Thanks for your review! Sounds decent enough. My dealer brought in one copy for RSD but sadly I was out of town last weekend and his copy sold as well. Glad to see people snatching up new Peggy Lee issues; that bodes well for future releases.
I find I quite like Peggy's version of At Last, from her radio show with Sonny Burke, 1952. I think Peggy Lee makes it her own, but it is still in the tradition of the Forties hit version. Last song on disc two
I didn't realize how old "At Last" is. From Wikipedia: ""At Last" is a song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the musical film Sun Valley Serenade (1941). Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded the tune several times, with a 1942 version reaching number two on the US Billboard pop music chart... The vocal version was included in the movie Orchestra Wives (1942). ... Former Glenn Miller Orchestra trumpeter Ray Anthony had the highest charting recording of the song in the U.S. on the pop charts in 1952, peaking at number two on the Billboard pop singles chart. ... In 1960, rhythm and blues singer Etta James recorded an arrangement by Riley Hampton that improvised on Warren's melody." I presume it was that 1952 version that prompted Peggy to sing it on her radio show. I think she brings a sense of warm realism ("I found a dream that I can speak to... I found a thrill that I can press my cheek to") that is different to the epic romanticism of Etta James. Both are wonderful, of course.
I just cleaned up a bunch of my old 50's 45's that were in the "good shape" pile. There was a lot of Peggy Lee in that pile. Shockingly well recorded.
There were a bunch of Andrews Sisters too. All of them look and sound brand new. Of my 45's they have become my current favorites.
Nice! I don't have a lot of 45s and the few I have are UK pressings, but I do have Peggy's 'Alright, Okay You Win' and 'Fever' singles in superb condition and they sound great. I do have a lot of original Capitol LPs from the 50s and early 60s. For great sound on this kind of stuff cheap, the mid 80s French and UK reissues are very nice and much easier to find in excellent condition.
I went on a buying spree at estate sales about 15 years ago. I bought LP's in boxes of a hundred or so for about 10 bucks for each box. And a lot of them just gave away 45's (and cassettes) so I grabbed all I could. I ended up with about 500 45's, but about a third of them are out of juke boxes. i.e. they're trashed. But some of the others are absolutely pristine - once you clean them. I've still got a hundred or so to sort through.
Great stuff! It's very pleasing when a tired and dirty looking record comes up in great shape after a clean, then being the first person to hear it sounding good for decades, if it's been played at all in the last 50+ years.
FWIW, I use the flat paint trimmer and Dawn method. I'm able to clean 20 to 50 at a time. It really doesn't take long and it has amazing results.
Just the ol' bit of soap and lukewarm water for me. Works a treat. I play the record on the Dansette in my avatar first just to dig out any residue on a cheap stylus, then they're good to go.
I'm with you on that. I just add the brush because its bristles are absurdly tiny and they ride the record just like the needle. If more is needed I take care of it on the TT. Maybe microfiber and solution, or just my discwasher or a CF brush. But that water and soap with the brush riding the grooves has brought back some incredibly dirty - but otherwise unharmed - records. I also learned that a lot of visible scratches are only on the surface and don't affect the sound at all.
All spot on. I'll have to get one of those brushes. I've spent many years buying records very cheap from various places and they often have been stored badly and are filthy. It's very important to have a good cleaning routine with this, but it's often astonishing what a great sound is buried in those old grooves. I love bringing old records back to life and either keeping them or passing them on to people who will play them. It's what they were made for! You're right about scuffs too. Many old records can look badly scuffed and still play almost as well as an excellent condition copy. Some of Peggy's albums are so quite and sparse musically though they can be very unforgiving! I've never found a great playing copy of the Black Coffee album. Groovewear is the biggest problem with 50s and 60s vinyl.
Yep. Obviously that is the problem with the jukebox records, but it is also a problem with 45's normally since they were bought to be played a lot and usually on cheap equipment. But if you get one from the 50's, when 45's and 33's were vying for dominance, many were purchased by adults, meaning they not only were not played as often as an early Beatles 45, but may have been played on better equipment. And they may have hardly been played at all.
Thanks for your own personal record cleaning tips. I am sure that I am not the only one who would appreciate a more detailed description of your methods and materials. Commercial fluids are very expensive if you consider large collections of old records
Mine is pretty simple. I bring a stack of records into the kitchen and lay a towel on the counter. I then turn the faucet to spray and the water to "luke warm". Wet and then squirt about a half tespoon of Dawn on the paint Trimmer. Then the following process for each record, in groups of five or six: 1. Pull a record out of the jacket and give it a quick spray of water. 2. lay it on the towel and run the paint trimmer over it clockwise for a few turns and counter clockwise for a few turns. It follows the grooves around like a slot car. 3. Flip the record over and do the other side. 4. Rinse both sides with the sprayer, shake a bit (carefully drop the edge of the record onto the towel, causing a sharp stop that shakes a lot of water off. 5. Stand on its edge against the kitchen splash guard and repeat for the next record. When I've completed the group, take each record and use a different towel to wipe both sides "mostly" dry and stand on their edge somewhere to completely air dry. Then repeat the process for the next batch of five or six. When I've done the entire group of 20-100, take each one, slip in the sleeve (the old one or one of the new ones) and place in the jacket. The water does not damage (noticeably) the label with such short water contact. I still zap the static and clean each record before playing. I did learn from a very informative video that it's most effective to zap the record in your hand before putting it on the TT. This method has been extremely effective. And here is the trimmer. I got mine at Lowes over ten years ago:
I like that. It appears you use a "pad brush". In house painting, I never liked those types of brushes, but for this application it may be perfect. Your post may be banned at the request of manufacturers of $2,000 record cleaning machines with their expensive fluids.
I'm actually considering getting one of those silicone rollers. I have a Nikon 3D microscope that I use to check out the grooves of albums from time to time and noticed something interesting: Even after this deep cleaning, some records would still have a fair amount of extremely tiny pieces of dirt in them. I tried cleaning with my discwasher with fluid, carbon brush, and even a simple microfiber cloth with an alcohol solution sprayed directly on the record. The latter actually made the most difference, but a lot of it is still there. The interesting part was on a couple of very stubborn places I actually "scrubbed" the record with my old discwasher stylus cleaner (This is practically like using a wire brush) and that DID remove the stuff and made an audible difference (in the good way). I only did this on one of my "throw away" albums. I'm going to give the roller a try on one of these and see if it works. I'll try to send before and after pictures. It's not perfect, but I can actually take "acceptable for this purpose" pictures with my cell phone through the eye piece of the microscope.
I don't consider them worth it. I do have a 78 stylus and a few 78's, but mainly as a curiosity - kinda like how I used to collect 8 track tapes and even had a player/recorder.
It all depends on the music on the record. But they are definitely on a much higher level artistically than 8 track tapes which virtually always were just a copy from an LP.
This one will be at my place on tuesday. Since I'm retired I can get a record that still has all those microscopic "clingers" and see if it makes a difference. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KG2JYXM?psc=1&smid=A2BR6R508CUH4S&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp
