Old Enough to Forget

I actually really like these odd little double A side collections. Take two somewhat related artists and cull a dozen songs from across their discography and try and make a buck at Christmas. There is no information printed on the spine, and no liner notes. To be fair, my used copy could have had some once upon a time ... but I doubt it. The double act Columbia Records decided to put together was Johnny Mathis and The Ray Conniff Singers. Whoever picked the songs for the Johnny Mathis side decided to stay with the sacred. From what I can figure five of the six songs here come from his 1958 Christmas album, with "Ava Maria" likely coming from Good Night, Dear Lord , also released in '58. The sequencing follows a loose chronological telling of the Christmas story. The album kicks off with "O Holy Night" and when it comes to the French Kiss note he does it with a full voice, no falsetto or warbly half measures. It's pretty impressive, and his voice seems to be ...

Annunzio Paolo Mantovani died in March of 1980 at the age of 74. Before The Beatles dethroned him, Mantovani was Britian's most successful act. He was the king of lush orchestra arrangements, or more to the point, the syrupy strings that were all the rage once upon a time. It's not like people didn't eat it up. Reading up on Mantovani, because that's what I do ... and what better place to start than to skim over a wiki entry, he was a pretty big deal. According to the book British Hit Singles & Albums,  he was the first to sell over a million stereo albums, and it would seem he cranks out records like a sausage maker, in 1959 Mantovani had six albums in the US Top 30 at the same time. Goodness. Mantovani released a couple of Christmas albums back in the '50s, but this collection appears to be new recordings by The Mantovani Orchestra, conducted by long time arranger Roland Shaw. So even if Mantovani was no longer around, his arranger and orchestra were so it sti...

I was a baby when this came out. So I can't say I was a fan when it was first released. Like a lot of people, I came late to the party, really late. Sure, I knew about him from The Godfather , but that hardly counts. It was the maligned Godfather Part III  and Johnny Fantane's character when he sang, "To Each His Own" that sealed it for me as an Al Martino fan. That was awesome. "Promise Me You'll Remember (Love Theme from The Godfather Part III)" was supposed to be the big crooner moment with Harry Connick Jr. but a quick A and B between Al and Harry shows the absolute gulf between them as vocalists. I like Harry, Al was simply on another level. "To Each His Own" was supposed to be played at our wedding, except I forgot the cassette at home that had some of the songs we wanted to play. Which sucked because we wanted to exit the reception to Michael Nesmith singing "Eldorado to the Moon" and when he got to the part where he sang, ...

I was dragged to the mall so my wife could do some returns . What she says is, "I bought a bunch of stuff and am taking it back." What she means is, "Everything that fit is still upstairs in the closet." Oh well. Our mall has one of those money laundering stores that sells posters and music. I have no idea how these places keep the lights on. With the resurgence of vinyl they actually have a decent selection, but boy howdy I am not paying thirty to sixty dollars for a new record that I paid ten for back in the day. However, the last couple of times I've been in there's a little section of clearance items, and lately clearance means 75% off. Which means this is more often than not a lot cheaper than buying a decent used record. The last couple of times I've actually taken chances on newish stuff, and the other day guess what was staring up at me? Why it was Melissa Etheridge of all people. Not that long ago I'd spent quite a while revisiting her debu...

Journey released Frontiers in '83 and the band was messing around with their winning recipe. The band had always been good, but the addition of Jonathan Cain, who took over keyboards from Gregg Rolie after 1980's Departure  gave the band an extra gear. Jonathan co-wrote all of the songs on Frontiers except for "Faithfully" which he brought to the band. Heck he was all over Escape too, but that's another story. You can read it here if you want ... or not. The band had gone diamond with Escape , a nearly impossible feat to replicate and I'm sure there was more than a little tension in the studio as they cut the tracks. I know that Journey was supposed to be Neal's band (according to Neal), and in many ways it is, but when Steve Perry arrived it was Neal and Steve, and then with Jonathan he became the third leg of the milking stool. I'm not dismissing Ross or the other Steve. Those guys were integral to the band's sound ... right up to when they weren...

I've sort of slept on this one for decades. Oh don't get me wrong I bought this when it came out. I actually got  Diamond Sun first and then worked backwards to the band's debut. It was "I'm Still Standing" that jumped out of the speakers the first time I heard it. I've always been a sucker for an acoustic intro, in this case a simple 12 string chord progression that suddenly blows up into a fantastic rock song. The album was good and I pulled "I'm Still Standing" off a couple of times to populate mix tapes. I gave the record a couple of cursory spins, enjoyed it and then put in on the shelf.  I recently found the album and figured, "Why not?" I must have been in a receptive mood when I dropped the needle: "Holy shit, this is awesome." I said. Then someone asked,  "Tell me are you a fan child?" And I said, "Yeah, I am tonight." - with apologies to Mister Marc Cohn  Glass Tiger was one of those band w...