FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 4, 2010
FOUR NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED LIVE ALBUMS BY JEFFERSON AIRPLANE TO BE RELEASED OCTOBER 26 ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC LIVEFour live albums include original vocalist Signe Anderson’s farewell show and Grace Slick’s first show, both at the Fillmore in 1966
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The argument rages on, but for many music fans in the ’60s, the best live band from the Bay Area was Jefferson Airplane. Formed during the summer of 1965 in San Francisco, the group triumphed in 1967 with Surrealistic Pillow, one of the key recordings of the Summer of Love, containing the hits “Somebody to Love,” “White Rabbit” and “Today.” The Airplane featured three master instrumentalists (Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady and Spencer Dryden) and three vocalists: Grace Slick (replacing original singer Signe Anderson in 1966), Marty Balin and Paul Kantner. The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees made a total of eight studio albums and released a smattering of live albums including 1969’s Bless Its Pointed Little Head.
But what most fans don’t know is that there are vast reserves of never-released live material by Jefferson Airplane capturing key moments in their history. On October 26, 2010, Collectors’ Choice Music Live will release four previously unreleased live albums: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66 Late Show — Signe’s Farewell, Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/16/66 Early & Late Shows — Grace’s Debut, Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 11/25/66 & 11/27/66 — We Have Ignition, and Return to the Matrix 2/1/68.
The first three releases document the astonishing growth of the band, and follow the near-seamless absorption of Grace Slick’s voice and material into the Airplane’s sound just as they were entering the studio to record Surrealistic Pillow. The fourth release captures the group triumphantly returning to their home turf at Marty Balin’s club The Matrix for a relaxed, exploratory set in an intimate setting, performing material from their first four albums, including Crown of Creation, seven months before its release. Taken together, the four releases confirm that at its best, when Jorma was soaring, Jack rumbling and the three voices joining in ecstatic melisma, no other band could ascend to the heights attained by the Airplane. Hand-picked by a team of devotees, annotated by frequent Airplane flyer Craig Fenton (author of the book Take Me To A Circus Tent: The Jefferson Airplane Flight Manual), and featuring rare photos inside handsome digi-packs, these concerts distill and express the dream and promise of the Haight-Ashbury scene.
• Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66 Late Show — Signe’s Farewell: The Grace Slick era of the Airplane has understandably received most of the attention paid the band over the years. But they had released a good album (Jefferson Airplane Takes Off) and were already a powerful live outfit before Slick came aboard. The 10/15/66 release not only marks the first appearance on CD of a live recording featuring Signe Anderson with the band, but also her very last show. Both Marty Balin and the Fillmore’s Bill Graham give her shout-outs. Songs include “3/5ths of a Mile in Ten Seconds,” “Tobacco Road,” “Midnight Hour,” “High Flyin’ Bird” and “Chauffeur Blues” (which Grace never performed out of respect for Signe, who’d made the old blues tune her own). It was the end of an era. But a new one was about to begin the very next day, and is the subject of the 10/16/66 release.• Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/16/66 Early & Late Shows — Grace’s Debut: The 10/16/66 volume chronicles the first set of concerts featuring Grace Slick as a member of the Airplane, a mere day after Signe Anderson officially left the band. The band has yet to add the material Slick brought to the band (“Somebody To Love” and “White Rabbit) to the set list, but Grace’s harmony work with Marty and Paul is impressive, and you can literally hear her confidence growing from the first set to the second. The album contains “The Other Side of This Life,” “Let Me In,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Run Around” and “High Flying Bird,” plus versions of “3/5ths of a Mile in 10 Seconds” and “Tobacco Road” with the new line-up, and Leiber & Stoller’s “Kansas City,” which has never appeared on any Airplane studio or live album. Surrealistic Pillow photographer Herbie Greene contributes photos. Things would never be the same for the band or for ’60s rock.
• Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 11/25/66 & 11/27/66 — We Have Ignition: CCM Live subtitled these shows “We Have Ignition” as they believe this is when the Airplane transformed from a high-flying bird into a psychedelic spaceship (but not yet a Starship.) It’s difficult to believe, when comparing these November shows with Grace’s live debut on 10/16/66, that only six weeks have elapsed. Not only has the band (particularly guitarist Jorma Kaukonen) progressed as musicians, but the infusion of Surrealistic Pillow material some four months before the album hit the stores shifts the focus of this folk-rock band to rock. Included are “Plastic Fantastic Lover,” “High Flyin’ Bird,” “Bringing Me Down,” “ D.C.B.A-25,” “My Best Friend,” “Go to Her,” “She Has Funny Cars,” “3/5ths of a Mile in 10 Seconds,” “Skip Spence’s “J.P.P. McStep B Blues,” “White Rabbit,” “Today” and more. Two rarities are a mind blowing, 9:45-minute version of “The Other Side of Life” (performed for a photo session) that neither its author, the folk singer-songwriter Fred Neil, nor the band could ever have anticipated, and the only known recording of an instrumental known in some quarters as “My Grandfather’s Clock.” This is the Airplane at its early apex.
• Return to the Matrix 2/1/68: The Airplane returned to the first club they ever played, the Matrix, in 1968 for a 103-minute show at the height of their commercial prowess. They band premiered two songs from the Crown of Creation album (which was months away from being released): “Share a Little Joke” and an instrumental version of “Ice Cream Phoenix.” They also performed “Blues From an Airplane,” a song from its first (pre-Slick) album. Also here: “Somebody to Love,” “Young Girl Sunday Blues,” “She Has Funny Cars,” “Two Heads,” “Martha,” “Kansas City,” “Other Side of this Life,” “Today,” “Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon,” “It’s No Secret,” “Watch Her Ride,” “Plastic Fantastic Lover,” “Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil,” “White Rabbit,” “Fat Angel” and “3/5ths of a Mile in 10 Seconds.”
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TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS AND TOMMY JAMES SOLO CDS REISSUED BY COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC ON APRIL 20
Tommy James & the Shondells’ I Think We’re Alone Now, Gettin’ Together and Travelin’ join James’ own My Head, My Bed & My Red Guitar in deluxe, fully annotated single CD reissues
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Goldmine magazine called Tommy James “the most productive rock ’n’ roll singles artist of his era” in its review of the critically hailed 40 Years: The Complete Singles Collection (1966-2006) 2-CD set, released in 2008 by Collectors’ Choice Music. Mojo added, “James should be ranked among the most undervalued workmen in the American rock quarry.” Add to the fact that James has just released his autobiography with a title that tells it all — Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells (which Rolling Stone gave 3 ½ out of four stars)— and it’s evident the time is ideal to reflect on a career filled with what the Austin Chronicle called “definitive U.S. pop.”
On April 20, 2010, Collectors’ Choice Music, which released the 40 Years retrospective, will begin to reissue the individual Roulette Records albums by Tommy James & the Shondells and Tommy James solo. The first batch contains I Think We’re Alone Now, Gettin’ Together and Travelin’ by the band, and James’ own My Head, My Bed and My Red Guitar from 1972, recorded in Nashville with many of the city’s notable players.
Ed Osborne once again annotated the reissues, featuring extensive interview material from the Niles, Michigan native who is very candid about working with Roulette owner and convicted mobster Morris Levy. The band had a remarkable run on the charts with singles like “Hanky Panky,” “Say I Am (What I Am),” “It’s Only Love,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mirage,” “I Like the Way,” “Gettin’ Together,” “Out of the Blue,” “Get Out Now,” “Mony Mony,” “Somebody Cares,” “Do Something to Me,” “Crimson & Clover,” “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” "Ball of Fire,” “She” and “Gotta Get Back to You” among others.
• Tommy James & the Shondells — I Think We’re Alone Now: This 1967 album marked the group’s move from a singles band to a more album-oriented outfit, with new producers (Ritchie Cordell and Bo Gentry), a new arranger (Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner, who’s worked with artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Iggy Pop) and a new studio (New York’s Allegro Sound). Unlike its predecessors — Hanky Panky and It’s Only Love, which consisted of the smash hits plus songs culled from Morris Levy’s publishing catalogs — this album benefitted from better song selection and the better technology of Allegro Sound. The centerpiece was the single “I Think We’re Alone Now,” brought to James as a ballad by Cordell and Gentry, but converted to a mid-tempo rocker by James and Wisner utilizing an “eighth note pegging” technique. Recorded on Christmas Eve 1966, it was on the radio by January. The hit was followed up by “Mirage,” with cellos intermingling with guitars, and “I Like the Way,” punctuated with a horn riff. Also included on this release are covers of the Rivieras’ “California Sun” and the Isley Brothers’ “Shout.”
• Tommy James & the Shondells — Gettin’ Together: This album, released in later 1967, cemented the creative process that began on I Think We’re Alone Now. The title track had been earmarked for Gene Pitney to record, but James heard it, knew it was a hit, and “pitched a fit” to Morris Levy, who eventually granted permission for James to record it. Cordell and Gentry sped up the vocal track and the song raced up the charts. Although utilizing the same producers and studio, the album was a progression over its predecessor. “I Want to Be Around You,” “So Deep with You,” “Real Girl” and “World Down on Your Knees” are examples of late '60s “sunshine pop,” comparable to the Mamas & Papas, the 5th Dimension or the Association. Cordell and Gentry remain the key song sources, but by now the band would write as a band. Today, James counts Gettin’ Together as one of his favorite albums: “What really made me happy with the guys in the studio is that they were like actors in a play . . . Everybody had a great sense of proportion . . . [and] everybody would contribute something. I still enjoy listening to it today.”
• Tommy James & the Shondells — Travelin’: Travelin’ followed the Shondells’ 1969 releases Crimson & Clover and Cellophane Symphony. It was created entirely by the band, from songwriting to playing to producing and arranging. The final album under the Tommy James & the Shondells name, this 1970 release is also considered by many fans to be their best. It’s their edgiest effort, recorded with very few technical effects (“gritty and grainy, just like dust in your mouth and sand in your boots,” says James). The grit theme was even carried over into the artwork in which renowned American West painter Ron lesser, a protégé of Norman Rockwell, painted a portrait of the guys in a stagecoach being chased by Morris Levy. Apart from the Shondells, James’ main writing partner was Michigan confrere Bob King. From this association came highlights “Gotta Get back,” “Moses & Me,” “Red Rover” and “Talkin’ & Signifyin’.” James says, “If we had stayed together as a group, it would have been very, very interesting [to hear] the music we would have come up with.”
• Tommy James — My Head, My Bed & My Red Guitar: James’ second solo album was a total departure from his earlier work. Recorded in Nashville, it featured the Music City’s “A team.” By this time, the Byrds and Bob Dylan had embraced country music. But for someone with a pop track record, recording the Nashville way was an uncommonly bold move. Produced by James with Bob King and Pete Drake, musicians included Scotty Moore (also the engineer) and D.J. Fontana from Elvis Presley’s band, Drake on pedal steel, King on bass, Hargus “Pig” Robbins on keyboards, Buddy Spicher on fiddle and Charlie McCoy on harmonica. “I was real keen on the idea of putting myself in different situations [where] I’ve got to sink or swim,” says James. “These players were unbelievable . . . I was impressed by their musical ability and lack of ego.” Interestingly, Rolling Stone finally acknowledged James’ work with this album. “[They] gave us the best write-up I ever had on any project,” he says. During the session, Scotty Moore received a phone call from Presley, who said he’d drive to Nashville to take James and Moore out for steak. The visit never materialized. But James did end up with a credible country debut.
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COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC LIVE LABEL TO MINE THE BEST RARE AND UNISSUED LIVE PERFORMANCES
CD series launches with Johnny Winter, Hot Tuna, Poco and John Denver
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Collectors’ Choice Music, the label that’s come to be known for compelling and often unexpected CD reissues, has announced the launch of Collectors’ Choice Music Live, a new label devoted to releasing great live performances, most of which have never previously been commercially available.
The series will launch April 20 with the release of four CDs: Johnny Winter And’s Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70; Poco’s Live at Columbia Studios, Hollywood 9/30/71; Hot Tuna’s Live at the New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA September 1969; and John Denver’s Live at Cedar Rapids, 12/10/87.
According to Collectors’ Choice Music GM Gordon Anderson, “After some 15 years of reissuing albums and compiling artists, we’re convinced that some of the biggest remaining veins of gold in the vaults are the live shows that a lot of labels recorded of their artists in their prime, particularly those who made their reputation with improvisational prowess and/or ever-changing set lists. These first four releases on our new Collectors’ Choice Music Live label certainly fit that description.”
• Johnny Winter And — Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70: To commemorate the release of his Johnny Winter And album, Texas blues guitarist/singer Johnny Winter played some shows at New York’s Fillmore East, some of which were compiled on 1971’s Live Johnny Winter And, a classic live album of the era to which this release makes a nice bookend. He had just formed a new band consisting of former member of the McCoys (“Hang on Sloopy”) including Rick Derringer on guitar, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and drummer Randy Zehringer. Although the McCoys were none too familiar with Winter’s work, they proved quick studies and entered the studio to make the album Johnny Winter And within three weeks. The New York Times reviewed the Fillmore show, citing “a considerable improvement over Winter’s previous band. Winter and [Derringer] played solos back at each other, simultaneously and in alternation.” The live album contains the Winter hit “Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo” and his take on Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61” alongside blues classics “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” “It’s My Own Fault” and “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.”
•Poco —Live at Columbia Studios, Hollywood, 9/30/71: In the fall of ’71, Poco was arguably the most popular of the first generation country-rock bands. By then, their album Deliverin’ had cracked the Top 30 and Poco thanked its label, Epic Records, with a private showcase at the CBS Records’ Hollywood studio. “We just set up as we would have for a small club,” recalls frontman Richie Furay, whose bandmates included guitarist/singer Paul Cotton (from the Illinois Speed Press), bassist Tim Schmidt (later of the Eagles), pedal steel player Rusty Young and drummer/vocalist George Grantham. By this time, Poco was evolving from country-rock towards an edgier rock sound. Says Furay, “Though we were innovators of the L.A. ‘country-rock’ sound, we weren’t going top be pigeonholed into being a one-sound band.” The 14 songs they performed for label employees that day were a solid cross-section of tunes that had appeared on its first four albums including the medley “Hard Luck Child/Child’s Claim to Fame/Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” plus “I Guess You Made It,” “A Man Like Me,” “Ol’ Forgiver,” “Heart That Music,” “Hurry Up,” “You Are the One” and more — an hour of music in all.
• Hot Tuna: Live at the New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA September 1969: Hot Tuna was, of course, the blues band-within-a-band side project of Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady that outlasted the parent band and continues to this day. Interestingly, the duo’s first commercial album, which made it to #30 on the Billboard pop album chart, was recorded live at Berkeley’s New Orleans House, but a lot more material was taped than was released. Much of it is issued for the first time on this 68-minute CD, which consists entirely of previously unreleased recordings. Explaining why they recorded their debut album was recorded live, Kaukoken says, “We tend to go places . . . and you lose a bit of that when you work in the studio. And it was cheaper too!” Of the 13 songs on this CD, six — “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” “Winin’ Boy Blues,” “Uncle Sam Blues,” “I Know You Rider,” “Don’t You Leave Me Here” and “How Long Blues” — were included on the first Hot Tuna album, though the versions here are selected from different performances than the ones used on that LP. Other songs include Blind Boy Fuller’s “Keep On Truckin’,” Rev. Gary Davis’ “Keep Our Lamps Trimmed and Burning” and “Candy Man,” and Blind Blake’s “That’ll Never Happen No More.”
• John Denver: Live at Cedar Rapids, December 10, 1987: What is the sound of an audience eating out of the palm of a performer’s hand? Utter silence. And that’s what was heard during the two-hour-plus Iowa concert that comprises this two-CD set. By 1987, Denver’s days as a Top 40 hitmaker were a decade in the past, but he remained a solid concert draw as a beloved, thoroughly American artist with a permanent place in the history of pop. It says much about Denver’s songwriting that, with the exception of half a dozen songs on which he’s accompanied by string quartet, he delivers two hours of solo music just his voice and 12-string guitar. The hits are here but so are new songs, some early-repertoire nuggets and a well-chosen cover or two. Included are “Farewell Andromeda (Welcome to My Morning,” ”Take Me Home Country Roads,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “Annie’s Song,” “Love Is the Master,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” “Blow Up Your TV (Spanish Pipe Dream),” “Shanghai Breezes,” “Ohio” and more.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2010
LEGENDARY ARTIST ESSRA MOHAWK’S ’69 AND ’70s ALBUMS FOR BIZARRE, REPRISE AND ASYLUM
TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICEHer first three albums were pivotal in the American singer-songwriter movement. The classic Primordial Lovers has fondly been christened the Mother Album of “grrrl power.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif. —Sandy Hurvitz’s transformation into Essra Mohawk happened as a result of undeniable singing and songwriting talent plus a series of happy accidents. The young Philadelphian issued a Liberty single (at age 16) that was deemed a “Newcomer Pick” in Cashbox; she then contributed songs to artists as disparate as the Shangri-Las and Vanilla Fudge. But her career really accelerated in 1967 when she met Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in New York. When Mother Don Preston was under the weather, Zappa asked to hear her play the piano and sing. He invited her to join the band on the spot. Next thing she knew, she was a de facto member of the Mothers, reluctantly accepting the endearing nickname “Uncle Meat.” Her solo career was about to unfold.
Her three solo recordings from 1969 (Sandy’s Album Is Here at Last!), 1970 (Primordial Lovers) and 1974 (Essra Mohawk) will be reissued on CD by Collectors’ Choice Music on February 23, 2010. The reissues are digitally remastered and contain bonus tracks. Richie Unterberger wrote the liner notes with extensive interview material from Mohawk.
At just 17, Mohawk turned down an offer from a well-known Brill Building publishing house. A few years later she made her debut album, Sandy’s Album Is Here at Last!, on Zappa’s Bizarre/Verve Records label. Zappa started out as her producer, but then surrendered the chair to Mother of Invention Ian Underwood. Mohawk deemed Underwood an “anti-producer, anti-arranger,” leaving the tracks unfinished. “It’s like it wasn’t my album,” she says. “It was really raw.” Nonetheless her talent and unique voice emerged from the production murk. The song titles alone auger a trippy ride: “Archgodliness of Purpleful Magic,” “Tree of Trees” and “I Know the Sun.” The Collectors’ Choice reissue contains the bonus track “Life Is Scarlet,” never before available on CD (except on a Japanese limited edition reissue, no longer available).
Mohawk was scheduled to play Woodstock but her driver missed the turn to the heliport and they arrived by car too late. Good was to come from this as it was her description of the event to Joni Mitchell that inspired Joni to write the song “Woodstock.” 1969 was also key as Essra married producer Frazier Mohawk (born Barry Friedman), known for his work with Kaleidoscope, the Butterfield Blues Band, the Holy Modal Rounders and Nico. For her second album, 1970’s Primordial Lovers, Mohawk moved to Reprise, brought in by label head Mo Ostin after he heard her sing at a club in New York. The album featured several notable musicians: Lee Underwood from Tim Buckley’s sessions; Dallas Taylor from Crosby, Stills & Nash; Doug Hastings from Rhinoceros (a band Essra was originally asked to join); and guitarist Jerry Hahn. 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of this landmark album, which in 1977 was ranked among the Top 25 Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone.
Mohawk retains fond memories of the songs from this period, several of which she still performs. “Thunder in the Morning,” written about Stephen Stills on Lowell George’s baby grand piano, became a turntable hit in early album-rock radio. Sadly the album fizzled commercially, went unpromoted and there was no agent and no tour. “I gave it all,” says Mohawk. “But I wasn’t given in return what my music rightfully deserved.” The Collectors’ Choice reissue contains five bonus tracks: “Could You Life Your Heart,” “Drifter”, “Question,” “Someone Has Captured Me” and a piano-and-vocal version of “I Have Been Here Before,” which was the inspiration for David Crosby’s “Déjà Vu.”
Mohawk moved to Elektra/Asylum Records for her self-titled 1974 album Essra Mohawk, which Melodymaker called “the most unheralded event in American music.” The song structure is slightly more conventional, but the imagery and imagination run free. For the first time, she included a cover song, George Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Tom Sellers produced the album, which contained only two tracks featuring her signature piano and vocal. She placed her favorite song, “Magic Pen,” at the end of the album. “Most people try to out their best foot forward first [in the sequence]. So usually — not always — my favorite stuff is at the end of the album.”
As with its predecessor, the album received little promotion, perhaps because it was originally slated for release on Paramount Records, then was switched to Asylum at the last minute, leaving the Asylum staff feeling creatively uninvolved. The Collectors’ Choice reissue of Essra Mohawk contains two bonus tracks: a fully produced version of “I Cannot Forget” and “I Stand Here Naked” featuring Philadelphia backup band Edison Electric and Jeremy Steig on flute.
In the decades since her ‘74 album, Mohawk has continued to perform, write, record and release music. A successful songwriter, she wrote Cyndi Lauper’s hit “Change of Heart.” Her songs have been covered by Tina Turner, Lorrie Morgan, Peabo Bryson, Rita Coolidge, Annie Haslam, and Keb’ Mo’, among others. Her next incarnation gained even newer fans as she was the vocalist on the wildly popular School House Rock songs “Interjections,” “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage” and “Mother Necessity.”
Mohawk states, “My aim is to help people understand themselves and all life. I get a lot of responses from people that it’s helped their lives, so I keep doing it. If I didn’t continue to get that good response and thought I was banging my head against the wall and no one was listening, I would have stopped long ago. Not that you can really stop. The music just kind of comes out of me. I really couldn’t stop it if I wanted to.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2010
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS FEATURING MARK LINDSAY’S COMPLETE ORIGINAL COLUMBIA SINGLES COMING ON MARCH 23, 2010 ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Three-disc set contains 66 songs including all commercially released Columbia A and B sides plus “special product” tracks and a Pontiac GTO commercial
LOS ANGELES — Paul Revere & the Raiders put the Pacific Northwest on the rock ’n’ roll map with such smash hits as “Steppin' Out,” “Kicks,” “Hungry,” “Just Like Me,” “Good Thing,” “Him Or Me — What’s It Going to Be?,” “Ups And Downs,” “Let Me,” “I Had a Dream,” “Too Much Talk,” “Indian Reservation” and many more — 62 A and B sides of singles in all. They were the rare ’60s American singles band with true street cred. And on March 23, 2010, Collectors’ Choice Music will release Paul Revere & the Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay: The Complete Original Columbia Singles.
In addition to the 62 commercially released sides, this collection makes available a rare single Paul Revere & the Raiders recorded for Chevrolet (distributed at its dealerships), “SS396” b/w “Corvair Baby,” plus two bonus tracks: a commercial for the Pontiac Judge GTO Breakaway street rod and a special record included with Mattel’s “Swingy Doll.” Many of the songs on the CD have never appeared on CD.
In the tradition of its critically hailed “complete singles” collections for Jan & Dean, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and Jay & the Americans, all singles appear in their original mono or stereo mixes with ace engineer Bob Irwin working his renowned remastering magic on the original tapes for best-ever, kick-butt sound.
As with the previous Collectors’ Choice “complete singles” collections, Ed Osborne produced and annotated the set, gathering insider perspectives from leaders Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay, Raiders Phil “Fang” Volk, Keith Allison, Jim “Harpo” Valley, and manager Ron Hart. The package is festooned with rare photos.
One might not think of Idaho as a hotbed of ’50s rhythm & blues, but that’s where the young Paul Revere (his real name) and Mark Lindsay listened to 50,000-watt Southern radio stations and obscure singles, idolizing artists like Fats Domino and Ernie K-Doe. Like every hip teen in the NW, they loved Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie” and, in April 1963, they and the Raiders recorded and released it on the tiny Sande label. Coincidentally, fellow Northwesterners the Kingsmen had done the same for Wand Records. Ultimately, the Kingsmen won the “Louie Louie” battle, but the Raiders won the record biz war, kicking off a decade-long career as pop hitmakers.
Paul Revere & the Raiders were immediately contacted by a Columbia Records A&R man who — defying the wishes of label A&R head Mitch Miller to focus on easy-listening music — signed them. Terry Melcher, Columbia's youngest staff producer based in Los Angeles, took a special interest in the band and became, in essence, the group's George Martin.
Unlike many bands of the era, the Raiders played on their own records. Their 1965 breakout single, “Steppin' Out,” featured the powerful playing of what is now considered the classic Raiders rhythm line-up: drummer Mike “Smitty” Smith, lead guitarist Drake Levin, and bassist Phil “Fang” Volk.
“Steppin’ Out” hit #46 on Billboard on the strength of the strong radio airplay and an ongoing stint on ABC’s afterschool TV series Where the Action Is. The show’s producer, Dick Clark, promptly put them on the road where they were able to expand their fan base beyond the West Coast. Recognizing their star power, Chevrolet hired them to record theme songs for two of its youth-targeted cars, “SS396” and “Corvair Baby.”
On their next hit, “Just Like Me,” singer Lindsay adopted the breathy vocals that would become his trademark. The single hit the #11 spot on January 11, 1966. Its follow-up, “Kicks,” written by Brill Building denizens Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, cracked the Top 5. Mann and Weil had written the verses, but the signature guitar riff, later to be emulated by garage bands from coast to coast, came from Drake Levin with expert production by Melcher. Another Mann & Weil tune, “Hungry,” gave the gang their second straight Top 10 hit.
In the spring of 1966, Levin was drafted into the National Guard, and fellow Northwest native Jim “Harpo” Valley from Don & the Goodtimes stepped in to replace him. With much of the nation shut down by the airline strike of 1966, Lindsay quickly penned “The Great Airplane Strike,” which became a follow-up single, backed with a Volk vocal on “In My Community,” which featured Melcher’s friend Van Dyke Parks on organ.
The hit streak continued (“Good Thing,” “Ups and Downs,” Him or Me — What’s it Going to Be?”) and, with the band constantly on tour, Melcher began to hire studio musicians to take up some studio slack. Jack Nitzsche scored the horn section for “Ups and Downs,” and long-time “unofficial Raider” Keith Allison — later to become a bona fide member — played guitar along with Ry Cooder. Also, Wrecking Crew drum legend Hal Blaine began to displace drummer Smitty. The change in musical direction caused disheartened Fang, Smitty and Harpo to resign after a 1967 Ed Sullivan Show appearance. They were replaced by bassist Charlie Coe, drummer Joe Correro Jr., and guitarist Freddy Weller, Southerners all. A new musical influence began to permeate the Pacific Northwest band.
As ’60s pop music lyrics began to respond to current events, the Raiders followed suit with songs such as “I Had a Dream,” “Peace of Mind,” and “Too Much Talk.” Melcher left the fold around this time, Lindsay took on production duties, and the hits kept on comin': “Don’t Take it So Hard,” Cinderella Sunshine,” and “Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon.” In 1969, Lindsay and Freddy Weller launched solo careers in addition to their duties as Raiders. Rock was changing, but the band had one more charting hit in them, “Indian Reservation,” a song which had been previously recorded by Marvin Rainwater, John D. Loudermilk, Ray Acuff Jr., and the Nashville Teens. Artie Butler played organ and Hal Blaine drums on the Raiders version. After a slow start at radio, the record went all the way to #1, the band's biggest hit ever.
In 1975, Revere, Lindsay and Allison played the last Paul Revere & the Raiders gig at Knott’s Berry Farm. “Looking back,” says Revere, “we really had an incredible run . . . Any mistakes that were made along the way don’t mean shit after all is said and done. Everything turned out for the best.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2009
I SEE HAWKS IN L.A., SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA'S
21st-CENTURY COUNTRY ROCK PIONEERS,
TO RELEASE GREATEST NON-HITS COLLECTION,
SHOULDA BEEN GOLD, JANUARY 26 ON COLLECTORS' CHOICECited by USA Today for "versatility, variety and power (and) intriguing dystopian science-fictional bent in the lyrics," while High Times calls group "the house band for a revolution that isn't over yet."
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Never mind their clear-as-country-water name. "The band name was a code, a question, a diffident invitation: If you see hawks, then maybe we should talk." Formed by Rob Waller and brothers Paul and Anthony Lacques, I See Hawks in L.A. was established on an Echo Park front porch in 2000, the last year of the Clinton administration, or as the band recalls, "mellow's last gasp." Now, four albums later -- each the source of radiant reviews in publications like Spin, USA Today, Village Voice, Uncut and the Los Angeles Times -- the band will release Shoulda Been Gold, a 17-song greatest non-hits collection including five previously unheard songs (including the haunting title track "Shoulda Been Gold"). The set will come out January 26, 2010 on Collectors' Choice Music's American Beat imprint.
According to Rob and Paul's liner notes from Shoulda Been Gold, "The Hawks imagined an America post-oil, fertilizer and gated communities, and an American folk music with tendrils cracking concrete to reach people aware of the ground they stand on." The bulk of their eponymous first CD was recorded in the living room of Waller's Echo Park bungalow on primitive equipment. It was released somewhat ominously on September 11, 2001.
In 2003, Paul Marshall and drummer Shawn Nourse joined the band. "The big sound in our heads was here at last," they write. It took three years to finish a second recording, Grapevine, which garnered many long and serious reviews and a smattering of airplay. The band boarded a GMC Yukon bound for Vermont and back again, first of many tours that brought a loyal national following and three appearances at the top of the Freeform American Roots chart and #2 on XM radio's X Country channel.
In 2006, the band signed with Sovereign Artists, a label helmed by Warner Bros. alumni, which lost its funding (and returned the masters) just in time for the band to release CD number three, California Country, on its own Western Seeds label. Then the Hawks flew to England to tour. "Who knew that enthusiastic and literate crowds with knowledge of our songs would await us?" they write. "We were like the old jazzers who found their audience and dignity across the Atlantic."With Shoulda Been Gold, the band has broken its every-other-year CD release spell, coming on the heels of last year's Hallowed Ground. The new collection contains only one song from the previous release, "Highway Down," but as they note, "it has the flavoring of all the songs -- a lonely road through the San Joaquin Valley, wounded land we love."
Rob and Paul were driving around musing on a title for a greatest hits record that contains no hits, and the title song resulted. It was recorded at drummer Nourse's house along with two duets between Rob Waller and Textone/producer Carla Olson: "Laissez Les Bon Tempos Roulet," containing real deal Cajun fiddle from Lisa Haley, and David Allan Coe's minor '70s classic "Bossier City," featuring honky-tonk pedal steel from John McDuffie.
Shoulda Been Gold also contains some additional unreleased tracks. "Sexy Vacation" was a hit in the basement of Cole's Bar in downtown Los Angeles, where the band had a long-term residency. "Soul Power," featuring Joe Berardi and Marcus Watkins from Double Naught Spy Car (Berardi's also from the Fibonaccis) sitting in.
While the first golden era of I See Hawks in L.A. indeed shoulda been gold, the critics hold them in the highest regard. "These guys are the house band for a revolution that isn't over yet," said High Times. No Depression applauded the band's "joyous music-making (and) corrosive, acid-edged lyrics." SPIN and Slash himself both gave thumbs up to their folk rock tale "Slash from Guns 'n' Roses." USA Today cited the band's "versatility, variety and power with an intriguing dystopian science-fiction bent in the lyrics." The Onion/A.V. Club cited the band's "lonesome prairie harmonies (and) universal, approachable quality." The Village Voice
"Hope you like it and you stick with it as we gather our wits and songs together one day for Greatest Hits, Volume 2," say the Hawks.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2009
SIX OF WAYLON JENNINGS’ INFLUENTIAL RCA ALBUMS TO BE REISSUED ON THREE COLLECTORS’ CHOICE CDs
From 1966’s Chet Atkins-produced RCA debut, Folk Country, to 1970’s Waylon album, these Colin Escott-annotated reissues track the birth of an Outlaw.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Waylon Jennings is the recognized father of the Outlaw movement of country, a rebel against the Nashville establishment whose recordings blended honky-tonk, rock ’n’ roll and folk in a way virtually nobody else was doing at the time. Collectors’ Choice has chosen six of Jennings’ many RCA long-players from 1966-’70 and will release them as three twofer CDs: Folk Country/Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan, Love of the Common People/Hangin’ On and Waylon/Singer of Sad Songs. The CDs will hit the streets on November 24, 2009. Grammy Award-winning annotator/historian Colin Escott wrote the liner notes.
In the 1950s, Jennings was a Lubbock DJ and fledgling singer whose first record was produced by Buddy Holly (Jennings briefly played bass for Holly, and gave up his airplane seat to the Big Bopper before the ill-fated flight that took the lives of the Bopper, Holly and Richie Valens).
In 1963 Jennings, then living in Phoenix, signed to A&M for one LP that went nowhere, and was advised by Bobby Bare, for whom he’d co-written a hit, that Nashville was the place to be. So when RCA Nashville A&R head/producer Chet Atkins invited Jennings to sign, he jumped at the chance: “I started out for Nashville in a yellow Cadillac with a yellow-haired woman.”
As Escott reminds us in the liner notes for Folk Country/Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan, “Waylon, remembered by many these days as a grizzled cowboy stoner, was young once. Most artists dismiss their old work, but Waylon thought he was as good as he could be during every phase of his long career, and the evidence bears him out.” The two albums, coupled onto one CD, document the 1966-67 period as Jennings found his way in Nashville.
Folk Country, Jennings’ RCA debut, was so called as Atkins wanted to attract some of the folk hootenanny crowd, but the record was mainstream country all the way — most of the songs written by Harlan Howard, “among the most gifted and prolific writers in country music history,” as Escott notes. From the album came Jennings’ first hit, “That’s the Chance I’ll Have to Take.” One year, two LPs and a movie later (Nashville Rebel, 1966), Jennings returned to the studio for his fourth RCA album, Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan, cut in ’66 and released in ’67. Included were Howard songs “Busted,” “Tiger By the Tail,” “She Called Me Baby,” “Foolin’ Around” and “In This Very Same Room.”
The second CD combines Love of the Common People (1967) and Hangin’ On (1968). Early in his career, Jennings released three LPs a year featuring old songs, then-current songs that moved him, and his most recent hits. Included on Love of the Common People were the title track, Lennon/McCartney’s “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” Mel Tillis’ “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (three years before it was a hit for Kenny Rogers & the First Edition) and “Young Widow Brown,” later recorded by Frankie Miller. In the fall of 1967, Harlan Howard’s “The Chokin’ Kind” became Jennings’ biggest hit, peaking at #8 on the country charts. It appeared on Hangin’ On, and later became a #1 soul hit for Joe Simon. Also on Hangin’ On: “Lock, Stock and Teardrops,” “Hangin’ On” and “The Crowd.” Atkins, says Escott, “didn’t care too much about albums. Singles were his business.” And so after accumulating enough recorded material from Jennings, thrice yearly Atkins would pull songs for an LP. Hangin On came out of several sessions between February and September 1967. And this got Jennings thinking about the meaning of albums.
Jennings grew weary of the “Nashville way.” As Escott points out, “It was an assembly line and after five years, Jennings was beginning to resent it. He wanted less quantity and more quality. He wanted albums to be personal statements, not assemblages of songs from different sessions. And he wanted to work with his road band, not session men. Rock singers had achieved that level of autonomy but country musicians were still locked into Nashville’s old ways.”
Collectors’ Choice’s third CD twofer includes two 1970 LPs, when the tides were starting to turn. It was a big year for the artist as six of his songs appeared in the Mike Jagger movie Ned Kelly, A&M Records released a compilation of his early recordings, and RCA released a greatest hits collection. He also produced an album by his wife, Jessi Colter. And Chet Atkins, long Jennings’ producer, was withdrawing from production to refocus on playing. Jennings was assigned a new producer, Danny Davis, and the transition didn’t go well. “I would go into the studio and do tracks,” Jennings wrote, and when I came back, I wouldn’t recognize the same song.” And there were other grievances. Yet their first collaboration, Waylon, turned out well and bore a #3 hit, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man.” Also included were Mickey Newberry’s stoner anthem “Thirty-third of August” and “All of Me Belongs to You,” as well as a re-record of “Yellow Haired Woman.”
Jennings shares CD space with Singer of Sad Songs, produced by the late Lee Hazelwood not in Nashville but rather Los Angeles. Sidemen included Randy Meisner (Poco), and future New Riders of the Purple Sage members Allen Kemp and Patrick Shanahan. Material ranged from Hazelwood’s “She Comes Running” to Chris Kenner’s R&B hit “Sick and Tired,” plus songs by Tim Harden, Tom Rush and the Louvin Brothers. The transition to Outlaw was now complete. Singer of Sad Songs was an artistic success — likely ahead of its time — but commercially it failed. Escott writes, “Within couple years, however, Waylon Jennings would be making albums that are even now considered unapproachable classics . . . Waylon was in search of something and he was beginning to discover what it was. We’d all find out soon enough.”
These six albums on three CDs chronicle his path to greatness.
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2009
THE ORIGINAL SCEPTER RECORDINGS OF B.J. THOMAS, PRODUCED BY THE LIKES OF HUEY P. MEAUX, CHIPS MOMAN, BUDDY BUIE, STEVE TYRELL AND BURT BACHARACH & HAL DAVID, TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS' CHOICE ON NOVEMBER 10
Eight LPs to be reissued on four individual CDs with rare bonus tracks. Including such hits as "Hooked on a Feeling, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," and "Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby," which featured Duane Eddy
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- B.J. Thomas is best known for his huge pop hits like "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." But few realize that his support network during his years on Scepter Records (1966-'73) included legendary writers and producers -- people like Huey P. Meaux in Houston, Chips Moman and the American Studios session team in Memphis, Buddy Buie and the future Atlanta Rhythm Section in Alabama and Burt Bacharach and Hal David in Los Angeles/New York. The result of this journey -- eight albums on Florence Greenberg's legendary Scepter label -- will be reissued on November 10, 2009 as four individual re-mastered CDs with liner notes by music journalist Michael Ragogna.
The eight albums come formatted as four twofers: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry/Tomorrow Never Comes, On My Way/Young and in Love, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head/Everybody's Out of Town and Most of All/Billy Joe Thomas. Each twofer also crams on rare single b-sides and unissued masters to create four 26 song CDs.
The story starts with the Houston-based Thomas and his band, the Triumphs, heading to Huey P. Meaux's studio in Pasadena, Texas. Their first single A-side, "Hey Judy," initially released on Meaux's regional label, did nothing on the charts, but its flipside, a cover of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry," scored #10 in Thomas' hometown. Thomas' longtime friend and producer Steve Tyrell took the song to nationally distributed Scepter Records, where it was included in the album I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, released in 1966, and would chart #8 on the pop charts. Along with "Lonesome" the LP contained other charting singles: "Mama" and "Bring Back the Time." Meaux also produced the 1966 follow-up Tomorrow Never Comes, using Houston session players in place of the Triumphs. A stint on Dick Clark's tours with James Brown, Gene Pitney and Chad & Jeremy won Thomas an audience outside of Texas and poised him for future success.
One of the best career moves Thomas ever made was his fateful trip from Texas to Tennessee -- specifically to Chips Moman's storied American Studios in Memphis, around the corner from Sun Studios. Moman convinced Thomas that if he moved to Memphis, Moman would keep him in mind for hit songs. Thomas soon sported a 901 area code, and recorded with the Memphis A-team: Reggie Young and Tommy Cogbill on guitars; Bobby Woods, piano; Mike Leech, bass; and Buddy Emmons, drums. Among the contributing songwriters was Wayne Carson ("The Letter"), who co-wrote "You Were Always On My Mind" for Thomas with Mark James. From the sessions for the 1968 album On My Way came more Mark James compositions: "Eyes of a New York Woman" and Thomas' career-defining "Hooked On a Feeling." Its CD twofer partner, the 1969 album Young and in Love, contained three more James compositions: "It's Only Love," "Living Again" and "Pass the Apple Eve." The album also includes the Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson song "Never Had It So Good."
Soon after the Memphis sessions, Scepter Records' Paul Cantor called Thomas and announced, "You're goin' to L.A. We got your ticket." Thomas would find himself in the company of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who co-wrote and were about to produce what would become the artist's biggest single ever, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," featured in the film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Thomas came to L.A. with laryngitis but recorded anyway. Eight weeks later, it was re-cut with new vocals and the signature horn solo ending. The single was an amalgam of three different studio takes. The title track of Thomas' fifth album, the song charted #1 and went on to win an Academy Award. Much of the rest of the album was cut in Memphis and included a notable version of "Suspicious Minds," intended for Elvis Presley, which Thomas was initially angry he couldn't record first. The Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head album is bundled on CD with Everybody's Out of Town, which features Brill Building denizens Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "I Just Can't Help Believing," another classic B.J. Thomas hit.
Having recorded in Houston, Memphis and Los Angeles, Thomas recorded the Most of All album at Studio One in Doraville, Alabama, home to recordings by the Classics IV and, later, Lynyrd Skynyrd. His new musical team was headed by Buddy Buie whose house band -- guitarist J.R. Cobb and drummer Robert Nix -- went on to become the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Buie wrote "Most of All," and they recorded the Wayne Carson-penned "No Love At All," a #16 hit for Thomas.
On CD, Most of All cohabitates with the 1972 album Billy Joe Thomas -- the artist's final Scepter release and recorded in New York. The album's concept is that contributing songwriters would appear on the album; they included Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Jimmy Webb, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil and Paul Williams. Featured was the song of which Thomas is most proud: Mann and Weil's "Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby." To get a guitarist who "sounded like Duane Eddy," Thomas and his producers summoned the real Duane Eddy. Famed backing group the Blossoms also appeared on the track, which charted #15. Among the bonus tracks are Thomas' 1971 hit "Mighty Clouds of Joy" and a previously unissued Mann & Weil composition, "There's No Holding You."
1972 marked the end of Thomas' Scepter era, but the B.J. Thomas saga continued with more hits ("Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," "Don't Worry Baby," "Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love") on the pop, country, adult contemporary and gospel charts. Most recently, B.J. has recorded an album of Brazilian music. Thomas reflects, "I've had a different kind of career . . . And I'm not one of those guys who likes to be on stage all the time. So a lot of things that would have helped me have a bigger career were not in my capacity to do."
# #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2009
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL'S THE SINGLES COLLECTION, PRESENTING 30 SONGS FROM 1968 THROUGH 1972, FROM TOP 5 HITS TO OBSCURITIES PLUS MUSIC VIDEOS, WILL BE RELEASED BY FANTASY RECORDS ON NOVEMBER 3
Set will be available as a two-CD, one DVD box
with poster and liner notes by Ben Fong-Torres.A separate deluxe vinyl collectors' edition
featuring reproductions of original 45s will also be offered.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Creedence Clearwater Revival's golden era of hit singles (fall of 1968 through spring of 1972) rivals that of any band in rock 'n' roll history. The Southern-flavored quartet from El Cerrito, Calif., turned out 17 hits in a 44-month stretch, nine of them in the Top 10, five of them in the Top 5.
On November 3, Fantasy Records will release The Singles Collection, a two-CD, one-DVD box with a slip case, containing all of the band's U.S. singles -- 30 songs in all. Top 5 smashes like "Bad Moon Rising," "Green River," "Down on the Corner," "Travelin' Band," "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Run Through the Jungle," "Up Around the Bend," "Long As I Can See the Light" and "Lookin' Out My Back Door" are joined by seldom-heard singles that never charted ("Porterville" and "Call It Pretending" on Fantasy's Scorpio subsidiary, and later singles "Tearin' Up the Country" and "45 Revolutions Per Minute [Parts 1 & 2]").
The 30 songs, (which are presented in their original single mixes, manyost of them in mono --- are making their CD debut), housed on two CDs, will be joined by a DVD containing four never-before-available, long-pre-MTV music videos: "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," "Bootleg," "I Put a Spell on You" and "Lookin' Out My Back Door." Also included in the package are a poster featuring the dozens of international single sleeves, and a 16-page booklet with liner notes by former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres, who lived and wrote in the Bay Area during CCR's golden half-decade.
Fantasy will also manufacture a limited edition collectors' version of The Singles Collection featuring actual vinyl 45 rpm singles with reproductions of the original Fantasy label design and housed in their rare picture sleeves-- the ultimate holiday gift for Creedence fans.
The members of Creedence Clearwater Revival, of course, hailed from the suburbs of Oakland the little town of El Cerrito, lappeding up music on the radio through the late ' '50s and ' '60s, and eventually signeding to a small, open-minded jazz label in Berkeley called Fantasy Records. Originally known as the Tommy Fogerty & the Blue Velvets and then The Golliwogs, the band's break came with its swampy 1968 cover of Dale Hawkins' "Suzie Q," which notched #11 on Billboard's pop singles chart. Starting on San Francisco's free-form rock radio stations, the song crossed over top Top 40, putting Creedence on the map. As Fong-Torres notes, "radio needed acts like CCR -- reliable producers of solid tunes laden with hooks."
Even in the South, radio was taken with CCR. DJ Scott Shannon, then on Memphis' WMPS-AM, was a Dale Hawkins fan and thought Fogerty nailed it. "His voice and his mixes were perfect for Top 40," he said. "It just screamed out of the AM radios."
But it wasn't just the radio. CCR songs began popping up in movies and TV shows -- several dozens of them, in fact. "Bad Moon Rising" has shown up the most often (including in An American Werewolf in London), and "Fortunate Son" has been heard in films ranging from The Manchurian Candidate (2004) to Live Free or Die Hard (2007).
"I used to say in 1968 that I wanted to make records they would still play on the radio in ten years," John Fogerty said in early 1993, on the eve of Creedence Clearwater Revival's induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Forty years later, the music sounds as fresh and vital as ever.
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2009
TINY TIM’S I’VE NEVER SEEN A STRAIGHT BANANA, 1976 RECORDINGS MADE BY RICHARD BARONE, TO FINALLY SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY
Never-before-heard album is collection of American and British songs dated from 1878 to the 1930s and will be released October 20 on Collectors’ Choice
NEW YORK, N.Y. — In 1976, at the age of 16, Richard Barone — known for his acclaimed solo albums, fronting the ‘80s pop trio the Bongos, and authoring Frontman: Surviving the Rock Star Myth — produced an album for the late Tiny Tim. As a high-school student in Tampa, Barone happened to notice an ad announcing that the artist would be appearing at a roadside TraveLodge on the edge of town and, lacking over-21 IDs, listened from the lobby with two friends. Suddenly the bar door opened and there, clutching his ukulele in one hand and his ever-present shopping bag in the other, stood Tiny Tim. A hotel-room concert for an audience of three ensued, and before you knew it, 16-year-old Barone had booked a ramshackle studio on the edge of Tampa and an album was made. The tapes sat on the shelf, unreleased, for 33 years as Barone pursued other projects — which have included sold-out concert events at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, as well as collaborations with artists ranging from Moby to Liza Minnelli.
Finally, these remarkable recordings will be released as the album I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana on Collectors’ Choice Music on October 20, 2009. The set will include liner notes not only by Barone but also Tiny Tim’s official biographer, Justin A. Martell.
Martell calls Tim “a performer of tremendous caliber and substance, but also a walking encyclopedia of popular songs spanning from the early 1800s to the year of his passing.” He further notes that while best known for his hit cover version of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” his Reprise albums and his wedding to Miss Vicki on the Tonight Show, “a completely unknown 16-year-old boy from Tampa, Fla., saw what [others] could not: a serious artist.”
Barone’s resolute wish of having Tim play exactly what he wanted to “opened the door to getting the best possible and most sincere performances from Tiny Tim. The songs presented are unique in that the majority of them were either rarely or never performed by Tiny Tim elsewhere.”
The album takes listeners through the earliest Edison cylinders all the way through songs by Eddie Cantor (“When They’re Old Enough To Know Better (“It’s Better To Leave Them Alone”), Rudy Vallee (“Vagabond Lover”) and other early 20th century performers up through Bob Dylan (“Like a Rolling Stone”) and a few Tiny Tim compositions like “The Space Ship Song” (the Australian B-side of his 1971 duet with Miss Vicki and of his last Reprise single “Why”), “Dear Tuesday” (a paean to Ms. Weld) and the opening track whose title says it all: “Prelude (What Strange God Designed Me?)” — 17 tracks in all.
The album derives its title from the centerpiece track “I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana,” whose lyrics were penned in 1926 by Ted Waite. The song was released in various versions throughout the ’20s, written in England and sold to Irving Berlin Music in America. According to Barone, “As fun a song as ‘I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana’ is, it has an underlying meaning that escaped me as a teenager but is now clear: The search — not only for the unattainable but the virtually unfindable. In a way, that was Tiny’s lifelong quest: The search for perfect beauty. For the perfect showbiz stunt. The perfect song. It was perhaps this eternal search that made him one of the most unique and intriguing popular artists of the 20th century.”
While beginning to write his liner notes, Barone spoke with Rolling Stone senior editor Anthony DeCurtis, inviting him to the “Banana” overdub session/party. Echoing Barone’s own sentiments, DeCurtis said, “Strangely (this) seems so right now.”
“What an honor to spend time in his presence,” says Barone in closing. “God Bless Tiny Tim!# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2009
The blues isn’t dead . . . it’s simply on vacation!
ROBERT MUGGE’S FILM DEEP SEA BLUES, A TWO-HOUR PORTRAIT OF THE LEGENDARY RHYTHM & BLUES CRUISE, DUE OUT OCTOBER 6 ON DVD
Seven-day Caribbean cruise featured Bobby Rush, Buckwheat Zydeco, Otis Clay, Taj Mahal, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Commander Cody, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Ruthie Foster, Mel Waiters, Watermelon Slim, Michael Burks, Ronnie Baker Brooks and more.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Since the 1960s, generations of fans have adopted outdoor festivals as the ideal place to experience live musical performances. But in recent years, the best American roots music festivals have moved onboard specially chartered cruise ships. One of the first and most successful of these, Roger Naber’s Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, is nowadays considered to be the true “Woodstock of the Waves.” At the same time, these “blues cruises” are a welcome contemporary refuge for artists who once performed the juke joints and Chitlin’ Circuit clubs throughout the South, most of which have now disappeared.
Deep Sea Blues, renowned documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge’s two-hour portrait of the January 2007 Blues Cruise to the Caribbean, captured many of the 70 performances by 14 artists. The festival featured blues performers Bobby Rush, Buckwheat Zydeco, Tab Benoit, Tommy Castro, Otis Clay, Taj Mahal, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Commander Cody band, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Michael Burks, Deanna Bogurt, Ruthie Foster, Phantom Blues Band, Joey Gilmore, Mel Waiters, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Watermelon Slim, Mitch Woods, Earl Thomas, Leon Blue and Tasha Taylor. The commercial DVD of Mugge’s film is set for release October 6, 2009 on Micro Werks, distributed through the Infinity Entertainment Group (also the home of Collectors’ Choice Music). List price is $19.98.
Executive producer Roger Naber recently celebrated his 30th anniversary as a promoter of blues concerts and cruises. Multi Grammy Award winner Taj Mahal, who appears on Deep Sea Blues, says of the floating festival, “It’s not Disney World. It’s about people relaxing, enjoying themselves, and spending time with others who enjoy the same kind of music as they do. It’s amazing how people can really connect through the blues and R&B. Every year you can set your clock by it.”
The 2007 Blues Cruise to the Caribbean included daylong stops on the islands of St. John, St. Barths and Grand Turk, two of which featured additional concerts and a “blues wedding” on the beach. The film is presented on the DVD with seven bonus performances: extended versions of songs by Tab Benoit, Otis Clay, Michael Burks and Joey Gilmore, plus additional songs by Duwayne Burnside, Murali Coryell and Jimbo Mathus.
Mugge is the producer/director/editor of such films as Last of the Mississippi Jukes, which chronicled the final days of Jackson, Mississippi’s Subway Lounge; Deep Blues, in which writer Robert Palmer and Eurythmic Dave Stewart explored the Mississippi juke joint scene; Gospel According to Al Green; Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise; Pride and Joy: The Story of Alligator Records; and dozens more. The New York Times cited Mugge’s “documents of a flourishing below-the-radar culture, often involving older musicians who won’t be around much longer. They are archival records as well as entertainments.” He has recently been named to the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Endowed Chair in Telecommunications at Ball State University.
According to Mugge, “As juke joints and chitlin’ circuit clubs disappear, leaving many regional artists cut off from both their origins and their natural audiences, other venues and other audiences come forward to fill the gaps. Among those newer and less ramshackle venues are annual music festivals and upscale music clubs both in North America and abroad, which at least provide the artists with occasional paychecks and exposure to wider audiences. Ironically, though, perhaps the best place to hear live blues, R&B, zydeco and gospel music today — and the best place to perform them — is on cruise ships sailing from Florida into the Caribbean, and from California into the Pacific . . . The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise creates a magical and protected space where musicians and fans can relax together, party together, and share their abiding passion for America’s most fundamental musical heritage. As strange as it seems, when the Blues Cruise magic truly takes hold around two or three in the morning, dancing to Otis Clay, Tommy Castro, Ruthie Foster or Buckwheat Zydeco on the pool deck feels a whole lot like eating barbecue, drinking white lightning, and dancing till dawn at Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint. Although the circuits may change, that down-home spirit remains the same.”
For all who cherish soulful music, humorous stories and true-life adventures in paradise, Deep Sea Blues offers smooth sailing indeed. Because the blues isn’t dead . . . it’s only gone on vacation
# # #For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 7, 2009
JULIAN LENNON’S ATLANTIC YEARS REISSUED ON NOBLE ROT THROUGH COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC
Titles include The Secret Value of Daydreaming
(featuring the hit “Stick Around”), Mr. Jordan and Help Yourself
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — When a son of John Lennon announces his own musical career and shows up looking and sounding very much like his iconic dad, critics and listeners alike are bound to react with arms firmly folded. But Julian Lennon’s gifts as a songwriter quickly broke down skepticism and sent the young artist soaring up the American album and singles charts. Three of his original Atlantic Records albums have long since fallen out of print, only to be reissued by Noble Rot, a subsidiary of Collectors’ Choice Music in the Infinity Entertainment Group. The albums The Secret Value of Daydreaming, Mr. Jordan and Help Yourself will hit retail on September 8, 2009 (the day before the remastered album catalog of his dad’s group appears in stores). Author Gene Sculatti wrote the liner notes.
Lennon’s first single, “Valotte,” and “Too Late” from his 1984 Phil Ramone-produced Valotte album notched the No. 9 and 5 positions on the Billboard pop singles chart. The platinum-certified album received a Grammy nomination, and Sam Peckinpah directed the videos. With much to prove, Lennon released his follow-up, The Secret Value of Daydreaming, also produced by Ramone, in 1986. Billy Joel sat in on piano. With both the single (“Stick Around”) and the album both attaining the No. 32 spots on their respective charts, the album showed Lennon to be a songwriter of considerable versatility.
If echoes of John Lennon permeated Julian’s first two albums, the 1989 album Mr. Jordan found him singing in a voice more reminiscent of David Bowie in the '80s. Rolling Stone praised the album as one that “goes a long way to salvaging his credibility.” Mr. Jordan is certainly more aggressive than its reflective predecessors, in part due to Lennon’s recruitment of producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Jeff Beck). The album’s highlights include the rock radio hit “Now You’re in Heaven” (which references, like the album’s title, the 1941 reincarnation comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan), “Mother Mary,” a playful cross between early Elvis and Wham, and the ballad “Angillette,” which addresses a suicidal lover. Guests on the album include The Tubes’ Fee Waybill, Eagle Timothy B. Schmidt, singer Fiona Flanagan and, guitar soloing on “Second Time,” Peter Frampton.
On Lennon’s fourth and final Atlantic recording, 1991’s Help Yourself, the singer channeled the sound and soul of his father more than on any other. “Overall it was sort of like self-help, like a self-therapy routine,” Lennon told an interviewer. According to annotator Sculatti, “Here he reconnects with melody and soundly conceived and executed compositions, several of them disclosing humanitarian concerns.” Highlights include “Saltwater,” which was a plea for ecological responsibility; and “Other Side of Town,” with Blue Nile singer Paul Buchanan guesting. “Get a Life” is a raucous rocker, evoking the spirit of Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” And on “New Physic Rant,” on which Lennon raps (kind of), he receives help on the chorus from Girl Scout Troop 592 from Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. All told, Lennon sounds comfortable with the music he presented here. And that’s good therapy all the way around.# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 31, 2009
L.A. FIRST GENERATION PUNKERS THE GEARS AND THEIR SUCCESSOR, THE D.I.s, REISSUED BY HEP CAT RECORDS
The Gears’ Rockin’ at Ground Zero to be available as CD, Deluxe CD, digital download and vinyl LP. The D.I.s Rare Cuts! to be available as CD and digital download. The Gears’ Rockin’ at Ground Zero Deluxe CD version includes The D.I.s’ Rare Cuts!
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Gears were formed in 1978, the heyday of Los Angeles punk, when two childhood buddies from the Glassell Park neighborhood of L.A. — singer Axxel G. Reese and drummer Dave Drive — joined forces. They created the “punk surfabilly” sound after seeing the early Hollywood punk bands while being influenced by other SoCal cultures. The band’s recorded tour de force was the live album Rockin’ at Ground Zero. Shortly after this epic live recording in 1982, the Gears’ guitarist Kidd Spike angrily smashed his ax to smithereens mid-set at the Starwood and the Gears were done. Out if the ashes of The Gears, vocalist Reese and drummer Drive launched a new band called The D.I.s (Drill Instructors).
In its Rockin’ at Ground Zero (Deluxe Edition) two-CD reissue, due out September 8, 2009, Hep Cat Records features the complete 1980 LP packaged with the first single (“Let’s Go to the Beach”) as well as five never-before-released demo recordings from 1979, a total of 23 Gears songs, all remastered. This edition also contains Rare Cuts!, 22 studio recordings by The D.I.s, including the entire Billy Zoom-produced five-song 12” vinyl EP Lock and Load. This comprehensive Gears collection, 45 songs in all, carries a list price of $19.98 and includes two fold-out posters.
Hep Cat will also release the original Gears Rockin’ at Ground Zero as a single CD with five previously unreleased demo recordings that include the rockabilly’d-up title track, “Rockin’ at Ground Zero,” and the never-before-released “Girl Crazy.” This 23-song remastered collection packaged in a digipak with a fold-out poster, lists for $14.98.
As if that weren’t enough, the Gears’ Rockin’ At Ground Zero will also be issued by Hep Cat as a vinyl LP in a limited run of 500 copies. The long-player features colored vinyl and silk-screened jackets, just like the original 1980 LP on Playgems Records. This fully remastered edition contains four 1979 demo recordings and lists for $19.98.
Preserving The Gears’ punkabilly influence, the D.I.s moved on to a broader definition of roots music. Many of Los Angeles’ best-known punk denizens were D.I.s at various times — Jimmy Reed (Levi Dexter & the Ripchords), Matt Lee (Ray Campi’s Rockabilly Rebels), Mike “Shaky” Wilcox (The Rockats), Thadius T. Baker, Patrick “Frenchie” French (The Joneses), “Venice George” Chavlez, Ron Emory (TSOL) and Jonny Ray Bartel (The Red Devils and The Knitters).
Although the D.I.s soldiered on through 1992, they left only one recording in their wake — the aforementioned five-track 12” EP Lock & Load, produced by X’s Billy Zoom. As well as being available as part of The Gears’ Rockin’ at Ground Zero (Deluxe Edition), fans can purchase it separately as The D.I.s: Rare Cuts!, for a $14.98 list price. Jonny Whiteside, known for his encyclopedic knowledge of punk and roots music, wrote the liner notes.
According to Whiteside’s notes, “The D.I.s worked a mutant strain of loaded beat & roll, bristling with misfit rockabilly riff-slinging, fang-bearing punk momentum and mad, deep boogaloo. The band’s near-militant attitude and gleeful aggression always adhered to rock ‘n’ roll’s purest elemental structure, and they crafted a set characterized by skull-denting, hip shaking grooves.”
A historical note: When Tipper Gore began her tirade against filth and pornography in pop music, she did so one afternoon on live television outside Tower Records on Sunset Blvd., brandishing a copy of the D.I.s’ Lock & Load, sputtering, “This is exactly what I’m talking about.” Tower sold 500 copies in less than a week.
Where is Tipper when we need her the most?
Hep Cat Records, along with Collectors’ Choice Music and Noble Rot, is a unit of the Infinity Entertainment Group.
# #FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2009
THE FINAL RECORDINGS OF CASS ELLIOT A/K/A MAMA CASS REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE ON AUGUST 25
Singer had moved from Dunhill to RCA, shed the “Mama,” and recorded two albums her way prior to her 1974 death. Daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell oversaw CD debuts. DVD release of 1969 TV Special also planned.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — While Mama Cass Elliot is mostly remembered for her vocal harmonies with the quintessential California folk-rock quartet the Mamas & the Papas, her story did not end there. Elliot (born Ellen Cohen) came to music via the New York folk scene of the early ‘60s (with a detour into a road production of The Music Man). She was part of a Kingston-esque trio, the Big Three, which morphed into the proto-folk-rock outfit the Mugwumps. Eventually Elliot and fellow Mugwump Denny Doherty joined John and Michelle Philips to form the Mamas & the Papas, recording such monster hits as “Monday Monday,” “California Dreamin’” and “I Saw Her Again.” But as successful as the Mamas & the Papas were, they split after only a few years.
Starting in 1968, Elliot recorded two albums and a handful of singles (most notably Dream A Little Dream of Me) under the name of Mama Cass on ABC/Dunhill. However, her most spirited and independent work came when she signed to RCA Records in 1971, dropped the “Mama” and added her surname, and recorded three acclaimed albums. Of these, the eponymous Cass Elliot and its follow-up, The Road Is No Place for a Lady, will be reissued for the first time on CD on August 25 by Collectors’ Choice Music. The single-CD reissue, titled Cass Elliot/The Road Is No Place for a Lady, contains two previously unreleased tracks, “We’ll See” and “Try it Baby.” In addition, Infinity Entertainment Group will release, on the same date, The Mama Cass Television Program, a 1969 television pilot starring Cass with guests Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian and Mary Travers. The program also makes its DVD debut.
The CD package features extensive liner notes by Elliot’s personal historian, Richard Campbell, as well as by Owen Elliot-Kugell, Cass’ daughter, who oversaw the project. Elliot-Kugell says in the liner notes, “How amazing (it was) in the year 2009 to be able to go into the studio and watch the now 37-year-old tapes be loaded into the machines and actually played. Nothing had disintegrated. And we were transported instantly back to 1972.” Attending the mastering session was the original producer of the two RCA albums, Lewis Mermenstein (known also for his work on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks), who regaled Owen-Kugell with stories and memories.
According to annotator Campbell, Cass was restless following her ABC/Dunhill Records years, both with the band and solo. “I didn’t want to sing bubblegum anymore,” she explained in 1972. “It wasn’t a complete expression. It was like fractioning me.” Then came RCA. The deal was reported to be 10 albums in four years for $1 million. “I like schedules, so that’s OK,” she said. The label purchased full-page ads in Billboard and Rolling Stone trumpeting the signing. The first album, Cass Elliot, was recorded in the fall of 1971 at RCA Records’ Hollywood studios at 6363 Sunset Blvd.
The album contained original Elliot compositions as well as songs by Randy Newman, Bobby Darin, Bruce Johnston with Beach Boy Carl Wilson, and Elliot’s sister Leah Kunkel. Veteran arranger Benny Golson brought lush orchestrations and simple arrangements.
After recording two stray, never-until-now released tracks (“We’ll See” and “Try It Baby”) and recording the theme for the Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey film L’Amour, she prepared her next album, The Road Is No Place for a Lady. The album was recorded at Trident Recording Studio in London and again produced by Merenstein. Unfortunately, RCA used the wrong mix of the single “If You’re Gonna) Break Another Heart,” featuring heavy bass and buried vocals. In reviewing the tapes earlier this year, Merenstein and Owen-Kugell were delighted to uncover the proper mix, which appears on the reissue.
In addition to Albert Hammond’s “(If You’re Gonna) Break Another Heart,” the second album contains Jimmy Webb’s “Saturday Suit,” Paul Williams’ “Say Hello” and the title song which was penned by Elliot’s sister. Featured on guitar was British axe demon Chris Spedding.
The DVD, meanwhile, is a slice of late-‘60s music utopia, featuring Cass’ renditions of the Mamas and Papas’ hits “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday” plus her solo turns on “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” “I Can Dream, Can’t I?,” “River of Life” and “Dancing in the Street,” with strong contributions from Joni Mitchell (“Both Sides Now”), Mary Travers (“And When I Die”) and John Sebastian (“She’s a Lady”). Cass, Joni and Mary team for a stirring version of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” and Cass and John duet on “Darlin’ Companion.”
According to Elliot-Kugell in the notes to the CD reissue, “I have always felt that the albums my Mom made in the later part of her life were the most important. Important because these are the songs that she wanted to sing and she got to decide who, what, where and why for Cass. It’s for this reason that I have dreamt passionately of the day these recordings would be available to anyone who wanted to hear them. I needed to, as her daughter, make sure that she would be heard. In her own right. On her terms. For Cass. For Ellen Cohen.”# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2009
POWER POP LOVERS THROWN A BONE:PEDIGREED ALBUMS BY LAUGHING DOGS AND FABULOUS POODLES DUG UP AND REISSUED ON AMERICAN BEAT THROUGH COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
The Truth’s 1985 I.R.S. album Playground rounds out pop trilogy.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In a triumvirate of classic power-pop reissues, American Beat Records through Collectors’ Choice Music will re-release the Laughing Dogs’ 1979 The Laughing Dogs and 1980 The Laughing Dogs Meet Their Makers as a twofer CD, The Fabulous Poodles’ Mirror Stars and Think Pink as a twofer, plus The Truth’s pubby 1985 Playground album. Street date for the three CDs is August 11, 2009.
The Laughing Dogs emerged from the New York underground scene of the 1970s and even appeared on the Live at CBGB anthology. Yet unlike edgier contemporaries Patti Smith, Ramones, Talking Heads and Television, the Dogs were primarily a power pop band big on harmonies, admired for their musicianship as well as their songwriting skills. The majority of their songs were written by frontmen Ronnie Carle (vocals and bass) and James Leonard (vocals and guitar). Keyboardist Carter Catchcart and drummer Moe Potts rounded out the lineup. As the online guide All Music points out, “If Billy Joel’s Glass Houses album had been recorded by a group with street cred, that band would have been the Laughing Dogs.” American Beat and Collectors’ Choice bring fans their first two Columbia albums for the first time on CD. Featured are the songs “Get ‘Em Out of Town,” “Reason For Love,” “No Lies,” “It’s Alright,” “Round and Round,” “Zombies,” “Formal Letter,” “Reach Out for Me” and “Johnny Contender.”
For a brief, glorious time, it looked like a London band named The Fabulous Poodles might make it big. This pub-rock-turned-new-wave outfit’s Stateside debut album, 1978’s John Entwhistle-produced Mirror Stars, outsold debut albums by the Jam and the Clash. Emerging from the London scene that begat bands like Deaf School and the Kurssal Flyers, the Poodles gained little traction in the States despite the radio- and MTV-ready title track and tours with the Ramones and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. The 1979 album Think Pink was similarly inspired, mixing the energy of the Kinks and the Who with a touch of Bonzo Dog Band absurdity, but failed to ignite commercially. The American Beat twofer contains “Mirror Stars,” “Chicago Boxcar,” Toytown People,” “Work Shy,” the Everly Brothers’ “Man With the Money” and “Pink City Twist.”
Fronted by Nine Below Zero leader Dennis Greaves and featuring former Fabulous Poodles keyboardist Chris Skornia and guitarist Mick Lister, The Truth emerged from the London pub-rock scene to hit their stride with a mod pop/soul sound similar to that of The Jam and Style Council. Playground, their 1985 debut album for I.R.S. Records, rates four stars in All Music. The album features the soulful singles “Spread a Little Sunshine” and “Exception of Love.” The Truth went on to record the rockin’ Weapons of Love album, gleaning album-rock airplay in the U.S. But Playground is a notable document of London pub-rock in the ‘80s, and a pleasant diversion from the emerging American indie-rock sounds for which I.R.S. was doggedly best known.
# # #FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2009
FOUR CLASSIC ALBUMS BY LEGENDARY SINGER-SONGWRITER JACKIE DeSHANNON TO BE RELEASED BY COLLECTORS’ CHOICE ON AUGUST 25
Look for Jackie DeShannon’s self-titled debut folk album (1963), a twofer of Me About You (1968) and To Be Free (1970), and New Arrangement (1975), which gave the world the DeShannon-co-penned “Bette Davis Eyes.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The multi-talented, Grammy-winning Jackie DeShannon is best known for writing and recording hits like “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” as well as interpreting Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono’s “Needles and Pins” (long before the Searchers and the Ramones) and Burt Bacharach & Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” She co-penned and originally recorded “Bette Davis Eyes,” and her songs – written with the likes of Randy Newman, Jimmy Page and John Bettis – have been covered by The Byrds, Marianne Faithful, Cher, The Temptations, Brenda Lee, The Carpenters, Al Green, Tracey Ullman, Annie Lenox and Steve Forbert. She began recording as a young teen in the late ‘50s and continues into the present. Four of her most defining albums from the 1960s-70s — Jackie DeShannon, Me About You, To Be Free and New Arrangement — will be reissued on Collectors’ Choice Music on August 25. (Me About You and To Be Free will be released together on one CD.)
By July 1963, Jackie DeShannon had been singing and recording singles for roughly seven years, building a reputation as a versatile singer and songwriter. A few months prior, she had hit the Billboard singles chart for the first time as a performer with a rendering of the country standard “Faded Love.” Within a year she would find herself touring with the Beatles while releasing a pair of signature hits, Nitzsche and Bono’s “Needles and Pins” and her own “When You Walk in a Room.” However, in the summer of ’63, Liberty Records boldly released DeShannon’s self-titled debut album, which contained folk standards from the best songwriters of the day. “Folk music has always been in my repertoire,” says DeShannon, who was born in Illinois and raised in Kentucky and Chicago. “My grandmother played guitar and sang English folk songs to me as I was growing up. The acoustic finger-picking style is very close to home.”
The result of this influence was DeShannon’s debut album, her first of more than 30 long-players. Included were early interpretations of Bob Dylan’s “Walkin’ Down the Line,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “Blowin’ in the Wind”; Bobby Darin’s “Jailer Bring Me Water,” Eric Von Schmidt’s adaptation of Rev. Gary Davis’ “Baby Let Me Follow You Down,” Peter Yarrow’s “Puff (The Magic Dragon),” Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer” and DeShannon’s adaptation of “Oh Sweet Chariot” (otherwise known as “Swing Low”). The album arranger was Phil Spector protégé Jack Nitzsche, its producer Dick Glasser, of whom DeShannon says, “Both had eclectic taste in music. The studio musicians could play any style. So our tracks covered a lot of musical ground. I think the album was ahead of it time.”
In 1968 — a year before she would release her biggest hit, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” — DeShannon released the album Me About You, which included “Me About You,” “I’m With You” and “Whatever Happened to Happy,” all by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon (best known as the Turtles’ songwriters), along with songs by Jimmy Webb, Van Dyke Parks, John Sebastian, Tim Harden, Holland-Dozier-Holland and Carol Bayer Sager/Toni Wine, as well as two of her own. Produced by Nitzsche with Joseph Russert under the auspices of Charles Koppelman and Don Rubin, the album demonstrates DeShannon’s talent for both picking and writing songs. The single-CD Collectors’ Choice reissue, which bundles Me About You with the 1970 album To Be Free, contains an unreleased song from the Me About You session — Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe.”
To Be Free from 1970 (packaged together with Me About You on the reissue) showcases several DeShannon co-writes (the hit “Brighton Hill,” “Livin’ on the Easy Side,” “Child of the Street” and five more, as well as “Bird on the Wire” by Leonard Cohen (whom she’d met and admired) and a medley of the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and Little Anthony & the Imperials’ “Hurt So Bad.” She had just come off the million-selling “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” and was a fixture on national TV. Imperial Records put a big push behind the album, and utilized the producers Sam Russell and Irvin Hunt, the team who’d worked on her mega-hit. She enlisted an all-star cadre of backing vocalists — Clydie King (Raeletts), Vanetta Field (Ikettes) and Randy Edelman, her future husband. DeShannon’s songs on the album show a new complexity of lyrics while retaining the gift of commercial arrangements and clear melody. Some of the songs were inspired by her adopted home city, Los Angeles. “L.A. has always inspired me as a songwriter. Ideas for many of my songs come while driving my car. I just go where the feeling takes me and I’ve never questioned the muse.”
The final Collectors’ Choice reissue is 1975’s New Arrangement, best known for the song “Bette Davis Eyes,” which DeShannon wrote with frequent collaborator Donna Weiss. The original was very different from Kim Carnes’ later No. 1 hit, as producer Michael Stewart took the tune — conceived as a rock song by DeShannon and Weiss — into swing territory. The title track refers not only to the musical arrangements of the ‘70s, but also to the “new arrangement” of a woman’s husband having an affair with another man. DeShannon wrote or co-wrote ten out of 11 of the album’s songs, with William Smith’s “Dreaming As One” the sole cover. The album, originally on Columbia Records, contains three previously unreleased tracks: “Pure Natural Love,” “Deep Into Paradise” and “Somebody Turn the Music On,” as well as two singles appearing for the first time on album: “All Night Desire” and “Fire in the City.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2009
KATE WOLF’S CATALOG OF FOLK ALBUMS FROM KALEIDOSCOPE RECORDS
TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC
The Northern California singer-songwriter never had a chart hit, but interest has mounted in her recordings since her 1986 death.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Kate Wolf was a welcome presence in the late ‘70s and mid-‘80s folk scene. Her blend of folk, country and pop helped pave the way for artists like Nanci Griffith and Mary-Chapin Carpenter. Wolf never had a hit single, and in fact the All Music Guide points out that “her style is one that tends to grow on listeners over time, as Wolf is not about flash. Her songs, characterized by a strong narrative thread, are about the ebbs and flows of adult life, in terms that are neither overly sentimental not mundane.” As late singer-songwriter Utah Phillips once introduced her, “I'd like you to meet Kate Wolf. She owns herself.”
Wolf died of leukemia in December 1986 at the age of 44, leaving behind a vast catalog of albums. Five of those albums — Back Roads, Lines on Paper, Safe at Anchor, Give Yourself to Love and The Wind Blows Wild — will be reissued on CD by Collectors’ Choice Music on July 7, 2009.
Wolf’s legacy is renewed and commemorated every year with the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival in her native Northern California. That area is the backdrop to many of her songs, which tackle themes of family, love and loss with uncommon sensitivity and insight. It’s music for folks with open ears, hearts and minds.
• Back Roads: Wolf’s 1976 debut, recorded with her long-time band Wildwood Flower, was “made by people who live and work in Sonoma Country, California,” as the liner notes say. Recording was overseen by Dan Dugan “in front of an open fire with friends coming and going, and time to walk on the beach and eat good home cooking.” The Wildwood Flower (Don Coffin, Paul Ellis and Will Siegel) added Pete Wiseman, a member of the Santa Rosa Symphony Orchestra and David West from the Cache Valley Drifters. The album contains “Lately,” “Emma Rose,” “Sitting on the Porch, “The Redtail Hawk” and eight others.
• Lines on the Paper: Like Back Roads, this 1977 release featured the Wildwood Flower with additional help, this time from all the Cache Valley Drifters (David West, Cyrus Clarke, Bill Griffin and Wally Barnick). It was recorded live in a living room in a working ranch above the Pacific Ocean. Included are “I Don’t Know Why,” “Lines on Paper,” “You’re Not Standing Like You Used To,” “Picture Puzzle” and eight more.
• Safe at Anchor: Album annotator Phil Elwood, then the jazz critic for the San Francisco Examiner, describes Wolf as possessed of “a deep, rich, beautifully tuned vocal instrument,” which he felt was served beautifully by the arrangements here. The album contains orchestrations by piano player Bill Griffin, who as Elwood writes, “has a feeling for Kate’s voice, treating it with affection and supporting it (including fondling it) with original and enhanced instrumental mixes.” Examples of these, he notes, are “the mandolin/accordion blending on the title track, the violin/steel guitar combination of ‘September Song,’ the pair of guitars under Celtic harps on ’Seashore Mountain Lady.’”
• Give Yourself to Love: Wolf’s 1983 double live album, recorded at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, featured long-time band members Nina Gerber and Ford James. Kate’s friend Rose Maddox, California’s “grandmother of rockabilly,” wrote in the liner notes, “I’m sure you are going to enjoy her talents throughout the years as I have. She is a truly great artist!” Collectors’ Choice has reissued the two LPs as a double-CD set; among 19 tracks are “Give Yourself to Love,” “Desert Wind,” “The Ballad of Weaverville,” “Green Eyes” and covers of songs by John Stewart, Sandy Denny, Mary McCaslin, the Incredible String Band’s Robin Williamson and the Eagles.
• The Wind Blows Wild: This release was compiled after Wolf’s passing by long-time associate Nina Gerber from studio recordings, radio shows and live performances. The title track is the last song Kate recorded before her death. The rest of the album spans her entire career, offering live and studio performances of such heartfelt and beautiful songs as “Old Jerome,” “Statues Made of Clay,” “Mountains,” “Laugh Like That,” “Rising of the Moon” and more, plus the studio version of “Give Yourself to Love.” According to the notes, “Since some of this material was not originally meant to be released on record, the technical quality may not meet modern studio standards and the performances may not be perfect, but the music is real and from the heart.”
# # #FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2009
BOOK OF LOVE’S FOUR SIRE ALBUMS REISSUED ON NOBLE ROT, SELF-TITLED FIRST ALBUM CONTAINS BONUS DISK OF DEMOS
Seminal ‘80s synth-pop enjoys revival as they reunites and take to the road
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — One of the premiere first wave electronic groups, Book of Love emerged out of the New York City scene in the mid-‘80s in the wake of UK synthpop stalwarts Yaz, Erasure and Depeche Mode. Signed to a label deal with Sire Records by the legendary Seymour Stein, art-students-turned-musicians Ted Ottaviano, Susan Ottaviano (oddly no relation), Jade Lee and Lauren Roselli recorded just four albums, but their influence can heard today more powerfully than ever, from the chart-storming dance pop of Ladyhawke and La Rouxto the darker leanings of indie electro darlings Little Boots and Goldfrapp. Yet as these albums — Book of Love, Lullaby, Candy Carol and Lovebubble — are readied for a July 21 reissue on Collectors’ Choice Music’s Noble Rot label, the reunited bandmates are preparing their first tour since 2001.
The reissues were annotated by Michael Paoletta, former editor and dance music columnist at Billboard magazine, who observed: “Memorable melodies and provocative lyrics reigned supreme. Book of Love’s songs were cathartic, ebullient and life-affirming: solemn celebrations if you will.”
Between 1986 and 1993, the band delivered 12 singles culled from the four studio albums about to be reissued. Songwriting duties were handled primarily by Susan and Ted though Lauren contributed more to this process on Candy Carol and Lovebubble, while Jade’s writing chops were showcased on the first and final albums.
• Book of Love: Book of Love’s 1986 eponymous debut album contained the hits “Boy,” “Book of Love,” “I Touch the Roses” and “Modigliani (Lost in Your Eyes),” all chart-topping Billboard dance hits. The album got them on the road with Depeche Mode twice at the height of that group’s popularity. Seymour Stein signed the band to Sire Records upon hearing the demo of the song “Boy,” which joins ten other demo tracks on a bonus album, making the Book of Love reissue a 2-CD set. Other bonus tracks include rare demos “I Touch Roses (Daniel Miller Mix),” “Boy (Dub Version)” and “Modigliani (Instrumental Version).”
• Lullaby: This 1988 release became the band’s highest-charting album, thanks in large part to the two killer cuts that lead off the record. The first was a beat-fortified remake of Mike Oldfield’s classic “Tubular Bells (Theme From The Exorcist)” and “Pretty Boys, Pretty Girls,” which was quite possibly the first song about AIDS ever to hit the charts. The deluxe reissue includes the bonus extended mix of “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls,” “Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys Pretty Girls” (Regan’s house medley), “Lullaby (Pleasant Dream Mix),” “Witchcraft (Extended Mix)” and “Enchantra.” The album spent nine weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, peaking at 156 and crossing over from club dance floors to adventurous pop radio stations.
• Candy Carol: Highlighted by the tracks “Alice Everyday,” “Counting the Rosaries” and “Sunny Day” (which was featured in the film The Silence of the Lambs), this 1991 album shifted into a more psychedelic direction and was rewarded with another Billboard album chart entry; the single “Alice Everyday” missed Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart by one point. “We were working on Candy Carol when Jonathan Demme was working on Silence,” says Lauren, “I played him a rough mix and he felt he could use it in the film.” Bonus tracks include the “Everyday Glo Mix” and the “Sam the Butcher Mix” of “Alice Everyday,” plus the single remix of “Sunny Day” and the “Happiness and Love Mix” of “Counting the Rosaries.”
• Lovebubble: Book of Love’s final album in 1993 shows the members moving in different directions, making it an interesting, eclectic listen, full of cognitive dissonance. Included are “Boy Pop” (“Swinging Boy Bop Mix”), “Hunny Hunny (the band’s ABBA tribute in its “Sweet and Sticky MixPop Mix”) plus “Chatterbox” (“The Late Nite Chat Mix”). Lovebubble was the only Book of Love to feature vocal work by all four members. According to annotator Paoletta, the band “could decide to move creatively forward or back. So they went both ways.” “We were cordial while making Lovebubbble but the camaraderie was gone,” says Ted. “You can’t make magic with four cordial people.”
The group’s last proper tour was in 2001, in support of Candy Carol. If all goes according to plan, Book of Love will take to the road in the coming months including a hometown New York show.
“In the meantime,” writes Paoletta, “we will, collectively, continue to touch roses.”
# # #FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2009
LITTLE RICHARD’S THREE REPRISE ALBUMS FROM 1970s REISSUED ON COLLECTORS CHOICE MUSIC
The Rill Thing, King of Rock and Roll and the Bumps Blackwell-produced The Second Coming were evidence of a still-vital artist who combined tradition with newer sounds.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Little Richard is well known as one of rock ’n’ roll’s great originators. His run of hits on Specialty Records between 1955-58 brought legendary hits like “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Rip It Up,” “Lucille,” “Jenny Jenny,” “Keep A-Knockin’,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.” At the end of the run, he opted for the sacred over the profane, emerging as a minister and recording gospel music on Atlantic, Mercury and Vee-Jay. Little Richard’s music was introduced to a new generation by The Beatles’ cover of “Long Tall Sally.” And in 1970, as ‘50s rock ’n’ roll enjoyed a revival of interest, Richard was signed to Warner Bros.’s Reprise label by Mo Ostin.
His three-album stint at Reprise created three excellent if commercially unaccepted albums: 1970’s The Rill Thing (from which Richard turned out a mid-chart hit with “Freedom Blues”), King of Rock and Roll in 1971 and The Second Coming in 1972. The albums demonstrate his incredible range, from ‘50s style rock ’n’ roll to soul, funk and rock music of the day. The three long-players will be released on CD in their original form for the first time by Collectors’ Choice Music on June 23, 2009. Music historian Gene Sculatti, author of the Catalog of Cool, contributed liner notes.
As Little Richard said at the time of The Rill Thing’s release: “I believe (the older people) will accept me for my sincerity and my contribution to rock ’n’ roll. But the young people are going to buy it because they want to hear the truth.”
• The Rill Thing: Little Richard recorded with the Muscle Shoals rhythm and horn sections on his 1970 Reprise debut, which Rolling Stone called “a major artistic triumph,” noting that he “personally arranged, produced and recorded the album with five recently penned originals. The record faithfully exhibits Richard’s maturity as an artist.” The first single, “Freedom Blues,” notched #47 on the pop charts, #28 R&B. Its two additional singles were the Travis Wammack-written “Greenwood, Mississippi,” which stalled at #85, and a non-charting yet inspired version of the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.” The album also included cover of Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” done up in a New Orleans rhythm and “Dew Drop Inn,” which revisits more conventional Little Richard terrain: the patent scream, rollicking piano and booting sax solo of his earliest hits.
• The King of Rock and Roll: The trade ad for this 1971 volume read: “Only Little Richard could top Little Richard.” Joel Selvin, reviewing in Rolling Stone, called the second Reprise set “a most significant chapter in the living legend of the greatest rock ’n’ roll singer ever . . .packed with the sort of stuff good rock is made of.” Richard paired with producer H.B. Barnum (Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, O.C. Smith) here, finding him working closer to the upbeat R&B style of “Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly Miss Molly,” but performing repertoire culled from the Top 40 of the ‘60s and early ‘70s: “Brown Sugar,” “Joy to the World,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Born on the Bayou,” and takes on Hank Williams’ ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” Leadbelly’s “The Midnight Special” and Fred Rose’s “Settin’ the Woods on Fire.”
• The Second Coming: Little Richard’s third and final Reprise album (although portions of a fourth were recorded and shelved) finds him reunited with Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, producer of his Specialty Records hits in the ‘50s. Four tunes (“Mockingbird Sally,” “Rockin’ Rockin’ Boogie,” “Thomasine” and “Saints”) feature New Orleans musicians who played on Richard’s (and many of Fats Domino’s) original hits: drummer Earl Palmer and sax man Lee Allen. Commenting on “Saints,” an update of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Blackwell, in his original album notes, explained that their aim was to mix “New Orleans jazz with the horns and guitars creating a big brass sound, with the wah-wah blending in what I call the Isaac Hayes and Bar-Kays rhythmic Shaft attitude.” The album also contains a Little Richard/Sneaky Pete Kleinow co-write, “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way You Do It,” with Kleinow’s pedal steel and Richard on electric piano reminiscent to The Beatles’ “Get Back.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2009
COLLECTORS’ CHOICE TO RELEASE GARY LEWIS & THE PLAYBOYS’ THE COMPLETE LIBERTY SINGLES COLLECTING 55 "A" and "B" SIDES PLUS TWO PROMO-ONLY TRACKS ON TWO CDs IN THEIR ORIGINAL MONO MIXES.
‘60s band’s golden era included “This Diamond Ring,” “Count Me In,” “Save Your Heart for Me,” “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “Sure Gonna Miss Her,” “Green Grass” and more. The hit team included Snuff Garrett, Al Kooper, Leon Russell, Hal Blaine and Jim Keltner.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In the tradition of Collectors’ Choice Music’s hits collections from Jan & Dean and Tommy James & the Shondells, the label will issue Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ The Complete Liberty Singles collection, featuring 55 songs — many for the first time on CD and all in their original mono mixes. The collection, due out on May 26, 2009, features such hits as “This Diamond Ring,” “Count Me In,” “Save Your Heart for Me,” “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “She's Just My Style," "Sure Gonna Miss Her,” “Green Grass,” “My Heart's Symphony” “Jill,” “Rhythm of the Rain,” “Loser (With a Broken Heart),” "Sealed With A Kiss" and many more, including B-sides, "Doin' The Flake" (from a cereal box-top offer), and the promo-only rarity, “Way Way Out.”
The set, annotated by Ed Osborne, is enhanced by interviews with Lewis as well as producer Snuff Garrett, arranger Leon Russell, drummers Hal Blaine and Jim Keltner, and others who comprised the Gary Lewis & the Playboys creative team.
Gary Lewis & the Playboys were discovered by producer Snuff Garrett through a tip from Lou Brown, a friend of Gary’s father Jerry Lewis. Garrett had heard a demo of a song called “This Diamond Ring” co-written by Al Kooper and thought Lewis would be perfect to record it. In November 1964, the band — Lewis, drums and vocals; Allan Lawson Ramsey, lead guitar; Dave Costell, rhythm guitar; and Cordovox player John West — found themselves in the studio with Garrett’s arranger, Leon Russell. To the band’s initial dismay, the famed Wrecking Crew session musicians played the instruments, with Lewis promoted to lead singer and session singer Ron Hicklin (of The Eligibles) brought in to bolster Lewis’ voice. Liberty Records president Al Bennett reportedly “despised” the song initially, possibly because Garrett had left an A&R position at the label to go independent. But after the band debuted it on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 6, 1964, it roared to Billboard’s #1 position, bumping the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” out of the top spot and burying Sammy Ambrose's R&B version of "Diamond Ring" along the way.
After returning to the studio to record their #2 single “Count Me In” (originally written for Herman’s Hermits), the Playboys recorded a song exclusively for Kellogg’s cereal (“Doin’ the Flake”), which accompanied a special pressing of “This Diamond Ring” and Little Miss Go-Go" in a free box top offer. Next came the Top 3 summertime hit “Save Your Heart for Me,” the #4 “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “Green Grass” – which reached the #8 spot - and the Beach Boys-influenced “She's Just My Style.” And the hits just kept on coming.
That is, until New Year's Day of 1967 — a month after the band had recorded “The Loser” — when Lewis was drafted into the U.S. Army and eventually sent to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. Fortunately he’d banked a few recordings before he left, including “Girls in Love,” penned for him by Alan Gordon and Gary Bonner, the team that wrote the Turtles’ smashes. Unfortunately, Lewis’ attorneys had chosen that time to sue the label for back royalties, leaving the label with little incentive to promote the singles. Plus, the singer could no longer tour to keep up his visibility. “Has She Got the Nicest Eyes” — penned by Russ Titelman, Jack Nietzche and Lowell George — failed to chart at all.
While Lewis was overseas, Liberty Records released an earlier recording from the vault, “Sealed With a Kiss,” (originally cut by Brian Hyland and with Garrett back at the helm). It dented the Top 20, but Lewis never liked the production. After “Rhythm of the Rain,” which made it to #63, and “Hayride,” which went nowhere, Garrett told Lewis: “There is no more market for Gary Lewis & the Playboys.” Gary self-produced two more singles and then called it quits. “It was a terrible time,” recalls Lewis. Yet today he looks back with no regrets: “I was thrilled to be doing that. It was really so much fun.”
And fun, in turn, to roll back the clock to the halcyon age of ‘60s AM radio with the definitive Gary Lewis & the Playboys singles collection. The Collectors’ Choice package (list price $27.98) presents all the hits, B-sides and two rarities in glorious mono, remastered from the original tapes, along with extensive liner notes, picture sleeve artwork, and photos.
# # #FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2009
DEL-LORDS’ FIRST THREE ALBUMS REISSUED ON CD BY AMERICAN BEAT THROUGH COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC ON MAY 26
Bandmates Scott Kempner (Dictators), Eric Ambel (Joan Jett), Frank Funaro (Cracker) and Manny Caiati re-invigorated rock’n’roll . . .and may have stumbled into inventing Americana
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In New York in the mid-‘80s, four veteran New York musicians united to form the Del-Lords: Scott Kempner from the Dictators, Eric Ambel from Joan Jett’s Blackhearts, future Cracker drummer Frank Funaro and thundering bassist Manny Caiati. Key songwriter Kempner said his vision “was to create a band that would feature four singers performing my songs — an East Coast Beach Boys if you will.” But rather than singing about girls and cars, the Del-Lords sang about things that mattered to them: the everyday grind of life and how it affected the band and those around them.
The Del-Lords recorded three albums that broke no sales records but helped start an American rock ’n’ roll rebirth — and helped sire the Americana movement as well. And now, after a long absence from the marketplace, the first three long-players — Frontier Days, Johnny Comes Marching Home and Based on a True Story — will be reissued on CD by American Beat Records through Collectors’ Choice Music, on May 26, 2009. Their last two albums, Lovers Who Wander and Howlin’ at the Halloween Moon, will come out later this year.
• Frontier Days: The band’s 1984 debut album showed the Del-Lords could rock as hard as the meanest punk bands of the day but also kept an ear toward the melody of the songs. Rolling Stone awarded the album four stars and Robert Christgau in the Village Voice graded it A–, his only complaint that production by Lou Whitney (Skeletons, Morells) wasn’t commercial enough to get radio airplay. And Trouser Press exclaimed, “The Del-Lords embrace rock’s basic components with such skill and verve that they outshine everyone else on the scene.” A promising start. Songs include “Burning in the Flame of Love,” ”Get Tough” and six others from the original LP, plus five never-before-heard bonus tracks and new liner notes from Kempner. First time on CD!
• Johnny Comes Marching Home: For their second album, the band switched to an unlikely producer with a proven track record for rock radio hits, Neil Geraldo (Pat Benatar’s guitarist/producer/husband.) The gamble paid off. Johnny retains the drive and grit of the first album yet the sound is brighter and more engaging. Also aiding the cause was two years of road miles under their belts when they went into the studio. The signature Link Wray echo and rockabilly swagger is still there, kicked into a new gear. Included are the songs “Heaven,” “Love Lies Dying,” “Saint Jake.” “No Waitress No More” and six others. In addition, five previously unreleased tracks are included. Another CD debut!
• Based on a True Story: This 1988 album marked the first time in the band’s career that they went into the studio with a full team in place, Geraldo returning to the producer’s chair, in a pedal-to-the-metal, show-me-what-you-got affair. This time the band had help from a few guest vocalists — Syd Straw, Mojo Nixon, Kim Shattuck (The Pandoras) and, yes, Pat Benatar. True to their guns, the band turned down a lucrative beer company sponsorship, preferring to remain a no-nonsense working man’s rock ’n’ roll band at its peak. This album was released on CD, but due to a label shakeup not many copies found their way into stores. The album contains their biggest hit, “Judas Kiss,” as well as “The Cool and the Crazy,” “Crawl in Bed,” “Cheyenne” and six others, plus, you guessed it, five previously unreleased bonus tracks. Kempner again wrote liner notes for the reissue.
Looking back a quarter of a century to the band formation, Kempner explains: “The Del-Lords were conceived as Holy Sacrament: two guitars, bass & drums, four lead singers, just the way we figured El Hombre Grande wanted it. F--- not with what is essentially perfect! However, the reverence ended there and we were more in tune with John Lennon's assessment: ‘the blues ain't a painting to look at and admire, it's a chair to sit in and use.’ They called it ‘roots-rock’ or ‘cowpunk,’ we called it rock 'n' roll. The good kind. It was firmly rooted in the great artists who came before but, we were burdened in soul and of mind with a very bad attitude. We stomped all over the blues, country, rock 'n' roll, of all kinds and twisted it into something uniquely of us. I mean, I'm a Jew from the South F---n' Bronx! Who am I kidding?
“Now, 25 years after the fact the landscape is grim once again,” he adds. “Just like 1984. Rock 'n' roll where art thou? It seems to me it's the same folks playin’ it now that was playin’ it then. Blessed are the faithful. These records we made back then sound awful good to me right now. A mighty noise. They sound necessary again. Rock'n'roll gives what it gets. Remember that! It's not a painting, it's a f---in' chair!”
# # #FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2009
SNOOKS EAGLIN’S BABY, YOU CAN GET YOUR GUN, A BLACK TOP RECORDS CLASSIC, IS REISSUED ON HEP CAT RECORDS THROUGH COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC ON APRIL 21
Eaglin is accompanied by Fats Domino’s rhythm section plus David Lastie, Ron Levy and Ronnie Earl on his first Black Top album
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Snooks Eaglin, the legendary New Orleans blues and R&B singer and guitarist, passed away on February 18 of this year. That city’s Offbeat magazine described him as “a one-of-a-kind guitar player who could play an unbelievable run with his amazing (seemingly double-jointed) fingers in a repertoire that ranged from Beethoven to R&B; thus his moniker: ‘The Human Jukebox.’” Eaglin, who first recorded in 1958, began a five-album run on Black Top Records with 1987’s Baby, You Can Get Your Gun, which All Music.com awarded 41⁄2 stars. The album will be reissued on Hep Cat Records through Collectors’ Choice Music on April 21.
Other Black Top reissues set for April 21 are Ronnie Earle & the Broadcasters’ Peace of Mind and Deep Blues, Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets’ Sins and The James Harman Band’s Cards on the Table.
Fird “Snooks” Eaglin was born in New Orleans in 1936. Like his contemporary, the late James Booker, Snooks delighted in guiding his listeners through unexpected musical labyrinths. On Baby, You Can Get Your Gun, his first Black Top release, Snooks voyages from blues at its most sophisticated, covering Percy Mayfield’s “Baby Please,” to blues of the most nasty, suggestive variety, on “Nobody Knows.” There are shuffles done in a style unique to Snooks — “Mary Joe” and “Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!” (originally cut by Earl King for Ace Records). There is the James Brown-inspired “Drop the Bomb!” and a tribute to the Ventures called “Profidia.” There’s a nod to the sanctified realm of gospel on Smiley Lewis’ “That Certain Door,” and both “Oh Sweetness” and Pretty Girls Everywhere” are evocative of the music Snooks created during his association with Professor Longhair. (Snooks abruptly exited an upstate New York recording session with ‘Fess during the ‘70s because the sound of snow falling kept the blind guitarist awake all night.)
Snooks’ musical career has been likewise eclectic. He was the lead guitarist in 16-year-old Allen Toussaint’s first band, The Flamingoes. In 1958, he was recorded by folklorists Harry Oster and Richard Allen under the direction of the eminent band leader Dave Bartholomew. Snooks recorded ten singles for Lewis Chudd’s Imperial Records from 1960-61. Then, in 1974, he was the featured guitarist on the Wild Magnolias’ debut album of revisionist Mardi Gras Indian songs. For more than three decades, Snooks had been one of the Crescent City’s most popular entertainers. In a town dominated by awesome pianists, he was the ruling guitarist.
Snooks’ accompanists on Baby, You Can Get Your Gun included Joe “Smokey” Johnson and bassist Erving Charles, Jr., otherwise known as the rhythm section of Fats Domino’s orchestra; David Lastie, who supplied the sax breaks on his uncle Jessie Hill’s 1960 hit “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” (and is part of a notable Ninth Ward musical family); Ron Levy, who spent seven years at the piano and the Hammond B-3 in B.B. King’s touring combo and has recently been featured with Roomful of Blues, and Levy’s long-time close friend Ronnie Earl, whose guitar propelled Roomful of Blues and a notable solo career.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2009
THE TURTLES’ BRITISH ADVENTURE TOLD IN FILM MY DINNER WITH JIMI, SET FOR JUNE 9 DVD RELEASE THROUGH MICRO WERKS
The Turtles’ own Howard Kaylan wrote this reenactment of what happened when his band mates met their rock heroes.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A slew of films about the British rock scene of the 1960s will make it to the marketplace this year. Beating them to the punch, at least on DVD, is My Dinner With Jimi. The film was written by someone who was actually there: The Turtles’ lead singer Howard Kaylan. In 1967 the Turtles, riding high with their mega-hit “Happy Together,” were flown to England for promotion, and wound up hanging out with many of their heroes. The film follows the band as they encounter rock stars of the day, including the Beatles, Jim Morrison and ultimately, Jimi Hendrix.
Rhino Entertainment’s co-founder Harold Bronson, the movie’s producer, pushed the production to achieve a historical accuracy lacking in similar films. My Dinner With Jimi is the fourth feature directed by Bill Fishman (Tapeheads, Ramones videos). Produced for Rhino Films, the movie, with bonus material, will be released by Micro Werks on June 9, distributed through Infinity Entertainment Group.
Royale Watkins stars as Jimi Hendrix, whose performance Variety called “a completely believable turn.” Academy Award Nominee Justin Henry plays Howard Kaylan, and Jason Boggs plays Turtle Mark Volman.
“It’s an absolutely true story,” Kaylan recounts. “It was our first trip to London and we met Graham Nash, Donovan, the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, and the Beatles all on the same night! Nash played us Sgt. Pepper’s before it was released. I wound up having dinner with Hendrix at 4 a.m.!”
The Turtles’ other hits include “Elenore,” “You Showed Me” and “She’d Rather Be With Me,” and they hold the distinction of having been the first rock band to play the White House. They still tour a minimum of 50 dates per year as the Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie.
According to producer Bronson, “In my 24 years co-running Rhino — with co-founder Richard Foos — my most enjoyable times were spent with Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman working on various Turtles and Flo & Eddie (the groups they fronted) projects. One bonus was hearing their marvelous stories. For many years, I’ve not only wanted to tell their story in a feature film format, but to give the viewer more of an idea of this special time. I always wondered what it would be like to have been a fly on the wall in that magical time. With My Dinner With Jimi, I believe we’ve come close.”
# # #For more information on My Dinner with Jimi and interviews with Howard Kaylan, please contact conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.coFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2009
PAUL JONES, THE VOICE OF MANFRED MANN, READIES SOLO ALBUM STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE (BUT NOT A REISSUE!)
British vocalist’s solo album features Eric Clapton, Jake Andrews, Tony Marisco, Alvino Bennett, Ernie Watts and Mikael Rickfors, and is produced by Carla Olson
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Paul Jones is known to many as the singer and heart-throb of the British Invasion band Manfred Mann — the voice on mid-‘60s hits like “Do Wah Diddy,” “Pretty Flamingo,” “Come Tomorrow” and “Sha La La.” The new CD, Starting All Over Again, is his first solo album in decades. It will be released on March 10 on Collectors’ Choice Music, marking it the first non-archival release in the venerable reissue label’s history.
Backing Jones on the project are musicians of no small esteem: Eric Clapton plays guitar on two tracks (“Choose or Cop Out” and “Starting All Over Again”) and is joined by Jake Andrews, guitar; Tony Marsico (Plugz, Cruzados, Neil Young, John Doe, Peter Case), bass; Alvino Bennett (LTD, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Ferry, Dave Mason), drums; Mike Thompson (Eagles, Don Henley), piano and Hammond B3 organ; Ernie Watts (Rolling Stones, Thelonious Monk, Steely Dan), saxophone; Darrell Leonard (Duane Allman, Freddie King, Smokey Robinson), trumpet; Tom Junior Moran (Percy Sledge, Mick Taylor, Phil Seymour), saxophone; Mikael Rickfors (The Hollies), backing vocals; Jake Andrews and several others.
The producer is Carla Olson, who has produced albums or tracks by Joe Louis Walker, Phil Upchurch, Otis Rush, The Ventures, Taj Mahal and a host of others, and who has recorded with Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Eric Johnson, John Fogerty, Mick Taylor and Gene Clark. A&R was overseen by Saul Davis.
In the circuitous road from Manfred Mann in the ‘60s to the present, the multitalented Jones recorded three solo albums in the ‘60s and turned to acting — first in films and television, then on stage. His films include the underground classics Privilege and The Committee. Among his television credits are Z Cars, Space 1999 and The Sweeney. He also appeared in productions for London’s Royal National Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has worked with directors Sir Richard Eyre, Peter Gill and Toby Robertson. His gold albums include one for the original recording of Evita. He also performs in The Manfreds, a band containing Jones and other Manfred Mann alumni, and hosts a blues radio show on BBC’s World Service.
The new album features “Lover To Cry,” penned by Jake Andrews, guitarist on most of the album; “If You Love Me (Like You Say)” by bluesman Little Johnnie Taylor; “Choose or Cop Out,” a Jones original featuring Clapton; the title track ”Starting All Over Again” by Stax soul star Johnnie Taylor, also featuring Clapton; “I’m Gone,” originated by the Swedish band The Creeps; “Philosopher’s Stone,” a Van Morrison song; “Need to Know,” written by British and Nigerian artist Ola Onabule; “Gratefully Blue,” an Eric Bibb composition; “When He Comes,” written by Jones with ex-Hollies member Mikael Rickfors; and an instrumental, “Alvino’s Entourage.” Also included is a bonus track, “Big Blue Diamonds,” a duet between Jones and Percy Sledge culled from Sledge’s 2004 Shining Through the Rain album.
According to Jones, “Not that I knew it but I guess the reason I hadn't cut an album in so long was that I needed to record the right one. And this sure feels like the right one if I do say so myself! When producer Carla Olson approached me about recording we agreed that material was number one. I really wasn't writing a lot so we had to choose with care. After sending songs to each other it was apparent quite early that we were on the same page. We both wanted a variety of styles and tempos but it needed to sound unified as well. Rock, pop, blues. Electric, acoustic. Bare bones, band with horns and backup vocals. It's all there.”
Added CCM label head Gordon Anderson, “This project is the exception that proves the rule when it comes to our label putting out contemporary recordings. The quality of this album, and the personnel on it, basically made the decision to go ahead with our first-ever ‘new’ album an easy one.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2009
PETULA CLARK CD AND DVD COMING FROM COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC
CD, Petula Clark: Open Your Heart – The Love Song Collection, contains 21 tracks, many unreleased, while DVD, Portrait of Petula Clark, documents 1969 TV special.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — International vocal superstar Petula Clark — best known for hits like “Downtown,” “I Know A Place,” “Color My World,” “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” and “My Song” — will soon have both a CD and DVD on Collectors’ Choice Music.
The CD, titled Petula Clark: Open Your Mind — The Love Song Collection and due out February 3, contains 21 love songs, many of them previously unreleased and spanning the period between 1972 to present. The DVD, Portrait of Petula Clark, dropping March 10, is taken from a 1969 multi-city shoot originally seen as a British TV special.
Petula Clark: Open Your Mind — The Love Song Collection ships just ahead of Valentine’s Day and contains originals by Clark, songs written by longtime producer Tony Hatch and several covers, all culled from a variety of labels, among them MGM, Universal and Scotti Brothers. Included are Hatch compositions “Walking on Air,” “Open Your Heart” and “Serenade of Love,” plus Clark’s “Super Loving Lady,” an alternate take of “It’s OK (I Believe in You)” from Then & Now: The Very Best of Petula Clark and the newly recorded, never-before-released “In the City.” Cover highlights include Leon Russell’s “Song for You,” Queen’s “These Are the Days of Our Lives,” Paul Stookey’s “The Wedding Song” and Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
In her foreword for the package, Clark writes: “Love songs — where would we be without them? Breezy love songs, nice 'n' easy love songs, sad love songs, even silly love songs. Now and then, one comes along and seems to change the meaning of it all. Singers love to sing them. I've recorded quite a few — even written some of my own at different stages of my life. So, I hope that here you will find a love song for your own special keeping.”
Portrait of Petula Clark, the DVD, is taken from a 1969 TV special filmed in Paris, London, Geneva and Los Angeles. It’s immediately evident from the color-drenched sets and the joie de vivre expressed in every note that this could have only come from that time and place. Clark offers charming interpretations of “This Girl’s in Love With You,” “My Funny Valentine,” “When I was a Child,” “Mademoiselle de Paris” and the ballad “You & I” from her motion picture Goodbye Mr. Chips. Crooner Andy Williams duets with Petula on “Visions of Sugar Plums” and the playful “You Can’t Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd” (written by Roger Miller). Williams also sings “Happy Heart,” a hit for both himself and Clark. And in keeping with the international flavor, French vocalist Sacha Fistel performs “Love Is Blue” and joins Clark and Williams for “The Poor People of Paris.” Then it’s back to London for an appearance by British actor Ron Moody and his character Fagin from the film Oliver.
Special bonus material on the DVD includes Petula singing ”Walk Through the World with Me” and “Without a Song,” plus new interviews with Petula and Andy Williams. Called “enchanting” by the Hollywood Reporter, the DVD contains 65 minutes and features 16 songs.
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2008
BOB WILLS & HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS’ TIFFANY TRANSCRIPTIONS 10-DISC, 150-SONG COLLECTION IS COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC’S FIRST-EVER BOX SET, DUE OUT ON JANUARY 27, 2O09
Western swing king’s rare 1940s San Francisco radio transcriptions are remastered with revelatory new sound. Set features liner notes by Rich Kienzle with testimonials from swing disciples Ray Benson, Ranger Doug and Big Sandy’s Fly-Rite Boys.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys were the originators and best-known practitioners of Western swing, their repertoire including classics like “New San Antonio Rose,” “Faded Love” and “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” In 1945, Wills teamed up with Oakland, Calif. disc jockey Cliff “Cactus Jack” Johnson and businessman Clifford Sundlin to launch Tiffany Music, Inc. The company’s goal was to supply syndicated radio programs to subscribing stations. Wills and the Playboys were the featured performers.
These programs, known as the Tiffany Transcriptions, have been assembled into a 10-disc, 150-song box set — the first-ever box set from venerable reissue label Collectors’ Choice Music. The collection, due for a January 27, 2008 street date, is fully and lovingly remastered by Bob Fisher (who has been waiting years for a crack at ‘em) and features liner notes by Wills expert Rich Kienzle, who writes: “For all the great records Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys made in 1946-47 for Columbia and MGM — and there were plenty — the Tiffany sessions captured something deeper, intangible and vibrant, music that even the occasional miscue or missed note can’t diminish. It represents the very soul, spirit and musical passion of Bob and the band as they really were on those Western and Southwestern bandstands. Sixty years later, it still sounds like yesterday.”
The package also features written testimonials from the next generation of Western swing stars. “To be honest,” writes Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, “without the Tiffany Transcriptions, Asleep at the Wheel would not have had the materials needed to become proficient Western swingers . . . which I hope we are.” Riders in the Sky’s Ranger Doug adds, “I am honored, I am blessed, I am grateful, and I am a fan of the Texas Playboys forever.”
Over the course of the 1946-47 Tiffany Transcription sessions, Wills and the Playboys recorded sores of tunes — not just their hits and their bandstand repertoire. They utilized the sessions as an opportunity to work out new tunes, revisit older Playboys recordings, and, in true Western swing fashion, cover songs by other country & Western acts along with pop, big band classics, fiddle tunes, blues and instrumentals created on the spot. Not bound by the space restriction of 78 rpm singles, the programs were furnished to subscribing radio stations on 26 16-inch vinyl discs, encouraging the band to stretch out and jam. When you had a band that included such stars as singer Tommy Duncan, steel guitarists (not pedal!) Noel Boggs, Ray Honeycutt and Herb Remington, guitarists Eldon Shamblin and Lester “Junior” Bernard, and fiddler/mandolinist Tiny Moore among others, space was an asset — and the jazz-like room for improvisation distinguishes the Tiffany Transcriptions from Wills’ studio recordings. The band often recorded the sessions directly following tours, which is why they were always in top form.
The Tiffany sessions were broadcast over a network of radio stations that spanned Wills country (Oklahoma and Texas) to Oakland (home of Tiffany), plus Houston, Texarkana, Austin and even the Pacific Northwest and Santa Monica. Tiffany partner Cliff Sundlin retained ownership of the material until he died in 1981. El Cerrito-based Kaleidoscope Records later purchased the materials from Sundlin’s estate, issuing selected tracks on a series of LPs, later reissued on long out-of-print CDs. The Collectors’ Choice collection reissues the original Kaleidoscope albums intact.
The Tiffany tracks have proven influential in the later development of country music, informing the sound of Merle Haggard’s classic 1970 Wills homage A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World, and inspiring a new generation of Western swing revivalists including Asleep at the Wheel, the Hot Club of Cowtown, the Saddle Cats and Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys. They’re also quite possibly the hottest country music ever recorded.
“Play it loud and listen,” Kienzle writes in the notes. “The magic is still there.”# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2008
TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS’ 40 YEARS: THE COMPLETE SINGLES COLLECTION (1966-2006) TWO-CD SET ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC PRESENTS FOUR DECADES OF HITS AND RARITIES
From “Hanky Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now” to “Mirage” and “Mony Mony” to “Crimson and Clover” and “Draggin’ the Line”— all with original single mixes — the volume unfolds like a greatest hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and traces James’ later solo career. Includes extensive liner notes and photos.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – If you were a rock ’n’ roll fan in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, you well remember Tommy James & the Shondells having hit after hit on the charts. 40 Years: The Complete Singles Collection (1966-2006) – a two-CD, 48-song set to be to be released on November 25 by the Collectors’ Choice Music and Aura labels – is a career retrospective of both the band and James’ solo career. And, as they say on the campaign commercials, Tommy James has approved this collection, so fans can rest assured there’s no “hanky panky” going on.
40 Years contains the A-side of every single James released (with or without the Shondells) on six different labels from 1966 to 2006 (plus an ultra-rare 1962 bonus track) with in-depth liner notes penned by Ed Osborne and Tommy James' biographer, Martin Fitzpatrick, and photos from Tommy's personal archive. As with did the recent Collectors’ Choice Jan & Dean Compete Liberty Singles release, 40 Years contains the original single mixes, not the remixed versions heard on previous collections. Fifteen Shondells' tracks and five of Tommy's solo singles are in their original mono mixes, almost all of which are making their CD debut.
The album leads off with the original slower version of “Hanky Panky” which appeared on the Snap label in 1966, followed by the classic Roulette singles: “Say I Am (What I Am),” “It’s Only Love,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mirage” (with an extra vocal overdub not heard on the stereo version), “I Like the Way,” “Gettin’ Together,” “Out of the Blue,” “Get Out Now,” “Mony Mony” (original single mix and edit), “Somebody Cares” (with single-only overdubs), “Do Something to Me” (from the original sped-up single master), “Crimson & Clover” (single edit), “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” "Ball of Fire,” “She,” “Gotta Get Back to You” (single version, not the one heard on the Rhino volume Anthology) and “Come to Me” (shorter single version). And those are only the Tommy James & the Shondells sides — the album contains James’ solo works, too.
Tommy's solo career began in 1970 with the single “Ball and Chain” from the Tommy James album. 1971’s “Draggin’ the Line” (since covered by R.E.M.) was his first solo smash, and the version heard on 40 Years features the original single mix version. The singles "Adrienne," "I'm Comin' Home," and "Nothing To Hide" also appear here in their unique single mixes, while the version of "Calico" is the one that charted (not the jazzier version found on Anthology).
The collection contains all of Tommy's post-Roulette singles, including "I Love You Love Me Love" (with the Tower of Power horns), his version of "Tighter, Tighter" (which he'd produced for Alive And Kicking in 1970), "Love Will Find A Way" (featuring the Doobies' Michael McDonald and The Eagles' Timothy B. Schmidt), and his chart-topping Adult Contemporary single from 1980, "Three Times in Love."
James eventually started his own Aura label and scored three more chart sides when "Isn't That The Guy," "Love Words," and "Hold The Fire" all went Top 5 on FMQB's AC chart and "Love Words" hit #1: 40 years after "Hanky Panky" topped the Hot 100.
Also featured on the collection is a rare pre-Shondells bonus track: Tom & the Tornadoes’ 1962 single “Long Pony Tail.” It was James’ first record.
The liner notes retrace some of the band’s many anecdotes. “Hanky Panky” was a crowd-rousing song 17-year-old James had heard a local bar band play and, sensing a hit, recorded it with all made-up lyrics at a Niles, Michigan radio station. It was released on the Snap label and that was that — until a Pittsburgh radio promoter called him to inform him that it was a radio smash with 80,000 bootlegged copies sold. It was then that he recruited a Pittsburgh band called the Raconteurs to be his own. Tommy left the Raconteurs brand for the White Stripes’ Jack White to commandeer 42 years later when they took on the Shondells name instead.
The anecdotes continue through the story behind the “Mony Mony” title (James looked out and saw a sign for Mutual of New York Insurance) and how the Shondells became presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey’s official campaign band (HHH would later write the liner notes for the multi-platinum Crimson & Clover album.)
James says, “I’d really like to thank the Good Lord and the fans. It’s been an incredible ride.”
And the ride’s not over. Tommy and the original surviving Shondells — Mike Vale, Eddie Gray, and Ron Rosman — are back in the studio making new music. But that’s for another volume.# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2008
JOBRIATH WAS THE “NEXT BIG THING” WHO NEVER WAS, BUT HIS TWO ELEKTRA ALBUMS — REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE — DEMONSTRATE TALENT, HUMOR AND ORIGINALITY
The first openly gay glam-rock star left two curious albums, Jobriath and Creatures of the Street, in his wake. Yet he died forgotten in 1983.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — By 1973, the rock world had shed its hippie past in favor of a more theatrical universe of glam and glitter. David Bowie had given the world Ziggy Stardust, and Lou Reed had pushed the envelope of pop radio with his hit “Walk on the Wild Side.” Mott the Hoople rose to the top with a glam anthem, “All the Young Dudes,” and artists varied from T. Rex to the Faces had dressed up their acts. Was the world really primed for an openly gay glam-rock star? Promoter/manager Jerry Brandt seemed to think so, and proceeded to set the stage for the grand arrival of Jobriath. And although the promised grandeur never materialized, Jobriath did record two vastly underrated albums for Elektra Records — Jobriath and Creatures of the Street — both of which will be re-released on Collector’ Choice on September 30.
Jobriath was actually Bruce Campbell, born in Philadelphia in 1946. He cut his onstage teeth as a cast member of the Broadway musical Hair, and was later member of a band called Pidgeon, described in the reissue notes as “an uneasy mix of California pop-rock and heavier psychedelia.” It was only when he submitted a tape to Clive Davis’ CBS Records in the early ‘70s that he got his big break, when promoter Jerry Brandt (best known for operating the Electric Circus and managing Carly Simon) happened to overhear Jobriath’s music in the label’s A&R corridors. When Brandt inquired as to CBS’ intentions for Jobriath, he was told that “Clive thinks Jobriath is mad and unstructured and musically destructive to melody.” Brandt had a very different take: “The images [the tape] was provoking in my imagination were enormous. I kept seeing a vast spectacle.”
Brandt contacted all the record labels asking a cool million for the rights to sign his incipient star. When he asked producer Richard Perry to work his magic, Brandt was told that “if Jobriath is where music is going, I want out.” In the end there were no takers, so Jobriath went into the studio with engineer/producer Eddie Kramer (known for the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie) and emerged with a completed album. Brandt took it to Elektra, where Jac Holzman signed Jobriath as his final act prior to departing the label he founded. It was not a million-dollar deal by any means, but rather a favor to Brandt for having brought Carly Simon to the label. And Holzman latter confessed, quoted in the Richie Unterberger’s liner notes: “I made two errors of judgment in my days at Elektra, and Jobriath was one of them.”
Yet Stephen Holden had a vastly different take in his Rolling Stone review, finding Jobriath’s self titled debut album “a flashy an provocative debut album. Jobriath brings to rock a voice uncannily reminiscent of Mick Jagger’s and a theatrical intuitiveness and thematic sensibility that are superficially similar to avid Bowie’s. Like Bowie, Jobriath is fascinated with extraterrestrial fantasies that combine autoeroticism and prophecy, though Jobriath’s musical and poetic vernacular are blunter, deliberately eschewing intellectual sophistication for a bold populist stance.”
The album had failed to establish Jobriath as the next Beatles nor even Bowie. In fact it missed the charts entirely, yet Elektra did release a follow-up, Creatures of the Street. Global stardom would greet Jobriath’s second album, proclaimed Brandt, who in the Rolling Stone feature headlined “Jobriath: Gay Rock Breaks All the Rules,” said, “Presenting Jobriath in the way he must be presented means you have to break all the rules. That requires the greatest promoter in the world. And I’m it.” Brandt planned for the first live performance to take place at the Paris Opera House, since, according to the promoter, “if you’re planning to come to New York, Paris is the best place to come from.” There was also talk of a $200,000 set. The Paris shows were cancelled due to the cost, and the New York dates were modest, attended primarily by members of the music industry.
The second album itself, however, was rich in melodic Broadway-tinged pop songs like “Heartbeat,” “Street Corner Love,” “Ooh La La” and “Scumbag.” Sadly, the press shied away from the better of Jobriath’s two albums, stung by all the unfulfilled hype. By the time Jobriath toured small clubs in major U.S. cities, he’d been dropped by Elektra. He lived the rest of his life in obscurity, dying of AIDS at New York’s Chelsea Hotel in 1983. So unnoticed was his passing that Morrissey tried to contact him in 1992 to see about opening for his tour.
Now, Collectors’ Choice is preparing to present the Jobriath albums with no hype nor proclamations of next-Bowie-dom. Perhaps in death, 35 years after the albums’ initial release, Jobriath will develop the fan base he never achieved in life.# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2008
TOM VERLAINE’S WARNER BROS. ALBUMS DREAMTIME AND WORDS FROM THE FRONT REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE SEPTEMBER 16
Solo albums from 1981-82 followed the dissolution of critically acclaimed band Television
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Television was the anomaly among the New York bands who broke out of the CBGB scene of the late ‘70s. Musically adventurous and expansive in contrast to its minimalist scene mates, the band was two propelled by two inventive guitarists: Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. Of the two, Verlaine kept the torch lit with a series of nine post-Television solo albums. His second and third long-players — 1981’s Dreamtime and Words From The Front from 1982, both originally released on Warner Bros. Records — are thought to be two of his strongest. The two albums will be reissued on September 16, 2008 by Collectors’ Choice Music, with liner notes by Jason Gross, editor of Perfect Sound Forever.
Debate rages among Verlaine fans about which is his best solo album but a significant camp opts for Dreamtime, his 1981 sophomore release, with its dense, ringing instrumental interplay. Highlight tracks include “There’s a Reason,” “Penetration” and “Always.” The all-star band featured Verlaine on guitars and vocals; Fred Smith (Television), bass; Bruce Brody (Patti Smith Group, Pretenders), keyboards; Jay Dee Daughtery (Patti Smith Group, The Church), drums; Rich Teeter (The Dictators, Twisted Sister), drums; Ritchie Flieger, guitar; and Donnie Nossov (John Waite, Pat Benatar, Lita Ford), bass. In the liner notes’ oral history by the band members, bassist Smith recalls, “Recording with Tom was much the same as recording with Television. The only difference was for Television’s Marquee Moon, we played that stuff for years live. [On this album] there was stuff that developed in the studio.” Daughtery added, “There’s an improvisation and intensity to his music with dynamics and tension that builds and subsides.” And Nossov summed it up: “I thought artistically, it was a very successful record. I’m sorry that more people didn’t get to hear it. But maybe that will change.”
For his follow-up to Dreamtime, Verlaine decided to challenge himself, and instead of falling back on familiar producers and band members, wiped the boards clean by enlisting all new personnel. As annotator Gross states, “It wasn’t just a far cry from Television but even from his previous record. As such, Words From the Front has the distinction of being Verlaine’s most underappreciated album, which makes this reissue a great excuse to re-evaluate it.” Musicians included Jimmy Rip, guitar (who had never previously heard Verlaine’s work, but with whom he’s now played for 25 years); plus Mink DeVille members Joe Vasta, bass; and drummer Tommy Price. Highlights are “Present Arrives,” “Postcard from Waterloo,” “Coming Apart” and “Days.” The album does contain one Dreamtime out-take, “Clear It Away” (which featured Verlaine’s former rhythm section, Jay Dee Daughtery and Fred Smith), noted for what Gross describes as its “dark atmosphere, ghostly guitars . . . and voice [that] trails off wildly.” The liner notes conclude: “Sad to say, the pop world wasn’t ready for an ambitious record like this, not while it was in the throes of MTV, Thriller, Survivor, Men at Work and Human League . . . Restless spirit that he is, Verlaine just kept going his own way regardless as he always has — a model of single mindedness and an amazingly idiosyncratic combo of singer/songwriter and guitar that’s not often seen.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2008
Summer’s here...
JAN & DEAN: THE COMPLETE LIBERTY SINGLES CHRONICLES HISTORY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL POP AND SURF DUO IN GLORIOUS MONO ON TWO CDs
42-song set on Collectors’ Choice includes such hits as “Surf City,” “Little Old Lady From Pasadena,” “Dead Man’s Curve,” “Drag City,” “Ride the Wild Surf,” “Batman” and “Popsicle,” plus Jan Berry solo singles and extensive liner notes and photos
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Jan & Dean rode the surf wave to the top of the charts in the early to mid-‘60s, and even introduced the sub-genre of hot-rod rock. Yet their Liberty singles have never been comprehensively compiled into one CD package — until now. On August 26, Collectors’ Choice Music will release Jan & Dean: The Complete Liberty Singles in original mono (instead of the after-the-fact stereo that has dominated reissues of the band’s work). The collection contains 42 songs including all the hits and some rarities (plus Jan Berry’s solo singles and an unreleased B-side).
Liner notes were written by Jan & Dean authorities Ed Osborne (who also produced the reissue) and David Beard, and include input from those who were on the scene, such as engineer/producer Bones Howe, Jan Berry friend and co-writer Don Altfeld, and Dean Torrence himself. The package contains vintage album cover art and photos.
The set includes “Surf City” (#1), “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” (#3), “Dead Man’s Curve” (#8), “Drag City” (#10),“Ride the Wild Surf” (#16), “Popsicle” (#21), “Sidewalk Surfing” (#25), “Linda” (#28), “The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association” (#77), “I Found a Girl” (#30), “You Really Know How To Hurt a Guy” (#27), “Tennessee” (#65),“Batman” (#66), “A Sunday Kind of Love” (#95) and from the T.A.M.I. Show episode they hosted, “(Here They Come) From All Over the World,” among many others.
In preparing this set, Collectors’ Choice went back to the original mono tapes, both A-sides and B-sides. So the songs sound exactly the same as they did when they climbed the charts and blared from the car radio in your Woody (or that of your parents). According to Altfeld in the liner notes, “The mono mixes were the important ones. When mixing, Jan would play it back in a small speaker in the studio. Sometimes we’d jump into his Corvette, drive out to KRLA-AM in Pasadena and hand the DJ a rough mix. Then we’d listen in the car while he played it once or twice. The mono singles were mixed for a person to hear over their car speaker.”
Jan & Dean sang about the stuff that California dreams are made of: surfing, drag racing, skateboarding and the pursuit of girls on the beach. With the assistance of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, the duo unleashed the world’s first #1 surfing anthem, “Surf City,” and captured the essence of the West Coast sound in the early ‘60s.
It all began when Jan Berry and Dean Torrence met at L.A.’s University High School in 1957 (also the alma mater of Rip Chord and Beach Boy Bruce Johnston). An original duo, Jan & Arnie (with Arnie Ginsburg) gave way to Jan & Dean, and in short order connected with producers Lou Adler and Herb Alpert. Following a doo-wop album on Dore Records and a short stint on the Challenge label, they were signed to Liberty, where the doo-wop strains continued until the transitional single “Linda” (whose sheet music depicted Linda Eastman — later McCartney).
Part of the reason the Jan & Dean tracks sounded so good was the enlistment of L.A.’s prime sidemen — Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, Glen Campbell, Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel, Tommy Tedesco, Billy Strange and Leon Russell among others. As Dean explained, “Jan was the first guy to hand-pick what’s referred to as The Wrecking Crew. It was Jan who decided to put them together.”
Jan & Dean’s sound evolved over the years from doo-wop to surf music, while lyrically integrating dark humor (the eerily prophetic “Dead Man’s Curve”) and likely the first-ever song about drag racing, as well as novelty hits like “Batman” or “Little Old Lady From Pasadena.”
In the spring of 1966, with their Liberty contract set to expire and with plans for their own TV show and self-owned label, the future looked bright. Then, on April 12, Jan slammed his Corvette into the rear of a parked truck not far from the infamous Dead Man’s Curve in Beverly Hills. He was barely alive and it took him years to recover. According to Osborne’s notes, Jan brought the same fierce determination to his recovery as he’d previously poured into his music. He recorded some solo albums and singles and performed with Dean to the best of his capabilities. On March 26, 2004, Jan died. Dean has become a Grammy Award-winning graphic designer. Today he spends his leisure time riding the waves and singing the great songs of summer onstage.
Jan & Dean: The Complete Liberty Singles tells the entire story in liner notes, photos, album covers and, most of importantly of all, the music.# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2008
FRANKIE VALLI’S CLASSIC SOLO RECORDINGS REISSUED ON FOUR TWOFER CDs BY COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Eight albums on four CDs feature such hits as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “My Eyes Adored You” and “Grease”; guests and songwriters include The 4 Seasons, Bob Gaudio, Sandy Linzer, Bob Crewe, Patti Austin, Jim Keltner and the London Symphony Orchestra
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Having reissued a goodly portion of The 4 Seasons’ album catalog, it made perfect sense for Collectors’ Choice Music to go back and sweep through lead singer Frankie Valli’s solo albums. Four twofer CDs containing eight complete albums, due out June 24, 2008, represent almost every solo Valli recording, culled from such labels as Philips, Private Stock and Warner/Curb and MCA/Curb. The twofer packages include detailed liner notes by prolific annotator James Ritz.
The lead singer of the 4 Seasons was often billed as “the sound of Frankie Valli” on the group’s recordings, owing to his four-octave range and falsetto that was clear and commanding. Only a few pop singers had perfected falsetto — Frankie Lymon comes to mind — but only the 4 Seasons pushed it to the forefront of the mix. Frankie was born Francis Castellucio in Newark, N.J. in 1934, and fittingly, his first and strongest influence was fellow Jersey-ite Frank Sinatra. His group, originally called the Four Lovers and later the 4 Seasons, charted two consecutive No. 1 hits right out of the box — “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” in 1962 — and went on to chart 15 singles over the next two years, which included six Top 10s and two No. 1s. Some four years later, Valli recorded his first solo album, appropriately titled Solo and featuring the hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” And the rest is history.
Let’s take a look at the eight albums on four twofer CDs:
• Solo / Timeless: If there was any thought that Frankie Valli’s decision to pursue a solo career was met with animosity from the rest of the 4 Seasons, the cover photo of the 1967 Philips Records album Solo was meant to dispel the notion, with Valli standing on a silver platter held upward by the group. It would launch a 40-year-plus solo career. The 4 Seasons were on hand, but Valli was clearly up front, sans group harmonies. The album went to No. 34 abetted by the smash hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” Bob Crewe produced with Bob Gaudio arranging. Many of the Solo songs were originally released as Philips and Smash singles including “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore),” which became a No. 16 hit for the Walker Brothers. The 1968 album Timeless boasted more cohesion as an album, with arrangements by frequent 4 Seasons collaborator Charles Calello. The single “To Give (The Reason I Live)” cracked the Top 30. The album also contained the Neil Sedaka/Carole Bayer Sager song “Make The Music Play.”
• Close Up / Valli: Valli shifted from Philips to Motown’s pop label, Mowest, where not much happened, and then to Private Stock (otherwise known as the home of Blondie and Robert Gordon) in 1975, where the hits resumed. When he left Motown, Valli brought an unreleased song over from the label that he believed could be a hit. The master cost him a reputed $4,000. The song was “My Eyes Adored You,” which charted No. 1, jump-started Private Stock and re-ignited Valli’s solo career. The surrounding album, 1976’s Close Up, notched No. 51 on the chart and featured contributions from Crewe, Gaudio and Sandy Linzer. The album’s twofer-mate, Valli, recorded in 1976, includes Boz Scaggs’ “We’re All Alone” and “Easily” as well as the song “Lucia,” which featured the London Symphony Orchestra.
• Our Day Will Come / Lady Put The Light Out: Disco had permeated pop music by 1976, and Our Day Will Come featured a big Valli disco hit, the Ruby & the Romantics song “Our Day Will Come,” with guest vocalist Patti Austin; it charted at No. 11. Other key tracks were “How’d I Know That Love Would Slip Away” and “You Can Bet (I Ain’t Going Nowhere),” the latter penned by the album’s co-producer Dave Appell, formerly of Cameo/Parkway Records. Lady Put The Light Out, which followed in 1977, featured contributions by some of the best writers of the era: Paul Anka, Albert Hammond, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Carol Bayer Sager and even the Raspberries’ Eric Carmen. Carmen wrote the album’s lead track, “I Need You,” as well as “Boats Against The Current.” The most notable track may be the title tune, which according to annotator Ritz describes as “dead-on as (Valli) bends and milks every nuance of the lyrics. A highlight on any album.”
• Frankie Valli . . . Is The Word / Heaven About Me: Valli segued from Private Stock to Warner/Curb for 1978’s . . . Is The Word. This followed the singer’s cameo in the movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, where he met one of the greatest latter-day falsetto vocalists, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. Gibb had always thought the two singers would work together one day, and that day came when Gibb was commissioned to write the title song for the film adaptation of the stage hit Grease. Valli’s version of the song became a No. 1 hit, one of the few times the Brothers Gibb didn’t occupy the top slot that year. Gibb also wrote the song “Save Me, Save Me,” reflecting both Grease and Saturday Night Fever. And Jazz Crusaders flutist Hubert Laws came on board with the jazzy and laid-back “A Tear Can Tell.” Heaven Above Me, released on MCA/Curb in 1980, featured the charting song “Where Did We Go Wrong,” a duet with Chris Forde. Crewe and Gaudio co-wrote both that song and one called “Soul.” Valli also waxed French on “Passion for Paris.” It was during this time that Valli went through various operations for ostosclerosis, a rare affliction that nearly cost him his hearing. Fortunately, he recovered and continued a career that has now spanned nearly 50 years and has recently been immortalized with the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys.# #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2008
ARTHUR LEE & LOVE HOPE YOU’LL LIKE THEIR NEW DIRECTION:POST-FOREVER CHANGES BLUE THUMB ALBUMS TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Double-album Out Here and False Start, which featured Jimi Hendrix, may unnerve Love’s folk-rock legions
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — They recorded one of the most influential albums of the late ‘60s in the folk-rocking Forever Changes, an album that took 20 years to be fully appreciated and has been recently reissued in a deluxe edition. But the band Love, fronted by tortured genius Arthur Lee, switched musical gears almost immediately after recording its masterpiece. Lee recruited a whole new Love to record the both band’s final Elektra album, Four Sail, and its 1969 Blue Thumb double-album debut, Out Here. With a change of guitarists and the recruitment of Jimi Hendrix on one track, Love followed with False Start in 1970. The two Blue Thumb albums will be reissued for the first time on CD by Collectors’ Choice Music on June 10, 2008.
The new lineup Lee recruited after Forever Changes included Jay Donnellan, guitar; Frank Fayad, bass; and George Suranovich, who curiously hailed from doo-wop origins, on drums. Donnellan had brought an acoustic guitar to his audition only to be told that Love no longer sounded like that. However, fans of Forever Changes and its predecessors, Love and Da Capo, will discover stray echoes of the classic Love sound amidst Out Here’s 17 tracks, namely “Willow Willow,” “Listen To My Song” and “Gather Round.” Additionally, hard blues-based rock entered the mix on this album, including a heavier version of “Signed D.C.” from Love’s debut. Out Here, recorded in a shabby home studio just beneath Laurel Canyon in Hollywood, included such songs as “Abalony,” “I’ll Pray For You,” “Instra-Mental” and “Car Lights On in the Daytime.” And there’s some reassurance to be had that Lee still had a song title in him like “Love is More Than Words or Better Late Than Never.”
Following only four months after the band’s final Elektra album, Four Sail, was released, Out Here peaked at #176 on Billboard’s album chart. Sales might have improved had the band accepted an offer to play a freestanding show on the East Coast. Lee reportedly told his booking agent, “No, I don’t want to go to New York for one fucking gig!” The gig was Woodstock.
On tour in England to promote Out Here, the band recorded two tracks that would appear on its 1970 follow-up album, False Start. It was in the U.K. also that Lee reconnected with Jimi Hendrix, whom he had met when Hendrix played lead on an obscure single Lee had written (Rosa Lee Brooks’ “My Diary”). Hendrix dropped into the apartment where the band was staying in London and Lee suggested they jam and see what might come of it. The result was “The Everlasting First,” a tune co-written by Lee and Hendrix with Hendrix on guitar, which leads off the album. Overall, False Start is a more cohesive album than Out Here, while still very much eclectic with country-rock (“Keep On Shining”), ‘70s boogie (“Flying”), psychedelic soul (“Stand Out,” “Anytime”) and many points in between.
Recorded at Los Angeles’ Record Plant, False Start featured nearly the same band as Out Here with the exception of Gary Rowles replacing the outspoken Jay Donnellan on guitar. The album received a glowing review in Rolling Stone by Metal Mike Saunders, who wrote: “Arthur Lee is now a good and unaffected singer, having both a soft and screaming voice . . . [his] songs are engaging in their simple structure, this album is engaging as a whole, and I think I could rave on all day saying wonderful things about it.” Despite such praise, the long-player stalled at #184 on Billboard’s album chart. Through a combination of further personnel changes and encroaching substance abuse problems, this was the final Love album with this lineup.
Arthur Lee joined with power-pop band Baby Lemonade to perform Forever Changes in 2003 in a cross-country tour. He died of cancer in 2006.# #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2008
MEL TILLIS’ CLASSIC ELEKTRA YEARS REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Three Elektra albums — Me and Pepper, Your Body Is an Outlaw and Southern Rain — formed some of the most critically and commercial successful work of his career.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Mel Tillis has charted more than 100 hits as a performer and songwriter, starred in half a dozen movies, and became one of the few country artists to figure out the business side of the music business. Some of the biggest hits of his career were created during his tenure at Elektra Records (1979-82). And now, three long-out-of-print Elektra albums — Me and Pepper (1979), Your Body Is an Outlaw (1980) and Southern Rain (1981) — will be made available as remastered CDs on Collectors’ Choice Music on April 29, 2008. Liner notes were written by Grammy Award-winning musicologist Colin Escott.
Tillis was born in Tampa, Fla. during the Great Depression. He began stuttering at age three, but soon discovered he didn’t stutter when he sang. After spending
1951-55 in the Air Force, he headed to Nashville to begin his musical career. Singers, of course, had to talk between songs in live shows, but Tillis’ stuttering soon became part of his act. In 1957, he signed to Columbia and later recorded for MGM.
Two decades later, in 1979, Tillis celebrated a No. 1 country record with “Coca Cola Cowboy” just as his MCA Records contract was coming to a close. He followed longtime producer Jimmy Bowen from MCA to Elektra Records. According to Escott’s liners, Tillis and Bowen “fought, but respected each other. Bowen liked full productions. Mel didn’t. “‘Do me an effin f-f-favor,’” Bowen remembered Mel saying, “‘Don’t put no more new sh** on my records.’” Asked why, Tillis replied, “Cause I’m up to two buses, a truck and a 15-piece orchestra, and it’s breaking me on the road!”
Tillis’ first album was Me and Pepper, Pepper being the name of his horse, pictured on the front cover. The backing band featured James Burton and Glen D. Hardin, respectively Elvis Presley’s guitarist and pianist; plus Sonny Curtis, guitarist from Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets. However, they didn’t rock too hard — this after all was the “countrypolitan” era. Daughter Pam Tillis — herself later a country star —was featured as a backing vocalist. The album spawned two Top 10 hits — “Blind in Love” and the quintessential cheatin’ ballad “Lying Time” — as well as a No. 30 country hit with “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
1980’s Your Body Is an Outlaw produced two hits right out of the box: the title track (written by Billy Star, and a previous hit for Cowboy Copas, Ernest Tubb and Johnny Bond), which reached No. 2, and the Top 10 follow-up “Steppin’ Out.” The album also includes “Whiskey Chasin’,” written by future Kenny Chesney producer Buddy Cannon, plus “Blue Eyes,” written by Hank Williams’ pedal steel player Don Helms with Bill Monroe band member Merle Taylor and initially recorded in 1955 by Ray Price.
The third and final album in Tillis’ Elektra trifecta was the successful Southern Rain, issued in 1981. The long-player’s sound was edgier and less countrypolitan, containing no attempts at pop crossover and no oldies. The album’s title track, written by Roger Murrah, hit No. 1 on the country charts, standing as Tillis’ final chart-topper. The album also featured “Here’s Looking at You,” penned by Sandy Packard, who’d written “Coca Cola Cowboy.”
Before leaving Elektra, Tillis also released a duet album with Nancy Sinatra, which is not part of the Collectors’ Choice retrospective. He then returned to MCA Nashville. Tillis also became a founder of the Branson, Mo. scene, opening his own theater in 1992 and closing it in 2002, while continuing to play the town regularly. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2007 by daughter Pam. He remains a towering figure in the emergence of country music.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2008
RONNIE HAWKINS’ ROULETTE SESSIONS FROM 1959-63 REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Twofer CD combines Mojo Man and Arkansas Rock Pile albums, featuring The Hawks (later The Band): Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Ronnie Hawkins, born in 1935, was the rock ’n’ roll pride of Arkansas in the ‘50s when, at the suggestion of fellow Arkansan Conway Twitty, he moved to Canada, where there was a thriving rockabilly scene. From Hamilton, Ontario, Hawkins successfully toured and recorded in both his adoptive country and his native USA. “There were three guys in those days who would really knock you out,” recalls Sun rockabilly artist Sonny Burgess, “Elvis, Jerry Lee and Ronnie Hawkins.” Two of Hawkins’ classic albums, Mojo Man and Arkansas Rock Pile, both culled from 1959-63 sessions in Nashville and New York, will be reissued on Collectors’ Choice Music on April 29, 2008. Pop historian Gene Sculatti, author of The Catalog of Cool, wrote the liner notes.
Hawkins was equally known for his band, The Hawks, which started back home in Arkansas with drummer Levon Helm but gained its core membership in Canada with Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson. (In later years, The Hawks went on to become Bob Dylan’s band and later The Band.)
The Collectors’ Choice twofer contains two long-out-of-print albums, featuring 23 tracks from the early sessions. While information on the Roulette label is always a bit spotty, the label appears to have released Mojo Man in 1967 in Canada only, and released Arkansas Rock Pile in 1970 in the U.K. only.
Mojo Man culls most of its material from other artists and writers, but Hawkins leaves his own mark on each song. Teaming The Hawks with saxophone legend King Curtis, Hawkins turns “Suzy Q,” originated in 1957 by his cousin Dale Hawkins, into a rave-up. Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox” is re-imagined with an R&B bar-band feel and a scorching Robbie Robertson guitar solo. Other highlights include Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Farther Up The Road” and “What a Party,” a re-titled cover of Muddy Waters’ “She’s 19 Years Old.” Two other covers, Hank Williams’ “Your Cheating Heart” and George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” hail from two different Nashville sessions in 1960 and feature, instead of The Hawks, Floyd Cramer, piano; Harold Bradley, guitar; and Bob Moore, bass.
In Arkansas Rock Pile, Hawkins pays further homage to his fellow originators of rock ’n’ roll. The album contains wild treatments of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” (featuring furious guitar work by Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel’s pumpin’ piano) plus Bo’s eponymous “Bo Diddley”; Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days,” re-cast as “Forty Days”; Billy Lee Riley’s wild rockabilly anthem “My Gal is Red Hot”; and Larry Williams’ “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.” Also included are the mid-tempo blues “Come Love” (with Helm, Danko and Robertson and a chorus likely containing Dionne and DeeDee Warwick) and Hawkins’ own Lieber & Stoller-produced “Arkansas,” which name checks “Mary Lou, Odessa and Runaround Sue.” On “Arkansas,” Helm, Robertson and Manuel are joined by blues harmonica giant Sonny Terry.
Fresh from his Roulette years (1959-67), Hawkins went to Atlantic’s Cotillion label, where he had a hit with “Down in the Alley,” featuring Duane Allman and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He continues to gig, as he puts it, “wherever there are rock ’n’ rollers. That’s what we’ve been doing for more than 40 years. It’s made me everything from an honorary mayor to an honorary member of a motorcycle gang.”# # #
For more information on Collectors’ Choice Music, please contact conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2008
SOUL QUEEN MARGIE JOSEPH’S ATLANTIC ALBUMS REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Albums produced by Arif Mardin, Lamont Dozier and Johnny Bristol receive belated appreciation as soul classics
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Margie Joseph may not have soared to the commercial heights of her Atlantic label-mate Aretha Franklin. But in the ‘70s, she released six albums that bore numerous R&B hits. She also attracted some hit producers — Arif Mardin, Lamont Dozier and Johnny Bristol among them — as well as some of the hottest writers and session musicians around. Mississippi-born Joseph was influenced by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Patsy Cline, along with the gospel music she heard in church.
In the mid-‘60s, Joseph met New Orleans DJ Larry McKinley, who took her to OKeh Records. She began her recording career there with two singles in 1967-68 written by Willie Tee, George Davis and Lee Diamond. She then went to Stax’s Volt label where she recorded two LPs in 1970-71. In 1971, it was off to Atlantic, a label she would call home for the duration of six albums. “One thing Atlantic did is they invested in me,” she says. “I don’t have any bad things to say about Atlantic. Atlantic treated me royally.” Those six albums will be reissued on March 11, 2008 by Collectors’ Choice Music, with comprehensive liner notes by Chicago musicologist Bill Dahl that include quotes from Joseph, McKinley, and Lamont Dozier.
• Margie Joseph. Her 1973 Atlantic debut, the first of three albums produced by Arif Mardin, boasted an eclectic song selection: Joseph’s version of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” (an R&B hit right on the heels of the original), Dolly Parton’s “Touch Your Woman,” Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind,” Bobby Patterson’s “How Do You Spell Love” and “Let’s Go Somewhere,” penned by Kenny O’Dell (who had a hit in 1967 with “Beautiful People”). The band featured Cornell Dupree, Hugh McCracken, Ray Charles’ reedman David “Fathead” Newman, Ralph MacDonald and backup singers Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith and Sylvia Shemwell of the Sweet Inspirations.
• Sweet Surrender. This 1974 set was Joseph’s most commercially successful album for Atlantic, and the only one of her albums to cross over to the pop chart. Arif Mardin was again at the helm, with many of the same session aces from her previous album. Atlantic soul singer Judy Clay (known for her duets with William Bell and Billy Vera) joined the list of backup singers. Twenty-three years old at the time, Joseph tackled Jerry Butler’s “(Strange) I Still Love You,” Billy Joel’s “He’s Got a Way,” Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You Is To Love You,” and surprisingly soulful readings of Bread’s “Baby I’m-A Want You” and Paul McCartney’s “My Love,” which was a #10 R&B hit for Joseph.
• Margie. It didn’t attain the chart ranking of its predecessor but the Arif Mardin-produced Margie may be Joseph’s most artistically successful record. Joining many of her session stalwarts were Steve Gadd, Motown musician Bob Babbitt and guitarist Hamish Stuart from the Average White Band, who played on Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart’s “Words (Are Impossible).” Other songs here include two by Carole King (“Believe in Humanity” and “After All This Time”) as well as Bill Withers’ “The Same Love That Made Me Laugh,” Alabama soul singer Sam Dees’ “Just As Soon As the Feeling’s Over,” and Robert John’s “I Can’t Move No Mountains,” which Joseph says “took me to another level vocally.”
• Hear the Words, Fight the Feeling. After a banner three-album run with Arif Mardin, Joseph connected with another world-class producer, ex-Motown wizard Lamont Dozier of the famous Holland-Dozier-Holland team. According to Joseph in Bill Dahl’s notes, “He made me sing. He was a taskmaster.” The album, which has a rawer and darker sound than its predecessors, also marked Joseph’s move to Atlantic’s Cotillion subsidiary (also the home of the Woodstock soundtrack). Backing musicians remained first-rate, this time including Ray Parker Jr. and Lee Ritenour. Songs included “Didn’t I Tell You” and “Why’d You Lie,” both examining the bleaker side of romance, plus several other Dozier songs: the title track “Hear the Words, Feel the Feeling” (which made it to #8 on the R&B charts), “Don’t Turn the Lights Off” (#46 on the charts), “Prophecy,” “Feeling My Way” and “I Get Carried Away.”
• Feeling My Way. Joseph worked with another great former Motown figure on her 1978 return to Atlantic proper — Johnny Bristol — who was himself an Atlantic artist and L.A. session musician. The album contains 10 Bristol originals including the hit “Love Talking ‘Bout Baby,” plus “I Feel His Love Getting Stronger,” “You Turned Me on to Love” and “Discover Me (and You Will Discover Love).” The session players hailed from worlds as diverse as Motown, jazz and L.A’s Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, including guitarists Al McKay and Lee Ritenour, bassist James Jamerson Jr. (the son of the Motown legend), drummer James Gadson, and saxist Ernie Watts. Joseph, however, took a break from music in 1980, so this was the end of an incredible Atlantic run.
• Ready for the Night. After six years away from Atlantic, with one indie hit in the interim (1982’s “Knockout” for the H.C.R.C. label), she returned to Atlantic’s resurrected Cotillion label in 1984 with this album guided by Narada Michael Walden (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra and former Atlantic solo artist). Walden in turn tapped a trio of hot young producers to do the hands-on work including Preston Glass and Randy Jackson (yes, the Randy Jackson of “American Idol” fame and now a Concord artist). The album, for which Walden, Glass and Jackson wrote nearly every song, positioned Joseph as a dance diva. The title track was a hit in the spring of 1984.
A postscript: After a 1988 album on British soul journalist John Abbey’s Ichiban label, Joseph retired from recording and began work with nonprofit organizations. Sadly, her home in Gautier, Miss. was one of the many casualties of Hurricane Katrina. Now relocated to Atlanta, she has returned to recording, this time as a gospel artist. Content to remain low key otherwise, she told Dahl that “the whole entire (music) business looks like it’s losing its foothold to me, so I won’t allow my heart to go into it again.” Dahl concludes: “A voice as remarkable as hers is too precious a gift to lay dorman
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