Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1030 in the Series is Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, Herb Alpert Present, Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66. I know I’ve mentioned many times in these parts how much of a part my two older sisters (Tina and Judy) played in getting me started on listening to good music. Tina was the older one; she always made sure that she had on “Where The Action Is” or “Shindig” in the afternoons.  She added the first albums to the family record collection that were not my father’s stuff like Al Martino, Mario Lanza or Robertino “The Young Italian Singing Sensation.”  Judy was a little younger and took over from there. She bought me my...

Ah the Aragon Ballroom. This is a fun listing for the old Rock ‘n’ Rollers that visit the Cool Album of the Day site. Here’s a list of just about ever show that was held at the Aragon Ballroom in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.  If you went there, have fun looking thru this list.  Look for the shows that you saw. Feel ‘bummed’ about the ones you missed. Be angry about the ones that you would have checked out but you didn’t know about, until now. I’ve combined different listings to form this list. I’ve even contacted band members and did poster research to find others. It’s the best list on the ‘net! If you were never at...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1000 in the Series and then re-posted in 2011) is a Charlie Brown Christmas, music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. We all remember the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Because of that special, we were first introduced to one of the bestselling Christmas albums of all time. The Charlie Brown Christmas with music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. It was recorded way back in 1965. It made it to CD in 1986. Many Decembers, if you don’t grab it in the first few weeks, you can’t find it. It seems like there is always shortage of these produced. Downloading has taken care of that issue. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first animated television...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#999 in the Series) is The Ventures, The Ventures Christmas Album The Ventures were another band that got a strong amount of airplay in my house when I was a youth. No, It didn’t want to make we want to be a surfer or anything like that. That would have been a little hard for a Chicago boy so I’m glad that was never a goal. Italian kids weren’t usually blonde enough either. I was no exception. It did help me add to my love of rock and roll. I remember my sisters playing their version of “Telstar” on more than one occasion.  I remember my sisters playing their version of “Telstar”...

Today’s Cool Album the Day (#945 in the Series) is Al Kooper, Stephen Stills, Mike Bloomfied, Super Session. Blues, Blues, Blues. Blues at its best. This album was a project put together by Al Kooper. Al had just left Blood, Sweat and Tears. It was 1968. He recruited Mike Bloomfield to play guitar for this project.  They had known each other since playing together on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 revisited.  He also had Stephen Sills in on the project. Still was in the process of leaving The Buffalo Springfield at the time. Al Kooper played the VERY well-known keyboard part in ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ In fact, he got the gig mostly by accident.  He was invited to the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#927 in the Series) is Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis The stable of Blue-Eyed Soul fillies from across the pond has been Kentucky Derby quality over the last 10 years. Duffy, with her 2008 release Rockferry has more of a sensitive delivery than her more bombastic contemporaries that should serve her well with the AOR crowd as her career progresses. Joss Stone burst on to the scene in 2003 with The Soul Sessions, an unabashed tribute to the soul singers of the past sounding more like Carla Thomas or Aretha Franklin than a sixteen year old girl recording her eponymous album.  But even though her later releases seem to lack direction and continuity...

Many of the classic bands from the 60s are hitting their 50th anniversary. The Rolling Stones had a successful 50th anniversary tour. The Kinks might not be far behind…… From NME.com In a new piece with Uncut magazine, Dave Davies also said that he met up with his estranged brother in a pub in Highgate, London last summer and the pair discussed the possibility of reforming the band for their 50th anniversary. “We got together in August (2013) and the first few days were beautiful. We went up the pub and had a few Guinnesses, and we were talking about all kinds of shit, the old days and what-ifs,” said Dave. “I said to Ray I thought that it’d...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Dance At The Gym” from the Original Soundtrack of “West Side Story” – Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim Broadway musicals don’t get any better than this! You can keep your Andrew Lloyd Webber with his one song per musical, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim were the real deal! And their musical, West Side Story, has never been bettered. West Side Story was one of the first musicals where dance played as important a role in story development as dialog. The choreography was expertly done by Jerome Robbins, who also choreographed the Broadway stage version. Robbins was fired from the production before it wrapped due to it going over budget. The...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#777 in the Series) is the Dave Clark Five, Glad All Over. Well Mr. Peabody, it appears you gave an extra cup of coffee to the Way-Back Machine this morning!! There was actually a short period, 1964, where The Dave Clark Five were battling The Beatles for most popular British Invasion band. There were a ton of hits on this album.  There were really strong songs that had some edge to them as well.  I also loved the “dirty sax” sound that The Dave Clark Five used in their mix. Highlights you ask?  Well of course the title track, “Glad All Over,” plus there were other classics like “Bits and Pieces” and “Do...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#681 in the Series) is King Crimson, In The Court of the Crimson King My father used to be a member of this old time Italian club when I was a child.  I always thought it was pretty cool. The club was called The Roseland Operetta Club. No, they didn’t sing, or promote Operas by this time but that was indeed how it was formed.  The club had some nice grounds that included picnic areas and some killer bocce courts. The front door was always locked, but all members had the key.  I really thought it was neat how you had to unlock it to get in. Heck, I was just a...