Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl

When it came to how popular a band’s music was, it was the charts that told you. It was the charts that determined radio station song lists and how often they changed.  While maybe not quite all of the songs on this record made the charts, even though that’s what the album title hints at, all of the artists were on the charts at one time or another.  So, get ready to hear music makers that were hi...

I’m not sure the person who gathered the music for this record understood what the assignment was. This is not at all what I expected the music to sound like after seeing the name of the album and the text on the cover. I mean, who hasn’t enjoyed that Latin sound from Guy Lombardo, Billy May, Ray Anthony, and Joe Leahy? Good thing there’s a song by Sergio Mendez here to lend the recording some cre...

Here’s an album I came across while looking for a specific artist for an earlier episode. I wasn’t familiar with some of the musicians and most of the music on this record. But it represents an interesting time frame in music. Sort of between bebop and rock and roll styles seeing the most spots on the charts. There’s also one country music star here as well.  The artists I recognized I knew were d...

Here’s the second record of a two disk set that spent as much time among my own records as it did my dad’s. There was a point where neither one of us remembered whose collection it actually belonged in. Like I’ve said in the past, my dad and I had similar taste in music. The featured artist is just as much among my favorites as he was my dad’s. I still remember sitting in the Richfield Coliseum aw...

So, mom...your last mother's day was in 2015 just three weeks before you died. In those nine years since, you have been dearly missed, thought of often and always toasted at family get-togethers. I still use your recipes and even some of your kitchen tools to cook our meals. And your granddaughter still helps me make cavatelli and cassatelles. My kitchen always smells good. Almost like yours…somet...

When you think of bebop and other improvisational jazz, your mind usually hears a trumpet or saxophone as the lead. We rarely think about that instrument with the long slide that makes some pretty funny sounds as taking on any serious solo work, because, the thinking went, there was no way to be as intricate with some of the fast solos in that type of jazz. The trombone player you are about to hea...

One of the box sets that goes almost ignored is on the bottom row of my dad’s collection. It has a somewhat misleading title, but it includes some of the most classic standards in music. Once again, we have no record of the musicians, the arrangers, the conductor or conductors, just that the box set is part of a much larger series put out by a company who produced radio shows…and hocked watches. T...

This is the second of the three main Rat Pack members we will hear from here in season four of this show. This crooner is the one we DIDN’T get to see in concert with the other two back in March of 1988 at the Richfield Coliseum. He’s a singer, actor, and comedian. One of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, he was nicknamed "The King of Cool". And his music is still among the mo...

One hundred twelve years ago today, on April 14, 1912, while on its maiden voyage from England to New York, the unsinkable RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic… then the next day did the unthinkable…it sunk. In 1960, Meredith Willson followed up his Broadway hit The Music Man with a musical version of the fictionalized life of one of the aristocrats who survived the sinking, Margera...

Talk about your comeback albums. This release became the Chairman of the Board’s most commercially successful album. My dad’s favorite voice was finding it hard to sell records during the early days of rock and roll. And he wasn’t finding the top of charts as often. He once again teamed up with the Nelson Riddle orchestra and this time struck Grammy gold. So get ready to hear The Voice most heard...

IMPORTANT! If you downloaded this before 7PM April 1, there is an 18 second SKIP in the original mp3 file. Not sure how that happened. Sorry for the inconvenience. This new one should be fixed. This is not an episode of Spinning My Dad's Vinyl. It was the only place I could share this music mix for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024. Music to watch an eclipse by We've been looking forwa...

We finish up a month of celebration for what would have been Glenn Miller’s 120th birthday March first. And we finish by getting back to the man himself. We’re not ending this memorial month with just any album in my dad’s collection. I refer to it with the same name as a popular and influential Beatles record. This album has always caught my eye, and a few times my toe as it has the largest cover...

Week four of celebrating what would have been Glenn Miller’s 120th birthday March first, brings us to another album from a different orchestra playing music made famous by Miller. A couple of weeks ago I played an album by Bobby Hackett. THAT Bobby actually played with Glenn Miller before world war 2. Music you are about to hear features the Bobby Krane Orchestra. THIS Bobby…doesn’t exist. So get...

We continue Glenn Miller month in celebration of what would have been his 120th birthday on March 1. My dad was obviously a big Glenn Miller fan or we wouldn’t have been able to do this month-long celebration of his music. He owned 12 33 ⅓ RPM Vinyl records of Glenn Miller performing his music, later conductors of the Miller band, and other band leaders recording Glenn’s music. My dad owned even m...

I think this record might go down as my favorite from the five records we are playing in the month of March to celebrate what would have been Glenn Miller’s 120th birthday on March first. The featured trumpet player on this album has such a soft sound that really fits in with the Miller sound, yet stands out to make each song his own. His solos are delicate, yet hardly boring. As they were when he...

My dad really loved his big bands. And what bigger big band than the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  March first, Glenn Miller would have been 120 years old. So we are going to celebrate his birthday all month with his music and musical style. My dad had a ton of Miller music, and while I have already featured him many times on this show, you’ll be introduced to an even larger portion of it this month in...

Time to pull out the 14th of the 24 records from the six box set from the Franklin Mint. And I’ve been having so much fun listening to this one. In fact, I’m going to play a few more tunes than my normal six that I like to keep these episodes to because, quite frankly, there was so much good music on this disc I didn’t know where to stop. The featured trumpet player you’ll be hearing was known as...

It’s another Valentine's special. And time for another romantic voice. Joining me once again is my girlfriend Karen. I rarely recognize the song titles or the artist names of the music Frank picks, but I recognized this one. While my parents didn’t listen to the same kind of music his parents did, Johnny Mathis was still played a lot by my mom. And why not? He has one of the most recognizable, ele...

One hundred years ago tomorrow, February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York City, Paul Whiteman's band  played the first public performance of Rhapsody in Blue with composer Gorge Gershwin playing the piano. It was orchestrated by Whiteman's arranger Ferdie Grofé. This album is one of at least three versions my dad owned of the famous song. He has a 1939 version from Whiteman that was released on...

Here’s someone I mention often when I tell you who wrote a song. In fact, he’s one of the most popular songwriters of all time. He even sang on a few recordings too. Many of the songs you will hear on this episode you may recognize as being sung by a popular female vocalist, but this is all Burt. He wrote the music. He arranged it and conducted the orchestra. He also plays the piano. So, get ready...

The latin beat was all the rage when my dad was a teenager and young adult. You can tell he fell for it in a big way with all the Mambos, Cha Chas, Rhumbas, and Salsas he has in his collection. And like I’ve said before, it’s hard not to dance when the bongos, congas, timbales, and claves are working their magic. So get ready to hear, yet another musical trailblazer from Puerto Rico in Volume 161:...

We pull out the second of four records my dad has from this singer. While he never had a number one hit, he did sell over 45 million records, and was viewed regularly by many million more TV viewers on his show.  He got his start with his brothers singing for film productions in the 1940s. And he’s another halftime performer at an early Super Bowl. So get ready to hear music from the twentieth stu...

"The program you are about to see…well hear… is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show — in a mature fashion — just how absurd they are." That was the disclaimer made before the start of the first episode of an early 1970s TV show where the main character is an obnoxious, prejudiced,...

Here’s a great compilation disk to kick off the new year and season. It’s one of my dad’s favorite trumpet players who is famous for playing my dad’s favorite kind of music. Dixieland. In fact, Al is known as the king. But he also played some straightforward instrumentals that the critics complained about. Not only will you hear some of both those styles on this best of album, you get to hear him...

Happy New Year's Eve!   When some of us think about our earliest memories of watching New Year’s Eve on TV, we’ll remember long before Ryan Seacrest and even before Dick Clark. This Guy, who brought the New York City ballroom celebration into our living rooms every year, goes back to even before this holiday was celebrated live on television.   He formed the band during 1924 in his hometown of Lon...