Steve McQueen's vinyl collection

His ability as an actor aside, Steve McQueen was a photogenic man, as proved by the work of photographers like William Claxton and John Dominis. The latter, who's been featured in this blog before, took this image below, which may be familiar to music lovers.

Steve McQueen in 1963 by John Dominis
©John Dominis/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
(source)

If you're reading this, you've probably wondered what are those LPs spread all over Mr. McQueen's floor (we want to believe he's not stepping on one of them). If that's the case, I think I have been able to identify all the sleeves, even those only partially visible.

The two immediate conclusions are, firstly, that McQueen must have had some direct or indirect contact at Atlantic Records: not only is the label with most LPs in the room, but there seem to be up to three copies of one album.

Secondly, this collection of LPs, mostly stereo, is of its time. Even though LPs recorded and published in the mid-1950s could already considered to be high-fidelity soundwise, from about 1957 recordings are made also in stereo—often in paralel to mono—and towards the end of that decade stereo sound becomes the norm, with the popularity of hi-fi.

Given the rising tide of hi-fi equipment, record labels on the one hand phased out mono sound, and on the other they adapted their existing and still recent mono stock to the new stereo sound, through processes of "remastering" or "rechanneling", which at times didn't amount to much more than playing the same music through both left and right channels with minor differences in equalization or phase in order to give the listener a sense of space, of "stereo". This is the case with at least two of the LPs in the list below, numbers "6" and "14". The rest are LPs published in stereo, except for two instances of mono issues.

I've numbered the LPs in the image below. I've also added links to Qobuz (for audio) and Discogs (for info on the LPs).

Finally, it is quite clear that Mr. McQueen had excellent taste, or he knew how to be advised on musical matters.

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

1. John Coltrane: My Favorite Things (stereo) (Qobuz) [Discogs]

2. Milt Jackson & John Coltrane: Bags & Trane (Qobuz) [Discogs]

3. Frank Sinatra & Count Basie: Sinatra-Basie (Qobuz) [Discogs]

4. The Jazztet (Art Farmer & Benny Golson): Meet the Jazztet (Qobuz) [Discogs]

5. John Lewis: The Golden Striker (Qobuz) (there seem to be up to three copies of this record) [Discogs]

6. Miles Davis: The Original Quintet (First Recording) (Qobuz). Reissue of Miles (Prestige 7014) [Discogs]

Note that his LP was originally recorded in mono, but this reissue is "remastered for stereo".

7. Count Basie: The Atomic Mr. Basie (Qobuz) [Discogs]

8. Milt Jackson: The Ballad Artistry of Milt Jackson (Qobuz) [Discogs]

9. Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain (Qobuz) [Discogs]

10. Count Basie & His Orchestra: The Best of, Vol. 2 (Qobuz) [Discogs]

11. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Qobuz) [Discogs]

12. The Paul Horn Quintet: Profile of a Jazz Musician (Qobuz) [Discogs]

13. The Modern Jazz Quartet At Music Inn - Guest Artist: Sonny Rollins (Qobuz) [Discogs]

 

14. Miles Davis: Miles Ahead (originally released in mono in 1957, this is the "rechanneled" reissue of 1962) (Qobuz, in mono, the music is exactly the same) [Discogs]

Miles Ahead was originally recorded both in mono and stereo, but until 1996 the only master with the same music as in the original LP was the mono (it wasn't until 1996 when a stereo master was produced through the digital technology available at the time).

15. Leadbelly: A Memorial, Volume IV [Discogs]