Arthur Prysock-Coast To Coast (1963)
Artist: Arthur Prysock
Title: Coast To Coast
Year of Release: 1963
Country and Year of Edition: US 1963
Sell Price: $4.45
Sell Date: 2/27/26
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold: 11/2/25 VG+/generic $3.5
Low: $0.71
Median: $2.35
Average: $2.86
High: $8.99
Current low price: $0.50 F/F, $2.25 VG+/VG
Current Number on Sale at Discogs:35
Have/Want:106/6
Where Sold: Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Time It Took To Sell: 2 years
Where and When Bought: Whatnot auction
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B
Sad To See It Go: No
I've been told on more than a few occasions by different people that the BUSINESS of selling records is about volume not about getting best price. Volume collecting is also a different beast, because when you do it on a budget you are looking to buy a bunch of different titles that aren't moving and get them at the cheapest price point possible. I was engaging in the addictive act of volume buying on Whatnot when I bought this sealed Arthur Prysock album, probably with notes hastily scrawled or typed as records flipped by hoping to put together a reasonably priced bundle of interesting titles that would be enough to put casual counter-bidders out of reach but not blow by budget out of the water.
This early-middle age era Prysock release, his third album overall for the rougly decade old NYC indie label Old Town after issuing 78's and 45's in the 40's and 50's. This came to me in a box sealed with another sealed Prysock title and a bunch of records that were not. Unfortunately, when an old record arrives sealed, it tends to go to the back of the line of the "to play" pile. There might be a day I take that shrink off and play it unless someone gets tempted to buy it on Discogs. With a title like this, that rarely happens, but stars aligned and somebody bought a few titles with this one of 50's and early 60's titles I am curious to hear when I'm fleshing out low end purchase bundles.
I knew nothing of Prysock and his career that spanned from 1946-1988 and the record sold sealed. When I gave this a listen he was just a name to me and I had to flesh out these years in my mind after listening to this a few times. For this write up, I had to rely on YouTube which had a stream of a stereo copy of Coast To Coast up complete with pops. This is record of Jazz-Pop-Vocal standards. "Ballads" as he calls them matter of factly in his Dave Clark interview linked below. Things that the middle age market will buy on an album. A quick scan of Billboard shows his albums were charting in the lower regions of the Billboard 200 album chart around this time, including this one peaking at #163. Since this was early 60's independent, there isn't a ton of mush. His voice is a controlled manly vibrato and above the orchestra arrangements the vibraphone resonates throughout in appealing fashion. The wheel isn't reinvented for song selection so you get standards like "Blue Velvet," "Fly Me To The Moon," "April Showers" and "What's New" to showcase Prysock's considerable vocal abilities.
I was looking at the comments for this record and someone was asking how to get the young people of today to appreciate "this beautiful music." I would say "appreciate" in this case means mass media love at the expense of all other artists, styles, generations and modes of existence. As mass think and community think become furthur and further splintered, this type of thought process places one on their own American Bandstand where Dick Clark hosts in perpetuity and the kids get down if they are told to. Arthur clearly has his fans. It is an interesting question as to why this long running craft fell out of time and mainstream favor even when the artist was alive. I guess the only way you can respond is while nothing ever dies, you can't replicate a time even in a lifetime. People hate that. Even you. Even me! Not even Prysock himself could replicate the Prysock of 1963. It was merely a transitional blip in a forty something year career. However with the magic of physical media, the music, the packaging and the format it plays on remains the same for the life of the product which often changes hands for generations long after the original owner and the recording artist is deceased. Records lock you in time and you don't even know it.
Prysock's early R&B hits in the 40's and early 50's were as a feature of the Buddy Johnson Orchestra. His first and biggest was "They All Say I'm The Biggest Fool" which is reprised 17 years later as an established solo artist on Coast To Coast. His first big R&B hit on his own was in 1952 with "I Didn't Sleep A Wink Last Night." Although he never charted top 40 on the pop charts, he did have some success in the lower chart region from 1965-1976. The biggest was in 1965 with "It's Too Late Baby (Too Late)." His last was in 1976 with "When Love Is New." That one was #10 R&B where he continued charting R&B in 1977 with "I Wantcha Baby" and "You Can Do It." In 1978 MCA took him for an album on to capitalize on the biggest recording he ever made: his Löwenbräu commercial: "Here's To Good Friends." Jazz label Milestone took over in the 80's for a few late career albums that achieved Grammy nominations, his last being 1988's Today's Love Songs, Tomorrow's Blues. The 90's were retirement years of declining health and his passing due to aneurysm in 1997.
Steak and Löwenbräu. Dolan, you're a genius!
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