The 25 Weirdest Records on Discogs

Released by the Dupont Corporation, this release breaks down everything anyone could need to know about carpet retail. Side A familiarizes the listener with general selling principles, while Side B offers common scenarios that carpet sellers may find themselves in. Who needs business school?

Created for veterinarians in training, Canine Heart Sounds, is a 30-minute long explanation of dog heart health. Stephen Ettinger educates the listener about normal heart sounds, murmurs, and variations, all with pulsing, slightly uncomfortable examples.

Bird sounds and whale songs are relatively popular in recorded music. However, this release tries to make North American frogs the new standard bearers. Filled with croaks and creaks, Sounds Of North American Frogs doubles down on the intrigue with herpetologist Charles M. Bogerts providing commentary on the differences between calls and species, making for an extra educational listen. 

In 1967, fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken (later shortened to KFC) started a new, albeit short-lived tradition. Each year, KFC released a new Christmas record featuring Colonel Sanders‘ favorite holiday tunes. It began with Christmas Eve With Colonel Sanders, followed by Christmas Day With Colonel Sanders, and finally Christmas with Colonel Sanders in 1969. This final release of the trilogy features songs by Chet Akins, Frank Nero, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and more. While the colonel never does any of the singing, he does pose for each record and addressees his fans in a letter insert wishing them a happy holiday.

Train lovers, rejoice. Railroad: Sounds Of A Vanishing Era documents the auditory glory of the locomotives of yore. As an Audio Fidelity Records release, the record features the top-of-the-line stereophonic sound of the era. On Side A, listeners are treated to a collection of steam locomotive sounds for roughly 18 minutes. After flipping the record, there’s another 18-ish minutes dedicated to the diesel trains.

Johnny Stewart Wildlife Calls (later changed to Johnny Stewart Game Calls) has a backlog of sounds for hunters to practice with. The label features the sounds of deer, dying crows, foxes, and buck calls. Any of Stewart’s offerings could have claimed a spot on the list, but Cottontail Rabbit Distress Call sounds especially menacing at first glance. 

A recording of a seminar discussion about diabetes, this release comes from the American multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer. The massive corporation’s record label is also host to educational records on depression and alcoholism.

Discogs is home to dozens of car-related sound effects records. There are field recordings of F1 grand prixes, sports cars, and more. However, few car sounds stand up to the satisfying “smash” only a demolition derby can create. Released in 1965, fans can expect to hear driver chatter, oil being sanded and swept, and, of course, the crashes of the derby.

In 1984, the Boston Celtics defeated their longtime rival and reigning champion, The Los Angeles Lakers, in the NBA after a grueling seven-game series. The win marked the 15th win for the Celtics, extending their record of the most of any team at the time. Not To Be Denied chronicles the best moments of the regular season and each playoff series for fans to eternally relive. 

Produced for the Tennessee Squire Association — a group created by the Jack Daniels Distillery wherein people could buy an unregistered square-inch plot of the company’s land — Voices of Lynchburg is a collection of recordings featuring the people of the Virginia town over several years. Created to give the Squires a look into life around the Distillery they were now part owners in, it features casual conversations with the townsfolk.  

Typing and tapping away on keyboards and phones has become our primary non-verbal communication style. In 1966, though, typing quickly on a typewriter was a highly requested skill. This record painstakingly explains how to improve your words per minute with posture tips, exercises, and more. Fans of the record may also enjoy other records from the Brother International Corporation (formerly known as Yasui Sewing Machine Co), such as Your Wonderful World Of Sewing.

You don’t need to be a sommelier to create the perfect wine pairing thanks to this record. Released in 1964 by Columbia Special Products, On Wine educates the listener on how to impress your favorite dinner guests with the best beverage for the occasion. 

With breaking debuting in the Paris Olympics this year, there’s no better time to brush up on your knowledge. This release features 50 full-color instructional photos, “authentic” hip-hop music, and easy-to-follow audio cues. According to the cover text, it’s perfect for both fun and fitness. 

At first glance, Jeff Bridges‘ Sleeping Tapes seems strange enough, an aid for the restless by a famous actor. However, it goes deeper than that. As the record slinks through its 43-minute runtime, Bridges takes the listener on a surrealist, comedic journey that is equally the stuff of dreams and nightmares. 

With tracks like “You Can Make Your Boss Listen,” “How to Say a Few Words,” and ‘Writing Skills Cut Management Waste,” How To Communicate Your Ideas lays out clear examples of how to climb the corporate ladder. The record is one of several releases by Nation’s Business, a magazine published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1912-1999. Other releases on the label include How to Live With Your Own Success and Make the Most of Your Time.

Narrated by bowling champion Billy Golembiewski, listeners can up their game as he gives tips and tricks on how to boost their scores. Golembiewski starts by running through the basics before giving specific instructions for women, children, and beginner bowlers. The record is part of Carlton’s “Hear How” series, which also includes, Hear How to Look Your Loveliest, Hear How to Tell Your Children the Facts of Life, and Hear How to Handle Your Boat. 

For those looking to tune and drop out, search no further. Spiritual and scientific gurus Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Ricard Alpert act as psychedelic psychopomps by offering a spiritual handhold through a long, strange trip. The trio ushers the listener in and out of a psychedelic experience in calming voices, offering instructions on how to have the most productive spiritual journey possible.

Dropped in 1961, this comedy record documents how to sound like a hipster during the Beatnik era. Narrators Del Close (the improv teacher who coached Bill Murray, Chris Farley, and countless others) and John Brent play students and teachers. Listeners will learn about what’s cool, uncool, and basic hip vocabulary. At the end of the record, the two narrators take several field trips as a way to put their skills to the test. 

In the mid-20th century, The Legendary Criswell dazzled radio listeners and TV hosts with his psychic predictions. Part of the mystic’s charm came from his charisma despite making notorious incorrect predictions. On this record, Criswell supplies dozens of predictions about what the future will look like. Were his predictions correct this time? Only time will tell. 

“Auscultation,” the act of listening to the sounds of the heart with a stethoscope, got its own London Records release in the early 1960s, with Auscultation Of The Heart provided as a service to medical students as a part of the Medical School Program of Warner-Chilcott Laboratories. This record circulated throughout the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia.

Creative director and graphic designer Ruby Mazur designed over 3000 album titles for labels such as EMI, Warner Bros., Atlantic, and more, but this was no Photoshop job. Produced and narrated by Mazur, with writing help from ‘70s karate writer David Boyd, this is a fully instructional karate record, complete with warm-ups, stances, basic karate moves, and cool-down stretches. The album featured a 70-page instruction book with action photos.

Just before Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Hollywood breakthrough as an action superstar, the bodybuilder went all-in as a fitness influencer, writing books about bodybuilding and narrating Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Body Workout. Packed with motivational hits from Journey to Gladys Knight, this workout album features two programs (with or without weights) and a four-page instruction booklet.

Movie effect making in the 1960s and ‘70s (before the age of computers) operated in an inventive, whatever it took to get the job done mode. That included sound effects production, which utilized everything from recording sounds at manufacturing plants to recording celery stalks snapping. For Mike Harding’s Death & Horror volume, he compiled nearly 100 sound effects to encompass execution and torture, monsters and animals, creaking doors, and musical effects.

Broadcaster Ted Moore (of WTMJ in Milwaukee) narrates a play-by-play synopsis of the Green Bay Packers’ phenomenal years with head coach Vince Lombardi on this record. Under Lombardi, the Packers won three straight and five total NFC Championships, in addition to two Super Bowls.

During the mid-’80s reign of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the league embraced all forms of merchandising, from shirts to lunch boxes to soundtrack albums. The debut soundtrack from the WWF featured theme music from various wrestlers and managers in the league, including Captain Lou Albano (from the Cyndi Lauper videos), “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (RIP), announcer/host “Mean” Gene Okerlund and wrestling fan turned celebrity wrestler Hillbilly Jim.