THE UNIMPEACHABLY COOL KEEPER

Most of you have probably scrounged around thrift stores and garage sales for records at one time or another. Some of you probably make the rounds regularly. I'd wager a guess that most of you have become attached to some of those records over the years and think of them as part of the playlist of your life. I know I've got it bad for some of my scores. But, you know, the vast majority of the second hand gambles end up in the box in the closet.

One record I got long ago was bought solely because of the title, or one word in the title. I knew of Bob and Earl's smooth "Harlem Shuffle", the song the Stones covered years later (and not well). I was familiar with that, so when I ran into "Harlem Nocturne" by the Viscounts I gambled a dime. Just because it had the word "Harlem" in the title. I'm glad I did because that song has remained a favorite for decades. In fact, when I used to DJ at clubs, it was always the last song I played.

The Viscounts version isn't the original but it's the first and only version I heard for years, then I heard Earl Bostic's. Still I dug the Viscounts more. Then the internet happened and I now know that there's a zillion versions. Still, the Viscounts has a unique feel to me. There's 43 versions of the song at an old post on Beware of the Blog, a lot of them serious contenders.

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Listen:
The Viscounts - Harlem Nocturne mp3 at Beware of the Blog
MORE!:
42 other versions of Harlem Nocturne at Beware of the Blog