Ray Charles with Sarah Vaughan - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-30-1976

I haven't posted any episodes of the "Midnight Special" TV show in a while, since I've been focused on Ebbets Field concerts and some other things. But don't worry, I always get back to unfinished projects sooner or later. Here's an episode hosted by Ray Charles, with Sarah Vaughan as his guest.

In case you're not aware, the people behind this TV show are posting one "new" episode a week, and have been doing that for a few years now. When I say "new," I mean most of these had been lost to history until they post high quality versions. Lately, as I write this in May 2026, they've made it from 1973 to early 1976. I've been disappointed with many of their recently posted episodes though. For some reason, in early 1976, the show was heavily dominated by Helen Reddy, who was that main host practically every week. But just yesterday as I write this, they posted an episode that really caught my interest. It was the first time Charles had been on the show since 1973. (I've posted an album of that show already, so check it out.) So that alone was interesting for me. But even better was that Sarah Vaughan was his main guest, resulting in them singing a couple of songs together. 

It's true that Charles and Vaughan had their peak years in the 1950s and 1960s (and in Vaughan's case also the 1940s). But they still had all their musical powers in the 1970s; it's just that popular musical tastes had changed. Both sound great here. Charles even was keeping up with the times in a good way with a cover of "Living for the City," a hit for Stevie Wonder in 1973.

Vaughan was not the only guest. The others were: the Bay City Rollers, Cate Brothers, Freddy Fender, and Aaron Williams, who did ventriloquist comedy. I strongly suspect Charles requested Vaughan to be on the show, but the likes of the Bay City Rollers had nothing to do with him.

As usual for this TV show, the music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 37 minutes long. 

01 Every Saturday Night (Ray Charles)
02 talk (Wolfman Jack)
03 talk (Ray Charles)
04 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
05 talk (Ray Charles)
06 The Man I Love (Sarah Vaughan)
07 Living for the City (Ray Charles)
08 I'm Gonna Keep On Singin' (Ray Charles & Sarah Vaughan)
09 What'd I Say (Ray Charles & Sarah Vaughan)
10 Blues for Big Scotia (Ray Charles)
11 America the Beautiful (Ray Charles)
12 What'd I Say [Reprise] (Ray Charles & Sarah Vaughan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nGUFdxSg

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xnID8H3LUUvVjkc/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. Actually, I took three: one of the whole scene, one of Charles' head and one of Vaughan's head. Then I brought them together in Photoshop. That allowed more detail in those areas. 

Klaatu - The Sampler Album (1976-2005) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's another Mike Solof guest post. This one came about because I was conversing with Mike, and the band Klaatu somehow came up. I mentioned that I'd heard of them, but I'd never gotten around to listening to their music. So Mike volunteered to enlighten me by making a sampler album containing what he considers the cream of their crop.

The band has a very unusual history. Probably their biggest claim to fame is that when their debut album came out in 1976, there was a widespread rumor that their album actually was a secret Beatles reunion album. Of course that wasn't true. But I can understand why some people believed the rumor, because the band had a Beatlesque sound. And I consider that a very good thing. If you like that style of music - and who doesn't? - you should give this a listen.

There's a lot more to this band and their history. But I'm not going to tell it here. For one thing, Mike has written extensive liner notes, which are included in the download zip, as is his wont. And you can also read Wikipedia for more:

Klaatu (band) - Wikipedia

I asked Mike why Woman is only a bonus track. Here's his response. "In case you are all wondering (and I know you all are) why I considered 'Woman' a bonus cut and not part of the main set, here's the answer (taken from Wikipedia): 'The trio very briefly reunited in 1988 at George Martin's AIR Studios in London with John Jones to record a single, "Woman," though no one was particularly happy with the results as the song was written by someone outside of the band (Paul Vincent Gunia) for the German television series Tatort. Initially, Long had wanted to merely use the Klaatu name, but could not get the rest of the band's approval without their involvement. The single was released only in West Germany and did not chart, making it an extremely rare item in the Klaatu catalogue; Draper confirmed that the song was considered for a few rarities compilations, but all three band members had agreed to not include the track.'"

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (Klaatu)
02 Anus of Uranus (Klaatu)
03 Sub-Rosa Subway (Klaatu)
04 Doctor Marvello (Klaatu)
05 We're Off You Know (Klaatu)
06 Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III (Klaatu)
07 Around the Universe in Eighty Days (Klaatu)
08 Little Neutrino (Klaatu)
09 A Routine Day (Klaatu)
10 The Love of a Woman (Klaatu)
11 I Can't Help It (Klaatu)
12 True Life Hero (Klaatu)
13 Knee Deep in Love (Klaatu)
14 I Don't Wanna Go Home (Klaatu)
15 California Jam (Klaatu)
16 All Good Things (Klaatu)

Woman (Klaatu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vcsQKLJM

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/473QSPC1alBVbpl/file

Klaatu was a notoriously elusive band. For the band's first few years, there were no publicly available photos of them at all. They finally relented a bit in the early 1980s, when they briefly went on tour. So I think this promo photo dates from that time. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. Also, the background was just blank white. So I took some artwork of the pyramids from one of their album covers and put that in the background to make things look a little more interesting.

Various Artists - Covered: Joan Baez, Volume 1: 1967-2016 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's another Fabio from Rio guest post. A couple of months ago (as I write this in May 2026), he really got into Joan Baez's music for the first time. In particular, he was struck by her songwriting talent, despite the fact that she's best known for covering songs written by others. So he put together five albums containing all of her original songs, which I recently posted. But he also made two "Covered" albums, showing off her songwriting in a different way. Some people don't like her singing. I have a friend like that, who finds it too high and shrill. So here you can enjoy her songs entirely through cover versions.

Probably the most unexpected cover here is the version of "Diamonds and Rust" by heavy metal band Judas Priest. Even more surprising, it went on to be quite popular, making their "best of" albums and inspiring more hard rocking cover versions. Here's what Baez had to say about it:

"I love that! I was so stunned when I first heard it. I thought it was wonderful. It's very rare for people to cover my songs. I think there are a couple of reasons. One is they're personal – they don't have a universal quality to them. And I think maybe it's because I've already sung them, and who wants to compete with that? But it's always flattering when somebody does." 

There's a lot more to be said about this album. But, as usual with Fabio guest posts, I'll leave that to the liner notes he wrote, which are included in the download zip. 

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 North (Tom Scott with the California Dreamers)
02 Saigon Bride (Gabor Szabo & the California Dreamers)
03 Sweet Sir Galahad (Gary & Randy Scruggs)
04 Song for David (Judy Collins)
05 Last Lonely and Wretched (Wild Rice)
06 Outside the Nashville City Limits (Mabel Joy)
07 Diamonds and Rust (Judas Priest)
08 For Sasha (Louise Tobestill)
09 All the Weary Mothers of the Earth (Annie Patterson)
10 Play Me Backwards (Sin Frontera)
11 Winds of the Old Days (Lori Blois)
12 Here's to You (Lisa Simmons)
13 Only Heaven Knows (Joanne Cooper)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/D4agojYd

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/NJ5kf1Y6ukB05fs/file

The cover image is from 1974.

The Carpenters - Imaginary Piano Recital, Volume 2: 1976-1983 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's another Fabio from Rio guest post. It's the second and last of two volumes featuring the Carpenters. As I was saying with Volume 1, Fabio and I love Karen Carpenter's voice, and the songs, but we usually don't love the overproduction of most of the Carpenters records. So, for these two volumes, Fabio is presenting the songs stripped down to just vocals and a piano. 

These are all the released studio versions, but edited to remove the other instruments. For the songs with "[Edit]," Fabio did at least some of the editing himself. For the others, he found versions on the Internet where people had already made edits.

There's more to say, but Fabio says that in the liner notes he wrote included in the download zip. Other than that, there's not much more for me to say, except thanks to Fabio for putting these albums together. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 I Have You [Edit] (Carpenters)
02 There's a Kind of Hush [All Over the World] [Edit] (Carpenters)
03 We've Only Just Begun [Edit] (Carpenters)
04 You [Edit] (Carpenters)
05 All You Get from Love Is a Love Song [Edit] (Carpenters)
06 Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft [Edit] (Carpenters)
07 I Just Fall in Love Again (Carpenters)
08 Honolulu City Lights [Edit] (Carpenters)
09 I Need to Be in Love (Karen Carpenter)
10 Merry Christmas, Darling (Carpenters)
11 Where Do I Go from Here [Edit] (Carpenters)
12 If We Try [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)
13 Make Believe It's Your First Time [Edit] (Carpenters)
14 When It's Gone [Edit] (Carpenters)
15 Two Lives [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Xn8YmPqA 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/amevxgiU6IsLSFf/file

As with Volume 1, Fabio and I wanted a photo of Karen singing and Richard playing piano, and nothing else. That's what we got with this one. This one is from September 1971, probably September 23rd. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

Various Artists - Covered: Barry Mason & Les Reed: 1964-2002

Here's another album for my "Covered" series, highlighting the talents of singer-songwriters. This time, I'm tackling the songwriting team of Barry Mason and Les Reed.

I have to admit that I'm not terribly impressed by the songwriting of Barry Mason and Les Reed. But I'm posting this for two reasons. One, they wrote an undeniable number of big hit songs in the 1960s and 70s, so they shouldn't be forgotten. But also, they were part of a small group of professional songwriters working in Britain at the time, often writing songs with others, so they need to be included as part of that scene. At times, one or the other co-wrote songs with Geoff Stephens, Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, Tony Macaulay, John Carter, Ken Lewis, Don Black, Mitch Murray, and Peter Callander. It's probable that you've heard of few to none of those songwriters. That was the case for me until I started making the "Covered" albums. But I'll bet you know a lot of their hit songs. I plan to post "Covered" albums for all of those other songwriters I just mentioned as well.

Both Mason and Reed were born in small towns in England in 1935. (Mason was born in Wigan and Reed was born in Woking.) Mason got started in profressional songwriting do to working as a producer. He later explained, "I met this boy called Tommy Bruce and I spent my last few pounds making a demo of him singing an old Fats Waller song, 'Ain't Misbehavin'' - and he had a hit. Suddenly, I was his manager, not knowing anything about the business. But the important thing was, I was in the business." 

However, Les Reed had the first big hit. "Tell Me When," written with Geoff Stephens, was a hit for the Applejacks in early 1964. Reed would go on to write many more songs with Stephens, though not as man as with Mason. Both of them worked with other songwriters from the start, and kept doing so. For instance, Mason co-wrote "She Just Satisfies" with Jimmy Page, future lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin. It was a failed solo single for Page in 1965.

I don't know how Mason and Reed met, but by 1964 they were writing songs together. Their first hit song together was "Here It Comes Again." The Fortunes took it to Number Four in Britain in 1965. After that, they began writing together more consistently, while still also working with other songwriters. In 1965, Reed had his first massive hit with "It's Not Unusual," which hit Number One in Britain and turned Tom Jones into a big star. It was co-written with Gordon Mills, a songwriter who also was Jones's manager. A year later, he had another banger with "There's a Kind of Hush," co-written with Geoff Stephens. Herman's Hermits had the big hit in 1966, but I chose to include a 1971 version by the Carpenters instead, since I put the Herman's Hermits version on a different "Covered" album. 

Their first really huge smash hit together was "The Last Waltz." Although Engelbert Humperdinck only had a Top Forty hit with it in the U.S., it Britain it went all the way to Number One in 1967. It stayed on top for five weeks, making it one of the best selling songs of the year.

I'm not a fan of "The Last Waltz." It's a sappy love song, oversung by Humperdinck, and overproduced, with lots of strings. I find it mystifying it dominated the charts for a portion of 1967, when that was one of the best years of hit music ever, in my opinion. I've included it because it's such a big hit, and so pivotal in their careers. But Mason and Reed began writing a lot of hit songs in that same style. I've elected to not include many of them, even when they were big hits, if I wasn't that impressed with them as songs.

Most of the songs here were co-written by Mason and Reed. I'll only mention the other exceptions. "Daughter of Darkness" was another one written by Mason and Stephens. "A Man without Love" was written by Mason with three other songwriters.n"Love Me Tonight" was written by Mason with two others. "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was written by Mason and Tony Macaulay. I put the 1970 hit version by Edison Lighthouse and a "Covered" album for Macaulay, so I chose a interesting, non-hit version here. "There Goes My First Love" was written by Mason with Roger Greenaway.

Mason and Reed had most of their success in the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, both together and with other songwriters. Their songwriting partnership faded away around the same time the hits slowed down. Reed moved into writing more for movie soundtracks and musical plays. Mason continued writing the occasional hit with other songwriters. He even co-wrote a Top 40 song as late as 2002, which is the last song here, "Tell Me Why." Reed died in 2019 at the age of 83. Mason died in 2021 at the age of 85.

Here's the Wikipedia link for Mason:

Barry Mason - Wikipedia

And here's the one for Reed:

Les Reed (songwriter) - Wikipedia  

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Don't Turn Around (Merseybeats)
02 Tell Me When (Applejacks)
03 Here It Comes Again (Fortunes)
04 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
05 Leave a Little Love (Lulu)
06 The Last Waltz (Engelbert Humperdinck)
07 Delilah (Tom Jones)
08 Kiss Me Goodbye (Petula Clark)
09 Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (Johnny Worth)
10 Love Me Tonight (Tom Jones)
11 A Man without Love (Engelbert Humperdinck)
12 Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
13 There Goes My First Love (Drifters)
14 Good Love Can Never Die (Alvin Stardust)
15 There's a Kind of Hush (Carpenters)
16 Love Grows [Where My Rosemary Goes] (Freedy Johnston)
17 Tell Me Why (Declan Galbraith)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KQVorvvk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/HuNK2DIvzlpnTsB/file

The cover image shows Barry Mason on the left and Les Reed on the right. I took two different pictures and put them together, using Photoshop. The Mason one is from 1966 and the Reed one is from 1967. Both were originally in black and white, but I colorized them with the use of the Kolorize program.

Joan Baez - Baez Sings Baez, Volume 3: 1976-1977 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's another guest post by Fabio from Rio. This is Volume 3 out of a five-volume series that collects all the songs Baez wrote or co-wrote. Fabio wanted to make the case that even though she is best known for covering songs by others, she has been a talented songwriter herself as well.

This album represents the peak of her songwriting activity. The first part consists entirely of her 1976 album "Gulf Winds," the only album that she wrote all the songs for.

By the way, I appreciate how Baez was expanding her musical horizons by this point in her career. Check out "Time Rag," for instance. It sounds nothing like what you'd expect from her. It's almost proto-rap, but in a good way. 

Fabio has a lot more to say about the music here. He's put his comments in a file of liner notes included in the download zip. So please read that. And thanks again to Fabio for putting these albums together.

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 Sweeter for Me (Joan Baez)
02 Seabirds (Joan Baez)
03 Caruso (Joan Baez)
04 Still Waters at Night (Joan Baez)
05 Kingdom of Childhood (Joan Baez)
06 O Brother (Joan Baez)
07 Time Is Passing Us By (Joan Baez)
08 Stephanie's Room (Joan Baez)
09 Gulf Winds (Joan Baez)
10 Miracles (Joan Baez)
11 Time Rag (Joan Baez)
12 A Heartfelt Line or Two (Joan Baez) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1UkBEJC8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/I2ofR4Ha5Bm2EP4/file

The cover image is from 1982. I don't know additional details. 

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: 1975-1976

Here is the ninth, and last, volume of Lulu performing for the BBC. 

All but the last four songs are from her 1975 BBC TV show, "Lulu." As I mentioned in previous volumes, I found all the episodes of that TV show for the 1975 season. I converted the episodes to audio and then chopped out the songs and turned them into mp3s. That was enough for all of the two previous episodes, plus most of this one and another previous one. 

Lulu had BBC TV shows under different names from 1968 to 1975. So one reason this series is coming to an end with this volume is there is a sudden drop in the amount of material I could find. Also though, music was changing. Disco, punk, new wave, and such came along and swept away a lot of earlier musical trends. Lulu was tied to those earlier trends, so it makes sense that her show came to an end right about this time.

With the end of the show, that just leaves the last four songs. The last episode of her show aired in April 1975. I found a few strays from the latter half of 1975, and well as 1976. Tracks 16 and 17 come from a BBC TV special called "Seaside Special." You might want to give it a look on YouTube, especially because it has ABBA performing two songs actually live on stage instead of lip syncing like they usually did on TV shows. Track 18 is from the BBC TV show "Top of the Pops." I included it here because Lulu actually performed that song live, when most performed on that show did lip syncing. The final song is from another BBC TV special, called a "Jubilee of Music." It's the only song here from 1976 instead of 1975. It's fitting that the song Lulu sang was "Shout," because that's the song that made her into a star back in 1964.

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality varies some, but is generally excellent. Note that pretty much all the songs were performed in front of a cheering audience, but I used the UVR5 audio editing program to remove as much of the cheering as I could.

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Son of a Preacher Man (Lulu)
02 Your Kiss Is Sweet (Lulu)
03 Song Sung Blue (Lulu)
04 Wouldn't It Be Luverly (Lulu)
05 Snowbird (Lulu)
06 Flash Bang Wallop (Lulu)
07 It May Be Winter Outside (Lulu)
08 A New Fangled Tango (Lulu)
09 You've Made Me So Very Happy (Lulu & David Clayton-Thomas)
10 I Just Don't Want to Be Lonely (Lulu)
11 Listen to a Country Song (Lulu)
12 Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie (Lulu)
13 Take Your Mama for a Ride (Lulu)
14 New York, New York (Lulu & Dickie Henderson)
15 When Will I See You Again (Lulu)
16 Raised on Rock (Lulu)
17 A Boy like You (Lulu)
18 Heaven and Earth and the Stars [Edit] (Lulu)
19 Shout (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NFM1F2MZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R0fWFGTY9gzqnFU/file

The cover image is from an unknown concert in November 1976. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. 

Various Artists - Covered: Van McCoy, Best Of: 1962-1985

Here's another artist for my "Covered" series. To remind you, this highlights the talents of songwriters by collecting cover versions of their songs. This time, the focus is on Van McCoy.

These days, McCoy is probably seen by many as a one-hit wonder, because he had one huge hit under his own name: "The Hustle." This instrumental was a huge hit in 1975. It went to Number One on the main U.S. singles chart, as well as on the soul chart. It reached at least the Top Ten in most other countries as well, including hitting Number Three in Britain. 

That was his only Top 40 hit in the U.S., so technically that makes him a "one-hit wonder" in that country. But he did have other hits in other countries. For instance, he had three more Top 40 hits in Britain. But more important, he had a very long and successful career as a songwriter and producer. The focus here will be just on the songwriting part though.

 

McCoy was born in Washington, D.C., in 1940. He started playing piano and singing in a church choir at a young age. He began writing songs at the age of 12. Eventually, he would have 700 of his songs recorded and released by himself or other musical artists. He started to study psychology at Howard University, but dropped out in 1960 to pursue a music career. 

 

He formed his own record company from the very start. He had a little success with his own recordings. His first single, "Mr. D.J.," was a minor hit in 1960. But he soon found more success writing and producing songs for others. He mostly concentrated on that, though he continued to release singles under his own name. His first really big hit as a songwriter was "Baby, I'm Yours." Singer Barbara Lewis took it to the Top Ten in 1965. He continued to write many more hits in the 1960s and 1970s. I've included the ones I liked the best here. Note these aren't necessarily all the biggest hits on the charts.

 

In the 1970s, he began focusing more on his own career. In the 1960s, he only released one album under his own name. But in the 1970s, he released ten. His solo career really took over after his 1975 hit "The Hustle." But he continued writing and producing songs for others as well. Unfortunately, his career was cut short, because he died of a heart attack on June 29, 1979, at the age of 39.

 

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more. It's surprisingly detailed compared to other similar entries:

 

Van McCoy - Wikipedia 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

01 Stop the Music (Shirelles)
02 Getting Mighty Crowded (Betty Everett)
03 Giving Up (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
04 Baby, I'm Yours (Barbara Lewis)
05 It’s Starting to Get to Me Now (Irma Thomas)
06 Where Does That Leave Me Now (Nancy Wilson)
07 Before and After (Chad & Jeremy)
08 Let It All Out (O'Jays)
09 Stop and Get a Hold on Myself (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 When You're Young and in Love (Marvelettes)
11 You're Gonna Make Me Love You (Sandi Sheldon)
12 The Way to a Woman’s Heart (Billy T. Soul)
13 I Get the Sweetest Feeling (Jackie Wilson)
14 So Soon (Aretha Franklin)
15 Lost and Found (Kenny Carlton)
16 Nothing Worse than Being Alone (Ad Libs)
17 Right on the Tip of My Tongue (Brenda & the Tabulations)
18 Let Me Down Easy (Derrick Harriott)
19 The Hustle (Van McCoy)
20 This Is It (Melba Moore)
21 Heavy Love (David Ruffin)
22 Baby Don't Change Your Mind (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
23 Sweet Bitter Love (Aretha Franklin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HhVWn2Gr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/kTvbsbNvI6VKdyA/file

The cover photo dates to 1975. I assume it's from an awards ceremony, but I don't know the details. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Country Joe McDonald - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1974-1977

Here is another album of Country Joe McDonald performing for the BBC. This album consists of a series of BBC studio sessions.

This album consists of three different sessions. The first two songs are from an appearance on the “Old Gray Whistle Test” BBC TV show in 1974. Tracks four through seven are from the same show, but an episode in 1976. The remaining songs are from an appearance on John Peel’s BBC radio show in 1977. I couldn’t find any BBC performances after that year. However, I did find a 1975 concert. So that will be the subject of the fourth and final volume, unless some other material emerges.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Holy Roller (Country Joe McDonald)
02 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
03 Living in the Country (Country Joe McDonald)
04 Save the Whales (Country Joe McDonald)
05 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
06 Our Wedding Day (Country Joe McDonald)
07 Breakfast for Two (Country Joe McDonald)
08 The Man from Athabaska (Country Joe McDonald)
09 Get It Together (Country Joe McDonald)
10 La Di Da (Country Joe McDonald)
11 Tricky Dicky (Country Joe McDonald)
12 Save the Whales (Country Joe McDonald)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1gKCFuu6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/fMMtxoNDznV1Swm/file

The cover photo is from the Bread and Roses Festival at the Greek Theatre, in Berkeley, California, on October 9, 1977.

Country Joe McDonald - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1970-1972

I left for a two-week vacation about two weeks ago. (I'm writing this in late March 2026.) Around the time I left, I heard that singer-songwriter Country Joe McDonald had died. Specifically, he died on March 7, 2026, at the age of 84, of complications from Parkinson's Disease. 

To be honest, I can't say I'm that familiar with his discography. But since he died, I wanted to see if there were any worthy albums I could post of his music. To my surprise, I found not one, not two, not three, but four albums of unreleased material he performed for the BBC, all of it from the 1970s. Here's the first one. It consists of BBC studio sessions. 

The first seven tracks come from an appearance on John Peel's radio show, "Top Gear," in 1970. Tracks 8 and 9 are from the "One in Ten" radio show "One in Ten" in 1971. The rest of the songs are from the "Old Grey Whistle Test" TV show. Tracks 10 through 14 are from a 1972 episode. Most of the songs were performed in solo acoustic mode.

All the music here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent, especially since there was no audience noise. 

This album is 40 minutes long. 

01 Hold On, It's Coming (Country Joe McDonald)
02 Balancing on the Edge of Time (Country Joe McDonald)
03 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
04 It's So Nice to Have Love (Country Joe McDonald)
05 Maria (Country Joe McDonald)
06 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
07 Tell Me Where You're Bound (Country Joe McDonald)
08 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
09 Jean Desprez (Country Joe McDonald)
10 Tricky Dick (Country Joe McDonald)
11 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
12 Trapped Inside a Fantasy (Country Joe McDonald)
13 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
14 Coulene Anne (Country Joe McDonald)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/N124GwUt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/LXstnTF0Kdc6Uyi/file

The cover image is from an appearance on an unnamed British TV show some time in 1972. 

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 1: 1967-1989

I'm leaving for a vacation to the Amazonian region of Peru tomorrow. I'll be gone for nearly two weeks. But while I'm gone, I'm going to try to keep posting. I have two big music projects that I have all set up. So pretty much all I need to do is hit "publish" on my cell phone to post each album. We'll see how it works out. Given that I'm going to a pretty remote area, I might be out of Internet contact for days at a time. So cross your fingers. 

Anyway, this is one of the two projects: a "Covered" collection for one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Neil Young. This one was mostly done by musical friend Fabio from Rio. That includes writing really great liner notes. 

--- 

This is certainly one of the most daunting projects I've worked with Paul yet, and certainly the biggest and most demanding "Covered" collections at the "Albums That Should Exist" blog ever, at least at the time of writing these liner notes. 

I assume Neil Young needs no introduction. Everybody (or at least everybody who has not lived in an offline bunker for the last half century) knows that Neil is one of the most important rock artists of the last sixty years. He has been influencing generations of musicians since the 1960s, resulting in literally thousands of covers and tributes, officially and unofficially available on studio albums, tribute records, live performances, and YouTube uploads.

Our aim here was not to include every Neil Young composition (that would easily result in more than 25 volumes), but to present a good representation of his output, including not only the all-time hits but also deep cuts, some officially unreleased songs cherished by long-time fans (the so-called "Rusties"), and at least a few lesser-known but equally strong compositions from more recent years, since Neil has never stopped composing, performing and recording.

We would like this project to become "The Best Neil Young Cover Collection Ever" - not out of personal vanity, but as a tribute to the quality of the songs and artists featured. For that reason, we walked the proverbial extra mile in order to select what we believe are some of the best performances of each song. In some cases, this was quite difficult to determine and remains subject to endless debate, since certain songs have literally hundreds of different versions recorded by dozens of artists. Subjectivity inevitably played a part, since our personal tastes (mine and Paul's) may have resulted in some biased selections. However, we tried whenever possible to focus on performances that are widely recognized as among the best or most representative interpretations of a given song. At the same time, we also looked for unusual readings that might give a different or fresh spin to familiar melodies.

My initial selection comprised about 230 different songs, and I listened to more than a thousand performances (1,072 to be exact) in order to prepare the first short list, which was later shared with Paul. For some songs there were literally dozens of available covers, so our main challenge was deciding which one to include. For others, it was surprisingly difficult to find a strong version. In some cases - particularly with more obscure tunes - we had to resort to unofficial recordings, including some provided by the Rusties community, where both amateur and professional musicians share their interpretations.

Since my initial selection would result in too-long a collection even for die-hard fans standards, Paul made editorial cuts, excluding some songs (which I accepted with stoic dignity), but also requesting the inclusion of some of his personal favorites, which I happily complied. In the end, we settled on a 10-volume collection with about 150 tracks, with very little repetition (only two songs - "Heart of Gold" and "Cortez the Killer" - appear in more than one version, in different volumes). 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together.

I also want to add that these albums are ordered by the years the covers were recorded, not the years the songs were first recorded by Neil Young. So if you don't see songs you want included, please wait. There are no less than TEN albums! And for instance, some songs from this time period don't show up until the last one. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It (Gallery Production)
02 Sugar Mountain (Joni Mitchell)
03 Everybody, I Love You (Happy Day)
04 Round and Round (Bernie Schwartz)
05 Southern Man (Merry Clayton)
06 Birds (Linda Ronstadt)
07 Ohio (Isley Brothers)
08 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Jackie DeShannon)
09 See the Sky about to Rain (Byrds)
10 New Mama (Stephen Stills)
11 Love Is a Rose (Linda Ronstadt)
12 Mr. Soul (Cher)
13 The Loner (Stephen Stills)
14 Lotta Love (Nicolette Larson)
15 Look Out for My Love (Linda Ronstadt)
16 Like a Hurricane (Roxy Music)
17 Are You Ready for the Country (Jason & the Scorchers)
17 Winterlong (Pixies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oE16d9b7

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Y8RaicNK2j2Donc/file

The cover photo is from 1966 or 1967. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to add detail.  

The Carpenters - Full Acappella, Volume 1: 1966-1976 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Back in 2018, I posted an album by the Carpenters called "Near Acappella." It featured versions of their best songs done with very minimal instrumental backing, usually just vocals, bass, and drums. Lately, I've been collaborating with Fabio from Rio on some albums. He shares my appreciation for the vocals of Karen Carpenter. I don't know what it is, but there was something very special and unique about her singing. So Fabio wanted to make a "Full Acappella" album, and he did most of the heavy lifting to make it happen. It turns out we had enough material for two albums. Here's the first one.

The rest of this write-up here was written by Fabio:

Inspired by Paul's "Near Acappella" Carpenters collection from some years ago, I decided to check if there were "full acappella" versions of Carpenters songs available, since in recent years audio tools (with or without AI) have gotten better separating vocals from instrumentals. It turns out there are indeed a lot of acappella versions of Carpenters songs out there, so I selected the best ones I could find. At first, the album I made from the acappella versions I found made for a relatively short album. So Paul suggested "two or three more tracks." But I got excited with my "new toy" (the MVSEP online tool that makes it possible to segregate all kinds of tracks from a multitrack source) and ended up creating an additional dozen tracks myself, while also finding some more. That ended up being too much for a single disc. So, as per another suggestion by Paul, this became a "twofer", or two volume collection. These albums may be considered twin siblings of the earlier "Near Acappella" collection.

I got about half of the tracks from YouTube channels or Facebook fan groups, and the remaining were done with MVSEP. I used Audacity software to exclude instrumental breaks, intros, and outros, as well as cleaning up the occasional odd instrument (a drum roll, a sax riff), in order to keep this new collection truly "full acappella." All those that have "[Edit]" in their titles had some additional cleaning done by Paul or me (other than what was already done by whoever shared the acappella tracks originally).

We (myself and Paul) discussed a bit about pros and cons of including harmony vocals (by Richard and/or backing singers, or even occasionally a full choir, like in "Sing" and "Goodnight"). Paul was inclined to keep only Karen's leading vocals. But I argued that a full album with just Karen's voice, regardless of how beautiful it is, could sound a bit monotonous, while the harmony vocals help to provide additional color and variety. So, in the end, we decided to keep them.

---

There's more to Fabio's comments, including explanations of the sources of all the songs. Check out the Word file included in the download zip for that. However, here's one final comment from him, about the bonus track: 

While mining for tracks, I found two already done acappella versions of "We've Only Just Begun": one with only Karen's lead vocal track, and another with lead vocals and harmony vocals. Both are good - the "lead singing only" is more intimate and a bit melancholic, while the "lead vocals with harmonies" is quite exquisite. So, I suggested to Paul that we could keep them both, one at the official track list and another as a bonus track for Volume 1.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 I'll Be Yours [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)
02 Goodnight (Carpenters)
03 We've Only Just Begun (Carpenters)
04 Maybe It's You [Edit] (Carpenters)
05 [They Long to Be] Close to You [Edit] (Carpenters)
06 Baby It's You (Carpenters)
07 Rainy Days and Mondays [Edit] (Carpenters)
08 [A Place to] Hideaway (Carpenters)
09 Sometimes (Carpenters)
10 A Song for You (Carpenters)
11 Goodbye to Love [Edit] (Carpenters)
12 Sing [Edit] (Carpenters)
13 From the Heart Comes the Soul (Carpenters)
14 Aurora (Carpenters)
15 Only Yesterday [Edit] (Carpenters)
16 Solitaire [Edit] (Carpenters)
17 Love Me for What I Am [Edit] (Carpenters)
18 Eventide (Carpenters)
19 Good Friends Are for Keeps (Carpenters)
20 Ordinary Fool [Edit] (Carpenters)

We've Only Just Begun [Harmony Vocals Version] [Edit] (Carpenters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/En3Makbp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2L3B4h5poc7r7wm/file

I don't know anything about the cover image except it's Karen Carpenter "circa 1970." The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. 

Dan Fogelberg - Best of Live: 1974-1995 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I just posted a "best of" album guest poster Mike Solof made of his favorite studio tracks by singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg. He wanted to divide his music up into a studio best of and a live best of, so here's the companion live best of.

Mike is a really big fan of Fogelberg's music and is making these to help me, and others like you, better enjoy his music. As he usually does, Mike made a PDF with more information and pictures, which is included in the download zip. I encourage you to give that a look. It's the exact same one as for the studio best of.

For the studio best of, all the songs are officially released, and usually from his studio albums. For this one, most of the songs come from official live albums as well. But four of the songs here come from bootlegs. Specifically, tracks 10, 11, 13, and 16. But they're excellent sounding ones, just as good as the live albums.

By the way, Fogelberg's last concert was for the "PBS Soundstage" concert in 2003. (He died of cancer in 2007 at the age of 56.) I would really like to post that here, but I've only found a few songs from it on YouTube. If anyone has all of it, please let me know. Thanks. 

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

01 Songbird (Dan Fogelberg)
02 The Power of Gold (Dan Fogelberg)
03 Blow Wind Blow (Dan Fogelberg)
04 Hard to Say (Dan Fogelberg)
05 Innocent Age (Dan Fogelberg)
06 Looking for a Lady (Dan Fogelberg)
07 Once upon a Time (Dan Fogelberg)
08 Make Love Stay (Dan Fogelberg)
09 The Chauvinist Song (Dan Fogelberg)
10 Morning Sky (Dan Fogelberg)
11 Someone's Been Telling You Stories (Dan Fogelberg)
12 Part of the Plan (Dan Fogelberg)
13 talk (Dan Fogelberg)
14 Song from Half Mountain (Dan Fogelberg)
15 Souvenir (Dan Fogelberg)
16 To the Morning (Dan Fogelberg)
17 Here Comes the Sun (Dan Fogelberg)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9q7tK9se

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QZQOzX6EPddIoQh/file

As with the cover to the studio album, Mike picked this one. I don't know exactly where or when it comes from. 

Various Artists - Covered: Hoyt Axton: 1963-1977

Here's another edition of the "Covered" series, where I pay tribute to talented songwriters by collecting cover versions of their songs. This time, the focus is on Hoyt Axton.

Axton was born in a small town in Oklahoma in 1938. He came from a musical family. His mother, Mae Boren Axton, was a songwriter who co-wrote the Elvis Presley classic hit "Heartbreak Hotel" and many country songs, and one of his cousins was folk singer Arlo Guthrie. After going to college and serving a few years in the U.S. Navy, he began playing his songs in clubs. He released his first album in 1962, and released a couple dozen from that time until the end of the 1990s.

However, while Axton had some minor hits in the 1970s, especially on the U.S. country chart, he had much greater success by having others cover his songs. He also had a successful parallel career as an actor, especially playing colorful characters in supporting roles in dozens of TV shows and movies. 

His first success as a songwriter was "Greenback Dollar," which became kind of a folk music classic after it was covered by the Kingston Trio in 1963. He didn't have much more success with others covering his songs for the rest of the 1960s, although "The Pusher" became one of Steppenwolf's best known songs in 1968. However, everything changed for him in 1970, because Three Dog Night covered "Joy to the World." Not only was it a Number One hit in the U.S., it was the best selling song of the year! After that, he had quite a few more successes with other people covering his songs for the rest of the 1970s. For instance, Three Dog Night had a Top Five hit with "Never Been to Spain," and Ringo Starr had a Top Five hit with "No No Song."

I've tried to avoid including songs sung by Axton, since this is supposed to be a collection of other musical acts covering his songs. However, I've included two duets he was involved in. "When the Morning Comes," a duet with Linda Ronstadt, is particularly notable for being his biggest hit as a singer. It reached Number 10 in the U.S. country chart in 1974.

He kept putting out new music until the end of his life. He died in 1999 at the age of 61 due to a heart attack.

Axton's songs weren't often big hits, though occasionally they were. However, they usually were distinctive and interesting.   

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Greenback Dollar (Kingston Trio)
02 The Pusher (Steppenwolf)
03 Willie Jean (Sunshine Company)
04 Joy to the World (Three Dog Night)
05 Snowblind Friend (Steppenwolf)
06 Ease Your Pain (Jackie DeShannon)
07 Never Been to Spain (Three Dog Night)
08 Sweet Fantasy (Glen Campbell)
09 When the Morning Comes (Hoyt Axton & Linda Ronstadt)
10 No No Song (Ringo Starr)
11 Sweet Misery (Martha Reeves)
12 Southbound (Three Dog Night)
13 Boney Fingers (Hoyt Axton & Rene Armand)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WEqtB9kp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wW4s67hOVwQMJWh/file

I don't know where or when the cover photo is from. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

Gilbert O'Sullivan - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1972-1976

I recently found some Gilbert O'Sullivan BBC session material that I'd missed. In fact, I found so many that I split what had been "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" into a revamped "Volume 1" plus this album. (In between chronologically is a 1971 concert that makes up "Volume 2.") So, before I say anything more, if you want to download this, you should redownload "Volume 1." I added five songs I'd previously missed to that one, and moved a bunch of songs from there to here, and so on. 

Here's the link to the revised version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/05/gilbert-osullivan-bbc-sessions-volume-1.html

Furthermore, note that while "Volume 2" stays exactly the same, I also had to renumber the two BBC volumes that come after this one. That includes "Volume 4," which I just posted here a few days prior to this, and is now called "Volume 5." (Sigh.) Here are the updated links for those:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/05/gilbert-osullivan-bbc-sessions-volume-3.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/12/gilbert-osullivan-bbc-sessions-volume-4.html 

The first seven songs here were moved from the old "Volume 1." They all are from the BBC "Top of the Pops" radio show (not to be confused with the TV show of the same name), and were very rare until an anonymous musical friend passed them on to me. However, everything else is new. All the remaining songs come from TV shows, mostly from the BBC, but with a couple of non-BBC ones thrown in there too.

Tracks 8 and 9 are from a TV special called "Burt Bacharach: Opus No. 3," in 1973. O'Sullivan almost never performed cover songs, but he did a short version of the Bacharach classic "Do You Know the Way to San Jose." Then he did a version of his big hit "Alone Again (Naturally)" with Bacharach essentially interviewing him for about a minute during the middle of the song!  

Tracks 10 and 11 are from the "Midnight Special" TV show in 1973. It was the only time he was on that show. Tracks 12, 13, and 14 are from the BBC TV show "It's Lulu." Track 15 is from a TV special called "Gilbert O'Sullivan: Welcome to My Show." I wish I had more, but unfortunately, most of it seems to have been lost or at least remains unavailable. This one song probably survived because it was a duet with Elton John. (And one other song performed by John survived as well.) Tracks 16 and 17 are from the BBC TV show "Lulu" in 1975. And the last song is from the BBC TV show "Shirley Bassey" in 1976.

I ran into a bit of a problem with all these different sources. O'Sullivan had a huge hit with "Get Down" in 1973, as it went to Number One in Britain and made the Top Ten in the U.S. I ended up with three versions of the song here, including two right in a row. The first, from the "Top of the Pops" radio show, is O'Sullivan doing it on his own. Then track 14 is a version of him performing the song as a duet with Lulu. Right after that, track 15, is a duet version with Elton John. I thought all three were different and interesting enough for me to include them all.

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Bye Bye (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
02 Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
03 But I'm Not (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
04 Clair (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
05 I Hope You'll Stay (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
06 Out of the Question (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
07 Get Down (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
08 Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Gilbert O'Sullivan & Burt Bacharach)
09 Alone Again [Naturally] (Gilbert O'Sullivan & Burt Bacharach)
10 Ooh Baby (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
11 Who Knows Perhaps Maybe (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
12 Why Oh Why Oh Why (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
13 talk (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
14 Get Down (Gilbert O'Sullivan & Lulu)
15 Get Down (Gilbert O'Sullivan & Elton John)
16 Nothing to Do about Much (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
17 You Are You (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
18 Can't Get Enough of You (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7uve1osJ

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/phyte77MENyKMVA/file

The cover photo is taken from the Burt Bacharach TV special where tracks 8 and 9 are from. Bacharach was in the original image, but I cropped him out to focus on O'Sullivan. 

Gallagher & Lyle - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1971-1978

I recently posted a couple of BBC albums by the British band McGuinness Flint. I pointed out at that time that most of their success was due to the songwriting talent of two members in that band, Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle, better known as Gallagher and Lyle. In late 1971, they left McGuinness Flint and began a music career as a duo. Here's the BBC studio sessions they left behind. 

Gallagher and Lyle wrote the two big hits McGuinness Flint had, "When I'm Dead and Gone" and "Malt and Barley Blues." But they didn't have much success on their own at first. Their first big success came in 1975, when Art Garfunkel had a Top Forty hit in the U.S. with a song they wrote, "Breakaway." (Their own version is included here.) Then, in 1976, they had Top Ten hits in Britain with "Heart on My Sleeve" and "I Wanna Stay with You." Their success petered out towards the end of the 1970s, and they broke up in 1980. But they continued to have some success as songwriters after that. Most notably, Lyle co-wrote "What's Love Got to Do with It?" which was a Number One hit in the U.S. for Tina Turner in 1984.

Here's their Wikipedia entry:

Gallagher and Lyle - Wikipedia 

This album is all from BBC sources, and mostly consists of studio sessions. The first seven songs are from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops" (and not the BBC TV show of the same name). These are from the same helper who gave me access to lots of other stuff from this show. I don't know if these have been easily publicly available before. Those date from 1971 and 1972. The next four songs come from the officially released album "Live in Concert," and are from a BBC concert in 1973. Then tracks 12, 13, and 14 are from the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1973. Tracks 15 and 16 are from another BBC concert in 1974, and also made it to the "Live in Concert" album. Then tracks 17 and 18 are from another appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show, in 1976. Finally, the last three tracks are from another on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show, in 1978.

For the live tracks from the "Live in Concert" album, I used the MVSEP program to get rid of the applause, so they'd fit in with the other studio tracks. The "Old Grey Whistle Test" songs were performed live, but without an audience.

There's a BBC concert from 1978 that I will be posting as well. 

This album is an hour and two minutes long. 

01 Desiderata (Gallagher & Lyle)
02 Comfort and Joy (Gallagher & Lyle)
03 City and Suburban Blues (Gallagher & Lyle)
04 Home (Gallagher & Lyle)
05 Among the Birks (Gallagher & Lyle)
06 Give the Boy a Break (Gallagher & Lyle)
07 Joie de Vivre [The Great Australian Dream] (Gallagher & Lyle)
08 Conversation (Gallagher & Lyle)
09 Willie (Gallagher & Lyle)
10 Thoughts from a Station (Gallagher & Lyle)
11 International (Gallagher & Lyle)
12 Shine a Light (Gallagher & Lyle)
13 talk (Gallagher & Lyle)
14 I Believe in You (Gallagher & Lyle)
15 Seeds (Gallagher & Lyle)
16 The Clearing (Gallagher & Lyle)
17 Breakaway (Gallagher & Lyle)
18 I Wanna Stay with You (Gallagher & Lyle)
19 Showdown (Gallagher & Lyle)
20 talk (Gallagher & Lyle)
21 Throw Away Heart (Gallagher & Lyle) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YSW1dqef

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/o0zLJ4Pd7AXTgbV/file

That's Lyle on the left and Gallagher on the right. 

Andrew Gold - Old Grey Whistle Test, New Victoria Theatre, London, Britain, 11-23-1976

Here's another result from the recent cache of "Old Grey Whistle Test" episodes I recently discovered. This is a short concert by American singer-songwriter Andrew Gold.

Gold was first successful as a record producer and studio musician. He produced and played on some hit albums before his own solo career took off. For instance, he had a key role in developing Linda Ronstadt's hits in the mid-1970s. His first album, simply titled "Andrew Gold," was released in 1975 and didn't get much attention. But his second album, released in late 1976, included the hit "Lonely Boy." His next album in 1978 would have two more hits, but that's after this concert.

Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Andrew Gold - Wikipedia 

Note that when I put this together, I wasn't aware that it had been officially released. It turns out it came out as part of a box set called "Lonely Boy: The Asylum Years Anthology." I've decided to post it anyway because that's a pretty obscure release, and I want to post most of the episodes from this BBC TV show that I can find. 

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bob Harris (Andrew Gold)
02 Heartaches in Heartaches (Andrew Gold)
03 That's Why I Love You (Andrew Gold)
04 talk (Andrew Gold)
05 Endless Flight (Andrew Gold)
06 Do Wah Diddy (Andrew Gold)
07 talk (Andrew Gold)
08 Learning the Game (Andrew Gold)
09 Angel Woman (Andrew Gold)
10 Hope You Feel Good (Andrew Gold)
11 talk (Andrew Gold)
12 One of Them Is Me (Andrew Gold)
13 talk (Andrew Gold)
14 Lonely Boy (Andrew Gold)
15 talk (Andrew Gold)
16 Go Back Home Again (Andrew Gold)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Fh1jhoiA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/etjjPt1qcgh7J3s/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert.

Jim Capaldi - Old Grey Whistle Test, New Victoria Theatre, London, Britain, 3-30-1976

Here's another album I recently discovered from the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show. This is a concert by Jim Capaldi.

The British band Traffic was dominated by Steve Winwood, who did nearly all of the lead vocals, and cowrote most of the songs. But Jim Capaldi played a key role too, cowriting those songs with Winwood. When Traffic broke up in the early 1970s, Capaldi transitioned to a fairly successful solo career, showing himself to be a very capable lead singer as well.

At this point, his biggest success as a solo artist was a cover of the Everly Brothers classic "Love Hurts." Released in late 1975, his version made it all the way to Number Four in the British singles chart. That single also made his 1975 album, "Short Cut Draw Blood," a success. The songs "Goodbye Love," "Boy with a Problem," "Talkin' about My Baby," and "Keep On Trying" also come from that album. (Note that "Boy with a Problem" is about the drug problems of Traffic band member Chris Wood.)

Unfortunately for Capaldi, his solo career would be derailed by problems with his record company. Due to these problems, his next album wouldn't be released until 1978, which was an eternity in that era. Two of the songs here, "Short Ends" and "Elixir of Life," would eventually appear on that album, or the next one. Note that he didn't perform any Traffic songs here, though he usually did in his concerts. Probably that was because this was a relatively short concert, so some things had to be cut out.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I found a video file of this concert, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s.

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bob Harris (Jim Capaldi)
02 Low Rider (Jim Capaldi)
03 talk (Jim Capaldi)
04 Love Hurts (Jim Capaldi)
05 talk (Jim Capaldi)
06 Goodbye Love (Jim Capaldi)
07 talk (Jim Capaldi)
08 Elixir of Life (Jim Capaldi)
09 talk (Jim Capaldi)
10 Boy with a Problem (Jim Capaldi)
11 talk (Jim Capaldi)
12 Short Ends (Jim Capaldi)
13 talk (Jim Capaldi)
14 Talkin' about My Baby (Jim Capaldi)
15 talk (Jim Capaldi)
16 Keep On Trying (Jim Capaldi)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KCtgsrGB

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NIxwqK01xdI2eTI/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the detail. 

Labi Siffre - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1972-1976

Here's another BBC album by singer-songwriter Labi Siffre. Like the first one, it's a collection of BBC studio sessions.

I've mentioned multiple times that I have a musical friend who has been sending me some music from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops" that hasn't been easily available to the general public. This is another case of that. Every single song here is from that radio show. Volume 1 in this series was also entirely made up of songs from that show. But while the contents of that one made it into an obscure "grey market" bootleg, most of this I don't think has even been available by bootleg until now. 

Generally speaking, the "Top of the Pops" show switched from mostly unique, live performances to just playing the record versions around 1972 or 1973. But sometimes there were still live performances after that. I double checked, and that was the case with a few of Siffre's songs, as tracks 9 and 10 are from 1975, and track 11 is from 1976.

Some of the songs here were not released by Siffre in any form - nice covers of the classic songs "Let It Be," "Simple Man," and "Fire and Rain." 

In my opinion, Siffre is really underrated. I have several theories for this. One, he was openly gay back in the 1970s, as well as being Black and politically outspoken, and I'm sure that created difficulties for him. Two, it seems he didn't tour much, especially after the early 1970s. Three, his music career basically came to a stop for a long time, because he didn't release any albums between 1975 and 1988. He did have a surprise late hit in 1987 with "(Something Inside) So Strong," but he went back into a low profile not much after that. But at least we still have musical recordings like this.

His last "Top of the Pops" performance was from 1976. However, I still have one more volume to post, consisting of a 1975 BBC concert.

This album is 43 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On April 6, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. I added one song I'd previously missed, a duet with Lulu on the Bacharach-David classic "This Guy's in Love with You." It comes from Lulu's BBC TV show in 1975.

01 Let It Be (Labi Siffre)
02 Simple Man (Labi Siffre)
03 Watch Me (Labi Siffre)
04 Gimme Some More (Labi Siffre)
05 Love, Oh Love, Oh Love (Labi Siffre)
06 My Song (Labi Siffre)
07 If You Have Your Faith (Labi Siffre)
08 Entertainment Value (Labi Siffre)
09 This Guy's in Love with You (Labi Siffre & Lulu)
10 Another Year (Labi Siffre)
11 Fire and Rain (Labi Siffre)
12 Starride to Nowhere (Labi Siffre)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KuorTDcZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/js02g7EIpAxmqN9/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo. But it looks to be from the early 1970s. 

Various Artists - Covered: Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein & Richard Gottehrer: 1962-1982

Here's a rather unusual entry in my "Covered" series highlighting talented songwriters who were widely covered by others. This one focuses on the songwriting and production team of Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein, and Richard Gottehrer. You probably don't know their names, but I'll bet you know a bunch of their songs.

Bob Feldman and Jerry Goldstein were friends and neighbors growing up in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1950s. They began writing songs together, and released a single as "Bob and Jerry." In 1962, they met Richard Gottehrer, and he joined their songwriting team. Then the hits started coming. Their first really big smash was "My Boyfriend's Back" by the Angels, which made it all the way to Number One in the U.S. in 1963. The song was started by Feldman, after he overheard a girl talking to a boy she was rebuffing.

The three of them had their greatest success in the mid-1960s. As they were all young and musically talented, they decided to form their own rock band, which they called the Strangeloves. Although, weirdly, they claimed that they were three brothers from a sheep farm from Australia. Perhaps they thought being seen as Jewish kids from Brooklyn wasn't cool. In 1965, they had a Top Ten hit in the U.S. under the Strangeloves name with "I Want Candy," a song the three of them wrote with Bert Berns. (I've posted two Covered albums featuring him.) However, instead of including that version here, I've included the 1982 version by Bow Wow Wow, which was a Top Ten hit in Britain. They had two other Top 40 U.S. hits in 1965 as the Strangeloves: "Cara-Lin" and "Night Time." I've included the Strangeloves version of "Night Time," but I chose a version the Sorrows did of "Cara-Lin."

In addition to songwriting, the three of them also found success as producers. One of their biggest successes came early, with "Hang On Sloopy." They didn't have a hand in writing it (though Bert Berns did). But they were getting a big reaction performing it live in concerts. They wanted to release it as their next single, but their song "I Want Candy" was still rising in the charts. So they took the version they'd already recorded in the studio and had a then-unknown singer from another band, Rick Derringer, sing lead on it. That version, credited to the McCoys, hit Number One in the U.S.

This songwriting team was really good at the garage rock song that was all the rage in 1965 and 1966. When popular trends moved to psychedelic music in 1967, their success went way down. The Strangeloves faded away in 1968. The three of them gradually drifted apart. Each of them found success as producers. In 1966, Gottehrer co-founded Sire Records. It was a very successful independent record company for many years. In 1978, it essentially got swallowed up by Warner Brothers Records, though it still exists as a branch of that mega-company. Gottehrer went on to produce albums by the Go-Go's', Dr. Feelgood, Richard Hell, the Bongos, Marshall Crenshaw, Joan Armatrading, Link Wray, and many more.

As a songwriter, Goldstein was the only one of the three who continued to have big success into the 1970s. He became the producer for the band War from their very first album in 1970. He co-wrote most of their biggest hits while continuing to produce them, including "All Day Music," "Low Rider," and "Why Can't We Be Friends." In fact, he was so closely tied to the band War that in a 1990s lawsuit he won the right to the band name, forcing virtually all of the original members to record as the Lowrider Band instead. 

Feldman died in 2023 at the age of 83. Goldstein and Gottehrer are still alive as I write this in 2025.

Here are their Wikipedia pages, if you want to know more:

Bob Feldman - Wikipedia 

Jerry Goldstein (producer) - Wikipedia 

Richard Gottehrer - Wikipedia

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 What Time Is It (Jive Five)
02 My Boyfriend's Back (Angels)
03 I'm on Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis)
04 The Drifter (Ray Pollard)
05 Cara-Lin (Sorrows)
06 Sorrow (Merseys [Merseybeats])
07 Night Time (Strangeloves)
08 Say Those Magic Words (Birds)
09 Beat the Clock (McCoys)
10 Come On Down to My Boat (Every Mother's Son)
11 It's Nice to Be with You (Monkees)
12 All Day Music (War)
13 Low Rider (War)
14 Why Can't We Be Friends (War)
15 Summer (War)
16 I Want Candy (Bow Wow Wow)
17 You Got the Power (War)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/V55f5uau

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NqTTavC8wYmm2eJ/file

Feldman, Goldstein, and Gottehrer were the members of the band the Strangeloves in the mid-1960s. The cover photo is taken from a promotional photo of the band. They put out a lot of photos wearing these zebra-striped vests. From left to right: Richard Gottehrer, Bob Feldman, and Jerry Goldstein.