Toto - Talk It Over (1979)

Before they got together and formed a band, the individual members of Toto were regular players on albums by Steely Dan, Seals and Crofts, Boz Scaggs, Sonny and Cher, and many other artists, contributing to some of the most popular records of the 1970's. Keyboardist David Paich, son of musician and session player/arranger Marty Paich, rose to fame after having co-written much of Scaggs' 'Silk Degrees' album, and he played on many sessions with drummer Jeff Porcaro (the son of session percussionist Joe Porcaro), whom he met while attending Grant High School. There they formed the band Rural Still Life, and Paich began to discuss seriously with Porcaro the possibility of them forming their own band, so they brought in bassist and fellow session veteran David Hungate, having played with him in the backing band for Scaggs. In addition, the duo asked fellow Grant High School students, guitarist Steve Lukather (who also played in Scaggs' band as a replacement for Les Dudek) and Jeff Porcaro's brother Steve Porcaro on keyboards to join the team. With the addition of former S.S. Fools singer Bobby Kimball, the group began to work on their first album in 1977, after signing with Columbia Records. Once the band came together, David Paich began composing what would become the eponymous debut album, 'Toto', and according to popular myth, in order to distinguish their own demo tapes from other bands' in the studio at their first recording sessions, Jeff Porcaro wrote the word "Toto" on them. In the early 1980's, band members told the press that the band was named after Toto the dog from 'The Wizard Of Oz', but in fact their first album was completed by the still un-named band, and after viewing the name on the demo tapes, David Hungate explained to the group that the Latin words "in toto" translated to "all-encompassing", and because the band members played on so many records and in so many musical genres, they adopted the name Toto as their own. Luthaker started his session work in earnest in 1977, and as most of the other players had been active during the early 70's, they started to appear together on various albums from the late 70's onwards, in groups of three, four, or even five on Kiki Dee's 'Stay With Me' album. From 1977, through the 1978 recording of their debut album and ending in 1979 following the release of their 'Hydra' album, they played on literally scores of recordings, and this collection brings together some of the best tracks that they recorded with girl singers in that three year period, making in effect a Toto album with a variety of female guest vocalists. 

Track listing

01 Top Of The World (Diana Ross 1977 SL/DH/JP) 
02 Talk It Over (Even Though My Body's Cold) (Lisa Del Bello 1977 SL/DP/MP/JP) 
03 I Don't Wanna Dance No More (Carole Bayer Sager 1978 SL/DH/SP/JP)
04 No Reason (Juice Newton 1978 SL/DH/MP/JP) 
05 Crazy (Valerie Carter 1978 SL/DH/SP/JP)
06 As We Fall In Love Once More (Evie Sands 1979 SL/DH)
07 Love Is A Crazy Feeling (Kiki Dee 1979 SL/DP/DH/SP/JP)
08 Why Can't We Fall In Love (Deniece Williams 1979 SL/DH/JP)
09 Hollywood (Lauren Wood 1979 SL/DH/JP/BK)
10 Prisoner (Cher 1979 SL/JP/DP co-writer)

SL - Steve Luthaker (guitar)
DP - David Paich (keyboards)
DH - David Hungate (bass)
SP - Steve Porcaro (keyboards)
JP - Jeff Porcaro (drums)
MP - Mike Porcaro (bass)
BK - Bobby Kimball (backing vocals)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Leonard Cohen (2013)

Leonard Norman Cohen was born on 21 September 1934, and is best known as a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. He initially pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950's and early 1960's, with his first published book of poetry, 'Let Us Compare Mythologies', being published by Dudek in 1956, the year after his graduation. It was the first book in the McGill Poetry Series, and it contained poems written largely when Cohen was between the ages of 15 and 20. By 1957 he working various odd jobs and focusing on the writing of fiction and poetry, including the poems for his next book, 'The Spice-Box Of Earth', published in 1961. He continued to write poetry and fiction throughout the 1960's and preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances after he bought a house on Hydra, a Greek island in the Saronic Gulf. While living and writing on Hydra, he published the poetry collection 'Flowers For Hitler' in 1964, and the novel 'The Favourite Game' in 1963, which was an autobiographical tale about a young man who discovers his identity through writing. In 1967, disappointed with his lack of success as a writer, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer/songwriter. His song 'Suzanne' became a hit for Judy Collins (who subsequently recorded a number of Cohen's other compositions), and was for many years his most recorded song. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records producer John Hammond, who signed him to a record deal. His first album was 'Songs Of Leonard Cohen', released in the US in late 1967 to generally dismissive reviews, but it became a favourite in the UK on its release in early 1968, where it spent over a year on the album charts. Several of the songs on that first album were recorded by other popular folk artists, including James Taylor and Judy Collins, and the album has been continually dipped into by other musicians for inspiration ever since, resulting in every track being treated to a superlative cover by 2013, all of which can be heard on this reimagining of Leonard Cohen's debut album. 

Track listing

01 Suzanne (Roberta Flack 1973)
02 Master Song (John Bergaron 2004)
03 Winter Lady (Caecilie Norby 2013)
04 The Stranger Song (Tamco 2010)
05 Sisters Of Mercy (Dion 1968)
06 So Long, Marianne (Bell + Arc 1970)
07 Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye (Hamilton Camp 1969)
08 Stories Of The Street (The Low Anthem 2012)
09 Teachers (Omnia 2010)
10 One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (Gregory Alan Isakov 2009) 

Micky Dolenz - Don't Do It (1983)

George Michael Dolenz Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California on 8 March 1945, and by the age of six he was already doing screen tests, landing his first recurring role as Corky on the TV series 'Circus Boy' at the age of 10. He toured the country with his elephant "Bimbo" promoting the show, which ran for three years, but when he reached his teens he started to develop an interest in music. He sang lead with a number of club-level rock bands, including Micky & The One Nighters, who specialized in covering The Rolling Stones and Jerry Lee Lewis songs, and it was during this period that he recorded his first single, 'Huff Puff'/'Don't Do It', although the record was not released until 1967. In 1965 Dolenz was cast in the TV series 'The Monkees', beating out over 400 other applicants for the role, and while he was initially meant to simply play the fictional group's drummer, his vocal skills meant he became lead singer on many of their songs. Along with Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, Dolenz became first a TV star and then a rock & roll idol, as the fictional band had smash hit singles with 'Last Train To Clarksville', 'I'm A Believer', and 'Pleasant Valley Sunday'. They released nine albums, and sold over 60 million records worldwide, with 'The Monkees' TV show lasting two seasons, followed by their cult feature film 'Head', before they finally broke up in 1970. Dolenz was always interested in working behind the camera as well as acting and music, and he wrote and directed one of the final episodes of the TV series, but he kept a foot in the door of the music industry by cutting a handful of solo singles for MGM Records, as well as one 45 with producer Michael Lloyd under the name Starship. 

He stepped back into music in 1976 with the album 'Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart', in which he and Davy Jones teamed with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who wrote and produced many of The Monkees' most memorable tunes. The album and subsequent concert tour received favourable reviews but attracted few paying customers, and in 1977 Dolenz travelled to England to appear in the London production of 'The Point', a stage musical based on Harry Nilsson's 1971 concept album. While he expected to stay in London for three months, he ended up staying for twelve years, establishing himself as a successful director in television and the legitimate stage. 1993 saw Dolenz publish a memoir, 'I'm A Believer: My Life of Music, Madness And The Monkees', and as plans were set in motion to celebrate the Monkees' 30th Anniversary in 1996, the original four members reunited to cut the album 'Justus', with all the material written and performed by the group. While the foursome planned an international concert tour in support, Nesmith bowed out after a run of shows in the United Kingdom, and it marked the last time the classic line-up would work together. In 1998, Dolenz brought out a solo album titled 'Demoiselle', which presented his original demos for eight songs he had written in the '90s. Although he will always be most remembered for his distinctive vocals on many of the Monkees' hit singles, his attempt at a solo career both before and after The Monkees has remained largely unappreciated, and so to put that right here are all the singles and b-sides that he recorded between 1965 and 1983. It includes both tracks recorded in 1965 by Micky And The One Nighters, which were later released as two separate split singles in 1967 to cash in on his new-found fame, as well as one joint single with Davy Jones in 1971, and the one under the name Starship, long before Jefferson decided to use it.   

Track listing

01 Huff Puff (single as Micky And The One Nighters, recorded 1965, released 1967)
02 Don't Do It (single as Micky And The One Nighters, recorded 1965, released 1967)
03 Do It In The Name Of Love (single with Davy Jones 1971)
04 Lady Jane (b-side of 'Do It In THe Name Of Love')
05 Easy On You (single 1971)
06 Oh Someone (b-side of 'Easy On You')
07 Unattended In The Dungeon (single 1972)
08 A Lover's Prayer (b-side of 'Unattended In The Dungeon')
09 Johnny B. Goode (single as Starship 1972)
10 It's Amazing To Me (b-side of 'Johnny B. Goode')
11 Daybreak (single 1973)
12 Love War (b-side of 'Daybreak')
13 Ooh She's Young (single 1973)
14 Love Light (single 1979)
15 Alicia (b-side of 'Love Light')
16 To Be Or Not To Be (single 1982)
17 Beverley Hills (b-side of 'To Be Or Not To Be')
18 Tomorrow (split single with The Bugsy Malone Gang 1983)

Victoria Beckham - Open Your Eyes (2003)

On 14 August 2000 Victoria Beckham released her first solo single, 'Out Of Your Mind', in collaboration with Dane Bowers and Truesteppers, and this coincided with the release of 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)' by Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor, resulting in a chart battle dubbed 'Posh vs. Posher' by the tabloids. Before the single's release, she made her public solo debut at London's Hyde Park on 8 July 2000 at a concert to raise money for the Prince's Trust charity, singing 'Out Of Your Mind' to a 100,000-strong audience. She then signed a recording contract with her group label Virgin Records, and her next single, 'Not Such An Innocent Girl', was released on 17 September 2001. Again, she faced competition in another hugely hyped chart battle, this time with Kylie Minogue's single 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head', but despite a huge promotional campaign, Kylie outsold her by eight to one, and her single could only reach number 6. Beckham's eponymous debut album was released on 1 October 2001, and although it reached Number 10 in the UK album chart, it reputedly cost £5 million to produce but only sold a modest 50,000 copies. The second and final single to be released from the album was 'A Mind Of Its Own', and although it reached number 6 in the UK chart and sold 56,500 copies, rumours were spreading that she was to be dropped by her label for not charting in the Top Three. A third single, a remix of 'I Wish' featuring Robbie Craig, was promoted but never materialised, as following the announcement of Beckham's second pregnancy, the single was shelved. She was reportedly dropped by Virgin Records along with fellow Spice Girls Emma Bunton and Melanie B, although this was denied by her publicist, who explained that the Virgin deal had just come to a natural end for both parties. In 2002, Beckham signed a contract with Telstar Records and 19 Management worth £1.5 million, and in 2003 she began recording an electropop-influenced album, 'Open Your Eyes', and chose 'Let Your Head Go' as the first single. After the album was finalized, many of the songs leaked onto the internet and so she decided to return to the studio to record new material, wanting a more urban sound, and choosing to work with producer Damon Dash on more R&B and hip hop influenced songs. 'Open Your Eyes' was therefore put on the back-burner while the new material was recorded, and has still to make an appearance, so here it is in the first of two posts which will let you make up your own mind as to whether you prefer the electropop of 'Open Your Eyes', or the later R&B/hip-hop tracks.

Track listing

01 Let Your Head Go 
02 Open Your Eyes
03 Be With You
04 Full Stop (feat. Nas)
05 Generate The Flow 
06 The Hustla
07 25 Minutes 
08 Me Without You 
09 Should've Known Better
10 I'd Give It All Away 
11 Gone (Bittersweet)
12 Can't Get Enough Of You DJ 
13 Right Back To You
14 Every Little Thing 

Go-Go's - This Time (1988)

Go-Go's were formed in Los Angeles in 1978, consisting initially of Belinda Carlisle (vocals), Jane Wiedlin (guitar, background vocals), Margot Olavarria (bass), and Elissa Bello (drums), and they were originally a punk band, with their roots in the L.A. punk community. They began playing gigs at punk venues such as The Masque and the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, and in 1978 Charlotte Caffey was added on lead guitar, keyboards, and background vocals. The next year Gina Schock replaced Bello on drums, and with these line-up changes, the group began moving towards their more-familiar power pop sound. During late 1979, they recorded a five-song demo at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, and in 1980, they supported the British ska revival groups Madness and The Specials in both Los Angeles and England. They subsequently spent half of 1980 touring England, earning a sizable following, and they released the demo version of 'We Got The Beat' on Stiff Records, which became a minor UK hit. In December 1980, original bassist Olavarria fell ill and was replaced by Kathy Valentine, who had played guitar in bands such as Girlschool and the Textones, but who had never previously played bass guitar. Go-Go's signed to I.R.S. Records in April 1981, and that year's debut album 'Beauty And The Beat' was a surprise hit, topping the U.S. charts for six weeks in 1982, and eventually receiving a double platinum certification. 

The follow-up album, 'Vacation', received mixed reviews and sold less than 'Beauty And The Beat', but was still certified gold in the U.S., and spawned another Top 10 U.S. hit with the title track. In 1984, the group returned with the Martin Rushent-produced 'Talk Show', and despite the album tracks 'Head Over Heels' and 'Turn To You' both being Top 40 hits in the U.S., the album sold less than the previous two, not reaching the U.S top 10 and not receiving any certification. Personality conflicts and creative differences within the group were also taking a toll, as were drug addiction problems for some band members, and Wiedlin announced her departure in October 1984. The band sought a replacement, selecting Paula Jean Brown (of Giant Sand) as their new bass guitarist, with Valentine moving to rhythm guitar. This line-up debuted at the 1985 Rock in Rio festival, playing two shows, but Carlisle and Caffey soon realized their hearts were no longer in the group and decided to disband Go-Go's in May 1985. After the split all of the members embarked on solo careers, with Carlisle's debut solo studio album 'Belinda' being released in 1986 on I.R.S. Records, including the hit singles 'Mad About You', a cover of Freda Payne's 'Band Of Gold', and the Charlotte Caffey-penned 'I Feel The Magic'. The musical style of 1987's 'Heaven On Earth' eschewed the 1960's-influenced pop of her debut studio effort in favour of slickly produced 1980's power pop, more in line with the music produced by her former band. 

As Weidlin was the first to leave the group, her debut solo album was was the first to gain a release, coming out in 1985, followed by 'Fur' in 1988, which included her Top Ten hit single 'Rush Hour'. Caffey remained friends with fellow band member Belinda Carlisle after the initial breakup of the Go-Go's, and wrote songs for Carlisle's solo albums, while from 1988 until 1992 she led her own band, The Graces, with Meredith Brooks and Gia Ciambotti, releasing the album 'Perfect View' in 1989. In 1987, Schock and Vance DeGeneres formed the band House of Schock, who released their eponymous debut album in 1988, but Valentine felt that her identity had become absorbed into being a Go-Go, and struggled to find a direction after the split. Returning to her rock roots, she formed the World's Cutest Killers, featuring former Girlschool guitarist Kelly Johnson, and although the group attracted the attention of producer Mike Chapman, and recorded some demos, they were eventually scrapped and the band split up. So we can see that by 1988/1989 four of the five members of the band had released albums of self-penned music, with Carlisle's including five songs written by Caffey, who also provided backing vocals, and so by taking the most Go-Go's sounding tracks from each of their records we can imagine what a fourth Go-Go's album could have sounded like if they'd stayed together just a few years longer.  

Track listing

01 Fear No Love (Caffey)
03 Should I Let You In? (Carlisle)
03 Just To Dream (Schock)
04 Lover's Night (Wiedlin)
05 Nobody Owns Me (Carlisle)
06 Lay Down Your Arms (Caffey)
07 Give! (Wiedlin)
08 We Can Change (Carlisle)
09 Walk In My Sleep (Schock)
10 Rush Hour (Wiedlin)
11 Love Never Dies (Carlisle)
12 This Time (Schock)
13 Out In The Fields (Caffey)

All four tracks from Belinda Carlisle's album were written by Charlotte Caffey, while The Graces' 'Out In The Fields' was co-written with Carlisle. 

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Warren Zevon (2018)

Warren William Zevon was born on 24 January 1947 in Chicago, and began his musical career early, forming a duo with his high school friend, Violet Santangelo, called lyme and cybelle. Bones Howe produced their first single, the minor hit 'Follow Me', which was written by Zevon and Santangelo and reached number 65 on the Billboard pop charts in April 1966. A follow-up single, a cover of Bob Dylan's 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' flopped, and Zevon left the duo, spending time as a session musician and jingle composer. He wrote several songs for his White Whale labelmates The Turtles, such as Like The Seasons' and 'Outside Chance', and another early composition 'She Quit Me' was included in the soundtrack for the film 'Midnight Cowboy' in 1969. His first attempt at a solo album, 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' in 1970 was spearheaded by 1960's cult figure Kim Fowley, but received almost no attention and did not sell well, and so for the next few years he returned to session work with other musicians. During the early 1970's he toured regularly with the Everly Brothers as keyboard player, band leader, and musical coordinator, and he worked particularly closely with Phil, arranging and playing keyboards on his first and third solo albums, 'Star Spangled Springer' in 1973 and 'Mystic Line' in 1975. These small successes were not particularly rewarding financially, and his dissatisfaction with his career and lack of funds led him to briefly move to Spain in the summer of 1975, playing in the Dubliner Bar, a small tavern in Sitges, near Barcelona. By September 1975 Zevon had returned to Los Angeles, where he roomed with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, who had at this time become members of Fleetwood Mac. He also collaborated with Jackson Browne, who produced and promoted Zevon's self-titled major-label debut in 1976, which featured contributions from Nicks, Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, members of the Eagles, Carl Wilson, Linda Ronstadt, and Bonnie Raitt, with Ronstadt later recording many more of his songs. 

'Warren Zevon' was his first album to chart in the United States, peaking at No. 189, and the Rolling Stone Record Guide called it his "most realized work". In 1978, Zevon released 'Excitable Boy', once again produced by Jackson Browne with guitarist Waddy Wachtel, which gained both critical acclaim and popular success. The title tune is about a juvenile sociopath's murderous prom night, and referred to "Little Susie", the heroine of the song 'Wake Up Little Susie' made famous by his former employers the Everly Brothers, while songs such as 'Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner' and 'Lawyers, Guns And Money' used deadpan humour to wed geopolitical subtexts to hard-boiled narratives. Tracks from this album received heavy FM airplay, and the single release 'Werewolves Of London', which featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, was a relatively light-hearted work featuring Zevon's signature macabre outlook, and it reached No. 21 on the charts. This new-found success prompted other artists to investigate his work, with cult rockers The Flamin' Groovies later tackling 'Werewolves Of London', and Jerry Garcia recording a cover of 'Accidentally Like A Martyr' in 1977. Since then all of the other songs from the album have been covered by a variety of artists, and so here is their interpretation of Warren Zevon's 1978 album 'Excitable Boy', with a classic Linda Ronstadt  cover plus one of his earliest songs added to close the post.   

Track listing

01 Johnny Strikes Up The Band (Phil Cody 2014) 
02 Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner (The Escatones 2014)
03 Excitable Boy (Dreadnaught 2005)
04 Werewolves Of London (The Flamin' Groovies 1979)   
05 Accidentally Like A Martyr (Jerry Garcia 1977)
06 Nighttime In The Switching Yard (Dotline 2018)  
07 Veracruz (Casey Brents 2018)
08 Tenderness On The Block (Shawn Colvin 1992)
09 Lawyers, Guns And Money (Derringer 1978)
10 Hasten Down The Wind (Linda Ronstadt 1976)
11 Outside Chance (The Turtles 1966)

Jessi Malay - Here I Am (2007)

Jessi Malay was born Jessica Allison Megan Fried-Watters on 25 July 1986 in Glendale, California, and she began dancing at the age of two, taking lessons in ballet, jazz, tap, and hip-hop. At the age of eight she started singing, joining a professional performing group, and she began touring Disney World, The Big Red Boat, and the Bahamas. In 2001 she joined a girl group, No Secrets, singing lead vocals alongside Angel Faith, and Fried (as she was then known) sang the lead vocal on about half the songs on the group's self-titled debut album from 2002. The other members were Erin Tanner, Carly Lewis, and Jade Ryusaki, and their first single, 'That's What Girls Do', was very popular and was also used in 'The Powerpuff Girls Movie'. In 2003 the group recorded a cover of Atomic Kitten's hit single 'Whole Again' without Angel, who had left the group to pursue a solo career, and in early 2004, the remaining four members of No Secrets recorded 'Once Upon A Dream' for the DVD release of Disney's 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Disneymania 2'. They parted ways in 2005, and Jessica changed her stage name to Jessi Malay and signed with Reprise/Warner Bros. Records, releasing a number of songs with them, including a duet with Trey Songz. The majority of the tracks were written and produced by song-writing/production team TOJ (Andy Goldmark and Bruce Roberts), who have worked with artists such as Cher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, Donna Summer, and Elton John. Her first single was 'Gimme', featuring Lil Scrappy, which was released in the clubs in August 2006, and it was followed by 'Booty Bangs', featuring Yung Joc, in 2007. Once nearly all of the tracks were finalized for her self-titled debut album, she went on a mini-tour promoting her third single 'Cinematic', but while on the tour she injured her knee, which needed surgery, and as a result of this the album was cancelled, so Malay went back to school to finish her studies at UCLA. After finishing these she returned to music, co-founding and signing with Wolfiskin Productions, and recording new songs for her comeback. However, that had to be put on hold when she was cast as a co-host for the first season of Fox's TV show, 'Dish Nation' on the L.A station, filming a total of 26 episodes. In July 2011 she released her new single 'Like You', and carried on issuing singles over the next five years, but she never got around to making another album, and so this is the only long-player under her own name. I've titled it after one of the songs which seemed to sum it up perfectly. 

 
Track listing

01 Here I Am
02 Gimme
03 Topsy Turvy
04 Hpnotiq
05 King
06 Fetish
07 Booty Bangs
08 Last Night On Earth
09 Draw The Line
10 Beg
11 Cinematic
12 On You
13 The Edge

Valerie Masters - Say When (1966)

Valerie Masters was born on 24 April 1940 in Stepney Green, East London, and by the age of 17 she was working as a typist and personal secretary for the mayor of Stepney. It was while working there that she was introduced to band leader Ray Ellington, and shortly afterwards she joined his band as featured vocalist, replacing Marion Ryan. She remained with Ellington's band until 1959, while at the same time launching her career as a solo singer, with her first single 'Sharing'/'The Secret Of Happiness' appearing on the Fontana label in 1958. Three more singles quickly followed in 1958 and early 1959, before 'Jack O' Diamonds' was released in June 1959, followed by 'If There Are Stars In My Eyes' at the end of the year. As the 60's dawned, Fontana still had faith in her, releasing three singles in that year, and although none made the official UK Singles Chart, 'Banjo Boy' made the lower reaches of the New Musical Express's own chart. Between 1959 and 1961 she had her own show on Radio Luxembourg, Valerie and her Boyfriends, and in 1960 she represented Britain in the European Song Contest (unrelated to the Eurovision Song Contest), following which she became popular in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1961, she failed in her attempt to represent the UK at Eurovision, finishing seventh in the 'A Song for Europe' competition with the song 'Too Late For Tears', but she did appear frequently on BBC radio and television. She also performed live in cabaret and clubs, often with Ellington's former pianist Dick Katz, who she married in 1961. In May 1960, she appeared on a short series of teen-oriented programmes, Young at Heart, for Tyne Tees Television, as well working for Border Television. Also in 1961 she sang the theme song for the film 'The Hellions', and also recorded commercials and worked as a backing singer. 1962 was a quiet year on the recording front, with just the one single, a cover of 'African Waltz', and the following year similarly yielded just the one single for the HMV label, while in 1964 she issued the single 'Christmas Calling', produced by Joe Meek and featuring session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. After those two one-off deals she joined Polydor for two records in 1966, and then one last single in 1969 on the Columbia label rounded off her recording career. After leaving the music business, she stayed in entertainment, appearing in the role of a singer in the 1979 television drama series 'Secret Army', and in the early 1980's made appearances in 'Russ Abbot's Saturday Madhouse'. Some of her early singles are impossible to find now, but from late 1959 onwards they can be tracked down, and so here is a nice selection of some of her singles and b-sides from the early to mid-60's. I had to take 'Say Hello' from a poor quality TV appearance, and despite my best efforts at upgrading the sound, it does detract from the rest of the album, so if anyone has a better quality copy of it that I could have then it would finish off this album perfectly.  

Track listing

01 Jack O' Diamonds (single 1959)
02 Say When (b-side of 'Jack O' Diamonds')
03 Banjo Boy (single 1960)
04 Cow Cow Boogie (b-side of 'Banjo Boy')
05 Too Late For Tears (single 1961)
06 Birmingham Rag (single 1961)
07 African Waltz (single 1962)
08 All Night Long (b-side of 'African Waltz')
09 Christmas Calling (single 1964)
10 He Didn't Fool Me (b-side of 'Christmas Calling')
11 It's Up To You (single 1966)
12 The Next Train Out (b-side of 'It's Up To You')
13 Don't Ever Go (single 1966)
14 Say Hello (b-side of 'Don't Ever Go')

Have A Folky Christmas 2023

It won't be long before Christmas is upon us once again, so here is a fine selection of folk-inspired Christmas tunes, without a folkified carol in sight. 

Track listing

01 The Bells Of Dublin/Christmas Eve (The Chieftans 1991)
02 On A Quiet Christmas Morn (Mary Chapin Carpenter 2008)
03 Christmas For Cowboys (John Denver 1975)
04 The Coventry Carol (The Young Tradition with Shirley & Dolly Collins 1969)
05 Christmas Passing Through (The Roches 1990)
06 Gaudete (Steeleye Span 1973)
07 Song For A Winter's Night (Gordon Lightfoot 1967)
08 Upon A Winter's Night (Cara Dillon 2016) 
09 Christ Is Born On Christmas Day (John Fahey 1991)
10 River (Joni Mitchell 1971)
11 Silent Night All Day Long (John Prine 1993)
12 In Dulci Jubilo (Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 2005)
13 Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) (Laura Marling 2009)
14 Sing We Noel (The Kingston Trio 1960)
15 Candlemas Eve (Kate Rusby 2008)
16 I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (Burl Ives 1965)
17 Coventry Carol (Joan Baez 1966)
18 On Christmas Night All Christians Sing (The Christmas Albion Band 2003)
19 The Seven Rejoices Of Mary (Loreena McKennitt 2008)
20 Christmas Carolling (The Irish Rovers 1999)

Search 'christmas aiwe' for all my Christmas albums.

A gift from PowerPopTom - Part 5

Here's the next batch of CD covers from PowerPopTom, and I think the Pink Floyd one might get a few downloads.

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Laura Nyro's 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession' (2017)

Soon after the release of Laura Nyro's debut album 'More Than A New Discovery', David Geffen approached Mogull about taking over as her agent. She successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on the grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor, and Geffen became her manager. The two of them established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, under which the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged Nyro's new recording contract with Clive Davis at Columbia Records, and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. Around this time, she considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears after the departure of founder Al Kooper, but was dissuaded by Geffen, and so she concentrated on recording her second album.  Her new contract allowed her more artistic freedom and control, and so her 1968 record 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession', received high critical praise for the depth and sophistication of its performance and arrangements, which merged pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz. It was her first chart entry, reaching No. 181 on the Billboard 200, and many musicians, including Elton John and Todd Rundgren, were directly influenced by the album. It is second only to its predecessor in producing hit songs for other artists, with Three Dog Night taking 'Eli's Comin'' to the US top 10, while The 5th Dimension went to No. 3 with 'Stoned Soul Picnic' and No. 13 with 'Sweet Blindness'. Once again, it wasn't long before nearly all of the other songs from the record had been taken up and covered,  and such was their quality that they were still being recorded in the 2000's. Here is a nice collection of some of the very best versions of Nyro's songs from her rightly-regarded classic album 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession'. 

Track listing

01 Luckie (Judy Kuhn 2007)
02 Lu (Peggy Lipton 1969)
03 Sweet Blindness (The 5th Dimension 1968)
04 Poverty Train (The Ark 1967)
05 Lonely Women (Linda Hoyle 1971) 
06 Eli's Comin' (Three Dog Night 1969)
07 Stoned Soul Picnic (The Supremes And The Four Tops 1970)
08 Emmie (Frankie Valli 1970)
09 Woman's Blues (Green Lyte Sunday 1970)
10 Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe) (Rastus 2016)
11 December's Boudoir (Denise Mangiardi 2017)
12 The Confession (Billy Childs featuring Becca Stevens 2014)

Marion Ravn - Nevermore (2010)

Marion Elise Ravn (also known as Marion Raven) was born on 25 May 1984 in Lørenskog, Norway, and enjoyed singing from a young age, sometimes writing lyrics for the songs she sang. She joined the gospel choir in a local church at the age of 5, and by the time she was eight she was taking piano lessons. In 1995, Raven's father arranged for her to make a demo in a studio in Oslo, together with her childhood friend, Marit Larsen, and as a result the duo got a record deal with EMI Norway and formed the group M2M. A year later they produced a children's album titled 'Marit And Marion Sing Well-Known Children Songs' for which they were nominated for the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannprisen, the following year. In 1998, M2M started recording pop demos in English, collaborating with many songwriters from around the world, and the released their multi-platinum debut album, 'Shades Of Purple', on the Atlantic label in 2000. Their second album, 'The Big Room', which was recorded in a studio in Bearsville in Woodstock, New York, was released in 2002, and after world tours to promote the album ended, M2M joined Jewel on her This Way world tour as an opening act, but they lost that gig when they disbanded in September 2002. Raven was offered a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and set about recording her debut album, working with Swedish songwriters/producers Max Martin and Rami, as well as Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk and her husband Raine Maida. Initially the record company was not confident in her switch to a more rock image and a darker, more personal style of song-writing, and she had to fight to record her kind of music, which was rock with a pop element. 

The resulting 14-track 'Here I Am' saw her transformation from the candy-pop music of M2M to a more angsty, rock-oriented singer, and was released in Scandinavia, Japan, Latin America and Southeast Asia. It spawned three singles, 'End Of Me', 'Here I Am', and 'Break You', which was her top-selling single internationally. In early 2006, it was announced that Raven had quit her contract with Atlantic Records due to 'artistic differences', and she signed to indie label Eleven Seven Music, which was created by her management 10th Street Entertainment. In 2006 Raven performed a duet with Meat Loaf on the song 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now', released as the lead single from his tenth studio album 'Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose', and it peaked at No. 1 in Norway and reached the top ten in Germany and the United Kingdom. Raven later confirmed that her new album would contain new and old tracks from her Norwegian debut, and 'Set Me Free' appeared in March 2007, after which she toured around The Netherlands, Germany and the UK to help promote it. In 2008 she made a cameo appearance in the music video for the song 'Saints Of Los Angeles' by American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, and in 2010 she became a panellist judge on the Norwegian version of the talent show The X Factor, and later on Norwegian Idol. Her third studio album 'Nevermore' was recorded in 2009 and was planned for a 2010 release, but due to internal issues with her record label Eleven Seven Music, it was never released. It dropped two singles 'Flesh And Bone' and 'Found Someone', exclusively released in Scandinavia, but the album has remained particularly elusive until I finally managed to locate a copy recently. Various reasons have emerged as being responsible for the album's cancellation, but the most pertinent was probably the dissolution of her label’s publishing arm while she was finishing work on the record, and what was originally supposed to be a temporary delay started to become longer, until it eventually killed the album completely. Having been searching for this record for over a year, I was thrilled to finally be able to hear it, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. 

Track listing 

01 Flesh & Bone 
02 Heartless  
03 Nevermore  
04 Rosemarie  
05 Found Someone 

06 Blackbird

07 Backstabbing Bitch  
08 Miss You Blind  
09 Vital Signs 
10 Up To No Good  
11 After You  
12 We Are Dead  
13 Surrender  
14 Drive  

Mya - Liberation (2007)

'Liberation' was intended to be the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mya Harrison, and would have been her debut release with her then new record label Universal Motown, following her departure from Interscope in 2005 after the mediocre commercial success of her previous effort 'Moodring' in 2003. Before leaving, she had begun work on an album for Interscope called 'Control Freak', which was set for a summer 2005 release, with production by a host of other producers. In search of a new vibe for the album after the change of label, she drew inspiration by leaving Los Angeles and moving back to Washington, D.C., where she bought a house and enlisted her brother to build a recording studio, where she began experimenting, laying down rudimentary tracks and learning how to engineer. Pushed by her newfound abilities in mixing and production, she intensified work on the re-worked 'Control Freak' album, with most of it eventually being completed in a stretch of only three months. When complete, she submitted the album, now titled 'Liberation', to her new label, with production on the record being handled by Scott Storch and J.R. Rotem with additional contributions from Bryan Michael Cox, Kwame, Carvin & Ivan, longtime contributor Tricky Stewart, and it also featured guest appearances by Snoop Dogg, Charlie Baltimore and Lil Wayne. Two singles were extracted from it, the Storch collaboration 'Lock U Down' and R&B ballad 'Ridin'', but neither song made an impact on radio or in the charts, and so a proposed third single 'Walka Not A Talka' was cancelled, and due to the industry's budget cuts, the album suffered numerous delays and pushbacks. However, while delaying the album's release yet again, Universal Motown accidentally leaked it in Japan, and so they had no choice but to release it as a digital download only in Japan in October 2007. This digital release was the only thing that Mya ever issued on Universal Motown, leaving the label in 2008, and although 'Liberation' was never released officially, Mya did heavily promote the album at the time. She has said that she "felt as though 'Liberation' was her best project to date, and she wanted it released in the US, but things happen, so maybe it wasn't meant to be ...", and the digital version did garner some mixed reviews from the music press, and so it's certainly worth a listen to hear Mya "break out and swagger into an intriguing new role", as suggested in a review in Vibe magazine. 

Track listing

01 Liberation (Intro)
02 I Am (feat. Charli Baltimore)
03 Walka Not A Talka (feat. Snoop Dogg)
04 Still A Woman
05 No Touchin'
06 Lock U Down (feat. Lil Wayne)
07 Lights Go Off
08 Ridin'
09 Switch It Up
10 Give A Chick A Hand
11 All In the Name Of Love
12 Life's Too Short
13 Nothin' at All