Hello and welcome my friends to Season 5 of Vinyl-O-Matic! It's been too long hasn't it, dear listener? But here we are, reunited and it feels so good. What is the premise of Season 5, you ask? We're going to roll through all things that measure 12" in diameter in my record collection, alphabetically by album title. I've spent the last few weeks cataloging all 1,473 of these suckers in my collection, including the Kiss Alive II record I found hiding in with one of this episode's selections.
But that's enough of my jibber-jabber, let's get things underway. If you'd like to follow along at home (or wherever you may be), point your preferred browser in the direction of vinylomatic(dot)com(slash)s05e01 for show notes and comments. In fact, let's play a game. Leave your Top 3 city songs in the comments, and I'll work on a playlist to share in the Vinyl-O-Matic Amplifier newsletter based on the results. What do I mean? You know, like "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", or "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", or it's even possible you might include "Dallas" by Jimmy Buffett.

Welcome back! If you cast your minds back to the top of the set, you will recall that we heard from Jimmy Buffett and a track called "Dallas" from his 1974 Dunhill album A1A. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I am not now nor have I ever been a Parrot Head. But from time to time in this season, you will hear some passable selections, mostly from the earlier country-tinged outings like this one penned by Coral Reefer guitarist Roger Bartlett. That was followed up by some blue-eyed Philly soul from the Darryl Hall & John Oats album Abandoned Luncheonette, on Atlantic Records. While I really like "Las Vegas Turnaround", the track that precedes "She's Gone", sometimes you just have to go with the hits. It's possible that somewhere out there in listener land, there is someone who has never heard "She's Gone". Abandoned Luncheonette was released in 1973 and reached number 33 on the charts. 29 years after its release, the album turned Platinum. We heard from my beloved ABBA. Their self-titled 1975 album is one that I've had in my collection since I was a wee young'n. So many tracks to choose from, and I almost went with "Hey Hey Helen" but opted to signal for help instead. While the album just barely dented the Top 200, as a single "SOS" made it to number 15 on the hot 100. Finally, we heard a track from a 1976 reissue of Count Basie Orchestra's 1969 Dot Records release Standing Ovation, recorded live at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. "Jumpin' at the Woodside" was originally recorded and released by Basie in 1938.
Coming up next, we're going to shift gears and hopefully not throw a rod.

Hey, it's me, Your Old Pal Will, host of Vinyl-O-Matic. We just heard from Harry Nilsson and his song "One" from 1968's Aerial Ballet. Again, so many great songs to choose from, some of which we'll hear as we progress through the season. While this version failed to chart as a single, a year later Three Dog Night would take their rendition to number 5 on the Hot 100. Before that, we heard from wonderful Bay Area musician Luke Sweeney and his hard-grooving "Sympathy for the Night" track on the 2014 release Adventure: Us. Speaking of grooves, Ace Frehley is "Back in the New York Groove" backed by such New York session musicians as Anton Fig and Will Lee. His album made it to number 26 in 1978 and was certified Platinum a month after its release. Of course, this is in the pre-Soundscan days, so that just meant that 1,000,000 copies of the album were shipped out, which explains why I picked up this remaindered copy for $1. And getting that set started, we had Chelsea Wolfe and her song "Crazy Love" from a lovely opaque blue vinyl edition of her 2015 Sargent House release Abyss. This was actually her first album to chart on Billboard, making it to number 130.
And now for some Richie Havens with an assist from Rick Derringer.

At the top of the last set, we heard from Richie Havens' 1971 album Alarm Clock. The song was "To Give All Your Love Away" which featured Rick Derringer on electric guitar. That was followed up by a very timely selection from... the Album to the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Executive Version. That was followed up by a solo outing from Yaz's vocal powerhouse Alison Moyet. "Honey for Bees" was the name of the track, which Patti Austin ended up covering the following year and took it to the top of the dance club singles chart. Rounding that set off, we heard from a band that I had largely forgotten about until I came across this 12" single recently. I'm talking about the Canadian Synth Poppers Moev and their song "Alibis" on Nettwerk Records, also from 1984.
Now let's head back to the current Bay Area music scene with The She's!

You know what? That was indeed delovely. We just heard two great things that sound great together: Sarah Vaughan performing Cole Porter's "It's Delovely" from her 1965 Mercury Wing compilation All Time Greats by Sarah Vaughan. We also heard from Diana Ross visiting the upside down with Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Prior to that, we got sooper groovy with Earth Wind & Fire's "Magic Mind" from their triple platimum 1977 release All n' All. And starting the set off we had The She's with "Eva's Interlude/Anywhere But Here" on their 2017 Empty Cellars release All Female Rock and Roll Quartet. If you have the opportunity to see The She's live, you definitely should. Do it!
This concludes our very first episode of Season 5: Albums and All That. If you have any questions or comments, you can always drop me a line: will(at)vinylomatic(dot)com. Show notes, archived episodes, the RSS feeds, and all that kind of fun stuff can be found at vinylomatic(dot)com. When we meet again, we will continue our journey through albums that begin with the letter A as in Alpha. Join me, won't you?