Here's Frank at his jaunty, romantic best - personally guiding you on a high-flying musical tour that spans three continents.

I bought this one for the cover. I've seen this cover a few times, but never really noticed the woman's hand in the foreground. It's on now.



Click to hear Come Fly With Me

This one caught my eye and I actually said "Oh!"

While the show goes on in all three rings, the REAL heros are the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band. It doesn't get any better than this! The band is conducted by the internationally famous Merle Evans, who leads the band with his left hand while playing brilliantly on the cornet with his right. Enjoy this rousing selection.

Bring on the Clown Car!



Click to hear Quality Plus

Any movie with Ed Wynn is got to be good.

Names like Louis Prima and the Sherman Brothers grace this soundtrack recording of the Disney classic. With The Shaggy Dog under Disney's belt, it was just a matter of time before the cat card was played. Disney slapstick at its best.

NOTE: No music link with this one - I haven't come across a copy that wasn't so well loved it was almost unplayable. Kid's love Disney records to death!

A great thrift store find: The Brave Bulls - Music of the Bull Fight Ring. Featuring the original Banda Taurina of the Plaza Mexico, World's largest Plaza de Toros.

A great glossy painterly cover, this one also featured a small booklet in an inside pocket: A Complete Bullfight with Pictures in Full Color. The booklet features different attacks and "moves" of the Matador with illustrations throughout.



Click to hear La Virgen de la Macarena

Best do what Frank says.

Billy May takes the bandstand and Frank does his coo-coo thing.



Click to hear Come Dance With Me

La musica mexicana de por si tan expresiva, cobra nueve belleza cuando sale del mariachi; el estridente cornetin, los roncos guitarrones, los violines alegres y las chispeantes guitarras, se conjuntan perfectamente dando a las canciones de nuestra tierra el sabor unico que las hace distinguirse entre todos los generos musicales.



Click to hear El Mariachi

Oh, Rochester!

No, Rochester isn't on this one - but Jack Benny and his unique style of violin make a cameo on this Dennis Day Christmas favorite.

Dennis Day worked with Jack Benny in radio and television for many years and probably realized the marketing potential of having Jack on the cover. The first track on the album (below) is a short selection that illustrates just how little Jack Benny would be needed musically on this album. The joke continues to the end of the first side where Benny quips that he's "not getting any younger" waiting to play his part on the album. At the end he finally gets to say Merry Christmas.

The album is traditional American Christmas at its best - right down to the middle kid's black eye. Somebody got a Daisy BB gun...



Click to hear I'm Ready Dennis

Great cover! Clipped me from across the thrift store.

I say "series" because I realized while the very colorful sleeve says "Cha-Cha Mambos," the record inside said "Rhumbas." Somewhere there is an equally wonderful cover with my record in it. I was also surprised to find an Arthur Murray Dance Certificate. Good for two introductory dance lessons. Just enough to get you hooked.



Click to hear Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

It's always a good thing to find these great little forgotten 10 inch records.

Manufactured by Monogram Records, NY - but on a SuperTone label from Trinidad, these records are a treat! Each song is a toe-tapper. Some of the tunes on this album are Calypso standards, but I must say - I have yet to come across another group that did this particular gastronomical selection.

I am also very fond of the tall sort of logo treatment artwork on the back of the album.



Click to hear Pig Knuckles and Rice

Stellar moves! Dude is laying it down.

This was a cover buy for sure. I should play this one day...

Gisele is Gisele MacKenzie - known as one of the greatest female voices of her generation. She sang frequently on early television shows such as The Jack Benny Program and The Ed Sullivan Show. In later years she performed in musical theater in such shows as Mame, Gypsy, The Sound of Music, and Hello, Dolly!. She turned to acting in the 1990s, making guest appearances on television series including Murder, She Wrote and MacGyver.

I buy this album every time I encounter it so I can have it in the best possible condition. Not the record itself as much as the cover.



Click to hear Slow Poke

Released by Kenner Toy Company in 1959, The Give-A-Show Projector helped bring Saturday morning favorites to darkened basements and quilt-covered card tables across America.

From Yesterdayland.com:

The Give-A-Show Projector was equal parts slide projector and flashlight. Its plastic casing changed shape and color over the years, but it always contained a bright projector light bulb and a slot that allowed the user to feed a strip of film through the light it emitted to create projected images. To put on a show, the Projector user dimmed the lights and aimed their Give-A- Show Projector at the blank wall of their choice. They then fed a projection strip containing six slides through the side of the Give-A-Show Projector. The end result was a series of four-foot images that told a story to the viewers through words and pictures.



The Give-A-Show took advantage of popular entertainment and obtained the licenses necessary to use some first-rate subjects for the slide shows, especially cartoon characters. As the Give-A-Show became more popular, Kenner started including 45 records to play while projecting the images. Like most filmstrip formats, you change the slide when you hear the tone. Some of the more exciting Adventure Time titles were:

Monkeys in Space
Dinosaur Fight
Monster of the Ocean Deep
and, featured below Giants and Midgets

It's Show Time!



Click to hear Giants and Midgets

After Saturday morning cartoons and Bandstand came the local Horror Thriller program. Scary stuff. Made even more frightening with it's theremin-filled opening theme.

Here's a great little piece of film showing Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman playing the theremin in a little less scary vein.

Don't look now - the statue behind him is coming to life! Doctor! Look out! AAAAHHH!

This Capitol sleeve features a great ink and brush illustration of the famous Capitol Records Building in Hollywood. Built in 1954, it was the world's first circular office building. At night the red light on top of the spire blinks out the one word message "Hollywood" in Morse code every few seconds.

On the flip side two happy people enjoy the new seven inch format recordings of their favorite Capitol artists.

Without giving too much away, I highlighted a Cattanooga Cats selection in my birthday show. And as always, not everyone on this earth sees Saturday Morning cartoons as ticks on humanity's timeline. ("Come on, you remember!") So for the unfamiliar:

Cattanooga Cats was/is a Saturday Morning offering produced by Hanna-Barbera for ABC. The quirky, mod program featuring four hillbilly cats ran from 1969 until 1971. The animated series followed the same tried and true "rock band" template as the Archies and The Banana Splits, but showed a more psychedelic or op-art influence.

Stay tuned to RadioNo for a special tribute to this template: The Saturday Morning Cereal Show.