Persuasive Percussion

Persuasive Percussion
Terry Snyder and The All Stars
Command Records
RS-800SD     STEREO
Released 1959

One of the most popular albums of 1959-60 received little airplay on the radio, however it went on to become one of the biggest selling stereo albums of 1960.  Bandleader and record executive Enoch Light began a new record label in early 1959, Command Records.  Command was a subsidiary of Grand Award Records, a label that Light also helped found in 1955 with the mission of providing quality high-fidelity records.  When Light founded Command four years later, the mission became providing quality stereophonic recording to the record-buying public.  For the music lover, stereophonic records were still a new thing in 1959; the first commercially available stereo records had only been released the year before by Audio Fidelity Records.  Many times, early stereo records exaggerated the stereo imaging by using the "ping-pong" effect, essentially bouncing sounds back and forth between the left and right channels.  While this may seem gimmicky today, in the late-1950's to the mid-1960's, it was phenomenal.  This era of stereo recording is one of my favorite eras of music, as it clearly shows to listeners the difference between the old high-fidelity (mono) recordings and the new era of two-channel, stereophonic recording.

Persuasive Percussion is one of the most enjoyable of early stereophonic records.  While the effects might seem a little strange to modern (younger) listeners, on a good system this album still delivers a delightful listening experience.


Command Records would continue to release classy stereo albums through the mid-1960's after which Grand Award Records, and its subsidiaries (including Command), would be sold to ABC-Paramount Records.  After the sale to ABC-Paramount, Light left the label (he would found Project 3 records in late 1966) and the quality of the Command recordings plummeted.

Here is the track listing for the album:


Side 1

1. I'm in the Mood for Love  (3:13)
2. Whatever Lola Wants  (2:27)
3. Misirlou  (2:36)
4. I Surrender Dear  (3:12)
5. Orchids in the Moonlight  (2:43)
6. I Love Paris  (2:40)

Side 2

1. My Heart Belongs to Daddy  (2:33)
2. Tabu  (3:47)
3. The Breeze and I  (2:20)
4. Aloha Oe  (2:26)
5. Japanese Sandman  (2:19)
6. Love is a Many-Spendored Thing  (2:52)