Earl Bostic For You (Mono and Stereo Versions)

Side 1:

01. Sleep

02. Moonglow

03. Velvet Sunset

04. For You

05. The Very Thought Of You

06. Linger Awhile

Side 2:

01. Cherokee

02. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

03. Memories

04. Embraceable You

05. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

06. Night And Day

Earl Bostic For You (mono)

"Earl Bostic For You" (King 395-503) was released simultaneously with "The Best Of Bostic" (King 395-500) in February 1956. The original front cover differed from the one reproduced on this 1980's Sing reissue -

The above cover scan is from "PopBopRocktilUDrop" at https://kimsloans.wordpress.com/

In 1958 "Earl Bostic For You" was reissued as King 503 with a new cover, which is reproduced on this Sing issue.

Like its companion LP "The Best Of Bostic," "Earl Bostic For You" was a compilation of tracks which had previously been released as singles. The recording dates and personnel are listed on the back cover of the LP. The release dates of the singles featuring the LP tracks are listed below. Tracks in italics are not on this album.

Original single release of the tracks on "Earl Bostic For You."

"Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" / "Serenade" - King 4369 - May 1950

"Sleep" / "September Song" (Clyde Terrell) - King 4444 - May 1951

"Linger Awhile" / "Velvet Sunset" - King 4536 - May 1952

"Moonglow" / "Ain't Misbehavin'" - King 4550 - August 1952

"For You" / "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - King 4570 - October 1952

"Cherokee" / "The Song Is Ended" - King 4623 - May 1953

"The Very Thought Of You" / "Memories" - King 4653 - August 1953

"Night And Day" / "Embraceable You" - King 4765 - January 1955

"Earl Bostic For You" was re-recorded in stereo in Cincinnati on March 26th, 27th and 28th, 1959. The personnel for these sessions was -Earl Bostic (alto sax); Roland Johnson (vibraphone); Jon Thomas (piano); Allan Seltzer (guitar); Herb Gordy (bass); William Erskine (drums). The stereo release had the same front cover as King 503, with the addition of the word "Stereo" of course!

In 1987 King released a CD version of "Earl Bostic For You" (KCD-503) with the 1958 front cover. Although there is no mention of "stereo" on the CD cover, the tracks are in fact the stereo re-recordings from 1959. Some of them are quite different from the versions on the mono release, e.g. the early 50's mono version of "Velvet Sunset" has a wordless background vocal chorus throughout, while the 1959 version is a straight ahead instrumental with no background vocals. Similarly, the 1950 mono version of "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" is a hepcat band vocal combined with bass picking by Keeter Betts, while the 1959 version is a Bostic instrumental.

Above: budget 1980's CD release - in stereo. I've "reconstituted" the stereo version of the LP by combining rips from, well, you-know-where, with a front cover from Discogs.com. So here for your delectation is the stereo version of "Earl Bostic For You" -

Earl Bostic For You (stereo)

Track order is the same as the mono version. 

Cash Box, April 25th, 1959, right guy, wrong instrument

And that's the end of our unplanned Earl Bostic season! It's fun when these things just sort of "take off," and I've learned another bit of R&B history as I had little idea that Earl had taken part in such a short, sharp, intensive period of re-recording of previously existing albums. Thanks to everyone who commented and special thanks to Daddy Cool and Bear From Delaware for their insights into the Bostic LP situation. I have no idea what the next blog post will be but I'm sure I can come up with something from the Vinyl Vault. Stay tuned!