This Month's Thrift Store Vinyl Sharity

Herschel Bernardi, Herschel Bernardi, TV's Lovable "Arnie," Sings Broadway's Greatest Hits (Columbia/Harmony, 1971?)

The LP title immediately raises the question: was "Arnie" lovable? Was Herschel Bernardi "lovable" in his depiction? While the series was on for two seasons, and I am just old enough to possibly remember it (but I don't), I can't really find a clue anywhere out there on the internet. No one seems to clamor for those episodes to be released on DVD; no clever connoisseur has posted grainy clips on YouTube. (I wrote too soon--some people seem to remember.) However, the 1970 sitcom spurred Columbia to spit out a reissue of this album (aka "Show Stopper"), for whatever reason.

I had thought this might be a vanity project, a Golden Throats kind of thing. It isn't. Bernardi has real Broadway credentials: he was Zorba, and he can sing (although he strains a bit with "Try to Remember"). But this album is more than just a collection of show tune covers, because Bernardi gives us an entire cabaret performance with special autobiographical banter and warmed-over Borscht shtick. For example, he joneses for approval in the opening number, "Applause"--why? well, he's from a theatre family, he tells us. Significantly, he also provides himself with that applause, literally, at the end of the album when he reprises the song: that lovable "Arnie" is going to get his fix no matter what. There are other half-jokes about his need to "show off" his talents--a drive that results in productions like "Fugue for Tinhorns" where Bernardi ("thanks to the 16 track" recording deck) sings all three parts in different 1950s-style Brooklynese accents. It is simultaneously show-boatingly impressive and crazy-making.

If you like these tracks, note that they are available as "Show Stopper" in a combo CD including Bernardi's songs from "Fiddler" (he was a popular Tevye, too). Copies of the LP versions of both "Stoppers" and "Arnie Sings" are out there; this site thinks the rerelease was in 1974. No way--the show was long canceled by then.

Ten tracks and troubled cover scans are all in one .zip at rapidshare.com.

Last Month's Thrift Store Vinyl Sharity (I'm Late)

Faron Young, Faron Young Sings on Stage for Mary Carter Paints (Mary Carter Paints, 1961)

As the title suggests, this live concert radio special is brought to you by Grand Ole Opry sponsor Mary Carter Paints (the brand that made legal history, and then became Resorts International). Now it isn't the Opry exactly, although at this point Young is still a member (until 1965), but the revue is very Opry-like: friendly banter, some hits, some filler, and corn-pone comic Archie Campbell recites his malapropic "Cinderfella."

Endless Mike recently featured Young's first two albums, and some of those hits--"Hello Walls"--appear here, too. There are occasionally copies of this LP for sale, and, as it figures, WFMU seems to include it among its playlists.

There's no track listing for this album, and the sides don't really edit well, so we're dealing with two full-side mp3s, with cover scans, on rapidshare.com.