Old favorites....

[electra225]

I recorded a group of 78-rpm records on an old Voice of Music 730 "Tape-O-Matic" tape recorder (that I still have) sometime in the late 1960's. In about 2011 or so I got energetic and transferred the music from the old mono R-R tape to digital, then on to a CD. Naturally, the next step in the process was to misplace the CD. I found it recently and took the opportunity to play it today. Most of the records I processed belonged to my grandmother. Her Arthur Godfrey album, a couple old Victor records allegedly purchased while she was in high school during WW1. One of dad's Cliffie Stone records which are certainly not my favorites, but do remind me of dad's square dancing days. The highlights of this collection would be "Little Red Monkey" a Rosie Clooney record, on the Golden label, yellow plastic ten-inch record, with the Golden Orchestra, conducted by one Mitchell Miller. "I'm Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover" and "The Thousand Island Song" by Arthur Godfrey. "Slow Poke" and "Too Fat Polka" his 1946 smash hit that probably would not even be allowed on radio at all nowadays. "Can she fit in my coupe, by herself she's a group". They just don't write stuff like that anymore.

Little Red Monkey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyCbs7s ... rt_radio=1

Too Fat Polka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h-a9cv ... rt_radio=1

"Barcelona" and "On The Riviera. I would love to have been able to hear these two songs recorded in stereo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi5Hc89 ... rt_radio=1

[Ken Doyle]

"Barcelona" and "On The Riviera. I would love to have been able to hear these two songs recorded in stereo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi5Hc89 ... rt_radio=1

Here's a copy that's not as worn:
https://archive.org/details/NatShilkret ... celona1926

[TC Chris]

That reminds us what a difference in aesthetics there is from then to now. For one thing, the vocalist has all the old vaudevillian characteristics. The instrumentation is a carry-over from acoustic recording days, although this one was probably an electric recording. I spent a lot of time as a kid listening to a 78 collection that came with the house my parents bought--in an old Sonora acoustic/springwound phono. The records were from the acoustic era mostly. The Sonora's drive mechanism is either polished & lacquered brass (what I assumed) or gold plated (what I've read). It's bright & shiny and completely hidden from view, never seen by the user.

Chris Campbell