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Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
  • Artist name: Frank Sinatra
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $14.55

Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve previously reviewed two other Frank Sinatra compilations: The Best Of Frank Sinatra in June, which I didn’t like, and Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits! a few weeks ago, which I thought was ok.

What I expected

This record is volume two of Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits!. I guess it will be more smooth vocals for old people.

What it was actually like

My Way is a very famous song that I guess is widely associated with Sinatra, and I thought it wasn’t terrible, particularly after the point where it got a little more lively. What’s Now is Now was decent, too.

Something wouldn’t have stood out at all for being exceptionally bad if it had been a Sinatra original, but it was one of the worst covers of a Beatles song I’ve ever heard (when the overall tone of Sinatra’s version is contrasted with the song that George Harrison wrote and what the group put on Abbey Road).

All the other tracks were pretty typical of what I’ve heard from Frank Sinatra so far.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Exile on Main St. by the Rolling Stones (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Exile on Main St.
  • Group name: Rolling Stones
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Rolling Stones Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Sticker: “Promotional Copy / NOT FOR SALE”
    • Handwritten track list taped to inside of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $32.43

Exile on Main St. by the Rolling Stones

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I know Exile on Main St. to have been a very significant and influential Rolling Stones record, but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it all the way through, and if I did, it would have been one time, around 15 years ago.

In the past few months I’ve listened to Some Girls, which I did not like, and Beggars Banquet and Made in the Shade, both of which I thought were good.

What I expected

I don’t really have a clear idea of what the 1972 Stones sounded like, but I expect Exile on Main St. to be more like Beggars Banquet than the other two.

What it was actually like

This was an excellent blues and blues rock record and I enjoyed almost every part of it. The most unusual thing for me is that I barely recognized any of the songs, and none of them sounded particularly like hits to me, but evidently, sometimes an LP (or in this case, a double LP) can just have a wonderful sound throughout and not necessarily need its songs to be catchy for me to love it.

Highlights included Shake Your Hips, Tumbling Dice, Turd on the Run and Shine a Light. I especially liked that the Stones used gospel-style backing vocals on Shine a Light in a far more subtle and successful way than Paul Simon did on Live Rhymin’.

There were some low points, particularly I Just Want to See His Face and Let It Loose, but they didn’t detract substantially from the overall quality, which was very consistently high.

I’ve previously declared that the Rolling Stones ought to have retired by December 1969, but I might need to take that back, because Exile on Main St. is now my favorite Rolling Stones record.

Grade

5/5: love it

Sail Away by Randy Newman (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Sail Away
  • Artist name: Randy Newman
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $55.00

Sail Away by Randy Newman

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Little Criminals a few months ago, and wasn’t a fan, but I haven’t heard of Sail Away or any of the songs on it.

What I expected

Little Criminals doesn’t really give me a lot to go on!

What it was actually like

It’s difficult to imagine that a record could be this boring. It was much more consistently bluesy than Little Criminals, but I did not enjoy it.

Lonely at the Top was Oompa Loompa music, albeit slow, so I consider it to have been the record’s worst song.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Harvest by Neil Young (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Harvest
  • Artist name: Neil Young
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $12.98

Harvest by Neil Young

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve listened to “Harvest” more times than I can possibly count: like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Buffett and a few others, my parents played Neil Young a lot when I was young, as they were both big fans.

My mother also once described “Harvest” as the soundtrack to her college life (1970-74), though curiously her copy of this record seems to have disappeared along with a lot of other favorites, leaving only my father’s copy in the collection.

My memory is that I bought my own CD copy of “Harvest” in fall 2000 from a magical and wonderful website called UrbanFetch.com, when they were having their going-out-of-business sale. I just rifled through a box of CDs and found it in there, along with “Harvest Moon” and “After the Gold Rush,” so it seems at least plausible.

What I expected

Neil Young’s very own and very special version of country rock.

What it was actually like

Heart of Gold has always been a favorite of mine, and I think it was the first Neil Young song that I loved, and that I would listen to on my own. Also, as I may have mentioned when listening to a Linda Ronstadt record, it was the first song that I liked that I associated with Linda Ronstadt!

Old Man is also a standout on “Harvest,” but it’s so weird that he wrote it when he was 24, and is now 76. And it may be slightly weird that I listened to it all the time when I was under 10, bought it when I was 19, and now I’m 41 – so between the young Neil Young and the old man who was the subject of the song, and between the young Neil Young and the old Neil Young who’s still around half a century later.

And on the subject of hearing things differently as we age, there was a long time when The Needle and the Damage Done was just some words and some music to me, some lyrics attached to a song that didn’t necessarily have to mean anything, but it definitely means so much more now (and why isn’t this song longer?).

I’ve never been a big fan of A Man Needs a Maid or There’s a World – the whole symphony orchestra accompaniment just seems really unnecessary, and if Neil Young wanted to get a more layered, textured wall-of-sound sort of feel to these songs, I don’t see why he didn’t get just more guitars and harmonicas. Also, these songs just put me to sleep!

Grade

5/5: love it

Hall of Fame by Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Hall of Fame
  • Group name: Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: United Artists Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy the CD on Amazon: $39.41

Hall of Fame by Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan (Vinyl record album review)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of Bob Wills or Tommy Duncan, or probably any of the songs on this record.

What I expected

Big band music?

What it was actually like

I listened to a double-LP swing compilation a couple of months ago called Big Bands’ Greatest Hits, and wasn’t a fan of it, so when I saw this double-LP compilation with a picture of guys on the cover who looked like the guys on the cover of that one, I thought it would be similar.

And it was similar in a way, but it was not at all like what I expected.

At first I thought I was listening to bluegrass, but it wasn’t like bluegrass either. I had to look it up, and learned about the existence of the western swing genre. And it turns out that western swing, rather unlike its eastern and/or nationwide counterpart, is actually pretty good!

To explain western swing a little… lots of it did sound like bluegrass, but there also wasn’t a point where it didn’t sound like big band jazz. So if you can imagine a cross between those two styles, or a blend of them, that was it. And it does make some sense, as I’ve long noted that bluegrass and some kinds of jazz already have elements in common, such as the style of musicians taking turns doing virtuosic solos.

Stay A Little Longer was familiar to me, but it was the only song I kind of recognized.

Grade

4/5: would listen again