Oh, Wayne Newton. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t get enough solid Wayne Newton time these days. It’s a shame, really. The voice of a songbird dressed as a Native-American Las Vegas crooner, Carson Wayne Newton is known to many people by many names. Mr. Entertainment and The Midnight Idol to name a few, Mr. Las Vegas is still performing at the young age of 74, and has a series of upcoming shows in Vegas starting on 11/28 and going through the end of the year. If you find yourself pulling slots and huffing secondhand smoke in the middle of an air conditioned desert, spend a few intimate hours with this Sin City legend.
Tag Archives: records
Invisible Tears
On Invisible Tears, Ray Conniff (and the Singers) offered their laid back, pop-jazz renditions of popular tunes of the 1964 era. With tracks like, I Walk the Line, Waitin’ for the Evening Train, and yes, you guessed it, Invisible Tears, your evening of quiet, unassuming dining room waltzes is only an invisible tear away.
It’s Always Jerry
Mr. Jerry Vale answered a seemingly endless string of mundane, and inessential questions with the title of his 1965 album, Have You Looked into Your Heart. Odd that there’s not a question mark at the end of this title. Anyway, below is a brief series of questions, adequately answered by this Italian-American legend:
Q: Dammit! I’m late for work… again. Where the hell are my damn keys?
A: Have You Looked into Your Heart?
Q: Why is my toe bleeding?
A: Have You Looked into Your Heart?
Q: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A: Have You Looked into Your Heart?
Stripes
The magnificent soundtrack to the 1981 hilarious comedy Stripes JUST received its first vinyl release. Exclusively from CCVinyl.com, this red, white & blue striped record is limited to only 1000 copies, and is surprisingly cheap considering it’s a Varèse Sarabande release. Have a look, then give them your money.
Poster Included
To prove to everyone that I’m not a liar (but, mainly just proving to myself), here is the full Best of Dolly Parton album cover w/ “POSTER INCLUDED” hype as mentioned on the 11/11/16 post from the Prudent Groove (enter shameless self-promoting plug here). 80’s love songs may or may not be spilling from our living room Echo at the moment, but our post-dinner spin will include a cut (or two) from Best of… the poster may or may not make an prominent appearance. Have a groovy evening, kids.
Connie in the Night
On the search for a decent rendition of Bert Kaempfert’s Strangers in the Night (a question I ask myself multiple times a day), then look no further than Connie Francis’ 1966 release, Movie Greats from the 60’s. I’m partial to the Rogers & Clarke version, myself.
Disconnected
Former Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators released his first solo album in 1980 on Bomp! Records titled, Disconnected (featured here). This, of course, followed the breakup of The Dead Boys just a year prior (reportedly due to constant pressure from Sire Records to become more marketable / mainstream). Considered more power pop than disturbing hardcore that surrounded The D’ Boys, Stiv’s debut feels surprisingly tame by today’s standards, but must have seemed unsightly back in the early days of the primitive 80’s. Think glam rock for the disheveled, obscenely drunk and painfully talented. Disconnected is also on Spotify, if you’re into such convenient things. Cheers.
A Grave Reflection
It must have been nearly 15 years since I’ve spun The Pick, The Sickle and the Shovel by Long Island’s Gravediggaz. Just having (temporarily) exited my hip hop phase (one that had ignited back in Jr. High thanks to Columbia House and BMG… that seems like an eternity ago… man, I’m old), my days and evenings in late 1997 / early 1998 were instead given to The Clash and Ministry, among various pop-punk comps acquired at summer Warped Tours, but when a 19-year-old collector of, well, things, finds a pristine copy of some badass hip hop at a thrift store for about the cost of a basket of beer battered cheese curds, the hip hop torch begins to flicker again.
Getting Even
Manning vocals, guitar, bass, and wearing his producer hat, former Black Flag leader and principal songwriter Greg Ginn released his debut solo album, 1993’s Getting Even on Ginn’s own Cruz Records, an offshoot of SST Records, also owned by Mr. Ginn. As far as the music goes, it’s solid-state punk blues at its absolute finest. Think a VERY mature Black Flag, or a VERY IMMATURE Murder City Devils, but like, circa: 1993. It’s an amazing solo effort by one of the founding fathers of Southern California hardcore, and comes highly recommended.
Finger Food
It took a while for Goldfinger’s debut to receive a vinyl release (19 years), but with 3x color variations at only 500 pressings each, last year’s reissues on SRC Vinyl (Shop Radio Cast) proved that good things come to those who wait (ketchup anyone?).
Hello Dolly
Here is a pristine poster from RCA’s 1975 compilation, Best of Dolly Parton. Featuring the same artwork / photo from the album’s cover, this poster has laid dormant for 40+ years and was just discovered the other day by yours truly. She’ll likely lay dormant for another 40+ years, or whenever the kids get their grubby little mitts on it.
Sounds Limited
Easy listening soundscapes of the orchestral nature, Sounds Unlimited by Marty Gold and His Orchestra packages itself as a futuristic, oscilloscope-ish, other-worldly collection yet, instead, is an intriguingly misleading RCA Victor stereo recording of your run-of-the-mill 1963 family jazz compositions. Worth the $1? Absolutely. Does the cover represent the material, hell no… but the the time is well worth the journey.
Latin Lingo
Back before their unscheduled hiatus, Los Angeles’ Cypress Hill unleashed a one-two punch with 1998’s Tequila Sunrise and Dr. Greenthumb, resurrected here. The latter was a personal favorite on and around the time of this 12″ release, but the former is / was just as good. Here’s hoping you had a 120 proof day… Lord knows we needed it!
Hot Topic Exclusive
The day isn’t green, I’m just happy not to have to worry about acquiring this damn album ever again. Been holding out for the, ANY, green vinyl version of Green Day’s Dookie, and little over a year ago, I finally pulled the trigger. Happy Monday from the Caribbean, kids.
Jimi on the Beach
I’m not sure if Jimi ever played Cancún, but if he did, he certainly stayed at Now Sapphire. Swim up pools and exotic cocktails starting at 9am. Bring the kids.
Full Moon Fever
Shedding the Heartbreakers (for the most part… some members contributed throughout), 1989’s Full Moon Fever marks Tom Petty’s voyage into a very lucrative solo career. His debut album was, not entirely surprisingly, produced by Jeff Lynne (of Electric Light Orchestra), Tom Petty (of Tom Petty… k’mon), and Mike Campbell (of Don Henley and Stevie Nicks fame), and features the still-to-this-day radio hits, Runnin’ Down a Dream, I Won’t Back Down, and Free Fallin’. Classic rock for a modern age (well, as far as the late 1980s were concerned), Full Moon River is essential listening material for any decade.Vital Idolatry
This 1987 reissue of the 1985 compilation of the same name features on its US release an extra track (To Be a Lover), and an alternate track order, but still features, like its older original, massively successful remixes of the chart-topping singles from Billy’s first three albums. Songs like, Mony Mony, Hot in the City, Dancing with Myself, and both parts to White Wedding help make for a very enjoyable, slightly edgy spin (in that pop, mid-1980s type of way), and does its job of perfectly capturing the rock-synth-pop radio-friendly hits of this bygone era. One doesn’t hear much from Billy these days, but we’ll always have our White Wedding.
Disco is Dead
Every once in a while I’ll stumble across a record in the ol’ collection that 1) I had no idea I had and, 2) have no recollection of acquiring. Gloria Gaynor’s Love Tracks is one of these albums. The $0.99 price sticker on the cover offers a clue that it was purchased at a thrift store in Oxnard, CA in / around the mid 2000s, but that’s left to speculation. Anyway, disco has always gotten a bad rap from the corners of where I came from, but as an avid fan of electronic music of all sorts, I can get behind this drug-induced display of excess in a big way. 1978 was a good year for this lifestyle, and I halfheartedly believe that ol’ Gloria was speaking for the genre when she cried, I Will Survive, the feature track from this roller-disco favorite. Anyway, don’t forget to dance, kids.
Clearly, the Right Decision
As clear as an unmuddied lake, this 2016 reissue (from The Netherlands region) recently popped up in the US Epitaph online store, and was swiftly nabbed by staff here at The Prudent Groove. We now own Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent a total of five times, and the way Epitaph is kicking out short runs of color variants, that number is likely to increase very soon. Although not as prolific as their opus, 1998’s The Shape of Punk to Come, this 1996 precursor couples perfectly to create the uncompromising, one-two, hardcore punk-punch. Epitaph still has copies at the posting of this blurb, so jump on in.
The Unique Rhythms of…
Richard Marino and his Orchestra, straight from the pre-British Invasion days of 1961. Titled, quite magnificently, The Magic Beat!, this easy-listening, metronome-pace-keeping, jazz-pop (corn) masterwork features finger-licking tracks like, Lisbon Antiqua, Hot Sombrero, and Rots-O-Ruck (fairly certain that last one hurdles the line of racism in a pretty big way). Anyway, you’ll have the best luck finding The Magic Beat! in the magic dollar bin at your local brick and mortar, and, as with most records featured here, comes highly recommended.
The Prudent Groove 