VBR fun...

So, until Monkey D. Sound alerted me, I had no idea my VinylStudio mp3 exports were happening at the near-least VBR (7, to be precise).  That the program has defaulted the VBR thus is kind of mind-blowing--I would think that a medium value would be the default.  To make life even more fun, it turns out that each and every VinylStudio project (album, whatever) has to be individually adjusted.  I'll have to contact Alpinesoft and ask if it's possible to change this setting across the board.

I'm in the process of redoing my last post, but it involves four projects/albums, and a reordering of the track numbers.  With VinylStudio, each snag is a "What's next?" event.  However, the software performs amazingly well, even if it leaves much to be desired in the logical-design realm.

And a "VA" project is totally out of line with VS's chief design, which presumes that the user is digitizing his or her favorite Boomer-rock LP.  Meanwhile, the program is packed with 78-rpm playback curves.  Go figure.

As for me, I don't even have a favorite rock album, and if only because rock is not my favorite music.  In fact, I don't care for most "classic" rock (please don't tell anyone), and I feel no need to conform to the typical tastes of my generation.  Anyway, most of what I do with the program involves bypassing its "album" template.  Namely, I tend to rip one to four tracks per "album," and then simply allow the albums to pile up (30 is the limit).  I don't know or care whether or not the program thinks that I've ripped thirty Led Zeppelin LPs.  With MAGIX, I had to do a degree of "improper" employing of the features, but with VS, that dynamic is epic.  The degree to which I am NOT using the software as intended is almost surreal.  And now this.  A per-album VBR default which is almost the least in that regard.

Did someone decide, "I'm sure our users want substandard mp3s"?  At least MAGIX's mp3 export default was middling, which is logical.  This allowed me to go up or down as I chose.  (I chose "up.")  But, in the meantime, I wasn't making poor-quality mp3s.  The least VBR is 9, and so a 7 is pretty lousy.  Or very, actually.  Well, I have nothing to lose.  But my mind.  I'd add an "in retrospect" observation, but I don't have one at this time!

Lee

Various Artists for August, 2025--Skeeter Davis, Mills Brothers, Peggy King, Sid King, Murray Arnold, Woody Herman, Little Eva, more!

 

You've gotta love that Percy Faith jacket: "How to sell these elegant popular concert numbers to the still-evolving 12-inch-LP market?  Sex!  That's the only way."  The streak up the man's back is the result of the lamp whose glare I couldn't totally suppress--not the photographer's fault.  Anyway, I love that "Get me out of here!" look on the lady's face.  Or, "Darn, I forgot to let the sitter know I'd be this late..."

So, a Golden Records classic, some recently-thrifted shellac, the Mills Brothers doing doo-wop, a couple century-plus-year-old goodies, fine rural '40s gospel, and an authentic Hawaiian number from back when everyone expected that state to become my country's 49th.

And, luckily, there are still local thrifts (two of them) that haven't gotten stupid with their vinyl pricing, and so I've hauled in a decent amount of analog audio since my last "Various Artists" bash (in March).  I think the principal inspiration for this VA post was the atypical appearance of 40 or 50 78s in fine condition at the big city Goodwill--of which I nabbed nine or so.  Also, Hi Yo Silver! simply demands a blog slot.  (And let me check to make sure I haven't already posted it...  Nope; we're good.)  Amazing work by the Arthur Norman Singers and the virtuoso accordionist--plus, surprisingly decent audio from a six-inch Golden Records release.  Audio which sounded dreadful in stereo but just fine with the channels summed.

Ripped in mono from Music from Hollywood is Percy Faith's superb 1953 instrumental version of Song from Moulin Rouge, and from Mantovani's 1962 Moon River and Other Great Film Themes LP, the equally superb Big Country theme.

And, from that recent 10"-shellac haul, the soft and sultry crooning of Peggy King (whose Zero Hour is among my all-time favorite pop gems), with the amusing Gentleman in the Next Apartment, plus Bob Merrill's great Make Yourself Comfortable (made famous by Sarah Vaughan), both 1954.  And Freddy Martin pianist Murray Arnold on the Cardinal label, performing his own Boo Boo Boogie and a boogie-woogie version of Camptown Races.  No record collection is complete without one.

The 1955 Sid King 45 showed up in the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift, and when I saw the title--Sag, Drag and Fall--something told me that I was in for some Shake, Rattle and Roll-style rockabilly.  I was correct.  Fine stuff, with a nice flip.

And a good dance-band version of the famous Black and White Rag (George Botsford, 1908), and though I have no idea who Bobby Mills was, I suspect he may have been European or European-American.  Just a guess from a Discogs listing.  Actually, the label, K and K, was a country operation.  So... dunno.  And we move on with the marvelous West Lawn Polka (1912), by banjo mega-virtuoso Frederick J. Bacon, followed by a 1914 rendition of the National Anthem (another no-collection-should-be-without disc), and great 1946 country gospel by Roy Acuff--That Glory Bound Train.  I was very happy with the 1946 rip, since picking the right Columbia response curve is always a matter of guesswork.

From the RCA Camden Easy to Love Skeeter Davis LP of 1970, Carole King's magnificent 1964 Let Me Get Close to You.  And, further down the list, another Goffin-King classic, Down Home (Little Eva, 1963), from an original, much-played 45 release.

Elsewhere, Neal Hefti and Woody Herman's 12-bar-blues rocker, Blowin' up a Storm (1946, Carnegie Hall), an almost hilariously over-the-top Pink Panther (theme) by the world-famous Columbia Musical Treasuries Orch. (1968), and an I-hoped-it-would-be-better Hugo Montenegro version of Good Vibrations.

From the Tops-related cheapie line Golden Tone, a marvelous budget cover of the Peter Gunn Theme, credited to "The Hi-Tones" (whatever), and from the 49th State Hawaii Record company, Little Brown Gal.  Apparently, Hawaii was in the running for No. 49, until Alaska took that slot.  And two numbers from my mono copy of Dionne Warwick's 1965 Here I Am LP: (Are You There) With Another Girl, and the astounding Lookin' With My Eyes, both Hal and Burt, of course.

Garage-band gold with the Kingsmen's rendition of Money (too bad about the piped-in audience noise), and Paul Revere and the Raiders' 1963 Louie, Louie.  A standard cover tune which, in an under-rehearsed take, was a huge hit for the Kingsmen, of course.  And, back to Bob Merrill, the superb Take Me Along (from a Broadway show), as performed by the Mills Brothers in either 1959 or 1961.  It all depends on whether or not my source LP--the MB's 1961 Yellow Bird--utilized the single release, which I strongly suspect was the case.  From the same LP, MB's excellent Get a Job cover, which may or may not be the 1958 single release.

And who hasn't wanted, more than anything else, to hear Sheb Wooley's rendition of Rawhide?  Well, long no longer--it's here.  Sheb was no Frankie Laine, but his take is decent enough.  We close with the 1971 jazz-rock of Get It On by Chase--a huge hit in my home town of Toledo, and one of my fondest AM-radio memories.  We even had a call-in talk show named after it.

Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Various Artists August 2025.zip

The Big Country (Jerome Moross)--Mantovani and His Orch., 1962

Hi Yo Silver!--The Arthur Norman Singers, 1958

Let Me Get Close to You (King-Goffin)--Skeeter Davis, 1964

Sag, Drag and Fall--Sid King & The Five Strings, 1955

Rawhide (Washington-Tiomkin)--Sheb Wooley, 1961

Are You There (With Another Girl) (Bacharach-David)--Dionne Warwick, 1965

Good Vibrations--Hugo Montenegro, His Orch. and Chorus, 1969

Money (Bradford-Gordy)--The Kingsmen, 1964

The Song from Moulin Rouge (Auric)--Percy Faith and His Orch., 1953

Boo Boo Boogie--Murray Arnold Plays 4 Hands, 1954

The Gentleman in the Next Apartment--Peggy King w. Percy Faith and His Orch., 1954

Lookin' With My Eyes (Bacharach-David)--Dionne Warwick, 1965

Take Me Along (Bob Merrill)--The Mills Brothers, 1961

Get a Job--The Mills Brothers, 1961

The Black and White Rag--Bobby Mills and His Orch., 1955

The Pink Panther (Mancini)--The Columbia Musical Treasuries Orch., 1968

Camptown Races--Murray Arnold Plays 4 Hands, 1954

West Lawn Polka--F.J. Bacon, Banjo Solo w. Piano Accompaniment, 1912

The Star Spangled Banner--Victor Mixed Chorus, 1914

Brothers! (Berlin)--Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Vocal w. Orch., 1954

Blowin' up a Storm (Neal Hefti-Woody Herman)--Woody Herman and the Herd (Carnegie Hall, 1946)

But I Don't Care--Sid King & The Five Strings, 1955

Peter Gunn Theme (Mancini)--The Hi-Tones (America's Top Tunes, Golden Tone)

Down Home (King-Goffin)--Little Eva, 1963

That Glory Bound Train--Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys, 1946

Little Brown Gal--Lei Momo Sweethearts w. John K. Almeida's Hawaiians

Make Yourself Comfortable (Bob Merrill)--Peggy King w. Percy Faith and His Orch., 1954

Louie, Louie (Richard Berry)--Paul Revere and the Raiders, 1963

The Story of Billy Bardell (Wooley)--Sheb Wooley, 1961

Get It On--Chase, 1971

Lee

Anyone Who Had a Heart--Dionne Warwick (Scepter 517, 1964): A masterpiece in mono!

 

As many of us know, thrift vinyl prices have gotten absurd, generally speaking (with the local Volunteers of America demanding $5.99 a pop (!), though at least one Goodwill in the nearest big city still sells at .99 each)  However, if it's a good buy and the condition is good, I'll fork out $2.99, which I have done so far on (I think) three occasions.  I did so with a near-mint copy of the Harmony label reissue of "The Grand Canyon Suite"--in monaural.  The first and only mono copy I've ever come across.  And $2.99 (a bargain) for Bobby Vee's marvelous The Night Has a Thousand Eyes LP, also near-mint and with a jacket in perfect condition.  Also, for today's gem--Dionne Warwick's second LP, from 1964, and in mono.  I actually prefer Top 40 music of this era in monaural.  Not sure why, but in mono the tracks have more punch and presence.  To my ears, that is.  I can't speak for anyone else's (though I've often spoken into other ears).

And musicman1979 reminded me that I posted the mono Harmony Grofe reissue last year on July 4th: https://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2024/07/fourth-of-july-music-grand-canyon-suite.html  

This would have been up sooner, but it wasn't ready yet.  (A little exercise in Police Squad! humor, there.)  Problem was, I finally found the ideal analog-to-digital interface, but my initial experience was nothing but failed channels and a Line input which didn't accept a stereo signal.  Being the infinitely patient and mature person that I am, I only screamed at the unit, oh, three times.  Well, four.  But no more than five times.  Okay, six.  And my yelling was closer to agonized screams.  But I otherwise kept my composure (and saved my blood pressure).  "Gear that doesn't work" might be a bigger anger trigger on my part than "Software That Fails."  Close call.

Luckily, the Sweetwater rep was terrific, and together we did some highly detailed troubleshooting--whereupon, the flaw in the soup was the least likely item: the brand-new audio cables--the right side was defective.  In five decades, and to the best of my memory (which isn't always the best), this is the first bad audio cable I've ever encountered.  Seriously.  Anyway, rep Barrett sent out (free of charge) two upgraded RCA-to-1/4" cables, and now all is fine.  Well, except that VinylStudio doesn't let me know when and if I'm peaking the input.  However, VS's peculiarities are nothing next to its many virtues, luckily.  The software is so amazing, I have no right to nitpick.

Oh, and what about the album?  Yes, today's offering.  And it's magnificent!  Purely fabulous (not faux-fabulous)!  And, except for a slightly scratchy first band (which cleaned up nicely via VS's patching and manual-declicking features), in super-good shape.  In short, worth five times the three-buck asking price.  Not a bad song in the mostly Bacharach-David lineup, and Dionne has one of the most amazingly expressive voices in the history of pop music--and, to top things off, she always effortlessly managed Burt's quirky rhythms and his often jazz-complex melodic intervals.  On the first takes, probably.  I recall reading that, when Burt and Hal discovered Dionne, they knew they had the perfect interpreter.  If they hadn't known as much, they'd have had to be drunk or otherwise impaired.

There's the great title song, Anyone Who Had a Heart, which I admire more each time I hear it, plus the just-as-magnificent Don't Make Me Over, the elegant I Cry Alone, and the should-have-been-a-monster-hit This Empty Place (maybe my favorite of the bunch).  That possibly-greatest-all-of-Dionne-numbers had the unfortunate fate of serving as the B-side of Wishin' and Hopin' (terrific in its own right, but not as substantial as Empty).  Luckily, Place was also memorably recorded by the Invasion bands The Searchers and Ian and the Zodiacs, meaning that someone realized the hit potential of this gem.  How could anyone not be blown away by such a perfect pop release?  I ask you.  Should have been an A-side.

So, I changed the numbering (after exporting from VinylStudio), and I hope the proper numerals (1-12) show up--and the the jacket art, which I added in the Media Player app.  Hope all goes as intended.  I plan to get a VS upgrade, which should mean that I can add a year field per track.  (Woo-hoo!)  And Fab Forgeries, Pt. 7 is coming up next post.

DOWNLOAD: DW--Anyone Who Had a Heart.zip

TRACK LIST--All recorded 1963, unless otherwise noted

Anyone Who Had a Heart (Bacharach-David)

Shall I Tell Her (Doc Pomus-Mort Shuman)

Don't Make Me Over (Bacharach-David; rec. 1962)

I Cry Alone (Bacharach-David)

Getting Ready for the Heartbreak (Larry Weiss-Lockie Edwards)

Oh Lord What Are You Doing to Me (Luther Dixon-Burt Keyes)

Any Old Time of Day (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

Mr. Heartbreak (Barbara English-Al Cleveland)

Put Yourself in My Place (Reggie Obrecht-William Drain)

I Could Make You Mine (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

This Empty Place (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

Please Make Him Love Me (Burt Bacharach-Hal David)

Anyone Who Had a Heart--Dionne Warwick (Scepter 517, rel. 1964)

Lee

Fab Forgeries, Pt. 6!! "Hard Day's Night"-athon; Big-band Beatles, The Kingsmen, Johnny Mathis, Lawrence Welk, Johnny Rivers, The Lettermen, more!

 

Some big-band Beatles in the mix, courtesy of Enoch Light, Lawrence Welk, Sammy Kaye, and Buddy Morrow, and no fewer than five covers of A Hard Day's Night, courtesy of Enoch, The Kingsmen, Johnny Rivers, Alshire's famous Frank "88" Malone (who?), and, in the best Peggy Lee manner, Chris Connors.  Then, Johnny Rivers again, with Can't Buy Me Love, the Buckinghams with a 1966 interpretation of I Call Your Name, an excellent Lettermen rendition of For No One, a Dixieland Sgt. Pepper's... by Andre Kostelanetz, a swinging Eleanor Rigby by Michael Dees, and the Supremes with You Can't Do That (but they do, and more than adequately).  Meanwhile, Homer and Jethro's 1964 take on I Want to Hold You Hand is typical of the opinion, on the part of many professional, established recording musicians of the day (and H&J were highly accomplished), of the Fab Four's music: Annoying, monotonous low-calorie noise for screaming teens and pre-teens--a pop-music aberration soon to fade from the scene (and we know how that worked out).  And maybe I'm reading too much into this version of She Loves You--after all, Homer and Jethro had for years been specializing in take-downs of current chart hits.  But this particular lampoon complies too closely for coincidence with the standard dismissals of Beatlemania when that craze first exploded; the most hilarious parody of this type being Allan Sherman's classic Pop Hates the Beatles (also 1964).

And Ray Conniff is back with an effective cover of the Starr-Harrison Photograph, a track I didn't think I had ripped (but which, obviously, I had).  As for the New Christy Minstrel's I Want to Hold Your Hand (speaking of), their take is certainly different.  Meanwhile, Ronnie Aldrich's two pianos, along with the London Festival Orch., perform a memorable Because--the type of Beatles number which calls for this type of concert-hall version.  As for the "live" Johnny Rivers Fab-Four renditions, my ears get the feeling that the audience chatter was added after the fact, though I'm not sure.  Meanwhile, Anne Murray's 1974 Day Tripper is very 1974, which I suppose is to be expected.  Not a bad cover at all.  Even better is Johnny Mathis' My Sweet Lord, which the singer handles superbly.  And, whoever he was, Frank "88" Malone performs a nice honky-tonk Hard Day's Night for Alshire Records around 1968 or 1969, looks like.  And the Kingsmen's Bill Black-esque take on the same tune is terrific, though as with Rivers, the live-ness of the performance is doubtful.

Of the big-band renditions, I'm inclined to go with Buddy Morrow.  Then again, Sammy Kaye's Eight Days a Week is terrific, and it's impossible to miss with Enoch Light.  In sum, I'd rather not have to pick.  And Percy Faith's My Sweet Lord has a fine rock feel, and it's impressively true to Harrison's original.  I was expecting something more traditionally FM-radio-EZ, but it really moves.

And Floyd Cramer does a fine job with a Beatles classic which deserved a greater number of covers: I'll Follow the Sun, from the first Beatles LP I ever owned (The Beatles '65).  At the time, and since my budget was typically limited to 45s, LPs seemed like a miraculous, almost impossible proposition--all of those tracks on a single platter!  Years later, I'd buy my first Beach Boys LP at a discounted price (Capitol was cutting the BBs from its catalog): 1964's All Summer Long, in trashy Duophonic "stereo," though at the time (and on our cheap portable phonograph) it sounded just fine.  Anyway, some real happening homages for this post...

DOWNLOAD: Fab Forgeries Pt. 6.zip

A Hard Day's Night--Enoch Light and His Orch. (1964)

My Sweet Lord--Johnny Mathis (1971)

Eight Days a Week--Sammy Kaye and His Orch. (1965)

A Hard Day's Night--The Kingsmen (1965)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band--Andre Kostelanetz (1975)

Eight Days a Week--Enoch Light and the Light Brigade (1965)

Eleanor Rigby--Michael Dees (Arr. by Bob Bain, 1968)

I Want to Hold Your Hand/And I Love Her--Enoch Light and His Orch. (1964)

Photograph--Ray Conniff (1974)

Please Please Me--Buddy Morrow and His Orch. (1964)

Because--Ronnie Aldrich and His Two Pianos With the London Festival Orch. (1970)

A Hard Day's Night--Johnny Rivers (1965)

She Loves You--Homer and Jethro (1964)

I Want to Hold Your Hand--The New Christy Minstrels (1966)

A Hard Day's Night--Frank "88" Malone

I'll Follow the Sun--Floyd Cramer (1965)

You Can't Do That--The Supremes (1966)

Get Back--Paul Mauriat and His Orch. (1969)

Can't Buy Me Love--Johnny Rivers (1964)

I Call Your Name--The Buckinghams (1966)

Hey Jude--Lawrence Welk (1969)

My Sweet Lord--Percy Faith, His Orch, and Chorus (1971)

For No One--The Letterman (1967)

A Hard Day's Night--Chris Connor (1965)

Day Tripper--Anne Murray (1974)

Lee

Fab Forgeries, Part 5! Patti Page, Jerry Vale, Frankie Carle, The Moog Machine, Aretha Franklin, Kate Smith, Ray Conniff, more!

 

                                      

Frankie Carle, Bert Kaempfert, Ray Conniff, The Cowsills, Kate Smith, Jerry Vale, and the Lettermen are among our Beatles-cover artists today.  And a shout-out to the the earliest covers, starting with 1964: I Want to Hold Your Hand--Frankie Carle; and A Hard Day's Night--Marty Gold and His Orch.  On to 1965: And I Love Her--Ferrante and Teicher.  Hm.  And that's it for 1965.  But a nice batch for 1966: Yesterday--Boots Randolph; Michelle--The Fiesta Brass; Yesterday--Kate Smith; and Nowhere Man--Les and Larry Elgart.

And our fourth and fifth Somethings for this series to date, with more to come: Bert Kaempfert and Patti Page, both from 1970.  Plus, our fourth Long and Winding Road, by my favorite pop-instrumental maestro, Andre Kostelanetz (also from 1970).  From 1969, an unusually fine Paperback Writer by The Cowsills (!), Get Back by the Moog Machine (from their LP, Switched-On Rock), a great Eleanor Rigby by Aretha Franklin; a lovely Here, There and Everywhere by the Lettermen; and Dionne Warwick's take on We Can Work It Out (from her Soulful LP on Scepter).

Another Here, There, and Everywhere, this time by the always excellent Petula Clark, and our lone 1968 track--The Fool on the Hill, by the Billy Vaughn Singers.  The latter is a fine EZ Fab Four fake.  (Actually, a legit cover, but "Fab Four fake" sounds good...)

Two creative John Denver Fab Four covers, both from 1970: Golden Slumbers, and Eleanor Rigby.  And three more 1970 tracks: Jerry Vale crooning Let It Be, Tony Mottola with a near-hard-rock Come Together, and a highly enjoyable Living Strings rendition of Hey Jude.  And only we up-there-in-age folks remember when material like that last number was played on FM EZ radio.

Skipping ahead to 1973, a decent Ray Conniff presentation of the Paul and Linda McCarney Live and Let Die--one of those shouldn't-work-but-it-does tracks.  And from 1974, the Starkey-Harrison Photograph, ably rendered by one of the blog's favorite crooners, Engelbert Humperdinck.

A technical note: Though I've added art to every Fab Forgery project in Windows' Media Player app, not all of that art seems to be showing up, even after I've checked it within the app.  My apologies for any not-showing-up art.  There's no apparent reason for this.  (I know--get a Mac.)

DOWNLOAD: Fab Forgeries Pt. 5.zip

I Want to Hold Your Hand--Frankie Carle, 1964

A Hard Day's Night--Marty Gold and His Orch., 1964

Something--Bert Kaempfert and His Orch., 1970

Here, There and Everywhere--The Lettermen, 1969

Golden Slumbers--John Denver, 1970

Live and Let Die--Ray Conniff, 1973

Yesterday--Boots Randolph, 1966

My Love--Engelbert Humperdinck, 1974

Come Together--Tony Mottola, 1970

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da--Floyd Cramer, 1969

Paperback Writer--The Cowsills, 1969

Let It Be--Jerry Vale, 1970

And I Love Her--Ferrante and Teicher, 1965

The Fool on the Hill--The Billy Vaughn Singers, 1968

Something--Patti Page, 1970

The Long and Winding Road--Andre Kostelanetz, 1970

Michelle--The Fiesta Brass, 1966

Get Back--The Moog Machine, 1969

Yesterday--Kate Smith, 1966

Eleanor Rigby--Aretha Franklin, 1969

Here, There and Everywhere--Petula Clark, 1967

Hey Jude--The Living Strings, 1970

We Can Work It Out--Dionne Warwick, 1969

Nowhere Man--Les and Larry Elgart, 1966

Eleanor Rigby--John Denver, 1970

Above: Nowhere Gig--by the Cake Toppers

Lee