The Magnificent Goldberg

Yeah, GOOD BUY! MG

Yeah, me too. But they weren't any worse than most owners of indie labels. The guy who owned Supreme Records, in LA, for whom Percy Mayfield recorded 'Two years of torture', was shot by one of his artists for failing to pay. (Even Blue Note wasn't paying royalties, in the fifties/early sixties as they'd got their artists to sign up to a cash upfront only deal by paying extra.) MG

Lord! I must try that! Thanks. MG

Frankie Crocker Charlie Brown (the tenor player, that is ) King Pleasure

You didn't grow up with 'The Goon Show'. My mate and I never could fathom out how Slim Gaillard developed that kind of humour in the USA. Was he a friend of Spike Milligan? MG

Magnificent Montagu The Magnificent Seven Blake's Seven

I really liked this quote: "When The Chicago Sun-Times asked Phil Chess in 1997 why he had been so successful, he shrugged. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said." As Mr Punch says, 'That's the way ter do it!' No mention, interestingly, of Arc music, the publishing company founded by the brothers and Tommy Goodman (Benny's brother) (and which also published a hell of a lot of Vee-Jay songs by the likes of Jimmy Reed. If memory serves, they DIDN'T sell those copyrights. Smart guys. MG

I think they did that YEARS ago. It's best part of a decade, I think, since I could search for Syllart records. MG

Virtually all Bill Doggett albums for King were compilations of stuff from here and now and there and then, so there could be some non Butler cuts on any, not just the CDs. The only exception to the compilations rule was his 10" LP 'All time Christmas favorites' (King 295-89) which was all recorded on 24 May 1954, before Butler joined the band. But as Jim said, there's plenty of Butler on them all, as he was in the band for a long time. And anyway, Doggett was a great bandleader and could pick good guitarists. You'll find them throughout his discography. Good sax players, too. Well, actually, BLOODY good sax players. All over the place. MG

I love Slim Gaillard, but can't listen to his records much. I don't think I know any humorous songs that remain funny for long. Some films: Motown's 'I'm gonna git you, sucker!', 'Life of Brian', Buster Keaton's 'The railrodder' or any Jacques Tati film, I seem to be able to watch them year in, year out and really laugh. But not music. I saw him, playing in the theatre bar outside the first and last Cardiff Jazz Festival - a gig featuring McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders - and there were more people in the bar than in the theatre! MG

But there are two very different things about compilation albums and I concatenated them in my earlier post that listed 'Million sellers by Fats' (Domino) and James Brown's 'Mighty instrumentals'. Most of the Fats Domino LP came at me 45 by 45, months or maybe a year between, but all impacting me as contemporary singles. And so did most of the singles in the 5 Ace CDs compiling all his Imperial singles. And I kind of react to those albums as collections of singles I enjoyed like hell in the past and learned stuff from. The James Brown, although it's also a collection of 45s, came at me almost as a complete package. I think I had one track already. And of course, it's got an aesthetic angle; not just a bunch of James Brown singles, but instrumental ones, featuring his organ playing and his band. So it felt like a complete experience in itself. It's not so much how a bunch of music was conceived to be listened to, it's how you experience it that's important in determining the various impacts on any particular listener, and a person's age is key in that, as far as compilations are concerned. MG

Harry Edison Alexander Graham Bell Arthur Shimkin

I'm sure you're right, but what's wrong with Cincinnati or right with Cleveland? I mean, they're kind of neighbours, aren't they. Or is it just because they're so close together and Cleveland did it first? MG

That's what I meant. And see? You get a totally different list and one which doesn't look anything like I'd thought it might look like. Thanks Guv! MG

Graffiti Kings Admiral Graf Spee The Platters

Thanks - didn't realise it was a typo Thought you MEANT ellipse. MG Never been in a church service, except the friend of a girl friend's in '65. So the answer is no MG

Josef Krupp Alfred Baldwin Richard Thomas

Thank you Rod. I tried to edit my post but it wouldn't produce the edit page. I wanted to add, 'and why' to that sentence. MG

Well, that's true for me, too. But I bought the ones I bought and, even though some of them I can comfortably say aren't as GOOD as others I heard later, they still do it for me, which is part nostalgia I know, but part... dunno, just something. And that's the point of this thread, for me, anyway. Who cares who's best, what's best? But what does it for you, now that's the real thing. MG

Thank you ALL for that. I'm going to get those two albums that Jim S mentioned without having heard the YouTube bits you've all kindly put up. MG

Earl is where he's always been - in the grooves of umpteen long play albums As possibly the only fully paid up Earl Bostic fan on the board (maybe the world) I've just GOT to say, there is no one, no ONE, like Earl; a sax player with the impact of being run over by a concrete mixer. No veto, not even from me But, as a Bostic fan, if I listened to this, do you think I'd throw up my hands in joy or throw up my stomach? (Key point ) MG

Reggie Msomi Kippie Moeketsi Hensford Mthembu

Well, I hope you haven't got all the Youssou I have (47 albums, inc several 2 K7 or CD sets), or you wouldn't say that. I saw him in St Louis, Senegal, open air, in the square in front of the regional governor's mansion, in the late 90's and he was bloomin' incredible! And the audience was incredible, too! I'd recommend, on CDs, some of the live Bercy albums he did eight-twelve years ago. The recording is a good deal better and the band were simply WAILIN'. They're very hard to get now, even in Paris. Those are probably better than 'Gainde', but I heard that first. Quality doesn't interest me as much as impact. And certainly not as much as it interests Larry, who has (or had) a pecuniary interest in identifying it. MG

I can't find the details anywhere on the web, but I pretty soon afterwards bought Bill Doggett's version on Warner Bros. That was pretty good too. They were, as I recall, both on Cash Box pop charts, getting up to the thirties/forties. Neither made the Billboard R&B charts. As you say, the Dovells was a VERY big hit. But what the hell can you expect. The Upchurch record was on Boyd, which I think was distributed by UA, the Dovells on Parkway, part of Cameo, which was a HOT label and commanded (ie paid for - don't care what they said about payola being dead) DJ plays like crazy. Bobby Weinstock would have agreed. Juke boxes were the fourth most important way to get big record sales, he told Bob Porter. The top 3 were radio, radio and radio. MG

Thinking about my first response to this thread yesterday, I realised I HAD got it right - at least as far as I'm concerned; quality doesn't count for much. The only one of those recordings I've listed that I've said - and WOULD say - was a top whack masterpiece is the Alvin Robinson 45. Both sides. How much difference to your lists would be made if quality didn't count? MG