Alan Dean - Music To Bawl By (LP, 195?)

Alan Dean - Sings Music To Bawl By
Panama ALP 1014, mono, 195?

On one of my routine thrift store excursions, I happened upon this record, and, having never seen anything like it ever before, decided I had to pick it up. Indeed, whenever an opportunity presents itself to buy Music To... or Music For... albums, it's best to snatch 'em up!

As you see, this record consists of a male vocalist, Alan Dean, who is gonna sing Music To Bawl By. Honestly, my initial impression of this was kind of cynical -- I thought to myself: this record must be dreadful. Just something about the fact that it's a guy singing (I'm personally not a big fan of male vocals), combined with the title of the album, with the additional hints of its budget label status and the fact that it's so obscure, I just couldn't imagine this being anything but the bargain basement of bargain basement '50s records (in other words, pure crap).

Eventually, I did indeed get around to giving this a spin, and, as it turned out, it wasn't too bad after all. But, no tears were shed -- neither its goodness nor its badness were powerful enough to have any sort of effect. I should say that he's got a good voice, and that the Rat-Pack-like big band/swing brass that backs it sounds effectively warm, smooth and comforting. Really though, at the end of the day, this LP is rather neutral -- not exciting but not boring either, just so-so. And, yes, it's extremely scarce; Googling it only pulls up a handful of results (one being LPCoverLover, FYI)

Anyway, this album is so incredibly rare that I decided I'd just make the whole thing available for download, the link of which will be in the comments.

If you want to get a quick taste of it beforehand, I included a sample track which you'll see below.

As always, feedback on the recording/engineering quality of my rips is much appreciated. I'm always trying to improve their quality, and getting people's input helps. :)

Track #6: Pick Yourself Up