Wendy Carlos - The Shining - The Complete Unreleased Soundtrack (1980)

Time for another guest post from Mike Solof, and this one looks at the story behind one of the best horror films ever made, and how the soundtrack had almost as intriguing a story as the film itself. 

Mike Solof here with a strange post about one one of my favorite movies THE SHINING!
I've always loved creepy horror music soundtracks, and this one has always been one of my favorites. But what a tough nut to crack in terms of compiling this version I've created. 
The movie itself went through many struggles in its creation. Here's WIKI to tell you about the different cuts:
After its premiere and a week into the general run (with a running time of 146 minutes), Kubrick cut a scene at the end that took place in a hospital. The scene shows Wendy in a bed talking with Mr. Ullman, who explains that Jack's body could not be found; he then gives Danny a yellow tennis ball, presumably the same one that Jack was throwing around the hotel. This scene was subsequently physically cut out of prints by projectionists and sent back to the studio by order of Warner Bros., the film's distributor. This cut the film's running time to 144 minutes.
For its release in Europe, Kubrick cut about 25 minutes from the film. The excised scenes included: a longer meeting between Jack and Watson at the hotel; Danny being attended by a doctor, including references to Tony and how Jack once injured Danny in a drunken rage; more footage of Hallorann's attempts to get to the hotel during the snowstorm, including a sequence with a garage attendant; extended dialogue scenes at the hotel; and a scene where Wendy discovers a group of skeletons in the hotel lobby during the climax. Jackson and Burton are credited in the European print, despite their scenes having been excised from the movie. According to Harlan, Kubrick decided to cut some sequences because the film was "not very well received", and also after viewers had complained about its ambiguity and length. The scene when Jack writes obsessively on the typewriter "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was re-shot a number of times, but changing the language of the typed copy to Italian, French, Spanish, and German, in order to match the respective dubbed languages.
Three alternative takes were used in a British television commercial. For the international versions of the film, Kubrick shot different takes of Wendy reading the typewriter pages containing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" in different languages. For each language, a suitable idiom was used: German (Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen / "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today"), Italian (Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca / "The morning has gold in its mouth"), French (Un «Tiens» vaut mieux que deux «Tu l'auras» / "One 'here you go' is worth more than two 'you'll have it'", the equivalent of "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"), Spanish (No por mucho madrugar 
amanece más temprano / "No matter how early you get up, you can't make the sun rise any sooner."). 
Also causing me massive headaches was the fact that although a complete score was produced by Wendy Carlos for the film, Kubrick discarded almost all of it except for the two opening cuts used at the beginning of the film, much too the dismay of Carlos who spent two years creating the score, but never signed a contract to do so. Therefore she had no recourse but to let the score go unused and unheard from 1980-2005. Kubrick, in its place, instead choose to use the temporary score that had been added to the film during dailies, and the soundtrack album on LP was withdrawn due to problems with licensing of the music.
It also doesn't help that every single version I can find of both the soundtrack and the score has a different order of songs, and contains very different track lists!  
What my version is, is my attempt to combine everything I could find and place it in as proper an order as I can (being that the same tunes sometime pop up in various scenes throughout the entire move) and the notes for these various versions often contradict each other. So here is my best effort to combine into one giant musical experience, the original soundtrack, along with the unused original score, and with some key dialogue from throughout the movie to spice things up a bit.
WARNING: this is a hard and uncomfortable listening experience. You don't relax to music like this. But you do put it on during cold and wintery nights, climb under a warm down blanket and just try to survive the night!
Enjoy

Michael

Track listing

01 Warner Bros. Logo
02 The Shining Title Music
03 Danny
04 Colorado
05 Rocky Mountains
06 Grady's Story
07 The Overlook
08 Lontano For Orchestra (As From A Distance, Sustained With Expression)
09 Visitors
10 A Ghost Piano
11 Greetings Ghosties
12 Come Out And Play With Us Danny
13 Horror Show
14 A Haunted Waltz
15 Subliminal Ballroom
16 Masquerade
17 It's All Forgotten Now (Ray Noble & His Orchestra)
18 Paraphrase For Cello
10 Two Polymoog Improvisations
20 Paraphrase For Brass
21 Setting With Medea
22 Clockworks (Bloody Elevators) Trailer Music
23 Heartbeats And Worrying
24 The Awakening Of Jacob (aka The Dream Of Jacob) 
25 Psychic Shout - Room 237
26 Danny Bells Ascending
27 Danny's Gone Away
28 Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta
29 'Dies'
30 A Horrible Nightmare
31 Psychic Scream
32 Thought Clusters
33 Day Of Wrath
34 Fanfare And Drunkenness - Dies Irae
35 Jack Takes Control
36 Where Is Jack
37 Polymorphia (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
38 Hair Of The Dog (incorporating Home by Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band)
39 New Rules For Wendy
40 Bumps In The Night
41 Utrenja (Ewangelia) (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
42 Here's Johnny
43 Utrenja (Kanon Paschy) (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
44 De Natura Sonoris No. 1 (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
45 De Natura Sonoris No. 2 (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
46 Maze Madness
47 Canon for 52 Strings And Tape Delay
48 Maze Madness (Encore)
49 Midnight, The Stars And You (Ray Noble & His Orchestra)
50 Postlude
51 Trailer Music (Alternate Version Clockworks - Dies Irae)
52 Nocturnal Valse Triste
53 Reprise
54 Alternate Main Title 
55 Alternate Main Title 2
56 Dance Of Death Op. 457 - Dies Irae (Paraphrase Excerpt)
57 Snow Chase Music
58 Concerto For Cello And Orchestra (alt. Show Chase Music 2)
59 Home (Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band)
60 Midnight, The Stars And You (Ray Noble & His Orchestra)
61 The Shining (Ambient Mix)

PS: I have thrown in a bunch of great bonus cuts for you to help soften the blow of this terrifying experience. These include some alternate versions of some of the cuts, a beautiful 18 minute suite of Ambient music from the film, a copy of my Beatles a Rama Christmas show from 2018 that is built around the film - listen for how the songs reflect what is going on in the film and how the songs help to examine what is going on in each character's mind during different parts of the film. And finally I've included something cool to watch to if you like conspiracy theories. It's a documentary on Kubrick, and skip to 35:04 to see how The Shining is actually a film about him confessing that he helped stage and film the Moon Landing of Apollo 11. I find it a fascinating take, but don’t believe it for a minute!!
Keep that night light on Kids!
M

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 26 (2018)

As a companion piece to Mike's post on the soundtrack to the film 'The Shining', here is a Beatles-O-Rama Christmas special from 2018, where he chooses tracks from the Fab Four which complement the film. This file is included in the folder for Mike's soundtrack post, but if you just want to hear this show then here it is on its own.

Track listing 

01 Episode 26 - A Shining Christmas

The Remains - All Good Things (1966)

The Remains formed in 1964 at Boston University, where all four members were first-year students living in the same dorm in Kenmore Square. Comprising singer/guitarist Barry Tashian, keyboardist Bill Briggs, drummer Chip Damiani and bassist Vern Miller, they began playing r&b and rock'n'roll covers, as well as some Tashian originals, at a tavern across the square from their dorm, and soon fans were lining up from Kenmore Square to Fenway Park to see them. The band became a popular live act throughout New England, and after signing with Epic Records they enjoyed local hits with a catchy Tashian original, 'Why Do I Cry', and their hard-driving version of the Bo Diddley/Willie Dixon classic 'Diddy Wah Diddy'. In 1965 they relocated to New York City, and then after about a year they moved on to California, where they recorded a self-titled album, and released the soulful, hard-rocking single 'Don't Look Back. In 1966 came the opportunity which might have broken the band nationally, but proved instead to be their last hurrah, when they were offered a three-week stint as an opening act for the Beatles, on what would turn out to be the Fab Four's final tour. Immediately before the tour, Damiani quit the band, to be replaced by future Mountain drummer N.D. Smart, which meant that the band had to play a major tour with a new drummer who didn't have the same feel that they were used to, and so when the tour was over the band broke up in late 1966, and Epic finally released their debut album to little fanfare. Years later, however, it is now recognised as a classic of its genre, packed with great songs from Tashian, and boasting exciting, fiery performances. Luckily they recorded enough material during the album's sessions to release some non-album singles during 1965 and 1966, and if we take those songs and add in some of those other session recordings there are actually enough tracks available to make up a creditable second album, which could have been released as a posthumous tribute to them, after they'd broken up in 1966.    

Track listing

01 Me Right Now
02 I Can't Get Away From You
03 Ain't That Her
04 Like A Rolling Stone
05 When I Want To Know
06 But I Ain't Got You
07 Mercy, Mercy
08 Baby I Believe In You
09 I'm A Man
10 My Babe
11 I'm Talking About You
12 Gonna Move
13 All Good Things

Have A Soulful Christmas 2024

Christmas will soon be upon us, and so here is a nice collection of Christmas songs with a soulful feel to them to pass the time until it arrives.

Track listing

01 Someday At Christmas (Stevie Wonder 1967)

02 At Christmas Time (Luther 1976)
03 Merry Christmas Baby (Otis Redding 1968)
04 What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas (The Emotions 1973)

05 Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto (James Brown 1968)
06 Give Love On Christmas Day (The Jackson 5 1970)

07 Christmas Every Day (The Miracles 1963)
08 What Christmas Means To Me (Al Green 1983)
09 Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings 2009)
10 Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday (William Bell 1967)
11 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Darlene Love 1963)

12 Presents for Christmas (Solomon Burke 1968)
13 The Mistletoe And Me (Isaac Hayes 1969)
14 What Christmas Means To Me (Stevie Wonder 1967)

15 I Want To Come Home For Christmas (Marvin Gaye 1972)
16 Back Door Santa (Clarence Carter 1968)
17 This Christmas (Donnie Hathaway 1970)
18 Christmas Here With You (Four Tops 1995)

Soulseek tip - search 'christmas aiwe' for all my Christmas albums.

The Misunderstood - End Of Time (1966)

The Misunderstood were formed in Riverside, California, and had their roots in the Blue Notes, an instrumental combo featuring George Phelps and Greg Treadway on guitars and Rick Moe on drums. Despite living in a landlocked town, Phelps and his friends developed a passion for surfing, frequently road-tripping to Encinitas to ride the waves, and a shared love of the beach brought Phelps together with Rick Brown, whose family had recently moved to Riverside. After the demise of the Blue Notes, Phelps, Treadway, and Moe decided to form a new band, and brought Brown on board as their lead singer. Billing themselves as Treadway & Company, they invited Steve Whiting to play bass, and began putting together a repertoire steeped in blues and covers of the tougher British Invasion groups, in particular the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Them, and the Yardbirds. They also began writing songs of their own, and by mid-1965 they had enough material to cut a demo at a local recording studio, by which time they had dropped the name Treadway & Company and branded themselves The Misunderstoods, a reference to the Animals' hit 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood'. After a few months of rehearsing, playing teen clubs, and appearing at school dances, another recording session took place in December 1965, this time under the revised name of The Misunderstood. 

After recording some more material in January 1966, Phelps dropped out of the band, preferring to get a day job, and after seeing Glenn Ross Campbell playing steel guitar with his group the Answers, the members of the Misunderstood were certain his unique style was the right fit for them. Campbell had been playing in country and rock bands for years, and his use of a fuzzbox to add a beefier tone to his refashioned blues licks gave the Misunderstood a sound unlike any other group at that time. Not long after Campbell joined the act, they played a show at a shopping center in Riverside, and they were spotted by John Ravenscroft, a British disc jockey who had recently landed a job at a local FM radio station. Ravenscroft was blown away by what he heard, and he took the group under his wing, offering them advice and filling their ears with different musical influences. It would not be the last time the DJ helped a band get a break, as years later he would adopt the name John Peel, and became one of the most influential radio personalities in the U.K. In March 1966, Peel arranged for the band to record a session at Hollywood's Gold Star Studio, famed as Phil Spector's favourite recording facility, and the tapes showed a band who were moving beyond blues-rock into a more expressive and experimental sound that would anticipate psychedelic rock. 

Peel and the musicians became increasingly convinced that if they wanted to find the right audience for their work, they would be better off in England than California, and after pressing a single of two of the Gold Star tracks as a calling card, 'You Don't Have to Go' b/w 'Who's Been Talking', they began blocking out plans to relocate to the U.K., with Peel's brother acting as their representative in England. They staged a final show in Riverside, and left for the U.K. in June 1966, but to their dismay they discovered that Peel hadn't contacted his mother, who was supposed to let the band stay at her home when they arrived in London, and his brother had done little to lay groundwork for their mission to conquer Great Britain. They also lacked work permits, but they were still able to land gigs and began finding an audience for their bold sound, especially after they acquired a manager, Nigel Thomas. However, in August 1966, homesick Treadway quit the group and returned to California, and the band replaced him with new guitarist Tony Hill, who proved to be an excellent foil for Campbell's steel work, and who also wrote new material in tandem with Brown. A new demo was cut at London's I.B.C. studios, which Thomas took to Fontana Records, and they signed the band and issued the single 'I Can Take You To The Sun' b/w 'Who Do You Love' in December 1966. 

The group bowled over the press in a media event staged by Fontana and they were being talked up by the British music weeklies, but a dark cloud appeared on the horizon, as Brown had been called up for the military draft, and after ignoring numerous letters from America's Selective Service System, he was informed he would be officially indicted on charges on draft evasion if he didn't return home to meet the draft board, so he flew back to California. Brown hoped that his commitments to Fontana in England, as well as a letter from his doctor saying he was unfit for service, would permit him to return to London relatively soon. However, his pleas were rejected, and he was given the option of serving two years in the Army or five years in prison. Brown chose the Army, and though The Misunderstood found a new singer, Steve Colyer, their management had lost confidence in the band after Brown left. They were booked to play shows in France in early 1967, only to discover that Campbell's, Moe's, and Whiting's visas would not permit them to return to the U.K, and so they had no choice but to go back to California, which spelled the end of the group. 

After returning to America, Campbell was befriended by blues artist Rod Piazza, and he joined Piazza's group the Dirty Blues Band, appearing on their self-titled debut album, issued in 1967 by Bluesway Records. Meanwhile, Peel continued to champion the Misunderstood even after their breakup, and at his urging, Fontana released another single from their recordings of the band, 'Children Of The Sun' b/w 'I Unseen'. The single generated enough attention that Campbell returned to England and assembled a new edition of The Misunderstood, but rather than trade on his old band's reputation they named themselves Juicy Lucy, and signed with Vertigo Records, who put out their first album in 1969. In spite of their relatively small output, they were considered to be influential pioneers of the acid style of rock music, and many of these tracks sound like they could have been recorded about two years later, showing how far ahead of their time they were. There have been a number of compilation albums issued over the years, but none have tried to show what an actual 1966 album by the group could have sounded like, and I hope that this post fills that gap. 

Track listing

01 Children Of The Sun
02 I'm Not Talking
03 I Unseen
04 End Of Time
05 I Can Take You To The Sun 
06 Why
07 My Mind
08 Find The Hidden Door
09 Who Do You Love
10 Bury My Body
11 Who's Been Talking
12 Got Love If You Want It
13 Don't Break Me Down
14 She Got Me

Spear Of Destiny - March Or Die (1988)

Spear Of Destiny was formed by Kirk Brandon and Stan Stammers from the wreckage of Theatre of Hate, and named, with characteristic grandeur, after the weapon with which the Roman centurion Longinus pierced the body of the crucified Christ. Much of the group's debut album was already in place before Lasette Ames and Chris Bell joined, and 'The Grapes Of Wrath' was released on the band's own Burning Rome label in 1983. The original quartet did not survive for long, and the album had barely hit the street when Ames and Bell quit, the latter citing both personal and religious reasons, and Theatre of Hate's Nigel Preston, fresh from a stint with Sex Gang Children, and Diodes' saxophonist John Lennard were drafted in for live work. By the time the band began recording their second album, both had been replaced, by former Stiff Little Fingers drummer Dolphin Taylor, sax player Nick Donnelly, Neil Pyzer, and guitarist Alan St Clair. This became the definitive band aggregation, and they toured constantly, with three outings during 1984 alone, but this did not carry over to studio success, with none of their three singles from 1984's 'One Eyed Jacks' - 'Rainmaker', 'Prisoner Of Love' and 'Liberator' - breaking the UK Top 50. The failure of 'One Eyed Jacks' did much to knock Brandon back, dealing a blow from which he would not recover, even after 1985's 'World Service', a less cohesive, but occasionally superior album just missed the Top Ten. Two further singles, 'All My Love' and 'Come Back', were barely noticed, and when attempts to record a new album on the Manor Mobile collapsed in bad-tempered disarray, Brandon sacked the entire group. Spear Of Destiny vanished for much of the next two years, and when the band did return, it was with a completely new lineup of Brandon, bassist Chris Bostock, drummer Pete Barnacle, former Adam & the Ants guitarist Marco Pirroni, and keyboardist Volker Janssen. Ironically, it was now that the band finally achieved the destiny which had evaded them for so long, with 'Outland' being released on Virgin's 10 subsidiary in 1987, and spawning their biggest hits to date, with 'Stranger In Our Town', 'Never Take Me Alive', 'Was That You', and 'The Traveller' all performing well in the UK charts. 

The group also toured with U2, an outing which culminated at Wembley Stadium in June 1987, but before the group could capitalize on their sudden success, tragedy struck. Literally on the eve of an appearance at the Reading Festival, Brandon was diagnosed with Reiter's Syndrome and ordered to bed, where he spent a year flat on his back, barely able to move at a time when Spear Of Destiny's commercial stock had never been higher. 'Outland' was their biggest seller yet, and their first tour of America was beckoning, but Brandon's main concern was learning to walk again. He struggled back into action just in time to see Spear Of Destiny fall apart, with their 1988 album 'The Price You Pay' and single 'So In Love With You' foundering in the face of their inability to promote them. Brandon bravely tried to relaunch the group in 1990, reuniting with Stan Stammers alongside drummer Bobby Rae Mayhem and guitarist Mark Thwaite, but his future drifted even further out of reach when sundry legal problems meant he couldn't even continue using the band's name. Two largely unsatisfying albums document this era, the comeback 'Sod's Law', released in 1992, and 'Live At The Lyceum' 1993, but in the face of these set-backs the band drifted apart, with Brandon relocating to Philadelphia. While they were active, Spear Of Destiny amassed a devoted following, and it was just bad luck that they couldn't capitalise on their biggest success with 'Outlaw', but we can relive their early days with this collection of non-album singles and b-sides from their first incarnation.   

Track listing

01 The Wheel (single 1983)
02 The Hop (b-side of 'The Wheel')
03 Rosie (b-side of 'Prisoner Of Love' 1984)
04 Last Card (b-side of 'All My Love (Ask Nothing)' 1985)
05 Walk In My Shadow (b-side of 'All My Love (Ask Nothing)' 1985)
06 Cole Younger (b-side of 'Come Back' 1985)
07 Young Men (Return Of) (b-side of 'Come Back' 1985)
08 Somewhere Out There (b-side of 'Strangers In Our Town' 1987)
09 Times Of Our Lives (b-side of 'Strangers In Our Town' 1987)
10 Late Night Psycho (b-side of 'The Traveller' 1987)
11 March Or Die (b-side of 'So In Love With You' 1988)
12 The Jungle (b-side of 'So In Love With You' 1988)
13 Life Goes On (b-side of 'Radio Radio' 1988)

Nola York - I Can Hear You Calling (1985)

Nola York was born in Liverpool, and in the 1960's she attended Webber Douglas Drama school in London. While there she was invited to a party by a friend whose father was high up in the American Embassy, and she ended up singing and playing guitar. Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood heard a song that she written called 'I Don't Understand', and wanted her to record it, and so she secured a recording and publishing contract with Johnny Franz, Dusty Springfield's producer at Philips Records, where she met actor and lyricist Michael Richmond, who shared a similar passion for writing a musical. 'I Don't Understand' was released as a single in 1964 on the His Master's Voice label, and a couple of years later she released 'Whole Lotta Lovin'', backed with 'You Just Didn't Wanna Know', on Philips Records, both of which she co-wrote with Glen Stuart. 1967 saw the release of three more singles, the first of which comprised two songs co-written by her, on the 'I Can Hear You Calling'/'Clown Face' single, which was followed by 'Photograph'/'He's Looking At Her', once again co-written by York, and she closed the year with 'There's So Much Love All Around Me', backed with her co-write 'Sleeping Boutique'. In 1967 she worked all over Europe. singing in the Concert Hall in Belgrade, and performing at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland, as well as appearing on TV and radio shows in Holland and Norway. 

Once back in the UK she recorded 'Ciao Baby', which was released in 1968, and in 1969 she collaborated with Michael Richmond and wrote lyrics and music for the musical 'The Knight Of The Burning Pestle', which ran at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, and then later at the Greenwich Theatre, directed by Sam Walters. In 1970 she joined The Chantelles all-girl singing group, replacing Jay Adams, and touring all over Europe and working American Air force bases, although she never recorded with them. When her tour with The Chantelles ended she joined up with Richmond again and they wrote the musical 'The Lady Or The Tiger' in 1975, which Sam Walters put on at the Orange Tree Pub in an upstairs room, before it transferred to The Fortune Theatre, making York the first woman to write a full-length score for a West End musical. Over the next few years she carried on writing musicals, including 'People' and 'Wild, Wild Women', and then in 1985 she unexpectedly returned to pop music when she wrote and recorded the song 'Hi Fantasy', which was released in Holland on a Dutch label, and which made the Dance charts in the UK. Most of her best songs were released in the late 60's, although she did cut a couple of records in the early 70's, before 'Hi Fantasy' took her into the charts, and so this collection brings together the best of her 60's and 70's output, including an unreleased acetate from 1975 that I've edited to give it the intro that was missing from the only available version, and with her 1985 single closing the album. 

Track listing

01 I Don't Understand (single 1964)
02 Here I Stand (b-side of 'I Don't Understand')
03 Whole Lotta Lovin' (single 1966)
04 There's So Much Love All Around Me (single 1967)
05 Sleeping Boutique (b-side of 'There's So Much Love All Around Me')
06 I Can Hear You Calling (single 1967)
07 Photographs (single 1967)
08 He's Looking At Her (b-side of 'Photographs')
09 Ciao Baby (single 1968)
10 Cowboy (single 1973)
11 Purple Flowers (b-side of 'Cowboy')
12 Noises (unreleased acetate 1975)
13 City Of London (unreleased acetate, incorrectly credited to The Chantelles 1975)
14 Hi Fantasy (12" single 1985)

The Mojo Men - Times Like These (1966)

As mentioned in the previous post from the Mojo Men, Dennis DeCarr left the group in 1966 and was replaced by drummer/vocalist Jan Errico, formerly of the Vejtables. This signalled a change in direction for the group, and they ditched their previous British Invasion-influenced garage rock for more of a pop/folk sound. They also left Autumn Records and signed with Reprise Records, where their first single for the label was a Baroque cover version of Buffalo Springfield's 'Sit Down, I Think I Love You', which became the band's first and only top 40 single. Despite releasing half a dozen more singles between 1966 and 1968, they could never regain the popularity of that first record, and so in 1968 Metchick left the band, and the remaining trio shortened their name to The Mojo, and then just Mojo, before they released their lone studio album, 'Mojo Magic', on GRT Records in 1969. Later that year the group disbanded, but after 'Sit Down, I Think I Love You' was included on the seminal 1972 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era' compilation album, the band's earlier output was re-examined and found to contain a number of fine recordings. There have been three Mojo Men compilation albums released between 1995 and 2003, but the most interesting of them was a collection of recordings made after Errico joined in 1966, but which were never released. There is a lot of duplication on it, with the inclusion of alternate takes and demos, but by stripping all of those out we are left with an excellent collection of music which shows the transition of the group's sound into the pop/folk for which they are most known, and which could have been released as an actual album in 1966.

Track listing

01 Is Our Love Gone
02 What Kind Of Man
03 Another World
04 Sure Of Your Love
05 Look Into My Eyes
06 Times Like These
07 You Didn't Even Say Goodbye
08 Happiness Is You
09 Not Too Old To Start Cryin'
10 'Til I Find You
11 What's The Answer
12 They May Be Right
13 Remember Me
14 Don't Leave Me Crying Like Before

Design - Sign The World A Song (1976)

Design was a British six-piece vocal harmony group from the early 1970's, comprising Tony Smith, Barry Alexander, Gabrielle Field, Kathy Manuell, John Mulcahy-Morgan and Geoff Ramseyer. Singer/songwriter Smith formed Design while he was working at the BBC in London in December 1968, and the group then signed a recording contract with Adrian Kerridge of Lansdowne Studios, recording their first self-titled album during the summer of 1969. Their music has been described as 'sunshine harmony pop with a light hippy vibe' and 'melodic folk-pop with a shimmering, almost psychedelic, West Coast feel', and this might have helped them gain a two-album deal with Epic Records in the USA following the UK release of 'Design'. In November 1970, shortly before the first album was released, Smith left the group and he was replaced by guitarist Jeff Matthews, who had been with Ramseyer and Mulcahy-Morgan in the group Free Expression. This was Design’s most successful line-up, and after their appearances on The Morecambe and Wise Show in 1971 they became one of the most televised groups in the UK, guesting on dozens of programmes with The Two Ronnies, Val Doonican, Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, and many others. They toured with Gilbert O'Sullivan, starred in cabaret and at the London Palladium, and released three more albums,  'Tomorrow Is So Far Away' in 1972, 'Day Of The Fox' in 1973, and 'In Flight' in 1974, before Field and Ramseyer left the group in October 1974. The other members carried on as a four-piece, and recorded one more album, 'By Design', before finally splitting up in October 1976. Unusually for the time, the group tended to release singles which didn't then appear on their albums, and so this collection of non-album tracks is a great round-up of their career which can sit nicely alongside their original albums.   

Track listing

01 Colour All The World (single 1972)
02 Lazy Song (b-side of 'Colour All The World')
03 Day By Day (previously unreleased 1971)
04 Mayday (single 1972)
05 One Sunny Day (single 1973)
06 Jennifer (German single 1973)
07 Traume (b-side of 'Jennifer')
08 Once Upon A Time (b-side of 'Second Love' 1974)
09 Sing The World A Song (single 1974)
10 Won't You Say You Love Me (b-side of 'Banging On The Old Piano' 1975)
11 As It Was (previously unreleased 1975)
12 Calais (previously unreleased 1975)
13 You're So Good To Me (single 1976)
14 Never Been A Love Like This (b-side of 'You're So Good To Me')

Victoria Justice - Love Zombie (2013)

Victoria Dawn Justice was born on 19 February 1993, and at the age of 10 she made her acting debut with a guest appearance on the comedy drama series 'Gilmore Girls', and after this her family moved to Los Angeles, when Justice began to pursue a career in acting. The following year, she guest-starred on the second episode of the Disney Channel series 'The Suite Life of Zack & Cody', in which she played a young pageant contestant named Rebecca, and later she was cast as Stella, a young girl who begins seeing visions of Mary Magdalene, in Aaron Ruell's 2005 short film 'Mary'. In 2005 she was accepted into the musical theatre program at the Millikan Performing Arts Academy in Los Angeles, and started appearing in advertisements for companies such as Ralph Lauren, Gap, and Guess, as well as landing a main role in the Nickelodeon series 'Zoey 101' as Lola Martinez, a new student who is an aspiring actress. 'Zoey 101' ended its run on 2 May 2008, and the following year she announced plans to guest star on an episode of Nickelodeon's series 'The Naked Brothers Band', portraying herself. Also in 2009, she starred in the Nickelodeon musical 'Spectacular!', in which she performed three songs, and it became one of Nickelodeon's most popular movies, attracting an audience 3.7 million viewers on its premiere night. In 2010 she confirmed that she would be starring in her own musical show on Nickelodeon called 'Victorious', recording several songs for the series throughout its run, which lasted until February 2013. In a 2010 interview with the Associated Press, she stated that she was recording an album, but planned to take her time with the process, and in October 2012 it was given a release date of 2013. Her debut single 'Gold' was released on 18 June 2013, but in August 2014 Billboard revealed that Justice had left Columbia Records, although she was still recording new music to be released in 2015. In December 2020 she announced that her first single in over seven years would be titled 'Treat Myself', and it was her first as an independent artist. This was followed by 'Stay', released in February 2021, and 'Too F*ckin' Nice' in May. While Justice continues to progress with her acting career, her music appears to be on hiatus, and her 2013 album is now highly unlikely to ever see the light of day, so here it is for us to judge if it should have been released at the time. 

Track listing

01 Love Zombie
02 Solo
03 We Make The Weekend
04 A.D.D. Love
05 Girl Up
06 Caught Up In You
07 Favourite Song
08 Perfect
09 Our Little Secret
10 Priceless

The Creation - Ostrich Man (1968) **UPDATED**

While posting my reconstructions of albums by 60's band that never appeared at the time, I've revisited some of my earlier posts which were not part of this series, and with this one in particular I found that I was just as guilty as the compliers that I've criticised, throwing in every single track that I could find from the band. That included duplicate takes and early live recordings just to make up the time, and yet I didn't need to as it ended up as a 45-minute album, which was more than long enough. I've therefore revisited this post and updated it, which includes removing one of the duplicate tracks - I've chosen to keep the raw version of 'Life Is Just Beginning' as no other tracks are orchestrated and so it fits better with the rest of the album - and re-jigging the track listing, as I now think that starting with an instrumental was an odd choice. I've also looked at the live tracks and done a bit of editing to 'I'm A Man', but I felt that 'That's How Strong My Love is' was too much of a soul song to fit with the psychedelia of the rest of the tracks so that's now gone. Finally I've updated the cover, as I never really liked the old one. If you already have this then it's up to you if you grab this update, as you already have all the music, but I just feel that with this running order it now sounds better as an actual album. One last thing that I've done is to tag all of these albums as '60's psyche' so that you can see them all together and check if you've missed any earlier ones.

Track listing

01 Life Is Just Beginning

02 Ostrich Man

03 I'm A Man

04 Instrumental #1

05 For All That I Am

06 I Am The Walker

07 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
08 The Girls Are Naked

09 Uncle Bert

10 Sylvette

11 Bonney Moroney

12 Midway Down

13 Sweet Helen

Loudest Whisper - The Wheel Of Life (1976)

Loudest Whisper grew out of an earlier band called The Wizards, who were formed during the 60's in Fermoy, County Cork in Ireland by singer/guitarist Brian O'Reilly. Around 1970 they changed their name to Loudest Whisper, to reflect their wish to mix their earlier folk-rock with the heavier music of the time. After a few years on the circuit they performed a folk-rock musical that they had written, entitled 'The Children Of Lir', and from it's first performance in January 1973 it was a huge success, leading to more performances and a feature on 'Tangents', an RTE Television current affairs programme. Spurred on by this success, O'Reilly wrote a second musical entitled 'Perseus', which featured a new member of the band, Gerladine Dorgan, who was still at school at the time, and it premiered at the Fermoy Youth Centre at Christmas 1973. Following the success of these performances, Loudest Whisper were signed to Polydor Records, and set about recording 'The Children Of Lir' album, and they also recorded their first single at the same time, with 'William B' being a tribute to W. B. Yeats. Both the single and the album were released in 1974, and 'The Children Of Lir' has since become one of folk-rock's most highly-regarded and sought-after albums, despite Polydor's lack of faith in it at the time. The following year was taken up with a third musical, 'Maiden Of Sorrow', although this was never recorded as a studio album, and so the only way to hear it is on a bootleg recording which was issued by Kissing Spell Records.

1977 saw some line-up changes, with bassist John Aherne leaving as he was unable to balance the live work with the band with his day job, but it also saw the release of the 'Rock 'n Roll Child' single, which was a hit in Ireland. In 1978 work began on building a recording studio, which was a joint venture between O'Reilly and a local music shop, and Fiona Studios opened it's doors in 1979, where the band recorded their next Irish hit single 'Magic Carpet'. In 1980 Polydor agreed that they could record a second album, as long as it included their hit singles, and so in 1982 they released 'Hard Times', featuring new co-lead-singer Bernadette Bowes, although they seemed to have got one over on the label, as it included all new material. However, between 'The Children Of Lir' and 'Hard Times' the band had been recording demos which they stored away, and since these have appeared on a recent box set we now find that they had more than enough material to release their second album a good six years before they actually did. By including a couple of b-sides, a track from the 'Perseus' musical, and some 1974/1975 demos we end up with a great folk-rock album, mixing some lovely folky moments with lashings of heavy guitar, just as they set out to do following their change of name. I think it hangs together really well, and it certainly proves that 'The Children Of Lir' was not a one-off, and that they had much more to offer if only their record label had shown a bit more faith in them.    

Track listing

01 Wrong And Right
02 Danae's Song
03 Lord Have Mercy
04 The Wheel Of Life
05 You Said You Loved Me
06 Come Back Paddy Reilly To Ballyjamesduff
07 Children Of The Wild Wind 
08 Wouldn't It Be Fine?
09 William B
10 Silent O'Moyle

Burt Bacharach - Burt Bacharach's Greatest Misses (1962)

While Burt Bacharach did score some early hits in the 1950's, and wrote songs recorded by some of the biggest stars of the day, as well as some of the more obscure ones, it wasn’t until Dionne Warwick's slew of hits with his and Hal David's tunes that he became a ubiquitous name in pop music. His early attempts at song-writing were recorded by a variety of artists, including Connie Stevens, Jack Jones, The Wanderers, The Exotics, Jane Morgan, and Vic Dana, but simply put, these are songs that didn’t make it; none of them charted at all. The vast majority of these tracks were written by the Bacharach/David team, but there are some exceptions, with 'Dreamin' All the Time', for example, being written by Bacharach and Bob Hilliard. Although these are early examples of Bacharach's work, they are still lushly orchestrated, dreamy pop songs with traces of his melodic trademark, as well as his sweeping harmonies. One interesting cut is the Shepherd Sisters' 'Deeply', written with Norman Gimble, which was an early girl group rock tune that featured the marimba sound from 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose'. There were a few duds along the way, of course, proving that Bacharach is human after all, but they tended to be songs from the late 50's and very early 60's, and by 1962 he and David had started to produce music that would point the way to their biggest hits, such as 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' and 'Walk On By', just a year later.

Track listing

01 Manpower (The Exotics 1962)

02 And This Is Mine (Connie Francis 1961)
03 Don't Envy Me (Joey Powers 1962)
04 Dreamin' All The Time (Jack Jones 1962)
05 Forever My Love (Jane Morgan 1962)
06 Sinner's Devotion (Tina Robin 1961)
07 The Answer To Everything (Sam Fletcher 1962)
08 Joanie's Forever (Buddy Clinton 1960)
09 Waitin' For Charlie To Come Home (Jane Morgan 1962)
10 You're Following Me (Jimmy Breedlove 1962)
11 I Could Make You Mine (The Wanderers 1960)
12 Call Off The Wedding (Babs Tino 1962)
13 Deeply (The Shepherd Sisters 1961)
14 For All Time (The Russells 1962)
15 The Story Behind My Tears (Vic Dana 1961)
16 Somebody Else's Sweetheart (The Wanderers 1961)
17 Come Completely To Me (Steve Rossi 1960)