Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl

Happy mothers day. This one’s for my mother who we lost ten years ago this month. As we go through this large record collection, I can tell which records my mom might have picked out. This is one of them. It’s a self-titled debut album from a singer who already had a hit single and a starring role in a popular TV show. He was just a bit of a heartthrob. So get ready to hear a singer and actor who...

We now pull out the third record from this seven disk box set. A record that features a relatively unknown work AND probably one of the most famous works in music history. Talk about a dichotomy.   This is music from the immortal Ludwig Van Beethoven. His symphonies live on in performances to this very day.   Plus I decided to play three movements from each symphony. I thought this joint needed so...

Here’s a trumpet player we’ve heard from before. He was a favorite of my dad’s. He’s also a favorite of mine. He’s loud and powerful. He plays at just below a blatting level, but keeps in control with some of the most intricate music. He performed at halftime of the first Super Bowl and owned his own New Orleans jazz club. So get ready to hear a musician who could shift gears to play many styles o...

We’re going to have a little extra fun with this episode. In fact, you might say I have high hopes for it. One of my dad’s, and my, favorite artists is Willie Nelson. One of my favorite holidays is the day this episode drops, and I’m not talking about Easter. Some of the most favorite songs-to-record in music history are on this album. So famous, just the songs you’ll hear have been recorded more...

We haven’t reached into the great Franklin Mint section of my dad’s collection for a while. Most of the episodes featuring the Greatest Jazz Recordings of All Time often get blocked by YouTube.  But I’ve really grown attached to this specific box set lately. It’s filled with some great and legendary jazz singers. So get ready to hear a variety of voices with various styles in Volume 224: Big Band...

We now pull out yet another one of the seven Henry Mancini albums my dad had. He’s one of my favorites too. This one is a follow up to Mancini Plays The Great Academy Award Songs, the album you heard in Volume 43: Mancini and the Oscar Winners. There’s just something about his music. You just recognize the sound right away. So get ready to hear music from a composer arranger who had his hands on t...

I attended the Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass concert at the Goodyear Theater in Akron, Ohio.  Yes, Herb is still touring at 89 years old. Yes, I was excited to see him again.  Obviously, I can’t can’t record the show. That’s why I’m going to do something the FM radio stations did when I was younger. After a show, they would play the entire set list in order. Sit tight...

This is going to be an extra fun episode. Many of the tunes have melodies you already know. Some tunes were created for this album. The trumpet player leading the band was part of some great music history in the form of some famous big bands, including some history he claimed on his own. So get ready to hear the last living member of the original Glenn Miller Orchestra in Volume 221: Every Twist Y...

Gee, imagine that! Another album featuring a trumpet player from my dad's collection. And a trumpet player we've heard from before. This time, we get to hear some great ragtime. This artist not only fronted his own band, but got his pedigree through some of the best big bands in history. So, get ready to hear a musician who had a movie made about his life in Volume 220: Red Hot Pennies. More infor...

There’s an old business saying that goes, how do you eat a whale? One bite at a time.  In this episode we take several small bites and a couple of big ones from the incredible output of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Ahhhh Bach. And to continue that M*A*S*H connection right now in the opening, the scene goes, “Somehow... there's a mathematical precision about Bach, a complexity that adds up t...

Episode dedicated to Dino Baskovic (1974-2025) This is the third of four records from Connie Francis that my dad has in his collection. She WAS the top charting female US artist of the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Her popularity was due to her voice and being able to sing in multiple languages. And she was a hit maker during the early days of rock and roll. So get ready to hear a star who was esti...

Here’s an album I thought was going to be unplayable when I saw the condition of the cover. I have no idea why the back and front are completely separated. And the bigger surprise is that my dad didn’t put it back together with his usual black electrical tape patchwork. But I’m glad I didn’t overlook it because of the condition of the cover when I listened to the music it wasn’t covering very well...

Talk about your complete coincidences. The numbers 2-1-6 come up three times in regards to this episode. It’s the episode number. It’s the date this episode drops. The US version of dating things. And it’s the area code of where this music was performed and recorded. Yes, I bought a lottery ticket today. Recordings of the Cleveland orchestra date back to 1928. Discogs dot com has them credited for...

It's  special Valentine’s Day episode of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.  That means, of course, my girlfriend Karen gets to join me as we once again grab some music from one of the most romantic voices ever recorded. We featured this voice two years ago in our Valentines special and it’s the third of five Nat King Cole records in his dad’s collection. This was one of 30 albums Cole recorded for Capitol...

Welcome to a 78 RPM Sunday! As I was flipping through my dad’s shellac collection looking for patterns to create a few 78 RPM episodes for this season, I found these 7 disks. What they had in common was their one-sidedness. Yup. In the early days of records, they only pressed one side. And I’ll talk about why in detail a little later. What’s most important to remember is that every one of these di...

How are we only on record five of this great seven record set? Because I continue to find gold in this box set filled with legendary songs about the old west. Each record, or in this case each side of this collection had its own theme. Even with those guides, I might take a little poetic license when I name episodes like this.  One side of this record is about things South Of The Border. The flip...

We once again pull out the most popular orchestra leader in my dad’s collection. This is a follow-up album to a popular record my dad does not have. Both titles reference the Ira and George Gershwin tune S’Wonderful from the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face. Of course Conniff arranged all of these standards by using a chorus singing tones and not lyrics, which created his own recognizable style. S...

Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeye football team for winning their ninth national championship.  If you grew up in Ohio, especially in the 1960s and 70s, you were probably an OSU fan no matter where you ended up going to college in the state. My parents certainly were and they instilled the love of Buckeye football on us as well. During the early 1970s, the Bucks’ offense featured a back wh...

My dad seemed to have an album for every occasion.  I can’t tell you how appropriate the timing is to play this record for you. Oh wait…yes I can…and will. This is truly in the vein of “the more things change the more they stay the same.” And it’s all portrayed using some of the main characters of an all time classic movie. Tomorrow the United States of America swears in its 47th president, who, o...

I’ve mentioned this a few times on this show. The Latin beat was extremely popular when my dad was a teenager and beyond. This record is a combination of taking that Latin beat, this time from a specific country, and arranging it with a plush orchestra. The orchestra conductor who arranged this music was considered the leader in a genre that infiltrated hundreds of radio stations in the 1960s. It’...

Welcome to season five. We start out 2025 with a trumpet player you’ve heard twice before. This is the last of his records in my dad’s collection. When I first came across him, 165 episodes ago, I realized quickly that I had been missing out on listening to another great trumpet player in my youth. His previous episodes are on my play-often list. The arrangements on this record call for his playin...

Welcome to the last episode of season 4. You know you can get close to new years eve and NOT have to listen to Guy Lombardo. WE are going to finish out 2024 on a really upbeat note. In fact, there’s nothing like that two-beat music to send us out dancing. Our featured artist has a slightly more famous brother, but he certainly made a big name for himself as well. And on this record, he features mu...

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, well, except for my dad who was putting together the air hockey game, or large electronic toy crane, or other present that would be one of ours the next morning. I have two younger brothers and a sister.   Those are some of my memories of Christmas past, but I wonder what some of my dad's memories of those pa...

Here’s a fun find from this collection. My father really loved his country music too besides all that jazz, pop and classical. This is the kind of country and western music that was kind of between the fiddle-led twang of early country and the days of outlaw country, although you will hear one of those outlaws from his early days first. This album is filled with memorable songs and some great memo...

We pull out the second record from this seven disk box set. This one is filled with an incredible performance of a long piece of music from an incredible composer. The Reader’s Digest liner notes for this seven record box set starts off "the nineteenth century was just opening in Vienna when the fist of an implacable genius knocked like destiny upon the doors of music."  They were, of course, talk...