REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I started collecting records: My first encounter with the music of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) occurred during the spring of 1963, when I was 11. That year RCA Victor had developed the Dynagroove recording process, initially releasing 10 LPs with both mono and stereo editions, and touting the enhancement as […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I Started Collecting Records, Part 6. A chance encounter during the summer of 1962 led to a consuming fascination with classical music that still prevails today. I came into the living room late one warm August afternoon where I found Mom in conversation with a door-to-door salesman. Somehow the […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I Started Collecting Records, Part 5. I began receiving Golden Records as early as my fourth year, more often than not in the six-inch yellow record format. Many of the selections were from the Great American Kiddie Songbook – such captivators as Pony Boy, Pony Boy; Skip to My […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I Started Collecting Records, Part 4. Around 1957, I discovered the resounding voice of the then 23-year-old Pat Boone and the beginning of a spurt of hit 45 singles that sustained him until 1960. The first one that I heard from off the radio was the riveting Don’t Forbid […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I Started Collecting Records — Continued! Along with the Burl Ives records, there were others given to me. Numerous titles from such labels as Golden Records, Peter Pan and Children’s Record Guild abounded. I remember a Johnny Ray Columbia 45 hit — Just Walkin’ in the Rain – that I […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I Started Collecting Records- Part 2! With respect to the Burl Ives 78s discussed in last week’s column, I had the privilege of interviewing the head producer for Columbia’s popular records division and later tv sing along personality, Mitch Miller (1911-2010) in 1992 at Houston’s Lancaster Hotel. When I […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates How I Started Collecting Records! (Beginning a series of weekly paragraphs.) The first records I ever owned, at 2 years old, were Columbia yellow label 10-inch 78s – three in number – all featuring Burl Ives applying his warm, cuddly baritone to such titles as The Little White Duck; Lollipop […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates Yvonne Elliman If I Can’t Have You; Good Sign RSO, RS 884, seven-inch vinyl 45 record, recorded 1977. Yvonne Elliman (1951-) first raised the goosebumps on my arms during a chance hearing of the then newly-released Jesus Christ Superstar, back in November 1970, via a friend’s set, followed shortly by […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates Brahms Two Piano Concertos Dimitris Sgouros, piano, with Emil Tabakov conducting the Sofia Philharmonic; 1 plus- 51 000; 2 CDs, recorded 1999. Sgouros plays with commendable musical feeling the two very powerful Concertos, still among my top five in this genre. Tabakov and his players provide exciting support, making this […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates Archie Bleyer Music from the Pajama Game Cadence, EP 4054/5, two ep 45s, recorded 1954. After serving seven years as Arthur Godfrey’s music director, Archie Bleyer (1909-1989) was unceremoniously fired almost the same day in 1953 as Julius LaRosa. Meanwhile, Bleyer had founded Cadence records where he would be developing […]