Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Have you replaced your LPs with CDs?



Animation of a record player playing a record. The needle (stylus ...


Back in '66, my parents bought a GE record player. It was a big deal for our family. It gave us an excuse to buy our first singles and LP.

The five singles, or 45s, were "Nowhere man" by The Beatles, "Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys, "At the scene" by The Dave Clark Five, "19th Nervous breakdown" by The Rolling Stones and "You are she" by Chad & Jeremy.

A few days later, we bought our first LP "Greatest Hits" by The Dave Clark Five.    You can replace this one with the CD Box "The history of the Dave Clark Five".

I sold the 45s to a collector in Mexico.   However, we still have the LP's.

Over the last few years, I have been replacing my old LPs with new CDs.

My first choices were:

1) "Rubber Soul" by The Beatles (US version). What else can you say about an LP that includes "Norwegian Wood", "Michelle", "Girl" and "In my life"? Add "I'm looking through you" and its almost perfect. The UK version, which included "Nowhere Man" was actually the first one released as a CD. Yet, they recently put out the US version, which is the one that I grew up listening to.

2) "High Tide and Green Grass" by The Rolling Stones. This is a collection of the Stones' 1964-66 hits. You can replace this one with a box set called "The London Years", which includes every single, including a lot of B-sides. Some of the Stones' B-sides were excellent, such as "We love you" (B-side of "Dandelion"), "Child of the moon" (B-side of "Jumpin' Jack Flash") and "Sad Day" (B-side of "19th Nervous Breakdown").

3) "First" by The Bee Gees. As the title indicates, this was the first US release. It included "New York Mining Disaster", "To love somebody" and "Holiday". It also includes "Turn of the century", which should have been released as a single.

4) "Horizontal" by The Bee Gees. This one sounds better on CD than just about any other pop album.

5) "This is The Moody Blues" (Double LP). Again, this one sounds great on CD. I love "Tuesday afternoon" and "Isn't life strange".

6) "Revolver" by The Beatles. I think that 1966 was the best Beatles' year. This one includes "Eleanor Rigby", "For no one" and the unusual "Tomorrow never knows". My favorite is still "Taxman"!

7) "Main course" by The Bee Gees. This is the LP that included "Jive Talkin" and the wonderful "Nights on Broadway". It also has two of the Bee Gees' best songs--"Come on over" and "Baby as you turn away".

There are others but I can't buy them all at once! 


More on this later.   It is an ongoing project!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

Monday, April 26, 2010

1967 was a very good year for music to buy 45's & LPs

The greatest year in pop music history? There's only one choice
We remember some of the songs from 1967:

"Hello Goodbyeby The Beatles.

"New York Mining Disaster 1941by The Bee Gees.

"Ruby Tuesdayby The Rolling Stones.

"Hello Goodbye" was released around Thanksgiving '67.   The song was also included in the "Magical Mystery Tour" LP.   It followed "Sgt Pepper's" released in the spring.

It was the 3rd single of the year for The Beatles. The other two were "All you need is love" and "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever".

"NY Mining Disaster" introduced The Bee Gees to the US and the world. It was one of 4 hits that the Brothers Gibb had in '67. The other three were "To love somebody", "Holiday" and "Massachusetts".

"Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones was from "Between the Buttons", a great LP with a great cover. The B-side was "Let's spend the night together" which did not get air play on Top 40 radio.

Anyway, there you have it. 

1967 was a great year for pop music!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

Friday, April 02, 2010

We remember Mike Cuellar, 1937-2010






Oriole great Mike Cuellar died in Florida on this day in 2010. He had been ill for a few months.

Mike was the greatest Cuban lefthander in major league history.

All together, he won 185 games, shared the 1969 Cy Young with Denny McClain and pitched the complete game that won the 1970 World Series.

Cuellar was a 20-game winner in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1974. He represented the AL in 4 All Star games.

My favorite Cuellar memory was the 1974 season. The O's won 28 of the last 34 and Cuellar was in the middle of it all. At one point, he pitched back to back complete games on 2-days rest. It was awesome!

Beyond the numbers, he was a family friend and very nice man.

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.


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