Rufus Thomas, the “Crowned Prince of Dance” on Stax! Rufus of “The Breakdown,” “Memphis Train,” “Do the Push Pull,” “Can Your Monkey Do the Dog,” “Jump Back,” and “All Night Worker” fame. Father of Carla. Born in Mississippi. Born to DJ in Memphis. Passed on in 2001. “The world’s oldest teenager” killed them at the Wattstax concert with “The Funky Chicken”.

(13 votes, average: 3.46 out of 5)

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A lesser known girl group, The Sherrys put out only this lp in 1962. It features their only hit single “Pop Pop Popeye” (sic above) which was a big dance hit that year (especially in New Orleans). Delthine and Dinell Cook originally formed the group with Tammi Montgomery (later to achieve fame as Tammi Terrell on Motown), but that combination soon fizzled when the sisters and Montgomery couldn’t get along very well so she’s not on this record.

Guyden Records out of Philadelphia put out lots of late fifties teen dance singles back in the days of record “hops” and dance fads like the “fly,” the “stomp,” the “slop” and the “mashed potato”. In the early sixties, the company merged with another Phili label, Jamie Records, and soon put out records under the Arctic imprint as well.

(14 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Not a “pretty” cover really. Beat to hell. From Mexico. There’s little aesthetic appeal here. Not really much “art direction” to speak of. Maybe an interesting low vantage point angle. Can’t speak to it musically but it’s intriguing.

Sometimes I try to image the record store and then house that a used record came from before I found it. A small dusty Mexican apartment with a cheap hi-fi set, torn curtains by an open window. Maybe the guy worked at a factory and came home with a bottle of beer and a goat taco he bought on the street; unlocked the door, pulled the light cord, opened his beer, switched on the stereo, placed the needle on the record, propped up the cover and had dinner alone.

(47 votes, average: 4.47 out of 5)

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On Smash records. 1962. I love this cover. Both for the photograph and the typography.

Billy Mitchell was a Detroit tenor man who in the fifties played (and recorded) with the bands of Dizzy Gillespie (1956) and then Count Basie (1957). Sidemen on this session include Bobby Hutcherson on vibraharp; Herman Wright on bass, Otis Finch on drums and on one track Dave Burns on trumpet. Mitchell continued to lead bands throughout the sixties and seventies and played live into the nineties before passing away in 2001. Among his other recordings were a series of sessions with co-leader and trombonist Al Grey.

(14 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)

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A young, hot Ann Margret (like an American Brigitte Bardot), was adored the world over and adorned many record covers from Asia to Eastern Europe to South America.   Here’s a cool one from the early sixties on a cheap “Top Hits” compilation from Korea.

(19 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)

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A cover from the Epic in Jazz series that featured the wonderful cartoons by children’s book author and illustrator William Steig   Steig was a cartoonist for the New Yorker beginning in the thirties.   He passed away in 2003.   Musically this record is a compilation of great small group sessions led by Duke Ellington’s sidemen Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart and Barney Bigard (four cool cats!)

(12 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)

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*You know.   Cigarettes are called “fags” in the UK.

(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)

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United Artists Jazz (UAJ 14003) Bill Evans, Piano; Jim Hall, Guitar. Produced by Alan Douglas. Front Cover Photo by fashion photographer Toni Frissel of a woman floating in the water at Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida was published in Harper’s Bazaar in December 1947.

This beautiful gatefold album includes an “essay” inside by Barry J. Titus after Jim Hall and Bill Evans titled “Wait Quickly” that looks almost like “greek type” or non-sensical strings of words. Not sure if it’s beat poetry or just impressionistic rambling. One section reads “Eyes dance truth’s instrument. Sieve, sickle and sloat, red grimes grey molds parted skins furrowed tissue lives skeletal screams. Longbrown stone blunt nose raised. “Naked day?” puffed sound slices blush.” Huh?! But you can’t look at Jazz album cover art without considering the simple power of this dream-like photograph.

This album, from 1962, was the first collaboration between the two (Intermodulation four years later being the second). This was Evans first recording after some time off following the death of bassist Scott LaFaro. Hall at the time was in Sonny Rollins quartet. Musically, it is a sophisticated, subtle dialog between two jazz giants in their prime. Murray Horowitz, on NPR, called it “Lovely impressionistic music that draws a perfect winter afternoon picture.”

(30 votes, average: 4.73 out of 5)

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Clef Records with nice cover by David Stone Martin. This album is a departure from the mainly solo recordings released by Art Tatum as it features a quartet with drummer Alvin Stoller, bassist John Simmons and trumpeter Roy “Little Jazz” Eldridge.

(18 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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