Milt Raskin plays Exotic Precussion!

 This has to be budget label album recycling at its best! This album was first released in 1960!

This is the original album cover that was first released in 1958.

This is a reissue made after 1962, at so this was made at least two years after the initial release.

          Crown was well know for their habit of issuing albums from album released maybe a few years before. I am sure their was some suckers customers that bought the original and the reissue a few years later thinking there were two completely different albums!

Koko Head

The Mexicali Brass play Downtown and other favorites

 Your typical cheesecake cover.

The generic back slick.

     The Mexicali Brass issued quite a few albums, some featuring a Tijuana Brass hit, others covered other popular hits such as this album which covers "Downtown". I hope you enjoy listening to this rendition of Downtown by the Mexicali Brass.

Downtown

Enoch Light - The Early Years - Big Brass & Rhythms (Coronet Records)

Front cover.

 

Back cover with liner notes.

     Enoch Light was a big name in the '60s; after all, he gave us all those percussion records which appear to have sold so well back in the day. This budget album gives us some of his early recordings as a bandleader. These recordings were in mono, ironic considering that this was the man that took stereo from a novelty to an industry-standard! Here we get eight marching band standards reprocessed to simulate that stereo sound we so love and enjoy. I hope you enjoy the selections from this interesting album.

High School Cadets

Under The Double Eagle

Winchester Cathedral: A Knock-Off Record by The Flappers

     This album is a knock-off record by Spin-o-Rama Records, a sub-label of Premier Albums Inc. This record seems to have come from two different record labels. Some tracks come from Crown Record's "Roaring 20's" album, other tracks come from Coronet's "The Naughty 90's" album. The cover model on this album cover came from an earlier Coronet release [which, by the way, was run by Premier Albums Inc.] titled "Dixieland Jazz." 

Winchester Cathedral

The No-Namers sing: Mary Poppins favorites and other not so desired songs

Cover

Generic back slick.

     The No-Namers sing selections from the hit movie Mary Poppins along with a wide selection of old time favorites! I have to say I'm sorry for the dramatic introduction, but just stating that this album features artists that Crown didn't even bother to name, with the covers on side A and an assortment of public domain tunes on the B side, just wouldn't be the same. This is just your standard knock off album, one of the many Crown issued to cash into various music trends and hits of the day. Below is the entire album ready for your listening enjoyment.

Let's Go Fly A Kite (Side 1)

Spoonful Of Sugar

Feed The Birds

Chim-Chim Cheree

Stay Awake (end of side 1)

I've Be Working On The Railroad-She'll Be Comein' Around The Railroad (side 2)

On Springfield Mount-Clementine

Cindy-Shortin' Bread-Little Liza Jane

Careless Love-Down In The Valley (end of side 2, end of album)

The first Mexicali Brass album!

Crown released their first knock off album of the Tijuana Brass in 1965. This album past the title tracks contain a mix of old public domain standards and some Spanish tunes. If you ever have the chance to pick up a copy at a thrift store I would highly recommend it. If it wasn't for the fact that I have digitized my copy I would have worn it out by now, Selections are below.

Whipped Cream (stereo, restored)

El Cholo (stereo, from masters, not my video)

The Girl In My Dreams (Mono, unrestored)

Cielito Lindo (mono, unrestored)

I Dream Of Jennie (mono, unrestored)

The Lonely Bull (stereo, restored)

Adios Muchachos (mono, unrestored)

Song Of India (stereo, restored)

Washington Post (mono, unrestored)

Swing Low Sweet Chariot (mono, unrestored)

The Blog Receives A Face Lift

I am happy to announce that the blog's background image has been changed to better reflect this blog's theme. The image above is the original and full-sized version of the background picture. Please click to see the full-sized image.

Midnight Cowboy

This copy is in nearly perfect condition, pops and clicks are rarer then hen's teeth on this record!

This is a cover of the theme from Midnight Cowboy. By the time this album was issued in 1969 Crown Records was in its twilight years.  You rarely see Crown albums after the CST-550 mark, after that, it seems sales must have slumped, as I rarely see these later albums going through the records at the thrift stores (the highest catalogue number I found at a thrift store was CST-580). I bought this album on EBay, the only place I have seen albums this late so far. 

Midnight Cowboy

Make up your mind Wyncote!

cover 

liner notes

side two

side one

Everything on this album says mono, however side one plays stereo (it has the stereo catalogue number in the dead wax just so you know). Here is the strange part, side two is mono and has a mono catalogue number in the dead wax, how strange is that?

The Single Swingers, a knock off album

Liner notes (Click for bigger image)

This is not the group The Swingle Singers, this is The Single Swingers (See the sneaky switch of the w), this is a knock off album made by Wyncote records. This record presents itself as if it were the real thing by the various similarities between the real product and this fake one. The liner notes last sentence is quite interesting and it reads, "The Single Swingers prove to any in this Album that Bach was one of the original Jazz writers of music." There is a guy that has this album for download, however it's only  a direct transfer of very scratched copy. My copy is near mint and as a result sounds much better in its raw state then that version, plus I have cleaned up the sound.

Prelude for Organ Choral No.1

Aria

Cannon

Bourree

Fugue In D Major

Sinfonia

Largo