ダーク・ダツクス / Dark Ducks: 日本の唄（第一集） / Nippon no uta (Vol. 1) / Japanese Songs (First Collection)

They had me at "Ducks"! The Dark Ducks were a Japanese vocal quartet, formed in 1951, with a large catalogue of songs not just in their native language but also in Russian.

宵待草 / Yoimachigusa
お江戸日本橋 / Oedo nihombashi
箱根の山 / Hakone no yama
越後獅子 / Echigojishi
秋の月 / Aki no tsuki
荒城の月 / Kōjōnotsuki
相馬盆唄 / Sōma bon'uta
あかがり / A kagari
子守唄 / Komori-uta

Album 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.

วงดนตรีสุนทราภรณ์ ควบคุมวงโดยเอื้อลุนทรลนาน: ห้วงภวังค์, จันทรเจ้าขา, ผกากำศรวล, สื่อสัมพันธ์

One more album by the Suntaraporn Band conducted by Eua Sunthornsanaan. Again, the year is unknown. English-speakers please note the album can be transliterated as "H̄̂wng p̣hwạngkh̒, cạnthr cêāk̄hā, p̄hkā kả ṣ̄rwl, s̄ụ̄̀x s̄ạmphạnṭh̒" and the translation begins with the phrase "Deep Reverie" but beyond that you're on your own.

เพลงของเรา
ผกากําสรวล
รักยามเย็น
ยามหทัยต้องมนต์
สะบายสะบาย
เสน่ห์ชาย
เพลงสื่อสัมพันธ์
ห้วงภวังค์
จันทร์เจ้าขา
ร้อนใจรัก
น้ำใจ
รำวงม่านทองยองใย

Album 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.

สุนทราภรณ์: ห่วงรัก-ห่วงอาลัย

Another album by Suntaraporn; this one's on Metro Records. Again the date is unknown. For English-speaking readers, the title transliterates to "H̄̀wng rạk-h̄̀wng xālạy", which roughly translates to "Worried About Love".

ห่วงรัก
ห่วงอาลัย
กลีนดอกโศก
จุดใต้ตําตอ
ฝนตั้งเค้า
เพลินนาวา
น่าเพลินใจ
รําพันสวาท
ดาวล้อมเคือน
มองอะไร
ยาใจยาจก
ตลุงมอญซ่อนผ้า

Album 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.

สุนทราภรณ์, เอื้อ สุนทรสนาน: 30 ปีแห่งเสียงของสุนทราภรณ์

Eua Sunthornsanan: violinist, arranger, and bandleader; apparently the Lawrence Welk of Thailand, he had much to do with bringing Western pop sensibilities to the country in the 1940s. The date of this album, "30 Years of Suntaraporn Sound", is uncertain.

นวลปรางนางหมอง   
ฟ้าคลุ้มฝน   
พรานไพร   
ศึกในอก   
ขอพบในฝัน   
นางฟ้าจำแลง   
ขอให้เหมือนเดิม   
หนึ่งน้อยปอยผม   
ใครจะรักเธอจริง   
อุษาสวาท   
หนึ่งน้องนางเดียว   
ครวญถึงเจ้า

Album 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.

Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra Play for Dancing

Seriously, was there a name for this kind of LP cover color scheme in 1959? "Ranbow ecstasy vomit"? Because it works. I bought my first used copy of this even though it didn't have a record inside.

Where or When
Kitten on the Keys
Anthropology
Funiculi Funicula
Where Has My Little Dog Gone
I Get the Blues When It Rains
Adios
Don't Call It Love
I'm Thrilled
Baia (From "I Walk Alone")

Album 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.

Mantovani and His Orchestra: Gems Forever

Sure you've seen a trillion of them in the bins at the thrift store, but have you ever bought one and actually listened to it? Now's the time. Give in to all the pretty colors. Submit. Let go.

All The Things You Are
True Love
I Could Have Danced All Night
You Keep Coming Back Like a Song
A Woman in Love
This Nearly Was Mine
Summertime
SomethingTo Remember You By
Love Letters
The Nearness of You
An Affair To Remember
Hey There

Album 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.

101 Strings: Fly Me To The Moon

Mesmeric (adjective): causing a person to become completely transfixed and unaware of anything else around them. The power of a billion stringed instruments will not be denied. Their LPs shall populate the used bins forevermore.

Fly Me To the Moon
That's My Desire
Wonder Why? - Who Cares?
Long Ago, and Far Away
Blues in the Shadows
Alone Together
I Wonder Where You've Been
There's No Answer for You
So Late
Body and Soul

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.

Don Baker: Medley Time

I'm posting this 1958 LP because I love Don (at some point I'll procure and restore his "At the New York Paramount Theatre Organ" album which includes "When Yuba Plays the Tuba", a song all in the human race deserve to experience); that is to say, this isn't up here because I love medleys. The medley is still with us (the club DJ who can do them has special skills) and it's still a scattershot, guaranteed way to win and then immediately lose everyone in a crowd of strangers. Enjoy!

Heart Medley: Love, Here Is My Heart / My Sentimental Heart / There Goes My Heart / With All My Heart
Goin' Places Medley: Chattanooga Choo Choo / Ferry-Boat Serenade / On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe / The Trolley Song
Dawn to Dark Medley: Daybreak / It's a Most Unusual Day / Blue Evening / Three O'Clock in the Morning
Moonlight Medley: A New Moon Is Over My Shoulder / Blue Moon / Moonlight Serenade / The Moon Is Low
Rain Medley: Rain / Lilacs in the Rain / Rhythm of the Rain / Singin' in the Rain
Dream Medley: I'll See You In My Dreams / Jeanine (I Dream of Lilac Time) / When I Grow Too Old To Dream / Street of Dreams

Album 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.

Leon Berry: Giant Wurlitzer Pipe Organ Vol. 3

 

Organum Wurlitzeri Berryleonium. Quod erat demonstrandum!

Tavern in the Town
This Can’t Be Love
People Will Say We’re in Love
Falling in Love with Love
South Foxtrot
Dixie
Caissons; Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean
Roman Guitar Tango
Washington Post
What Is This Thing Called Love
Sari Waltz
Student Prince Serenade

Album 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.

Porter Heaps: Music for Meditation

I heard the Credibility Gap used this record as the background for many of their sketches back in the day. I have no idea who told me this. I hope I'm not making it up.

Serenade - Schubert
Berceuse (Jocelyn) - Godard
Evening Star (Tannhauser) - Wagner
Intermezzo (Cavalleria Rusticana) - Mascagni
Meditation (Thais) - Massenet
Clair de Lune - Debussy
Caprice Viennois - Kreisler
Poem - Zdenko Fibich
Evening Song - Schumann
Simple Aveu - Thomé
Album 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.

Al Conte Quartet: Mr. Piano and Mr. Banjo (Happy Music for Miserable People)

Pretty self-explanatory, really, with the addendum that restoring the cover was really hard (it was printed in four colors, black & red & sort-of-cyan & gold, and some layers had parts that were sharp line drawings and parts that were halftone reproductions of original art done in a watercolor wash; doing selective Gaussian blurs on just one part of just one color layer is a bitch). Please note that no one else in history has ever performed a cover version of "My Heart Goes Kaplinka Fer Katrinka" - be the first on your block, or your planet.


Hey, Mr. Piano, Hey, Mr. Banjo
Margie / Ain't She Sweet / Somebody Stole My Gal
My Heart Goes Kaplinka Fer Katrinka
Goofus / Yes, Sir, That's My Baby
Spaghetti Rag / Bye, Bye, Blues
I Love My Baby / Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider / Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue
Chopsticks
Dixie / Yankee Doodle
12th Street Rag
Strolling Thru the Park / Oh You Beautiful Doll / Give Me a Little Kiss
Four Leaf Clover
I Want a Girl / If You Knew Susie / Baby Face
Shine on Harvest Moon / Oh Susanna / O Dem Golden Slippers / Bye, Bye, Blackbird
Sentimental Journey

Album 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.

Jay Buchanan: Temptation / God Bless the American Son

I bought a record once, and two copies of this single were used to stiffen the package for shipping. It turns out it's pretty damned good. Jay Buchanan released a solo album, "Violence", in 1999 and since 2009 has been putting out records with his Long Beach outfit Rival Sons. Fullerton label Redwood Records released this single for Buchanan in 2001; he hasn't released anything with them since (it probably didn't help that they misspelled his name).

Record 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.

Baron Stewart: Bartering

Who is Baron Stewart? What was his dog Gatsby really like? How did Proctor and Bergman meet him? No idea, but he's brilliant! This is his first solo album, and for good measure here's a clip of Stewart on the pilot episode of "The Proctor Bergman Show", produced at KVST-TV Los Angeles in 1976, in the guise of Little Lord Flauntleroy (Baron Stewart) performing "Cocaine Blues".

Venice (It's Good To See You Again)
Afternoon (Caught Me Wonderin')
I'm No Stranger Than You
Women and Gin
We Been Singin' Songs
Don't It Drag On
After the Storm (Go Out Dancin')
No Expectations
Time
Stoned and Lonely

Album 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.

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Zachariah

Soundtrack to the electric western whose first draft was penned by the Firesign Theatre.

Zachariah (Main Title) – Jimmie Haskell
Laguna Salada – The James Gang
We're the Crackers – Country Joe And The Fish
William Tell Overture – Jimie Haskell
All I Need - Country Joe And The Fish
Ballad of Job Cain – Doug Kershaw
Country Fever – The James Gang
The Lonely Ride – Jimmie Haskell
Camino / Used Horse Salesmand – Jimmie Haskell
Camino Waltz - Jimie Haskell
Gravedigger - The New York Rock And Roll Ensemble
Shy Ann – White Lightnin’
Matthew – Jimmie Haskell
Zachariah (End Title) – Jimmie Haskell

Album artwork & audio

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.