There's not too many genres of music I don't like. As a result, I've got a massive iTunes library that's all over the map. Among the CDs and vinyl that I've recently encoded: James Levine conducting Izthak Perlman through some Mozart concertos; Canadian new wave rockers Blue Peter's 1983 record Falling (that had the hit “Don't Walk Past”); The Hives 2001 compilation, Your New Favourite Band, and The Ultimate Collection of hits by those crazy mid-century Texas swing masters, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.
Now it's that last one that's given me the hiccups.
When you move a new item into iTunes, iTunes helpfully checks to see if it's got the album art on some database for whatever it is you're popping in. If it does, do nothing more. Your album art appears magically. If it does not, go find it on the Web or scan it in yourself and paste it in.
Now here's the fun part with today's encoding excersie. My CD of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys' The Ultimate Collection is popped in the computer and iTunes rips away. Then iTunes reaches out on its database looking for The Ultimate Collection and pulls up this:
Now, being Canadian and all, I'm not up on my race relations the way our American friends are but I'm pretty sure that Lionel Richie is not Bob Wills and his band, who were all white guys in Texas in the 1940s. (Oddly or coincidentally, I also have The Commodores The Ultimate Collection in my iTunes library. If you've got an “Ultimate Collection”, apparently I'm your record buyer) In any event, here's the cover that should be associated with Bob Wills' Ultimate Collection:
Now the weird thing is, iTunes lets you paste whatever cover art you want for any title. But though I was pasting Bob Wills like crazy, I'm still ending up with Lionel Richie. I can't shake it! iTunes is convinced that anyone who put out an album called The Ultimate Collection must be The Commodores.
Finally – I figured it out. If iTunes isn't accepting your album art, check to see what the 'Compilation' status is for the selected tunes. If it's 'Yes', switch it to 'No' and you'll 'ultimately' succeed …
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