Zither Magic

I'll admit, I sometimes buy record albums simply for the cover.  Particularly if they evoke something Halloween related.  This album fits that category.

Peter Pan Witch Doctor 45

Time to look at (and listen to) another record. This one didn't appear on the back of a cereal box, but was published by Peter Pan.  It features a cover of the Ross Bagdasarian (aka David Seville of Chipmunks fame) song "Witch Doctor".  I believe it dates from the 1970s.

Spooky Stories

There's a popular meme floating around that says something to the effect of, "If you remember records on the back of cereal boxes, it's time for your prostate exam".  Well, I do, and yes it is.  And if you're a male 50 or over, you're due as well, and that's my PSA PSA (Prostate-specific antigen Public Service Announcement) for today.

I found these two records at an estate sale this summer.  I've found them before, but it's always a welcome surprise.  In fact, looking now at past posts, I did write about some others I found back in 2022. Man, my memory is going.  Well, let's revisit them again.  These records were found on the back of Honeycomb cereal and date from 1975 to 1978.

Honeycomb Hitchhiker

Way back in 2014 during my first year in the Countdown to Halloween, I posted about these Honeycomb cereal box cutout records.

This past year, I came across 2 more.  One I had before ("Miser's Gold"), but the other was new to me, "The Hitchhiker".

Up Your Nose, This Song Really Blows

A couple weeks ago I featured an album by John Travolta. It seems fitting I would find this 45 a week later.

Home For Christmas

When I was a kid, aside from the magical appearance of the Sears and J. C. Penney Christmas catalogs in our mailbox, nothing signaled the oncoming of Christmas more than the appearance of commercials promoting record album collections of Christmas music from K-Tel, Reader's Digest and Time-Life.

One particular album that fascinated me was the 1977 "Home For Christmas" album.

It wasn't the song content that fascinated me, although I loved Christmas songs, it was the pop-up interior.  The commercial boasted it was a "wonderful, unique decoration for under the tree, or as a holiday centerpiece" while songs by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Ray Conniff and Mahalia Jackson played in the background.  

We never mailed away for things when I was a kid.  Plus my mom already had her staple of Christmas albums from A&P and Firestone she played while we decorated the Christmas tree.  So I never had this album or its pop-up house.  Until this summer when I found it at a garage sale.

I was already familiar with the cover, so I'd kept an eye out for it at sales for years.  I'd come across it before, but the interior was always missing.  Then I found this one in mint condition.

The Monsters Go Disco

 I often lament to my kids as we stroll down the cereal aisle how the magic of cereal is gone. Time was every box in the aisle touted prizes and mail-in orders. They were full of sugar and hope and we loved them for it.

This flexi disc was found on the back of the various General Mills Monster cereals back in 1979.  We know it's 1979 not only because of their design, but because they are going to the Disco.

Sounds of Terror (and Bad Acting)

I found this record at an otherwise unassuming estate sale over the summer.  The majority of the contents of the sale (and there wasn't that much) was modern.  This record was sitting by itself in a bedroom.

A Night with a Cassette Tape

While the '60's and '70's kid got his Halloween sound scares from vinyl (probably played on mom and dad's Hi-Fi), the 80's kid could listen to them privately on his Walkman.

The 1980's saw an explosion of cheaply produced Halloween sound effects compilations released on cassette tape. Most were rehashed tracks from past records, some were direct swipes from competitors' tapes. 

Enjoy.

Today's Garage Sale Finds

I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while (since 2014 as it turns out!) and return to the roots of this blog which is, after all, garage saling.

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the kickoff to Summer and with it the garage sale season, although I've already been out looking several weeks now.

It was a beautiful start to the day with temperatures in the low 70's and a blue sky overhead.  My wife and I didn't get an early start, but we were out before 9.  There weren't any spectacular finds today, but a couple of cool items were purchased (along with a few I had to pass up).  Here's a sampling of what we found.

First up was this 15-volume set of the Time-Life "Old West" series of books from the 1970's. My brother always wanted this set, but they were out of our economic reach.  They originally sold for $12.95 each (plus shipping and handling).  These days, $5 takes all.

Vogue Picture Records

Most people wouldn't recognize the name Tom Saffady, but in 1946, he was the wunderkind of the recording industry and at the age of 30, great things were expected of him and his company, Sav-way Industries.  Not much is known about the company other than they produced the first vinyl-based picture records.  Published under the Vogue label, they were known for their high quality and superior sound.

I found these examples at an estate sale last weekend.  I've included rips of the songs below each side of the record.

Tuffy Tooth

"Tuffy Tooth Meets the Ferocious Cavities" is a mail away flexi-record offered by Colgate in 1969.  As one might expect, it promotes brushing your teeth, particularly with Colgate.

A Charlie Brown Christmas Record

Christmas isn't complete without a viewing of the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" now in it's 50th year of broadcast. Before the days of VHS, much less DVD, you saw it once a year and if you missed it, you were out of luck.  Read-along books filled the long gap between Christmases with this book and record.

Image courtesy Pinterest

Horror Sounds of the Night

Found among the pile of other Halloween finds from my previous post was this Topstone "Horror Sounds of the Night" cassette tape featuring "30 weird minutes" of "spine-tingling Halloween" enjoyment.

Playtime Spooky Music for Spooky Occasions

Click below to listen.

Side 1

Side 2

Casper and the Demon of Darkness

This Peter Pan Book & Record of "Casper and the Demon of Darkness" was released in 1976.  The cover art is by Warren Kremer, a long time Harvey Comics artist who created Richie Rich and Hot Stuff. 

There Went the Indians

Shoot 'em dead, full of lead, in the head, they'll be dead.

Here Come The Cowboys

There Go The Injuns

Cowboys are after them. Chasing the Indians, they'll catch the Indians.  Ride with the Cowboys, catch all the Indians now...  Now the battle's over, the Indians are all dead.  Boys and girls are sleepy, time to go to bed.

Nothing like vigilante justice and genocide to lay the 1950's youth to rest.

Sweet dreams.

The Twelve Days of Santa - Day 11

Today's Day of Santa features record albums sporting Santa in his many guises from Bing Crosby to Colonel Sanders to The Pink Panther.  I have a fairly large record collection from sales over the years and Christmas is probably the biggest genre in it.

Kaluta Monster Mash Cover

There's nothing particularly special about this album, other than the cover.   I mean, we all love

"Monster Mash", but it's readily available and played every Halloween on the radio.  There are  some other tracks on the album that aren't usually played, but they're mostly rehashes of the titular song.

However, I love this cover by comic book artist Mike Kaluta.

Disney's The Haunted Mansion 33 1/3

I'm always on the lookout for Halloween records at sales and came across this one for the first time in  all my garage saling years.