A diamond in the rough...... from my vinyl vault: Mel Brandt's, "Accordion Favorites".

Mel Brandt's, "Accordion Favorites"

I have to admit I don't know much about Mel Brandt, and I don't know if this is the same Mel Brandt as the SNL guy or not- which is who comes up when you google the name- I'm assuming probably not- but to be honest, I know nothing about the SNL Mel-Brandt to know if this the same person or not. I'm also not totally sure if this is his only record or not, but if there ever were others- I can't find any trace or record of anything else on the internet- and as far as I can tell, sadly this is the only one. However, on the bright side this record- is an incredible accordion instrumental and definitely a diamond in the rough in my collection. I often seek out various accordion instrumental records in thrift stores, as luckily they aren't in demand and usually go for cheap- typically $1 to $3- so if you happen to stumble upon a thrift store with a ton of vinyl, you can find a decent handful of some interesting finds for little money. This one though, was actually one I bought off Amazon for a change. I received mine in excellent condition- plays perfectly, very slight wearing on the sleeve. It's not necessarily rare, but I've never been lucky enough to stumble on it in person, so I got it fairly cheap for $7, which is slightly higher than I'd pay in a thrift, but then again no one else had it- and given it was incredible shape, it was a fair deal.I was particularly interested in it for its song selection, though I hadn't heard this one- I simply collect accordion instrumentals from the get go- on top of which, this one I noticed contained two favorites of mine, "Dark Eyes" a wonderful Russian tune, and though there are many countless versions of this song- both accordion versions, along with hundreds of others in general- it's always a song with hearing, no matter how many reinterpretations of it there are. Also, the song, "Fascination" which I had at the time recently started to play myself, and is also simply a song I really love. It's just a beautiful simple instrumental, but its very peaceful and memorable and well written, just soaring strong melodies- so I knew this recorded version of that song would be interesting, and of course it's beautiful! As an added bonus too, the version I bought (and it doesn't seem to rare- but neat nevertheless) the disc itself is a really nice looking bright transparent sorta gold and yellow color, I know its also out there in regular black too- I'm not aware of any other colors. Sometimes this costs extra, so it was just icing on the cake that it didn't seem to cost more because of this. Then again, its not like this record is in demand, but eh- fine by me- I really love it.

Beautiful transparent golden yellow disc

As for the material on the record itself- its wonderful. "Besame Mucho" was another reason the record interested me, its a Mexican song (I used to play it actually- and think I remember it too- or most of it)- I've heard one or two other recorded accordion instrumental versions of it as well- the record itself consists of: as mentioned before: "Fascination", "Dark Eyes", and "Besame Mucho"- and also: "Maria Elena", "You Belong To My Heart", "Perfidia", "Tico Tico", "Adios Muchachos", "Come Back to Sorrento", "Humoresque", "Barcarolle", and "Song of India". Sure as far as accordion instrumental records go, yes this is somewhat typical and these are basically standards if you will; not dissimilar to Ella Fitzgerald and a hundred other jazz vocalists doing countless versions of, "Makin' Whoopee", "Honeysuckle Rose", or, "Dream a Little Dream", etc.

It's not the fact that these have been done before that matters, its the fact that these are amazing versions- and quite possibly- arguably some of the best accordion standard versions recorded of these batch of songs around. The melodies prevail and don't fall short due to an over assertiveness of showmanship and cramming as many notes as possible- don't get me wrong- there is plenty of flair when it comes to the musicianship; just not showing off simply for the sake of showing off- and that allows the songs to breathe and be the gorgeous melodies that they are. That's what made this particular instrumental record stand out to me. Mel Brandt certainly didn't do anything groundbreaking or reinvent any wheels, etc. The bottomline is he made a fantastic and beautifully melodic instrumental record, one that will never leave my collection, as the melodies float freely and prove it worth of every spin the needle makes around it.