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 Laura Nyro's 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession' (2017)

Soon after the release of Laura Nyro's debut album 'More Than A New Discovery', David Geffen approached Mogull about taking over as her agent. She successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on the grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor, and Geffen became her manager. The two of them established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, under which the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged Nyro's new recording contract with Clive Davis at Columbia Records, and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. Around this time, she considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears after the departure of founder Al Kooper, but was dissuaded by Geffen, and so she concentrated on recording her second album.  Her new contract allowed her more artistic freedom and control, and so her 1968 record 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession', received high critical praise for the depth and sophistication of its performance and arrangements, which merged pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz. It was her first chart entry, reaching No. 181 on the Billboard 200, and many musicians, including Elton John and Todd Rundgren, were directly influenced by the album. It is second only to its predecessor in producing hit songs for other artists, with Three Dog Night taking 'Eli's Comin'' to the US top 10, while The 5th Dimension went to No. 3 with 'Stoned Soul Picnic' and No. 13 with 'Sweet Blindness'. Once again, it wasn't long before nearly all of the other songs from the record had been taken up and covered,  and such was their quality that they were still being recorded in the 2000's. Here is a nice collection of some of the very best versions of Nyro's songs from her rightly-regarded classic album 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession'. 

Track listing

01 Luckie (Judy Kuhn 2007)
02 Lu (Peggy Lipton 1969)
03 Sweet Blindness (The 5th Dimension 1968)
04 Poverty Train (The Ark 1967)
05 Lonely Women (Linda Hoyle 1971) 
06 Eli's Comin' (Three Dog Night 1969)
07 Stoned Soul Picnic (The Supremes And The Four Tops 1970)
08 Emmie (Frankie Valli 1970)
09 Woman's Blues (Green Lyte Sunday 1970)
10 Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe) (Rastus 2016)
11 December's Boudoir (Denise Mangiardi 2017)
12 The Confession (Billy Childs featuring Becca Stevens 2014)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Laura Nyro (2007)

In the mid-60's, Laura Nyro's mother Louis Nigro's work brought her into contact with record company executive Artie Mogull and his partner Paul Barry, who auditioned Nyro in 1966 and became her first managers, with Mogull negotiating a recording and management contract for her. On 13 July 1966, Nyro recorded 'Stoney End' and 'Wedding Bell Blues', as well as an early version of 'Time And Love', at Bell Sounds Studios in Manhattan, for possible inclusion on her debut album. About a month later, she sold 'And When I Die' to Peter, Paul And Mary for $5,000, and on 17 September 1966, Verve Folkways released 'Wedding Bell Blues'/'Stoney End' as a single under her own name. 'Wedding Bell Blues' became a minor hit, especially on the West Coast, and she completed her debut album in New York on 29 November 1966. In February 1967, Verve Folkways released 'More Than A New Discovery', with songs from the record later becoming hits for The 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Barbra Streisand. On 17 June 1967, Nyro appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival, and although some accounts described her performance as a fiasco that culminated in her being booed off the stage, recordings later made publicly available contradict this version of events. Over the next few years more songs from 'More Than A New Discovery' were noticed by other artists and covered on their records, particularly The 5th Dimension, who had a couple of hit singles with her songs. Peter, Paul And Mary turned their investment in 'And When I Die' into a hit, and Barbara Streisand followed them with 'Stoney End'. By 1971 nearly every song on the album had been covered, and so here are some of the best of them, reinterpreting Laura Nyro's first steps into the music business.  

Track listing

01 Goodbye Joe (Carmen McRae 1970)  
02 Billy's Blues (B. J. Ward 1970)  
03 And When I Die (Blood Sweat And Tears 1968)
04 Stoney End (Linda Ronstadt & The Stone Poneys 1968)
05 Lazy Susan (Amy London 2007)   
06 Hands Off The Man (The Sunshower 1970)
07 Wedding Bell Blues (Bobbie Gentry 1970)
08 Buy And Sell (Chris Connor 1971)
09 He's A Runner (Mama Cass 1969)
10 Blowin' Away (The 5th Dimension 1969)
11 I Never Meant To Hurt You (Barbara Streisand 1971)
12 California Shoe-Shine Boys (Karen Wyman 1970)

Thanks to Ergon3 for supplying the Amy London track.

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Elton John (2018)

In 1967 Reginald Dwight (as he then was) answered an advertisement in the British music paper New Musical Express, placed by the A&R manager for Liberty Records Ray Williams, looking for prospective song-writers. At their first meeting, Williams gave him an unopened envelope of lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, who had answered the same ad, and so he wrote music for the lyrics and then sent them to Taupin, beginning a partnership that still continues. When the two first met in 1967, they recorded the first John/Taupin song, 'Scarecrow', and six months later, Dwight began going by the name Elton John, in homage to two members of his old band Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry. The team of John and Taupin joined Dick James's DJM Records as staff songwriters in 1968, and over the next two years wrote material for various artists, among them Roger Cook and Lulu. Taupin would write a batch of lyrics in under an hour and give it to John, who would write music for them in half an hour, disposing of the lyrics if he could not come up with anything quickly. For two years they wrote easy-listening tunes for James to peddle to singers, and their early output included a song for Lulu's entry for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, called 'I Can't Go On (Living Without You)', but it came sixth of the six songs up for consideration. 

On the advice of music publisher Steve Brown, John and Taupin began writing more complex songs for John to record for DJM, with the first being the single 'I've Been Loving You', produced by Caleb Quaye, Bluesology's former guitarist. In 1969, with Quaye, drummer Roger Pope, and bassist Tony Murray, John recorded another single, 'Lady Samantha', and his debut album, 'Empty Sky'. For their follow-up album, 'Elton John', John and Taupin enlisted Gus Dudgeon as producer and Paul Buckmaster as musical arranger, and the record was released in April 1970 on DJM Records/Pye Records in the UK and Uni Records in the US. It established the formula for subsequent albums: gospel-chorded rockers and poignant ballads, and the album's first single, 'Border Song', peaked at 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second, 'Your Song', reached the top ten in both the UK and US, becoming John's first hit single as a singer, while the album soon became his first long-playing success, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200 and number five on the UK Albums Chart. With the success of the singles and album, it wasn't long before other artists began to take notice of this new talent, and wanted to cover his songs, with big names like Three Dog Night, The Lettermen and The 5th Dimension giving us their versions. Before long nearly every track on the album had a cover version out there, even rare singles and obscure b-sides, and so here are the best of those artists re-interpreting Elton John's classic 1970 album, with just The Band Perry post-1975, covering the flip to Elton's 1970 stand-alone single 'Rock And Roll Madonna'.   

Track listing

01 Your Song (Three Dog Night 1970)

02 I Need You To Turn To (Euson 1971)

03 Take Me To The Pilot (The Orange Bicycle 1970)

04 Mijn Eerste Kiefde (First Episode At Hienton) (Connie Vandenbos 1975)

05 Sixty Years On (Hayden Wood 1970)

06 Border Song (The 5th Dimension 1972)

07 The Greatest Discovery (The Lettermen 1971)

08 The Cage (Brainchild 1970)

09 Bad Side Of The Moon (Toe Fat 1970)

10 Friends (The Square Set 1972)

11 Grey Seal (The Band Perry 2014)

Various Artists - Can I Get To Know You Better? (The Songs Of P. F. Sloan & Steve Barri 1966 - 1967) (1967)

In the mid-60's P. F. Sloan joined the group of L.A. session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew as a guitarist, working with such well-known backing musicians as drummer Hal Blaine, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, bassist Joe Osborn, and bassist/keyboardist Larry Knechtel. While working with Barry McGuire, Sloan created and played a guitar introduction as a hook to a new song by John Phillips entitled 'California Dreamin'', and the same backing track was used for the hit version by Phillips' group The Mamas & the Papas, which led to Sloan being a regular in their recording sessions. Sloan and Steve Barri also were performers while on Dunhill, and released a collection of surf instrumentals as the Rincon Surfside Band, while Sloan's successful folk-influenced songwriting prompted Dunhill to offer to record two solo albums by him. His single 'Sins Of A Family' reached the Billboard top 100 in late 1965, in the wake of the huge success of 'Eve Of Destruction'. During this time, Sloan & Barri continued to do session work with Jan Berry of Jan & Dean, until Berry's near-fatal car wreck in April 1966, which basically ended Jan & Dean's career. They also produced a number of other acts, including Ann-Margret, The Robbs, Terry Black and Patrician-Anne McKinnon, but the the main Sloan/Barri recording efforts for Dunhill were done as The Grass Roots, where they wrote and recorded their material under that name. However, after The Grass Roots enjoyed a Billboard Top 30 single with 'Where Were You When I Needed You', Dunhill forced the pair to recruit a real band to perform as The Grass Roots to promote their album, with Sloan and Barri continuing as producers for the band. However, despite having an accomplished songwriter on board, the new Grass Roots wanted to write their own material, and this, plus the fact that Sloan still wanted to have his own recording career, alienated him from both Barri and Dunhill management. During this period, Sloan's growing experience and reputation also attracted the attention of other young and aspiring musical artists, seeking both musical and business advice, and as a favor to a friend, he first met the relatively unknown Jimmy Webb at his home in 1968. Webb played him his songs 'Wichita Lineman', 'Up, Up And Away', an early version of 'MacArthur Park, and lastly 'By the Time I Get To Phoenix"', and Sloan has said that it changed his view of the 'singer/songwriter' forever. 

According to Barri, Sloan changed after the success of 'Eve Of Destruction', following McGuire to England and coming back a different person. Sloan himself described a change at this time: "I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be Elvis. . . . But P.F. Sloan? He wanted honesty and truth." During the Summer of Love, Sloan played as a solo artist on the final day of the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in 1967, being a precursor to the more famous Monterey Pop Festival held the following weekend. Sloan's final Dunhill release was a solo single, 'I Can't Help But Wonder, Elizabeth' b/w 'Karma (A Study of Divinations)', released under the name Philip Sloan in 1967, before he moved to ATCO Records for further releases. After the falling out with Barri, Sloan wrote on his own, but the songs didn't seem to have the same hit potential are their collaborations, although they were still recorded by a variety of successful artists. After leaving Dunhill, Sloan recorded an album in 1968 titled 'Measure Of Pleasure', but in 1969 he left the music scene due to numerous business and legal problems, repeatedly reporting that Dunhill made threatening advances to force him to sign away the rights to his valuable compositions, and also blaming his absence from the music scene on an illness. It was not until the new millennium that he finally found relief from his long illness, with help from Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba. In 2005, Sloan made a series of recordings with producer Jon Tiven in Nashville, Tennessee, and the resulting album 'Sailover' was released in August 2006, followed by his final recording 'My Beethoven' in 2014. Sloan died of pancreatic cancer on November 15, 2015 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 70. After Dunhill was acquired by ABC Records, Barri stayed on in the 1970's as head of Artists & Repertoire (A&R) where he focused on signing and producing new artists. He collaborated with songwriters Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter on three albums for the Four Tops, which included the million-selling single 'Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)', and after ABC Records reorganized in 1975, Barri departed to become A&R chief at Warner Brothers Records, leaving in 1986. This second post of the duo's songs includes many of my very favourite 60's singles, from The Turtles, The Mamas And The Papas, and The Grass Roots, and is a fitting tribute to two of the best songwriters of the 60's. 

Track listing

01 Secret Agent Man (Sloan, Barri) Johnny Rivers 1966
02 I Don't Wanna Say Goodnight (Sloan, Barri) Gary Lewis And The Playboys 1966
03 Let Me Be (Sloan, Barri) The Turtles 1966
04 Hold On (Sloan) Herman's Hermits 1966
05 What Am I Doin' Here with You (Sloan, Barri) Twinkle 1966
06 The Man Behind The Red Balloon (Sloan) Noel Harrison 1966
07 Can I Get To Know You Better (Sloan, Barri) The Turtles 1966
08 Autumn (Sloan, Barri) Gary Lewis And The Playboys 1966
09 You Baby (Sloan, Barri) The Mamas And The Papas 1966
10 I Know You'll Be There (Sloan, Barri) The Turtles 1966
11 See Ya 'Round On The Rebound (Sloan) Sandy Posey 1966
12 Things I Should Have Said (Sloan, Barri) The Grass Roots 1967
13 This Precious Time (Sloan, Barri) Terry Knight And The Pack 1967
14 My First Day Alone (Sloan, Barri) Peter And Gordon 1967
15 Another Day, Another Heartache (Sloan, Barri) The 5th Dimension 1967
16 Cling To Me (Sloan) Johnny Tillotson 1967
17 On A Quiet Night (Sloan, Barri) The Association 1967