Tori Holub - Something To Believe In (2024)

I don't usually post at the weekend as that's normally taken up with getting things ready for posting during the week, but on Friday I stumbled on a Youtube video titled 'Is THIS Karen Carpenter's voice reincarnated', and I couldn't possibly turn that down, could I? I watched the video, expecting it to be about some X Factor contestant with a passing resemblance to that flawless vocal, but it turned out that Tori Holub really does have the most perfect voice, and her effortless vocal style could easily be mistaken for Karen Carpenter, and so I spent the rest of the weekend checking out her Youtube posts, and just felt that I had to post this now and get her name out there. Obviously she puts this vocal resemblance to good use, and has covered quite a number of Carpenter's songs, but she's also picked other classic tracks from the 70's and covered those as well, and so this proves that she isn't just a Karen Carpenter tribute act. The only downside is that she's very much into her Tok Tok, and so most of the videos that are posted on Youtube are only one minute long, although luckily she has collaborated with Jim MIDI Doctor, who has gathered some of his friends to help out, and with the assistance of Gary Badger on trumpets and flugelhorns, Ynping Mak on violins, Yoann Palacio on drums and Clayton Whisenant on bass, they've recorded a complete band version of 'We've Only Just Begun'. She has actually released a single as well, which is the title track of this album, plus three Christmas songs, and one more full length Carpenter's track, with her version of 'Superstar', but the piece de resistance is her take on a Bacharach/David medley. This is done live in the studio to a pre-recorded backing tape in one take, and you can see her accept the challenge and complete this in the Youtube video here. As well as being a superb singer and musician, she is also an aspiring audio engineer, and so all the vocals that you hear are hers, multi-tracked to provide the harmonies that she then sings along to. As well as the afore-mentioned songs, I've also found a recording of 'Georgia On My Mind', and to give an idea of the Tik Tok videos that she's posting, I've taken a bunch of them and compiled a Beatles medley and a 70's medley of the one minute snippets. Once you've listened to this album then do check out Youtube and Tik Tok here to listen to more of her music, and when she's a global star then remember where you heard her first.

Track listing
 
01 We've Only Just Begun
02 Merry Christmas. Darling
03 Georgia On My Mind
04 My Christmas Dreams
05 Something To Believe In
06 Beatles Medley
07 Superstar
08 Bacharach/David Medley
09 Christmas Again
10 70's Medley

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)

Christina Milian - Elope (2009)

Christina Milian Flores was born on 26 September 1981 in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was four years old when she showed an interest in show business, and when her family realized that she was a talented actress, she became determined to pursue an entertainment career. By the time she was nine years old, she was auditioning with local talent agencies, shooting commercials for Wendy's and Honeycomb, and landing the lead role in the musical 'Annie'. When her mother noticed her daughter's potential, she left her husband and moved to Los Angeles with her three daughters, and once there the 13-year old Christina was determined to become an actress, as well as wanting to get into the record business, although she didn't know how to obtain a recording contract. After living in Los Angeles for six months, she moved into the same apartment complex as songwriter and producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, and when he heard about her from a boy band he was involved with, they began working together. For a year and a half, Milian went into a studio every day and worked with Jerkins, which is where she started meeting people in the record business, and by the age of 17 she was writing songs as she needed a demo to help her obtain a recording contract. 

Her first professional musical appearance was on rapper Ja Rule's second studio album 'Rule 3:36' in 2000, performing vocals on the song 'Between Me And You', and this led to to a record deal with Def Soul Records, who sent her to Sweden to record her self-titled debut album. This was released on 9 October 2001 in the UK, and peaked at number 23 in the album chart, although its domestic release in the US was cancelled, primarily because of the September 11 attacks. The critical response to the album was mixed to generally positive, but she was not happy with it, as she felt that it was not what the public expected, and she told her company executives that they were not listening to her when she told them the sort of music she wanted to record. However, after a couple more singles, Def Soul was shut down in 2003 and absorbed by its parent Def Jam, although Milian was instead moved over to Island Records. After the international release of her debut album, she went back into the recording studio, but felt that music trends had changed into rock music, hardcore hip hop and tribute songs, and as her music did not fall into those categories she decided to stop recording and toured overseas for a year and a half. When she returned to the US, she decided not to release her previous album domestically, and started working on a new album, and 'It's About Time' was released in the US on 13 July 2004. 

Once again, the critical response to the album was mixed, but Milian insisted that it was more R&B when compared to her "bubble-gum" pop debut album, and it did debut at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Whereas her previous albums had pop and then R&B stylings, she was encouraged by Island Def Jam to target a new audience, and release an urban record. Although she was originally supposed to work with several different music producers, she felt that the chemistry she had with Cool & Dre in the first week was so instant that she couldn't get a better vibe, and so ended up working with them on the majority of the production of the album. When 'So Amazin'' was released in May 2006 it debuted at number eleven on the Billboard 200 albums chart, although for the third time, critical reviews were mixed, saying that while she claimed that she was displaying the various sides of her personality, the album could only scratch the surface of who she really was. A week after the album was released it was confirmed that she had been dropped by Island Def Jam, and for two years she was without a record label, until she signed to MySpace Records in 2008. When she was featured on the cover of Rap-Up's 2008 Winter issue, she announced that her new album's title was 'Dream in Color', and a single was released in October 2008, with the ballad 'Us Against The World' being written by Milian and produced by Madd Scientist. 

In early 2009 she began working with The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, and she later revealed that aside from 'Us Against The World', they would be producing all the songs on her album. It was originally set for an early 2009 release date, however, for reasons unknown, it was was never released, and Milian left MySpace Records later that same year, signing a new record deal with The-Dream’s record label, Radio Killa Records. She later retitled the album 'Elope', explaining that "the definition of elope is to run away secretly with one's beloved. This next album is about taking responsibility for yourself and making your own decisions". In June 2009, The-Dream confirmed that the album was finished, but for similar unknown reasons as 'Dream In Color', it was shelved, possibly because she broke up with The-Dream, and left Radio Killa Records. In August 2009, she confirmed that she had signed a deal to release 'Elope' through Interscope Records, with a 2010 release date, but despite announcing that she was going back into the studio in the summer to record more material, the record has never appeared, either as 'Dream In Color' or 'Elope'. So that her work on the thirty or so songs that she laid down is not wasted, here is an approximation of the 'Elope' album, with about two thirds made up of confirmed tracks, and the rest taken from the scrapped 'Dream In Color' sessions.  

Track listing

01 Elope 
02 Sock It 2 Me  
03 I'm Not Perfect 
04 Super Villain  
05 Take A Piece of My Heart 
06 I Gotta Get To You 
07 Diamonds (feat. Kanye West)
08 Too New (feat. The-Dream) 
09 My Bloody Valentine 
10 Supersonic (feat. The-Dream) 
11 Sugar Rush
12 Stay
13 Zipper
14 Chameleon 

Flint - Device #1 (2003)

Flint was a punk rock band created by Keith Flint of The Prodigy, consisting of Flint on lead vocals, Jim Davies (formerly of Pitchshifter) on guitar, Rob Holliday on bass, and Kieron Pepper & Tony Howlett on drums. The band performed several gigs, their first being a brief set at the inaugural Download Festival in June 2003, and they released their debut single 'Asteroids' on 19 May 2003, as a pink, limited edition 10" vinyl single. The second single ,'Aim 4', was released on 14 July 2003, with a video directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who also directed the promo for The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up'. Following the release of 'Aim 4', the band planned to release their debut album 'Device #1' on 28 July 2003, but the release was pulled by the label, and shortly after its cancellation the band decided to split up. Flint then went on to form a project titled Clever Brains Fryin', while Davies put together Victory Pill. The album was originally planned to contain 13 punk-rock tracks, and a promo disc did slip out in a limited edition in the UK, but is now nigh on impossible to find, so here is that promo, with the b-side of the 'Aim 4' single tagged onto the end. The track 'NNNN (No Name No Number)' was later revisited and remixed by Flint's The Prodigy band-mate Liam Howlett into the Prodigy track 'Baby's Got A Temper', released in 2002, and 'Razor' appeared on 'The Prodigy - Their Law - The Singles 1990-2005' under the same name, although slightly re-edited.

Track listing

01 Asteroids
02 Piggy
03 Laughs
04 Aim 4
05 Hell Yeah
06 Kamikaze
07 Prescription
08 Ju Ju
09 Femme Fatale
10 Inflow
11 Vacation
12 Razor
13 NNNN (No Name No Number)
14 Danny

Camila Cabello - Eyes On You (2020)

In June 2019 Camila Cabello released the single 'Señorita' with Canadian singer Shawn Mendes, and it debuted at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, earning a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Following the release of four singles from her forthcoming album in September and October, her second record, 'Romance', appeared in December 2019, peaking at Number 3 on the US Billboard 200. On 23 July 2021 she released 'Don't Go Yet' as the lead single from her third studio album 'Familia', which was announced alongside the release of the single, and in October she released 'Oh Na Na' with Myke Towers and Tainy, which was not to be included on the album. 'Familia' was named by Forbes as one of the most anticipated pop albums of 2022, but before that appeared, her film adaptation of Cinderella was released in September to select theatres, and also digitally on Amazon Prime Video, and it became the most-watched streaming movie over the Labour Day weekend, as well as the most-watched movie musical in 2021. Although it received mixed reviews from critics, Cabello's performance was praised, with Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times saying "she has a real knack for comedy". 

In November 2021 she released a cover of Bing Crosby's 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' exclusively on Amazon Music, reaching number two on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100, and in December it was announced that she would open for Coldplay during the Latin American leg of their Music of the Spheres World Tour, later appearing with them in Colombia, Peru and Chile. With still no sign of 'Familia', a collaboration with Ed Sheeran titled 'Bam Bam' was released in March 2022, and then in April the long-awaited 'Familia' was released, accompanied by a virtual TikTok concert 'immersive performance' titled "Familia: Welcome to the Family". The record was met with positive reviews from critics, being praised for being "an imperfect yet revealing mosaic of Cabello's Cuban and Mexican heritage". 'Familia' debuted at number 10 on the US Billboard 200, marking Cabello's third Top ten album, and after performing at the UEFA Champions League Final on 28 May, she announced that she would be a coach on the US version of The Voice for its twenty-second season, replacing Kelly Clarkson. Once 'Romance' and 'Familia' had been released, there were more demos and out-takes left over which didn't make the final cuts, and so for a second collection from the singer, I've gather up the best of them from around 2019/2020, plus a few demos from her Fifth Harmony days, for another album which fans could well have done with being released during the long wait for 'Familia' to appear in 2022.

Track listing

01 Anyone 

02 Terrified

03 U Shaped Space

04 Taxi

05 The Exchange

06 Eyes On You 

07 Cozy Dolla Bill$

08 Cinderella

09 Leave For Good

10 Only Told The Moon

11 Despacitpo (Llama Llama Red Pyjama) 

12 Not Killin' It Today 

13 Knows Me

14 Thief Looks Like An Angel

Cast - All Our Days (2001)

John Power was previously the bass player, backing vocalist and only constant member along with Lee Mavers in The La's, but he left the band on 13 December 1991 after becoming frustrated with the ever-increasing number of aborted studio sessions, having played essentially the same set of songs since 1986. Having emerged as a songwriter in his own right, he later commented that by that point he was more interested in his own songs than anyone else's, and so set about forming his own band. Having switched from bass to rhythm guitar whilst residing at Brucklay House, he began jamming with friends, and Cast gradually emerged. The first addition to the band was ex-Shack bassist Peter Wilkinson, while embryonic line-ups of the band featured several guitarists, including Ged Malley and ex-La's member Barry Sutton. This line-up started gigging, but Power was never really happy with it, and so he split the band up and extricated himself from his Go! Discs contract in summer 1993. He set about forming a new line-up, keeping Wilkinson and recruiting Keith O'Neill, who had previously played in The Empty Hours, The Windmills and Tommy Scott's pre-Space band The Australians. An old college friend of Wilkinson's was guitarist Liam 'Skin' Tyson, who joined the band in November 1993, and the new line-up played their first gig in Hull in January 1994. Within months they had secured high-profile support slots with Elvis Costello on two UK tours, and Oasis, and it was during the latter tour that Polydor head of A&R Paul Adam approached the band to sign them, with them joining the label on 13 December 1994, three years to the day that Power left The La's. 

The band released their debut single 'Finetime' in July 1995, which went straight in at No. 17 on the UK singles Chart, while the follow-up, 'Alright', an old La's song originally written and performed under the original title 'Fly On', managed to peak four placed higher.  The band's John Leckie-produced debut album, 'All Change', was released in October 1995, and it shot straight in at No. 7 in the UK charts, going on to become the fastest selling debut album in the history of the Polydor label, and both 'Sandstorm' and 'Walkaway' were top ten hit singles. A stand-alone single was released in October 1996 titled 'Flying', giving the group their highest chart position in the UK where it reached number 4. Their second album, 'Mother Nature Calls', was released in April 1997, and was made up of rockier material that was now sounding looser and cockier in a Stonesy or Faces-ish way. It  peaked at No. 3, and staying in the Top 40 for over 6 months, while four singles were released from the record, which were all top twenty hits. The album received largely mixed reviews in the press, but Power later claimed that this was because it was more of a slow burner than the more instant 'All Change', and apparently a number of critics later told him that repeated listens had changed their perceptions of it. By the time the band set to work on their third album, 'Magic Hour', the Britpop movement was faltering, with a number of their contemporaries disbanding or being dropped by their labels, and so they enlisted Gil Norton as their producer, who had previously produced Pixies, and moved towards a heavier riff based sound. 

The first single from 'Magic Hour' was 'Beat Mama', with the band using loops and samples on the record for the first to give the material a more modern feel, but it was to be their last top ten hit, peaking at No. 9 in a chart now awash with teen pop. The album was issued in May 1999 and shot to No. 6 in the UK albums chart, but only one more single was released from it, and that could get no higher than No. 28. Power began writing in early 2000 for the follow-up, 'Beetroot', which was released in July 2001, and although the band were initially set to work with John Leckie again, Power had met producer and programmer Tristin Norwell who he was interested in working with, and the pair worked on the album together for three months before moving to another studio, where other members of the band contributed. The resulting record was very much based on loops, and featured heavy use of horns and flutes, deliberately moving away from the usual guitar sound, as Power claimed that the band wanted to come back with something that felt fresh and enticing. Only one single was released from the album, with 'Desert Drought' stalling at No. 45 in the charts, and the album fared even worse, only crawling in at No. 78. Following the cancellation of a planned UK Autumn tour due to "internal band circumstances", Cast split in August 2001 just one month after the release of 'Beetroot', with this last album being blamed, as it seemed that some of the band didn't like it, and looking back, Power admitted that it should have been a solo album. 

Following the split, Power released an actual solo album entitled 'Happening For Love' in 2003 through Eagle Rock Entertainment, followed by two further albums more in the acoustic folk vein through Tanuki Tanuki, a label set up by former La's A&R man and his then manager Jona Cox. Peter Wilkinson, along with the band's live keyboardist Paul Ellison, joined Echo & The Bunnymen and appeared on the 2005 album 'Siberia', before leaving shortly after to re-join the re-formed Shack. Tyson joined Robert Plant's band Strange Sensation in early 2002, touring Plant's album 'Dreamland' before appearing on and co-writing the follow-up 'Mighty ReArranger'. On 22 June 2010 it was officially announced that Cast were to re-form, with plans to work on new material, and they released their fifth studio album, 'Troubled Times', produced by John Leckie, as a download to pledgers through Pledgemusic on 2 November 2011, followed by a physical release in March 2012. Despite this much-anticipated come-back, I think even their most ardent fans would have to admit that their finest hour was that half-decade between 1995 and 2001, and it was also when they were at their most prolific, adding two or three extra songs to every single that they released, so here they all are in one place, alongside a couple of choice out-takes, to remind us of just what a great band they were.  

Track listing

Disc I - 1995-1997
01 Better Man (b-side of 'Finetime' 1995)
02 Satellites (b-side of 'Finetime' 1995)
03 Follow Me Down (b-side of 'Alright' 1995)
04 Meet Me (b-side of 'Alright' 1995)
05 Hourglass (b-side of 'Sandstorm' 1996)
06 All My Days (out-take 1995)
07 Walkaway (Strings version) (single 1996)
08 Fulfill (b-side of 'Walkaway')
09 Mother (b-side of 'Walkaway')
10 Flying (single 1996)
11 Between The Eyes (b-side of 'Flying')
12 For So Long (b-side of 'Flying')

Disc II - 1997
01 Come On Everybody (b-side of 'Free Me' 1997)
02 Canter (b-side of 'Free Me' 1997)
03 Release My Soul (b-side of 'Free Me' 1997)
04 Dancing On The Flames (b-side of 'Free Me' 1997)
05 Hold On (b-side of 'Live The Dream' 1997)
06 Flow (b-side of 'Live The Dream' 1997)
07 Effectomatic Who (b-side of 'Live The Dream' 1997)
08 Out Of The Blue (b-side of 'Guiding Star' 1997)
09 Keep It Alive (b-side of 'Guiding Star' 1997)
10 Redemption Song (b-side of 'Guiding Star' 1997)

Disc III - 1997-2001
01 The Things You Make Me Do (b-side of 'I'm So Lonely' 1997)
02 Theme From (b-side of 'I'm So Lonely' 1997)
03 Get On You (b-side of 'Beat Mama' 1999)
04 3 Nines Are 28 (b-side of 'Beat Mama' 1999)
05 Hoedown (b-side of 'Beat Mama' 1999)
06 Whiskey Song (b-side of 'Beat Mama' 1999)
07 Gyspy Song (b-side of 'Magic Hour' 1999)
08 I Never Wanna Lose You (b-side of 'Magic Hour' 1999)
09 What You Gonna Do? (b-side of 'Magic Hour' 1999)
10 The Seeker (out-take 1999)
11 Cobwebs (b-side of 'Desert Drought' 2001)

Kelis - Amphibious (2001)

Following the massive success of her debut album, 'Kaleidoscope', in 1999, Kelis set about recording songs for her second record 'Wanderland'. The sessions were completed in 2001, but according to the singer, when they were presented to Virgin Records the executives didn't understand it, and so she subsequently left the label around the time of the album's European release, resulting in the record not being released at all in the United States. In order to produce something that could be released in the US, a plan was hatched to re-record tracks from 'Wanderland' with live instruments, and to get Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes, to produce the replacement, to be called 'Amphibious'. It was intended to be a more acoustic-leaning version of 'Wanderland', but this plan never came to fruition, as Kelis' new record label Arista urged her to follow a different direction for her material, which resulted in the 'Tasty' album appearing in 2003. It remains unclear what tracks were due to make the cut on 'Amphibious', although rumour has it that the original version of 'Popular Thug (feat. Nas)' was slated to be the effort's lead single, although this has never been officially confirmed by Kelis' camp. Various recordings have surfaced, some as hidden tracks on re-issues of 'Wanderland', while other Neptunes' tracks have leaked over the years, and so we are able to construct a very rough track listing for the album, which does include some new versions of 'Wanderland' songs, but mostly consists of new recordings with The Neptunes.   

Track listing

01 Rain (Intro)
02 Oasis 
03 So Be It  
04 Star Wars 
05 Finest Dreams (Part 2) (feat. Richard X)  
06 Freak Me Slow 
07 Harlem Streets (feat. Raphael Saadiq)

08 Popular Thug (feat. Nas)
09 The Spot
10 This Way  
11 I Don't Care Anymore

Ariana Grande - Do You Love Me? (2020)

For the third and final instalment of demos and rarities from Ariana Grande I'm featuring out-takes mostly from the 'Thank U, Next' and 'Positions' albums. 

Track listing  

01 Dream
02 He Had It Comin'
03 Still On Ur Mind
04 Eternally
05 Nobody (feat. Chaka Khan)
06 Solo
07 How I Look On You
08 No Free Promo (Interlude)
09 Jada (Like That)

10 Could Be Us
11 Not OK

12 Lessons
13 Do You Love Me?
14 Juice
15 Sweet Dreams
16 In The Moment

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)

Nicole Scherzinger - Still Here (2007)

When Nicole Scherzinger started thinking about a solo career while still a member of The Pussycat Dolls, she dipped a toe in the waters by collaborating with a number of other artists during 2006 and 2007, and singing on their records. These included Avant's 'Lie About Us', Diddy's 'Come To Me', Vittorio Grigolo's 'You Are My Miracle', 50 Cent's 'Fire', and Timbaland's 'Scream', and soon afterwards she started to release singles under her own name, although none made any significant impact on the Billboard charts. Work on her solo album carried on throughout 2006 and early 2007, and at one point she probably had about 30 songs to choose from. About a dozen of the best were selected to appear on her debut album 'Her Name Is Nicole', but the release was pushed back a couple of times, before Scherzinger herself requested that it be shelved so that she could concentrate her efforts on the Pussycat Dolls' second album, 'Doll Domination'. At this point all of her solo recordings were consigned to the vaults, and 'Doll Domination' appeared in 2008, with the group embarking on a worldwide tour in support of it, commencing in January 2009 and lasting most of the year. In 2010 Scherzinger left the Pussycat Dolls, and the time was right to re-ignite her solo career, but rather than revisit her 2006/2007 recordings she wrote new material, and those old songs have remained unreleased. I've already posted a reconstruction of the 'Her Name Is Nicole' album here, and so this post is made up of the left-over songs from those sessions, but they are anything but inferior filler, and this collection is probably just as good as her proposed 2008 album.  

  
Track listing

01 Erotica Revolution
01 Psycho
03 I'll Be Your Love
04 Steam (feat. Eva)
05 I'm A Cheat
06 Loser
07 Whatever Happens
08 Get Em Ready (Ladies)
09 Break Yo Chest
10 Punchin' (Punch You In Your Sleep)
11 Still Here
12 Winning Women (feat. Rihanna)

The Jonas Brothers - V (2013)

The Jonas Brothers formed in 2005, and gained popularity from their appearances on the Disney Channel television network. They consist of three brothers: Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas, who in 2005 recorded 'Please Be Mine', their first song to be recorded, and on hearing the song, Columbia Records president Steve Greenberg decided to sign the brothers as a group. For their first album, titled 'It's About Time', the band collaborated with several writers, including Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), Michael Mangini (Joss Stone), Desmond Child (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi), Billy Mann (Destiny's Child, Jessica Simpson) and Steve Greenberg. The album was initially supposed to be released in February 2006, but was pushed back several times, due to executive changes at Sony, and the executives' desire to have "another lead single" on the album. The brothers covered two hit songs by UK band Busted – 'Year 3000' and 'What I Go To School For', and 'It's About Time' was finally released in August 2006. Because Sony was not interested in further promoting the band, the Jonas Brothers considered switching labels, and in 2007 they signed with Hollywood Records, and their self-titled second album was released in August 2007, reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 200 chart in its first week. 

At the same time, they guest-starred in an episode of the Disney Channel show 'Hannah Montana' titled 'Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas'. Their third studio album, 'A Little Bit Longer', was released in the United States in August 2008, and iTunes announced that it would release four songs from it, one roughly every two weeks, and the purchase of each of the songs applied to the cost of the entire album, which could be purchased via iTunes 'Complete The Album' feature after release. In 2008 they made their film debut in the Disney Channel Original Movie 'Camp Rock', in which they played a band called Connect Three, but it was released to mixed reviews. In July 2008 they announced on stage that they had already written five songs for their fourth studio album, and a feature in the July 2008 issue of Rolling Stone magazine made them the youngest band to be on the cover of the magazine. The brothers finished recording their fourth studio album, 'Lines, Vines And Trying Times', and began to talk about the album in the beginning of 2009, announcing a release date of 15 June 2009, and that it would be preceded by two singles, 'Paranoid' and 'Fly With Me'. When 'Lines, Vines And Trying Times' was released it debuted at number one on the Billboard chart, becoming their second No. 1 album. 

In 2011 the brothers took a hiatus to focus on their solo careers, with Joe releasing his debut album 'Fastlife', Nick embarked on a tour with his band Nick Jonas & the Administration, and Kevin studied music production. In addition, they parted ways with Hollywood Records, and despite rumours that they had split, Kevin said the band would release new material in the future. In August 2012, two years after they last worked together, they announced a new concert tour, and a preview of the song 'Meet You In Paris' was released on Cambio. Their fifth studio album, which would have been their first not to be released through Hollywood Records, was scheduled to be released in 2013, and would be titled 'V' (pronounced: Five). A lead single, 'Pom Pom', was released on 2 April 2013, followed by a second, 'First Time', in June, but trouble was brewing on their tour, and in October they cancelled 23 tour dates between October and December, citing a "deep rift within the band" over creative differences. On 29 October 2013, the Jonas Brothers officially confirmed their split, and announced that their fifth album wouldn't be released, although some of the songs would feature on a live album that would appear in the future, titled 'LiVe', with the letter "V" in caps as a reference to their would-be fifth studio album. One track from the cancelled album is proving extremely elusive, with 'Sandbox' still unreleased after a decade, but all the other tracks have surfaced, so here is The Jonas Brothers' cancelled 'V' from 2013. 

Track listing

01 Pom Poms
02 Wedding Bells
03 Mr. Nice Guy
04 Neon
05 First Time
06 Let's Go (feat. Karmin)
07 What Do I Mean
08 Don't Say
09 The World
10 Found

Dua Lipa - Twisted Paradise (2017)

We close this quartet of albums from Dua Lipa with one final collection of songs recorded before the release of her debut album in 2017. But fans needn't worry, as there's more to come from 2020 later on. 

Track listing

01 Beg For It
02 Used To Know
03 That Girl At The Party
04 Cryptic
05 Good Things
06 21 Grams
07 On My Own
08 Daddy
09 Twisted Paradise
10 Lions & Tigers & Bears
11 Terms And Conditions 
12 Hard Liquor
13 Six Feet Under
14 Bite The Bullet (feat. Trey Campbell)

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 45 (2019)

The next episode of Mike Solof's 90's radio show is a favourite of mine, as it features various covers of one Beatles' song. While was digging through the internet one day. Mike thought that although it’s kind of true that 'Yesterday' was the most covered song that the Beatles ever did, to his surprise he also found hundreds of covers of the song 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. This seems like such an odd choice, not only being an Indian bass tune, but also that it's based on just one chord, that you'd think it would be too monotonous to tackle. However, he soon discovered that there were many, many, many different covers that he was able to find, very few of which sounded the same, and so he soon had an entire hour's worth for an episode of his show. It's a testament to Mike's deep diving skills that despite the fact that this whole show plays just one song, your attention doesn't wander, and you don't lose interest until The Beatles/The Chemical Brothers have closed the show with their own rendition of the track.

Track listing

01 Episode 45 - Tomorrow Never Knows