Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing J. J. Cale (2021)

John Weldon (J.J.) Cale was born on 5 December 1938 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, graduating from Tulsa Central High School in 1956. As well as learning to play the guitar, he began studying the principles of sound engineering while still living with his parents in Tulsa, where he built himself a recording studio. After graduation he was drafted into military service, studying at the Air Force Air Training Command in Rantoul, Illinois, where he learned a little bit about electronics, which he later used to create the distinctive sound of his studio albums. Along with a number of other young Tulsa musicians, Cale moved to Los Angeles in late 1964, where he found employment as a studio engineer, as well as playing in bars and clubs. He first tasted success that year when singer Mel McDaniel scored a regional hit with his song 'Lazy Me', and the following year he managed to land a regular gig at the increasingly popular Whisky a Go Go. It was the club's co-owner Elmer Valentine who rechristened Cale as J.J. Cale, to avoid confusion with the John Cale of the Velvet Underground, who had started to gain a reputation on the scene. 

In 1966 he cut a demo single with Liberty Records of his songs 'After Midnight' and 'Slow Motion', which they released as a single, and Cale distributed copies of it to his Tulsa musician friends living in Los Angeles, many of whom were successfully finding work as session musicians. In 1967 he returned to Tulsa, as he'd found little success as a recording artist in Los Angeles, and he couldn't make enough money as a studio engineer, so had to sell his guitar. In 1970 it came to his attention that Eric Clapton had recorded 'After Midnight' on his debut album after hearing it being played on his radio, and he finally started to make some money from his music. It was suggested to Cale that he should take advantage of this publicity and cut a record of his own, and his first album, 'Naturally', was released in October 1971, and it immediately established his style, described by Los Angeles Times writer Richard Cromelin as a "unique hybrid of blues, folk and jazz, marked by relaxed grooves and Cale's fluid guitar and iconic vocals". His biggest U.S. hit single was 'Crazy Mama', which peaked at No. 22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972, and this was later covered by Johnny Rivers, who had appeared at the Whiskey A Go Go at the same time as Cale. Over the next few years other tracks were covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Poco and Kansas, with the rest following over the years, until by 2021 every song from the album had a cover version, and here is a collection of the best of them.

Track listing

01 Call Me The Breeze (Lynyrd Skynyrd 1974)
02 Call The Doctor (John Faulk 2021) 
03 Don't Go To Strangers (Ali Claudi & Friends 1975) 
04 Woman I Love (Janos Huba Group 2014) 
05 Magnolia (Poco 1974)
06 Clyde (Dr. Hook 1978)
07 Crazy Mama (Johnny Rivers 1972)  
08 Nowhere To Run (Bo Fortin 2021) 
09 After Midnight (Eric Clapton 1970)
10 River Runs Deep (Romuald Slawinski 2016)
11 Bringing It Back (Kansas 1974)
12 Crying Eyes (Steve Gunn 2009)

And so ends this series, as I've exhausted the supply of suitable singer/songwriter's albums where every track has received a cover version. I really enjoyed putting them together, so if anyone has a suggestion for someone that I've missed then just let me know. The criteria is one album with all, or most, of the songs written by the artist, and with a large majority of them being covered by other artists. 

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Jackson Browne (2012)

Clyde Jackson Browne was born on 9 October 1948, in Heidelberg, Germany, where his father Clyde Jack Browne, an American serviceman, was stationed for his job assignment with the Stars and Stripes newspaper. At the age of three, Browne and his family moved to his grandfather's house, Abbey San Encino, Los Angeles, and in his teens he began singing folk songs in local venues, including Ash Grove and The Troubadour Club. After graduating from high school he joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, performing at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California, where they opened for the Lovin' Spoonful. He left the Dirt Band after a few months and moved to Greenwich Village, New York, where he became a staff writer for Elektra's publishing company, Nina Music, before he was eighteen. For the remainder of 1967 and into 1968 he played in Greenwich Village, where he replaced Tim Buckley as backing musician for singer Nico of the Velvet Underground, later forming a romantic relationship with her, and he was a significant contributor to her debut album, 'Chelsea Girl', writing and playing guitar on several of the songs. In 1968, following his breakup with Nico, Browne returned to Los Angeles, where he formed a folk band with Ned Doheny and Jack Wilce, and carried on writing songs, some of which were recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tom Rush, Nico, Steve Noonan, Gregg Allman, Joan Baez, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds, Iain Matthews, and others. In 1971, Browne signed with his manager David Geffen's Asylum Records and released his eponymous debut album in 1972 (often mistakenly referred to as 'Saturate Before Using' as this was typed at the top of the sleeve), and it included the piano-driven 'Doctor My Eyes', which entered the Top Ten in the US singles chart. 'Rock Me On The Water' also gained considerable radio airplay, while 'Jamaica Say You Will' and 'Song For Adam' helped establish his reputation as an up and coming songwriter. 'Doctor My Eyes' was picked up by The Jackson Five and garnered them a UK Top Ten hit single in 1972, and with the Byrds covering 'Jamaica Say You Will' in 1971, other songs from the album began to be recorded by a variety of artists, and by 1973 most of them had been covered. So here are the best of those covers, illustrating what a talented songwriter Browne was right from the start of his long career. 

Track listing

01 Jamaica Say You Will (The Byrds 1971) 
02 A Child In These Hills (Penny Nichols 2012)  
03 Song For Adam (Kiki Dee 1973) 
04 Doctor My Eyes (The Jackson 5 1972) 
05 From Silver Lake (Hedge & Donna 1968)  
06 Something Fine (Leo Sayer 1978)
07 Under The Falling Sky (Bonnie Raitt 1972)  
08 Looking Into You (The Mick Fleetwood Band 2004)  
09 Rock Me On The Water (Brewer & Shipley 1971)
10 My Opening Farewell (Michael Johnson 1973)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Albert Hammond (1974)

Albert Louis Hammond was born on 18 May 1944 in London, after his family had been evacuated from Gibraltar during World War II, and shortly after the war ended they returned to Gibraltar where he grew up. In 1960 he joined Gibraltarian band The Diamond Boys, which had no real commercial success, but played a part in Spain's introduction to pop and rock music. In 1966 he co-founded the British vocal band the Family Dogg, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 1969 with 'A Way Of Life', taken from the album of the same name. He also wrote songs for other artists with frequent collaborator Mike Hazlewood, including 'Little Arrows' for Leapy Lee, 'Make Me an Island' and 'You're Such A Good Looking Woman' for Joe Dolan, 'Gimme Dat Ding' for the Pipkins, 'Good Morning Freedom' for Blue Mink, 'Freedom Come, Freedom Go' for the Fortunes, and 'The Air That I Breathe' for the Hollies. In 1970, at age 26, he moved to the United States, continuing his professional career as a musician, although his greatest commercial success was in mainland Europe, with successful singles on Columbia subsidiary Mums Records, including 'Down By The River', 'It Never Rains In Southern California', 'The Free Electric Band' (his only single to chart in the UK), 'Half A Million Miles From Home', and '99 Miles From L.A.'. In 1971, he also sang on Michael Chapman's fourth album 'Wrecked Again', and he worked briefly with the Magic Lanterns on recordings of his and Hazlewood's songs. In 1972 he released his first solo album, 'It Never Rains In Southern California', following the success of the single of the same name, and with his reputation as a successful songwriter already established, other artists soon wanted to cover the songs on it. A couple of them seemed a bit too idiosyncratic to be attempted, and so as there were two that have yet to be covered, I've added some of the afore-mentioned hits from 1971 to replace them.  

Track listing

01 Listen To The World (The Undivided 1973)  
02 If You Gotta Break Another Heart (Cass Elliott 1972) 
03 Brand New Day (Cindy Kent 1973)
04 It Never Rains In Southern California (Sonny And Cher 1973) 
05 Anyone Here In The Audience (Agnes Chan 1973)
06 Names, Tags, Numbers & Labels (The Association 1973)
07 Down By The River (The New Seekers 1972)
08 The Air That I Breathe (The Hollies 1974)
09 Freedom Come, Freedom Go (The Fortunes 1971)
10 Good Morning Freedom (Blue Mink 1971)
11 Mama Sure Could Swing A Deal (The Magic Lanterns 1971)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Jimmy Webb (1974)

Although 'Sunshower' is considered to be the debut album of Thelma Houston, released in 1969 on Dunhill Records, it could also be classed as a Jimmy Webb album with Thelma Houston as the featured vocalist. It was all written by Webb, apart from a cover of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash', and was also produced and arranged by him, and it charted at number 50 on the Billboard R&B chart. By 1969 Webb had already established himself as one of the best songwriters of the late 60's, with such classic songs as 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix', 'Galveston', 'Wichita Lineman' and 'MacArthur Park' providing massive hits for Glen Campbell and Richard Harris. By 1969 Webb was looking to start a career as a singer/songwriter, but it didn't get off to a very good start when a set of early demo recordings were redubbed and orchestrated by Epic Records without Webb's participation or consent, and released as the 'Jim Webb Sings Jim Webb' album in 1968. None of Webb's hit songs from that period appear on the album, and the sound quality of the recording is distinctly inferior, with Webb later denouncing the release in the strongest terms. He followed this debacle by writing, arranging, and producing Thelma Houston's first album, 'Sunshower', which produced four singles: 'Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon', 'Sunshower', 'If This Was The Last Song' and 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'. The songs were up to his usual high standard, and so it's no surprise that within a year nearly all of them had been covered by other artists, with Frank Sinatra choosing to include his version of 'Didn't We' on his 'My Way' album, released the same year as 'Sunshower'. By 1974 every single Webb song from the album had been added to another artists records, and so here are the best of them, offering an alternate look at Thelma Houston's debut album, without Thelma Houston appearing on it.   

Track listing

01 Sunshower (Affinity 1972)
02 Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon (Judy Singh 1970)
03 To Make It Easier On You (Nancy Wilson 1974)
04 Didn't We (Frank Sinatra 1969)
05 Mixed-Up Girl (Dusty Springfield 1972)
06 Someone Is Standing Outside (The Fortunes 1970)
07 This Is Where I Came In (Richard Harris 1971) 
08 Pocketful Of Keys (Revelation 1970)
09 This Is Your Life (The 5th Dimension 1970)
10 Cheap Lovin' (The Supremes 1972)
11 If This Was The Last Song (Bill Medley 1970)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Barry Mann (1975)

Barry Imberman (aka Barry Mann) was born on 9 February 1939, and is best know for his song-writing partnership with his wife Cynthia Weil. His first successful song as a writer was 'She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)', a Top 20 chart-scoring song composed for the band The Diamonds in 1959, which was co-written with Mike Anthony. In 1961, Mann had his greatest success to that point with 'I Love How You Love Me', written with Larry Kolber, and scoring a number 5 hit for the band The Paris Sisters , and the same year Mann himself reached the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, 'Who Put The Bomp', which parodied the nonsense words of the then-popular doo-wop genre. Despite his success as a singer, Mann chose to channel his creativity into song-writing, forming a prolific partnership with Cynthia Weil, a lyricist he met while both were staff songwriters at Aldon Music, whose offices were located in Manhattan, near the composing-and-publishing factory the Brill Building. In the late 1960s, Mann and Weil left Aldon Music to head for Hollywood, where they continued to rack up the hits, working with Larry Kolber on Bobby Vinton's version of his earlier hit 'I Love How You Love Me' in 1968, and following up with Jay and the Americans' 'Walking in The Rain' in 1969, and B. J. Thomas's 'I Just Can't Help Believing' in 1970. Meanwhile, in addition to his role behind the scenes, Mann occasionally sought the limelight, and in 1971 he released his own album 'Lay It All Out', featuring himself as a singer, but it did not enjoy the success of his and Weil's works for others. As well as new songs it also included his own versions of some of his biggest hits, 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling', 'On Broadway', and 'Something Better'. Unsurprisingly, considering his standing as a songwriter, it wasn't long before all of the songs on the album had received cover versions, even those three afore-mentioned hits. Rather than use the original hit recordings of them, by The Righteous Brothers, The Drifters and Marianne Faithfull, I've chosen contemporary takes of the songs from around the same time as the album, although Bill Medley still gets to sing '...Lovin' Feeling', taken from his 1971 solo album 'A Song For You'. Three extra tracks from the following year round off this collection of songs from Mann's 1971 solo album.    

Track Listing

01 Too Many Mondays (Mary Travers 1973)
02 When You Get Right Down To It (Ronnie Dyson 1971)
03 I Heard You Singing Your Song (The Partridge Family 1973)
04 Holy Rolling (The New Seekers 1972) 
05 You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling (Bill Medley 1971)
06 On Broadway (Eric Carmen 1975)
07 Something Better (Harper's Bizarre 1969)
08 Sweet Ophelia (Wicked Lester 1971) 
09 Don't Give Up On Me (Suzanne 1973)
10 Ain't No Way To Go Home (The Grass Roots 1973)  
11 Rock And Roll Lullaby (B.J. Thomas 1972)
12 So Long Dixie (Blood, Sweat And Tears 1972)
13 The Last Blues Song (Helen Reddy 1972)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Burt Bacharach (1971)

In 1956 Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David were both working in the Brill Building in New York City for Famous Music, which is where they published their first songs as co-writers. The songs published in 1956 included 'I Cry More' (featured in the motion picture 'Don't Knock The Rock'), 'The Morning Mail', and 'Peggy's In The Pantry', but their career breakthrough came when their song 'The Story Of My Life' was recorded by Marty Robbins, becoming a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Country Chart in 1957. Soon afterward, 'Magic Moments' was recorded by Perry Como for RCA Records, and reached No. 4 on the Most Played by Disc Jockeys chart, and these two songs were the beginning of a career in which they composed over 230 songs together for the pop market, motion pictures, television, and Broadway. In 1961 Bacharach discovered singer Dionne Warwick, who was working as a session backup singer at the time, and that year the two, along with Dionne's sister Dee Dee Warwick, released the single 'Move It On The Backbeat' under the name Burt and the Backbeats - the first time a record appeared under his name. Bacharach and David were both excited by Warwick's singing and decided to form a production company, Blue JAC Productions, so they could write for her and produce her recordings, and she signed with the new company, and the team subsequently secured a recording contract with Scepter Records for Warwick's recordings. Warwick made her solo recording debut in 1962 with 'Don't Make Me Over', which also became her first hit, and their partnership with Warwick became one of the most successful teams in popular music history. Bacharach released his first solo album in 1965 on the Kapp Records label, but 'Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach Plays the Burt Bacharach Hits' was largely ignored in the U.S., although it rose to No. 3 on the UK album charts, where his version of 'Trains And Boats And Planes' had become a top five single. In 1967, he signed with A&M Records both as an artist and a producer, recording several solo albums, consisting of a mix of new material plus rearrangements of his best-known songs. In 1969 Bacharach released his second A&M album, 'Make It Easy On Yourself', which like its predecessor, featured outstanding song-writing. One of the highlights of the record was the great production between Bacharach and Phil Ramone, as well as the instrumental performances, and even songs that weren't immediately pleasing to the ear grew on the listener. 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again', 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose?' and the title track were all reclaimed and reworked for the record, and by the end of the year of it's release nearly all of the rest of the tracks had been picked up and recorded by other artists for their own records. So here are their takes on the songs from Bacharach's 'Make It Easy On Yourself' album, together with a few tracks from his 1971 eponymous release to make up the running time, and I've gone for less well-known versions of the biggest hits to give it a bit of variety.     

Track listing

01 Promises, Promises (Connie Francis 1968)  
02 I'll Never Fall In Love Again (Bobbie Gentry 1969)  
03 Knowing When To Leave (Kathy Kirby 1969)  
04 Any Day Now (Elvis Presley 1969)
05 Wanting Things (Dionne Warwick 1968)
06 Whoever You Are I Love You (Johnny Mathis 1969)
07 Make It Easy On Yourself (Long John Baldry 1966)
08 Do You Know The Way To San Jose (Rita Reys 1971)

09 Pacific Coast Highway (Jim Wilkas 2023)
10 This Guy's In Love With You (Georgie Fame 1969)
11 All Kinds Of People (The 5th Dimension 1971)
12 One Less Bell To Answer (Gladys Knight And The Pips 1971)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Neil Sedaka (1978)

When Neil Sedaka was 13, a neighbour heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist, and before long they were part of the Brill Building's legendary composing stable, writing songs together throughout much of their young lives. Before rock and roll became popular, Sedaka and Greenfield found inspiration from show tunes, and when Sedaka became a major teen pop star, the pair continued writing hits for him and numerous other artists. Unlike most of the other Brill Building songwriters, Sedaka was also releasing his own singles at the same time as writing for others, and finally hit the big time in 1959 when 'Oh, Carol' reached number 9 in the Hot Hundred in 1959, followed by his first number one with 'Breaking Up Is Hard To Do' in 1962. In 1964 Sedaka's career began a sharp decline, hastened by The Beatles' arrival on the radio and TV, along with the rest of the so-called British Invasion, and following the release of his 'My Yiddishe Momme' album in 1966 he didn't release another long-player for four years, although he was still writing through-out that period. Sedaka worked to revive his solo career in the early 1970's, and in 1971 he reunited with RCA and released the 'Emergence' album, which included the single 'I'm A Song (Sing Me)'. In 1972, he embarked on a successful British tour and was introduced by Harvey Lisberg to the four future members of 10cc, and he recorded his 'Solitaire' album with them as his backing band at their Strawberry Studios in Stockport, with the album being issued later that year by RCA. The title track was successfully covered by both Andy Williams and the Carpenters, while his own single 'Beautiful You' also charted briefly in America, and was his first US chart appearance in ten years. 'Solitaire' was the first collaboration between Sedaka and new song-writing partner Phil Cody, whom Sedaka felt was an ideal lyricist for his music in a singer-songwriter style, and this was proved to be true when by 1978 nearly every song on 'Solitaire' had been picked up and covered by other artists, the best of which are collected here, along with a few from 'Emergence' to make up the album to a satisfactory 42 minutes. 

Track listing

01 That's When The Music Takes Me (Helen McBennett 1978) 
02 Beautiful You (Colin Blunstone 1976)
03 Express Yourself (Adrienne Posta 1973)
04 Home (Vince Hill 1974)
05 Adventures Of A Boy Child Wonder (Ted Neeley 1973)
06 Dimbo Man (Blablus 1976)
07 Trying To Say Goodbye (Dana 1975)
08 Solitaire (The Carpenters 1975)
09 Don't Let It Mess Your Mind (Helen Reddy 1975)
10 Gone With The Morning (Suzanne 1973)
11 God Bless Joanna (Tony Christie 1972)
12 One More Mountain To Climb (David Soul 1976)
13 (I'm A Song) Sing Me, Sing Me (Lou Christie 1971)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Paul Williams (1981)

Paul Hamilton Williams Jr. was born on 19 September 1940 in Omaha, Nebraska, and comes from a musical family, with his bother Mentor Williams also becoming a songwriter, composing Dobie Gray's 1973 hit 'Drift Away'. He began his professional song-writing career with Biff Rose in Los Angeles, who he met while the two of them were working together on a television comedy show. They wrote the song 'Fill Your Heart' (later covered by David Bowie) which was recorded by Rose on his first album, 'The Thorn In Mrs. Rose's Side' in 1968, and they later collaborated again on 'I'll Walk Away', which Rose recorded for his third eponymous album. Rose was instrumental in getting Williams his break with A&M Records, which resulted in him working with songwriter Roger Nichols, and together they were responsible for a number of successful pop hits from the 1970's, including several hits for Three Dog Night, with 'An Old Fashioned Love Song', 'The Family Of Man' and 'Out In The Country', as well as Helen Reddy with 'You And Me Against The World', and probably most notably for The Carpenters, giving them 'Rainy Days And Mondays', 'I Won't Last A Day Without You', and 'We've Only Just Begun'. An early collaboration with Nichols was on 'Someday Man', which was covered by the Monkees, for whom he unsuccessfully auditioned on a 1969 single, and he later worked on the music for a number of films, including writing and singing on 'Phantom Of The Paradise' in 1974, in which he starred and earned an Oscar nomination for the music, and also 'Bugsy Malone' in 1976. He also had a successful career as a recording artist, with his first album, 'Someday Man', appearing in 1970, followed by 'Just An Old Fashioned Love Song' being released the following year, and this featured his own versions of songs that had been already been hits for other artists. The album included one cover by him, of Graham Nash's 'Simple Man', so for this collection I've left that off and replaced it with a couple of his other songs from the same time period which were later recorded by Jack Jones and Art Garfunkel. 

Track listing

01 Waking Up Alone (David Soul 1981)
02 I Never Had It So Good (Dobie Gray 1973)
03 We've Only Just Begun (The Carpenters 1970)
04 That's Enough For Me (The Lettermen 1972) 
05 A Perfect Love (Gladys Knight And The Pips 1973)
06 An Old Fashioned Love Song (Three Dog Night 1971)
07 Let Me Be The One (Anne Murray 1971)
08 When I Was All Alone (Colin Blunstone 1974)
09 My Love And I (Mary Travers 1972)
10 Gone Forever (Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 1971)
11 Talk It Over In The Morning (Jack Jones 1971)
12 Traveling Boy (Art Garfunkel 1973)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Billy Joel (2023)

In 1976 Billy Joel released his fifth studio album, and fourth for Columbia Records, 'Turnstiles', which sold modestly and peaked low on the US charts, prompting Columbia to consider dropping him if his next release sold as poorly. He wanted the new album to feature his touring band, formed during the production of 'Turnstiles', consisting of drummer Liberty DeVitto, bassist Doug Stegmeyer, and multi-instrumentalist saxophonist/organist Richie Cannata, and so seeking out a new producer he first turned to veteran Beatles producer George Martin, before coming across and settling on Phil Ramone, whose name he had seen on albums by other artists such as Paul Simon. Recording took place over three weeks in July and August 1977, and featured DeVitto, Stegmeyer and Cannata, with other studio musicians filling in on guitar when needed. Four of the songs were released as singles in North America, with the opening song, 'Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)', centered around Anthony, a grocery-store employee from Long Island who "dreams of making it big", receiving pressure from his family to move out and go his own way, while 'Just The Way You Are' was inspired by Joel's love for his wife at the time, Elizabeth Weber, and she also inspired the song 'More Than A Woman'. The seven and a half minute epic 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant', was stitched together from three shorter songs, 'The Italian Restaurant Song', 'Things Are OK In Oyster Bay' and 'The Ballad Of Brenda And Eddie', into one of his best know pieces. When 'The Stranger' was released in September 1977 it spent six weeks at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200, and it is considered Joel's critical and commercial breakthrough record. All four singles that were released in the US became Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, with 'Just The Way You Are' making it to number 3. It remains his best-selling non-compilation album to date, and with so many memorable songs on it, it's no surprise that many of them have been covered over the years, by artists as diverse as Barry White and Umphrey's McGee. 

Track listing

01 Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) (Alex Goot 2014)    
02 The Stranger (I_Like_It_Here 2020) 
03 Just The Way You Are (Barry White 1978)
04 Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (Umphrey's McGee 2019)
05 Vienna (Couch 2023)
06 Only The Good Die Young (Taryn Southern 2015)       
07 She's Always A Woman (Lynda Carter 1978)
08 Get It Right The First Time (The Billy Joel Experience 2019)
08 Everybody Has A Dream (The Manhattans 1978)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Townes Van Zandt (2022)

John Townes Van Zandt was born on 7 March 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy family, and after the family relocated from Fort Worth to Billings, Montana in 1952, his father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside. After attending the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1962, and wrote poetry and listened to records by Lightnin' Hopkins and Hank Williams. In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression, and he was admitted to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory, but in 1965 he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program. After his father died in January 1966 at age 52, he quit school and went on the road for the first time, having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music. His early gigs in Houston clubs mostly consisted of covers of songs written by Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and others, as well as original novelty songs like 'Fraternity Blues', and in 1968 he met songwriter Mickey Newbury in a Houston coffee shop, and he persuaded Van Zandt to go to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was introduced to the man who became his longtime producer, "Cowboy" Jack Clement. With Clement producing, Van Zandt recorded sessions in the studio which became his debut album, 'For The Sake Of The Song', released in 1968 by Poppy Records. The next five years were the most prolific of Van Zandt's career, as Poppy released the albums 'Our Mother The Mountain', 'Townes Van Zandt', 'Delta Momma Blues', 'High, Low And In Between', and 'The Late Great Townes Van Zandt'. It's his third album which has some of his most covered songs, and the fact the many of them are by modern artists, such as The Magic Numbers, Laura Marling, and Bright Eyes shows the esteem in which he is still held as a legend of American song-writing. 

Track listing

01 For The Sake Of The Song (Azure Ray 2002)  
02 Columbine (Mike Molaro 2021)  
03 Waiting Around To Die (Nathan Hamilton 2020)  
04 Don't Take It Too Bad (Steve Earle 2009  
05 Colorado Girl (Laura Marling 2014)  
06 Lungs (Jonell Mosser 1996)  
07 I'll Be Here In The Morning (The Stonemans 1970) 
08 Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel (Bright Eyes 2022)  
09 (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria (The Magic Numbers 2010)  
10 None But The Rain (Robin & Linda Williams 1975)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Van Morrison (2021)

After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album 'Astral Weeks' in 1968, Van Morrison moved to upstate New York with his wife and began writing songs for the follow-up album 'Moondance', attempting to produce a record that would be more accessible and appealing to listeners. The musicians who went on to record 'Moondance' with Morrison were recruited from Woodstock, and would continue working with him for several years, including guitarist John Platania, saxophonist Jack Schroer, and keyboardist Jef Labes. Recording sessions began at Century Sound in New York, accompanied by most of the musicians from 'Astral Weeks' and its engineer Brooks Arthur, but Morrison soon manipulated the situation and got rid of them all. He had his own ideas for how he wanted the music to sound, and so enlisted the help of a horn section and chorus, and brought in the musicians recruited from Woodstock. Recording then moved to Studio A penthouse of A & R Studios in New York from August to September 1969, coming to the studio with only the basic song structures written down, and the song's arrangements in his memory, and they were developed throughout the album's recording. Most of Morrison's vocals were recorded live, and he later said that he would have preferred to record the entire album that way, and the finished album was the first for which Morrison was credited as the producer, later saying that as no-one else knew what he was looking for, he just did it. The resulting album found him abandoning the abstract folk/ jazz compositions of 'Astral Weeks' in favour of more formally composed songs, and its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. 'Moondance' was released by Warner Bros. on 27 January 1970 in the UK and on 28 February in the US, receiving immediate acclaim from critics on both sides of the Atlantic, being hailed by both Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs jointly in Rolling Stone as a work of "musical invention and lyrical confidence; the strong moods of 'Into the Mystic' and the fine, epic brilliance of 'Caravan' will carry it past many good records we'll forget in the next few years." The title track is one of his most covered songs, attracting nearly 250 versions, and some of the other tracks aren't far behind, with soul stars like Ben E. King, Lorraine Ellison, Merry Clayton and Esther Phillips all recognising the soulful quality of the song-writing, so here are some of the very best takes of the songs from Van Morrison's classic 'Moondance'. As it's quite a short collection I've added a track from Miriam Makeba from the same time period to close the album. 

Track listing

01 And It Stoned Me (Jackie DeShannon 1971) 
02 Moondance (Irene Reid 1970)   
03 Crazy Love (Rita Coolidge 1971)
04 Caravan (Lorraine Ellison 1971) 
05 Into The Mystic (Ben E. King 1972)
06 Come Running (Lynn Anderson 1979)
07 These Dreams Of You (Jesse Colin Young 2021)
08 Brand New Day (Esther Phillips with The Dixie Flyers 1970)
09 Everyone (Elizabeth Mitchell 2012)
10 Glad Tidings (Merry Clayton 1970)
11 I Shall Sing (Miriam Makeba 1970)

Bob Dylan - The Hitmakers Sing 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' (1993)

In February 1964, Bob Dylan embarked on a 20-day trip across the United States, riding in a station wagon with a few friends and heading towards California, with the primary motivation for the trip being to find enough inspiration to step beyond the folk-song form, if not in the bars, or from the miners, then by peering deep into himself. Dylan spent much time in the back of the station wagon, working on songs and possibly poetry on a typewriter, and it was during this trip that he composed 'Chimes Of Freedom'. With his commercial profile on the rise, Columbia was now urging him to release a steady stream of recordings, so on his return to New York, studio time was quickly scheduled, with Tom Wilson back as producer. The first, and only, recording session was held on 9 June at Columbia's Studio A, and while polishing off a couple of bottles of Beaujolais, he recorded fourteen original compositions, in a single three-hour session between 7pm and 10pm that night. Three were ultimately rejected, with 'Denise Denise', 'Mr. Tambourine Man', and 'Mama, You Been On My Mind' not being considered for the fourth album, although 'Mr. Tambourine Man' was revisited for his next album. As 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' was being prepared for release, Dylan premiered his new songs at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1964, which was where he first met Johnny Cash. He was already an admirer of Cash's music, and vice versa, and the two spent a night jamming together in Joan Baez's room at the Viking Motor Inn. When the album was released, it was a step back commercially, failing to make the Top 40, and indicating that record consumers may have had a problem with the new music, just as critics had when they first heard the songs at Newport. Dylan soon defended his work, insisting that the songs were insanely honest, and that he and he alone wanted and needed to write them. Years later, mixed reactions over 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan' remained, but not for the same reasons, as critics later viewed it as a 'transitional' album, although contemporary artists could hear the quality of the songs, with nearly all of them being covered by 1968, and here are some of the best of them.  

Track listing

01 All I Really Want To Do (The Four Seasons 1965)
02 Black Crow Blues (The Silkie 1965)
03 Spanish Harlem Incident (The Pozo Seco Singers 1968)
04 Chimes Of Freedom (Julie Felix 1967)
05 I Shall Be Free No. 10 (Paul James 1990)
06 To Ramona (The Alan Price Set 1968)
07 Motorpsycho Nitemare (Strangelove 1993)
08 My Back Pages (The Byrds 1967)
09 I Don't Believe You (Ian & Sylvia 1967)
10 Ballad In Plain D (Michael Chapman 1977)
11 It Ain't Me Babe (The Turtles 1965)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Gordon Lightfoot's 'Summer Side Of Life' (2021)

In May 1971 Gordon Lightfoot released his sixth studio album 'Summer Side Of Life' on the Reprise Records label. The album marked a departure from the sound Lightfoot had established on 'Sit Down Young Stranger' in its use of drums and electric instrumentation, to which he would later return in the second half of the decade, and a song like 'Redwood Hill' even contains elements of bluegrass music. The title track was released as a single and peaked at number 98 on the pop singles chart while 'Talking In Your Sleep' reached number 64, while in his homeland of Canada they were both top 30 hits. Anne Murray took her cover of 'Cotton Jenny' into the top 20 on the U.S. country singles chart, while 'Love And Maple Syrup' was covered by Taylor Mitchell in 2009. Nanci Griffith tackled '10 Degrees And Getting Colder' on her 1993 album, 'Other Voices, Other Rooms', after the song had previously been recorded by J. D. Crowe & The New South on their eponymous album in 1975. As with other albums by Lightfoot in this series, the quality of the song-writing was immediately apparent to other artists, and the majority of the songs from this record had been covered by the following year, and so here is another fine collection of Lightfoot's songs as interpreted by other artists.

Track listing

01 10 Degrees & Getting Colder (Jeffrey Shurtleff 1972)
02 Miguel (Jim Donaldson 2011)
03 Go My Way (Val Doonican 1971) 
04 Summer Side Of Life (Blackie And The Rodeo Kings 2003)
05 Cotton Jenny (Anne Murray 1971)
06 Talking In Your Sleep (Caroline Wiles 2021) 
07 Nous Vivons Ensemble (Martin Peltier 1972)
08 Same Old Loverman (Percy Sledge 1971)  
09 Redwood Hill (The Country Gentlemen 1972) 
10 Love & Maple Syrup (Jack Hudson 1972)  
11 Cabaret (John McLachlan 2021) 

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' (2001)

Whereas Bob Dylan's previous albums, 'Bob Dylan' and 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan', combined original material and cover songs, 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' was the first to feature only original compositions. It consists mostly of stark, sparsely arranged ballads concerning issues such as racism, poverty, and social change, and the title track is one of Dylan's most famous, with many feeling that it captures the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960's. Some critics and fans were not quite as taken with the album as a whole, citing its lack of humour or musical diversity, but it still peaked at No. 20 on the US chart, eventually going gold, and belatedly reaching No. 4 in the UK in 1965. Work had begun on 6 August 1963, at Columbia's Studio A, with Tom Wilson once again as producer for the entire album, and the session yielded a usable take of 'North Country Blues'. Another session at Studio A was held the following day, this time providing master takes of four songs: 'Ballad Of Hollis Brown', 'With God On Our Side', 'Only A Pawn In Their Game', and 'Boots Of Spanish Leather', after which sessions did not resume for more than two months. During the interim, Dylan toured briefly with Joan Baez, performing a number of key concerts that raised his profile in the media, and when he returned to Studio A on 23 October he had six more original compositions ready for recording. Master takes for 'The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll' and 'When The Ship Comes In' came from this date, and on 24 October final takes of 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' and 'One Too Many Mornings' were recorded. The final session took place on 31 October, and the entire session focused on one song — 'Restless Farewell'— whose melody is taken from an Irish-Scots folk song, 'The Parting Glass', and it produced a master take that ultimately closed the album. Almost as soon as the album appeared in February 1964, Peter, Paul and Mary covered 'When The Ship Comes In', and by the following year Manfred Mann had charted with their version of 'With God On Our Side', while The Seekers had recorded the title track and Nina Simone covered 'Ballad Of Hollis Brown'. Most of these versions are from the couple of years following the release of the album, but it took until 1988 before someone tackled 'Only A Pawn In Their Game', and 2001 for a cover of 'Restless Farewell' to follow Joan Baez's version in 1968, so here they all are on this tribute to a classic Dylan album.  

Track listing

01 The Times They Are A-Changin' (The Seekers 1965)
02 Ballad Of Hollis Brown (Nazareth 1973)
03 With God On Our Side (Manfred Mann 1965)
04 One Too Many Mornings (The Beau Brummels 1966)
05 North Country Blues (Joan Baez 1968)
06 Only A Pawn In Their Game (The Lenny Nelson Project 1988)
07 Boots Of Spanish Leather (The Silkie 1965)
08 When The Ship Comes In (Peter, Paul And Mary 1964)
09 The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (Phranc 1985)
10 Restless Farewell (Norman Blake & Peter Ostroushko 2001)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Gordon Lightfoot's 'Did She Mention My Name?' (2023)

Gordon Lightfoot's second album 'The Way I Feel' was released in 1967, and to kick off Canada's Centennial year, the CBC commissioned Lightfoot to write the 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967. This was the centre-piece of his new album, which was generally well-received, if perceived as slightly inferior to its predecessor, and 'Did She Mention My Name?' followed in 1968, being his first to feature orchestration, and it included 'Black Day In July', about the 1967 Detroit riot. Weeks later, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, radio stations in 30 states pulled the song for "fanning the flames", even though it was actually a plea for racial harmony. Lightfoot's reputation as a songwriter of note was still in evidence, confirmed by the fact that nearly every track on the album had been attempted by other artists by 1970, and so here are some of the best versions of the songs from Gordon Lightfoot's third studio album from 1968, with two songs from the same era added to the end to make up for 'May I' and 'Boss Man' not having available cover versions.    

Track listing

01 The Wherefore And The Why (The Johnstons 1968)
02 The Last Time I Saw Her (Glen Campbell 1971)
03 Black Day In July (The Tragically Hip 2003)
04 Magnificent Outpouring (The Triban 1969)  
05 Does Your Mother Know (The Sandalwood Candle 1970)
06 The Mountain And Maryann (Kenny Rankin 1969)
07 Pussywillows, Cat-tails (Pat Hervey 1970) 
08 I Want To Hear It From You (Lou Rawls 1968)
09 Something Very Special (Dylan Bell 2023)
10 Did She Mention My Name (George Hamilton IV 1968) 
11 Bitter Green (The Idle Race 1971)
12 The Gypsy (Petula Clark 1974)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Donovan (2014)

By 1966, Donovan had shed the Dylan/Guthrie influences and become one of the first British pop musicians to adopt flower power, immersing himself in jazz, blues, Eastern music, and the new generation of counterculture-era US West Coast bands such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. He was entering his most creative phase as a songwriter and recording artist, working with Mickie Most and with arranger, musician, and jazz fan John Cameron, and their collaboration on Sunshine Superman was one of the first psychedelic pop records. Donovan's rise stalled in December 1965 when Billboard broke news of the impending production deal between Klein, Most, and Donovan, and then reported that Donovan was to sign with Epic Records in the US. Despite Kozak's denials, Pye Records dropped the single and a contract dispute ensued, because Pye had a US licensing arrangement with Warner Bros. Records. As a result, the UK release of the Sunshine Superman album was delayed for months, robbing it of the impact it would have had off the back of the hit single. Another outcome was that the UK and US versions of this and later albums differed, with three of his Epic LPs not being released in the UK, while 'Sunshine Superman' was issued in a different form in each country. By spring 1966 the American contract problems had been resolved, with Donovan signing a $100,000 deal with Epic Records, and he and Most went to CBS Studios in Los Angeles, where they recorded tracks for an album, much of which was composed during the preceding year. 

Although folk elements were prominent, the songs showed increasing influence of jazz, American west coast psychedelia and folk rock, especially from The Byrds. 'Sunshine Superman' was released in the US as a single in June, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and later number 2 in the UK. The US version of the album features instruments including acoustic bass, sitar, saxophone, tablas and congas, harpsichord, strings and oboe, and highlights include the swinging 'The Fat Angel', written for Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas, 'Bert's Blues' (a tribute to Bert Jansch), 'Guinevere', and 'Legend Of A Girl Child Linda'. The driving, jazzy 'The Trip' was named after a Los Angeles club, and chronicled an LSD trip during his time in L.A., and is loaded with references to his sojourn on the West Coast. Because of the earlier contractual problems, the UK version of 'Sunshine Superman' was not released for another nine months, and as Donovan had released another record in the US by this time, the UK version was a compilation of tracks from the US 'Sunshine Superman', and its follow-up 'Mellow Yellow'. I think most of the better tracks on the UK version come from the US 'Sunshine Superman' album, so for this post I've used that as a basis, and every track has received a superlative cover version, all of which are included on this reimagining of arguably Donovan's best album. 

Track listing

01 Sunshine Superman (Mike Vickers 1967)
02 Legend Of A Girl Child Linda (Joan Baez, Judy Collins & Mimi Farina 1967)
03 Three King Fishers (Gabor Szabo 1968)
04 Ferris Wheel (Rick Wooley 1980)
05 Bert's Blues (Burnt Branch 2014)
06 Season Of The Witch (Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll & The Trinity 1967)
07 The Trip (Ryan Green 2013)
08 Guinevere (Paul Roland 1992)
09 The Fat Angel (Jefferson Airplane 1969)
10 Celeste (Scott McKenzie 1967)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Gordon Lightfoot (1977)

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. was born on 17 November 1938 in Orillia, Ontario, and after his mother recognized his musical talent early on she schooled him to become a successful child performer. He first performed publicly in grade four, singing the Irish-American lullaby 'Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral', which was broadcast over his school's public address system during a parents' day event, and as a youth he sang in the choir of Orillia's St. Paul's United Church under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams. As a teenager he learned piano and taught himself to play drums and percussion, holding concerts in Muskoka, a resort area north of Orillia, and performing extensively throughout high school, teaching himself to play folk guitar along the way. In 1958 he moved to Los Angeles to study jazz composition and orchestration for two years at Westlake College of Music, and to support himself while in California he sang on demonstration records and wrote, arranged, and produced commercial jingles. After his return to Canada he performed with the Singin' Swingin' Eight, a group featured on CBC TV's Country Hoedown, and also with the Gino Silvi Singers, and in 1961 he released two singles, both recorded at RCA in Nashville and produced by Chet Atkins, that were local hits in Toronto. In 1963 he travelled in Europe, and for a year in the UK he hosted BBC TV's Country and Western Show, returning to Canada in 1964. 

Around this time he began to develop a reputation as a songwriter, with Ian and Sylvia Tyson recording his 'Early Mornin' Rain' and 'For Lovin' Me', and a year later both songs were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. With this validation of his song-writing skill, artists such as Marty Robbins ('Ribbon Of Darkness'), Judy Collins ('Early Morning Rain'), Richie Havens and Spyder Turner ('I Can't Make It Anymore'), and the Kingston Trio ('Early Morning Rain') all achieved some chart success with Lightfoot's material. In 1965 he signed a management contract with Albert Grossman, and a recording contract with United Artists, who released his version of 'I'm Not Sayin'' as a single. 1966 marked the release of his debut album 'Lightfoot!', which brought him greater exposure as both a singer and a songwriter, and the record featured many now-famous songs, including 'For Lovin' Me', 'Early Mornin' Rain', 'Steel Rail Blues', and 'Ribbon Of Darkness'. On the strength of the 'Lightfoot!' album, he became one of the first Canadian singers to achieve definitive home-grown stardom without having moved permanently to the United States to develop it. The variety of artists featured on this collection just proves what a versatile songwriter Lightfoot was, with pop groups, folk bands, and R&B singers all covering his songs, and folk-rock legends Fotheringay rated him highly enough to include one of his songs on their debut album, despite having a number of renowned songwriters in the band. 'Lightfoot!' did include three covers, and so in a slight departure from the usual format of these albums I've included the original versions of those, so that all of the songs from the album are featured in versions other than Lightfoot's. 

Track listing

01 Rich Man's Spiritual (Ronnie Hawkins 1968)

02 Long River (Knoxville Grass 1977)

03 The Way I Feel (Fotheringay 1970)

04 For Lovin' Me (Chad & Jeremy 1965)

05 The First Time (Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger 1970)

06 Changes (Phil Ochs 1966)

07 Early Morning Rain (Peter, Paul And Mary 1965)

08 Steel Rail Blues (George Hamilton IV 1966)

09 Sixteen Miles (Bonnie Dobson 1972)

10 I'm Not Sayin' (The Ian Campbell Folk Group 1968)

11 Pride Of Man (Hamilton Camp 1964)

12 Ribbon Of Darkness (The Pozo Seco Singers 1967)

13 Oh' Linda (The Pacers featuring Bobby Crawford 1967)

14 Peaceful Waters (Ed Ames 1969)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Syd Barrett (2022)

In the second half of 1967 and through to early 1968, while still part of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett's behaviour became increasingly erratic and unpredictable, with reports of him on stage with the group during this period strumming on one chord through an entire concert or not playing at all. Following an increasingly difficult US tour with him in 1967, and with David Gilmour drafted in to help out with live dates, the rest of the band decided that they couldn't work with Barrett any more, and on 6 April 1968 they officially announced that he was no longer a member of Pink Floyd. After Barrett left Pink Floyd, Peter Jenner and Andrew King, from the band's management, followed suit, feeling that as Barrett was the creative centre of the band, they would rather represent him than Pink Floyd. In May Jenner led Barrett into EMI Studios to record some solo material, but this was only partially successful, with most tracks having no vocals. Recording resumed in June and July, with better progress being made this time, but shortly after the July dates, Barrett abruptly stopped recording, breaking up with girlfriend Lindsay Corner, and then going off on a drive around Britain in his Mini, at the end of which he ended up in psychiatric care in Cambridge. 

By the start of 1969, a somewhat recovered Barrett decided to return to his musical career and revisit the Jenner-produced recordings, and so in April 1969 he began working on newer material, while reworking the 1968 recordings. After some months of work on the songs, Barrett told his flatmate that he was going off "for an afternoon drive", but instead followed Pink Floyd out to Ibiza, and during the trip, he asked David Gilmour for his help on the album, and so at the end of May, Malcolm Jones abandoned his production responsibilities and Gilmour and Waters took over. Although they were in the process of completing Pink Floyd's 'Ummagumma' album, they took time out and helped Barrett finish his album, managing to record a number of his songs during a June session, and then coming back to complete the project after taking a temporary break to mix 'Ummagumma' and undertake a tour of the Netherlands. After several months of intermittent recording, the album was finally deemed complete, and once the final recording sessions for the album had been completed, Gilmour and Waters mixed not just the tracks they had produced, but also the previously recorded songs with Malcolm Jones, in a matter of two days. 

'Octopus' was released as a single in November 1969, and 'The Madcap Laughs' followed on 2 January 1970, with both records appearing on the Harvest Records label. The album was fairly well-reviewed by music critics, and has since become something of a classic of the psychedelic music genre, and so the songs are ripe for interpretation by other bands with the same midset. Marc And The Mambas deliver a great take on 'Terrapin', and Slowdive's version of 'Golden Hair' is pretty much exactly as you would expect it to sound. REM have covered 'Dark Globe', and The Shamen and The Mock Turtles have both provided superb takes of a couple of songs from the record for official tribute albums to Barrett, while two of my personal favourite bands finally appear together, with The Green Pajamas and The Cleaners From Venus both giving it their best. I'll have to admit that this is one of the most idiosyncratic collections in this series, but every artist on here shows an obvious love for the source material, and so in the end it makes for an intriguing and enjoyable listen. 

Track listing

01 Terrapin (Marc And The Mambas 1982) 
02 No Good Trying (The Mock Turtles 1987)
03 Love You (The Besnard Lakes 2010)
04 No Man's Land (Race Horses 2010)
05 Dark Globe (REM 1989)  
06 Here I Go (The Balters 2022)
07 Octopus (Carnival Art 1990)
08 Golden Hair (Slowdive 1991)
09 Long Gone (The Shamen 1987)
10 She Took A Long Cold Look (The Green Pajamas 2000)
11 Feel (Marinus Pee 2015)
12 If It's In You (Jennifer Gentle 2010)
13 Late Night (The Cleaners From Venus 1985)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Carole Bayer Sager (1980)

Carole Bayer was born on 8 March 1944 in Manhattan, New York City, and while still a student at New York City High School she wrote her first pop hit, 'A Groovy Kind Of Love', with Toni Wine, which was recorded by UK group The Mindbenders, whose version was a worldwide hit and reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. She wrote many hits during the 1970's, often collaborating with Melissa Manchester on songs that would appear on Manchester's solo albums of the period. Her songs from this time include 'Come In From The Rain' and 'Midnight Blue', which would go on to be covered by many other artists, and she also scored major hits collaborating with Albert Hammond on 'When I Need You' and Bruce Roberts with 'You're The Only One'. She married record producer Andrew Sager in 1970, and from then on worked under the name Carole Bayer Sager, under which name she released her first recording as a singer with her 1977 self-titled album 'Carole Bayer Sager', produced by Brooks Arthur. It included the hit single 'You're Moving Out Today', a song which she co-wrote with Bette Midler and Bruce Roberts, and it topped the charts in Australia, and also reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart. The album also included her own versions of two songs previously recorded by Melissa Manchester – 'Home To Myself' and the oft-covered 'Come In From The Rain', but it wasn't long before other artists picked up on the rest of the songs on it, and by 1980 all bar one track had received a cover version, so here are the best of them in a reinterpretation of Carole Bayer Sager's debut release, with a lovely Gladys Knight cover added to the end to make up for the missing 'Aces'.   

Track listing

01 Come In From The Rain (Diana Ross 1977)  
02 Until The Next Time (Torill 1978)  
03 Don't Wish Too Hard (Jack Jones 1980)
04 Sweet Alibis (Carmen McRae 1980) 
05 I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love (Dusty Springfield 1978)
06 Steal Away Again (Joey Travolta 1978)
07 You're Moving Out Today (Bette Midler 1976)
08 Shy As A Violet (Peter Allen 1975)
09 Home To Myself (Brenda And The Tabulations 1976)
10 I'm Coming Home Again (Gladys Knight 1978)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Dolly Parton (2002)

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on 9 January 1946 in Pittman Center, Tennessee, and is the fourth of twelve children. For six or seven years, Parton and her family lived in their rustic, one-bedroom cabin on their small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge, and music played an important role in her early life. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six, and by seven she'd started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first real guitar and she began singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, and at 13, she recorded a single 'Puppy Love' on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records. After graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, she moved to Nashville the next day, where her initial success came as a songwriter, having signed with Combine Publishing shortly after her arrival. With her frequent songwriting partner, her uncle Bill Owens, she wrote several charting singles during this time, including two Top 10 hits for Bill Phillips, with 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow' and 'The Company You Keep', and one for Skeeter Davis with 'Fuel To The Flame'. 

Her songs were recorded by many other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr., but when she was signed to Monument Records in 1965, she initially was pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released a string of singles, but the only one that charted, 'Happy, Happy Birthday Baby', did not crack the Billboard Hot 100. Although she expressed a desire to record country material, Monument resisted, thinking her unique, high soprano voice was not suited to the genre. After her composition 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow', was recorded by Bill Phillips and went to number six on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country music. Her first country single was 'Dumb Blonde' (composed by Curly Putman, and one of the few songs during this era that she didn't write), which reached number 24 on the country chart in 1967, followed by 'Something Fishy', which went to number 17, and both songs appeared on her debut album 'Hello, I'm Dolly' in 1967. In order to showcase her song-writing talents, she recorded her own versions of the Bill Phillips and Skeeter Davis singles for inclusion on the record, and other songs from it were soon picked up and covered by other country artists. Only two tracks from the album were not self-penned, but because 'Dumb Blonde' is so associated with her I've included it on this collection anyway, and to flesh out a rather short album I've included a few tracks written during the same time-frame, which all go to show what a talented song-writer she was even in her teens. 

Track listing

01 Dumb Blonde (Liz Anderson 1968)         
02 Your Ole Handy Man (Priscilla Mitchell 1967)  
03 I Don't Wanna Throw Rice (Ursula West 2002)  
04 Put It Off Until Tomorrow (Loretta Lynn 1966)  
05 I Wasted My Tears (The Traditional Grass 1993)  
06 Something Fishy (Marie Strong 1968)  
07 Fuel To The Flame (Skeeter Davis 1967)  
08 I'm In No Condition (Hank Williams Jr. 1967)  
09 The Company You Keep (Bill Phillips 1966) 
10 You're Gonna Be Sorry (The Stonemans 1968)
11 Just Because I'm A Woman (Jeannie Seely 1968)
12 Why Why Why (Tracy Nelson 1969)
13 As Long As I Love You (Dottie West 1970)