Vinyl Albums - Comments by mojofilter

Vinyl Albums - Comments by mojofilter

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
mojofilter 27th Aug 2022		Vinyl Album Hamburg Philharmonia Orchestra - Rhapsody In Blue / Symphony For Blues (1957)	The orchestra on this record is most likely Orchester der Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg. This LP was originally issued in the US on Somerset P-1800 in mono and stereo. Licenced to Quality Records in Canada, who issued it on their Reo subsidiary label. D.L. (Dave) Miller, of Somerset Records in Philadelphia, after having recorded the first sides by Bill Haley & The Saddlemen on the Essex label, was known as a "schlockmeister" who would hire European orchestras who were down on their luck, and pay them a one-time session fee to record various orchestral works. He would release them in the US under various artist names, and sell them to rack jobbers who would put them in the $1.99 bins in supermarkets and drug stores in the US and Canada, for people who wanted to hear some music but didn't particularly care what it was or who it was by. This particular album sold a lot of copies, for it was a very good rendition of "Rhapsody In Blue," with a world-class pianist. Its cover artwork, of a city scene of New York with the Chrysler Building prominent, is legendary. The cover says it was the Hamburg Phiharmonia Orchestra, with David Haines at the piano. However, this same performance was issued on Valiant VM 4902 as by "Roger Aarons at the Steinway," and has been reissued several times as by 101 Strings. So we may never know exactly who the pianist was. "Symphony For Blues" is an original work by American composer Joseph Kuhn, who was on the Somerset label as an in-house composer. In my humble opinion, this is an incredible performance of an incredible piece of music. This appears to be the only place where it was ever issued. The back cover offers an address where you could write for the orchestral score, but it was defunct as early as the mid -1960s. I know, because hoping I could get physical copies, I could not get a response from them at all in the early 1970s. Miller also released dozens of albums under the pseudonym of Leo Muller. He was sued by Bill Haley for selling his early recordings without ever paying any royalties. The lawsuit bankrupted Miller, but it didn't stop him selling music for cheap to anyone who would pay for it.
mojofilter 22nd Aug 2022		Vinyl Album Buddy Holly And The Crickets - The Buddy Holly Story (1959)	Added labels printed on brown paper.
mojofilter 19th Aug 2022		Vinyl Album Terry Jacks - Pulse (1983)	This album has an interesting re-interpretation of Jacks' own "Where Evil Grows," performed on synthesizers and sequencers, with vocoder vocals. It was released as a single, but didn't get on the radio much, if at all.
mojofilter 19th Aug 2022		Vinyl Album Terry Jacks - Into The Past... Terry Jacks Greatest Hits (1989)	Released at the same time as The Poppy Family Greatest Hits (featuring Susan Jacks) on A&M SP 69998.
mojofilter 12th Aug 2022		Vinyl Album The Beau-Marks - The High Flying Beau-Marks (1960)	Can anyone confirm which version of "Clap Your Hands" is on this album? I have two different singles of it. One has no handclaps at all. The other has overdubbed handclaps, with an audible 60 Hz tone underlying the whole record, suggesting that the mic wasn't grounded properly. If it's not on this album, I wonder where my clap-free version came from.
mojofilter 12th Aug 2022		Vinyl Album Andy Stewart - Scottish Soldier (1961)	Reading about other Andy Stewart albums, he seems to have recorded some of these titles more than once. But this album contains their original versions. In his Wikipedia article, it mentions that "Donald, Where's Your Troosers" was reissued in the UK as a single in late 1989, as a novelty record suitable for Christmas parties. It was promoted heavily by Radio 1 DJ Simon Mayo, and the record reached #4 in the UK chart. In response, Stewart recorded a jingle for Mayo, with the lyric "Simon, where's your troosers?" I'd love to hear that. Anyone have a recording of it?
mojofilter 8th Aug 2022		Vinyl Album Stan Freberg - "More Here Than Meets The Ear" (1965)	[YouTube Video]
mojofilter 30th Jul 2022		Vinyl Album Barry McGuire - The Barry McGuire Album (1963)	Added label scans and composers.
mojofilter 20th Jul 2022		Vinyl Album The Fleetwoods - Mr. Blue (1959)	I also have a copy of this album that is identical except for the LP back cover. Instead of the regular track listing and blurb, it says "Coca-Cola Ltd.'s Hi-Fi Club Album Of Hits" with a large photo of some 1959 teenagers dressed nattily in skirts and dresses and sweater vests with collared shirts, lounging in a living room with what looks like an RCA 7" single changer, listening to 45s, eating potato chips and drinking Coca-Cola. Singles on ABC Paramount and Atlantic are pictured, as well as the picture sleeve for Elvis' "Teddy Bear" and what looks like an album on the Columbia label.
mojofilter 19th Jul 2022		Vinyl Album Hawkwind - Warrior On The Edge Of Time (1975)	Hi, Phil. Thanks for the research and information you provided. My copy is identical to the one on Discogs, so CDN it is. Now I wonder how Hawkwind were under the Atlantic umbrella in the US but still on UA in Canada. You'd think that it would have come out on Atco in Canada, too, as they had a large presence there.
mojofilter 18th Jul 2022		Vinyl Album Hawkwind - Warrior On The Edge Of Time (1975)	The perimeter text on the label doesn't give a country of manufacture, it just says "Mfd.& dist.by U.A. Records, Ltd." There is a blurb on the label that says "Recording first published 1975. (P) 1975 U.A. Records, Ltd." There is no record company verbiage on the packaging, inside or out, or on the spine, except the catalogue number printed in white on the rear upper right corner. I had always supposed it to be a US edition, because it didn't say anything about Canada, but you could be right about it being a Canadian issue. If there was a paper inner sleeve with those details, I didn't get one. I have a generic plastic record sleeve made for the collectors' store in Toronto where I found it.
mojofilter 18th Jul 2022		Vinyl Album Hawkwind - Warrior On The Edge Of Time (1975)	I had no idea this album was issued on Atco. My US copy is on United Artists UALA 465G. The inside cover is a die-cut that folds out into a four-square poster with some suitably trippy artwork. Does anyone know which one came first?
mojofilter 15th Jun 2022		Vinyl Album Elvis Presley - Personally Elvis (1979)	Artwork for this album can be seen at Discogs. They have it listed as an unofficial release. I bought this when I worked at the largest record store in Canada. It was sold in the Elvis section, along with every other non-bootleg Elvis album in print at the time (otherwise I would have stocked up on Laurels and Bilkos!). It came from a reputable company in Quebec. This is from the same Silhouette Music label that made The Beatles' "Timeless" interview albums and others. This album was also released as two 12" picture discs, sold separately.
mojofilter 6th Jun 2022		Vinyl Album The Monks - Bad Habits (1979)	Research I did on The Monks some years back yielded a quote from one of the members saying that they were playing dive bars in England and were broke and on the verge of splitting up, when they got word that their album had taken off in Canada. So they went there to promote the album, and "it was like Beatlemania!" They were treated like royalty and played large venues, including a gig at Toronto's Massey Hall. Their single "Drugs In My Pocket" was huge in many markets - it went to #4 on CHUM, Toronto and #1 on CKOC, Hamilton. It went Top 20 across Canada. Meanwhile, back at home, they couldn't get arrested. Their next album, "Suspended Animation" was released exclusively in Canada. It went gold, and this album, "Bad Habits" went double platinum in 1982. The person who rated all the tracks on this album was obviously neither a fan, nor a Canadian.
mojofilter 21st Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - 7-Up "Un Un & Away" (1971)	I guess that'd be a technical call by the staff. You could only get a copy by winning it. So it's promotional in that sense, but not the same as a radio promo. It doesn't say "promotional copy" or "not for sale" anywhere on the package.
mojofilter 18th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - 7-Up "Un Un & Away" (1971)	This was a promotional item for winning in the 7-Up "Rally Caps" contest.
mojofilter 18th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Happy Days (1975)	I noted in my database about the sound on this album: "All of these tracks are mono in the left channel. The right channel contains the reverb they got by putting a speaker at one end of a subway station and miking it from the other end."
mojofilter 17th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Truckin' (1971)	I've lost the full-size image in a hard drive failure, but I still have a 428x428 thumbnail of the album cover, if that will serve until we get a larger image. I also hate that they put a grocer's apostrophe in the name of the Towers department store chain on the labels.
mojofilter 17th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Dick Clark's 25th Anniversary Collection (1979)	I've just learned that this was a 5LP box set. I only have this disc in a plain white sleeve, that used to belong to an oldies DJ.
mojofilter 15th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - History Of Rock 'n' Roll Volume 4 (1979)	I purchased this album for the LP version of "Green-Eyed Lady," which was extremely scarce at the time in any format but the original Liberty album, then long out-of-print. "Rhythm Of The Rain" by Gary Lewis is listed on the back cover as B-1, but the song does not appear on the album.
mojofilter 15th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - CHFI 98.1 Presents: The Candlelight And Wine Album (1978)	"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" is a remake, not the Scepter version.
mojofilter 15th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - CHFI 680 Presents A Gathering Of Stars (1969)	CHFI-FM Toronto was a "beautiful music" format station beginning in 1957. In 1962, CHFI-AM was added at 1540 KHz, simulcasting the FM programming in mono. They moved to 680 KHz in 1966. In 1971, the call letters for the AM station were changed to CFTR (TR stands for Ted Rogers, who built a broadcasting empire in Canada) and by 1972, the format changed to Top 40. They became the main competition for 1050 CHUM, and eventually overtook them in the ratings in 1984, at which time CHUM dropped their Top 40 format and went to Adult Contemporary. The "Candlelight And Wine" format started at CHFI, and they worked with Columbia Special Products to issue numerous compilations of the type of music they broadcast. I believe this album was the first of a series, that predates the "Candlelight And Wine" name.
mojofilter 15th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - At The Hop (1973)	The version of "Sheila" is the original recording on Judd 1022 as by Tommy Roe & The Satins. The version of "Wipeout" is a remake issued 1966 on Decca 32003. The version of "Surfin'" is the original 1961 recording on the "X" label.
mojofilter 15th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Good Vibrations (1973)	Features a completely different track listing from the UK LP of the same name. All tracks are drastically edited and may be considered to be excerpts, except for one: the LP version of "Pretty Lady" by Lighthouse is inexplicably included.
mojofilter 15th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album Various Artists - 28 Goofy Greats (1974)	An album of this title but with some different song selections was issued in the US as a single album, with the title changed to Goofy Greats - Original Stars, 24 Original Hits and 1 Funky Album, on K-Tel NU 9030.
mojofilter 13th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album The Hollies - The Hollies Greatest Hits (1967)	Mr. Lobbers is correct. The Hollies albums were on Capitol Canada 6000 series, until they moved to Epic. The LP shown is a US pressing. mod edit: images hidden for now
mojofilter 5th Apr 2022		Vinyl Album King Size Taylor And The Dominoes - Real Gonk Man (1964)	Could a mod please change the Format of this to Stereo LP? Because I have it in mono, on HLP 2101. mod edit: done.
mojofilter 22nd Feb 2022		Vinyl Album The Beatles - Codename Russia (1988)	This album was the work of the people behind Yellow Dog, before they were called that, releasing bootlegs under one of their many pseudonyms. The record wasn't made in Switzerland, it just says that on the jacket.
mojofilter 19th Feb 2022		Vinyl Album Mason Williams - The Mason Williams' Phonograph Record (1968)	The Wikipedia article on "Classical Gas" states that in 1998, BMI issued a special Citation of Achievement to Mason Williams. At that time, it had "logged over five million broadcast performances, to become BMI's all-time number-one instrumental composition for airplay."
mojofilter 19th Feb 2022		Vinyl Album Murray McLauchlan - Live At The Orpheum (1979)	The physical record remains rare, but the material has been offered for sale as mp3 and FLAC downloads from the True North website since May 2019. The unbroken digital file runs 1:48 longer than the four album sides. 43 years later, I noticed that the photo of Murray on the cover is mirror-imaged. He's not a left-handed guitarist as pictured!

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