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 […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates Beethoven Emperor Concerto and Symphony No. 5 Sunwook Kim, pianist (in the Emperor), and Myung-Whun Chung conducting the Seoul Philharmonic; Deutsche Grammophon- 481 031-2, CD, recorded live January 17-18, 2013. I have lost track of how many recordings I own of both of these Beethoven masterpieces – ones that continue […]
Beach Boys Spirit of America Capitol- SVBB 511384, two stereo LPs, released 1975. Spirit of America collected 23 tracks consisting of earlier Capitol hits that were not part of 1974’s anthology, Endless Summer; it also contained a few album cuts regarded as worthy of inclusion and two rare 45 gems –1969’s Break Away and a […]
REVIEW POTPOURRI by Peter Cates Rick James Give It to Me, Baby Don’t Give Up On Love Gordy, G 7197F, released 1981, seven-inch 45. Rick James (1948-2004) hooked up with a group known as the Mynah Birds during his adolescence, one of his fellow members being Neil Young. His music career would thrive but also […]