K-Tel's Bigfoot Snowshoes

"Doc" Earl Klugh (1980)

During the 1980s, this was the most popular music bed for everything for car commercials to the local public access TV community calendar.

And a lot of people liked this song. In spite of Mrs. Flooby's Knitting Class in the basement of St. Helpus Church at 7:30pm. Refreshments provided. Bring your own knitting needles and yarn.

Here's Earl Klugh's "Doc".

Before They Were Stars: Carly Simon

You know Carly Simon as a legendary singer/songwriter of the '70s. But not many people outside of her most devoted fans know her recording career began several years before her signing with Elektra and her massive pop hits like "You're So Vain", "Anticipation" and "That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be". A streak what would continue well into the 1980s

The Simon Sisters were Carly Simon and her lesser known sister Lucy. They were regulars in the New England folk circuit in the early 1960s and caught the attention of Kapp Records, then one of the larger independent labels in the US.

Meet The Simon Sisters (later retitled Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod after the first single from the LP which became a minor hit.) (Kapp, 1964)

Listen Here.

This LP was followed up later that year with Cuddlebug.

Listen Here

This would be the last Simon Sisters LP until 1969. But the folk scene of that time was beginning to change with more challenging, socially conscious lyrics and Kapp Records had been sold to MCA. They returned in 1969 with an LP for Columbia; The Simon Sisters Sing The Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children.

But the sisters brand of traditional and kid friendly folk was being overshadowed by harder edge acts. Their 1969 Columbia LP was reissued in 1973 as Carly & Lucy Simon Sing Songs for Children shortly after Carly Simon had her breakthrough hit "You're So Vain". (it was retitled to avoid confusion with Simon's pop albums.)

These LPs would remain without a reissue for over three decades until 2006 when the Kapp LPs were reissued for the first time on a single CD. Followed in 2008 by the reissue of Carly & Lucy Simon Sing Songs for Children.

Canfield's Diet Peanut Fudge Soda, 1989

Special thanks goes out to reader/contributor Peter Laurence of Camarillo, CA for this shocking find - PEANUT fudge flavoured soda?

"Here are some pictures...First, there's the can. The rest is for Geeks of different types.  You've got the ingredients, the NutraSweet label (The patent on aspartame expired, but it still exists.) and the bar code.  I tried the code on my QR reader, and it comes up unknown.

The can is unopened, but the contents have evaporated over time.  It is about 1/3 full."

All photos courtesy of Peter Laurence.

Also see:  Chocolate Flavoured Soda

Side One: Rock 80 (K-Tel 1980)

This is unquestionably my FAVOURITE K-tel album.....Every song a classic. Enjoy!

Side 1 of 'Rock 80'

Lazy Susan AM Radio

"Hooked On Classics" The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (K-Tel/RCA, 1981)

When you think of classical music, K-Tel isn't exactly the first name that comes to mind.

K-Tel, as everyone knows, was the purveyor of microgroove albums of all the pop hits that's print to fit. So what was K-Tel doing messing around with classical music?

The story begins in the UK at the height of the Stars On 45 fad. Louis Clark, former arranger of Electric Light Orchestra had an idea of making a similar medley album, using recognizable pieces of classical music linked together with a disco beat. He thought it could re-energize the classical genre the way the Stars On 45 helped re-energize the Beatles catalog for a new generation. He found an unlikely supporter and partner in K-Tel UK.

UK pressing of Hooked On Classics

However this was far from the first time someone got the idea of blending classical music with contemporary pop music. Since the dawn of pop, classical melodies were used as the framework for many pop songs. Classically styled orchestras called 'Pops' (or "Light") orchestras often made full orchestrated versions of pop music and were staples in the easy listening radio format. Arthur Fiedler and John Williams were the best known conductors of pops orchestras.. The 1960s and '70s were a huge time of classical fusion with pop and rock. Beginning with Simon & Garfunkel, The Moody Blues and various experimental albums using classically styled arrangements of pop hits led to the progressive rock era. And from there, disco was added ("A Fifth of Beethoven" Walter Murphy from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was the '70s most famous example. Even leading an aging Arthur Fiedler into the disco age.)

While classical purists loudly condemned this practice, it's worth noting that there was a side benefit. Classical music even then was largely dying as fewer young people were exposed to the music. These albums, for all their campiness and unconventional approaches did introduce classical elements to a newer generation. It may not be your grandpa's classical music, but they illustrated what could be done with it in contemporary music. If they only got that far it was worth it as classical music, while still an increasingly obscure genre and long vanished off commercial radio, is still very much alive and it's influence still occasionally pops up now and then in contemporary pop and rock music.

Hooked On Classics was released in the UK and became a phenomenal smash hit. However in the US, K-Tel needed to get this out to real record stores, as most of K-Tel's product was sold in discount stores. And to the radio stations. RCA had all these connections. So they arranged a distribution deal through RCA Records in the US.

 This is K-Tel's only originally produced US Top 40 hit single, making it to #10 in February of 1982.

Hooked On Classics spawned two sequel albums, each selling far less than the first in 1982 and 1983.

"The Captain Of Her Heart" Double (1985)

Listen

This song will save you $$$ in air conditioning costs. Just the sound of it drops the room temperature a few degrees and you swear you feel a soft, cool ocean breeze go by.

This song was a standard of the days of the "Lite" Adult Contemporary music on the 1980s radio dial. The kind of radio stations that played music and had imaging so light, you had to tether the office radio down to something secure to keep it from simply floating away.

Double (Pronounced DOO-Blay) was a Swiss pop duo of Kurt Maloo and Felix Haug. They formed originally as Ping Pong and in 1982, scored a minor hit in Europe on the German label Big Mouth with the catchy "Rhythm Walk".

The cover of Ping Pong's only LP

Ping Pong reformed as Double in 1983 and released a few European singles before recording their major label debut LP Blue which featured re-recordings of the earlier Double singles as well as "The Captain of Her Heart".

Double went on to release a second album in 1987 Dou3le. But aside from a critically well received single "Devil's Ball" there were no hits at all off this album. And Double called it a day.

Felix Haug sadly died of a heart attack in 2004. Kurt Maloo is still active.

A Gallery of North Korean Vinyl Records

Sample track from the above album: "Our Red Blood Means Victory" The Monsudae Art Troupe (1962) 

1921 Kurtzmann Glass Phonograph

The 1921 Kurtzmann Glass Phonograph was the hipster audio freak's must-have long before Bang & Olufsen. It played vertical cut discs of the Edison/Pathe variety. But could be modified to play lateral cut gramophone records with the use of an attachment to the tone arm.

And they're still very classy looking.

And in the days before electrical recording, vertical cut discs were sonically best for acoustic recording than conventional lateral cut gramophone records. A suddenly loud passage could cut through the wall of a lateral cut groove, so the singer had to stand back from the recording horn or the horn had to be muffled to protect the groove wall of the record being recorded. On a vertical cut groove, it only makes a deeper groove.

The teak horn inside was perfect for acoustically recorded records, Not brassy or tinnier than it had to be with conventional gramophone horns. Or boxy like Victrolas.  

They're extremely rare today.