Audio Fidelity « Off The Record

12 Discs – Part 9 – Merry Christmas from the Happy Chipmunks

Posted by Bruce on June 21, 2010 in Childrens, Xmas with No Comments

Welcome to Part 9. And now, for something a little bit ripped off different.

LP Title: Merry Christmas from the Happy Chipmunks

Category: Christmas/Childrens

Label: Holiday Records division of Audio Fidelity

Catalogue Number: HDY 1950

Released: 1982

Side 1:

The Twelve Days of Christmas

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Sleigh Ride

Little Drummer Boy

I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Side 2:

Silver Bells

Winter Wonderland

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

Up On A House Top

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Hot on the heels of the revived Chipmunks (the Ross Bagdasarian Jr. version), Audio Fidelity (or should we say AudioFidelity Enterprises by this time) released a volume of Christmas songs performed by “The Happy Chipmunks”

this ripoff group starred in at least three LPs before the company received a “Cease and Desist” order from Bagdasarian. To mollify his lawyers, they changed the species from Chipmunks to Hamsters (their second release was a volume of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits (at leat up until the early 1980′s), and a movie themes LP (The Happy Hamsters go Ghostbustin’))

As far as I know, the “Ghostbustin’” release was their final release.

12 Discs – Part 5 – Christmas Music Box Favourites from Paul Eakins’ Gay 90′s Village

Posted by Bruce on June 17, 2010 in Xmas with No Comments

Part five of my “12 Discs of Christmas” series comes from Sikeston, Missouri (via New York City)

LP Title: Christmas Music Box Favourites

Label: Audio Fidelity

Category: Christmas

Catalogue Numbers: AFLP 1982 (mono) and AFSD 5982 (stereo)

Production credits not known, Supervision by Sidney Frey

Side 1

Jingle Bells
O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
The First Noel
Silent Night
The Jolly Coppersmith
O Come Little Children
Auld Lang Syne

Side 2

O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)
O Sanctissima
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
Invitation to The Dance
Die Lorelei
The Merry Widow Waltz
The Lost Chord-Rock of Ages

This LP of tunes. played on a collection of music boxes, was recorded at Paul Eakins’ Gay 90′s village back in 1962 (or 1961. If Chris Carlisle is reading this, maybe he can elaborate for me on this. Ta.

The copy of the LP I have was originally made available at Radio Shack stores in the U.S. (Tandy for us here in Australia (now Dick Smith Electronics)). I don’t know if Carinia (who was AF’s distributor) had this LP available here? Probably likely.

Hawaii – Johnny Pineapple

Posted by Bruce on March 2, 2010 in International with No Comments

Today, I’m posting the first of my International releases:

LP: Hawaii

performed by Johnny Pineapple and his Islanders

Label: Audio Fidelity

Category: International

Catalogue Number: AFSD 5850 (Also released in mono as AFLP 1850)

Recording credits: unknown. Supervised by Sidney Frey

Released: 1959

Side 1:

Naka Pueo
My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua Hawaii
Kila Kila
Lovely Hula Hands
Little Brown Gal
Hawaiian War Chant

Side 2

Sweet Leilani
Beyond the Reef
Kui Lei
For You, A Lei
Helia Alekohi
Aloha Oe

A complete volume of Hawaiian tunes performed by David Keonoki (A. K. A. Johnny Pineapple. Not to be confused with an act named Johnny Pineapple and his Waikiki Wildcats) in a volume of instrumental Hawaiian songs.

The artwork above is from the original 1950′s release of this LP. in the 1960′s, Audio Fidelity changed the layout for the cover art and appears on the Audio Fidelity Database here.

The new and improved AFD is now online

Posted by Bruce on November 15, 2009 in Announcements with No Comments

It’s not just Foxtel and Austrar that is launching it’s new TV channels today.

the new and improved Audio Fidelity Database comes online today.

The website has now had it’s layout re-conformed to the rest of my website (no more frames, Yay!) , and has had additional pages (which had been submitted to me while I was in transit, but was unable to be added until now.)

Actually, if you were online between 4 PM and 5 PM yesterday, you would have got a preview of the site, as I was fixing a few bugs before I made the site officially “live”

After 5PM, I had changed the index page back to the “pre-launch” page once I completed my bugfix, but now the site is now officially live.

click on the link on my links area on the right, and let me know what you think. by contacting me at offrecord at brucelaing.com

Audio Fidelity’s First Component Series Test Record

Posted by Bruce on October 22, 2009 in Spoken Word/Sound Effects with No Comments

for the history of Audio Fidelity in Australia go here.

Audio Fidelity's First Component Series Stereo Test Record. - Mid 1960's pressing.

Record Label: Audio Fidelity

Categories: Audiophile, Test Record

Catalogue Number: FCS 50,000

Cover Art: Not known, possibly illustrated by Irving Sloane

Copyrighted: 1959

Side 1 – The Tests: Metronome, 1Khz Sine Wave Test Tone, 25 Seconds of Silence, High Frequency Sine Wave Test Tones, Low Frequency Sine Wave Test Tones, Sweep Test Tone 70 to 15 Hz, Phasing (white noise signals), Musician’s “A” – 440 Hz, U.S. Government Standard, 3KHz Left channel and 800 Hz Right Channel, 800 Hz Left Channel and 3 KHz Right Channel.

Side 2 – Music Selections by the Virtuoso Symphony of London: Rakoczy March, March From “Aida”, Polovetzian Dances, March From Coq d’ Or, Russian Sailor’s Dance.

The First Component Series Stereo Test Record (released by AF in 1959) is a more or less standard issue test record, but there is something unusual about the mastering on side 1 that I don’t think any other test record has done.

Each test is in it’s own individual track, but there is no link between each test, so instead of the normal 1 continuous groove on side 1, it has instead 10.

The closest we ever had since then was an “anti skid band” on British Decca’s 1960′s LP “How To Give Yourself A Stereo Check Out” (SKLA 4861)

Audio Fidelity

Posted by Bruce on October 20, 2009 in Labels with No Comments

Audio Fidelity

For three decades (1954-1984) Audio Fidelity was the premier record label for audiophiles, originally under the guidance of Sidney Frey (where most of my rare stuff will come) and from late 1965 until 1984, Herman D. Gimbel.

The label is best known today for the companies sound effects records, but it’s biggest claim to fame was the company released the first commercially available records in Stereo (November 1957)

Historically, Audio Fidelity had a number of distributors throughout Australia, notably Astor (mid 1960′s), Concert Hall (which I think was a division of Astor) and Carinia (early 1970′s until 1987)

While I’m here, I’ll plug my discography website (which lists all the known releases by the company) at The Audio Fidelity Database, but stay tuned for the first rarity from this label.

You will also find a comprehensive label gallery there.