The Magnificent Goldberg

Francisco Franco Antonio de Oliviera Salazar Benito Mussolini

Wow! Never noticed that before -- thanks for the insight. Any other tunes with similar Haiku-derived lyrics? FYI, one John Blackburn wrote the lyric to "Moonlight In Vermont." He apparently wrote a lot of songs but this was his only real shot at immortality. Not much info about him out on the web and a Nexis search revealed no major newspaper obituaries when he died in 2006. He does have a brief, sketchy wiki entry and I also found this small-townish story http://www.pioneer.net/~bandee/page7a1.html. Plus this short bio: Composer ("Moonlight In Vermont", "Need You"), actor, director and author, educated at Western Reserve University. He directed the Cleveland Playhouse, and a teaching fellowship at the drama department at Bennington College for 2 years. He acted and directed at the Pasadena Playhouse for two years. He was a film agent and record distribution manager and song plugger, had his own record company, and worked for North American Aviation. He joined ASCAP in 1953, collaborating with Lew Porter and Karl Suessdorf. Suessdorf, by the way, wrote the music for "Moonlight in Vermont." I've loved that song almost forever, but never focused on the FORM of the words. Very interesting. Henry Mancini used to say something like, "always write the music first, or you'll get doggerel", in giving his recipe for success. Well, I don't know about that but it seems to me that that song would have almost HAD to have been written words first; I really can't see any composer writing music that would allow a lyricist to write a Haiku poem to the tune. A little more on John Blackburn. The record company he owned was Selective, based originally in LA, then Van Nuys, california. Active in 1949 & 1950, released two/three dozen R&B, Gospel & C&W 78s. Funny repertoire, I thought, for someone with that background. MG

I don't have ANY Hezekiah Walker. What vintage is that one? What label? MG

John Redwood Kenneth Clarke Michael Heseltine

Correct. She has money and owns her masters. I wondered why there was no mention of Orrin Keepnews in the blurb MG

Is that the version from "Life on Planet Groove"? I was playing that last week MG

Don't know much about Kay Starr - but that reminds me about Ella Mae Morse. MG

Little Willie Littlefield Wee Willie Harris Wee Willie Winkie

I have the 2 CD set of Jimmy Smith at Salle Pleyel, in 1965, some of which was originally issued on Metro. Great music, but the sound is pretty awful. I'm sure the Metro issue wouldn't have been like that. Any likelihood of a better-sounding issue? MG

Robert Goulet Paul Anka Celine Dion

Klute Donald Sutherland Jane Fonda (again!)

No farther afield than Charles Brown - just a different era MG

Jaws Steven Spielberg ET

I bought them over the course of about a week. Most were $8! They didn't put them all out at once, but I stopped by nearly every day, once I bought the first few and realized the condition they were in (The store is on my route to work, not far from home.) Once new ones stopped appearing on the shelves, I was pretty disappointed. So this guy must be local. Tried to find him? MG No, I hadn't thought of that--could one find someone in the DFW area from just their initials? Sherlock Holmes where are you? However, I'm kind of guessing this person is not in any condition to talk. This smacks of the dumb heirs selling off the unwanted "junk," as I doubt that this store pays more than a pittance for records. Yes, of course - if they're flogging them so cheap they must be buying them for next to nothing. And someone who's obviously treasured them wouldn't take peanuts. MG

Allen Lowe included Doris Day's recording of "We'll be together again" with Les Brown in "That Devilin' tune". I WAS impressed. I seem to remember her putting out an LP called "Semtimental journey" which harked back to her days with the big bands. I can imagine that was pretty good, but I never heard it. Well, after all, Doris Day was as naff as you could get. MG

I bought them over the course of about a week. Most were $8! They didn't put them all out at once, but I stopped by nearly every day, once I bought the first few and realized the condition they were in (The store is on my route to work, not far from home.) Once new ones stopped appearing on the shelves, I was pretty disappointed. So this guy must be local. Tried to find him? MG

Oh, and I forgot to mention the great Charles Brown - not exactly a pop singer - well, he sang black pop. But the two albums of his that Housteon Person produced for Muse are great from a jazz point of view as well as a pop/R&B angle. And so is most of his stuff, for that matter. Good albums for Mainstream, Verve and Rounder. MG

Perry Como - Como swings (and it did - I got it because my mother loved him, but played it a lot myself) Barry Manilow - can't remember the titles (I think my missus has one or two knocking about, but I really can't be asked to get up off my arse) but do remember that they weren't nearly as good as they could have been - Manilow was heavily influenced in his youth by Cal Tjader. Astrud Gilberto - Gilberto/Turrentine (can't say I like her much, but this is greatly redeemed by Mr T) Hoagy Carmichael - Hoagy sings Carmichael (completely beautiful - a treasure) Bobby Darin - That's all; This is Darin; Darin at the Copa; From Hello Dolly to Goodbye Charlie Does Della Reese count as a jazz singer? I kind of think she does, but I kind of think she doesn't, too. But "Della Reese live" is one hell of an album. Ditto to Earl Grant - does he count as a jazz singer or not? For that matter, does he count as a jazz organist? His album "Nothin' but the blues" is excellent. Same goes for Ruth Brown. Oh, some wonderful stuff in her catalogue. Lena Horne? Lou Rawls? Maybe these two are a bit more jazz-oriented than you're looking for. But Keely Smith's another I wouldn't like to classify one way or another. Plenty of good stuff there. Some vocal groups also Hi-Los Four Freshmen Andrews Sisters Mills Brothers Inkspots Kirby Stone Four MG

Heinz Heinz ( http://www.the-tornados.com/index-15.html ) Richie Blackmore

There are certainly clean copies out there - I've amassed probably 8 or 10 titles over the years - but for the most part they're trashed. That is my experience as well. Argos turn up fairly frequently, but they are almost always in lousy condition. In near perfect condition, they sound sublime. Someone with the initials RLL kept his records in great condition, only writing his initials on the back cover and placing a numbered sticker on each one. (Since the stockers went up into the 400s, I'm wondering what happened to the rest of the collection.) I was able to find twenty vintage jazz records from this person's collection, at low prices--including the three Jamals, Art Blakey--Drum Suite (Columbia, six eyes) Will Bradley-Johnny Guarnieri--Big Band Boogie (RCA Living Stereo)--Amazing sound on this one. The History of Jazz, volume 4 (Capitol, turquoise label) The Sound of Paul Horn (Columbia six eyes) Manny Albam and the Jazz Greats, Jazz New York (Dot) Dinah Washington--What a Difference A Day Makes (Mercury) Jo Stafford--Jo + Jazz (Columbia six eyes) Dinah Washington and Brook Benton (Mercury) Stan Kenton--Roadshow (Capitol) Coleman Hawkins--The Hawk Swings (Crown)--The only one in the collection in less than stellar condition. Jonah Jones--Jonah Jumps Again (Capitol) Something New, Something Blue (Columbia, six eyes) Benny Goodman--Benny Swings Again (Columbia six eyes) Dave Brubeck--Time Further Out (Columbia six eyes) Dave Brubeck and Jimmy Rushing (Columbia six eyes) Jack Sheldon--A Jazz Profile of Ray Charles (Reprise) Al Hibbler--Monday Every Day (Reprise) Extraordinary. Did you get them all at once or over a period of time? I've only ever bought two LPs that I could see were owned by the same person - someone called Wally - bought them at the same time. Oh, I've bought a few that I had previously owned myself - sometimes in a different town MG

I think you have my sympathy, Dave. I'd NEVER try to play all of Grant Green's recordings in order. One of the problems that I think you get into if you try that sort of thing is league tables - X is (or feels) better than Y - and that's not what I want to think about. MG

Onzy Matthews select. Just started disc 2. MG

Leroy Holmes Leroy Anderson Amiri Baraka

William Hesketh Lever (Port Sunlight) John Cadbury (Bourneville) Ebeneezer Howard (Welwyn Garden City)

Another big band job. I don't have that one - weren't the arrangements by Oliver Nelson? MG