Pink Floyd - Bedlam And Breakfast (1974)

Time for another guest post, and this one is from Geof Moody, who has put together a rather interesting Pink Floyd album. 

Following the release and subsequent global success of 'Dark Side Of The Moon' in 1973, Pink Floyd started to think about how they were going to follow it. During 1974, the band sketched out three new compositions, 'Raving And Drooling', 'You Gotta Be Crazy' and 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', and these were performed during a series of concerts in France and England, culminating in a concert at Trentham Gardens, Stoke-On-Trent in November, which was recorded for the superb 'British Winter Tour 74' bootleg. This was required listening for a Floyd fan at the time, containing as it did not only brand new material which had never been heard before, but in some of the best sound quality that had been heard at that time. When the band eventually went back into the studio to start recording their next album in January 1975, the three new compositions from 1974's tour were at least a starting point, and 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' seemed a reasonable choice as a centrepiece for the new work. Mostly an instrumental 20-minute-plus piece similar to 'Echoes', the opening four-note guitar phrase reminded Waters of the lingering ghost of former band-member Syd Barrett. He wanted to split 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', and sandwich two new songs between its two halves, but although David Gilmour disagreed, he was outvoted three to one, and so with 'Welcome To The Machine' and 'Have A Cigar' being barely veiled attacks on the music business, their lyrics worked neatly with 'Shine On...' to provide an apt summary of the rise and fall of Barrett. 'Raving And Drooling' and 'You Gotta Be Crazy' had no place in the new concept, however, and so were set aside until they were re-worked for the 'Animals' album two years later. But what if, in another timeline, the band had decided that those two songs were good enough for their next album, and had recorded them in the studio as they had been performed onstage, then the follow-up to 'Dark Side...' would have been a very different record indeed. The recording of their gig at the Empire Pool, Wembley is such good sound quality that Geof has taken those recordings and removed as much audience noise as possible, and replaced it with a few sound effects and overheard conversations, such as was evident on 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. In a homage to 'Shine On..., he's split 'You Gotta Be Crazy' in two to bookend the album, although mostly it was to even out the running time of what would have been the two sides of a vinyl album of 28 minutes each. He's titled it 'Bedlam And Breakfast', as there is a definite theme of madness running through the three songs, even to the point of the inclusion of words like 'raving' and 'crazy' in the song titles. So here is what could have been Pink Floyd's 1974 album if they'd decided to stick with the music that they'd already written, and many thanks to Geof for putting it all together.

Track listing
  
01 You Gotta Be Crazy
02 Raving And Drooling
03 Shine On You Crazy Diamond
04 You Gotta Be Crazy (Reprise)

Additions to the music are:

Tracks 1 & 4 - general chatter and mumbling, experts from The Avengers episode 'The Hour That Never Was'.

Track 2 - extracts from a Youtube video simulation of Paranoid Schizophrenia, vocal sound and scream from 'Live In Pompeii'.

Track 3 - general thunderstorm, running water, seagulls.

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)

Bacon Fat - Juicy Harmonica (1970)

Following the breakup of the Dirty Blues Band in 1968, Rod Piazza and George "Harmonica" Smith formed the Southside Blues Band, touring with Big Mama Thornton and, in 1969, releasing 'George Smith Of The Blues' as George "Harmonica" Smith & His Blues Band. Smith’s 'Juicy Harmonica' from this album is regarded as a chromatic harmonica classic, and the line-up for the album, featuring Smith and "Lightnin'" Rod Piazza on harmonicas, was very unusual at the time. Shortly after the release of '...Of The Blues', British producer Mike Vernon persuaded the band to move to Blue Horizon and to change their name, calling themselves Bacon Fat, after the title of an Andre Williams recording. The line-up of the band at this time, in addition to Smith and Piazza, was Buddy Reed and Gregg Schaefer on guitars, Jerry Smith on bass, Dick Innes on drums, and J. D. Nicholson on piano, and for their first recording Vernon decided to tape an already-scheduled gig opening for, and backing, Pee Wee Crayton. The tracks recorded at the November 1969 gig at the Bar Paradise A Go Go in South-Central L.A. were subsequently released in 1986 by Blue Moon as 'Live at Small’s Paradise'. The following day was spent at the Eldorado Recording Studio in Hollywood, recording tracks for Bacon Fat’s first album 'Grease One For Me', although Smith only appeared on one track as he was also recording a solo album 'No Time For Jive' at the same time, together with Bacon Fat (less Piazza), Pee Wee Crayton and Marshall Hooks. Although Vernon maintains that the segregation of Smith and Piazza on these releases was coincidence, it does mean that the dual-harp format that had made Southside/Bacon Fat successful in the first place was nowhere in evidence on either album. A tour of Europe to promote both albums took the band to the UK in November 1970, and while there Bacon Fat recorded the tracks for their second album, but the sale of the Blue Horizon label to Polydor by CBS delayed the release of 'Tough Dude' until March 1971, allowing the excitement generated by the tour to fade, and ultimately leading to the break-up of the band. They released one single in 1970, but there were also a number of out-takes and live recordings which have only recently surfaced, and so I've collected them all together into one last album by this innovative blues band. 

Track listing

01 Evil (single 1970)
02 Mellow Down Easy (previously unreleased)
03 Ah'w Baby (previously unreleased)
04 Tight Dress (previously unreleased)
05 Blues Feeling (b-side of 'Evil')
06 My Babe (Part 1) (previously unreleased)
07 Hamps' Boogie Woogie (previously unreleased by George Smith)
08 I've Had My Fun (previously unreleased)
09 Help Me (previously unreleased)
10 Off The Wall (previously unreleased)
11 Blues With A Feeling (previously unreleased by George Smith)

Black Buddafly - Black Buddafly (2007)

Black Buddafly are an R&B duo comprising Aminata "Amina" Schmahl, and her twin sister Safietou "Jazz" Schmahl, both born in 1983 to a German mother and a Senegalese father. There are two other sisters and a brother in the family, and together with older sister Sophie, the three girls put the band together in Los Angeles, but launched their career in Germany under the name of Choyce. The twin sisters were still in their teens when Choyce signed a contract with Germany's RCA, and while touring in 2004 they changed their name to Black Buddafly. Around this time they met and impressed Russell Simmons, who signed them to his RSMG label, and they began work on their debut album. Their first Def Jam single, 'Rock-A-Bye', was released in 2005, and a year later, the label released the 'Bad Girl' single featuring rapper Fabolous, after which the departure of Sophie reduced the band to a duo, although this new line-up would not get around to releasing any new material. A mixtape compilation 'Worst Of.... Black Buddafly: The Forgotten MP3s' arrived in 2011, and in 2013 Amina left the group and joined the cast of VH1's television series 'Love and Hip-Hop', before launching a solo career. The Def Jam album was therefore consigned to the vaults, never to be heard, but copies have leaked, and so here is the lost 2007 debut album from Black Buddafly, which is completely new material, and does not feature any of the songs from the 'Worst Of...' mixtape. 

Track listing

01 First Date
02 For The DJ's
03 Badd Girl
04 Ridin' Clean (feat. Chamilionaire)
05 Sexy Back
06 Sugar Buddy
07 Sheets & Pillows
08 Rock-A-Bye
09 Half As Good (feat. Trae)
10 Tonight
11 Make A Change
12 If I Ever
13 Just Good
14 Ohh Boy
15 Anything At All
16 Lucky Night
17 Freestyle (Outro)

Download update

Just a reminder that the link for the pdf is now in the comments of the most recent post, and then those Frenchies can't find it.  

pj

Ariana Grande - This One's For You (2019)

Ariana Grande-Butera was born on 26 June 1993, and began her music career at age 15 in the 2008 Broadway musical '13'. She rose to fame for playing Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series 'Victorious' between 2010 and 2013, and then 'Sam & Cat' for the next two years. She signed with Republic Records in 2011 after label executives viewed YouTube videos of her covering songs, and her 1950's doo-wop-influenced pop and R&B debut album, 'Yours Truly', was released in 2013, topping the US Billboard 200, while it's lead single 'The Way' reached the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100. She continued to explore pop and R&B on her second studio album, 'My Everything' in 2014, experimenting with EDM, and achieving global success with its singles 'Problem', 'Break Free' and 'Bang Bang'. Two years later, 'Dangerous Woman' became her first of four consecutive number-one albums in the UK. Personal struggles influenced her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, 'Sweetener' in 2018, and 'Thank U, Next' in 2019, both of which were critical and commercial successes, with 'Sweetener' winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and 'Thank U, Next' breaking the record for the largest streaming week for a pop album. The singles 'Thank U, Next', '7 Rings', and 'Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored' made her the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Hot 100 simultaneously, and the first woman to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart. During the recording sessions for her albums, some songs were recorded but left off the finished record, and she also joined up with Mac Miller, Bia, and Ed Sheeran to record songs which remain unreleased, and so by collecting those offcuts and collaborations we have enough unheard and rare material to make up an enjoyable album from the singer. 

  
Track listing

01 Baby Love (Intro) (out-take from 'Dangerous Woman' 2016)
02 Boyfriend Material (out-take from 'Yours Truly' 2013)
03 Pink Champagne (out-take from 'Yours Truly' 2013)
04 Don't Be Gone Too Long (feat. Chris Brown) (from 'X' by Chris Brown 2014)
05 Stick Around (feat. Graham Phillips) (out-take from 'Yours Truly' 2013)
06 Talk To Me (feat. Mac Miller) (unreleased 2016) 
07 Knew Better Part 2 (out-take from 'Yours Truly' 2013)
08 Nobody Does It Better (out-take from 'Yours Truly' 2013)
09 This One's For You (feat. Davis Guetta) (demo 2016)
10 No Love For The Lonely (feat. Ed Sheeran) (unreleased 2019)
11 On Top Of Everything (out-take from 'Sweetener' 2018)
12 Ridiculous (out-take from 'My Everything' 2014)
13 Esta Noche (feat. Bia) (unreleased 2016)

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)

Flaming Hands - Wake Up Screaming (1984)

Flaming Hands were one of the great inner-city Sydney bands of the early 80's, led by singer Julie Mostyn and astute songwriter/guitarist Jeff Sullivan. Their intense yet tuneful blend of 60's soul, R&B and psychedelic pop attracted a loyal following, leading them to sign to the Phantom Records label and to issue the promising 'I Belong To Nobody' single in September 1980, featuring soul covers originally recorded by The Marvelettes and Soul Incorporated. By the time the first single was released, Paul 'Sluggo' Maheno had joined on sax, and this new line-up issued the Lobby Loyde-produced 'Wake Up Screaming' single in March 1981, which coincided with another line-up change, with Sullivan, Mostyn and Sluggo being joined by newcomers Grant Conner on bass, Peter Bull on keyboards, and Alan Brown on drums. This new line-up supported The Clash at their epic seven-night stand at Sydney's Capitol Theatre during February 1982, during which time The Clash’s manager Bernie Rhodes became something of a Flaming Hands fan. The band's next single 'It’s Just That I Miss You' was issued a month later, but by the end of the year Sullivan and Mostyn had grown dissatisfied with their lack of progress and inability to gain a major record deal, and they broke up the band. Bull later joined Paul Kelly and The Coloured Girls, while Sullivan and Mostyn started to put together a new band called Tunnels And Trains, but a year later they'd reverted to Flaming Hands, and they finally signed to Big Time (through EMI) and prepared to record an album. With the help of INXS members Andrew Farriss and Garry Beers, Sullivan and Mostyn recorded the 12" single 'Cast My Love', which came out in October 1983, followed by the 7" single 'The Edge' in March 1984. By this time Flaming Hands consisted of just Sullivan, Mostyn and Sluggo, but with assistance from session players they completed their self-titled debut album, which also spawned two more singles, 'Break Down And Cry' and 'Out Of Our Hands'. By mid-year the band had returned to the live arena with a line-up of Sullivan, Mostyn, Sluggo, Tim Leitch (keyboards), DC Robertson (bass) and Michael Prowse (drums), but at the end of 1985, with still only a cult following to show for five years of perseverance, Sullivan and Mostyn finally laid Flaming Hands to rest. Despite their lack of commercial success they were a pretty good band, as can be heard from this collection of singles, b-sides, demos and live recordings, none of which appeared on their album. 

Track listing 

01 I Belong To Nobody ‎(single 1980)
02 The Stranger (b-side of 'I Belong To Nobody')
03 Wake Up Screaming ‎(single 1980)
04 Sweet Revenge (b-side of 'Wake Up Screaming')
05 It's Just That I Miss You ‎(single 1981)
06 Go Or Stay (b-side of 'It's Just That I Miss You')
07 Falling Apart At The Seams (demo 1981)
08 What Is Love (live 1982)
09 Seek And Find (from 'Paths Of Pain To Jewels Of Glory' compilation 1983)
10 Kismet (b-side of 'Cast My Love' 1983)
11 Love Execution (live 1983)
12 Sacrifice (b-side of 'The Edge' 1984)
13 Hold Tight (demo 1984)
14 Open Windows (b-side of 'Breakdown And Cry' 1984)

Clea - Identity Crisis (2004)

Clea are an English girl group whose members met on the television show 'Popstars: The Rivals' in 2002, and after they were voted off the series, Chloe Morgan , Lynsey Brown, Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley decided to form a band, naming them selves 'Clea' after the first letter of each member's name. They initially had a management contract with Upside Management, and a recording contract with Warner offshoot 1967 Records, and their first single, 'Download It', was released in 2003, entering the UK Singles Chart at number 21. After spending the remainder of the year playing small concerts in the United Kingdom, the band released their second single in February 2004, with 'Stuck In The Middle' reaching number 23 in the UK Singles Chart. After completing work on their debut album, Morgan left the group in May to pursue a solo career, and 'Identity Crisis' was released in Russia, Eastern Europe, and certain countries in Asia, as the group had seen some moderate success in these regions, but due to their lack of success around the rest of the world, they were dropped from 1967 Records in late 2004. They continued to be managed by Upside Management, releasing music independently through a specially-created label, and in September 2005 they collaborated with production group Da Playaz to release a single, 'We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off', which was a dance remake of the Narada Michael Walden song originally made famous by Jermaine Stewart. This single reached number 35 on the UK chart, and was followed in June 2006 by 'Lucky Like That', which reached number 55. 'Trinity', Clea's second album (but first UK release) was issued on 3 July 2006 on Upside Records, after which Brown left the band in November. They then released the double a-side single, 'Stuck In The Middle'/'I Surrender', in Europe, and toured Asia and Scandinavia in 2007, and they also signed to EMI China, touring there on several occasions. 'Identity Crisis' deserved a wider release than it received, as it's a pretty good album in a Girls Aloud vein, and so here it is for your enjoyment. 

Track listing

01 Stuck In The Middle  
02 The Lie  
03 Butterflies And Rainbows  
04 First Love  
05 Identity Crisis  
06 One More Try 
07 Sprung  
08 Crush  
09 A Guy Like You  
10 Download It 
11 Mind Games  
12 Pretty Little Bad Girl

Marva Whitney - I've Lived The Life (1977)

At the end of an article about Marva Whiney in this month's Record Collector, the writer noted that 'a compilation of her 60's and 70's singles is long overdue'. Well, your wish is my command, and so here is a companion album to her sole 60's long-playing release, 1969's 'It's My Thing', which contained a lot of her early singles and their b-sides. This post collects every other song that she recorded in her decade long career, including the extremely rare 1968 single 'All My Love Belongs To You', which I've had to subtly edit to remove some talking at the beginning. It also features both the Federal Records and King Records versions of 'Your Love Was Good For Me', plus an unreleased 1969 duet with James Brown. 
Marva Ann Manning (a.k.a. Marva Whitney) was born on 1 May 1944 in Kansas City, and her performing career started as early as three years old while touring with her family's gospel group, the Manning Gospel Singers. At the age of 16 she joined the Alma Whitney Singers and two years later she married Harry Olander Whitney with whom she had a daughter Sherrie Whitney. She began singing R&B music for the first time in 1963 at a Kansas City venue, while studying music at college, and when she left she continued performing in nightclubs and at local talent competitions while working in a garment factory. By the mid-1960's she'd joined local group Tommy (Gadson) & The Derbys as their lead singer, and they opened for many leading performers passing through Kansas City, but in 1967 she left the group, and turned down offers to tour with Bobby Bland and Little Richard before joining the James Brown Revue as a featured vocalist. Her first solo single, 'Your Love Was Good To Me', was recorded for Federal Records in mid-1967, but was unsuccessful, as were her two follow-up singles for new label King Records. She toured Europe, Asia and Africa with James Brown, with whom she was in a relationship, and in early 1968 he produced her fourth solo single, 'Unwind Yourself', in a more funky style. Although the record was not a chart hit, it was later sampled numerous times, and her first chart hit came with 'It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who to Sock It To)', which was an answer record to The Isley Brothers' hit 'It's Your Thing', and which reached number 19 on the Billboard R&B in 1969. She followed up with two smaller hits, 'Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)' and 'I Made A Mistake Because It's Only You (Part 1)', as well as releasing her sole album 'It's My Thing' the same year. Later that year, after about 13 singles with James Brown as producer and writer or co-writer, an exhausted Whitney left the Brown stable in 1969/1970 and returned to Kansas City. 

Clarence Cooper and Allan Bell took over her management, and initially struggled to get Whitney into major venues, but a trip to Chicago in 1970, and a visit to producer Floyd Smith, resulted in a contract with the Isley Brothers' T-Neck label for one single, after which she married Ellis Taylor, who ran Forte Records. She recorded further singles for his label, including 'Daddy Don't Know About Sugar Bear', her most successful post Brown single that was picked up for national distribution by Nashville's Excello records. She retired from recording for several years, making only local appearances in Kansas City, returning to the studio in 1977 for a Forte single with her brother Melvin Manning, as Marva & Melvin, and after another short break she briefly joined the group, Coffee, Cream & Sugar. In 2006, she collaborated with German born DJ/collector/manager DJ Pari and Japanese funk orchestra Osaka Monaurail to produce a new single, 'I Am What I Am', which was very much in the James Brown style, and the single was produced to sound like an authentic release of the type that she produced with Brown in 1969. Two successful tours of Japan and a full-length album release followed, and between 2007 and 2009 the tour was also brought to Europe where she maintained a cult following. In December 2009, she suffered a stroke on stage during a concert in Lorne, Australia, after which the remaining dates of her tour were cancelled, but after a partial recovery she was able to perform again in 2010. In December 2012, Whitney died from complications of pneumonia at her home. She was 68. I hope that this collection is a fitting tribute to an artist who was known during her early days as Soul Sister #1. 

Track listing

01 Your Love Was Good For Me (Federal single 1967)
02 Saving My Love For My Baby (b-side of 'Your Love Was Good For Me')
03 All My Love Belongs To You (b-side of 'I'll Work It Out' 1968)
04 What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You (single 1968)
05 Your Love Was Good For Me (b-side of 'What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You')
06 Tit For Tat (Ain’t No Taking Back) (b-side of 'In The Middle (Part 2)' 1968)
07 Ball Of Fire (b-side of 'It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who To Sock It To)' 1969)
08 Sunny (unreleased single with James Brown 1969)
09 I Made A Mistake Because It's Only You (Parts 1 & 2) (single 1969) 
10 This Girls In Love With You (single 1969)
11 He's The One (b-side of 'This Girl's In Love With You')
12 This Is My Quest (single 1970)
13 Giving Up On Love (b-side of 'This Is My Quest')
14 Daddy Don't Know About Sugar Bear (single 1972)  
15 We Need More (But Somebody Gotta Sacrifice) (b-side of 'Daddy Don't Know About 

                                                                                         Sugar Bear' with Ellis (Gripey) Taylor)
16 Live And Let Live (single 1972)
17 Don't Let Our Love Fade Away (b-side of 'Live And Let Live')
18 (Hey, You And You And You And You) I've Lived The Life (single 1975)
19 Nothing I'd Rather Be Than Your Weakness (b-side of '(Hey, You And You And You 

                                                                                                      And You) I've Lived The Life') 
20 (Get Ready For) The Changes (single as Marva & Melvin 1977)
21 All Alone I've Loved You (b-side of '(Get Ready For) The Changes')

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Nilsson (1971)

By 1958, Harry Nilsson was intrigued by emerging forms of popular music, especially rhythm and blues artists like Ray Charles, and he had made early attempts at performing by forming a vocal duo with his friend Jerry Smith and singing close harmonies in the style of the Everly Brothers. After learning to play the guitar and piano he started writing original songs, and after singing lessons courtesy of his uncle, along with his natural talent, he got a job singing demos for songwriter Scott Turner in 1962. After a couple of unsuccessful independent singles he started working with Phil Spector in 1964, writing three songs with him. In 1966 he signed to Tower Records, who released the first singles actually credited to him by name, as well as the debut album 'Spotlight On Nilsson', and although none of his Tower releases charted or gained much critical attention, his songs were being recorded by Glen Campbell, Fred Astaire, The Shangri-Las, The Yardbirds, and others. Later in 1966, he signed with RCA Victor and released the 'Pandemonium Shadow Show' album the following year, which was a critical success, with music industry insiders impressed both with the songwriting and with Nilsson's pure-toned, multi-octave vocals. 'Pandemonium Shadow Show' was followed in 1968 by 'Aerial Ballet', an album that included Nilsson's rendition of Fred Neil's song 'Everybody's Talkin'', which was a minor US hit at the time of release, but which became much more popular a year later when it was featured in the film 'Midnight Cowboy'. With the successes of 'Everybody's Talkin'' creating a demand for Nilsson recordings, a reissue of his first two RCA Victor albums, 'Pandemonium Shadow Show' and the out of print 'Aerial Ballet', was considered, but he thought that his early albums already sounded a bit dated by 1971, so he went back into the studio with the master tapes, and remixed, tweaked, and re-recorded vocals, and came up with a new consolidation that he titled 'Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'. This included four songs from 'Pandemonium Shadow Show' and eight songs from 'Aerial Ballet', and over the following years nearly all of these songs were picked up and covered by other artists. Because some of the tracks on 'Aerial Pandemonium Ballet' were his own covers of classics like 'River Deep, Mountain High' and 'Everybody's Talkin'', I've gone back to the original albums and added some of the tracks which were ignored in the re-issue, in order to make this post a reasonable length. Once again, it's a nice mix of famous and not so famous artists, all doing justice to some fine songs by Nilsson. 

Track listing

01 Introduction
02 1941 (Billy J. Kramer 1968)
03 Daddy's Song (The Casuals 1969)
04 Bath (Doris 1970) 
05 Sleep Late, My Lady Friend (Harry Belafonte 1968) 
06 Don't Leave Me (Hugo Montenegro 1969)
07 Without Her (Blood, Sweat & Tears 1968)
08 Together (Sandie Shaw 1968)
09 One (Three Dog Night 1969)
10 I Said Goodbye To Me (The Glass Menagerie 1968)
11 Little Cowboy (The Buffoons 1969)
12 Wailing Of The Willow (Friday Brown 1971)
13 Cuddly Toy (The Fruit Machine 1968)
14 It's Been So Long (Kenny Everett 1968)
15 Ten Little Indians (The Yardbirds 1967)
16 Closing

North & South - Allsorts (1998)

North & South were formed by former manager of East 17, Tom Watkins, as the fictional boy band in the 1997 BBC sitcom  'No Sweat'. The group was made up of James Hurst, Lee Otter, Tom Lowe (who later appeared on American Idol) and Sam Chapman, and in the television show they were called Jimmy, Greg, Miles and Giles. The guys got the job of being in a band and television show by responding to an ad they saw on teletext, and Mark Read of A1 was originally meant to be in the band, but dropped out. 'No Sweat' ran for two seasons, the first in 1997, followed by season 2 in 1998, and the first episode was set in Brighton, and centred around Jimmy moving to Brighton with his overbearing mother. He made friends with Greg and decided to form a band to get girls and money, and with the addition of two guys from a rival school, they formed a group called North & South. They released their debut single later in 1997 with 'I'm A Man Not A Boy', which reached number 7 in the UK charts, and ended up as the 72nd biggest selling single of that year. A second single followed with 'Tarantino's New Star', but despite heavy promotion it only reached number 18 in the charts. They still went on to sell out a tour of the UK, and they supported ex-Take That's Mark Owen on the European leg of his first solo tour. They finished 1997 with their third single 'Breathing', but it could only just scrape into the top 30, reaching number 27 in the charts. The second series of 'No Sweat' had low ratings, and the fourth single 'No Sweat 98', a remixed version of the TV show's theme song, only reached 29 in the charts, so BMG Entertainment decided to shelve their 'Allsorts' album, and the band broke up soon afterwards. Although they were a manufactured band, it never did The Monkees any harm, and an album release might have given them some credibility, especially as it included a cover of Devo's 'Whip it'. However, it wasn't to be, and so here it is for you to decide if it would have been the hit that they hoped for.  

Track listing

01 I'm A Man Not A Boy
02 Tarantino's New Star
03 Breathing
04 No Sweat
05 Whip It
06 Atomic Love
07 Cold As Ice
08 It's Too Late
09 Moonboy
10 I Wanna Dance With You

11 I Won't Let You Down

12 She's Not There

13 Invisible Man

14 Heads Or Tails

Honeyz - Harmony (2001)

In 1997, Mercury Records cultivated the UK girl group Essence, made up of Heavenli Abdi and Celena Cherry, with the duo being hailed as an R&B alternative to the Spice Girls, and intended as a direct rival to American girl group Destiny's Child. While Cherry admitted that Essence was "an OK name, but it wasn't really hitting it", it was changed to Honeyz after a chance remark overheard outside the Subterranea nightclub, and in 1998, Naima Belkhiati joined the line-up and the group, when they were officially named as Honeyz. Their debut single, 'Finally Found' was released in August 1998 and peaked at number four in the UK Singles Chart, and remains their biggest hit, introducing the trio to the British public and going on to sell more than 350,000 copies. The follow-up, 'End Of The Line', notched up similar sales figures, peaking at number five, and their debut album 'Wonder No.8' went gold in the UK with sales of over 200,000 copies. Aside from their success in the United Kingdom, they also found fame in the Netherlands, Italy, and Australia, while in the US they signed to Def Jam/Island. Between the video shoot for the group's third single 'Love Of A Lifetime' and their second promotional trip to Australia in March 1999, Abdi decided to quit the group for personal reasons, citing creative differences with Cherry, homesickness, unhappiness with touring internationally, and wanting to start a solo career and spend more time with her boyfriend. As a result of Abdi's sudden departure, the group lost their US deal with Def Jam, but her departure did open up an opportunity for former Solid HarmoniE vocalist Mariama Goodman to join, and the new line-up continued promotion for 'Love Of A Lifetime', which reached number 9 in the UK charts. October 1999 saw the release of their fourth single, 'Never Let You Down', a new track recorded for inclusion on a repackaged version of 'Wonder No.8', and the first single to feature Goodman's vocals, and it entered the UK Singles Chart at number 7, giving the group their fourth consecutive top 10 hit. 

They picked up nominations for 'Best Newcomer' and 'Best R&B Act' categories at the 1999 MOBO awards, and performed their next single 'Won't Take It Lying Down' at the ceremony, with the February 2000 release giving them their last top 10 hit. By summer 2000, they had recorded 'Not Even Gonna Trip' as the first single to be taken from a planned forthcoming album, and it was also the chosen single from the 'Nutty Professor II: The Klumps' original soundtrack. It was during the run-up to the single release in August that Goodman announced her departure from Honeyz, due to constant clashing with Belkhiati. Cherry and Belkhiati were faced with an uncertain future, and their management took the decision to bring Abdi back into the group, against the wishes of the other two members of the group. Abdi's vocals were recorded for the new single, and her return was announced, but when 'Not Even Gonna Trip' was released it failed to reach the top 20. They continued to work on their second album, 'Harmony', and almost a year after Abdi's return, they released a new single 'I Don't Know', but with minimal exposure and promotion, it didn't even chart as high as their previous one, stalling at number 28. The 'Talk To The Hand' single came out in late 2001, but as a result of strained relations between Abdi and Cherry, Mercury decided to simply drop the group, cancelling the release of 'Harmony' as a result. Following this setback, and a departure from their management, the group decided to go their separate ways in 2003. Promo copies of the record had been sent out before its cancellation, and so we can hear the result of their hard work over those two years, and it actually contains vocals from both Goodman and Abdi, despite them having never been in the band at the same time, as Goodman left in the middle of the recording sessions and Abdi re-joined immediately afterwards. 

Track listing

1 Talk To The Hand 
2 I Don't Know  
3 Just As I Am  
4 More Than One Night 
5 Avalanche 
6 Best Man 
7 This Is Not A Game  
8 Do You Wish It Were Yesterday 
9 No 
10 Just A Little To The Left  
11 I Need You Now
12 Senorita Bonita 
13 When The Show's Over  
14 Love Is Strange
15 Get Down Tonight  
16 Do You Wanna Go Home With A Honey  
17 Not Even Gonna Trip