🎵 AotW Baja Marimba Band Greatest Hits (A&M SP-4248)

If you've owned or heard this album, how would you rate it?

  • * * * * * (best)

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • * * * *

    Votes: 7 77.8%
  • * * * (average)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • * *

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • * (worst)

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • Haven't heard this album.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    9

LPJim

Well-Known Member
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Greatest Hits
Baja Marimba Band
SP-4248


sp4248.jpg


Side One:
Comin'in the Back Door 2:14/ Yours 2:45/ Along Comes Mary 2:15/ Spanish Eyes 3:00/ Fowl Play 2:07/ The Look of Love 2:53.
Side Two:
Georgy Girl 2:35/ Ghost Riders in the Sky 2:49/ Acapulco 1922 2:07/ Some Where My Love 2:47/ Maria Elena 2:56/ Brasilia 2:36.

Producer: Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss/ Cover photo: Jim McCrary. Liner notes by Harvey Perr/FM and the Fine Arts.
Personnel: Julius Wechter (leader and marimba), Charlie Chiarenza (lead guitar, mandolin), Frank DeCaro (rhythm guitar), Frank DeVito (drums and vocals), Bernie Fleischer (flute, piccolo and alto flute), Lee Katzman (trumpet), Mel Pollan (Fender bass), Curry Tjader (bass marimba and percussion), Dave Wells (trombone and bass trombone).
JB
 
The liner notes:

Harvey Perr said:
Sure, you say, the Baja Marimba Band. The nutty ones. Boy, are they corny! A real joke. And that's the beauty of it. Because, like all good corny jokes, they're funny and you remember them. With their droopy moustachios and sombreros and South-of-the-Border charm - like the guys in the background of all those old Cisco Kid movies who never do much of anything but take siestas-they amble deadpan onto the stage and, next thing you know, because it's just so naturally smile-making, you're think­ing, hey, they're crazy and you love them. And soon, because whatever it is they're doing is catching, your feet are syncopatin' and your ears are wigglin', things your feet and ears never did before on their own. Best of all, it turns out they're damned fine musicians who really play and so what if they're as Mexican as bagels and lox? Or lasagna? They are beautiful.

And so what if they never really had a bunch of gigantic Greatest Hits? When you hear them and you feel good and you wanna dance and you suddenly say to yourself, hey, they really have a pretty terrific sound, then what you've got is a joke and the poetic justice that separates the good jokes from the ones you can never remember the punch line to.

So you thank Baja Marimba's chief bandido Julius Wechter for getting them together in the first place and for Jose Jimenez himself, Bill Dana, for running off those old Cisco Kid flicks and showing them where it's at, and you give a listen right around now to these Greatest Hits, because they are sure as hell someone's Greatest Hits, and you're gonna admit that the good old ones like "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Maria Elena" never sounded that way before and, come to think of it, neither did the good old new ones, like "Along Comes Mary" and "The Look of Love." Or Wechter's own creations, "Brasilia" and "Fowl Play"!

And what does it all add up to? Happy times, that's what. Sure, the Baja Marimba Band!

- Harvey Perr/FM & The Fine Arts

Harry
 
This is still the only official compilation of Baja Marimba Band songs to actually contain "Brasilia." Although FOURSIDER lists the song, that actual track on the vinyl is "Summer Samba."

Harry
NP: GREATEST HITS, Baja Marimba Band
 
Must be a hex...Digitally Remastered Best had another mis-named track on it. :confused:

I never had Foursider, but did have their Greatest Hits, the first BMB LP I ever owned. Second one that was "all mine" was BMB's Back on the Bell label. It was interesting, but IMHO was missing the A&M magic.

-= N =-
NP: Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, "Moribund The Burgermeister"
 
Rudy said:
Must be a hex...Digitally Remastered Best had another mis-named track on it. :confused:

As does the Collectors' Choice BEST OF CD, with "Acapulco 1822" being titled in the wrong century.

If I recall, the Japan CD had a confusion between the two "Maria" tracks.

Maybe "Baja's" don't care about this stuff!

Harry
...waiting for a weather front to cool things down, online...
 
Harry said:
If I recall, the Japan CD had a confusion between the two "Maria" tracks.

"Maria Elena" never appears on the CD, but aren't we treated to "Maria's First Rose" twice?

Harry said:
Maybe "Baja's" don't care about this stuff!

Cannot interrupt siesta for something minor like album tracks! Or, perhaps, too much cerveza?

Harry said:
...waiting for a weather front to cool things down, online...

It's on the way. 90 here yesterday, wind/rain yesterday evening, and 75 degrees expected today.

-= N =-
 
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