Open Your Mind Up to Tuna Melt!
Mike Melvoin is well known nowadays as "The Plastic Cow," being the artist who released 1970's "The Plastic Cow Goes Moooooog," and for playing the keyboards on The Beach Boy's "Good Vibrations."
On top of that, he's arranged for and worked with such greats as Lou Rawls, Bill Henderson, Peggy Lee, Joe Williams, Billy Ekstine, Barry Manilow, Pat Boone, The Four Freshmen, Jon Davidson, The Partridge Family, Tom Waits and Wayne Newton.
This is a "pre-Moog" record from 1966. It may not have an actual synthesizer on it, but on top of standard keyboard instruments such as the Concert Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Harpsichord, Hammond Organ and even a Tack Piano, he also includes an Ondioline (which he refers to as his "Secret Weapon"). The Ondioline was a vacuum-tube powered keyboard instrument, invented in France in 1941, that was built on springs so that an artist could shake and wiggle it in order to achieve an actual vibrato.
Lots of wiggly jiggly Beatles and Bacarach on this one!
Mike Melvoin: Keys to Your Mind
- Sweet Talkin' Guy
- Looking with My Eyes
- Eleanor Rigby
- Here, There and Everywhere
- Paperback Writer
- Along Comes Mary
- Summer in the City
- Are You There
- For No One
- You Are My Sunshine
- I Want to Tell You
- Keys to Your Mind
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6 comments:
Jean Jacques Perrey was an Ondioline salesman in the 1950s and remains a singular champion of the instrument to this day, even as he acknowledges that his personal ondioline may be one of the only ones now left.
This... this LP I knew nothing about, and I really look forward to hearing it.
As always, thanks for broadening my musical horizon. Where DO you get these wonders? Well, anyhow, your generosity is a golden virtue. Thanks for brightening up my day - and for your marvelous contributions to a few other super blogs as well. I sense a happy healthy community at work here.
Trippy cover Vic, many thanks for these alt-Beatle tunes - this is a must get.
Say Rev - got anymore of that dried banana peel? Set me up man.
!-)
-LT
Thanks, guys!
And thanks a lot for the further info, litlgrey. I also enjoyed the entry on the Ondioline from the "120 Years of Electronic Music" post that Splogman recently put on PCL Linkdump (http://easydreamer.blogspot.com/2008/04/120-years-of-electronic-music.html).
And Rev... I may post directions on how to get to the place where I get all of my "Wonders" soon. Keep your eyes on the ol' Tuna Melt for more info.
Thanks for linking me. You have a really sweet space. Glad you stumbled upon me, I can't wait to dig into some of your tunes.
They seemed to forget who Arranged this album was Composer/Arranger/Orchestrator/
Conductor Edgar R. Redmond
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