for those who never gave up their turntables
THE TERM “PICTURE SLEEVE” has a specific meaning in record collecting. Basically, it’s a paper envelope with a photograph or artwork on at least one side made to hold a seven-inch, 45 rpm record. Japanese picture inserts for 45 rpm singles are not picture sleeves no matter how many collectors and dealers conflate the terms. [Continue reading]
WHAT IS A “PICTURE SLEEVE”? I know—this is a dumb question to the thousands of collectors who know the answer. But based on ads, articles, and comments on the internet, thousands of other collectors and sellers do not know the answer. Or they don’t know the correct answer. [Continue reading]
“BACK THROUGH THE OPERA GLASS” is the title of three lengthy articles that review most of the Beach Boys album covers released on major labels in the US. It is subtitled “The Stories Behind the Album Covers” and was written by Malcolm Searles. This massive project covers every important album from 1962 through the present. [Continue reading]
BE THE FIRST ON YOU BLOCK to read my new column, The Avid Record Collector! Sub-titled “From the Cut-Out Bin,” it can be found on the Sixties Music Secrets website! In each column, I will look at records that were mass-produced in the 1960s and subsequently deleted from record company catalogs. [Continue reading]
IN THE FINAL WEEKS OF 1965, Top 40 stations around the country started playing a new record by a not-so-new duo with the oddly intriguing name of Simon & Garfunkel. (At least it was odd if you weren’t Jewish or didn’t live on the East Coast.) The record was The Sounds Of Silence. [Continue reading]
DOES JACKIE DeSHANNON belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Making an argument for her or any artist is not easy for two reasons. First, the Hall does not have any set of criteria by which fans can assess potential candidates. Each year each vote appears to be a reflection of the mood of the nominators and voters of that year. [Continue reading]
I MOVED TO CALIFORNIA from Pennsylvania in June 1978. I naively believed I would find some semblance of “the sixties” hidden away in San Francisco. But in only a few years, most of it had been blotted out. There were still a lot of hand-painted Victorian houses and a few hip coffee shops and bookstores.
“THE DOOBIES IN THE HALL OF FAME?” That’s a question that’s been asked a bit in the wake of their recent induction into said Hall. There was a version of that question (“Are the Doobie Brothers Hall of Fame Worthy”) on Quora this morning. I answered it there and wanted to share my answer here. [Continue reading]
THIS IS THE TENTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Someday We’ll Be Honky Tonk Women Together” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on October 1, 2019. [Continue reading]