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Contents of Home
Page:
New in this Update
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Musical
Theater Albums |
Musical
Theater Albums |
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Kean |
La Cage Aux Folles |
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The King and I (Hunt, Snow) |
Lady Be Good |
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The King and I (Lincoln Center) |
Lady in the Dark |
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The King and I (Original) |
Leader of the Pack |
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The King and I (Cook, Bikel) |
Les Miserables (Broadway) |
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Kismet (MacRae, Kirsten)) |
Les Miserables (London) |
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Kismet (Lincoln Center) |
Li'l Abner |
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Kiss Me, Kate (Grant, Keel) |
Little Mary Sunshine |
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Kiss Me, Kate (Wrightson, Mayo) |
Little Me (Monaural) |
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Kiss Me, Kate (Drake, Morison) |
Little Me (Stereo) |
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Kiss Me, Kate (Goulet, Lawrence) |
Little Shop of Horrors |
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Kiss Me, Kate (Original) |
Lorelei |
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Kwamina |
Lost in the Stars |
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Recent
Acquisitions |
Recent
Acquisitions |
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I Wanted Someone To Love
(Frankie Laine) |
Sound Ideas (Les & Larry Elgart) |
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An Evening Out With James Last |
'Pop' Classics (101 Strings) |
Featured Artist - May 2012 Each month we feature a performer or
group in order to introduce that artist to those who might be
unfamiliar with his/her/their work. We hope this feature will
inform and entertain those who are already fans and will awake an
interest in those who are not.
Peter Nero
 A
kid from Brooklyn, Bernard Nierow, cut his first recording in 1961,
20 years after starting to study the piano and 10 years after first
performing on television. Somewhere along the way, he became
Peter Nero and went on to a long career (into the 21st Century)
playing jazz, pop, and classical music on nearly 70 records.
His labels included Arista, Columbia, Concord Jazz, RCA Victor and
Bainbridge among others, although most of his releases were with RCA
(Victor or Camden). He has composed scores for movies and
television shows and has appeared in concert many, many times.
He has received numerous awards including honorary doctorates from
prestigious universities. A man of all music forms, Peter Nero
is equally comfortable wherever his music takes him.
Want to know more? Click on the link to learn about the life
and music of
Peter Nero.
Previously Featured
Artists
About
VinylTimeMachine.com
Background
On this Website you will find a wide selection
of long-playing records from “the golden age” of recorded music. You
may call them “oldies” or “easy listening” or even
“lounge” records, but whatever you call them they captured the
music of YOUR life. And,
please, don't call these classic LP's “elevator music,” since
the categories include jazz and swing, vocals, instrumentals, blues, stage
and screen, folk, country and a little rock 'n' roll. This
Website serves two functions: (1) it is becoming an online inventory
of my collection, and (2) it displays my collection to those who
might be interested in expanding their own collections.
I would like to acknowledge at this point the contributions of a
particular research source to my own pages. Of course, in my
attempts to unearth interesting information for each artist, group,
record or film, I search many online sources as well as "hard copy"
items on occasion. My first point of reference in most
searches is www.wikipedia.org,
"The Free Encyclopedia," a site that normally provides an excellent
starting point for my own much more limited text pieces. I am
indebted to the administrators, editors, programmers, contributors and other
staff at Wikipedia for making so much useful information available.
 In
the Beginning. Thomas Edison could not have known the extent to which the first
working phonograph he demonstrated in 1878 would affect industries,
cultures, people, and performers. The simple tinfoil cylinder he
used was an inauspicious beginning for today’s diverse and high-tech
world of recorded music, but that early medium grew through shellac
(wax) cylinders and early shellac (wax) discs in the late 1800s to
multiple formats of disc media beginning with 12” 78 rpm discs first
sold in 1903, holding 4 to 5 minutes of music on each side.
Evolution. The first 33 1/3 rpm
discs were made by RCA in the 1930s but had little success at that
time, coincidentally the same time vinyl was replacing shellac as
the recording medium. Higher quality 33 1/3 discs were introduced
by Columbia in 1948, and a year later RCA unveiled the first 45 rpm
discs. The 78 rpm disc remained in use into the 1970s, but the 45
rpm and 33 1/3 rpm formats quickly became the most popular and
remained in use until the late 1980s and early 1990s. 2-channel
stereo records were introduced in the U.S. in 1958 by Audio
Fidelity, following the introduction of 3-channel stereo by Mercury
in 1955. 4-channel or quadraphonic stereo arrived in 1971, and the
Motown label introduced 12” single discs in the ‘70s. Along
the way, there were dead-end side trails in the form of reel-to-reel
magnetic tape, followed by magnetic tape cassettes and finishing
with the ill-fated 8-track magnetic tape cassettes. By 1969,
record companies had switched entirely to stereo vinyl discs and were no
longer producing monaural versions as had been the practice since
the introduction of stereo a decade earlier. Twenty years
later, by 1989, the vinyl disc had given way to the laser-recorded
compact disc that is still in popular use today although losing
ground to downloads and hard drives.
 Marketing. As an interesting
sidelight to the history of the discs themselves, the "creation" of
the album cover by a graphic artist at Columbia Records in 1939
opened a new vista of enjoyment for record buyers. Up to that
time, records had been packaged in plain paper sleeves and often
sold in groups of several sleeves in a cover stamped with the title
and artist and not much else. Alexander Steinweiss, a young
graphic artist with an interest in classical and jazz music, was
employed by Columbia Records and one day concluded that the covers
for records could be more eye-catching and interesting if they had
pictures on them. He experimented with a number of forms and
finally came up with the thin cardboard cover with art on the front
and information on the reverse. He was right. Records
marketed in the new covers sold considerably better than those in
the plain sleeves. Thus was a new art form, the album cover,
born to complement the marketing of recorded music.
Twilight. In spite of the
improvements in materials, recording and playback technologies over
the years, the
introduction of the compact disc in 1982 sounded the death knell for
the vinyl LP as the dominant format for the marketing of recorded
music. By the late 1980s, few LPs were still being made and sold,
and today the LP is a specialty item produced by few companies,
usually for the connoisseur who still believes the sound quality is
better than that of the compact disc.
 CD
or LP? Music lovers have moved on from
LPs to CDs for the digital perfection of the sound that format
provides. I have many CDs myself, but they are NOT
what I collect. Vinyl, lacking the digital perfection of a
compact disc, somehow seems to embody the warmth and reality of a
live performance. Another plus for the LP is the large format
of the album cover, providing a canvas for graphic and textual
information that is difficult to squeeze onto a smaller CD case.
Themes Like Old Times. Enjoy your
CDs and the online downloads that are rapidly replacing them, but don't
lose sight of the old 33 1/3 rpm vinyl LP that provided 30 to 40 minutes
of themed listening pleasure for more than 40 years.
So, fellow time-travelers, warm up the turntable, put on a vinyl LP, sit back, and
enjoy a visit with an old friend.
What is
VinylTimeMachine.com?
The 6,500+
vinyl long-playing records that comprise the inventory of VinylTimeMachine.com
are records that were purchased for my own enjoyment over a period of many
years. But, there comes a time when every collector must part
with his treasures. I decided to make my collection available via the
World Wide Web so that others who share my interest in classic vinyl
might have a new source for those hard-to-find oldies.
Do you have a
favorite artist or band or orchestra or group that you would like to
hear again? Like me, you are
probably an avid music buff and collector, and you are looking for more recordings by your favorite
artists or in a particular genre.
VinylTimeMachine.com can be a source for adding to your
collection as the remaining supply of vinyl records dwindles smaller and
smaller.
Browsing
My collection is
organized in several categories, each
containing hundreds of records by numerous artists. You
can select the category of interest to you and then link to that page to view
the list of records or artists
of interest. Additional
links will then take you to a page describing key data about each
record, including title, artist, release date (if known), excerpts
from liner notes (or other comments), the condition of the record
and its cover, and the "catalog" price of the record. In many
cases, you will pay less than the quoted price, so be sure to ask
about this. (Note: This
Website is still under development, so many supporting pages behind
categories and artists are not yet actively linked. If you
want more detail about an unlinked artist or record, contact us via
e-mail at
VinylTimeMachine.)
If you enjoy
browsing this website, let us hear from you at
VinylTimeMachine.
Categories
Although many
records might be classified in more than one category, I have
selected the following as the basic groupings for my collection:
- Vocals – Featuring individual performers or “ad
hoc” small groups of performers in a traditional pop or easy
listening format.
- Instrumentals – Bands, orchestras or other groups
performing principally in the traditional pop or easy listening
format.
- Jazz & Swing – Includes a wide range of
vocalists, bands, orchestras, or other groups performing
primarily soft jazz-oriented selections. Big band swing
and blues compositions are also in this category.
- Dixieland – Old-time or more contemporary musicians
performing in the Dixieland style, including New Orleans,
Chicago, San Francisco, and others.
- Soundtracks – Actual soundtracks from films or TV
shows.
- Theater – Stage musicals taken from either
Broadway productions or similar venues (e.g., off-Broadway,
Lincoln Center, London stage, LA stage, studio cast).
- Stage and Screen – Records by various artists and
groups featuring music from films and stage productions, but
not
soundtrack or original cast albums.
- Folk & Country – Includes a wide range of
vocalists, groups (large and small), and bands performing
selections across the wide spectrum of these genres.
- Groups - Small groups of either vocalists or
instrumentalists in any of the genres.
- Compilations – This is a category for records
consisting of tracks by multiple artists rather than a single
entity. Compilations occur in every genre and often mix
genres on the same record.
- Personal Collection -
This "category" is actually a cross-section of all
categories, identifying particular favorite artists and records
that are not for sale.
In the event that I have multiple copies of such a record, those
copies may be for sale. For example, I will
not sell a Julie London album or an Al Hirt or Bobby Hackett
album unless I have duplicates.
 As noted, a
given record may be in several categories, so your
browsing should not be limited to just the “most logical”
classification. Some Al
Hirt recordings are pure pop (Instrumentals) while others are pure
Dixieland, so he might show up in both categories.
Peggy Lee could be found in Vocals (traditional pop) or in
the Jazz grouping, while Roger Miller could be in Vocals as well as
Country.
If you don’t see
the artist or group you are looking for, send an e-mail to
VinylTimeMachine and ask whether we have it in our collection.
We are ready to help you find the records you need to build
your own collection of the music of a recent but rapidly fading era.
Ordering
 After you have
identified records of interest, or if you have questions of any
kind, send an e-mail to
VinylTimeMachine using the hyperlink
provided. We will check to see whether the records you want are
available and will also respond to any questions you raised. By return e-mail, we will confirm the availability status and
total cost of your order and ask that you submit a firm order (via
e-mail) and your payment. For
your convenience, we offer a PayPal option that will speed up the
processing of your order. As soon as we are notified by PayPal
to confirm your payment, we can ship your order. Checks or
money orders are also acceptable, but if you use one of these
methods we will be unable to ship your order until your payment has
cleared all channels, which can take up to 10 business days.
Shipping Options
Our normal shipping
method will be via U.S. Postal Service at media rate, with insurance. If
you want faster delivery, you may elect to
have your purchases shipped via Priority Mail, also with insurance. If you are ordering a large number of records, UPS will be
offered as an alternative. Our
e-mail in response to your order will state the cost of delivery by
the method you have selected, which includes packaging materials as
well as actual mailing/shipping.
Your E-Mail Order
When you send
your e-mail order, be sure you provide the following information:
- Name of Record(s) desired
- Name of Performer
- Your E-Mail Address
- Your Name and Full Mailing Address
- Delivery Method:
- Media Rate (Least Cost)
- Priority
- UPS
- Payment Method Selected:
- PayPal (Faster Shipping)
- Personal Check
- Certified Check
- Money Order
We will respond to
your e-mail order with the total price, based on the delivery method
you selected, and will ask you to (a) confirm the order by e-mail
to
VinylTimeMachine and (b) submit your payment, either via PayPal or via the mail . Remember
– we cannot ship your record (s) until we have received confirmation
by PayPal or your
payment instrument has cleared banking channels.
Your prompt action will ensure that you receive your records
in a timely manner.
Limited Warranty
These records are
not new and have been used with varying degrees of care over a period of many years, in some cases 50 years or more,
so we are unable to warrant that they will play flawlessly on any
particular turntable. Our
only warranty is that each record, when mailed, is in the condition
described on the Web page and in our e-mail to you, based on commonly used grading schemes.
In brief, my grading and pricing approach uses the following
breakout:
- Mint – The record and cover are still sealed in the
original plastic covering and have not been opened or played.
(I have only a few records in this category.)
- Near-Mint – The record and cover have no significant
flaws but are not in the original plastic covering.
(These records have been used but were treated with the
utmost care.)
- Excellent – The record or cover has minor flaws but none that would significantly affect playback
and enjoyment.
- Very Good – The record or cover has small flaws including a few that may minimally affect
playback.
- Good - The record is playable and generally enjoyable but has
instances of loud clicks or skips on one or more tracks.
- Poor - The record has significant defects and may be
largely unplayable.
We
recommend that LPs graded Good
or Poor be purchased only to fill a
gap in a collection until the same record in better condition can be
found.
Grading is accomplished by the tried and true Mark 1 Eyeball
method, which means that defects that cannot be seen are not
considered in grading the record. Prior to shipping a record
to a buyer, we will play it to confirm whether the actual condition
matches that advertised on our Web page and, if it does not we will
adjust the price DOWN to the correct level! This way, the
buyer is assured of receiving the stated quality at a fair price. All
records in all grades are sold "As Is" with no warranties other than
the limited warranty described above. |
