Recorded on May 26, 1927, just five days after Lindbergh’s arrival in Paris, ‘Lucky Lindy’ (posted below) was a major hit record and one that Lindbergh apparently loathed. He was more than a little surprised at the world-wide hoopla that greeted him upon landing and regarded much of it with
Last night we watched the HBO Paul Anka doc and I knew from the very beginning, which featured 85 year-old Anka on board his private jet with his sixteen year old wife, that he was a prick. Not that he said or did anything obviously prick-ish. He wouldn’t have let
Celebrate the season of the arrival of public domain with Springtime (1929)! This early Walt Disney Silly Symphonies animated short film is a exploration of nature set entirely to classical music. The cartoon features flora and fauna, including charming flowers, busy ladybugs, crawling centipedes, soaring birds, and hopping frogs. Without
This year a slew of entertainment from 1929 has entered the public domain and can now be reused, re-recorded, re-edited and re-enjoyed for free. Songs, movies, books–the world is now awash in uncopyrighted cultural riches, and the family members of the creators of those works are now shit out of
Yesterday we took a look at the development of the long-playing record. So what better audio delivery system to next delve into than the much-mocked Eight Track Tape cartridge. I was first introduced to the format in 1976 when my father bought a flashy, new Cadillac Seville. The car came
According to my new best friend Artie Israel (AI): The first Long Playing Record albums–LPs–were released in 1948 when Columbia Records introduced the long-playing (LP) record format, which could hold up to 23 minutes of music per side. The first 12-inch LP was Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor (ML 4001),
The emergence of radio as we know it–programming that emanates from a reasonably priced box placed in the living room–was in its infant stages when the above one-hour broadcast was made, from a station in Newark, New Jersey. As you’ll see from this rare and invaluable Edison experimental recording from
Decca records may have passed on signing ‘The Beatles’, but they more than made up for that goof by producing the above record which may be my favorite long-playing record ever (next to that Monty Python record on which one side contains two completely different sets of material and you
When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s our ginormous Magnavox console living room stereo was the center of my after school universe. In addition to my ever-growing collection of jazz LPs, a great deal of my time was spent listening to comedy records my parents had bought
Here’s a fascinating little ten minute audio reel of Frank Sinatra doing multiple takes (six in all) of ‘Pick Yourself Up’ from the ‘Sinatra and Swinging Brass’ album. Neil Hefti’s arrangements are neat and inventive and the band kicks hard. Frank, though, needs a few tries to get things straight–and