Courtesy of Billboard.

The Store:

This week is a continuation of my adventures to Goodwill. Since realizing that real life means spending money when you don’t want to, this week’s budget was a little light. I‰’m sure most college kids don’t always have the extra funds to pick up records that in all reality aren’t needed to live. I recently met a girl who has been collecting $1 bin records from various thrift stores for a good chunk of her life, and restoring the sleeves to then flip them for more than she paid. Basically she is my hero and I can only hope to one day learn from her ways. But for now I‰’ll be scouring the Goodwill bins just the same, only to write about them for your reading pleasure.

The Finds:

The Doobie Brothers – Minute By Minute

Growing up as I did, in the prime of the 1990s, my parents always had Doobie Brothers CDs in their massive compact disc collection. Plus, every man on the album cover has a mustache, so even if this album was really bad it would make great wall decor. This purchase could only be a win-win.

This record may have been released in the late ’70s, but throughout my first listen I thought it would be perfect intro music to an early ’90s sitcom, where the entire plot revolves around following a well-dressed man around a big city. I imagine a male version of Sex and the City or an alternate theme song to Full House, really any show including dad jeans and feathered bangs.

“What a Fool Believes‰” has one of the strangest layering situations I‰’ve encountered in my years of music listening. It has a smooth, almost elevator music quality to the vocals, but then the accompanying music includes ’80s sounding techno/trance/miscellaneous noises. Overall, really on the fence with this entire record. It has some fun moments, while others are just plain weird.

Ella Fitzgerald – Let No Man Write My Epitaph

Whats better than a classic singer making an entire LP covering songs from a musical with a snappy title? Finding out that the vinyl you just purchased for $1 is worth $20 on Discogs. This is why, my friends, it is more fun to check values of records after you get them home and not before. This is the true joy of the hunt. This has only happened to me once before, when I picked up a 50-cent 7‰” of a children’s Halloween poem that turned out to be worth upwards of $40 on the internet. 

Anyways, this entire record is amazing. It‰’s simple but stunning and features the lovely vocalist accompanied only by a piano.

Jim Reeves – The Country Side of Jim Reeves

Coming off the heels of the previous record, I was excited to see if this one had an exciting price bump considering it is still sealed in the original plastic. This record, unlike Ms.Fitzgerald‰’s, is worth a slightly pathetic 37 cents compared to my $1 investment. I dont think I need to gush about my love of ’50s and ’60s country music again in this column, but just know I feel the same about this as I do about every other country album from this era. Hint: It‰’s rad.

Overall Verdict:

Not bad. The Ella Fitzgerald record made this haul well worth the trip, but while the other two are nice additions to my ever growing collection, they probably won’t be mainstays on my table.