Lance's Tunes Listening

I completed my first week of my attempt to listen to the “1001 albums before you die” list from Album of the Year website. I just started album #21, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album.

WHAT I LISTENED TO

I listened to albums #1 to #21. It contained albums from the years 1955 to 1959. Elvis Presley’s 1957 release, Elvis Presley, This is Fats by Fats Domino, and Billy Holiday’s Lade in Satin, were some of albums that I listen to.

WHAT I LIKED

I have enjoyed listening to several of the albums on the list, but my 2 favorite albums from this week are #7 Frank Sinatra’s Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! and #8 The Crickets’ The “Chirping” Crickets.

Old Blue Eyes croons some of the standards, such as “Pennies from Heaven, ” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and “Anything Goes.” I enjoyed Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! more than his 1957 album, In the Wee Small Hours, which is the first album of the list.

Of course, who wouldn’t want to listen to Buddy Holly and the Crickets before that were Buddy Holly and the Crickets. The Chirping Crickets was their debut album from 1957. It contains some great songs such as “Not Fade Away,” “Maybe Baby,” and the #1 hit “That’ll be the Day.”

WHAT SURPRIZED ME

Louis Prima’s The Wildest! surprised me. I liked the different styles of music on this album. It’s starts with “Just a Gigilo/I Ain’t Got Nobody.” Louis’ singing on this album reminded me of Satchmo’s singing, but Louis Prima doesn’t get as low as the great Louis Armstrong. The are some good Big Band songs mixed in with some Swing sings as well, like “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail.” Most of the songs will get your feet a tappin’. Take 32 minutes to listen to this great album.

Ella Fitzgerald sings a ton of songs written by the Gershwin Brothers in Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Songs of George and Ira Gershwin Song Book. George and Ira Gershwin were prolific songs composers and Ella Fitzgerald was an exceptional jazz vocalist and both are displayed in this album. “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “He Loves She Loves” are a couple of my favorites of this album. It’s a good thing most of the songs are under 4 minutes long as there are 59 songs. If you want to listen to this album, you need some time. Ella won the 1960 Grammy for the song “But Not for Me” for Best Vocal Performance, Female.

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO

There are several albums that I’m looking forward to listening. There’s #22, Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, Time Out by Dave Bruback at #23, and the first albums from The Beatles at #35 and Bob Dylan at #36.

WHAT ARE THE STATS

Being a numbers geek, I set up a spread sheet to keep track of my endeavor of listing to all 1001 albums. The spreadsheet lists each album with my rating of 1-10, the date I listened to the album, the rate of albums at which I Iistened to each day, and the projected date of completing.

So far I gave an 8 to Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! and The Chirping Crickets. There was one album that I gave a 3. I’m not much of a Blue Grass music fan.

So far, I have listened to 21 albums in 8 days for an average of 2.625 albums a day. I knocked 9 of them off the list on Monday as it was an optional day to come into work. I had to since I had to grade my students’ final exams from 1st semester. I don’t listen to these albums during the weekend. I have listened to them in the morning before school starts and after school.

If I keep this rate up, I should complete the list by Feb. 15, 2025. When I first started listening to these albums, I was thinking that it would take me 10 – 12 years, not 10 – 12 months.

I would like to know if someone else is listening through the list or just listened to 1 of the first 21 albums. I would like to know your experience.

I hope you have sweet music in your ears this coming week.