The Magnificent Goldberg

A very happy one, Bill! MG

Jerry Mulligan Spike Milligna Slyvia (Character in Two Ronnies play)

And a couple by Joseito Mateo, self-styled El Verdadero Rey del Merengue There's a Cuban band at it, too MG

Here's another, featuring Cuco Valoy looking as if he's just discovered he really HAS got a screw loose MG

I've recently been enjoying some of the humorously self-deprecating sleeves done by artists from the Dominican Republic. I can't think of any other serious music albums (not comedy albums) with self-deprecating sleeves. Here are some featuring Cuco Valoy, the leader of Los Virtuosos, and part leader of a duo with his brother, Martin, of Los Ahijados. Cuco featers himself as victim in all these. I LOVE the expression on Martin's face! (Cuco is an alarmingly great singer.) MG

A C Drummer Ray Pounds Johnny Cymbal

Sneaking off to make a cuppa reminded me; Etta James had ads with both the A and B sides of a record. 'At last' was used for some kind of ladies' hair stuff (who notices what's being advertised when Etta James is singing 'At last' anyway?) and 'I just wanna make love to you' was used for a Levi's Jeans ad. I dare say that's the ONLY tie an A and B side of a record have been used for an ad. Etta's version of 'I just wanna make love to you' was a significant rip of Arthur Prysock's recording of the song from 1958, but I've got to say, much as I love both Arthur and Etta, Arthur's version would NOT have worked with the Levis ad. MG

Thanks Jim, though it doesn't cover TV ads. But if it's still the number of times an ad airs, that'll be a lot. Jimmy Smith had a wonderful ad using his Verve recording of 'Organ grinder swing' a good few years ago. It was for a Citroen car, which smashed through a plate of glass, exactly timed with Grady Tate's kicking cymbal stroke! I've searched for that ad on YouTube in vain. MG Hm... perhaps it was a Renault...

I have a very dark grey, almost black, suit I keep for best, and a pair of black shoes. I won't say I NEVER wear it, because I wore it to two funerals, but the more seldom I have to wear it, the happier I am. On music, because of the tendency of K7s to get buggered up or filthy, I've frequently bought second copies, to be brought out when this happens. Trouble is, they're all in a big wooden box in the garage, under a pile of other stuff so big I'm certain I'll never get them out. Well, that's what garages are for, ain't it? MG

I guess the singer was Betty Joplin, who was Arthur and Red Prysock's regular second string singer with the band, and had a few tracks with Arthur on both of his first 2 Milestone albums. It's not surprising you never heard of her otherwise. She wasn't on his third and final Milestone, issued in 1988, and she wasn't with the band when I saw them in 1990. So she never got that big break through working with him. Thanks Jim. I assume the composer gets the same residuals as the singer or whatever. And that it's the same for an ad on Japanese TV - Nat Adderley waxed poetic on his Chiaroscuro LP of the 1994 Floating Jazz Festival about 'Work song' being his favourite tune, because it was used for a Japanese TV ad, almost audibly rubbing his hands in glee! Yes, I'm pretty sure the ad was popular first, then the LP was done. I'm pretty sure he was paid, too, because he did the song when I saw him in 1990 and if he'd been screwed, I suspect he wouldn't have bothered. But he never rubbed his hands in glee On the consistency and integrity issue, of course, it's not the TV company wot pays, but the firm whose products are being advertised. The TV company would probably have to do the accounting, though, so that would make it honest. MG

The Few Bobby Few Fu Manchu

Apparently, on the Wales Internet News (don't know where that is) it's been announced that a house full of explosives was found by the police in Cardiff, with a plan for bombing St David's Centre in Cardiff (Wales' biggest shopping mall) and the retail park at Sarn, on the M4 to Bridgend, around Christmas. 5 arrests. Lord, I'm going to St David's Centre on Wednesday with my daughter, to sort out my wife's Christmas presents... On the good side... Phoned my friend in Brighton last night. He said he was at a concert by the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday evening; the published programme (NOT a spur of the moment job) was a bunch of pieces by Ravel, Debussy and Faure. There was a minute's silence after the first piece, then the orchestra played the most beautiful versions of all the pieces my friend's ever heard. Yeah, there's solidarity all right. MG

Not sure what residuals are, but he got a lot of work out of that ad. Not sure Hymie Weiss did. 'Here's to good friends' (a mixed album with some great stuff - including the ad - and some not so - a bit like Sinatra's :)) was an Old Town production, the final one, but released on MCA with an Old Town logo on the back sleeve, dominating the teeny MCA logo (see attachment). It wasn't a hit album but HAD to have sold well. But I bet MCA copped the money. Well, maybe not; everyone says there were no flies on Hymie Weiss. MG

Knocky Parker Hitman The Kicker

Brother John Sellers Uncle Funky Auntie BBC

Yeah, it's really the other way round; record companies ALWAYS want hit records; that's how they make money. But when you're dealing with an old-timer like Sinatra, you have to stop trying to push the market, because the market ain't interested. Best you can do with an old guy or lady is maybe get a fluke hit single, perhaps as a result of prodding it into an advert or the theme for a successful TV series. With comebacks, the market is ALWAYS in charge and the trick of being an A&R man is being at one with the market. Few are, because it's probably a LOT easier sticking to the latest no-talent artists and their latest things. But Arthur Prysock managed it in the seventies because he and Hymie Weiss realised that Barry White was only an imitator of Prysock and that Arthur was miles better, so he got some hit singles and albums out of the late disco thing. In fact, Weiss reopened Old Town Records specifically for that purpose. But despite being better, Prysock didn't outsell White. And the Acid Jazz thing gave a lot of jazz musicians second and, according to Lou Donaldson, much more financially rewarding careers in the eighties and nineties, well after that kind of Soul Jazz was dead with the black public. Not, I think, hit singles, or even hit albums, even though the records sold a good deal better than they had before, but a hell of a lot of very well paid gigs all over the world, where they'd never been before. But there again, did Frank Sinatra ever run short of well paid gigs? I suspect not. MG

Doctor Watts Doctor Watson Doc

Thanks Jeff - I had to look it up, in case the opera was based on Thomas Love Peacock's comic novel 'Maid Marian' which was very popular in the late 19th c and dramatized for the stage, as well as there being some kind of musical version. But it's not the same one. Your Maid Marian record comes from a story in which Robin Hood is sent off to fight in the crusades and Marion follows him and is kidnapped by Saracens. All ands happily, you'll be glad to know MG

Sid Gribetz Rambling Sid Rumpo Sid James (who played 'The Rumpo Kid' in Carry on Cowboy)

Got to agree with you about 'lesser' work being extremely rewarding. MOST of what I've got is probably what would be regarded as 'lesser' material. I bought 'Sidewinder' in '68, or maybe '69, and pretty soon decided it was a one-track album as far as I was concerned, because there was nowt for me in the other three cuts. So I ditched it and never looked back. The Morgans I have are: 6th sense Rajah Sonic boom/unissued album I call 'Uncle rough' Search for the new land Peckin' time Rumproller (only on LP, and they hardly ever come out to play nowadays) I think few would say that any of those are among Mr Morgan's best work. If you're familiar with these albums, you'll get that I got most of them not for Lee Morgan, but for someone else in the band. But I am happy to tolerate Morgan as a sideman and I think I have quite a bit of him in that capacity, though I've never been interested enough in him to count them. But I MUCH prefer to listen to Blue Mitchell, Bill Hardman, Harry Edison or Bobby Bryant than ANY of the 'authorised masters' thank you very much. I guess it comes of not really being a jazz fan MG

The Bogeyman Humphrey Bogart Albert Ammons

Definitely YES! MG

Thingy Whatsisname Whojamaflip

Can't say I really like Lee Morgan all that much, but I've always liked 'Sixth sense', mainly for Frank whatsit on tenor, who is a killer who should have made Soul Jazz albums. He'd have wiped out even Willis Jackson. 'Sixth sense' is my most played Morgan album. MG

Well, sorry, but I was going to join in this thread by warning people against this album. To me, apart from 'Moonglow' (the duet with that nice young gentleman on guitar) it's as entirely wrong as a soul jazz album (which is what Dorn and Braden intended - 'soul jazz with intelligence', it sez in the notes) as any album possibly could be, even with the presence of Fathead and Brother Jack. I resolved then not to get any others (though I DO have to say that he's on Jimmy Ponder's 'Guitar Christmas', which I like as lot as a Christmas jazz album). Perhaps I like 'Moonglow' because it LACKS intelligence and just sticks to swinging beautifully. MG