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Love Songs by the Beatles (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Love Songs
  • Group name: the Beatles
  • Year: 1977
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: SKBL-1-11911 F2
    • Scratched into side two of LP: SKBL-2-11911 F2
    • Scratched into side three of LP: SKBL-3-11911 F2 1-S
    • Scratched into side four of LP: SKBL-4-11911 F2 #2
  • Buy it on Amazon: $52.99

Love Songs by the Beatles

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I was not aware that this compilation existed, but I’ve heard all of the songs on it before. Here are the previous Beatles records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

It seems pretty straightforward: 25 of the Beatles’ love songs (out of order).

What it was actually like

This was a ton of fun. I normally would not think to classify Beatles songs by subject matter – though obviously Rock ‘n’ Roll Music classified them by style – and mainly think about their oeuvre in terms of record (or era) or writer (or singer).

But yeah, the Beatles did some love songs!

I may have mentioned it elsewhere, but Girl was the first song in my life that I distinctly recall liking, when I was very young, and besides that, Michelle was also one of the first songs I can remember hearing in my childhood, in my mother’s brown Volvo station wagon.

I also note that Yesterday, the most covered song in blah blah, is not actually one of the Beatles’ best songs. I would even say that it’s one of their worst!

And She’s Leaving Home is not even a love song!

Here are each of the sides’ songs, ranked:

Side one

  1. Girl
  2. In My Life
  3. I’ll Follow the Sun
  4. I Need You
  5. Words of Love
  6. Here, There and Everywhere
  7. Yesterday

Side two

  1. Something
  2. Tell Me What You See
  3. And I Love Her
  4. I’ll Be Back
  5. If I Fell
  6. Yes It Is

Side three

  1. Michelle
  2. For No One
  3. It’s Only Love
  4. Every Little Thing
  5. She’s Leaving Home
  6. You’re Going to Lose That Girl

Side four

  1. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
  2. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
  3. P.S. I Love You
  4. I Will
  5. This Boy
  6. The Long and Winding Road

Grade

5/5: love it

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
  • Group name: the Beatles
  • Recording year: 1964, 1965
  • Release year: 1977
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: 5 MAS – 1 – 11638 – G8XX#4
    • Scratched into side two of LP: 5 MAS – 2 – 11638 – G8#3ML
  • Buy it on Amazon: $96.00

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I doubt that I’ve ever heard any of these recordings before, and the overwhelming majority of my Beatles experience is with their studio records.

Here are previous Beatles records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

Mid 1960s Beatles playing songs from their early and mid 1960s repertoire, with a lot of screaming fans.

What it was actually like

This was an incredibly fun listen, especially having heard so much about what Beatles concerts were like after they became famous – mainly the screaming. And yes, the record opened with screaming fans, and the screaming continued all the way through, and closed with screaming as well.

A lot of work was done to make it listenable, however, so although the audio quality was basically passable, I think it’s fair to assess that the screaming was more an enhancement – to convey the mood of the shows – than a detractor, and the extreme energy of the performance was palpable throughout. That said, I can totally understand why the Beatles wanted to stop touring after 1966.

Interestingly, so much time passed between when these songs were recorded in 1964 and 1965 and when the record was released in 1977 that the Beatles not only had time to mature musically into their middle- and late-eras, but they also were able to break up, become mired in legal squabbles and then reconcile somewhat. As for the screaming girl fans, assuming they were teenagers when attending these concerts (which would have made them roughly the same cohort as my parents), by 1977 many or most of them would have considered the Beatles to be hopelessly lame.

All the songs were quite consistently good, but I would probably consider my favorites to have been Twist and Shout and Help!. Besides more songs, the only thing that this record needed was video.

Grade

5/5: love it

The Rodgers and Hart Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Rodgers and Hart Songbook / Ella’s superb interpretations of Rodgers and Hart’s greatest songs.
  • Artist name: Ella Fitzgerald
  • Year: 1977
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Verve Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $9.94

The Rodgers and Hart Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record, but I’ve previously reviewed three of Ella Fitzgerald’s:

I also am not familiar with Rodgers or Hart, let alone Rodgers and Hart.

What I expected

I assume this will be like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie.

What it was actually like

This was good and, as always, Ella Fitzgerald was a wonderful singer, but the record was really, really long, and that detracted a lot from my enjoyment. I wish they had cut it in half to a single LP instead of double.

My favorite songs were the most upbeat ones, like Everything I’ve Got and The Lady Is A Tramp.

I also recognized a few, such as My Funny Valentine, which was used well in The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Blue Moon, which I mentioned when reviewing The Muppet Show, though I still think the Marcels did it best.

Then there were some pretty weird songs that also got included, like Johnny One Note, which had a strong musical theater sound and was just very incongruously out of place, and Give It Back To The Indians, which… would not get recorded in 2023.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Running on Empty by Jackson Browne (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Running on Empty
  • Artist name: Jackson Browne
  • Year: 1977
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Asylum Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $39.99

Running on Empty by Jackson Browne

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have no familiarity with this record, but I’ve previously reviewed two others by Jackson Browne:

What I expected

The other two Jackson Browne records were folk rock and country rock, and I was not that impressed. This one appears to be a live record, so maybe I will enjoy it better.

What it was actually like

This was mostly a country rock record, and for the most part, although I could generally tell that the songs were recorded outside of a normal studio setting, they did not sound like songs recorded live at concerts, and generally had the “produced” sound that comes from a studio.

Undoubtedly, the best song by far on the record was the Stay cover, but that’s really because it’s just an incredible song, and everyone should just listen to The Zodiacs doing it.

The title track Running on Empty was not a bad song at all and I was pretty sure that I had heard it before. I liked the droning background sound.

Cocaine was acoustic and the guitar and vocals made it sound folk, but then the violin gave it a bit of a country sound, and to me, it did not really sound much like a song about cocaine, but fortunately Eric Clapton‘s is a banger, and the Grateful Dead’s Casey Jones also fits.

Rosie was mostly piano and was bad enough to be an Elton John song, but still sounded a little country.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

The Muppet Show (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Muppet Show
  • Group name: Various artists, including Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz and Jim Henson
  • Year: 1977
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Arista Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: cut in bottom left corner of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $75.00

The Muppet Show record

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m definitely familiar with the existence of the Muppets, but it was not something that I watched while growing up, for whatever reason (that probably had something to do with my parents thinking it was dumb).

I did watch Sesame Street, though.

What I expected

Skits and songs for children, voiced by the adults who did the Muppet characters on the television program.

What it was actually like

I thought that I might find this entire record intolerable, but parts of it were actually tolerable.

Mississippi Mud, for example, wasn’t terrible! It had good banjo, but with more of a strumming style instead of the Scruggs three-finger picking style.

Mr. Bassman was also decent, and immediately made me think of Sha Na Na (they did do this song, but it’s actually a Johnny Cymbal song), and then, naturally, of The Marcels’ Blue Moon.

That said, there was a very prominent Oompa-Loompa sound on the opening track The Muppet Show Theme and I had to turn the volume down just to make it through.

Also, the Kermit the Frog voice was so awful that I would pay money never to have to hear it again.

I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog might have been the worst song, but it was not easy to pick.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through