A Great Light Concert--National Opera Orchestra (1953)!

 

That cover and label might necessarily suggest a junk-label product, and we might necessarily conclude that the audio is probably not state of the art.  No, not necessarily.  However, in this case, yes.  A junk label (Eli Oberstein strikes again!), and with less than RCA-quality fidelity, but still pretty decent audio, considering.  Well, fairly decent...

And I thrifted this mainly for 1) the wonderfully chintzy jacket, and 2) the inclusion of Liszt's Chromatic Galop, which I had never before heard.  And it's as amazing as I figured.  And, again, for the early 1950s, the audio is... okay.  Middling.

As far as the sound-editing/-correcting process on my part, the VinylStudio declicking filter did wonders for the many clicks (aka, ticks) and pops.  But I had to spend approx. two hours on manual click repairing.  Was it worth the time?  Well, seeing how this is is a delightful LP and a marvelous example of rack-jobber Classical music, yes.  And I used an excellent after-market stylus and my Stanton 500 cart instead of my terrific AT cartridge, and simply because it's better for junk vinyl.  (The wonderful after-market stylus is, of course, no longer in production.)

The Gramophone label--and all the junky Record Corp. of America rip-offs--fascinated me as a kid.  My maternal grandparents had a number of Gramophone, Varsity, Royale, et al. albums, and I found them quite cool in their cheapness.  Obviously, I still do, and nearly (yikes!) 60 years later.

And... something I still, to this day, find difficult to believe.  Namely, when I first discovered thrifting, ca. 1967, it always puzzled me that the cashiers (always women, all of whom looked "old" to me) had no clue about the difference between, say, a 12-inch 78 and a 12-inch LP.  All they knew was that the "big" records were 25 cents and the "little" records were 10 cents (I think).  Big/little.  And so I hypothesized that, back when long-playing records (including 45s) were introduced, most customers were just as confused as the Salvation Army cashiers.  I figured that people saw no reason to pay $3.98 or more for an LP, and thus was created the market for 99-cent budget vinyl! 

Adding to the confusion caused in the first place by the introduction of 45 and 33 & 1/3 rpm discs, we had RCA trying to hype 45s as the long-playing format of preference (instead of 10" and 12" LPs).  This made sense, in a way, since 45rpm EP albums and boxed sets were analogous to 78rpm albums and boxed sets.

But buyers figured things out eventually, and so RCA's plan failed.

And, last thing, dig the appearance of I've Been Working on the Railroad in Poet and Peasant, and nearly 50 years before that song was penned.  By Facebook "woo woo"-reel standards, this is proof that time travel must be real.  We have the "proof" right here!!

Oh, and of course the "National Opera Orchestra" could be anyone.  And, off the top of my head, I recall that Eli Oberstein recorded in Europe because the musicians worked for a flat fee (no royalties).  I can picture a German musician in his 80s, and somebody asking, "Were you part of the National Opera Orchestra?"  And the old man replying, "The what?"



DOWNLOAD:  A Great Light Concert 1953.zip

Poet and Peasant (von Suppe)

Hungarian March (Berlioz)

Chromatic Galop (Liszt)

Zampa Overture (von Herold)

March Slav (Tschaikowski, sic)

Military March in D (Schubert)

A Great Light Concert--National Opera Orchestra (Gramophone 2044; 1953)

(And there's "art" this time!)

Lee

"Oh Julie" With the Crescendos (Guest Star G-1453; 1962)--in a lossless file!

 

So, I'm back--and I've joined the FLAC community.  A very simple matter of two or three program settings.  And it's almost ironic that I'm utilizing a lossless format for an SPC LP!!  That's almost a contradiction in logic.

But this is great, great stuff.  The Crescendos, though their fame was limited to Oh, Julie, were an unusually talented doo-wop quintet (and they were a quintet, despite the four-member pose used for this LP).  As far as I know, and thanks to my friend Brian McFadden's wonderful Rock Rarities for a Song and the handy listings at Discogs, my guess is that half of these cuts were either demo recordings or simply unreleased Nasco or Scarlet label sides.  In fact, I'm partly echoing one of Brian's conclusions.  Anyway, the Crescendos' only LP, and it's a budget exploitation-product containing a mere eight tracks.  But the music, to my ears at least, is rock and roll gold.

And these guys clearly had fantastic potential, and it's too bad their potential wasn't properly fulfilled.  But they gifted us with these sides, so...  And I've augmented the eight tracks with (you'll never guess) two budget knockoffs--one from Broadway/Eli Oberstein, and the other from Hollywood (original source unknown).  And a reminder that Oberstein's Halo/Ultraphonic/etc. LPs utilized Broadway material (masters released, in turn, on Broadway's "Value" sublabels).  My Halo Tops in Pops LP was too hammered, and so I ripped the first Oh Julie (aka, Oh, Julie) knockoff from a choppy but salvable Value Hit Parade Tunes release (12 Hit Parade Tunes).  This stuff gets complicated.

Where was I?  So, one Nasco cut (the title track), plus three from Scarlet Records.  And the Crescendos' impressive versality shines through in this short playlist, I think--and their supporting harmonies are exceptional.  The female voice which appears on two (three?) cuts belongs to Janice Green.  Now you know.

I honestly never gave Oh, Julie much thought, and it certainly wasn't on my list of favorite 1950s r&r hits.  But it is now.  I have a junk-label gem of an LP to thank for this.  And, actually, the front jacket almost makes this release look like a "legit" one--i.e., from a non-rack-jobber label.  Emphasis on almost.

With each listen, this is becoming one of my favorite LPs.  And... I added an image in 11's Media Player app, but it doesn't seem to have taken.  Ah, the new, totally useless Windows Media Player.  And the FLAC folder link might noy be working properly--let me know.  It seems to be taking me back to my OneDrive folder, which is NOT what I want.

DOWNLOAD: Oh Julie SPC.zip FLAC

Oh Julie (Nasco, 1958)

Julie Anna

Katie Doll

Angel Face (Scarlet Records, 1961)

Without Love

I'm So Ashamed (Scarlet Records, 1961)

Let's Take a Walk (Scarlet Records)

Oh, Julie--The Corwins, 1958 (Value VLP-107)

Oh Julie--(Unknown, from The Nation's 12 Big Hit Recordings, Broadway LPH-139)

Lee

VBR fun...

So, until Monkey D. Sound alerted me, I had no idea my VinylStudio mp3 exports were happening at the near-least VBR (7, to be precise).  That the program has defaulted the VBR thus is kind of mind-blowing--I would think that a medium value would be the default.  To make life even more fun, it turns out that each and every VinylStudio project (album, whatever) has to be individually adjusted.  I'll have to contact Alpinesoft and ask if it's possible to change this setting across the board.

I'm in the process of redoing my last post, but it involves four projects/albums, and a reordering of the track numbers.  With VinylStudio, each snag is a "What's next?" event.  However, the software performs amazingly well, even if it leaves much to be desired in the logical-design realm.

And a "VA" project is totally out of line with VS's chief design, which presumes that the user is digitizing his or her favorite Boomer-rock LP.  Meanwhile, the program is packed with 78-rpm playback curves.  Go figure.

As for me, I don't even have a favorite rock album, and if only because rock is not my favorite music.  In fact, I don't care for most "classic" rock (please don't tell anyone), and I feel no need to conform to the typical tastes of my generation.  Anyway, most of what I do with the program involves bypassing its "album" template.  Namely, I tend to rip one to four tracks per "album," and then simply allow the albums to pile up (30 is the limit).  I don't know or care whether or not the program thinks that I've ripped thirty Led Zeppelin LPs.  With MAGIX, I had to do a degree of "improper" employing of the features, but with VS, that dynamic is epic.  The degree to which I am NOT using the software as intended is almost surreal.  And now this.  A per-album VBR default which is almost the least in that regard.

Did someone decide, "I'm sure our users want substandard mp3s"?  At least MAGIX's mp3 export default was middling, which is logical.  This allowed me to go up or down as I chose.  (I chose "up.")  But, in the meantime, I wasn't making poor-quality mp3s.  The least VBR is 9, and so a 7 is pretty lousy.  Or very, actually.  Well, I have nothing to lose.  But my mind.  I'd add an "in retrospect" observation, but I don't have one at this time!

Lee

Various Artists for August, 2025--Skeeter Davis, Mills Brothers, Peggy King, Sid King, Murray Arnold, Woody Herman, Little Eva, more!

 

You've gotta love that Percy Faith jacket: "How to sell these elegant popular concert numbers to the still-evolving 12-inch-LP market?  Sex!  That's the only way."  The streak up the man's back is the result of the lamp whose glare I couldn't totally suppress--not the photographer's fault.  Anyway, I love that "Get me out of here!" look on the lady's face.  Or, "Darn, I forgot to let the sitter know I'd be this late..."

So, a Golden Records classic, some recently-thrifted shellac, the Mills Brothers doing doo-wop, a couple century-plus-year-old goodies, fine rural '40s gospel, and an authentic Hawaiian number from back when everyone expected that state to become my country's 49th.

And, luckily, there are still local thrifts (two of them) that haven't gotten stupid with their vinyl pricing, and so I've hauled in a decent amount of analog audio since my last "Various Artists" bash (in March).  I think the principal inspiration for this VA post was the atypical appearance of 40 or 50 78s in fine condition at the big city Goodwill--of which I nabbed nine or so.  Also, Hi Yo Silver! simply demands a blog slot.  (And let me check to make sure I haven't already posted it...  Nope; we're good.)  Amazing work by the Arthur Norman Singers and the virtuoso accordionist--plus, surprisingly decent audio from a six-inch Golden Records release.  Audio which sounded dreadful in stereo but just fine with the channels summed.

Ripped in mono from Music from Hollywood is Percy Faith's superb 1953 instrumental version of Song from Moulin Rouge, and from Mantovani's 1962 Moon River and Other Great Film Themes LP, the equally superb Big Country theme.

And, from that recent 10"-shellac haul, the soft and sultry crooning of Peggy King (whose Zero Hour is among my all-time favorite pop gems), with the amusing Gentleman in the Next Apartment, plus Bob Merrill's great Make Yourself Comfortable (made famous by Sarah Vaughan), both 1954.  And Freddy Martin pianist Murray Arnold on the Cardinal label, performing his own Boo Boo Boogie and a boogie-woogie version of Camptown Races.  No record collection is complete without one.

The 1955 Sid King 45 showed up in the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift, and when I saw the title--Sag, Drag and Fall--something told me that I was in for some Shake, Rattle and Roll-style rockabilly.  I was correct.  Fine stuff, with a nice flip.

And a good dance-band version of the famous Black and White Rag (George Botsford, 1908), and though I have no idea who Bobby Mills was, I suspect he may have been European or European-American.  Just a guess from a Discogs listing.  Actually, the label, K and K, was a country operation.  So... dunno.  And we move on with the marvelous West Lawn Polka (1912), by banjo mega-virtuoso Frederick J. Bacon, followed by a 1914 rendition of the National Anthem (another no-collection-should-be-without disc), and great 1946 country gospel by Roy Acuff--That Glory Bound Train.  I was very happy with the 1946 rip, since picking the right Columbia response curve is always a matter of guesswork.

From the RCA Camden Easy to Love Skeeter Davis LP of 1970, Carole King's magnificent 1964 Let Me Get Close to You.  And, further down the list, another Goffin-King classic, Down Home (Little Eva, 1963), from an original, much-played 45 release.

Elsewhere, Neal Hefti and Woody Herman's 12-bar-blues rocker, Blowin' up a Storm (1946, Carnegie Hall), an almost hilariously over-the-top Pink Panther (theme) by the world-famous Columbia Musical Treasuries Orch. (1968), and an I-hoped-it-would-be-better Hugo Montenegro version of Good Vibrations.

From the Tops-related cheapie line Golden Tone, a marvelous budget cover of the Peter Gunn Theme, credited to "The Hi-Tones" (whatever), and from the 49th State Hawaii Record company, Little Brown Gal.  Apparently, Hawaii was in the running for No. 49, until Alaska took that slot.  And two numbers from my mono copy of Dionne Warwick's 1965 Here I Am LP: (Are You There) With Another Girl, and the astounding Lookin' With My Eyes, both Hal and Burt, of course.

Garage-band gold with the Kingsmen's rendition of Money (too bad about the piped-in audience noise), and Paul Revere and the Raiders' 1963 Louie, Louie.  A standard cover tune which, in an under-rehearsed take, was a huge hit for the Kingsmen, of course.  And, back to Bob Merrill, the superb Take Me Along (from a Broadway show), as performed by the Mills Brothers in either 1959 or 1961.  It all depends on whether or not my source LP--the MB's 1961 Yellow Bird--utilized the single release, which I strongly suspect was the case.  From the same LP, MB's excellent Get a Job cover, which may or may not be the 1958 single release.

And who hasn't wanted, more than anything else, to hear Sheb Wooley's rendition of Rawhide?  Well, long no longer--it's here.  Sheb was no Frankie Laine, but his take is decent enough.  We close with the 1971 jazz-rock of Get It On by Chase--a huge hit in my home town of Toledo, and one of my fondest AM-radio memories.  We even had a call-in talk show named after it.

Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Various Artists August 2025.zip

The Big Country (Jerome Moross)--Mantovani and His Orch., 1962

Hi Yo Silver!--The Arthur Norman Singers, 1958

Let Me Get Close to You (King-Goffin)--Skeeter Davis, 1964

Sag, Drag and Fall--Sid King & The Five Strings, 1955

Rawhide (Washington-Tiomkin)--Sheb Wooley, 1961

Are You There (With Another Girl) (Bacharach-David)--Dionne Warwick, 1965

Good Vibrations--Hugo Montenegro, His Orch. and Chorus, 1969

Money (Bradford-Gordy)--The Kingsmen, 1964

The Song from Moulin Rouge (Auric)--Percy Faith and His Orch., 1953

Boo Boo Boogie--Murray Arnold Plays 4 Hands, 1954

The Gentleman in the Next Apartment--Peggy King w. Percy Faith and His Orch., 1954

Lookin' With My Eyes (Bacharach-David)--Dionne Warwick, 1965

Take Me Along (Bob Merrill)--The Mills Brothers, 1961

Get a Job--The Mills Brothers, 1961

The Black and White Rag--Bobby Mills and His Orch., 1955

The Pink Panther (Mancini)--The Columbia Musical Treasuries Orch., 1968

Camptown Races--Murray Arnold Plays 4 Hands, 1954

West Lawn Polka--F.J. Bacon, Banjo Solo w. Piano Accompaniment, 1912

The Star Spangled Banner--Victor Mixed Chorus, 1914

Brothers! (Berlin)--Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Vocal w. Orch., 1954

Blowin' up a Storm (Neal Hefti-Woody Herman)--Woody Herman and the Herd (Carnegie Hall, 1946)

But I Don't Care--Sid King & The Five Strings, 1955

Peter Gunn Theme (Mancini)--The Hi-Tones (America's Top Tunes, Golden Tone)

Down Home (King-Goffin)--Little Eva, 1963

That Glory Bound Train--Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys, 1946

Little Brown Gal--Lei Momo Sweethearts w. John K. Almeida's Hawaiians

Make Yourself Comfortable (Bob Merrill)--Peggy King w. Percy Faith and His Orch., 1954

Louie, Louie (Richard Berry)--Paul Revere and the Raiders, 1963

The Story of Billy Bardell (Wooley)--Sheb Wooley, 1961

Get It On--Chase, 1971

Lee

Anyone Who Had a Heart--Dionne Warwick (Scepter 517, 1964): A masterpiece in mono!

 

As many of us know, thrift vinyl prices have gotten absurd, generally speaking (with the local Volunteers of America demanding $5.99 a pop (!), though at least one Goodwill in the nearest big city still sells at .99 each)  However, if it's a good buy and the condition is good, I'll fork out $2.99, which I have done so far on (I think) three occasions.  I did so with a near-mint copy of the Harmony label reissue of "The Grand Canyon Suite"--in monaural.  The first and only mono copy I've ever come across.  And $2.99 (a bargain) for Bobby Vee's marvelous The Night Has a Thousand Eyes LP, also near-mint and with a jacket in perfect condition.  Also, for today's gem--Dionne Warwick's second LP, from 1964, and in mono.  I actually prefer Top 40 music of this era in monaural.  Not sure why, but in mono the tracks have more punch and presence.  To my ears, that is.  I can't speak for anyone else's (though I've often spoken into other ears).

And musicman1979 reminded me that I posted the mono Harmony Grofe reissue last year on July 4th: https://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2024/07/fourth-of-july-music-grand-canyon-suite.html  

This would have been up sooner, but it wasn't ready yet.  (A little exercise in Police Squad! humor, there.)  Problem was, I finally found the ideal analog-to-digital interface, but my initial experience was nothing but failed channels and a Line input which didn't accept a stereo signal.  Being the infinitely patient and mature person that I am, I only screamed at the unit, oh, three times.  Well, four.  But no more than five times.  Okay, six.  And my yelling was closer to agonized screams.  But I otherwise kept my composure (and saved my blood pressure).  "Gear that doesn't work" might be a bigger anger trigger on my part than "Software That Fails."  Close call.

Luckily, the Sweetwater rep was terrific, and together we did some highly detailed troubleshooting--whereupon, the flaw in the soup was the least likely item: the brand-new audio cables--the right side was defective.  In five decades, and to the best of my memory (which isn't always the best), this is the first bad audio cable I've ever encountered.  Seriously.  Anyway, rep Barrett sent out (free of charge) two upgraded RCA-to-1/4" cables, and now all is fine.  Well, except that VinylStudio doesn't let me know when and if I'm peaking the input.  However, VS's peculiarities are nothing next to its many virtues, luckily.  The software is so amazing, I have no right to nitpick.

Oh, and what about the album?  Yes, today's offering.  And it's magnificent!  Purely fabulous (not faux-fabulous)!  And, except for a slightly scratchy first band (which cleaned up nicely via VS's patching and manual-declicking features), in super-good shape.  In short, worth five times the three-buck asking price.  Not a bad song in the mostly Bacharach-David lineup, and Dionne has one of the most amazingly expressive voices in the history of pop music--and, to top things off, she always effortlessly managed Burt's quirky rhythms and his often jazz-complex melodic intervals.  On the first takes, probably.  I recall reading that, when Burt and Hal discovered Dionne, they knew they had the perfect interpreter.  If they hadn't known as much, they'd have had to be drunk or otherwise impaired.

There's the great title song, Anyone Who Had a Heart, which I admire more each time I hear it, plus the just-as-magnificent Don't Make Me Over, the elegant I Cry Alone, and the should-have-been-a-monster-hit This Empty Place (maybe my favorite of the bunch).  That possibly-greatest-all-of-Dionne-numbers had the unfortunate fate of serving as the B-side of Wishin' and Hopin' (terrific in its own right, but not as substantial as Empty).  Luckily, Place was also memorably recorded by the Invasion bands The Searchers and Ian and the Zodiacs, meaning that someone realized the hit potential of this gem.  How could anyone not be blown away by such a perfect pop release?  I ask you.  Should have been an A-side.

So, I changed the numbering (after exporting from VinylStudio), and I hope the proper numerals (1-12) show up--and the the jacket art, which I added in the Media Player app.  Hope all goes as intended.  I plan to get a VS upgrade, which should mean that I can add a year field per track.  (Woo-hoo!)  And Fab Forgeries, Pt. 7 is coming up next post.

DOWNLOAD: DW--Anyone Who Had a Heart.zip

TRACK LIST--All recorded 1963, unless otherwise noted

Anyone Who Had a Heart (Bacharach-David)

Shall I Tell Her (Doc Pomus-Mort Shuman)

Don't Make Me Over (Bacharach-David; rec. 1962)

I Cry Alone (Bacharach-David)

Getting Ready for the Heartbreak (Larry Weiss-Lockie Edwards)

Oh Lord What Are You Doing to Me (Luther Dixon-Burt Keyes)

Any Old Time of Day (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

Mr. Heartbreak (Barbara English-Al Cleveland)

Put Yourself in My Place (Reggie Obrecht-William Drain)

I Could Make You Mine (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

This Empty Place (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

Please Make Him Love Me (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

Anyone Who Had a Heart--Dionne Warwick (Scepter 517, rel. 1964)

Lee