Covered: Geoff Stephens: 1964-2002

I recently posted a couple of "Covered" albums dealing with British professional songwriters from the 1960s and 1970s (as I write this in May 2026). As I said elsewhere, there was a circle of a dozen or more who often collaborated with each other, and wrote lots of pop hits. Here's another one from that group, Geoff Stephens.

Many of the other songwriters in this group that I've been discussing came up with the British Invasion, the musical trend that started around 1963. But Stephens was slightly older - he was 29 years old in 1963- and his music career began before that. He served in the military for a couple of years and held a series of odd jobs before getting serious about songwriting. His first song was covered by a musical act in 1961. 

His first hit was "Tell Me When" in 1964, co-written by Les Reed, another songwriter in that group. I've already posted the hit version by the Applejacks in the "Covered" album for Barry Mason and Les Reed. So I went with a different version here. Later that same year, he had an even bigger hit with a song he wrote all by himself, "The Crying Game." The version by Dave Berry went all the way to the Top Five in Britain, although it wasn't a hit. (Boy George eventually had a hit in the U.S. with it in 1992.) It had an unusual melody, showing surprising musical sophistication for a pop hit 1964.

He had an even bigger hit in 1966 with "Winchester Cathedral," performed by the New Vaudeville Band. It actually was recorded by session musicians. The lead vocalist was John Carter, another songwriter I've profiled with a "Covered" album." Stephens had a fondness for vaudeville/ music hall music from the 1920s and earlier, and wrote the song in that vein. It was such a massive success - hitting Number One in the U.S. and some other countries, and selling three million copies worldwide - that it started a mini-vaudeville trend for the next couple of years. Few British artists could resist performing at least one or two songs in that style, for some reason.

Sometimes, Stephens was the sole songwriter, as was the case with "Winchester Cathedral." But more often, he wrote with other members of that unnamed British professional songwriter group. For instance, "There's a Kind of Hush" was written with Les Reed, "Sorry Suzanne" was written with Tony Macaulay, "My Sentimental Friend" was written with John Carter, "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" was written with Peter Callander, and so on. As you can see, Stephens didn't favor just one songwriting partner. In fact, he had many more, including Roger Greenaway, Barry Mason, Don Black, and Mitch Murray. All of those other people have their own "Covered" albums, or their albums are coming.

Stephens had many more hits through most of the 1970s, until about 1978. In fact, one of his biggest hits was one of his last, since "Silver Lady" by David Soul went to Number One in Britain in 1977. (That one was co-written with Tony Macaulay, by the way.) But musical styles changed drastically in the late 1970s, with the rise of disco, punk, and new wave. So his hits stopped at that time, as was the case with most of the other songwriters in that group he'd been working with since the mid-1960s. 

Starting in the early 1980s, he mostly switched to writing songs for musicals. In doing so, he still collaborated with people from that same group, writing different musicals with Don Black, Les Reed, and Peter Callander. He died in 2020 at the age of 86.

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Geoff Stephens - Wikipedia 

Because Stephens often wrote with other songwriters who have their own "Covered" albums, sometimes I've resorted to using non-hit versions, so the same versions don't appear on two different albums. So, for instance, I have "Sorry Suzanne" here by the Glass Bottle, instead of the hit version by the Hollies. "Smile a Little Smile for Me" is an outliner, because I chose a late cover for the same reason. The hit version was in 1970. Without that one, this album would end in 1980. 

This album is one hour long. 

01 Tell Me When (Jaybirds)
02 The Crying Game (Dave Berry)
03 Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James (Manfred Mann)
04 Winchester Cathedral (New Vaudeville Band)
05 My World Fell Down (Ivy League)
06 There's a Kind of Hush (Herman's Hermits)
07 Boy (Lulu)
08 Sunshine Girl (Herman's Hermits)
09 Lights of Cincinnati (Scott Walker)
10 My Sentimental Friend (Herman's Hermits)
11 Sorry Suzanne (Glass Bottle)
12 Knock, Knock, Who's There (Mary Hopkin)
13 Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
14 Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast (Wayne Newton)
15 You Won't Find Another Fool like Me (New Seekers)
16 Doctor's Orders (Carol Douglas)
17 Silver Lady (David Soul)
18 It's Like We Never Said Goodbye (Crystal Gayle)
19 Like Sister and Brother (Frank Hooker & Positive People)
20 Smile a Little Smile for Me (Chris von Sneidern)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bm3YSnFy

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/pEoVVFc3lzQ7Bfp/file

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

Covered: Barry Mason & Les Reed: 1964-2002

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the Wikipedia link for Mason:

Barry Mason - Wikipedia

And here's the one for Reed:

Les Reed (songwriter) - Wikipedia  

This album is 51 minutes long.

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hVs6Rga9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0Qd4g12HWY8WrK4/file

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

Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 1: 1963-1973

Whenever I think about the "Covered" series of albums I've made, I get frustrated, because I've got dozens that I've never gotten around to posting. I guess I enjoy the making of the albums more than the steps needed to post them. It feels like unfinished homework. But I'm going to make more of an effort to fix that, starting with a triple-header of Randy Newman.

Here's some highlights from his Wikipedia entry:  

"[Newman] is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, composer, and arranger. Born in Los Angeles to an extended family of Hollywood film composers, he is known for his Americana-inspired songs, non-rhotic Southern-accented singing style, and typically mordant or satirical lyrics. Since the 1990s, he has worked mainly in film scoring, most popularly for Disney and Pixar. ... Newman has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards (out of 22 nominations), three Emmys, seven Grammy Awards, as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and seven Golden Globe Awards. His award-winning film work includes 'Ragtime' (1981), 'The Natural' (1984), 'Toy Story' (1995), 'A Bug's Life' (1998), 'Pleasantville' (1998), 'Monsters, Inc.' (2001), 'Cars' (2006), 'The Princess and the Frog' (2009), 'Toy Story 3' (2010), and 'Marriage Story' (2019). He was honored with the Recording Academy's Governors Award in 2003, a Disney Legend award in 2007, and inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013."

As mentioned above, he was born in Los Angeles. But he also spent many of his childhood summers in New Orleans. That would prove to be important, because his songwriting would be heavily influenced by New Orleans styles. And also as mentioned above, he was part of an extended family of Hollywood film composers. His mother and father had regular jobs (as secretary and internist, respectively), but three of his uncles were film composers, and so were three cousins. 

He began writing songs professionally by the age of 17. He put out a single under his own name in 1962, but it flopped. So he decided to try writing songs for others for a while. He began having successes almost immediately. The first song here, "Hold Your Head High" by Jackie DeShannon, is from 1963. 

Also very early on, he began writing instrumental music for TV shows, starting with an episode of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" in 1962. That talent would continue to grow, leading to him to eventually doing full movie soundtracks starting in 1971. More on that in a later volume though.

Alan Price helped boost Newman's songwriting career in 1967. For one thing, he had a hit with Newman's "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear." But also, he was so taken by Newman's songwriting that his 1967 album "A Price on His Head" had no less than seven songs by Newman. Harry Nilsson paid him an even bigger compliment by covering an entire album of his songs in 1970, "Nilsson Sings Newman."

Newman finally released his first album under his own name in 1968, "Randy Newman (Creates Something New Under the Sun)." It was a critical success, and it led to even more musical acts covering his songs, but it didn't sell well. It didn't even reach the top 200 U.S. albums chart. For the next ten years or so, he would continue to be a cult artist, meaning he was critically praised and beloved by a small group of fans, but didn't have much wider commercial success. 

Meanwhile, his songwriting continued to get better and better. It arguably peaked with his 1972 album "Sail Away," though he has maintained remarkably high consistency for his entire career. Rolling Stone Magazine has put that album on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. His 1974 album "Good Old Boys" would also make that list, though lower down it.

Newman's songwriting is extraordinary, but it's also idiosyncratic, with frequent heavy sarcasm. Some songs have general romantic themes that lend themselves to being covered a lot, for instance "I Think It's Going to Rain Today." There are over a 100 different cover versions of that one. But then consider a song like "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)." It's a sarcastic song about how God seemingly could care less about the human race, and even laughs at the calamities it throws at humanity. I think it's a great song, with deep meaning, but it's not exactly typical Top Forty subject material! So there are a lot of songs I would have wanted to include but didn't, because either there's no cover versions at all, or at least no worthy covers. And I've followed my usual rule for the "Covered" series of generally not including versions by Newman himself (although he'll show up with one song in a later volume, and in a duet in the other volume).

Note that some of the best songs written by Newman during this time period only show up in one of the later two volumes. So if you don't see a favorite, wait to see what's on those first. 

This album is 52 minutes long. 

01 Hold Your Head High (Jackie DeShannon)
02 Baby, Don't Look Down (Billy Storm)
03 I've Been Wrong Before (Cilla Black)
04 Nobody Needs Your Love (Gene Pitney)
05 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Alan Price Set)
06 Snow (Claudine Longet)
07 Illinois (Everly Brothers)
08 I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Dusty Springfield)
09 Just One Smile (Blood Sweat & Tears)
10 Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad (Linda Ronstadt)
11 Love Story (Peggy Lee)
12 Dayton, Ohio, 1903 (Wayne Fontana)
13 Mama Told Me [Not to Come] (Three Dog Night)
14 Cowboy (Nilsson)
15 The Beehive State (Doobie Brothers)
16 Living without You (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
17 God's Song [That's Why I Love Mankind] (Etta James)
18 Guilty (Bonnie Raitt)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/i6jjx6vk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/JKPIcpuJQBtagaN/file

The cover photo is from 1968.

Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 8: December 1969 to February 1970

Here's the seventh volume of the episodes I compiled of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. It's the third volume of the show's second season.

I'll only mention some things about a couple of the performances. The rest should be evident just by listening. 

This episode features a previously unknown chapter of Lesley Gore's music career. She'd had a string of hits from 1963 to 1967, but her music went out of style. She continued to release some singles, but they all flopped. In 1972, she put out an album for the first time since 1967, "Someplace Else Now," that recast her in a singer-songwriter mode, similar to Carole King and her seminal 1971 album "Tapestry." In her Playboy TV appearance, she sang two songs that were moving into that mode. Neither of them were officially released by her anywhere, as far as I could tell. One of them, "Didn't We," is a Jimmy Webb song that was covered by many musical artists in this time period. 

Another bit of lost history are the two songs by Joanne Vent and Muscatel. Vent was an attractive White woman with a soulful, bluesy voice, who seemed to have potential for a big music career, a la Janis Joplin. She put out a solo album in 1969, called, "The Black and White of It Is Blues." Unfortunately, as one review I read put it, "Great voice, but not such a great album." At the time of this show, she was getting ready to release a second album with a new backing band, called Muscatel. I found a web link of someone selling a test pressing of it on eBay. But somehow that album never came out. The two songs she sang here suggest what her second album could have sounded like. She also was part of a duet in Volume 5, and shows up again in Volumes 10 and 11.

It's great that Fleetwood Mac is included here. But unfortunately, their performance was badly edited down. Their one song, "Rattlesnake Shake," is only two and a half minutes long. It's clear the performance was longer, since the song both fades in and fades out. They also did a second song, "Coming Your Way," but it only showed up for half a minute at the very end of that particular episode, under an overdubbed advertisement for T.W.A. Airlines. So I didn't bother to include that.

I've mentioned that each episode ended with talking over the music. But, by chance, that only impacted one song in this volume,  "The Category Stomp by John Hartford. That's why that one has "[Edit]" in its title.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long. 

01 Something (Dolores Hall)
02 Just Because of You (Dolores Hall)
03 A Simple Thing as Love (John Hartford)
04 Natural to Be Gone (John Hartford)
05 The Category Stomp [Edit] (John Hartford)
06 Let's Get Together (Jack Jones)
07 If You Want Me To (Chambers Brothers)
08 Love, Love, Love (Chambers Brothers)
09 Georgia on My Mind (James Brown)
10 Yesterday (Vicki Anderson)
11 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (James Brown)
12 God Bless the Child (Jack Jones)
13 The More I See You (Jack Jones)
14 Rattlesnake Shake (Fleetwood Mac)
15 Hello Young Lovers (Lesley Gore)
16 Didn't We (Lesley Gore)
17 High Sheriff of Calhoun Parrish (Tony Joe White)
18 Groupy Girl (Tony Joe White)
19 Slow Train (Joanne Vent & Muscatel)
20 Long Walk to D.C. (Joanne Vent & Muscatel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JdGHbzj8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/HAcJNqwRYyI9p09/file

The cover image shows Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. It's a screenshot I took from one of these episodes.

Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 7: November to December 1969

Here's the seventh volume of the episodes I compiled of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. It's the second volume of the show's second season.

In this volume, one again we see the split between Hugh Hefner including acts from the easy listening pop style of music he preferred, such as Tony Bennett and Mitch Miller, and rock and soul music he allowed on the show "for the kids." (As I mentioned in a previous write-up in this series, he usually would explicitly say some acts were "for the kids" when introducing them, as if adults weren't going to like them.) 

This volume has an unusual number of collaborations, none of which have been officially released in any form: Tony Bennett with Mitch Miller, Tony Bennett and Joe Williams (twice),  Tony Bennett with Moe Kaufman, Lou Rawls and the Cannonball Adderly Quintet, and Ike & Tina Turner with Doug Kershaw. Plus, there was a version of "Flip, Flop and Fly" featuring everyone in that episode. I mentioned a few of the participants in the song title, including Steve Allen, the comedian, who sang one of the verses. But there were others too that I didn't mention, or the title would have been too long. Even Hugh Hefner, the head of Playboy, sang a verse!

This episode also continued the second season trend of having unwanted talking over the music sometimes, especially voice-over advertisements for T.W.A. Airlines on the last song of each episode. So that's why you'll see "[Edit]" on some songs. 

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long. 

01 It Don't Mean a Thing [If It Ain't Got That Swing] (Tony Bennett)
02 Blue Velvet (Tony Bennett with Mitch Miller)
03 Watch What Happens (Tony Bennett)
04 Swinging Shepherd Blues [Instrumental] (Moe Koffman)
05 I've Gotta Be Me (Tony Bennett & Joe Williams)
06 The Song Is You (Joe Williams)
07 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Tony Bennett & Joe Williams)
08 I Can't Cry Anymore (Joe Williams)
09 The Shadow of Your Smile (George Kirby)
10 I Left My Heart in San Francisco - I Wanna Be Around (Tony Bennett with Moe Kaufman)
11 Hamba Nami [Instrumental] [Edit] (Cannonball Adderly Quintet)
12 Dead End Street (Lou Rawls)
13 Make the World Go Away (Lou Rawls)
14 The Country Preacher [Edit] (Cannonball Adderly Quintet)
15 My Baby Loves Me (Lou Rawls & the Cannonball Adderly Quintet)
16 I Want to Take You Higher (Ike & Tina Turner)
17 Come Together (Ike & Tina Turner)
18 Proud Mary (Ike & Tina Turner)
19 Honky Tonk Women [Edit] (Ike & Tina Turner with Doug Kershaw)
20 You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' (Blossoms)
21 Me and You (O. C. Smith)
22 The Learning Tree (O. C. Smith)
23 Flip, Flop and Fly (Blossoms, Steve Allen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band & Everyone)
24 Goodnight My Love (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BaELQz7n

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/aOyyOnC6ukjmxkl/file

The cover photo shows Ike and Tina Turner, and some of their backing band. That's Tina in the middle of the front, and Ike right behind her. This is a screenshot I took from the video of one of the episodes here.

Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 6: October to November 1969

Here's the sixth volume of the episodes I compiled of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. This also is the first album from the show's second (and final) season. Note the big time jump, between Volume 5 ending in January 1969 and this one starting in October 1969 - that's most of a year.

This show tended to have a lot of repeat guests. Consider the soul group Checkmates, Ltd. This already was their third episode. Many of the other guests on volume made or would make appearances on other volumes as well. I think it was especially common for a musical act to appear on an episode in the show's first season, and then another one in the second season.

There are more incidents of "[Edit]" - four - in this volume than in any previous ones. That's because there was more talking over the music in the second season. One particularly annoying aspect was that each episode of this season ended had a brief spoken advertisement for T.W.A. Airlines over the final song. In most cases, I was able to successfully wipe such talking while keeping the underlying music, thanks to the UVR5 audio editing program.

There's a surprising number of songs performed on this T.V. that were never officially released in any form. Consider the duet between Linda Ronstadt and Billy Eckstine. If you listen to the banter before the song started, it seems Ronstadt was very reluctant to sing it, and had to be coaxed into it. That could be prepared dialogue, but in the case, it seemed like a genuinely spontaneous performance to me. As far as I can tell, this was the one and only time Ronstadt performed that song in public.

The duet between Checkmates, Ltd. and Carla Thomas on "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is similarly unique to this TV show. I also couldn't find any release of "Soul Man" by Bill Medley (who was one half of the Righteous Brothers). Similarly, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was never released by Sonny & Cher (or by solo Cher, for that matter). It also seems Carla Thomas never released any version of "Abraham, Martin and John." And it's a similar case with the other volumes.

If anyone knows the name of the instrumental performed by Canned Heat, please let me know so I can give it a proper name. 

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 Walkin' Down the Line (Linda Ronstadt)
02 Living like a Fool (Linda Ronstadt)
03 Hitchcock Railway [Edit] (Joe Cocker)
04 Something (Joe Cocker)
05 God Bless the Child [Edit] (Linda Ronstadt & Billy Eckstine)
06 Soul Man (Bill Medley)
07 What's Wrong (Sweetwater)
08 For Once in My Life (Bill Medley)
09 Why Oh Why - Hey Jude (Sweetwater)
10 Sweet Caroline (Checkmates, Ltd.)
11 Where Do I Go (Carla Thomas)
12 The Japanese Transistor (Biff Rose)
13 Molly (Biff Rose)
14 Abraham, Martin and John (Carla Thomas)
15 Proud Mary (Checkmates, Ltd.)
16 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay [Edit] (Checkmates, Ltd. & Carla Thomas)
17 For Once in My Life [Edit] (Sonny & Cher)
18 Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Sonny & Cher)
19 Future Blues (Canned Heat)
20 My Time Ain't Long (Canned Heat)
21 Instrumental (Canned Heat)
22 Take Me for a Little While (Sonny & Cher)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aKqnxAQ1

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/6VNID5vPpmlP32t/file

For this series, it was hard for me to pick the cover art, because I could take screenshots of any of the musical acts, and there are always a few good ones to choose from. I didn't choose Linda Ronstadt because she gets a cover later in this series. A key reason I decided on a picture of Cher is because the screenshot I took shows comedian Bill Cosby playing bass in the background. (One can see some of his faced, with sunglasses and cigar, and a little bit of his hands on an upright bass.) 

At the time, Cosby was a widely beloved star. But nowadays, he has been revealed to be a serial rapist. So his appearance on this show can be seen in a whole new light. And he didn't appear just on this episode, he appeared on a LOT of them. I'd guess about a dozen, probably more than any other famous guest. A lot of the time, as in the episode shown on the cover here, he wasn't doing a stand-up routine, but instead was just kind of lurking around. In hindsight, it's super creepy to imagine what Crosby might have been doing behind the scenes with all the beautiful women there. It's symbolic of how the whole carefully constructed image of Playboy has also been torn down, now that we know more. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention that.

Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 5: December 1968 to January 1969

Here's the fifth volume of the episodes I compiled of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. There are 11 in all. 

Just the first three songs were recorded in 1968. The rest date from 1969. As usual with the albums I post, check out the mp3 tags for more detail. I organized these by recording date. The broadcast dates usually took place a few months later.

Probably the most notable thing about the music here is the performance of the Grateful Dead. As I've mentioned previously, most of the music from this T.V. show has languished in obscurity (though I hope these posts are starting to change that). However, the Dead's performance has gotten around some, especially among Deadheads. As it should, because it's a rare treat to see them on T.V. all the way back in early 1969. Three of their songs are included here. "Mountains of the Moon" is special, because it was only performed 15 times by the band, and this was just the second time. The version of "St. Stephen" was very good too. The only disappointment is that the makers of the show faded the song out while the band was jamming on it. I also included what I could of a third song, "Turn On Your Lovelight." But this is less than half a minute. Basically, it was just a snippet that played as the credits rolled at the end of that episode.

An interesting fact is that the Dead's sound engineer, Owsley "Bear" Stanley, secretly put L.S.D. in the coffee that everyone on the set was drinking! So everyone from Hugh Hefner to the stagehands was tripping on acid during the taping of this episode. You can read more about this incident here:

https://www.openculture.com/2021/01/when-the-grateful-dead-performed-on-hugh-hefners-playboy-after-dark.html

That article also contains a link to the Dead's performance, if you want to see it and not just hear it. And there's another link to a later interview of drummer Bill Kreutzmann in which he talked about the spiking of the coffee. 

While that was probably the most interesting musical performance, there are many other good performances on this episode, with lots of rock and soul. Note, by the way, two songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. Sometimes, for this show, there were other people talking over parts of the music. In the second season this would get much worse, to the point that brief advertisements were even spoken over the end of the last song of each episode. So when you see "[Edit]" in this series, that's usually why.

I would also like to point out how odd it was that the Clara Ward Singers performed for this show. Consider that they exclusively sang gospel songs in churches. I wonder if they were appalled at all the "heathen" appearances and behavior all around them. But kudos to Hefner and Playboy for putting a wide variety of musical styles on this T.V. show. 

This album is 56 minutes long. 

01 River Deep, Mountain High (Bobby Doyle)
02 Blowin' in the Wind (Bobby Doyle)
03 Wear It on Our Face [Edit] (Checkmates, Ltd.)
04 Mountains of the Moon (Grateful Dead)
05 St. Stephen (Grateful Dead)
06 The Great Electric Experiment Is Over (Noel Harrison)
07 Hello Sun (Noel Harrison)
08 Turn On Your Lovelight [Edit] (Grateful Dead)
09 Turpentine Moan (Canned Heat)
10 On the Road Again (Canned Heat)
11 Mendocino (Sir Douglas Quintet)
12 She's about a Mover (Sir Douglas Quintet)
13 Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (Clara Ward Singers)
14 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Clara Ward Singers)
15 Chicken Wolf (Steppenwolf)
16 Don't Cry (Steppenwolf)
17 Get Out My Life Woman (Joe Williams & Joanne Vent)
18 Hurry On Down (Joe Williams)
19 That Face (Joe Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1vPw9aH6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/rd6je9jcQYVFtLU/file

The cover photo shows Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. This is a screenshot I took from the video of one of the episodes here.

Covered: Van McCoy, Best Of: 1962-1985

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Van McCoy - Wikipedia 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pgC1na27

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/6J8Pg2jDSyrxSmE/file

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

Elvis Presley - International Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, 8-24-1969, Late Show

Once upon a time, Elvis Presley was arguably the biggest music star in the world. But I've noticed his fame is fading faster than that of others from his era, as people who grew up with him keep dying. His peak was before my time too, and I surmise it helped a lot to have lived through those years to fully understand what a groundbreaking musical act he was at the time. While I'm not a huge Presley fan, I do want to post some things that can help people appreciate why he was so famous in the first place. I previously posted highlights from his 1968 comeback TV special, which was one of the pinnacles of his musical career. This concert represents another musical peak for him.

Presley had a great music career in the 1950s, but squandered most of the 1960s starring in a bunch of bad B-movies. However, the 1968 comeback TV special I mentioned above showed that he was musically revitalized and ready for something new. He followed that with the studio album "From Elvis in Memphis" in June 1969, which was a big critical and commercial success. Rolling Stone Magazine has rated this as one of the top 500 albums of all time.

After that, he wanted to try performing concerts again. Aside from the brief concerts he did in front a small studio audience for his 1968 comeback special, he hadn't performed a concert since 1961. But demand was very high now that he was suddenly hot again, with a new hit album and hit singles. In May 1969, the brand-new International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, booked Presley for fifty-seven shows over four weeks (usually twice a night), beginning July 31 and running until early September. His previous backing musicians declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Instead, Presley found new, high quality accompaniment, led by lead guitarist James Burton.

These new concerts were a huge success. The hotel soon gave him a five-year contract in which he would play there each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million. That was a remarkable sum for that era. He would go on to perform concerts frequently in the 1970s, instead of making more movies (until his death in 1977). 

His first run of concerts in Las Vegas in August 1969 was his best. He was very excited to be performing again, and to be received so well, so he was at the top of his game. Also, his music still leaned on rock and soul. Just one year later, his music would shift to more middle-of-the-road pop. Many of the concerts from this month have been officially released, including some box sets. But after some digging, I found this one which remains unreleased, yet has ideal soundboard sound quality. (All the shows were professionally recorded for a live album.) 

Most of the songs were hits from the 1950s and early 1960s, or covers of classics (including a version of "Words" by the Bee Gees, released the year before). However, he included two new hit songs. "In the Ghetto" was released in April 1969, and went all the way to Number Three in the U.S. singles chart, his first Top Ten hit since 1963. But "Suspicious Minds," released as a single just two days after this concert, did even better. It would go all the way to Number One, becoming his 14th and last Number One hit in the U.S. Rolling Stone Magazine would later rank it as one of the top 100 songs of all time.

If you want just one live album by Presley, I would suggest this one.

Here's an interesting quote from a "Newsweek" review from his first month of concerts in 1969:

"Dressed in a chic black tunic and bell bottoms that matched his long but neatly combed black-tinted hair. Elvis Presley stepped onstage last week at the International Hotel in Las Vegas and launched into the driving beat of 'Blue Suede Shoes'. The audience of 2,000, most of them over 30, roared and squealed in nostalgic appreciation. In spite of his updated look, Elvis hadn't changed at all in the nearly nine years since his last personal appearance. Shaking, gyrating and quivering, he again proved himself worthy of his nickname, 'The Pelvis.' Through nervousness caused him to sing 'Love my, me tender' for 'Love Me Tender', the pasty-faced enchanter quickly settled down to work his oleaginous charms, backed by a 30-piece orchestra, a five-man combo and a chorus of seven. Oozing the sullen sexuality that threw the America into a state of shock in the 50's, he groaned and swiveled through a medley of 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Don't Be Cruel', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'All Shook Up' and 'Hound Dog'. It was hard to believe he was 34 and no longer 19 years old."

(By the way, I had to look up the word "oleaginous." Can you imagine a news magazine using a word like that in today's dumbed-down media environment? Anyway, it basically means "oily.") 

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)
02 talk (Elvis Presley)
03 I Got a Woman (Elvis Presley)
04 talk (Elvis Presley)
05 All Shook Up (Elvis Presley)
06 talk (Elvis Presley)
07 Love Me Tender (Elvis Presley)
08 talk (Elvis Presley)
09 Jailhouse Rock - Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley)
10 Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley)
11 talk (Elvis Presley)
12 Hound Dog (Elvis Presley)
13 I Can't Stop Loving You (Elvis Presley)
14 Johnny B. Goode (Elvis Presley)
15 talk (Elvis Presley)
16 Baby, What You Want Me to Do (Elvis Presley)
17 Runaway (Elvis Presley)
18 Are You Lonesome Tonight (Elvis Presley)
19 Words (Elvis Presley)
20 Yesterday - Hey Jude (Elvis Presley)
21 talk (Elvis Presley)
22 In the Ghetto (Elvis Presley)
23 talk (Elvis Presley)
24 Suspicious Minds (Elvis Presley)
25 talk (Elvis Presley)
26 Can't Help Falling in Love (Elvis Presley)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zLt7DwcT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cXKfFw3k2drNVGR/file

I found two good photos I wanted to use for the cover. I couldn't decide which one I liked more, so I decided to use both. Both of them are from a 

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1969-1971

If you think I've posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" for Lulu, you're not wrong. I recently discovered a ton of Lulu's BBC material that I'd missed before. In fact, I found so much that previously I'd posted four volumes, but now I'll be posting a total of nine! The vast majority of the new stuff is from the 1970s, especially 1975, but there is some music from the late 1960s. There are so many changes that I got rid of the old "Volume 4" and I'm replacing it with this one. I'd guess about half of the songs on this revamped volume are new.

Note also that I radically overhauled "Volume 3." I added a bunch of songs to that, and moved some other songs from that one to this one. So if you're interested in this at all, I strongly suggest you download the revised version of that album. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/10/lulu-bbc-sessions-volume-3-1968-1972.html

The first song is the only one not actually from the BBC. It's a duet with Johnny Cash, from Cash's own TV show. Most of the next bunch of songs are from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." Specifically, tracks 2 through 11 (with the exception of "Boom Bang a Bang," which was from a BBC TV special), plus track 19. These come from a musical associate named Marley, who sent me a bunch of performances from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." So a big thanks to him.

I mentioned in the previous volume that Lulu had her own BBC TV show from 1968 to 1975. I haven't been able to find many songs from her TV show from this time period, but I did find a handful from 1970. Those make up tracks 12 through 17. Track 18 ("Saved") is from another BBC TV show.

All of the performances here are officially unreleased. One snag with the new "Top of the Pops" tracks is that most of them had BBC DJs talking over the music. But I was able to remove the talking and keep the underlying music thanks to the X-Minus audio editing program. Those are the ones with " [Edit]" in their titles. I also got rid of the crowd noise as best I could for the songs that had that, mostly the TV show-sourced ones.

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Games People Play (Lulu & Johnny Cash)
02 Oh Me, Oh My [I'm a Fool for You Baby] [Edit] (Lulu)
03 Sweep Around Your Own Back Door [Edit] (Lulu)
04 The Letter [Edit] (Lulu)
05 Boom Bang a Bang (Lulu)
06 Feelin' Alright [Edit] (Lulu)
07 Marley Purt Drive [Edit] (Lulu)
08 Mr. Bojangles [Edit] (Lulu)
09 Dirty Old Man [Edit] (Lulu)
10 Hum a Song [From Your Heart] [Edit] (Lulu)
11 Show Me [Edit] (Lulu)
12 Girl Talk (Lulu & Cass Elliot)
13 Sugar, Sugar (Lulu, Dudley Moore & Cass Elliot)
14 Keep the Customer Satisfied (Lulu)
15 Sweet Little Sixteen - Long Tall Sally - Blue Suede Shoes (Lulu)
16 Free the People (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)
17 Joy to the World (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)
18 Saved (Lulu)
19 Help [Edit] (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iCGFCJJK 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/uYCahxSGauK9xJd/file

The cover art photo comes from a BBC TV show in 1971, but I don't know the details.

King Crimson - Chesterfield Jazz Club, Chesterfield, Britain, 9-6-1969

Here's a 1969 concert from King Crimson. This band has had many personnel changes over the decades, with only band leader Robert Fripp staying as a constant. Out of all the band's variations, I like their first one the best, the band that recorded the 1969 album "In the Court of the Crimson King." This band was phenomenal live, mixing jazz with rock and helping to kick off the prog rock genre. In 1970 though, the band personnel completely changed, with only Fripp remaining. This is probably the best sounding full length concert from the 1969 era of this band.

Note that this concert has been officially released. But I'm posting it here because it hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. No live recordings from the 1969 version of this band were released until decades later. In 1997, a four CD box set of live recordings was released, called "Epitaph." It contained a version of this concert, but it was missing a few songs, and the sound quality wasn't that good. Then in 2010, a much, much bigger box set was released, called "The Complete 1969 Recordings." That's where I sourced this concert from. It's the complete concert, and the sound quality is better. The box set it comes from is made up of 26 CDs! I figure that not many people are going to splurge for a box set that enormous, which is why I liberated this as a stand-alone album.

The sound quality is pretty good, though not excellent. It originally comes from an audience bootleg instead of a soundboard or FM radio broadcast. But honestly, sometimes audience boots can sound as good as many soundboards, and that's the case here. The one big snag is that there is almost no crowd noise. One interesting thing is that some of the songs are not from the band's debut album, "In the Court of the Crimson King." For instance, there is a cover of the Donovan song "Get Thy Bearings." Also, the last half hour is almost entirely instrumental music that doesn't come from the album. 

Note that this concert took place after the debut album was recorded, but about a month before it was released. So the audience probably didn't know any of these songs beforehand. 

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long. 

01 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson)
02 [Why Don't You Just] Drop In (King Crimson)
03 talk (King Crimson)
04 Epitaph (King Crimson)
05 Get Thy Bearings (King Crimson)
06 talk (King Crimson)
07 I Talk to the Wind (King Crimson)
08 The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson)
09 Mantra [Instrumental] (King Crimson)
10 Travel Weary Capricorn (King Crimson)
11 Improv [Instrumental] (King Crimson)
12 Mars [The Devil's Triangle] [Instrumental] (King Crimson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vM1jL7xd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/q8h3Y7nzttXztUO/file

The cover image is from a concert in Hyde Park, London, on July 5, 1969. The band opened for the Rolling Stones in front of a huge audience of at least a couple hundred thousand people. That's Robert Fripp on guitar on the left and Ian McDonald on saxophone on the right.

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 5: 1969-1970 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here’s another album of Dionne Warwick singing all the songs written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Once again, thanks to Mike Solof for putting these albums together.

Warwick, David, and Bacharach had a great thing going from about 1963 until 1970. They had hit after hit after hit. The end of this album marks the end of that golden era. The three of them would still collaborate together, but much more intermittently. There are two more volumes dealing with those later years.

This album is 53 minutes long.

061 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Dionne Warwick)
062 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Dionne Warwick)
063 Dream Sweet Dreamer (Dionne Warwick)
064 Knowing When to Leave (Dionne Warwick)
065 Let Me Go to Him (Dionne Warwick)
066 Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets (Dionne Warwick)
067 Paper Mache (Dionne Warwick)
068 The Wine Is Young (Dionne Warwick)
069 Check Out Time (Dionne Warwick)
070 Make It Easy on Yourself (Dionne Warwick)
071 The Green Grass Starts to Grow (Dionne Warwick)
072 The Very First Person I Met [In California] (Dionne Warwick)
073 They Don't Give Medals to Yesterday's Heroes (Dionne Warwick)
074 Walk the Way You Talk (Dionne Warwick)
075 The Look of Love (Dionne Warwick)
076 Who Gets the Guy (Dionne Warwick)
077 Only Love Can Break a Heart (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nMDebKmr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/4j7hPKMNNw5COdY/file

The cover photo shows her on the Engelbert Humperdinck TV Show some time in 1969. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

This album is 46 minutes long. 

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

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/En3Makbp

alternate: 

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

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

The Rascals - Live on TV: 1966-1970

A few weeks ago (writing this in February 2026), I posted a concert that included a set by the Rascals (originally known as the Young Rascals). A frequent commenter here, Sax and Guitar, saw that and emailed me with an album he'd made of performances the Rascals did for various TV shows in the 1960s, and he suggested that I posted it. It turns out I'd already made an album like that that I'd just never gotten around to posting. (I have hundreds if not thousands of albums like that that I need to post. Sigh!) In fact, the songs on his version were basically exactly the same as mine, since we both went looking for the same things at YouTube. Thanks to his push, I decided to post my Rascals collection sooner rather than later, so here it is.

Before I say more, here's the concert I mentioned above, that includes a set by the Rascals: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2026/01/various-artists-khj-third-annual.html

That concert is a real treasure, because publicly available recordings of the Rascals performing live in the 1960s are rarer than hen's teeth. Besides that, all we seem to have from the 1960s are occasional TV appearances. Some TV shows had them lip-sync to records. But Sax and Guitar and I collected all the ones that were genuinely performed live.

All the performances here are unreleased. I used MVSEP to boost the vocals on songs where the vocals were low in the mix, which was most of them. Also, most of the songs had most or all of the applause at the ends cut off. So I edited the applause to bridge the songs together. Typically, the applause at the end of one song continues until the next song starts. 

Sax and Guitar wrote a nice little write-up meant to go with this album. It includes a short history of the band during this time period. I've included that as a Word file in the download zip.

Note that Sax and Guitar already has two other albums he's helping with, with hopefully more to come, knock on wood. Thanks to him for helping to get this album finished off. 

01 Good Lovin' (Rascals)
02 Mickey's Monkey - Love Lights [Turn On Your Lovelight] (Rascals)
03 I've Been Lonely Too Long - Come On Up (Rascals)
04 Since I Fell for You (Rascals)
05 A Girl like You (Rascals)
06 Groovin' (Rascals)
07 Do You Feel It (Rascals)
08 A Beautiful Morning (Rascals)
09 Carry Me Back (Rascals)
10 In the Midnight Hour (Tom Jones & the Rascals)
11 Glory, Glory (Rascals)
12 People Got to Be Free - Oh Happy Day (Rascals with Barbara McNair)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ypr5L16V 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/P2jGus4SU9ctROL/file

The cover photo was selected by Sax and Guitar. I don't know the exact details about it, but I believe it's from 1967. I used Krea AI to improve the detail.

Covered: Shel Silverstein - Volume 1: 1963-1972

Here's the next songwriter in my Covered series: Shel Silverstein. To say Silverstein was a colorful character is putting it mildly. Among his many talents was songwriting. I've found enough good covers of his songs for two volumes. Here's the first one.

Silverstein was born in Chicago in 1930, and raised there. He went to college, then spent a few years in the U.S. army. After that, he started to get known for his cartoons published in magazines. He especially had many of his cartoons published in Playboy Magazine, from the 1950s into the 1970s. He developed another creative career as the author of children's books. He eventually sold 20 million books. His most acclaimed books include "The Giving Tree," "Where the Sidewalk Ends," and "A Light in the Attic." He also had success writing for plays, movies, and TV shows.

So he was a creative Renaissance Man. But out focus here is on his songwriting. He was a music performer too, and released many albums, with the first one coming out in 1959. But he had a gruff voice with limited range. Also, it seems he very rarely performed in public, probably because he had so many other creative projects going on to want to go on long tours. So he was much more successful having others cover his songs.

His songwriting career started fairly slowly. He only had a few successes for most of the 1960s. But that changed drastically in 1969, when Johnny Cash had a huge hit with "A Boy Called Sue." That was such an unusual song, with lots of comedy, that many other musical acts went looking for other songs he'd written. It turns out his biggest fans were the band Dr. Hook. Their debut album "Doctor Hook," released in 1972, consisted entirely of songs written by Silverstein. And their second album, "Sloppy Seconds," released later in 1972, also consisted entirely of his songs! Those albums gave Dr. Hook their first two big hits, "Sylvia's Mother" and "The Cover of the Rolling Stone."

That takes us to the end of 1972. I'll write more about him in the second and last volume.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Hey Nelly Nelly (Judy Collins)
02 In the Hills of Shiloh (Modern Folk Quartet)
03 25 Minutes to Go (Johnny Cash)
04 The Mermaid (Glen Yarbrough)
05 Boa Constrictor (Johnny Cash)
06 The Unicorn (Irish Rovers)
07 A Boy Named Sue (Johnny Cash)
08 Once More With Feeling (Jerry Lee Lewis)
09 One's on the Way (Loretta Lynn)
10 I Call That True Love (Dr. Hook)
11 The Taker (Kris Kristofferson)
12 Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball (Dr. Hook)
13 On Susan's Floor (Gordon Lightfoot)
14 Sylvia's Mother (Dr. Hook)
16 The Cover of Rolling Stone (Dr. Hook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Vdghqyqe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/YfWSztH9v8E8ui0/file

The cover image is from 1972.

Spirit - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 3-6-1969, Late Show

In previous posts, I've lamented the lack of live recordings of Spirit during their peak years, 1967 to 1970, with worthy sound quality. But that's starting to change as I find a bit more. This one has some sound issues, but overall it's still one of their best live recordings from the 1960s.

This is the late show. I wonder if it's incomplete, because it didn't include any of their three best known songs up to that point in their career, "Fresh Garbage," "Mechanical World," and "I Got a Line on You." Perhaps some or all of those were played in the early show, and they didn't want to repeat themselves. Or this might be incomplete. It seems pretty short, but I believe they were the opening act for Ten Years After, and it does have what sounds like the beginning and the end.

The band started with an instrumental that I thought was just terrible, virtually unlistenable, which I just called "Intro." For two minutes, they simply hit the same chord over and over again, with nothing else happening. I cut it down to a mere seventeen seconds (which is why that has "[Edit]" in its title). At that length, it's fine. But at two minutes, it's an ordeal to hear. Strange. 

Anyway, another curious inclusion here is a song which I have titled "Boogie," but I don't know if that's the real name. I also don't know if it's a cover or an original. They explained that they had been touring with the likes of Canned Heat, and they'd heard a lot of boogie songs, so they felt compelled to try one out. If anyone has a better name for this song and/or knows anything more about it, please let me know.

As I mentioned above, the sound quality is pretty good, but not great. The three other Spirit concerts I've posted so far (from the Texas International Pop Festival in 1969, Boston in 1969, and the Fillmore West in 1970) sound better. But this is still worthy of listening to, in my book, especially since there's so little live recordings from this era. And they were interesting in concert, thanks in part to the jazz backgrounds of some band members.

This album is 33 minutes long.

01 talk (Spirit)
02 Intro [Instrumental] [Edit] (Spirit)
03 New Dope in Town (Spirit)
04 It Shall Be (Spirit)
05 Poor Richard (Spirit)
06 talk (Spirit)
07 Darlin' If (Spirit)
08 Aren't You Glad (Spirit)
09 Boogie (Spirit)
10 talk (Spirit)
11 Uncle Jack (Spirit)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ECjkTHtg

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/evOK830TvZYD03a/file

The cover photo was taken at a concert at the Palladium, in Birmingham, Michigan, in March, 1970. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. Also, there were a couple of large heads of audience members at the bottom, but they were blurry and washed out, and didn't look good. So I replaced them with other heads in the same spots, and added a couple more, so I could extend the image further down the bottom. 

From right to left: Randy California, Ed Cassidy, and Jay Ferguson. 

Jimi Hendrix - Northern California Folk-Rock Festival, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA, 5-25-1969

I haven't posted a lot of live music by Jimi Hendrix for a couple of reasons. For one, there are a ton of official live albums that have been released. And for another, there are lots of widely available bootlegs as well. I'd rather spend my time posting interesting things from lesser shared musical acts. But I'm making an exception here because I think I significantly improved the quality of this recording, as I will explain in a minute.

First though, I want to explain why I developed an interest in this particular Hendrix concert. I was trying to look up some information about Santana relating to the closing of the Fillmore West concerts I recently posted, and I came across the helpful www.santanamigos.com website. I happened to come across some quotes in it from Carlos Santana where he extensively praised this very Hendrix concert. Here are the quotes. This first one is from a 1994 interview:

"The first time I saw Jimi was at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose. It was probably the most incredible concert I ever heard in my life. I have never heard him play better after that. The show was absolutely incredible. Jimi was at the peak of his art. At one moment he would get caught inside a proton or a neutron, and the next minute he would throw you to the Milky Way. I've never been exposed to that drastic form of expression. Somebody actually recorded it that day. I listen to it and I'm still blown away. You can hear all these waves of spirits crying through his guitar. We were like - 'Oh my God! How can he do this?' It was scary, I had never heard anybody express electric music the way he did that day. It was incredible to be assaulted with all these screaming winds. He would really control that instrument like a jazz player or a blues player would. It was like controlling a demon and making it sing."

He discussed this concert some more in a 1995 interview:

"I saw him at Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose in '69 but I didn't get to talk to him then - I still didn't know him. I think that was the best concert that I ever heard him play. He had supreme confidence that day. There was nothing in his mind about business or chicks or anything that I could tell because he just came out like Michael Tyson, when Michael Tyson would knock guys [out] in three seconds. There's a certain 'stance'. That's what Miles Davis said: 'I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands, you know.' He had a certain stance, man. He was all over that Strat and had supreme confidence, that's all I can say."

After reading those quotes, I thought, "Wow, I really need to listen to a recording of this concert." After all, if there's someone who knows a thing or two about playing great lead guitar, it's Carlos Santana. So I found the bootleg recording he mentioned. 

However, I quickly realized there was a big problem with it. It's an audience bootleg, and it recorded Hendrix's lead guitar very nicely. But everything else was buried way back in the mix. The drums, bass, and especially the lead vocals were very hard to hear. In a way, this isn't so bad, since it allows one to hear Hendrix's amazing guitar work very clearly. Still, I tried to fix it. It turns out I couldn't do much to improve the drums or bass. The MVSEP program I used didn't detect enough for me to be able to adjust the volume. I did boost the drums some, but only in some sections of songs. Still, I figured that was an improvement.

However, it turns out I was able to make a massive change to Hendrix's vocals. They went from being almost inaudible to the expected volume level in most cases. In my opinion, this really improves the recording. It's still an audience boot, and it still has issues, but it's quite listenable now. 

Now, here's a little background about this concert, as I understand it. Hendrix played with the Experience. It was one of their last concerts, as they would break up a month later. These were the other acts that were supposed to perform at the festival: Jefferson Airplane, the Chambers Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon, Spirit, Canned Heat, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Youngbloods, the Steve Miller Band, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal, Noel Redding, Lee Michaels, Blues Image, Santana, Elvin Bishop, Poco, People!, Lynn County, the Loading Zone, Sweet Linda Divine, Cat Mother, Doc Watson & New Lost City Ramblers. 

However, it seems not all of those acts actually appeared. There had been a "Northern California Folk-Rock Festival" in 1968, and that had gone pretty well, with a handful of big name musical acts performing. However, it turns out both Hendrix and Led Zeppelin were advertised to appear at this 1969 version despite not actually being contacted by the promoter, Bob Blodgett, to do so. Probably, that was a tactic to boost sales. This resulted in Led Zeppelin suing Blodgett, and they didn't perform. To safe face, at the last minute, Blodgett paid Hendrix $30,000 to perform. So luckily we got this recording. I haven't found any other recordings from the 1969 festival though. I did find an article from the time saying that Eric Burdon was a major cancellation, but he may have been the only other big name not to show. I've included that article in the download zip, since most of it talks about Hendrix's performance.

Also, another rock festival took place nearby over the same weekend, as kind of a hippie protest against Blodgett, called the Aquarian Festival. About 20,000 people attended that one, while about 60,000 people attended this one. Here's a link to another article that talks about that conflict:

The Northern California Folk Rock Festival 2 | Aquarian Family Festival in San Jose, CA | Music & Nightlife

It's not mentioned in that article, but I read elsewhere that the debacle over this festival basically ended Blodgett's career as a music promoter. Even though he ultimately did get Hendrix to perform, it wasn't enough to save his reputation due to the original false advertising he did.

Anyway, I'd love to hear from die-hard Hendrix fans, if they think Hendrix's performance here was really as exceptional as Carlos Santana says it was. I found another quote where Santana said he saw about eight or nine Hendrix concerts in total. Perhaps he was just the most impacted by seeing him for the first time?

By the way, I find it interesting that most of the last twenty minutes long was a medley that was mostly instrumental. And that included very early versions of two songs, "Message to Love" and "Room Full of Mirrors," that he would play a lot more in 1970. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 talk (Jimi Hendrix)
02 Hear My Train A-Comin' (Jimi Hendrix)
03 Fire (Jimi Hendrix)
04 Drum Solo [Instrumental] (Jimi Hendrix)
05 Spanish Castle Magic (Jimi Hendrix)
06 talk (Jimi Hendrix)
07 Red House (Jimi Hendrix)
08 talk (Jimi Hendrix)
09 I Don't Live Today (Jimi Hendrix)
10 talk (Jimi Hendrix)
11 Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix)
12 Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)
13 talk (Jimi Hendrix)
14 Voodoo Child [Slight Return] (Jimi Hendrix)
15 Message to Love [Instrumental] (Jimi Hendrix)
16 Room Full of Mirrors (Jimi Hendrix)
17 Sunshine of Your Love [Instrumental] (Jimi Hendrix)
18 Voodoo Child [Slight Return] [Reprise] [Instrumental] (Jimi Hendrix)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jN326S4x

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/mx8Ys4AuS35kU8A/file

The text at the top, plus the yellow framing, is from a concert poster for this concert. In the middle, I put a photo of Hendrix that also is from this exact concert. 

The Wikipedia entry for this festival is short and doesn't say much, but it has a nice version of the concert poster:

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival (1969) - Wikipedia 

Jimi Hendrix & Various Artists - Jimi Hendrix as Session Musician, Volume 3: 1969-1970

Here's the third and last album showcasing the session work by Jimi Hendrix, arguably the greatest lead guitarist of all time. This deals with the last two years of his life, 1969 and 1970.

By 1969, Hendrix was a big star. He loved performing live, and often dropped in as a guest in concerts put on by other musicians he liked, especially when they played in small clubs near where he lived. However, he still didn't guest on records that much, especially those that got released while he was alive. 

A couple examples of him doing this are "Yes I Need Someone" and "The Clown" by Eire Apparent. Hendrix actually produced the entire debut album by this band from Northern Ireland, and these are just two of the songs from it. Unfortunately, he mostly kept a low profile with his guitar playing on this album, with these two songs probably showing the most playing by him. His Experience band mates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell also played on many of the songs. The band broke up after that single album. 

Another song released in his lifetime was "Old Times, Good Times," which came out on the 1970 debut solo album by Stephen Stills (of Crosby, Stills and Nash fame), simply called "Stephen Stills." Hendrix and Stills formed a musical connection and often jammed with each other, but very little of it saw the light of day. "30 Dollar Fine" and "No-Name Jam (Instrumental)," and "White Nigger (High and Dry)" are all Stills songs with Hendrix that didn't get officially released until decades later. In fact, "White Nigger (High and Dry)" is still unreleased, probably due to song title, obviously now considered quite offensive.

A song that almost came out in Hendrix's lifetime is "The Everlasting First," released by Love. This came out at the very end of 1970, a couple of months after Hendrix's death. Hendrix had a natural bond with Arthur Lee, the lead singer and main songwriter of Love, due to both of them being Black men in a overwhelmingly Causasian rock world at the time. This song was cowritten by Hendrix and Lee. The two of them actually knew each other before either of them became famous. Hendrix even played guitar on a song written by Lee back in 1964. 

Generally speaking, the other songs here came out much later, on archival releases. Tracks 3 and 4 are from the "West Coast Seattle Boy" box set. Track 6 is from "The Experience Sessions." Track 10 is from "People, Hell and Angels." Track 13 is a jam session, and remains unreleased. Track 5, "Doriella Du Fontaine," is a curious case, because the lead vocals weren't added until 1973. That's from "Change the Beat: The Celluloid Records Story."

That just leaves the three bonus tracks. These all sound fine, despite the fact they're all still unreleased. But the reason I made them bonus tracks is because they actually are from concerts where Hendrix guested, and the theme here is him guesting with studio sessions. Perhaps someone could help me find enough songs for a full album (or albums?) of Hendrix being a guest star in concerts, then I could move these to that. Unfortunately, in my opinion, a lot of the recordings of his guest appearances have poor sound quality. "Baby's Gone Away" and "The Sky Is Crying" come from the Newport 69 Festival in Northridge, California. "Mother Earth" is from a concert at a club in London on September 16, 1970. I'm not sure, but I think that might be his last public performance, because he died of a drug overdose just two days later, on September 18, 1970. I don't remember why I put "[Edit]" since I did that a long time ago. But I think I cleaned up a lot of the audience noise (it being from an audience boot), and possibly boosted the vocals.

This album is 52 minutes long, not including the three bonus tracks.

01 30 Dollar Fine (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
02 Yes I Need Someone (Eire Apparent with Jimi Hendrix)
03 Instant Groove (King Curtis with Jimi Hendrix)
04 Mastermind (Larry Lee with Jimi Hendrix)
05 Doriella Du Fontaine (Lightnin' Rod with Jimi Hendrix & Buddy Miles)
06 Noel's Tune [Instrumental] (Noel Redding with Jimi Hendrix)
07 The Clown (Eire Apparent with Jimi Hendrix)
08 No-Name Jam [Instrumental] (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
09 The Everlasting First [Extended Version] (Love with Jimi Hendrix)
10 Mojo Man (Albert Allen & the Ghetto Fighters with Jimi Hendrix)
11 Old Times, Good Times (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
12 White Nigger [High and Dry] (Stephen Stills with Jimi Hendrix)
13 Dreamin' [Instrumental] (Eric Oxendine with Jimi Hendrix & Richie Havens)

Baby's Gone Away (Jimi Hendrix with Buddy Miles & Lee Oskar)
Mother Earth [Edit] (Eric Burdon & War with Jimi Hendrix)
The Sky Is Crying (Buddy Miles with Jimi Hendrix & Lee Oskar)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/n4ipEFiN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/SmqRzx0abYg8ATZ/file

The cover photo shows Jimi Hendrix with Stephen Stills, presumably in a recording studio. I don't know any details about where or when the picture is from. The original was in black and white, which I colorized with the help of the Kolorize program. It also was dark and murky. I ran this through the Krea AI program a couple of times until it looked a little better. 

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.