Vinyl Feature: Don McLean - Homeless Brother

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Released in October 1978 by folk singer Don Mclean Homeless Brother was the fifth of twenty albums spanning a career of more than forty years. This was not his most commercially successful album only making it to 120th place on the US Billboard 200 at the time, however it is pure Don Mclean at his absolute best with the great folk style and fantastic vocals that he is known for.

The quality of the recording and the vinyl pressing is outstanding as well and sounds so real it's almost as if he is sitting in the room and performing for us personally. Very engaging!

Vinyl Feature: Smokie - Greatest Hits

Released in April 1977 the album "Greatest Hits" by the band Smokie contained all 10 of their singles up to that time spanning their (then) 12 year career. They went on to be one of the longest surviving bands from that era and still exist today, although only one of the original band members is still with Smokie.

Their first ever hit was "If You Think You Know How To Love Me", they had 13 top twenty hits during the 1970's, and went on to sell over 30 million LP's and CDs. To date their mega hit song "Living Next Door To Alice" has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

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Vinyl Feature: The Beatles - The Red and Blue Albums

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Today I am featuring two double albums together simply because they belong together having being released on the same day as complementary collections of The Beatles "A-side" singles hits spanning their career together. Despite having singles hits with cover versions this series only included songs composed by the Beatles themselves.

The first album is titled "The Beatles 1962-1966" but came to be commonly known as "The Red Album", and the second album "The Beatles 1967-1970" which came to be known as "The Blue Album". They were released together on the 2nd of April 1973 and I think it is still one of the best compilations of Beatles songs ever created.

Vinyl Feature: Simon and Garfunkel - The Concert in Central Park

Back in 1982 I was in my final year of high school in my home town of Pretoria South Africa and had a drivers licence, a very laid back attitude towards life in general and towards studying for my final exams in particular. The year before Simon and Garfunkel had performed a free benefit concert in Central Park New York and I was eagerly awaiting the live album that had been promised by the media. When I finally purchased it sometime in 1982 it instantly became a firm favourite and would be played on many long hazy evenings together with friends in mostly very smoke laden environments with the smell of stale beer providing a special ambiance. It remained at the top of the playlist for several years until it was stolen along with my entire record collection one fateful night. (You can read about that by clicking here.)

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Vinyl Feature: Barbra Streisand - The Barbra Streisand Album

Released in 1963 this was Barbra Streisand's debut album when she was a mere twenty years old and was just the first album in a long and very successful recording career that spanned almost 50 years! She is quite a raw young talent here with some rough edges but all the potential for being one of the great female voices of her generation. She matured over the years and, in my opinion at least, became one of the all time greats.

Despite being quite new to the game Barbra Streisand had great success on her first recording venture and The Barbra Streisand Album went on to peak at number 8 on the US Billboard pop albums chart, and was certified a gold album by the RIAA.

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Vinyl Feature: Diana Ross & the Supremes - Greatest Hits

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When it was released under the Motown label in 1967 this signature album of Diana Ross and the Supremes topped the charts worldwide reaching number one in the USA on the U.S. Billboard 200 as well as the U.S. Billboard R&B Albums Chart and peaked at number one spot on the UK Albums Chart. Ten of the songs on this album were number one hit singles and the album sold a total of about six million copies making it one of the most successful albums by an all female group in history!

Vinyl Feature: Readers Digest - Great Original Hits Of The '50s And '60s

I just spent a large part of my Sunday slowly listening my way through the Readers Digest - Great Original Hits Of The '50s And '60s Collectors Edition box set which I picked up a short while ago at Erikshjälpen in Åkarp for the paltry sum of 50 SEK. It offers a great walk down memory lane with a well chosen selection of hits from the 50's and 60's (yes, like it says on the box, stop being picky...) and packaged in a good quality sturdy box containing 9 discs. My copy is in MINT condition and looks as if it may have been played once. Maybe.

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Vinyl Feature: Artie Shaw And His Orchestra ‎- did someone say "a Party?"

Clarinet player extraordinaire, composer, and bandleader Artie Shaw released this wonderful album of his typical swing style band music in 1956. It was produced by the Decca Record Company and Ace of Hearts Records as a mono album and my copy says it was printed in England by James Upton Ltd. Birmingham & London.

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The cover features a “pin-up” drawing of the “Petty Girl” by artist George Petty who was well known for his portraits of young ladies for Esquire Magazine between 1933 and 1956 as well as numerous calendars and other publications. Often reproductions of his drawings could be found decorating warplanes during the Second World War.

Vinyl Feature: Pink Floyd - Animals

There is no other band in history that ever sounded quite the same as Pink Floyd, and with their largely experimental style of music they succeeded in becoming one of the stand out studio bands of their era. Their combination of progressive and psychedelic rock soon became very well known to many millions of ardent fans worldwide. Myself included!

The album featured here is Animals and in 1977 was the tenth album to be released by Pink Floyd in a long line of successful albums. The cover is a photograph of a pig floating between two chimneys at Battersea Power Station which was conceived by Roger Waters but photographed by an English art design group called Hipgnosis.

When released Animals made number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, number 3 on the US Billboard 200, number 3 on the Swedish album charts, and number 1 in New Zealand.

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Vinyl Feature: Count Basie & The Mills Brothers - The Board Of Directors

A gem of an album featuring a dream collaboration between the legendary Mills Brothers and Count Basie that is almost mythical in it's imaginings! From the very first note until the very last every moment of this album demands to be savoured, listened to with utmost attention, engaged on a personal level as one would pour over a newly discovered treasure that has finally been found. I really cannot fault it and it simply has to be heard by anyone who is a fan of either the "Count" or the Mills Brothers. Fortunately the quality of the recording is as great as the artists themselves and consequently every instrument and every voice is clear, full and real.

First released in 1968 it has carried its age well, and while the music will only really be appreciated by fans of this particular style of swing/big band music, the quality of the sound coming off the vinyl will satisfy even the most picky audiophile! It was recorded at A&R Recording Studios in New York on November 20th and 21st in 1967 and was released in 1968. The album featured the Mills Brothers with Count Basie and orchestra, but the arrangements and conducting were by Dick Hyman.

The great thing about these old LP's were that the covers were used to convey a lot of background info on the artists in a large enough typeface that one can actually sit and read it in a dimly lit sitting room while enjoying your third glass of wine. Who can do that with cd's anymore? Heck, I struggle to read the micro script that most cd's come with in good light, outdoors, at midday, during a sunny summer. They even list the entire orchestra, engineer, producers and still found space for a nice selection of photographs on the back cover of this one!

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Vinyl Feature: Tom Jones - Greatest Hits

On a regular basis I will feature a "new" purchase that I have made in the previous week. Pretty much all of my vinyl purchases over the last few years have been from secondhand shops, charity shops, etc. where it is possible to get great records for a mere pittance! I hope to show you that building up a music collection via vinyl LP's is both fun and affordable!

Here in southern Sweden we have a chain of second hand stores connected to the Svenska Kyrkan, called Erikshjälpen, that use the funds generated from their sales to sponsor education, child protection and health related causes worldwide. So not only can I indulge my constant hunger for music related vinyl based bargains, but I am also supporting a worthwhile cause. Both of these things make me happy and ease my conscience at the same time. What a great deal!

First up is a wonderful copy of Tom Jones Greatest Hits. It has a modest collection of hits that we know and love and would expect to hear from Tom Jones and the quality of the pressing is top notch as well. The copy I got is 100% scratch free and sounds just as good as new. I am always very picky about checking every LP I purchase and if there is even a hint of a scratch on the vinyl playing surface I do not buy it. I am less picky about the state of the cover.

I'll start by showing some photographs of my purchase.

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