Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Now that I've 'fixed' most of the albums which the artists claimed to have been ruined by the addition of extra orchestration against their wishes, I'm turning to albums that the fans have wanted to hear shorn of their extra instrumentation, beginning with a classic from Pink Floyd. 

Pink Floyd started work on their new album after completing their contributions to the soundtrack for the film Zabriskie Point in Rome, which had ended somewhat acrimoniously. They headed back to London in early 1970 for rehearsals, and the title track of 'Atom Heart Mother' resulted from a number of instrumental figures the band had composed during these rehearsals. Recording of the track commenced at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London, and was somewhat cumbersome, as it was the first recording to use a new eight-track one-inch tape and EMI TG12345 transistorised mixing console (8-track, 24-microphone inputs) in the studio. As a result, EMI insisted the band were not allowed to do any splicing of the tape to edit pieces together, and so Roger Waters and Nick Mason had little choice but to play the bass and drums for the entire 23-minute piece in one sitting, with the other instruments being overdubbed later. By March, they had finished recording the track, but felt that it was rather unfocused and needed something else, and as the band had been impressed with Ron Geesin's composition and tape-editing capabilities, he was handed the completed backing tracks that the band had recorded, and asked to compose an orchestral arrangement over the top of it, while the band went on tour to the US. David Gilmour came up with some of the melodic lines, while the pair of them along with keyboardist Richard Wright worked on the middle section with the choir. 

During the recording of his work in June with the EMI Pops Orchestra, the session musicians present were unimpressed with his tendency to favour avant-garde music over established classical works, and, combined with the relative difficulty of some of the parts, harassed him during recording. John Alldis, whose choir was also to perform on the track, had experience in dealing with orchestral musicians, and managed to conduct the recorded performance in place of Geesin. The orchestral arrangements feature a full brass section, a cello and the 16-piece John Alldis choir, while Pink Floyd mainly provide the backing tracks. Side two opens with three five-minute songs: one by each of the band's three resident songwriters; then closes with a sound effects-dominated musical suite primarily conceived by Mason and credited to the whole group. Waters contributes a folk ballad called 'If', playing acoustic guitar, while Wright's 'Summer '68', features prominent use of brass in places. According to Mason, Gilmour, having had little song-writing experience at that point, was ordered to remain in EMI until he had composed a song suitable for inclusion on the album, coming up with the folk-influenced tune 'Fat Old Sun', and the the final track, 'Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast', is divided into three segments, each with its own descriptive title, joined by dialogue and sound effects of then-roadie Alan Styles preparing, discussing, and eating breakfast. Although the band often played 'Atom Heart Mother' live, both with and without an orchestra, I wanted to hear the original recording as just played by the band, and so have removed the strings, brass and choir from it, as well as stripping the brass section from 'Summer '68'.  

Track listing

01 Atom Heart Mother
02 If

03 Summer '68
04 Fat Old Sun
05 Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast

The Mirage - The World Goes On Around You (1968)

The Venders were formed in the Hertfordshire village of Hunsdon, and featured Del Vincent on lead vocals, Pat Hynes on lead guitar, his brother Pete Hynes on rhythm guitar, Percy Bishop on keyboards, Colin Felstead on bass, and a third Hynes brother, Dave, on drums. Playing local venues and the occasional American air force base, one of the Venders' more successful peers were the Diamonds, featuring lead guitarist Ray Glyn Mynott, who owned a Fender Stratocaster, then hard to come by in the United Kingdom. When Pat Hynes hurt his finger and was unable to play a gig, the Venders asked Mynott to fill in for him, and they were happy enough with his work to invite him to join the band full-time. Mynott agreed, and after shuffling a few members, the new Venders line-up was Pete Hynes on lead vocals, Mynott on lead guitar, Pat Hynes on rhythm guitar, Dee Murray on bass, and Dave Hynes on drums. They made their debut as the opening act for the Tornados on Christmas Eve 1964, and early the following year they decided they wanted a hipper sounding name, and so rebranded themselves The Mirage. Several members were working as session musicians in their spare time, and this moonlighting put them in contact with Dick James, one of England's most successful music publishers. James had installed a recording studio in his London office complex in order to cut song-writing demos, and The Mirage became one of James' house bands, as well as being signed as staff songwriters for his firm. 

After meeting at the studio, the band struck up a friendship with Graham Nash and Allan Clarke of the Hollies, and on their recommendation, The Mirage landed a record deal with CBS. Their first single, 'It's in Her Kiss' (a gender-switched cover of the Betty Everett hit) was issued in June 1965 to little success, although their Nash/Clarke-produced second release, 'Go Away', earned respectable radio airplay. Despite the modest success of 'Go Away' and the use of a Mirage recording, 'I'm Gonna Leave Her', in the hit film 'Georgy Girl', CBS was reluctant to authorize a third single, and the band bided their time, writing songs and committing them to tape at the Dick James studio. CBS eventually let them go, and music entrepreneur Larry Page, an associate of James, signed them and made a deal to release their material through Phillips Records. Dick James handled publishing for the Beatles, and for their first Philips single he arranged for them to be able to cover 'Tomorrow Never Knows' from the then-unreleased 'Revolver', with a band original 'You Can't Be Serious' on the flip. However, conflicting opinions at Phillips led to the single not appearing until December 1966, and as by that time the Beatles' recording of the tune had been out for some months, The Mirage recording suffered at the marketplace. 

Undaunted, the group cut a second single for Phillips, with 'Hold On' arriving in March 1967, and two months later saw the release of 'The Wedding Of Ramona Blair', a charming bit of pop psychedelia which was spun regularly by British pirate radio outlets. It received a smattering of BBC Light Programme play, but it wasn't enough to make it the success it deserved to be. With no hits to their name Phillips dropped The Mirage, and the various members had to make a living as sessionmen, cutting publishing demos, and backing other artists in the James/Page stable, including acting as backing musicians for Reg Dwight's unreleased album 'Regimental Sgt. Zippo, which was eventually released in 2021 as by Elton John. The Mirage landed a new record deal when Larry Page brought them aboard for his new Page One label, but much to the group's annoyance, the A-side for their 1968 Page One debut was a bit of pop fluff called 'Mystery Lady' that was co-written by Page under the nom de plume Larry Stein. Their second Page One release, September 1968's 'Here Comes Jane', wasn't even released under their own name, with the group credited as the Yellow Pages, and when a month later Page One released 'Carolyn', another substandard number written by Page, the band were at the end of their tether, and deliberately broke up just to free themselves of their contract with Page.

A few months later, Ray Glynn, Dave Hynes, Pete Hynes, keyboard player Kirk Duncan, and bassist Jeff Peters signed with Carnaby Records, a new label launched by music promoter Mervyn Conn, and as they were unable to use the name The Mirage, the band called themselves Portobello Explosion. Their first release for Carnaby was 'We Can Fly', a Hynes brothers original backed with a cover of the Bubble Puppy's Texas psych hit 'Hot Smoke And Sassafras', but it made little impression, and following Hynes and Duncan's love of the Band's first two albums, they shifted their music to resemble their rustic country-rock, and so another name-change was needed, this time to Jawbone. Their sole eponymous album came out in 1970, and was a unique mixture of Beatles-influenced pop and rootsy Americana, but reviews were tepid, and Jawbone played no live gigs in support of the release, resulting in the band breaking up. Because they were recording demos at the same time as releasing their singles, by 1968 they had amassed a collection of material that would have made an excellent album, and this is what it would have sounded like.  

Track listing

01 The World Goes On Around You
02 I See The Rain
03 The Wedding Of Ramona Blair
04 Ebaneezer Beaver
05 My Door No. 4
06 Chicago Cottage
07 Can You Hear Me
08 You Can't Be Serious
09 Mrs Busby
10 Gone To Your Head
11 One More Time
12 Is Anybody Home
13 Hello Enid
14 What Do I Care
15 Love Is Where You Find It

Loaded Dice - We Look Good (1979)

Loaded Dice were a hard-working power pop band that were touted as being the next big thing from Western Australia. The formed in 1974, and started out as covers band primarily playing 60's beat, but specialising in Beatles songs. After going through a few line-up changes and settling on Dick Haynes on bass, Marty Mather on guitar, Phillip Flanagan on guitar and Dave Eamus on drums, with all members providing vocals, they started to gather a large local fan base. Around 1979 they signed a record deal with WEA Records in Australia, and released their debut album 'No Sweat' later that year. A couple of singles were issued from it, but neither 'Telephone' nor 'Mam'selle' troubled the charts, and despite the fact that they had some very good songs and were able to make the crowd rock in their hometown, they found it harder to get the local crowds interested when they moved to Sydney. They gave it a good go, but after poor sales pushed their album into the bargain bins, they eventually disbanded and returned home. In 2008 a stash of out-takes and demos was discovered and released on Father And Son Recordings, and tucked away in there were quite a few tracks that could easily have appeared on their official album, so it was easy to extract them and compile what could have been their follow-up to 'No Sweat', appearing some time in 1979 or 1980. 

Track listing

01 It's Alright
02 The Girl Next Door
03 Never Been Kissed
04 Rock And Roll Lady
05 Public Holiday
06 You Look Good
07 It Must Be Love
08 Good Girls Go For Bad Boys
09 Mr. Wilkins
10 Young Girls
11 Promises
12 Fooling
13 Someone Who Loved Me More
14 You Only Hurt Yourself
15 Joe Cool
16 Love Is Hard To Find

The Dodos - The World Wants To Know (1963)

As most people should have worked out by now, the recent post by The Chyknhawks was an AI generated pastiche of The Byrds, and there are few of these on the net at the moment, with a '1967 single' by The Brothers Gee, which bears more than a passing resemblance to late-60's Bee Gees, while Feel Flows takes on the Beach Boys at their own game. The Beatles are not spared either, and have the biggest catalogue, although to be honest they are the least convincing imitations. That's not to say that the songs are not worth hearing, and the spoof biography has been put together with tongue very much in cheek, while the covers have been lovingly created to look of the period that the 'album' came out. So here is the first album from The Dodos, 'released' in 1963, accompanied by this bio.   
Released on August 13th 1963, the debut album by the Dodos was a resounding success both critically and financially. Shooting straight to number one on the UK charts, it was the first of many number one albums. Considering the group consisted of very young men (the youngest at 16 and oldest at 20), the fact that the entire album was made up of self penned songs was truly extraordinary, and would inspire greatness from their contemporaries who until then had filled albums with filler and cover tracks. At this time, the music business was fuelled by singles, as most record buyers couldn't afford full albums, and most albums as said before were mainly full of filler surrounding hit singles. The Dodos began a trend in the English music scene to treat albums as something just as special as singles, and were the first UK band to record different versions of songs for their singles and albums. This was suggested by their producer Tolly Williford Gipson, and the boys loved the idea, and it became an industry standard later in the UK. Yet another example of the Dodos being innovators in music. The album was famously recorded in one feverish day, with a few overdubs done the following day. Recorded on a BTR-2 Reel To Reel tape machine, the rhythm track was recorded on one track with the vocals on the other. this allowed T.W.G. to bring vocals up or down in the mix, ensuring a clean vocal performance on every recoding.

Track listing

01 The World Wants To Know
02 Am I The Bad Guy
03 More Than You Know

04 Empty Spaces
05 I Know A Place
06 Listen To My Heart
07 I Want To Make You Mine
08 Smiles and Glancing Looks
09 I Saw Her Dancing There
10 Why Me
11 Love Me Now
12 Don't Leave Me Now

Count Five - Enchanted Flowers (1968)

In the early 1960's school students John "Mouse" Michalski and Roy Chaney had played guitar and bass respectively in a succession of local bands such as Johnny & the GTOs and the Renegades, specializing in surf instrumental music. They changed their name to The Squires and added Kenn Ellner as a singer, and tried picking up on the British Invasion sound, and in late 1964 they added Irish-born guitarist, singer, and songwriter Sean Byrne, and the band made a local name for themselves over the ensuing year. In 1965 organist Phil Evans quit for personal reasons and drummer Skip Cordell joined another group, and with the addition of his replacement, Butch Atkinson, the group changed their name to Count Five. It was around this time that Byrne was putting the finishing touches to a song he'd been outlining in his head, ultimately called 'Psychotic Reaction', and when it was finished it became a showcase for the band's abilities, especially guitarists Michalski and Byrne, and they began working it up into the crescendo of their stage act. At first it didn't seem to do much good, as the group was turned down by Capitol Records, Fantasy Records, and a handful of other California-based companies, but after working out a new arrangement of 'Psychotic Reaction' with the band, local DJ Brian Lord got the song and the group placed with Double Shot Records, a Los Angeles-based label. 

When they released the song as the band's debut single it eventually made number five nationally and number one in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, they were never able to follow up the hit with anything even remotely as successful, and although an album was rushed out, featuring the hit plus some ill-conceived originals, nothing that the group did subsequently seemed to work. They tried reusing the same formula, working in a slightly more folk-rock vein, and even attempting some fresh guitar pyrotechnics (on 'The World' and 'Pretty Big Mouth' and, in a psychedelic vein, on 'Peace Of Mind'), plus a pair of pretty fair Who covers, but by 1967 it was clear that the group's days were numbered. They carried on releasing singles on Double Shot during 1967 and 1968, but the strain of maintaining music careers while attending college, which they had to do in order to keep their draft deferments, took its toll, as did the dwindling bookings, as memory of 'Psychotic Reaction' faded. In the end, after an attempt by the label to keep Byrne as the only active member, Count Five ceased to exist. Although they never managed to record another 'Psychotic Reaction', some of their later singles were not bad, and if we take those and add some previously unreleased recordings from the same timeframe then Double Shot could have put together a second album from the group some time in 1968. As the label never got round to it then it's up to me to do it for them. 

Track listing

01 People Hear What I Say
02 Merry-Go-Round
03 Hold Me Close
04 Teeny Bopper, Teeny Bopper
05 Revelation In Slow Motion
06 Declaration Of Independence
07 You Can't Get Me
08 Contrast
09 Enchanted Flowers
10 Move It Up
11 So Much
12 God Alone (Above)
13 Mailman
14 You Must Believe Me

TG4 - Time For The New (2002)

TG4 was an American R&B female quartet, consisting of Keisha Henry, Davida Williams, Sevyn Streeter (aka Ambee), and Ashley Gallo. The group was assembled by Chris Strokes and was signed to T.U.G. Entertainment, where Stokes served as their manager. He offered Streeter the first spot in the T.U.G./A&M group after she opened for B2K and IMX at a concert in Orlando, Florida in early 2001. Davida, Ashley, and Keisha fell in line after a string of successful auditions, and the name TG4 is short for Tom Girls 4. The group's only major single was 'Virginity', which peaked at number 88 on the US Billboard R&B chart in 2002, as their second single, '2 Minutes', failed to chart on any Billboard chart, and after the group parted ways with their original label, their album, 'Time For The New', was shelved indefinitely. Williams left the band to focus on her acting career, and the remaining members renamed themselves Tomgirls 4 Eva, and they were signed to the Soul Chemistry label, although they didn't stay together for long, and disbanded shortly afterwards. Streeter signed a deal with Jive Records and the RichCraft label in 2007 as a member of Rich Harrison's girl group, RichGirl, and although the group did not release a full album, work on a self-titled debut had begun in 2009, with a planned release in 2010 or 2011. As a precursor to that cancelled RichGirl album, here is what could have been TG4's debut release from 2002. 

Track listing

01 Intro 
02 Can't Trust A Friend (feat. Needa S)
03 Zip it Up (feat. Needa S)
04 Virginity
05 Pop The Question
06 Busted
07 Sweat
08 Way Gone
09 Two Minutes
10 My Pillow
11 Best Friends
12 Secretly

Yes - Time And A Word (1970)

After the release of their debut album 'Yes' in July 1969 for Atlantic Records, Yes resumed extensive touring across the UK. The line-up of the group at this time included lead vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarist Peter Banks, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Bill Bruford, and organist Tony Kaye, and towards the end of 1969 they booked time at Advision Studios in London, during gaps between shows, to record their second record. At Advision, Yes were joined by producer Tony Colton, a friend of Anderson's who was also the singer of the rock band Heads Hands & Feet, and audio engineer Eddy Offord was also brought in to assist Colton in the album's production, because of his skills and hard work. The group continued to follow their early musical direction of performing original material and rearranged cover versions of songs by pop, jazz, and folk artists, and the album eventually consisted of eight tracks, with two covers, as did their debut. A discussion amongst Squire, Anderson, and Colton during the writing process led to the decision of incorporating orchestral arrangements into some of their new songs, as Anderson felt that Banks and Kaye had not worked together to create a strong sound that their new arrangements required. To attempt to solve this, the group thought about using a Mellotron, and tested one out, but the idea fell through. Instead, a brass section of session players and a string section formed of students from the Royal College of Music were hired to perform arrangements written and conducted by Tony Cox. 

Banks did not support the idea of an orchestra and thought it merely followed what rock bands Deep Purple and the Nice had already done, and also he argued that it merely played parts originally written for the guitar or organ, leaving his active participation on the album a minimum, or his guitar buried in the album's mix. Banks also disagreed with the decision to have Colton produce the album, and claimed that he lacked the experience, with his ability being questioned by Squire, who recalled one incident during the mixing of 'No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed', which Colton mixed using "a crappy pair of cans that did not reproduce bass", rather than using the studio's monitoring equipment. He then asked for more bass, but Squire and Howe noticed that the bass levels on the monitors were already high, and the bass is still noticeably overpowering on that track. The album's six original tracks are credited to Anderson, along with either Squire or David Foster, Anderson's former bandmate in The Warriors, and Anderson's lyric content began to move from simple love themes to topics of greater scale. The album received a mixed reception, but a review by Roy Carr in New Musical Express in August 1970 hailed it as one of the best releases of the year. Following the recording of the album in early 1970, tensions within the band increased, and Banks was asked to leave, with Steve Howe replacing him that June. To hear what Banks wanted the album to sound like, I've removed all the strings and brass, and boosted the organ to fill out the gaps, so that we now have 'Time And A Word' as just played by the band themselves. The general consensus is that the one track to benefit from the orchestration is 'Clear Days', but I've still removed it just so that you hear what it would have sounded like in a stripped-down version. To distinguish it from the standard edition I've housed it in the US version of the cover, which features Steve Howe, even though he didn't play on the record.  

Track listing

1 No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
2 Then
3 Everydays
4 Sweet Dreams
5 The Prophet
6 Clear Days
7 Astral Traveller
8 Time And A Word

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (2023)

As a special treat here is something that I found on Youtube recently, where DoctorBlue has taken a number of live performances of 'Comfortably Numb' and mixed them all together to make a 26-minute take of the song, most of which comprises the guitar solo. Not much else to say about it, other than I've removed the applause at the end so that the bombastic ending perfectly rounds off what's gone before. 

Track listing

01 Comfortably Numb

The Majority - Tears Won't Help (1969)

Formed in Hull, England, as the Mustangs in the early '60s, the band changed their name to The Majority around the time they moved to London in 1965. With more of an American pop/rock vocal harmony style than most British Invasion groups, they tried their hand at a variety of material over the next few years, most of it coming from outside songwriters. After securing a deal with Decca Records that same year they released their first single, 'Pretty Little Girl', in July 1965, and as a minor coup of sorts, for their second single of that year, 'A Little Bit Of Sunlight', they managed to gain access to a Ray Davies composition that never found a place on a 1960's Kinks record. January 1966 saw the release of their third single 'We Kiss In A Shadow', and once again they managed to get hold of a Davies song, adding 'Ring The Bells' to the b-side. In their search for chart material, the Majority also tried compositions written or co-written by such luminaries as John Carter, Twice As Much, and Chip Taylor, but they never hit a commercial or artistic gold mine, with the production varying from the lush to straightforward mod-ish rock. The best they ever managed was the inclusion of their 'One Third' on the 'Nuggets, Vol. 2' box set, which was a collection of overlooked '60's British Invasion/early psychedelic-like rock from non-U.S. countries. 

The Majority's eighth and final single, 'All Our Christmases', would generate another collectible for future British '60s rock aficionados to hunt down in subsequent decades, as it was written but not recorded by the Bee Gees, but after some major line-up shuffles and work backing singer Barry Ryan in concert and in the studio, the Majority relocated to France, where they renamed themselves Majority One in 1969, and continued their recording career with a similar but more sophisticated musical approach. After a few singles released on the Dutch Pink Elephant label in 1970, they released their sole eponymous album in 1971, and although it didn't fare that well at the time, it is now highly regarded by collectors of early 70's prog. While their music is fairly enjoyable stuff, it's easy to hear why they became a sort of "in-between" group, with too much going for them to get dropped from their label, but not enough going for them to score hit records. One reason is that they didn't establish much of an identity, with their arrangements veering from mild British Invasion sounds to quasi-Walker Brothers productions and late-'60s British orchestrated pop with the slightest of psychedelic touches. This could be the reason that Decca never offered them the opportunity to record an album, but if they had then the band could have included a few of their better singles in the track listing and it might have ended up sounding something like this. 

Track listing

01 One Third
02 Tears Won't Help
03 Let The Joybells Ring
04 We Kiss In The Shadow
05 Simplified
06 Pretty Little Girl
07 Charlotte Rose
08 A Little Bit Of Sunlight
09 Wait By The Fire
10 Time Is On Your Side
11 To Make Me A Man
12 Ring The Bells
13 People
14 I Don't Wanna Be Hurt No More
15 All Our Christmases
16 Running Away With My Baby

Yo Yo - Ebony (1998)

Yo Yo (born Yolanda Whitaker on August 4, 1971 in Los Angeles, California) is a female hip-hop artist and actress who is a protege of rapper Ice Cube, making her first appearance on record in 1990, when she guested on Ice Cube's album 'AmeriKKA’s Most Wanted'. on the track 'It’s A Man’s World'. A year later in 1991, Yo Yo released her debut single 'You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo' (featuring Ice Cube) which peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, and in March she released her debut album 'Make Way For The Motherlode' on EastWest Records, which peaked at number 74 on the Billboard 200 and which was a critical success. The follow-up single, 'Ain't Nobody Better', spent eleven weeks on the charts, and the final single from the album, 'Stompin' In the '90s' peaked at number 2 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart. During that same year she made her acting debut in the film 'Boyz In The Hood', and in June 1992 she dropped her second album 'Black Pearl', which peaked at number 145 on the Billboard 200. 1993 was a busy one for her acting career as she starred in films such as 'Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit', 'Menace II Society', 'Strapped' and 'Who’s The Man?', as well as releasing her third album 'You Better Ask Somebody'. The lead single 'The Bonnie And Clyde Theme' topped Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart, and was followed by 'Westside Story' and 'IBwin’ Wit My CREWin'', although neither reached the same heights as the first single. After that Yo Yo’s music career took a backseat as she focused on her acting career, securing a recurring role on the '90's comedy series 'Martin', as well as appearing on the FOX Network television drama 'New York Undercover', and in the 1995 film 'Panther'. 

In 1994 she signed a deal with Warner Bros. television to produce a sitcom called 'Shifting Gears', but the series was never picked up, and so she returned to music and two years later she released her fourth studio album 'Total Control', which didn't generate as much success as her previous records, and the two singles from it didn’t make the charts at all. After a lawsuit for an uncleared sample on the album, it was pulled from the shelves. Her acting career continued with appearances in the 1997 films 'Sprung' and 'Trials Of Life', while at the same time recording tracks for her fifth studio album 'Ebony', which was due to be released in September 1998, but it ended up being shelved because the guest appearances on it weren't properly contracted to work with an artist on EastWest Records. She was later released from her record contract, and so concentrated on her acting career, although after 2000 not much was heard from her until 2004, when she did voice work on the video game 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'. In 2005 she returned to the music business with a mix-tape remix of R&B singer Ciara's single 'Goodies' and rapper The Game's single 'How We Do', but 'Ebony' has stubbornly refused to appear, and so here it is so that we can hear what would have been the rapper's final album. 

Track listing

01 Intro
02 Countin' Money (feat. Lil Shawn)
03 Do You Wanna Ride? (feat. Kelly Price)
04 Iz It Still All Good? (feat. Gerald Levert)
05 Get Up And Do Your Thing
06 Never Gonna Fall Again
07 Fantasy (feat. Lil Shawn)
08 Let Me Be The One
09 Good Girl
10 I Would If I Could (feat. Missy Elliott)
11 Pass It On (Part 2) (feat. Lady T, Big Chan, Nic-Nak, And Shorty G)

Gee Bros - One Word Songs (1969)

Gee Bros (also spelled as Geebros and G Bros) was a short-lived Dutch band from Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, active in the 1960's. They formed in 1964 as The Goldstar Brothers, and were made up of siblings André Groote, Ben Groote, Henk Groote, with Willem Antonius and Lol Nijhuis. Their first single was on an EP with three other artists on Lion Tops Records, featuring Yvonne Toelnaar, The Jets, and Rudi Seedorf, and this prompted Omega Records to offer them a deal, releasing two singles in 1964, before they moved to Phillips in 1966 for 'You Can't', which was their final release under the name of The Goldstar Brothers. In 1967 they rebranded themselves as Gee Bros, replacing Antonius with Cor Mestebeld, and rekindling their relationship with Omega Records, releasing the 'Let Me Find The Sun' single in January 1968. This was followed by 'Ev'ry Day' in May, after which they left Omega and signed to Pink Elephant Records for November 1968's 'Henry The Horse' single, which was a number 24 hit in their native country. In 1969 Hennie Backer replaced Nijhuis, and their final two singles appeared that year, after which the band broke up. The brothers stayed in the music business, performing under different names, including Crying Wood and Air Bubble, and in 1972 they released one final single as Gee Bros, with 'Canta Canta Libre' appearing on the Negram label. Despite being almost completely unknown outside of The Netherlands, they produced some great pop music, and so here are all their recordings collected together, to give us an idea of what was going on in Holland in the mid-to-late 60's.

 
Track listing

01 Nothing's Changed (single as The Goldstar Brothers 1964)
02 If I Were You (b-side of 'Nothing's Changed')
03 Zeg Mij Eens Even (single as The Goldstar Brothers 1964)
04 De Vakantie Is Voorbij (b-side of 'Zeg Mij Eens Even')

05 You Can't (single as The Goldstar Brothers 1966)
06 May Be (b-side of 'You Can't')
07 Let Me Find The Sun (single 1968)
08 She (b-side of 'Let Me Find The Sun')
09 Ev'ry Day (single 1968)
10 The Shadow Of Stone (b-side of 'Ev'ry Day')
11 Henry The Horse (single 1968)
12 Lively Liquors (b-side of 'Henry The Horse')
13 One Word Song (single 1969)
14 Made In Hong Kong (b-side of 'One Word Song')
15 It's In The Air (single 1969)
16 Shapes Of Blue (b-side of 'It's In The Air')

Skip Bifferty - On Love (1968)

Skip Bifferty were formed when Newcastle upon Tyne band The Chosen Few parted company with their singer Rod Hood and guitarist Alan Hull, later of Lindisfarne, and recruited Graham Bell to replace him. A name change quickly folllowed, and the newly christened Skip Bifferty soon signed a contract with RCA Records. The group released a number of psychedelic singles, including the flower-power 'Happy Land', and 'Man In Black', which was produced by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane of The Small Faces, and in 1967 they released their self-titled album 'Skip Bifferty'. Some of their songs were covered by established artists such as Cilla Black, The Tremeloes and The Kingsmen, and they built a following on the live circuit, including touring with The Who in October 1968. However, a management dispute with their manager Don Arden caused the band to walk out en masse, eventually leading to the group's demise under that name in November 1968, re-appearing the following year under the pseudonym Heavy Jelly, and with Paul Nichols replacing Jackman on drums. They released one single on Island Records, 'I Keep Singing That Same Old Song', but when their true identity was uncovered they were let go by Island and they split up soon after. Together with Turnbull and Gallagher, Bell formed Bell & Arc in July 1971, and later Turnbull and Gallagher reappeared as Loving Awareness, who later morphed into Ian Dury's backing band The Blockheads. Skip Bifferty were one of the lucky few late-60's psychedelic bands who were allowed to make an album, and quite rightly it's become regarded as something of a classic of the genre. However, they were not around long enough to released a follow-up to that record, even though they had recorded enough material to make it. A couple of these tracks are taken from their many radio sessions, but they fit quite nicely with the rest of the songs, so here is what Skip Bifferty's second release from 1968 could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 On Love
02 Happy Land
03 Disappointing Day
04 Higher Than The Clouds
05 Cover Girl
06 Aged Aged Man
07 Man In Black
08 The Hobbit
09 Reason To Live
10 In The Morning
11 Once
12 I Don't Understand It
13 The Lion & The Unicorn
14 Round And Round

Paul at albumsthatshouldexist has also posted a couple of albums by this band, but he split them into BBC Sessions and a stray tracks compilation, including the Heavy Jelly recordings, so if you want to hear more then pop over there. 

Canela Cox - Canela (2001)

Canela Cox was born in 1984 in Los Angeles, California, moving to Amsterdam at the age of 12, where her mother, Rocq-E Harrell, a former Diana Ross' background vocalist, performed as an R&B singer and recording artist. Upon moving back to the United States at age 18, Cox continued to pursue her musical endeavours, performing with numerous musical groups throughout Los Angeles. In 2000 she was featured on Jennifer Lopez's multi-platinum selling single, 'Love Don't Cost A Thing', and although she was uncredited for her work on the song, she performed as Lopez's background vocalist for numerous tours and new songs. While performing with Lopez at a Los Angeles concert, her talent was recognized by Rodney Jerkins, who brought her to DreamWorks Records' attention, and was immediately signed to the label in 2001. She began to record her self-titled debut album, which featured production by Darkchild, Tim & Bob, Lil' Mo, Fred Jerkins III, Brycyn Evans, & DJ Clue, and DreamWorks announced at the time that it would be released sometime in December 2001. Her buzz single, 'Sponsor', was released to radio in March 2001, and a DJ Clue remix, featuring Fabolous, was also released to mixtape circuits, and it received heavy underground play. Despite this media onslaught, both versions of the single failed to chart, and so a new Darkchild-produced single, 'Everything', was released to radio as the official lead single from the album. However, 'Everything' suffered the same fate as 'Sponsor', and because of these two perceived failures, DreamWorks Records put a halt on the release of her album. Before the release date could be revisited, DreamWorks Records was bought by Universal Music Group, which caused the label to fold, and so her debut was permanently shelved. Some months after Cox left DreamWorks she co-wrote Anastacia's 2002 single 'Why'd You Lie To Me', and she was also the female vocalist on rapper Won G's 2004 single 'Caught Up In The Rapture', and then in 2004 she signed to Genuine Entertainment and began recording another album. Its buzz singles, 'Blazed' and 'Bedrock', were released through Monopoly Records in 2004, but neither single managed to chart, and because of a lack of promotion, and failed attempts to put out a single properly, she left Monopoly Records, and began singing and song-writing for other artists. In 2006 she joined pop band Anything But Monday, who featured in the reality show '30 Days 'til I'm Famous', but they too have yet to release a debut album, as this has also been  delayed several times. As she doesn't seem to have had much luck in getting a record of her own actually released, here is a chance for us to hear that abandoned debut. 

Track listing

01 Everything 
02 Sponsor (I Need I Need I Need)
03 Love, Lust, Crime
04 Friend Of Mine
05 I Can't Let Go 
06 Outta Here
07 Play Your Games
08 It Feels Just Right
09 1 Day
10 Trust Me