Covered: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Volume 1: 1962-1998

The next songwriter in my Covered series is a really big one: Antonio Carlos Jobim. He's written more standards than practically anyone, especially for jazz. And he's a rarity in the series in that he wasn't from one of the usual native English speaking countries like the U.S., Britain, or Canada, but from Brazil. And while he mostly wrote in Portuguese, I've selected only English language versions, to give this a wider appeal.

Actually, I should say "we selected." For Jobim, I relied heavily on the work on a new volunteer, who goes by the name "Fabio from Rio." As you can guess from the name, Fabio is a Brazilian, from Rio de Janeiro, so he was the ideal person to help with a Jobim collection. Furthermore, Fabio enjoyed helping to make three volumes of Jobim covers, and has been helping me with other collections, for instance Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Lennon-McCartney, Neil Young, and more. So look for some of those in the near future.

Rather than say more, I've asked Fabio to give the introduction to Jobim for this first volume. Take it away, Fabio:

Since I'm Brazilian, Paul kindly invited me to help him curate this tribute collection of Antonio Carlos ("Tom") Jobim covers. Jobim was, quite literally, my neighbor - my family lived near his home in the Jardim Botanico district of Rio during my teenage years. I even bumped into him once at a local restaurant where he used to go for a drink or two. (There's a photo of the two of us somewhere, probably lost in a box in my mother's basement.) I was also lucky enough to attend a couple of his concerts at the legendary Canecao in the late 1980s and early 1990s. So, working on this project and revisiting his vast body of work has been a real treat.

Jobim's career began in the mid-1940s and lasted until his passing in 1994. He gained international fame in 1962 after a historic concert at Carnegie Hall. From then on, many English-speaking artists - as well as Brazilian musicians with international careers, like Astrud Gilberto and Sergio Mendes - began recording his music. While he's best known for his contributions to bossa nova, Jobim's work spans other genres too, including jazz, soul, and classical music. He even composed a full symphony!

According to his biographers, Jobim wrote between 350 and 400 songs - and at least half of them are considered standards, especially for jazz musicians. For that reason, my initial selection for this project included 97 songs, totaling nearly eight hours of music. Paul wisely suggested we trim it down, and we ultimately arrived at a more manageable set: three albums featuring 37 songs. As per Paul's request, we focused on songs with available English lyrics. Sadly, that meant leaving out some incredible tunes that only exist in Portuguese - but they can be discovered elsewhere. Due to this limitation, the collection is not fully comprehensive, but it serves as a strong introduction and a welcoming entry point for anyone curious to explore Jobim's remarkable legacy. I hope you enjoy the journey!

If you enjoy this collection, there's more! I've posted my Youtube channel a different compilation of Jobim covers, called "The Tom Jobim Songbook." It consists of 74 tracks at five volumes, but arranged by year of composition instead of year of recording. Here are the links:

Volume 1 (1954-1959 songs) -
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZdAlno7O9qY0EjtcIu1yWzVedm2CDUVH&si=wXEDLOVHVxzCuxA9

Volume 2 (1960-1965 songs) -
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZdAlno7O9qbR05RYgOLSjre8ZjATfuSE&si=6rGE19iG467gQy27

Volume 3 (1966-1971 songs) -
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZdAlno7O9qb_K6GUUlXwGFHD5Lq0Qx9e&si=lAjrtD7Zk4wNb4kJ

Volume 4 (1972-1994 songs) -
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZdAlno7O9qYLnNNv1AsqV6tmJsZl7Iim&si=hjqsRtZ1gpkodLYf

Volume 5 (instrumentals) -
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZdAlno7O9qYIFTYOFcS09DDPBSwJFBbO&si=o97Ryn158raeVUC3

Additionally, here's a zip file with all five volumes, plus a bonus:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QLY5Fh3w

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/izPoztcsjW9CsxZ/file

Due to personal preference, I selected different interpreters than Paul for some of the songs, and also included an 'instrumentals only' volume (although no Portuguese versions). For these reasons, there is little overlap with the Albums That Should Exist version, which I feel is a good thing since these playlists may function as a complementary treat to the official "Covered: Jobim" collection, for those willing to delve further into the Brazilian maestro's music. 

---

Thank you, Fabio from Rio. This is Paul again.  I'll write more about Jobim in the other two volumes. But, for now, here's the Wikipedia link about him:

Antônio Carlos Jobim - Wikipedia 

I will add that although Jobim wrote many classics, his signature song has to be "The Girl from Ipanema." I've included two versions of that for this series, both of which happen to fall into this volume. There's the female perspective version by Astrud Gilberto that was a huge worldwide hit in 1963. But also, near the end of this album, I've chosen a male perspective version by Frank Sinatra in 1981. Sinatra famously did an album with Jobim in 1967 called "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim." But I accidentally stumbled across a version he did for a TV show in 1981 that I liked better, due to the guitar work of Tony Mottola, so I picked that one. I believe it's unreleased.  

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Slightly Out of Tune [Desafinado] (Julie London)
02 The Girl from Ipanema [Garota de Ipanema] (Astrud Gilberto & Stan Getz)
03 Jazz 'n' Samba [So Danco Samba] (Milt Jackson)
04 Dindi (Astrud Gilberto)
05 Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars [Corcovado] (Marvin Gaye)
06 Dreamer [Vivo Sonhando] (Astrud Gilberto)
07 Pardon My English [Samba Torto] (Sylvia Telles)
08 Water to Drink [Agua de Beber] (Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66)
09 Stone Flower (Santana)
10 Triste (Sarah Vaughan)
11 Don't Ever Go Away [Por Causa de Voce] (Ella Fitzgerald)
12 The Girl from Ipanema [Garota de Ipanema] (Frank Sinatra with Tony Mottola)
13 A Felicidade [Happiness] (Susannah McCorkle)
14 Waters of March [Aguas de Marco] (Marisa Monte & David Byrne)
15 How Insensitive [Insensatez] (Sting & Antonio Carlos Jobim)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rkiYbEoT

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/nnC8cTrqoh0LJvJ/file

For the album cover, I used a photo that appeared on the cover of a Jobim album called "World's Greatest Composer." I don't know the exact year, but I picked it because he's obviously quite young in the image.

Paul Williams - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-1-1973

When I posted a poll about which "Midnight Special"-based live albums would be most wanted, singer-songwriter Paul Williams did much better than I had expected. So, to honor that, here's a Midnight Special album from him already.

Williams was on the show a bunch of a times. As a result, I was able to make two albums out of the currently available 1973-1975 material. Plus, he hosted the show again in 1976, so I should be able to make another album when that becomes available. 

(By the way, I recently figured out the episodes are being posted at YouTube at a steady once a week rate. There are over 200 episodes still to be posted. So it could take four more years to get to them all!)

This first album of his is compiled from three appearances. The first three tracks come from the episode broadcast on February 9, 1973. The next four come from the episode broadcast on March 9, 1973. Then he was the host for the June 1, 1973 episode, so the rest of the tracks come from that. In case you're curious, the other musical acts on the episode he hosted were Slade, the Stylistics, Argent, the Statler Brothers, Gunhill Road, and Sydney Jordan.

In case you don't know about Williams, he was a very successful singer and songwriter in the 1970s. I plan on posting a "Covered" album highlighting covers of his songs along with those of his frequent songwriting partner Roger Nichols. But he also was probably even better known as an actor. I was a kid in the 1970s, and I remember seeing him as a guest star on practically every show, it seemed, especially musical variety shows. Here's a quote from Wikipedia: "He made numerous television appearances in the 1970s and 1980s, including on The Odd Couple, Hawaii Five-O, Match Game '79, Hollywood Squares, The Love Boat, Police Woman, Fantasy Island, The Hardy Boys, The Fall Guy, The Flip Wilson Special, Gimme a Break!, and The Gong Show."

His career petered out in the 1980s due to excessive drug use. However, he recovered from his addictions in the 1990s and has had continued success in the entertainment industry since then (as I write this in 2025). Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Paul Williams (songwriter) - Wikipedia 

Despite having show business charisma and a good voice, he never had any big hits of his own, though he wrote many hits for other. Perhaps that's the reason that I couldn't find any sign of concert recordings from him, bootleg or official, except for one official live album recorded much later, after 2000. So this could be the first concert recording from him in his 1970s ever made publicly available.

Williams sang "Drift Away" here. That was a very big hit for Dobie Gray at the time of this TV show, reaching Number Five in the U.S. singles chart in 1973. But while Paul Williams didn't write it, his brother Mentor Williams did. I'm a bit surprised he didn't mention that before singing it. I checked, and it looks like Paul Williams never released a version of that song.

As usual with this TV show, I converted the YouTube video to audio then cut it into mp3s. I patched in extra applause to better link the songs together. So this should sound like a single concert instead of parts of three concerts frequently broken up by commercials.  

This album is 37 minutes long. 

01 talk by Johnny Rivers (Paul Williams)
02 Out in the Country (Paul Williams)
03 I Won't Last a Day without You (Paul Williams)
04 An Old Fashioned Love Song (Paul Williams)
05 talk (Paul Williams)
06 Drift Away (Paul Williams)
07 That's Enough for Me (Paul Williams)
08 My Love and I (Paul Williams)
09 talk (Paul Williams)
10 Let Me Be the One (Paul Williams)
11 We've Only Just Begun (Paul Williams)
12 talk (Paul Williams)
13 Rainy Days and Mondays (Paul Williams)
14 I Never Had It So Good (Paul Williams) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hzyJpBcj

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/fLKia9NgLXHlwK3/file

The cover photo is from one of the appearances Williams made that have been compiled here. It's the first appearance, on February 9, 1973. 

The Faces with Keith Richards - The Midnight Special, Kilburn State Gaumont Theatre, London, Britain, 12-23-1974

Here's one of the top vote getters from my recent poll about the "Midnight Special" TV show. The Faces were number two in that poll. The Faces only appeared in one episode of the show, which was broadcast on April 25, 1975. But it was a special show in three respects. For one, the entire show was dedicated to just them, which was very unusual for that show. Two, it took place at a different location, even a different country, months earlier. And three, they were joined by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, who played lead guitar on three songs.

The involvement of Richards in this concert is pretty interesting if one considers how it fit in to the break up of the band. By the time of this concert at the end of 1974, the Faces were well on their way to breaking up. The main problem was lead singer Rod Stewart. He'd become a superstar as a solo act, so it was easier for him to pursue that, where he could call all the shots, instead of remaining in the Faces. The last album the Faces put out was in 1973. They would only manage to tour and release a couple of singles after that. As a sign of Stewart's growing popularity, by the time of this concert, they were getting billed as "Rod Stewart and the Faces."

Meanwhile, Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones in 1974, meaning that more successful band needed a new lead guitarist. By early 1975, the top choice was Ronnie Wood of the Faces. He actually started touring with the Stones beginning in June 1975, although he wasn't an official member of that band yet. It seems Wood tried to juggle being a member of both the Faces and the Stones for a while, because when the Stones tour ended in early August, he joined a Faces tour starting in late August. But problems between members of the Faces grew and grew, until they announced their break-up at the end of 1975. Wood officially joined the Stones in early 1976.

Given that context, the appearance of Richards here wasn't just random. One could see this as part of a process of Wood moving from the Faces to the Stones. Perhaps it was part of Richards trying to woo Woods into the Stones, and/or see how well he and Woods clicked while performing in concert.

There's one bonus track. In the middle of the episode, there was seven-minute long interview of the band's lead singer Rod Stewart by the show host Wolfman Jack. Clearly, it was recorded at a different time and place than the concert, so it didn't fit. But I figure some people might be interested, so I stuck it in as a bonus track. 

Normally, the sound quality on all these Midnight Special shows has been excellent. But for this one, I noticed the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I boosted them up for all the songs. I also did the usual trick of getting rid of commercial breaks by editing out little bits (especially host Wolfman Jack announcing the breaks) and using more applause to get of the cuts between songs. 

Mere minutes after posting this, a commenter corrected me on the date and location, and also told me there was an extra song not broadcast on Midnight Special, namely, "I'd Rather Go Blind." So I found a different version of this concert that included that song, and added it in. I also added in some banter between songs by Stewart that was edited out by the TV show. Otherwise, the two versions are basically the same. It seems this concert later got released as a movie called "Rod Stewart and the Faces - The Final Concert." It has since come out on DVD, but not in an audio format. 

You can watch this concert/ episode on YouTube. Although Richards doesn't sing (except some very brief backing vocals), his lead guitar work with Woods is excellent. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long, not including the bonus track. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Faces)
02 talk (Faces)
03 It's All Over Now (Faces)
04 talk (Faces)
05 Take a Look at the Guy (Faces)
06 Bring It on Home to Me - You Send Me (Faces)
07 Sweet Little Rock and Roller (Faces with Keith Richards)
08 talk (Faces with Keith Richards)
09 I'd Rather Go Blind (Faces with Keith Richards)
10 talk (Faces)
11 Angel (Faces)
12 I Can Feel the Fire (Faces)
13 You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Faces)
14 talk (Faces)
15 Twistin' the Night Away (Faces with Keith Richards)
16 You Wear It Well (Faces)
17 Maggie May (Faces)
18 We'll Meet Again (Faces)

interview (Faces) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hzhFMx66

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/ulSGDNNzhUI9E4t/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. From right to left: Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Rod Stewart. For once, I didn't have to move them closer together in Photoshop, since they were all trying to get near the microphone.

Poll Results

Here are the results of the recent poll to find out which potential "Midnight Special" albums people would be most interested in. 

ELO                                       XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Faces                                      XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Byrds / Roger McGuinn        XXXXXXXXXXXX
Golden Earring                      XXXXXXXXXX
Guess Who                            XXXXXXXXXX
Randy Newman                     XXXXXXXXX
Todd Rundgren                      XXXXXXXXX    
Leon Russell                          XXXXXXXX
Paul Williams                        XXXXXXXX    
Bill Withers                           XXXXXXXX    
Steve Miller Band                 XXXXXXX
Ray Charles                           XXXXXX
Bee Gees                               XXXXXX
Curtis Mayfield                     XXXXXX
B.B. King                              XXXXX
Jerry Lee Lewis                     XXXXX
Earth, Wind & Fire                XXXXX
Bobby Womack                     XXXXX
Wilson Pickett                       XXXX
Billy Preston                         XXXX
Spinners                                XXXX    
Ike & Tina Turner                 XXXX    
Neil Sedaka                           XXXX
Linda Ronstadt                      XXXX
Hoyt Axton                            XXX
Joan Baez                              XXX
Blood, Sweat & Tears           XXX
James Brown                         XXX
Canned Heat                          XXX
Fats Domino                          XXX
Dr. Hook                                XXX
Little Anthony & Imperials    XXX
Ohio Players                          XXX
Rufus / Chaka Khan              XXX
Pointer Sisters                       XXX    
Chuck Berry                          XX
Jose Feliciano                        XX
Four Tops                              XX
Waylon Jennings                   XX
Edgar Winter Group              XX    
Seals & Crofts                       XX
Olivia Newton-John              XX
Frankie Valli & 4 Seasons     X
Barry White                           X    
Stylistics                                X
Righteous Brothers                X
Smokey Robinson                 X
Helen Reddy                          X
Paul Anka            
Leo Sayer            
Marty Robbins            
Anne Murray            
Mac Davis            

Keep in mind that I'm not necessarily going to post all the albums from these musical acts above a certain cut off point, as I have done in earlier polls. I just did this to see where the demand was. For instance, the most surprising result of this poll for me was how high Paul Williams ended up. I thought he was considered very "uncool," like Paul Anka and Mac Davis, both of whom got zero votes. But Williams made it into the top ten. So I'll have to post an album by him, when I previously almost certainly wouldn't have. I was also particularly surprised how high Golden Earring ended up. And I was surprised by how few votes some acts got, especially Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and Smokey Robinson, both with just one vote.

To be honest, I really like this Midnight Special material, so I imagine I'll end up posting albums from the vast majority of these musical acts by and by. But I'll try to prioritize the ones that got the most votes sooner rather than later. Thanks again for your feedback.

Gloria Estefan - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 8-16-1993

Here's an episode of Gloria Estefan performing for the great "PBS Soundstage" TV show.

Gloria Estefan's music isn't my cup of tea. But her record sales exceed over 100 million, making her one of the best selling musical acts of all time. And she's even won a Gershwin Prize. So I figure I should post her episode for the people who want it.

(By the way, note that this episode took place in the one year the show was called "Center Stage." But I'm just calling it "Soundstage" for consistency with all the other episodes I'm posting.) 

This was one of those episodes where, unfortunately, the producers tried to spice things up with more than just music from the concert, for instance interviews. I cut that extra stuff one. In a few cases, there was some overdubbed talking related to that extra stuff that went over the actual music. So I used the UVR5 audio editing program to get rid of the talking. That's why three songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

This concert took place a couple of months after the release of her studio album "Mi Tierra," which was one of her best selling albums. It also was her first all-Spanish-language album. However, all but a couple of songs here are sung in English.

This unreleased album is 54 minutes long.

01 Rhythm Is Gonna Get You (Gloria Estefan)
02 talk (Gloria Estefan)
03 Words Get in the Way (Gloria Estefan)
04 talk (Gloria Estefan)
05 Here We Are [Toda Pra Voce] [Edit] (Gloria Estefan)
06 Live for Loving You (Gloria Estefan)
07 Can't Stay Away from You (Gloria Estefan)
08 Don't Wanna Lose You (Gloria Estefan)
09 talk (Gloria Estefan)
10 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (Gloria Estefan)
11 Oye Mi Canto (Gloria Estefan)
12 talk (Gloria Estefan)
13 Anything for You [Edit] (Gloria Estefan)
14 Coming Out of the Dark [Edit] (Gloria Estefan)
15 Conga (Gloria Estefan)
16 talk (Gloria Estefan)
17 Always Tomorrow (Gloria Estefan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P1MvNm58

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/xAEwvI5LAKRWXBr/file

The cover image is from an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," on June 21, 1993.

Jim Croce - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-15-1973

Here's the last of the "Midnight Special" albums I put together before posting a poll about posting music from that TV show. From now on, future posts from the show will be from the poll choices list. This is a live album from Jim Croce.

Croce's time as a star was very short. His first major label album was released in April 1972, and he died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973. We're fortunate that, during that brief time, he appeared on the Midnight Special twice. The first time was on June 15, 1973, when he was the host. In case you're curious, the other musical acts for that episode were Little Anthony and the Imperials, Savoy Brown, Bobby Womack, Shawn Phillips, Barbara Fairchild, and Wishbone Ash. (I saw a mention that the show was actually recorded on June 8th, but I'm not completely sure about that.)

His second appearance was on the September 15, 1973 episode. He only performed one song, "I Got a Name." That's because that performance was meant to merely be teaser, in order to promote the fact that he would be hosting the show again for an upcoming episode. Sadly, he died in a plane crash before that episode was recorded.

This album starts with the June episode he hosted. That's followed by the "I Got a Name" performance from the September episode. That had a nice introduction by soul music legend Curtis Mayfield, so I decided to include that. But after all that, the album was still fairly short, at only 27 minutes. So I decided to draw on another TV appearance to beef things up a bit. I found an unreleased concert from July 1973 broadcast on Irish TV, called "Music Matters." A few songs were performed, but I only included the two that weren't repeats of other songs on this album. Those are the last two songs here.

This album is 33 minutes long.

01 Operator [That's Not the Way It Feels] (Jim Croce)
02 talk (Jim Croce)
03 talk (Jim Croce)
04 Roller Derby Queen (Jim Croce)
05 talk (Jim Croce)
06 You Don't Mess with Jim (Jim Croce)
07 talk (Jim Croce)
08 Speedball Tucker (Jim Croce)
09 Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (Jim Croce)
10 talk (Jim Croce)
11 Careful Man [Edit] (Jim Croce)
12 talk by Curtis Mayfield (Jim Croce)
13 I Got a Name (Jim Croce)
14 Rapid Roy [The Stock Car Boy] (Jim Croce)
15 talk (Jim Croce)
16 These Dreams (Jim Croce)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TqTRysdg

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from the June 1973 concert. I had several to choose from, so I picked one that also showed his trusty musical companion, Maury Muehleisen.

Gordon Lightfoot - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 9-8-1979

Here's another episode of the excellent "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This is another episode starring Gordon Lightfoot. I say "another" because he also performed for the show in 1973. I've posted that album here already.

This album caught Lightfoot halfway between the release on his "Endless Wire" album in early 1978 and "Dream Street Rose," which would be released in 1980. He played two songs from each. Otherwise, this mostly consists of his classics from previous albums.

Two of the songs have edits to them. I edited track 12, a talk track, because it contained an interview. I cut that out, since it wasn't part of the concert. But I kept a section between songs there where he introduced the members of his band. The other edited track is the last one, "Canadian Railroad Trilogy." Unfortunately, that's a long song, and the episode ended after only three minutes of it. So I found a different bootleg soundboard version from the time period, and used that to patch in the last four minutes. That's why those two tracks have "[Edit]" in their titles.

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 Cotton Jenny (Gordon Lightfoot)
02 The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot)
03 Endless Wire (Gordon Lightfoot)
04 Summertime Dream (Gordon Lightfoot)
05 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
06 Don Quixote (Gordon Lightfoot)
07 If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
08 Ghosts of Cape Horn (Gordon Lightfoot)
09 Beautiful (Gordon Lightfoot)
10 Hangdog Hotel Room (Gordon Lightfoot)
11 Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot)
12 talk [Edit] (Gordon Lightfoot)
13 Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
14 Whisper My Name (Gordon Lightfoot)
15 On the TV (Gordon Lightfoot)
16 Old Dan's Records (Gordon Lightfoot)
17 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
18 Canadian Railroad Trilogy [Edit] (Gordon Lightfoot)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/a9ij6YWw

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/m7ic8ZlRKUWfuiR/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. 

Jimi Hendrix & Various Artists - Jimi Hendrix as Session Musician, Volume 1: 1964-1966

Here's something a little different from me. It's a collection of songs where Jimi Hendrix was a supporting player rather than the main artist. I've never done a collection of "session musician" appearances like this before, because normally I don't think that's interesting enough to make an album. But Hendrix is one of the greatest musicians who ever lived, in my opinion, so even these sorts of performances are worthy of hearing, in my opinion.

Note that this is not complete by any means. I deliberately left off some songs I found with Hendrix playing guitar on them. That's because I only wanted to include songs where he made a notable impact, typically with a guitar solo. I found enough music for three volumes. For this first volume, I found all but three of the songs on the "West Coast Seattle Boy" Hendrix box set. The other three are tracks 9, 14, and 15. That box set does a good job collection his earlier session work. But the later two volumes mostly come from other sources.  

I could write pages about Hendrix's pre-fame history, and the tracks here. But if I do that, I probably would never get around to posting these volumes. So instead, I'll keep it short. Luckily, there's a good Rolling Stone article about his songs as a session musician before he became a star. I highly recommend you give this a read:

Jimi Hendrix: 10 Great Pre-Fame Tracks

I'll quote the intro to that article here:

"Before he was experienced, Jimi Hendrix was a hard-working sideman, playing studio session dates and backing bands across the so-called Chitlin' Circuit and beyond during the first half of the Sixties. After his discharge from the 101st Airborne Division following his brief spell as a paratrooper, the chance to dive headlong into rhythm and blues behind pros like Little Richard, King Curtis, and the Isley Brothers served as a valuable apprenticeship - though a decidedly unglamorous one. ... Despite the challenges, a letter Hendrix sent to his father during this period reveals his steely resolve to realize his destiny. 'I still have my guitar and amp and as long as I have that, no fool can keep me from living,' he writes. 'Although I don't eat every day, everything’s going all right for me. It could be worse than this, but I’m going to keep hustling and scuffling until I get things to happening, like they’re supposed to for me.' This baptism by fire forged the singular style that would make his name cultural shorthand for musical virtuosity." 

Hendrix actually began performing on the Chitlin' Circuit in late 1962, mostly in the South. At various points, he backed up lots of famous soul music stars, including Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner, and Jackie Wilson. However, this album begins in 1964, because that's the first time he managed to be included on released records.

In June 1966, Hendrix finally felt confident to form his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Performing in small clubs, he quickly made an impression. From there, he got an opportunity to move to Britain and do some recording. He left the U.S. in September 1966. Success quickly followed, with his first hit single, "Hey Joe," released near the end of the year. So that's where this volume ends, at the end of 1966.

Most everything here are failed, obscure singles. However, "Mercy, Mercy" was a significant hit. (It's interesting to note that Hendrix sometimes played that song in 1967, after he became famous.) I deliberately avoided live recordings as much as possible. If you're interested in that, I've posted an album gathering songs Hendrix sang when he was a part of Curtis Knight and the Squires in late 1965. Here's a link to that one:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/03/jimi-hendrix-with-curtis-knight-squires.html 

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Testify (Isley Brothers)
02 Mercy, Mercy (Don Covay)
03 Can't Stay Away (Don Covay)
04 Have You Ever Been Disappointed (Isley Brothers)
05 I Don't Know What You Got But It's Got Me (Little Richard)
06 My Diary (Rosa Lee Brooks)
07 Utee (Rose Lee Brooks)
08 The Little Old Groove Maker (Jimmy Norman)
09 I'm a Fool for You, Baby (Curtis Knight with Jimi Hendrix)
10 Dancing All Around the World (Little Richard)
11 Help Me [Get the Feeling], Part 1 (Ray Sharpe)
12 I'm So Glad (Frank Howard & the Commanders)
13 [My Girl] She's a Fox (Icemen [Lonnie Youngblood & Jimi Hendrix])
14 Soul Food [That's A What I Like] (Lonnie Youngblood with Jimi Hendrix)
15 Wipe the Sweat [Instrumental Version] (Lonnie Youngblood & Jimi Hendrix)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/msRGNEov

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Cp32kOQTpNlMFtL/file

The cover photo shows Curtis Knight and the Squires from 1966 or thereabouts. Can you tell on your own which one is Hendrix? He's the one on the left, with the toothy smile. This picture was in black and white, but I colorized with the help of the Kolorize program. 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: In Concert, Golders Green Hippodrome, London, Britain, 5-17-1974

Here's the seventh and last of the BBC albums I'm posting from the Incredible String Band. This one is a 1974 concert.

This concert came near the tail end of the band's first time together. Here's some info from their Wikipedia entry: "The group's changing lineup, adding Stan Schnier on bass, Jack Ingram on drums, and Graham Forbes on electric guitar, reflected moves toward a more conventional amplified rock group. Their final albums for Island [Records] were received disappointingly, and the label dropped them in 1974. By then, disagreements between [singer-songwriters Robin] Williamson and [Mike] Heron about musical policy had become irreconcilable, and they split up in October 1974."

After that, there was a reunion much later, from 1999 to 2006. That seems to have been the final split.

Only two songs from here were released on the band's official BBC album, "Across the Airwaves." Those are "1968" and "Log Cabin Home in the Sky." But everything else comes from a bootleg that sounds so good, you can't tell the difference on the sourcing.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Ithkos (Incredible String Band)
02 talk (Incredible String Band)
03 Log Cabin Home in the Sky (Incredible String Band)
04 talk (Incredible String Band)
05 1968 (Incredible String Band)
06 talk (Incredible String Band)
07 Jack Straw's Wishes [Instrumental] (Incredible String Band)
08 talk (Incredible String Band)
09 Maker of Islands (Incredible String Band)
10 talk (Incredible String Band)
11 Dear Old Battlefield (Incredible String Band)
12 talk (Incredible String Band)
13 Jigs [Good Morrow-Crawley's Reel-Small Coals for Nailers-Katie Hill] (Incredible String Band)
14 This Moment (Incredible String Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SkghByZo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/g0tj4cCJ86wmO8F/file

The cover photo is from the London Music Festival at the Alexandra Palace, in London, in August 1973.

Tracy Chapman & Natalie Merchant - Donmar Warehouse, London, Britain, 3-25-1988

I'm extra psyched to be presenting this album. It's actually two acoustic sets making up one concert. The first half features Natalie Merchant when she was still the lead singer for the band 10,000 Maniacs, and the second features Tracy Chapman. They're linked by a duet, but also by more, as I will explain. 

I had been aware of this concert for a long time. I put the duet of Merchant and Chapman singing " Where the Soul Never Dies" on a stray tracks album a few years ago, in fact. But I never considered posting it because I thought the sound quality was a little lacking. However, with the improvements in audio editing technology in recent years, I thought I'd give it a try. I think it sounds very good.

Before I say more about the recording, let me share the interesting story behind how this concert came to be. 

In 1987, Tracy Chapman was a struggling musician living in Boston, performing in small clubs and sometimes on street corners. But that year, she finally got her big break and got signed to a major record label, Elektra Records. Meanwhile, Natalie Merchant was becoming a star as the main singer and songwriter for the band 10,000 Maniacs. In the summer of 1987, they released their third album, "In My Tribe." It made the Top Forty in the U.S. album charts, putting them on the map as a nationwide popular act.

It so happened that 10,000 Maniacs was also signed to Elektra Records. One day, in late 1987, she discovered a demo tape of some of Chapman's songs while visiting the record company's New York City office. She was very impressed, so much so that she actually cried from being emotionally moved by the songs. In late 1987 and early 1988, Chapman recorded her debut album. It would be released in April 1988 under the title "Tracy Chapman." 

Then, in late February 1988, Elektra Records had Chapman perform a special concert in Boston to help build anticipation for her upcoming album. Even though only 150 people could fit in the club, lots of journalists and music industry insiders were invited. Merchant heard about the concert. She was so interested in that demo tape she'd heard that she flew to the concert and met Chapman after the show. Merchant later said, "I felt a kinship because her record was made from the soul rather than to make money. There was similarity between us in the lyrical sentiment and musical quality." A few days later, Merchant sent Chapman a copy of her "In My Tribe," album, and the two began communicating.

This soon led to Merchant inviting Chapman to a concert in London the following month. Actually, it was two concerts, on March 24th and 25th, both at the Donmar Warehouse, which only held about 200 people. This was designed to introduce Chapman to a European audience, as she'd never performed outside the U.S. before. At this point, Merchant had never really done any solo concerts, only concerts with 10,000 Maniacs. But she pushed herself to perform solo in order to help Chapman promote her upcoming album in this way. And even though Merchant was a star and Chapman was an unknown, Merchant opened the concert to help give Chapman a bigger spotlight. The effort worked, because some British journalists attended one or both of the concerts and started to spread word about her music in Britain. Chapman then played a few more solo concerts in Britain, opening for John Martyn, before returning to the U.S.

When Chapman's debut album was released in April 1988, it was out of step with the musical trends of the time. So at first, it did reasonably well, but not great. The album sold 250,000 copies by June. That month, she got to take part in a concert honoring Nelson Mandela that was broadcast worldwide. That caused her sales to skyrocket. A couple of months later, her album reached Number One in the U.S. album chart. Eventually, it went on to sell over 20 million copies. It also helped open the door for many other acoustic-based singer-songwriter types.

So it turns out this concert (and the one at the same venue the day before) was important for both Merchant and Chapman. For Merchant, it was the start of her doing solo work, though it would still be a few years before she left 10,000 Maniacs. And for Chapman, it helped build her reputation at a key time, when her debut album was still a few weeks away from being released.

Merchant further helped Chapman by having her be the opening act for 10,000 Maniacs for a few months, back before the Nelson Mandela concert. Merchant later commented, "She certainly doesn't need any help from me in retrospect. I played with her in England and had her tour with us to get my crowd to see her rather than have her relegated to women's bins or folk bins in the stores. When she toured with us not many people had heard the album, but people sat completely enthralled and she got standing ovations most nights." 

Thanks to this essay, where I found much of the information here:

https://tracychapmanonline.substack.com/p/tracy-chapman-natalie-merchant-10000-maniacs 

Now, let's get to this recording. I found recordings of the two sets separately, and put them together. But I'm sure they're from the same source. It's an audience bootleg, but a pretty good one. Because the crowd was small, there was almost no crowd noise during the songs. However, the big problem that stopped me from posting this in the past was hiss. So I tried something new. MVSEP has a conversion setting called "Denoise." I tried it, and it did a really great job of getting rid of the hiss, even during the songs, while keeping everything else. This works better than "noise reduction," which often harms the music. 

So that fixed most of the problem. However, the sound of Merchant's set was a bit rougher. The songs sounded pretty good, but the banter was often hard to understand. So I ran the talking tracks through Adobe's "Enhance Speech" program, which specifically helps with the clarity of speech. That helped a lot. The one remaining problem after that was that the first minute or so of Chapman's "For My Lover" was missing. Luckily, that song has some repetition in it, and the verses that were lost were repeated later in the song. So I just copied parts of the song to fill in the missing portion. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

On a final note, some of the songs performed in this concert still haven't been officially released. "After Talking to Myself" by Natalie Merchant has been performed in concert a few times, but it's not even known what the song title is. And Chapman played some songs that would show up on her second album "Crossroads," like "Born to Fight" and "This Time," plus, "If I" and "Be My Baby," which remain unreleased. And their duet of the traditional song "Where the Soul Never Dies" also remains unreleased by both of them.

This album is an hour and 38 minutes long. The Natalie Merchant set is 43 minutes long, and the Tracy Chapman one is 56 minutes long. (Also, just as a nitpicky thing, some versions of this bootleg I've seen list March 20th as the date, but I believe the more accurate date is there were two shows, on March 24th and 25th, and this is from the 25th.)

By the way, note that on the same day I'm posting this, I've added three songs to the Chapman "Acoustic Demos" album I made. All three of them are still unreleased songs recorded way back in 1986, in great sound quality, so you really should give those a listen. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/10/tracy-chapman-acoustic-demos-1986-1988.html 

01 talk (Natalie Merchant)
02 A Campfire Song (Natalie Merchant)
03 talk (Natalie Merchant)
04 Gun Shy (Natalie Merchant)
05 talk (Natalie Merchant)
06 Everyone a Puzzle Lover (Natalie Merchant)
07 talk (Natalie Merchant)
08 Don't Talk (Natalie Merchant)
09 talk (Natalie Merchant)
10 The Painted Desert (Natalie Merchant)
11 talk (Natalie Merchant)
12 Lilydale (Natalie Merchant)
13 What's the Matter Here (Natalie Merchant)
14 Maddox Table (Natalie Merchant)
15 talk (Natalie Merchant)
16 Verdi Cries (Natalie Merchant)
17 talk (Natalie Merchant)
18 Like the Weather (Natalie Merchant)
19 After Talking to Myself (Natalie Merchant)
20 talk (Tracy Chapman)
21 Why (Tracy Chapman)
22 If I (Tracy Chapman)
23 Across the Lines (Tracy Chapman)
24 This Time (Tracy Chapman)
25 Behind the Wall (Tracy Chapman)
26 Baby Can I Hold You (Tracy Chapman)
27 talk (Tracy Chapman)
28 Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
29 talk (Tracy Chapman)
30 If Not Now (Tracy Chapman)
31 For My Lover [Edit] (Tracy Chapman)
32 Born to Fight (Tracy Chapman)
33 talk (Tracy Chapman)
34 Mountains O' Things (Tracy Chapman)
35 talk (Tracy Chapman)
36 Talkin' 'bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)
37 talk (Tracy Chapman)
38 Be My Baby (Tracy Chapman)
39 Where the Soul Never Dies (Tracy Chapman & Natalie Merchant)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/X4dRftSL

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/SojSNsOlHUBpier/file

The cover photo of Merchant and Chapman is from this time period, though I don't know the exact details. The background was white, but I used Photoshop to change it to black. I also used Krea AI to improve the image quality.

Little Feat & Friends - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-10-1977

Here's a very interesting episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. The main host of the episode was the band Little Feat. But Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, and Jesse Winchester were on the show too, and all four of these musical acts performed together in various combinations. 

If you've been paying attention at all to this blog in the last week or so (as I write this in late October 2025), you'll notice I've been posting a lot of albums based on Midnight Special episodes lately. So far, only the shows from 1973 to 1975 have been posted in high quality on YouTube, with a chronological rollout slowly continuing. But occasional shows from later years were already bootlegged. There aren't many cases of that, and most of them are incomplete and/or have lesser sound quality. But I found this one in full with excellent quality, so I've decided to post it already. No doubt it's survived as a bootleg when most other episodes didn't because of the special collaborations.

The musical acts mentioned above were not the only ones on the show. In addition, Neil Young appeared for one song, and Weather Report performed three songs. I didn't include the Young song, because it wasn't really from the episode, but it was a video of him performing "Like a Hurricane" at some unknown concert. Had he actually been there, I would have included it, and I'll bet he would have interacted with some of the others too. (Most likely Emmylou Harris, since she sang backing vocals on some of his songs right around this time.) As for Weather Report, I didn't include them because they didn't fit in musically with the others, and there was no collaboration between them and the others. This is another case where I feel less is more, by having musical cohesion to the album.

I took the music from a bootleg. But I patched in more applause at the ends of some songs to help smooth the transitions between songs. And there were edits to two songs. I edited Wolfman Jack's introduction to get rid of the mentions of Neil Young and Weather Report. "Rock and Roll Doctor" by Little Feat was more difficult. This was another case of the show ending in the middle of song. So I found a soundboard bootleg of a Little Feat from Kansas City in 1977, and used that version of "Rock and Roll Doctor" to finish off the last three minute or so.

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 Queen of the Silver Dollar (Emmylou Harris with Little Feat)
03 Dixie Chicken (Little Feat with Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt & Jesse Winchester)
04 talk (Little Feat)
05 Runaway (Bonnie Raitt)
06 talk (Emmylou Harris)
07 Rhumba Man (Jesse Winchester)
08 Old Folks Boogie (Little Feat)
09 talk (Little Feat & Jesse Winchester)
10 I Can't Stand Up Alone (Jesse Winchester with Emmylou Harris & Bonnie Raitt)
11 talk (Jesse Winchester)
12 Home (Bonnie Raitt)
13 talk (Little Feat)
14 Nothing but a Breeze (Jesse Winchester with Emmylou Harris)
15 Rocket in My Pocket (Little Feat)
16 My Songbird (Emmylou Harris)
17 Sugar Mama (Bonnie Raitt)
18 talk (Little Feat)
19 Rock and Roll Doctor [Edit] (Little Feat)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fDdTEYhP

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/B1Dw5Vdo0jkhFj3/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It's actually a combination of two different screenshots. At one point in the YouTube video, the camera panned from Lowell George to Emmylou Harris, then to Bonnie Raitt. The three of them were never in the frame at the same time. But I was able to take the two screenshots and stitch them together to get all three of them together.

Gladys Knight & the Pips with B.B. King - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 10-5-1973

At first glance, you might be wondering, "Wait, didn't he just post a Gladys Knight "Midnight Special" album from 1973 just a few days ago. And that's true, I did. But she was on that show enough for two albums. The first one I posted was from early 1973, and had Dr. John as a special guest. This is from late 1973 and early 1974, and has B.B. King as a special guest.

The first nine tracks come from the October 5, 1973 date mentioned in the title. Since B.B. King did a duet with Knight on his classic song "The Thrill Is Gone," I included the two other songs he did on his own. The other musical acts on that episode were Focus, Stories, Chris Smither, Earth, Wind & Fire, and a duet of Wolfman Jack and Monda. Hopefully, some of those will show up in later albums.

"Where Peaceful Waters Flow" is from a September 14, 1973 episode. It was the only song Knight performed in that episode. (It seems that was a teaser to help promote the fact she and her band would be hosting the show in a couple of weeks.) The remaining songs, tracks 11 through 15, are from a March 8, 1974 episode. 

Note that I've included two versions of "Midnight Train of Georgia." This song was released as a single in August 1973, and went all the way to Number One on the U.S. singles chart, becoming Knight's signature song. Normally, I don't include two versions of the same song on an album. But this is such a great song that I made an exception in this case. If you don't want it, it's easy to delete the second one, since it's the last song on the album.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. As usual for this TV show, I converted the YouTube video to audio, then broke it into mp3s. And I added in more applause to smooth transitions between songs. There are two talk tracks in a row for tracks two and three, because those are from different points in the concert. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Daddy Could Swear, I Declare (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
02 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
03 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
04 To Know You Is to Love You (B.B. King)
05 Heavy Makes You Happy (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
06 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
07 The Thrill Is Gone (Gladys Knight & B.B. King)
08 How Blue Can You Get (B.B. King)
09 Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 Where Peaceful Waters Flow (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
11 I've Got to Use My Imagination (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
12 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
13 Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
14 On and On (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
15 Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight & the Pips)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/htPuWyEy

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/wWthF5jPrVRa8mW/file 

The cover image is from this exact concert. But it's actually a combination of two images. I wanted a picture of Gladys Knight and B. B. King. So I looked through their duet song, "The Thrill Is Gone." The problem was, they never were standing right next to each other. So I took a screenshot of each of them, and then moved them close together in Photoshop. The red background with the lines of lights was the same, so lined that up to get them to match.

Diana Krall Update

Over a week ago now, I posted a Diana Krall BBC concert. Shortly afterwards, a commenter named PeterH told me he had four extra songs at the end that my version was lacking. He sent them to me, and I've added them in. It really makes a difference, as it becomes clear that this is the full concert (with her giving final thank yous at the end of the last song). So if you downloaded it before, I suggest you get this version instead. Here's the link back to that post:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/10/diana-krall-bbc-in-concert-mermaid.html

And thanks again to PeterH for the extra songs! 

Covered: Joe South: 1962-2005

Lately, I've had so much music I'm discovering, especially from "Midnight Special," "Ultrasonic," Live at the Record Plant," and "PBS Soundstage," that my Covered series highlighting worthy songwriters has fallen by the wayside. Again. But I'm going to make more of a concerted effort to post more of these, since a have a big number ready to go. Here's an album celebrating the songs of Joe South.

Joe South's songs were very popular for a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was born in 1940 in Atlanta, Georgia, and his music has an obvious southern influence. He began a career as both a performer and a songwriter in the late 1950s, when he was in his late teens. For many years, he only had minor success with both of those pursuits. The first song here is from 1962, and the second is from 1965. But then he hit his stride in 1968, when more people started covering his songs, and sometimes having big hits with them. For instance, Deep Purple had a big hit with "Hush" in 1968 (which was pretty atypical for them compared to their usual hard rock sound).

Then, in 1969, he had a big hit of his own, "Games People Play." It just missed the Top Ten in the U.S. singles chart, and since then is probably considered his signature song. Then he had another in 1970, with "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," which also just missed the Top Ten. I've chosen to include the Joe South version of "Games People Play." But the main point of this series is to focus on cover versions, so that's the only song I've included that's performed by him. 

In 1970, he also had his biggest success as a songwriter with "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden." It was first released by Billy Joe Royal in 1967, and there were a couple more covers after that. But when Lynn Anderson released her version in 1970, it went all the way to Number One in the country chart, and Number Three in the main U.S. singles chart, and became one of the best selling songs of the year. 

After all this success in just a couple of years, his future looked very promising. But then tragedy struck. Tommy South, his brother, committed suicide. Tommy had been in Joe's backing band, and they two of them were very close. Joe irrationally blamed himself for the suicide. He sank into a deep depression that lasted for years, and started taking heavy drugs to cope. His time as a promising songwriter basically ended at that point, as he lost his inspiration for many years. He later said, "I really kicked myself around for years... one of the main hang-ups was I just refused to forgive myself. You know, you can go through drug treatment centers, and it's not a permanent healing until it's a spiritual healing." He finally turned his life around in the late 1980s, but musical trends had largely passed him by, and he never released any new albums after 1975. All the songs here were written before that 1971 tragedy, though some of them were covered many years later. 

He died of a heart attack in 2012, at the age of 72. Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more: 

Joe South - Wikipedia 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 You're the Reason (Arthur Alexander)
02 I've Got to Be Somebody (Billy Joe Royal)
03 Hush (Deep Purple)
04 Games People Play (Joe South)
05 Down in the Boondocks (Billy Joe Royal)
06 These Are Not My People (Johnny Rivers)
07 Don't It Make You Want to Go Home (Brook Benton)
08 Walk a Mile in My Shoes (Elvis Presley)
09 [I Never Promised You A] Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson)
10 Redneck (Swamp Dogg)
11 Yo-Yo (Osmonds)
12 Don't Throw Your Love to the Wind (Jody Miller)
13 Birds of a Feather (Johnny Nash)
14 I Knew You When (Linda Ronstadt)
15 Children (Stephanie Finch)
16 The Greatest Love (Kelly Hogan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Cs7VpEZz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/SgxQeTnbykRnLm9/file

I took the cover photo from the cover of an album called "The Joe South Story." I don't know the details. But it was one of very few I could find that was in color and showed him when he was young. 

Various Artists - A Tribute to Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 6-29-2000

Unfortunately, I'm all done posting Gershwin Prize and MusiCares tribute concerts, at least until more of them become publicly available. But there are other similar tribute concerts out there. This one is so similar in format that it's basically the same as the other two kinds of concerts. This concert honors the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. 

In fact, there was a Gershwin Prize concert in 2012 honoring these two songwriters. But I'd argue this one is superior. For one thing, its twice as long. But also, it has more big name stars, especially Dionne Warwick, who is widely considered the top singer of Bacharach-David songs.

I'm not sure of the exact reason for this concert, be it an anniversary or something like that. But I suppose it doesn't matter much. But I do know the profits from the concert went to support the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy non-profit. And it was broadcast on TV at the time, and later released on DVD. That's how I have it here in excellent sound quality, since it's never been released on any audio format.

By the way, I know Hal David was there, because of photos of him there, including the cover photo I selected. But there's no sign of him on this recording. I suspect he gave a speech near the end of the concert, just like Burt Bacharach did, but his speech got edited out of the TV show (and thus the DVD) since Bacharach is the much more famous one out of the two. 

This album is an hour and 42 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Wives and Lovers (Kenny Lynch)
03 talk (emcee)
04 One Less Bell to Answer (Lucie Silvas)
05 talk (emcee)
06 Don't Make Me Over (Lynden David Hall)
07 talk (emcee)
08 Reach Out for Me (Brian Kennedy)
09 talk (emcee)
10 Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Yazz)
11 talk (emcee)
12 You'll Never Get to Heaven (Shola Ama)
13 talk (emcee)
14 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Sacha Distel)
15 talk (emcee)
16 This Guy's in Love with You (Paul Carrack)
17 talk (emcee)
18 A House Is Not a Home (Petula Clark)
19 Wishin' and Hopin' (Petula Clark)
20 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Petula Clark)
21 talk (emcee)
22 [There's] Always Something There to Remind Me (Leo Sayer)
23 talk (emcee)
24 Alfie (Sumudu Jayatilaka)
25 talk (emcee)
26 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Brian Kennedy)
27 talk (emcee)
28 What's New Pussycat (Brian Conley)
29 Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa (Brian Conley)
30 talk (emcee)
31 I Just Have to Breathe (Teish O'Day)
32 talk (emcee)
33 Make It Easy on Yourself (Edwin Starr)
34 talk (emcee)
35 The Look of Love (Linda Lewis)
36 talk (emcee)
37 Elvis Costello (talk)
38 I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself (Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach)
39 talk (emcee)
40 Walk on By (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
41 I Say a Little Prayer (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
42 Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
43 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
44 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Dionne Warwick & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6Ec9rngv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mrGkAfgvmiFeA5M/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. That's Bacharach on the left and David, wearing glasses, on the right.

Tom Jones with Alison Krauss - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 2-12-2016

Here's another episode of the great "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one stars Tom Jones, with a guest appearance by Alison Krauss.

I have to admit, I kind of want to dislike Tom Jones, because he's practically the epitome of 1970s show biz cheesiness. But he keeps surprising me with good music. In particular, he had an unexpected late career renaissance. Instead of turning into strictly an oldies act, he went in new directions. You can definitely see that here, starting with a Leonard Cohen cover as the first song. 

At the time of this concert, he was promoting his 2015 album "Long Lost Suitcase." It continues his critically acclaimed renaissance, with more of an emphasis on roots music, like blues and folk. That said, he also played some of the oldies hits, like "Thunderball" and "It's Not Unusual."

One thing I really like about this show is how it's encouraged the main act to have a guest star appearance. That tradition continues here with Alison Krauss. However, unlike some other episodes, her role is relatively minor. Instead of having a few songs to herself, she sang two duets with Jones in the middle of the concert, and then came back for a third one later.

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

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long.

01 Tower of Song (Tom Jones)
02 talk (Tom Jones)
03 Run On (Tom Jones)
04 talk (Tom Jones)
05 Strange Things (Tom Jones)
06 talk (Tom Jones)
07 Delilah (Tom Jones)
08 Take My Love [I Want to Give It] (Tom Jones)
09 talk (Tom Jones)
10 Opportunity to Cry (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
11 Raise a Ruckus (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
12 talk (Tom Jones)
13 Elvis Presley Blues (Tom Jones)
14 talk (Tom Jones)
15 Soul of a Man (Tom Jones)
16 talk (Tom Jones)
17 If I Give My Soul (Tom Jones)
18 Burning Hell (Tom Jones)
19 Don't Knock (Tom Jones)
20 talk (Tom Jones)
21 Didn't It Rain (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
22 talk (Tom Jones)
23 Green Green Grass of Home (Tom Jones)
24 'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone (Tom Jones)
25 Kiss (Tom Jones)
26 talk (Tom Jones)
27 I Wish You Would (Tom Jones)
28 talk (Tom Jones)
29 Thunderball (Tom Jones)
30 talk (Tom Jones)
31 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
32 talk (Tom Jones)
33 What Good Am I (Tom Jones)
34 talk (Tom Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ppbZ6i58

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gRJiLFTTeo8PoKN/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Dave Mason - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 2-7-1975

Here's another album from the "Midnight Special" TV show. This time, it's a concert by Dave Mason, formerly of the band Traffic.

Most of the album is from an episode of the show broadcast in early 1975. (Note for all of these episodes, the recording date probably was a bit earlier.) The other musical acts in the show were the Kiki Dee Band, the Average White Band, and the Crusaders. I didn't include any of those here, but perhaps one or more of them will show up on a future album where they fit better.

However, the last two songs are from a different source. That's another episode of the show, broadcast on December 30, 1977. In the meantime, he'd had a big hit with "We Just Disagree," so that's one of the two songs he played at that time.

This bootleg recording has excellent sound overall. As usual for this series, I started with the YouTube video, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. There was a problem with the song "Feelin' Alright," however. I'm learning that this show often ended in the middle of a song, and that was the case here. Only the first two minutes of the song were actually from the show. So I found a performance on a different TV show from the same era, and used that to finish it off. (I'm not sure, but it's probably from the "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" TV show in 1973.) That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.  

This album is 44 minutes long. 

01 World in Changes (Dave Mason)
02 Bring It on Home to Me (Dave Mason)
03 All Along the Watchtower (Dave Mason)
04 Every Woman (Dave Mason)
05 You Can't Take It When You Go (Dave Mason)
06 Only You Know and I Know (Dave Mason)
07 Lucille (Dave Mason)
08 talk (Dave Mason)
09 Feelin' Alright [Edit] (Dave Mason)
10 Let It Go, Let It Flow (Dave Mason)
11 We Just Disagree (Dave Mason)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/crSBFjAC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9nEeTLqxLl5oNLS/file

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

Al Kooper - Live at the Record Plant, Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 10-23-1974

Here's a solo acoustic piano concert by Al Kooper in front of a small audience for the "Live at the Record Plant" radio series. 

To be honest, I didn't expect much from this. I knew of Kooper from his roles as a session musician, producer, and songwriter, but I'd never heard much of him as a performer. But I was quite impressed, actually. He played a lot of good songs, a mix of covers and originals, and had some interesting banter between songs. 

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Al Kooper - Wikipedia

This recording sounded pretty good, but it did have some trouble with hiss. I did some audio editing to get rid of most of the hiss on the talking tracks, with the help of the MVSEP program. But I didn't touch the hiss on the actual songs, for fear that would hurt the music. But it isn't nearly as noticeable there anyway. It only stood out when the background was mostly silent.  

This unreleased album is 56 minutes long. 

01 talk by Tom Donahue (Al Kooper)
02 Brand New Day (Al Kooper)
03 talk (Al Kooper)
04 Without Her (Al Kooper)
05 talk (Al Kooper)
06 Autobiography in 725 Bars (Al Kooper)
07 talk (Al Kooper)
08 Sam Stone (Al Kooper)
09 talk (Al Kooper)
10 Just One Smile (Al Kooper)
11 talk (Al Kooper)
12 New Fashioned Love Song (Al Kooper)
13 talk (Al Kooper)
14 Drown in My Own Tears (Al Kooper)
15 talk (Al Kooper)
16 Don't Hang Up (Al Kooper)
17 talk (Al Kooper)
18 I Can't Quit Her (Al Kooper)
19 talk (Al Kooper)
20 [Be Yourself] Be Real (Al Kooper)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/soLq1wmj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KXyFmbi6xNJWwfy/file

The cover photo was taken at a concert at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 12, 1973.

War - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 10-19-1973

Here's another "Midnight Special" album I didn't factor into the poll I posted yesterday, since I'd made this one already. It's a concert by the band War, in 1973.

I'd been looking for a good concert bootleg by War for a long time. But they're one of those bands, like 1970s ZZ Top, that are strangely lacking worthy bootlegs. There is an official live album, "War Live," released in 1974. But that's about it when it comes to the band in the 1970s prime. And while that official album is very good, it has been criticized for some of the songs going on too long. For instance, two of the songs on it are about 20 minutes long. This is more streamlined, while still have some room for jamming.

Tracks three through eight are from the October 19, 1973 episode, which was hosted by War. "Slippin' into Darkness" was the only song they played on the show's pilot episode on August 19, 1972. And "Gypsy Man" is from the September 14, 1973 episode. Finally, "All Day Music" is from the "ABC In Concert" TV show, which was a rival to Midnight Special for a couple of years on a different TV network. Normally, I want to keep the content of these Midnight Special albums just from that show, but I'm making a rare exception here.

The episode hosted by War had a lot of other musical acts on it: New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, Danny O'Keefe, the Climax Blues Band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Piper. I didn't include any of those here since none of them seemed like a close stylistic match.

As usual for this show, I converted the YouTube video to audio, then broke it into mp3s. I also patched in applause to make smooth transitions between songs.  

This album is 42 minutes long. 

01 Slippin' into Darkness (War)
02 Gypsy Man (War)
03 The Cisco Kid (War)
04 talk (War)
05 Me and Baby Brother (War)
06 The World Is a Ghetto (War)
07 talk (War)
08 City Country City [Instrumental] (War)
09 All Day Music (War)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/J1nV8CXk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0JFXtEeX4X2kLY2/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Gladys Knight & the Pips with Dr. John - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 5-25-1973

When I posted a poll yesterday about the "Midnight Special" TV show, I said I have a few things I've already prepared that don't figure into the poll question. Here's one of them, an album by Gladys Knight and the Pips. Actually, they appeared on the show enough for two albums. This is the first one.

Gladys Knight and the Pips had their first hit in 1961, and many followed. But they really hit their peak in the early 1970s. Their best year of all was 1973, with four big hit singles. So they appeared on the "Midnight Special" multiple times that year. The first nine tracks here come from the May 25, 1973 episode, which they hosted. But they also played a couple of songs each on the April 6th and May 4th episodes. I've only included the tracks from those that weren't also performed on May 25th. 

Furthermore, they also performed on the show in late 1973 and again in early 1974. But that will be the subject of a different album.

As was typical for the TV show, there were a number of other acts. The Staple Singers, John Stewart, Dr. John, and Skylark also played songs. Plus, there was a comedy segment by Robert Klein. I chose to include the two Dr. John songs, since I think they fit in well in terms of musical style. The Staple Singers would also fit, but I would like to eventually gather up all their appearances on the show for an album, after more from them gets posted on YouTube.

This band hasn't been bootlegged much at all, so this is nice to have. As usual for this TV show, I converted the YouTube video to audio, then cut it into mp3s.  

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
02 Friendship Train (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
03 talk (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
04 Instrumental (Dr. John)
05 Right Place, Wrong Time (Dr. John)
06 Daddy Could Swear, I Declare (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
07 I Don't Want to Do Wrong (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
08 Such a Night (Dr. John)
09 Neither One of Us [Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye] [Edit] (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 If I Were Your Woman (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
11 I Heard It through the Grapevine (Gladys Knight & the Pips)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vb5TAaHq

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/3tg1GnHyQtftH0J/file

The cover image is from this exact concert, on May 25, 1973. 

A New Poll

As I've been mentioning in recent days, I recently discovered an amazing amount of music I'd previously missed, in the form of episodes of the 1970s "Midnight Special" TV show on YouTube. So far, all the episodes from the start of the show in 1973 to late 1975 have been posted, in chronological order. I've already turned a few of these into albums, and I have a few more on the way. (The "few more on the way" ones won't be included in this poll.) But aside from those, there are many, many more I possibly could make. I've just compiled a list of all the musical acts who have appeared on that show enough so that I could make a viable live album from them (meaning one that's at least half an hour long), though often I would have to compile appearances from more than one episode to get that much. Some acts (with the Kinks and Gordon Lightfoot being two that come to mind) don't have enough material yet, but eventually will if more episodes keep getting posted in chronological order. The show goes all the way to 1981, so there's a lot to come, including many acts that haven't appeared on the show yet. This poll is just about what I can do with the material that has been posted already.

So here's a list. I don't want to make albums out of all of these. That would be way too much. But some, for sure. To decide which ones, it will help me to see how great the popular demand is. So I would ask you to vote for the ones you're the most interested in. Each person should vote no more than ten times. If you do vote more, I'll only count the first ten. 

Keep in mind that one interesting thing about this show is how it gives us live music from musical acts that haven't put out much, or any, live music at all, be it official albums or bootlegs. (As an example, if I look ahead to the acts on the show in the late 1970s, there will eventually be enough material for me to post a Jackie DeShannon album, which I'm psyched about because there's almost no live recordings from her whatsoever.) So you might want to keep the rarity factor in mind as well when voting. Another thing worth mentioning is that some of these acts were on the show multiple times during this time period, enough for me to make multiple albums from them. But I've have to look closer to figure that out. 

This time, I'm not necessarily going to just post the ones that get the most votes. But I will keep these vote results in mind in determining which ones to do. There are 53 options in all. Thanks!

And by the way, if you want to see more detail of what was performed on each of the shows, I just found a very good webpage for that. Note the existing shows that are the subject of this poll only go up until September 1975. At their current posting pace, it'll probably take two or three more years until all the other episodes get posted as well. 

The Midnight Special - Aired Order - All Seasons - TheTVDB.com 

Paul Anka
Hoyt Axton
Joan Baez
Bee Gees
Chuck Berry
Blood, Sweat & Tears / David Clayton-Thomas
James Brown
Byrds / Roger McGuinn
Canned Heat
Ray Charles
Mac Davis
Fats Domino
Jose Feliciano
Dr. Hook
Earth, Wind & Fire
ELO
Faces
Four Tops
Golden Earring
Guess Who
Waylon Jennings
B.B. King
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Anthony & the Imperials
Curtis Mayfield
Steve Miller Band
Anne Murray
Randy Newman
Ohio Players
Olivia Newton-John
Wilson Pickett
Pointer Sisters
Billy Preston
Helen Reddy
Righteous Brothers
Marty Robbins
Smokey Robinson
Linda Ronstadt
Rufus / Chaka Khan
Todd Rundgren
Leon Russell
Leo Sayer
Seals & Crofts
Neil Sedaka
Spinners
Stylistics 
Ike & Tina Turner
Barry White
Paul Williams
Edgar Winter Group
Bill Withers
Bobby Womack
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

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

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

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

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

Andrew Gold - Wikipedia 

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

This album is 41 minutes long. 

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Fh1jhoiA

alternate:

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

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

Labi Siffre - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Hexagon Theatre, Reading, Britain, 5-14-1989

This is quite a surprise. I thought I'd posted all the BBC material that exists for singer-songwriter Labi Siffre. But a couple of days ago, an anonymous helper sent me this concert. To say it has been hard to find is an understatement. Once I knew the details about its existence, I did an Internet search and only found one mention of it. So hopefully this will bring it back into circulation.

Siffre had a few hits in Britain in the early 1970s, but his music career essentially petered out by the end of that decade. However, in the mid-1980s, he watched a TV documentary about Apartheid in South Africa, and that inspired him to write the song "(Something Inside) So Strong." When it was released in 1987, it went all the way to Number Four in the British singles chart. This gave his career a second wind. He released the album "So Strong" in 1988 (his first since 1975), which contained two more minor hits, "Listen to the Voices" and "Nothin's Gonna Change."

Be aware that the music is quite different from his 1970s stuff. That was very acoustic based. Whereas his late 1980s sound was more typical of that era, with a full band, synths, heavy drums, and so forth. In fact, I was surprised (and disappointed) that he seemed to entirely turn his back on his earlier music. He didn't play any of his earlier hits. His new music isn't bad, but it is a big change. One thing that remained consistent though was his interest in socially progressive topics in his lyrics, like fighting racism.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 Lovers (Labi Siffre)
02 Listen to the Voices (Labi Siffre)
03 Schooldays (Labi Siffre)
04 Hard Road (Labi Siffre)
05 And the Wind Blows (Labi Siffre)
06 All I Wanna Do (Labi Siffre)
07 Never Let You Down (Labi Siffre)
08 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Labi Siffre)
09 I Will Always Love You (Labi Siffre)
10 talk (Labi Siffre)
11 With a Little Love (Labi Siffre)
12 Snowman (Labi Siffre)
13 talk (Labi Siffre)
14 Nothin's Gonna Change (Labi Siffre)
15 I'm Alright (Labi Siffre)
16 Hard Road [Second Version] (Labi Siffre)
17 [Something Inside] So Strong (Labi Siffre)
18 Home (Labi Siffre)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vEHzj6ZQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DE75rjUpf71GXyE/file

The cover photo is from the Prince's Trust concert in London in 1987. I've posted that concert here. It features Siffre performing one song, "(Something Inside) So Strong."