This listing is for The 50 Guitars Of Tommy Garrett – The Best Of Vinyl LP Record Album LSS-14045.

Label: Liberty – LSS-14045

Series: Premier Series

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Gatefold

Country: US

Released: 1969

Genre: Jazz, Pop

Style: Latin Jazz, Easy Listening 

Condition:   Jacket:    Very Good (slight wear)          Vinyl:   Very Good

Tracklist:

A1 Guadalajara 2:02

A2 Maria Elena 3:17

A3 La Bamba 1:58

A4 Love Me With All Your Heart (Cuando Calienta El Sol) 2:33

A5 The Girl From Ipanema 1:59

A6 Spanish Eyes 2:25

B1 Mexican Hat Dance 2:40

B2 Guantanamera 3:20

B3 La Negra 3:05

B4 El Relicario 1:56

B5 The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly 2:40

B6 Maleguena 3:56

Thomas Lesslie Garrett (July 5, 1938 – December 16, 2015) known as Snuff Garrett or Tommy Garrett, was an American record producer whose most famous work was during the 1960s and 1970s. At seventeen, Garrett was a disc jockey in Lubbock, Texas, where he met Buddy Holly. He is often still mentioned on the Lubbock oldies station KDAV on a program hosted by his friend Jerry "Bo" Coleman. Garrett also worked in radio in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he performed on-air stunts. On February 3, 1959, Garrett broadcast his own tribute show to Holly after he was killed (along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper) in a plane crash in Iowa. In 1959, Garrett became a staff producer at Liberty Records in Hollywood, after having joined the label to work in the promotions department. Although not a musician, Garrett showed he had a knack for finding hit songs, going on to produce a string of hits and becoming the label's head of A&R until he left Liberty in 1966. His first job as producer for the label was on Johnny Burnette's "Settin' the Woods on Fire" on July 9, 1959. Among Garrett's roster of artists were Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnette, Gene McDaniels, Buddy Knox, Walter Brennan, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and Del Shannon.

Garrett was invited early on to produce the Monkees before they had become a major selling act, but a test session did not go well, with the Monkees preferring to work with Boyce and Hart, writers of "Last Train to Clarksville" and the Monkees' theme song. He was also responsible for hiring Phil Spector for a short period as an assistant producer. Many of Garrett's hit singles came from songs by the Brill Building songwriters in New York City. Others who worked closely with Garrett include future recording star Leon Russell, who often arranged his productions, and Lenny Waronker, Liberty co-founder Simon Waronker's son who became a producer in his own right and eventually president of Warner Bros. Records. Later, after leaving Liberty, Garrett worked with Cher and Sonny & Cher and had his own record labels, Snuff Garrett Records and Viva Records, which the catalog was licensed to Warner Bros during the 1980s. Between 1961 and 1969, Garrett produced The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett, a series of over 25 instrumental albums on Liberty Records featuring solo guitar work by Tommy Tedesco, six of which appeared on the Billboard Top LPs chart. In 1966, Garrett produced an album by singer-songwriter Sonny Curtis on the Viva label, The 1st of Sonny Curtis, which contains some of Curtis' most popular tunes, including "Walk Right Back" (an Everly Brothers hit). Other tracks that came out of this session are "My Way of Life", "Hung Up in Your Eyes", and "I Fought the Law and the Law Won". In 1966–67, Garrett and J. J. Cale co-produced A Trip Down the Sunset Strip (attributed to the Leathercoated Minds), a compilation of psychedelic covers, together with four instrumentals of Cale's own composition.

In addition to his hits with Sonny & Cher for Kapp Records and MCA Records in the 1970s, Garrett also produced Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" for Bell Records (a song written by Lawrence's then-husband Bobby Russell), and Tanya Tucker's "Lizzie and the Rainman" for MCA. Both of these songs had been intended for Cher; but her husband and manager at the time, Sonny Bono, thought it might offend Cher's Southern fans. Other artists produced by Garrett in the 1970s included Brenda Lee and "singing cowboy" Roy Rogers. These recordings and others marked a shift by Garrett away from pop-rock toward the easy-listening "countrypolitan" sound. Garrett worked regularly with the Johnny Mann Singers and the Ron Hicklin Singers on many projects, and was responsible for the new sound of the Ray Conniff Singers in the early 1970s (which employed the Hicklin Singers), producing two albums with Conniff. Garrett also produced several tracks by Nancy Sinatra in the mid-1970s that were issued by Private Stock Records. In 1976, Garrett set up a sublabel of Casablanca Records, Casablanca West. The label released just one album and two singles before folding. In 1978, Garrett produced the country-oriented soundtrack of Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way but Loose, which appeared on Garrett's latter-day label, Viva Records. In 1976, when home video was in its infancy, Garrett bought cassette rights to the old RKO, Republic and Hal Roach (Laurel and Hardy) films for what United Press International termed "a pittance." By 1980, the 800-title library of his company, The Nostalgia Merchant, was earning $2.3 million a year. "Nobody wanted cassettes four years ago...It wasn't the first time people called me crazy. It was a hobby with me which became big business", Garrett told UPI. Garrett lived in Bell Canyon, California, in a ranch built for himself.

CONDITION Descriptions:

I base the condition of each of my Records off of's Grading System. 

• MINT (M) Looks new and unplayed. Very high vinyl luster and no noticeable label defects. Sounds new. With 45rpm records, this does not always mean there is no surface noise at all. 

• NEAR MINT (NM) Looks almost new, but has some minor flaws such as a drill hole; unobtrusive writing on label (e.g., an X on a promo copy); minor scuffing on vinyl; minor color flaking on label, or other insignificant flaws that only slightly detract from visual appeal. May have some minor surface noise, but nothing distracting. 

• VERY GOOD (VG) There may be light scuffing and some of the original vinyl luster may be lost. The vinyl and label may appear used, but well cared for. Records may have some more obvious flaws that are not visually degrading such as a sticker on the label; more noticeable writing on the label; scuffing and minor scratches on the vinyl; or minor discoloration of the label. There may be very minor warping of the vinyl. There may be a slight scratch not affecting play. 

• GOOD (G) Record has visible signs of handling and playing, such as loss of vinyl luster, minor surface scratches, groove wear, and audible surface noise. Appears well used but not abused. May have a few major flaws, such as scratches, label tears, or stickers, and/or writing. 

• FAIR (F) Appears well used and somewhat abused. Audio is not great due to surface noise and scratches. The record may have a stick or a skip. Records in this condition are those you might purchase to fill a hole in your collection until a better copy comes along. 

• POOR (P) Well played with little luster and significant surface noise, but still not cracked or broken. Record likely skips and/or sticks. Typically so bad looking that a true “collector” would just toss it out. More useful as a Frisbee. I try not to sell records in this condition.

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