Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings   “I Learned the Hard Way”   Release Date:   April 6, 2010 Daptone Records Our first post of a new record!   Because we love Sharon Jones and the sound of the Dap-Kings and Daptone records.     The single just gets better with every spin.

Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, this record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax.   Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music.   From the lush Philly-Soul fanfare that ushers in “The Game Gets Old” at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style “Mama Don’t Like My Man” at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the “Daptone Sound” at its finest.

(65 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

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“Old Brush Arbor Days”   The Joyful Sounds

(56 votes, average: 3.82 out of 5)

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Apna Desh is a 1972 Hindi movie directed by Jambu.   The film’s music is by R.D. Burman.

(51 votes, average: 3.69 out of 5)

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Leonard Feather Presents BOP   Mode Records   (1957)   George Wallington (Piano) with Phil Woods on alto, and either Thad Jones or Idrees Sulieman on trumpet.   Illustration by Wm Box       Titles include “Lemon Drop”, “Salt Peanuts”, “Little Benny”, “Billie’s Bounce”, and “Shaw Nuff”.

(53 votes, average: 3.68 out of 5)

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Thai pop by Kwan Jit Sriprajan “Panatibat”   On the BANGKOK AMPLIFY Label (Early 1970’s)

Congratulations to Caption Contest Winner: Atomicj and thanks to all who played along!

(Every once and a while LPCoverLover offers readers the chance to win one of the official T-Shirts so nicely modeled for us by Tiffany, Courtney, Andrea and Lindsey. And since we can’t always find the right caption for our posts, here’s your chance to tell us what you see.   Leave your best headline in the comments section here.   We’ll pick our favorite and you’ll be the envy of your friends, family and neighbors.)

(41 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5)

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Bond, Mat Bond!   Music from a 1967 movie spoof from Singapore   (“Casino Royale” came out the same year in the U.S.)

(51 votes, average: 3.51 out of 5)

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The Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond   “Jazz Red Hot and Cool”   Columbia Records   An intimate live recording of a small club date at Basin Street in New York City in 1955.   Set includes Lover, Little Girl Blue, Sometimes I’m Happy, The Duke, Indiana, and Love Walked In. This version of the quartet included Bob Bates on Bass and Joe Dodge on Drums.   This is still early Brubeck, with Desmond (blurred there on the left of the cover), but before the “classic” Quartet with Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello on Drums in 1958.   (That is the group that played on “Time Out” and the classic sixties “time signature” series of popular Brubeck releases.   Perhaps the last, big sellers in the genre prior to Motown and The Beatles invasion which knocked so many brilliant, jazz musicians to the sidelines of popular culture.)   On a personal note, I pulled this out of my stepfather’s collection at twelve, so the cover is burned in my memory.     Once – perhaps still – you could find this cover in 9 out of 10 dollar bins.

(69 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)

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“Cockels and Mussels” With vocal and full orchestra     A Record Guild of America Flexi-Disc

(73 votes, average: 4.32 out of 5)

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“Como me besabas tu…Trio Quisqueya   MarVeen Records

(52 votes, average: 3.15 out of 5)

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