Covered: Denny Randell & Sandy Linzer: 1964-1998

Here's another songwriting duo highlighted for my "Covered" series: Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer. I wouldn't be surprised at all if you have never heard of them. I hadn't either, until recently. But while they didn't write any massive hits, they have enough hits for a solid album.

Randell and Linzer were both born in 1941. They were introduced to each other in 1963, and immediately began co-writing songs. The first song here, "Dawn (Go Away)," was written by Linzer with Bob Gaudio, a member of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and an impressive songwriter in his own right. I've already posted a "Covered" album for the Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio songwriting team. 

Randell and Linzer wrote a lot of songs for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, sometimes with Gaudio. I've included three such songs here (and a Franki Valli solo one). But "Working My Way Back to You" was also a hit for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in 1966. I included the 1979 version by the Spinners instead because that was a much bigger hit. In fact, it was the biggest hit this songwriting team ever had, reaching Number One in Britain and Number Two in the U.S. 

In a similar way, "Can't Get Enough of You Baby" was a small hit for Question Mark and the Mysterians in 1967, but not enough to make the U.S. Top Forty. I included the 1998 version by Smash Mouth instead, since that was a bigger hit, making the Top Forty chart.

Probably another success was the song "I Believe in You and Me." (Linzer wrote it with someone else.) Whitney Houston had a Top Five hit in the U.S. with it in 1996. But, frankly, I find Houston's typically histrionic over-singing hard to take. It turns out the song was first released by the Four Tops in 1982. So I've included that version instead. It wasn't a hit, but the singing is much better.

I've been posting a lot of "Covered" albums featuring songwriters who got started in the early or mid-1960s. Nearly all of them stopped having hits by the end of the 1970s, due to changing musical trends (except for later covers of their earlier songs). But Randell and Linzer were a rarity in that they kept writing more hits through the end of the 1980s. The last original hit here is "Talk It Over" by Grayson Hugh in 1989.

However, their songwriting partnership petered out at the end of the 1970s. The vast majority of the songs up to and including "Native New Yorker" in 1977 were written by both of them. But the songs that come after that were written by one of them or the other, usually with other songwriting partners (except for tracks 12 and 17, which I mentioned above are not the original hit versions). 

Both Randell and Linzer also worked in other aspects of the music business, for instance producing albums, and promoting and developing the musical careers of some acts. Both of them are still alive, and about 85 years old, as I write this in 2026.

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 Dawn [Go Away] (Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons)
02 A Lover's Concerto (Toys)
03 Let's Hang On (Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons)
04 Attack (Toys)
05 Opus 17 [Don't You Worry 'bout Me] (Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons)
06 I'll Be Back Up on My Feet (Monkees)
07 Penny Arcade (Cyrkle)
08 Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache (Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon)
09 You Can Do Magic (Limmie & Family Cookin’)
10 Swearin' to God (Frankie Valli)
11 Native New Yorker (Odyssey)
12 Working My Way Back to You - Forgive Me Girl (Spinners)
13 Use It Up and Wear It Out (Odyssey)
14 I Believe in You and Me (Four Tops)
15 Fresh (Kool & the Gang)
16 Talk It Over (Grayson Hugh)
17 Can't Get Enough of You Baby (Smash Mouth)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xSguvDEM

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/revo89NczNfZKK9/file

I guess it's pretty obvious that the cover is two photos put together in Photoshop, but I couldn't find any images of the two of them in the same frame. That's Sandy Linzer on the left, with the suit and tie, in 1977. I don't know the date of the Denny Randell photo on the right, but it's probably from the 1960s. 

The Kinks - Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany, 11-23-1984

It's always a good day when I get to post some music from the Kinks that's worthy of being posted here. Today is one of those days. :) This is a Kinks concert from 1984.

The Kinks album "Word of Mouth" has a special place in my heart, because I bought that album as a kid in 1984, and went to see the Kinks in concert that year. So I've looked for ages for a good concert from that tour, but none of them sounded good enough for my ears, or had other problems. I finally found one, here.

I had come across a soundboard recording from this very concert. But the problem was this recording only includes the last 45 minutes of the concert. I found it too frustrating to keep a recording of just half of a concert. But the other day, I randomly came across a professionally recorded video of the entire concert. So I converted that to audio, and chopped up the first half into mp3s. Then I used the soundboard recording of the second half. The sound quality is so similar that I don't think you'll notice the transition point.

So that all went well. The sound quality is excellent overall. There was only one minor snag: at the start of the recording, the volume of the voice of one of the backing vocalists was unusually loud. It was really annoying. Luckily, it was just a problem for the first song or two, then adjustments were made. I tried to make further adjustments, going through line by line in those first two songs to bring the backing vocals down to a more reasonable level. But there was only so much I could do, due to different vocals overlapping. Still, it should be close enough for horseshoes now, and the rest of the concert sounds fine.

By the way, I still think "Word of Mouth" is an underrated album in the Kinks' discography. Unfortunately though, only four songs from that album were performed here: "Do It Again," "Word of Mouth," "Living on a Thin Line," and "Good Day." I would have liked to hear more. 

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long.

01 Around the Dial (Kinks)
02 Definite Maybe [Instrumental] (Kinks)
03 State of Confusion (Kinks)
04 Where Have All the Good Times Gone (Kinks)
05 The Hard Way (Kinks)
06 Don't Forget to Dance (Kinks)
07 talk (Kinks)
08 Come Dancing (Kinks)
09 Low Budget (Kinks)
10 talk (Kinks)
11 Do It Again (Kinks)
12 talk (Kinks)
13 Word of Mouth (Kinks)
14 Lola (Kinks)
15 David Watts (Kinks)
16 Dead End Street (Kinks)
17 Living on a Thin Line (Kinks)
18 Good Day (Kinks)
19 talk (Kinks)
20 All Day and All of the Night (Kinks)
21 Till the End of the Day (Kinks)
22 talk (Kinks)
23 Celluloid Heroes (Kinks)
24 You Really Got Me (Kinks)
25 talk (Kinks)
26 I Gotta Move (Kinks)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9QaDHoJM

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/NcgXgXKTSsZ3Upw/file

The cover photo shows band leader Ray Davies. I took it from a screenshot of a YouTube video of this concert. 

Covered: Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly: 1980-2019

I don't keep a close eye on music news, but yesterday I happened to hear that songwriter Billy Steinberg died. Specifically, he died on February 16, 2026, at the age of 75. That probably doesn't mean anything to most people, because I don't think he's very well known as far as songwriters go. But it meant something to me, because I had already made a "Covered" album of the songs he and songwriting partner Tom Kelly made. (It's one of several dozen "Covered" albums I've made but haven't gotten around to posting yet.) Due to his death, I decided to post this sooner rather than later.

Steinberg and Kelly wrote a lot of hits from the 1980s to the 2000s that you probably know without ever knowing who wrote them. Even though they were male, somehow they had the most success with females covering their songs. They had five Number One hits in the U.S., all sung by women: "Like a Virgin" by Madonna (1984), "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper (1986), "Eternal Flame" (co-written with Susanna Hoffs and recorded by the Bangles in 1989), "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston (1987), and "Alone" by Heart (1987).

Billy Steinberg was born in Fresno, California, though his family moved to Palm Springs when he was a teenager. After graduating from college, he formed a band called Billy Thermal. However, they didn't have any success, and one album they recorded around 1980 wasn't released until decades later, after he made a name for himself as a songwriter. He had his first songwriting success with "How Do I Make You," which was a hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1980.  

Tom Kelly was born in a small town in Illinois in 1952. He went to a college in that state, but dropped out to pursue a music career. He was a backing musician for Dan Fogelberg in 1976 and 1977. He also did a lot of session work, for instance singing backing vocals on Toto albums. He had his first songwriting success with "Fire and Ice," a minor hit for Pat Benatar in 1981.

Both Steinberg and Kelly independently had songs on Benatar's 1981 album, "Precious Time." They met at a party that year, and soon began writing together. Previously, both of them had written lyrics and music. But they soon fell into a pattern where Steinberg generally wrote the lyrics while Kelly wrote the music. Their really big break as a songwriting team was "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. After that, they were in high demand. What's on this album is just the cream of the crop of the many dozens of songs they wrote for well-known musical acts.

Their partnership continued very fruitfully until the mid-1990s. At that point, Kelly tired of songwriting and dropped out of the music business. He'd already had enough success to live on the royalties he'd made. However, Steinberg kept going with new songwriting partners. From the mid-1990s until the mid-2000s, he mostly wrote with Rick Newels, who already was a successful professional songwriter. From the mid-2000s to about the mid-2010s, he mostly wrote with Josh Alexander.

Steinberg had a lot of songwriting success after he stopped working with Kelly. But I listened to his big hits and, to be honest, didn't like them very much after about 2000. They suffer the same problems as most popular pop music since about 2000: formulaic and forgettable. So I generally didn't include most of those. To be honest, even a lot of their earlier stuff was formulaic and forgettable, but sometimes, in fact many times, they had some real winners.

But in case you're curious, Steinberg's biggest later hits include "I Turn to You" by Melanie C (2000), "Love Doesn't Have to Hurt" by Atomic Kitten (2003), "Too Little Too Late" by JoJo (2006), "Don't Hold Your Breath" by Nicole Scherzinger (2011), and "Give Your Heart a Break" by Demi Lovato (2012). After that, the hits petered out, although some older songs keep getting rerecorded and making the charts again, especially "Alone" and "I Drove All Night." For instance, Alyssa Reid went all the way to Number Two in the British charts with "Alone" in 2012, although it was titled "Alone Again" and had the now practically obligatory rap section.

I'm not a fan of Whitney Houston's version of "So Emotional." But since it was a massive Number One hit, I wanted to include it in some form. I found a radically different cover version by Jon McLaughlin from 2019 that I like much better, so I used that instead. Had it not been for that song, this album would end in 2000.

Here are their Wikipedia pages: 

Billy Steinberg - Wikipedia

Tom Kelly (musician) - Wikipedia  

That album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 How Do I Make You (Linda Ronstadt)
02 Fire and Ice (Pat Benatar)
03 Like a Virgin (Madonna)
04 Sex as a Weapon (Pat Benatar)
05 True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
06 Eternal Flame (Bangles)
07 Alone (Heart)
08 In Your Room (Bangles)
09 I Touch Myself (Divinyls)
10 My Side of the Bed (Susanna Hoffs)
11 I Drove All Night (Roy Orbison)
12 Night in My Veins (Pretenders)
13 Lucky Love [Acoustic Version] (Ace of Base)
14 I'll Stand by You (Pretenders)
15 Falling into You (Celine Dion)
16 California (Belinda Carlisle)
17 One and One (Edyta Gorniak)
18 Everytime It Rains (Ace of Base)
19 The Consequences of Falling (k.d. lang)
20 So Emotional (Jon McLaughlin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/4xNLLW9p 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/uxa5jlpb5sQPr8t/file

I don't know the details of the cover photo. But that's Tom Kelly on the left and Billy Steinberg on the right. There are patches of white in Steinberg's hair, which went completely white in later photos of him. 

Kevin Gilbert - Originals (1984-1996) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's a really interesting album put together by guest poster Mike Solof. Have you ever heard of Kevin Gilbert? If you have, congrats, because he's not as well known as he sound be. Mike is a huge fan of Gilbert's music, so much so that he put together three albums to showcase Gilbert's musical talent. The first album, this one, consists of the original songs Mike considers the best. Then he's made another one of the best rarities, and a third one of the best cover versions. If you want to get started, this is the obvious first album to listen to. Then, if you're interested, check out the other two. (Then, hopefully, more than that.)

For a quick overview, I'll quote the intro paragraph to his Wikipedia entry, which states me "was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee, and his contributions to 'Tuesday Night Music Club' (1993), the debut studio album of Sheryl Crow. Kevin Gilbert died from autoerotic asphyxiation. He was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home on May 18, 1996, at the age of 29."

Here's the link to the rest of the Wikipedia page:

Kevin Gilbert (musician) - Wikipedia

I have to admit I wasn't familiar with Gilbert's music before Mike made these albums, although I'd previously heard good things about his career here and there. After hearing the albums Mike made, I have to agree that Gilbert was a very talented musician who deserves to be much better known than he is. He often combined a catchy pop sensibility with the complexity of prog rock. That is a very difficult combination to pull off. It's a real shame he died so young, and the strange manner of his death probably didn't help his musical legacy.

Note that this albums combines songs from Gilbert's solo albums, as well as songs he did with bands he was in: Giraffe, Toy Matinee, and Kaviar. All the lead vocals are by Gilbert. 

Anyway, Mike has written extensive notes about Gilbert, his life, and why he likes his music so much. You can find that in the PDF included with the download zip, as usual for Mike's guest posts. 

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long. 

01 When Strangers Part (Kevin Gilbert)
02 This Warm Night (Giraffe)
03 Air Dance (Giraffe)
04 Tired Old Man Suite (Kevin Gilbert)
05 Last Plane Out (Toy Matinee)
06 Things She Said (Toy Matinee)
07 The Ballad of Jenny Ledge (Toy Matinee)
08 Goodness Gracious (Kevin Gilbert)
09 Shadow Self [Alternate Version] (Kevin Gilbert)
10 Miss Broadway (Kevin Gilbert)
11 Single (Kaviar)
12 The Sultan of Brunei (Kaviar)
13 The Best Laid Plans (Kevin Gilbert)
14 Certifiable No. 1 Smash (Kevin Gilbert)
15 All Fall Down [Alternate Horn Mix] (Kevin Gilbert)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GvEgk98D

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BNCnBxCFRjJRq5o/file

I don't know the details of the cover image. It was found by Mike.

Dan Fogelberg - Best of Studio: 1974-1987 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Recently, I mentioned to my musical friend Mike Solof that I wasn't very familiar with the music of the band Kansas, other than their big hits. He went and made me a "best of" album, which I've posted here. Then I happened to mention I wasn't familiar with the music of Dan Fogelberg either, again other than the big hits. So boom, once again he made me a "best of." I really need to be careful about what I say around Mike, it seems, or my music collection will keep growing too much! ;)

It turns out Mike is a very big fan of Fogelberg's music, just like he is of the music of Kansas. In fact, he likes Fogelberg's stuff so much that he made two albums. He made a studio album and a live one. As you can see from the title, this is the studio one. The live one will follow shortly.  

As is his habit, Mike has included a PDF to explain his thoughts, as well as provide some good pictures. So please check that out for more information. In this case, the PDF is the same for both the studio and live albums. 

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long. 

01 Nexus (Dan Fogelberg)
02 The Power of Gold (Dan Fogelberg with Tim Weisberg)
03 Lonely in Love (Dan Fogelberg)
04 In the Passage (Dan Fogelberg)
05 Better Change (Dan Fogelberg)
06 Beggar's Game (Dan Fogelberg)
07 Sweet Magnolia [And the Traveling Salesman] (Dan Fogelberg)
08 Tell Me to My Face (Dan Fogelberg with Tim Weisberg)
09 Times like These (Dan Fogelberg)
10 The Reach (Dan Fogelberg)
11 Empty Cages (Dan Fogelberg)
12 Tucson, Arizona [Gazette] (Dan Fogelberg)
13 As the Raven Flies [Alternate Version] (Dan Fogelberg)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2MFP7NnJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ZhEqShKlvNQ1RV8/file

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

Oingo Boingo - Reseda Country Club, Los Angeles, CA, 5-21-1984

The other day, I wanted to listen to Oingo Boingo, but I wanted to hear something different. I thought I had all the really excellent sounding live recordings from the band's early years, which is my favorite time period for them. There are only a few worthy bootlegs, and I've posted most of them. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover one more.

This took place almost a year after the release of the 1983 album "Good for Your Soul." But they still hadn't released anything new since then, so the songs generally come from that album, plus the two previous ones.

This comes from a soundboard bootleg. The sound quality is excellent, and there were no problems to fix. But there is one unfortunate thing, and that's that it's not complete. I looked it up at setlist.com, and around this time, the band usually ended the show with an encore of "Violent Love" and "Only a Lad." Those are missing. Plus, they played one or more songs before the first song here. For instance, they almost certainly played "Wake Up (It's 1984)," since it was very relevant in the year of 1984. But hey, at least we have the vast majority of the concert, with maybe ten to 20 minutes missing. 

I looked around for versions of "Violent Love" and "Only a Lad" to add as bonus tracks, but I couldn't find any with worthy sound quality from 1983, 1984, or 1985. So I decided to just stick with this.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Dead or Alive (Oingo Boingo)
02 Who Do You Want to Be (Oingo Boingo)
03 No Spill Blood (Oingo Boingo)
04 Private Life (Oingo Boingo)
05 Insects (Oingo Boingo)
06 talk (Oingo Boingo)
07 Grey Matter (Oingo Boingo)
08 Little Guns (Oingo Boingo)
09 Nothing to Fear [But Fear Itself] (Oingo Boingo)
10 talk (Oingo Boingo)
11 Wild Sex [In the Working Class] (Oingo Boingo)
12 Nothing Bad Ever Happens (Oingo Boingo)
13 talk (Oingo Boingo)
14 Sweat (Oingo Boingo)
15 talk (Oingo Boingo)
16 Capitalism (Oingo Boingo)
17 Little Girls (Oingo Boingo)
18 Ain't This the Life (Oingo Boingo)
19 What You See (Oingo Boingo)
20 On the Outside (Oingo Boingo)
21 Goodbye, Goodbye (Oingo Boingo)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8216AZTu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/RLXQkxwnP7741UF/file

The cover photo of lead singer Danny Elfman is from 1985.

Ralph McTell - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds, Cambridge, Britain, 6-28-1984

Here's another BBC album by British singer-songwriter Ralph McTell. This is a concert recorded at the annual Cambridge Folk Festival, in 1984.

To be honest, I'm still not very familiar with McTell's music, other than the two BBC albums I've posted from him so far. But I've enjoyed what I've heard, and I saw that musical friend Progsprog had this in his music collection, so I asked him to pass it on to me. This seems to be another case where this album hasn't been publicly available, or at least it's been so hard to find that I couldn't track it down anywhere. Hopefully that'll change now, because this is a nice acoustic performance with excellent sound quality. 

At the time of this concert, McTell hadn't put out a regular studio album since 1982. But he was getting a higher profile through TV and radio work, including hosting his own BBC radio show in 1983, and writing songs for British TV shows aimed at children, "Alphabet Zoo" and "Tickle on the Tum."

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 talk (Ralph McTell)
02 First Song (Ralph McTell)
03 talk (Ralph McTell)
04 Michael in the Garden (Ralph McTell)
05 Mr. Connaughton (Ralph McTell)
06 Water of Dreams (Ralph McTell)
07 talk (Ralph McTell)
08 From Clare to Here (Ralph McTell)
09 Sweet Mystery (Ralph McTell)
10 When Maddy Dances (Ralph McTell)
11 talk (Ralph McTell)
12 Tequila Sunset (Ralph McTell)
13 talk (Ralph McTell)
14 Zimmerman Blues (Ralph McTell)
15 talk (Ralph McTell)
16 One Heart (Ralph McTell)
17 talk (Ralph McTell)
18 Spiral Staircase (Ralph McTell)
19 talk (Ralph McTell)
20 Streets of London (Ralph McTell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hDBSoh2v

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/27NabisyCLW1KFY/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Tom Paxton - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds, Cambridge, Britain, 7-28-1984

You may have noticed I'm posting a lot of music I recently got from musical associate Progsprog. That's because these generally involve renumbering BBC albums. I figure I should get that renumbering out of the way ASAP, before more people download the ones with the old numbers. Here's another case of that. I had previously posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" from Tom Paxton. But that 1995 now becomes "Volume 5," and this becomes the new "Volume 4."

Here's a link to the renumbered "Volume 5," with new cover art and mp3 tags and such:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/03/tom-paxton-bbc-sessions-volume-4-in.html

As for this one, it's pretty short, at less than half an hour. But still, I'm glad to get this out there. This was another concert recording that I'd never even knew existed until I got it from Progsprog. By the way, Paxton seems to have been fairly popular with the BBC. He's appeared a bunch of other times that I still haven't found, including some studio sessions. If anyone has more of those, please let me know. 

This album is 26 minutes long. 

01 Bad Old Days (Tom Paxton)
02 Who Speaks for Me (Tom Paxton)
03 Talking Vietnam Potluck Blues (Tom Paxton)
04 Jimmy Newman (Tom Paxton)
05 Mother (Tom Paxton)
06 Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound (Tom Paxton)
07 talk (Tom Paxton)
08 The Last Thing on My Mind (Tom Paxton)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/w9ifoz66

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gQjwCaeVf46CYV1/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Linda Ronstadt & Maria Muldaur - In Concert, Red Creek Cabaret, Rochester, NY, 6-12-1984

I stumbled across this the other day, and thought it interesting enough to post it straight away. I've been wanting to post something from Kate and Anna McGarrigle for some time. The fact that this prominently features Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur made it extra appealing to me.

This comes from a TV special called "Kate and Anna McGarrigle in Concert." (I shortened it to just "In Concert" for the title because extra long titles can cause problems sometimes.) It was held in a small club in the out of the way town of Rochester, New York, for some reason. I took this from a video, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. If you look at the video, only a couple hundred of people filled the club.

Most of the songs just featured Kate and Anna McGarrigle and their band. But on some songs, Linda Ronstadt and/or Maria Muldaur joined in. Sometimes they sang lead, and sometimes backing vocals. You can get the gist of what they did on each song by looking at the song list.  

Kate and Anna McGarrigle were a talented singing and songwriting duo, as well as sisters. (Kate died in 2010 at the age of 63, but Anna is still alive as I write this in 2025.) They never had any hit albums or singles per se, but they were consistently critically acclaimed. Other musical acts liked covering their songs. That's probably why Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur were here, as a kind of thank you since both of them put songs written by McGarrigle on their albums. (And in a better world, "Love Over and Over" should have been a hit - I love that song. I'm glad to see it was included here.)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Wikipedia 

01 As Fast as My Little Feet Can Carry Me (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
02 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
03 Complainte pour Ste. Catherine (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
04 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
05 NaCl [Sodium Chloride] (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
06 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
07 The Work Song (Maria Muldaur with Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
08 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
09 Heart like a Wheel (Linda Ronstadt with Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Maria Muldaur)
10 Travellin' On for Jesus (Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Linda Ronstadt & Maria Muldaur)
11 Dig My Grave (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
12 talk (Maria Muldaur)
13 The Lying Song (Maria Muldaur)
14 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
15 [Talk to Me Of] Mendocino (Linda Ronstadt with Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
16 Go Leave (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
17 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
18 Tu Vas M'Accompagner [You'll Accomp'ny Me] (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
19 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
20 Going Out Looking (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
21 Love Over and Over (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
22 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
23 You Tell Me that I'm Falling Down (Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
24 Parlez-nous a Boire (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9gQY7WJq

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/d30oooswLOBZKpu/file

I have a difficult time coming up with the cover. The video footage from this concert is very low-res and blurry. So any picture with multiple people in it looked pretty bad. I decided to take screenshots of the heads of Kate McGarrigle and Linda Ronstadt when they were reasonably close to each other. Then I used Photoshop to move them closer still. I also used the Krea AI program to flesh out some more detail. 

Covered: Tony Macaulay, Volume 2: 1970-1984

I just posted Volume 1 of my "Covered" series albums for British songwriter Tony Macaulay. Here's the second and final volume already.

As I mentioned in Volume 1, Macaulay had a remarkable knack for writing catchy, poppy hits. His winning streak continued well into the 1970s. His biggest hits in this volume were "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" by The New Seekers in 1973, "Don't Give Up on Us" by David Soul in 1976, and "Silver Lady," also by David Soul, in 1977. All three of those songs reached Number One in the British charts. He did have a lot of chart success in the U.S., for instance "Don't Give Up on Us" was a Number One there as well, but for some reason he had more success in Britain.

In 1970, he stopped working with his main songwriting partner in Volume 1, John Macleod, when they began working for different publishing companies. But he worked with other professional songwriters, especially Geoff Stephens, Barry Mason, and the team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. But he wrote some songs by himself. For instance, "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," "Letter to Lucille," "Falling Apart at the Seams," "Don't Give Up on Us."

I'm pretty confident Macaulay could have kept writing hits in the 1980s and beyond. He did have one hits in the 1980s, "Alibis" by Sergio Mendes, that shows him successfully adapting to changing musical styles. But he increasingly lost interest in writing pop songs. Instead, starting in the early 1970s, he turned his attention to film scores and musical theater. He was successful in both, winning nine British Academy Awards. In the 1990s, he then shifted gears again, and turned to writing thriller novels. He was fairly successful at that as well. He's still alive (and eighty-one years old) as I write this in 2025. 

Pretty much all the songs here are the hit versions. For a couple, like "Gasoline Alley Bred" and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again," I chose alternate versions since due to posting the other version on other Covered albums. "Bluebird" wasn't a hit, but I liked it so I included it. Normally with these Covered albums, I try to include at least all the big hits. But Macaulay wrote so many that I skipped some I wasn't that keen on, for instance "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar" by Duane Eddy, "Down on the Beach Tonight," by the Drifters, and "Going in with My Eyes Open," by David Soul, all of which made the Top Ten in Britain.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Gasoline Alley Bred (Blue Mink)
02 Something Old, Something New (Fantastics)
03 [Last Night] I Didn't Get to Sleep at All (5th Dimension)
04 You Won't Find Another Fool like Me (New Seekers)
05 Bluebird (Carl Wayne)
06 Letter to Lucille (Tom Jones)
07 I Get a Little Sentimental Over You (New Seekers)
08 Kissin' in the Back Row of the Movies (Drifters)
09 Falling Apart at the Seams (Marmalade)
10 Silver Lady (David Soul)
11 Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again (Connie Cato)
12 Don't Give Up on Us (David Soul)
13 You're More than a Number in My Little Red Book (Drifters)
14 Let's Have a Quiet Night In (David Soul)
15 Alibis (Sergio Mendes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7HbNAqA9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9NoE6XxPOKRpZha/file

I don't know what year the cover photo is from. But I'm guessing on little details that it was taken after the cover photo from Volume 1, which dates to 1972. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it using the Kolorize program. Then I used the Krea AI program on it to improve the detail.

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1984-1987

Here's another BBC album by British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson. This album is a collection of studio sessions, plus a live performance that was too short to make its own album. 

The first song is from the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1984. The next three are from a BBC session in 1985. Then the majority of the album, tracks 5 through 13, are a live performance recorded for the BBC radio show "Folk on Two." It took place at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on May 20, 1987. Finally, the last song is a live performance from the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1987.

Tracks 2, 3, 4, and 14 have been officially released. The first three are from the album "Live at the BBC," and that last one is from the "Life and Music Of" box set. Everything else is unreleased.

Also note that this album contains two versions of "She Twists the Knife Again." That's kind of unfortunate, but at least one was done in the studio while the other one was in concert.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On November 8, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same. But I found an earlier volume in this series that I'd missed, so the volume number changed. That meant the title, cover art, and mp3 tags changed too.

01 Tear-Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)
02 You Don't Say (Richard Thompson)
03 She Twists the Knife Again (Richard Thompson)
04 When the Spell Is Broken (Richard Thompson)
05 Genesis Hall (Richard Thompson)
06 Wall of Death (Richard Thompson)
07 Valerie (Richard Thompson)
08 talk (Richard Thompson)
09 Air for Morris Ogg - Mrs. MacLeod's Reel [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)
10 She Twists the Knife Again (Richard Thompson)
11 talk (Richard Thompson)
12 Al Bowlly's in Heaven (Richard Thompson)
13 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard Thompson)
14 Drowned Dog Black Night (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/p18hDkSW

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9WneWZconJYw9w3/file

The cover photo was taken at at Wolfgang's in San Francisco, California on October 7, 1983.

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 5: 1981-1989

Here's Volume 5 in my "Covered" series highlighting the songwriting of Stevie Wonder. As with the other volumes in this series, this consists of other musical acts covering his songs.

Wonder was still very commercially successful in the early 1980s, but there was a slow decline as the decade went on. However, that isn't so important for this album, because many of the covers here are of songs he wrote earlier in his career.

Some songs here were written by Wonder but never officially released by him. Those are tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, and 12. That's a lot of songs. It's too bad he didn't put more of those songs on his own albums. 

My usual rule is to only include one version of each song in this series. However, I couldn't resist with "Superstition," since it's one of the greatest songs of all time and I really like two covers of it. I included a version by Jeff Beck on an earlier volume, and a version by Stevie Ray Vaughan here.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Happy Birthday (Brotherhood of Man)
02 Betcha' Wouldn't Hurt Me (Quincy Jones)
03 Lately (Rudy Grant)
04 Buttercup (Carl Anderson)
05 Try Jah Love (Third World)
06 If You Really Love Me (Mary Wells)
07 You're Playing Us Too Close (Third World)
08 The Crown (Gary Byrd & G.B. Experience with Stevie Wonder)
09 Ribbon in the Sky (Nancy Wilson)
10 Superstition (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
11 Remembering the Sixties (George Duke)
12 Hold On to Your Love (Smokey Robinson)
13 Higher Ground (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SMBE8DsJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/tBVPCnxrzfmeh4J/file

The cover photo is from 1985. That's all I know about it.

Linda Ronstadt - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA, 3-9-1984

Back in early 2024, when I posted a Linda Ronstadt BBC concert from 1976, I wrote in my write-up that I would probably change the name of that album eventually, because she was so famous that it was likely she did other BBC concerts. Recently, I had time to do a deep dive, and I found this one. So that's good. But unfortunately, I think it's pretty likely she didn't do any others, since I couldn't find any hints of them. 

In the mid-1980s, Ronstadt dove deeply into Great American Songbook - that body of classic songs from the pre-rock and roll era, mostly the 1930s and 40s. In 1983, she released the album "What's New." Then, in 1984, the album "Lush Life." Finally, she released "For Sentimental Reasons" in 1986. All three consisted only of covers from that era, all of them recorded with famed conductor Nelson Riddle and his orchestra. (She's backed by that orchestra here as well.) This concert took place after the first album, "What's New." But already she went all in. ALL of the songs here were decades old at the time of the concert, with NONE of her hits from the 1970s. I think that's cool that she went all the way with this style, but just be ware if you're looking for her most famous songs.

The "What's New" album only contains nine songs, but she performed 14 songs here. She only did seven songs from that album, so where are the other songs from? "Falling in Love Again" would appear on her next album, "Lush Life." But the others pretty much were only done by her live during this tour. (A version of "Mr. Sandman" would eventually appear on her "Trios" album with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris.) So this concert is pretty important for serious fans, as there's almost an album's worth of songs she never put on studio albums.

By the way, if you want to get the renamed "Volume 1," here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/02/linda-ronstadt-bbc-sessions-old-grey.html

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 I've Got a Crush on You (Linda Ronstadt)
02 What's New (Linda Ronstadt)
03 talk (Linda Ronstadt)
04 Keepin' Out of Mischief Now (Linda Ronstadt)
05 Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry (Linda Ronstadt)
06 talk (Linda Ronstadt)
07 Falling in Love Again (Linda Ronstadt)
08 Someone to Watch Over Me (Linda Ronstadt)
09 Daddy (Linda Ronstadt)
10 Mr. Sandman (Linda Ronstadt)
11 I've Got a Guy in Kalamazoo (Linda Ronstadt)
12 Dream [When You're Feeling Blue] (Linda Ronstadt)
13 Choo Choo Ch'boogie (Linda Ronstadt)
14 I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance (Linda Ronstadt)
15 Lover Man [Oh Where Can You Be] (Linda Ronstadt)
16 Goodbye (Linda Ronstadt)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/58WuWlvWqBWDkgI/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Poplar Creek Music Theater in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on July 3, 1984.

The Temptations - BBC In Concert, Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA, 12-1984

Here's an album of the Temptations performing in concert for the BBC. It's the only BBC album of theirs I could find, though something else could pop up in the future. For instance, I saw mention of a BBC concert at Portsmouth in 1993, but I can't find it.

This one went to the top of my "albums to be posted" pile because I recently got help from musical associate MZ on it. I could tell there was something wrong, but it was beyond my limited abilities to fix it. MZ reduced the bass in some frequencies and boosted the tremble in others, though the high tremble was completely missing so there was nothing to be done about that.

It's too bad this concert isn't from a couple of years earlier. In 1982 and 1983, most of the original Temptations reunited for a reunion tour and album, including former lead singers Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin. However, Kendricks' voice was weakened due to chain smoking, and Ruffin was addicted to drugs, and there were all sorts of personality clashes and problems. So Kendricks and Ruffin were let go at the end of the tour. 

By the time of this concert, there were a couple more personnel changes. A key one was the addition of a brand new member, Ali-Ollie Woodson. His involvement brought new success, because he co-wrote the song "Treat Her like a Lady" with long-time band member Otis Williams, and sang lead vocals on it. Released as a single in 1984, it was the band's biggest hit since 1975, reaching Number Two on the R&B charts, and almost reaching the Top Ten in Britain. It also turned out to be the band's last big hit.

So naturally this concert includes "Treat Her like a Lady," as well a couple of other then-recent songs, "Sail Away," "My Love Is True (Truly for You)," and a little bit of "Standing on the Top." Otherwise, the band made sure to do most of their biggest classic hits. Interestingly though, they finished off the concert with three covers of then-recent huge hits that they'd had nothing to do with: "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang, "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, and "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie.

This album is unreleased. It also was very hard to find. I was only able to find a stream of it on the Internet, and then I converted it to individual mp3s.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Introduction (Temptations)
02 Get Ready (Temptations)
03 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Temptations)
04 Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Temptations)
05 I Wish It Would Rain (Temptations)
06 Treat Her like a Lady (Temptations)
07 talk (Temptations)
08 My Love Is True [Truly for You] (Temptations)
09 talk (Temptations)
10 Sail Away (Temptations)
11 My Girl (Temptations)
12 Can't Get Next to You - Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Temptations)
13 Band Introductions - Standing on the Top (Temptations)
14 talk (Temptations)
15 Celebration - Billie Jean (Temptations)
16 All Night Long (Temptations)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/A5eSCHSE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/J5TBnjn27lNP3wT/file

The cover photo shows that band in concert at something called the "Super Night of Rock n' Roll" in 1984. The photo shows Melvin Franklin, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, and Richard Street.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 10: 1982-1995: It's Hard & Solo Albums

I recently posted the ninth volume in this series. Here's the tenth and final one, before I forget. Generally, the series is about the demos Pete Townshend made that later turned into songs for albums by the Who, as opposed to a separate series I've made of Townshend's non-album tracks, which are mostly demos. But for this final volume, it's dominated by songs that went to Townshend's 1980s solo albums.

The only album by the Who represented here is "It's Hard," from 1982. But for whatever reason, there aren't many demos from that one, just "Popular" (an early version of "It's Hard") and "Cry If You Want." Plus, there's a version of "Eminence Front," but it's stuck at the end because it's all the way from 1995. Apparently, Townshend made a new demo of the song before going on tour, and liked it enough to include it on his archival album "Scoop 3."

Track two through five are all demos of songs from Townshend's 1982 solo album "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." Those four songs are all unreleased, as is "Cry If You Want" mentioned above. I really like Townshend's 1985 album "White City," but there are only two demos of songs from that album, "Crashing by Design" and "I Am Secure." All the remaining songs relate to his 1989 album "Iron Man." Those are all officially released, mostly from his "Scoop 3" album, except for "I Eat Heavy Metal."

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 Popular [Early Version of It's Hard] (Pete Townshend)
02 Stop Hurting People (Pete Townshend)
03 Face Dances, Pt. 2 (Pete Townshend)
04 Uniforms [Corp d'Esprit] (Pete Townshend)
05 The Sea Refuses No River (Pete Townshend)
06 Cry If You Want (Pete Townshend)
07 Crashing by Design (Pete Townshend)
08 I Am Secure (Pete Townshend)
09 Man and Machines [Man Machines] (Pete Townshend)
10 Dig (Pete Townshend)
11 I Eat Heavy Metal (Pete Townshend)
12 I Am Afraid (Pete Townshend)
13 Outlive the Dinosaur (Pete Townshend)
14 Iron Man Recitative (Pete Townshend)
15 Eminence Front (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AWvjgje9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R5nBhcu5RAHyazo/file

The cover photo is from a 1985 photo shoot.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1984-1995

When I posted Van Morrison's "BBC Sessions, Volume 1," I commented that it was a shame Morrison hardly ever performed for the BBC in 1980s. Musical associate MZ saw that comment, and sent me some stuff. Based mostly on that, I was able to put together this album of BBC sessions.

"Sense of Wonder" is from an appearance on the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1984. "In the Garden" is from another BBC TV show in 1986. 

The next four songs come from a BBC TV special about Morrison called "One Irish Rover." It collected a bunch of different performances. One of them featured Van Morrison and Bob Dylan in 1989 singing just as a duo in Athens, Greece, on a hill overlooking the Acropolis. It's great to have these two musical giants collaborate, but to be honest it generally seemed like Dylan was winging it and didn't know Morrison's songs that well. But he did play some nice harmonica, and he sang more assertively on "One Irish Rover." The last of those four songs, "And It Stoned Me," was from the same session, but wasn't actually included in the "One Irish Rover" show. (You can find YouTube videos of all four songs, if you're interested in seeing and not just hearing them.)

"Whenever God Shines His Light" is from the BBC TV show "Top of the Pops," in 1989. Most appearances on that show are lipsynced, but not this one. It's a duet of Morrison and Cliff Richard, the same as on Morrison's 1989 studio album "Avalon Sunset." The next two songs, "Avalon of the Heart" and "So Quiet in Here" are from an appearance on the "Late Show," another BBC TV show, in 1990. Finally, the last two songs are from the show "Later... with Jools Holland" in 1995.

Everything here is unreleased on audio format, though the "One Irish Rover" show has been released on video. For the songs with cheering studio audiences, I used the MVSEP program to get rid of the cheering. "Whenever God Shines His Light" has "[Edit]" in the title because the first few seconds were missing. I fixed that by patching in some music from later in the song.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Sense of Wonder (Van Morrison)
02 In the Garden (Van Morrison)
03 Crazy Love (Van Morrison with Bob Dylan)
04 Foreign Window (Van Morrison with Bob Dylan)
05 One Irish Rover (Van Morrison with Bob Dylan)
06 And It Stoned Me (Van Morrison with Bob Dylan)
07 Whenever God Shines His Light [Edit] (Van Morrison & Cliff Richard)
08 Avalon of the Heart (Van Morrison)
09 So Quiet in Here (Van Morrison)
10 Don't Worry about a Thing (Van Morrison)
11 That's Life (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gfJA3oVS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NQkCrr4NOO0M1l5/file

The cover photo is from a photo shoot in Bath, Britain, in May, 1989.

Difford & Tilbrook (Squeeze) - BBC In Concert, Friars Club, Aylesbury, Britain, 9-22-1984

First off, understand this is a BBC concert by the British band Squeeze in all but name. The songwriting duo Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook write all the songs in their band Squeeze. Also, Tilbrook is the main lead vocalist and lead guitarist, and Difford occasionally sings lead vocals and plays guitar. Here is the only BBC concert they during a short time when Squeeze had officially broken up.

Squeeze put out their first album in 1977, and were increasingly popular until they broke up in late 1982. Difford and Tilbrook stayed together as a duo, and released an album, cleverly titled "Difford and Tilbrook," in 1984. In 1985, Squeeze reformed. But by 1993, Difford and Tilbrook were the only original members remaining. After that, it was basically just those two with other band members coming and going. At times, they've simply played as a duo with the Squeeze name. So, by later standards, this is definitely Squeeze.

The sole Difford and Tilbrook solo album was a good one, but it didn't do very well commercially, probably because it didn't have a killer single on it, and it wasn't released under the Squeeze name. This concert was meant to support that album, and most of the songs are from it, plus one cover version, Band of Gold," and three Squeeze songs to end the concert. I understand there were two more Squeeze songs on some versions of the BBC recording, "Tempted" and "Is This Love." But I haven't been able to find them. Let me know if you have them.

When I first posted this in January 2025, the sound quality had issues. But in January 2026, I found a different version, recently posted by the "Voodoo Wagon" music blog. Then, musical friend Progsprog saw that posted and sent me an even better version that had four extra songs. So I updated the entire thing. It now sounds just as good you'd expect for a BBC radio broadcast.

Everything here is officially unreleased.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

01 Man for All Seasons (Difford & Tilbrook)
02 Picking Up the Pieces (Difford & Tilbrook)
03 Tempted (Difford & Tilbrook)
04 talk (Difford & Tilbrook)
05 Love's Crashing Waves (Difford & Tilbrook)
06 Woman's World (Difford & Tilbrook)
07 talk (Difford & Tilbrook)
08 Hope Fell Down (Difford & Tilbrook)
09 talk (Difford & Tilbrook)
10 Wagon Train (Difford & Tilbrook)
11 Band of Gold (Difford & Tilbrook)
12 Tears for Attention (Difford & Tilbrook)
13 Action Speaks Faster (Difford & Tilbrook)
14 Annie Get Your Gun (Difford & Tilbrook)
15 Black Coffee in Bed (Difford & Tilbrook)
16 talk (Difford & Tilbrook)
17 Labelled with Love (Difford & Tilbrook)
18 Within These Walls (Difford & Tilbrook)
19 Is That Love (Difford & Tilbrook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JXLaswJS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/RhI01F0agwBHsmE/file

I couldn't find many good photos of Difford and Tilbrook while they were a duo in 1984. However, I got lucky and found a concert poster for this exact concert. Even better, it nicely fit into a square shape if I cut out some unimportant text at the bottom, so that's what I did. I cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop.

Roberta Flack - BBC In Concert, City Hall, Sheffield, Britain, 10-22-1984

When it comes to soul music, I much prefer the music of the 1960s and 70s to that of the 1980s. Disco killed the career momentum of practically all the soul music acts I like, and then the rise of drum machines, synths, and overproduction ruined tons of 1980s soul records. Luckily, this 1984 Roberta Flack is largely free of those problems. Yeah, it can sound a little slick at times, but mostly it's strong songs sung with an excellent voice.

The sound quality is top notch, as you'd expect from a BBC concert. I didn't have to make any changes. Everything here is unreleased.

This seems to be kind of an odd time for a Robert Flack concert. She didn't put out a new studio album in 1984. Her most recent one at the time, in 1983, was a duet album with Peabo Bryson, which she supported by going on tour with him. She wouldn't put out another studio album until 1988. My guess is she did have a greatest hits album that came out in 1984, so maybe she was supporting that. Or maybe she was just touring without any new material. This didn't contain any songs from her album with Bryson, and only one song from the album before that.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 I Keep Forgettin' [Every Time You're Near] (Roberta Flack)
02 Killing Me Softly with His Song (Roberta Flack)
03 Feel like Makin' Love (Roberta Flack)
04 River (Roberta Flack)
05 Jesse (Roberta Flack)
06 The Closer I Get to You (Roberta Flack)
07 I'm the One (Roberta Flack)
08 Making Love (Roberta Flack)
09 talk (Roberta Flack)
10 Carousel (Roberta Flack)
11 The Water Is Wide (Roberta Flack)
12 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xKSTCqzL

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/6mj1OBljBqpIAq3/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except it's probably from 1984.

Covered: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland, Volume 8: 1975-2012

Here, finally, is the last of eight albums in my Covered series highlighting the songwriting genius of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, a.k.a. Holland-Dozier-Holland.

By 1975, the bulk of hits first written by Holland-Dozier-Holland were behind them. That was especially true since Lamont Dozier broke with the Holland brothers in 1973. Some lawsuits between them followed regarding splitting the profits from their record companies. However, despite these battles, the three of them remained friends and even occasionally wrote songs together after that.

But still, by 1975, generally speaking, the classic Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team was done. The Holland brothers generally still wrote songs together while Dozier went his own way. 

Weirdly, given that Holland-Dozier-Holland were caught in non-stop legal battles with Motown Records from about 1968 until the end of the 1970s, the Holland brothers wrote a lot of songs for Motown acts in the late 1970s. Apparently, the love of music overcame hard feelings. Dozier later commented, "The lawsuit was just our way of taking care of business that needed to be taken care of -just like [Motown owner] Berry Gordy had to take care of his business which resulted in the lawsuit. Business is business, and love is love." 

The first three songs here were written by the Holland brothers for the Motown acts Michael Jackson and the Supremes in 1975 and 1976. And "I Just Can't Walk Away" was a rare example of a new song written by the entire Holland-Dozier-Holland team after their 1973 falling out, and released by the Four Tops in 1983.

Most of the other songs here, however, were written by Dozier, either by himself or with other songwriters besides the Holland brothers. He had the most songwriting success by far after the 1970s. For instance, "Two Hearts," co-written by Dozier and Phil Collins, was a Number One hit for Collins in the U.S. in 1988. 

A couple of big hits here, though, weren't exactly willing collaborations. "Roll with It" was a Number One hit in the U.S. in 1988 for Steve Winwood. Originally, Winwood co-wrote it with a songwriter named Will Jennings. But it was so similar to the 1960s song "(I'm a) Roadrunner" written by Holland-Dozier-Holland that they were added to the songwriting credits. The exact same thing happened to the 1990 hit song "The Other Side" by Aerosmith. Holland-Dozier-Holland were added to the songwriting credits due to the similarity of that song to "Standing in the Shadows of Love," which they wrote for the Four Tops in 1966.

As far as business concerns went, the Holland-Dozier-Holland record company Invictus went out of business in 1977. That wasn't too surprising because that was around the time classic soul music went out of fashion, to be replaced by disco and then other musical trends. Note that Stax Records went out of business in 1975, and even Motown Records shrunk way down and then was sold off in the late 1980s.

However, after the decline of Invictus, Holland-Dozier-Holland carried on with a new record label, HDH Records and Productions. But while they did release some new music, that was more about managing the rights to their earlier successes. The three of them also reunited to write 22 new songs for a musical play called "The First Wives Club" in 2009. However, the play wasn't that well received, and it never made it to Broadway. 

The three of them remained friends until 2022, when Dozier passed away at the age of 81. As I write this in 2024, Brian Holland is still alive at the age of 83, and Eddie Holland is still alive at the age of 85. In 2021, Dozier released a memoir and the Holland brothers released one too. 

Shortly before his death, Dozier commented in an interview, "I feel like Eddie and Brian are my family. We have had great times and not so great times with each other, but all in all we have so much love for one another and nobody can ever change that. We wrote some incredible songs, and our catalog songs are like our children."

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Just a Little Bit of You (Michael Jackson)
02 I’m Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking (Supremes)
03 You’re My Driving Wheel (Supremes)
04 Going Back to My Roots (Richie Havens)
05 I Just Can't Walk Away (Four Tops)
06 Invisible (Alison Moyet)
07 Infidelity (Simply Red)
08 Two Hearts (Phil Collins)
09 Loco in Acapulco (Four Tops)
10 Roll with It (Steve Winwood)
11 The Other Side (Aerosmith)
12 Like I Do (For Real)
13 Spoiled (Joss Stone)
14 While You're Out Looking for Sugar (Joss Stone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17429308/COVRDHOLLNDDZRHLLND1975-2012Vlum8_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/s9dsXwjG

The cover photo shows Holland-Dozier-Holland in 2003. From left to right, that's Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland.

Covered: Giorgio Moroder, Volume 2: 1983-1991

Here's the second and last Covered series album for Italian producer and songwriter Giorgio Moroder.

Moroder's commercial heyday was probably the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. So this generally deals with the second half of that. All the songs here are from 1983 to 1986 except for the last one, which is from 1991.

As I mentioned in Volume One, Moroder found great success composing the music for popular movies, and that continued well into the 1980s. For instance, he won Academy Awards and Golden Globes for the song "Flashdance... What a Feeling" in 1983, and "Take My Breath Away" in 1986. Both songs also hit Number One in the U.S. singles charts, as well as Number One in many other countries around the world. 

Perhaps it isn't too surprising that his music was so popular in the 1980s, because he'd been one of the main pioneers of using synthesizers for dance music in the 1970s, and in the 1980s synth-based danceable music was everywhere. But tastes gradually changed, especially with the rise of grunge starting in 1991. Perhaps in response to that, he effectively retired in 1993. 

For two decades, he didn't release any music. But he started a minor comeback in 2013, working with Daft Punk (who were heavily influenced by him) and putting out a solo album in 2015. He is still alive as I write this in 2024, but presumably his hit-making days are behind him, since he's 84 years old.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Flashdance... What a Feeling (Irene Cara)
02 Scarface [Push It to the Limit] (Paul Engemann)
03 Rush Rush (Debbie Harry)
04 Why Me (Irene Cara)
05 Together in Electric Dreams (Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder)
06 Here She Comes (Bonnie Tyler)
07 The NeverEnding Story (Limahl & Beth Anderson)
08 Love Kills (Freddie Mercury)
09 I Feel Love (Bronski Beat)
10 Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins)
11 Take My Breath Away (Berlin)
12 Love's Unkind (Sophie Lawrence)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17327897/COVRDGIGRIOMRDR1983-1991Vlume2_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sSkZMqR1

The cover photo shows Moroder in 1987. I don't know the details. I used Krea AI to improve it a bit.