The Gay Crooners with the Pablo Beltran Ruz and Gustavo Pimentel Orquestas. RCA Records (Mexico).  Featuring “El Robot” on Side A and “El Robot X” on Side B.

(And let me send out a personal appreciation to LP cover lover, Elizabeth Bowles, for her long time support!)

(21 votes, average: 3.95 out of 5)

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Smoking can’t be good for robots.

(17 votes, average: 3.59 out of 5)

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The Tornados  “Robot” / “Life On Venus”  Decca Records (UK)

“Robot” is a follow up of sorts to the far more famous, equally futuristic “Telstar.” It is a testament to writer-producer Joe Meek’s creativity that the songs do not sound more similar.

The song, like “Telstar,” begins with Joe Meek sound effects before musically depicting the titular machine coming to life through an increase in tempo, as if he were slowly speeding up like a locomotive. What follows next is a lovely, tuneful track driven as much by Meek’s early electric keyboards as it is by the signature guitar sound of the Tornados, which is able to rise brilliantly above the rest of the arrangement.

The song is one of many by Meek that deals with space aged or futuristic subject matter. He and the Blue Men created a whole album of such material, his landmark I Hear a New World.

This was the Tornados’ fourth single, and their third hit record, reaching number 19 on the British charts.

(23 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)

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Queen’s 1977 album News of the World was inspired by this cover from the October 1953 edition of Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later called Analog) to illustrate the story The Gulf Between by Tom Godwin:

The robot killing the man was likened to a child injuring a bug and looking up at his parents saying “what have I done?” The caption for the image was “Please… fix it, Daddy?”  The artist of the original piece, Frank Kelly Freas, painted the album cover based on his original work.  It features Freddie Mercury and Brian May dead in the robot’s giant hand, while Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon plummet to the ground. It’s definitely one of Queen’s most identifiable album covers, which also contained the hits “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.”

Freas painted another version of it for inner cover. The inner cover version depicted the robot breaking through an auditorium rooftop and reaching for the people in the panicked crowd. This painting was also used in the artwork to promote Queen’s tour.

Artist Frank Kelly Freas was involved in the science fiction field from 1950, until his death in 2005. He painted everything from pieces for NASA, to book covers, to magazine covers, to buxom beauties as nose art on fighter planes to Mad Magazine, and even the covers for the GURPS books for Lensman and Planet Krishna. He won numerous awards, and was often hailed of “The Dean of Science Fiction Artists.” You can check out his awards, browse his art, and even buy pieces of his work at his website, which is chock full of information including a brief documentary by his wife Laura.  Check out his book “The Art of Science Fiction”.

(27 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Robots Music.   French.   Corbra Records.

(24 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)

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“The Mechanical Man”   Bent Bolt and The Nuts   MGM

(12 votes, average: 3.25 out of 5)

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