Dana Gillespie - Hold on to Your Fire - Non-Album Tracks (1971-1976)

Recently, a commenter asked me if I still plan on posting more non-album tracks collections. Actually, I have lots of them that are already made. I just don't get around to posting them much because they're part of my music collection and I usually prioritize posting things I've recently discovered. But I'll try to get back to posting more of those. Back in 2020, I posted a non-album tracks collection by British singer-songwriter Dana Gillespie. It consisted of rare songs she did in the late 1960s. Finally, I'm back with a second such collection, from the early 1970s.

First, here's the link to the earlier collection:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/11/dana-gillespie-light-up-various-songs.html

At the time of the start of the music here, she had released two albums in the late 1960s, mostly consisting of her own songs. Both were well received, but neither of them were hits. Around 1970, she started musically collaborating with David Bowie, whom she had known since about 1965. She was signed to his record company and management team. Bowie even wrote a song for her, "Andy Warhol," and they performed it together on the BBC in 1971. 

The first five songs here are demos she recorded in 1971. This was half of an album with her songs on one side and Bowie's songs on the other. About 500 copies were made and circulated in the music industry to help both of them get record deals. Bowie's songs were redone for his album "Hunky Dory." These versions come from a later archival compilation called "What Memories We Make."

However, Gillespie didn't release another album out until 1973, because she got involved playing a major role (Mary Magdelene) in the first London production of the play "Jesus Christ Superstar." That kept her busy through 1972, and a soundtrack was released in 1973. Tracks 6 and 7 here are from that. 

When she finally released her next album, "Weren't Born a Man," it was a very good one. I recommend it if you haven't heard it yet. Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson technically produced it. But in fact, they were too busy with their careers, having turned into big stars since Bowie started collaborating with Gillespie in 1971. But Bowie did have some involvement, for instance, playing on and producing that album's version of "Andy Warhol." 

In 1974, she released another album, "Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle." This was also was good, but didn't get much traction. It showed her moving more in a blues direction. Unfortunately, she began having trouble with her record company. She got stuck in a dispute, and was unable to release any more records. Her next album wouldn't come out until 1982. From that point on, she went all in on the blues, and put out many more albums in the blues style. Tracks 8 through 14 are from 1973 and 1974, and mostly consist of songs she wanted to put out on her next album. Those didn't come out until the "What Memories We Make" compilation mentioned above.

While having a music career, Gillespie also was pursuing a movie career. She certainly had the looks to be a big star. When she was blocked from making more records, she spent most of the rest of the 1970s as an actress. She landed some prominent roles, but never became a big star in that field either. The last song here is from a 1976 movie. 

One final thing. Here's an article from the Guardian about Gillespie's very interesting life. It's worth a read:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/12/bowie-bed-hopping-and-the-blues-the-wild-times-of-dana-gillespie

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Mother, Don't Be Frightened (Dana Gillespie)
02 Andy Warhol (Dana Gillespie)
03 Never Knew (Dana Gillespie)
04 All Cut Up on You (Dana Gillespie)
05 Lavender Hill (Dana Gillespie)
06 Everything's Alright (Dana Gillespie with Stephen Tate & Paul Nicholas)
07 I Don't Know How to Love Him (Dana Gillespie)
08 Hold on to Your Fire (Dana Gillespie)
09 Man Size Job (Dana Gillespie)
10 Stoke the Engine (Dana Gillespie)
11 Goin' Crazy with the Blues (Dana Gillespie)
12 Say Goodnight to the Night (Dana Gillespie)
13 Do the Spin (Dana Gillespie)
14 Gone at the Game (Dana Gillespie)
15 Celandine's Blues (Dana Gillespie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LAAK3hDd 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/I0tgLutyB6aSxSK/file

The cover image is from a 1968 movie called "The Lost Continent." The original picture I found was in black and white, but I colorized it. She also had some dirty smudges on her skin, which I removed in Photoshop. 

John Carpenter - John Carpenter Presents: Trailers of the Mind... It's All in Your Head! (1974-1994) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's another guest post by Mike Solof. He really outdid himself this time, with this collection of John Carpenter's movie music. 

Mike is a big fan of the movies of John Carpenter, who is especially renowned in the horror genre. But it turns out Carpenter composed the music for nearly all of his movies, and Mike is a fan of that music as well. His original plan was to collect his favorite songs from most of Carpenter's movies, and post that. However, some of the songs had spoken dialogue from the movies over them, and others did not. I thought that was an imbalance, and asked him if he could add in some more dialogue. Mike took that suggestion and ran with it. He labored many, many hours carefully adding dialogue, until all the songs here are a mix of music and that dialogue. In so doing, he created something new: songs from the movies with dialogue that helps set an ominous mood and reminds you of key movie scenes. He spent a long time getting the timing of the words and music to be to his satisfaction.

In case you're not familiar with Carpenter's name, you'd probably recognize many of his movies, such as "Halloween," "The Thing," "The Fog," Escape from New York," "Christine," "They Live," and many more. Personally, I'm not into the horror movie genre. But even I found this an interesting listen.  

If you want to know more, as usual, please read the PDF that Mike wrote and added to the download zip. 

01 The Fog [Prologue - The Curtain Rises] (John Carpenter)
02 Dark Star - Hello Bomb [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
03 Assault on Precinct 13 - This Is a Goddamn Seige [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
04 Assault on Precinct 13 - Hey, This Is Regular Vanilla [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
05 Halloween - The Evil Has Gone [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
06 Halloween - Halloween Theme [Death Has Come to Your Little Town] [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
07 The Fog - There's Something in the Fog [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
08 The Fog - We're Honoring Murderers [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
09 Escape from New York - I Heard You Were Dead [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
10 Halloween 2 - You Don't Know What Death Is [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
11 Halloween 3 - The Hills Ran Red with Blood [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
12 The Thing - Weird and Pissed Off [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
13 Christine - Show Me [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
14 Prince of Darkness - This Is Not a Dream [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
15 They Live - I've Got One that Can See [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)
16 In the Mouth of Madness - The Curtain Closes [Mike's Mix 2026] (John Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Z6EV9Jbp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/6HM3OKjRehmqVD2/file

The cover art is a graphic made by someone named Tyler Champion. The original was in just two tones. I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. Then I added the text at the top and bottom.

Maria Muldaur - The Bottom Line, New York City, 3-23-1976

Up until about a year ago (as I write this in August 2026), I only knew of Maria Muldaur from her hit single "Midnight at the Oasis." But in the process of posting material for this music blog, I discovered there was a lot more to her music career than just being a one-hit wonder. (Although she actually had a second Top Forty hit in the U.S. with "I'm a Woman, but I digress.) Take for instance the Great American Music Band concert I posted a few days ago, where she played in a band with Jerry Garcia, Taj Mahal, David Grisman, and others. So, now that I'm turned on to her music, when I found a very rare concert recording by her, it went straight to the top of my "albums to be posted" pile. Here it is.

Oh, and as a bonus surprise, on one songs here, Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band played lead guitar, and Mike Finnegan sang lead vocals.

At the time of this concert, Muldaur had recently released her album "Sweet Harmony." So naturally there are a lot of songs from that. I'm surprised though that this doesn't include her biggest hit, "Midnight at the Oasis."

The music here is unreleased. And, as I mentioned above, this seems to be a rare bootleg. I didn't find it on any of the bootleg sharing sites and services I use. However, the sound quality is excellent. It must either be a soundboard or an FM radio broadcast.

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 I'm a Woman (Maria Muldaur)
02 talk (Maria Muldaur)
03 Sweet Harmony (Maria Muldaur)
04 talk (Maria Muldaur)
05 Sisters and Brothers (Maria Muldaur)
06 talk (Maria Muldaur)
07 Sad Eyes (Maria Muldaur)
08 talk (Maria Muldaur)
09 My Tennessee Mountain Home (Maria Muldaur)
10 talk (Maria Muldaur)
11 Back by Fall (Maria Muldaur)
12 talk (Maria Muldaur)
13 We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye (Maria Muldaur)
14 talk (Maria Muldaur)
15 Rockin' Chair (Maria Muldaur)
16 talk (Maria Muldaur)
17 Part Time Love (Maria Muldaur with Mike Finnegan & Dickey Betts)
18 My Blues Man (Maria Muldaur)
19 I Can't Stand It (Maria Muldaur)
20 talk (Maria Muldaur)
21 As an Eagle Stireth in Her Nest (Maria Muldaur)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AGXE9PP9 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/KVijVCV8hpGXOkD/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, on November 19, 1975. 

Parliament-Funkadelic - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 11-1976

One thing I've been enjoying about the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts I've been posting is the wide variety of music that was performed in this small Denver venue (which only held a maximum of 250 people). It didn't matter what kind of music was on offer there, so long as it was good. Even so, I'm pleasantly surprised that the funk band Parliament-Funkadelic played there in late 1976. I would have thought they would have been too popular at that time to play such a small venue, but I could imagine that the Denver area wasn't a hotbed of funk back then.

Here's the Wikipedia entry intro:

"Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. With an eclectic style drawing on psychedelia, outlandish fashion, and surreal humor, they have released albums such as 'Maggot Brain' (1971), 'Mothership Connection' (1975), and 'One Nation Under a Groove' (1978) to critical praise, and scored charting hits with singles such as 'Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)' (1975) and 'Flash Light' (1978). Overall, the collective achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits. Their work has had an influential effect on subsequent funk, post-punk, hip-hop, and techno artists of the 1980s and 1990s, while their collective mythology has helped pioneer Afrofuturism."

Also, if you're curious about the band's name - is it two bands or one? - here's the explanation from Wikipedia as well:

"By the late 1960s, [George] Clinton had gained experience as a producer-writer for Motown Records and, inspired by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and Frank Zappa, he relocated to Detroit and enlisted musicians from his New Jersey days in his own two sister bands Parliament and Funkadelic; the first would go on to develop a commercially successful style of science-fiction-inspired funk, while the second pursued a heavier sound which blended funk with psychedelic rock. The name 'Parliament-Funkadelic' became the catch-all term for the dozens of related musicians recording and touring different projects in Clinton's orbit. ... [By 1974,] the two bands began to tour together under the collective name 'Parliament-Funkadelic.'"

Here's the link for the entire entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament-Funkadelic

In July 1976, Parliament released the album "The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein." They also had a hit single in 1976 with "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)." Although that came off their previous album, released in 1975, it didn't reach Gold status until October 1976, just a month prior to this concert. Meanwhile, Funkadelic released the album "Tales of Kidd Funkadelic" in September 1976. So the combined bands had a lot of new music to perform in this concert.

As far as I know, this concert recording remains unreleased. 

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long. 

01 Children of Production (Parliament-Funkadelic)
02 Mothership Connection (Parliament-Funkadelic)
03 Swing Down, Sweet Chariot (Parliament-Funkadelic)
04 Dr. Funkenstein (Parliament-Funkadelic)
05 Coming Round the Mountain (Parliament-Funkadelic)
06 Give Up the Funk [Tear the Roof Off the Sucker] (Parliament-Funkadelic)
07 Cosmic Slop (Parliament-Funkadelic)
08 Red Hot Momma (Parliament-Funkadelic)
09 Let's Take It to the Stage (Parliament-Funkadelic)
10 Do That Stuff (Parliament-Funkadelic)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ih8qEUgD

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/VlrsM4Pir7CjTod/file

The cover image of band leader George Clinton is from a concert in Los Angeles, California, on June 4, 1977.

Ian Matthews - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 6-3-1976

Here's yet another Ebbets Field radio broadcast concert. This time, it stars singer-songwriter Ian Matthews.

Here's the Wikipedia entry intro for him: "He was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK Number One in 1970 with their cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock.' In 1979, his recording of Terence Boylan's 'Shake It' reached No. 13 on the US charts." 

One other important fact about him is that in 1989, he changed the spelling of his first name from "Ian" to "Iain." I'm using "Ian" for this post though, because that was the name he was using in 1976.

Matthews had a lot of success in the early 1970s in a folk rock mode, including the British Number One single mentioned above. He led two bands in that era, Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong. However, he changed his musical style to pop rock with his 1976 album "Go for Broke." This concert took place about a month after the release of that album, so he was focused on that new style. His voice was well suited for that type of music. However, many of his fans were unhappy about the change, and his 1976 album didn't do as well as many of his previous ones. Despite this, he would stick with this different musical style through the rest of the 1970s.

As far as I can tell, this recording wasn't publicly available at all until earlier this year (writing this in July 2026). But this full concert was included on the new archival release "Rhythm of the West: The Columbia Years 1975-1977." A second Ebbets Field concert he did from 1977 was also included, and I plan on posting that soon as well. This seems to be the first newly officially released Ebbets Field concert by any musical act in many years, so let's hope others will follow. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long. 

01 Steamboat (Ian Matthews)
02 Hit and Run (Ian Matthews)
03 Rhythm of the West (Ian Matthews)
04 I Will Not Fade Away (Ian Matthews)
05 Payday (Ian Matthews)
06 Times (Ian Matthews)
07 Tigers Will Survive (Ian Matthews)
08 Shuffle (Ian Matthews)
09 Faith to Arise (Ian Matthews)
10 Nobody (Ian Matthews)
11 Truck Driving Man (Ian Matthews)
12 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews)
13 talk (Ian Matthews)
14 Brown Eyed Girl (Ian Matthews)
15 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xXkP4xbr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/g7qEA2aY6fKShmv/file 

The cover image of Matthews is from an appearance on the Dutch TV show "Toppop" some unknown time in 1976.

Covered: Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Volume 3: 1974-1977

Here's the third volume out of four celebrating the songs written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff - the songwriting duo better known just as "Gamble and Huff."

As the 1970s went on, the hits for their record company, Philadelphia International, just kept coming in a seemingly endless flood. Their Wikipedia entry says this: "By 1975, Philadelphia International and the Philadelphia soul genre it helped define had largely eclipsed Motown and the Motown Sound in popularity, and Gamble and Huff were the premier producers of soul." Keep in mind these volumes only include songs written by them. They produced many more hits too.

During this time period, their biggest hits were "When Will I See You Again" and "Don't Leave Me This Way," both of which hit Number One on the pop singles chart, and "You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine," which just missed at Number Two.

Note that while most of their songs were about romance in various forms, they sometimes had progressive political themes to their songs. For instance, "Love Train" is such a fun, dancable song that one can forget it carries a serious message as well. On this volume, "For the Love of Money," "Give the People What They Want," "Message in Our Music," and "Let's Clean Up the Ghetto" are examples of songs with serious messages.

By the way, speaking of "Let's Clean Up the Ghetto," that song featured most of the big acts on their Philadelphia International record label at the time, including Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass, Archie Bell, the O'Jays, and Dee Dee Sharp Gamble.

The songwriting partnership between Gamble and Huff stayed sharp throughout this time period. Nearly all the songs were written by the two of them and nobody else, though occasionally they were joined by a third songwriter. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 For the Love of Money (O'Jays)
02 When Will I See You Again (Three Degrees)
03 Satisfaction Guaranteed [Or Take Your Love Back] (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
04 Give the People What They Want (O'Jays)
05 Do It Any Way You Wanna (People's Choice)
06 Wake Up Everybody, Part 1 (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
07 Take Good Care of Yourself (Three Degrees)
08 I Love Music (O'Jays)
09 Bad Luck, Part 1 (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
10 Enjoy Yourself (Jackson 5 [Jacksons])
11 Don't Leave Me This Way (Thelma Houston)
12 Message in Our Music (O'Jays)
13 You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine (Lou Rawls)
14 Show You the Way to Go (Jackson 5 [Jacksons])
15 Let's Clean Up the Ghetto (Philadelphia International All Stars)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JKPq5xib

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hcMsqhXFatvy99U/file

The cover is from 1978. I moved the two people closer using Photoshop. Also, the original picture was in black and white. But I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. That's Gamble on the right and Huff on the left.

Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-13-1976

Here is another concert thanks to the surviving Ebbets Field radio broadcasts. This one stars Tommy Bolin.

When it comes to concert recordings from this venue, I have posted more that involve Bolin than anyone else, and it's not even close. There are two reasons for this. One is that Bolin is a much beloved lead guitarist, and there have been dozens of albums released by him since his early death in late 1976. The other is that he lived in the Boulder/Denver area for most of his life, and frequently played there.

At the time of this concert, his career was in transition. He had been a member of Deep Purple, but only long enough to record one studio album with that band. Despite his great guitar playing skill, he wasn't a good fit with that band at that time, due to heavy drug use as well as audience expectations for him to sound more like the band's previous lead guitarist. He would officially leave the band in July 1976. But by the time of this concert, the writing was probably already on the wall. In June, just a few weeks after this concert, he recorded his second solo album, "Private Eyes." That album would be released in September. During the tour to support it, he died of a drug overdose in December 1976. He was only 25 years old.

Even though he recorded a bunch of songs, he wrote for his second album just a month after this concert, none of those were played in this concert. Instead, a lot of of them come from his first solo album, "Teaser," released in 1975.

This concert was officially released in the 1990s under the name "Live at Ebbets Field 1976." But I am posting it here anyway because it's a rather obscure release, and I want to post everything I can from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, since the vast majority of those are unreleased.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 talk by emcee (Tommy Bolin)
02 Teaser (Tommy Bolin)
03 People, People (Tommy Bolin)
04 The Grind (Tommy Bolin)
05 Wild Dogs (Tommy Bolin)
06 Delightful (Tommy Bolin)
07 I Fell in Love (Tommy Bolin)
08 talk (Tommy Bolin)
09 Marching Powder (Tommy Bolin)
10 Lotus (Tommy Bolin)
11 talk (Tommy Bolin)
12 Homeward Strut [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AvfixfPz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/nxtMJlMUXcpC67N/file

The cover image is from Ebbets Field in 1976. However, it's unknown if it's from this concert or a concert on some other date.

J. D. Souther - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 2-7-1976

Here is yet another Ebbets Field radio broadcast. This one stars singer-songwriter J.D. Souther.

Here is the intro to the Wikipedia entry about Souther:

"He was an American singer, songwriter, an actor. He was a principal architect of the southern California sound in a major influence on a generation of songwriters. Souther wrote, and cowrote songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and some of the Eagles biggest including "Best of My Love," "Victim of Love," "Heartache Tonight," and "New Kid in Town." "How Long," Which appeared on the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden," came Souther's first solo album. He recorded to hit songs in his solo career: "You're Only Lonely" (1979) and "Her Town Too" (1981), a duet with James Taylor."

Here is the link to the rest of his Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Souther

At the time of this concert, he had released only two solo albums, "John David Souther" in 1972 and "Black Rose" in 1976. But he also released two more albums as part of the Souther-Hillman-Furay trio in 1974 and 1975 with Chris Hillman and Richie Furay.

As far as I know, all the music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 Kite Woman (J. D. Souther)
02 talk (J. D. Souther)
03 Run like a Thief (J. D. Souther)
04 Faithless Love (J. D. Souther)
05 talk (J. D. Souther)
06 Mexico (J. D. Souther)
07 Simple Man, Simple Dream (J. D. Souther)
08 talk (J. D. Souther)
09 Silver Blue (J. D. Souther)
10 Your Turn Now (J. D. Souther)
11 talk (J. D. Souther)
12 Banging My Head Against the Moon (J. D. Souther)
13 talk by emcee (J. D. Souther)
14 Prisoner in Disguise (J. D. Souther)
15 talk by emcee (J. D. Souther)
16 Baby Come Home (J. D. Souther)
17 talk by emcee (J. D. Souther)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kShTbbTz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/rcWUYdHrif0uELd/file

The cover image is from Anaheim Stadium, in Anaheim, California, on September 28, 1975. I darkened the background in Photoshop.

Dr. Hook - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1-13-1976

The steady flow of Ebbets Field radio broadcast posts continues with Dr. Hook. I have been posting mostly chronologically for a while now and we finally get to 1976, the last year. I have any material to post. (The venue closed down in 1977.)

The band had some hits in 1972 and 1973. But then they had a rough patch. They were spending more money than they were bringing in things to a wild party lifestyle. This is reflected in the names of albums released in 1973, "Belly Up," and in 1975, "Bankrupt." They actually declared bankruptcy in 1974.

Their fortunes turned around in early 1976 with another big hit, a cover of "Only Sixteen," which was originally done by Sam Cooke. But it was released in December 1975, so it probably was still working its way up the chart when this concert happened in early January 1976. That would explain why they were playing a small club that only held a maximum of 250 people.

By the way, the Ebbets Field concerts I've been posting Will soon come to an end. I believe I only have six more after this one.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 talk (Dr. Hook)
02 The Yodel Song (Dr. Hook)
03 talk (Dr. Hook)
04 Queen of the Silver Dollar (Dr. Hook)
05 talk (Dr. Hook)
06 Everybody's Makin' It Big but Me (Dr. Hook)
07 talk (Dr. Hook)
08 I Ain't Got No Home (Dr. Hook)
09 Acapulco Goldie (Dr. Hook)
10 talk (Dr. Hook)
11 Only Sixteen (Dr. Hook)
12 talk (Dr. Hook)
13 Earth Angel - For Your Love - Daddy's Coming Home - Donna - What's Your Name (Dr. Hook)
14 talk (Dr. Hook)
15 Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Dr. Hook)
16 talk (Dr. Hook)
17 Carry Me, Carrie (Dr. Hook)
18 talk (Dr. Hook)
19 The Cover of the Rolling Stone (Dr. Hook)
20 Happy Trails (Dr. Hook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v3cotDoj

alternate:

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

The cover image was taken in London at some point in 1974.

The Carpenters - Singles Uncovered, Volume 3: 1976-1981 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here is the third and last volume of "Singles Uncovered," a Carpenters collection curated by guest poster Mike Solof.

In my write up for Volume Two, I gave my thoughts on why Mike chose to include some songs, but not other songs. For this write up, I thought I would go straight to the horse's mouth – I asked him to explain his selection. Here's what he had to say:

"Hi everybody, I hope you’re liking the series so far. As Paul explained in the last post, I started with the theory of doing all the singles, but then hated some of the singles (lol) so I didn’t include them. As for the non-singles that I might of included… Did I do that??? If so, sorry, but they were probably songs that I knew and loved, so consider them singles adjacent and think of them as bonus songs without Paul’s perplexing method of not numbering the bonus songs (lol). Looking forward to your feedback… See you next project which is a fun Jimmy Buffett one, and which also might be posted soon."

This album is one hour and two minutes long.

01 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (Carpenters)
02 Can't Smile without You (Carpenters)
03 Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (Carpenters)
04 Two Sides (Carpenters)
05 I Just Fall in Love again (Carpenters)
06 The Christmas Song [Merry Christmas to You] (Carpenters)
07 I'll Be Home for Christmas (Carpenters)
08 Little Altar Boy (Carpenters)
09 Leave Yesterday Behind (Carpenters)
10 If I Had You (Carpenters)
11 Touch Me When We're Dancing (Carpenters)
12 Because We Are in Love (Carpenters)
13 Want You Back in My Life Again (Carpenters)
14 Those Good Old Dreams (Carpenters)
15 Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore (Carpenters)
16 The Rainbow Connection (Carpenters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PdtgCZu1 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NH0bCyNdcDfuLLs/file

The cover image was chosen by Mike. I don't know the details. But they look pretty young. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

The Carpenters - Singles Uncovered, Volume 2: 1972-1976 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

The day before yesterday, I posted "Volune 1" in this series of Carpenters albums made by guest poster Mike Solof. This is the second volume, and the third volume will be coming very soon. 

As mentioned in the write-up for "Volume 1," this blog has already posted some different attempts to strip the Carpenters' music of excessive production and get it back to basics, especially Karen Carpenter's voice. But Mike has taken a different approach. He used his editing skills to get rid of most of the strings and excessive backing vocals, but still keep guitar, bass, and drums, as well as the lead vocals.

Also, note that while this is called "Singles Uncovered," that's not strictly true. Most single A-sides from this time are included. But there are some that Mike didn't like so he left them off. And I think they're also are some non-singles that he did like that he included.

This album is one hour long.

01 It's Going to Take Some Time (Carpenters)
02 Goodbye to Love (Carpenters)
03 Road Ode (Carpenters)
04 I Won't Last a Day without You (Carpenters)
05 Top of the World (Carpenters)
06 Sing (Carpenters)
07 This Masquerade (Carpenters)
08 Yesterday Once More (Carpenters)
09 Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (Carpenters)
10 Please, Mr. Postman (Carpenters)
11 Only Yesterday (Carpenters)
12 Happy (Carpenters)
13 Solitaire (Carpenters)
14 Love Me for What I Am (Carpenters)
15 Tryin' to Get That Feeling Again (Carpenters)
16 There's a Kind of Hush (Carpenters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MY3dHuzL 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2TR4KryTZswXVd9/file

The cover image was chosen by Mike. I don't know the details.

Covered: Brian Wilson, Volume 1: 1963-1978 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

June 11th marks the first anniversary of the passing of musical genius Brian Wilson (1942–2025), who would have turned 84 on June 20th had he still been with us. This seems like the perfect moment to post "Covered" albums devoted to this extraordinary songwriter. Since Brian is, of course, closely associated with the Beach Boys, the "Covered: Brian Wilson" collection also serves as an indirect tribute to the legendary vocal group, highlighting the enormous influence they have had on generations of musicians since the 1960s.

This collection is another collaboration with Fabio from Rio. He is a devoted Beach Boys fan and, in fact, his first guest post here was a tribute to Brian Wilson, written and published just days after Brian’s death one year ago. You can find it here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/06/various-artists-songs-in-key-of-brian.html

It is therefore no surprise that he embraced this project wholeheartedly and came up with hundreds of potential covers, which were eventually trimmed down to exactly 100 tracks spread across five volumes. These 100 recordings represent 98 different compositions, since we made minor exceptions to my usual policy of avoiding duplicate songs by including two versions each of "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations", which will appear in later volumes.

Most of the songs here were not hits in their cover versions or at least were not big hits. But there is one important exception: “Surf City” was a Number One hit in the US in 1963 for Jan and Dean. The song was written by Wilson and Jan Berry of Jan and Dean fame. However, even though a lot of these were not the big hits, they were intended to be, it shows that Wilson’s songs were being widely covered practically from the very beginning of his career with The Beach Boys in 1962.

Note that during The time period of this album, 1963 to 1978, Wilson wrote or cowrote dozens of hit songs for the Beach Boys. Fabio and I were careful to never use the Beach Boys versions or solo Brian Wilson versions, but only covers by other musical acts. It just so happens that many of the best covers of those hits from this time come later. So if you don’t see some of your favorite songs, just wait to see what we come up with for the later volumes.

Out of these 23 tracks here, only 12 were recorded by the Beach Boys around the time of their first release. The remaining 11 tracks were originally recorded by other artists, demonstrating that Brian's talent was not limited to his own group.

These are the non-Beach Boys tracks: 

01 Drag City (Jan & Dean)

02 He's a Doll (Honeys)

03 Surf City (Jan & Dean)

04 The One You Can't Have (Honeys)

06 The New Girl in School (Jan & Dean)

08 Guess I'm Dumb (Glen Campbell)

13 Time to Get Alone (Redwood)

17 Good Time (American Spring)

19 Sweet Mountain (American Spring)

20 Had to Phone Ya (American Spring)

23 Almost Summer (Celebration)

A few of those songs - tracks 13, 17, and 20 - were later done by the Beach Boys. And Celebration was a side project for Beach Boys singer Mike Love.

Particularly noteworthy are the Honeys / American Spring (a.k.a. Spring), which together are represented here by five songs. The Honeys were a pop group formed by sisters Marilyn Rovell (later Marilyn Wilson), Diane Rovell, and Barbara Rovell (the latter eventually replaced by their cousin, Ginger Blake). In many ways, they were a female counterpart to the Beach Boys. They were discovered by Gary Usher at a talent show in 1961. Usher eventually introduced them to Brian, who renamed the group and began dating Marilyn. The couple married in December 1964.

The Honeys dissolved in 1970 when Ginger left the group to pursue a solo career. Marilyn and Diane then formed Spring, and later added "American" to the band's name after encountering trademark issues with a British group of the same name that threatened legal action. American Spring released a single album in 1972, produced by Brian Wilson, and recorded several additional tracks in 1977–1978 for a second album that was never released. Some of these recordings would later appear on compilations and anthologies. "Had to Phone Ya," recorded before the Beach Boys' own version, is one such example. 

This album is one hour long.

01 Drag City (Jan & Dean)
02 He's a Doll (Honeys)
03 Surf City (Jan & Dean)
04 The One You Can't Have (Honeys)
05 You're So Good to Me (Fireballs)
06 The New Girl in School (Jan & Dean)
07 Don't Worry Baby (Ivy League)
08 Guess I'm Dumb (Glen Campbell)
09 Here Today (Bobby Vee)
10 I'm Waiting for the Day (Peanut)
11 Don't Talk [Put Your Head on My Shoulder] (Carmen McRae)
12 The Little Girl I Once Knew (Bystanders)
13 Time to Get Alone (Redwood)
14 Aren't You Glad (Peggy March)
15 Darlin' (Paper Dolls)
16 Friends (Chicks)
17 Good Time (American Spring)
18 Vegetables (Jan & Dean)
19 Sweet Mountain (American Spring)
20 Had to Phone Ya (American Spring)
21 Sail On Sailor (KGB)
22 Breakaway (Wildfire)
23 Almost Summer (Celebration)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ypFoz44W

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DdA0Xae8n72zlKI/file

The cover image is from 1964.

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.