Zodiaks - Mākoņi, RiTonis 3-014-C-1

Zodiac (Zodiak, Russian: Зодиа́к, Latvian: Zodiaks) was a space disco music band that existed in the 1980s in Latvia, then a part of Soviet Union. The band was extremely popular in the Soviet Union and has been credited by critics as the Soviet answer to the French band Space who were popular at the time. Zodiac was formed by Jānis Lūsēns, then studying composition at the Latvian State Conservatory in Riga (now Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music). The other four members of the group were also students of various faculties of the same conservatory. Their fourth album In memoriam was composed and produced by Jānis Lūsēns alone and released in 1989. The album was dedicated to the ancient and modern cultural and natural heritage of Latvia. The sounding of the album turned from disco to light techno/synth pop while gaining a lot of classical music influences as well as the influence of Jean Michel Jarre's ambient works.

Their last album "Clouds" was released in 1991 by RiTonis (former Melodiya). It contains a hit song of early 1990s in Latvia "My favourite flowers".

 
Front cover                                                                          Back cover

Bastille - Bad Blood, Virgin V3097

Bad Blood is the debut studio-album by British band, Bastille. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2013, and features the singles; "Overjoyed", "Bad Blood", "Flaws", "Pompeii" and "Laura Palmer". The album was recorded in London, UK, and produced by Mark Crew and Dan Smith. The record debuted at number-one in the United Kingdom. 

• "Overjoyed" was the first single to be taken from Bad Blood. Due to a release with little promotion, the track failed to chart in the United Kingdom.

• "Bad Blood" was the second single to be released from the album. It reached a peak of number-ninety in the UK Singles Chart, yet fell out of the chart the following week.

• "Flaws" was the third single to come from Bad Blood. It became the band's first single to chart within the Top 40 in the UK. It charted at twenty-one, and also charted in Scotland and Belgium.

• "Pompeii" was the fourth single to be taken from Bad Blood. It has become their best-selling single, and most successful international release to date, debuting at number-two and becoming the group's first top-five hit. It also gave Bastille their first number-one single, charting atop the chart in Scotland and Ireland.

• "Laura Palmer" will serve as the fifth single to be released from the album on 3 June 2013. In an interview with Digital Spy in March 2013, lead vocalist, Dan Smith confirmed this. A video for the track was released through the band's official Vevo page on 12 April 2013.

 

Front cover                                                                             Back cover

The Boxer Rebellion - Promises, Absentee Recordings TBR012VL

The Boxer Rebellion is an international indie band formed in London, United Kingdom around 2001, consisting of Tennessee-native Nathan Nicholson (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Australian Todd Howe (lead guitar), and Englishmen Adam Harrison (bass guitar) and Piers Hewitt (drums). They have so far released an eponymous EP, four studio albums, Exits (2005), Union (2009), The Cold Still (2011) and Promises (2013), as well as a compilation album, B-Sides & Rarities Collection, Vol. 1 & 2 (2012). The band finished recording their fourth studio album, Promises, in the late part of February 2013. The music video for the debut single from the album, "Diamonds," was released on March 26.

  

Front cover with promotional sticker                                       Back cover

Reginald Dixon - The Storm, Regal Zonophone MR 816

Regal Zonophone was the result of EMI's amalgamation of their two cheaper labels in January 1933, at which time the catalogue numbering was at MR-745. Initially there was a mixture of the last few Zonophone masters (in an 0Y-series), but generally the CAR-series started under Columbia's ownership was used right up until the label's demise in November 1949, by which time the catalogue numbers had reached MR-3819. Many American masters were used, initially from US Columbia, but later from Bluebird. Initially the label was a rather bright green and red, but subsequently the green was darkened (see example) and it was a very attractive label. In February 1935, the price was reduced to 1/- and the colour changed to just plain red with gold printing. As is usual with red labels, the gold printing was apt to wear off. The price increased to 1/3 in March 1937 then back up to 1/6 in September 1937.

Reginald Dixon, MBE, ARCM, born Reginald Herbert Dixon (16 October 1904 – 9 May 1985), was a British theatre organist who was primarily known for his position as organist at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, a position he held from March 1930 until March 1970. He made and sold more recordings than any other organist before him, or since. During his fifty year career he was one of the top-selling artists, his prolific output ranking alongside the output of Victor Silvester and Bing Crosby. 

 

Side A                                                                                  Side B
UPDATE - THIS NICE 78 IS UP FOR SALE. I got it in a VERY good condition, and I don't mean it as a VG grade, but much closer to EX+ or even NM. Label is spotless; I doubt it's been played more than once. Record is very clean, but comes in a plain sleeve.

Kenneth McKellar - Skye Boat Song/Lewis Bridal Song, Decca 45-F 10901

Kenneth McKellar (23 June 1927 – 9 April 2010) was a Scottish tenor. McKellar studied forestry at the University of Aberdeen, after graduation working for the Scottish Forestry Commission. He later trained at the Royal College of Music as an opera singer. He did not enjoy his time with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and left them to pursue a career singing traditional Scottish songs and other works. His albums of the songs of Robert Burns (now digitized) are considered by musicologists to be definitive interpretations.

He frequently toured the USA and Canada 1959-1977 with other Scottish entertainers such as Helen McArthur, often appearing in small local venues. McKellar made the majority of his recordings on the Decca Records label. He also recorded several classical works, including Handel's Messiah alongside Joan Sutherland in a performance conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

McKellar also recorded the musical Kismet with Robert Merrill. He was also notable for his recordings of Gaelic songs in translation such as the Songs of the Hebrides arrangements by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser.

 
Company sleeve

Melodiya Record label history; Riga manufactured company sleeves

Melodiya (Russian: Μелодия, meaning melody) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) record label. It was the state-owned major record company/label of the Soviet Union.

  

It was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya". It utilized gigantic resources of numerous recording studios, manufacturing facilities throughout the USSR as well as powerful centres of distribution and promotion system. The best selling format at the time was 33⅓ and 78 RPM vinyl records. As of 1973 Melodiya released some 1,200 gramophone records with the total circulation of 190-200 million per year and 1 million compact cassettes per year and was exporting its production into more than 70 countries.

Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery, Jet, LX 500

Discovery is a 1979 album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). Discovery was the band's first number 1 album in the UK, entering the chart at that position and staying there for five weeks. The album contained five hit songs in "Shine a Little Love", "Don't Bring Me Down", "Last Train to London", "Confusion" and "The Diary of Horace Wimp", many of which were heavily influenced by disco (in fact, Richard Tandy came up with its well known nickname, Disco Very). "Don't Bring Me Down" would become one of their only two top three hits in the UK throughout their career ("Xanadú" will be number One in 1980), and also their highest-charting US single at number 4. "The Diary of Horace Wimp" was also a hit single in the UK, not patterned after the disco sound; instead it was closer in its Beatlesque style to the band's earlier hit "Mr. Blue Sky". The album itself was the first ever to generate four top-ten singles (one of which was a Double A-side) from a single LP in the UK and was eventually certified 2x platinum by the RIAA in 1997.

Discovery is notable in that it was the first ELO album not to feature their resident string trio of Mik Kaminski, Hugh McDowell andMelvyn Gale, although they did make an appearance on the Discovery music videos that were created as a substitute for a live concert tour. Shortly afterwards, leader Jeff Lynne deemed the string section superfluous to his requirements and he decided to dismiss them (although Kaminski did return for the Time Tour in 1981-82, a performer on the 1983 album Secret Messages, and the Balance of Power tour in 1986).

In one of his earliest jobs, comedian/actor Brad Garrett, dressed in middle eastern clothes and turban, appears on the back cover as the menacing palace guard who is drawing his scimitar.

 

Front cover                                                                            Back cover

The Rolling Stones - Undercover, Rolling Stones CUN 1654361

Undercover is the 17th British and 19th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1983. After their preceding studio album, Tattoo You, which was mostly patched together from a selection of outtakes, Undercover was their first release of all new recordings in the 1980s. With the advent of the MTV generation, the band attempted to re-invent themselves for a new era.

 

Front cover                                                                      Back cover

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones COC 59 100 (France)

Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and 11th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band's first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band's newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor's first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, the first Rolling Stones album not to feature any contributions from guitarist and founder Brian Jones and the first one on which Mick Jagger is credited with playing guitar.

The album is often regarded as one of the Stones' best, containing songs such as the chart-topping "Brown Sugar" and the folk-influenced "Wild Horses", and achieving triple platinum certification in the US.

 

Front cover                                                                        Back cover

P J Harvey - White Chalk, Island 1740335 (UK)

White Chalk is the seventh studio album by English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey, released on 24 September 2007 on Island Records.

Work on the album started in 2006, with producer Flood and John Parish, who also worked on her To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire? albums. Other collaborators on White Chalk are Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White from Dirty Three.

The first single to be released from White Chalk was "When Under Ether" on 17 September 2007 on digital download and 7" vinyl. A second single, "The Piano," was released on 26 November 2007. A third, "The Devil," was released on 7", download, and CD formats in March 2008.

  

Front cover                                                                          Back cover

Slim Whitman - Serenade/I Talk To The Waves, London HL-U 8287

Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. (born January 20, 1924), known professionally as Slim Whitman, is an American country music and western music singer/songwriter and instrumentalist known for his yodeling abilities and his smooth high octave falsetto. He has sold in excess of 120 million records. He is consistently more popular throughout Europe, and in particular Britain, than in his native America, particularly with his covers of pop standards and movie songs, love songs, folk tunes and gospel melodic hymns. His 1955 hit single "Rose Marie" held the Guinness World Record for the longest time at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart until Bryan Adams broke the record in 1991 after 36 years. In the U.S., his "Indian Love Call" (1952) and "Secret Love" (1953) reached number 2 on the Billboardcountry chart. Whitman had a string of hits from the mid-1960s and into the 1970s and became known to a new generation of fans through television direct marketing in the 1980s.

   
Side A                                                                               Side B

Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable/Because Of Rain, Capitol CL.13637

Unforgettable is a popular song written by Irving Gordon. The song's original working title was Uncomparable. The music publishing company asked Irving to change it to Unforgettable. The song was published in 1951.

The most popular version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1951, with an arrangement written by Nelson Riddle. A non-orchestrated version of the song recorded in 1952 is featured as a bonus track on the CD reissue of 1955's completely instrumental (save the bonus material) Penthouse Serenade. Cole recorded the tune anew in 1961, in a stereo version of the Riddle arrangement, for the album The Nat King Cole Story.

Nat Cole's original recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Bourne Ltd. release

The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue, Rolling Stones CUN 39111

Emotional Rescue is the 15th British and 17th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1980. Upon release, it topped the charts in both the US and UK.

 
Front cover                                                                     Back cover

The Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup, Rolling Stones COC 59101

Goats Head Soup is the 11th British and 13th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1973. It featured the song "Angie", which went to #1 as a single in the US and top 5 in the UK.
In November 1972 the band relocated to Kingston, Jamaica's Dynamic Sound Studios. The first track recorded at Dynamic was "Winter", which Mick Taylor said started with "just Mick (Jagger) strumming on a guitar in the studio, and everything falling together from there."

The album's lead single, "Angie", was an unpopular choice as lead single with Atlantic Records which, according to Chess, "wanted another 'Brown Sugar' rather than a ballad." Despite its laid-back sound, many of Goats Head Soup's songs have a darker quality to them, such as the opener "Dancing With Mr. D" (D as in Death). An alternate version can be heard on bootlegs that features a ripping Taylor guitar solo that was not featured on the album version.

 

Front cover                                                                              Back cover

Joy Division - Still, Factory FACT40

Still is a compilation album by Joy Division, consisting of previously released and unreleased studio material and a live recording of Joy Division's last concert, performed at Birmingham University. It was released on 8 October 1981, through record label Factory.
The album includes the only time the group ever performed the song "Ceremony" live, which later became a New Order single. Another song featured is a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", recorded at The Moonlight Club in London on 2 April 1980.

  
Front cover                                                                          Back cover

R.E.M. - Out Of Time, Warner Bros. 7599-26496-1

Out of Time is the seventh album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on Warner Bros. Records in 1991. With Out of Time R.E.M.'s status grew from that of a cult band to a massive international act. The record topped the album sales charts in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, spending 109 weeks on American album charts and enjoying two separate spells at the summit, and 183 weeks on the British charts, and spending a single week at the top. The album has sold over four and a half million copies in the US and over 18 million copies worldwide. The album won three Grammy Awards in 1992: one as Best Alternative Music Album, and two for the first single, "Losing My Religion".

 
Front cover                                                                        Back cover

Wizzard - Introducing Eddy and the Falcons, Warner Bros. K 56029

Introducing Eddy and the Falcons is the second album by Wizzard. It peaked at No. 19 in the UK album chart – a much better placing than its predecessor, Wizzard Brew.

As with the previous Wizzard album, all songs were composed by Roy Wood. The album had a concept similar to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in that the intro 'featured' the appearance on stage of fictional band Eddy & The Falcons. All tracks were written and recorded as tributes to 1950s and early 1960s rock’n’roll greats, "Eddy’s Rock" being a guitar and saxophone instrumental played in the style of Duane Eddy, while "Everyday I Wonder" was similar in sound and approach to Del Shannon’s "Runaway", and "Come Back Karen" did the same for Neil Sedaka’s "Oh! Carol". A particularly clear tribute was to Elvis in "I Dun Lotsa Cryin’ Over You".

 

Front cover                                                                            Back cover

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River, Liberty LBS 83273

Green River is the third studio album by American rock and roll band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in August 1969 after their second release Bayou Country which was released in January of the same year (see 1969 in music). In 2003, the album was ranked number 95 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It features two of the band's best-known songs, "Bad Moon Rising" and the title track. The album was remastered and reissued on 180 Gram Vinyl by Analogue Productions in 2006.

 
    Front cover                                                                       Back cover

Keith - 98.6/Ain't Gonna Lie, Mercury 20103 MCL

Keith (born James Barry Keefer, May 17, 1949, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American vocalist. He legally changed his name to Bazza Keefer in 1988, in memory of his mother. Keefer earned his first recording contract with Columbia Records. When Jerry Ross moved across to Mercury Records he took Keefer with him, and the singer soon appeared in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with his solo single, "Ain't Gonna Lie".

 

Cover - front and back with visible flaps

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery, Manticore K 53501

Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1973 and the first under their Manticore Records imprint. It fuses rock and classical themes. Greg Lake wrote the lyrics for the album with the assistance (on two tracks, "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" and "Benny the Bouncer") of former King Crimson bandmate (and, beginning with this album, frequent ELP collaborator) Peter Sinfield. This was the first Emerson, Lake & Palmer album to have no songwriting contributions from Carl Palmer. The cover art is by H. R. Giger. According to the 1996 re-release notes, the title came from a lyric in Dr. John's 1973 hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time" from his In the Right Place album (released 26 January 1973): "Just need a little brain salad surgery/Got to cure this insecurity." It replaced the working title Whip Some Skull on Yer; both titles are slang expressions for fellatio.

  
Outer sleeve/cover front and back

Joni Mitchell - Blue, Reprise K 44128 (UK issue)

Blue (1971) is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer. Blue was a critical and commercial success, reaching #15 on the Billboard 200 and #3 in the UK Albums Chart. The single "Carey" reached #93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Despite the success of her first three albums and songs like "Woodstock", the 1970s saw Mitchell make a decision to break from performing. After a tough breakup with her longtime boyfriend Graham Nash she set off on a vacation around Europe, during which she wrote many of the songs that appear on Blue.

  

The Baker Gurvitz Army - The Baker Gurvitz Army, Vertigo 9103 201

Former The Gun and Three Man Army members, Paul and Adrian Gurvitz joined forces with ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker in 1974. Things had not been going too well for Ginger Baker since the demise of his own band Ginger Baker's Air Force. The Gurvitz Brothers, too, were looking for a new way ahead after the early success of their band The Gun.

Their self-titled debut album featured a blend of hard rock laced with Ginger Baker's drumming. The lengthy "Mad Jack" was that album's outstanding track, and the album hit the US Billboard 200 chart, and peaked at #22 in the UK Albums Chart. The band recorded two more studio albums, Elysian Encounter and Hearts On Fire. However, the death of their manager led to the band breaking up in 1976.

 

Front cover                                                             Back cover

Siouxsie And The Banshees - Join hands, Polydor POLD 5024

Join Hands is the second studio album by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released on 7 September 1979, through record label Polydor. The opening track "Poppy Day" is based on John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields. The poem was written in 1915 after the lost of a friend during a battle in World War I. The poppy reproduced on the sleeve is a symbol of Remembrance Day.

The final track is a studio recording of "The Lord's Prayer", the song that they are famous for playing in their debut live performance at the 100 Club Punk Festival in September 1976. Join Hands was released on 7 September 1979. It reached No. 13 in the UK Albums Chart.

Guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris left the band shortly after the album's release.

  

Front cover                                                                             Rear cover

Ned Miller - From A Jack To A King/Parade Of Broken Hearts, London 45-HL 9658

From a Jack to a King is a country music song. Originally a crossover hit for artist Ned Miller, who also wrote "Dark Moon," "A Falling Star," and many other country songs. The original version was recorded by Ned Miller. First released in 1957, Ned's version was unsuccessful, until he persuaded his label to re-release it five years later. Upon re-release, the song became a crossover hit, charting in the Top 10 on the Billboard U.S. country (#2), pop (#6), and adult contemporary (#3) charts. In addition, Miller's version reached #1 on the Irish Singles Chart, while peaking at #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Furthermore, it was the sixth most-played single of 1963 in the United Kingdom. Ned's chart success was limited after the song, however, and by the 1970s he stopped recording entirely.

The song was also recorded in 1962 by Jim Reeves on the occasion of his tour to South Africa in August and charted there that year.

 
Original company sleeve

Eddie Cochran - Weekend/Cherished Memories, London 45-HLG 9362

"Weekend" is a song by Eddie Cochran. The song was written by Bill and Doree Post and recorded in April 1959. The song was released posthumously as a single in the UK on London HLG 9362 in June 1961, with "Cherished Memories" as the B side, and rose to number 15 on the charts. In the US it was released on Liberty Records 55389 (with the song "Lonely" as a B side) in December 1961 and did not chart. This was the last single with original material by Eddie Cochran released in the US.
It was covered in 1968 by The Move and appears on their eponymous album.

   
Original company sleeve                                            Demo release with yellow label

Bob Dylan albums 1974-1983 Price Guide (Goldmine)

NUMBER, TITLE (A Side/B Side), YEAR, NM PRICE

DYLAN, BOB | 45s

Asylum

11033, On a Night Like This/You Angel You, 1974, $6.00
11035, Something There Is About You/Going, Going, Gone, 1974, $6.00
11043, Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)/Stage Fright, 1974, $6.00
—With The Band
45212, All Along the Watchtower/It Ain’t Me Babe, 1974, $12.00

Mario Lanza - The Student Prince and The Great Caruso, RCA RB 16113

In 1951, Mario Lanza portrayed Enrico Caruso in The Great Caruso, which proved an astonishing success, though it did not adhere strictly to the facts of Caruso's life. At the same time, Lanza's increasing popularity exposed him to intense criticism by some music critics, including those who had praised his work years earlier. His performance earned him compliments from the subject's son, Enrico Caruso Jr., a tenor in his own right. Shortly before his own death in 1987, Enrico Jr. wrote in Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family(posthumously published by Amadeus in 1990) that, "I can think of no other tenor, before or since Mario Lanza, who could have risen with comparable success to the challenge of playing Caruso in a screen biography... Lanza was born with one of the dozen or so great tenor voices of the century, with a natural voice placement, an unmistakable and very pleasing timbre, and a nearly infallible musical instinct." He went on to praise Lanza's tempo and phrasing, "flawless" diction, and "impassioned" delivery, adding that, "All are qualities that few singers are born with and others can never attain." In conclusion, he wrote that, "Lanza excelled in both the classical and the light popular repertory, an accomplishment that was beyond even my father's exceptional talents."

In 1952, Lanza was dismissed by MGM after he had pre-recorded the songs for The Student Prince. The reason most frequently cited in the tabloid press at the time was that his recurring weight problem had made it impossible for him to fit into the costumes of the Prince. ^[18] However, as his biographers Cesari and Mannering have established, Lanza was not overweight at the beginning of the production, and it was, in fact, a disagreement with director Curtis Bernhardt over Lanza's singing of one of the songs in the film that led to Lanza walking off the set. MGM refused to replace Bernhardt, and the film was subsequently made with actor Edmund Purdom miming to Lanza's voice. Ironically, the eventual director of the film was Richard Thorpe, the same man whom Lanza had pleaded with MGM to replace Bernhardt, and with whom the tenor had enjoyed an excellent working relationship in The Great Caruso.^[19]

Depressed by his dismissal, and with his self-confidence severely undermined, Lanza became a virtual recluse for more than a year, frequently seeking refuge in alcoholic binges. During this period, Lanza also came very close to bankruptcy as a result of poor investment decisions by his former manager, and his lavish spending habits left him owing about $250,000 in back taxes to the IRS.

  

Alternative covers RCA Victor RB 16113 and RCA RB 16113