... 7-inch, Vinyl record

The Ventures were furiously productive in the early 60s – delivering gem after gem – and this is among the best! Telstar is somewhere near the ninth record by the group, offering a dizzying mix of covers of some of the most popular songs of the day. The guitar still leads as the main sound on these tracks but they do expand the instrumentation to include organ, trumpet, mandolins and harpsichord as well. They sing a little on some of the tracks but they mainly stay in the instrumental realm. Greatness! Tracks include "Telstar", "The Lonely Bull", "Mexico", "Calcutta", "Apache", "Never On A Sunday", "Tequila", "Green Onions", "Let There Be Drums", and "Red River Rock". LP, Vinyl record album

Rare live work from Johnny Cash – recorded right at the height of his late 60s fame on Columbia Records, but with a style that nicely takes his sound back to its roots! June Carter joins Cash at a few points in the performance – but most of the set jus has Johnny working with the Tennessee Three, in that spare chugging groove the group first developed when Cash was starting to record at Sun Records – presented here in a nicely unfettered way, as a contrast to some of his studio work for Columbia during the same period. The set's got 28 tracks in all – a nice mix of classics and other numbers – with titles that include "Bad News", "Jackson", "Long Black Veil", "Lorena", "Old Apache Squaw", "Guess Things Happen That Way", "Going To Memphis", "Orange Blossom Special", "Forty Shades Of Green", "Don't Take Your Guns To Town", "Ring Of Fire", "Long Legged Guitar Pickin Man", "Foggy Mountain Top", and "Wildwood Flower". (Folk/Country, Rock) CD

A groovy moogy pop classic! Hot Butter weren't the most groundbreaking moog combo, but they certainly were the most successful. The title cut of this one, their version of Gershon Kingsley's "Popcorn", was used in a gazillion commercials and TV shows during the 70s – and was certainly the biggest moog-oriented single of the early years. The whole record's pretty good, too – even if it has them mostly copping songs from other artists, like "Song of the Nairobi Trio", and guitar instrumental favorites "Apache", "Telstar", and "Pipeline". And in fact, those tracks sum up the group best – as they were to the moog what the Ventures were to the electric guitar: they popularized the instrument tremendously through instrumental versions of hits from other folks. (Now Sound, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album