Today's Vinyl Spin - Fleetwood Mac

Today's Vinyl Spin goes back to the very successful Fleetwood Mac line-up of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckinghman, John McVie, Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood Mac is the first album to feature the then new line-up of the group.

Fleetwood Mac enjoyed moderate success as a blues band and a mainstream rock group with numerous membership changes. In 1974 after former lead singer and guitarist Bob Welch left the group, the duo of Buckingham-Nicks were recruited to take his place. The two new members proved to be the best thing that happened to Fleetwood Mac in terms of a new music direction and commercial success.

The band paved its way to becoming a major concert draw with Stevie, Lindsey and Christine showcasing various songs while McVie and Fleetwood provided a solid foundation. It is one of the few bands that I personally saw in concert not once, but twice.

Their debut album Fleetwood Mac with the new line-up slowly crawled to the #1 position on the charts by 1976 while its singles garnered more and more radio airplay. These included "Over My Head", "Rhiannon," "Say You Love Me," and "Blue Letter". "Landslide" also became a hit after Fleetwood Mac recorded it again for their 1997 live album, The Dance.

I was first introduced to this album by an old college friend back in the day. I always knew of Fleetwood Mac but never paid much attention to them. I had only one track of theirs in my record collection which was "Stop Messin' Around" that appeared on a compilation LP. I later liked the song "Hypnotized" after hearing it on the radio. Was not enough for me to buy their records at the time (I was a starving high school student when this stuff first came out)....

Over the years I have owned 2 vinyl copies of Fleetwood Mac as well as 2 CDs of this. Made at least two cassette tapes off the vinyl and later the CD for portability before the digital age.

Fleetwood Mac is definitely one of my favorite albums of all time by them. It's an enjoyable, refreshing listen whenever I give it a spin.

The back cover of Fleetwood Mac with track list, group members Nicks, Fleetwood, McVie, Buckingham and McVie.

Fleetwood Mac would be the last of their albums to show up on the Reprise label.

Track List

Side 1

1. Monday Morning
2. Warm Ways
3. Blue Letter
4. Rhiannon
5. Over My Head
6. Crystal

Side 2

1. Say You Love Me
2. Landslide
3. World Turning
4. Sugar Daddy
5. I'm So Afraid

"Rhiannon" was one of 4 singles released from the album. All 4 singles have different mixes from the versions on the album. When Fleetwood Mac was issued in a special edition CD in 2004, the single tracks were included as bonus material. Nice move on Warner / Reprise's part.

"Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac....

Today's Vinyl Spin: RCA Model #9-ED-31K 33/45 RPM 2-Speed Suitcase Record Player

Got a piece of retro tech that I found on YouTube. Watch this guy play a couple of old records with an RCA Victor 2-speed suitcase record player from the 1950s. This thing is big and play only 33 1/3 LPs and 45s. Most record players of this vintage used to include 16 and 78 rpm speeds. I would have to think RCA was a little forward thinking with this model in the fact that it only supported the two most popular speeds that are still used for vinyl records today.

The records the presenter plays are a 45, "Love Eyes" by The Duprees and an LP track "Bye Bye Love" by The Everly Brothers. Enjoy!

The YouTube Channel Link: (Seeburgsrock).

Here are his notes about the record player:

Uploaded on Jun 28, 2011

Here's a scarce RCA player (as are all 33/45 varieties of this player) from the mid 50's. This is a 2-speed, 33/45 RPM player that's been rebuilt & features a Sonotone 52T stereo ceramic cartridge bridged for mono playing through a single stage amplifier and feeding a 4" speaker. It has volume control only. The DeLuxe models featured a 2-stage amplifier w/volume AND tone controls feeding a 4"x6" speaker. The mechanism was made by Crescent and used exclusively by the RCA lineup in only 9 of their players. These 2-speed players were only made for a year and not many were sold simply because there was a TON of 4-speed players available at the time this was being merchandised. While 78 RPM records were quickly fading from the scene, there were still a lot of people that had 78's in their collection and, of course, they could not be played on these 2-speed players! As a consequence, very few of these 2-speed players were bought by the public. It's most definitely a strange player! 33 RPM records could only be played as singles - one at a time. NO provision was made for stacking 33 albums on these players. However, 45's could be stacked by a special 45 RPM spindle adapter. The adapters in their own right are collectible! It's not uncommon to spend $50 JUST for an unmolested adapter simply because after being dropped, they broke into pieces and became useless. When these players are found (and that goes for all 9 varieties), the adapter is often missing or broken beyond being usable. These models are eagerly sought after by collectors because they're a simple mechanism, durable, easy to repair & maintain, one of the few with a "neutral" position to avoid drive wheel damage AND...they're scarce! I have 6 of the 9 models made by RCA. I'd like to purchase the three I DON'T have in my collection which are the DeLuxe 3-tube suitcase models w/volume & tone controls and the plastic DeLuxe 3-tube model in Coral/White combination. If you have or know of anyone that has those models and would like sell them, PLEASE contact me! I really hope you can enjoy & appreciate these wonderful pieces of 1950's history!

Top 10 Oldies of the Week

TOP 10 SINGLE TRACKS sent to Plannine's Classic Top 30 site:

1. The Lord's Prayer - Sister Janet Mead
2. La La La La La La - The Blendells
3. My Hawaii - The Rascals
4. Jennifer Eccles - The Hollies
5. Oh Boy - Buddy Holly
6. Pilot of the Airwaves - Charlie Dore
7. New Year's Day - U2
8. The Unicorn - Irish Rovers
9. Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) - Enya
10. The Pushbike Song - The Mixtures

THIS WEEK'S SUPER OLDIE TRACK:
"La La La La La" by The Blendells.



(audio and graphic only - no moving video)

Super Oldie of the Week

I've been a music fan for nearly all my life. It started when I got my first transistor radio from an uncle. My Dad also had a friend that ran a jukebox business. Every once in a while (this was back in the mid 1960s) he'd unload a bunch of old 45s at our house, which I promptly listened to on our old phonograph stereo.

Those old 45 rpms included tracks by Elvis Presley, Shirley Ellis, The Beach Boys, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, Brenda Lee, Clarance Carter, The Four Seasons, Gene Chandler and many others. The old Sony radio that I got from my uncle opened me up to a whole world of rock n roll music by those screamin' old disc jockeys on top 40 radio. It was fun listening to the old thing back in those days.. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and many others from the British Invasion, Motown and the rest of the pop music world blared out of the tiny AM radio speaker.

As I grew older and into the early 1970s, I became a regular purchaser of 45 rpm and 33 1/3 record albums. I amassed a large collection of singles and record albums that continue on to this day with CDs and digital music.

I like listening to many of the old songs that were played on the radio and 45s. Since I grew up in Hawaii, many songs in the 1960s and 70s were unique hits to the islands... we had traditional Hawaiian music, contemporary Hawaiian music and a lot of regular rock n roll records that came in from the mainland and abroad which became hits on local Hawaii radio stations. Often what would be a hit in Hawaii were unheard of on the mainland.

To start of this series of Super Oldies of the Week, I will feature a track that was a minor hit in Hawaii and in other places on the mainland.

Back in 1973 a little known group called Circus released "Stop Wait Listen" on Metromedia Records. It was a minor radio hit. I recently found this track posted to YouTube from "Music Mike's Flashback Favorites" page. Here is Circus and "Stop Wait Listen" for you to listen to in its entirety complete with commentary from the video's creator.



Also here are the songs that I voted for this week to Plannine's Classic Top 30 page.

• 1. The Lord's Prayer - Sister Janet Mead
• 2. La La La La La La - The Blendells
• 3. Beyond the Clouds - The Poppy Family
• 4. New Year's Day - U2
• 5. Jennifer Eccles - The Hollies
• 6. My Hawaii - The Rascals
• 7. You're Only Lonely - J.D. Souther
• 8. All the Tea in China - Susan Jacks
• 9. The Name Game - Shirley Ellis
• 10. Stop, Wait, Listen - Circus