A very good system of record cleaning is here and it is Australian. This guy was on The Inventors here and won an award for it:
 
http://recordrevirginizer.com/index.html
 
You apply a coating on one side at a time and overnight it dries into a rubber like thing that you peel off the next morning and all the dirt and dust and stuff sticks to it and comes out when you peel it away. Completely harmless to the record.
 
Be aware of using strange things like toothpaste. Never heard of that. You would have to get it all well and truly out if you did not want your precious stylus to be scraping through and residue. Toothpaste is also abrasive and could damage the record groove if handled the wrong way.

Toothpaste?  Why not just bleach the records in the washing machine?  Works for my jeans.
 
I just transfered some Jesus Christ Superstar songs from a 70s copy.  I wouldn't recognise some songs if not for the scratches. 
 
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I have had a turntable for a very long time since the 70's. A Technics direct drive SL1300 Mk II fitted with its very own very nice arm. SME make the best headshells and the ultimate pickup for me is the Shure V15 Type III. (tracking at 1 gram or under at 0.75) Ortofon also make an amazing cartridge too called the SL15. I have got a rather nice British RIAA equaliser preamp too worth over $1000 back then and it sounds like it too.
 
The last genuine Shure VN35E stylus cost me a cool $500! Enough to buy a decent DAW! The arm is so nice bearing wise if you balance the arm to be floating in the air and you blow a decent puff of air from 15 feet or so from the turntable the arm will respond a second or two later and swing in towards the centre. (standard Hi Fi test, can your arm do that!)
 
I have records that have only been played to this day on that system and they still sound the same now as they did back then. I have got a pristine copy of Dark Side of the Moon which is dead silent in the groove and the music sounds so clear and incredible. No clicks, plops or groove wall noise! Just the music and the music gets very quiet on that album at times too. It is at the other end of the spectrum in terms of noise.
 
Sheffield Labs albums from around the 80's that feature that direct link between a live studio recording and the cutting lathe sound incredible too. You would not believe how transient the record groove can be. Michael Jacksons' 'Thriller' sounds pretty cool too. All those live Miles Davis albums sound incredible as does early electronic music like Kraftwerk or Jean Michelle Jarre, Tangerine Dream. All sound pretty fat on vinyl.
 
I have picked up a copy of John Lennon's 'Double Fantasy' after reading that book 'Lennon' by Tim Riley. I am amazed at how fantastic that record sounds on my turntable. Lennon was pushing the boundaries of the late 70's sound or early 80's sound for sure. It is so funky in parts and the mix sounds killer.
 
The turntable ground wire is important and its job is to ground the actual arm itself because the 4 very thin wires that are in there making their journey from the pickup cartridge to the base of the arm are travelling that distance unshielded except for the arm itself acts a shield.

Back in the day, we'd take a new album and immediately transfer it to cassette tape. Chrome or metal tape. I'd run a calibration cycle on my V-900X... I used DBX noise reduction. The tape was at least as good as the vinyl, almost as good as CD. I did this for many years until CD's became affordable.