Lynne Randell - The Right To Cry (1969)

Lynne Randall (she later changed the spelling) was born on 14 December 1949 in Liverpool, and her family migrated to Australia when she was five, settling in the Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena. In her teens she attended Mordialloc High School, and was discovered  whilst working as a 14-year-old apprentice hairdresser for Lilian and Antonio Frank, when the manager of Australian mod group The Flies organised a publicity shoot for TV and press to display his band having their long hair done at a women's hair salon. During the shoot, The Flies lead singer Ronnie Burns sang with his guitar, and Frank suggested her young apprentice should sing along. Spry was so impressed by her voice he offered her a job at his discothèque, Pinocchios, and at her 15th birthday on 14 December 1964, thrown by her manager Carol West and which was attended by local radio DJs including Stan Rofe, she sang 'House Of The Rising Sun' and John Lee Hooker's 'Boom Boom', later cutting a demo in a dining room, which Rofe played on his radio show. Randell left school and was signed to EMI in 1965, and her first single was a cover of Lulu's 'I'll Come Running Over', which was released in February on the HMV label and became a No. 11 hit in Melbourne. She appeared on television on 'Bandstand', 'Saturday Date' and 'Sing Sing Sing' to promote the record, and it was quickly followed by 'A Love Like You', which hit No. 27 in Melbourne, and then in July by a cover of the Marvelettes' 'Forever'. She had regular appearances on TV's 'The Go!! Show' alongside contemporaries The Easybeats and Olivia Newton-John, as well appearing on 'Kommotion' with fellow pop artists including Burns, who was now a solo artist. Randell signed a new contract with CBS Records to release two further singles, with 'Heart' and 'Goin' Out Of My Head' both becoming Top 20 hits in Melbourne. 

Her trendy clothes and hairstyle, good looks and innocent image, backed up by a string of solid pop hits, earned her the title of Australia's 'Little Miss Mod', and she became the most popular female performer in the mid-1960's. On the back of her Australian success, Randell went to the United Kingdom and performed at Liverpool's Cavern Club, and by 1967 she was in the United States, where she toured with The Monkees as part of a bill which also featured Jimi Hendrix and Ike & Tina Turner. Her next single, 'Ciao Baby', was written by Larry Weiss and Scott English, and was recorded in New York and released on CBS Records in Australia, reaching No. 6 on Go-Set's Top 40 in June 1967, while Epic Records also released it in the US, making it her biggest hit. While touring the US, Randell became addicted to methamphetamine tablets which were sold legally as slimming pills, developing a long term addiction which later seriously affected her health. Her next single 'That's A Hoe Down'/'I Need You Boy' appeared in 1967 and she won another 'Most Popular Female Vocal' from Go-Set pop poll in October. She moved to Los Angeles in 1968 and released 'An Open Letter', but by then her health problems were getting worse, and her last single 'I Love My Dog' was released in 1969 on Capitol Records. She returned to Australia in 1980, working as a personal assistant to old friend Ian Meldrum, who was by then compère of 'Countdown', until 1986, and she then moved back to the US where she worked for Seymour Stein of Sire Records as his personal assistant in New York during the late 1980's. In the 1990's she moved back to Melbourne and made occasional appearances at oldies concerts, then in 2004 she went public about her methamphetamine addiction in an interview with Peter Wilmoth of The Age, admitting that her adrenal glands were atrophied to about 30% function, and she passed away at her home in June 2007. Her legacy is this great collection of recordings that she made while she was the toast of the Australian pop scene, and somewhat unusually for this type of album, listen out for some stunning guitar solos on 'Hold Me', 'Summertime', and 'Won't Be Long'   

Track listing

01 I'll Come Running Over ‎(single 1965)
02 Hold Me (b-side of 'I'll Come Running Over')
03 A Love Like You (single 1965)
04 Summertime ‎(b-side of 'A Love Like You')
05 Be Sure ‎(single 1965)
06 Forever (b-side of 'Be Sure')
07 I Got A Notion (unreleased test pressing 1965)
08 Heart ‎(single 1966)
09 That's What Love Is Made Of (b-side of 'Heart')
10 Going Out Of My Head ‎(single 1966)
11 Take The Bitter With The Sweet (b-side of 'Going Out Of My Head')
12 What'cha Gonna Do (from 'Lynne Randell Presents' EP 1966)
13 Won't Be Long (from 'Lynne Randell Presents' EP 1966)
14 Ciao Baby ‎(single 1967)
15 Stranger In My Arms (b-side of 'Ciao Baby')
16 That's A Hoe Down ‎(single 1967)
17 I Need You Boy (b-side of 'That's A Hoe Down')
18 The Right To Cry ‎(single 1968) 
19 An Open Letter (b-side of 'The Right To Cry')
20 Wasn't It You ‎(single 1968)
21 Grey Day ‎‎(b-side of 'Wasn't It You')
22 I Love My Dog (single 1969)
23 Mind Excursion (b-side of 'I Love My Dog')