Year: 1952
Record label: Jubilee
Worth Today: $20,000*

The Five Sharps was a Doo-Wop group that became famous in the fifties. The 78rpm vinyl record of their hit single, “Stormy Weather,” has an interesting recording history. The Five Sharps had been performing at local functions for a while before a record producer spotted them and asked them to do an (unpaid) recording session.

The session, which had just two songs, “Sleepy Cowboy” and “Stormy Weather,” took all day. The band was paid in soda and hot dogs. The sales of Stormy Weather were so bad, at the time, that the band had to buy their own copies. It wasn’t until later in the sixties/seventies that “Stormy Weather” got its due.