The Wizard of Disco

Pay no attention to the Meco behind the curtain!

Meco Monardo appears as The Wizard of Oz himself (how presumptuous!) on his disco rendition of the Wizard of Oz soundtrack. More info on the album here.

The back cover features people easing on down the road. :)

Here's a sampling:

Old school Chipmunks

I had this album as a lad, but not with this fancy shiny red foil cover. They sure look different from the 80's versions, huh? Almost realistic in comparison. They've actually had several looks throughout their history. And nowadays, they're computer generated... :(

This little note from "David Seville" on the back is interesting:

Here's a little info I found on the album and early history of The Chipmunks:

"Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (who went by the stage name "David Seville")....bought a tape recorder with his last $200 and played around with shifting the speeds, coming up with a novelty song titled "Witch Doctor". He got the single released and two weeks later, he found himself appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show performing the song....The success of "Witch Doctor" gave him the idea of creating characters with sped up voices, so he quickly knocked out a Christmas demo titled "The Chipmunk Song" and took it to record executives Simon "Sy" Waronker, Theodore "Ted" Keep and Alvin "Al" Bennett at Liberty Records. The label was close to bankruptcy, but Bagdasarian convinced them that they might as well press Chipmunk singles with the leftover vinyl pucks and labels in their warehouse rather than just turn the unused stock over to the bank when the business went under. Production commenced and in just a few months leading up to Christmas of 1958, the record shot to the top of the charts, becoming one of the best selling singles of all time."

The Un-promotion

Similar to the Cadbury promo album I posted earlier this month is this groovy 7 Up album:

Dig that far out artwork, man!

A bicycle wheel? Perhaps this was a prize for paperboys? :p

I've looked up what they mean by 'rally caps' and it seems to have been a 'look under the cap' contest type deal.

Here are a couple of vintage examples, both being from the early 70's:

Rally cap bottles

Rally cap cans

Ontario: Keep it Rockin'

Nice little K-Tel-like compilation record from TeeVee Records.

I love those chrome stripes running down the center of the hood and trunk! :)

Yes, that's an Ontario plate. The motto on them is 'Keep it beautiful.' They kept that, but blanked out the Ontario above the number, which is probably real! Interesting choice. :p

Trillion, and my great guess

I saw this cover in a pawn shop...

...and thought 'that must be prog rock.' And I was right! Trillion's debut is a great album! Reminds me of bands like Boston and Journey. Not quite as proggy as I'd hoped, but there are elements of it everywhere.

Nice simple back.

An explanation...of sorts. :p

More info on the band here and here.

Listen to the awesome opening track "Hold Out" here:

Johnny Cash goes to prison...

...willingly. ;)

The man in black isn't nervous about being in prison, he's just working hard!

Johnny's letter/notes about the prison system entitled "Folsom Prison Blues" which fills most of the back cover.

Bye bye, Jimmy!

Ah, "saved vinyl." This one even features actor/pro wrestler Dwain "The Rock" Johnson! No, wait a minute...

I hear this one has patented 'get down on your knees and beg for mercy' technology, but I can't figure out how to activate it.

Classic junk food

This cover certainly doesn't explain much...

Is that Woody Allen? :p

Quick! Which company do you think it was that put out this compilation album? ;) The last track on Side 1 certainly fits the theme.

Definitely fun seeing all these old wrappers. I'd never even heard of some of them before. Coffee Ripple? Bar Six? Rum & Butter? I'd love to try them all! :)

My cat loves vinyl too!

 She got comfortable on my last big score. :p

Her name is Link, by the way.

Sing, Fonzie!

 

 No? Oh, alright... :(

As you can see from the back cover text, Henry Winkler, a.k.a. Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli on Happy Days, does not sing on this album. It was just a way of cashing in on the Fonz craze. They even added a cut-out to the back so girls could stand it up like a picture.

More info on Fonzie here.

A question for my "followers"

Just thought I'd ask you guys a couple of questions:

1. Do you have a record player and/or records?

2. What would you consider some of the gems of your collection?

Looking forward to your comments! :)

Simpler times

 Typical collection of nursery rhymes and whatnot with a nice cover. :) I'm sure many of us had albums like this. I still remember an old, super thick 16 RPM I had of "Old King Cole" and playing it on a player that did 16, 33, 45 and 78 RPM. Fun listening to it at unnatural speeds. I'd probably still get a kick out of that now! :p

Pure eighties!

Not a bad cover...

 

Here's the back...

Whoa, he looks stunned!

 

But then you look a little closer and he doesn't look as stunned, for some reason. More like he's ready for the catwalk! :)

They're a Montreal synth band, comprised of Pascal Languirand and Laurie Ann Gill. More info on them here: Trans-X

And here's their hit (first song on side 2), which apparently charted worldwide, "Living on Video":