Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl

I’m not sure there are enough superlatives available when describing the career of Bob Newhart. From early comedy and TV, through movie voiceovers and more TV, to being one of the most memorable regulars on a recent popular show. So get ready to hear The most celebrated new comedian since Attila (The Hun) with Volume 82: Button Down Bob. Credits and copyrights Bob Newhart – The Button-Down Mind Of...

I’ve been familiar with Bobby Darin ever since I heard Splish Splash for the first time. I’ve been familiar with Johnny Mercer because he’s written at least a couple dozen of the songs we’ve heard on this show so far. So get ready for a couple singer songwriters who were born 27 years apart in Volume 81: Two of a Kind.   Credits and copyrights Bobby Darin & Johnny Mercer With Billy May And His Orc...

The voice you will hear is someone I’ve been a big fan of for years. The violinist you will hear is someone I’ve never heard of. But they’re on the same album compiled from songs recorded in 1935. So get ready to hear a couple of amazing jazz clowns in Volume 80: Hi-Fi Lootin'. Credits and copyrights Joe Venuti And Louis Prima – Hi-Fi Lootin' Label: Design Records – DLP 54 Format: Vinyl, LP, Compi...

Back to the birthplace of jazz we go. To a concert that took place about 60 years ago in some unidentified club on some unidentified date. It featured a lot of great Dixieland musicians, but none more famous than one of the greatest jazz clarinet players there ever was. So get ready for more of that fun New Orleans music we heard around the house on a regular basis with Volume 79: Fountain Comes A...

It's a 78 RPM Sunday. This 5-record album of 10 inch shellac disks has some of the great Irving Berlin music re-recorded for a 1946 movie, which starred a couple of characters. So get ready for Vaudeville partners vying for the same beautiful woman on Volume 78: Berlin's Blue Skies. Credits and copyrights: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire ‎– Blue Skies Label: Decca – A-481 Format: 5x shellac 10” 78 RPM D...

It’s Fathers Day…I miss my dad very much. He’s been gone two and half years now leaving us with this magnificent record collection. The trumpet was the biggest musical connection I had with my dad. And I know this is the kind of record he probably pulled out very often. So get ready for seven more trumpet players I have yet to introduce you to in Volume 77: Trumpets for Father's Day. Credits and c...

I think the Ray Conniff Singers were exactly what Ray Hamm had in mind for the sound when he invented the Music of Your Life Radio Format in the late 1970s. Soft luxurious arrangements of popular hits. So, get ready to hear plenty of chart-topping movie music from a chart-topping group in Volume 76: My Song. Credits and coptyrights: Ray Conniff And The Singers – This Is My Song And Other Great Hit...

I think he had Rat Pack Company Badge number 2. He was always so smooth whether delivering a tune or a punchline, still never spilling his drink. He tied his wagon to a goofy comedian, and put out hit after hit. So, get ready to hear from the King of Cool in Volume 75: Everybody Loves Dean. Credits and copyrights: Dean Martin – Everybody Loves Somebody Label: Reprise Records – R-6130 Format: Vinyl...

It’s a 78RPM Sunday. So far, when we've played these extra old records, they've come in an album with several records tied around one theme. But my dad had a ton of shellac records with no covers just lying around in stacks. After sorting them by record label, I thought you might like to hear from the most popular label in this part of my dad’s collection. So get ready for lots of high speed hiss...

es, my parents loved their musicals and got to see many shows. Mostly at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, but they saw their share in New York City. This popular musical tells the tale of 1912 River City, Iowa in a Tony AND Grammy-winning musical from 1957.  So, get ready for Trouble with a capital "T" which rhymes with "P" that stands for pool in Volume 73: The Music Man. Credits and Copyrights Mer...

Back to one of my favorite composers/arrangers/conductors, Henry Mancini. And this recording has him boiling the music down to the essence of jazz. So, get ready for an interesting take on some classic tunes with Volume 72: Blues and the Beat. Credits and copyrights: Henry Mancini – The Blues And The Beat Label: RCA Victor – LPM-2147 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono Released: 1960 Genre: Jazz, Pop S...

It’s mothers day…and I miss my mom very much. She’s been gone for almost seven years now. But I know that this is one of those albums that she would have chosen to be on the stereo. She was a poodle skirt-wearing bobby soxer when Old Blue eyes was really hot in the 1940s and 50s. And it’s an entertainer both my parents were able to see in concert a couple of times. So get ready for the Sultan of S...

You would think that polka music would be out of place in an Italian household. But not ours. It was one of the dances my parents loved to do and one I would even attempt at the right wedding. It was the music my grandmother and one of her sisters loved to play on the organ. And this kind of polka has Cleveland written all over it. So get ready for some beer drinking and skirt twirling with Volume...

As Jazz appreciation month draws to a close, we need to get a trumpet player in there. It’s even a musician I have not introduced you to yet. His playing is so effortless especially for the speed he plays. So get ready to hear the graceful and uptempo style from the horn of Roy Eldridge in Volume 69: Little Jazz on Horn Part 1. Credits and Copyrights:  Louis Armstrong Roy Eldridge Jazz Masterpiece...

Moving on with Jazz appreciation month we come to a particular type of jazz from a particular type of city…New Orleans. There were many great and memorable musicians that came out of that town, and we’ve already featured several of them on this show. But when the Franklin Mint puts together an entire box set around the Kings of that kind of music, you need to sit and take notice. So get ready to h...

Man, I wish I had kept the notes for the upper division History of Jazz class I took at Kent State University. Because Duke Ellington was on Professor Chaz Baker’s Mount Rushmore of Jazz. In fact, Duke’s music is so important he warranted a FULL box set from this Franklin Mint collection. So get ready to hear the most significant composer of the genre, in Volume 67: Duke, A Jazz Classic Part 1. Cr...

Welcome to Jazz appreciation month and what better way to celebrate than with the greatest jazz recordings of all time collection from the Franklin Mint. We will start the month with the versatile saxophone. And we will feature one of the true innovators on the instrument and jazz in general, Coleman Hawkins. So get ready for an ever-evolving sound in Volume 66: Sax Master Hawkins. Credits and cop...

It’s a 78 RPM Sunday. On this show, we’ve had music sung in the language of my birth, English, and the language of my heritage, Italian, and the rhythmic beat of the language of Latin America, Spanish. We turn now to another language I’m going to butcher, German. So get ready for a 1934 performance of the music that just might have given Tolkien an idea in Volume 65: Wagner's Walkure. Credits and...

For many decades, selling a million records meant you had recorded something special. While the songs you’ll hear on this episode were all million sellers, Andy was not the original singer when any of them hit a million in sales. So let’s get ready to hear me say a million at least a million times with Volume 64: William's Millions. There are 12 songs on this record, We'll hear 7 of them on this e...

We now turn to music from the country where my mom’s parents and dad’s grandparents were born. Italia! And we hear it from one of the chart-topping female singers of the 1950s and 60s from around the world. So get ready for great music in TWO languages with Volume 63: Connie's Italian Hits. Credits and copyrights: Connie Francis – Connie Francis Sings Modern Italian Hits Label: MGM Records – E/SE...

Back to the big screen we go. But this time the tunes are provided by just a trio of musicians instead of the orchestra full you are used to. And every one is an Oscar winner. So time to go groovin at the movies with extra butter for Volume 62: Popcorn and Soul. Credits and copyrights: The Roy Meriwether Trio – Popcorn & Soul: Groovin' At The Movies Label: Columbia – CL 2498 Format: Vinyl, LP, Alb...

It’s a 78 RPM Sunday. Since it’s still February, we might have a little leftover love on our mind. And since so many great tunes over the years have been titled with women’s names, this piano player made a list of his favorites….well back in 1944. So get ready for the ivory tickling many women’s fancy in Volume 61: Frankie's Girlfriends. Credits and copyrights: Frankie Carle ‎– Frankie Carle And H...

How fitting that this episode is number 60. Because something very important happened 60 years ago on the day this episode drops. While I might have just been a tiny bump in my mom’s belly at the time, the world had its eyes on the US Space Race. So, get ready for something literally out of this world in Volume 60: Glenn in Orbit. Credits and copyrights: No Artist – Go! - Colonel Glenn In Orbit La...

(My girlfriend Karen joins me on this episode) When it comes to love songs, one of the voices I often think of first is Nat King Cole. His effortless style, smooth voice and crystal clear lyrics have set the background for many romantic encounters over the years. So get ready to snuggle up to the one you love for Volume 59: Nat's L-O-V-E for Valentine's Day. Credits and copyrights: Nat King Cole –...

The Boob Tube. The idiot Box. TV will only be a fad. No matter how badly that living room screen has been disparaged, there has been some great music from some great shows over the years. So get ready to run some memories through those old brain tubes of yours for Volume 58: TV's Golden Hits. Credits and copyrights: Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra – TV's Golden Hits Label: Compleat Records – 671...