Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl

Great Big Band Vocalists Most times when the Longines Symphonette Society put out albums, we had no idea who the musicians were. But sometimes they did give us all the information. And it’s even rarer when they cram an album full of star singers.

THIS is one of those albums.

These Decca recording artists are still some of the best known. The songs, pure pop gold from the 1930s through 50s.

So, get ready to hear a few memorable sing...

Beautiful Hawaiian Music

This is episode eleventeen hundred three thousand and forty-three of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl. 

I might as well say anything I want anymore, because according to the liner notes on this album, the featured artist played all 32 instruments and sings like Bing Crosby.

While the singer’s voice does bear a remarkable resemblance to der Bingle, I had two Artificial Intelligence platforms arguing about if anything...

Peter Gunn TV Music

This is the fourth of six Henry Mancini albums we’ve heard from my dad’s collection. This one is a little different, because most of the other records contained tunes that could have been released as singles or were the theme songs of movies.

While you’ll hear the theme song of a late 1950s TV detective show, you also get to hear the incidental music from the show. And I came to think of a couple of these tunes ...

The Ultimate Nashville Stars

Here’s a nice little compilation album with some pretty big names on it. The recordings you are about to hear sold millions of copies combined.

And they all came from a town at the heart of country music smack dab in the heart of Tennessee.

So get ready to hear wall-to-wall solid gold from wall-to-wall talent in Volume 241: Nashville Souvenirs.

For more information about this album, see the Discogs webp...

The Voice of Louis Armstrong

My dad’s favorite trumpet player also was an extremely popular vocalist. I have documented many trumpet players who have also recorded their singing voices during the course of this show. Rarely do they commit to a full record of it. And none were as famous for it.

This musician popularized a singing style, while making some of the hottest jazz records in the 1920s and 30s with his trumpet.

So, get read...

Dixieland Veterans

My dad loved his Dixieland music. Even when he had no idea who was performing it. This is a perfect album for that mindset, because this budget label doesn’t even get all of the tunes listed correctly on the cover and label, let alone tell us who’s performing on it.

And even though the title of this episode leans toward anonymous musicians, today’s technology might have helped. And then again. It might not have.

...

Maynard Ferguson's Hot Trumpet

We now get to feature the second of two albums my dad had of MY favorite trumpet player. In fact, I haven’t seen a rock band more times than I’ve seen Maynard Ferguson and his big band.

This musician was known for his energetic charts, youthful big band members, soaring high notes, and most importantly his music education at the high school level.

So, let’s crank this up to a double high C and give Ma...

Here’s a voice we’ve heard before. It was during a 78 RPM Sunday when we had plenty of her shellac to fill a show. This singer went on to have her own TV show where she sang many of the pop hits from that time.

In fact, the tunes that made it on this album were among the most requested from her show.

So, get ready to hear an artist known as the Singin' Rage in Volume 237: A TV Page

For more information about this album, see the Dis...

We are going to have a ton of fun with this episode. Well 16 tons. Ah. That was too easy. 

This is the only album my dad has of this great singer. But, it’s obviously the most important one from his releases.

This artist was really a radio personality at heart, but when producers discovered that deep voice of his, well, the rest is history.

So get ready to hear one of the truly great voices of pop music from the mid 20th century in...

We’ve already come close to proving that the named orchestra leader on this album probably doesn’t exist. I discussed that mystery in Volume 199: Tea and Trumpets.

But the man who wrote all of the tunes on this album most certainly existed. He wrote the scores for more than 30 stage and film musicals. Many of those songs have been performed and recorded by some of the most famous artists in history.

So, get ready to hear memorable ...

What? Yet another trumpet player in my dad’s collection I haven’t introduced you to yet? But of course.

Clyde McCoy is not nearly as well known as the myriad of other horn players I’ve shown off, but he recorded a lot of music from 1917 through 1985.

His 1931 version of a song written nine years earlier set off a mini craze within jazz and set his career on fire.

So get ready to hear a trumpet played in such a style that it inspire...

Well, it’s Fathers Day.

For me, that means another trip to the cemetery rather than a trip to visit my dad for dinner. I’m not looking for sympathy. That’s just the way it is. I mean. That’s life!

And this episode’s featured artist certainly saw his share of ups and downs during his incredibly influential and talented life. He was also my dad’s favorite singer.

This is the last of five of his solo albums my dad had. But we have hea...

Time to take a road trip around this great country we call the US of A. And who better to be our tour guide than the incredible Ray Charles. 

He had over 1,700 listings in discogs, the website I use to catalog my vinyl collections. And it’s not easy to catalog just what genre this genius belongs to.

Well, he belongs to them all: pop, blues, jazz, gospel, country, and rock.

So get ready to hear a guy who once tried to sell an electr...

When I featured this artist the first time on this show, he was still with us. 

Unfortunately, Harry Belafonte passed away just a few weeks later. 

This is the second record we will hear of the two my dad had from this singer. This was Harry’s second LP in his illustrious career. While his first did hit number three on the Billboard charts. This was his first of two number one albums.

So, get ready to hear one of the purest singing...

We now pull out the final disk of this six record box set filled with memories of radio days past. Back in the days before television when you had to imagine what was being described. To the days of live happenings. Expected and extremely unexpected.

This last LP features many news recordings that were captured as they happened from 1920 through the early 1940s.

So get ready to hear history as it unfolded live to countless listener...

It’s a 78 RPM Sunday. These episodes should probably more appropriately be labelled spinning my dad’s dad’s shellac. 

In the old days of records coming on 10” disks with one song per side, it made collections rather large. So in order to organize them, record stores would sell large books that you can put several records in. The same you would do with photos. They came with a generic front cover and several sleeves to slip the disk...

Happy mothers day. This one’s for my mother who we lost ten years ago this month.

As we go through this large record collection, I can tell which records my mom might have picked out. This is one of them.

It’s a self-titled debut album from a singer who already had a hit single and a starring role in a popular TV show. He was just a bit of a heartthrob.

So get ready to hear a singer and actor who gave up that life to save lives in ...

We now pull out the third record from this seven disk box set. A record that features a relatively unknown work AND probably one of the most famous works in music history. Talk about a dichotomy.   This is music from the immortal Ludwig Van Beethoven. His symphonies live on in performances to this very day.   Plus I decided to play three movements from each symphony. I thought this joint needed some classing up.   So, settle in and...

Here’s a trumpet player we’ve heard from before. He was a favorite of my dad’s. He’s also a favorite of mine. He’s loud and powerful. He plays at just below a blatting level, but keeps in control with some of the most intricate music.

He performed at halftime of the first Super Bowl and owned his own New Orleans jazz club.

So get ready to hear a musician who could shift gears to play many styles of music, even being critiqued for t...