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Three Thrift Store Vinyl Finds
As a Rate-a-Record challenge
Until recently, my Goodwill shopping had been a major snooze — boring white gospel records and an empty jacket of The Byrds’ Greatest Hits. The other day, I found four 45 singles mostly from the 60’s: “Alley Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles, two New Colony Six singles (not their debut “I Confess,” which I had purchased when it first came out), and one by The Shadows of Knight (not their debut “Gloria”).
The next day at the local Habitat for Humanity thrift store, I did even better: two albums and three singles also from the 60's, which furnish the following Rate-a-Record challenge. There is no theme or common denominator; such is the adventure known as thrift store crate digging. Give each of these selections a score from 35–98, preferably with your comments as well.
The Crossfires, “Polynesian Limbo” (1963)
I normally avoid budget labels like Strand, but the limbo fad (which I witnessed as a youth but never tried to dance to) and the primitive album cover got my attention, and when I saw that the band wrote most of the songs, I was hooked (almost all budget records consist of covers). Maybe this would be some undiscovered classic. Well it isn’t exactly, but the songs are surprisingly decent. The sound is more surf music than exotica or…
