FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2009
KATE WOLF’S CATALOG OF FOLK ALBUMS FROM KALEIDOSCOPE RECORDS
TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC
The Northern California singer-songwriter never had a chart hit, but interest has mounted in her recordings since her 1986 death.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Kate Wolf was a welcome presence in the late ‘70s and mid-‘80s folk scene. Her blend of folk, country and pop helped pave the way for artists like Nanci Griffith and Mary-Chapin Carpenter. Wolf never had a hit single, and in fact the All Music Guide points out that “her style is one that tends to grow on listeners over time, as Wolf is not about flash. Her songs, characterized by a strong narrative thread, are about the ebbs and flows of adult life, in terms that are neither overly sentimental not mundane.” As late singer-songwriter Utah Phillips once introduced her, “I'd like you to meet Kate Wolf. She owns herself.”
Wolf died of leukemia in December 1986 at the age of 44, leaving behind a vast catalog of albums. Five of those albums — Back Roads, Lines on Paper, Safe at Anchor, Give Yourself to Love and The Wind Blows Wild — will be reissued on CD by Collectors’ Choice Music on July 7, 2009.
Wolf’s legacy is renewed and commemorated every year with the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival in her native Northern California. That area is the backdrop to many of her songs, which tackle themes of family, love and loss with uncommon sensitivity and insight. It’s music for folks with open ears, hearts and minds.
• Back Roads: Wolf’s 1976 debut, recorded with her long-time band Wildwood Flower, was “made by people who live and work in Sonoma Country, California,” as the liner notes say. Recording was overseen by Dan Dugan “in front of an open fire with friends coming and going, and time to walk on the beach and eat good home cooking.” The Wildwood Flower (Don Coffin, Paul Ellis and Will Siegel) added Pete Wiseman, a member of the Santa Rosa Symphony Orchestra and David West from the Cache Valley Drifters. The album contains “Lately,” “Emma Rose,” “Sitting on the Porch, “The Redtail Hawk” and eight others.
• Lines on the Paper: Like Back Roads, this 1977 release featured the Wildwood Flower with additional help, this time from all the Cache Valley Drifters (David West, Cyrus Clarke, Bill Griffin and Wally Barnick). It was recorded live in a living room in a working ranch above the Pacific Ocean. Included are “I Don’t Know Why,” “Lines on Paper,” “You’re Not Standing Like You Used To,” “Picture Puzzle” and eight more.
• Safe at Anchor: Album annotator Phil Elwood, then the jazz critic for the San Francisco Examiner, describes Wolf as possessed of “a deep, rich, beautifully tuned vocal instrument,” which he felt was served beautifully by the arrangements here. The album contains orchestrations by piano player Bill Griffin, who as Elwood writes, “has a feeling for Kate’s voice, treating it with affection and supporting it (including fondling it) with original and enhanced instrumental mixes.” Examples of these, he notes, are “the mandolin/accordion blending on the title track, the violin/steel guitar combination of ‘September Song,’ the pair of guitars under Celtic harps on ’Seashore Mountain Lady.’”
• Give Yourself to Love: Wolf’s 1983 double live album, recorded at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, featured long-time band members Nina Gerber and Ford James. Kate’s friend Rose Maddox, California’s “grandmother of rockabilly,” wrote in the liner notes, “I’m sure you are going to enjoy her talents throughout the years as I have. She is a truly great artist!” Collectors’ Choice has reissued the two LPs as a double-CD set; among 19 tracks are “Give Yourself to Love,” “Desert Wind,” “The Ballad of Weaverville,” “Green Eyes” and covers of songs by John Stewart, Sandy Denny, Mary McCaslin, the Incredible String Band’s Robin Williamson and the Eagles.
• The Wind Blows Wild: This release was compiled after Wolf’s passing by long-time associate Nina Gerber from studio recordings, radio shows and live performances. The title track is the last song Kate recorded before her death. The rest of the album spans her entire career, offering live and studio performances of such heartfelt and beautiful songs as “Old Jerome,” “Statues Made of Clay,” “Mountains,” “Laugh Like That,” “Rising of the Moon” and more, plus the studio version of “Give Yourself to Love.” According to the notes, “Since some of this material was not originally meant to be released on record, the technical quality may not meet modern studio standards and the performances may not be perfect, but the music is real and from the heart.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2009
BOOK OF LOVE’S FOUR SIRE ALBUMS REISSUED ON NOBLE ROT, SELF-TITLED FIRST ALBUM CONTAINS BONUS DISK OF DEMOS
Seminal ‘80s synth-pop enjoys revival as they reunites and take to the road
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — One of the premiere first wave electronic groups, Book of Love emerged out of the New York City scene in the mid-‘80s in the wake of UK synthpop stalwarts Yaz, Erasure and Depeche Mode. Signed to a label deal with Sire Records by the legendary Seymour Stein, art-students-turned-musicians Ted Ottaviano, Susan Ottaviano (oddly no relation), Jade Lee and Lauren Roselli recorded just four albums, but their influence can heard today more powerfully than ever, from the chart-storming dance pop of Ladyhawke and La Rouxto the darker leanings of indie electro darlings Little Boots and Goldfrapp. Yet as these albums — Book of Love, Lullaby, Candy Carol and Lovebubble — are readied for a July 21 reissue on Collectors’ Choice Music’s Noble Rot label, the reunited bandmates are preparing their first tour since 2001.
The reissues were annotated by Michael Paoletta, former editor and dance music columnist at Billboard magazine, who observed: “Memorable melodies and provocative lyrics reigned supreme. Book of Love’s songs were cathartic, ebullient and life-affirming: solemn celebrations if you will.”
Between 1986 and 1993, the band delivered 12 singles culled from the four studio albums about to be reissued. Songwriting duties were handled primarily by Susan and Ted though Lauren contributed more to this process on Candy Carol and Lovebubble, while Jade’s writing chops were showcased on the first and final albums.
• Book of Love: Book of Love’s 1986 eponymous debut album contained the hits “Boy,” “Book of Love,” “I Touch the Roses” and “Modigliani (Lost in Your Eyes),” all chart-topping Billboard dance hits. The album got them on the road with Depeche Mode twice at the height of that group’s popularity. Seymour Stein signed the band to Sire Records upon hearing the demo of the song “Boy,” which joins ten other demo tracks on a bonus album, making the Book of Love reissue a 2-CD set. Other bonus tracks include rare demos “I Touch Roses (Daniel Miller Mix),” “Boy (Dub Version)” and “Modigliani (Instrumental Version).”
• Lullaby: This 1988 release became the band’s highest-charting album, thanks in large part to the two killer cuts that lead off the record. The first was a beat-fortified remake of Mike Oldfield’s classic “Tubular Bells (Theme From The Exorcist)” and “Pretty Boys, Pretty Girls,” which was quite possibly the first song about AIDS ever to hit the charts. The deluxe reissue includes the bonus extended mix of “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls,” “Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys Pretty Girls” (Regan’s house medley), “Lullaby (Pleasant Dream Mix),” “Witchcraft (Extended Mix)” and “Enchantra.” The album spent nine weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, peaking at 156 and crossing over from club dance floors to adventurous pop radio stations.
• Candy Carol: Highlighted by the tracks “Alice Everyday,” “Counting the Rosaries” and “Sunny Day” (which was featured in the film The Silence of the Lambs), this 1991 album shifted into a more psychedelic direction and was rewarded with another Billboard album chart entry; the single “Alice Everyday” missed Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart by one point. “We were working on Candy Carol when Jonathan Demme was working on Silence,” says Lauren, “I played him a rough mix and he felt he could use it in the film.” Bonus tracks include the “Everyday Glo Mix” and the “Sam the Butcher Mix” of “Alice Everyday,” plus the single remix of “Sunny Day” and the “Happiness and Love Mix” of “Counting the Rosaries.”
• Lovebubble: Book of Love’s final album in 1993 shows the members moving in different directions, making it an interesting, eclectic listen, full of cognitive dissonance. Included are “Boy Pop” (“Swinging Boy Bop Mix”), “Hunny Hunny (the band’s ABBA tribute in its “Sweet and Sticky MixPop Mix”) plus “Chatterbox” (“The Late Nite Chat Mix”). Lovebubble was the only Book of Love to feature vocal work by all four members. According to annotator Paoletta, the band “could decide to move creatively forward or back. So they went both ways.” “We were cordial while making Lovebubbble but the camaraderie was gone,” says Ted. “You can’t make magic with four cordial people.”
The group’s last proper tour was in 2001, in support of Candy Carol. If all goes according to plan, Book of Love will take to the road in the coming months including a hometown New York show.
“In the meantime,” writes Paoletta, “we will, collectively, continue to touch roses.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2009
LITTLE RICHARD’S THREE REPRISE ALBUMS FROM 1970s REISSUED ON COLLECTORS CHOICE MUSIC
The Rill Thing, King of Rock and Roll and the Bumps Blackwell-produced The Second Coming were evidence of a still-vital artist who combined tradition with newer sounds.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Little Richard is well known as one of rock ’n’ roll’s great originators. His run of hits on Specialty Records between 1955-58 brought legendary hits like “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Rip It Up,” “Lucille,” “Jenny Jenny,” “Keep A-Knockin’,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.” At the end of the run, he opted for the sacred over the profane, emerging as a minister and recording gospel music on Atlantic, Mercury and Vee-Jay. Little Richard’s music was introduced to a new generation by The Beatles’ cover of “Long Tall Sally.” And in 1970, as ‘50s rock ’n’ roll enjoyed a revival of interest, Richard was signed to Warner Bros.’s Reprise label by Mo Ostin.
His three-album stint at Reprise created three excellent if commercially unaccepted albums: 1970’s The Rill Thing (from which Richard turned out a mid-chart hit with “Freedom Blues”), King of Rock and Roll in 1971 and The Second Coming in 1972. The albums demonstrate his incredible range, from ‘50s style rock ’n’ roll to soul, funk and rock music of the day. The three long-players will be released on CD in their original form for the first time by Collectors’ Choice Music on June 23, 2009. Music historian Gene Sculatti, author of the Catalog of Cool, contributed liner notes.
As Little Richard said at the time of The Rill Thing’s release: “I believe (the older people) will accept me for my sincerity and my contribution to rock ’n’ roll. But the young people are going to buy it because they want to hear the truth.”
• The Rill Thing: Little Richard recorded with the Muscle Shoals rhythm and horn sections on his 1970 Reprise debut, which Rolling Stone called “a major artistic triumph,” noting that he “personally arranged, produced and recorded the album with five recently penned originals. The record faithfully exhibits Richard’s maturity as an artist.” The first single, “Freedom Blues,” notched #47 on the pop charts, #28 R&B. Its two additional singles were the Travis Wammack-written “Greenwood, Mississippi,” which stalled at #85, and a non-charting yet inspired version of the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.” The album also included cover of Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” done up in a New Orleans rhythm and “Dew Drop Inn,” which revisits more conventional Little Richard terrain: the patent scream, rollicking piano and booting sax solo of his earliest hits.
• The King of Rock and Roll: The trade ad for this 1971 volume read: “Only Little Richard could top Little Richard.” Joel Selvin, reviewing in Rolling Stone, called the second Reprise set “a most significant chapter in the living legend of the greatest rock ’n’ roll singer ever . . .packed with the sort of stuff good rock is made of.” Richard paired with producer H.B. Barnum (Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, O.C. Smith) here, finding him working closer to the upbeat R&B style of “Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly Miss Molly,” but performing repertoire culled from the Top 40 of the ‘60s and early ‘70s: “Brown Sugar,” “Joy to the World,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Born on the Bayou,” and takes on Hank Williams’ ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” Leadbelly’s “The Midnight Special” and Fred Rose’s “Settin’ the Woods on Fire.”
• The Second Coming: Little Richard’s third and final Reprise album (although portions of a fourth were recorded and shelved) finds him reunited with Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, producer of his Specialty Records hits in the ‘50s. Four tunes (“Mockingbird Sally,” “Rockin’ Rockin’ Boogie,” “Thomasine” and “Saints”) feature New Orleans musicians who played on Richard’s (and many of Fats Domino’s) original hits: drummer Earl Palmer and sax man Lee Allen. Commenting on “Saints,” an update of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Blackwell, in his original album notes, explained that their aim was to mix “New Orleans jazz with the horns and guitars creating a big brass sound, with the wah-wah blending in what I call the Isaac Hayes and Bar-Kays rhythmic Shaft attitude.” The album also contains a Little Richard/Sneaky Pete Kleinow co-write, “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way You Do It,” with Kleinow’s pedal steel and Richard on electric piano reminiscent to The Beatles’ “Get Back.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2009
COLLECTORS’ CHOICE TO RELEASE GARY LEWIS & THE PLAYBOYS’ THE COMPLETE LIBERTY SINGLES COLLECTING 55 "A" and "B" SIDES PLUS TWO PROMO-ONLY TRACKS ON TWO CDs IN THEIR ORIGINAL MONO MIXES.
‘60s band’s golden era included “This Diamond Ring,” “Count Me In,” “Save Your Heart for Me,” “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “Sure Gonna Miss Her,” “Green Grass” and more. The hit team included Snuff Garrett, Al Kooper, Leon Russell, Hal Blaine and Jim Keltner.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In the tradition of Collectors’ Choice Music’s hits collections from Jan & Dean and Tommy James & the Shondells, the label will issue Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ The Complete Liberty Singles collection, featuring 55 songs — many for the first time on CD and all in their original mono mixes. The collection, due out on May 26, 2009, features such hits as “This Diamond Ring,” “Count Me In,” “Save Your Heart for Me,” “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “She's Just My Style," "Sure Gonna Miss Her,” “Green Grass,” “My Heart's Symphony” “Jill,” “Rhythm of the Rain,” “Loser (With a Broken Heart),” "Sealed With A Kiss" and many more, including B-sides, "Doin' The Flake" (from a cereal box-top offer), and the promo-only rarity, “Way Way Out.”
The set, annotated by Ed Osborne, is enhanced by interviews with Lewis as well as producer Snuff Garrett, arranger Leon Russell, drummers Hal Blaine and Jim Keltner, and others who comprised the Gary Lewis & the Playboys creative team.
Gary Lewis & the Playboys were discovered by producer Snuff Garrett through a tip from Lou Brown, a friend of Gary’s father Jerry Lewis. Garrett had heard a demo of a song called “This Diamond Ring” co-written by Al Kooper and thought Lewis would be perfect to record it. In November 1964, the band — Lewis, drums and vocals; Allan Lawson Ramsey, lead guitar; Dave Costell, rhythm guitar; and Cordovox player John West — found themselves in the studio with Garrett’s arranger, Leon Russell. To the band’s initial dismay, the famed Wrecking Crew session musicians played the instruments, with Lewis promoted to lead singer and session singer Ron Hicklin (of The Eligibles) brought in to bolster Lewis’ voice. Liberty Records president Al Bennett reportedly “despised” the song initially, possibly because Garrett had left an A&R position at the label to go independent. But after the band debuted it on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 6, 1964, it roared to Billboard’s #1 position, bumping the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” out of the top spot and burying Sammy Ambrose's R&B version of "Diamond Ring" along the way.
After returning to the studio to record their #2 single “Count Me In” (originally written for Herman’s Hermits), the Playboys recorded a song exclusively for Kellogg’s cereal (“Doin’ the Flake”), which accompanied a special pressing of “This Diamond Ring” and Little Miss Go-Go" in a free box top offer. Next came the Top 3 summertime hit “Save Your Heart for Me,” the #4 “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “Green Grass” – which reached the #8 spot - and the Beach Boys-influenced “She's Just My Style.” And the hits just kept on coming.
That is, until New Year's Day of 1967 — a month after the band had recorded “The Loser” — when Lewis was drafted into the U.S. Army and eventually sent to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. Fortunately he’d banked a few recordings before he left, including “Girls in Love,” penned for him by Alan Gordon and Gary Bonner, the team that wrote the Turtles’ smashes. Unfortunately, Lewis’ attorneys had chosen that time to sue the label for back royalties, leaving the label with little incentive to promote the singles. Plus, the singer could no longer tour to keep up his visibility. “Has She Got the Nicest Eyes” — penned by Russ Titelman, Jack Nietzche and Lowell George — failed to chart at all.
While Lewis was overseas, Liberty Records released an earlier recording from the vault, “Sealed With a Kiss,” (originally cut by Brian Hyland and with Garrett back at the helm). It dented the Top 20, but Lewis never liked the production. After “Rhythm of the Rain,” which made it to #63, and “Hayride,” which went nowhere, Garrett told Lewis: “There is no more market for Gary Lewis & the Playboys.” Gary self-produced two more singles and then called it quits. “It was a terrible time,” recalls Lewis. Yet today he looks back with no regrets: “I was thrilled to be doing that. It was really so much fun.”
And fun, in turn, to roll back the clock to the halcyon age of ‘60s AM radio with the definitive Gary Lewis & the Playboys singles collection. The Collectors’ Choice package (list price $27.98) presents all the hits, B-sides and two rarities in glorious mono, remastered from the original tapes, along with extensive liner notes, picture sleeve artwork, and photos.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2009
DEL-LORDS’ FIRST THREE ALBUMS REISSUED ON CD BY AMERICAN BEAT THROUGH COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC ON MAY 26
Bandmates Scott Kempner (Dictators), Eric Ambel (Joan Jett), Frank Funaro (Cracker) and Manny Caiati re-invigorated rock’n’roll . . .and may have stumbled into inventing Americana
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In New York in the mid-‘80s, four veteran New York musicians united to form the Del-Lords: Scott Kempner from the Dictators, Eric Ambel from Joan Jett’s Blackhearts, future Cracker drummer Frank Funaro and thundering bassist Manny Caiati. Key songwriter Kempner said his vision “was to create a band that would feature four singers performing my songs — an East Coast Beach Boys if you will.” But rather than singing about girls and cars, the Del-Lords sang about things that mattered to them: the everyday grind of life and how it affected the band and those around them.
The Del-Lords recorded three albums that broke no sales records but helped start an American rock ’n’ roll rebirth — and helped sire the Americana movement as well. And now, after a long absence from the marketplace, the first three long-players — Frontier Days, Johnny Comes Marching Home and Based on a True Story — will be reissued on CD by American Beat Records through Collectors’ Choice Music, on May 26, 2009. Their last two albums, Lovers Who Wander and Howlin’ at the Halloween Moon, will come out later this year.
• Frontier Days: The band’s 1984 debut album showed the Del-Lords could rock as hard as the meanest punk bands of the day but also kept an ear toward the melody of the songs. Rolling Stone awarded the album four stars and Robert Christgau in the Village Voice graded it A–, his only complaint that production by Lou Whitney (Skeletons, Morells) wasn’t commercial enough to get radio airplay. And Trouser Press exclaimed, “The Del-Lords embrace rock’s basic components with such skill and verve that they outshine everyone else on the scene.” A promising start. Songs include “Burning in the Flame of Love,” ”Get Tough” and six others from the original LP, plus five never-before-heard bonus tracks and new liner notes from Kempner. First time on CD!
• Johnny Comes Marching Home: For their second album, the band switched to an unlikely producer with a proven track record for rock radio hits, Neil Geraldo (Pat Benatar’s guitarist/producer/husband.) The gamble paid off. Johnny retains the drive and grit of the first album yet the sound is brighter and more engaging. Also aiding the cause was two years of road miles under their belts when they went into the studio. The signature Link Wray echo and rockabilly swagger is still there, kicked into a new gear. Included are the songs “Heaven,” “Love Lies Dying,” “Saint Jake.” “No Waitress No More” and six others. In addition, five previously unreleased tracks are included. Another CD debut!
• Based on a True Story: This 1988 album marked the first time in the band’s career that they went into the studio with a full team in place, Geraldo returning to the producer’s chair, in a pedal-to-the-metal, show-me-what-you-got affair. This time the band had help from a few guest vocalists — Syd Straw, Mojo Nixon, Kim Shattuck (The Pandoras) and, yes, Pat Benatar. True to their guns, the band turned down a lucrative beer company sponsorship, preferring to remain a no-nonsense working man’s rock ’n’ roll band at its peak. This album was released on CD, but due to a label shakeup not many copies found their way into stores. The album contains their biggest hit, “Judas Kiss,” as well as “The Cool and the Crazy,” “Crawl in Bed,” “Cheyenne” and six others, plus, you guessed it, five previously unreleased bonus tracks. Kempner again wrote liner notes for the reissue.
Looking back a quarter of a century to the band formation, Kempner explains: “The Del-Lords were conceived as Holy Sacrament: two guitars, bass & drums, four lead singers, just the way we figured El Hombre Grande wanted it. F--- not with what is essentially perfect! However, the reverence ended there and we were more in tune with John Lennon's assessment: ‘the blues ain't a painting to look at and admire, it's a chair to sit in and use.’ They called it ‘roots-rock’ or ‘cowpunk,’ we called it rock 'n' roll. The good kind. It was firmly rooted in the great artists who came before but, we were burdened in soul and of mind with a very bad attitude. We stomped all over the blues, country, rock 'n' roll, of all kinds and twisted it into something uniquely of us. I mean, I'm a Jew from the South F---n' Bronx! Who am I kidding?
“Now, 25 years after the fact the landscape is grim once again,” he adds. “Just like 1984. Rock 'n' roll where art thou? It seems to me it's the same folks playin’ it now that was playin’ it then. Blessed are the faithful. These records we made back then sound awful good to me right now. A mighty noise. They sound necessary again. Rock'n'roll gives what it gets. Remember that! It's not a painting, it's a f---in' chair!”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2009
SNOOKS EAGLIN’S BABY, YOU CAN GET YOUR GUN, A BLACK TOP RECORDS CLASSIC, IS REISSUED ON HEP CAT RECORDS THROUGH COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC ON APRIL 21
Eaglin is accompanied by Fats Domino’s rhythm section plus David Lastie, Ron Levy and Ronnie Earl on his first Black Top album
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Snooks Eaglin, the legendary New Orleans blues and R&B singer and guitarist, passed away on February 18 of this year. That city’s Offbeat magazine described him as “a one-of-a-kind guitar player who could play an unbelievable run with his amazing (seemingly double-jointed) fingers in a repertoire that ranged from Beethoven to R&B; thus his moniker: ‘The Human Jukebox.’” Eaglin, who first recorded in 1958, began a five-album run on Black Top Records with 1987’s Baby, You Can Get Your Gun, which All Music.com awarded 41⁄2 stars. The album will be reissued on Hep Cat Records through Collectors’ Choice Music on April 21.
Other Black Top reissues set for April 21 are Ronnie Earle & the Broadcasters’ Peace of Mind and Deep Blues, Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets’ Sins and The James Harman Band’s Cards on the Table.
Fird “Snooks” Eaglin was born in New Orleans in 1936. Like his contemporary, the late James Booker, Snooks delighted in guiding his listeners through unexpected musical labyrinths. On Baby, You Can Get Your Gun, his first Black Top release, Snooks voyages from blues at its most sophisticated, covering Percy Mayfield’s “Baby Please,” to blues of the most nasty, suggestive variety, on “Nobody Knows.” There are shuffles done in a style unique to Snooks — “Mary Joe” and “Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!” (originally cut by Earl King for Ace Records). There is the James Brown-inspired “Drop the Bomb!” and a tribute to the Ventures called “Profidia.” There’s a nod to the sanctified realm of gospel on Smiley Lewis’ “That Certain Door,” and both “Oh Sweetness” and Pretty Girls Everywhere” are evocative of the music Snooks created during his association with Professor Longhair. (Snooks abruptly exited an upstate New York recording session with ‘Fess during the ‘70s because the sound of snow falling kept the blind guitarist awake all night.)
Snooks’ musical career has been likewise eclectic. He was the lead guitarist in 16-year-old Allen Toussaint’s first band, The Flamingoes. In 1958, he was recorded by folklorists Harry Oster and Richard Allen under the direction of the eminent band leader Dave Bartholomew. Snooks recorded ten singles for Lewis Chudd’s Imperial Records from 1960-61. Then, in 1974, he was the featured guitarist on the Wild Magnolias’ debut album of revisionist Mardi Gras Indian songs. For more than three decades, Snooks had been one of the Crescent City’s most popular entertainers. In a town dominated by awesome pianists, he was the ruling guitarist.
Snooks’ accompanists on Baby, You Can Get Your Gun included Joe “Smokey” Johnson and bassist Erving Charles, Jr., otherwise known as the rhythm section of Fats Domino’s orchestra; David Lastie, who supplied the sax breaks on his uncle Jessie Hill’s 1960 hit “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” (and is part of a notable Ninth Ward musical family); Ron Levy, who spent seven years at the piano and the Hammond B-3 in B.B. King’s touring combo and has recently been featured with Roomful of Blues, and Levy’s long-time close friend Ronnie Earl, whose guitar propelled Roomful of Blues and a notable solo career.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2009
THE TURTLES’ BRITISH ADVENTURE TOLD IN FILM MY DINNER WITH JIMI, SET FOR JUNE 9 DVD RELEASE THROUGH MICRO WERKS
The Turtles’ own Howard Kaylan wrote this reenactment of what happened when his band mates met their rock heroes.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A slew of films about the British rock scene of the 1960s will make it to the marketplace this year. Beating them to the punch, at least on DVD, is My Dinner With Jimi. The film was written by someone who was actually there: The Turtles’ lead singer Howard Kaylan. In 1967 the Turtles, riding high with their mega-hit “Happy Together,” were flown to England for promotion, and wound up hanging out with many of their heroes. The film follows the band as they encounter rock stars of the day, including the Beatles, Jim Morrison and ultimately, Jimi Hendrix.
Rhino Entertainment’s co-founder Harold Bronson, the movie’s producer, pushed the production to achieve a historical accuracy lacking in similar films. My Dinner With Jimi is the fourth feature directed by Bill Fishman (Tapeheads, Ramones videos). Produced for Rhino Films, the movie, with bonus material, will be released by Micro Werks on June 9, distributed through Infinity Entertainment Group.
Royale Watkins stars as Jimi Hendrix, whose performance Variety called “a completely believable turn.” Academy Award Nominee Justin Henry plays Howard Kaylan, and Jason Boggs plays Turtle Mark Volman.
“It’s an absolutely true story,” Kaylan recounts. “It was our first trip to London and we met Graham Nash, Donovan, the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, and the Beatles all on the same night! Nash played us Sgt. Pepper’s before it was released. I wound up having dinner with Hendrix at 4 a.m.!”
The Turtles’ other hits include “Elenore,” “You Showed Me” and “She’d Rather Be With Me,” and they hold the distinction of having been the first rock band to play the White House. They still tour a minimum of 50 dates per year as the Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie.
According to producer Bronson, “In my 24 years co-running Rhino — with co-founder Richard Foos — my most enjoyable times were spent with Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman working on various Turtles and Flo & Eddie (the groups they fronted) projects. One bonus was hearing their marvelous stories. For many years, I’ve not only wanted to tell their story in a feature film format, but to give the viewer more of an idea of this special time. I always wondered what it would be like to have been a fly on the wall in that magical time. With My Dinner With Jimi, I believe we’ve come close.”
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For more information on My Dinner with Jimi and interviews with Howard Kaylan, please contact conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2009
PAUL JONES, THE VOICE OF MANFRED MANN, READIES SOLO ALBUM STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE (BUT NOT A REISSUE!)
British vocalist’s solo album features Eric Clapton, Jake Andrews, Tony Marisco, Alvino Bennett, Ernie Watts and Mikael Rickfors, and is produced by Carla Olson
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Paul Jones is known to many as the singer and heart-throb of the British Invasion band Manfred Mann — the voice on mid-‘60s hits like “Do Wah Diddy,” “Pretty Flamingo,” “Come Tomorrow” and “Sha La La.” The new CD, Starting All Over Again, is his first solo album in decades. It will be released on March 10 on Collectors’ Choice Music, marking it the first non-archival release in the venerable reissue label’s history.
Backing Jones on the project are musicians of no small esteem: Eric Clapton plays guitar on two tracks (“Choose or Cop Out” and “Starting All Over Again”) and is joined by Jake Andrews, guitar; Tony Marsico (Plugz, Cruzados, Neil Young, John Doe, Peter Case), bass; Alvino Bennett (LTD, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Ferry, Dave Mason), drums; Mike Thompson (Eagles, Don Henley), piano and Hammond B3 organ; Ernie Watts (Rolling Stones, Thelonious Monk, Steely Dan), saxophone; Darrell Leonard (Duane Allman, Freddie King, Smokey Robinson), trumpet; Tom Junior Moran (Percy Sledge, Mick Taylor, Phil Seymour), saxophone; Mikael Rickfors (The Hollies), backing vocals; Jake Andrews and several others.
The producer is Carla Olson, who has produced albums or tracks by Joe Louis Walker, Phil Upchurch, Otis Rush, The Ventures, Taj Mahal and a host of others, and who has recorded with Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Eric Johnson, John Fogerty, Mick Taylor and Gene Clark. A&R was overseen by Saul Davis.
In the circuitous road from Manfred Mann in the ‘60s to the present, the multitalented Jones recorded three solo albums in the ‘60s and turned to acting — first in films and television, then on stage. His films include the underground classics Privilege and The Committee. Among his television credits are Z Cars, Space 1999 and The Sweeney. He also appeared in productions for London’s Royal National Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has worked with directors Sir Richard Eyre, Peter Gill and Toby Robertson. His gold albums include one for the original recording of Evita. He also performs in The Manfreds, a band containing Jones and other Manfred Mann alumni, and hosts a blues radio show on BBC’s World Service.
The new album features “Lover To Cry,” penned by Jake Andrews, guitarist on most of the album; “If You Love Me (Like You Say)” by bluesman Little Johnnie Taylor; “Choose or Cop Out,” a Jones original featuring Clapton; the title track ”Starting All Over Again” by Stax soul star Johnnie Taylor, also featuring Clapton; “I’m Gone,” originated by the Swedish band The Creeps; “Philosopher’s Stone,” a Van Morrison song; “Need to Know,” written by British and Nigerian artist Ola Onabule; “Gratefully Blue,” an Eric Bibb composition; “When He Comes,” written by Jones with ex-Hollies member Mikael Rickfors; and an instrumental, “Alvino’s Entourage.” Also included is a bonus track, “Big Blue Diamonds,” a duet between Jones and Percy Sledge culled from Sledge’s 2004 Shining Through the Rain album.
According to Jones, “Not that I knew it but I guess the reason I hadn't cut an album in so long was that I needed to record the right one. And this sure feels like the right one if I do say so myself! When producer Carla Olson approached me about recording we agreed that material was number one. I really wasn't writing a lot so we had to choose with care. After sending songs to each other it was apparent quite early that we were on the same page. We both wanted a variety of styles and tempos but it needed to sound unified as well. Rock, pop, blues. Electric, acoustic. Bare bones, band with horns and backup vocals. It's all there.”
Added CCM label head Gordon Anderson, “This project is the exception that proves the rule when it comes to our label putting out contemporary recordings. The quality of this album, and the personnel on it, basically made the decision to go ahead with our first-ever ‘new’ album an easy one.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2009
PETULA CLARK CD AND DVD COMING FROM COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC
CD, Petula Clark: Open Your Heart – The Love Song Collection, contains 21 tracks, many unreleased, while DVD, Portrait of Petula Clark, documents 1969 TV special.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — International vocal superstar Petula Clark — best known for hits like “Downtown,” “I Know A Place,” “Color My World,” “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” and “My Song” — will soon have both a CD and DVD on Collectors’ Choice Music.
The CD, titled Petula Clark: Open Your Mind — The Love Song Collection and due out February 3, contains 21 love songs, many of them previously unreleased and spanning the period between 1972 to present. The DVD, Portrait of Petula Clark, dropping March 10, is taken from a 1969 multi-city shoot originally seen as a British TV special.
Petula Clark: Open Your Mind — The Love Song Collection ships just ahead of Valentine’s Day and contains originals by Clark, songs written by longtime producer Tony Hatch and several covers, all culled from a variety of labels, among them MGM, Universal and Scotti Brothers. Included are Hatch compositions “Walking on Air,” “Open Your Heart” and “Serenade of Love,” plus Clark’s “Super Loving Lady,” an alternate take of “It’s OK (I Believe in You)” from Then & Now: The Very Best of Petula Clark and the newly recorded, never-before-released “In the City.” Cover highlights include Leon Russell’s “Song for You,” Queen’s “These Are the Days of Our Lives,” Paul Stookey’s “The Wedding Song” and Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
In her foreword for the package, Clark writes: “Love songs — where would we be without them? Breezy love songs, nice 'n' easy love songs, sad love songs, even silly love songs. Now and then, one comes along and seems to change the meaning of it all. Singers love to sing them. I've recorded quite a few — even written some of my own at different stages of my life. So, I hope that here you will find a love song for your own special keeping.”
Portrait of Petula Clark, the DVD, is taken from a 1969 TV special filmed in Paris, London, Geneva and Los Angeles. It’s immediately evident from the color-drenched sets and the joie de vivre expressed in every note that this could have only come from that time and place. Clark offers charming interpretations of “This Girl’s in Love With You,” “My Funny Valentine,” “When I was a Child,” “Mademoiselle de Paris” and the ballad “You & I” from her motion picture Goodbye Mr. Chips. Crooner Andy Williams duets with Petula on “Visions of Sugar Plums” and the playful “You Can’t Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd” (written by Roger Miller). Williams also sings “Happy Heart,” a hit for both himself and Clark. And in keeping with the international flavor, French vocalist Sacha Fistel performs “Love Is Blue” and joins Clark and Williams for “The Poor People of Paris.” Then it’s back to London for an appearance by British actor Ron Moody and his character Fagin from the film Oliver.
Special bonus material on the DVD includes Petula singing ”Walk Through the World with Me” and “Without a Song,” plus new interviews with Petula and Andy Williams. Called “enchanting” by the Hollywood Reporter, the DVD contains 65 minutes and features 16 songs.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2008
BOB WILLS & HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS’ TIFFANY TRANSCRIPTIONS 10-DISC, 150-SONG COLLECTION IS COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC’S FIRST-EVER BOX SET, DUE OUT ON JANUARY 27, 2O09
Western swing king’s rare 1940s San Francisco radio transcriptions are remastered with revelatory new sound. Set features liner notes by Rich Kienzle with testimonials from swing disciples Ray Benson, Ranger Doug and Big Sandy’s Fly-Rite Boys.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys were the originators and best-known practitioners of Western swing, their repertoire including classics like “New San Antonio Rose,” “Faded Love” and “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” In 1945, Wills teamed up with Oakland, Calif. disc jockey Cliff “Cactus Jack” Johnson and businessman Clifford Sundlin to launch Tiffany Music, Inc. The company’s goal was to supply syndicated radio programs to subscribing stations. Wills and the Playboys were the featured performers.
These programs, known as the Tiffany Transcriptions, have been assembled into a 10-disc, 150-song box set — the first-ever box set from venerable reissue label Collectors’ Choice Music. The collection, due for a January 27, 2008 street date, is fully and lovingly remastered by Bob Fisher (who has been waiting years for a crack at ‘em) and features liner notes by Wills expert Rich Kienzle, who writes: “For all the great records Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys made in 1946-47 for Columbia and MGM — and there were plenty — the Tiffany sessions captured something deeper, intangible and vibrant, music that even the occasional miscue or missed note can’t diminish. It represents the very soul, spirit and musical passion of Bob and the band as they really were on those Western and Southwestern bandstands. Sixty years later, it still sounds like yesterday.”
The package also features written testimonials from the next generation of Western swing stars. “To be honest,” writes Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, “without the Tiffany Transcriptions, Asleep at the Wheel would not have had the materials needed to become proficient Western swingers . . . which I hope we are.” Riders in the Sky’s Ranger Doug adds, “I am honored, I am blessed, I am grateful, and I am a fan of the Texas Playboys forever.”
Over the course of the 1946-47 Tiffany Transcription sessions, Wills and the Playboys recorded sores of tunes — not just their hits and their bandstand repertoire. They utilized the sessions as an opportunity to work out new tunes, revisit older Playboys recordings, and, in true Western swing fashion, cover songs by other country & Western acts along with pop, big band classics, fiddle tunes, blues and instrumentals created on the spot. Not bound by the space restriction of 78 rpm singles, the programs were furnished to subscribing radio stations on 26 16-inch vinyl discs, encouraging the band to stretch out and jam. When you had a band that included such stars as singer Tommy Duncan, steel guitarists (not pedal!) Noel Boggs, Ray Honeycutt and Herb Remington, guitarists Eldon Shamblin and Lester “Junior” Bernard, and fiddler/mandolinist Tiny Moore among others, space was an asset — and the jazz-like room for improvisation distinguishes the Tiffany Transcriptions from Wills’ studio recordings. The band often recorded the sessions directly following tours, which is why they were always in top form.
The Tiffany sessions were broadcast over a network of radio stations that spanned Wills country (Oklahoma and Texas) to Oakland (home of Tiffany), plus Houston, Texarkana, Austin and even the Pacific Northwest and Santa Monica. Tiffany partner Cliff Sundlin retained ownership of the material until he died in 1981. El Cerrito-based Kaleidoscope Records later purchased the materials from Sundlin’s estate, issuing selected tracks on a series of LPs, later reissued on long out-of-print CDs. The Collectors’ Choice collection reissues the original Kaleidoscope albums intact.
The Tiffany tracks have proven influential in the later development of country music, informing the sound of Merle Haggard’s classic 1970 Wills homage A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World, and inspiring a new generation of Western swing revivalists including Asleep at the Wheel, the Hot Club of Cowtown, the Saddle Cats and Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys. They’re also quite possibly the hottest country music ever recorded.
“Play it loud and listen,” Kienzle writes in the notes. “The magic is still there.”# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2008
TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS’ 40 YEARS: THE COMPLETE SINGLES COLLECTION (1966-2006) TWO-CD SET ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC PRESENTS FOUR DECADES OF HITS AND RARITIES
From “Hanky Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now” to “Mirage” and “Mony Mony” to “Crimson and Clover” and “Draggin’ the Line”— all with original single mixes — the volume unfolds like a greatest hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and traces James’ later solo career. Includes extensive liner notes and photos.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – If you were a rock ’n’ roll fan in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, you well remember Tommy James & the Shondells having hit after hit on the charts. 40 Years: The Complete Singles Collection (1966-2006) – a two-CD, 48-song set to be to be released on November 25 by the Collectors’ Choice Music and Aura labels – is a career retrospective of both the band and James’ solo career. And, as they say on the campaign commercials, Tommy James has approved this collection, so fans can rest assured there’s no “hanky panky” going on.
40 Years contains the A-side of every single James released (with or without the Shondells) on six different labels from 1966 to 2006 (plus an ultra-rare 1962 bonus track) with in-depth liner notes penned by Ed Osborne and Tommy James' biographer, Martin Fitzpatrick, and photos from Tommy's personal archive. As with did the recent Collectors’ Choice Jan & Dean Compete Liberty Singles release, 40 Years contains the original single mixes, not the remixed versions heard on previous collections. Fifteen Shondells' tracks and five of Tommy's solo singles are in their original mono mixes, almost all of which are making their CD debut.
The album leads off with the original slower version of “Hanky Panky” which appeared on the Snap label in 1966, followed by the classic Roulette singles: “Say I Am (What I Am),” “It’s Only Love,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mirage” (with an extra vocal overdub not heard on the stereo version), “I Like the Way,” “Gettin’ Together,” “Out of the Blue,” “Get Out Now,” “Mony Mony” (original single mix and edit), “Somebody Cares” (with single-only overdubs), “Do Something to Me” (from the original sped-up single master), “Crimson & Clover” (single edit), “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” "Ball of Fire,” “She,” “Gotta Get Back to You” (single version, not the one heard on the Rhino volume Anthology) and “Come to Me” (shorter single version). And those are only the Tommy James & the Shondells sides — the album contains James’ solo works, too.
Tommy's solo career began in 1970 with the single “Ball and Chain” from the Tommy James album. 1971’s “Draggin’ the Line” (since covered by R.E.M.) was his first solo smash, and the version heard on 40 Years features the original single mix version. The singles "Adrienne," "I'm Comin' Home," and "Nothing To Hide" also appear here in their unique single mixes, while the version of "Calico" is the one that charted (not the jazzier version found on Anthology).
The collection contains all of Tommy's post-Roulette singles, including "I Love You Love Me Love" (with the Tower of Power horns), his version of "Tighter, Tighter" (which he'd produced for Alive And Kicking in 1970), "Love Will Find A Way" (featuring the Doobies' Michael McDonald and The Eagles' Timothy B. Schmidt), and his chart-topping Adult Contemporary single from 1980, "Three Times in Love."
James eventually started his own Aura label and scored three more chart sides when "Isn't That The Guy," "Love Words," and "Hold The Fire" all went Top 5 on FMQB's AC chart and "Love Words" hit #1: 40 years after "Hanky Panky" topped the Hot 100.
Also featured on the collection is a rare pre-Shondells bonus track: Tom & the Tornadoes’ 1962 single “Long Pony Tail.” It was James’ first record.
The liner notes retrace some of the band’s many anecdotes. “Hanky Panky” was a crowd-rousing song 17-year-old James had heard a local bar band play and, sensing a hit, recorded it with all made-up lyrics at a Niles, Michigan radio station. It was released on the Snap label and that was that — until a Pittsburgh radio promoter called him to inform him that it was a radio smash with 80,000 bootlegged copies sold. It was then that he recruited a Pittsburgh band called the Raconteurs to be his own. Tommy left the Raconteurs brand for the White Stripes’ Jack White to commandeer 42 years later when they took on the Shondells name instead.
The anecdotes continue through the story behind the “Mony Mony” title (James looked out and saw a sign for Mutual of New York Insurance) and how the Shondells became presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey’s official campaign band (HHH would later write the liner notes for the multi-platinum Crimson & Clover album.)
James says, “I’d really like to thank the Good Lord and the fans. It’s been an incredible ride.”
And the ride’s not over. Tommy and the original surviving Shondells — Mike Vale, Eddie Gray, and Ron Rosman — are back in the studio making new music. But that’s for another volume.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2008
JOBRIATH WAS THE “NEXT BIG THING” WHO NEVER WAS, BUT HIS TWO ELEKTRA ALBUMS — REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE — DEMONSTRATE TALENT, HUMOR AND ORIGINALITY
The first openly gay glam-rock star left two curious albums, Jobriath and Creatures of the Street, in his wake. Yet he died forgotten in 1983.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — By 1973, the rock world had shed its hippie past in favor of a more theatrical universe of glam and glitter. David Bowie had given the world Ziggy Stardust, and Lou Reed had pushed the envelope of pop radio with his hit “Walk on the Wild Side.” Mott the Hoople rose to the top with a glam anthem, “All the Young Dudes,” and artists varied from T. Rex to the Faces had dressed up their acts. Was the world really primed for an openly gay glam-rock star? Promoter/manager Jerry Brandt seemed to think so, and proceeded to set the stage for the grand arrival of Jobriath. And although the promised grandeur never materialized, Jobriath did record two vastly underrated albums for Elektra Records — Jobriath and Creatures of the Street — both of which will be re-released on Collector’ Choice on September 30.
Jobriath was actually Bruce Campbell, born in Philadelphia in 1946. He cut his onstage teeth as a cast member of the Broadway musical Hair, and was later member of a band called Pidgeon, described in the reissue notes as “an uneasy mix of California pop-rock and heavier psychedelia.” It was only when he submitted a tape to Clive Davis’ CBS Records in the early ‘70s that he got his big break, when promoter Jerry Brandt (best known for operating the Electric Circus and managing Carly Simon) happened to overhear Jobriath’s music in the label’s A&R corridors. When Brandt inquired as to CBS’ intentions for Jobriath, he was told that “Clive thinks Jobriath is mad and unstructured and musically destructive to melody.” Brandt had a very different take: “The images [the tape] was provoking in my imagination were enormous. I kept seeing a vast spectacle.”
Brandt contacted all the record labels asking a cool million for the rights to sign his incipient star. When he asked producer Richard Perry to work his magic, Brandt was told that “if Jobriath is where music is going, I want out.” In the end there were no takers, so Jobriath went into the studio with engineer/producer Eddie Kramer (known for the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie) and emerged with a completed album. Brandt took it to Elektra, where Jac Holzman signed Jobriath as his final act prior to departing the label he founded. It was not a million-dollar deal by any means, but rather a favor to Brandt for having brought Carly Simon to the label. And Holzman latter confessed, quoted in the Richie Unterberger’s liner notes: “I made two errors of judgment in my days at Elektra, and Jobriath was one of them.”
Yet Stephen Holden had a vastly different take in his Rolling Stone review, finding Jobriath’s self titled debut album “a flashy an provocative debut album. Jobriath brings to rock a voice uncannily reminiscent of Mick Jagger’s and a theatrical intuitiveness and thematic sensibility that are superficially similar to avid Bowie’s. Like Bowie, Jobriath is fascinated with extraterrestrial fantasies that combine autoeroticism and prophecy, though Jobriath’s musical and poetic vernacular are blunter, deliberately eschewing intellectual sophistication for a bold populist stance.”
The album had failed to establish Jobriath as the next Beatles nor even Bowie. In fact it missed the charts entirely, yet Elektra did release a follow-up, Creatures of the Street. Global stardom would greet Jobriath’s second album, proclaimed Brandt, who in the Rolling Stone feature headlined “Jobriath: Gay Rock Breaks All the Rules,” said, “Presenting Jobriath in the way he must be presented means you have to break all the rules. That requires the greatest promoter in the world. And I’m it.” Brandt planned for the first live performance to take place at the Paris Opera House, since, according to the promoter, “if you’re planning to come to New York, Paris is the best place to come from.” There was also talk of a $200,000 set. The Paris shows were cancelled due to the cost, and the New York dates were modest, attended primarily by members of the music industry.
The second album itself, however, was rich in melodic Broadway-tinged pop songs like “Heartbeat,” “Street Corner Love,” “Ooh La La” and “Scumbag.” Sadly, the press shied away from the better of Jobriath’s two albums, stung by all the unfulfilled hype. By the time Jobriath toured small clubs in major U.S. cities, he’d been dropped by Elektra. He lived the rest of his life in obscurity, dying of AIDS at New York’s Chelsea Hotel in 1983. So unnoticed was his passing that Morrissey tried to contact him in 1992 to see about opening for his tour.
Now, Collectors’ Choice is preparing to present the Jobriath albums with no hype nor proclamations of next-Bowie-dom. Perhaps in death, 35 years after the albums’ initial release, Jobriath will develop the fan base he never achieved in life.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2008
TOM VERLAINE’S WARNER BROS. ALBUMS DREAMTIME AND WORDS FROM THE FRONT REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE SEPTEMBER 16
Solo albums from 1981-82 followed the dissolution of critically acclaimed band Television
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Television was the anomaly among the New York bands who broke out of the CBGB scene of the late ‘70s. Musically adventurous and expansive in contrast to its minimalist scene mates, the band was two propelled by two inventive guitarists: Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. Of the two, Verlaine kept the torch lit with a series of nine post-Television solo albums. His second and third long-players — 1981’s Dreamtime and Words From The Front from 1982, both originally released on Warner Bros. Records — are thought to be two of his strongest. The two albums will be reissued on September 16, 2008 by Collectors’ Choice Music, with liner notes by Jason Gross, editor of Perfect Sound Forever.
Debate rages among Verlaine fans about which is his best solo album but a significant camp opts for Dreamtime, his 1981 sophomore release, with its dense, ringing instrumental interplay. Highlight tracks include “There’s a Reason,” “Penetration” and “Always.” The all-star band featured Verlaine on guitars and vocals; Fred Smith (Television), bass; Bruce Brody (Patti Smith Group, Pretenders), keyboards; Jay Dee Daughtery (Patti Smith Group, The Church), drums; Rich Teeter (The Dictators, Twisted Sister), drums; Ritchie Flieger, guitar; and Donnie Nossov (John Waite, Pat Benatar, Lita Ford), bass. In the liner notes’ oral history by the band members, bassist Smith recalls, “Recording with Tom was much the same as recording with Television. The only difference was for Television’s Marquee Moon, we played that stuff for years live. [On this album] there was stuff that developed in the studio.” Daughtery added, “There’s an improvisation and intensity to his music with dynamics and tension that builds and subsides.” And Nossov summed it up: “I thought artistically, it was a very successful record. I’m sorry that more people didn’t get to hear it. But maybe that will change.”
For his follow-up to Dreamtime, Verlaine decided to challenge himself, and instead of falling back on familiar producers and band members, wiped the boards clean by enlisting all new personnel. As annotator Gross states, “It wasn’t just a far cry from Television but even from his previous record. As such, Words From the Front has the distinction of being Verlaine’s most underappreciated album, which makes this reissue a great excuse to re-evaluate it.” Musicians included Jimmy Rip, guitar (who had never previously heard Verlaine’s work, but with whom he’s now played for 25 years); plus Mink DeVille members Joe Vasta, bass; and drummer Tommy Price. Highlights are “Present Arrives,” “Postcard from Waterloo,” “Coming Apart” and “Days.” The album does contain one Dreamtime out-take, “Clear It Away” (which featured Verlaine’s former rhythm section, Jay Dee Daughtery and Fred Smith), noted for what Gross describes as its “dark atmosphere, ghostly guitars . . . and voice [that] trails off wildly.” The liner notes conclude: “Sad to say, the pop world wasn’t ready for an ambitious record like this, not while it was in the throes of MTV, Thriller, Survivor, Men at Work and Human League . . . Restless spirit that he is, Verlaine just kept going his own way regardless as he always has — a model of single mindedness and an amazingly idiosyncratic combo of singer/songwriter and guitar that’s not often seen.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2008
Summer’s here...
JAN & DEAN: THE COMPLETE LIBERTY SINGLES CHRONICLES HISTORY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL POP AND SURF DUO IN GLORIOUS MONO ON TWO CDs
42-song set on Collectors’ Choice includes such hits as “Surf City,” “Little Old Lady From Pasadena,” “Dead Man’s Curve,” “Drag City,” “Ride the Wild Surf,” “Batman” and “Popsicle,” plus Jan Berry solo singles and extensive liner notes and photos
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Jan & Dean rode the surf wave to the top of the charts in the early to mid-‘60s, and even introduced the sub-genre of hot-rod rock. Yet their Liberty singles have never been comprehensively compiled into one CD package — until now. On August 26, Collectors’ Choice Music will release Jan & Dean: The Complete Liberty Singles in original mono (instead of the after-the-fact stereo that has dominated reissues of the band’s work). The collection contains 42 songs including all the hits and some rarities (plus Jan Berry’s solo singles and an unreleased B-side).
Liner notes were written by Jan & Dean authorities Ed Osborne (who also produced the reissue) and David Beard, and include input from those who were on the scene, such as engineer/producer Bones Howe, Jan Berry friend and co-writer Don Altfeld, and Dean Torrence himself. The package contains vintage album cover art and photos.
The set includes “Surf City” (#1), “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” (#3), “Dead Man’s Curve” (#8), “Drag City” (#10),“Ride the Wild Surf” (#16), “Popsicle” (#21), “Sidewalk Surfing” (#25), “Linda” (#28), “The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association” (#77), “I Found a Girl” (#30), “You Really Know How To Hurt a Guy” (#27), “Tennessee” (#65),“Batman” (#66), “A Sunday Kind of Love” (#95) and from the T.A.M.I. Show episode they hosted, “(Here They Come) From All Over the World,” among many others.
In preparing this set, Collectors’ Choice went back to the original mono tapes, both A-sides and B-sides. So the songs sound exactly the same as they did when they climbed the charts and blared from the car radio in your Woody (or that of your parents). According to Altfeld in the liner notes, “The mono mixes were the important ones. When mixing, Jan would play it back in a small speaker in the studio. Sometimes we’d jump into his Corvette, drive out to KRLA-AM in Pasadena and hand the DJ a rough mix. Then we’d listen in the car while he played it once or twice. The mono singles were mixed for a person to hear over their car speaker.”
Jan & Dean sang about the stuff that California dreams are made of: surfing, drag racing, skateboarding and the pursuit of girls on the beach. With the assistance of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, the duo unleashed the world’s first #1 surfing anthem, “Surf City,” and captured the essence of the West Coast sound in the early ‘60s.
It all began when Jan Berry and Dean Torrence met at L.A.’s University High School in 1957 (also the alma mater of Rip Chord and Beach Boy Bruce Johnston). An original duo, Jan & Arnie (with Arnie Ginsburg) gave way to Jan & Dean, and in short order connected with producers Lou Adler and Herb Alpert. Following a doo-wop album on Dore Records and a short stint on the Challenge label, they were signed to Liberty, where the doo-wop strains continued until the transitional single “Linda” (whose sheet music depicted Linda Eastman — later McCartney).
Part of the reason the Jan & Dean tracks sounded so good was the enlistment of L.A.’s prime sidemen — Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, Glen Campbell, Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel, Tommy Tedesco, Billy Strange and Leon Russell among others. As Dean explained, “Jan was the first guy to hand-pick what’s referred to as The Wrecking Crew. It was Jan who decided to put them together.”
Jan & Dean’s sound evolved over the years from doo-wop to surf music, while lyrically integrating dark humor (the eerily prophetic “Dead Man’s Curve”) and likely the first-ever song about drag racing, as well as novelty hits like “Batman” or “Little Old Lady From Pasadena.”
In the spring of 1966, with their Liberty contract set to expire and with plans for their own TV show and self-owned label, the future looked bright. Then, on April 12, Jan slammed his Corvette into the rear of a parked truck not far from the infamous Dead Man’s Curve in Beverly Hills. He was barely alive and it took him years to recover. According to Osborne’s notes, Jan brought the same fierce determination to his recovery as he’d previously poured into his music. He recorded some solo albums and singles and performed with Dean to the best of his capabilities. On March 26, 2004, Jan died. Dean has become a Grammy Award-winning graphic designer. Today he spends his leisure time riding the waves and singing the great songs of summer onstage.
Jan & Dean: The Complete Liberty Singles tells the entire story in liner notes, photos, album covers and, most of importantly of all, the music.# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2008
FRANKIE VALLI’S CLASSIC SOLO RECORDINGS REISSUED ON FOUR TWOFER CDs BY COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Eight albums on four CDs feature such hits as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “My Eyes Adored You” and “Grease”; guests and songwriters include The 4 Seasons, Bob Gaudio, Sandy Linzer, Bob Crewe, Patti Austin, Jim Keltner and the London Symphony Orchestra
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Having reissued a goodly portion of The 4 Seasons’ album catalog, it made perfect sense for Collectors’ Choice Music to go back and sweep through lead singer Frankie Valli’s solo albums. Four twofer CDs containing eight complete albums, due out June 24, 2008, represent almost every solo Valli recording, culled from such labels as Philips, Private Stock and Warner/Curb and MCA/Curb. The twofer packages include detailed liner notes by prolific annotator James Ritz.
The lead singer of the 4 Seasons was often billed as “the sound of Frankie Valli” on the group’s recordings, owing to his four-octave range and falsetto that was clear and commanding. Only a few pop singers had perfected falsetto — Frankie Lymon comes to mind — but only the 4 Seasons pushed it to the forefront of the mix. Frankie was born Francis Castellucio in Newark, N.J. in 1934, and fittingly, his first and strongest influence was fellow Jersey-ite Frank Sinatra. His group, originally called the Four Lovers and later the 4 Seasons, charted two consecutive No. 1 hits right out of the box — “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” in 1962 — and went on to chart 15 singles over the next two years, which included six Top 10s and two No. 1s. Some four years later, Valli recorded his first solo album, appropriately titled Solo and featuring the hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” And the rest is history.
Let’s take a look at the eight albums on four twofer CDs:
• Solo / Timeless: If there was any thought that Frankie Valli’s decision to pursue a solo career was met with animosity from the rest of the 4 Seasons, the cover photo of the 1967 Philips Records album Solo was meant to dispel the notion, with Valli standing on a silver platter held upward by the group. It would launch a 40-year-plus solo career. The 4 Seasons were on hand, but Valli was clearly up front, sans group harmonies. The album went to No. 34 abetted by the smash hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” Bob Crewe produced with Bob Gaudio arranging. Many of the Solo songs were originally released as Philips and Smash singles including “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore),” which became a No. 16 hit for the Walker Brothers. The 1968 album Timeless boasted more cohesion as an album, with arrangements by frequent 4 Seasons collaborator Charles Calello. The single “To Give (The Reason I Live)” cracked the Top 30. The album also contained the Neil Sedaka/Carole Bayer Sager song “Make The Music Play.”
• Close Up / Valli: Valli shifted from Philips to Motown’s pop label, Mowest, where not much happened, and then to Private Stock (otherwise known as the home of Blondie and Robert Gordon) in 1975, where the hits resumed. When he left Motown, Valli brought an unreleased song over from the label that he believed could be a hit. The master cost him a reputed $4,000. The song was “My Eyes Adored You,” which charted No. 1, jump-started Private Stock and re-ignited Valli’s solo career. The surrounding album, 1976’s Close Up, notched No. 51 on the chart and featured contributions from Crewe, Gaudio and Sandy Linzer. The album’s twofer-mate, Valli, recorded in 1976, includes Boz Scaggs’ “We’re All Alone” and “Easily” as well as the song “Lucia,” which featured the London Symphony Orchestra.
• Our Day Will Come / Lady Put The Light Out: Disco had permeated pop music by 1976, and Our Day Will Come featured a big Valli disco hit, the Ruby & the Romantics song “Our Day Will Come,” with guest vocalist Patti Austin; it charted at No. 11. Other key tracks were “How’d I Know That Love Would Slip Away” and “You Can Bet (I Ain’t Going Nowhere),” the latter penned by the album’s co-producer Dave Appell, formerly of Cameo/Parkway Records. Lady Put The Light Out, which followed in 1977, featured contributions by some of the best writers of the era: Paul Anka, Albert Hammond, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Carol Bayer Sager and even the Raspberries’ Eric Carmen. Carmen wrote the album’s lead track, “I Need You,” as well as “Boats Against The Current.” The most notable track may be the title tune, which according to annotator Ritz describes as “dead-on as (Valli) bends and milks every nuance of the lyrics. A highlight on any album.”
• Frankie Valli . . . Is The Word / Heaven About Me: Valli segued from Private Stock to Warner/Curb for 1978’s . . . Is The Word. This followed the singer’s cameo in the movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, where he met one of the greatest latter-day falsetto vocalists, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. Gibb had always thought the two singers would work together one day, and that day came when Gibb was commissioned to write the title song for the film adaptation of the stage hit Grease. Valli’s version of the song became a No. 1 hit, one of the few times the Brothers Gibb didn’t occupy the top slot that year. Gibb also wrote the song “Save Me, Save Me,” reflecting both Grease and Saturday Night Fever. And Jazz Crusaders flutist Hubert Laws came on board with the jazzy and laid-back “A Tear Can Tell.” Heaven Above Me, released on MCA/Curb in 1980, featured the charting song “Where Did We Go Wrong,” a duet with Chris Forde. Crewe and Gaudio co-wrote both that song and one called “Soul.” Valli also waxed French on “Passion for Paris.” It was during this time that Valli went through various operations for ostosclerosis, a rare affliction that nearly cost him his hearing. Fortunately, he recovered and continued a career that has now spanned nearly 50 years and has recently been immortalized with the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2008
ARTHUR LEE & LOVE HOPE YOU’LL LIKE THEIR NEW DIRECTION:POST-FOREVER CHANGES BLUE THUMB ALBUMS TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Double-album Out Here and False Start, which featured Jimi Hendrix, may unnerve Love’s folk-rock legions
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — They recorded one of the most influential albums of the late ‘60s in the folk-rocking Forever Changes, an album that took 20 years to be fully appreciated and has been recently reissued in a deluxe edition. But the band Love, fronted by tortured genius Arthur Lee, switched musical gears almost immediately after recording its masterpiece. Lee recruited a whole new Love to record the both band’s final Elektra album, Four Sail, and its 1969 Blue Thumb double-album debut, Out Here. With a change of guitarists and the recruitment of Jimi Hendrix on one track, Love followed with False Start in 1970. The two Blue Thumb albums will be reissued for the first time on CD by Collectors’ Choice Music on June 10, 2008.
The new lineup Lee recruited after Forever Changes included Jay Donnellan, guitar; Frank Fayad, bass; and George Suranovich, who curiously hailed from doo-wop origins, on drums. Donnellan had brought an acoustic guitar to his audition only to be told that Love no longer sounded like that. However, fans of Forever Changes and its predecessors, Love and Da Capo, will discover stray echoes of the classic Love sound amidst Out Here’s 17 tracks, namely “Willow Willow,” “Listen To My Song” and “Gather Round.” Additionally, hard blues-based rock entered the mix on this album, including a heavier version of “Signed D.C.” from Love’s debut. Out Here, recorded in a shabby home studio just beneath Laurel Canyon in Hollywood, included such songs as “Abalony,” “I’ll Pray For You,” “Instra-Mental” and “Car Lights On in the Daytime.” And there’s some reassurance to be had that Lee still had a song title in him like “Love is More Than Words or Better Late Than Never.”
Following only four months after the band’s final Elektra album, Four Sail, was released, Out Here peaked at #176 on Billboard’s album chart. Sales might have improved had the band accepted an offer to play a freestanding show on the East Coast. Lee reportedly told his booking agent, “No, I don’t want to go to New York for one fucking gig!” The gig was Woodstock.
On tour in England to promote Out Here, the band recorded two tracks that would appear on its 1970 follow-up album, False Start. It was in the U.K. also that Lee reconnected with Jimi Hendrix, whom he had met when Hendrix played lead on an obscure single Lee had written (Rosa Lee Brooks’ “My Diary”). Hendrix dropped into the apartment where the band was staying in London and Lee suggested they jam and see what might come of it. The result was “The Everlasting First,” a tune co-written by Lee and Hendrix with Hendrix on guitar, which leads off the album. Overall, False Start is a more cohesive album than Out Here, while still very much eclectic with country-rock (“Keep On Shining”), ‘70s boogie (“Flying”), psychedelic soul (“Stand Out,” “Anytime”) and many points in between.
Recorded at Los Angeles’ Record Plant, False Start featured nearly the same band as Out Here with the exception of Gary Rowles replacing the outspoken Jay Donnellan on guitar. The album received a glowing review in Rolling Stone by Metal Mike Saunders, who wrote: “Arthur Lee is now a good and unaffected singer, having both a soft and screaming voice . . . [his] songs are engaging in their simple structure, this album is engaging as a whole, and I think I could rave on all day saying wonderful things about it.” Despite such praise, the long-player stalled at #184 on Billboard’s album chart. Through a combination of further personnel changes and encroaching substance abuse problems, this was the final Love album with this lineup.
Arthur Lee joined with power-pop band Baby Lemonade to perform Forever Changes in 2003 in a cross-country tour. He died of cancer in 2006.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2008
MEL TILLIS’ CLASSIC ELEKTRA YEARS REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Three Elektra albums — Me and Pepper, Your Body Is an Outlaw and Southern Rain — formed some of the most critically and commercial successful work of his career.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Mel Tillis has charted more than 100 hits as a performer and songwriter, starred in half a dozen movies, and became one of the few country artists to figure out the business side of the music business. Some of the biggest hits of his career were created during his tenure at Elektra Records (1979-82). And now, three long-out-of-print Elektra albums — Me and Pepper (1979), Your Body Is an Outlaw (1980) and Southern Rain (1981) — will be made available as remastered CDs on Collectors’ Choice Music on April 29, 2008. Liner notes were written by Grammy Award-winning musicologist Colin Escott.
Tillis was born in Tampa, Fla. during the Great Depression. He began stuttering at age three, but soon discovered he didn’t stutter when he sang. After spending
1951-55 in the Air Force, he headed to Nashville to begin his musical career. Singers, of course, had to talk between songs in live shows, but Tillis’ stuttering soon became part of his act. In 1957, he signed to Columbia and later recorded for MGM.
Two decades later, in 1979, Tillis celebrated a No. 1 country record with “Coca Cola Cowboy” just as his MCA Records contract was coming to a close. He followed longtime producer Jimmy Bowen from MCA to Elektra Records. According to Escott’s liners, Tillis and Bowen “fought, but respected each other. Bowen liked full productions. Mel didn’t. “‘Do me an effin f-f-favor,’” Bowen remembered Mel saying, “‘Don’t put no more new sh** on my records.’” Asked why, Tillis replied, “Cause I’m up to two buses, a truck and a 15-piece orchestra, and it’s breaking me on the road!”
Tillis’ first album was Me and Pepper, Pepper being the name of his horse, pictured on the front cover. The backing band featured James Burton and Glen D. Hardin, respectively Elvis Presley’s guitarist and pianist; plus Sonny Curtis, guitarist from Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets. However, they didn’t rock too hard — this after all was the “countrypolitan” era. Daughter Pam Tillis — herself later a country star —was featured as a backing vocalist. The album spawned two Top 10 hits — “Blind in Love” and the quintessential cheatin’ ballad “Lying Time” — as well as a No. 30 country hit with “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
1980’s Your Body Is an Outlaw produced two hits right out of the box: the title track (written by Billy Star, and a previous hit for Cowboy Copas, Ernest Tubb and Johnny Bond), which reached No. 2, and the Top 10 follow-up “Steppin’ Out.” The album also includes “Whiskey Chasin’,” written by future Kenny Chesney producer Buddy Cannon, plus “Blue Eyes,” written by Hank Williams’ pedal steel player Don Helms with Bill Monroe band member Merle Taylor and initially recorded in 1955 by Ray Price.
The third and final album in Tillis’ Elektra trifecta was the successful Southern Rain, issued in 1981. The long-player’s sound was edgier and less countrypolitan, containing no attempts at pop crossover and no oldies. The album’s title track, written by Roger Murrah, hit No. 1 on the country charts, standing as Tillis’ final chart-topper. The album also featured “Here’s Looking at You,” penned by Sandy Packard, who’d written “Coca Cola Cowboy.”
Before leaving Elektra, Tillis also released a duet album with Nancy Sinatra, which is not part of the Collectors’ Choice retrospective. He then returned to MCA Nashville. Tillis also became a founder of the Branson, Mo. scene, opening his own theater in 1992 and closing it in 2002, while continuing to play the town regularly. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2007 by daughter Pam. He remains a towering figure in the emergence of country music.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2008
RONNIE HAWKINS’ ROULETTE SESSIONS FROM 1959-63 REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Twofer CD combines Mojo Man and Arkansas Rock Pile albums, featuring The Hawks (later The Band): Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Ronnie Hawkins, born in 1935, was the rock ’n’ roll pride of Arkansas in the ‘50s when, at the suggestion of fellow Arkansan Conway Twitty, he moved to Canada, where there was a thriving rockabilly scene. From Hamilton, Ontario, Hawkins successfully toured and recorded in both his adoptive country and his native USA. “There were three guys in those days who would really knock you out,” recalls Sun rockabilly artist Sonny Burgess, “Elvis, Jerry Lee and Ronnie Hawkins.” Two of Hawkins’ classic albums, Mojo Man and Arkansas Rock Pile, both culled from 1959-63 sessions in Nashville and New York, will be reissued on Collectors’ Choice Music on April 29, 2008. Pop historian Gene Sculatti, author of The Catalog of Cool, wrote the liner notes.
Hawkins was equally known for his band, The Hawks, which started back home in Arkansas with drummer Levon Helm but gained its core membership in Canada with Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson. (In later years, The Hawks went on to become Bob Dylan’s band and later The Band.)
The Collectors’ Choice twofer contains two long-out-of-print albums, featuring 23 tracks from the early sessions. While information on the Roulette label is always a bit spotty, the label appears to have released Mojo Man in 1967 in Canada only, and released Arkansas Rock Pile in 1970 in the U.K. only.
Mojo Man culls most of its material from other artists and writers, but Hawkins leaves his own mark on each song. Teaming The Hawks with saxophone legend King Curtis, Hawkins turns “Suzy Q,” originated in 1957 by his cousin Dale Hawkins, into a rave-up. Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox” is re-imagined with an R&B bar-band feel and a scorching Robbie Robertson guitar solo. Other highlights include Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Farther Up The Road” and “What a Party,” a re-titled cover of Muddy Waters’ “She’s 19 Years Old.” Two other covers, Hank Williams’ “Your Cheating Heart” and George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” hail from two different Nashville sessions in 1960 and feature, instead of The Hawks, Floyd Cramer, piano; Harold Bradley, guitar; and Bob Moore, bass.
In Arkansas Rock Pile, Hawkins pays further homage to his fellow originators of rock ’n’ roll. The album contains wild treatments of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” (featuring furious guitar work by Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel’s pumpin’ piano) plus Bo’s eponymous “Bo Diddley”; Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days,” re-cast as “Forty Days”; Billy Lee Riley’s wild rockabilly anthem “My Gal is Red Hot”; and Larry Williams’ “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.” Also included are the mid-tempo blues “Come Love” (with Helm, Danko and Robertson and a chorus likely containing Dionne and DeeDee Warwick) and Hawkins’ own Lieber & Stoller-produced “Arkansas,” which name checks “Mary Lou, Odessa and Runaround Sue.” On “Arkansas,” Helm, Robertson and Manuel are joined by blues harmonica giant Sonny Terry.
Fresh from his Roulette years (1959-67), Hawkins went to Atlantic’s Cotillion label, where he had a hit with “Down in the Alley,” featuring Duane Allman and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He continues to gig, as he puts it, “wherever there are rock ’n’ rollers. That’s what we’ve been doing for more than 40 years. It’s made me everything from an honorary mayor to an honorary member of a motorcycle gang.”
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For more information on Collectors’ Choice Music, please contact conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2008
SOUL QUEEN MARGIE JOSEPH’S ATLANTIC ALBUMS REISSUED ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE
Albums produced by Arif Mardin, Lamont Dozier and Johnny Bristol receive belated appreciation as soul classics
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Margie Joseph may not have soared to the commercial heights of her Atlantic label-mate Aretha Franklin. But in the ‘70s, she released six albums that bore numerous R&B hits. She also attracted some hit producers — Arif Mardin, Lamont Dozier and Johnny Bristol among them — as well as some of the hottest writers and session musicians around. Mississippi-born Joseph was influenced by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Patsy Cline, along with the gospel music she heard in church.
In the mid-‘60s, Joseph met New Orleans DJ Larry McKinley, who took her to OKeh Records. She began her recording career there with two singles in 1967-68 written by Willie Tee, George Davis and Lee Diamond. She then went to Stax’s Volt label where she recorded two LPs in 1970-71. In 1971, it was off to Atlantic, a label she would call home for the duration of six albums. “One thing Atlantic did is they invested in me,” she says. “I don’t have any bad things to say about Atlantic. Atlantic treated me royally.” Those six albums will be reissued on March 11, 2008 by Collectors’ Choice Music, with comprehensive liner notes by Chicago musicologist Bill Dahl that include quotes from Joseph, McKinley, and Lamont Dozier.
• Margie Joseph. Her 1973 Atlantic debut, the first of three albums produced by Arif Mardin, boasted an eclectic song selection: Joseph’s version of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” (an R&B hit right on the heels of the original), Dolly Parton’s “Touch Your Woman,” Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind,” Bobby Patterson’s “How Do You Spell Love” and “Let’s Go Somewhere,” penned by Kenny O’Dell (who had a hit in 1967 with “Beautiful People”). The band featured Cornell Dupree, Hugh McCracken, Ray Charles’ reedman David “Fathead” Newman, Ralph MacDonald and backup singers Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith and Sylvia Shemwell of the Sweet Inspirations.
• Sweet Surrender. This 1974 set was Joseph’s most commercially successful album for Atlantic, and the only one of her albums to cross over to the pop chart. Arif Mardin was again at the helm, with many of the same session aces from her previous album. Atlantic soul singer Judy Clay (known for her duets with William Bell and Billy Vera) joined the list of backup singers. Twenty-three years old at the time, Joseph tackled Jerry Butler’s “(Strange) I Still Love You,” Billy Joel’s “He’s Got a Way,” Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You Is To Love You,” and surprisingly soulful readings of Bread’s “Baby I’m-A Want You” and Paul McCartney’s “My Love,” which was a #10 R&B hit for Joseph.
• Margie. It didn’t attain the chart ranking of its predecessor but the Arif Mardin-produced Margie may be Joseph’s most artistically successful record. Joining many of her session stalwarts were Steve Gadd, Motown musician Bob Babbitt and guitarist Hamish Stuart from the Average White Band, who played on Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart’s “Words (Are Impossible).” Other songs here include two by Carole King (“Believe in Humanity” and “After All This Time”) as well as Bill Withers’ “The Same Love That Made Me Laugh,” Alabama soul singer Sam Dees’ “Just As Soon As the Feeling’s Over,” and Robert John’s “I Can’t Move No Mountains,” which Joseph says “took me to another level vocally.”
• Hear the Words, Fight the Feeling. After a banner three-album run with Arif Mardin, Joseph connected with another world-class producer, ex-Motown wizard Lamont Dozier of the famous Holland-Dozier-Holland team. According to Joseph in Bill Dahl’s notes, “He made me sing. He was a taskmaster.” The album, which has a rawer and darker sound than its predecessors, also marked Joseph’s move to Atlantic’s Cotillion subsidiary (also the home of the Woodstock soundtrack). Backing musicians remained first-rate, this time including Ray Parker Jr. and Lee Ritenour. Songs included “Didn’t I Tell You” and “Why’d You Lie,” both examining the bleaker side of romance, plus several other Dozier songs: the title track “Hear the Words, Feel the Feeling” (which made it to #8 on the R&B charts), “Don’t Turn the Lights Off” (#46 on the charts), “Prophecy,” “Feeling My Way” and “I Get Carried Away.”
• Feeling My Way. Joseph worked with another great former Motown figure on her 1978 return to Atlantic proper — Johnny Bristol — who was himself an Atlantic artist and L.A. session musician. The album contains 10 Bristol originals including the hit “Love Talking ‘Bout Baby,” plus “I Feel His Love Getting Stronger,” “You Turned Me on to Love” and “Discover Me (and You Will Discover Love).” The session players hailed from worlds as diverse as Motown, jazz and L.A’s Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, including guitarists Al McKay and Lee Ritenour, bassist James Jamerson Jr. (the son of the Motown legend), drummer James Gadson, and saxist Ernie Watts. Joseph, however, took a break from music in 1980, so this was the end of an incredible Atlantic run.
• Ready for the Night. After six years away from Atlantic, with one indie hit in the interim (1982’s “Knockout” for the H.C.R.C. label), she returned to Atlantic’s resurrected Cotillion label in 1984 with this album guided by Narada Michael Walden (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra and former Atlantic solo artist). Walden in turn tapped a trio of hot young producers to do the hands-on work including Preston Glass and Randy Jackson (yes, the Randy Jackson of “American Idol” fame and now a Concord artist). The album, for which Walden, Glass and Jackson wrote nearly every song, positioned Joseph as a dance diva. The title track was a hit in the spring of 1984.
A postscript: After a 1988 album on British soul journalist John Abbey’s Ichiban label, Joseph retired from recording and began work with nonprofit organizations. Sadly, her home in Gautier, Miss. was one of the many casualties of Hurricane Katrina. Now relocated to Atlanta, she has returned to recording, this time as a gospel artist. Content to remain low key otherwise, she told Dahl that “the whole entire (music) business looks like it’s losing its foothold to me, so I won’t allow my heart to go into it again.” Dahl concludes: “A voice as remarkable as hers is too precious a gift to lay dorman
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