“There was always a lot of vinyl lying around the Heyman household. My father was into big band jazz as well as some classic comedy albums; my mother liked Broadway soundtracks and classical. My three older sisters were into this new fad called ‘rock’n’roll.'”
“There were stacks of 45s by many of the burgeoning artists of the day. We even had some old 78s. I remember a few times where for some reason I couldn’t find the little plastic center piece (what the hell are those things called?) you’d put in the big hole on a 45. I’d try to eyeball it as centrally as possible, but I could never get it just right. The music would sound slightly wobbly and I’d get a little seasick. Like the time I listened to “Uptown” by The Crystals over and over again because I just wanted to keep experiencing it. And all the while, I had to put a nickel on top of the tone arm to keep it from skipping. This of course was on one of those tiny box record players.
I’d have to say I cut my teeth on Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Count Basie, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The King and I, Camelot, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Elvis Presley, Del Shannon, Ricky Nelson, Fats Domino, Dion & The Belmonts, James Brown, The Drifters, a ton of doo-wop and soul, etc. I spent a good portion of my youth deep inside the grooves of those vinyl albums.
Some of my fondest memories were the pilgrimages to record stores and purchases of vinyl. My dad and I would go up to Korvette’s on Route 22 in New Jersey where they had a tremendous record department. It was like a great cathedral of vinyl. Hundreds of album covers hung on the expansive walls above the bins where you could pick and choose which discs were going back home with you. Just the sight of the photos and artwork on the front of the jackets gave me a jolt of excitement and anticipation.
We’d end up with maybe a Persuasive Percussion, Shelly Berman, Louis Armstrong and the Dukes of Dixieland, Frank Sinatra, Buddy Rich versus Gene Krupa, the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Johnny Mathis. Equally thrilling was the ritual of opening up the shrink-wrap and checking out all the photographs and reading the informative liner notes, then delicately placing the disc on our newly acquired stereo and sitting directly between the two speakers in our living room, and suddenly being immersed in audio analog heaven.”
—Richard X Heyman
Incognito, Richard X Heyman’s twelfth full length release is in stores now.
Richard X Heyman Official
