“Folk Songs for the 21st Century” Sheldon Allman HIFI Records.   Sheldon’s first record was “Sing Along With Drac” in   1960 (see the “monsters” category), he went on to write many TV theme songs including Let’s Make a Deal and George of the Jungle and Superchicken.

(23 votes, average: 2.87 out of 5)

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A low-budget, rip-off album of the cult movie and Jane Fonda embarrassment “Barbarella” performed by “The Young Lovers”. “The Hit Songs of the The Wild Movie & Other Way Out Themes.”   Turns out to be quite funky and hip, especially the sexadelic cut “The Black Queen’s Beads” which DJ’s picked up on at the turn of the twenty-first century. Pretty cool cover too!

(25 votes, average: 3.72 out of 5)

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“A memento of the “Better Homes For a Better America campaign on NBC radio from ALCOA.”   Music from Monitor records.   Check out the super space-age, bachelor pad turntable!   Futuristic furniture from the late fifties.   This industrial design, hi-fi console looks like a piece of modern art.

(28 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)

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“Men From Mars” (And women are from Venus) This is Woody Herman and his Orchestra (featuring the “Third Herd”) on Verve. This was released in mono in 1958 then re-released in stereo in 1963 at “Hey, Heard the Herd?”. But the cover was a classic! ( I don’t know who the guy on the cover is, but I think I have another album with his picture on it)

Numbering the Herman Herds was never easy but the leader himself named his early 50s group as the Third Herd. Although lacking the precision of the Four Brothers band and the raw excitement of the First Herd, the new band was capable of swinging superbly. As before, Herman had no difficulty in attracting top-flight musicians, including Red Rodney, Urbie Green, Kai Winding, Richie Kamuca, Bill Perkins, Monty Budwig and Jake Hanna. Of particular importance to the band at this time (and for the next few years) was Nat Pierce, who not only played piano but also wrote many fine arrangements and acted as straw boss. The times were hostile to big bands, however, and by the mid-50s Herman was working in comparative obscurity. Members of the band, who then included Bill Berry, Bobby Lamb, Kamuca, Budwig and Harris, wryly described this particular Herman group as the “un-Herd”. Towards the end of the decade Herman was still fighting against the tide, but was doing it with some of the best available musicians: Cohn, Sims, Don Lanphere, Bob Brookmeyer, Pierce, Kamuca, Perkins and Med Flory.

(18 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Mitchell-Ruff Duo “Appearing Nightly” at Birdland.

(13 votes, average: 3.38 out of 5)

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Politically incorrect cover #12,356. “Yakety Saki Man in Orbit’ by the (not-so-) honorable Bill Fraser! On the Maestro Label. Super rare and absolutely crazy. Must be early sixties.

(29 votes, average: 3.07 out of 5)

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