My Weird Record Collection

04/06/2024

Just arrived!! Oh, happy day!!!

30/05/2024

When I was a child, one day while out shopping, my mom bought me the seven-inch book-and-record version of Charlie Brown's All-Stars. As a big Peanuts fan, I rushed that record to my record player and read along in the book as I listened to the story, knowing to turn the page when I'd heard the chimes ring. I remember getting to the end of the record...and feeling sad, possibly even crying...because that meant Charlie Brown was over. I think I knew that I could just listen to the record again, but that wasn't good enough. I wanted *more*.

Yesterday I had an experience that flashed me back to five-year-old Sean with his Mickey Mouse record player and sadly experiencing the end of the story of Charlie Brown's baseball team's uniform dilemma. It was a totally different experience this time, though, and I didn't cry...at least, I don't *think* I cried.

Sometimes if my work-at-home day is not packed with meetings, I'll bring my work laptop to the living room and listen to records while I work. Aside from getting to enjoy one of my favorite pastimes, another benefit of listening to records while working is that when a record side is over, I'm forced to take a short break to flip or change the record. My choice yesterday afternoon: a couple of albums by The Tikiyaki Orchestra, a band from southern California whose specialty is a modern fusion of lounge, exotica, and surf. Something about their music just...works for me. I don't know how else to describe its affect on me. The music pushes me along. As a software engineer, I've found that when working on a complicated task or a new challenge, somehow the solutions come to me from the sounds of a vibraphone coming out of the speakers. ("The Outbreak" from Tropika is especially good when I'm knee-deep in code.)

In my normal record collection are three of The Tikiyaki Orchestra's five albums -- hopefully before long I will add the other two. Yesterday I spun their second album, Swingin' Sounds for the Jungle Jetset, and before that their most recent album, last year's Tropika, pictured here. Tropika was my introduction to The Tikiyaki Orchestra. I'm going to confess: the first thing that attracted me was the color of the vinyl, a striking orchid color. What can I say? I'm a sucker for colored vinyl. Also, it was on the Hi-Tide Recordings label; I love Hi-Tide Recordings. I listened to a sample online, and I was sold. (If I'm not mistaken, Tropika was actually recorded both digitally and on tape simultaneously so that the vinyl version of the album could be 100% analog.)

But yesterday, as side two of Swingin' Sounds for the Jungle Jetset faded out, I suddenly experienced a flashback: five-year-old Sean, hearing the brassy theme music of Charlie Brown's All-Stars fading out on the Mickey Mouse record player, after the team's baseball uniform dilemma was solved...and I felt sad. The same sadness I felt when Charlie Brown was over. This time, though, I didn't cry -- at least I don't *think* I cried. But I was sad. Because The Tikiyaki Orchestra was over. Could I have re-listened to either of the albums? Sure. Could I pull out the third album and give it a spin? Yeah, but I had just done that the day before. I needed more.

And I remembered I still was missing one of their albums. Today I learned that I'm actually missing *two* of their albums. Time for me to place an order.

24/05/2024

The latest addition to my *normal* record collection, from a trip to Rattleback Records yesterday. They wanted three bucks for it. Rattleback's (sorta) famous "Looks Rough, Plays Well!" sticker tells you that the vinyl has seen better days, but it'll still play through. This record most DEFINITELY was loved, and it has a date with the Spin Clean soon!

This is from the 1961 sessions in Hamburg, Germany, when The Beatles backed up Tony Sheridan. They were really just session musicians and, as with any session band who backed up Sheridan, were called "The Beat Brothers" on the original release of this song (and its B-side, "Nobody's Child"). Fun fact: another famous band who once was "The Beat Brothers": Joey Dee and the Starlighters.

When The Beatles hit it big in 1964, labels such as MGM, Atco, and Decca realized that among their master tapes was this German (by way of England) act called Tony Sheridan, and that the backing band on some of the songs was none other than The Beatles! So they reissued the recordings not by the original name of "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers," but with "THE BEATLES" in huge letters, and "with Tony Sheridan" in teeny-weeny letters. (Because "Ain't She Sweet" is just The Beatles by themselves, you won't see Tony Sheridan mentioned on the A-side label; he does sing a solo vocal on the B-side, though.)

The original recordings were produced by Bert Kaempfert, who is probably best known as the artist behind the Billboard #1 hit instrumental "Wunderland By Night." Kaempfert, who was not used to producing rock and roll, had Pete Best remove a couple of drums from his kit. (Depending on whom you ask, because Pete was either too loud for Kaempfert's ears or not a steady enough drummer to handle a full set.) Before the Tony Sheridan recordings were released in the United States, East Coast ace session drummer Bernard Purdie was brought in to overdub a second layer of drums to spice up the recordings a bit.

Which is why I was surprised to play this record and NOT hear Purdie's second drum track on either side of this record. This EAST COAST record.

Whatever the case, having been a Beatles fan since 1987, I found it kind of surprising that I didn't have any of the Atco singles. I figured for only three dollars, I'd better remedy that situation.

18/05/2024

Latest addition to my *normal* record collection arrived today!

18/05/2024

Latest addition to my *normal* record collection, from the very fine folks at !

15/05/2024

It’s one thing to bet on a horse race that’s taking place at a track. But how about a prerecorded horse race that’s on a vinyl record — and you still don’t know who the winner will be? In episode 5 of My Weird Record Collection, Sean explains how it’s possible via a 1976 play-at-home game.

https://tinyurl.com/3r2usacz

08/05/2024

Sooooooo...My Weird Record Collection is making the charts at Goodpods -- despite having only ONE listener on Goodpods...and no ratings or reviews. I don't know what y'all are doing to make this podcast chart over there, but...thank you!

New episode coming a week from today!

01/05/2024

Sean here. I have to confess: I made some mistakes during the autoharp episode. I know, I know, a horrible injustice to autoharps. Not enough corrections and addenda for a full episode, but too many just to mention in the next episode, so here's an interim mini-episode to hold you over until May 15. (My apologies to Dr. Walter Duda.)

https://myweirdrecords.fab4it.com/?p=195

30/04/2024

ouch

23/04/2024

My haul from . I didn't actually get those Beatles 3-inches ON RSD, but I had to go back yesterday to get inner and outer sleeves, and because I heard that those records don't require that special player, I figured...why not! They still had these left over.

21/04/2024

Cleaning some records with my Spin Clean today. See those smudges? Those are to***co stains that came off of just ONE 7-INCH RECORD. (pictured!) I had to run it through *five times* before the cloth stopped turning brown.

This is why it's important to clean your records, especially when purchased used!

19/04/2024

Just added this to my...well, normal...record collection. I'm a big fan of Hi-Tide Recordings!

Hopefully there will be at least one more new addition via tomorrow!

15/04/2024

Episode 4: Hear How to Plan the Perfect Dinner Party

You and your significant other want to invite four friends over for a dinner party, but what do you cook? And how? Lucky for you, food writers Gaynor and Dorothy Maddox have four suggestions for you. Even luckier for you, My Weird Record Collection is providing you with some commentary on Gaynor and Dorothy's commentary! Whether you want to try Dorothy's famous steak dinner or treat your friends to a Polynesian wingding, you can't lose with Episode 4!

14/04/2024

Hwell...looks like a new episode is coming out tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about it. If you've never heard any of those offbeat records they used to release before the days of YouTube and even audio cassettes, keep an eye on this feed...and listen!

02/04/2024

Latest additions to the record collection (man, we know how to swing in my house!)

I somehow doubt that's *the* Betty White, but listen to future episodes to learn. :)

19/03/2024

Sorry I've been silent here for over a month; just a lot going on! But a new episode is out now! I have a feeling I'm going to follow this episode up with a mini-sequel. But we'll see!

Episode 3: The Autoharp Episode! March 15, 2024March 15, 2024| dauberdauber| 0 Comment| 3:05 pm Categories: podcast Don’t feel threatened by the ides of March — pick up an autoharp and play! For this month’s episode, Sean pulls out not one but two autoharp albums from his box of oddities from ...

15/02/2024

Dime stores were quite common for a time, and in episode 2 of My Weird Record Collection, Sean takes a look at an interesting relic of those times: a ten-inch record containing the audio from a grand reopening of the original J.J. Newberry discount store in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania!

https://myweirdrecords.fab4it.com/?p=117

22/01/2024

Hey there, everyone. I don't know why, but it appears that when people join this page, they get some kind of automated private message that appears to be from me saying something along the lines of "How may I help you?" or "What brought you here?" or something. I have *no idea* why that is happening. If that happened to you, I apologize. This doesn't happen on any other page I manage.

Also, just to be clear, this group/page is not a for-sale thing -- I'm not selling anything here! I'm just doing a podcast about oddball records I've found in the wild. :) I've gotten a few private messages asking me about that, but no, nothing I talk about is for sale -- at least not from me! However, I do plan to have a few giveaways in the future!

Currently working on the next episode about a record I stumbled on that I found to be seriously fascinating; really looking forward to getting to tell the podoverse about it!

15/01/2024

Episode 1 is now available to the world! In this first fully realized episode of My Weird Record Collection, Sean examines The Singing Johnson Family of Southport, Indiana and the circumstances in which this record started Sean on this strange journey of record collecting.

https://myweirdrecords.fab4it.com/?p=108

13/01/2024

It occurs to me I put this page out for the world to see and am about to release episode 1 of the podcast, and I never did lay down some rules for this page, so here we go!

1) NO PERSONAL ATTACKS. (Sorry, but this even includes toward people who own Crosley Cruisers.)

2) NO POLITICAL DISCUSSION. I know this might seem a bit odd, given that in the podcast there will be a political-based record here and there, but in those cases, let's keep the discussion strictly to the actual content and production of said record. But aside from that, any political comments or posts will be deleted.

3) NO (attempts at) SELLING, PLEASE. There are plenty of forums on Facebook alone to sell stuff; let's keep this to discussion of this podcast, records, stuff like that.

4) TRY TO HAVE SOME FUN! But not at the expense of other participants, please.

Thanks, friends!

03/01/2024

I see that this page picked up a bunch of followers. Thanks for joining me on this...weird journey! There will be a new episode in a couple of weeks that turned out better than I expected!

I have to ask the question, though: do yo have any weird items in your record collection? What's the weirdest?

01/01/2024

Episode 0: an introduction to my weird records!

A new year brings new hope, new beginnings, and…a new podcast! In this introductory episode, Sean talks about how he got into collecting records that even their vendors don’t know how to categorize. On the way, he’ll also share some general record collecting and maintenance advice.

Episode 0: an introduction to my weird records! January 1, 2024January 1, 2024| dauberdauber| 0 Comment| 6:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized A new year brings new hope, new beginnings, and…a new podcast! In this introductory episode, Sean talks about how he got into collecting records that even thei...