Having collected who knows how many thousands of slabs of Lp vinyl over five decades, it's obvious to me that there are truly bad, awful albums that never should have seen light of day, while others, misguided as they might have been (even for their intended audience) make me smile precisely because they are so misguided, ridiculous, and yet...charming.
Among recent acquisitions in the former (not good at all) category: Frankie Avalon's 1970 'comeback' album, I Want You Near Me, issued November 1970. The label (Metromedia) and production team (Jackie Mills, arranger Al Capps) helped turn the long-suffering Bobby Sherman into a (albeit brief) teen heartthrob. Thought I'd had this one in my collection, but my brother checked my 1970 stream of albums up north and said, no, not there. What could I do?
But where Sherman managed some charm here and there (though he was no less a tool for Mills as Avalon once was for Bob Marcucci), Frankie did his crooner bit (also Marcucci-inspired, in case the teen gals suddenly stopped buying such likeable smarm as "Venus," "Why" and "Bobby Stocks to Stockings"), but he was scuttled by the precision arrangements and musicianship that only guys working on the clock could provide (who do you think played on those old elevator Muzak tapes? Professionals who played perfectly--and anonymously). The album sank, and rightly so.
Then there is one of Bachelor Pad Music's key players, the late (not great but always interesting) Enoch Light. From Grand Award to Command and then Project 3, Light was a key player in popularizing stereophonic sound to the adult American masses (with help from Columbia and RCA Victor). He was indie at first, and his various Persuasive, Provocative and Light Brigade albums are fun to hear just for the wide mixes and 'you are in the studio' sound (because many listeners owned stand-alone consoles with fixed speaker placement, he--and some others--widened the sound field as much as possible).
When Enoch founded Project 3 in 1966 he was also interested in getting more 'hip' (insert red flag here) and that included signing such dubiously talented acts as the Free Design and the Kissin' Cousins. Anyway, dozens of P3 albums were issued in quad, EXCEPT (as far as I know) the Enoch Light Singers albums. Why? Can't say, but that's too bad, because these albums are gems of badness. Why? Because Light took the formula that Conniff and Johnny Mann used for an audience afraid of a bee buzzing outside their window and concocted a mix of brassy (yet predictable and boring) arrangements and singers whose collective voices sounded like overenthusiastic suburban boys'n'girls too enervated with caffeine and stock portfolios to realize what they were recording was really utter crap. 12 Smash Hits 12 from 1968 is worth hearing just for the opening cut, Boyce & Hart's "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight?"
But as any organic matter will go back to the earth, sea and air and, in time, allow something positive and beautiful and bountiful to grow again anew, so Light's work probably was heard by others who should have known better and continued down that mild, dandelion, weed-laden path. But I really dig the Singers' work, because the voices add to the kitsch, the silliness of taking certain songs utterly unfit for such adaptation and...adapting them anyway (another nice vice of Muzak--nothing like hearing "Light My Fire" in that format, though you do get to think about the melody and how unique it actually is, when isolated in that way).
Anyway, what albums do you actively dislike not just because you don't dig the sound or genre, but well....it just doesn't work for ya? And what albums make you smile and enjoy (if only a little) in spite of yourself, which you know in your heart and soul aren't that good?
ED
Among recent acquisitions in the former (not good at all) category: Frankie Avalon's 1970 'comeback' album, I Want You Near Me, issued November 1970. The label (Metromedia) and production team (Jackie Mills, arranger Al Capps) helped turn the long-suffering Bobby Sherman into a (albeit brief) teen heartthrob. Thought I'd had this one in my collection, but my brother checked my 1970 stream of albums up north and said, no, not there. What could I do?
But where Sherman managed some charm here and there (though he was no less a tool for Mills as Avalon once was for Bob Marcucci), Frankie did his crooner bit (also Marcucci-inspired, in case the teen gals suddenly stopped buying such likeable smarm as "Venus," "Why" and "Bobby Stocks to Stockings"), but he was scuttled by the precision arrangements and musicianship that only guys working on the clock could provide (who do you think played on those old elevator Muzak tapes? Professionals who played perfectly--and anonymously). The album sank, and rightly so.Then there is one of Bachelor Pad Music's key players, the late (not great but always interesting) Enoch Light. From Grand Award to Command and then Project 3, Light was a key player in popularizing stereophonic sound to the adult American masses (with help from Columbia and RCA Victor). He was indie at first, and his various Persuasive, Provocative and Light Brigade albums are fun to hear just for the wide mixes and 'you are in the studio' sound (because many listeners owned stand-alone consoles with fixed speaker placement, he--and some others--widened the sound field as much as possible).
When Enoch founded Project 3 in 1966 he was also interested in getting more 'hip' (insert red flag here) and that included signing such dubiously talented acts as the Free Design and the Kissin' Cousins. Anyway, dozens of P3 albums were issued in quad, EXCEPT (as far as I know) the Enoch Light Singers albums. Why? Can't say, but that's too bad, because these albums are gems of badness. Why? Because Light took the formula that Conniff and Johnny Mann used for an audience afraid of a bee buzzing outside their window and concocted a mix of brassy (yet predictable and boring) arrangements and singers whose collective voices sounded like overenthusiastic suburban boys'n'girls too enervated with caffeine and stock portfolios to realize what they were recording was really utter crap. 12 Smash Hits 12 from 1968 is worth hearing just for the opening cut, Boyce & Hart's "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight?"
But as any organic matter will go back to the earth, sea and air and, in time, allow something positive and beautiful and bountiful to grow again anew, so Light's work probably was heard by others who should have known better and continued down that mild, dandelion, weed-laden path. But I really dig the Singers' work, because the voices add to the kitsch, the silliness of taking certain songs utterly unfit for such adaptation and...adapting them anyway (another nice vice of Muzak--nothing like hearing "Light My Fire" in that format, though you do get to think about the melody and how unique it actually is, when isolated in that way).
Anyway, what albums do you actively dislike not just because you don't dig the sound or genre, but well....it just doesn't work for ya? And what albums make you smile and enjoy (if only a little) in spite of yourself, which you know in your heart and soul aren't that good?
ED
