2017 Next Herb Re-Issues

Us "big city" types also have problems buying new recordings. The big chain stores won't carry anything unless it is a big seller. The smaller stores might stock them, but they often elevate the price far higher than I would ever pay (list price or higher). Before they blame online retailers for taking away their business, they should look at their own practices first, and offer something of value if they are going to charge so much. One of my favorite independents was a major used record seller on top of selling new products, and they often had deals on a couple of top releases each week. In the days of $8.98 list LPs, they were selling the specials for $4.95. Few who bought those crazy specials ever walked out with just the one item. In the early days of CDs, the price was always $14.99, even many of the imports. The chains at the time were hitting customers for $19.99 for even the most common titles. Harmony House wasn't the cheapest either, but aside from a few minor specials, they would run a big yearly sale in June where the entire store was (I think) 20% off. I can only think of one independent locally that runs sales today. And not surprisingly, they are one of the few doing really well.
Agreed Rudy. The prices were always higher than they needed to be and their blaming the internet for their problems seems to me a rather hypocritical excuse IMO Putting it mildly.mind you back in the day where i lived they made almost every kind of excuse there was ( another case in point is when i tried to get Herb's my abstract heart on vinyl and they told me it was not availible on vinyl i found out otherwise when i found a vinyl copy at our radio station when i first started working there in 96) so at least i know why now but The way some conducted their buisinesses were in my view Very Dishonest.and sorry to say " I hope they are no longer in buisiness! I Don't mean to be Harsh.However I call a Fraud a Fraud. For what it is.
 
I remember one time there was a Motley Crue EP that came out...it had a sticker on it that said "List price $5.98 -- DO NOT pay more than $5.98 for this album." I saw it in Musicland priced at $6.99.
 
I remember one time there was a Motley Crue EP that came out...it had a sticker on it that said "List price $5.98 -- DO NOT pay more than $5.98 for this album." I saw it in Musicland priced at $6.99.
Another Example of Price Gougeing an unnecessary markup. I wonder if Musicland ever got reprimanded for doing that?
 
Yeah, they got reprimanded right out of business! :wink:

You know what's ironic about it? Musicland was the biggest ripoff joint there ever was, yet they were also the parent company of Suncoast Movie Company and Media Play, both of which carried items at a fair price and had great customer service and decent selection. I loved Media Play for their ridiculous variety (you have to remember that this was long before amazon and the internet). When Media Play stores (first Daytona, then Gainesville) closed up, I was sorely disappointed. But hey, that's business. Then we had On Cue come along to Palatka for about two years and I thought it might be basically a miniature Media Play. But unfortunately it was more of a miniature version of Musicland. The selection sucked, the prices sucked and the customer service... sucked. Sam Goody wasn't really much better as I remember. No wonder Best Buy (worst selection musically) took over. At least they got the customer service part right.
 
You know what's ironic about it? Musicland was the biggest ripoff joint there ever was, yet they were also the parent company of Suncoast Movie Company and Media Play, both of which carried items at a fair price and had great customer service and decent selection. I loved Media Play for their ridiculous variety (you have to remember that this was long before amazon and the internet). When Media Play stores (first Daytona, then Gainesville) closed up, I was sorely disappointed. But hey, that's business. Then we had On Cue come along to Palatka for about two years and I thought it might be basically a miniature Media Play. But unfortunately it was more of a miniature version of Musicland. The selection sucked, the prices sucked and the customer service... sucked. Sam Goody wasn't really much better as I remember. No wonder Best Buy (worst selection musically) took over. At least they got the customer service part right.
Its interesting we had a Musicland here in Moscow which interestingly had a pretty good variety and selection ( keep in mind Moscow Idaho is a College town) i used to shop there often they had a great Jazz selection. And every february the university holds a Jazz festival. Go figure. In any case in the mid 90s our Musicland became Sam Goody and sadly It wasnt the same. And i quit shopping there eventually and by 2004 They were Gone in the words of Elmer fudd Good Widdance to Bad Wubbish. Hahaha.
 
Musicland absorbed a few major chains over the years. I recall we had a Discount Music in the neighborhood, and while it wasn't really "discount," at least prices were not Musicland-high, and they actually had a little bit of depth to their selections. Yet they had the same ownership. (Although in our state, we had a Discount Music in Ann Arbor which was an independent that happened to have the same name, and predated Musicland's own Discount Music stores by quite a few years.)

It's the mall stores where Musicland's properties really gouged customers. We have to remember that these stores were not designed for the serious music listener or collector--they were after the big selling titles (think Top 40 here) and the impulse purchases a typical mall shopper would tend to make. Sure, like any store they would dangle the sale carrot in front of them to get purchasers into the stores, and throw bins of cheap cutout CDs near the entrance to lure in shoppers, but think about it--if you're going out music shopping as a destination, are you going to head to a large mall, or visit a standalone store?

Also, think of the merchandising at a typical Musicland--there were a lot of music-related products which weren't the actual recordings themselves. They were heavy on the paraphernalia, again, more what a typical mall shopper would purchase. Our regional chain Harmony House might have had a few items beyond music, but it was primarily bins all the way through the store.
 
One of Philly's big music chains was Sam Goody's which was later absorbed by Musicland. There were never any Musicland stores in the area though, as they just used the old Sam Goody name in every music store they had.

Sam Goody's had an early reputation of stocking just about everything you could imagine. They had just about every record in every section that you could think of. They carried imports and all of the out-of-the-ordinary stuff - and if they didn't have it, they had those huge Phonolog books around, and if you wanted something that was in there, they'd do everything they could to get it to you.

They also sold various small electronics, phono stylii, tape head cleaners, and strings for your guitar or violin, plus sheet music in individual songs and book form. They carried a wide selection of 45s, too. Their prices were never what you'd call cheap, but that was less important than knowing that you could reliably walk in their and come out with what you were looking for.

Once Musicland took over, some of the deepness of their inventory began to decline, and mall stores sprang up with those list price stickers on everything. That trend continued to the end when they just closed up shop.

My favorite A&M-related Sam Goody story is that back in January 1989, I saw Herb Alpert host the pre-SuperBowl music show on CBS called VIVA MIAMI! THE NIGHT OF SUPER SOUNDS.
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The show served as an introduction of Latin music to a wider audience and was cohosted by Maria Conchita Alonso. I'd never heard of her before and knew nothing of the AyM Latin division of A&M at all, so this special was an eye-opener. Here was Herb Alpert performing a song with this Maria Conchita Alonso ("Noche de Copas") on national television and I hadn't been aware of this venture.

So the next day, I made a trip to Sam Goody's to see if I could find any albums with this Herb Alpert track on it. Knowing no Spanish at all, I wasn't even sure of the title of the record or album - I just went in hoping something would jump out at me.

A disappointing turn in the records and CDs yielded nothing, yet I just had a feeling that there should be something in the store. Then it hit me - the Spanish population in Philly at the time was well below the averages of other large cities, so there wouldn't be much of a market for Latin music. But if there was, it might be in the form of cassettes!

Sure enough, in the never-browsed-by-me cassette section, I found three Maria Conchita Alonso albums on tape, and with further browsing came up with three Lani Hall albums that I had no prior knowledge of. (I vaguely recall a Grammy Award ceremony where she'd won something in the Latin department, but I'd never investigated.)

So that trip to the Sam Goody store was a real eye-opener for this fan.
 
I miss having the old Tower Records around--before they started their downfall, they used to stock everything in the catalog. If you wanted depth, they had it. And they had a great Latin music section. I got quite a few of my RCA Tropical Series CDs there.
 
Tower was good too, but as I recall, their locations in Philly weren't good for me. Every time I DID do into one of their stores, I came out with a ton of CDs and LaserDiscs.

They finally built a store in the King Of Prussia suburb and that was easier for me to get to, so I haunted that place whenever I could. They were great for imports and oddball stuff - my tastes exactly!
 
We only had one in Ann Arbor, which was an hour away from me. I thought they may have had another in our northern suburbs (Birmingham, maybe?) but that would have been it. The Tower was an hour away from me. Not great, but it was in a favorite town to visit, as they have a handful of really good used record shops. And back then, they also had Schoolkids Records and Schoolkids Classical, so if you couldn't find that oddball at Tower, then Schoolkids likely would have had it.

And in a way, it was good that they were an hour away! A person has to eat. :D

Now, they're both gone.
 
Waiting on the high-res. Nothing yet at the usual suspects. (HDTracks, Acoustic Sounds, Qobuz, 7Digital, etc.) I suspect they'll start to trickle out on Friday. Will stream them on Tidal until I'm ready to buy.
 
I couldnt afford the extra cost to get mine on release day but amazon tells me to expect delivery on either march 2 or 3rd but thats ok though its well worth the wait. Im really looking forward to these what i call "The Final Trio". Then my Herb cd collection is pretty much complete ( from here on will be usual New releases and rarities or what one forumite calls " Gravy")
 
Just received my shipping notice from Amazon, too. These are three "records" I really like. I have the original CD releases but hoping the sound is even better on these.

I've debated "hi-res" but as I use Apple equipment and regular desktop and laptop pc's I'm not sure what appreciable benefit they would provide to me. Also not sure what version I'd purchase. I have a decent CD ripper- it can convert to a lot of formats, higher end and ino the mp3 that some so dislike...

Hoping my parcels get delivered early on Friday!
 
I was checking out amazon tonight out of curiosity in light of the new reissues and as far as the much discussed Herb Alpert and Hugh Masekela studio album it appears that there are still a couple copies of the original A&M CD going for over $100 but here is the kicker there are a few copies going for around $25 or so it appears the new reissues are already having an effect even before they are even released . I Think Its very interesting.
 
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Well it's 10:30 Pacific Time and Bullish and Herb and Hugh are available for download at Amazon, and I got them, Blow your own horn: any minute I imagine...
 
Qobuz has two of the three so far. They are usually the least expensive. The higher price is the high-res. For Herb/Hugh it works out to $9.18 before currency conversion fees (which will still be below $10). The dollar is at an advantage compared to GBP. Can't buy from the US, but I have "ways"... :wink:

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Just received my parcel deliveries for today. Two of three discs have the same issues as when the other remasters were released - the sleeves are quite bent (likely from too tight wrapping). The vagaries of working with cardboard wrapping, however sustainable (and I would suspect less expensive).

I just sampled Red Hot on BYOH and if that's any indication the sound is quite good. I can't quite pinpoint the difference due to a hearing deficiency but it does sound different from the versions I have previously had. The Herb-Hugh, though - all I can is "wow!" Fantastic sound! Clearly discernable to me. Tip of my Texas Stetson to the remastering team.

On the high res availability, I saw that HDTracks had BYOH available at midnight; not sure about the others. They have their usual 15% off sale as well. I've never bought from them so I cannot speak to them.
 
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