They were probably stuck for aanything else to use-- "Home Again" (a non-LP single) was the Everlys' very last record for Warners.
Duly noted. To be honest, I was a little confused by the McKuen interlude on this album. You may have guessed that I am not a McKuen scholar. Corrections like this are helpful though; I will make note of them when I re-edit the whole series. Heheh, slogging through these things and researching stuff and trying to think of what to say is no easy task; I probably didn't think through the ramifications of committing to such a thread enough. But it has been a lot of fun, and a rather rich learning experience, so I don't mind.
There were a few narrators on those albums. The Sea had an unidentified narrator, later revealed as actor Jesse Pearson, who also did one or two other albums. One album, For Lovers, had Warners president Joe Smith reciting using a pseudonym.
I thought your first two album write-ups were excellent. They made me want to keep reading the thread.
I appreciate that, thanks. They're okay, but they contain a few more errors than the next three and largely ignore the liner notes, which actually are as integral to the experience as the music (and they also clear up some mysteries). I had to get a few albums in to really start "feeling" the Loss Leaders universe. The third one is where I started stepping up my game. For the next month or so, I'm all about Loss Leaders; they've become my world. It's funny, because on a forum like this, you'll find somebody who is a fan of even the most obscure names. So, I am trying to be more careful, and yet still make it entertaining enough to read.
I have thought that your comments about each track are extremely interesting. It is difficult to come up with insightful thoughts about every single track, but you are doing well!
Schlagers! is one of the few from this series that I own; I purchased it when I was on a wild vinyl tear in the mid-late 90s, looking for interesting tracks to add as interstitial bits during sets I DJ'd at parties out in the SoCal deseert. I grooved on the sheer mellowness of it all -- I distinctly remember spinning the Rod McKuen "Hang 10" snippet to general approval. (Irony was greatly appreciated back then.) Funny, but nowadays I suspect that Schlagers! would play quite well with the hipster crowd, should they have any idea what it was or where to look for it. That super-mellow MOR vibe seems to be appealing to many again.
One of the best songs Kenny sang, several (including me) probably heard it first in a late 70's rerecording used on a few Greatest Hits albums when he became famous as a solo artist.
Columbia tried as well with the 99 cent album "Different Strokes", although that one was sold everywhere. It contained many edited tracks and was a very good sampler that made me seek out a number of unfamiliar albums. They never did it again either. Now waiting on my Zapped album.
First off, thanks much for this thread which I am thoroughly enjoying. Having seen those ads in so many albums I've owned since I was a kid (I believe starting with Neil Young's After the Gold Rush), I've felt compelled to collect as many as I can find that interest me. So far I have a decent amount but am missing many. They're not too tough to find, but I like to grab them for cheap given the cheap prices they were initially sold for. As for Schlagers!, I've always avoided that one because I just can't imagine it would be an interesting listen to a rock guy like me. I may give it a try though if I can grab it cheap. BTW, for those who have commented on long album sides surely resulting in poor sonics, my impression is that the LL albums I've heard actually sounded decent. I imagine that was intentional, as making a crummy sounding album to advertise records you want to built interest in wouldn't be terribly logical.
They aren't for audiophiles (on some of the early ones I have noticed tape dropouts here and there, presumably due to rushed tape copying) but sound good enough.
Had it. Horrible cover. Some great stuff there, that got me to purchase individual lps, just like they hoped.
Still have my old copy. Discovered a few great things (Colin Blunstone comes to mind) but in the interest of putting on more tracks, the Columbia samplers had many badly edited songs.
I bought Different Strokes when it first came out. I enjoyed playing it a lot but noticed that about half of the songs on it faded out early. It accomplished its goal with me. Over the years, I bought most of the albums from which the songs on DS were taken(all of the ones that really interested me). I traded off DS after I got Poco's DeLIVErin', It's a Beautiful Day's Marrying Maiden, Bill Puka's album, and about 10 others.
And Elektra put out a triple album called The Garden of Delights. I just recently picked up a used copy. Mostly album cuts by various Elektra artists, but with a few rarities like a single by the Beefeaters who would later become the Byrds. I found The Music People used for $3.00. I had to shell out $15.00 for the Elektra album.
One more, slightly earlier compilation. Here too a few up and comers like Pink Floyd, Bob Seger and Linda Ronstadt received exposure along with some now obscure artists. http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-New-Spirit-Of-Capitol/release/621516
This has been a fascinating excursion into a world I knew very little about. You can imagine these records occupying the bottom rows of music shelves in countless houses for years after their owners went off to college and wherever, only to be picked up by little brothers and sisters who had no idea who most of the artists were, or the denim-earnest context of the times in which they were made. Seederman's work here is revelatory, and at the same time, entertaining.
...except that I always visualized the owners of those Loss Leader LPs taking those records with them. Those weren't for the dilletantes - they bought K-Tel anthologies. Loss Leaders were for the confirmed music heads. Even though the used stores are full up on Warners comps, I'd like to think the previous owners got a lot out of them before passing them on.
