A Quickie Quiz
We’re going through this process of sorting through our records and deciding what to keep and what to sell. The main reason, honestly, is just that we have too many records. It’s hard to decide what to listen to, and hard to manage with records and record players spilling over into every room in the house. Anyway, in this process we’re looking at and listening to records in our collection that have been on the shelf for years and never received a listen or a look. As we do this, we are finding some interesting things. For instance, here’s a question we’ll pose based on an album we reviewed yesterday. The album is Mundell Lowe and His Orchestra, New Music of Alec Wilder, Riverside 219. It may not be at the top of everyone’s want list, but it’s a decent record and our copy — which we’ve decided to sell — is an original white label pressing. Anyway, here’s the interesting tidbit, hence the quiz. The liner notes to this LP were written by an individual who was much better known as a singer than as a writer. Who was this individual? Ten points to the first person who gets the right answer.
Was it Frank Sinatra?
it was.
Indeed, it was. Thanks, Jason and Rudolf. Riverside was clearly thrilled: After Sinatra’s comments it notes: “Riverside Records is deeply grateful to Frank Sinatra for graciously finding time, in a particularly crowded schedule, to prepare these comments on the music of Alec Wilder.”
Separately, I have to say, this is the great dilemma in getting rid of ANY records: If I sell this, then where would I ever again get access to these liner notes from 1956 in their original form?