We'll be hearing choice tracks from two Columbia boxed sets--six from 1974's The Unforgettable Years, and sixteen from 1968's Young and Warm and Wonderful. The former is a ten-record set made for J.C. Penney, and it offers "120 of today's most popular melodies." Which is kind of a weird claim, given that the songs tend toward the 1961-1965 period. Among the ten-LP offerings: King of the Road, Satisfaction, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, and Moon River, none of which were 1974 hits, of course. (I was there; I know.) Strange. Anyway, we'll be hearing from Record 10, Side B, which is called "Dance Time Discotheque." Its six numbers were worth wrestling with the entire set (assuming I got it for a thrift store price, which I probably did): they are delightful big band discotheque selections in the style of Enoch Light on Command and Si Zentner on RCA. Wish we had an artist credit. My favorite of the six tracks: Downtown, whose arrangement pleases me to no end, for some reason. Satisfaction is charming (and a bit amusing), too. As to what Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goodbye) is doing on a "Dance Time Discotheque" disc, I cannot begin to guess, but it's well done, so what the heck. The remaining 114 The Unforgettable Years selections didn't make the cut, though I almost included Blowin' in the Wind and Mr. Tambourine Man from the "Folk Festival" disc. However, those are done in a silly, sing-along "hootenanny" style--plus, they're in rough shape. So, I passed on them.
Honestly, The Unforgettable Years sounds like a delayed release--something that sat around for nine years, just waiting for a retail chain to offer it as a premium. Despite the release year, it sounds totally 1960s.
Next, from the seven-disc Young and Warm and Wonderful, I ripped every one of the eleven sections by the In Group (give me a break!), all but one of which fall into the "fake" hit/sound-alike category--and all very well done. But, well done or no, Mrs. Robinson has never grown on me--like most of Simon and Garfunkel's music, I can live without it. However, the In Group's sole pop-instrumental cover--Those Were the Days--features such an imaginative and lively arrangement, it has me liking the song for the first time I can remember. Light My Fire, unfortunately, copies the Jose Feliciano version (which is fine, but I'd have preferred imitation Doors). There's fantastic piano work on Misty, and fine fakes of Land of 1000 Dances and Respect. I guess these could be called fake-tastic. Then it's on to The International Hits Orchestra (another likely-sounding appellation) with the world's worst fake of It's Not Unusual, along with superior sound-alikes of Don't Sleep in the Subway and Downtown. Winchester Cathedral is an instrumental cover--and quite good--and that closes our playlist.
No, wait--there's also an excellent Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In copy by The New Dance Band. For those who prefer their dance bands new.
A nice mix of fake hits and instrumental hit parade covers. Columbia Special Products is the label for Unforgettable, while Young and Warm was released on Columbia Musical Treasuries--in other words, Columbia House. A mail-order special.
DOWNLOAD: Unforgettable Years/Young and Warm and Wonderful (1974 and 1968)
UNKNOWN ARTIST
Downtown
I Want to Hold Your Hand
I'm Telling You Now
Satisfaction
She Loves You
Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goodbye)
The Unforgettable Years: Dance Time Discotheque (Columbia Special Products CSS 375-84; 1974)
THE IN GROUP
The "In" Crowd
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
Hang On Sloopy
Land of 1000 Dances
Misty
Respect
Both Sides, Now
Mrs. Robinson
Anyone Who Had a Heart
Those Were the Days
Light My Fire
THE NEW DANCE BAND
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In
THE INTERNATIONAL HITS ORCHESTRA
It's Not Unusual
Don't Sleep in the Subway
Winchester Cathedral
Downtown
Young and Warm and Wonderful (Columbia Musical Treasuries P7S 5114; 1968)
Lee
12 comments:
thank you for wading through these box sets for the gold Lee, I am totally excited!
That In group mama!! thank you very much
Where would we be w/o Columbia Special Products?
The Unforgettable Years selections sound a bit like Lawrence Welk playing Herb Alpbert arrangements. Sort of a "Best" of both worlds. Once again I'm taken back to the days of my dad's budget LP collection, only these are a better quality.
Thank you!
Ugh, budget box sets. Do you really want to open that can of worms?
Thanks for the nice words. And, yes, "Lawrence Welk playing Herb Alpert" is a perfect description. And I know what you mean, Ernie--they're a lot of work. But I find it fun.
2/4/22
RobGems68 wrote:
Re: Lee: Interesting stuff from Columbia House you have here, Lee. I doubt, though that Columbia re-issued any of this stuff on Harmony Records for the department stores .As a kid, I remember Michigan had long-defunct stores like Federal's & Yankees selling these budget albums on Harmony & other labels. Federal's was also infamous for buying out Tiedkye's Department store of Ohio & having an insane owner during the 1970's who was a known arsonist who had "fire sales" at 5 of his stores by setting them on fire, and then collecting the insurance money. I wonder how many fire damaged copies of Harmony albums he sold that year(1977-78.) Re: Larry: Lawrence Welk playing Herb Alpert is a funny statement, even though it isn't Lawrence on this box set. However, Lawrence has covered Herb Alpert on his albums & TV show.
RobGems88,
I remember the Toledo Tiedkye's fire--thick ashes were falling into our back yard on the east side. Somehow, I didn't know that it was a case of arson. Very interesting.
Re the Harmony label--were those sold primarily in department stores?
2/4/22
RobGems68 wrote:
Yes, I remember seeing budget records like Harmony, Vocalion, Camden, Unart, Metro, etc.in budget racks at department stores like Federal's, Yankees K-Mart, Grant's, Arlan's, Kresgee's, & Woolworths. Usually they were sold for $1.99 each, but sometimes when they were remaindered, they were sold as cut outs as low as 99 cents. The lowest I ever saw a budget label record sold as a cut-out was as low as 44 cents. I was just a kid then, but I remember all of these long defunct stores. The last one to close was K-Mart's in 2018.
I remember Grant's and Arlan's. Arlan's was the main reduced-price LP stop for me and my brother each Christmas, after getting ten bucks from our grandmother. I remember when all of the Beach Boys' Capitol LPs were marked down. He or I bought a Duophonic copy of "All Summer Long."
2/4/ 22
RobGems68 wrote: Beach Boys in "Duophonic" (bleccch!) I still got a couple of these Duophonic albums (one by Frank Sinatra, one by Dean Martin, & one by Les Paul & Mary Ford , which I paid $5.00 for at a used record store, because it was in near-mint condition), and they all sound predictable (awful.) Honest, there are DES stereo videos on You Tube that sound superior to Duophonic. That crazy department store owner of Federal's/Tiedkyes was named Steven West & he deliberately burned down his department stores (5 Federals & 1 out-of-business Tiedykes) to collect insurance money & flee to Florida after closing the last Federal's store in 1980. He was eventually indicted in 1992 for tax evasion & money laundering crimes. The one on Dequindre & 8 Mile in Detroit I particularly miss, and he set it on fire in early 1978. All of the budget labels practiced Fake electronic stereo too during the 60's & 70's, not just Capitol Records. If you can find them, opt for the mono copies instead, they sound better.
Thank you, Lee, for another elusive gem!
Post a Comment