Vinyl Feature: Fats Waller & His Rhythm - Handful Of Keys

Handful Of Keys by Thomas "Fats" Waller was released under the RCA Victor label and features a
compilation of the wonderful jazz sounds of Fats Waller & His Rhythm.

The album is a bit of a mystery to me however as there is another album using the exact same name but with a very different track listing that was released in 1929 under the same record label.

Archie looked into the future...

...and he didn't like what he saw!

I always knew that Archie was a wise dude!

Vintage Advertisement: Eumig Serie 1000 - 1980

Vinyl Feature: Billie Holiday - Billie Holiday

The tragic life of Billie Holiday is the stuff of jazz legend and this tragedy is accentuated through this album, her final recording before she died four months later at the age of 44. After her death the album was renamed "Last Recording", but was otherwise the exact same album.

Billie's voice on this record adds to the sense of finality with her sounding frail and weak through most of the album, and yet it is pure Billie Holiday and full of the soul and passion she always infused into her music. For me this album completes the collection of Billie Holiday LP's that I have and it simply wouldn't be the same without this addition.

Vintage Advertisement: Dual CS-505 Turntable - 1981

Vintage Advertisement: RCA Records ad in Billboard Magazine - 1956

1956 RCA Records ad in Billboard Magazine hailing ELVIS PRESLEY as "the new singing rage":

Vinyl Feature: Lead Belly 2 - Storyville Blues Anthology vol. 12

This Lead Belly compilation album was released in Denmark in 1963 and was number 12 in the Storyville Blues Anthology. It is titled Lead Belly 2, and of course that means that there was a previous Lead Belly release in the same series, it was number 7 and I hope to find a copy of it some day.

I am a Lead Belly (and old time blues) fan so when I found this copy I was very thrilled, and the music certainly doesn't disappoint and contains some of his best recordings faithfully reproduced. I am a happy vinyl fan right now!

Vinyl Feature: Erroll Garner - plays all-time hits

Erroll Garner was distinctive in the jazz world as being entirely unable to read music, and everything he played was from memory. Despite this he was called "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso" by Scott Yanow of Allmusic. He also was also, apparently, Johnny Carson's favourite jazz musician and appeared on the Johnny Carson show several times.

This particular album, "Erroll Garner plays all-time hits" was his 33rd album and has a wonderful collection of hits from the era reinterpreted and delivered in true Errol Garner jazz piano style. It was released in 1965.

Vintage Advertisement: Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - 1967

Vinyl Feature: Neil Diamond - Diamonds

As far as I can see this album was not a worldwide release and was only manufactured under licence in the Netherlands and Germany. It was released in 1974 and essentially was a Neil Diamond compilation album.

My copy was manufactured in Western Germany by TELDEC (Telefunken-Decca).

The only info I could get about it was from Discogs, and they don't give any more info than I can get off the album cover... except that it was also made in the Netherlands.

Vintage Advertisement: Thorens TD-125 AB Mark 11 - 1968

Matt Weingarden - Vinyl Quote

Vintage Advertisement: Westinghouse 187 Radio and Phonograph with Automix record changer - 1950

Vinyl Feature: Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing

Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb was released in April 1978 in the USA and only in September 1978 in the UK. Why? I have no idea...

I am not a great Andy Gibb fan and never owned one of his albums before, despite being a BeeGee's fan and having a couple of their LP's. However, this LP was sitting in it's original shrink wrap in the crates at a local second hand store when I was browsing around there recently and I simply couldn't resist the chance of purchasing guaranteed mint vinyl for 5 kr. ($0.76 US)!

Vintage Advertisement - Presto T-18 Turntable and SR-27 Tape Recorder - 1956