McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy (1967)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS MONTH* (JULY 2026)

Dutch import

A keeper. The Real McCoy is the album most often identified as Tyner's definitive recording. It marked his Blue Note debut after leaving the John Coltrane Quartet and presented his first album consisting entirely of original compositions. McCoy's utilizes the piano as a percussion instrument (it is, strictly speaking) which somehow provides a clarity other pianists lack. As for the backing band, everybody shines. My particular mix has Carter too far back and Jones too far forward, so I have to play around with my levels to get a good balance. Ah well, this album is one of those recommended almost universally and reissued with remarkable regularity. It shouldn't be terribly difficult to find a better mix.

More hype, direct from the Blue Note website:

The peak statement of Tyner’s solo career, The Real McCoy is also one of a handful of recordings that define post-bop. Lots of records from this genre have interesting tunes and blazing solo performances, but few attain such an interconnected synergy. Listening to these these rich, beautifully realized atmospheres, and how they inspire deep, passionate, strikingly collective improvisations, you realize how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go in our quest for peace.

Tyner - piano
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Ron Carter - bass
Elvin Jones - drums

Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Reviews/ratings:

• CashBox: "Tyner displays melodic inventiveness and clarity of ideas, and the LP should find fast favor with jazz aficianados [sic]."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★: "A key album in Tyner's discography. Very highly recommended."
• Billboard: ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★

In addition to being named as one of Blue Note's 25 Best Albums, The Real McCoy placed at #17 on the udiscover.com list of the 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums and listed in the The New York Times Essential Jazz Library: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (2002), where it was written The Real McCoy "perfectly represents the mainstream of small-group jazz for the mid-sixties at least to the mid-nineties."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: the album opener, Passion Dance, is a classic, but my favorite cuts slow it down a bit: Contemplation and Search For Peace.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Things Ain't What They Used To Be (1990)
Dimensions (1984)

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*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.

Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery - The Dynamic Duo (1967)

I first heard of this album through a jazz sampler CD and later wrote that the "Jimmy Smith/Wes Montgomery album is on my radar..." It was easy to find a copy so the CD was at my doorstep within a couple of weeks. As a fan of both musicians, I've been enjoying it ever since. Not only are we treated to the characteristic stylings of Smith on organ and Montgomery on guitar, there are arrangements by Oliver Nelson, the whole thing is produced by inestimable Creed Taylor, and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his legendary studio. It's a little thin on material, but this thing swings and grooves. There was a follow-up album, Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes, recorded during the same sessions and later released in 1968.

Personnel listing plus original liner notes by Holmes "Daddy-O" Daylie.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "All too predictable"
• CashBox: "a tasty brew of jazz sessions."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #129
• Billboard Jazz: #1
• Billboard R&B: #10
• Record World Jazz: #1

Tracks: As I alluded to earlier, playing ★★★★, selections ★★.

1. Down By The Riverside - traditional African-American spiritual.
2. Night Train - a twelve-bar blues instrumental standard first recorded in 1951 by its writer, saxophonist Jimmy Forrest. Also the track that got me to buy the album.
3. James And Wes - a Jimmy Smith blues trio original.
4. 13 (Death March) - originally written by Gary McFarland for the 1966 motion picture Eye Of The Devil. When I first heard this album, I could've sworn I already knew this tune, but I can't find it anywhere in my collection so my old mind might be playing tricks on me. Again.
5. Baby It's Cold Outside - Frank Loesser tune from the romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. The song was awarded an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1950. It has somehow been associated with the Christmas holiday as if we don't have cold weather in months other than December, but there are no lyrics on this album so that misconception is moot.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:

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Jimmy Smith

The Best of Jimmy Smith (1988)	Midnight Special (1961)
Keep On Comin' (1983)	Crazy! Baby (1960)
Back At The Chicken Shack (1963)	Houseparty (1958)
Home Cookin' (1961)	The Sermon! (1958)

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Wes Montgomery

Classics, Volume 22 (1987)

A Day In The Life (1967)

Bobby Hutcherson - Happenings (1967)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2006 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

I've written before about my fantasy of playing jazz vibes and I bought this album to get my jazz vibes fix. It almost worked because Hutcherson - even at age 25 - was a heckuva player, but Herbie Hancock steals the show here. Even the reviewer for DownBeat magazine boosted the album's rating a full star just for Hancock's performance. Overall, a relaxing, highly enjoyable set from this quartet.

Complete liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Hutcherson - vibes, marimba
Herbie Hancock - piano
Bob Cranshaw - bass
Joe Chambers - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• CashBox: "The LP shapes up as a big winner."
• Billboard: ★★★★
• Downbeat (★★★★★): "Their sound is well balanced, and they seem to enjoy playing together. I know that I enjoy listening to them."
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #10
• Record World Jazz: #11

Tracks: The best tune is Hancock's Maiden Voyage which rivals Hancock's own recording. Hutcherson wrote the remaining 6 cuts, and of those my favorites are the two ballads Bouquet and When You Are Near. The others (Aquarian Moon, Rojo, and Head Start) swing nicely. The final track, The Omen, is a free jazz chart that doesn't do much for me so I'll usually just stop after 6 tracks.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Albert King - Born Under A Bad Sign (1967)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2013 remaster with 5 previously unreleased bonus tracks.

If you've ever been hurt by your main squeeze, deceived by your best friend, or down to your last dime and ready to call it quits, Albert King has the solution if you have the time to listen.

-from the original album liner notes by Stax’s original Director of Publicity and Grammy award winner Deanie Parker.

My listening habits developed over many years, of course, so I can't pinpoint when I started listening to classical music almost exclusively in the fall/winter months and blues music almost exclusively in the spring/summer months, but it happened at some point, here we are in spring, so it's time to start spinning some blues discs. And here we've got a blues legend cutting tracks with the Stax house band a.k.a. Booker T & the MGs. What's not to like? Widely considered King's best (and breakthrough) album, these songs introduced many to both the note-bending guitar work and gritty vocals of Albert King, firmly establishing his place in the blues revival of the '60s. If you like your R&B with a heavy emphasis on the B, this album is highly recommended.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "a realistic, soulful style which hits the mark"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (★★★★★): "a blues monument"

While the album failed to chart upon release, it has since been given many accolades, including the following:

• In the 2012 edition of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums list, the album ranked at #491 (in the 2003 edition, it ranked at #499): "King’s first album for the Stax label combines his hard, unflashy guitar playing with the sleek sound of the label’s house band, Booker T. and the MG’s. Hits such as 'Crosscut Saw' and 'Laundromat Blues' earned King a new rock & roll audience."
• In 1985, the album was added to the Blues Hall of Fame as a Classic of Blues Recording.
• In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which honors recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance
• In 2020, the album was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

Tracks: Not a bad track to be found. My favorites are Crosscut Saw, Kansas City, Down Don't Bother Me, and Laundromat Blues.

Bonus tracks: alternate takes of Born Under A Bad Sign, Crosscut Saw, The Hunter, and Personal Manager along with an untitled instrumental which was certainly good enough for inclusion on the original album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Several years ago I was visiting the Stax website, as one does, and they were having a sale: this CD plus a Stax t-shirt for $29.99. I was on that like gravy on biscuits.

I'm currently in the early stages of planning a trip next year that will not only include a trip to the Stax museum (again), but also take us to Clarksdale, Mississippi and as much of the Mississippi Blues Trail as we can possibly fit in. Hopefully, that will include a drive through Indianola to see the Albert King marker.

Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967)

European Import

In which Sinatra not only jumps on the bossa nova bandwagon, he completely hijacks it and makes it his own. Tunes here were exquisitely arranged by the incomparable Claus Ogerman and features seven of compositions by Jobim plus three standards. I'd heard this album a few times and I already have digital files of this stuff, but when I eventually found it in a clearance bin for 50¢, I didn't hesitate. I'm guessing somebody sold this to the used media store after they picked up The Complete Reprise Recordings disc in 2010. In any case, while this album is quite brief (28½ minutes), it is quite a treat as well as a master class in phrasing and delivery.

Here's some insight on the album's recording session from Gene Lees, the lyricist of track 4, Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars: High Fidelity, May 1967, p. 95.

The album was nominated for Grammy awards in the Album Of The Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category, eventually losing to Sgt. Pepper and By The Time I Get To Phoenix, respectively.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "Sinatra's best in years"
• Billboard: "soft and tender"
• CashBox: "There is no doubt that the disk will be a huge success"
• Record World: "The tone is soft and the mood is romantic"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #19
• Billboard Jazz: #4

Tracks: Almost every review I've found for this album offer an opinion that, on this album, Sinatra delivers the definitive version of [insert song title], but the song mentioned is always different. That suggests to me that while everybody might have their own particular favorite track, there's a lot of good stuff here. And, well, I just can't pick favorites on this one today. The album ends subtlety and leaves the listener wanting more so the only choice is to play it again (or maybe segue into Wave).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

Sinatra	Jobim
Sinatra Sings Cole Porter (2003)	Tide (1970)
The Capitol Years (1990)	Wave (1967)
That's Life (1966)	Getz/Gilberto (1964)
Sinatra at the Sands (1966)
September Of My Years (1965)
It Might As Well Be Swing (1964)
Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! And More (1961)

Freddie Hubbard - Blue Spirits (1967)

The album title would suggest that this album of Hubbard originals consists mostly of blues-based material. Not the case here, though, as this thing is thematically diverse, exploring a wide variety of styles. Another difference between this and other hard bop albums of the time is that Hubbard added a euphonium to the tonal pallet, making a total of five different wind instruments from four players in the group:

This album was Hubbard's last studio effort for Blue Note until returning to the label in the mid-1980's. While it doesn't quite rate up there with other Hubbard offerings such as Red Clay and Hub-Tones, it is still a quite enjoyable outing - the mix of styles and the complexity of the compositions hold one's interest.

Complete liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Ratings/reviews:

• DownBeat (★★★★): "He's an original and extremely inventive improviser, with excellent technique and a wide range"
• CashBox: "Jazz aficionados should be eager to add this disk to their record collections"
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985): ★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed., 2008): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

1. Soul Surge: a groovin' blues in seven. Great solo from Harold Mabern.
2. Blue Spirits: a lilting jazz waltz. Spaulding steals the show on flute. My favorite tune on the album.
3. Outer Forces: this straight-ahead hard bop tune, features Hubbard a bit more than the other tunes. I recognize this cut from somewhere but don't ask me where.
4. Cunga Black: bluesy Afro-Latin boogaloo. 
5. Jodo: according to the liner notes, the title is a Japanese word meaning "pure land" and Hubbard wrote the song while traveling in Japan. This bop tune does not have a Japanese flavor to it, however. While there's some energetic blowing here, this is my least favorite track of the five. 

Bonus tracks: This 2004 Rudy Van Gelder Edition adds two tracks from a 1966 session utilizing an almost entirely different group of backing musicians. They're certainly not bad - I particularly enjoy the work from Herbie Hancock and Elvin Jones - but neither really fits in with the original album. The second of the two, True Colors, is a trip complete with bassoon solo.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Ride Like The Wind (1982)
Here To Stay (1976)/Hub-Tones (1963)

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2009 remaster which uses the US track listing.

I recently spent 53 minutes with the 2012 Blu-Ray version of the 1967 "film" and was left wondering what the hell I watched. LSD must be a heckuva drug, huh? I even watched a few minutes of the "making of" special feature which consists of interviews with involved persons trying to talk themselves into believing it was a good project. Paul, the obvious force behind the effort, does his best to deflect responsibility. Ain't nobody buying what you're selling, folks. Let's move on to the music, because the songs deliver where the show does not.

Of the 11 tracks on the album, 7 appear on the "blue" compilation from 1973, so I suppose I purchased this CD for three reasons: 1) the four other tunes, 2) to feed the completist within me, and 3) I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket (if I don't spend those things immediately upon receipt, I forget about them completely). It's a great collection of singles that doesn't hold up as an album but the singles are so good it doesn't matter. Plus it's The Beatles so there ya go.

As an aside, I was listening to The Beatles Channel on SiriusXM this week - as one does - and thought to myself, "Why don't I ever get tired of these tunes?" And they show no sign of letting up: when my youngest son (then in his early 20s) got a turntable for as a Christmas gift, he either already had a vinyl copy of Revolver ready to go or it was one of his first purchases.

As mentioned in the hype sticker picture above, the disc included a mini-documentary. To watch, I had to install the discontinued Quicktime framework. The mini-doc clocks in at 3½ minutes and, much like the film itself, is hardly worth your time. Also included in the packaging is a booklet with lots of photos, historical notes, some (but not all) song lyrics, and the original color story illustrations in the comic strip style from cartoonist Bob Gibson.

Press of the time:

• High Fidelity: "arrangements have become increasingly sophisticated both in terms of instrumentation and in the masterful blending of electronically produced or altered sounds."
• Billboard: "The Beatles have a non-psychedelic disk here."
• Record Mirror: "another example of a subject in which the Beatles have been able to exercise their vivid imaginations."
• CashBox: "Colorful arrangements, haunting melodies, buoyant rock and fanciful lyrics"
• Stereo Review: "phony, pretentious, overcooked tripe"

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #1

Tracks:

11 tracks, 36½ minutes. I enjoy most all of them and am singing along as I write these words. George's Blue Jay Way doesn't do much for me and I'd describe Flying as a psychedelic take on 12-bar blues with no solos. Your Mother Should Know is classic McCartney while Baby You're A Rich Man is rockin' stomper which peaked at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: In the summer of 1979, I purchased the aforementioned "blue" compilation at the local K-Mart and was introduced to many of these tunes. Possibly the most influential album purchase of my young life up to that point although I'm sure I didn't get the drug references of Magical Mystery Tour or understand the bizarre studio innovation of I Am The Walrus.

When I was a senior in high school, the band director put together a halftime show with a magic theme. Entertainment included band members performing magic tricks while the band marched behind them (your humble blogger pulled plastic flowers out of his sleeve). An arrangement of Magical Mystery Tour opened the show, followed by other tunes such as the standard That Old Black Magic and a Top 40 tune of the time, You Can Do Magic, by America. Pure cheese.

Previously revisited for the blog:

Love (2006)	Abbey Road (1969) & (2019)
Let It Be... Naked (2003)	The Beatles (1968)
Anthology 2 (1996)	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Anthology 1 (1995)	Revolver (1966) & (2022)
Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1977)	Rubber Soul (1965)
1967-1970 (1973)	Help! (1965)
1962-1966 (1973)	A Hard Day's Night (1964)
	Please Please Me (1963)

Wes Montgomery - A Day In The Life (1967)

Before we get to the music, here's two quick notes about the cover photo: 1) that thing is possibly the most unattractive album cover on my shelves, and 2) somebody who knows about such things has identified the cigarette butts as "unfiltered Lucky Strike and two single Salem cigarettes" if those things are of import to you. A day in the life of a recording studio ashtray, I guess.

Composed almost entirely of pop music covers, this sort of album is typically derided by fuddy-duddy critics that don't know how to sit back and enjoy masters of their craft have their way with good music. And then jazz purists prefer Montgomery's earlier, more traditional jazz releases on the Riverside and Verve labels. Those guys can all go suck an egg. Simply put, this album is immaculately produced by Creed Taylor, beautifully engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, and performed by a fantastic quartet plus orchestra:

Montgomery - guitar
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Grady Tate - drums
Orchestra arranged/conducted by Don Sebesky

I dig the thing (that amazing guitar tone!) and there's some good improv among the taut bossa nova and pop arrangements. My only complaint is that we don't get to hear enough of Herbie Hancock. Alongside what the legendary George Benson was doing in the '60s, this guitar-based instrumental easy listening sort of recording paved the way for later acts such as Earl Klugh and Wes Montgomery superfan Lee Ritenour so I'm grateful for that. This album was a huge seller, staying atop the Billboard jazz albums chart for 35 weeks and didn't leave said jazz chart until November, 1969 (and there were only 20 spots on the jazz album chart in those days). Likewise, over at Record World magazine, it topped their jazz chart for 33 weeks and finally dropped off the chart in November 1969 (also only 20 spots). To be sure, this album soundtracked many, many cocktail parties.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "Montgomery sticks to his pop-oriented bag and remains a winner"
• Record World (★★★★): "an ideal showcase for Wes"
• CashBox: "Jazz enthusiasts should dig this one"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #13
• Billboard Jazz: #1
• Billboard R&B: #2
• Record World Jazz: #1

Tracks:

1. A Day In The Life - the Beatles classic.
2. Watch What Happens - from the 1964 French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, eventually losing to The Shadow Of Your Smile.
3. When a Man Loves a Woman - this tame version, while pleasant enough, doesn't really hold a candle to the Percy Sledge release, but how could it?
4. California Nights - originally released by Lesley Gore around the same time as this release. Gore's single peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
5. Angel - the only Montgomery original on the album
6. Eleanor Rigby - the Beatles classic.
7. Willow Weep For Me - a bluesy jazz standard written in 1932.
8. Windy - this cover of a #1 hit for The Association became Montgomery's biggest commercial hit when it peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on the Easy Listening chart.
9. Trust In Me - a popular song from 1937. The "jazziest" song on the album whatever that means.
10. The Joker - a song from the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None; I was but 15 months old when this album was released.

The Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions (1967/2011)

Well this is simply fantastic. This set placed at #381 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and if it had been properly completed and released in 1967, it might have cracked the top ten. It's that good. And we missed out for more than 30 years. I wouldn't be going out on a limb to call it a masterpiece, even in this rough cut. As the Billboard review correctly notes "It's a consistently brilliant album."

If you go in with the mindset that the discs are full of unfinished song fragments/modules, you'll be better off. The modular approach also provides a convenient excuse not to listen this thing as often as I should, unfortunately.

Heck, the vocal harmonies along are worth the price of admission. Yeah, it's unfinished but I've never heard anything like it and I probably never will.

Billboard, October 29, 2011, p. 40

The compilation was made available as a single CD, a deluxe 2-CD package, as well as a limited edition deluxe box set composed of 5 CDs, 2 LPs, 2 7" vinyl singles, a poster, and a 60-page booklet that features high quality photographs, essays and recording sessionography. While all the contents of the box set are in English, my promo sticker on the front was printed in French:

I cheated my way through two years of high school French over 35 years ago, so allow me to translate (accuracy not guaranteed): The most anticipated album in the history of rock. Contains the whole SMiLE album + 1967 sessions + a 36 page booklet with text by Brian Wilson + a poster and a SMiLE badge.

The set is beautiful - 2 discs, a poster, liner note booklet, and a pinback. The first disc has the Smile album and other session materials. Disc 2 is all session outtakes. The 5 CD package won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked Smile at #399.

Headphones, closed eyes, and high volume recommended.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #27

Tracks: It's difficult to pick favorites, but here goes: Our Prayer, Heroes And Villains, Wonderful, what I'll call the "Surf's Up Suite" (tracks 10-12), and when the all-too-familiar Good Vibrations finally comes around at track 19 (admittedly a slightly different version), you fall into that goodness like it's your own bed after a two-week vacation.

Bonus tracks: the tunes Heroes And Villains and Surf's Up get a lot of attention here (9 of 21 bonus tracks) plus a fair share of demos and session snippets - the same vibe as a lot of the Beatles Anthology discs. I dig track 25 & 26, the simply titled Smile Backing Vocals Montage and a 1967 piano/vocal version of Surf's Up. But they're really just interesting curiosities featuring amazing performances.

Not worth my time is the silly, attempt at (improv?) sketch comedy Brian Falls Into A Piano.

As mentioned above, the second disc consists of session outtakes (it's titled The SMiLE Sessions for good reason) and is only of occasional interest to these ears. I'll admit to getting a kick from hearing the Boys say things between takes like "Danny, do you have any hash joints left? I know you do." or "Do you guys feel any acid yet?"

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
That's Why God Made The Radio (2012)
20 Good Vibrations: The Greatest Hits (1995)
Pet Sounds (1966)

Various Artists - Feeling High: The Psychedelic Sound of Memphis (2012)

An impulse buy that didn't work out for me. 24 tracks of psychedelic garage rock from Memphis, 1967-69. Stax/Volt soul and Elvis, it ain't. I'm not saying it's bad (Allmusic gives it 4 stars); I'm saying it's not my bag, baby.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart:  Did not chart

Tracks:

Samples available here.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: purchased on a recent trip to Chicago at the wonderful Dusty Groove.

Antonio Carlos Jobim - Wave (1967)

BRAZIL WEEK (FEBRUARY 4-10, 2013)

"This man has written songs which could conceivably replace coffee as Brazil's leading export." - from Norman Gimbel's original liner notes.

This gets my vote for best bossa nova album ever and is one of the favorite CDs in my collection. It's got it all: great songwriting, beautiful guitar and piano work by Jobim, wonderful arrangements by Claus Ogerman, and tasteful production by Creed Taylor. Incredibly laid back and relaxing. 10 beautiful tracks over only 32 minutes. I would complain about the brevity of the album, but since the music is so perfect I'll just be thankful for what we were given.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #114

Tracks:  Don't skip any. This is one of those albums where my favorite tracks change each time I listen. The title track is probably the most popular and has become something of a bossa standard.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I never have to "be in the mood" to listen to this album. Whenever one of the songs pops up on an iTunes shuffle, I stop what I'm doing and listen to the whole thing from start to finish at least once, sometimes twice. If the "last played" statistics are correct on my computer, that last happened two weeks ago at about 8 PM.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Getz/Gilberto (1964)

Blog post #800

Various Artists - The Uplook Records Story (2006)

The crappy liner notes are no help, but I've pieced together that these songs were released on the small Philadelphia soul label in the years 1967-1970. Uplook Records was put together by talent scout and promoter Gene Lawson to showcase lesser known talent who were making waves locally in Philadelphia at that time. For the most part, these are good not great, Philly soul songs, that later became popular in the UK's Northern Soul movement. The gems here are tracks from Charles Mintz and the first singles from a then-unknown Teddy Pendergrass. Considering the fact that 5 of the tracks are various versions of the song I'll Come Running Back, I'm led to believe that these 21 tracks could be the entire Uplook catalog with many of the songs released here for the first time.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

I bought this for a copy of Charles Mintz singing Since I Found You Girl and, naturally, that turns out to be the best track. Mintz also contributes catchy tracks like Candy Baby, Finders Keepers, and Give A Man A Break. The top Pendergrass track is We Got Love. Other good tracks are Girl I'm At Your Door by Delegates Of Soul and Gotta Tell Somebody (About My Baby) by Tony Talent (who was still a student in jr high school when he recorded it).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  None

Stevie Wonder - Someday at Christmas (1967)

Note: this edition is the 2004 reissue with 2 bonus tracks, retitled The Best of Stevie Wonder - The Christmas Collection: 20th Century Masters

A better than average Christmas album, released when Stevie was only 17. Sure the arrangements and production are dated; that's part of the charm. Stevie's harmonica playing always brings a smile to my face. I'm wondering why they didn't title the album "The Wonder of Christmas"? Too obvious?

 

Billboard review

Tracks: My favorites are Someday At Christmas, Silver Bells, The Christmas Song, What Christmas Means To Me, and Everyone's A Kid At Christmas Time. I usually skip the out-of-tune Ave Maria, the depressing Bedtime For Toys, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Me.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Talking Book (1972)

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

"Everybody's born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively. They're passed into the fetus subconsciously along with all the amniotic stuff." - from the 1998 movie, Sliding Doors.

I don't know what I could possibly write about this album that hasn't already been written. Heck, when the album came out, CashBox couldn't think of much to say, either:

It is widely heralded as one of the best albums of all-time. You've heard it; you have your own special relationship with the music. In 2007, Aimee Mann wrote in the NY Times, "When I was 8, I’d never heard anything like it, and I can honestly say that if I live to be 100, I’ll never hear anything like it again."

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked this album at #24 while in 2017, it was ranked at only #28 on Pitchfork's list of the 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.

When I started making the transition from LPs to CDs in early 1988, this was one of the first 5 CDs I purchased.The initial CD release in June 1987 was a big deal.

Chart Peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200 chart: #1 (15 consecutive weeks, July 1 - Oct 7, 1967)
• Billboard Pop CD chart: #1
• CashBox CD chart: #1

Tracks: Yes, please.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: So many. Here's 4:

1. I became familiar with this album when one of the older sisters of my childhood friend Charlie gave him a copy for his birthday. I remember listening to it at his place in Odessa.
2. When I was in college, the lyrics to the song She's Leaving Home were included in a poetry anthology I had to purchase for freshman English. I had never thought of those lyrics in that way before.
3. When I saw Paul McCartney live in Houston in 2005, he performed a few songs from this album, including the reprise to the title song to close out the show.
4. Just this past summer, I visited the Royal Albert Hall on a trip to London. How could any Beatles fan visit that place and not hear the lyrics "Now they now how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall" from A Day in the Life?

A close colleague and friend served in Vietnam and tells the story of he and his buddies sneaking into the commanding officer's office late at night in the summer of 1967. The CO had the only copy of the recently-released Sgt Pepper LP and the only turntable on base, so the guys did what needed to be done to hear this wonderful music.