John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Ballads, Volume 3 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the third and last of three albums collecting ballads from the solo careers of the ex-Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. I've also finished posting a similar series of three albums of rockers from them. All of these were put together by guest poster Mike Solof. But we're not quite done. Because McCartney has been so prolific, he gets an extra album of rockers and another extra album of ballads.

Once again, pretty much everything here comes from studio albums. "Mama You've Been on My Mind" is an exception, since it's a demo version that came out as a bonus track. But Mike made new mixes of four songs. A couple of them were at my request. The thinking is some of these songs were a bit too rocking to fully qualify as ballads. So the mixes strip the songs down some more.

This album is one hour long.

31 [I Want To] Come Home (Paul McCartney)
32 King of Broken Hearts [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
33 Jealous Guy [Ultimate Mix] (John Lennon)
34 Warm and Beautiful (Paul McCartney)
35 Life Itself (George Harrison)
36 Love Is (Ringo Starr)
37 Happy with You (Paul McCartney)
38 Out the Blue (John Lennon)
39 Sat Singing [Mike's Mix 2026] (George Harrison)
40 Early Days (Paul McCartney)
41 Photograph [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
42 Only Love Remains (Paul McCartney)
43 Imagine [Mike's Mix 2022] (John Lennon & Julian Lennon)
44 Mama You've Been on My Mind [Demo] (George Harrison)
45 As Far as We Can Go (Ringo Starr)
46 Tragedy (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tCJixTR6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/88IHsZeczEOLSre/file

Mike Solof sure does love imagining what the Beatles would have looked like if they all were still alive. Here's another cover image Mike made using an AI program. It's in the same style as the two previous albums in the ballads series.

Pat Benatar - Greatest Hits Live (1980-2015) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's another nice guest post by Mike Solof. It's a collection of the best songs by Pat Benatar - as judged by Mike, who is a big fan. But there's a twist, because he chose all live versions. Well, except for three songs at the end he couldn't bear leaving out, which apparently were never performed live.

This album came to be because I had posted a concert by Joan Jett, and I was planning on posting one by Pat Benatar as well. Those two have always been linked in my mind, since they were pioneering female rock and rollers that became famous at the start of the 1980s. Anyway, since Mike is a bigger Benatar fan than I am, I asked him what would be the best concert recording from her. Instead, he came up with this idea, to make something that contains all of her best known songs, most of them performed within a year or two of being recorded.

The songs are in rough chronological order of when they were first released. But the actual performance dates jump all over, from 1980 to 2015. A little over half of the songs here are from bootlegs, but very excellent sounding ones. The following songs, however, are from official live albums: tracks 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 20, and 24 through 28. You can find more details in the mp3 tags.

Finally, as always with Mike's posts, check out his PDF for comments from him, as well as some more nice photos of Benatar. He's also included a gapless single file version of the album, for those who like that.

This album is two hours and seven minutes long. 

01 Heartbreaker (Pat Benatar)
02 I Need a Lover (Pat Benatar)
03 We Live for Love (Pat Benatar)
04 Treat Me Right (Pat Benatar)
05 You Better Run (Pat Benatar)
06 Hit Me with Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar)
07 Hell Is for Children (Pat Benatar)
08 Promises in the Dark (Pat Benatar)
09 Fire and Ice (Pat Benatar)
10 Helter Skelter (Pat Benatar)
11 Shadows of the Night (Pat Benatar)
12 Lookin' for a Stranger (Pat Benatar)
13 Anxiety (Pat Benatar)
14 Fight It Out (Pat Benatar)
15 The Victim (Pat Benatar)
16 It's a Little Too Late (Pat Benatar)
17 I Want Out (Pat Benatar)
18 Oh Oh Song (Pat Benatar)
19 Love Is a Battlefield (Pat Benatar)
20 Sex as a Weapon (Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo)
21 Invincible (Pat Benatar)
22 We Belong (Pat Benatar)
23 Cool Zero (Pat Benatar)
24 All Fired Up (Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo)
25 True Love (Pat Benatar)
26 Lipstick Lies [Studio] (Pat Benatar)
27 Silent Partner [Studio] (Pat Benatar)
28 Tell It To Her [Studio] (Pat Benatar)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cBKEwVKq

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2EXi12DYTbXNaf6/file

The cover image was selected by Mike. I don't know when or where it's from, exactly. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Z6EV9Jbp

alternate: 

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

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

Covered: Brian Wilson, Volume 2: 1980-2001 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

For Volume 2 of this “Covered” collection, covering the years 1980 to 2001, we begin to move firmly into Brian Wilson’s "influential songwriter" era. During the early and mid-1990s, his work started to gain broader recognition as something far greater than simply a catalog of breezy pop songs. One important factor was the release of the excellent "Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys" box set in 1993, which included several rare recordings from the legendary (and then still unreleased) "Smile" album, along with material from other overlooked chapters of the Beach Boys’ story. The set helped spark renewed interest in both Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' musical legacy.

By the late 1990s, a wide range of tribute albums began appearing, recorded by younger generations of musicians eager to acknowledge Brian’s influence. Indie artists such as Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Adventures in Stereo demonstrated a genuine affection for his music, helping introduce it to new audiences. This volume also offers a first glimpse of the Wondermints, who would later become Brian Wilson’s backing band and play a crucial role in bringing a modern version of "Smile" to life in the early 2000s.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 The Farmer's Daughter (Fleetwood Mac)
02 Go Away Boy (Honeys)
03 Dead Man's Curve (Eddie Meduza)
04 She Knows Me Too Well (Wondermints)
05 California Girls (David Lee Roth)
06 Fun, Fun, Fun (Joan Jett)
07 Be True to Your School (Cynics)
08 I Know There's an Answer (Sonic Youth)
09 Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight (Vacant Lot)
10 Surfin' (Dave Goelz & the Surf Rats)
11 Girl Don't Tell Me (Fuzzy)
12 Everything I Need (Wilsons with Brian Wilson)
13 In My Room (Marilyn Scott)
14 Little Honda (Yo La Tengo)
15 Wonderful (Adventures in Stereo)
16 Honkin' Down the Highway (Radio Sweethearts)
17 Rainbow Eyes (Kle)
18 Stevie - My Diane (Saint Etienne)
19 Surfer Girl (Paul Simon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qvGze9yR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Upv0FegAFyf6FTM/file

The cover image is from 1978. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

The Carpenters - Imaginary Piano Recital, Volume 2: 1976-1983 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's another Fabio from Rio guest post. It's the second and last of two volumes featuring the Carpenters. As I was saying with Volume 1, Fabio and I love Karen Carpenter's voice, and the songs, but we usually don't love the overproduction of most of the Carpenters records. So, for these two volumes, Fabio is presenting the songs stripped down to just vocals and a piano. 

These are all the released studio versions, but edited to remove the other instruments. For the songs with "[Edit]," Fabio did at least some of the editing himself. For the others, he found versions on the Internet where people had already made edits.

There's more to say, but Fabio says that in the liner notes he wrote included in the download zip. Other than that, there's not much more for me to say, except thanks to Fabio for putting these albums together. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 I Have You [Edit] (Carpenters)
02 There's a Kind of Hush [All Over the World] [Edit] (Carpenters)
03 We've Only Just Begun [Edit] (Carpenters)
04 You [Edit] (Carpenters)
05 All You Get from Love Is a Love Song [Edit] (Carpenters)
06 Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft [Edit] (Carpenters)
07 I Just Fall in Love Again (Carpenters)
08 Honolulu City Lights [Edit] (Carpenters)
09 I Need to Be in Love (Karen Carpenter)
10 Merry Christmas, Darling (Carpenters)
11 Where Do I Go from Here [Edit] (Carpenters)
12 If We Try [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)
13 Make Believe It's Your First Time [Edit] (Carpenters)
14 When It's Gone [Edit] (Carpenters)
15 Two Lives [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Xn8YmPqA 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/amevxgiU6IsLSFf/file

As with Volume 1, Fabio and I wanted a photo of Karen singing and Richard playing piano, and nothing else. That's what we got with this one. This one is from September 1971, probably September 23rd. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

The Fixx - BBC Rock Hour, City University, London, Britain, 6-26-1983

Thanks to my focus on things like the Ebbets Field radio broadcast and the "Playboy After Dark" TV show, I've been posting a lot of stuff from the early 1970s lately (as I write this in May 2026). In occurred to me I haven't been posting as much from the 1980s and the BBC in particular. So here's something that checks both of those boxes. It's a BBC concert by the Fixx from 1983.

Since I've never posted anything by this band before, here's the intro to their Wikipedia entry, although it doesn't say that much: 

"The Fixx are a rock band from London, England, founded in 1979. The band's hits include 'One Thing Leads to Another,' 'Saved by Zero,' 'Are We Ourselves?,' and 'Secret Separation,' each of which charted in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, as well as Mainstream Rock chart hits 'Red Skies,' 'Stand or Fall', "Driven Out,' and 'Deeper and Deeper,' which was featured on the soundtrack of the 1984 film Streets of Fire."

Here's the link to the full entry:

The Fixx - Wikipedia

I would add to that that their peak years of commercial success were 1983 and 1984, when they put out an album that reached Platinum status in the U.S. ("Reach the Beach") and another that reached Gold status ("Phantoms"). But they had occasional hits until the end of the 1980s. They are still together as I write this in 2026.

This was part of a radio show in the 1970s and 80s called the "BBC Rock Hour." There was a short introduction by a BBC DJ, but I removed it since it was clearly overdubbed at a later date. 

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 One Thing Leads to Another (Fixx)
02 Cameras in Paris (Fixx)
03 Stand or Fall (Fixx)
04 Privilege (Fixx)
05 Outside (Fixx)
06 Saved by Zero (Fixx)
07 The Fool (Fixx)
08 Reach the Beach (Fixx)
09 talk (Fixx)
10 Running (Fixx)
11 talk (Fixx)
12 Red Skies (Fixx)
13 I Found You (Fixx) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nF3vFhWK

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/scEEbtxY4ZICLvO/file

The cover image shows Cy Curnin, lead singer of the Fixx, at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, on July 23, 1983.

Joan Baez - Baez Sings Baez, Volume 4: 1977-1983 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's a guest post by Fabio from Rio. It's another volume in the "Baez Sings Baez" series. This is a collection of all the songs written by Joan Baez. Fabio wanted to make that point that although she has been primarily as someone who sings cover songs, she's written a lot of good songs herself.

The first six songs are from studio albums in 1977 and 1979. But after that, it seems she had trouble getting record companies interested in releasing more of her studio albums. New wave, punk, and disco came along and made her style of folk music seem out of fashion. She wouldn't release another studio album until 1987.

But that leads us to some of the more interesting songs here, because around 1980, she recorded material for an album that never got released, and she was backed by the Grateful Dead for all the songs! So there are five songs here with the Dead (tracks 8 through 12), all of them still unreleased.

There's a lot more to say about this Dead connection and other matters. But I'll leave that to Fabio, who wrote more extensive notes that are included in the download zip. 

This album is an hour long. 

01 Luba the Baroness (Joan Baez)
02 The Altar Boy and the Thief (Joan Baez)
03 Honest Lullaby (Joan Baez)
04 Michael (Joan Baez)
05 For Sasha (Joan Baez)
06 Free at Last (Joan Baez)
07 Cambodia (Joan Baez)
08 Don't Blame My Mother (Joan Baez & the Grateful Dead)
09 Happy Birthday Leonid Brejnev (Joan Baez & the Grateful Dead)
10 Lady Di and I (Joan Baez & the Grateful Dead)
11 Marriot U.S.A. (Joan Baez & the Grateful Dead)
12 Lucifer's Eyes (Joan Baez & the Grateful Dead)
13 Children of the Eighties (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GjgtvAKU

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/TACY7VBfYSTtFMj/file

The cover photo is from 1982. Fabio found the picture, so I don't know the details. 

Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris & Albert Lee - In Session (CHCH-TV Studios, Hamilton, Canada, 12-12-1983)

So far, I've posted three episodes of the "In Session" TV show. It was a special show, because it combined different musical acts together and had them perform for an entire studio session instead of just a duet or two. Here's the fourth one I've found, starring Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris and Albert Lee. 

This one is different from the other episodes I've found so far. Those others are the episodes broadcast on T.V. This one consisted of three hours of raw footage that was later edited down to an hour or so for the final broadcast. I haven't been able to find the final version, actually. That means there are no interview segments between songs, which must have been recorded at a different time. But instead, one gets the actual banter of them talking to each other. Also, there's well over an hour over music here. I don't know what made the final version, but I presume there are some extra songs that didn't make it into the show. Two songs at the end are second versions of songs performed earlier. But that still means an hour and 10 minutes of music, after one takes out all the banter and the two second takes.

It's nice to have not just two or three music stars performing together, but four. I think the glue between them mainly was Rodney Crowell. At the time, he was married to Rosanne Cash, so that was an obvious link. (They stayed married from 1979 to 1992.) Also, both he and Albert Lee were members of Emmylou Harris's band in the 1970s. Furthermore, Harris and Cash covered songs written by Crowell. But no doubt all four of these people had crossed paths many times prior to this session. 

In this recording, they performed in various combinations. In the song list below, I generally only mentioned the lead vocalist or vocalists, and sometimes also mentioning prominent backing vocalists. But they collaborated more than that. For instance, most of the guitar solos were played by either Albert Lee or Rodney Crowell, although the video shows there was another unnamed lead guitarist in the backing band that also took the occasional solo. And I didn't credit all the backing vocals, especially when most of them sang together.

I cut out of heck of a lot of dead air. Just consider that this was cut by about an hour total. In the beginning especially, there were long stretches of dead air between songs. But by the end, there was a lot more chatter, as it seemed everyone got more relaxed and friendly with each other. I tried to keep the vast majority of that, though I cut out some boring bits. One song, "Old Pipeliner," has "[Edit]" in the title. That's because the YouTube video I took this from was split in two, and the split was right in the middle of that song. But there was a little bit of overlap, so I was able to splice that together without any loss of music.

By the way, I converted that YouTube video to audio, and chopped it into mp3s. As I did so, I had to figure out the song titles. I think I got them all right, but if I made mistakes, please let me know. 

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long. 

01 Tulsa Queen (Emmylou Harris)
02 So Sad [To Watch Good Love Go Bad] (Albert Lee & Emmylou Harris)
03 An American Dream (Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris)
04 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
05 Setting Me Up (Albert Lee)
06 If I Could Only Win Your Love (Emmylou Harris with Rodney Crowell)
07 talk (Emmylou Harris)
08 Country Boy (Albert Lee)
09 talk (Emmylou Harris)
10 talk (Rodney Crowell)
11 Ashes by Now (Rodney Crowell)
12 talk (Emmylou Harris)
13 Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Emmylou Harris)
14 talk (Rosanne Cash)
15 Looking for a Corner (Rosanne Cash)
16 Never Alone (Rosanne Cash with Rodney Crowell)
17 talk (Everyone)
18 Tear It Up (Albert Lee)
19 Song for the Life (Rodney Crowell)
20 talk (Emmylou Harris)
21 Old Pipeliner [Edit] (Rodney Crowell & Everyone)
22 talk (Emmylou Harris & Rosanne Cash)
23 No Memories Hangin' Round (Rodney Crowell & Rosanne Cash)
24 talk (Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell)
25 Till I Gain Control Again (Emmylou Harris)
26 talk (Emmylou Harris)
27 Man Smart, Woman Smarter (Rosanne Cash with Emmylou Harris)
28 talk (Everyone)
29 Shame on the Moon (Rodney Crowell)
30 talk (Everyone)
31 Sweet Little Lisa (Albert Lee)
32 Old Pipeliner [Version 2] (Rodney Crowell & Everyone)
33 talk (Everyone)
34 Sweet Little Lisa [Version 2] (Albert Lee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1b8fSUw6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gmSAH9zVqLvcTP5/file

Making the cover of this album was tough, because I wanted to get all four of the main performers in the image, and they typically were spread out in the studio. I found one point where the four of them were all singing, and the camera panned across them. So I took multiple screenshots. Then I used Photoshop to squeeze them together. Their faces also were blurry because the video was low-res. So I took additional screenshots of just their heads, and pasted those in, for better clarity in those areas.

Glen Campbell & Leon Russell - In Session (CHCH-TV Studios, Hamilton, Canada, 11-18-1983)

Back in 2024, I posted an album featuring an hour-long musical collaboration between Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb in 1988. It was from a Canadian TV show called "In Session." I don't know much about this show. But I found another episode that I thought was worthy of posting. Again, it's an hour long, and features Glen Campbell, but this time he collaborated with Leon Russell. And I don't know how long the show ran, but it's from five years earlier, 1983.

If anyone knows of (and has) more worthy episodes from this show, let me know and I'll post those too. What I really like about the two episodes that I found is they are true musical collaborations, instead of just taking turns playing songs. Campbell pretty much played guitar on all the songs, and Russell pretty much played keyboards on every song, and they often sang together. They also did some songs that I would guess they rarely or never performed in the own concerts, but they performed them here because they were songs that both of them knew, usually from big influences like Elvis Presley.

By the way, note that I just updated the cover of the Campbell and Webb episode. When I was putting this album together, I looked at that one and realized I'd failed to include some basic information on the cover. Thus the update. Here's the link, if you want to get the fixed version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/10/glen-campbell-jimmy-webb-in-session.html

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

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 I Saw the Light (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
02 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
03 Gentle on My Mind (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
04 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
05 Heartbreak Hotel (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
06 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
07 They Still Dance to Waltzes in England (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
08 Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
09 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
10 Jambalaya [On the Bayou] (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
11 A Song for You (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
12 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
13 Southern Nights [Edit] (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
14 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
15 You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
16 I Don't Mind (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
17 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
18 Crying (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
19 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
20 You Don't Know Me (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
21 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
22 I Don't Care What Mama Don't Allow (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
23 Lady Blue (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
24 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
25 I Believe to My Soul (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
26 talk (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)
27 Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell & Leon Russell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/J7kWCJ6A

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ZjShhBn2RFjRyAM/file

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

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 1: 1967-1989

I'm leaving for a vacation to the Amazonian region of Peru tomorrow. I'll be gone for nearly two weeks. But while I'm gone, I'm going to try to keep posting. I have two big music projects that I have all set up. So pretty much all I need to do is hit "publish" on my cell phone to post each album. We'll see how it works out. Given that I'm going to a pretty remote area, I might be out of Internet contact for days at a time. So cross your fingers. 

Anyway, this is one of the two projects: a "Covered" collection for one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Neil Young. This one was mostly done by musical friend Fabio from Rio. That includes writing really great liner notes. 

--- 

This is certainly one of the most daunting projects I've worked with Paul yet, and certainly the biggest and most demanding "Covered" collections at the "Albums That Should Exist" blog ever, at least at the time of writing these liner notes. 

I assume Neil Young needs no introduction. Everybody (or at least everybody who has not lived in an offline bunker for the last half century) knows that Neil is one of the most important rock artists of the last sixty years. He has been influencing generations of musicians since the 1960s, resulting in literally thousands of covers and tributes, officially and unofficially available on studio albums, tribute records, live performances, and YouTube uploads.

Our aim here was not to include every Neil Young composition (that would easily result in more than 25 volumes), but to present a good representation of his output, including not only the all-time hits but also deep cuts, some officially unreleased songs cherished by long-time fans (the so-called "Rusties"), and at least a few lesser-known but equally strong compositions from more recent years, since Neil has never stopped composing, performing and recording.

We would like this project to become "The Best Neil Young Cover Collection Ever" - not out of personal vanity, but as a tribute to the quality of the songs and artists featured. For that reason, we walked the proverbial extra mile in order to select what we believe are some of the best performances of each song. In some cases, this was quite difficult to determine and remains subject to endless debate, since certain songs have literally hundreds of different versions recorded by dozens of artists. Subjectivity inevitably played a part, since our personal tastes (mine and Paul's) may have resulted in some biased selections. However, we tried whenever possible to focus on performances that are widely recognized as among the best or most representative interpretations of a given song. At the same time, we also looked for unusual readings that might give a different or fresh spin to familiar melodies.

My initial selection comprised about 230 different songs, and I listened to more than a thousand performances (1,072 to be exact) in order to prepare the first short list, which was later shared with Paul. For some songs there were literally dozens of available covers, so our main challenge was deciding which one to include. For others, it was surprisingly difficult to find a strong version. In some cases - particularly with more obscure tunes - we had to resort to unofficial recordings, including some provided by the Rusties community, where both amateur and professional musicians share their interpretations.

Since my initial selection would result in too-long a collection even for die-hard fans standards, Paul made editorial cuts, excluding some songs (which I accepted with stoic dignity), but also requesting the inclusion of some of his personal favorites, which I happily complied. In the end, we settled on a 10-volume collection with about 150 tracks, with very little repetition (only two songs - "Heart of Gold" and "Cortez the Killer" - appear in more than one version, in different volumes). 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together.

I also want to add that these albums are ordered by the years the covers were recorded, not the years the songs were first recorded by Neil Young. So if you don't see songs you want included, please wait. There are no less than TEN albums! And for instance, some songs from this time period don't show up until the last one. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It (Gallery Production)
02 Sugar Mountain (Joni Mitchell)
03 Everybody, I Love You (Happy Day)
04 Round and Round (Bernie Schwartz)
05 Southern Man (Merry Clayton)
06 Birds (Linda Ronstadt)
07 Ohio (Isley Brothers)
08 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Jackie DeShannon)
09 See the Sky about to Rain (Byrds)
10 New Mama (Stephen Stills)
11 Love Is a Rose (Linda Ronstadt)
12 Mr. Soul (Cher)
13 The Loner (Stephen Stills)
14 Lotta Love (Nicolette Larson)
15 Look Out for My Love (Linda Ronstadt)
16 Like a Hurricane (Roxy Music)
17 Are You Ready for the Country (Jason & the Scorchers)
17 Winterlong (Pixies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oE16d9b7

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Y8RaicNK2j2Donc/file

The cover photo is from 1966 or 1967. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to add detail.  

The Carpenters - Full Acappella, Volume 2: 1977-1983 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the second volume of the Carpenters' "Full Apcappella." Like the first volume, this was mostly put together by musical friend Fabio from Rio, with just a little assistance by me. Again, we get to hear Karen Carpenter's marvelous lead vocals, and sometimes backing vocals, with no instrumental music getting in the way.

This volume deals with the latter half of the Carpenters' musical career. It wasn't as commercially successful as the first half, probably due to Karen Carpenter's self-inflicted declining physical health. Tragically, she died in 1983 at just the age of 32, so this volume ends in that year.

Like Volume 1, Fabio wrote extensive notes talking about the tracks and where they're from. He also explains why some of the songs have edits. That's included in the download zip. 

By the way, note that back in 2018, I posted an album that contained versions of Carpenters that only had vocals, bass, and drums. I called it "Near Acappella," because it was stripped way down, but not fully acappella. Well, Fabio found two more songs for that while he was looking for songs for these two volumes. So I've just updated that album with those two added songs. I also changed the cover image to one I like better. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-carpenters-near-acappella-1969-1975.html 

This album is 51 minutes long. Thanks again to Fabio for putting these albums together!

01 All You Get from Love Is a Love Song [Edit] (Carpenters)
02 Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft [Edit] (Carpenters)
03 Knowing When to Leave (Carpenters)
04 Make It Easy on Yourself (Carpenters)
05 Suntory Pop Jingle No. 1 (Carpenters)
06 Suntory Pop Jingle No. 2 (Carpenters)
07 Silent Night (Carpenters)
08 Ave Maria (Carpenters)
09 Where Do I Go from Here [Edit] (Carpenters)
10 Someday (Carpenters)
11 Lovelines [Edit] (Carpenters)
12 The Uninvited Guest (Carpenters)
13 If We Try [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)
14 Make Believe It's Your First Time (Carpenters)
15 When It's Gone [Edit] (Carpenters)
16 Two Lives [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)
17 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Carpenters)
18 Little Altar Boy (Carpenters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZBC5J2CX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/aV3vEIDjOPMuc7c/file

I don't know where or when the cover photo is from. I just thought it was a nice picture of Karen Carpenter. 

Marshall Crenshaw - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 5-2-1983

Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This time, it stars Marshall Crenshaw.

Crenshaw was really hot stuff in the music business for about two years, 1982 and 1983. That's when he released his first two albums, "Marshall Crenshaw" and "Field Day." Both of them got a lot of critical acclaim, and contained hit songs. Unfortunately, he couldn't maintain that level of success after that. But, given that history, it's not surprising that his Soundstage episode came in 1983, probably the peak of his popularity.

I've already posted two BBC concerts Crenshaw did, in 1982 and 1983. The 1983 one took place less than two months after this one, so it's not surprising the set lists are pretty similar. However, I do want to post all the worthy Soundstage episodes I can find, so I'm posting this despite the similarity to the other 1983 concert I've posted from him.

While there are similarities, there also are differences. Most notably, Crenshaw performed some cover versions in this concert he didn't perform in the 1983 BBC concert: "Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)," "Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do," "Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," and "White Lightning."

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Mary Anne (Marshall Crenshaw)
02 Rockin' Around in N.Y.C. (Marshall Crenshaw)
03 Girls (Marshall Crenshaw)
04 Soldier of Love [Lay Down Your Arms] (Marshall Crenshaw)
05 Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do (Marshall Crenshaw)
06 She Can't Dance (Marshall Crenshaw)
07 Move It (Marshall Crenshaw)
08 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
09 Something's Gonna Happen (Marshall Crenshaw)
10 Someday, Someway (Marshall Crenshaw)
11 There She Goes Again (Marshall Crenshaw)
12 Brand New Lover (Marshall Crenshaw)
13 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
14 Stop Her on Sight [S.O.S.] (Marshall Crenshaw)
15 Look at What I Almost Missed (Marshall Crenshaw)
16 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
17 Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Marshall Crenshaw)
18 The Usual Thing (Marshall Crenshaw)
19 Cynical Girl (Marshall Crenshaw)
20 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
21 White Lightning (Marshall Crenshaw)
22 [I Wanna] Love My Life Away (Marshall Crenshaw)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ksBSRo1y

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KjQqG8aCOPMGUwh/file

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

Chris Rea - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, London, Britain, 4-12-1983

Chris Rea died last week as I write this at the end of December 2025. I've never been much aware of his music, so I'm fast tracking the posting of a bunch of BBC albums from him to make up for lost time. Here's the second one, which is a 1983 concert. In case you're curious, I have at least six more that I've found so far.

The first song, "Guitar Street," is from a different source. That was performed by him on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1982. I didn't have anywhere else to put it, and it helps flesh out a rather short album. Luckily, it was performed in front of a cheering audience, so it fits in well with the live concert that follows.

The rest of this album is from a 1983 concert, as I mentioned above. I don't know much about it. For instance, I don't know the exact venue. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can fix that.

Rea had a hit with his very first major label single, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," released in 1978. But after that, he had quite a few years with only middling success. This concert took place during that time. His biggest hit since his first one was probably "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat." But that only made it to Number 60 in the British singles chart. He would start to have more success a couple of years later. We'll see that in the next album in this series.

This album is 36 minutes long. If you don't include the first track, from another source, it's 31 minutes.

01 Guitar Street (Chris Rea)
02 Nothing's Happening by the Sea (Chris Rea)
03 Don't Look Back (Chris Rea)
04 talk (Chris Rea)
05 Midnight Blue (Chris Rea)
06 Let It Loose (Chris Rea)
07 talk (Chris Rea)
08 Love's Strange Ways (Chris Rea)
09 I Can Hear Your Heartbeat (Chris Rea)
10 From Love to Love (Chris Rea)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fv2s2dks

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/i5cL62Y4YVAYmFq/file

The cover image is from a concert in Auftritt, Germany, at some point in 1983. 

Maria Muldaur - BBC In Concert, Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds, Cambridge, Britain, 7-28-1983

Here's a BBC concert by American singer Maria Muldaur.

Muldaur is considered a "one-hit wonder," because her song "Midnight at the Oasis" went to the Top Ten in 1973 in the U.S., and in fact was one of the best selling singles that year, yet she didn't have any other hits. However, that song is only a very small part of her musical legacy, as this concert shows.

Although this concert was recorded at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Muldaur's music couldn't simply be called folk. As her Wikipedia entry puts it, she "has recorded albums in the folk, blues, early jazz, gospel, country, and R&B traditions." There's a lot of different styles mixed together here.

Note that this is another album I never would have found had it not been for musical friend Progspog, who shared this with me. It's another extremely obscure one. I've found reference to her doing at least one other concert for the BBC, in January 1976. If anyone has that, or other BBC stuff from her, please share it with me and I'll post it here. (And then this one will get renamed to "Volume 2.") 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 55 minutes long. 

01 talk (Maria Muldaur)
02 I'm a Woman (Maria Muldaur)
03 talk (Maria Muldaur)
04 Walkin' One and Only (Maria Muldaur)
05 talk (Maria Muldaur)
06 Any Old Time (Maria Muldaur)
07 talk (Maria Muldaur)
08 Rio de Janeiro Blues (Maria Muldaur)
09 talk (Maria Muldaur)
10 Cooking Breakfast for the One I Love (Maria Muldaur)
11 talk (Maria Muldaur)
12 It's in the Book (Maria Muldaur)
13 talk (Maria Muldaur)
14 There Must Be a Better World Somewhere (Maria Muldaur)
15 talk (Maria Muldaur)
16 Lover Man [Oh, Where Can You Be] (Maria Muldaur)
17 Midnight at the Oasis (Maria Muldaur)
18 talk (Maria Muldaur)
19 What about the Price (Maria Muldaur)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/4j35ydmo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WYs3CucvhKPyb0j/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Randy Newman - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: Sight and Sound, Planet Theatre, Slough, Britain, 2-26-1983

Here's another BBC concert album by Randy Newman. It's from the BBC TV show "Sight and Sound."

This will probably be the last BBC album from him, unless something else emerges. Actually, there is one more BBC concert he did, but I don't plan on posting it, because it's been officially released as the album "Live in London" in 2011.

In early 1983, Newman released the album "Trouble in Paradise." It was one of his best sellers, helped along by the popular song "I Love L.A." Many of the songs here come from that album, although he avoided that song (either that or the BBC edited it from a longer concert).

The music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 talk (Randy Newman)
02 Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear (Randy Newman)
03 Birmingham (Randy Newman)
04 talk (Randy Newman)
05 A Real Emotional Girl (Randy Newman)
06 talk (Randy Newman)
07 Christmas in Cape Town (Randy Newman)
08 Short People (Randy Newman)
09 talk (Randy Newman)
10 God's Song [That's Why I Love Mankind] (Randy Newman)
11 talk (Randy Newman)
12 The Blues (Randy Newman)
13 talk (Randy Newman)
14 The Girls in My Life [Part One] (Randy Newman)
15 Rednecks (Randy Newman)
16 talk (Randy Newman)
17 Jolly Coppers on Parade (Randy Newman)
18 Baltimore (Randy Newman)
19 talk (Randy Newman)
20 My Life Is Good (Randy Newman)
21 talk (Randy Newman)
22 Political Science (Randy Newman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NzVhj4Vp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/T4YkMgVViA5nvlf/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Saturday Night Live" TV show, on February 26, 1983.

Peter, Paul & Mary - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Rhythm on Two, Southport Theatre, Southport, Britain, 3-1983

Here we go again, with another album discovered via musical associate Progsprog, leading to another renumbering. This is a 1983 BBC concert by the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

I previously posted a BBC concert they did all the way back in 1965. That is now getting renamed to "BBC Sessions, Volume 1." Here's the link to that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/05/peter-paul-mary-bbc-in-concert-tonight.html

Peter, Paul and Mary were very popular in the 1960s. But they broke up in 1970, and stayed broke up throughout the 1970s, though with occasional reunions for special occasions. They decided to regroup permanently starting in 1981. They stayed together until the 2000s, when health issues finally got to them. 

At this point, they were still going strong musically, though most of their songs were ones they'd help make popular in the 1960s. However, I find it strange the concert ended with a version of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane," since they'd performed it earlier in concert and they had lots of other classic songs to play. But it seems that's what they did. 

Note that the timing of this concert is just an educated guess. The BBC website merely says it's from 1983. I tried to figure out an exact date. The best I could come up with was a mention in a newspaper article that the trio began a short European tour in Paris, France, on the last day of February, 1983. So the odds are good this took place in March. 

The music is unreleased. (It appears to be from a BBC TV show originally). The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 If I Had a Hammer (Peter, Paul & Mary)
02 talk (Peter, Paul & Mary)
03 Such Is Love (Peter, Paul & Mary)
04 Blowin' in the Wind (Peter, Paul & Mary)
05 This Land Is Your Land (Peter, Paul & Mary)
06 A' Soalin' (Peter, Paul & Mary)
07 Puff, the Magic Dragon (Peter, Paul & Mary)
08 There but for Fortune (Peter, Paul & Mary)
09 Leavin' on a Jet Plane (Peter, Paul & Mary)
10 Music Speaks Louder than Words (Peter, Paul & Mary)
11 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (Peter, Paul & Mary)
12 Well, Well, Well (Peter, Paul & Mary)
13 Sweet Survivor (Peter, Paul & Mary)
14 Ballad of Spring Hill [Spring Hill Disaster] (Peter, Paul & Mary)
15 Power (Peter, Paul & Mary)
16 Day Is Done (Peter, Paul & Mary)
17 Leavin' on a Jet Plane [Second Version] (Peter, Paul & Mary)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Qq9HS5Fq

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/MLf9p9XZYMWOwZZ/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Casino de Paris, in Paris, France, on February 28, 1983.

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, The Venue, New Cross, London, Britain, 11-10-1983

Back in May 2025, I posted what I called "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" by Richard Thompson. But in my write-up, I noted that I'd seen mention of a BBC concert he did in 1983, and I wrote, "Note that if someone finds that one, I'll have to make that 'Volume 1' and rename everything after. So hopefully that can happen sooner rather than later, before I post more albums." Well, good news and bad news. The good is, that long-lost 1983 BBC concert has been found, and here it is! The bad news is, I've posted six later volumes already. So today I just renumbered them all, changing the cover art and mp3 tags for all of them as well. So, if you have downloaded some of them already, I suggest you get the latest versions.

The reason this has been found is due to musical associate Progsprog, who sent it to me. So a big thanks to him. I've looked high and low, and this hasn't been available on the Internet for a long time. Let's hope this puts it back into wide circulation, because it's a great concert.

Thompson broke up with his wife and musical duo partner Linda Thompson in 1982. He put out a solo album, "Hands of Kindness," in 1983. Many of the songs here are from that, though he also does songs written earlier in his musical career, as well as some covers ("Amaryllis - Nonesuch a la Mode de France," "Pennsylvania 6-5000," "Danny Boy," and "Great Balls of Fire").

Most of this was broadcast by the BBC, and later given to me by Progsprog. But not all of it. It turns out there also is a surprisingly good sounding audience bootleg of this exact concert. I compared the two, and found three songs on the audience boot that weren't broadcast by the BBC: "Wall of Death," "Down Where the Drunkards Roll," and "Great Balls of Fire." So I did some audio editing to try to bring them up to the same sound quality as the rest. I used the MVSEP program to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments, and also to erase the crowd noise in the middle of those songs. Furthermore, I used the X-Minus program to get rid of some excessive echo on them. The final result is pretty impressive. Most of the time, it's hard to tell which ones of these are from the audience boot, except for the different sound of audience applause at the ends, and a brief flawed area in the middle of "Wall of Death" that I couldn't fix. 

Furthermore, the first 15 or so seconds of the first song, "The Wrong Heartbeat," were missed. So I patched in the missing portion from the audience boot. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title. 

This album is an hour and 31 minutes long. 

01 The Wrong Heartbeat [Edit] (Richard Thompson)
02 A Poisoned Heart and a Twisted Memory (Richard Thompson)
03 Tear Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)
04 How I Wanted To (Richard Thompson)
05 talk (Richard Thompson)
06 Amaryllis - Nonesuch a la Mode de France [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)
07 Don't Renege on Our Love (Richard Thompson)
08 Shoot Out the Lights (Richard Thompson)
09 talk (Richard Thompson)
10 Hand of Kindness (Richard Thompson)
11 Wall of Death (Richard Thompson)
12 talk (Richard Thompson)
13 Pennsylvania 6-5000 [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)
14 talk (Richard Thompson)
15 A Man in Need (Richard Thompson)
16 Two Left Feet (Richard Thompson)
17 talk (Richard Thompson)
18 Back Street Slide (Richard Thompson)
19 talk (Richard Thompson)
20 Both Ends Burning (Richard Thompson)
21 Danny Boy (Richard Thompson)
22 talk (Richard Thompson)
23 Down Where the Drunkards Roll (Richard Thompson)
24 Great Balls of Fire (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mRJ1etqY 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/JIBOvIznlmfUvy1/file 

The cover photo is from a concert at Tuts, in Chicago, Illinois, on October 17, 1983.

The Turtles - ChicagoFest, Soldier Field, Chicago, IL, 8-19-1983

The Turtles had two main singers, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. As I write this in September 2025, Volman died several days ago. Specifically, he died on September 6, 2025, at the age of 78. His passing made me think of posting something from the Turtles. But I didn't have anything worth posting. However, in the wake of his passing, I came across this Turtles concert from 1983.

I get the impression that the Turtles didn't tour much in their 1960s heyday. At least, I've never come across any live recordings from them back then, other than some videos of them performing a few songs on TV shows. That probably related to the terrible record company they signed with, White Whale Records. As just one example of their awfulness, in the middle of their big success in the 60s, the company tried to get Volman and Kaylan to fire all the other band members and just replace them with studio musicians, to save money. They refused. The Turtles was the company's only big act. Not long after that band broke up at the end of the 60s, the company went bankrupt.

The contract Volman and Kaylan signed was so bad that the two of them were not allowed to record under their own legal, personal names without giving the company a cut of the profits. So in the early 1970s, they reemerged as the duo Flo and Eddie. This bizarre situation continued for many years, long after the company went bankrupt. It was only in 1983 that they were legally allowed to tour and record under the name the Turtles again. They celebrated with a tour that includes this concert.

In addition to performing their hits as the Turtles and Flo and Eddie, they were known for playing unusual covers in concerts. That's the case here. They did parody imitations of Bruce Springsteen and the Doors, as well as "The Pied Piper," which was a hit by Crispian St. Peters in 1966. A couple of other covers here, "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Eve of Destruction," were put on albums by the Turtles in the 1960s, though they didn't have hits with them.

Everything here is unreleased. It's from an FM broadcast or soundboard, so the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 You Baby (Turtles)
02 talk (Turtles)
03 Like a Rolling Stone (Turtles)
04 Keep It Warm (Turtles)
05 talk (Turtles)
06 Nikki Hoi - Limbo Rock (Turtles)
07 talk (Turtles)
08 You Might Need Somebody (Turtles)
09 Let Me Be (Turtles)
10 Eve of Destruction (Turtles)
11 She's My Girl (Turtles)
12 The Pied Piper - Jungleland (Turtles)
13 talk (Turtles)
15 You Showed Me - Light My Fire (Turtles)
16 Eleanor (Turtles)
17 Happy Together Intro (Turtles)
18 Happy Together (Turtles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yp8L3UBS 

alternate: 

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

The cover photo is from a Turtles concert in Chicago in 1983, remarkably enough, but it's not this one. Instead, it's from the Park West in May 1983. The photo shows Mark Volman on the left and Howard Kaylan on the right (with the beard). In the original photo they were farther apart, but I used Photoshop to move Kaylan closer so they could both appear larger in the cropped image.

Various Artists - Covered: Hank Williams, Volume 1: 1954-1995

It's time for more from my "Covered" series, highlighting widely covered songwriters. This one celebrates the music of Hank Williams, who has been called "the father of country music." I've found enough for two albums. Here's the first one.

There's no doubt that Williams was a pivotal musical figure. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 74 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, which is saying a lot, considering that magazine doesn't pay much attention to country music. Encyclopedia Britannica called him "country music's first superstar" and an "immensely talented songwriter and an impassioned vocalist." AllMusic.com said that he "established the rules for all the country performers who followed him and, in the process, much of popular music."

So far with this "Covered" series, I've generally selected songwriters from the rock and roll era, meaning 1955 and after. But Williams was from earlier. His recording lasted from 1947 to 1953. He died in 1953 at only the age of 29. His cause of death is controversial, but it seems he died of a heart attack caused by misuse of drugs and alcohol. 

I eventually want to go back and make "Covered" albums of songwriter greats like him from earlier eras. However, in Williams' case, his music often doesn't appeal to those who don't like country music. So instead of just going with the big hit versions of his songs, I made a concerted effort to pick covers that I liked but also often weren't country versions, or at least weren't hard-core country versions. So if you're not a big country music fan, you might still want to give this a try. There are some country versions early on, but less so as this album goes on, and even less so on the second volume. 

This album starts in 1954 and proceeds chronologically after that, so everything from here is after his death. In fact, Williams had a lot of success with people covering his songs during his life, but those generally are the hard core country type songs I've tried to avoid here. A pivotal cover was "Cold, Cold Heart" by Tony Bennett in 1951. Bennett was reluctantly convinced to cover it, doing it in a pop style. It was a Number One hit on the U.S. singles chart. This caused people in the music business to start to realize that Williams' songs could be popular outside of just the country music charts, and many covers followed. However, I didn't include Bennett's version or many other hit cover versions from that time period because I don't think they've dated well. But some songs from the time, including "Cold, Cold Heart," will appear on the second volume, done in more modern styles.

By the way, I have to say that I was surprised to find out that Williams co-wrote "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)." I had assumed that was a traditional New Orleans / Cajun song going way back. But Williams wrote it with Moon Mulligan, another country star, in 1952, basing the melody on a little-known traditional love song called "Grand Texas." His version was a massive hit, spending 14 weeks at Number One on the U.S. country singles chart. It also is his most covered song, with at least 500 recorded versions. Good luck going to New Orleans and not hearing it played a bunch of times!

Here's the Wikipedia entry about Williams, if you want to know more:

Hank Williams - Wikipedia 

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight (Tony Bennett)
02 Long Gone Lonesome Blues (Marty Robbins)
03 Jambalaya [On the Bayou] (Brenda Lee)
04 Moanin' the Blues (Marty Robbins)
05 Hey, Good Lookin' (Ray Charles)
06 Weary Blues from Waitin' (Vince Martin & Fred Neil)
07 Your Cheatin' Heart (Ray Charles)
08 Kaw-Liga (Charley Pride)
09 Settin' the Woods on Fire (Little Richard)
10 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Al Green)
11 Move It on Over (George Thorogood)
12 You Win Again (Rolling Stones)
13 Why Don't You Love Me like You Used to Do (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
14 I Saw the Light (Etta James)
15 Honky Tonk Blues (Huey Lewis & the News)
16 Mind Your Own Business (Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women)
17 Honky Tonkin' (The The)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RT8yKdAE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/g8fif4AWmUqA88p/file

I don't know what year the photo is from. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Elkie Brooks - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1977-1987

Here's a third volume (out of four) of British singer Elkie Brooks performing for the BBC. In this case, every song comes from appearances on BBC TV shows.

The first album in this series consisted of BBC studio sessions. It ended in 1977, which was the year Brooks had her first big hits. The second one was a full concert from 1977. In Volume 1, I only had two of her hits, "Pearl's a Singer" and "Lilac Wine." But from 1977 until 1987, she had lots of hits in Britain (while she never had any hits in the U.S.). So I tried to put this collection together to deal with that period. 

Everything here is unreleased. I often had to dig deep to find the material. For instance, I found she did some appearances on the BBC TV show "The Two Ronnies" in 1980, but none of them were on YouTube. So I downloaded all the episodes of that show that year from SoulseekQT and went through them, found the songs she did, and turned them into mp3s. Those are tracks 4, 5, and 6.

As for the other tracks, the first three plus tracks 9 and 13 are from the "Top of the Pops" BBC TV show (not to be confused with the BBC radio show of the same name). I rarely use that as a source for my BBC projects, because the vast majority of performers on it lip-synced when on the show. However, Brooks usually did not. In ease case, I carefully compared those versions with the album versions to make sure. They're from 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, and 1987 respectively.

Tracks 7 and 8 are from the TV show "Parkinson" in 1982. Tracks 10 and 11 are from a 1983 TV show hosted by singer Leo Sayer. Track 12 is from a TV show called "Wogan" in 1987. Generally speaking, I used the MVSEP program to get rid of crowd noise on the songs where there was crowd noise.

I searched for more BBC TV appearances after 1987, but I couldn't find any good ones until way later, and those were mostly repeats of earlier hits. That makes sense, because she didn't have any significant appearances after that year. Between this volume and "Volume 1" in this series, you'd have a pretty good "greatest hits" collection for her entire career, with only a couple of key songs missing.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Sunshine After the Rain (Elkie Brooks)
02 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Elkie Brooks)
03 The Runaway (Elkie Brooks)
04 Don't Cry Out Loud (Elkie Brooks)
05 Paint Your Pretty Picture (Elkie Brooks)
06 Dance Away (Elkie Brooks)
07 Fool [If You Think It's Over] (Elkie Brooks)
08 Superstar [Groupie] (Elkie Brooks)
09 Nights in White Satin (Elkie Brooks)
10 Gasoline Alley (Elkie Brooks)
11 Giving You Hope (Elkie Brooks)
12 We've Got Tonite (Elkie Brooks)
13 No More the Fool (Elkie Brooks) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/me7Fh3Yn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/V2ubR7qCxIoT7jV/file

The cover photo was taken circa 1980. I don't know more details.