Category: Beatles

A Capitol Idea

More about Stu Phillips. In the Sixties he was behind the Hollyridge Strings series of albums.

I approached Karl Engemann at Capitol [Records] with a far-out idea of recording an album of Beatles songs in an orchestral setting geared toward easy listening. A sort of “Beatles for the older set.”

Phillips wasn’t the only one with that idea in 1964. Beatles producer George Martin produced instrumental versions of Beatles songs, starting with the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack.

George Martin then released his Off the Beatle Track album. I checked Martin’s memoir, All You Need is Ears, and there’s no mention of the Hollyridge Strings records.

Music from the first Hollyridge album by Phillips is featured on the Capitol album The Beatles Story.

The Fabulous Batles

A girl with a surprising resemblance to my big sister, at the Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium show

My eldest sister occasionally likes to remind me that she attended both of the Beatles shows at Shea Stadium. The legendary 1965 concert was held two weeks before Mary Quant’s New York fashion show, where Prue introduced miniskirts to America.

Sandy Moss, Sarah Dawson, and Prue Bury: NYC – September 1, 1965

The unprecedented success of the Beatles at Shea Stadium gave promoters the idea that the venue would be good for other acts, as seen in this 1966 poster.

Here’s the batty tale of how Batman followed the Beatles to Shea Stadium, and why Bob Dylan didn’t.

https://fredbals.medium.com/holy-shea-stadium-the-batman-beatles-and-bob-dylan-connection-5e3b20b50196

Hooked on Needles

Something I realized rather quickly with CD (and also DVD), is the players are commodities. I have never felt the same personal connection for a disc player the way I always have for my speakers, headphones, receivers, turntables, and phono cartridges. Yes, even phono cartridges.

These are a few of the pickups, as cartridges used to be known, that I remember fondly.

The Pickering V15 came installed on my Garrard 40B turntable, way back in early 1972. Five years later, the Stanton 500 was on the Micro-Trak tonearms of the Russco Cue-Master turntables at the radio station.

The Shure M91ED was purchased to replace the Pickering.

The Audio-Technica AT-13Ea lived on my JVC VL-5 turntable.