Is it live, or is it memorex? Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and cassette tapes ruled the boomboxes, everyone knew what that slogan meant. Recordings could be so lifelike, so crystal-clear, that when Ella Fitzgerald hit a powerful note and a Champagne glass shattered, you couldnt really be sure. Was that recorded Ella doing the shattering, or Ella herself, live and in person? Well, for the purposes of the ad, it was recorded Ella, sounding just like the real thing. And, for mid-century music fans, that was enough. If you couldnt afford a ticket, or lived far-off the performing path, Live! In Person! recordings by your favorite stars were the next best thing to being there. Before Mr. Edison invented sound, live music was the only music. In Vaudeville houses and music halls across the nation, audiences sat transfixed as leather-lunged vocalists belted out hit tunes. It was a participatory experience: the performers performed, the crowds reacted. Every round of applause, every burst of laughter, even the occasional wobbly note, contributed to the shared event. Afterwards, you went home humming a catchy tune from the show, reliving the memories in your own mind. Because thats all you had: memories. But then records rolled in. Now, an exciting evening of live entertainment was captured for posterity, complete with audience reactions, and transferred to disc with no gussying-up. What you (curled up by your hi-fi) eventually heard was pretty much what had wowed those whod been up close and personal in the New York clubs and Las Vegas showrooms. As the 1962 live compilation Taken From the Top noted, One of the reasons entertainers become entertainers is that they love the challenge of a live audience. And it is a challenge. In a live performance, they are allowed no second chances, no apologies, no erasing of the tape. Its this do-or-die quality that makes for greatness. And so, record companies touted the live-liness of their releases. Debonair Noel Coward was recorded in actual performance at Las Vegas. Champagne music-meister Lawrence Welks souvenir disk was actually recorded at the Aragon Ballroom. And when the King himself traveled From Memphis to Vegas, his milestone album was billed as Elvis - In Person - Recorded On-Stage at the International Hotel! When you heard those packed houses cheering, you knew you were getting a bonafide rendering of the real thing. Usually. Every now and then, however, the live experience was diluted. One of the most notorious was the live album teamup of Tony Bennett and the Count Basie Orchestra. Their November, 1958 evening was indeed recorded live at Philadelphias Latin Casino. The producer, however, was unhappy because the concert hadnt been captured in stereo. The performers were summoned to the studio to re-create the event. Artificial applause was added, sometimes in the wrong places. When this live recording was finally released, listeners were not impressed. Said Bennett in later years, The whole attempt at fabricating an audience was in bad taste. But, for the most part, thats really Judy Garland up there, knockin em out of their seats at Carnegie Hall, Jayne Mansfield welcoming you to her house of love, Louis Prima and Keely Smith smashing every attendance record in the Painted Desert Room, and a pre-stardom Barbra Streisand working both herself and her audience into a near frenzy. As if those album jacket blurbs werent enough to have you counting the seconds until your record dropped from spindle to turntable, there were the critical raves that accompanied them. Ethel Merman was the only one who can make your blood run cold and the roots of your hair ache with pain! while Liza Minnelli was a prancing, rocking, curvy pressure cooker threatening to explode! Whew. All that, and the record hasnt even dropped yet. Is it live or is it memorex? Its an In Person album, kind of the best of both. Photos by Hank Kuhlmann. Donald-Brian Johnson is the co-author of numerous Schiffer books on design and collectibles, including Postwar Pop, a collection of his columns. Please address inquiries to: donaldbrian@msn.com.