Welcome to the first installment of "The Vinyl Say," my semi-occasional blog where I ruminate over a record in my vinyl LP and 45 collection. Or two, depending on my mood.

A while back at a used record store in Columbus, Ohio, I scored a copy of folk singer Oscar Brand's 1960 LP Tell It To The Marines on Elektra. I usually am careful not to buy a record I already have a copy of, but I couldn't resist, particularly at the bargain price of 3 bucks. As usual I checked to see if it had the original label (it did) or the lyric booklet commonly packaged with Elektra folk LPs (it didn't). I'm a geek like that. In this first entry, I will tell you why I had to have this particular record.

In 1956, Oscar Brand, who had collected quite a number of the barracks songs of the U.S. military branches, had to the idea to put the best of the U.S. Air Force's songs on an LP. There would be no punches pulled, and very little editing of the airmen's sometimes bawdy lyrics -- after all, many of the great traditional songs were pretty dirty as well. The resulting album, with the lofty (again, pun unintended) title of The Wild Blue Yonder, Songs Of A Fighting Air Force by Oscar Brand, Assisted By The Roger Wilco Four, pictured Brand suspended from a parachute with a pipe in his mouth (a bird perched on the bowl) and pouring himself a glass of whiskey. The cover reflected the rollicking party atmosphere of the album. It was an unexpected runaway hit. If chart placings had been based solely on military PX sales, it would have been the number one LP of 1956.

What do you do when you've had a hit with an album of Air Force songs? Naturally, put out LPs for the other branches! So, over the next several years, there came Every Inch A Sailor, Cough! Songs From the Army Barracks Bag and Tell It To The Marines. There were also similar themed LPs for private pilots, doctors, golfers, boaters, skiers, etc. There was even a followup Air Force LP. All of these LPs had witty covers, featuring some variation on Oscar Brand in a military uniform. The Tell It To The Marines LP pictured Private Oscar Brand with a tear running down his cheek, being chewed out by a drill sergeant, portrayed by Bill Harvey, head of Elektra's graphics department.

It was an image that anticipated the TV sitcom Gomer Pyle, USMC (which would premiere on CBS four years later), with Brand and Harvey in the role of Gomer and Sgt. Carter. There was only one problem: Bill Harvey was shown wearing a flat cap (I don't know the technical name) while obviously in a drill situation, while Brand was pictured in a fatigue cap. Somebody informed someone at Elektra, either label pres Jac Holzman or art department head Harvey, that a Marine DI didn't traditionally wear a flat cap while in action. So the original pressing of Elektra EKL-174 was withdrawn, and the cover photo was reshot with Harvey wearing the correct ranger-style hat (once again, don't know the technical name).

I've seen a lot of copies with the revised cover, and I already had a copy. I had no idea that the original cover could even be found. I did a double take looking through the "Folk" section. I bought it, and gave it to my mother, a Marine veteran, with the stipulation that she must never spill coffee on it, leave it in the sun, or let her cats scratch or nibble on it. In fact, I'd prefer she not even listen to it. I'll burn her a copy, or buy her Collector's Choice's 2-CD reissue that includes all four of the original Oscar Brand military LPs.

I have no idea if the "flat cap cover" of the Brand album is even particularly rare, or how much it's worth. Most record price guides omit folk albums, particularly people like Oscar Brand or other luminaries of the '50s/'60s "Folk Scare." It doesn't have the collectible cache of the Beatles "butcher cover" pressing of the Yesterday...And Today album, nor was it as controversial as LPs by Blind Faith or Mom's Apple Pie.

But I think it's neat...and I'm glad I found it. And when it comes right down to it, isn't that what collecting is all about?