CLASSIC RECORDS LSP1773 TEST PRESSING: Bob & Ray Throw A Stereo Spectacular - B2

$

125

****Welcome to our eBay listing, thanks very much for looking!

****FREE SHIPPING to CANADA and/or the USA - all other locations are subject to a reasonable shipping fee.

****Please check out our other eBay store listings and eBay auctions for more great LPs and CDs - new items added daily!

****To access our eBay store either click on the little red door at the top right section of any of our eBay listings or, click on -

http://stores.ebay.com/Hear-The-Difference

Background on this eBay item -

Test Pressing Manufacturing date: February 29, 1996

• Classic Records LP Item - audiophile issue, TEST PRESSING
  

• Pressing is in STEREO

• Bob Elliott (born 1923) and Ray Goulding (1922–1990) were an American comedy team whose career spanned five decades. Their format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, such as conducting radio or television interviews, with off-the-wall dialogue presented in a generally deadpan style as though it were a serious broadcast.
  
  Elliott and Goulding began as radio announcers (Elliott a disc jockey, and Goulding a news reader) in Boston with their own separate programs on station WHDH-AM, and each would visit with the other while on the air. Their informal banter was so appealing that WHDH would call on them, as a team, to fill in when Red Sox baseball broadcasts were rained out. Elliott and Goulding (not yet known as Bob and Ray) would improvise comedy routines all afternoon, and joke around with studio musicians.
  
  Bob & Ray's first album for RCA Victor, Bob & Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular, is actually a sampler record for the label's Living Stereo line with a handful of comedy bits appearing between cuts from other albums in the series. Bob & Ray's portion depicts their visit to the castle of Dr. Ahkbar, a mad scientist (voiced by Bob Elliot) whose bizarre experiments give the comedians an excuse to fool around with stereo sound effects. Listening with headphones is advantageous, but most of the humor holds up independently of the stereo effects. The one exception is "Bob and Ray in the Laboratory," which consists of practically nothing but sound effects. The music ranges from the orchestral instrumental pop of George Melachrino, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, and Skitch Henderson to vocal performances by Abbe Lane and Julie Andrews. Richard Leiber plays "The First Noel" on the pipe organ, Lena Horne performs the suggestive "New-Fangled Tango" live in concert, and Harry Belafonte's Belafonte Singers contribute the folk song "The Ox Drivers." The gleefully cacophonous Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band takes the prize for providing the most unusual musical selection, but the overall program is extremely diverse. Whether Living Stereo collectors want to hear Bob & Ray -- or Bob & Ray fans want to hear a Living Stereo sampler -- is another matter, but the comedy and music are enjoyable. ~ Greg Adams, Rovi
  
  As far back as 1953, RCA VICTOR experimented with two track recordings. Starting in '55, this company issued a series of stereo reel tapes and when Westrex developed a practical system for stereo LPs a couple of years later, RCA got into this format in a big way. In 1958, their first full year of LIVING STEREO album production, they issued about 200 titles. BOB AND RAY THROW A STEREO SPECTACULAR (LSP-1773) is one of these pioneering records.
  
  It's really a chance for the label to demo this new process and offer samples of their growing stereo catalog. Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding's bits sprinkled throughout the program are excuses for various sound effects. On these segments, cross-channel panning is used to simulate movement across the sound stage. Stereo was a novelty that year, so the wider the spacial effect, the bigger the "wow!" factor.
  
  On "B & R at the Castle" we meet hunchbacked 'Gore' (Bob as Karloff) and 'Dr. Akhbar' (Bob doing Peter Lorre). He's Director of Bob and Ray Scientific Research and we're first shown Dr. A.'s experimental fly, 'Neil.'
  
  The "Minuet on the Rocks" excerpt is boogiefied Paderewski, with Skitch pounding away at a honky tonk piano. Behind the creaky door of "The Round Room is a bagpipe marching band. Besides many unusual percussion instruments in the Schory's "Buck Dance," we also hear tap shoes. Lena's "New-Fangled Tango" is a mono 'live' at the Waldorf performance that has the audience giggling. Within the ballroom on "The Thing" is a clock with a screaming human pendulum. "Second Hungarian Rhapsody" is an edited version of one of the most insane oompah band recordings ever made.
  
  Richard Leibert was Radio City's first-ever organist. His high output holiday song at the keys really gives your speakers a workout. If "Song of the Volga Boatmen" sounds like Glenn Miller, there's a good reason. Several Miller alumni play on this recreation of the original Bill Finegan arrangement. The experiments in Dr. A.'s "Laboratory" are samples from RCA's sound effects library.
  
  Xavier's Cugat's fourth wife, Abbe Lane ("Whatever Lola Wants") is a Jewish girl from Brooklyn, born Abigail Lassman in 1932. "The Ox Drivers" reflects a popular trend of that day, folk music. Album-closing "The End" has shrunk-in-size Bob and Ray as the mad doctor's final experiment. - By Annie Van Auken 
  

• Highly sought after title by audiophiles and music lovers alike - the stereo, original shaded dog is very rare, especially in near mint shape - in our humble opinion, the Classic Records reissue bests the original in many ways - in years of collecting we have had a good number of originals. All of them pale in comparison to the reissue, primarily due to condition, noisy vinyl, dynamics, etc. This is your chance to hear what this LP is supposed to sound like!
  

• The Test Pressing stamped information indicates: February 29 1996, LSP 1773, 45, B2 - we can't be sure as the item is sealed, but we believe this stamped information to indicate the date of manufacturing of the test pressing, the record catalog number, the side of the record and stamper number, and that the LP is cut at 45rpm for greatest dynamics.
  

This ebay listing is for a very rare, long out of print and factory sealed audiophile LP TEST PRESSING issue of a much sought after recording featuring -

Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding

• LP catalog # LSP 1773

CONDITION Details:

So if our definition of the stamped information on the jacket is correct, this test pressing has some of the music from side 2 of this marvelous LP on it, cut at 45rpm.

The white, generic LP jacket is in MINT condition - it is FACTORY SEALED!

A Short Note About LP GRADING -

• Mint = Only used for sealed items.
• Near Mint = Virtually flawless in every way.
• Near Mint Minus = Item has some minor imperfections, some audible.
• Excellent = Item obviously played and enjoyed with some noise.
• Very Good Plus = Many more imperfections which are noticeable and obtrusive.

For best results, always properly clean your LPs before playing them (even for new LPs).

The LP is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).