Mary Hopkin - BBC Sessions, Volume 2 (1971-1977)

Here's the second and last album of Mary Hopkin at the BBC. 

As I've explained in previous posts about her, Hopkin was a big star from about 1968 to 1971. She seemingly started to lose interest in having a prominent music career around 1971, and stopped performing concerts in 1972. After that, her appearances on TV or radio slowly petered out. This album reflects that. The first ten songs are from 1971, the next three are from 1972, and the rest are from 1974 and 1977.

Everything here is unofficially unreleased. But it all sounds very good, because it was all on the BBC in one way or another, although some are from BBC TV shows. (Specifically, tracks 8 to 10 are from a Lulu TV show, and tracks 14 and 15 are from a Cilla Black TV show.) The last two are songs from when Hopkin joined folk guitarist Bert Jansch in a concert in 1977. Those were broadcast on BBC radio later, so they sound as good as the rest.

The remainder are from BBC studio sessions. There was some BBC DJ talking over the music, even though that had mostly gone out of style by 1971. That's the case for tracks 1, 2, and 4. As usual, I used the audio editing program X-Minus to wipe the talking while keeping the underlying music.

The three songs from the Lulu TV show, tracks 8 to 10, also have "[Edit]" in their names, but it's not for the usual reason mentioned above. Instead, I felt the vocals were way too quiet compared to the backing music, so I used X-Minus to boost the vocals. They sound a lot better now, although the sound on them is still a bit worse than the rest.

This album is rather long, at 56 minutes. A few more songs and I would have split this into three short albums, but instead I had to settle for two long albums.

01 Jefferson [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
02 Earth Song [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
03 Ocean Song (Mary Hopkin)
04 Silver Birch and Weeping Willow [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
05 Streets of London (Mary Hopkin)
06 There's Got to Be More (Mary Hopkin)
07 Water, Paper and Clay (Mary Hopkin)
08 Let My Name Be Sorrow [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
09 Prelude [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
10 Snowbird [Edit] (Mary Hopkin & Lulu)
11 What a Friend You Are (Mary Hopkin)
12 Aderyn Pur (Mary Hopkin)
13 Sparrow (Mary Hopkin)
14 Shamarack (Mary Hopkin)
15 Both Sides Now (Mary Hopkin & Cilla Black)
16 Once I Had a Sweetheart (Mary Hopkin)
17 With You or Without You (Mary Hopkin)
18 Ask Your Daddy (Mary Hopkin & Bert Jansch)
19 If I Had a Lover (Mary Hopkin & Bert Jansch)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15292228/MaryHop_1971-1977_BBSessionsVolum2_atse.zip.html

There aren't many good photos of Hopkin from 1971 or after, so I've used one that apparently is from a 1970 TV show. I don't know the details.

Mary Hopkin - BBC Sessions, Volume 1 (1968-1970)

The BBC sessions keep on coming! This time, it's Mary Hopkin's turn. This is the first of two volumes.

British singer Mary Hopkin came out of nowhere in 1968 to have the worldwide smash hit "Those Were the Days." For the next three years or so, she was a big pop star, before basically retiring from the spotlight. She didn't put out much music during that time frame, releasing only two studio albums and a few singles. But it turns out she did a lot of songs for the BBC that she never put on record, and everything here remains officially unreleased.

All but one song here was recorded for the BBC. The one exception is "Love Is the Sweetest Thing," which was done for the Ed Sullivan TV show. Most of the BBC songs were done in typical BBC sessions. 

However, the last six songs are different. Hopkin was such a big star that she was the host of a BBC TV series that lasted for six half-hour episodes. Each episode had a slightly different title, which showed the theme for that show. For instance, there are songs here from the shows "In the Land of... Films," "In the Land of... Legend," and "In the Land of... Theatre." So, for instance, in the "Films" episode she sang famous songs from movies, and in the "Theatre" episode she sang famous songs from musicals. The show was mainly aimed at children, and the other episodes were "Books," "Nursery Rhymes," and "Pantomime."

She sang about six songs per episode, and virtually all the songs done for this show were never done by Hopkin on record or even in concert. Unfortunately, it seems the vast majority of such performances have been lost. At least I was able to find and include six of them.

I didn't include any of the songs from that TV show in the stray tracks albums I made. Most of the rest of the songs are performances of her hits and album tracks and such. But some others are also exclusive here: "Can I Believe," 'You're Everything You Need," "All My Trials," and "Three Ships."

Six of the songs suffered from the usual BBC problem around this time of the DJs talking over the music (the ones with "[Edit]" in their titles). I did the usual thing of using the X-Minus audio editing program to wipe the talking while keeping the underlying music.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 The House of the Rising Sun [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
02 Those Were the Days (Mary Hopkin)
03 Morning of My Life [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
04 Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
05 Goodbye [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
06 Plaisir d'Amour [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
07 Love Is the Sweetest Thing (Mary Hopkin)
08 All My Trials (Mary Hopkin)
09 Three Ships (Mary Hopkin)
11 I'm Going to Fall in Love Again (Mary Hopkin)
12 You're Everything You Need (Mary Hopkin)
13 Can I Believe (Mary Hopkin)
14 Knock, Knock Who's There [Edit] (Mary Hopkin)
15 Allentown Jail (Mary Hopkin)
16 Over the Rainbow (Mary Hopkin)
17 Guinevere (Mary Hopkin)
18 Edelweiss (Mary Hopkin)
19 Wouldn't It Be Loverly (Mary Hopkin)
20 Try to Remember (Mary Hopkin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15292222/MaryHop_1968-1970_BBSessionsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows Hopkin performing in Britain in 1968. I don't know any other details.

Mary Hopkin - Wrap Me in Your Arms - Non-Album Tracks (1974-1988)

In my opinion, Mary Hopkin put out two solid albums, "Postcard" in 1969 and "Earth Song, Ocean Song" in 1971. But other than those, her recorded output has been hit or miss. So I've made four stray tracks albums of all her good songs other than the ones on those two albums. Here's the fourth and last one.

As I explained with previous posts, Hopkin became a big star when she was only 18 years old, with "Those Were the Days" being one of the biggest hits in the world in 1968. She apparently didn't like the pop star lifestyle, and pretty much quit around 1972, ceasing to perform concerts or appear much on TV or radio after that. She didn't realize any new albums all the way until 1989, and such new albums have been very low key affairs, generally home recordings done with little to no promotion. 

She did continue to record music off and on after her time as a star, though it seems to have been more like a hobby than a career. She did put out the occasional single, though none of them made the charts (there was that lack of promotion thing again). This collects what I consider her best songs from 1974 to 1988. In my opinion, this isn't as good as the music she did earlier, but there are some gems here and there, and most of this will be new to the ears of all but the most die-hard of her fans.

All the songs here are officially released. Eight of the 13 are A- and B-sides. Another three are from archival albums. The second to last song, "Rachel's Song," was a collaboration with Vangelis that made it onto the "Blade Runner" soundtrack in 1982.

If you're interested in her music after 1988, pretty much everything of note is on her new studio albums, so I don't see the need for more of these stray tracks collections. However, now that I've finished posting these, I plan on posting a couple of BBC sessions albums of songs she did during her pop star years.

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 Shamarack (Mary Hopkin)
02 Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth (Mary Hopkin)
03 If You Love Me (Mary Hopkin)
04 Tell Me Now (Mary Hopkin)
05 Beyond the Fields We Know (Mary Hopkin with the Elfland Ensemble)
06 Lirazel (Mary Hopkin with the Elfland Ensemble)
07 Another Day (Mary Hopkin)
08 Wrap Me in Your Arms (Mary Hopkin)
09 Just a Dreamer (Mary Hopkin)
10 What's Love (Mary Hopkin & Sundance)
11 A Song (Mary Hopkin & Sundance)
12 Rachel's Song (Mary Hopkin & Vangelis)
13 For No One - Here, There and Everywhere (R.A.M. Pietsch with Mary Hopkin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15121829/MaryHop_1974-1988_WrapMeinYurArms_atse.zip.html

There are very few photos of Hopkin after about 1972, since she's kept such a low profile. This cover photo is a screenshot I took from a TV appearance she made in 1978.

Mary Hopkin - All the Diamonds - Non-Album Tracks (1972-1973)

Here's another stray tracks album from British singer Mary Hopkin.

Hopkin had a lot of commercial success from 1968 to 1971. Then she pretty much dropped off the radar. She married music producer Tony Visconti in 1971, and soon stopped releasing any new music or performing concerts. Instead, she focused on starting a family. Only the first four songs here were officially released at the time, as the A- and B-sides to singles in 1972. Both singles stiffed in Britain and the US, although "Summertime Summertime" was a number five hit in the Netherlands. (Weirdly, it was released under the band name "Hobby Horse," but I've labeled it with Hopkin's name to keep things simple.)

If that's the case, how on Earth do I have enough material for this album? It turns out that even though she didn't release most of it at the time, she continued to do a fair amount of recording. These songs have come out on a series of archival releases that Hopkin has put out herself, decades later. The notes on these albums don't say much, but I used clues like copyright dates and lists of the musicians on the songs to figure out what years they were recorded. I may be slightly off on some of them, but I think I'm in the right ballpark.

In 1972 and 1973, Jim Croce went from being an unknown to becoming a big star, only to die in a plane crash in 1973. Hopkin must have been a big fan, because she did no less than four covers of his songs here: "A Long Time Ago," "One Less Set of Footsteps," "and "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song." She also did songs by songwriters Bruce Cockburn ("All the Diamonds") and Emitt Rhodes ("Only Lovers Decide" and "Trust Once More").

In my opinion, Hopkin was recording a lot of good music. I suspect the main reason more of this wasn't released was that she was hit with a huge amount of fame at a young age, having possibly the biggest hit of the year in 1968 when she was only 18 years old, and she decided she didn't really want to be famous. So she mostly made music just for her own enjoyment in private.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Summertime Summertime (Mary Hopkin)
02 Sweet and Low (Mary Hopkin)
03 Mary Had a Baby (Mary Hopkin)
04 Cherry Free Carol (Mary Hopkin)
05 For All My Days (Mary Hopkin)
06 A Long Time Ago (Mary Hopkin)
07 What a Friend You Are (Mary Hopkin)
08 Life Begins Again (Mary Hopkin)
09 One Less Set of Footsteps (Mary Hopkin)
10 Only Lovers Decide (Mary Hopkin)
11 All the Diamonds (Mary Hopkin)
12 Next Time, This Time (Mary Hopkin)
13 Trust Once More (Mary Hopkin)
14 I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song (Mary Hopkin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15121788/MaryHop_1972-1973_AlltheDimonds_atse.zip.html

I looked for good photos of Hopkin from 1972 or 1973, but there weren't any. She still did some concerts in 1972, in fact there's a good official live album of her from that year ("Live at the Royal Festival Hall 1972," which I highly recommend if you're a fan), but I guess I was unlucky. So I used a photo that from slightly earlier, though I don't know the exact year.

Mary Hopkin - No Love Is Sorrow - Non-Album Tracks (1970-1971)

This is the second in a series of four stray tracks albums for Mary Hopkin. I have many albums to post from many musicians. But I'm prioritizing this so I can then get to posting a couple of BBC albums from her.

Hopkin's time of commercial success was short. Her fortunes fell during the time period of this album. The first song, "Knock, Knock, Who's There," was a big hit, thanks to being chosen as the British entry in the 1970 Eurovision contest. It came in second in that contest, and reached number two on the British charts. But she hated the song, and hated singing it.

After that, I think her fortunes fell mainly because she began disengaging from the hit-making process of the music industry. Two more songs here were A-sides, "Think about Your Children" and "Let My Name Be Sorrow," but neither of those had much success. Tracks 2, 4, 6, and 7 were B-sides.  The rest of the songs weren't released at the time, but have come out as bonus tracks or on archival albums much later. In my opinion they're all good songs, and there's no reason they shouldn't have been released at the time, probably as part of a 1971 album. But like I said she was withdrawing from the music industry, and part of that was that she didn't release any album that year. This process would continue with her essentially retiring from her music career in 1972, and then keeping a very low profile after that.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 Knock, Knock, Who's There (Mary Hopkin)
02 I'm Going to Fall in Love Again (Mary Hopkin)
03 Think about Your Children (Mary Hopkin)
04 Heritage (Mary Hopkin)
05 Let My Name Be Sorrow (Mary Hopkin)
06 Kew Gardens (Mary Hopkin)
07 Jefferson (Mary Hopkin)
08 Sometimes It's Not Enough [When You Use Only Words] (Mary Hopkin)
09 No Love Is Sorrow (Mary Hopkin)
10 When I Am Old One Day (Mary Hopkin)
11 With You or Without You (Mary Hopkin)
12 A Leaf Must Fall (Mary Hopkin)
13 The Last Thing on My Mind (Mary Hopkin) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/15121648/MaryHop_1970-1971_NoLoveIsSorrw_atse.zip.html

I don't know any details about when or where the cover photo was taken. But just based on her appearance, I would guess it's from around this time period, when she was quite young.

Mary Hopkin - Temma Harbour - Non-Album Tracks (1968-1970)

Currently, I'm focusing most of my efforts with this blog on posting BBC material. But in some cases, as with Mary Hopkin here, I feel it makes sense to post stray tracks albums first, then the BBC stuff. So here's the first of several.

Hopkin has had a strange music career. In 1968, at just the age of eighteen, she appeared in a talent show broadcast on British TV. Word of her performance got to Paul McCartney, and he hooked her up with an obscure and recently written song that he'd heard performed in a night club called "Those Were the Days." It was a global smash, going on to sell at least eight million copies. 

She was very successful for a couple of years, but she withdrew from the pop music scene around 1972. Probably, she was overwhelmed by such success at a young age. She's continued to record and release music since then (and is still going at the age of 71 as I write this in 2022), but with a way lower profile. She's only rarely released music (although a lot more came out decades after they were recorded), and has almost never appeared on TV or played concerts. 

During her popular heyday, she only released two albums, "Post Card" in 1969 and "Earth Song/Ocean Song" in 1971. But she easily could have released two more, dropping stray tracks all over the place. For instance, with the exception of "Those Were the Days," she tended to not put the songs on her singles on her albums. This album has four A-sides and two B-sides, including the big hits "Goodbye" (written by Paul McCartney) and "Temma Harbour." 

Hopkin comes from Wales. Before she was discovered by McCartney, she made two obscure EPs in which all of the songs were sung in Welsh. I listened to them, and I think they're mainly for people who understand Welsh. Nearly all the songs are versions of famous songs, like Guantanamera and Somethin' Stupid. So I've only included one song from those EPs, which is a cover of a more obscure song from the 1950s.

Four more songs here are officially released. Two of them are from an obscure movie soundtrack. The remaining five unreleased songs generally come from live performances from TV or concerts. But one oddity is "Somewhere Along the Morning." This song is a bit under a minute long. That's because it was used for a Coca Cola commercial. But unlike most commercials, there's no plug for the product whatsoever; it's just a nice, though short, song.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Gwrandewch Ar Y Moroedd [Listen to the Ocean] (Mary Hopkin)
02 Somewhere Along the Morning (Mary Hopkin)
03 Morning of My Life (Mary Hopkin)
04 Turn, Turn. Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Mary Hopkin)
05 Goodbye (Mary Hopkin)
06 Sparrow (Mary Hopkin)
07 Que Sera, Sera [Whatever Will Be, Will Be] (Mary Hopkin)
08 Fields of St. Etienne (Mary Hopkin)
09 Lontano Dagli Occhi (Mary Hopkin)
10 Where's Jack (Mary Hopkin)
11 Last Moments (Mary Hopkin)
12 Plaisir d'Amour (Mary Hopkin)
13 Both Sides Now (Mary Hopkin)
14 In My Life (Mary Hopkin)
15 Temma Harbour (Mary Hopkin)
16 Night in the City (Mary Hopkin)
17 Yesterday (Mary Hopkin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15121689/MaryHop_1968-1970_TemmaHarbr_atse.zip.html

The album cover is based on a cover for the Temma Harbor single. However, I rearranged things so the picture in the middle could be made much larger. She was signed to Apple Records, and I thought the record company logo added period charm. So I kept it, but moved it to a corner and shrank it so it wouldn't get in the way of the picture.