Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1051 in the Series) is Rave On Buddy Holly. Back in the early 90s I worked as a District Manager for a music distributor.  One of our accounts was Wal-Mart.  We would stock them with their music and make sure they were fixture properly etc.  (BTW, back then, they refused to stock AC/DC because their albums had parental warning stickers on them. Later there was a new AC/DC release and the ONLY place you can get it was Wal-Mart!) At one point, we were doing some major renovations that had to be done only at night after the stores closed.  I was the head of one of these projects.  I had to use...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #16 – The Beatles: “Paperback Writer” b/w “Rain” – Capitol 45 RPM Single 5651 (K2/L2) “The Jukebox Series” focuses on the 80 records that inhabit my 1963 Seeburg LPC1 jukebox. I’ve had my jukebox (or as I like to call it “the prehistoric iPod”) for a little over twelve years and in that time I’d like to think that I’ve perfected the mix of 45s within. We’ve hit ground zero for classic singles! It really doesn’t get any better than the coupling of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” on a single slab of 45RPM vinyl. And, the single wasn’t even intended to be a double A-side, it just worked...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #7 – Paul & Linda McCartney  – “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” b/w “Too Many People”  – Apple Records 45 1837 1971 (M1/N1) “The Jukebox Series” focuses on the 80 records that inhabit my 1963 Seeburg LPC1 jukebox. I’ve had my jukebox (or as I like to call it “the prehistoric iPod”) for a little over twelve years and in that time I’d like to think that I’ve perfected the mix of 45s within. Lyrics were never his strong suit…and the lyrics from “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” are at best incoherent. However, you’d be hard pressed to argue with the musical prowess of Paul McCartney especially on today’s Song Of The...

  Jimi, Sir Paul …. and Miles Davis?! Could we have seen an album recorded by a band that included both Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney. Well, it might have been closer to reality than you ever dreamed.  And those two weren’t the only giant names that might have been included. The story takes us back to October 21st, 1969.  Mr. Hendrix was putting together a band to record some new music. He had three of the four pieces he wanted. He would of course be on guitar. The drummer would have been jazz great Tony Williams.  On trumpet, why of course it had to be Miles Davis….. and it was. Jimi need a bass player and on the...

Paul McCartney returned to the stage tonight in Mineirão, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It was his first show of 2013 and he pulled out some real gems.  He opened with “Eight Days A Week” he claimed it was only the second time that he has ever played it live. Another surprised was “Your Mother Should Know” which also was played by for the second time. It was never played by the Beatles. “Hi, Hi, Hi” hadn’t been played since 1976. (File photo) Here’s the full set list from Brazil Eight Days a Week  (The Beatles) Junior’s Farm (Wings) All My Loving (The Beatles) Listen to What the Man Said (Wings) Let Me Roll It (Wings) Paperback Writer (The Beatles) My Valentine Nineteen...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Just Dropped In” by Tom Jones Tom Jones just released his 40th album this week called Spirit In The Room. It was released last May in England and has finally gained a release stateside. It is also the second “mortality” album he’s released in a row. The “mortality album” occurs when a rapidly aging heritage artist is matched with a hip (younger) producer, who in this case is Ethan Johns. (Johns was also at the helm for his last “mortality album” Praise And Blame.) The producer acts as a mentor to the artist and who curates the record by choosing the songs that not only will give the artist credibility with...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Lovely Rita” by The Beatles I just heard The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for the first time today! Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve been listening to this record since it was new. I guess that’s one of the big positives of having older siblings, you got to hear cool records when they came out, way before your peer group caught on to them. I’ve been reading the Howard Kaylan biography Shell Shocked which was written by Kaylan and Jeff Tamarkin. Howard Kaylan was a member of The Turtles and The Mother’s Of Invention. He was also Eddie of Flo & Eddie. So far, the book is a...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Knocking ‘Round The Zoo” by James Taylor It is indeed an amazing story as to how a recovering from heroin singer songwriter from America came to the attention of The Beatles in 1968, leading to the release of the first album by an American artist to be released on The Beatles’ newly-christened Apple Records. James Taylor came from a wealthy family and grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he learned to play cello and then guitar. The family vacationed in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts during the summers where he first met Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar at the age of 14. Even at their young age, Kootch realized that Taylor’s singing...

  More and more turntables are coming out of moth balls and still more are shipping to those that might not have or never had them in the past. I guess it’s no surprise that the public wants to get their hands and needles on some Beatles albums once again. They will now be able too. The Beatles’ acclaimed original studio album remasters, released on CD in 2009 and in 2010 for digital download exclusively on iTunes, will make their long-awaited stereo vinyl debut on 12th November (13th November in North America). Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork,  the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#723 in the Series) is Wings, Wild Life After recording “Ram” with Linda McCartney around 1970, Paul McCartney decided to form a band named Wings. Without much notice, their first release, Wild Life was put together in about a week and released in 1971, containing the most rawness of any other Wings album. The album was not taken seriously, but in many fans’ opinions, it is a very huge landmark in McCartney’s recordings. For some it is one of his best albums. This album sounds like a session; a recording session in the studio that could have been labeled as a jam-out. It is still a very powerful album in the sense...