A Very Special Cassette Tape Sharity

Thomas Dolby, Music from the Film "Gothic" (Virgin, 1987)

This is a cut-out cassette from back in the day. As much as I love Ken Russell--and between Wilde's Salome and Lair of the White Worm, he was on quite a roll in the late eighties--I just don't like Gothic.

Thomas Dolby's scoring was one of the relatively effective aspects of the film, and he notes here an anecdotal history of the project. It seems that this soundtrack has lapsed out of print.

The individual tracks are very hard to isolate off this cassette, so I have taken the lazy move of making each side one fat track. I also provide a spare copy of the ending title, "The Devil is an Englishman" (vocals by Timothy Spall, who played Byron in the film), as a third bonus track, in case you want the single. It also appears at the end of the long "side two" track.

One .zip file with cassette art is available at rapidshare.com.

This Month's Thrift Store Vinyl Sharity

Frankie Carle, His Piano, and Orchestra, 12 Double-Barreled Hits of '64 (RCA, 1964)


Frankie Carle, the Italian-American band leader and co-composer of “Sunrise Serenade,” was (at least according to this page) in semi-retirement around the time this album was released. But 12 Double-Barreled Hits doesn’t present the smallish combo he reportedly had in the late-fifties and early-sixties. Instead, this is part of his “soloist” phase, but the backing orchestra's intense presence makes the songs somewhat more than a solo effort.

Carle’s career would re-kindle with the seventies nostalgia wave, but probably not because of the kind of work recorded on this disc. Here we have completely competent, but sometimes generic, instrumentals from the mid-1960s. It is a broad mix: a couple of Mancini compositions, show tunes, "movie" Elvis, and slightly obscure standards. Carle isn’t credited with the arranging or conducting: RCA’s Larry Gordon is.

Obviously, the cover’s shotgun motif drew me to this LP.

Tracklist: Charade; Java; I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now; She Loves Me; Always in My Heart; The Pink Panther Theme; Sushi; Oh! What It Seemed to Be; My True Carrie, Love; Kissin’ Cousins; Miller’s Cave; Hello, Dolly!

The album and cover scans are available at rapidshare.com.