[78-L] 60 Years of Music America Loves Best

[David Lennick]

 I found this in Billboard..basically if you liked volume I get ready for volume II.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=ix4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=60+years+of+music+america+loves+best+billboard&source=bl&ots=Yqhp-5hyzU&sig=ACfU3U2AyFciiyR89stkhckw5BCsQSSTjg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9so-DrOjmAhVHlKwKHdRoAacQ6AEwBXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=60%20years%20of%20music%20america%20loves%20best%20billboard&f=false     On Friday, January 3, 2020, 4:12:26 p.m. EST, dlennick dlennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:  
 
   


 
 
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Rodger J Holtin <rjh334578 at gmail.com.invalid>
To: 78-List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: January 3, 2020 at 3:45 PM
Subject: [78-L] 60 Years of Music America Loves Best


60 Years of Music America Loves Best

 

I was about 10 years old when this set of albums came out. My uncle had just
bought a new, fancy, two-piece console Admiral stereo set and he got a copy
of Volume One as a premium with the stereo. My early case of Orthophonia
became terminal at that point. When I would go visit I would gravitate to
the Admiral and I would pull out that album. I must've driven them
absolutely nuts with it. Whispering was worlds away from what I had heard on
the radio at the time and I was hooked. I'm so glad they used Gene Austin's
Ramona instead of My Blue Heaven. I have lots of favorites from those albums
to this day. Come to find out, I wasn't the only one. A little Google
searching found numerous copies on eBay and reviews of volumes one, two or
three at various places like discogs.com, youtube, rateyourmusic and so on.

 

Parenthetically, I've run into multiple copies of Volumes One and both parts
of Volume Three, but curiously have yet to score a flea market copy of
Volume Two (the silver cover).

 

I have often tried to figure out what the formula was for creating the
playlists. It looks like Caruso, Tommy Dorsey, Arturo Toscanini, Glenn
Miller, Arthur Fiedler and Fritz Kreisler all made it on to all three
volumes. They must've been considered the hottest record sellers they had.
Country performers were represented by exactly two tracks: Vernon Dalhart,
and Eddie Arnold. Elvis had certainly come along by then, but he didn't even
get mentioned in the liner notes.

 

All of this got me to thinking about what the reviewers must've thought
about these albums when they were new, so a little more Google searching
brought me to the Billboard magazines 1960-1961. What a disappointment to
find only that they managed to make it to the top of the sales charts
between 1960 and 1961, but I have not found a single review of any of these
albums that was contemporary with them. Like I said there are a lot of
second-guessers writing about them decades after the fact (with lots of
misinformation, of course), but I haven't found any that were their
introductory splash. I would love to know what the contemporary reviewer's
thought about these albums when they were new.

 

If anybody knows about such an early review, please point me in that
direction, or send it to me, please?

 

I'm sure we can second-guess this thing into the ground as we are sometimes
wont to do with these kinds of (fun) subjects but what about the original
reviewers?

 

Thanks in advance, as always

 

Rodger Holtin

78-L Member Since MCMXCVIII

 

For Best Results Use Victor Needles

 

_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l