Eating Popcorn in the Grass

I like to start out with a nice portrait if I can. Now, let's proceed to the covers and find out who this gentleman is...

Ted Duff! :) Love the title and eye-catching imagery.

Hey, he recorded it only 30 minutes or so from my house! It definitely does sound like fun. I really must listen to it soon... *shame*

Nice selections, I must say. I really need to listen to it... (and help preserve it for all of humanity?)
 

There's a nice amount of info out there, including songs on YouTube. As usual, the ability to post the video you want here is nullified by the terrible system in place. (I've ranted about it and mentioned it to them before) Please just use these links to videos posted by thebport...

Ted Duff Duo - School's Out (Alice Cooper cover)

Ted Duff Duo - Will It Go 'Round in Circles (Billy Preston cover)

The Couriers!

You might think this is an ordinary group of crooners, but the upper right corner provides a clue as to their machinations.

 Yep, it's "saved" vinyl. I dig their groovy logo.

Inside and Outside...

...Shelley Berman!

Simple and effective. :)

Testify!

Nice drawring! Simple again, but sets it apart from the first.

More testifications.

I need to get his next one, The Edge of Shelley Berman. :) Find out more about him and his impressive career here and here.

Fun Rock?

Yes, but for who?

Looks like it's for kids. I mean, it has kids/teens on it.

The tracklist, which corresponds to the imagery on the front cover, is, well...would kids in 1988 really dig these songs? I suppose some would, but most would find it pure corn, I'm sure. You know, because they're lacking in taste. Heh heh. ;)

The other Matt Lucas

You may know the name Matt Lucas from the series "Little Britain", but I assure you, this one is very, very different. :p

To be honest, I haven't listened to it yet, partly because of the liner notes. They're...interesting. Heh. You'll see what I mean. First of all, though, let's check out the cover:

Very stark (not stank, as I originally typed by mistake) and simple, as I figure the music is.

As above, so below. "Hogtown" is an unflattering nickname for Toronto, by the way.

And now the liner notes...

Yeah, pretty rough. What I do know is that this is most probably the only album I have that uses the dreaded "n word." :-/

I've just look him up (more info here) and found out he's in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame! Awesome! Now I really want to listen to it! :)

The Conn Man

Interesting pose. :p "Hey George, give us an 'I've just been riding a horse all day' sort of thing." Heh. Seriously, though, I like the cover. Kinda sci-fi/electrogeek. (is that a term? Well, it is now.)

500,000 organs in homes? Not anymore, sadly. We had one, and also inherited one from my grandparents, but once you realize that they take up space and you'll just never play it and maybe someone else would enjoy it more than you, well, just try giving it away. Not always easy. You should see the awesome stereo unit that we got rid of the other day! Actually, I just remembered I took pics when we tried to sell it. (more than once) Lemme dig one (or four) up...

Yeah, that's a ceramic tiled bar, with mirror and lights! Sadly, it's probably at the dump now... We tried many times to give it a good home, both by selling and giving it away, but no one wanted it, and it took up a lot of room here. The thing is, no one wants beautiful furniture like this anymore. I wish I could've repurposed it somehow, but oh well. :/

Anyway, here's Mr. Wright's weapon of choice, the Conn Electric Organ:

A thing of beauty. :) Love that speaker with it. I see them go for TONS of money on the pawn and picker shows sometimes. (probably more than the organ itself) Apparently, they sound great. One I saw had a speaker that rotated at high speed and gave it a very wide, unique sound.

Well, this post turned out to be more interesting that I thought it would be!

Men (and lady and snowman) Without Hats

...but the snowman is wearing a hat.

Anyway, really fun package here. :)

Look how round those teeth are!

Everyone knows their big hit, Pop Goes the World. They also performed the big hit The Safety Dance. I must admit, I didn't realize that they're Canadian. I also didn't realize that Bonhomme, the mascot of the Quebec Winter Carnival, is their drummer. Haha. ;)

More fun with these liner notes. They do give a fair amount of information, if not conventionally.

Other side of the record sleeve.

Here are their aforementioned hits...

 Pop Goes the World

The Safety Dance

Again, fun stuff! :)

And now, because I'm a big fan of his, I leave you with "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of The Safety Dance, The Brady Bunch...

:)

Realistically, though...

...does it actually sound any better?

Pretty striking cover, but boy, I'm really seeing a loss of quality! I didn't realize it did that so badly sometimes at blogger. :(

Well, that sounds cool. I'll have to listen to it sometime. Haha.

Decent tracks! I especially need to hear the Star Wars track to compare it with the real deal.

You can listen to the whole thing here.

UPDATE, Nov. 27, 2017: Check out an actual flyer ad for this album in Lazy Game Review's video here, around 16:24 in:

Very K-tel-like

Yep, when I saw this, I figured for sure it was a K-tel compilation album, but no... It certainly has all the K-tel trademarks, though.

Nice selection of wacky numbers on this Juke Box International album[s]. Let's zoom in on that disclaimer under the tracklistings...

B'oh! :p

Heavy, man!

Just sifting through old records at the thrift shop, minding my own business, when WHOA!

Like a psychedelic slap in the face! :) Dig them mutton chops.

A well-crafted back cover. It's "saved vinyl," as you can see by the song titles.

The usual background info and testimonials.

The instrument of his trade, including a detailed listing of effects he can use with it/them. Cool!

Beauties and the Geek

Think he knew any of them before this shoot? Nah...

She looks extremely familiar...but I'm probably just thinking of some actress. (a cute one at that!) I dunno, combination of Rebeca Arthur (Mary Anne from Perfect Strangers) and Amy Pohler? Still seems way to specific to me, though.

She reminds me of Christina Applegate a bit. Anyway, continuing on...

Three of the songs are Canadian, eh!

Obligatory kudos.

More on Henry here. He had quite a career! (and wasn't Canadian!) I guess if you live here for a bit, they automatically add you to the 'local boy done good' list, or in this case, the Canadian Talent Library. Ha! :p

GREAT find, Part 2!

Ok, I admit I probably hyped this a little [lot?] too much in Part 1, but whatever. I know I was happy to find—included in the sleeves of the teddy bear album—these... 

...bee-you-tea-full picture discs! :) This is side one.

Here we have Geppetto putting the finishing touches on Pinocchio in his workshop. Wait, was Jiminy there before Pinocchio came to life? Hmm, can't remember...

Here's side two, featuring scenes from later on in the film. There seems to be a crack on the right-hand side there, but I don't see it on side one. I'll have to check that again. Overall, though, this and the next album are in great shape.

Here we have Lady and the Tramp, another classic.

As with the other record, side two features various scenes from the movie, including the one everyone remembers right in the middle.

It's funny because these and the teddy bear album are the only picture discs I have and they all came together. So, yeah, overhyped post, but I'm happy! :)

GREAT find, Part 1!

This is pretty cool in itself, but be sure to also check out the next post I make (soon!), which will feature the awesome BONUSES I got with this impressive package! :)

I picked this up and my first thought was 'wow, this is heavy!' It didn't have the calendar with it, but everything else is intact and the whole package is in mint shape.

What's a Bogie Man? A scary version of Humphrey Bogart? ;)

Here's the first page of the storybook to show you the format...

...and here's a collage of the rest of the pictures. (this took a while!)

When you get to the end, you have an option to join the club. I don't know if this exact one is still around (we're talking 1985, after all), but there are variations of it, it seems.

Finally, here's the record itself. Cute, innit? :)

Again, stay tuned for Part 2, where I will show you the lovely surprises I found inside...