Design - Sign The World A Song (1976)

Design was a British six-piece vocal harmony group from the early 1970's, comprising Tony Smith, Barry Alexander, Gabrielle Field, Kathy Manuell, John Mulcahy-Morgan and Geoff Ramseyer. Singer/songwriter Smith formed Design while he was working at the BBC in London in December 1968, and the group then signed a recording contract with Adrian Kerridge of Lansdowne Studios, recording their first self-titled album during the summer of 1969. Their music has been described as 'sunshine harmony pop with a light hippy vibe' and 'melodic folk-pop with a shimmering, almost psychedelic, West Coast feel', and this might have helped them gain a two-album deal with Epic Records in the USA following the UK release of 'Design'. In November 1970, shortly before the first album was released, Smith left the group and he was replaced by guitarist Jeff Matthews, who had been with Ramseyer and Mulcahy-Morgan in the group Free Expression. This was Design’s most successful line-up, and after their appearances on The Morecambe and Wise Show in 1971 they became one of the most televised groups in the UK, guesting on dozens of programmes with The Two Ronnies, Val Doonican, Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, and many others. They toured with Gilbert O'Sullivan, starred in cabaret and at the London Palladium, and released three more albums,  'Tomorrow Is So Far Away' in 1972, 'Day Of The Fox' in 1973, and 'In Flight' in 1974, before Field and Ramseyer left the group in October 1974. The other members carried on as a four-piece, and recorded one more album, 'By Design', before finally splitting up in October 1976. Unusually for the time, the group tended to release singles which didn't then appear on their albums, and so this collection of non-album tracks is a great round-up of their career which can sit nicely alongside their original albums.   

Track listing

01 Colour All The World (single 1972)
02 Lazy Song (b-side of 'Colour All The World')
03 Day By Day (previously unreleased 1971)
04 Mayday (single 1972)
05 One Sunny Day (single 1973)
06 Jennifer (German single 1973)
07 Traume (b-side of 'Jennifer')
08 Once Upon A Time (b-side of 'Second Love' 1974)
09 Sing The World A Song (single 1974)
10 Won't You Say You Love Me (b-side of 'Banging On The Old Piano' 1975)
11 As It Was (previously unreleased 1975)
12 Calais (previously unreleased 1975)
13 You're So Good To Me (single 1976)
14 Never Been A Love Like This (b-side of 'You're So Good To Me')

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Carole King (1973)

In the late 1950's Carole King attended Queens College, where she met Gerry Goffin, who was later to become her song-writing partner. When she was 17, they married in a Jewish ceremony on Long Island in August 1959, after King became pregnant with her first daughter, Louise. After they quit college they took day jobs, with Goffin working as an assistant chemist and King as a secretary, writing songs together in the evening, and after writing the Shirelles' Billboard Hot 100 number 1 hit 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', they gave up their daytime jobs to concentrate on the song-writing. In the 1960's, with King composing the music and Goffin writing the lyrics, the two wrote a string of classic songs for a variety of artists, including 'Chains' (later recorded by the Beatles), 'The Loco-Motion' and 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby' (both for their babysitter Little Eva), and 'It Might As Well Rain Until September', which King recorded herself in 1962, charting at number 22 in the US and number 3 in the UK. Other songs from her early period, up to 1967, included 'Half Way To Paradise' for Billy Fury, 'Take Good Care Of My Baby' for Bobby Vee, 'Up On The Roof' for the Drifters, 'I'm Into Something Good' for Earl-Jean (later recorded by Herman's Hermits), 'One Fine Day' for the Chiffons, and 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' for the Monkees. By 1968, Goffin and King were divorced and were starting to lose contact, and King moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles with her two daughters. There she reactivated her recording career by forming 'The City', a music trio consisting of Charles Larkey, her future husband, on bass, Danny Kortchmar on guitar and vocals, and King on piano and vocals. The group produced one album, 'Now That Everything's Been Said', in 1968, but King's reluctance to perform live meant sales were slow, and the group disbanded in 1969. While in Laurel Canyon, she met James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, as well as Toni Stern, with whom she collaborated on songs, and when  King made her first solo album, 'Writer', in 1970, Taylor played acoustic guitar and provided backing vocals. It peaked at number 84 in the Billboard Top 200, and was followed the next year by 'Tapestry', which featured new compositions as well as reinterpretations of 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' and '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman'. 'Tapestry' was an instant success, with numerous hit singles, including a Billboard No.1 with 'It's Too Late', and every song on it has since become a classic. It's therefore no surprise that they have all been covered by a huge variety of artists, and so here are the best of them, reinterpreting this classic album of the 70's.

Track listing

01 I Feel The Earth Move (Design 1973)
02 So Far Away (Marlena Shaw 1972)
03 It's Too Late (The Sandpipers 1971)
04 Home Again (Kate Taylor 1971)
05 Beautiful (Petula Clark 1971)
06 Way Over Yonder (Cornelia 1972)
07 You've Got A Friend (James Taylor 1971)
08 Where You Lead (Barbara Streisand 1971)
09 Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (Roberta Flack 1971)
10 Smackwater Jack (Quincy Jones 1971)
11 Tapestry (Alice Babs 1973)
12 (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin 1967)