Day 4

Another trip through Hollywood's bargain bins which were near the front of the store.  Prices could be 3 for $10 or 5 for $20 or some similar pricing.  I want to say the discs were $4 or $5 each but I honestly don't remember.  Picked up my first 45 of the year, adding the single edit of "Jungle Love" to the collection. 

Obviously, I was in some sort of oldies phase, getting both Chuck Berry and Little Richard on the same day.  Can't speak to the quality of the Little Richard record - don't remember it

The Steinman album was his response to mouthpiece Meat Loaf taking too long to record Renegade Angel, the planned follow-up to Bat Out Of Hell.  So what does Steinman do? Sings his songs himself.  Not very well but the EP enclosed with the album included one of my favorite songs, then and now: "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through", which incidentally is performed by longtime Steinman associate Rory Dodd.  Meat Loaf and Steinman re-teamed within a few months and Mr. Loaf ended up recording some of the Bad For Good songs on his later albums including his version of "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through" in 1993 for Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell.

Though I just listed Pete Gabriel in the log, I'm confident it was his album from 1980, the third in a series of four self-titled albums.  Commonly referred to as Melt because of the cover art, the album contains two awesome tracks that open and close side two: "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko".  Turns out the whole album was pretty good with lots of nuances that rewarded repeated listenings.

The last album or EP if you will was a great find because of the abbreviated 6:30 edit of "Rapper's Delight".  The rest of the tracks were actually pretty good as well.  Just looked it up and Village Voice's Robert Christgau gave the record an A-.

NOW:

Hollywood Records was one of the first record stores to close in Tucson, probably in the early Nineties, as the parent company, Associated Distributors, closed rank and retreated to its Phoenix base of operations.  Several Circles and Hollywood stores remained open in metropolitan Phoenix for a few more years.  My last visit to one of the stores was to the Circles in the Scottsdale Fashion Square in the late Nineties I'm guessing.

RECORD STATUS:

Still have the "Jungle Love" 45 (the b-side is "Oh Baby" from their self-titled debut) and The Great Rap Hits, Vol. 1.  Don't recall ever seeing a Vol. 2.  Ended up replacing Gabriel and Steinman with CDs and don't know what happened to the Little Richard album.  Probably found God.  You can find the albums above available on Spotify (which recently added the Peter Gabriel catalog) below:

"Jungle Love" / "Oh, Baby" [Digital 45] - The Time (1985)

Bad For Good - Jim Steinman (1981)

Peter Gabriel 3: Melt - Peter Gabriel (1980)

No Great Rap Hits Vol. 1 but lookee what I found for y'all:

Great Rap Hits, Vol. 2 (1984)  

In my opinion it is vastly superior to Vol. 1.

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Received pre-Christmas Columbia House order today as well; three albums and two rainchecks for $24.23. Anyone remember Columbia House rainchecks cause HERC is drawing a blank.  Could they actually run out of product?  Were they good for any album? Maybe we'll find out as we get further into the year.

• Chuck Berry's Golden Hits - Chuck Berry (1967)
• Time In A Bottle: Jim Croce's Greatest Love Songs - Jim Croce (1976)
• No Control - Eddie Money (1982)

The Berry album of course turned out to be stereo re-recordings of his earlier hits at a slightly sped up pace.  Played it a few times but no longer have it.

The Croce album added one song to his discography; not enough to keep it around as I had all his other albums.

No Control appears to be the winner of the bunch.  With two favorites "Shakin' " and "Think I'm In Love", this one still has a place in the stacks.

images courtesy discogs

The TOTAL TALLY:

records bought: 11

    money spent: $69.70