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I've sort of rediscovered a few recent albums the same way. I only just found out about Purple Rain a few weeks ago, when it was announced that three of Prince's earlier albums were getting the 180g treatment.
One of my other rediscovered finds as of late (which I have to thank our pal Tony Currie for): the John Gregory Orchestra, doing cop show themes. I had a cassette in the late 70s on Mercury. Naturally it never sounded all that hot, especially after it got near a magnet and faded in and out as it played. We'd talked about it here and Tony hooked me up with a needle drop. The album was slightly different--it omitted one track (the Theme From S.W.A.T.), but added three more that I believe were British detective shows. The British album was called The Detectives.
Out of curiosity one day, I hit Amazon and found that 13 of the 14 songs from the needle drop were on a CD called Six Million Dollar TV Themes, which contains a total of 28 tracks. All of the tracks from my original cassette are on the CD, two of the three extras from the British album are on there (it omits "Special Branch"), and it collects tracks from another album or two Gregory recorded o'er there 'cross the pond. It came in my order with the two LPs above.
I found out via the booklet that Gregory released singles under the name Chaquito, as some of the earlier tracks had a Latin theme to them and was catering to that market. It's neat to here them again, finally in a clean version. The recording quality on the tracks I remember isn't the greatest (it's compressed, has a lot of reverb...but it works in its own cheesy 70s way ), but some of the earlier tracks like "Mission: Impossible" have some serious clout to them--plenty of percussion, bass that could launch woofers, you name it!
Such a bargain, too: it's listed for £3.13 at Amazon UK.
Another step backward: I just put on a 45RPM classical LP! It's on a short-lived series the Angel classical label put out--this one is the Firebird Suite. I grabbed it way back in the late 70s or early 80s IIRC. It sounds pretty good--not as dynamic as I'd like, but the tonality is nice. Unfortunately, Angel did not use the best of vinyl for this one. A good cleaning might help it, but then again... I should see if one of the RCA Living Stereo SACDs has a Firebird Suite on it.
There have been some really great TV theme songs. I think Hawaii Five 5-0 was probably one of the greatest ones.
Indeed--instantly recognizable!
This one has to be one of the greats also. Despite all the versions out there, the original theme from Peter Gunn is still the best version. The whole album is good...and I believe it was the first million-selling jazz album, back when a jazz album selling 50,000 copies was considered a "hit." Shorty Rogers was approached to do the album, but he urged Mancini to record it himself. And it led to a fad in "crime jazz" TV soundtracks.
There are a lot of great TV themes out there. Others...not so much.
My cousin worked at a local recording studio back in the 70s and aside from letting us pick out dozens of free promo 45s, he also gave me a few dozen singles he was trying to get rid of from his own collection. One of those was "Not Me" by The Orlons, so that's where I first heard of them. It wouldn't be until I had XM Radio (via the 50s on 5 channel) where I heard "South Street," "Crossfire" and "Don't Hang Up." And one or two of their tracks appeared on the Cameo/Parkway box set.
Back in the 60s my best friend's mom used to babysit a kid who went crazy whenever we'd play Woolly Bully. He'd boogie around all over the living room. It was cheap entertainment for the rest of us. Wonder where that kid is now? His name was Calvin. Of course he's now in his 50s.
Some of those hits had "legs" to them, for sure. The Chubby Checker hit "The Twist" actually hit #1 twice on the Billboard charts, due to its ongoing popularity. I think that's true in other decades as well--I still remember radio playing some songs well past their hit stage, back in the late 70s through the mid 80s.The Duke of Earl came out in "62" but I can remember hearing it up until the middle of "60's" like "65".
Great Find there. Harry. You are truly one Lucky collector.I'e been working on an A&M album that had escaped me - the Sandpipers album that was released internationally but not in the US - THE SECOND SPANISH ALBUM. I found a copy on eBay that wasn't too pricey. It wasn't the cleanest vinyl in the world, but not too bad. It's redeemable, anyway.
The tracks are mostly songs that they'd done before, some redone with Spanish lyrics. I think there's maybe one new track, "Born Free".
Harry
Joan Armatrading's Secret Secrets).