Alfred Apaka - Sing Me A Song Of The Islands FLAC download

This album is the first Apaka album I "cut my teeth on" when I was a teen. Consequently I still consider it the perennial Apaka LP. Since then, my collection of this man's music as grown somewhat over the years until I've en-massed approximately a third of his catalogue. It's interesting to note here that there's no release info for this album. Here's what I can lend to the conversation. The original Decca LP was never released in stereo, in fact I had given up hope of it ever being in stereo for this reason. But, I think it was just due to the times (late 50's early 60's) Decca released it in mono because it was cheaper to do so and there was so much pressure to build a stereo library with more popular artists. In addition Alfred had aspirations to build his own hotel, rather than going mainstream with his music at the hand of Bob Hope that made Decca issue this as a "lesser" offering. However, a few years ago I was able to procure a virgin vinyl copy of the the later 1972 release of the MCA album, still in the "shrink" on ebay. When my stylus hit the groove, I was astounded! The whole album is in stereo! I promptly set to work recording it to digital and did a "remastering" of the album. As far as I know, it's only available in CD from one source, and that's the Hawaiian music outlet that specializes in his music. I had to add back in a pinch of pillowy plate reverb that the original Decca release had on it to make this record sound "right'. Yes, I had a scratched up mono copy that came from a flea market a long time ago to go by, but was still pretty listenable. I don't know what the CD remaster sounds like, I never paid the exorbitant price to get a copy, the record was much less expensive, but I can hear the tape hiss from either the phonograph master, or the main master, either way, I think my restoration is as clean as it's going to get for vinyl. Back to the stereo thing...since stereo recordings were started to be made as early as 1956 in anticipation of mainstream stereo release in 1958, I can only assume this album is from the peak of his career between 1959 and 1960. I say this with reservation, because I know the stereo recording process in the mid 50's was reserved for red label projects by the record labels like classical music. It wasn't until 1957 when the record labels starting working on their pop catalogue in anticipation of the 1958 arrival date of stereo to the general public. This way, there was enough material on hand to make an impact in the phonograph record marketplace and warm people up to the idea of buying all new hi-fi equipment. So I say 1959 to 1960 because Alfred's window for recording this gem in stereo would have been pretty narrow. But, he was prolific. In his short career, Decca was able to collect a pretty sizable catalogue which, fortunately, is still with us today. "Sing Me a Song of The Islands" is a gem, every song on it is an Apaka treasure.