Twenty-First Century Schitzoid Man

I've been working two separate tracks lately to build up the RPL music collection. I've been buying Billboard chart toppers by working from the present backwards and I've also been purchasing Number One hits starting from about 1963 and working my way foreword. (With a few side trips thrown in for good measure.) I guess that means I will meet myself sometime around 1984. Last year about this time I was building the Rock Collection by digging my way through 'critically acclaimed', 'classics' and the 'fathers of...' kind of stuff. While this approach built a fairly solid popular collection I missed a lot. As always what is popular is not always critically acclaimed and a good example of that was the Monkees. What really surprised me was that the Monkees, those TV show guys, had three Billboard Number One hits. Last Train to Clarksville, I'm a Believer, and Daydream Believer all had twelve weeks or more as the Number One Hit. It's not all that surprising when you consider that their earlier songs were written by the best songwriters and studio musicians NBC could hire. The studio band that recorded for the Monkees performed songs written by Carole King, Neil Diamond, and Neil Sedaka, while Glen Cambell and Leon Russell were just two of the many musicians that performed on their albums. Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith did have musical backgrounds and by the end of Monkees run on television they were performing their own work but having the best the Studio could afford, plus being on a hit TV show did give their musical careers a little bit of a boost.

CLASSIC NUMBER ONE HITS ORDERED IN APRIL.

Rubber Soul: The Beatles (I missed this one last year)
Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long: Beach Boys
Pet Sounds: Beach Boys
Surfer Girl/Shut Down Vol. 2: Beach Boys
Stop in the Name of Love: Supremes
If you can Believe your Eyes & Ears: Mamas & the Papas
Beat Goes On: The best of Sonny & Cher
Anthology: 50th Anniversary: Four Tops
Very Best of Herman's Hermits
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The very best of the Temptations Vol 1
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The very best of the Temptations Vol 2
Very Best of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
And Then...Along Came The Association
The Very Best of Loving Spoonful
Greatest Hits: The Monkees
The Essential Sly and The Family Stone
Very Best of Fifth Dimension
Bookends: Simon and Garfunkel
American Woman: Guess Who
All Time Greatest hits of Roy Orbison

Too long away.

I was looking at the films of John Garfield. I don't remember what got that started but I ran across the movie Sea Wolf and remembered it's a great movie. It's from a novel by Jack London and it stars Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, and Ida Lupino. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, the same guy that directed Casablanca. Then I had to bang my head against the wall because it's not in print and I can't buy a copy for the Library. It's one of the more exasperating things about this job. I find things the Library should have and movies that I know the public would enjoy and it's out of print! AARRGG!

My April DVD order is in and is already beginning to arrive. It's Non-fiction 'heavy' again because I have been trying to improve our 'How-to' section and 'Top Grossing' Films from 2006 so there are lots of gardening and National Geographic DVD's. But I also purchased 'top grossing movies from 2006 so there should be something for everyone.

Non-fiction DVD's Purchased in April.

Learn to Sail
Holmes on Homes - Lets Make it Right Season 1
Holmes on Homes - Lets Make it Right Season 2
Rebecca's Garden - Rose Gardening
Rebecca's Garden - Summer in the Garden
Jaques Pepin's Fast Food My Way
Fast Food My Way with Jaques Pepin 2
Year 'Round Lawn Care
Year 'Round tree, Shrub & Evergreen Care
Jerry Baker's Gardening Wisdom
Little League's Official How-To Play Baseball
World Alamanac Video - The expanding Universe
National Geographic Video: Egypt: Quest for Eternity
National Geographic Video - Volcano: Nature's Inferno
National Geographic Video - Inside Mecca
National Geographic Video - In search of the Jaguar

Top Grossing 2006

Blood Diamond
Casino Royale
Borat
Eragon
Departed
Last King of Scotland
Man of the Year
Marie Antoinette
Babel
Little Children
Queen

And Also:

Testimonies of Faith
Roots
Conejo En La Luna
Romantico