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 Paul Simon (2000)

Paul Simon met Art Garfunkel when they were both 10, when they performed in a production of Alice in Wonderland for their sixth-grade graduation, and they began singing together when they were 13, occasionally performing at school dances. It was around this time that Simon wrote his first song, 'The Girl For Me', for him and Garfunkel to sing, and in 1957, while still in their mid-teens, they recorded the song 'Hey, Schoolgirl' under the name 'Tom & Jerry', which reached number 49 on the pop charts. Between 1957 and 1964 Simon wrote, recorded and released more than 30 songs, occasionally reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry for some singles, including 'Our Song' and 'That's My Story'. Most of the songs Simon recorded during that time were performed alone or with musicians other than Garfunkel, and they were released on minor record labels including Amy, Big, Hunt, King, Tribute and Madison under several pseudonyms, such as Jerry Landis, Paul Kane and True Taylor. In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel auditioned for Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis signed them to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called Simon & Garfunkel instead of Tom & Jerry, and their first album, 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.', was released in October 1964. It contained five Simon compositions, but it was not successful, and so after its release Simon moved to England and performed in folk clubs. While in London he recorded 'The Paul Simon Songbook', which was a collection of his songs, a couple of which had already appeared on the first Simon & Garfunkel album.  The album was released along with the single 'I Am A Rock'/'Leaves That Are Green' in 1965, and as many of these songs were later re-recorded for Simon And Garfunkel albums, this is the perfect collection to offer to other artists to hear their takes on these early works. As often happens, these artists could see the quality of the songs from the start, and so most of these covers appeared between 1965 and 1967, and to round out what is rather a short album I've added two contemporary songs to the end.  

Track listing 

01 I Am A Rock (The Grass Roots 1966)
02 Leaves That Are Green (The Coterie 1969)   
03 A Church Is Burning (Cy, Maia & Robert 1965)
04 April Come She Will (Hamilton Camp 1969) 
05 The Sound Of Silence (The Ravers 1966)   
06 A Most Peculiar Man (The Cowsills 1967)
07 He Was My Brother (The Pilgrims 1964)
08 Kathy's Song (Eva Cassidy 2000)
09 The Side Of A Hill (The Paravrim 1972)
10 A Simple Desultory Philippic (Swamp Zombies 1988)
11 Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall (The MacDonald Folk Group 1968)  
12 Patterns (Tir Ni Nog 1970) 
13 We've Got A Groovey Thing Going (The Racket Squad 1968)
14 Homeward Bound (The Quiet Five 1966)

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