LATEST ADDITIONS

Everyone knows that composer John Williams cribbed Holst's "The Planets" for his "Star Wars" soundtrack. Fewer know that the main theme and even the arrangement for "Star Wars" is almost a complete rip of Eric Wolfgang Korngold's score for the movie "King's Row" starring Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings. People absolutely freak out when I play it for them.

Here's a company that fell well below my radar screen for years until a reader alerted me to its website. The Electric Recording Company and its founder Pete Hutchison is dedicated to reissuing on vinyl much sought after classical music fare from the early LP era, including those of legendary violinist Johanna Martzy as well as recordings by violinists, Leonid Kogan and Gioconda De Vito, ‘French School’ pianists Yvonne Lefébure and Germaine Thyssens-Valentin and cellist János Starker.. Or as the website describes the musical choices "...iconic 'Holy Grail' recordings by the most revered classical performers."

Everything from Nevermind to Damn the Torpedoes was recorded at Sound City. Everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Neil Young recorded there. Now analog tape based Sound City is gone. What a shame.

Ella's lushly orchestrated songbook albums were popular when first issued in the '50s and '60s and again more recently as reissues. They were not just popular. They were transformational, whether she was re-interpreting Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Ellington, Irving Berlin or Jerome Kern.