Charles Aznavour- The World of Charles Aznavour: All About Love

Here is a $2 record I bought from one of the French Masters, Charles Azanavour. This was recorded live in 1965 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Hollywood where hurricane hardly happen.

This album, from Reprise in 1966 features songs in French, English, and a combination of both. Really good stuff. A master of the chanson, Azanavour really tears through this material. Also the back cover points out that he makes love with the lights on, an odd comment to point out.

I really liked many points on this record but none more than “Les Comediens”. I also liked “Et Pourtant” as well as “You’ve Let Yourself Go”.

Satisfactory.

Les Comediens
Et Pourtant
You’ve Let Yourself Go

Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra- Strangers in the Night

Here is a 1966 record from Decca featuring blog favorite Bert Kaempfert and his big hit which he wrote the music for, “Strangers in the Night”. Not sure if this the reason I bought it or if it was just so cheap at $1.00.

If you know his music, this record is pretty consistent with Kaempfert’s ouput.

Here is “Mexican Shuffle” as a sample. Satisfactory record.

Mexican Shuffe

Simple Minds- Sparkle In The Rain

We are celebrating Robbie Burns Day or Burns Supper this year with this record, which i bought for $6.40. I originally planned to showcase yesterday’s album for today’s event and post this record at the end of the month. Then it hit me as I was writing this month’s posts; Simple Minds is Scottish. Yay. Makes for a much more suitable Saturday record.

Not sure what Robbie Burns Day is? Do a quick search on this blog to find out as I have exhausted the subject in the past. Long story short, this is the day of tribute to the National Poet of Scotland, Robert Burns.

Back to the present (or less historical past) this was the band’s big breakthrough album of sorts, released in 1984 (Virgin the UK/ A&M (which we have here) in the US). Of course massive success would follow on the next album which I posted here.

Since we are back tracking on posts, here is also the post from when I saw the live two years ago. I still think back at that show as it really came up at the last moment and was quite enjoyable.

This album went to # 1 in the UK. and did pretty well in the US as well, although still drawing comparisons to U2 and Big Country. I could have gone many directions with a sample, but went with “Book of Brilliant Things” which they did live when I saw them.

Satisfactory.

Book Of Brilliant Things

Pipe Major Iain McLeod- Dancer’s Delight: Music for Highland Dancing

Getting ready for tomorrow’s annual celebration of Robbie Burns Day with this. I paid $4 for it.

From the international flavored Fiesta Records, we have a record from one of the great Pipe Majors of all time, Iain McLeod. Born in 1931, McLeod served as head of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band from 1959 to 1976, winning five World Piping Championships along the way. Not much is known about his police record, but is is noted that he held very controversial views on pipe judging, making him a polarizing figure in competitive circles. He passed away from an undisclosed illness in 2017.

I am not sure what year this record is but unless you really, really like bagpipes, there is not much for you on this record other than it is Scottish and this is the time of year the blog celebrates Scottish things. One criticism of this record is that all the songs have awful sound that the bagpipes emit when started for the first time. Someone could not have just faded these songs in? Otherwise, a fine album that showcases McLeod’s mastery of the instrument.

For a sample, I am going with the traditional “Highland Laddie”.

I am not going to pretend I like bagpipes but I am not going to crap on this just because it is not my cup of tea. Satisfactory.

Highland Laddie

Ted Heath vs Edmundo Ros- Swing vs Latin

This is the second Phase 4 / London Record this week but my jaw absolutely dropped when I saw this. And at $4 none the less.

This record was billed as a battle between two genre heavyweight’s, the swing bandleader Ted Heath and the Latin bandleader Edmundo Ros. From what I can make out, this is a record of both bands playing together with Heath o the left speaker and Ros on the right. The back cover hypes up the battle angle pretty heavily but what we have is a wonderful effort from these two, tackling such songs as “Desafinado”, “Heat Wave”, and “Miserlou” among others. Johnny Keating, BTW, handled the arrangements.

I liked all the songs on here and had a hard time coming up with a cleat favorite until I got to the end of the record. Here are two giants of Phase 4 Records with “Anything You Can Do” from Annie Get Your Gun.

Top Rated Record.

Anything You Can Do

OCR- Applause

I got this for $6 mostly because it was Broadway and Lauren Bacall and I was unaware the two went together. I failed to see the list of accolades this production won on the cover.

Applause, with book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Charles Strouse , and lyrics by Lee Adams, (Stouse and Adams were the team behind Bye Bye Birdie), was based on the 1950 film All About Eve, which was based on Mary Orr’s short story “The Wisdom of Eve. When the principles started writing this, they did not have the rights to the movie and could not use any of the dialog or characters created for said movie. By the time writing was done, Twentieth Century Fox relented and granted the musical full rights to the movie but by that time, the story was pretty much set. A musical number tilted “Fasten Your Seat Belts” was an exception

Applause opened at the Palace Theater in 1970 and ran for 896 performances. It won a Best Musical Tony as well as Best Direction, Best Choreography, and Best Actress for its star Bacall. I was somewhat surprised to learn that this was the first major award she had ever won.

Bacall was much intrigued with the role as she was approaching mid-age much like the main character Margo Channing. A TV version was made which also features Bacall.

The cast is rounded out by Len Cariou, Robert Mandan, Ann Williams, Brandon Maggart, Penny Fuller, Lee Roy Reams, and One Day At A Time’s Bonnie Franklin. As far as the album goes, I really liked it. I thought the songs were catchy and to the point. I particularity liked “She’s No Longer A Gypsy”, a song about understudies who grab the spotlight, along with a shout out to Shirley MacLaine.

Another fun fact, this is one of the half dozen productions George Steinbrenner helped finance before buying the Yankees. If you are looking for the back cover, it was the exact same as the front.

For samples, I went with the star. Here is Bacall with “But Alive’ as well as “Welcome to the Theater. I thought these were really good numbers. Given her gravely voice, I did not put much stock in Bacall when I bought this. However, I felt she hit it out of the park.

Satisfactory.

But Alive
Welcome To The Theater

Malando and his Tango Orchestra- Tango!

Here is one I got for a dollar.

You would think Malando would be from Argentina, but you would be wrong. Nope, the artist known as Malando, was born Arie Maasland in Rotterdam, Holland in 1908. He ditched his studies to become a draftsman in order to devote his career to music. After some time in successful Dutch bands of the period (including his own), he was introduced to South American music by one Eduardo Bianco. From there, I am not sure where his career went but according to the back cover of the record, I am guessing this music influenced the rest of his career, despite never setting foot in South America at the time of this release. I am not sure what happened to him after that, but his son Danny Malando apparently followed in his father’s footsteps with decent success.

This record, released by Epic, is a collection of 12 songs which all kind of sound the same. However, Malando’s mastery of the art form is on full display and this is a decent record. For a sample, I went with ‘La Cumparsita” which is a tango staple I imagine.

Satisfactory record.

La Cumparsita

Dusty Owens- Country and Western: The Greatest of Dusty Owens

Here is a record I got for $4 because it had a lot of songs I liked on it.

Dusty Owens was born in Fairdealing, Missouri in 1930, but quickly relocated to Flint, MI with his family. He grew up playing accordion oddly enough before his career as a country singer. He had a string of singles which brought him some notoriety but not enough to garnish a Wikipedia entry. These singles were released by Colombia starting in 1953 after a decent career in radio. He also got a contract to write music for Acuff-Rose. His composition, “Once More” has become a country standard and I believe I posted a version somewhere on this blog. I am going to leave the heavy lifting to music bloggers who have already done the work as well as a webpage dedicated to the artist, who passed away in 2015.

This record, from budget label Wyncote, is less a greatest hits record than it is a record of songs Wyncote could afford. Most are traditional standards and I am guessing, are in the public domain. That being said, a lot of famous tunes here, including ” Rovin’ Gambler”, “Blood On The Saddle”, “Streets of Laredo”, “Strawberry Roan”, and “Red River Valley”.

I am going with what may now be slightly inappropriate (Jeffery Epstein was still very much in the news when I wrote this) but still a decent song, “Black Jack David” . It has a nice little accordion to it. I am not sure when this song was recorded or when this album was released.

Satisfactory record.

BlackJack David

Percy Faith- My Fair Lady

I originally bought this for 80 cents, just because the price was good enough to check out. I bought this again for $2 because Julie Andrews was on the cover.

This album was originally released in 1956 by Columbia. It was released in 1964, electronically re-channeled for stereo (possible to coincide with the success of the movie version). I forget which version I listened to for this. I know which one, I am giving away though. Sorry Audrey. I have always had a place in my heart for Andrews.

Not that she had much to do with this record which is bandleader Percy Faith going thru some of the bigger songs of this production. Depsite how I feel about the show in general, you can not argue with the music, allthough I am no Faith fan and feel the interpretations are quite bland.

Well sample we must so here we are with “With A Little But Of Luck”.

Sorry but again, I just don’t really like Percy Faith. Meh.

With A little Bit Of Luck

Roger Miller- The 3rd Time Around

Happy Saturday. I am keeping this quick with this record I bought for $1. Quite a Steal.

From 1965, (his second record that year), we have Roger Miller’s third album, which went #1 on the country charts/ 13 on the US chart. This was his only # 1 country album. This album, from Smash, produced four singles; “Engine, Engine # 9”, “One Dyin’ and a Buryin'”, “Kansas City Star”, and the song I am featuring here, ” It Happened Just That Way” which was the only single that did not chart on the country chart. For shame.

Satisfactory.

It Happened Just That Way