Teasing the Korean

You can download the tracks as Wav files from the InterTubes. That said, $8.49 for a rare 10" album in lossless format is a great deal. $6.99 for mp3 files is not necessarily a good deal.

I'll check it out. I also have this train compilation from Ace Records: https://acerecords.co.uk/all-aboard-train-tracks-calling-at-all-musical-stations

That link no longer works. Is it this tune?

No! The music I most frequently pair with trains is my beloved Happy Housewife micro-genre, which I wrote about here:

Last night, we watched the Monkees Christmas episode, in which Butch Patrick (The Munsters) plays a young wealthy Scrooge. The episode ends with this:

We watched "The Substance." Fantastic.

Well, as someone who listens to 8 hours of vintage department store Christmas muzak, I can handle 8 Urbie Green Christmas tunes! 🤣

Considering that I'm always looking for jazz Christmas stuff, I'm surprised that I just learned about this album today, although considering it's rarity, maybe I should not be surprised. It is available as a lossless download from Qobuz.

This year's train show was a bust. They're very hit or miss. Last year there were a bunch of younger people selling off their Dads' or Grandads' trains for pennies on the dollar. No such luck this year.

RIP. The Breathless soundtrack is a fave.

Johnny Pate just turned 101 a few days ago.

It does include voiceovers specifying smoking areas, along with a few other tidbits.

Yep, that's it!

Mancini straddled pop and jazz, and while his "jazz" records were very stylized, I nevertheless think his jazz arranging skills are underrated. I too love Mancini's dramatic scoring, which was almost never included on his quasi-soundtrack albums. Did I ever post the excerpt from his memoir where he expressed regret over his approach to soundtrack albums?

Presumably. Plas is certainly on the record. They usually credit the players in these film score releases.

Quartet Records is releasing a 2-CD Pink Panther set with the film recordings on one disc and the LP recordings on the other. The film recordings were believed to have been lost. https://quartetrecords.com/product/the-pink-panther-2-cd/ Quartet Records, in collaboration with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Music and the Henry Mancini Estate, present the premiere release of the original film tracks of Henry Mancini’s Academy Award-nominated, iconic score for the no-less-iconic Blake Edwards film THE PINK PANTHER (1964), celebrating its 60th anniversary. A cornerstone of sophisticated heist comedy and romance, and a classic that began a saga about the clumsiest policeman in history: Inspector Clouseau, brilliantly played by Peter Sellers, who would reprise the role for four more films before his passing. In addition to Sellers, THE PINK PANTHER stars David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner and Claudia Cardinale. The film was shot on luxurious locations in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, with some sequences shot in Rome, Paris and Los Angeles. Henry Mancini had previously composed several acclaimed scores for Blake Edwards, including BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES and the TV series PETER GUNN. The theme he created for the animated main titles of THE PINK PANTHER immediately became a classic—one of the most famous pieces in the history of cinema and popular music culture. Mancini went on to write a fantastic catalog of melodies—all refined with his redoubtable good taste—and an exciting underscore that has remained unreleased for sixty years. Together with Johnny Mercer, he wrote another of his great songs, “It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera),” which appears on this CD in its original version, performed by Fran Jeffries. This double CD presents in the first disc the actual film score from the original master recordings with the original session at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in 1963, preserved in mint condition and originally recorded in mono. It also includes some alternate versions and unused music. The second disc contains the remastered album Mancini recorded for RCA with new arrangements of the more commercial tracks. Carefully produced, restored and mastered by Chris Malone, the package includes a 24-page booklet with extensive liner notes by film music writer Jeff Bond.

Oh, I do think about sleigh rides and reindeer, but I do a fairly elaborate HO winter MCM layout every year under the aluminum tree, so I tend to obsess over trains this time of year. I've always associated trains with the holidays, though not exclusively. I'll post some pix when I have it set up. I try to set it up later rather than sooner so the cat has fewer days to destroy it, although based on how well-behaved he was last holiday season, we think it was our late, beloved Siamese cat Pyewacket who was the culprit of the destruction in past years.

It's that time of year. I'm starting to think about trains again. Anyone else?

😹 😹😹

😹 😹😹 🥂

Ms. TTK and I have an annual holiday tradition. On the Friday after Thanksgiving - which very cleverly happens to be today - we decorate our aluminum Christmas trees, and listen to this YouTube upload of department store Christmas Muzak. Actually, only some of this is Muzak - generally the tunes that you Shazam and don't find a hit. But there are also some recognizable gems, such as those from the first Percy Faith Christmas album, like "Deck the Halls."

👍🥂