Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl

Gee, imagine that! Another album featuring a trumpet player from my dad's collection. And a trumpet player we've heard from before.

This time, we get to hear some great ragtime.

This artist not only fronted his own band, but got his pedigree through some of the best big bands in history.

So, get ready to hear a musician who had a movie made about his life in Volume 220: Red Hot Pennies.

More information about this album, see the Di...

There’s an old business saying that goes, how do you eat a whale? One bite at a time. 

In this episode we take several small bites and a couple of big ones from the incredible output of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

Ahhhh Bach.

And to continue that M*A*S*H connection right now in the opening, the scene goes, “Somehow... there's a mathematical precision about Bach, a complexity that adds up to actual simplicity. It goes beyond...

Episode dedicated to Dino Baskovic (1974-2025)

This is the third of four records from Connie Francis that my dad has in his collection. She WAS the top charting female US artist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. 

Her popularity was due to her voice and being able to sing in multiple languages. And she was a hit maker during the early days of rock and roll.

So get ready to hear a star who was estimated to have sold more than 200 mi...

Here’s an album I thought was going to be unplayable when I saw the condition of the cover. I have no idea why the back and front are completely separated. And the bigger surprise is that my dad didn’t put it back together with his usual black electrical tape patchwork.

But I’m glad I didn’t overlook it because of the condition of the cover when I listened to the music it wasn’t covering very well. This was some great jazz that I d...

Talk about your complete coincidences. The numbers 2-1-6 come up three times in regards to this episode. It’s the episode number. It’s the date this episode drops. The US version of dating things. And it’s the area code of where this music was performed and recorded. Yes, I bought a lottery ticket today.

Recordings of the Cleveland orchestra date back to 1928. Discogs dot com has them credited for well more than 800 either old 78 R...

It's  special Valentine’s Day episode of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl. 

That means, of course, my girlfriend Karen gets to join me as we once again grab some music from one of the most romantic voices ever recorded.

We featured this voice two years ago in our Valentines special and it’s the third of five Nat King Cole records in his dad’s collection. This was one of 30 albums Cole recorded for Capitol Records.

So, get ready to hear the ...

Welcome to a 78 RPM Sunday!

As I was flipping through my dad’s shellac collection looking for patterns to create a few 78 RPM episodes for this season, I found these 7 disks. What they had in common was their one-sidedness.

Yup. In the early days of records, they only pressed one side. And I’ll talk about why in detail a little later.

What’s most important to remember is that every one of these disks was pressed more than 110 years...

How are we only on record five of this great seven record set? Because I continue to find gold in this box set filled with legendary songs about the old west.

Each record, or in this case each side of this collection had its own theme. Even with those guides, I might take a little poetic license when I name episodes like this. 

One side of this record is about things South Of The Border. The flip side mentions a thing or two about ...

We once again pull out the most popular orchestra leader in my dad’s collection. This is a follow-up album to a popular record my dad does not have. Both titles reference the Ira and George Gershwin tune S’Wonderful from the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face.

Of course Conniff arranged all of these standards by using a chorus singing tones and not lyrics, which created his own recognizable style.

So, get ready to hear another in the...

Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeye football team for winning their ninth national championship. 

If you grew up in Ohio, especially in the 1960s and 70s, you were probably an OSU fan no matter where you ended up going to college in the state. My parents certainly were and they instilled the love of Buckeye football on us as well.

During the early 1970s, the Bucks’ offense featured a back who is still the only two-time winner...

My dad seemed to have an album for every occasion. 

I can’t tell you how appropriate the timing is to play this record for you. Oh wait…yes I can…and will.

This is truly in the vein of “the more things change the more they stay the same.” And it’s all portrayed using some of the main characters of an all time classic movie.

Tomorrow the United States of America swears in its 47th president, who, of course, was also the 45th preside...

I’ve mentioned this a few times on this show. The Latin beat was extremely popular when my dad was a teenager and beyond. This record is a combination of taking that Latin beat, this time from a specific country, and arranging it with a plush orchestra.

The orchestra conductor who arranged this music was considered the leader in a genre that infiltrated hundreds of radio stations in the 1960s. It’s still a term widely used to descr...

Welcome to season five.

We start out 2025 with a trumpet player you’ve heard twice before. This is the last of his records in my dad’s collection.

When I first came across him, 165 episodes ago, I realized quickly that I had been missing out on listening to another great trumpet player in my youth. His previous episodes are on my play-often list.

The arrangements on this record call for his playing to be smooth and lyrical, but we ...

Welcome to the last episode of season 4.

You know you can get close to new years eve and NOT have to listen to Guy Lombardo. WE are going to finish out 2024 on a really upbeat note. In fact, there’s nothing like that two-beat music to send us out dancing.

Our featured artist has a slightly more famous brother, but he certainly made a big name for himself as well. And on this record, he features music from the Big Easy, which was am...

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, well, except for my dad who was putting together the air hockey game, or large electronic toy crane, or other present that would be one of ours the next morning. I have two younger brothers and a sister.   Those are some of my memories of Christmas past, but I wonder what some of my dad's memories of those past holidays were when HE was a kid....

Here’s a fun find from this collection. My father really loved his country music too besides all that jazz, pop and classical.

This is the kind of country and western music that was kind of between the fiddle-led twang of early country and the days of outlaw country, although you will hear one of those outlaws from his early days first.

This album is filled with memorable songs and some great memories that went beyond those songs. ...

We pull out the second record from this seven disk box set. This one is filled with an incredible performance of a long piece of music from an incredible composer.

The Reader’s Digest liner notes for this seven record box set starts off "the nineteenth century was just opening in Vienna when the fist of an implacable genius knocked like destiny upon the doors of music." 

They were, of course, talking about the immortal Ludwig Van B...

Of course big bands and cars go together. The first car radio was offered by Chevrolet in 1922. As the medium became more popular and more practical for use in a vehicle, it was more than likely large jazz orchestras filling those airwaves.

This album is a really good collection of some great star band leaders along with some great versions of big hits.

So get ready to hear music that was probably coming out of the dashboard for th...

For our last stop during World Tour November we head to a region of the world known for its  Beaches and Casinos. To where the rich have played for centuries. Three different country’s musical styles are included on this record; Spain, France, and Italy.

In fact, the music you will hear was composed by a prince of the holy Roman Empire. His scores create musical landscapes in your mind. 

So, get ready to hear music that gets us int...