And one novelty record.

I had time to kill today while my friend was at an appointment so I hit the nearest segunda, Hope Thrift.  The kitchen items and appliance sections were a total bust, but in the diagonal corner of the store were a smattering of LPs.  It appeared that someone dumped about a dozen early-to-mid '60s movie soundtracks and other curiosities.  I picked up Ferrante & Tiecher's "Golden Piano Hits" which includes the theme from "Exodus" and "Autumn Leaves," both of which contain this duo's trademark tumbling piano effects, an audio hallmark from the 1962 vintage -- wait for it -- Wards Airline multiplex stereo console (French Provincial style -- blecch!) in our living room when I was a kid.  There are some duds (some here likely feel they all are and yes, they're so bad they're good) but overall, I'm happy with the purchase for a campy cocktail vibe.  I couldn't find a date on the album cover but I doubt this was produced any later than 1965.  

Next I came across a sound effects LP that has some hilarious cuts.  The big disappointments were the sounds of a 707 and a DC-8 taking off.  It would have been so much better if they were landing instead (like the beginning of "Back in the USSR, which now makes me imagine how delightfully horrendous a F&T cover of that would sound).  The surprise sound effect was a ringing telephone.  I swear it's the same sound NBC used for a ringing telephone on almost every prime time show in the '60s and '70s that didn't involve a live audience.  Dialing a black Western Electric model 500 (trust me, that's what it was) and reaching both a busy and a ringing signal were quite nostalgic.  The album label is "Realistic" so you know where it had to come from.  Date on the cover is 1971.

Last and best is the stupendous stereophonic stylings of Enoch Light on his "Command Performances" album from 1964.  Light was famous for showcasing the auditory wonder of stereo sound, and his bombastic arrangements were akin to movie soundtracks.  I can't believe how good Light and his orchestra made my little 1962 JVC Delmonico stereo hi-fi sound.  I can only imagine how great this album would sound on a kick-ass component system with proper distance between speakers.

All three LPs are in great shape, have their sleeves, and were well cared for.  I'm attaching pictures, which I anticipate will post in every which orientation other than right side up.  I hope that if you can view them full size and crane your necks, titles of the cuts on each album will be legible.  Light's album opens up to reveal detailed notes about the arrangement of each number, but I figure that would be TMI so didn't take pix of that.

This reminds me of my aggressive crate digging days from the mid 90's through about 2012. Found many gems from thrift shops when these were being dumped rapidly by the children of dying depression era folks. Back then, virtually nobody cared about vinyl or this style of music so I scooped a bunch for crazy cheap prices in those glorious days. Then Napster, Audiogalaxy, Kazaa, Limewire, and a few other downloading sites allowed me to acquire much more beginning in 1999 and I ripped/shared like crazy being an early adopter of cable internet in 1998. In the mid 2000's, blogs sites started popping up and were ripping vinyl like crazy for downloads as a way around those downloading sites that the music industry was cracking down on until that was shut down in a big way around 2012. I still have all of this backed up on 6 different hard drives

You gotta wade through a bunch of duds in Ferrante & Tiecher's catalog but every once in a while they really hit a home run. I really enjoy their version of Valley of the Dolls and a quick check reveals there's still no upload of this tune on Youtube so I guess I'll have to add that to the music side of my 'tube account.

Some of the early stereo sound effect records are pretty entertaining. I enjoyed running them through my Sansui QRX 9001 receiver or QSD-2 quadraphonic decoder for a true surround experience before Dolby Pro Log II (a watered down ripoff of Sansui's decoding algorithms) and other modern days decoders came along.

Enoch Light was true pioneer of audiophile sound and the father of Stereo and Quadraphonic. He used 35MM tape, a very expensive process, for the most accurate sound reproduction that even gives todays stuff a run for its money. He also used quite a few of the original musicians for his Big Band recordings for a very accurate reproduction of those tunes, but in much better fidelity than old shellac cuts.