“Childrens Stories for a Rainy Day’  Robin Hood Records  Sometimes these kids’ records are super trippy!  Here’s one example that pushes the imagination and borders on the psychedelic.

Cookie Carr  Melodias Inolvidables N. 4  Belter Records (Spain) .

“High Spirits”  (Blended by) The Sims-Wheeler Vintage Jazz Band  Polydor Records (Germany)

De Bieteltjes  Artone Records (Netherlands)  I need help with the translation here!

Rockin’ Around with Ray Conniff, his orchestra and chorus  Philips Records  “Calling All Dancers!”

Ann-Margret shakes on this LP cover from Oscar Records (South Korea)!  A compilation of American pop and soul hits from the sixties – Wilson Pickett, The Supremes, James Brown, Johnny Rivers, The Animals, etc.   Ann-Margret graced many record covers across the globe for three decades.  Sexy sells and no one was sexier in her prime.

The Bob Crewe Generation  Songs from Barbarella “An Angel is Love” and “The Black Queen’s Beads”.  Cool cover with two shots of Jane Fonda in full space fashion from the Roger Vadim film.  This on Dot Records (Italy) import.

“Let Us Dance”  with Karel Vlach and his Orchestra Supraphon Records (Czech Republic)

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.

“El Mosquito”  Caterina Valente   Globe-Trotter  Polydor Records (France)  A cute EP from 1954.  Hear it HERE!