Various Artists - Covered: Allen Toussaint, Volume 2: 1972-1974

Here's the second of three albums of songs written by Allen Toussaint.

Unlike others in my "Covered" series who often were part of a team or at least frequently had varying co-writers, Toussaint usually wrote his songs alone. Fewer of the songs this time around were hits, but some of the non-hits became very well known over time. A good example is "Sneakin' Sally Thru' the Alley." It was on Robert Palmer's first album, which sold very little. But it's grown in popularity because it's a great song, and it's on his greatest hits albums and such.

There's one song here that technically is not written by Toussaint: "Lady Marmalade." It was written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan. Both of them wrote lots of other hits, and Crewe is best known for co-writing tons of hits for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. However, in my opinion Toussaint should definitely have a songwriting credit, because he produced the version for Labelle that was a number one hit and has gone on to be one of the most popular songs of all time. He totally transformed the song with his production.

We know this because the original version was actually done by an obscure group called the Eleventh Hour, with lead vocals by Nolan, one of the song's co-writers. That version is terrible. You can confirm this for yourself by looking it up on YouTube. Toussaint heard the song and decided Labelle would be perfect for it, and got them to cover it. Then his production transformed the song, with all kinds of touches that weren't on the original version. So yeah, in my opinion, the fact that was a huge hit is mostly due to him.

I could have included a lot of songs performed by Toussaint himself in this series, but I only used one that is credited solely to him, "Freedom for the Stallion." It's a very good song that I knew I wanted to include, and I liked his version the best. But I could have included many more. Toussaint was a capable singer and performer in his own right, and his versions aren't well known mainly because he was shy and preferred to work behind the scenes in the music industry for most of his career.

01 Hercules (Aaron Neville)
02 Freedom for the Stallion (Three Dog Night)
03 From a Whisper to a Scream (Allen Toussaint)
04 Yes We Can Can (Pointer Sisters)
05 I've Cried My Last Tear (Brinsley Schwarz)
06 On Your Way Down (Little Feat)
07 Lady Marmalade (Labelle)
08 I'll Take a Melody (Frankie Miller)
09 Sneakin' Sally Thru' the Alley (Robert Palmer)
10 What Is Success (Bonnie Raitt)
11 Shoorah Shoorah (Betty Wright)
12 Occapella (Ringo Starr)

https://www.imagenetz.de/mZpu3

The photo I chose for the cover art seemed like a no-brainer, because it was the best looking color photo of him in the 1970s era that I could find. I'm not sure what year the photo was taken, but the general vibe as well as signs of his age make it obvious to me that it has to have been from the 1970s.

By the way, I made some changes to the background, to remove some distractions and also lightening it in general so his head would be more visible.