J. Cole & Kendrick Lamar - The Millennials Folklore (2023)

Around 2010 a rumour began to circulate that rappers Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole were collaborating on an album together, and speculation was rife about when it would be released. The pair had first met at a No I.D. gig, where Cole played some beats that he had to Lamar, and one of them would eventually become 'HiiiPoWer', which Cole produced for Lamar on his acclaimed 2011 debut album 'Section.80'. In 2010, speculation started that there was a rumoured J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar collaboration album, although as the years went on, fans were left disappointed. In 2012, during an interview with BootlegKev, Cole confirmed that when it did come out it would be an official album, and not the mixtape that had been suggested, but still nothing emerged. The two did eventually get together in the studio when Lamar guested on Cole's 2013 track 'Forbidden Fruit', but this appeared to be a one-off, as nothing else from the pair has appeared since that. On Black Friday of 2015 both artists dropped a surprise release, when each of them remixed a track by the other, and uploaded them to Soundcloud. Cole rapped over Lamar's 'Alright' instrumental, while Lamar went off on Cole's 'Tale Of Two Cities' beat, and there was a hint at the end of Cole's rap that the joint album might appear in February of 2016. This seemed to be confirmed, when Lamar's sister, Kayla Duckworth, tweeted "Collab drop #Feb 16 so be on the look out as well", although February came and went with no sign of the record. One of the major stumbling blocks was always going to be the fact that Lamar was signed to TDE, Aftermath and Interscope Records, while Cole was with Rocnation, distributed by Columbia through his Dreamville label, so there would have to be some major negotiations to get through before a record would be able to appear. Recently the two rappers fell out, after Cole appeared to diss Lamar on his track '7 Minute Drill', where he starts the song off by mentioning that Lamar's verse on 'Like That' was simply a hustle for attention, with him stating "I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissing / You want some attention, it comes with extensions", and then immediately after, Cole takes straight shots at Lamar, as he talks about his discography, and the inconsistency that Lamar has within the music industry. Following that, it's now extremely unlikely that this legendary album will ever appear, and so to draw a line under the whole episode, Youtuber Will On The Soul had painstakingly put together a mash-up from the two rappers which can serve as the closest that we'll ever get to an actual joint album from them. 

Track listing

01 Intro
02 The King’s Gambit (feat. Bas)
03 Reign Supreme
04 Phone Calls
05 Delta Blues
06 The Journey Of The Lamb (feat. Joey Badass)
07 Sampha Freestyle (feat. Sampha)
08 Love Language / Am I Wrong  (feat. Andre 3000, Drake & Mild Orange)
09 Javari (feat. Boubacar Traoré)
10 Perspectives
11 The Promised Land Interlude (feat. Bobby Bland)
12 The Promised Land (feat. Andre 3000)
13 Jam Psychadelic / Outro

Marilyn Manson - The Manson Family Album (1993)

Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids were formed in December 1989 after vocalist Marilyn Manson met guitarist Daisy Berkowitz at the Reunion Room nightclub, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The pair, along with various other musicians, recorded several EPs of original demos over the next three years, with Berkowitz composing the majority of the music and Manson writing lyrics. The band's highly visualized live shows, which routinely featured naked women nailed to a crucifix, young children locked in cages, and an assortment of butchered animal remains, quickly earned them a loyal fanbase among the South Florida punk and hardcore music scene, and within six months of forming, the band was playing sold-out shows in 300-capacity nightclubs throughout Florida. While working as a journalist for 25th Parallel in February 1990, Manson interviewed Nine Inch Nails vocalist Trent Reznor, and the two remained friends, with Manson eventually presenting Reznor with a compilation of demos. Impressed by the material, Reznor offered the group a spot opening for Nine Inch Nails and Meat Beat Manifesto at Club Nu in Miami in July 1990. The band, which now included Gidget Gein on bass guitar, Madonna Wayne Gacy on keyboards, and Sara Lee Lucas on drums, continued touring and recording independently for two years, using the proceeds from a record deal signed with Sony in early 1991 to fund the recording of more demo tapes. In November 1992, Manson was invited by Reznor to attend unspecified "strategic talks" in Los Angeles, and by the end of the year, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids became the first act to be signed to Reznor's Nothing Records vanity label, shortening their name to Marilyn Manson by the beginning of 1993. 

Recording sessions for their first album, 'The Mason Family Album', began in July 1993 at Criteria Studios in Miami with producer Roli Mosimann, and concluded several months later in the autumn. Mosimann's production aimed for a "sleazy, groove-laden" sound", and the band made heavy use of tape loops, sound effects, and samples during recording, but in the end the band was unhappy with the results, believing it to be poorly representative of their live performances, with Manson complaining that Mosimann's production made the songs sound too smoothed and polished, and they lost their  bite and edge. At the beginning of 1994, the band relocated to the Record Plant in Los Angeles, but without bassist Gidget Gein, who had been fired from the band a few days before Christmas 1993, due to his ongoing addiction to heroin. The whole album was re-recorded over seven weeks at the Record Plant, and despite Berkowitz's initial reluctance to re-record the album, worrying that it would make them look like a Nine Inch Nails/Reznor spin-off, the final result was a very high-quality piece of work. After re-recording, the the record was renamed 'Portrait Of An American Family', and was released in 1994 to limited commercial success, but mostly positive reviews, and by 2017 Rolling Stone had deemed it to be one of the greatest albums in the history of heavy metal music. Although 'The Manson Family Album' was never released, Manson said in his 1998 autobiography 'The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell' that he intended to use a painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy as the album cover, and so that's what I've done for this post. 

Track listing

01 Snakes Eyes And Sissies
02 Lunchbox
03 Get Your Gunn
04 Cyclops
05 Citronella
06 Cake And Sodomy
07 Filth
08 Sweet Tooth
09 Organ Grinder
10 My Monkey
11 Misery Machine
12 Dope Hat

Many of these tracks were re-recorded for the band's official debut album, but these versions differ in the following ways:
'Filth' is exclusive to this album, and has never been commercially released.
'Snake Eyes and Sissies' features an extra verse, resulting in it being 62 seconds longer than the version which appeared on 'Portrait...'
'Lunchbox' lacks the opening sample of Robert Pierce saying "Next motherfucker's gonna get my metal", and the opening guitar line contributed by Reznor.
'Get Your Gunn' repeats the chorus and bridge more than the released version, and is 50 seconds longer.
'Citronella' was later renamed 'Dogma' for its official release, though the two versions are almost identical.
'Sweet Tooth' lacks the 59 seconds of introductory ambient noise found on 'Portrait...'
This version of 'My Monkey' lacks a conventional chorus, and contains significantly more audio samples taken from television interviews by Charles Manson than the 'Portrait...' version, which appear where the chorus was later inserted. Robert Pierce's vocals are also much clearer and placed higher in the mix.

Two Of Each - Every Single Day (1971)

Two Of Each were a UK vocal quartet who formed in 1966 with a line-up of Mandy More on vocals, John Conran on bass and vocals, Michael Castro on lead guitar and vocals and Tina Ambrose on drums. In 1967 More left the group and was replaced by Mally Page, and around this time they secured a record deal with Decca Records. Their first single for the label was 'Every Single Day', which was released in 1967, but that was a short-lived union, and in 1968 they signed to Pye Records, where they would stay for the rest of their recording career. Their first single for Pye was the Tony Hatch/Jackie Trent-composed 'The Summer Of Our Love', backed with the excellent 'Saturday Morning', but with no chart action, they had to wait a year for their next record on the label. In 1969 they released a fine version of Paul William's 'Trust', and this had another Hatch/Trent composition on the flip, with their 'Trinity Street' sounding like it should have been released a couple of years earlier. Their final single for Pye comprised two covers, with 'Here Comes The Sun' on the A-side, backed with a psyche-tinged take on 'Colour My World', and after this 1970 release the band went through some line-up changes, and re-emerged as a new group called Sweetcorn. Under this name they released three singles on Pye Records, sticking with Hatch/Trent songs for a couple of them, and backing singer Jamie on 'I'm Gonna Love You', which was released as Jamie And The Sweetcorn. For the b-side of their final single in 1971, John Conran wrote 'Carpet Ride', and it is one of their best recordings, so I wonder if they might have had more success if they'd been allowed to write more of their own material. Putting that to one side, here is the almost complete musical output of Two Of Each and Sweetcorn from 1967 to 1971, and they are an example of yet another pop group who tried for five years to get a hit single, and are now just a forgotten footnote in the history of UK pop music.   

Track listing

01 Every Single Day (single 1967)
02 I'm Glad I Got You (b-side of 'Every Single Day')
03 The Summer Of Our Love (single 1968)
04 Saturday Morning (b-side of 'The Summer Of Our Love')
05 Trust (single 1969)
06 Trinity Street (b-side of 'Trust')
07 Here Comes The Sun (single 1970)
08 Colour My World (b-side of 'Here Comes The Sun')
09 Catch Me, Catch Me (single as Sweetcorn 1970)
10 Sunshine Follows The Rain (b-side of 'Catch Me, Catch Me')
11 I'm Gonna Love You (single as Jamie & The Sweetcorn 1970)
12 No, No, You Don't Know (b-side of 'I'm Gonna Love You')
13 Carpet Ride (b-side of '(We Can) Work Together' as Sweetcorn 1971)

The Avengers - Sing (1972)

I've been wanting to post a collection of music by Linda Thorson for quite some time, but as she only recorded seven songs then it would have been a somewhat short album, from the star of The Avengers TV series from 1968-1969. However, this week I had a brainwave, and I looked around to see if any other members of the cast of the series had released singles during it's timeframe, and the obvious answer was yes, they have, as Patrick MacNee and Honor Blackman actually had a hit with their 'Kinky Boots' record in 1964. That same year Blackman released an album under her own name, with 'Everything I've Got', and she followed that four years later with a stand-alone single 'Before Today'. Diana Rigg went into the recording studio in 1972 and released her own single, 'Forget Yesterday', and so with Thorson's seven songs, I suddenly had more than enough music for an album. Massive thanks are due to Gaz Williams for composing the picture of MacNee with all his sidekicks in one place for the cover, and so here we have just what it says on that cover - the stars of The Avengers sing. As a special treat, this is the only place that you will be able to hear Honor Blackman's 'Before Today', as after a fruitless search on Soulseek, Youtube, and the internet in general, I actually bought a copy of the original 7" single so that I could complete this post.  

Track listing

01 Theme From The Avengers (Laurie Johnson 1961)
02 Kinky Boots (single by Patrick MacNee & Honor Blackman 1964)
03 Let's Keep It Friendly (b-side of 'Kinky Boots by Patrick MacNee & Honor Blackman)
04 Men Will Deceive You (from 'Everything I've Got' by Honor Blackman 1964)
05 Before Today (single by Honor Blackman 1968)
06 I'll Always Be Loving You (b-side of 'Before Today' by Honor Blackman)
07 Here I Am (single by Linda Thorson 1968)
08 Better Than Losing You (b-side of 'Here I Am' by Linda Thorson)
09 Bad Time To Stop Loving Me (single by Linda Thorson 1968)
10 I'll Just Pick Up My Heart (b-side of 'Bad Time To Stop Loving Me' by Linda Thorson)
11 Wishful Thinking (single by Linda Thorson 1970)
12 You Will Want Me (single by Linda Thorson 1971)
13 Open Up Your Heart (b-side of 'You Will Want Me' EP by Linda Thorson 1971)
14 Forget Yesterday (single by Diana Rigg 1972)
15 Sentimental Journey (b-side of 'Forget Yesterday' by Diana Rigg')

The Montanas - A Step In The Right Direction (1968)

The Montanas formed in Birmingham in 1964, and consisted of Bill Hayward on lead guitar, Graham Crewe on drums, and Ralph Oakley on bass, with John Jones as lead singer, and they were primarily known for their live shows, which had a very theatrical presentation, and included bits of comedy between the songs. The group were managed by Roger Allen, who was able to get them a contract with Pye Records, bringing them under the wing of songwriters Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent, who had written hits for Petula Clark. In 1966 they were joined by Terry Rowley, who was the lead guitarist with the Mountain Kings, although when he teamed up with The Montanas he switched to keyboards. They released two singles in 1966, the second of which, 'That's When Happiness Began' b/w 'Goodbye Little Girl', became a steady seller in the autumn, when it received extensive radio play. The band's breakthrough came later in the year when they were the opening act for the Walker Brothers tour across the UK, concluding in November 1966. More singles followed, and the band appeared on radio programmes like Easy Beat and Saturday Club, and touring expanded to other countries including France, the Netherlands, and Germany. One single in particular, 'Ciao Baby' b/w 'Anyone There', was released in March 1967, and sold over 10,000 copies in Britain alone, but although they were favourites among reviewers, and got very heavy radio play, none of their singles scored any major chart action in England. 

Somehow, however, the Trent/Hatch penned 'You've Got To Be Loved' from 1967 managed to make the American Top 50, but as they lacked the resources to go to the United States to promote the record, they had to watch as it rose and fell from the charts. That same year Jake Elcock joined on bass and Graham Hollis took over on drums, and their live reputation continued to grow. The recording side of the group, however, was showing some strain, as they felt that their reliance on outside songwriters, which had been a mere detail in 1965, had become a liability by 1967, and their records, for all of their excellence, didn't reflect the group's actual sound, which was a lot less pop-oriented than their singles would have led one to believe. In 1968, Rowley and Jones left the group to join a band called Finders Keepers, which soon after became Trapeze. Ian "Sludge" Lees and George Davies came into the lineup in time for the 'Let's Get A Little Sentimental' single in 1970, although Lees was best known for providing the comedy between their songs, and later became a well-respected comedian. Rowley and Jones only lasted as members of Trapeze for the group's first album, and returned to the Montanas in 1970, and the band carried on until they finally disbanded in 1978. Even if the group felt that their recordings didn't represent their live sound, some of the singles were creditable 60's pop, and by 1968 they had amassed enough material to put together an album, and so if they'd wanted to do that, this is what it could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Take My Hand
02 A Step In The Right Direction
03 Run To Me
04 Top Hat
05 Miss Mackenzie
06 Difference Of Opinion
07 Goodbye Little Girl   
08 Ciao Baby
09 You've Got To Be Loved
10 Hold On
11 Anyone There
12 Someday (You'll Be Breaking My Heart Again)
13 That's When Happiness Began
14 You're Making A Big Mistake

Betty Jayne And The Teenettes - Time Will Tell (1962)

Betty Jayne (BJ) Shawd was born on 12  ovemner 1946 in Kingston, New York, moving to Florida with her parents in 1948, where she grew up. She learned to sight-read music at the age of five, and graduated from Mainland High School in 1963, after which she chose a career in music. Her first recording was under the name Betty Jane, and was a split single with Charles Vickers And Trio, with her 'Dial "L" For Love' appearing on the flip of his 'Now More Than Ever' on the Crusader label in 1960. She was joined by The Teenettes for this record, and they would appear with her on many of her subsequent recordings. Later in 1960 she signed to Carellen Records, who released her debut single, 'The Sun Will Rise', under the name of Betty Jayne And The Teenettes in January 1961, and this was followed in April that year by 'Tag Along'. Later in 1961 she got a deal with Mona-Lee Records, who released 'Lonely Teenager' by Betty Jayne And The Teenettes in 1961, while the following year she released 'Loneliness In My Heart' as a solo single on the same label, although she was back with Carellen later in 1062 with another solo single in 'What's She Got (That I Ain't Got)'. 'Dreamy' was her next solo single, this time backed by 'Dudley', which was a duet as Betty Jayne And Dudley, while 'My Billie Boy' was her last single for Carellen Records in 1962, before she moved to Tropical Records to re-acquaint herself with Charles Vickers for another split single. This time she got the A-side with her 'In The Darkness', while his 'Come On, Baby' graced the b-side. For her final single of 1962 she was back with Mona-Lee for 'Now There's You', and that would be the last that we'd hear from her for a decade, when she suddenly re-appered with 'I'm Remembering Love' on West Spec Music in 1973. In her later years she devoted much of her life towards helping others and speaking out against injustices of all kinds, and was a Political Rights Activist, a Human Rights Activist, and an Animal Rights Activist, and she passed away in July 2020. For the first few years of the 60's Betty Jayne produced some great pop music, and this post collects some of the best of those songs together, along with an early single by The Teenettes from 1958, who were a group in their own right before they teamed up with her in 1961.

Track listing

01 Dial "L" For Love (single 1961, as Betty Jane)
02 The Sun Will Rise (single as Betty Jayne And The Teenettes 1961)
03 Show Your Love (b-side of 'The Sun Will Rise')
04 Tag Along (single as Betty Jayne And The Teenettes 1961)
05 I'm No Longer Jimmy's Girl (b-side of 'Tag Along')
06 No One To Love (unreleased single 1961, as Betty Jayne)
07 Putting On A Show (b-side of 'No One To Love')
08 Lonely Teenager (single as Betty Jayne And The Teenettes 1962)
09 Time Will Tell (b-side of 'Lonely Teenager')
10 What's She Got (That I Ain't Got) (single 1962) 
11 Cry Baby Heart (b-side of 'What's She Got (That I Ain't Got)')
12 Dreamy (single 1962)
13 Dudley (b-side of 'Dreamy', with Dudley)
14 In The Darkness (split single with Charles Vickers 1962) 
15 Too Young To Fall In Love (single by The Teenettes 1958)
16 My Lucky Star (b-side of 'Too Young To Fall In Love')

Jay-Z - Road To Perdition (2016)

On 27 October 27 2005 Jay-Z headlined New York's Power 105.1 annual concert, Powerhouse, calling the concert "I Declare War", and the theme was Jay-Z's position as president and CEO of Def Jam, complete with an on-stage mock-up of the Oval Office. In November 2006 he released his come-back album, 'Kingdom Come', and the single 'Show Me What You Got' was leaked on the Internet in early October 2006, scheduled to be released later on that month, and first week sales of the album were 680,000, enough to be his "biggest sales week ever" as Billboard reported. He followed this in November 2007 with his tenth album entitled 'American Gangster', reportedly inspired after he viewed the Ridley Scott film of the same name, where he wanted to create a new concept album that depicted his experiences as a street-hustler. On 1 January 2008, Jay-Z resigned as president of Def Jam. In winter 2008 it was announced that he would become the first major hip hop artist to headline Britain's Glastonbury Festival, and despite negative comments from Noel Gallagher, tickets sold out quickly, and he also headlined many other summer festivals in 2008, including Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Hove Festival in Norway, and O2 Wireless Festival in London. In May  2009 he announced he would be parting ways with Def Jam, and had struck a multi-million-dollar deal to sign with Live Nation, with whom he would start his Roc Nation imprint which would serve as a record label, talent/management agency, and music publishing company. He released his eleventh album 'The Blueprint 3' in September 2009, and it was his eleventh album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In 2011 he collaborated with Kanye West to record their joint album 'Watch The Throne', following this two years later with his own 'Magna Carta... Holy Grail' in 2013. This final collection of out-takes and rarities covers the years 2005 to 2016, and so might not be as cohesive an album as some of the previous posts, but all of the tracks are worth hearing if you are fan of his work. 

Track listing

01 Dead Presidents 3 
02 Ignorant Shit 
03 You're Welcome (feat. Mary J Blige & Swizz Beatz)
04 Off That (feat. Drake) 
05 Ain't I (feat. Timbaland) 
06 When The Money Goes 
07 All About The Benjamins Freestyle (feat. Shyne & Sauce Money)
08 Higher (Hai Hai) 
09 The Game Iz Mine 
10 Blue Ivy
11 Bounce (demo) (feat. Timbaland) 
12 We Made It (feat. Jay Electronica) 
13 Road To Perdition (feat. Jay Electronica)
14 Bedstuy To Marcy (feat. Sauce Money)  
15 Tower Heist

Toby Twirl - Toffee Apple Sunday (1968)

Toby Twirl grew out of an earlier band that started around 1963, formed by Stu Somerville on bass, Jim Routledge on drums, and Barry Redman on keyboards, who were in the same class at Rutherford College in Newcastle. The trio were later joined by Norman Errington on guitar and vocalist Graham Bell, and they played predominantly Rhythm & Blues material under the name of Shades Of Blue. Bell's time with the band was relatively short-lived, being replaced by Dave "Holly" Holland, although he did go on to some success later with stints in Skip Bifferty and Bell & Arc. Next to leave the original line-up was guitarist Errington, who was replaced by Nick Thorburn, while Richie McConnell took over from  Routledge on drums. These line-up changes also signalled a change in the musical direction of the group, moving away from its original Rhythm & Blues roots and playing more pop type songs. Before long Shades Of Blue had found its niche playing in Working Mens Clubs, which were abundant in the northeast at that time, building up a good reputation, and never being short of well paid work. At some stage one of the band members attempted to promote Shades Of Blue by touting demo acetate discs recorded by an early version of the band at Morton Sound Studios in Newcastle, and one of the acetates ended up at Decca Records, putting the band on the company's radar. Subsequently two original songs, 'Utopia Daydream' and 'Quarter Past Lovely Day', penned by guitarist Nick Thorburn, impressed producer-cum-songwriter Wayne Bickerton, who arranged a recording contract with Decca, and took the band under his wing.

There was already an existing American band recording as Shades Of Blue so a change of name was necessary, and so at the end of 1967 the name Toby Twirl was chosen, after a cartoon character in children’s books published in the 1940's and 1950's. At the same time as things seemed to be looking up for the band, McConnell decided to leave, as he was planning to get married and was uncertain about how a life on the road away from his new bride would affect his life. Bickerton also thought that the band would benefit from a more experienced drummer, and so McConnell was replaced by an established drummer from Sunderland called John Reed. The band's big break came around Christmas 1967, when following a gig in Gateshead they were approached by the directors of the Bailey Organisation, who owned a string of night clubs throughout the country. The band were offered a management contact, which they accepted, and the company gave then a red Transit van, and numerous gigs over the Christmas and New Year period. In January 1968 Decca released two track recorded before Reed had joined as a single, with Bickerton's 'Back In Time' backed with '(The Fantasy World Of) Harry Faversham', penned by American songwriters. 

This latter song featured the exploits of a knight fighting off dragons to save a damsel from a castle, and a promotional video filmed at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland was one of the earliest videos of that type, featuring the band members in Regency style costumes and a paid actress cast as the damsel. The 'Harry Faversham' video was aired on TV several times, but in spite of this and the nationwide publicity through Baileys and Fabulous Magazine, the single failed to chart. In 1968 the band's future looked promising, with almost daily gigs in northeast social clubs, and for the next two years they toured throughout the UK. Amid the busy touring schedule in 1968, the band managed a further recording session at Decca's studios in London, and while on the previous occasion session musician were used to provide the instrumental backing, this time the band were allowed  to record everything apart from string and brass parts. The recording session resulted in the release of the band's second single, 'Toffee Apple Sunday', written by band members Nick Thorburn and John Reed, backed with 'Romeo And Juliet 1968', another Wayne Bickerton composition. However, as with the first single, 'Toffee Apple Sunday' failed to make an impression in the charts, probably due to a lack of air play. The band's final single for Decca was released in January 1969, with 'Movin' In' being backed by a reworking of the Thorburn composition 'Utopia Daydream', but despite good media coverage, air play of the single was not forthcoming, and consequently it also flopped, resulting in the end of the band's recording career with Decca.

They continued with a gruelling schedule of club gigs throughout 1969 and 1970, including a couple of foreign trips to Germany and Denmark, but morale within the band was low, and Holland was the first of the five core members to leave the band, being replaced with a vocalist from the Rochdale area called Stuart Pickering, who had previously worked in the Manchester area under the name of Reg James. In May 1970 tragedy struck when bass player Somerville went missing whilst canoeing in the North Sea near Whitley Bay, and after an extensive search, a canoe and lifejacket were recovered, although Somerville was not found. His apparent death was a great shock to the rest of the band, and although new bassist Dave Robson was recruited, and the band continued to tour for a further six months, at the end of 1970 they decided to disband the group. And that would have been the last that we heard from Toby Twirl if it wasn't for the fact that their three singles were so different to the music that they played at their gigs, that when 1960's psychedelic pop made a come-back in the 1980's, Toby Twirl's output was re-examined and achieved a new-found appreciation. While they were probably not that bothered about releasing an album, as they were primarily a live band, they could have issued one in 1968 just by using the tracks from their Decca session to date, and so here is what that album could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Toffee Apple Sunday
02 Baby What Good Is Love
03 Movin' In
04 Back In Time
05 Marjorine
06 Dark Time Of The Year
07 Harry Faversham
08 Something In Your Eyes
09 Baby You're A Rich Man
10 Romeo And Juliet 1968
11 Love Is Love
12 Gonna Have A Good Time (Good Times)
13 Utopia Daydream

Wild Honey - Sow The Seed Of Love (1974)

After her 1971 Bulgarian single 'Love Me Like A Lover' went the same way as her previous releases, Tina Charles teamed up with Kim Keene and Mally Page and formed the female trio Wild Honey. As Charles was already signed to MAM Records as a solo artist, they took on Wild Honey, and their first attempt at a single was to pair Charles' last single for them, 'Baby Don't You Know Anymore', with a new Wild Honey track, 'He's My Sugar', just so that any fans out there would know that the two were connected. The first real Wild Honey single was 1972's Motown-esque 'There's No Stopping Us Now', and this was followed the next year by a re-release of 'He's My Sugar', but this time as an actual Wild Honey record, with 'People Of The Universe' on the flip. However, for the b-side of their 1974 single, 'Everybody Knows', and also for 1976's 'Baby I'm Your Man', the girls were relegated to backing vocalists on their own records, with an uncredited male singer taking the lead on both songs. The music was fairly typical of the period, being a sort of cross between early-'70s contemporaries Pickettywitch and Charles' own future within 5000 Volts, but the group's need for acceptance saw them try out a variety of musical styles as they searched for one that might break them out of obscurity. None did, of course, but they did produce some enjoyable music, with some pursuing a sub-glam rock direction, while others could be seen to hint at the disco-danceable sound that was starting to break through in the nid-70's. They only produced five singles in their very short career, and so to round off this album I've added Charles' collaboration with Martin Jay as Airbus, with their 1974 single 'Fly Away'.

Track listing

01 There's No Stopping Us Now (single 1972)
02 Sow The Seed Of Love (b-side of 'There's No Stopping Us Now')
03 He's My Sugar (single 1973)
04 People Of The Universe (b-side of 'He's My Sugar')
05 Gotta Find A Way (single 1974)
06 Everybody Knows (b-side of 'Gotta Find A Way')
07 A Mother For My Children (single 1975)
08 Have A Little Mercy (b-side of 'A Mother For My Children')
09 Why Didn't I Think Of That (single 1976)
10 Baby I'm Your Man (b-side of' Why Didn't I Think Of That')
11 Fly Away (single as Airbus 1974)
12 Susanna In The Summer (b-side of 'Fly Away')

Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson - BB (1973)

Björn Ulvaeus began his musical career at the age of 18 as a singer and guitarist, when he fronted the Hootenanny Singers, a popular Swedish folk–skiffle group. He started writing English-language songs for his group and even had a brief solo career alongside. Meanwhile, Benny Andersson was also 18, and was a member of a popular Swedish pop-rock group, the Hep Stars, that performed, among other things, covers of international hits. The Hep Stars were known as "the Swedish Beatles", and they even set up Hep House, their equivalent of Apple Corps. Andersson played the keyboard and eventually started writing original songs for his band, many of which became major hits, including 'No Response', which hit number three in 1965, and 'Sunny Girl', 'Wedding', and 'Consolation', all of which hit number one in 1966. The Hootenanny Singers and the Hep Stars sometimes crossed paths while touring, and in June 1966 Ulvaeus and Andersson decided to write a song together, with their first attempt being 'Isn't It Easy To Say', a song that was later recorded by the Hep Stars. Stig Anderson was the manager of the Hootenanny Singers and founder of the Polar Music label, and he saw potential in the collaboration, encouraging them to write more. The two also began playing occasionally with the other's bands, although it was not until 1969 that the pair wrote and produced some of their first real hits together. 

Andersson wrote and submitted the song 'Hej, Clown' for Melodifestivalen 1969, the national festival to select the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, and the song tied for first place, but re-voting relegated Andersson's song to runner-up. As their respective bands began to break up during 1969, Andersson and Ulvaeus teamed up and recorded their first album together, 'Lycka', in 1970, which included original songs sung by both men. Frida Lyngstad also participated in the Melodifestival in 1969, and this was where she first met Andersson, and before long they were a couple, with Andersson producing her single 'Peter Pan', which was her first collaboration with Benny & Björn, as they had written the song. During filming of a Swedish TV special in May 1969, Agnetha Fältskog met Ulvaeus and they married in 1971, and both girls started adding backing vocals to Benny & Björn's recordings. An attempt at combining their talents occurred in April 1970 when the two couples went on holiday together to Cyprus, and what started as singing for fun on the beach ended up as an improvised live performance in front of the UN soldiers stationed on the island. 

They then formed a stage act called Festfolket (which translates from Swedish as "Party People" and in pronunciation also "engaged couples"), but the cabaret show attracted generally negative reviews, except for the performance of the Andersson and Ulvaeus hit 'Hej, gamle man', which was their first recording to feature all four singers. They also performed solo numbers from their respective albums, but the lukewarm reception convinced the foursome to shelve plans for working together for the time being, and each soon concentrated on individual projects again. After the 1970 release of 'Lycka', two more singles credited to Björn & Benny were released in Sweden, 'Det kan ingen doktor hjälpa' and 'Tänk om jorden vore ung', with more prominent vocals by Fältskog and Lyngstad. The first signs of foreign success came as a surprise, as the Andersson and Ulvaeus single 'She's My Kind Of Girl' was released through Epic Records in Japan in March 1972, giving the duo a Top 10 hit. Two more singles were released in Japan, 'En Carousel' (an early version of 'Merry-Go-Round') and 'Love Has Its Ways'. Ulvaeus and Andersson persevered with their song-writing and experimented with new sounds and vocal arrangements, and 'People Need Love' was released in June 1972, with the women given much greater prominence, and so the single was released as by Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. 

The song peaked at number 17 in the Swedish single charts, and convinced them that they were on to something. In 1973, the band and their manager Stig Anderson decided to have another try at Melodifestivalen, this time with the song 'Ring Ring', and he commissioned Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody to provide an English translation of the Swedish lyrics, but it only came third in Melodifestivalen, and so never reached the Eurovision Song Contest itself. Nevertheless, the group released their debut studio album, also called 'Ring Ring', and the title track was a hit single in many parts of Europe and also in South Africa. In 1973, Stig Anderson, tired of unwieldy names, started to refer to the group privately and publicly as ABBA, and after a competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper, it was officially announced in the summer that the group were to be known as 'ABBA'. But that's a whole other story, and this post charts the four member's journey to that point, with all the non-album singles and b-sides that they released in the early 70's, right up to that original version of 'Ring Ring', which could be classed as their first pre-ABBA recording. 

Track listing

01 She's My Kind Of Girl (single 1970) 
02 Inga Theme (b-side of 'She's My Kind Of Girl')
03 Det Kan Ingen Doktor Hjälpa (single 1971) 
04 På Bröllop (b-side of 'Det Kan Ingen Doktor Hjälpa'
05 Tänk Om Jorden Vore Ung (single 1971) 
06 Träskofolket (b-side of 'Tänk Om Jorden Vore Ung'
07 Hey, Musikant (single 1971) 
08 Was Die Liebe Sagt (b-side of 'Hey, Musikant')
09 En Karusell (single 1972)
10 Att Finnas Till (b-side of 'En Karusell')
11 Love Has Its Ways (single 1972)
12 Rock'n Roll Band (b-side of 'Love Has Its Ways')

13 People Need Love (single as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid 1972) 
14 He Is Your Brother (single as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid 1972)
15 Santa Rosa (b-side of 'He Is Your Brother')
16 Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal) (single as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid 1973)
17 Ah, Vilka Tider (b-side of 'Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)')

Toni Wine - A Girl Is Not A Girl (1975)

Toni Wine was born on 4 June 1947 in Washington Heights, New York, and attended the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied piano. While she was still at high school she met school-teacher Carole Bayer Sager, and the two started writing songs together. Before long they were working as songwriters for Screen Gems Publishing, and Wine even had a hit single herself, when the holiday tune 'My Boyfriend’s Coming Home For Christmas' entered the Billboard special holiday charts at number 23 in 1963. In 1964 she co-composed a girl-group hit with Art Kornfield,  with The Shirelles taking 'Tonight You're Gonna Fall In Love With Me' to number 57 in the US charts. Also in 1964 she provided back-up vocal support for Gene Pitney on his hit 'It Hurts To Be In Love', but it was to 1966 before she got her biggest hit, when Wine and Sager wrote the song 'A Groovy Kind Of Love', which was recorded by The Mindbenders, and which reached the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1968 she entered the recording studio to take on back-up vocal duties, alongside Andy Kim, Bobby Bloom and lead voice Ron Dante, on The Archies' first hit 'Bang-Shang-A-Lang', which resulted in a number 22 chart position. The follow-up, 'Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.)' charted at number 53, and on the third single Wine stepped up to the microphone to share lead vocal duties with Ron Dante on yet another Jeff Barry/Andy Kim composition 'Sugar, Sugar', which became a massive hit, and the number one song of 1969. Going into 1970, a new group on the scene featuring a lead singer with a long-time recording career already under his belt, was Tony Orlando And Dawn, and they released a Toni Wine/Irwin Levine composition 'Candida', which resulted in a number 3 smash hit. Despite the song being credited to Tony Orlando And Dawn, there was no 'Dawn', and so Wine and Linda November were the singers on the track. She also recorded and released many singles on her own for various labels, right up to the mid-1980's, but other than her one holiday hit in 1963 she hasn't managed to reach the charts again. In the early 1970's she married famed producer Chips Moman and relocated to Memphis, where she released material for Atco and Monument, in addition to a busy career as a writer and session vocalist, performing on many commercials, and touring with Tony Orlando. Despite not being hits, some of her singles were really good, and so here is a selection of them, starting with her only hit from 1963, and ending in the mid-70's.

Track listing

01 My Boyfriend's Coming Home For Christmas (single 1963)
02 What A Pity (b-side of 'My Boyfriend's Coming Home For Christmas')
03 A Boy Like You (single 1964) 
04 Funny Little Heart (b-side of 'A Boy Like You')
05 A Girl Is Not A Girl (single 1964)
06 Only Fools (b-side of 'A Girl Is Not A Girl')

07 A Toy Is Only Made For Play (unknown year)
08 River Deep Mountain High (single 1967)
09 Toni's Tune (b-side of ''River Deep Mountain High')
10 Take A Little Time Out For Love (single 1970)
11 Sisters in Sorrow (b-side of 'Take A Little Time Out For Love')
12 Let's Make Love Tonight (single 1970)
13 Groovy Kind Of Love (single 1971)
14 I Want To See The Morning With Him (b-side of 'Groovy Kind Of Love')
15 Sugar Is Sweeter (single 1974) 
16 Forever's Only Been A Day (b-side of 'Sugar Is Sweeter')
17 Maybe My Baby Will (promo single 1975)

The Consortium - Whatever Became Of Emily Jane? (1969)

In 1964 guitarist Geoff Simpson joined Group 66, whose members included Robbie Fair on lead vocals, Brian Bronson on rhythm guitar and vocals, John Barker on bass and vocals, and John Podbury on drums, and who covered current songs from the charts. In 1965, the group named changed to Xit, and when Simpson began writing songs, the group put a demo tape together in early 1967, and sent iy off to various record companies. Tony Macaulay from Pye Records met up with the band in Denmark Street, and they were soon signed to the Pye label. However, Macaulay didn't like the name, and thought that a West Coast sounding name would suit them more, so they were renamed West Coast Consortium. Their first single was 'Some Other Someday', and it received favourable reviews, and charted on Radio London's Top Forty, but the song that the band had recorded as the follow-up was issued by Macaulay as a solo single by Robbie Fair, under the name Robbie. He tried to pass this off by saying that it was a rush release and the credits couldn't be changed, but this could have somewhat soured their relationship, as when they booked sessions to record Macaulay's 'Rainbow' the group began bickering and decided the session wasn't working. Instead, 'Rainbow' was recorded by David Garrick, and West Coast Consortium were handed over to another in-house Pye producer, Jack Dorsey, a former bandleader, who presented them with the song 'Colour Sergeant Lillywhite', which they recorded. 

A number of demos, recorded in the bedroom of bassist John Barker's home above his father's undertaker shop in Shoreditch, were cut to acetate, but then the group lost interest, as they felt that an LP wasn't important, and they returned to playing more gigs instead. During a gig at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, their fortunes took a turn for the better as Cyril Stapleton, head of Pye, came to see them play and expressed an interest in recording them. 'All The Love In The World' had been recorded with Jack Dorsey, but the group were not impressed with the result, so Stapleton produced another version, and it was released under a shortened group name Consortium. This 1969 single became a sizable hit after being championed by Radio One, reaching Number 22 in the UK, and spending nine weeks in the charts. Due to the single's success, Pye put pressure on Simpson to go back to the demos that had been recorded for the proposed album for a follow-up release, but he felt that the music scene had changed since that time, and the only song used was 'One Day The Train Never Came', which was slightly amended to 'The Day The Train Never Came' for the b-side of their next single 'When The Day Breaks'. This was a new song, recorded at the same session as 'All The Love In The World', but neither that nor their next two singles had any chart success, and so Consortium moved from Pye to Trend, a short-lived label owned by Barry Class, in 1969. They released 'Melanie Cries Alone' in 1970, and then booked a six month tour of Italy, but as Simpson had recently married and had new-born twins to look after, he left the group, with the rest of The Consortium fulfilling their obligations by touring Italy. Once the tour was finished they recorded a final single for Trend, 'Annabella', before calling it quits. They reformed in 1975 with a much heavier, almost psychedelic, style, and they recorded an album, 'Rebirth', which was then shelved until it sneaked out in 2006 on the Angel Air Label. None of the songs recorded in 1968 and 1969 were included on 'Rebirth', so there is an album waiting to be heard from the original incarnation of The Consortium, and this is it. 

Track listing

01 The Day The Train Never Came

02 Take A Round Trip

03 All The Love In The World

04 Fairground Playboy 

05 I Don't Want Her Anymore

06 Cynthia Serenity

07 The House Upon The Hill

08 Beggar Man

09 Whatever Became Of Emily Jane?

10 Windmill Hill

11 When The Day Breaks

12 Money Matters

13 Come On Into The Warm

14 Spending My Life Saying Goodbye

RichGirl - Fall In Love With RichGirl (2009)

RichGirl was an American R&B four-piece vocal girl group, consisting of Audra Simmons, Christina "Brave" Williams, Lyndriette Smith (now known as Kristal, and later a member of June's Diary) and Amber Streeter (now known as Sevyn Streeter, and formerly of TG4). They were formed with the help of record producer Rich Harrison, and signed to his label Richcraft Entertainment, through Jive Records, drawing inspiration from the musical talents of Destiny's Child, Spice Girls, SWV, En Vogue, TLC, and Beyoncé. They began work on their self-titled debut album in 2009, due for release early 2010, and Streeter described the album as "motivational, empowering, fun, and honest". The girls wrote several songs for the record and did their own vocal arrangements, although they would liked to have written more, but for the label pushing them to get it done. Alongside working on their album, they performed at the annual Teen Takeover event in May 2009, alongside Keri Hilson and Yung L.A., and were an opening act for Beyoncé on the North American leg of her I Am ... Tour in June 2009. Their first official release was the promotional single, '24's', featuring Bun B, on 5 February 2009, which only managed to peak at number eighty-three on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2009. Their official debut single, 'He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)', was released on 2 June 2009, and peaked thirteen lower than '24's', although the follow-up, 'Swagger Right', fared slightly better at number 72. 

On 9 September 2009, RichGirl released a free EP through their official website, which included their lead single 'He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho)' and promotional single '24's', along with snippets of tracks from their then upcoming album, including 'Back 2 Tha Club', 'Millionaire', and the demo of the second single 'Swagger Right', tentatively titled 'Get Ya Swagga Right'. Possibly because of the poor performance of their singles, release of their debut album was delayed again and again, until in 2011 RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records, resulting in the girls (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) being told that future material would be released on the RCA Records brand. With no sign of their album being released, the band posted a mixtape on their website, with 'Fall In Love With RichGirl' being made available for free download. Following poor commercial success from their official singles, speculation arose as the members of the group began to release music individually, and in October 2011 it was confirmed that RichGirl member Lyndriette Smith had been enrolled in Robin Antin's revised edition of the Pussycat Dolls, although this was later retracted. She did release a solo EP entitled 'Proclamation' in December 2011, and in March 2012 Streeter released a song titled 'Red Handed' under the name Se7en, and that pretty much sounded the death knell for the band. Although their debut album never appeared, most of the songs which were intended to be on it did surface on their mixtape, so that's a pretty good substitute for the album which was shelved, and it's a fitting summary of their short career. 

Track listing

01 No Hands  
02.Smile & Wave (feat. Chris Brown) 
03 RichGirl Rock 
04.Circles 
05 Lay It Down 
06 Grenade 
07 You Are My Rock
08 All Of The Lights  
09 Decisions  
10 DJ Got Us Falling In Love  
11 Ready For Love  
12 Got Away 
13 Hello (So Damn Right) / Can't Shake
14 Can't Shake 
15 Lucky You Are