I’ve been quiet for a while. Quite because I’ve been plotting. And planning.
What does one do when they have suddenly and unexpectedly got some time on their hands?
Well in my case I have begun to go and amend the artist credits in my database. Not an easy task and it has led to finding covers for well over 70,000 records – or will be when I’m done.
Why do this? Well the main artist on a record is usually what the chart books credit. But there are others that the label gives equal prominence to that sometimes get overlooked.
Let’s take the above example. The entry is found in Joel Whitburns excellent book under the Andrews Sisters and while Gordon Jenkins is credited, it is as ‘Orchestra by’ in a line at the top and this diminishes his contribution.
An example here – listen to the same version of a song by two different artists – be it ‘Into The Unknown’ by Idina Menzel & Aurora or by Panic! At The Disco or ‘If’ by Jo Stafford (and Paul Weston) or Perry Como (and Mitchell Ayers) – the songs are different. Each wants to make their own version. Each is different. I’m not going to say one is better!
The orchestra makes a difference as does the conductor. Any classical music fan will tell you that this conductor does that piece so much better than this other conductor with the same orchestra.
So why don’t the chart books list all this? And I thought that I’d go back and add this stuff into my own database.
It’s had another unusual side effect as well as it has allowed me to standardise some things such as numbers for the entries and ensure that what’s on the cover is how titles are displayed (American spellings always get me as I just found one today where I used ‘Colour’ and the cover spells it ‘Color’ – which my spellcheck says is wrong as I use British English by default).
I hope everybody is keeping well and if your after any specific things to be posted here then do let me know and I’ll see what I can do.