Lesley Duncan - Just For The Boy (1970)

Lesley Duncan was born in Stockton-on-Tees on August 12 1943 into a musical family, with her mother playing piano in clubs while her grandfather sang in the chapel choir. Lesley quit school just before her fifteenth birthday and soon after left home, traveling around the country and working various jobs, including waitressing in Scarborough and mother's helper in Wimbledon, and while waitressing in London in 1963, her brother Jimmy approached her with a few songs he had written, and invited Lesley to join him as songwriters. She and Jimmy walked into publishers Francis, Day & Hunter and sang their songs unaccompanied, and the pair were given a contract for a year with Jimmy receiving ten pounds a week and Lesley seven pounds. She had never sung publicly anywhere but made demo recordings of her songs and her manager took one of them to Parlophone, who signed her to a recording contract on the strength of her demo, and with no audition. The demo was 'I Want A Steady Guy', which became her first single, while the second Parlophone release, 'Tell Him'/'You Kissed Me Boy', was credited to Lesley and Jimmy, even though Jimmy had nothing to do with the writing of them. During this period, she also appeared in the 1963 film 'What A Crazy World' with Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, Alan Klein and Susan Maughan. She left Parlophone due to difficulties with producer Ron Richards, as she had wanted to record a cover of Doris Troy's 'Just One Look', as she was sure of its hit potential, but was told it would never be a hit. A few weeks later Richards produced the single for The Hollies, and it reached number two in the UK Charts. She then moved to Mercury Records, and her first self-composed single for them, 'When My Baby Cries' was later covered by other artists. 

Three more Mercury releases followed, with the final 'Hey Boy' including Dusty Springfield and Madeline Bell on backing vocals, and with the addition of Kiki Dee, all four of them would eventually feature as backing vocalists on an endless number of recordings. Following her time with Mercury, she had a brief period with RCA, releasing two singles, 'Lullaby'/'I Love You, I Love You' and the Goffin/King standard 'A Road To Nowhere', backed with her own 'Love Song', which became one of her most famous songs, with over 160 recorded versions of it. While working on sessions with Elton John for his 'Tumbleweed Connection' album, he asked to do one of her songs, and she suggested 'Love Song', which he recorded with Duncan playing acoustic guitar and singing backing vocals. Around 1971 she moved to CBS and released her first album, which was in a much more folky, introspective style than her 60's singles, and was the beginning of the second phase of her career, along the way becoming one of the UK's best-loved and most respected singer/songwriters. As so often happens, this acclaim didn't materialise until after her untimely death at the age of 66, with her albums much more popular now than they were on their release. To show that her song-writing talent was there right from the beginning, I've collected most of those 60's singles, including the original take of 'Love Song' complete with sound effects, for an album that celebrates the start of her burgeoning career.    

Track listing

01 I Want A Steady Guy (Lesley Duncan) ‎(single 1963)
02 Moving Away (Len Praverman) (b-side of 'I Want A Steady Guy')
03 You Kissed Me Boy (Jimmy & Lesley Duncan) (single 1964)
04 When My Baby Cries ‎(Lesley Duncan) (single 1964)
05 Did It Hurt? (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'When My Baby Cries')
06 Only The Lonely And Me (Lesley Duncan) (single 1964)
07 Just For The Boy ‎(Koppolman/Rubin) (single 1965)
08 See That Guy (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'Just For The Boy')
09 Run To Love (Lesley Duncan) (single 1965) 
10 Hey Boy ‎(Lesley Duncan) (single 1966)
11 I Go To Sleep (Ray Davies) (b-side of 'Hey Boy')
12 Lullaby (Lesley Duncan) (single 1968)
13 I Love You, I Love You (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'Lullaby') ‎
14 Sing Children Sing (Lesley Duncan) (single 1969)
15 Exactly Who You Are (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'Sing Children Sing')
16 A Road To Nowhere (Goffin/King) (single 1969)
17 Love Song (Lesley Duncan) (single 1970)