Good Album Hunting, Saturday, December 11, 2021: Christmas Shopping Done Wrong Edition

So I had a couple of hours today between dropping my son off at an event and picking him up, so I thought I would do a little Christmas shopping. As such, I stopped at Mike’s Unique antique mall/flea market. I saw a Marine Corps emblem made of LED lights that I thought I’d get my brother, until I thought, “What kind of Marine would want a Lite Brite eagle on an anchor?” And although I told myself, I would only go through the records at a single booth (and not the records-centric booth at the back), well…

I got:

• Noël by Nana Mouskouri, a Greek singer. The album itself looks to be German.
• Communication by Bobby Womack. I already have this one on CD; now I can spin it along with The Poet I & II on the turntable.
• The Exciting Voice of Sergio Franchi.
• La Bella Italia by Sergio Franchi, whose Christmas records I’ve been playing and enjoying this season.
• Romantic Love Songs by Sergio Franchi. And now when I see his other records, clearly I pick them up.
• Robert Mitchum Sings by Robert Mitchum. The tough guy actor. One day, I will have all the songs from the Golden Throats series on the original records, werd.
• The Lamp is Low by Marilyn Maye.
• Made in France by the Surrey Strings. Which looks to be songs about France, not songs in French or French singers at all.

Well, I did find a single gift at Mike’s Unique, but my ratio there of gifts for others/things for me was 1/9. Far below the ideal 1:1 ratio I strive for. In my defense, some people are hard to shop for, but I always know when I want something.

The records ranged in price between $2 through $8 (the Bobby Womack record); most were $2 or $3, and some discounts were applied. It’s becoming fairly standard, unfortunately, to find records by artists whose names you recognize at about $10. But I’ll still find something inexpensive to take a flier on.