A square talk on Anna.

Didn't know what to expect when I saw this cover, but I sure grabbed it quickly! :) 

Turns out she's a music critic. Maybe that's why she looks perturbed/crazy. ;) She's also a singer and comedienne. Possibly other thing as well.

Well, she looks quite nice and pleasant on the back! Maybe she wasn't critiquing music at the moment. Heh. She reminds me of a friend of mine here, though dressed much more fancily.

I love when they sell needles. 

Some square talk on Anna!

Here she speaks about how to become a singer:

 "What you need is a gloooorious voice. Period." :D

More on Anna here.

OW, my ears!

This album is still real to me! *crying*

Hulk really did work for the WWF back then. Get it? Worked? Because of the hard hat...oh, nevermind! 

Some real classics on this one. (no Hogan, though, oddly enough!) Well, depends on your definition of classic. Definitely fun!

I am happy to say that, unlike with some other collages of various wrestlers, ALL of these men are still alive and well! :) 

Top row: "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Rick Martel, Koko B. Ware

Middle row: Slick, Honky Tonk Man, Jimmy Hart, Hillbilly Jim

Bottom row: Demolition, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Tito Santana

Here's Vince's song "Stand Back" (which he has graciously allowed himself to be made fun of for, not burying it in the past like some would):

Lenny Dee isn't saxy enough either?!

Well, that's partly because he plays the organ, I must admit. 

They decided to put a fresh-faced cutey on the cover rather than Lenny himself. Let's see him...

Again, I'll let you decide if they made the right choice. ;)

Some of those song titles are rather saxy, if you will. 

More info on Lenny here.

Billy Vaughn isn't saxy enough?

Well, that's certainly an eye-catcher of a cover! 

Ooo, it's one o' them gatefolds! :) 

I guess they thought that lovely lass would sell more records than having Billy on the cover. You be the judge.

Some info on Billy. More info here.

The Dried Up West Coast Grapes!

Or, more specifically, the 80s phenoms, The California Raisins!

Great looking cover! I had several Raisins figurines back in the proverbial day. Sold them at a yard sale, probably. I still see them at thrift stores from time to time. 

Simple, classy back cover and a nice tracklist. The interesting this is, unless you knew the sbject matter, you might just think this was any other soul/R&B cover album. They sang the tunes as-is, not adding cheesy raisin-related material into the songs. :) 

Wait, I get a feeling that these are not real singing, dancing raisins... 

Anyway, here they are performing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", Michael Jackson style: 

Old school record club

^Wait, is that redundant? 

Nondescript yet vibrant cover that definitely caught my eye. She needs a dance partner!

Nicely designed and simple. 

Something to look forward to, especially being surprised by what was on the record. It's like the mixtape from a friend of generations past. :) 

Nice tracklists. If only America's current favorite music was more like this. I've posted about the Pachanga before (here) and I dare say the cover for that one was fairly popular. ;) 

Couldn't find much of anything about the Top Hit Club of America other than a thread at a forum. Worth a look! (here)

Groovy Grubworm

Fun cover and quite a nice track selection! :) According to wiki's Harlow Wilcox entry, ""Groovy Grubworm" has sold over a million copies and was nominated for a Grammy in 1969." Impressive!

A shame the back cover isn't as fun as the front. 

I'd never heard of Plantation Records before this, but it really seems to be a case of a small company that made some big waves in the industry before it ended. "The label is best known for the Jeannie C. Riley 45rpm single, "Harper Valley P.T.A." which was a number one pop record in 1968," which you can see on the back cover up there. 

Here's a video of Harlow and the boys performing "Groovy Grubworm" live (and talking about this album a  bit too):

 

K-tel's 24 Great Tear Jerkers

Lovely eye-catching art on the cover, as usual from K-tel.

Non-lovely, bland back cover, as usual from K-tel. ;)

If I think about those tracks too much, I'm gonna have all kinds of catchy tunes stuck in my head all day!

Sugar Bum Bum

Pretty racy cheesecake cover for The Merrymen! (I don't hear anyone complaining, though) They usually had simple group shots, usually wearing that pattern or some variation of red and white. 

Now this is the sort of cover I would've expected from them! Love the vehicle! I've seen one before, but I can't think of what it's called... 

I used Side 2, Track 1 as a, I think, fitting post title. 

Here's a nice calypso medley from them. Real feel good music. :)

Let's have a party...

...with Irwin Prescott! 

Who is Irwin Prescott, you ask? Well, let's see... 

That's who he is. Heh heh. ;) 

Here's his fun cover of "The Auctioneer":

Off, off, OFF Broadway...

The cover intrigued me. It looks like she's gonna wallop that wino upside the head. :p (or she's chasing him away?) And why is there a rooster or something on top of the steeple? Weathervane, maybe?

I had to look up the school. It is now known as Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School. (cuz they don't say high school in Ontario anymore, for some reason) You can look it up here if you wish. Or is it this one? Actually, that looks right. And it's still a high school. Uh...

I'm tempted to write and ask them to look up some info on this. I'm guessing it was quite a while ago! If I find out anything, I'll update this post.

Another Mickey Mouse cash grab

Nice looking cover! And interesting use of a butt shot. Haha.

Fun back cover, too. She's looking quite Flashdance there... 

Neat-o, though perhaps it should've been worded 'The original Donald Duck, Clarence "Ducky" Nash.' 

Here's a fun old ad for the album:

Welcome to Blixelmiddu!

Thought this was an interesting cover. I was kinda hoping it would be prog rock, but no, it's goofy kid stuff, as I figured. Fun stuff, but I probably would've liked it a lot more 30 years ago. ;)

Neat fold-out coloring/order sheet inside. :)

Well, after searching for 'a small town on mars' and 'blixelmiddu' at Google and YouTube, I found NOTHING. Gotta keep looking, because this really is unique. Kids today might even like it. Imagine that!

If anyone has any extra info on this, please leave a comment! I'd love to learn more about this.

SHHHHH!

...cuz it's silent, y'see. Sorry. ;) 

To be honest, I got this because I thought it was neat. I'm not much of a Mel Brooks fan. His humor just doesn't "hit" me. As a huge Star Wars fan, I thought Spaceballs was a massive waste of time. (I literally laughed once during the whole thing; when Moranis turns to teh camera and says something like 'are you getting all this?') Blazing Saddles was largely fogettable. (on account-a I can't remember much of it!) Young Frankenstein was the only one I actually really enjoyed and have watched more than once.

Good cast in this too. But I think part of the problem for me is that I don't find Mel himself funny, which kinda drags the experience down for me. But I'll check it out someday, I'm sure...

Genius? Well, such a label is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Heh.

Mickey Mouse...*sigh*...Disco

Yeah, everyone was doing it... What would Walt have thought of this, I wonder. Or, thinking of more recent news, what would he think of Disney acquiring Lucasfilm? Boy, was George hard up for cash or something? I personally don't get it and think it has the potential to be nothing but bad, but who knows?

You can see what songs they were influenced by in that tracklisting. I haven't listened to it yet, but I can imagine what it would sound like regardless. :p 

Want to hear "Macho Duck"? (no, you don't) Then go here. (you really don't want to)

An ad for the album was posted to YouTube yesterday. Check it out!