled jacket art (a popular graphic style of the time) and I wanted to hear how Crawford covered Ebb Tide, which was a much covered "exotica" tune from same period.

Music For Bang Baaroom And Harp

Typee

Music For Baaroom And Harp
Dick Schory's New Percussion Ensemble
RCA Victor LSP-1866
1958

Wonderful cover on this early percussion album I found at Goodwill yesterday. There is so much crap to be had a Goodwill that I find it incredible I still find decent half century old records in the bin.

The photo above was scanned off the back cover. Look at the set up RCA did to record this album! They jumped heavy into exotica with this project. The form, "exotica" broke on the scene just about a year earlier with Martin Denny's release of "Exotica".

The problem with this album is that song selection ping pongs between really cool tracks, by way of example, on side one, Baja and April In Paris and Nation Emblem March and Ding Dong Polka (which are annoyingly light for me). I couldn't get into the album as a whole due to these mood contrasts.

I read one online review in which the reviewer "liked" all of the songs with the exception of Typee, the one song on this LP that really grabbed me as exceptional.

Today, there are only a few import CDs to be found for sale online at jaw dropping prices. 50 year old vinyl can still be had for $10.

Boston Tea Party

Arthur Fiedler
Boston Tea Party
Boston Pops Orchestra
RCA Victor LM-2213
1958

Great space age cover on this vintage Boston Pops Album.

Holst The Planets

Neptune, The Mystic

The Planets
Gustav Holst
Bernard Herrman
London Philharmonic Orchestra
London SPC-21049
Phase 4 Stereo 1970

The Planets, Op. 32 is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the British composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst.

The August 29, 1970 Billboard spotlights this album. "Hermann artfully re-creates the composer's concept of the birth and growth of the planets.

Hermann scored many films including "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

Many Herrman works can be had by the download. However, this album isn't to be found on CD or download. It seems to be a bit obscure although vinyl copies are available on ebay.

I can't compare this cover of The Planets against the many, many other versions of the work. But London's "Phase 4 Series projects are well done and offer some of the best audio engineering of the time. And of course, I like the recording because it is easy to close your eyes and journey into space for a visit to the planets!

The Oud

Fountain Scene

The Oud
Aram Arakelian Ensemble
Carlton Record Corporation STLP12/109
1958

Here's a somewhat obscure recording from the period that the "exotica" music form was being "created" in the U.S. Martin Denny's album, "Exotica" was released in 1957. Exotica sparked interest in all types of international folk music.

The December 15, 1958 issue of Billboard found this album "...something from the "Arabian Nights" and should serve as a dramatic demonstration piece to show off the two-channel effect with a pair of good amps and speakers."

There is one thing about the album cover that cracks me up. The word "STEREO" was somehow affixed to the cover of this issue (although I've seen this catalog number jacket without this word) in a "fuzzy" or faux "velvet" applique. It's just weird.

That aside, the music is as the back cover states: "Rhythmically, a slight nod in the direction of western music will be apparent."

The music was arranged by George Mgrdichian. It is interesting to note that Mgrdichian has a CD out there titled "Oud" with the exact same artwork that appears on this album, but with different song titles.

Korla Pandit - At The Pipe Organ

Korla Pandit
At The Pipe Organ
Fantasy 8018
1960

12 inch LP pressed on blue vinyl. The cover features a nice glossy image of Pandit. The album presents more standard sounding pipe organ tunes, although there are several nice, more "exotic" or "pop" flavored tracks on the LP including, Secret Love, Tenderly and Moonlight And Shadows.