Sunday, January 09, 2011

The Ray Charles Singers - Something Special for Young Lovers (1964)


Here's one of my favorite choral groups - the Ray Charles Singers. Lately I just haven't been able to get enough of the different choral groups - there just isn't enough time in the day to listen to all the records I want to hear! Besides the fact that this record is by the Ray Charles Singers, I bought it for the cover art, and because it's by Command Records. I don't have too many of the Command Records, but I find that I'm starting to look out for these more and more. One thing I did find puzzling about this particular record is that both the cover and the label say "Stereo", but when I recorded it I didn't see that there were two different tracks. And in some of the songs, the men's voices sound kind of "distant". I'm wondering if maybe the record could have been mislabeled. Odd. Anyway, I still enjoyed this album, especially "Quiet Nights", which is one of my all-time favorite songs. And any album that has "Dominique" on it is fine by me!


1/25/2011 UPDATE: I found the problem with one of my sound settings (don't know how I changed it) and rerecorded this album. It is now in stereo, the way it's supposed to be.

Track listing for Ray Charles Singers - Something Special for Young Lovers:

Side 1:
1. This Could Be the Start of Something
2. I Left My Heart in San Francisco
3. More
4. There! I've Said It Again
5. This Is All I Ask
6. Dominique

Side 2:
1. Hello, Dolly!
2. Quiet Nights
3. Love Me With All Your Heart
4. Charade
5. What Kind of Fool Am I? (contains a skip)
6. Sweet Little Mountain Bird

7 comments:

Armpit Studios said...

When I first started getting into all this easy listening stuff, I'd see a Ray Charles Singers album posted and go "bleagh" and skip it, because I was thinking it was *the* Ray Charles, it his music isn't for me. But then I managed to hear one of them and went "whoa!" So thanks for this. It's cool because it's cheesy. And to think how much I hated elevator music when I was a kid.

Devlin Jamison said...

Esther,

If the right and left tracks are identical and sound distant like that, I would say it's almost certain that there's a problem with your sound card input. This happened to me at one point when I did a Windows update. I would check the settings to make sure it's on stereo.

Also, I'm a huge Command fan, and if you're interested, I have a discography with links to blog posts for all of the albums that have been uploaded so far. Send me an email, if you'd like, and I'll send it to you.

Devlin Jamison said...

Follow up:

I just listened to your rip, and yes, something is not right. I have the mono version of this album and just compared the two--the vocals sound completely different. I'm positive that your computer has mixed the stereo signal to mono. Vocals are most noticeably affected by this, because they're typically panned dead center.

I hope these comments aren't out-of-line and are helpful. I may be able to help you further, if necessary. devlin.jamison@gmail.com

Mikel J said...

Actually, one channel is missing.
Just luvin' this foot of snow were are presently getting here in Watervliet, NY.

Esther said...

I'll try rerecording it this weekend and play around with the Audacity software. If I'm successful, I'll upload a new link.

Esther

Esther said...

Found the problem! One of my sound settings (on Control Panel) was set to one-channel (I don't know how/when I changed it) so that's why this record sounded funny when I recorded it. The mono albums were not affected, and only this stereo album was affected (found it in time before recording others). So, I've fixed the setting and rerecorded this album. Sounds much better!

Esther

Armpit Studios said...

Thanks for the fix! Sounds much better.