A budget label album I found in the 1960s featured drawn-out performances of themes from big movies...with lush orchestrations and chorus on some tracks. It was always a fun listen and I've found some of the tracks on youtube to share here. Truly a spectacular listening experience!!!
I well remember the days in the late 60s and early 70s with the 99-cents LPs in a wire rack at the cash register checkout. These were bargains for poor students such as I.
CIMMARON had no soundtrack then, so we had to settle for the Main Theme overly-repeated by "Nicholas Andriano Conducting the Film Spectacular Sound Track Orchestra" and the like. I do believe Diplomat Records were pressed in Newark, NJ or thereabouts, so they were in all the local supermarkets, as I was a Jersey Boy. There a number of LPs like that. THE LONGEST DAY, VICTORY AT SEA, etc.
Rumors would spread among collectors. "Hey, I found a sealed GOD'S LITTLE ACRE at the Bayonne A&P for a dollar." We would spread out and "hit" every damned A&P within driving distance. I found one in East Orange.
There was a New York City phenomenon in the 70s called the "69-cent store." Everything was 69-cents. Kind of like the dollar stores of today. When the word got out that the store in Greenwich Village on 8th Street had copies of the 2-LP RAINTREE COUNTY for 69 cents, we all went berserk and scoured through many hundreds of LPs in every store in NYC. East Side, West Side, Times Square, anywhere there was one. Copies were sprinkled out all over. Palpitations were common after THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD turned up in one store. Every Tuesday they got new stock, and the news would spread.
Another great dollar-bin find was Jack Shaindlin's MUSIC FROM HOLLYWOOD U.S.A. I consider him to be the first Charles Gerhardt-like film music conductor. The LP had been originally issued on Roulette, but mono-only. But then, the budget label Forum (and later Forum Circle) reissued that LP in both mono and STEREO. Hugo Friedhofer's THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, Victor Young's STRATEGIC COMMAND, and other treasures were there. He conducted the "Symphony of the Air", which was the new name for the Leopold Stokowski's NBC Symphony Orchestra after Stokowski left NBC. His Decca LP 50 YEARS OF MOVIE MUSIC was treasured at the time as the only LP with an excellent suite of Max Steiner's music to KING KONG and THE INFORMER.
Other East Coast stores, like Great Eastern and Two Guys from Harrison followed suit with budget discounted LPs, and we had a ball looking for treasures.
Thanks to "the other Ron" for rekindling oodles of fun memories.
Yes, Ron...you've brought back other memories for me, too.
I was not fortunate enough to be in the larger metropolises where such events took place.
I did, however, have finds in the mid- to late-60s. Generally, they were in cut-out bins of dime stores and drug stores.
One find was "The Diary of Anne Frank". Another was "Bells Are Ringing". And most special was finding a mint, non-drilled copy of the 1956 MGM issue of "The Wizard of Oz" with the spectacular color cover. I nevere paid more than $1 for any of them.
