The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

[DeeInKY]

The Monkees "Good Times." A really fun CD. Has one of the best song titles ever, "I Was There (and I'm Told I Had a Good Time)." That could apply to lots of things.

 

[Rudy]

Having been busy and either away from the house or working outside, I haven't been able to listen to much, except for an hour or so in the evenings, or a little in the morning before leaving.

This one has been in rotation:

I like it better than the Stravinsky disc, which sounds strange to me. (Dynamics seem exaggerated, and the recording is uncharacteristically bright.)

Been forgetting to listen to this one...perhaps the only Manilow album I can listen to all the way through. It's playing right now...

Music written by Manilow, lyrics by a variety of lyricists, including one Johnny Mercer lyric that was never set to music, "When October Goes." Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme both make an appearance, one track each. The rest are all familiar west coast jazz musicians--Shelly Manne, Mundell Lowe, etc., and there is even some sweetening courtesy of Gerry Mulligan. The whole album reportedly was recorded live in one take, with no overdubs, after a few days of rehearsals. Definitely a late night album.

I've also been hitting two George Duke albums: After Dark (which is instrumental and very low key, reminiscent of the self-titled album by 101 North that Duke produced in the 90s), and the Muir Woods Suite (recorded with a full orchestra, alongside a jazz combo featuring Stanley Clarke, Chester Thompson and Paulinho da Costa).

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

Played an old Don Willams albumn yesterday, hadn't listened to it in years. Just got an A&M promo Love That Music of different artists that recorded with A&M, liked Warm Love by Joan Armatrading, first time I've ever heard her, think I'll try and pick up some of her albumns.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

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.

 

[Rudy]

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.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

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.

Barney Miller, The Odd Couple, Taxi. Well RATS, now I'm gonna have this stuff running around inside of my head for weeks!!

 

[Rudy]

What about Del Shannon's "Runaway"? Used as a theme song for Crime Story (the mid 80s crime series).

This one, over lunch today:

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

Please don't judge me. lol I listened to Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs today. Wooly Bully, don't be L7

 

[Rudy]

Not exactly Sam The Sham, but I was spinning this earlier:

And this...

And currently this one before I head out for the day:

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

I remember hearing South Street

 

[Rudy]

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.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

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.

Gosh that beat was used by so many groups. I was trying to find one about a Mississippi Queen in the lyrics and all I can find is the one by Mountain and that's not the one. Some of those songs stayed around for a long time. The Duke of Earl came out in "62" but I can remember hearing it up until the middle of "60's" like "65".

 

[DeeInKY]

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.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

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.

That's cute.

 

[Rudy]

The Duke of Earl came out in "62" but I can remember hearing it up until the middle of "60's" like "65".

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.

 

[Rudy]

Yesterday I was spinning this one:

I like the sequence of "Home," "It's No Good" and "Useless." "Home" is one of those moving lyrics, and features Martin Gore singing lead (David Gahan usually sang most of DP's songs):

 

[Harry]

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

 

[Bobberman]

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

Great Find there. Harry. You are truly one Lucky collector.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

I love DaVinvi's Inquest and I just got a CD of the sessions music from the series.

 

[DeeInKY]

The Avett Brothers True Sadness. Been waiting on this one and it didn't disappoint. Turned a couple friends on to it and they're enjoying it, too.

 

[jfiedler17]

Hit up two local record stores today and had fun digging through and seeing what I could find in the $1.00 vinyl bargain bins. Ended up picking up a still-sealed copy of Al Jarreau's Heart's Horizon, A&M's own China Crisis's Diary of a Hollow Horse, Stephen Bishop's Bowling in Paris (which intriguingly features one cut where his backing band consists of Eric Clapton, Sting, and Phil Collins - not too shabby a lineup, huh?), Bourgeois Tagg's self-titled debut, Ironhorse's self-titled debut (first time I've ever come across this one; still has the shrink wrap on it, too! "Sweet Lui-Louise" is pretty addictive; I've probably listened to it six or eight times already since I brought it home this afternoon), Joan Armatrading's Secret Secrets (also still in the shrink wrap), and another obscure A&M disc, Rosie Vela's Zazu. (I've read about it before but never actually run across a copy of it before until now and had to pick it up to see what it sounds like.) Also found and picked up a copy of former Beach Boys member Blondie Chaplin's self-titled solo debut (also still in the original shrink wrap) for one of my friends while I was at it. A couple other cool ones I've picked up recently: a still-sealed copy of Pretty Poison's Catch Me I'm Falling album; a copy of Wings' Back to the Egg still in the original wrapper with the title sticker; and Ray Charles' double-disc A 25th Anniversary in Show Business Salute to Ray Charles (a really fabulous hits compilation).

 

[Rudy]

I found Zazu recently myself, a promo copy no less. But it has a little bit of wear to it, so I'm still keeping my eyes open for a better copy. I didn't pay too much for it though, so it's not a huge loss.

I wouldn't mind finding some early pressing Steely Dan vinyl, but most of that has been bought up and the remainders now are rather ratty, or overpriced.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

Joan Armatrading's Secret Secrets).

I like her, I ran across her on an A&M Promo of "Love That Music", she was singing "Warm Love". Gotta watch my spending but want to get some of her records as soon as possible.

 

[Bonnie Johnson]

I was looking at some of my old CD's and ran across The Kelly Family. Didn't know "Fell In Love With An Alien" was on youtube:

The Kelly's on youtube I fell in Love with an alien - Bing video »

 

[jfiedler17]

Bonnie, nice to find another Armatrading fan on here! I've never actually heard anything of hers on the radio before, so my initial exposure to her was from checking out a best-of CD of hers (an A&M package from 1996 simply called Greatest Hits) from the local library to see what she sounded like, and I got hooked right away. All of her albums on A&M are pretty good (especially anything from between '76 and '86), though her self-titled album from 1976, Walk Under Ladders, and The Key are arguably the three best. Her style admittedly changed quite a bit over the years - her mid-and-late-'70s material (like "Love and Affection" and "Down to Zero") was definitely more in the traditional '70s singer-songwriter vein, but her early '80s albums took a very noticeable turn towards new-wave ("Drop the Pilot"), so her best-of compilations tend to be a little all over the place stylistically, but the songs are consistently first-rate, no matter what genre she's experimenting with.

Rudy, I've been on a real Steely Dan fix myself lately! I actually just wrote an extensive review of their entire back catalogue for a music website I write weekly columns for, and once I got done going back and listening to all their albums, then I started going back and listening to a bunch of their extracurricular projects, like Fagen's solo albums (The Nightfly being my favorite in the bunch; it may be his most famous solo disc, but it's still somehow an incredibly underrated album) and Becker's side productions for acts like China Crisis and Rickie Lee Jones (whose Becker-produced album Flying Cowboys is one of my all-time favorite albums), so it's fitting that I just found Rosie Vela's album. I listened to the full disc last night and was really impressed by it. The songs aren't quite as immediately catchy as those from your typical Steely Dan-related album, but they're still fine tunes (especially anything from Side One and the title cut) and the production is wonderful, too. (But then, I'm not sure I've ever heard a Gary Katz production that wasn't extremely enjoyable to listen to. Have you ever heard the album he produced for the duo Eye to Eye? Not an easy album to find these days, but that one is also a good disc.) And I agree that it seems really hard to find original pressings of the early Steely Dan albums in any kind of decent condition for a reasonable price. I was able to eventually find cheap original pressings of Can't Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstacy, but all the copies of Pretzel Logic and Katy Lied that I run into always seem to be awfully scratched up for some reason, so I just have those on CD at the moment.