Saturday, March 31, 2007

The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection

I get emails at http://www.erniekovacs.net/ and comments posted here regarding "The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection," which was released on July 15, 1997 on the Varese Sarabande label. Most of the comments have to do with the fact that its difficult to find.

Unfortunately this title is out of print. Varese Sarabande, a company that largely deals in motion picture and television soundtracks, doesn't even have it in their database anymore.

My suggestion is to visit this link at Amazon where you can find copies from dealers (though they are all very expensive). I'd also check online auction sites such as EBAY to try and find a copy. You'll most likely get it there for much cheaper.

The CD is probably out of print because of the fact that it appeals to a very niche market that loves Ernie's work and didn't sell very well. I love it, but that's me. You get the "Oriental Blues," also known as "Ernie's Tune," which was his theme song. You can listen with joy to "Medley: Jalousie (Jealousy)/Sentimental Journey" which was the arrangement he used for the bit with the dancing office furniture. There's "Moritatensanger (Mack The Knife)" from the Three Penny Opera by Bertold Brecht, which was used as the background music for all the oscilloscope gags. In all you get 20 tracks on the CD and can listen to sound samples by visiting the Amazon link I provided above. You also get "Song Of The Nairobi Trio ("Solfeggio)" which is a classic.

Speaking of which, congrats to "Devilbabytales" who guessed that "Solfeggio" is the correct title of "The Nairobi Trio" music. Devil couldn't get the other two parts of the question however, so its up to you fans to go back to the post and see if you can. I'm still waiting for answers to my "Whom Dunnit?" trivia question by the way.

In other EK news, I've found some articles which you ought to go check out on other blogs. They are either about Ernie or mention him:

Paul ("The Comedy Tornado") Venier's Top Ten Favorite TV Shows

The Passionate Moviegoer's Article, "Lemon, Kovacs And Quine" It talks about Jack Lemon and Ernie Kovacs working on Richard Quine's films together. Its a great piece.

I also found an interesting post about "The Song Of The Nairobi Trio" which talks about the song under another title besides "Solfeggio," which was something I had not been aware of.

That's all for today. Its been real folks.

4 comments:

Steve said...

I found it through my local public library. I used a database on their website called worldcat, which connects libraries across the planet and I had it borrowed and delivered to my local library, and I copied it.

geomop said...

Thanks for the comment Steve.

Yes, folks, this is a difficult title to find and the library is certainly one of the routes you can take.

K T Cat said...

Thanks so much for posting this! I'll try the library method, too.

geomop said...

KT Cat,

You are most welcome. Thanks for stopping by. We're here as a resource and are always glad to help.