FEATURE: Adventures in Record Collecting #3

Date: 10/10/11
Location: Hoarder's World, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Money Spent: $0.00 USD (I work there)
Number of Records Purchased: 2

The Records:

Lesley Gore - Girl Talk:

The fourth album by 1960s teen sensation Lesley Gore (of "It's My Party" fame), Girl Talk, like many albums of the era, splits its runtime between upbeat pop and down tempo sentimentality. In this case, some of those ballads are rather forgettable, although by no means bad. The real attraction is the swinging girl group pop, perhaps best exemplified by the album opener "Hey Now".

The Ventures - The Ventures Play Telstar and The Lonely Bull:

Just one of hundreds of Ventures releases over the years, The Ventures Play Telstar and The Lonely Bull, stands out not because of its style, which is the kind of clean rock instrumentals you'd expect from the group, but because of the quality of the selections they cover, which include 'Green Onions", the space-age "Telstar" and rather wonderful version of "Apache", years before it would become a hit for the Incredible Bongo Band and a foundational hip-hop sample.

Glad to have picked these up, I've definitely got a soft spot for this era of popular music, which seemed to effortlessly straddle rock, R&B, surf and Tin Pan Alley. I think this new job is going to work out just fine.

FEATURE: Adventures in Record Collecting #2

In this new and mildly exciting new feature, I go record shopping and tell you about what I bought:
Date: 09/03/11
Location: Goodwill, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Money Spent: $2.09 USD
Number of Records Purchased: 2

The Records:

Simon & Garfunkel - The Graduate: Original Soundtrack Recording:

Simon & Garfunkel get the credit for this soundtrack to Mike Nichols deserved classic film The Graduate, but there's a lot to like about the jazzy lounge numbers provided by David Grusin as well. With that said, S&G cuts like "April Come She Will" and, of course, "The Sound of Silence" are still lovely.

Henry Mancini - The Music from Peter Gunn:

A nice collection of soundtrack music from the NBC/ABC detective series Peter Gunn, composed and conducted by that master of film and television scores Henry Mancini. I've never seen the show (and was surprised to learn that legendary filmmaker Robert Altman directed many of the early episodes), but the theme song is an immediately recognizable part of our collective consciousness. The rest of the album has a decidedly more conventional jazz feel, but is still perfect for creating some classically cool ambiance.

Since I had not planned on buying any records, today's outing was a pleasant surprise. Although it would have been even better had that copy of the 2001: A Space Odyssey Soundtrack not looked as if someone had smeared peanut butter on it, as I definitely would have bought it.