The life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr inspired many musicians to try to express his beliefs, ideas and legacy through music. Here are a few you might want to listen to as a way of honoring King’s memory.
Discover 10 pieces of music that were inspired by or dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Did you know that FAU Libraries has a sound archive which you can access and listen to recordings for research from the comforts of your own home?
Last year, the Recorded Sound Archives digitized 2,018 albums along with 2,235 songs for those to access reaching over 140 countries, and receiving 183,962 hits from all over the world.
As a New Year’s gift and a welcome to the FAU community we wanted to share a few staff favorites from 2020.
Did you know that the whole Fallout video game franchise features vintage music from the early 1930s-50s?
This year in celebration of Fallout 4’s 5th anniversary we created this collection highlighting original recordings that can be heard throughout the Fallout 4 video game series.
Discover the inspiration behind the video game series Fallout 4 and listen to the ORIGINAL recordings here at the Recorded Sound Archives in the collection below.
Happy 5th Anniversary Fallout 4! – Lets Talk Vintage Music
In this collection you can listen to 4 original recordings or versions of those songs that can be heard throughout the video game itself.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Recorded Sound Archives is exploring music through portraits. This week discover and learn more about Spanish singer, actress, dancer and business woman Lola Flores in the video below.
If you enjoyed learning about Lola Flores you can listen to one of her recordings in the Recorded Sound Archives: https://rsa.fau.edu/artist/14933
Please feel free to download a coloring page we created of Lola Flores that you can color and hang up in celebration of Hispanic heritage month and we hoped you enjoyed learning a little bit about these Hispanic musicians.
Do you think player pianos are a thing of the past? Join Ben Roth-Aroni as he shares some new and old tunes on his player piano at home during National Piano month!
Here at the Recorded Sound Archives, we listen to A LOT of music, while digitizing and scanning recordings for research.
With the library being closed, we’ve had to get a little creative in how our department works since we’re so dependent on the physical recordings. So we’ve been working hard behind the scenes doing quality control on recordings and meta data since we haven’t been recording as much these days.
This week, we wanted to start by sharing and highlighting some RSA Staff’s Favorite Eddy Duchin Songs!
Check out the list below and let us know some of your favorites.
Eddy Duchin never pretended to be a great musician.
One of the members of Eddy Duchin’s orchestra once said “…Many people didn’t listen to him as much as they looked at him, he was the only musician I’ve ever known who could play a thirty-two-bar solo with thirty-two mistakes and get an ovation afterwards…”
So how did Eddy Duchin become the Reisman Orchestra Leader by 1932? Well, While enrolled at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy near Cambridge at the age of nineteen Eddy Duchin auditioned for a part in Leo Reisman’s Orchestra as a pianist. Which he got enjoying tremendous popularity in New York’s Central Park Casino. His effortless technique and charming personality not only won him the job. But also made him stand out among the long list of those aspiring to join. Three years later, his personality and flashy style had captured customers and Duchin had himself taken over the engagement becoming the leader of the Reisman Orchestra.
Throughout the 1930s, Duchin’s Orchestra played primarily in hotels like the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and appeared on quite a few radio series along with in two films.
He went on to get married and have a son, named Peter who went on to follow in his father’s musical footsteps. During the war, Duchin joined a commission in the Navy where he paid little attention to music. By the end of the war his popularity had declined and so had his health. In 1951, he passed away from leukemia.
Discover more recordings at Recorded Sound Archives
Please note, due to copyright some items may only be available as a 45 second snippet.
Are you a Researcher or Educator in need of full access to these recordings? Visit the Recorded Sound Archives website to apply for Research Station Access by click here.
In celebration of Black History Month, the Recorded Sound Archives has curated a collection of Black Blues Artists some of which are currently on display on the 1st floor of the FAU Wimberly Library for the month of February.
Click to discover 14 Blues Artists such as the voices of Huddie Leadbelly, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith and more in this collection!
In celebration, FAU Libraries and the Recorded Sound Archives have put together a Spotify playlist Celebrating Black Blues Artists coinciding with the exhibit currently on display. Click to listen to 12 recordings and discover who these Blues Artists influenced from Nirvana to The Weavers and more down below. Enjoy!
With over 100 recordings for you to choose from between our Chanukah and Christmas collections, the Recorded Sound Archives staff has put together a list of our favorite songs for you to listen to with family and friends.
While some horror films feature blood-curdling scores (Jaws, Halloween, The Exorcist), there are certain songs that will forever be associated with the movies they helped make all the more terrifying. Just in time for Halloween, here are six vintage songs made infinitely creepier by horror movies, four of which you can find here at the Recorded Sound Archives.
First up, is the Jeepers Creepers franchise which features the song Jeepers Creepers playing through the radio prior to the creature approaching and can be found playing on an old-timey radio as the movie progresses.
But our personal favorite here in the sound archive is Ethel Water’s version of Jeepers Creepers.
Next up is a classic from the 90s, while not necessarily a horror movie we’ve included it in honor of all things spooky. Hocus Pocus features three witches that come back to life after being accidentally summoned. In the movie, Winifred Sanderson along with her sisters sing the tune I Put a Spell on You at the town’s Halloween Party which was originally released in 1956 and sung by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
Watch the clip below to see Screamin’ Jay Hawkins perform I Put a Spell On You back in 1989 on the Arsenio Hall Show.
Another haunting tune that can be found in the Recorded Sound Archives, is Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips by Johnny Marvin who originally sang the song prior to Tiny Tim which is featured in the movie Insidious.
Tip-Toe Thru the Tulipsstarts to play as the Demon who is terrorizing this family uses a victrola-like device to sharpen its nails while the song plays on with marionettes and puppets moving about.
You can listen to the original by Johnny Marvin in the sound archive by clicking here.
Next up is the movie Misery which features Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes an obsessed fan who kidnaps her favorite writer forcing him to rewrite his novel.
And finally, we have Halloween II with the song Mr. Sandman by the Chordettes which can be heard playing at the beginning of the movie’s opening credits and as the film comes to an end.
click here to watch the opening scenes from the movie to listen to the song.
While we only feature six songs, there are tons out there to be discovered four of which you can listen to here at the Recorded Sound Archives.
Please note, due to copyright some items may only be available as a 45 second snippet.
If you are a Researcher or Educator in need of full access to these recordings, click here.