The Guilty Pleasures/So-Bad-They're-Good Albums Thread (retitled)

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When vinyl died around 1987 and the headlines were "Phil Collins first to issue new album only on CD", I started to tune out. Besides, one could only take so much G&R and Don Henley stuff. I think that is when I realised that I had become my parents and growed up. I read through all these lists of "bad" records and I either don't know them, or have thoroughly enjoyed them in private. And Ed, if I could, I'd be coming to hear your collection!

Well, you'd have to wade through a lot of pop, that much I can tell you...but you might like some of it. Most of what I bring home I do play, but some of it is simply better pressings of older stuff I already own up north, which isn't available to me at the moment. So much '50s & '60s mainstream 'adult' pop can be found at thrifts and anywhere used records are sold for a quarter to a buck, generally, and if you're willing to wade through the crap, you'll find plenty of minty or close pressings, mono or stereo. You'll stumble on some rock at times, but the better stuff mostly finds its way to dealers who charge more than some are willing to pay.

As for more guilt, here's one from 1960 that in fact sold pretty decently, though it's forgotten today. For those who remember Preston Epps' "Bongo Rock" from 1959, here's a whole album of such enjoyable noise, from late 1960:

Epps STA.jpg


ED :)
 
Hey Ed, I have the single, but I tend to play it by The Incredible Bongo Band. It synthesises great in QS too. I am at Value Village 5-6 times a week. I had a find of over 30 quad LP's and a Panasonic changer with built in CD4 demodulator and SG cartridge. The changer was toasted, but the cart seems intact. At $25, I will put the cart on a better machine and make a box for the demodulator. I am just waiting on needles to show up. I have also been finding a lot of pop 1950's albums lately. The bad thing about this is that you know someone died when collections like this show up in VV. I think it is a good sign when you walk in the door and they know you by name and even better when they know you well enough to punch in 99 cents instead of $1.99. I am afraid to name some of the bad albums I pick up on curiosity, like the comedy album that showed a granny laying on her tummy nekkid, and it was signed! Even I am afraid to play it, but couldn't leave it(or the image in my head) behind.
 
I know all about that, heh...when you're not charged much you tend at times to pick up titles that otherwise would've been ignored. It's also pop archaeology, too, since you're right, I'd say most of the stuff of vintage comes from those who have passed on, probably their families gave them away (clothes are the other major item like that). I think of that a lot, especially when I see a lot of clean classical titles on RCA Red Seal (shaded dog), Columbia six-eye, or Mercury Living Presence. Those were enjoyed by someone, and it's a reminder that we are just caretakers of material things, either we junk them or they pass to someone else after we do. Vinyl, though a flawed medium, has at its best a resilience that I suspect digital media will not have in the same amount of time. And, it was the original sound medium for most of us, and it still plays nicely.

ED :)
 
Abba was wonderful. I was buying their (import) records for a year or two before they appeared on domestic pressings. Several EP's of theirs have non-English versions. Oro (gold) is all in Espanol.

There is a poster of the Broadway show Mamma Mia in the staircase in my foyer. It is signed by the entire cast at NYC's Winter Garden.

To its' right, there is a poster signed by the Broadway cast of Sondheim's Company. It is from the revival at NYC's Ethel Barrymore with Raul Esparza. The only musical I've paid to see twice with the identical cast! Company is my favorite musical. Esparza was the best Bobby ever. This revival was aired on PBS. I have it on a Blu-Ray. There is a slightly more recent revival w/Neil Patrick Harris, also on PBS and Blu-Ray.

My guilty pleasure is Abba. I've seen Mamma Mia on stage twice, it's one of my favorite plays.
 
ABBA was no less than the most successful pop group in the world in the 1970s, and while they did record some dross (any prolific and popular act inevitably does, even the very best), their best was I believe very good, and gems like "Waterloo," "Ring, Ring," "Bang-A-Boomerang," "SOS," "Money, Money, Money" and a few others were the finest of their kind. If anything, the real guilty pleasures regarding ABBA are their often self-conscious, low-rent videos, but even these have a genuine charm (as did the early Police videos, which were as minimalist). They had their detractors, but I'm not really sure why, since their powerhouse AM-friendly rockers were based on Phil Spector's wall-of-sound concept, and they have a giddy energy sorely lacking from a lot of music of that decade.

For humor and guilt, the debut Village People album--essentially a disco EP--was a real sleeper, and so shameless that it was hard NOT to laugh, it was so ridiculous (the music and the costumes, can't imagine anyone sane taking any of it seriously). They went on to "Macho Man" and "In the Navy," but the blueprint was their on the debut. Fun and innocuous when so much of disco was throwaway, beats-per-minute noise.

ED :)
 
Hey Ed, I have the single, but I tend to play it by The Incredible Bongo Band. It synthesises great in QS too.

A pretty good single for an unlikely remake, wasn't it? The Epps' album also marks an early career gig for future Spector/Neil Young associate Jack Nitzsche.

Anyone paying attention (and at least from my age group) know that the Partridges were a fabricated band and a fabricated family.....with "semi" professional singers doing the work....

Regardless....guilty pleasure.....fun music.....mindless...yep. Love it. Used to have a couple Partridge Family 8-tracks...oh the times.

Shirley Jones and David Cassidy did actually sing on the recordings, that's as legit as it got. There were some major league session from the west coast, including drummer Hal Blaine, keyboardists Larry Knechtel (of Bread) and Mike Melvoin, bassist Joe Osborne, guitars from Louie Shelton (soon to produce Seals & Crofts) and Tommy Tedesco. The main perp behind some of this dreaded stuff was producer Wes Farrell, some of whose productions make me cringe just remembering where his name was attached. No knock on the studio pros, they were there to do their thing, make a living, what did they care where it wound up in the mix? Unlike the Monkees (no guilty pleasure there, IMO), they didn't have the deep production and writing talents, and that's the problem more with their albums than the singles. True, Mann & Weill, Diane Hildebrand, and others contributed, but definitely not their best, and without the inspiration one hears on certain Monkees sides.


ED :)
 
Herb Alpert is in my Top 5 acts. I have his classic albums on 2ch LP, mono LP, and CD. My DTS CD of Passion Dance is one of MANY albums of his that are autographed. Needless to say, I've met Herb on a few occasions, Lani, too.

When my guy Joe first asked me out, he said that he wanted to see Herb & Lani. Turning 44 this year, I was taken aback that Joe was into Herb. He had no way of knowing that Herb is one of my very favorites. A spectacular beginning for a wonderful relationship.

I'm near complete on Martin Denny, Esquivel and Mancini. Before I turned five, I was listening to all this lounge stuff, and still do.

Vinyl records weren't my first format, 78 records were. I believe those were made of shellac. NO, Edison cylinders weren't the format when I started buying records.

Sincerely Yours - Robert Goulet is a guilty pleasure. My Mom was a fan and bought this new in '62. I have both her old 2ch LP and a CD release from the late '90's, which was a twofer with the album titled for his hit "My Love Forgive Me."

In the early '70's, I was very into Amon Duul, Faust, Organisation/Kraftwerk, Can, Kluster (Cluster), Focus (and Akkerman solo), Neu, etc. Joe had never heard much of these bands, but LOVED Faust's Wumme Years box when I suggested he hear it. I'm planning to spin Faust IV tonight.
 
Esquivel is the kind of guy who remains lumped in with standard mood music, easy listening and bachelor-pad type stuff, but he was more inventive than that, he wasn't making music to relax or soothe, or to serve in the background during a heavy date. Like some of Enoch Light's better work, his is fun to listen to in stereo, it was made to be enjoyed with separation and hi-fi in mind.

As for Mr. Mancini, you could probably find one or two great tracks on any of his soundtrack albums, sometimes more. But he could be erratic and predictable at times, which was more pronounced as he continued in the '70s. For me, the only reason to rewatch a waste of celluloid like HATARI is to hear Mancini's score (better is the album, you don't have to watch, heh). And Hank did come up with a few great scores, like TOUCH OF EVIL, the early PINK PANTHER's, CHARADE, and of course the Peter Gunn material. I'm not sure he qualifies as a guilty pleasure, although he did add an extra haunting factor to dross like "Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet," which may have been by the great Nino Rota, but Mancini's piano work alone made that one better than it might've been.

ED :)
 
Other enjoyable guilty pleasures: the early '50s siren Yma Sumac, whose exotic and strange music had a brief vogue;
Ever see the movie Secret of the Incas (1954), starring Charlton Heston? Sumac has a singing role in that movie which is quite fascinating. Besides being a good movie, the other reason to watch the film is to see where Spielberg shamelessly ripped of the idea for Indiana Jones. ;)

I was fortunate enough to be young and hearing some of that kind of music in my house growing up, while enjoying the music all us kids were buying. I appreciate some of it more now than I did then (like Sinatra), but my father was a big Alpert fan, and that stuff grabbed me, too.

ED :)
I would say my experience is and was quite similar. Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, Don Ho (saw him live on my high school senior class trip in '76 at the Polynesian Palace), Herb Alpert, Pete Fountain, . . . are all part of the music I grew up with and still listen to.

I think the thread has morphed more into a "guilty pleasures" instead of a "bad albums" one. What's a guilty pleasure other than something one fears others will ridicule them for as it's not cool or somehow otherwise lacking in artistic merit? While music like any art form can and certainly should be assessed on many objective merits, like anything of beauty it ultimately is in the eyes of the beholder. No need to feel sheepish about it. I'm a big fan of some fairly obscure bagpipe music. Not a lot of other people are but the world would be a pretty boring place if we were all into the same thing.

Enjoy your posts, Ed!
 
Ever see the movie Secret of the Incas (1954), starring Charlton Heston? Sumac has a singing role in that movie which is quite fascinating. Besides being a good movie, the other reason to watch the film is to see where Spielberg shamelessly ripped of the idea for Indiana Jones. ;)

Yes, I like that one a lot...and since that is a guilty pleasure, here's another from '54: Howard Hawks' widescreen, Technicolor messterpiece LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. It's funny and fascinating on many levels. First, just the idea of a guy of Hawks' pedigree doing such a historical, a la De Mille contrivance. Second, the casting: Jack Hawkins as the pharaoh (!), with gruff voice and Brit accent; various secondary characters looking anything BUT from Egypt, a few look like they're from Iowa, while a few others..yes, out of England and Shakespeare. And we have a very lovely and young Joan Collins, pre-fame, looking pretty and overacting like hell, and when she gets hers in the end, well...satisfying, heh.


I think the thread has morphed more into a "guilty pleasures" instead of a "bad albums" one. What's a guilty pleasure other than something one fears others will ridicule them for as it's not cool or somehow otherwise lacking in artistic merit? While music like any art form can and certainly should be assessed on many objective merits, like anything of beauty it ultimately is in the eyes of the beholder. No need to feel sheepish about it. I'm a big fan of some fairly obscure bagpipe music. Not a lot of other people are but the world would be a pretty boring place if we were all into the same thing.

With that in mind, I've changed the thread title to showcase the guilty pleasures aspect, lest some here think this is a thread for crapping on bad albums. No, we're here to embrace the bad and the misguided, not slag too much.

ED :)
 
Spanky & Our Gang anyone? (I think they were great.)

I always liked them, and they're one of the few '60s acts my wife really enjoys hearing (of course we have the 4-disc box set with everything they recorded for Mercury). And for a minor pop act, it's interesting how many imitators of their style came along in the wake of their peak success in '67 (at the time, they were considered kind of a cop of the Mamas & Papas, which was in some way true, but they had their own distinctive sound. Which is why others borrow from you).

ED :)
 
Spanky and Our Gang! An Illinois band.

My favorite song of theirs is Yesterday's Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hpi2p5B1nE Unless you own their album(s), likely you haven't heard this. The thunder clap sounds great on a system with a good low end. It was released as a single, but only hit #98.

Yes, Spanky and Our Gang have some similarities to Mamas & Papas. Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane joined the New Mamas and The Papas in the 80's, singing Cass Elliot's parts. John Phillips, Denny Doherty and Mackenzie Phillips were the other members.

Two clips from Ed Sullivan:
from '67, Sunday Will Never Be the Same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGoWpmyV_xg
from '68, I'd Like to Get to Know You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqxkdV3Odj0 (beginning is slightly cut off)

Have REPEATEDLY watched Rock Rewind '65-'67 on PBS recently. It presents vintage video clips. Adam West hosts it. The Association and Spanky are the clips I've watched the most. I keep looking at the clip of Cherish and have a crush on Terry Kirkman, who wrote it. The Byrds, Rascals, Fifth Dimension, Box Tops, Buffalo Springfield, Mamas & Papas, Kinks, Righteous Brothers, Beach Boys, Gary Lewis, Mindbenders, and Monkees are also featured.

Believe it or not, the Association performed at a company Christmas party at the Westin O'Hare in the 80's. Although I never worked for their company, I was invited anyway. This firm had the Temptations the previous year.

Spanky & Our Gang anyone? (I think they were great.)
 
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