Tag: Lenny Dee

Turntable Talk – Feels Like The First Time

It’s time for another round of Turntable Talk. This is the 14th edition hosted by Dave over at A Sound Day. As always he has presented our little group of music lovers with a great topic.

In his instructions he asks:

“Do you remember what the first album you bought was? LP? CD? Reel to reel, LOL? Why that one? Do you still have it? Would you want to ? Let your nostalgia run wild! Tell us about that first record you made your own.“

Let me start by saying that many of the albums my dad had, eventually wound up as “mine.” When I think back to the albums I remember there are some that I will never forget. To be clear, my dad bought these, but I wound up listening to them. He had many from Roy Orbison, Elvis, Lenny Dee, Herb Alpert, and so many others. The ones that eventually wound up in my room were a bit odd.

First, there was Dumb Ditties. An album of novelty songs put out by K-Tel. What 6 year old kid didn’t like silly songs?

Then there were two albums that had TV themes on them. There were not the original artists, and this was long before TV Toons put out their collections. They were actually pretty cheesy versions that a kid like me knew weren’t quite right, but close enough. They had goofy cartoon drawings of the main characters from the shows on the cover and were done by the Pop Singers and Orchestra. Was that even a real group?!

The last album that my dad bought that wound up in my record collection was the 1977 album of The Muppet Show. It had the theme song, Mah-Nah-Mah-Nah, and plenty of clips of the two old guys heckling the acts.

Now as far as the first album I actually bought, my memory is hazy. I know it had to be one of two and I know I would have bought them within a week of each other.

I had a paper route. I remember that you collected whatever your customers owed you for the week, and you paid for your papers. Whatever extra tip money you made was yours. I don’t recall making a lot of money, but it was enough to go up to the toy store to buy Star Wars stuff or to Harmony House to buy an album.

My dad had a couple of the Beatles albums. He had the blue and red greatest hits albums with them looking over the railing.

I loved the Beatles growing up – early Beatles. It took me a while to appreciate the later Beatles stuff. I recall walking into the Harmony House and grabbing either Beatles ’65 OR Beatles VI. I wish I could remember which one was THE first. I know, however, that these two albums were bought almost immediately after I began delivering papers.

Whichever one I bought first, I suppose doesn’t matter. These two albums contain some of my favorite songs by the Fab Four and they were played over and over again.

“This happened once before, when I came to your door. No reply….” A cold open starts Beatles 65. Boom! There’s John. What follows on the album was a variety of musical nuggets that my young ear just loved!

The harmonies sounded even better with headphones. I’m a Loser, Baby’s In Black, I’ll Be Back, and Mr. Moonlight each had me trying to sing all the different notes. There were great cover songs like Honey Don’t, Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby, and Rock and Roll Music. Then there was I’ll Follow the Sun. Beautifully simple.

Beatles 65 was an album I played from start to finish many times.

As for Beatles VI, there were “skip” songs on this one for me. Skip songs were You Like Me Too Much, Words of Love, Tell Me What You See, and Every Little Thing. Why those didn’t do much for me, I can’t say.

I, of course, loved those great cover songs – Dizzy Miss Lizzie, Bad Boy, and Kansas City. I knew all of these songs by their original artists, but came to dig those Beatles versions more.

As a kid, I often found myself drumming my desk in school to the opening of Look What You’re Doing. The teachers told me to leave the drumming to Ringo!

The one song that is the stand out for me on the album was Eight Days a Week. What a great song. It is one that even non Beatles fans know, love, and sing along to. I could be mistaken on this, but I swear there was no fade in on the album. I remember the first time I played this at a radio station and the fade in happened – it freaked me out. Either way, it is one of their best songs.

My love for the Fab Four started very early in life thanks to the musical influence of my mom and dad (and maybe that Beatles cartoon). That love for them continues to this day. It only makes sense to me that the first album I would buy would be from them! These albums remain as fresh today as they were when they were released – years before I ever got my hands on them. 

Thanks again to Dave for inviting me to take part in this feature.  As always, I look forward to reading the other contributions and to next month’s topic.

Friday Photo Flashback

Recently, I did a blog based on a writing prompt that suggested finding a photo and blogging about the memories that it brings back to you. I enjoyed doing it and thought I would try to do one every Friday. I’m not sure I’ll have enough photos to post, but we’ll see.

The above photo is on my brother (left) and me (right) in our old house in Sterling Heights. The photo is probably taken around 1976. If I had to guess it is probably shortly after Christmas.

It is very easy to focus on the main action in the picture. We are obviously pulling on Stretch Armstrong. I remember seeing ads for Stretch as a kid and asked for it for Christmas or my birthday. It was one of my favorite toys. What I found interesting was looking at the things outside of the center of the picture.

At the bottom is a yellow airplane. I recognized it immediately. In one of my early blogs I talked about the Fisher Price “Adventure People.” The plane is from one of those sets.

What I remember about those “Adventure People” is that eventually, their heads wouldn’t stay up. They always fell down to the chest.

To the right of the plane are some boxes. I wish I could make out what they are. They certainly look like they may be from toys or gifts, which is why I think this might be around Christmas.

Behind me in the picture is yet another “Adventure People” set. It was hard to make out, but I remembered it once I realized what it was. It is the FP Rescue Truck. If you look carefully, you can see the red “bucket” ladder in the picture.

Behind my brother is a book case. On the bottom shelf, it looks like there might be some of my dad’s school books to the right. To the left of those is some series of books with white covers. I’m not really sure what those are.

On the next shelf up is a series of blue books which I remember well. I cannot remember if they were from Reader’s Digest or World Book or some company like that, but they had all kinds of historical stuff in them. Some were about cars, some where about movies and TV, and others were about politics. I loved looking through those and looking at pictures of old movie stars.

On the shelves above that one I can see book bindings from some of my mom’s “beauty” books, cook books, a three ring binder, a couple Bibles, and paperbacks. I’m not sure why there is a green teapot on there!

On the bottom left there was a cabinet. I want to say that is where you could find some of the family photo albums. One of them probably held the picture that is the subject of this blog.

Above the cabinet door is a shelf that is loaded up with 12 inch Vinyl records. Even though I can’t see them, I can name albums that are on this shelf! They were the ones my dad played often. The Beatles Let It Be, Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits, Elvis In Concert, The Best of Lenny Dee, and about 20 compilation albums.

On top of the albums, there are some loose gloves (suggesting winter time), and what seems to be VHS tape holder. I know that is not what it is, because we didn’t even have VCR’s at this time. If I had to wager a guess, those drawers are probably holding 8-track tapes. (My dad used to record his own for us to listen to in the car.) The Phonograph turntable is probably on the shelf just above those albums with two speakers sitting next to it.

As I look at this picture I wish I could walk through it! While I don’t recall the layout completely, I do remember that my room was all the way at the end of the hall. I know behind me in the picture is the hall closet, my parents room would be at the end on the right, the bathroom is also on the right (you can kind of see the counter with a bottle of what looks like hairspray on it), and on the left across from the closet – my brother’s room.

I vaguely remember things about that house, as I was only there for 6 years of my life. I would love to be able to walk back through it and just take it all in. I’ve probably forgotten so much about it.

It’s actually neat to look beyond what was being captured on film. I wish that these old photos were clearer, so I could really dive into the things in the background.