Reddit mentions: The best pop oldies

Hey, welcome! I'm Justin, co-host of TCBCast, an Elvis podcast and I was in the place you were back in the early 00s when I was just discovering Elvis so this is an exciting time for you!

A lot of other Elvis fans will try to overwhelm you with recommendations about what they like most and why you should like it, but everyone's tastes are different. So the easiest thing you can do is just listen to his biggest hits and see what resonates with you. They were his biggest hits for a reason - they were good!

Do you have Spotify/Google Play/Prime Music? There's a compilation called The Essential Elvis Presley that really does a good job covering a lot of his big hits and some of his more minor hits - did you know that up until Drake & Li'l Wayne, Elvis had more Top 40 hits than anyone else? So even some of his songs that didn't become big #1 hits were still very influential!

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elvis-Presley/dp/B000KX0HVY

This set is a good starting place because it's not too much but it covers a lot of ground! Elvis sang in a lot of different genres and he sounded different throughout his life vocally as he grew older, so you'll probably find that some of the songs you like more than the others.

If you do, then you can use Google or Wikipedia to look up what album the songs you like best originally came out on, or what year they came out, and then look for albums that came out that year and listen to them see if you like that, too!

I would also really recommend watching the documentary HBO put out last year called Elvis Presley: The Searcher. It's a great film that puts his career into context and might help you understand his life better. There is a soundtrack album that came out to accompany the documentary and I would happily recommend that also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG-q5fV9ihA

Exploring Elvis' music can be exciting but also very confusing to start with since he recorded over 700 songs and starred in over 30 movies, all of which had music in them, too!

Feel free to shoot me an email over at tcbcast@gmail.com if you ever have any questions or want some more advice!

See that's the thing -- I kind of love all of it, even the so-called "crap" stuff from the decade. I love the rock stuff and the disco stuff and the soul stuff. All of it. (well, mostly)

For lesser-known soul stuff, I like the What It Is! box set. And there's some amazing stuff in the 70s-era part of the Quincy Jones box set. But as far as straight-up groups, Earth Wind & Fire and Sly & the Family Stone are where it's at for me.

Rock stuff, I have a soft spot in my heart for Big Star, but I'll take the more popular stuff, as well, like Bowie and Zeppelin and former Beatles' solo stuff, or even the so-called "lighter" Doobies or Steely Dan. And goddam if Loggins & Messina's "Sittin' In" isn't just the most blissful. And holy crap, of course there's Harry Nilsson and his entire catalogue.

But the thing I love most about the 70s is discovering all these bands that are relatively under the radar these days, or groups that artists were in before they got big. Relatively recent discoveries for me include the band Lake and Klaatu and Brian Protheroe.

But I'm honestly equally happy putting on the 1970s station and listening to Brandy or Amie or Angie Baby or pretty much whatever.

EDIT: cleaned up some links

| | |
|-:|:-|
|track|I Only Have Eyes for You|
|track about|This track is an early example of what is now termed "Smooth Soul." Through the '50s and '60s, if you sang RnB or Soul, this is the sound you were compared to and sought to perfect. Later groups featuring a similar sound, from the '60s thru the '80s, would include The Spinners, Stylistics, Ace Spectrum, Blue Magic,etc. Contemporary rivals included The Spanials, Dells, Channels, Drifters, Fandangos, and others.|
|album|The Best Of The Flamingos|
|released|May 1990|
|cover|http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000032SY.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg|
|artist|The Flamingos|
|about|The most famous group with this name is a Doo-Wop group, established in 1953. They are best known for "I Only Have Eyes For You," in 1959. (originally a hit in 1934 for Ben Selvin and written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin). They recorded several uptempo songs through the 1960s, peaking at #26 in the UK Singles Chart with "The Boogaloo Party", released in 1966 by Phillips. A masterpiece with latin rhythm.|
|pic|http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/357137.jpg|
|mp3|mp3 on amazon|
|CD|CD on amazon|
|lastfm url|[The Flamingos on last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/The Flamingos)|
|player|http://radd.it/r/listentothis/comments/1hzslv/the_flamingos_i_only_have_eyes_for_you_rhythm/|
|youtube playcount|1,020,231|
|lastfm listeners|95,970|
|lastfm playcount|455,227|
|permalink|http://reddit.com/r/listentothis/comments/1hzslv/the_flamingos_i_only_have_eyes_for_you_rhythm/|


Why yes, I am a bot. I've been requested to comment in this subreddit.
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Some great ones have been mentioned...

Such as Conan the Barbarian's soundtrack:

Romeo + Juliet's soundtrack:

Forrest Gump's soundtrack:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's soundtrack:

and Braveheart's soundtrack:

To these I would add the fantastic soundtrack to the the somewhat lousy and sucky 1999 modern adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons called Cruel Intentions:...

and the classic original soundtrack to legendary anime Ghost in the Shell:...

And yet...my favorite is the soundtrack to a movie I would not be eager to watch twice. One that I actually dislike, heh.

But the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is, quite simply, brilliant. The latter part of the CD is particularly great.

My favorite on your wishlist is Abbey Road by far.

My favorite under 10 dollar item on mine is probably this because I love papercraft.

Nice, thanks! This pressing is allegedly inferior to the Repertoire pressing, but it's also half the price, so...

There's also the Big Beat pressing which is priced in-between the two... just to make it nice and complicated.

There's a big thread on Steve Hoffman if anyone is interested.

Oh, the first one is great too, I just always loved the more experimental days in general.

You should also check out The Beatles With Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition. It contains all of their recordings with Tony Sheridan, including the songs that were actually released on singles that aren't on the Anthology. Not essential to the collection, but a good option when you want more.

For anyone who used the Conelrad Radio mod for Fallout, this website was the initial source.

Conelrad put together an AWESOME CD set called Atomic Platters that was basically digitized for use in Fallout. If you have any interest in this music, you should give them some love.

I dunno... at this moment, Abbey Road is selling for $12.50 on CD and $22.98 on vinyl. Seems like ~$23 is the standard for records and ~$12 is kinda standard for CDs these days. CDs are a dying medium, compared to vinyl which has an active demand from from a small niche of consumers. I guess ~$23 doesn't bother me too much, since I was paying $15 for CDs back in the mid 90s, and if you adjust that number for inflation, guess what value you get?

It's cute that this little old man is running a music shop, but seriously how many of things in this video sound like an unsustainable business model to you:

• Charges $24.99 for The Essential Elvis Prestley (Amazon: $11.88)
  
  
• Charges $16 For The Essentials The Monkees (Amazon: $7.99)
  
  
• Proprietor doesn't know how to use a cell phone, computer or cash register
  
  
• Customer told to come back the next day because store owner can't find CD
  
  
• Stores vinyl records in a sloping stack (warps them)
  
  God bless him for doing what he loves, but this would not be a for-profit business no matter the era.

Sensational album. A million upvotes for mentioning it.

But it seems to me that sad music, that's something the OP's going to carry in his heart the rest of his life.

Sincere and heartfelt condolences.

But I'd recommend:
Floating Into the Night by Julee Cruise
Avalon, by Roxy Music
Burning World, by the Swans

I probably could come up with a lot of others. Too much sorrow in this life.

I just picked up this compilation: The Birth of Surf. It has overwhelmingly good reviews on amazon.com.

I checked out a lot of the songs, but this one was my favourite on the compilation: Pipeline, by the Chantays. Amazing.

I hope you slept well. Thank you for the contest.

Gotta love CONELRAD, I've actually been considering buying this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A5HJ86

the great twenty-eight. it's a greatest hits compilation, but there's much more on this one than most others.

As 0verture mentioned, one problem you're going to run into is that many of those 50s rock songs were released only as singles. So compilation albums are often the only way to get those songs.

Get any album by Eddie Cochran or Gene Vincent; their influence was huge. I do think compilations are the best for those: this one for Gene Vincent and this one for Eddie Cochran are my favorites. Also, early Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly (whose influence on The Beatles was huge).

Edit: Forgot to mention Larry Williams, who wrote several songs that The Beatles covered ("Bad Boy", "Slow Down", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy").

I know this is a vinyl reddit, but I would recommend this compilation on CD. Most of them were 45's. Pricey and difficult to find in good shape.


http://www.amazon.com/Rockin-Bones-1950s-Punk-Rockabilly/dp/B000FOQ0JG

You'd probably enjoy the Julee Cruise album Floating into the Night. It came out round about the same time, music by Angelo Badalamenti, lyrics by David Lynch. It contains all the songs from Twin peaks including some in the series but not on the OST disc, as well as a few that weren't in the series at all.

I just discovered the 17 CD boxed set.

Apparently it is so popular, Amazon has had to stop selling it, which is puzzling, because they never had it in the first place. It was only available for pre-order.

Cool video on the Abbey Road page

Bit of a thread resurrection here, but I didn't realize any debate had arisen in response to my comment. So I have 484 Beatles tracks; there's the entire UK studio discography, then there's the Past Master's compilation which is composed entirely of tracks not present on any studio release (albeit with a couple alternate versions of songs), and then there is the three-disc Anthology series with various outtakes, interview snippets, and alternate song versions. Then there's Live at the BBC, which adds quite a bit to the total itself. Topping it all off is The Beatles with Tony Sheridan, which adds even more to the count with a bit of repetition, with its various versions of multiple tracks. So that is the main Beatles playlist in my library.

I suppose if I were to get technical and include the mono remaster box set (my main Beatles playlist contains only the stereo), that would bring the total to 669 Beatles tracks. Keep in mind that, in my Beatles collection, if you encounter the same title multiple times it is invariably a different version; this could mean it's an alternate take, an alternate mix, a live version, a single version, mono or stereo, or even sung in German instead of English in a few cases.

It would depend on your definition of bloat, I suppose.

There's a fantastic box set of cold war era radio propaganda and music called Atomic Platters. However due to the price and rarity, you'll probably have to look for it through *ahem* "other channels"