Passion #3: Popular (non-rock) Female Vocalists 1955-70 -- The LPs

[JOv2]

These are my A-team LPs. Most of these were acquired, 2018-2021.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I wonder how many of these albums are forever lost to history -- not available in any form now. There's got to be a million such LPs.

 

[tomswift2002]

I remember reading in the late-90’s that it was figured that by that point, only about 15% of everything that had ever been released on vinyl/analog had been transferred and reissued on CD. So now we might be up to only 25%

 

[Rudy]

That's one reason my turntable will never go away--there are many recordings that have never been available on digital or if they were, it was some obscure import that is now impossible to find or costs way more than it's worth.

Although I'm pleasantly surprised every now and then to see some obscurity I'm looking for show up on Qobuz (and presumably, other streaming services), and have the opportunity to own it via download if I like it enough.

 

[Harry]

I don't think I have any specific female vocalist albums from that period that are special to me, but there are many individual tracks that have touched me over the years.

Going way back I can name:
Mary Ford (with Les Paul) doing "Vaya Con Dios" (could be the start of my acceptance of Spanish lyrics?)
Georgia Gibbs "Tweedle Dee"
The Laurie Sisters "Dixie Danny"
The Fontaine Sisters "Playmates"
Doris Day "Purple Cow" and "Que Sera Sera"
Rosemary Clooney "This Old House" and "Hey There"
Teresa Brewer "Music! Music! Music!" - and "Ricochet"

One sister act from that era that I like is The McGuire Sisters. Some of their tracks that I had as 45s:
Mommy
Goodnight My Love, Pleasant Dreams
Without Him
Sugartime
Banana Split

Later on, there were tracks that I latched onto from hearing them on radio, like:
Vikki Carr - "I Can't Give Back The Love", "It Must Be Him"
and of course the likes of Dionne Warwick and Petula Clark
One obscure song that I recently rediscovered from the late 60s is by Shani Wallis (from the cast of OLIVER) and a song called "Reaching Far Too High". All I can find of that one is a promo 45. No record of it ever being on an album, but I heard it on radio and latched onto it.

 

[tomswift2002]

That's one reason my turntable will never go away--there are many recordings that have never been available on digital or if they were, it was some obscure import that is now impossible to find or costs way more than it's worth.

Although I'm pleasantly surprised every now and then to see some obscurity I'm looking for show up on Qobuz (and presumably, other streaming services), and have the opportunity to own it via download if I like it enough.

Some of those older artists like Louis Armstrong, recorded stuff that was only released on 78 or 45 (never on an album) and those haven’t seen the digital era yet, (either because of rights issues or no one’s bothered to put them on a compilation) or they’ve been issued on obscure multi-artist collections. I was just listening to the Louis Armstrong & Friends: 20th Century Masters Christmas Collection (reissue of 1997’s Louis Armstrong & Friends: What A Wonderful Christmas) this morning that rounded up Louis’s six Decca Christmas sides, and that seems to be the closest thing that anyone has come up with in the digital era to a Louis Armstrong Christmas album (of course its missing his recordings of Winter Wonderland & The Night Before Christmas, but that’s a rights issue as those were not done on Decca).

 

[JOv2]

I wonder how many of these albums are forever lost to history -- not available in any form now. There's got to be a million such LPs.

Surely! That's why I limited myself to the majors (RCA, Columbia, Decca, Capitol) and only a few independents (Dot, Elektra, A&M) for my deep-dive excursions.

One thing that plays in the favour of mining the majors' releases: prior to about 1965 (and novelties notwithstanding), by and large only the most technically competent musicians earned recording contracts. All of those LPs I listed feature singers all of whom exhibit class-A musical ability.

 

[rockdoctor]

There are many of these lp's out in the thrift stores and some used record stores. I see many of this time period in my travels looking for used records.
My personal favorites from that time period are Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark. I have a two lp set live of Shirley Bassey. We have a new public radio station called The Time Machine and they play a lot of these artists from the 50's to 70's. I hear Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Vikki Carr and Etta James regularly.