PREAMBLE:
Oh my, yet another slice of history on vinyl from the mists of time that I have found in one of my boxes of "older" musical gems!
Historical from so many angles ...
Arthur Murray Dance School began in the early 1900's in USA and spread worldwide, introducing ordinary folk to "social dancing". There were a lot of Arthur Murray dance schools here in Australia although I not sure how many remain, I do know that there remains one here in the local area of Western Sydney.
W & G Records was an early Australian label which began in the early 1950's until around the mid 1970's so this pressing was made during their early days
Those little stamps to the side of the Side 1 label are "Royalty Stamps" and needed to be placed on all recordings to show that royalties had been paid - some people actually collect these! It was around 1957 that these stamps transitioned from paper stick on stamps to being directly printed onto the record label. This record has two stamps, one is a Chappell and the other a J.Albert & Son with a value of 6¼d. Can't remember how much that is? 6 and a ¼ pence, the pence is denoted by the d. What was a pence? There were 12 of them in a shilling and 20 shillings in a Pound. Easy huh? That's why switching to decimal currency made life so much easier (working in factors or 10)
The performer, Bobby Ramos (and his orchestra) were also quite something. Born in Mexico and originally dreaming of becoming a doctor, his passion for music (specifically music of the Fiesta) took control and he followed a path in the world of music, particularly when he migrated across to USA. A very well known (at the time) and successful musician, a lot more "personalised" bio information is printed on the rear cover of this release.
Finally, this vinyl is the "old" very hard surface vinyl. Perhaps a little noisier than today's softer plastics but more resilient to the rigours of being played and not so carefully handled. I am not sure if this what could be categorised as "micro-groove" but I have test played the entire album on my current turntable (Technics SP10) fitted with a Shure V15 and there were no tracking issues or "floating in the grooves" noises. Nice playback ... now get up and dance!
BOBBY RAMOS AND HIS ORCHESTRA - Rumba & Samba
"The Arthur Murray Way"
W & G Records
Cat# WG-LD1-105
Deep Blue/Silver label
1957
Australian release
Mono audio
Heavy cardboard cover is in good condition, this means that there are no tears, no personal writing and no seam splits. The White background has become Yellowed over the years, very similar to "foxing" with old book pages and caused by the paper reacting with the environment. The print is very basic 3 colour (Blue, Red & Black), possibly state of the art printing back in the late 1950's! The rear cover has a small section of Whiteout applied to obscure a previous owners name.
New inner 10" plastic liner sleeve
Vinyl (this is a vinyl record NOT shellac) record is in good condition, visually inspected under a bright White halogen light source and I can see a number of light marks or scratches on either side, Side 1 appears slightly worse. Quite frankly this is pretty amazing after all these years. Just looking at the vinyl is not a great way to judge the condition so I then played the release ENTIRELY, every single track on each side, there are no significant issues with surface noise nor clicks/pops at all - yes, the surface noise is slightly elevated but nothing too serious and clicks/pops are also nothing dramatic - there are absolutely no mistracking events!
Unless you frequent a Latin style dance studio or enjoy partaking in Fiesta's, you will not hear this music very often these days but it is certainly "something completely different" if you usually enjoy the standard pap of Western rock, pop, blues etc
New outer protective 10" clear plastic sleeve
TRACKS: Dormillon, Bongo Bongocero, Walter Winchell Rumba, Carioca, Maxixe Lundu, Sin Timbal, The Arthur Murray Way, Noche De Amor
