Tinkle, Clang, Ring and Chime! The World's Rarest Music Boxes in High Fidelity

In terms of sounds, this 1958 LP provides exactly what the title promises; it brings the clangs, the chimes, and the tinkles, y’all. While I’m not enamored of music boxes in general, what continues to blow my mind with this and similar records from the dawn of the hi-fi era is that these antique music boxes and organs are literally 300-year-old hard drives come to life. Pop favorites, folk standards, classical gas, and melodies so dead we’ve forgotten their names, these songs preserved on tuned metal filings are coming straight to your ears from the Age of Enlightenment.

Unknown Melody

Schlafe, Schlafe / Waltz (Brahms) / Schlafe Mein Prinzschen

Fidelio, Act II, Finale (Beethoven) / Gedenke Mein / William Tell

Dutch Folksong Medley

Unknown melody from an approximately 300-year-old English bracket-clock

Radetzky March (Johann Strauss) / Artists’ Life (Strauss)

Waltz from “Faust” (Gounod) / Mijn Vriend Lindeman

Onbekend Wijsje / Daisy

Whistling Bird

After the Ball (C. Harris) / Fledermaus (J. Strauss) / Danube Waves / Die Muhle im Schwarzwald

March from “Tannhauser” (Wagner) / Triumphal March from “Aida”

Auf in ’s Metropole / The Blue Danube (J. Strauss)

Waltz from “Faust” (Gounod)

Unknown melody

You Can’t Be True, Dear / Anne-Marie / Regendruppels / La Paloma

Daisy / Dan Zal de Kapitein / Moritat / Under the Bridges of Paris

Mirame por Rabill / La Clavada / Estrellita / Terry’s Theme from “Limelight”

K.L.M. March

Saint-Germain des Pres

LP audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.