History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
I see those first two records and any Mitch Miller album so frequently its not even funny.
ReplyDeleteThe Herb Alpert album I knew was a very popular trendsetting, multi-million seller. And Mitch Miller was a '50s TV icon. So I'll leave them aside.
ReplyDeleteBut "25 All Time Family Favorites"? Now THIS record is something straight out of the Twilight Zone.
It was a mail order TV album (I remember seeing the TV advertisements for it when I was a kid) and as far as mail order TV albums go, they usually don't sell beyond 50,000 copies (most FAR LESS) in spite of their ubiquitous advertising. And especially for a no-name record of abbreviated classical pieces and public domain songs. Similar TV records are much harder to find. But THIS one.....
HOW did we get so damn many copies of this record? I was baffled beyond belief. It seems like every thrift store record rack at any given time has at LEAST 3 copies of this record. But WHERE did they all come from?
They are all unwrapped and show evidence of playing (if not absolute wanton destruction.)
Every search on the internet has turned up nothing on this record - except countless eBay listings. Or it's manufacturer (something called All Disc) Although there's a listing for an All Disc as a Brazilian rock and R&B reissue label, I don't know if (and I really don't think) they're related.
"25 All Time Family Favorites" actually had a follow-up, a two LP set called "50 Great Music Treasures", also frequently seen amongst the flotsam and jetsam of your typical thrift store record racks. But nowhere near the scale of it's predecessor....
Some other candidates for your list...
ReplyDeleteThe First Family by Vaughn Meador (JFK spoof album)
Tihati's Savage South Sea Spectacular (Everyone who visited Hawaii in the 60's must have brought home one of these.)
ANY album by Andy Williams, Jim Nabors, or Lawrence Welk.
The annual Firestone Tire Company Xmas album with the big ribbon bow on the front.
120 Musical Masterpieces (Another set of classical excerpts; this one marketed by Columbia House. Remember the veddy-British TV pitchman identifying "Stranger In Paradise" as based on the "Polovetzian Dance Number Two by Borodin"?
The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart
How about Johnny Rivers' "Realization" album from 1968, where he tried to go more hippie/introspective? No yard sale or thrift store is complete without it!
ReplyDeleteAh...Good one. I remember playing that album in the vintage record shop I worked at in Everett. I never really understood the appeal of Johnny Rivers. He took other people's songs and made them saccharine. You can hear it in "Baby I Need Your Loving", which doesn't hold a wet match next to The Four Tops original. The only song I really like from Johnny Rivers is "Slow Dancin' (Swaying To The Music)"
DeleteHe does an OK version of "Memphis" (my mom had that album) but I'd rather hear Chuck Berry's original.
When I was in junior high school I loved Peter Frampton and I wanted his 'comes alive' album so bad for Christmas one year that I begged and begged and guess what? I didn't get it. I was soooooooooooo let down. LOL! I bought it a few months later after saving my babysitting money.
ReplyDelete