Elvis Presley - He Touched Me (1972)

Elvis Presley recorded three gospel albums during his career, and this is the third and final of them, being distinct from both of his previous LPs as it was not only recorded five years after the prior album, but included a far different set of songs and musicians. This is his contemporary gospel record, including material from Bill Gaither (the title song), Andraé Crouch ('I've Got Confidence'), and Dallas Frazier ('He Is My Everything'), with vocal backgrounds from the Imperials and J.D. Sumner & the Stamps, and the instrumental arrangements leave space for electric guitar and electric bass. Though it's spiritual, it doesn't have the sacred feel of 1960's 'His Hand in Mine' or the first half of 1966's 'How Great Thou Art', and a number of the tracks were overdubbed with strings and horns after recording was completed. On a recent box set of Nashville sessions, the original undubbed versions of the songs were included, which was a thrill for the Elvis Today blog....until they heard them. Here is their opinion of the undubbed versions:

Having listened to the undubbed Christmas masters from Elvis 'Back In Nashville' all through the Holidays, I decided to turn my attention to the undubbed religious masters on the same CD set. Just like the Christmas masters, the track order is identical to the original album, in this case 'He Touched Me' released in 1972. The exception is 'Amazing Grace' which is included on disc one among The Country/Folk Sides. Unlike the Christmas material, the religious songs were recorded with background singers present in the studio, and most of the tracks were then left undubbed for release on the 'He Touched Me' album. I guess this was a decision on producer Felton Jarvis part, mimicking the sound of Elvis singing gospel privately with his friends and backup singers to help unwind after a show. A look in my well thumbed copy of 'Elvis Session III' by Joe Tunzi revealed that only four of the religious songs on the 'He Touched Me' album were overdubbed: 'Amazing Grace' and 'I, John' (both with more backup vocals), 'He Is My Everything' (with strings) and 'A Thing Called Love' (with strings and horns). Still, I was looking forward to the whole undubbed 'He Touched Me' experience, and it started well. The title track and album opener was as moving and soothing as ever, and the sound crystal clear. Then followed the more modern up tempo Christian number 'I've Got Confidence', sounding fantastic with the electrical guitar more prominent and the song lasting about 25 seconds longer than on the original album, with frantic hand clapping and the band cooking. What a treat! Next up was another pleasant surprise. 

Usually, when I listen to 'Amazing Grace', I almost wonder if Elvis is there at all due to all the backing vocals. But in the undubbed format, I noticed that Elvis' voice was more up front and the background singers more in the, well, background. The whole thing sounded so much clearer and less muddled. I then turned my attention to 'Seeing Is Believing', with electrical sparks flying from James Burton's guitar. As always, it reminded me of  'I've Got Confidence', and I noticed another few extra seconds at the ending here as well. I bet the writer of the song, Red West, was in the studio listening. How exciting it must have been for him to hear this. I was then unexpectedly disappointed, as while I listened to 'He Is My Everything' without the strings, I noticed that the original backing singers were gone, too. Slightly confused and irritated, my spirits lifted with the help of the next track, 'Bosom Of Abraham'. I always find it irresistible and infectious, reminding me of some of the spirituals on Elvis' earlier religious albums. The interaction between Elvis and the Imperials is pure joy. In my imagination, I then flipped the album to the B-side. The two first numbers, 'An Evening Prayer' and 'Lead Me, Guide Me' sounded beautiful as always, maybe even more so in this new mix. But then surprise, as disappointment struck again. 

As was the case of 'He Is My Everything', the background vocals had been eliminated on 'There Is No God But God'. Although a pleasant enough song, in my opinion it really benefits from the backing vocalists responding to Elvis' singing. Fortunately, the rest of the tracks from 'He Touched Me' were left undubbed as they were recorded in the studio. 'A Thing Called Love' without the strings and horns worked well, even though bass singer Armond Morales' vocals were mixed down (in the original recording he is singing in union with Elvis throughout the song). 'I, John' sounded more like a gospel quartet song without the overdubbed female singers and 'Reach Out To Jesus' ended with the passionate ending I remember so well. Two more religious tracks were recorded during the Nashville sessions 1971, and they are included after the 'He Touched Me' tracks. 'Put Your Hand In The Hand' and 'Miracle Of The Rosary' were eventually saved for 'Elvis Now', but it's evident they would have fit on Elvis' third religious album as well. All in all, I enjoyed the undubbed version of 'He Touched Me', but it annoyed me that two of the tracks had their backing vocals removed. It also rhymes badly with what is written in the booklet: NOTE: As the vocal interaction between Elvis and the backing singers is deemed fundamental to the gospel performances, they have been left as originally intended by Elvis and A&R man Felton Jarvis.

To put things right with this new version of this album, I've removed the strings from 'He Is My Everything', but left the backing vocals intact, and also run 'There Is No God But God' through the programme in case there were any strings hidden away on there, and slotted both of them back in among the other undubbed tracks. I've also removed the horns and strings from the original album version of 'A Thing Called Love' so that Armond Morales' vocals are back where they should be, and we now have the whole album as if it had been recorded in the studio and then pressed up and issued straight afterwards. I've also added those final two out-takes from the sessions, so that we have everything that was recorded at that time all in one place.

 
Track listing

01 He Touched Me
02 I've Got Confidence
03 Amazing Grace
04 Seeing Is Believing
05 He Is My Everything
06 Bosom Of Abraham
07 An Evening Prayer
08 Lead Me, Guide Me
09 There Is No God But God
10 A Thing Called Love
11 I, John
12 Reach Out To Jesus
13 Miracle Of The Rosary
14 Put Your Hand In The Hand

The Rockin' Berries - Across The Street (1968)

The Rockin' Berries were formed in the early '60s when guitarist Brian "Chuck" Botfield was performing with the Bobcats, a Birmingham band, at the Star Club in Hamburg. Several Bobcats broke off to form their own band, and Botfield brought in some Birmingham friends to regroup as the Rockin' Berries, with bassist Roy Austin, drummer Terry Bond, guitarist Geoff Turton, and singer Clive Lea. Vocal arrangements were the Berries' forte, with Lea taking the harder-rocking stuff and falsetto-voiced Turton pacing their most famous, Four Seasons-influenced material. After a couple of flop singles for Decca in 1963, the Rockin' Berries signed with the Pye subsidiary Piccadilly, and after a mild hit with a cover of the Shirelles' 'I Didn't Mean To Hurt You' in 9164, their cover of the Tokens' 'He's In Town', penned by star song-writing team Gerry Goffin and Carole King, took them to number three in the British charts in late 1964. 'He's In Town' was a gentle harmony number, like a less shrill Four Seasons, and the group turned to another cover of an American record, the Reflections' 'Poor Man's Son', for their follow-up. More sombre than 'He's In Town', this made number five in the U.K., while around the same time the band released a cash-in album, 'In Town', with a manic variety of material encompassing operatic ballads, R&B, harmony pop/rock, comedy, and the German 'Ich Liebe Dich', which was a fair success in Britain, making number 15. 

The Rockin' Berries' versatility, though a boon to their live work in enabling them to play more mainstream theatres and cabarets than some British Invasion acts, worked against them on record. They would frequently insert comic routines into their live shows, and their second album, 'Life Is Just A Bowl Of Berries', was half-occupied by terrible novelty/comedy numbers. They continued to record pop/rock by professional tunesmiths on their singles, including Goffin-King's 'You're My Girl', and material by British hitmakers John Carter, Ken Lewis, and Perry Ford, as well as a little-known tune co-written by a pre-Blues Project Al Kooper, 'The Water Is Over My Head'. Both 'You're My Girl' and 'The Water Is Over My Head' were minor British hits in 1965, but they couldn't seem to match the success of 'He's In Town', and so they continued to work on the cabaret circuit and record singles for Piccadilly and Pye through to 1968, when Turton left for a solo career, getting a Top 30 hit in the U.S. in early 1970 under the name of Jefferson with 'Baby Take Me in Your Arms'. Some of their singles should have been more successful, and they always took them more seriously than their live shows, so they could have collected the best of them together in 1968, added in a few out-takes from the vaults, and produced an album that would have surprised most people with its professionalism. However, by that time they'd pretty much given up with studio work, and so it wasn't to be....but if it had then it could have sounded very much like this.  

Track listing

01 The Water Is Over My Head
02 If You Find Somebody To Love
03 Sometimes
04 When I Reach The Top
05 Across The Street
06 Barterers And Their Wives
07 Money Grows On Trees
08 From One Who Knows
09 Mr. Blue
10 Land Of Love
11 Needs To Be
12 What Can I Do?
13 She's Not Like Any Girl
14 Pain
15 Yellow Rainbow
16 Goodnight

Marilyn Powell - All My Loving (1970)

Marilyn Powell was born in the Kennington borough of London, and started singing professionally in the sixties, taking to the stage at the age of three singing at concerts given by her local dancing school. In 1964 she signed to the Fontana Records label, and her first single was a cover of The Beatles' 'All My Loving', making her the first female singer to cover one of their songs for a single. Her next single of 1964 was a one-off recording for the Musicor Records label, with 'Please Go Away', and then she was back on Fontana for 1965's 'As Long As You Come Back To Me'. 1965 was her most productive year, with two more singles being released, and she followed those with 'Showdown' in 1966. That was her last record to appear on the Fontana label, as in 1968 she signed to CBS Records, and her first record for them was 'Kiss Me Again'. Things then slowed down a bit, with 'Have Another Dream On Me' appearing in 1969, followed by her final single 'Dear Madame' in 1970. During the 60's she also appeared on many TV shows, including 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' and 'The Simon Dee Show', and after a few years away from the record business she returned in 1978 with the 'For You' album on United Artists, which included songs written by some of the world's best songwriters, as well as some of her own. After some moderate success with that she followed it with 'Out Of Reach' in 1979 on the Manhattan label, and her most recent recordings are to be found on 1993's 'Seeds' album, but for many who remember her it was those 60's sides which evoke the best memories. So here is everything that she recorded in the 60's, topped off with an unreleased acetate of the song 'Brother Joe', year of recording unknown.

Track listing

01 All My Loving (single 1964)
02 After The Party (b-side of 'All My Loving')
03 Please Go Away (single 1964) 
04 Moon Of Yesterday (b-side of 'Please Go Away')
05 As Long As You Come Back To Me (single 1965)
06 Go Away (b-side of 'As Long As You Come Back To Me')
07 Where Did I Go Wrong? (b-side of Fontana re-issue of 'Please Go Away' 1965) 
08 Showdown (single 1966)
09 Came The Day (b-side of 'Showdown')
10 Kiss Me Again (Adios Amore) (single 1968)
11 Something To Hold On To (b-side of 'Kiss Me Again (Adios Amore)')
12 Have Another Dream On Me (single 1969)
13 Afraid To Love You (b-side of 'Have Another Dream On Me')
14 Dear Madame (single 1970)
15 Home (b-side of 'Dear Madame')
16 Brother Joe (unreleased acetate)

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Together Again (1970)

Ian Dunlop and Mickey Gauvin, formerly of Gram Parsons' International Submarine Band, founded the original Flying Burrito Brothers and named it after Parsons informed them of his new country focus, However, this incarnation of the band never recorded as such, and after they headed East it allowed Gram Parsons to take the name. With the original incarnation of the band out of the picture, the "West Coast" Flying Burrito Brothers were founded in 1968 in Los Angeles, California, by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, with the addition of bassist Chris Ethridge, pedal steel guitarist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow and session drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh. Though Hillman and Roger McGuinn had fired Parsons from the Byrds in July 1968, the bassist and Parsons reconciled later that year after Hillman left the group. The Flying Burrito Brothers recorded their debut album, 'The Gilded Palace Of Sin', without a regular drummer, as Hoh proved to be unable to perform adequately due to a substance abuse problem, and he was dismissed after recording two songs. After trying out a number of replacements, they ultimately settled upon original Byrd Michael Clarke, just before the commencement of their first tour. Despite widespread critical acclaim upon its release in February 1969 for its pioneering amalgamation of country, soul music, and psychedelic rock, 'The Gilded Palace Of Sin' stalled at No. 164 on the Billboard album chart. 

The band did embark on a comprehensive train tour of the United States (necessitated by Parsons' fear of flying), but this ultimately ended in disaster due to drug and alcohol use. Dissatisfied by the band's lack of success and unable to fully reconcile his predilection for R&B with the more conservative tastes of Parsons and Hillman, Ethridge departed the group in the autumn of 1969, and Hillman reverted to bass after the band hired lead guitarist Bernie Leadon, a Dillard and Clark veteran who had also played with Hillman in the early 1960s bluegrass scene. With mounting debt incurred from the first album and tour, and a failed single in 'The Train Song', A&M Records hoped to recoup some of their losses by marketing the Burritos as a straight country group. To this end, manager Jim Dickson instigated a loose session where the band recorded several traditional country staples from their live act, contemporary pop covers in a countrified vein, such as 'To Love Somebody', 'I Shall Be Released', and 'Honky Tonk Women', and Larry Williams's rock and roll classic 'Bony Moronie'. This effort was soon scrapped in favoru of a second album of originals on an extremely reduced budget, and so 'Burrito Deluxe' appeared in  April 1970, juxtaposing the band's inability to develop compelling new material with prominent covers of the Rolling Stones's hitherto unreleased 'Wild Horses', Dylan's 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' and the Southern gospel standard 'Farther Along'. 

Unlike their debut, the album failed to chart entirely, and a month later, Parsons showed up for a band performance only minutes before they were to take the stage, visibly intoxicated and singing songs that differed from what the rest of the band were performing. A furious Hillman (already incensed by the singer's penchant for showing up at concerts in a limousine and his increasingly Jagger-influenced showmanship) fired him immediately after the show, to which Parsons responded, "You can't fire me, I'm Gram!". According to Hillman, this incident was merely the final straw, with Parsons' desire to hang out with the Rolling Stones rather than focus on his own band's career also being a significant factor, mirroring his 1968 dismissal from The Byrds. For some fans this was the end of their association with the band, as they couldn't imagine a Burritos without Parsons, while others remained faithful until Hillman left in 1972. Over the years a number of out-takes have surfaced from the original incarnation of the group, and so to complete the Parsons-led era of the Flying Burrito Brothers' recording history, here are all the tracks recorded with him before he left the group, including singles, b-sides, out-takes, and an extended edit of the snippet that was available of 'I Shall Be Released'.

     

Track listing

01 Sing Me Back Home (Version 1)
02 The Train Song
03 Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
04 Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven
05 Close Up The Honky Tonks
06 Green Green Grass Of Home
07 Break My Mind
08 To Love Somebody
09 Just Because
10 Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)
11 Crazy Arms
12 Honky Tonk Women
13 Six Days On The Road
14 Bony Moronie
15 I Shall Be Released
16 Together Again
17 Sing Me Back Home (Version 2)

Thanks to the it's lost it's found blog for this post.

 

John's Children - Strange Affair (1967)

Drummer Chris Townson and singer Andy Ellison formed The Clockwork Onions in the town of Great Bookham in 1965, which later became the Few, and then the Silence. The Silence consisted of Townson and Ellison, plus Geoff McClelland on guitar and John Hewlett on bass guitar, and while performing in France in mid-1966, Townson met the Yardbirds's manager Simon Napier-Bell and invited him to come and see the Silence. Napier-Bell described them as "positively the worst group I'd ever seen", but still agreed to manage them, changing their name to John's Children, dressing them up in white stage outfits and encouraging them to be outrageous to attract the attention of the press. Their outrageous stage shows included on-stage fights, fake blood and feathers, and trashing their instruments, as the band whipped their audience into a frenzy. Napier-Bell signed them to the Yardbirds's record label, Columbia Records, and they released their first single in late 1966, being the Napier-Bell co-write 'Smashed Blocked'/'Strange Affair' (with the A-side released as 'The Love I Thought I'd Found' in the UK), but because of his lack of confidence in the band's musical abilities, Napier-Bell used session musicians on the recording. To everyone's surprise 'Smashed Blocked' broke into the bottom of the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached local top ten charts in Florida and California. In early 1967 they released their second single, 'Just What You Want – Just What You'll Get'/'But You're Mine', which also featured session musicians, plus a guitar solo from Jeff Beck on the b-side, and this one made it to the British Top 40. 

The band's third single, 'Not the Sort Of Girl (You'd Like To Take To Bed)', was rejected outright by their UK label, which prompted the band to switch to Track Records, publishers of artists like the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Who. In the meantime, their US label, White Whale Records, asked for an album, and Napier-Bell and the group obliged, producing 'Orgasm'. This was a fake live album they recorded in the studio, with overdubbed screams taken from the Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night', and it was Napier-Bell's idea to give the album a "live" feel to make it seem like the band was very popular in England. However, White Whale rejected 'Orgasm' because of its title, and pressure from Daughters of the American Revolution, and it was four years before it eventually appeared in 1971. In March 1967 Napier-Bell replaced guitarist McClelland with Marc Bolan, another of his clients, who took over as lead guitarist, and also took on the role of the band's singer/songwriter. Bolan composed and sang on the band's next single, 'Desdemona', which was banned by the BBC because of the controversial lyric, "Lift up your skirt and fly". In April 1967 Napier-Bell arranged for John's Children to tour Germany as support act to The Who.  

The Who were notorious for their own wild stage performances, which included smashing their instruments, and so John's Children pulled out all the stops and upstaged the Who with performances that included Bolan whipping his guitar with a chain, Townson attacking his drums, Ellison and Hewlett pretending to fight each other, and Ellison ripping open pillows and diving into the audience. In Düsseldorf they caused a riot at the venue, and The Who were not happy at being upstaged and so sent the band home mid-tour. Notwithstanding John's Children's antics in Germany, Townson was later asked to replace Keith Moon on drums near the end of the Who's UK tour in June that year after Moon had injured himself demolishing his drum kit on stage. With no time for rehearsal, Townson performed with the Who for five days, and did it so well that most of the audience didn't realise it wasn't Moon. John's Children played at The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream concert at the Alexandra Palace in London on 29 April 1967, and Bolan left two months later following disagreements with the way Napier-Bell was producing the band's next single, 'A Midsummer Night's Scene'. 

The single was never released, but in its place the b-side of 'Desdemona', 'Remember Thomas à Becket', was re-recorded with new lyrics and released as 'Come And Play With Me In The Garden'. After Bolan left, Townson switched to guitar and former roadie Chris Colville took over on drums, and the band recorded another single, 'Go Go Girl', which was a Bolan composition that he later recorded with Tyrannosaurus Rex as 'Mustang Ford'. They recorded one more single, 'It's Been A Long Time', which was issued as an Andy Ellison solo single, and then embarked on a 'disastrous' tour of Germany, after which they split up in 1968. Ellison went on to make several solo singles before resurfacing in Jet in 1974, along with drummer Chris Townson, who then metamorphosed into Radio Stars in the mid-Seventies. John's Children were active for less than two years and were not very successful commercially, having released only six singles and one (in my opinion) extremely disappointing album, but they are seen by some as the precursors of glam rock, and as their reputation has grown over the years their singles have become amongst the most sought-after British 1960's rock collectables. As the 'Orgasm' album is almost unlistenable because of the fake screams all over it, we need a collection of the band's music that actually represents what they were doing in the studio, and there was more than enough music recorded by 1967 to release an album, which would have included a few single tracks, some alternate takes, and some of their demos, and had they decided to do that then this is what it could have sounded like.  

Track listing

01 The Love I Thought I'd Found
02 But She's Mine
03 Midsummer Night's Scene
04 Hippy Gumbo
05 Strange Affair
06 Go-Go Girl
07 Remember Thomas À Becket
08 Desdemona
09 The Perfumed Garden Of Gulliver Smith
10 Casbah Candy
11 Sara, Crazy Child
12 Just What You Want - Just What You'll Get
13 Not The Sort Of Girl You Take To Bed
14 Sally Was An Angel
15 Jagged Time Lapse

Livvi Franc - Underground Sunshine (2008)

Olivia Charlotte Waithe was born on 31 May 1988 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and her stage name of Franc was inspired by her late maternal grandfather, Frank Wilson. Her first manager discovered her after hearing one of her cassette tape demos, and arranged for her to record proper demos in studios in Barbados and Miami, which is where she met her next manager. Soon after, she was in New York meeting label heads and auditioning, and she finally signed with Jive Records after months of negotiations. She was writing songs throughout these early years, with Jordin Sparks recording one of her songs, 'Walking On Snow', and she has also written for Cheryl Cole, Kelly Clarkson, Marié Digby, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Cher Lloyd. Her debut single, 'Now I'm That Bitch', was released in the summer of 2009, and topped the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart and became a top 40 hit in New Zealand and the UK. Another song, 'This Is A Raid' appeared on the reboot of 'Melrose Place', and an album was planned for release shortly afterwards, but this was delayed, and the next we heard from Franc was the release of her second single, 'Automatik' in 2010. Produced by RedOne, the single peaked at #6 on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart, but around the end of 2010 the album was shelved by Jive, and so Livvi left the label and quickly signed to Beluga Heights/Warner Bros., where she is currently working on her debut album, although she has stated that she is delaying work on it in order to focus on writing for other acts. As she no longer seems committed to releasing a record under her own name, here is the cancelled 'Underground Sunshine' album from 2008, with a couple of contemporary recordings added to replace songs that haven't yet leaked. 

Track listing

01 Free  
02 This Is A Raid 
03 Now I'm That Bitch
04 Hummingbird  
05 She Loves Love 
06 Summer Love  
07 Lovey Dovey  
08 Shiver 
09 Trick Or Treat  
10 Underground Sunshine  
11 Untouchable
12 Sweet Satisfaction  
13 Bliss

The Pretty Things - Emotions (1967)

The Pretty Things grew out of Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which consisted of Dick Taylor, fellow Sidcup Art College student Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, among others. When Brian Jones was recruiting for his own band, all three joined Brian and Ian Stewart and were dubbed Rollin' Stones by Jones in June 1962, but because there were too many guitar players in the band, Taylor switched to bass. He quit the Stones five months later, when he was accepted at the Central School of Art and Design in London, but Phil May, another Sidcup student, convinced him to form a new band, and so Taylor was once again playing guitar, with May singing and playing harmonica. They recruited John Stax on bass and harmonica, Brian Pendleton on rhythm guitar, and Pete Kitley on drums, who was soon replaced by Viv Andrews, and then in turn by Viv Prince. After signing a deal with Fontana Records, their first three singles appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1964 and 1965, with 'Don't Bring Me Down' breaking the Top Ten. They never had a hit in the United States, but had considerable success in their native UK, and in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands. The first of what would be many personnel changes over the years also began, with Prince, whose wild antics had become too much for the other members to endure, being the first to go in November 1965, being replaced by Skip Alan. 

They released two albums in 1965, with the self-titled debut appearing in March, and 'Get The Picture' following in December. 1966 saw the R&B scene fall into decline and the Pretty Things began moving away, flirting with soul music, and in December 1966 came the single 'Progress', where the band were joined by a brass section. Sessions for their next album 'Emotions' were spread across a few months during which there were major changes in the band's line up. Their record company Fontana had not been happy with how their three 1966 singles 'Midnight To Six Man', 'Come See Me' and the Kinks cover 'A House In The Country' had sold, and so assigned them producer Steve Rowland, who was producing hits for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. The band were not pleased by this intervention and were keen to leave Fontana, so they simply went along with Fontana's demands to fulfil the contract which included a third album. The first result of the sessions was the 'Progress' single, and though it was a fairly commercial record, it failed to sell. Pendleton was unhappy with the direction the band was heading in, and, with money being rather short, he quit the band that Christmas. A month later, bassist John Stax, similarly unhappy, also quit, so May called childhood friend Wally Waller to help record the rest of the album. In the event, Waller took over the bass duties, and brought in his ex-bandmate from Bern Elliott And The Fenmen, Jon Povey, as the drummer and keyboardist.

Waller and Povey were huge Beach Boys fans and between them had developed their own distinctive harmonies, which when paired with May's vocals gave the Pretty Things a new dimension. The style of 'Emotions' showed a fusion of hard blues and psychedelia, but Rowland decided the new songs sounded rather empty, so he enlisted arranger Reg Tilsley to write and conduct orchestral arrangements for most of the tracks. Again, the band were not pleased by this but to appease Fontana and be able to break free, they went along with the idea. Tilsley was given tapes of demos and work in progress of the songs, and wrote the arrangements, some of which were fairly simple, requiring a brass section, whilst others were more elaborate, bringing in strings. Whilst some of these arrangements were overdubbed on what had already been recorded, Taylor has recalled there were a couple of sessions where the band and Tilsley's ensemble were together in the studio. Because the songs had mostly already been written, new members Waller and Povey weren't able to contribute much to the writing, nor add their harmonies to most of the album, although they did appear on 'Out In The Night', 'Bright Lights Of The City', 'My Time', and 'Children', which was also issued as a single.

Outside the studio, the band's live sound had changed drastically as they became involved in the burgeoning psychedelic scene, and by the time 'Emotions' was released, the contrast between the band on record and on stage was enormous, and so they did nothing to promote it, and as soon as they could they left Fontana to seek out a new record contract. None of the songs from 'Emotions' were ever played live, and they simply carried on as if it didn't exist. The only exception was the single 'Children', which they did play live onstage in Paris, and which was broadcast live on French TV.

Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist had a pretty good go at fixing this album a few years ago, when a re-issue of the album included undubbed versions of a few of the songs, which could then just be replaced in the running order, but the only problem was that they were in mono, as opposed to the stereo versions on the original record. Also, a few tracks were not presented in this form, and so he found a version of the record with extreme stereo separation, and as the strings and horns were mostly in one channel then he could isolate and remove them. Since then, programmes to edit music have come on in leaps and bounds, and so I am now able to take the original stereo tracks and remove the strings and horns, and not only that, but by isolating the guitar and vocals and then putting the whole thing back together with some panning, I was even able to make a rudimentary stereo version of the stand-alone single 'House In The Country' to tag onto the end of the rather short album. To distinguish the cover from the original I've simply reversed the colours of the text.  

Track listing

01 Death Of A Socialite
02 Children
03 The Sun
04 There Will Never Be Another Day
05 House Of Ten
06 Out In The Night
07 One Long Glance
08 Growing In My Mind
09 Photographer
10 Bright Lights Of The City
11 Tripping
12 My Time
13 A House In The Country

The Love Affair - Satisfaction Guaranteed (1969)

The Love Affair originally formed in 1966, and this London-based quintet comprised Steve Ellis on vocals, Morgan Fisher on keyboards, Rex Brayley on guitar, Mick Jackson on bass, and Maurice Bacon on drums. Although Ellis was barely 16 years old, the band performed frequently in clubs on a semi-professional basis, and in 1967 they signed to Decca Records, but although their first single, 'She Smiled Sweetly', was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it flopped. After Fisher was briefly replaced by Lynton Guest so that he could complete his schooling, Ellis recorded a sparkling cover version of Robert Knight's 'Everlasting Love' for CBS Records using session musicians, and in January 1968 the single unexpectedly hit number 1 in the UK. Love Affair became instant pop stars, with Ellis' cherubic looks gracing teen magazines throughout the nation. An album was rushed out, with 'The Everlasting Love Affair' being recorded in one day in November 1968 and released in December, but controversy erupted when the group admitted they had not played on their recordings, but that all the work was done by session musicians, although such a practice had long since been common. Their first recording of 'Everlasting Love', produced by Muff Winwood, had featured them playing all the instruments, but the record label rejected this version in favour of one produced by Mike Smith, recorded using a recording studio rhythm section, strings, brass, flutes and backing vocalists, arranged by Keith Mansfield, and with Ellis as the only member of the group to be heard. The backing vocals were provided by four female singers who would later become well known in their own right: Kiki Dee, Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan and Kay Garner, as one of The Ladybirds. 

Although four more Top 20 hits followed, in 1969 Ellis felt that the group had run its course, after their Christmas single, 'Baby I Know', failed completely, and so he left the group to start a solo career, with the remaining members recruiting a new vocalist in Gus Eadon. This new line-up began to move in a more progressive direction, and the second Love Affair album, 'New Day', was released in 1970 under the name of LA, in an attempt to attract a more mature audience. The record was a commercial failure and six months later the band was dropped by CBS. They signed to Parlophone Records as Love Affair but were unable to revive their fortunes, and so Bacon and Fisher left to form Morgan, recording 1973's 'Nova Solis' for RCA Records, and Fisher later reappeared in Mott The Hoople and The Third Ear Band. Although the band's reputation will forever be tainted with the controversy over their first single, they did produce some fine music, and they could easily have released a second album in 1969, which might have proved their musical abilities, and so as they didn't do it themselves, then here it what it could have sounded like.   

Track listing

01 Gone Are The Songs Of Yesterday 
02 I'm Happy
03 She Smiled Sweetly
04 Let Me Know
05 Sweetness And Tenderness
06 Another Day
07 Bringing Back The Good Times
08 Baby I Know
09 Do You Dream
10 Accept Me For What I Am
11 Someone Like Me
12 Satisfaction Guaranteed
13 One Road

JoJo - Demonstrate (2012)

After posting both incarnations of JoJo's third album, firstly the 'All I Want Is Everything' version, followed by the 'Jumping Trains' one, you'd think that she's dumped enough songs to make her think twice about scrapping any more recordings that she'd spent so much time on, but that's where you'd be wrong. Even after compiling those two earlier albums, there were still over a dozen more out-takes left over, so here is one final album made up of songs recorded between 2008 and 2012 from the 'All I Want Is Everything'/'Jumping Trains' sessions, titled 'Demonstrate' after one of her early aborted singles.   

Track listing

01 Shot 'Em Dead
02 Headlight
03 No More Tears
04 Replaced
05 Beautiful Girls Reply
06 Demonstrate
07 Sweat
08 Hold On
09 Limbo
10 Wait A Minute (For Your Love)
11 Marvin's Room (Can't Do Better)
12 Can't Believe It
13 Uncharted (feat. Ray J)
14 Houstatlantavegas
15 What You Do
16 Fearless

Happy New Year

 Best wishes to everyone for 2025

Kenny Everett - On BBC Radio Bristol (1971)

Kenny Everett was arguably the most creative, most innovative, most technically gifted radio presenter the UK has produced. He was a pioneer, first with the offshore pirates in 1964, then as part of the launch team for BBC Radio 1 in 1967 – and later a key figure when licensed commercial radio began with Capital Radio in 1973. He spent hours in the studio stitching together truly original shows, filled with his exquisitely produced personal jingles, crazy sounds effects, and zany comedy moments delivered in a frenetic, inventive style that no-one could match. He was close friends with the Beatles, regularly playing their latest tracks before anyone else. While employed on BBC Radio One the BBC banned him from talking to the press after repeatedly complaining about the station's output, and things came to a head in July 1970 after he responded to a news bulletin about the wife of Transport Minister John Peyton passing her advance driving test, joking that she "probably crammed a fiver into the examiner's hand". As a result, his weekend show was cancelled, a fate he'd previously suffered at Radio Luxembourg, Radio London, and later at Radio 2. He was just 25, and apart from a few stints on continental stations, there was nowhere else to go. The BBC still had a UK radio monopoly, and his top-flight radio career looked to be over. He went from being one of the most popular DJ's on the radio to scrimping and saving to pay for the refurbishment of the house that he'd just bought while he was still employed. 

A saviour arrived a year later at one of the BBC's fledgling local stations, when the year-old Radio Bristol's manager David Waine needed holiday cover. Feeling Kenny had been badly treated, Waine phoned to offer four programmes at a rate of just £12.50 a week! Desperate, Everett agreed – sparking an internal row for Waine, who was rebuked by BBC Radio's MD Ian Trethowan for not consulting him, warning that he'd be in trouble if things went wrong. To minimise any potential disaster, David wisely asked Kenny to pre-record his shows at home in Sussex, and he then posted the tapes for checking by a producer before broadcast. On 12 June 1971 the wireless wizard was back on-air, but it was an occasion largely overlooked, as few people heard it, and those who did were only from the Bristol area. At the time BBC Local Radio only broadcast on VHF (now FM) when most listeners only had medium-wave sets, and broadcast hours were limited, with few staff and tight music restrictions. You may wonder why Everett regularly mentions the record labels of songs played, and this was because at the time, BBC Local Radio could only play one hour of commercial music a day under strict "needle time" restrictions negotiated with the Musicians’ Union, and one way to get around this was to play new releases, giving the record label, and (in theory at least) its number. The Radio Bristol shows opened the door at other BBC Locals including Radios Merseyside, Solent, Nottingham, Brighton (now Radio Sussex) and Medway (now Radio Kent), and he also appeared on 'Start The Week' on Radio 4 over Christmas 1971, becoming a regular on a spin-off series 'If It's Wednesday … It Must Be' over the next 18 months. As 1971 is one of my favourite years for music, and along with John Peel, Everett was my favourite DJ, then these shows were a godsend when broadcast over the Christmas period, and hopefully you'll find something to enjoy in them as well.

Track listing

01 BBC Radio Bristol 12 June 1971

includes tracks from The Move, Nilsson, Peter Noone, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Stavely Makepeace, The Beatles, The Fantastics, Cat Stevens, White Plains, Twiggy, Mungo Jerry, Dusty Springfield, the Supremes and The Four Tops. 
02 BBC Radio Bristol 03 July 1971

includes the final episode of his comedy series 'Dick Dale – Special Doctor', first broadcast on Radio 1, along with music by Paul McCartney, Hurricane Smith, Smokey Robinson, The Idle Race, Fifth Dimension, Dawn, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Butterscotch, The Yamasukis, Freda Payne and Bread.
03 BBC Radio Bristol 26 December 1971

includes music by the Beach Boys, Mama Cass, Peter Noone, Colin Blunstone, John Barry, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, The Jimmie Haskell Orchestra, Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Faces, Cat Stevens, Tony Christie, Mike Vickers, Matt Munro, Rich Fever and Rossini.

Honeybus - Delighted To See You (1969)

Pete Dello and Ray Cane had been working together in various London groups since the early 60's, with Dello being lead guitarist with Red Tallis & The Tallismen and Cane handling bass duties with The Outlaws. They joined up in Grant Tracy & The Sunsets and the pair wrote a number of the band's single sides for Ember and Decca, but they were not successful and so they took a break from gigging to concentrate on writing, producing and arranging. During this period they wrote a clutch of single sides for The Applejacks (including the beat classic 'Baby Jane') as well as arranging material for Lionel Bart and playing on sessions for The Roulettes and Unit 4+2 among others, but in 1965 they found themselves back on stage, backing soul singer Steve Darbishire as The Yum Yum band. The line-up was completed by drummer Terry Noon, who had spent time with Them, and after signing a deal with Decca Records, Darbishire cut five singles for them between 1965 and 1967, mostly written by Dello and Cane. In 1966 Dello succumbed to a collapsed lung on the eve of a major tour, and after several months' recuperation, decided to quit the band to put together a new project to showcase his and Cane's new material. Christened Honeybus by Cane, the pair installed Terry Noon as their manager and entered Regent Sound studio to cut their debut single in spring 1967. The recording was made using Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit of The Roulettes, and two Dello-penned tracks were laid down, with 'Delighted To See You' b/w 'The Breaking Up Scene' appearing on the label's Deram subsidiary in June. 

Despite it's commercial potential, the single flopped, and after finalising their line-up with the addition of Colin Hare on guitar and Pete Kircher on drums, they cut two more singles, one of which has become something of a standard since its release. Dello's '(Do I Figure) In Your Life' was released in October 1967, with Cane's 'Throw My Love Away' on the flip, and they followed this in March 1968 with another classic 60's recording, 'I Can't Let Maggie Go', ensuring their place in the history books for recording this classic piece of 60's pop. The single hit number 8 in the UK and became a huge hit in dozens of territories, but the resulting merry-go-round of gigs, press and TV conflicted with Dello's vision, as he saw Honeybus as essentially a studio project, and had had enough of life on the road during the early 60's. With a record in the top ten, the record company screaming for a follow-up and an album, and widespread adulation, Dello quit his own group. Such a blow would have signalled the end for most bands, but the remaining members of Honeybus were more resourceful than that, and so first they recruited Jim Kelly on vocals and guitar, then set about recording a follow-up single, although it would be six months before Cane's 'Girl Of Independent Means' appeared in September 1968. It was a great upbeat single featuring brass and an insistent hook, but it nevertheless failed to sustain the group's success. 

Cane followed it with 'She Sold Blackpool Rock' in May 1969, with Colin Hare's first recorded composition 'Would You Believe' on the flip, but once again the single flopped in the UK, although it sold well in Europe, prompting the recording of an Italian language version. The band had virtually called it a day by summer 1969, but at Terry Noon's insistence sessions for a proposed album continued, and soon they'd completed enough new material. Kircher had left the group during the sessions to join Englebert Humperdinck's touring band, and was replaced by Lloyd Courteney and old friend Bob Henrit, and the album was eventually released without promotion in February 1970, by which time Honeybus was no more. 'Story' is a fine album, and is now rightly regarded as a classic of the era, but it was too little too late, and Honeybus were consigned to the vaults alongside other one-hit wonders of the 60's. The 'Story' album didn't include any material recorded before 1970, and so the band never released the cash-in album that the record company so desperately wanted after the success of 'I Can't Let Maggie Go'. If they had succumbed to the pressure and put something together then it might have sounded something like this.    

Track listing

01 (Do I Figure) In Your Life
02 Tender Are The Ashes
03 The Right To Choose
04 Maxine's Parlour
05 Arise Sir Henry
06 I Can't Let Maggie Go
07 She Sold Blackpool Rock
08 She Comes To Me
09 The Breaking Up Scene
10 Would You Believe
11 Delighted To See You
12 Girl Of Independent Means
13 Francoise
14 Throw My Love Away

Paul McCartney - The Weird Stuff (1989)

It's generally agreed that The Beatles' personalities were established in the 60s', with George "The Quiet One", John "The Smart One", Paul "The Cute One", and Ringo... well, he was just Ringo. The Cute One would sing the love songs, and pen the melodic tunes, while Lennon would sing the rockers, and have a more acerbic turn of phrase in his lyrics. And yet if you look at the writing credits of some of their later work, it was McCartney who pretty much invented heavy metal with 'Helter Skelter', as well as providing 'The White Album' with such oddities as 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road', the ragtime throwback 'Wild Honey Pie', and the Dylan-ish 'Rocky Racoon'. He'd also worked with sound collages way before Lennon's 'Revolution 9', with his still unheard 'Carnival Of Light' from January 1967, and if he hadn't shown Lennon how to work the tape machines then his piece probably wouldn't exist. So McCartney was much more experimental than most people thought, even as far back as 1968, but once The Beatles split and he started his solo career then he was free to do whatever weird shit he wanted, and by the early 80's it had started to unashamedly appear on his records, often on the b-sides of more commercial singles, but particularly on his 1980 album 'McCartney II'. The 'Temporary Secretary' single was the biggest commercial success of this new direction, but the 10-minute 'Secret Friend' on the b-side was like nothing he'd done before, and the extended 9-minute take of the 'Waterfalls' b-side 'Check My Machine' was more of the same. 'Ou Est Le Soleil?' from 1989 was a funky attempt at Europop, with its minimal repeated French lyrics, while the 1986 'Press' single was treated to a number of remixes, including a dub version. 'Cactus Club' is a live jam from a 1986 video shoot in Amado, and 'Kreen-Akrore' shows that he was doing this sort of thing as far back as 1970, so here is a collection of McCartney's most out-there compositions, which along with his work with Youth as The Fireman, proves that he was always the most experimental Beatle.  

Track listing

01 Secret Friend
02 Press (Dub Mix)
03 Cactus Club
04 Kreen-Akrore
05 Ou Est Le Soliel?
06 Check My Machine