Suzi Jane Hokom - Goode Tyme Music (1970)

Suzi Jane Hokom was one of the driving forces behind LHI Records, alongside founder Lee Hazelwood, and was possibly the first female producer, working on 'Safe At Home' by The International Submarine Band, among other records in the 60's. She also had a parallel career as a pop, folk and country singer, signing with Rally records under the name of Hillary Hokom, and releasing the single 'Can't Let You Go' in 1965. Following a switch to MGM Records, and a name change to Suzi Jane Hokom, she released 'Need All The Help I Can Get' in 1966, after which she met Lee Hazelwood, and appeared on his 1966 single 'Sand'. They soon embarked on a romantic relationship, and after they formed the Lee Hazelwood Industries label she signed to it and all her subsequent singles appeared on the label. In 1968 she recorded the single 'The House Song' with Virgil Warner, and this led to an album, with 'Virgil Warner & Suzi Jane Hokom' being released in 1969. While working with Hazelwood, she often recorded demos of Hazelwood's songs, and in 1966 she recorded 'Summer Wine', which was a hit for Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood in 1967, while one of her most well-known songs is the anti-war folk song 'For A Day Like Today', which was released as a single, and was also featured on Hazlewood's 1970 album 'Cowboy in Sweden'. She often appeared with Hazelwood on his albums, and in return he featured on some of her singles, and here is a selection of her best recordings, including that first single as Hillary Hokom, some duets with Hazelwood, and a couple of previously unreleased rarities. 

Track listing

01 Can't Let You Go (single 1965)
02 Tears Of Joy (b-side of 'Can't Let You Go')
03 Need All The Help I Can Get (single 1966)
04 Home (I'm Home) (b-side of 'Need All The Help I Can Get')
05 Sand (single with Lee Hazelwood 1966)
06 Goode Tyme Music (single 1967)
07 Little War (b-side of 'Goode Tyme Music')
08 Summer Wine (single with Lee Hazelwood 1967)
09 Come On Sunshine (previously unreleased 1967)
10 Same Old Songs (single 1969)
11 Alone (b-side of 'Same Old Songs', with Lee Hazelwood)
12 Reason To Believe (single 1969)
13 I'll Never Fall In Love Again (b-side of 'Reason To Believe', with Lee Hazelwood)
14 Califia (Stone Rider) (single with Lee Hazelwood 1970)
15 First Street Blues (previously unreleased 1970)
16 For A Day Like Today (promo single 1970)

Nola York - I Can Hear You Calling (1985)

Nola York was born in Liverpool, and in the 1960's she attended Webber Douglas Drama school in London. While there she was invited to a party by a friend whose father was high up in the American Embassy, and she ended up singing and playing guitar. Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood heard a song that she written called 'I Don't Understand', and wanted her to record it, and so she secured a recording and publishing contract with Johnny Franz, Dusty Springfield's producer at Philips Records, where she met actor and lyricist Michael Richmond, who shared a similar passion for writing a musical. 'I Don't Understand' was released as a single in 1964 on the His Master's Voice label, and a couple of years later she released 'Whole Lotta Lovin'', backed with 'You Just Didn't Wanna Know', on Philips Records, both of which she co-wrote with Glen Stuart. 1967 saw the release of three more singles, the first of which comprised two songs co-written by her, on the 'I Can Hear You Calling'/'Clown Face' single, which was followed by 'Photograph'/'He's Looking At Her', once again co-written by York, and she closed the year with 'There's So Much Love All Around Me', backed with her co-write 'Sleeping Boutique'. In 1967 she worked all over Europe. singing in the Concert Hall in Belgrade, and performing at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland, as well as appearing on TV and radio shows in Holland and Norway. 

Once back in the UK she recorded 'Ciao Baby', which was released in 1968, and in 1969 she collaborated with Michael Richmond and wrote lyrics and music for the musical 'The Knight Of The Burning Pestle', which ran at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, and then later at the Greenwich Theatre, directed by Sam Walters. In 1970 she joined The Chantelles all-girl singing group, replacing Jay Adams, and touring all over Europe and working American Air force bases, although she never recorded with them. When her tour with The Chantelles ended she joined up with Richmond again and they wrote the musical 'The Lady Or The Tiger' in 1975, which Sam Walters put on at the Orange Tree Pub in an upstairs room, before it transferred to The Fortune Theatre, making York the first woman to write a full-length score for a West End musical. Over the next few years she carried on writing musicals, including 'People' and 'Wild, Wild Women', and then in 1985 she unexpectedly returned to pop music when she wrote and recorded the song 'Hi Fantasy', which was released in Holland on a Dutch label, and which made the Dance charts in the UK. Most of her best songs were released in the late 60's, although she did cut a couple of records in the early 70's, before 'Hi Fantasy' took her into the charts, and so this collection brings together the best of her 60's and 70's output, including an unreleased acetate from 1975 that I've edited to give it the intro that was missing from the only available version, and with her 1985 single closing the album. 

Track listing

01 I Don't Understand (single 1964)
02 Here I Stand (b-side of 'I Don't Understand')
03 Whole Lotta Lovin' (single 1966)
04 There's So Much Love All Around Me (single 1967)
05 Sleeping Boutique (b-side of 'There's So Much Love All Around Me')
06 I Can Hear You Calling (single 1967)
07 Photographs (single 1967)
08 He's Looking At Her (b-side of 'Photographs')
09 Ciao Baby (single 1968)
10 Cowboy (single 1973)
11 Purple Flowers (b-side of 'Cowboy')
12 Noises (unreleased acetate 1975)
13 City Of London (unreleased acetate, incorrectly credited to The Chantelles 1975)
14 Hi Fantasy (12" single 1985)

Linda Scott - Patch It Up (1967)

Linda Joy Sampson was born on 1 June 1945 in Queens, New York, moving with her family to Teaneck, New Jersey when she was 11 years old. In 1959 she auditioned to appear on Arthur Godfrey's popular CBS Radio show while she was still attending junior high school, and after having won a place on the show, Sampson and other young performers became regular guests. During the show's run, she came to the attention of Epic Records, and she made her recording debut as Linda Sampson with the single 'In-Between Teen'. Though still attending Teaneck High School, in 1961 she signed with Canadian-American Records, which had struck gold with Santo & Johnny's 'Sleep Walk', and label changed her performing name to Linda Scott and released the hit 'I've Told Every Little Star' in 1961, a standard written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern for their 1932 production 'Music In The Air'. The track sold over one million copies, earning a gold disc, and it was the first of three of her biggest hits, which all came in that first year. 'I've Told Every Little Star' was followed by 'I Don't Know Why', which reached number 12 in the US chart, and then 'Don't Bet Money Honey' topped that by getting to number 9, with this last song being an original composition by Scott. 

She also charted with 'Starlight, Starbright' in August 1961, which peaked at number 44 on the Billboard charts, and when her first album was released that year, it played on those early singles with every track mentioning 'star' in the title. When Canadian-American started a subsidiary label, Congress Records, in 1962, Scott was the showcase artist, with both labels releasing new material of hers simultaneously, and her self-composed 'Yessirree' was featured in the Chubby Checker film 'Don't Knock The Twist' that year. Her final US chart appearance was 'Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?', which was released in January 1964, the same month that The Beatles made their first chart appearance. In 1965 she became a cast member of the variety show 'Where the Action Is', which she co-hosted with singer Steve Alaimo, and her last recording, 'They Don't Know You', was released in 1967 on RCA Records. She continued to record as a backing vocalist, most notably on Lou Christie's 1969 hit 'I'm Gonna Make You Mine', before finally quitting show business in the early 1970's. In 2022 her hit 'I've Told Every Little Star' was featured in an advert for the H&M store, alerting a whole new generation of fans to her music, and so for anyone who wants to hear more from her, here are all her non-album tracks from 1963 to that final single in 1967.  

Track listing

01 Let's Fall In Love (single 1963)
02 I Know It, You Know It (b-side of 'Let's Fall In Love')
03 Ain't That Fun (single 1963)
04 Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed? (single 1964)
05 My Heart (b-side of 'Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?')
06 Everybody Stopped Laughing At Janie (single 1964) 
07 I Envy You (b-side of 'Everybody Stopped Laughing At Janie')
08 Patch It Up (single 1965) 
09 You Baby (single 1965)
10 Don't Lose Your Head (single 1965) 
11 I'll See You In My Dreams (b-side of 'Don't Lose Your Head')
12 Toys (single 1966)
13 Take A Walk, Bobby (b-side of 'Toys')
14 They Don't Know You (single 1967)
15 Three Miles High (b-side of 'They Don't Know You')

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')

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')

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')

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)

Tina Charles - Hot Hits (1973)

As I mentioned in the last post from Tina Charles, in the early 70's she got a job recording vocals on the 'Top Of The Pops' and 'Hot Hits' series of albums, where anonymous artists covered contemporary hits. In his early days Elton John had also earned extra money by doing this (see his own post here), and Charles found herself not only covering songs by female vocalists, but she was the go-to singer to tackle the teenyboppers of the period, such as Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson, who were only around 13 or 14 at the time, and whose voices had not yet broken. Over a few years she covered scores of songs, which were spread over a variety of the these records, such as 'Parade Of Pops', 'Best Of '72', 'Smash Hits', 'Pick Of The Hits', and the two most popular of these cash-in records, Hallmark's 'Top Of The Pops' and mfp's 'Hot Hits'. As an example of her work in this field, here are fourteen of her covers of hits from the early 70's, all housed in a suitably retro cover

Track listing 

01 Song Of My Life (Petula Clark) 
02 Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (Middle Of The Road)  
03 Let Me Be There (Olivia Newton John)
04 The Witch (The Rattles)
05 Paper Roses (Marie Osmond)
06 Lookin' Through The Windows (The Jackson 5)
07 Banner Man (Blue Mink)
08 Puppy Love (Donny Osmond)
09 Won't Somebody Dance With Me (Lynsey De Paul) 
10 Doctor My Eyes (The Jackson 5)
11 Come Back And Shake Me (Clodagh Rodgers)
12 Ben (Michael Jackson)
13 Why (Donnie Osmond)
14 You Can Do Magic (Limmie And Family Cooking)

Peanut - I'm Not Sad (1971)

Katherine Farthing was born on 11 March 1951 in Port Of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and her family emigrated to the UK in 1962. She began recording in 1965, signing to Pye Records, and released her first single 'Thank Goodness For The Rain' in July 1965. She followed this with 'Home Of The Brave' in October, before moving to Columbia Records in 1966 for 'I'm Waiting For The Day'. Her final single under the name Peanut was 'I Didn't Love Him Anyway' in January 1967, after which she joined The Rag Dolls, who had a couple of singles released in 1967 and 1968. In 1971 she teamed up with her brother Mac, and recorded a version of the Middle Of The Road chart-topper 'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep' as Mac & Katy Kissoon, and although it wasn't a hit in the UK, it did reach number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next single together, 'Freedom', failed to chart in either country, although it was a hit in Europe, and they finally achieved major success with their 1975 smash hit 'Sugar Candy Kisses', after which they went on to have a successful career as a duo, releasing many more hit singles and albums. This collection tracks her rise to stardom, from those early singles as Peanut, through to her work with The Rag Dolls, a 1969 single under her new name of Kathy Kissoon, and finally some early attempts at fame with her brother Mac.  

Track listing 

01 Thank Goodness For The Rain (single 1965) 
02 I'm Not Sad (b-side of 'Thank Goodness For The Rain')
03 Home Of The Brave (single 1965)
04 I Wanna Hear It Again (b-side of 'Home Of The Range')
05 I'm Waiting For The Day (single 1966)
06 Someone's Gonna Be Sorry (b-side of 'I'm Waiting For The Day')
07 Two Four Six Eight (unreleased 1966)
08 I Didn't Love Him Anyway (single 1967)
09 Come Tomorrow (b-side of 'I Didn't Love Him Anyway')
10 Never Had So Much Loving (single by The Rag Dolls 1967)
11 Don't Let It Rain (single as Kathy Kissoon 1969)
12 Will I Never See The Sun (b-side of 'Don't Let It Rain')
13 Keep On Laughing Baby (single as Mac & Katie Kissoon 1970)
14 Acts Of Violence (b-side of 'Keep On Laughing')
15 Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (single as Mac & Katie Kissoon 1971)

16 Walking Around (b-side of 'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep')
17 I've Found My Freedom (single as Mac & Katie Kissoon 1971 

18 Love Came Today (b-side of 'I've Found My Freedom')

Tina Charles - Nothing In The World (1974)

Tina Charles was born Tina Hoskins on 10 March 1954, in Whitechapel, London, England, and got her start is show business at the age of 15 singing on TV commercials, after which she wound up signing a deal with CBS Records. Her first single, the Northern soul-leaning 'Nothing In The World', was produced by Alan Hawkshaw and featured Elton John on piano, although further singles like 1969's 'In The Middle Of The Day' and 'Good To Be Alive', along with 1970's 'Bo-Bo's Party', didn't trouble the charts. They did, however, get her noticed by the BBC, and she began appearing on The Two Ronnies TV show, and then scored slots on tours by Tom Jones, Mud, and Engelbert Humperdinck. She shifted over to Gordon Mills' MAM label in 1971, who issued the single 'Baby Don't You Know Anymore', and as a sideline she got a job recording vocals on the 'Top Of The Pops' and 'Hot Hits' series of albums, where anonymous artists covered contemporary hits. She released the 1974 single 'One Broken Heart For Sale' on Bell Records, and put in more studio time as a session vocalist, memorably joining Linda Lewis to sing backing on Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's 1975 hit single 'Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)'. She had previously sung in an unrecorded band called Northern Lights with Martin Jay, and the pair reteamed in 1975 under the name Airbus and issued a single, 'Bye Love', which caught on once DJs flipped it over to find the disco-fied 'I'm On Fire' on the other side. The song was reissued as a single in it's own right, with that band rebranded as 5000 Volts, and the song headed toward the top of the charts around the globe, reaching the Top Five in the U.K. and the Top 30 in the U.S. 

Charles quickly left the group for a solo career and teamed up with producer Biddu, who was red hot following the chart success of Carl Douglas' massive hit 'Kung Fu Fighting', and he decided to cast her as a powerful disco diva, which was a role that she filled perfectly. Her first single in this new guise was 1975's 'You Set My Heart On Fire', and while that song was moderately successful, it was her next release, the monumental disco anthem 'I Love To Love (But My Baby Just Loves To Dance)', which reached number one on the U.K. singles charts in February 1976, and scored in the upper reaches of many other countries. It even won a Juno Award for best-selling international single of the year, and an album of the same name was released in March 1976, going on to achieve similar success to the single. A second album, 'Dance Little Lady', which was made up of the same mix of up-tempo disco tracks and ballads, followed before the end of 1976, and it spawned two hit singles, the title track and 'Dr. Love'. To see how she eventually reached the top of the charts, here are those early, unsuccessful singles from the late 60's and early 70's, which show that she had the talent, but just needed someone to take her under their wing and spur her on to greater success. 

Track listing

01 Nothing In The World (single 1969)
02 Millions Of Hearts (With A Single Player) (b-side of 'Nothing In The World')
03 In The Middle Of The Day (single 1969)
04 Rich Girl (b-side of 'In The Middle Of The Day')
05 Good To Be Alive (single 1969)
06 Same Old Story (b-side of 'Good To Be Alive')
07 Bo-Bo's Party (single 1970)
08 Madame, Madame (b-side of 'Bo-Bo's Party')
09 Baby Don't You Know Anymore (single 1971)
10 Joe (b-side of 'Baby Don't You Know Anymore')
11 Love Me Like A Lover (single 1971)
12 Smarty Pants (single 1973)
13 One Broken Heart For Sale (single 1974)
14 Great Male Robbery (b-side of 'One Broken Heart For Sale')

Antoinette - Little Things Mean A Lot (1966)

Marie Antoinette Daly was born in 1951 in Southend, Essex, and she landed her first recording contract with the Decca label in 1964, at the age of just 13. Her debut single, 'Jenny Let Him Go', included a young Jimmy Page on guitar, and was produced by Charles Blackwell, who worked on a number of gems for girl singers of the period, including French yé-yé singer Françoise Hardy and Britain’s Samantha Jones. It sounded like a cover of an American song, albeit with a distinctly British twang, and it suited Antoinette’s bratty vocals perfectly. She switched to the Piccadilly label for her next single, the Britgirl classic 'There He Goes (The Boy I Love)', which was released in September 1964, and this Shangri-Las-esque song was arguably one of Blackwell's best compositions. When it also flopped, Piccadilly turned to the US for inspiration, and she covered the Sapphires' 'Thank You For Loving Me' for her next single, which was released in 1965, as was the follow-up record 'Our House'. In 1966 she recorded her version of another US soul hit, and this time it was Tami Lynn's 'I'm Gonna Run Away From You', retitled 'Why Don't I Run Away From You', but despite suiting her effervescent style, she still couldn't get the hit that she wanted. She gave it one last try later in 1966, with her take on US girl group the Poppies' 'Lullaby Of Love' being her final 45 for Piccadilly, after which she switched labels again, this time to Columbia. Her one record for that label was a cover of Italian singer Caterina Caselli's 'L'uomo D'oro', retitled as 'Like The Big Man Said', and this time it was released under her real name of Toni Daly. When this record went the same way as the rest of her singles she was let go by Columbia, and her short career as a recording artist was over. It's a shame, as most of the songs on her records were fine examples of 60's girl pop, as you can hear on this collection of all of her mid-60's singles. 

Track listing

01 Jenny Let Him Go (single 1964)  
02 Please Don't Hurt Me Anymore (b-side of 'Jenny Let Him Go')
03 There He Goes (The Boy I Love) (single 1964)
04 Little Things Mean A Lot (b-side of 'There He Goes (The Boy I Love)')
05 Our House (single 1965)
06 What's-A Happening To Me (b-side of 'Our House')
07 Thank You For Loving Me (single 1965)
08 If You Really Love Me (b-side of 'Thank You For Loving Me')
09 Why Don't I Run Away (single 1966)
10 There's No One In The Whole Wide World (b-side of 'Why Don't I Run Away')
11 Lullaby Of Love (single 1966)
12 I'm For You (b-side of 'Lullaby Of Love')
13 Like The Big Man Said (L'uomo D'oro) (single as Toni Daly 1966)

Rickie Page - I Cry Inside (1965)

Rickie Page was born June Evelyn Kuykendall in Lindsay, Oklahoma on 7 November 1929, and she began singing as soon as she could talk, singing along to the radio, accompanied by her father. The whole family would often get together for hoe downs, where it seemed everyone could either sing, play some instrument, or both. The family moved to Fresno while June was growing up, and she had dreams of becoming a songwriter, which led her to leave home for Hollywood in search of fame and fortune, with nothing in her pocket but ten dollars cash. She took a job waiting tables at a Jewish deli that was popular with folk in the music business at the time, and it was there in 1956 that she served a milkshake to a guy who gave her a five dollar tip and then asked the hostess about her. He was George Motola, and after hearing about June's aspirations as a songwriter, he invited her up to his office for an interview. She eventually went with a friend to accompany her, and she was surprised to find that he worked in the same office as Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, who were writing material for the Coasters and Elvis Presley. She played Motola some of her compositions, but he wasn't very interested in them, and instead he liked her voice enough to offer her the chance of becoming a singer, and it was at this point that she decided to pick a stage name that sounded youthful, and came up with Rickie Page. In the end Motola relented, and he and Page starting writing songs together, coming up with over 100 between them. 

One of the many songs they wrote together was 'Johnny Johnny Johnny' for the G Notes in 1958, with all vocals being done by Page, and with Eddie Cochran sitting in and playing guitar on the session. He loved the song and asked permission to record it, which he did, changing the name to 'Jeannie Jeannie Jeannie' and it was almost a top 30 hit in the UK. Page's singing career took off in the late 50's, with releases on Liberty, Dot, Zephyr, and Rendezvous, sometimes recording with her sister Sonya, and sometimes with some combination of her three daughters. She also released records under a number of aliases on the Con, Landa, Decca, Epic, Era, Fleet, Hit, Landa, Spar, United Artists, and VIP labels, using a huge variety of names, including The Georgettes, The Bermudas, Joanne And The Triangles, The Majorettes, Beverly And The Motorscooters, Becky And The Lollipops, June And Joy, and The Page Sisters. Even her own records appeared under a variety of name, with solo releases as Rickie Page, Ricky Page, and even Ricki Page. She worked with many other artists and producers over the years, including Darlene Love and Phil Spector, The Blossoms, The Righteous Brothers, and Sonny And Cher, and throughout 1963 Page and Motola also ran their own record label, Troy Records. In September 1965 the pair moved to Nashville, and in 1968 she did a budget cover of Jeannie C Riley's 'Harper Valley PTA' on Spar Records, which managed to get a lot of local airplay in Seattle and Vancouver. This spurred her on to a later career in country music, and she became a member of The Nashville Edition, singing with the Jordanaires, and appearing regularly on the Hee-Haw television show. This collection of her music concentrates on her solo career under the various spellings of Rickie Page, her pseudonyms Bridget, Cinders, Sheila North, and Rick And Al, as well as an early recording by The Page Sisters, and a duet with Bill Carey. 

Track listing

01 Sweet Sweetheart (single by The Page Sisters 1957)
02 Wee Willie (single 1957)
03 I'm Old Enough Now (b-side of 'Wee Willie')
04 Never Like This (b-side of 'Toy Telephone' 1958)
05 (It's No) Sin (single 1958)
06 I Promise (single as Bill Carey & Ricky Page 1958)
07 Forever (single 1959)
08 Yes I'm Lonesome Tonight (single 1960)
09 Standing On A Mountain Top (b-side of 'Yes I'm Lonesome Tonight')
10 I Understand (Just How You Feel) (b-side of 'Every Time (You're Mine)' 1961)
11 Why Did You Lie (b-side of 'Je Vous Aime' 1961)
12 Little Boy (single as Bridget 1962)
13 All I Do Is Dream Of You (single as Rick And Al 1963)
14 My Boyfriend (single 1963)
15 I Won't Play Second Fiddle (single as Sheila North 1964)
16 Golly Gee (b-side of 'I Won't Play Second Fiddle')
17 I'll Follow You (single as Cinders 1964)
18 I Cry Inside (single 1965)
19 I'm His Girl (No One Knows Him But Me) (b-side of 'I Cry Inside')

Diana Dors - I Feel So Mmm... (1981)

Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on 23 October 1931, and was an English actress who cast very much in the role of the British blonde bombshell to rival Americans stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van Doren. From the age of eight, Hollywood actresses Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, and Jean Harlow became her heroines, and she enjoyed going to the cinema to watch them. Towards the end of the war she entered a beauty contest to find a pin-up girl for Soldier Magazine and she came in third place, which led her to work as a model in art classes, and she began to appear in such local theatre productions as 'A Weekend In Paris' and 'Death Takes A Holiday'. Her screen debut was in the noir film 'The Shop at Sly Corner' in 1947, and it was while signing the contract with the studio that she changed her name to Dors, after her maternal grandmother. She later joked that it was because "the studio were afraid that if her real name of Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew ...". At the age of 15, Dors signed a contract with the Rank Organisation, and joined J. Arthur Rank's "Charm School" for young actors, subsequently appearing in many of their films. Rank promoted her to leading roles in 1949's 'Diamond City', the story of a boom town in South Africa in 1870. In April 1952 she appeared in a stage revue with Wally Chrisham, 'Rendezvous', which eventually made it to London, and a review in Variety said that she made the "only noteworthy contribution" to the play, which ultimately only had a short run. In March 1953, Dors did a cabaret act in Glasgow, and she began touring a variety act, and performed variations of this act throughout her career. 

This also led to a 78rpm single being released in 1953, with the suggestive 'I Feel So Mmm...' as the A-side, but despite the record showing that she had a fine singing voice, it was to be seven years before she signed a record deal with Pye Records, and recorded the now much praised 'Swingin' Dors' album. A couple of singles were released from it, and then another three year gap ensued, while she continued her film career, and branched out into acting on TV shows, such as 'Burke's Law' and 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'. Her recording career continued sporadically, with new records coming out in 1964 and 1966, but by 1968 she was appearing in the stage musicals 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' and 'Doctor Doolittle'. From 1970 to 1972  Dors starred in three series of the UK TV sitcom 'Queenie's Castle' as the titular Queenie, and during this period she also appeared in episodes of UK dramas 'Z Cars', 'Dixon Of Dock Green', 'Just William', 'The Sweeney', 'Hammer House Of Horror', and 'Shoestring'. She released another single in 1977, followed four years later by her last recording 'Where Did They Go' in 1981. Unusually for a recording artist of her fame, her musical career spanned 30 years and yet only consisted of seven singles, but as there were cast recordings issued of the two musicals that she starred in, we also have examples of her theatre work to add to those 45's. So here is a summary of the musical career of one of the most glamourous British film stars of the 40's, 50's and 60's, and I don't think I'll be the only person to remark on what a surprise it is to find out what a fine voice she had. 

Track listing

01 I Feel So Mmm... (single 1953)
02 A Kiss And A Cuddle (And A Few Kind Words From You) (b-side of 'I Feel So Mmm...')
03 So Little Time (single 1964)
04 It's Too Late (b-side of 'So Little Time')
05 Security (single 1966)
06 Garry (b-side of 'Security')
07 Do It Again (from the cast recording of 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' 1968)
08 Jazz Baby (from the cast recording of 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' 1968)
09 At The Crossroads (from the cast recording of 'Doctor Dolittle' 1968)
10 Fabulous Places (from the cast recording of 'Doctor Dolittle' 1968)
11 I Think I Like You (from the cast recording of 'Doctor Dolittle' 1968)
12 Passing By (single 1977)
13 It's A Small World (b-side of 'Passing By')
14 Where Did They Go (single 1981)
15 It's You Again (b-side of 'Where Did They Go' as Diana & Gary Dors)

Azie Mortimer - Put Yourself In My Place (1973)

Azie Mortimer was a nightclub singer who performed jazz when appearing live, but recorded primarily as a soul or R&B singer out of Chicago. She recorded for a variety of record labels at the start of her career, issuing one-off singles on the Bigtop, Regatta, Troy, Palette and Swan labels between 1960 and 1963, before being given a chance by some of the bigger labels like Epic and RCA Victor. In the end she went back to Troy Records in 1968 for a couple more records, before moving on to Number One Records for three singles in 1969. In 1971 she released her sole album, 'Feeling Of Jazz', which as the title suggests was a jazz vocal record, despite the fact that nearly all of her singles were in the soul and R&B genre. In 1967 she married renowned academic Mort Kaplan, and she predeceased him by a few months, with them both passing away in 2017. Mortimer left behind a largely ignored body of work, possible because she didn't have a steady label behind her who could promote her records, but this hour long collection showcases some of the fine music that she produced in her decade long career in the 60s'. And in case you're wondering, the intro to 'The Best Years (Of Our Lives)' is supposed to sound like that.   

Track listing 

01 Lips (single 1960)
02 Wrapped Up In A Dream (b-side of 'Lips')
03 Treat Me Like You Love Me (single 1961) 
04 Little Playboy (single 1962)
05 A Forever Kind Of Love (b-side of 'Little Playboy')
06 Mama, What Should I Do (single 1962)
07 When You're Talking Love (b-side of 'Mama, What Should I Do')
08 Put Yourself In My Place (single 1963)
09 Bring Back Your Love (b-side of 'Put Yourself In My Place')
10 (I Get The Feeling) You're Ashamed Of Me (single 1965)
11 The Other Half Of Me (b-side of '(I Get The Feeling) You're Ashamed Of Me')
12 Little Miss Everything (single 1966) 
13 The Best Years (Of Our Lives) (b-side of 'Little MIss Everything')
14 Untouched By Human Love (single 1968) 
15 That's That (Get Off My Back) (single 1969)
16 Eternally (b-side of 'That's That (Get Off My Back)')
17 I Don't Care (single 1970)
18 Prove It (b-side of 'I Don't Care')
19 You Can't Take It Away (single 1970)
20 A One Way Love (Is A Wrong Way Love) (b-side of 'You Can't Take It Away')
21 Haunted (single 1973)
22 Cool It (b-side of 'Haunted')
23 Telling A Lie (single 1973)
24 Set This Happiness Inside Me Free (single 1973) 
25 Moments (b-side of 'Set This Happiness Inside Me Free')

Linda Laine And The Sinners - Low Grades And High Fever (1966)

The Sinners were an English beat group consisting of Del Hidden on lead guitar, Len Crawley on drums, Pete Bellotte on rhythm guitar and Russ Maxwell on bass, who signed to Columbia Records in the early 60's, and released a couple of singles in 1963 and 1964. They were joined on these records by Veronica Lind, under the name of Linda Laine, and by their third release, 'Low Grades And High Fevers', they'd become Linda Laine And The Sinners. The newly-named band made a few records without overly troubling the charts, but would regularly travel to Germany for month-long residencies, and in Hamburg they encountered another English band, Bluesology, and Bellotte became friends with their keyboard player, Reg Dwight, later to be known as Elton John. Linda Laine and the Sinners released several singles in the UK on the International Polydor label, all recorded at Abbey Road Studios in the early and mid-1960's, including 'I Can't Stand It', and its b-side, 'If You Leave Me Now', which was written by Bellotte. While in Germany, Bellotte had become fluent in German, and wanted to become involved in record production, so he moved to Munich and became an assistant to Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, who was also performing in Germany as a pop singer. In 1971, Bellotte wrote the lyrics for Moroder's song, 'Son Of My Father', which became a number 1 hit in the UK for Chicory Tip, and Moroder and Bellotte later began to work with American singer Donna Summer, writing and producing several hits for her, including her 1975 international breakthrough song, 'Love To Love You Baby'. This post includes all of the singles released by Linda Laine And The Sinners, plus those two early discs under the name of The Sinners, and to end is a rare acetate of an unreleased track titled 'Yesterday'. The acetate is only 54 seconds long, so I've edited it to a more satisfactory 1'38", and it was well worth doing, as it's a really great song which could have been the hit they were trying for. 

Track listing

01 I Can't Stand It (single by The Sinners with Linda Laine 1963)
02 If You Leave Me Now (b-side of 'I Can't Stand It')
03 It's So Exciting (single by The Sinners with Linda Laine 1964)
04 Leave Him (b-side of 'I'm So Excited')
05 Low Grades And High Fever (single 1964)
06 After Today (b-side of 'Low Grades And High Fever')
07 Doncha Know, Doncha Know, Doncha Know (single 1964)
08 Ain't That Fun (b-side of 'Doncha Know, Doncha Know, Doncha Know')
09 Don't Do It Baby (single 1965)
10 All I Want To Do Is Run (b-side of 'Don't Say It Baby')
11 Get A Job (single 1965)
12 Reasons (b-side of 'Get A Job')
13 There He Goes (single 1966)
14 VW (b-side of 'There He Goes')
15 Jinx On You (single 1966)
16 Gone (b-side of 'Jinx On You')
17 Baby Don't Hurt Me (single 1966)
18 Running Around (b-side of 'Baby Don't Hurt Me')
19 Yesterday (unreleased acetate 1966)

Joyce Harris - I Cheated (1965)

Joyce Harris was born in Kentucky in 1939 and moved to New Orleans with her family when she was 13 years old. She learned to play guitar and write songs, and was soon performing duets with her younger sister Judy, as Joyce And Judy, releasing three singles – 'He's The One'/'Hey Pretty Baby', 'Washboard Sam'/'Nursery Rock (Beedle De Bop)' and 'Hey Little Baby'/'Rock And Roll Kittens' – all in 1958, until Judy got married and left the group. Joyce spent a year as part of a big band singing in restaurants in Mexico, and she released her first solo single 'It's You'/'The Boy In School' on New York’s U.T. Records at the end of 1959. A talent spotter saw her in Mexico and was impressed enough to secure her an audition with the Texas-based Domino label, and she was soon in the studio with Tommy Kaspar and Don Burch of Domino’s vocal quartet, The Slades. She wrote a lot of her own material, and her first single for the new label was an answer record to their local hit 'You Cheated', which she wrote overnight and recorded with The Slades. Her 'I Cheated'/'Do You Know What It's Like To Be Lonesome?' was released in October 1960, followed by 'No Way Out'/'Dreamer' in January 1961, which sold strongly enough to be licensed to Infinity Records. In 1963 Harris released the gospel-inspired 'Don't Knock It' under the pseudonym Sinner Strong (Strong was a family name, and the first name was a mis-hearing of her name Cina), and then a couple of years later she released her final single under her own name, with 'Baby, Baby, Baby' appearing in 1965. This was a more soulful recording and is now highly sought after on the Northern Soul circuit. In 1997 two previously unheard tracks recorded with the Daylighters surfaced on Ace Records' 'The Domino Records Story', and I can't leave those off as they are both prime slices of R&B, meaning that we now have everything that Joyce Harris recorded in her short career.   

Track listing

As Judy & Joyce
01 He's The One (single 1958)
02 Hey Pretty Baby (b-side of 'He's The One')
03 Washboard Sam (single 1958)
04 Nursery Rock (b-side of 'Washboard Sam')
05 Rock And Roll Kittens (b-side of 'Hey Pretty Baby' re-issue 1959)
As Joyce Harris
06 The Boy In School (single 1959)
07 It's You (b-side of 'The Boy In School')
08 I Cheated (single 1961, with The Slades)
09 Do You Know What It's Like To Be Lonesome (b-side of 'I Cheated')
10 No Way Out (single 1961)
11 Dreamer (b-side of 'No Way Out')
12 I Got My Mojo Working (previously unreleased, with The Daylighters)
13 Your Kind Of Woman (previously unreleased, with The Daylighters)
14 Baby, Baby, Baby (single 1965)
15 How Long (Can I Hold Back My Tears) (b-side of 'Baby, Baby, Baby')
As Sinner Strong
16 Don't Knock It (single 1963)
17 Nobody But Me (b-side of 'Don't Knock It')

Emy Jackson - Crying In A Storm (1966)

Emy Eaton (later Jackson) was born to Japanese parents in Langsford in Essex in July 1946, moving to Japan as a teenager to study at St Morris Convent School in Yokohama. A few years later in 1964, she started working as an assistant/disc jockey for the Good Hit Parade programme on Radio Kanto, now known as Radio Japan, as they were looking for a bi-lingual assistant who could speak both English and Japanese. Her talent as a singer was discovered by a female music critic called Reiko Yukawa, who had been writing about jazz since the late 50's, and who was a regular on the station. She heard Jackson singing while strumming her guitar and was so impressed that she immediately advised an A&R man from Columbia Records to give her a chance as a recording artist. Yukawa insisted that she should sing songs by Japanese songwriters, but in her native language of English, and she even wrote the lyrics to her first single 'Crying In A Storm'. Due to a process in place at the time in Japan called the exclusive writers system, artists could only record songs written by songwriter under exclusive contract to the same record label, and as Yukuma was not a Columbia staff writer, Columbia Japan had to release the single as a foreign recording by a British artist, even though Jackson could speak Japanese and it was recorded in japan. Despite being sold at a higher price than a Japanese single because of being a "foreign" release, it still went on to sell close to one million copies when it was released in April 1965. Many Japanese music historians consider this excellent track to be the first Japanese pop song, with it's raucous backing which was very much influenced by the biggest band in Japan at the time, The Ventures. From her second single onwards she was backed by The Smashmen, who were in fact the well-regarded Japanese band The Blue Comets under an alias, and their superb instrumental backing is a huge part of the appeal of these songs. Jackson went on to release another six singles and one EP during 1965 and 1966, and it has been said that she revolutionized the music industry in Japan. Once outside writers began to have their songs accepted by record companies that they were not under contract to, and released as "foreign" records, this eventually led to the collapse of the exclusive writers system in Japan. Her last single in 1966, the oddly-titled 'Love Is A Crazy Sports Car', was the only song that she sang in Japanese, and although she did not release any more records, she carried on singing until 1973, when she left the music business to open a restaurant in Yokohama. Although she returned to singing again in the 90's, her finest hour was undoubtedly those two years in the mid-60s, when she led the Japanese pop market into a new age.  

Track listing

01 Crying In A Storm (single 1965)
02 Suddenly I'm Alone (b-side of 'Crying In A Storm')
03 Say Yes, My Boy (single 1965)
04 Don't Break My Heart (b-side of 'Say Yes, My Boy')
05 Blue Christmas (single 1965)
06 I Saw Mammy Kissing Santa Claus (b-side of 'Blue Christmas')
07 You Don't Know Baby (single 1966)
08 Heart Full Of Tears (b-side of 'You Don't Know Baby')
09 Pretend (single 1966)
10 If I Give My Heart To You (b-side of 'Pretend')
11 Angel Fish (single 1966)
12 Don't Say Good-bye (b-side of 'Angel Fish')
13 Love Is Crazy Sports Car (single 1966)
14 One Way Kiss (b-side of 'Love Is A Crazy Sports Car')

Thanks to Paul for the suggestion

Patsy Ann Noble - I Did Nothing Wrong (1967)

Patricia Ann Ruth Noble was born on 3 February 1944 in Australia, and began her singing career as a teenager in the early 1960's under the name Patsy Ann Noble, appearing regularly on the Australian music and variety television series 'Bandstand'. Her singing career was encouraged by Brian Henderson, the compere of 'Bandstand', and she was signed to the Australian HMV Records and released her first single 'Like I'm In Love'/'I Love You So Much It Hurts' in November 1960, with the record being promoted as 'a Bandstand discovery'. She became good friends with a young Peter Allen, who had formed the successful Allen Brothers with Chris Bell, and released one of his compositions 'Busy Lips' in January 1961. However, it was not until Johnny Devlin, a New Zealand singer-songwriter, handed her the lyrics of 'Good Looking Boy' in November 1961 that she had her first Top 10 hit in Melbourne, and Top 20 hit in Sydney. This resulted in her winning the 'Best Female Singer of the Year' Logie Award for 1961, presented by TV Week. By December 1962 she had scored herself two No. 1 and four Top 10 singles in Australia, and so she travelled to London where she was given a two-year contract with Columbia Records. Between 1963 and 1964 she released eight singles, including 'Sour Grapes', 'I'm Nobody's Baby', and 'Accidents Will Happen', and while none of them received any commercial success in the UK, she did continue to score hits between 1963 and 1965 in her native Australia. In 1963, she appeared in the British musical film 'Live It Up!', although only in a singing role, and in June 1965 she released 'He Who Rides A Tiger', which peaked at No. 21 on the British Top 30, and No. 15 on Australia's Top 40.

During the 1960's, Noble released six albums in Australia and one in England, but by 1965 she was turning her hand to acting, and made her dramatic screen debut in a 1965 BBC television production entitled 'The Snowball'. She soon found herself appearing on other television series, including a 1966 'Danger Man' episode which featured her recording of 'He Who Rides A Tiger', an episode of 'Callan' in 1970, and the 1966 film 'Death Is A Woman', in which she had a lead role as the femme fatale. After 1967, she changed her name to Trisha Noble in order to distance herself from her years as a teen singer, and she re-located to the United States, appearing on a number of US TV shows, including 'Buck Rogers In The 25th Century', 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', and 'Columbo'. She released one more single in 1967, this time as Trisha Noble, and she continued to work as an actress until her death on 23 January 2021, at the age of 76. She recorded a lot of music in her six years as a singer, and you can certainly hear her voice mature as she moves from those teen-pop singles of the early 60's to a more sophisticated sound in 1965 and 1966. In fact there are so many songs available that this is a two-disc set, and the only thing that lets it down is that, like 'Say Hello' from the Valerie Masters post, 'The Guy Who Can Mend A Broken Heart' had to be taken from a poorly recorded Youtube video. Despite trying to improve the sound quality it's still noticeably tinny compared to the rest of the album, so if anyone has a better quality copy that I can have then it would be much appreciated.  

Track listing

Disc One 1960-1963
01 I Love You So Much It Hurts (single 1960)
02 Like I'm In Love (b-side of 'I Love You So Much It Hurts')
03 Once In A Lifetime (single 1961)
04 Busy Lips (single 1961)
05 It's Always The Way (b-side of 'Busy Lips')
06 I'm Not Supposed To Know (single 1962)
07 Oh, My Little Baby Darling (I Love You) (b-side of 'I'm Not Supposed To Know')
08 Good Looking Boy (single 1962)
09 The Guy Who Can Mend A Broken Heart (b-side of 'Good Looking Boy')
10 Don't You Ever Change Your Mind (single 1963)
11 Sour Grapes (b-side of 'Don't You Ever Change Your Mind')
12 Heartbreak Avenue (single 1963)
13 I'm Nobody's Baby (b-side of 'Heartbreak Avenue')
14 I Was Only Foolin' Myself (single 1963)
15 Ordinary Love (b-side of 'I Was Only Foolin' Myself')

Disc Two 1963-1967
01 Accidents Will Happen (single 1963)
02 He Tells Me With His Eyes (b-side of 'Accidents Will Happen')
03 It's Better To Cry Today (single 1963)
04 Don't Tell Him I Told You (b-side of 'It's Better To Cry Today')
05 I Did Nothing Wrong (single 1964)
06 Better Late Than Never (b-side of 'I Did Nothing Wrong')
07 Private Property (single 1964)
08 Crack In The Door (b-side of 'Private Property')
09 Tied Up With Mary (single 1964)
10 Green Eyed People (b-side of 'Tied Up With Mary')
11 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye (single 1965)
12 This Is Love (UK entry in the Sopot International Song Festival 1965)
13 If You Wanna Be More Than Friends (b-side of 'Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye')
14 He Who Rides A Tiger (single 1966)
15 Live For Life (single as Trisha Noble 1967)

Valerie Masters - Say When (1966)

Valerie Masters was born on 24 April 1940 in Stepney Green, East London, and by the age of 17 she was working as a typist and personal secretary for the mayor of Stepney. It was while working there that she was introduced to band leader Ray Ellington, and shortly afterwards she joined his band as featured vocalist, replacing Marion Ryan. She remained with Ellington's band until 1959, while at the same time launching her career as a solo singer, with her first single 'Sharing'/'The Secret Of Happiness' appearing on the Fontana label in 1958. Three more singles quickly followed in 1958 and early 1959, before 'Jack O' Diamonds' was released in June 1959, followed by 'If There Are Stars In My Eyes' at the end of the year. As the 60's dawned, Fontana still had faith in her, releasing three singles in that year, and although none made the official UK Singles Chart, 'Banjo Boy' made the lower reaches of the New Musical Express's own chart. Between 1959 and 1961 she had her own show on Radio Luxembourg, Valerie and her Boyfriends, and in 1960 she represented Britain in the European Song Contest (unrelated to the Eurovision Song Contest), following which she became popular in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1961, she failed in her attempt to represent the UK at Eurovision, finishing seventh in the 'A Song for Europe' competition with the song 'Too Late For Tears', but she did appear frequently on BBC radio and television. She also performed live in cabaret and clubs, often with Ellington's former pianist Dick Katz, who she married in 1961. In May 1960, she appeared on a short series of teen-oriented programmes, Young at Heart, for Tyne Tees Television, as well working for Border Television. Also in 1961 she sang the theme song for the film 'The Hellions', and also recorded commercials and worked as a backing singer. 1962 was a quiet year on the recording front, with just the one single, a cover of 'African Waltz', and the following year similarly yielded just the one single for the HMV label, while in 1964 she issued the single 'Christmas Calling', produced by Joe Meek and featuring session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. After those two one-off deals she joined Polydor for two records in 1966, and then one last single in 1969 on the Columbia label rounded off her recording career. After leaving the music business, she stayed in entertainment, appearing in the role of a singer in the 1979 television drama series 'Secret Army', and in the early 1980's made appearances in 'Russ Abbot's Saturday Madhouse'. Some of her early singles are impossible to find now, but from late 1959 onwards they can be tracked down, and so here is a nice selection of some of her singles and b-sides from the early to mid-60's. I had to take 'Say Hello' from a poor quality TV appearance, and despite my best efforts at upgrading the sound, it does detract from the rest of the album, so if anyone has a better quality copy of it that I could have then it would finish off this album perfectly.  

Track listing

01 Jack O' Diamonds (single 1959)
02 Say When (b-side of 'Jack O' Diamonds')
03 Banjo Boy (single 1960)
04 Cow Cow Boogie (b-side of 'Banjo Boy')
05 Too Late For Tears (single 1961)
06 Birmingham Rag (single 1961)
07 African Waltz (single 1962)
08 All Night Long (b-side of 'African Waltz')
09 Christmas Calling (single 1964)
10 He Didn't Fool Me (b-side of 'Christmas Calling')
11 It's Up To You (single 1966)
12 The Next Train Out (b-side of 'It's Up To You')
13 Don't Ever Go (single 1966)
14 Say Hello (b-side of 'Don't Ever Go')