Revolutions In Sound: Warner Bros. Records - The First Fifty Years (Deluxe Edition)(Book w/USB Drive) [Box set]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 9, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Warner Bros.
• ASIN: B001IZID3M
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,071 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time (Tab Hunter)

2. Try A Little Tenderness (Jack Webb)

3. 77 Sunset Strip (Warren Barker Orchestra)

4. My Old Flame (Spike Jones)

5. Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) (Edd Byrnes with Connie Stevens)

6. Sixteen Reasons (Connie Stevens)

7. Cathy's Clown (The Everly Brothers)

8. Abe Lincoln Vs Madison Avenue (Bob Newhart)

9. Chant To The Night (Esquivel)

10. Ya Got Trouble (from The Music Man) (Robert Preston and The Ensemble)

11. Let's Think About Living (Bob Luman)

12. Crying In The Rain (The Everly Brothers)

13. Blowin' In The Wind (Peter, Paul and Mary)

14. If I Had A Hammer (Trini Lopez)

15. Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter From Camp) (Allan Sherman)

16. The Lonely Surfer (Jack Nitzsche)

17. September Song (Jimmy Durante)

18. Night Creature (First Movement): Blind Bug (Duke Ellington Orchestra)

19. Dollar s Dance (Duke Ellington Presents The Dollar Brand Trio)

20. Out Of Limits (The Marketts)

See all 50 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

320 Momentous Hits & Notable Tracks 4 the WB Records. Custom USB Flash Dr. The equivalent of 20 CD;s with over 21+ Total hours of Music. Includes 240 page hardcover book on the history of WB records & Certificate of Authenticity. The Enclosed book futures exclusive interviews, never before seen photograph's & Insider accounts on the history of WB Records. LIMITED ED!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile....if you get a good price, September 21, 2010

By 

Philip A.Cohen (Bay Harbor Islands, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Revolutions In Sound: Warner Bros. Records - The First Fifty Years (Deluxe Edition)(Book w/USB Drive) (Audio CD)

Supplies of this non-numbered limited edition of 8000 units are now dwindling, and so the price is climbing. I got lucky and got a factory sealed box for $54.95 from a "marketplace' merchant(and Do look for the factory seal, which wraps around the front right & rear left of the box, which ensures that you're getting a sealed set). Inside the large 12" x 12" box(which is like a pizza carton, only built heavier) is a 260 page book about the history of Warner Bros. Records plus a USB drive(which looks like a small medallion shaped like the Warner Bros. logo. Be sure to remove the protective cover, which protects the USB connector). The USB drive contains 320 songs in 320Kbps MP3 format. These are high bit rate MP3's which should be indistinguishable from CD sound to 98% of listeners. As for the Pizza carton-style, box, I get the impression that it is intended to be disposed of, but being the collector that I am, I'm keeping it.

Perhaps some of you already own the 10-CD version. That version has 199 songs, but this USB drive edition gives you 320 songs. And while the CD edition has a 60-page book, the USB edition has a much more extensive 260-page hardcover book. When you plug the USB drive into your computer(I use a MAC, but the USB drive is both PC & Mac-compatable), the USB drive sets up quickly, offering an attractive on-screen jukebox display with twenty 16-song pages, where you can easily select individual tracks. There's also a folder available that includes PDF files that give you track by track artist/song/writer/producer information. And there is a folder with all 320 of the individual MP3 song files(each having artwork built in) which you can drag into iTunes(or whatever CD ripping/burning program that you use). It was simple to move all the Mp3's into iTunes, and then I burned it as a 20-disc set(as the compilers intend) with each disc corresponding exactly to the contents of one page of the jukebox display. I recommend preserving/backing up the music onto CD-R.

The book tells the story of the label in easily readable style, with plenty of interviews with artists, executives & producers and loads of photos & memorabilia, and you hear the story of a label whose successes enabled the label to also record some rather hopelessly uncommercial artists whom the label deemed to be worthy of preserving on tape. It's a risk-taking mentality that would no longer be permitted in today's music industry. You hear of the label's many executive shake-ups and colorful music industry "characters" such as executives Joe Smith & Mo Ostin and producers Lenny Waronker & Russ Titleman, and the various changes of ownership, from the original company as an off-shoot of the Warner Bros. movie studio, through a game of corporate "Pac-Man" as the company is gobbled up by "Seven Arts", "Kinney Corporation", "Warner Communications", "Time-Warner", and the company is then spun off as "Warner Music Group"(no longer affiliated with the Warner Bros. movie studio).

As for the music compilation, most of the artists from the Warner Bros. ,Reprise and Warner/Reprise distributed labels are represented, though, inevitably, there were a few artists who would not permit their music to be included, such as The Kinks, Black Sabbath,Van Morrison,Prince, Kraftwerk & Enya, but these artists are the only notable exceptions. In comparing to the 199-song version on the CD box, the USB edition gives more space to the label's early(1958-65) MOR music, which is a mixed blessing. Later in the set, punk-derived & disco-flavored music gets more space than in the 199 song version. You'll have to be very tolerant of a wide range of music to get through all of this. I'm fairly open-minded, but Laurie Anderson's 7 minute plus "O Superman" stops me dead in my tracks. It is flat-out insufferable torture.

Within an "Extras" folder on the USB drive, there's numerous "extras"(and within that folder, another folder containing the MAC version of those "Extras"). I wish I could tell you what those extras are, but there's no instructions, and when I try to open any of those "extras", I'm prompted to select an "Application" to open each of those files....which is a difficult decision to make if you don't know what the files are.

The contents of the USB have been beautifully designed and engineered. My compliments to whomever "authored" the USB drive's contents. For the $54.95 that I paid, it's a superb value, but at the higher prices that the set is now commanding....well the choice is up to you.

The less fanatical collector may be content with the 199-song 10-CD edition.

4.0 out of 5 stars A great listen, February 4, 2012

By 

Mick (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revolutions In Sound: Warner Bros. Records - The First Fifty Years (Deluxe Edition)(Book w/USB Drive) (Audio CD)

I bought the 10-CD version and found it to be an overall very enjoyable listen. If I could offer any criticisms, they would be:

Too much 90's and 00's filler. They should have concentrated more heavily on the golden age '65-'75 material. Also, the comedy album tracks could have been omitted. Sure they play a part in illustrating the history of WB records, but they tend to break up the flow of the CD's.

Otherwise - thoroughly enjoyable. Find this at a good price, and consider it a score!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just ordered it...just a few things..., January 28, 2011

By 

Larry Davis "powerpoplarry" (NYC/Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Revolutions In Sound: Warner Bros. Records - The First Fifty Years (Deluxe Edition)(Book w/USB Drive) (Audio CD)

I wanted to type the whole list, but as it was a lot of work, I realized you can link to the digital book online via Bing.com and print it out yourself. This thing is probably the best label restrospective I've ever seen, which helps is Warners is the best major label group ever, the widescreen approach, openmindedness of their execs and A&R reps. I'm looking forward as much to reading the 240-page tome as I am listening to the 320 tracks included.

My one quip...the 10-CD version is 199 tracks...roughly 200 let's say, so that's 20 songs per disc on average. This 320-track USB drive deluxe, is 120 tracks more, translated and set up as 20 discs, 16 songs per disc, for double the price...I apologize but that's a ripoff and I'll tell you why. You're not getting double the music for double the price...you're getting 1.6...see, what SHOULD have been included are 400 tracks...2 x 200, 20 songs per disc you make yourself...so you're missing 80 tracks!!!

So this is what I am doing...I'm gathering a list of 80 missing artists signed or distributed through Warner Bros, including those who refused, like the Sex Pistols, Kinks, Prince, Enya, the Smiths/Morrissey, even Guns N Roses..."Appetite For Destruction" was on Geffen in 1987, then-distributed by Warner Bros...this set includes artists on labels then thru Warners and not anymore, and I am making 4 bonus discs, or making the 20 discs set up on the USB drive, but adding 4 bonus tracks on each.

All in all, this IS a great set, no doubt, but in doing the calculations, stuff is missing and I want to fill in the holes, make it all balance out and give a better overview of the label's history. I know it won't be redone, and all 8000 copies were apparently sold, so I'm doing this for myself...

Also, find this for a good price...I paid $69...and fill in the holes yourself, for your own satisfaction.