Dave Mason - Mississippi Riverbank Club, Minneapolis, MN, 7-25-1986

Recently, a commenter named nytvf pointed out a Dave Mason concert on YouTube, and suggested I post that on my blog. I checked out the link, and I was impressed by the concert. It's an acoustic concert with great sound quality, but somehow it seems to only exist as that one YouTube. Well, until now, that is. Here it is converted by me into mp3s. Thanks to nytvf for the suggestion. (I'm always open to suggestions.)

Mason had commercial and critical success, highlighted by two big hits, "Only You Know and I Know" in 1970, and "We Just Disagree" in 1977. But his commercial fortunes went way down in the 1980s. He didn't even release a new studio album between 1980 and 1987. This concert happened near the end of that time. Pretty much all the songs he performed were songs he wrote in the 1960s or 1970s, or covers of classic songs. But while he didn't seem to be very creative with new songs during this time period, his performing skills were still a good as ever.

Mason played guitar, and was backed up by only one other person, Jim Krueger, also on guitar (and backing vocals). That's worth noting because Kreuger also wrote a couple of the songs performed here, "The Word" and "We Just Disagree." Kreuger was a member of Mason's band since the mid-1970s.

The one thing that surprises me here is that it seems Mason didn't play "Only You Know and I Know," which I would guess is the second best known song he's written, behind "Feelin' Alright." (Perhaps there was more to this concert that what's on the recording, I don't know.) 

Anyway, this previously obscure recording is one of the best live recordings of his music, in my opinion. The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I would guess it either has to be a soundboard or an FM radio broadcast.  

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

01 Feelin' Alright (Dave Mason)
02 World in Changes (Dave Mason)
03 talk (Dave Mason)
04 Every Woman (Dave Mason)
05 talk (Dave Mason)
06 Sad and Deep as You (Dave Mason)
07 That's Alright Mama [Instrumental Version] (Dave Mason)
08 talk (Dave Mason)
09 The Words (Dave Mason)
10 Not Fade Away (Dave Mason)
11 talk (Dave Mason)
12 Let It Go, Let It Flow (Dave Mason)
13 talk (Dave Mason)
14 Shouldn't Have Took More than You Gave - Dear Prudence (Dave Mason)
15 talk (Dave Mason)
16 Bird on the Wind (Dave Mason)
17 talk (Dave Mason)
18 We Just Disagree (Dave Mason)
19 talk (Dave Mason)
20 Maybe (Dave Mason)
21 talk (Dave Mason)
22 Dust My Blues (Dave Mason)
23 talk (Dave Mason)
24 All Shook Up (Dave Mason)
25 Bring It on Home to Me (Dave Mason)
26 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Dave Mason)
27 talk (Dave Mason)
28 All Along the Watchtower (Dave Mason)
29 talk (Dave Mason)
30 Take It to the Limit (Dave Mason)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vCDHvuqf

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/1SiXN82PhZRd9jK/file 

The cover photo is from 1981. You can see a second guitarist behind Mason's guitar. I assume that's Jim Krueger. But you can only see part of his head and some of his guitar.

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 - Covers (1986-1996) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the third and last album that make up guest poster Mike Solof's collections of his favorite songs from the music career of Kevin Gilbert. The first two albums focused on original songs, but this one consists entirely of cover versions.

As I mentioned in my write-up for the first album in this series, Gilbert often mixed a catchy pop sensibility in his songs with the musical complexity of prog rock. As a result, he especially liked prog rock type bands that also had some pop appeal. Probably his favorite band of all was Genesis. In fact, he was such a Genesis fan that he once performed the entirety of the Genesis double album "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" in concert! This album contains three Genesis covers, as well as some other prog rock songs that are almost never covered by anyone, such as "Siberian Khatru" by Yes and "Karn Evil 9" by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. And yet we can see Gilbert's pop side as well, with covers of songs like "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band and "If I Fell" by the Beatles. Definitely interesting stuff here.

As usual, Mike has included a PDF in the download zip that has more information and photos and such. But note that it's the same PDF as in the other two Kevin Gilbert albums he put together. 

This album is 60 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original musical acts for each of the songs here: 

01 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills and Nash
02 Firth of Fifth - Genesis
03 The Joker - Steve Miller Band
04 Rendezvous 602 - U.K.
05 Back in NYC - Genesis
06 Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
07 Rocket Man - Elton John (with Pink Floyd intro)
08 Siberian Khatru - Yes
09 If I Fell - Beatles
10 Karn Evil 9 - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
11 The Musical Box - Genesis 

And here's the usual song list: 

01 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (Toy Matinee)
02 Firth of Fifth (Kevin Gilbert & Mickey Sorey)
03 The Joker (Kevin Gilbert)
04 UK Suite [Rendezvous 6-02 - Danger Money - Caesar's Palace Blues] (Kevin Gilbert & Mickey Sorey)
05 Back in N.Y.C. (Kevin Gilbert)
06 Kashmir (Kevin Gilbert)
07 Rocket Man (Toy Matinee)
08 Siberian Khatru (Kevin Gilbert)
09 If I Fell (Toy Matinee)
10 Karn Evil 9 (Kevin Gilbert)
11 The Musical Box (Giraffe)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mvhs6yEL

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/o1G0R8xtPXiJqQL/file

I believe I found the cover image in an Instagram post. It had some distracting things on it, like some text added on top. But I wiped that out using Photoshop. I don't know exactly when or where it's from. 

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.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 1: 1973-1994

It's high time I post more for the "Covered" series, highlighting great singer-songwriters. This time, we're looking at the songs of Tom Waits. Enough material has been found for four volumes. Here's the first one. As with all albums in this series, the focus is on cover versions, instead of versions done by the songwriter.

First off, I've gotta say I wouldn't be posting this now had it not been for the help of musical friend Fabio from Rio. It was he who suggested making Covered albums for Waits. I would have wanted to tackle him eventually, but that probably would have been well into the future. I have an issue with Waits: I can't stand his voice. As a result, even though it's easy for me to see he's a very talented songwriter, I haven't been that familiar with his songs. But Fabio is a big fan. He sent me literally hundreds of Waits cover versions, with recommendations on the best ones. I went through that and narrowed it down quite a lot. Hopefully this will make a strong collection that can turn the curious on to Waits' music.

Fabio from Rio helped with all aspects of putting this together. He even wrote the write-ups for the four volumes for Waits. So first I'm posting the relevant Wikipedia page:

Tom Waits - Wikipedia 

And now, take it away, Fabio (and a big thanks to him for all his work on this!):

For the general public, Tom Waits is "that guy with the raspy wino voice and the weird songs. Wasn't he one of the convicted fellows in that offbeat Jim Jarmusch movie?" A few music aficionados may also know him as the writer of songs like Springsteen's "Jersey Girl" or Rod Stewart's "Downtown Train", but that is usually where the story ends.

What many are not aware of is that Waits is widely recognized by his peers and by musical experts as an exceptional and influential songwriter. He is praised for his unique voice, vivid storytelling, poetic lyrics, and innovative musical style that blends genres like blues, jazz, vaudeville, and experimental rock. Waits is also known for creating three-dimensional characters and detailed narratives, often exploring life on the fringes. His lyrics are celebrated for their specificity, humor, melancholy, and ability to evoke strong moods, often drawing comparisons to Beat poets and Mark Twain.

Waits is a "songwriters' songwriter," with songs covered by literally hundreds of artists, many of them great composers themselves. He has been subject to many tributes. While searching for tracks for that project, I collected about three dozen different albums fully dedicated to his songs, and around 400 assorted covers, adding up to almost 1,200 tracks and 80-plus hours of music!

I initially selected about 220 different tunes (an almost fully comprehensive "Tom Waits songbook" that would comprise about 15 hours) which Paul wisely helped reduce to around 60 tracks across four volumes. We could have another four or eight volumes with additional top-notch Tom Waits songs - there is enough quality material for that - but I feel this reduced version is just the right size for a first dive into Tom Waits vast catalog. I hope you enjoy it!

Some listeners may find Waits' music difficult to approach due to his peculiar tone (which, contrary to popular belief, was not destroyed by booze and cigarettes, but was conscientiously cultivated as a vocal persona, as he mentioned in some interviews). The fact that some of his more experimental work sounds like monkeys loose in a crystal store doesn't help either. For those, a "Covered" collection focusing on his more melodic output is a great starting point, where one may discover the essence of Waits' music (often through soothing, frequently female, voices).

This first volume includes performances from a long range of years (1973 to 1994), but most of the songs here were composed during Waits' early and middle phases (the seventies and early eighties). His first albums feature piano-led ballads, romantic melancholy, and a relatively smooth, crooning voice. The character is that of a late-night drifter, nostalgic and tender. As his career progressed, Waits' voice grew tougher (both literally and figuratively) and his narratives darker and more cinematic. His late seventies and early eighties albums introduced sardonic humor, social misfits, and a sharper sense of irony, while still rooted in jazz, blues, and cabaret traditions.

Waits started as a folk singer/songwriter in the early seventies, with heavy jazz influences, when his voice was still not so rough. You can hear this in the first selection of this collection, "Rosie," from his 1973 first album. It's the only song in these four volumes that is the composer's own interpretation. He also first caught the ear of the public with an early cover of "Ol' 55" by The Eagles (which we skipped in favor of Sarah McLachlan's 1993 version, which both Paul and myself prefer). Other famous interpreters at the first volume are Johnny Cash and Marianne Faithfull (with songs Tom composed specifically for them), and also 10,000 Maniacs, Elvis Costello, Crystal Gayle and Canned Heat, which showcases the full range of styles and performers reached by Waits' compositions.

---

Thanks again, Fabio. I'll just add that there were only a few cases where Waits wrote hit songs, so we weren't tied down much by that factor. ("Downtown Train" is probably his biggest hit, thanks to the 1989 Rod Stewart version, included here.) And often, his songs didn't get a lot of covers until many years after they were written. So if you don't see some of his songs you really like from this era, wait before you judge. There's a good chance those songs could show up on one of the later volumes.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Rosie (Tom Waits)
02 Foreign Affair (Manhattan Transfer)
03 Jersey Girl (Bruce Springsteen)
04 Is There Any Way Out of This Dream (Crystal Gayle)
05 I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You (10,000 Maniacs)
06 Strange Weather (Marianne Faithfull)
07 Downtown Train (Rod Stewart)
08 Gun Street Girl (Canned Heat)
09 San Diego Serenade (Nanci Griffith)
10 Tom Traubert's Blues [Waltzing Matilda] (Rod Stewart)
11 More than Rain (Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet)
12 Ol' 55 (Sarah McLachlan)
13 Down There by the Train (Johnny Cash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FBZaqvMS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/IJ5fbwJ3YDrAHXl/file

The cover photo was taken in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 1986.

Chris Rea - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 5-2-1986

Here's another BBC album by Chris Rea. This time, it's a concert from 1986.

By 1986, Rea's career was gathering commercial momentum. (In Britain, that is. He never had much success in the U.S.) He still didn't have any big hits yet, but he had more small hits, such as "I Don't Know What It Is but I Love It," "Josephine," and "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat." His biggest recent hit at the time of this concert was "Stainsby Girls," which reached Number 26 in the British singles chart. 

There's not much else to say here. The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes. 

01 Two Roads (Chris Rea)
02 Hello Friend (Chris Rea)
03 Candles (Chris Rea)
04 talk (Chris Rea)
05 Midnight Blue (Chris Rea)
06 One Golden Rule (Chris Rea)
07 Josephine (Chris Rea)
08 Stainsby Girls (Chris Rea)
09 I Can Hear Your Heartbeat (Chris Rea)
10 I Don't Know What It Is but I Love It (Chris Rea)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/63teYBVF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/79irpZnoiReZMiQ/file

The cover photo is from the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1986. 

R.E.M. - Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, Pelham, AL, 9-5-1986

Here's another great concert by R.E.M. Like the other one I posted a few days ago, this one only became publicly available in December 2025. The sound quality is excellent.

This concert first became available through Rob, who runs the dB's Repercussion music blog, at:

dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com 

It's an excellent blog, I recommend you check it out. I've included Rob's original notes to the recording. That explains how it was recorded and got into his hands. The bottom line is this is a soundboard. 

The only snag is that six songs are missing. Those include the first four songs: "These Days," "Begin the Begin," "1,000,000," and "The One I Love." Also missing are "Just a Touch" and "Femme Fatale" from the middle of the concert. (Specifically, they came after "Little America.")

This was the very first concert of the band's 1986 tour, which supported their recently released album "Lifes Rich Pageant," which had been released two months earlier. As a result, many of the songs were performed in public for the first time: "These Days," "Begin the Begin," "The One I Love," "Cuyahoga," "The Flowers of Guatemala," "I Believe," "Superman," "Strange," and "Lightnin' Hopkins." (Too bad that the first three of those aren't included here.) It's interesting that two of those songs, "The One I Love" and "Lightnin' Hopkins," wouldn't be released until the band's next album, "Document," in 1987.

Rob has this to say about this recording: "It is the finest-sounding 1986 live recording [from the band] now in circulation, and the first concert-length soundboard recording to emerge so far." 

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

01 Cuyahoga (R.E.M.)
02 talk (R.E.M.)
03 Fall on Me (R.E.M.)
04 Shaking Through (R.E.M.)
05 The Flowers of Guatemala (R.E.M.)
06 Driver 8 (R.E.M.)
07 talk (R.E.M.)
08 I Believe (R.E.M.)
09 talk (R.E.M.)
10 Swan Swan H (R.E.M.)
11 talk (R.E.M.)
12 Can't Get There from Here (R.E.M.)
13 7 Chinese Bros (R.E.M.)
14 talk (R.E.M.)
15 Superman (R.E.M.)
16 talk (R.E.M.)
17 Pretty Persuasion (R.E.M.)
18 Little America (R.E.M.)
19 Feeling Gravitys Pull (R.E.M.)
20 Strange (R.E.M.)
21 So. Central Rain [I'm Sorry] (R.E.M.)
22 Auctioneer [Another Engine] (R.E.M.)
23 Lightnin' Hopkins (R.E.M.)
24 Old Man Kensey (R.E.M.)
25 Life and How to Live It (R.E.M.)
26 talk (R.E.M.)
27 Time Was (R.E.M.)
28 Second Guessing (R.E.M.)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h3FSNBaC

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/XI9TOlV8nbNdMRZ/file

The cover of the band's lead singer Michael Stipe is from a concert at the Northern Illinois University Arena in DeKalb, Illinois, on October 26, 1986.

Various Artists - Colombian Volcano Disaster Appeal Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 2-9-1986

Here's a really interesting benefit concert. There aren't a lot of musical acts, but the ones that took part gave interesting performances, often with some unusual song choices. The big stars were David Gilmour (formerly of Pink Floyd), Pete Townshend (formerly of the Who), Annie Lennox (of Eurythmics) and Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders).

In November of 1985, the Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, causing a natural disaster in Colombia. It melted glaciers and caused catastrophic flooding that killed over 25,000 people. A native Colombian musician, Chucho Merchan, with the help of Pete Townshend, organized this benefit concert to raise funds for the surviving victims and to help raise awareness of their plight. Highlights of the concert were broadcast in many countries around the world, and a DVD of parts of it was eventually released. 

I had been aware of this concert for a long time, but I could only find the sets from the main stars. I put songs from the David Gilmour and Chrissie Hynde sets on albums I've posted elsewhere on this blog. However, I recently found virtually the entire concert, with excellent sound quality. So that inspired me to post this, and sooner rather than later.

The first three acts were popular in Britain around the of this concert, though their popularity didn't last. Working Week was a British jazz-dance band that had a hit with the song "Venceremos (We Will Win)" in 1984, plus some other minor hits in 1985 and 1986. 

Jaki Graham, a British soul and dance singer, had three Top Ten hits in Britain in 1985 and 1986, with "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "Round and Round," and "Set Me Free." But curiously, it seems she was only given time to perform one song, and she chose a song that wasn't one of her hits. 

The Communards were a British synth-pop duo. They had two really big hits and some smaller hits in Britain, though they had no success in the U.S. In 1986, their version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" reached Number One in the British singles chart, and was the biggest hit of the year in that country. However, that single wouldn't be released until about six months after this concert, which explains why they didn't play it here. They also had another big hit with "Never Can Say Goodbye" in 1987. At the time of this concert, they'd only had one minor hit, "You Are My World," but they didn't play it here.

Here are their Wikipedia entries: 

Working Week (band) - Wikipedia 

Jaki Graham - Wikipedia 

The Communards - Wikipedia 

I don't feel the need to explain the other musical acts in this concert, since they're well known and I've posted albums by each of them at this blog already. However, the timing of how this concert fit into their careers is worth mentioning. David Gilmour started a full-time solo career in 1984 after Pink Floyd broke up in 1983. But he hadn't done much as a solo artist after putting out a solo album in 1984, so his appearance here was notable. He would lead a new version of Pink Floyd starting in 1987.

Similarly, Pete Townshend started a full-time solo career after the Who broke up in 1982. At the time of this concert, he'd only released one solo album, in 1985. But in this concert, he only performed three Who songs, plus "Save It for Later," a cover of an English Beat song. 

Annie Lennox was a member of Eurythmics at this time. However, at the time, she was taking a short break due to some trouble with her voice. That's probably why she only sang one song on her own (while also singing a duet at the end). It was very unusual for her to appear as a solo artist. Her solo career wouldn't really begin until her first solo album in 1992.

Similarly, Chrissie Hynde was a member of the Pretenders at this time. By 1986, the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus whomever she wanted to work with. But I guess she was billed under her own name because she performed with some different musicians than her usual band at the time. Plus, it seems that freed her to play some more interesting songs. She only did two Pretenders songs, the first two in her set. Then she did covers by the Beatles ("In My Life"), the Righteous Brothers, ("Little Latin Lupe Lu"), Bob Dylan ("Property of Jesus"), and KC and the Sunshine Band ("Give It Up"). That probably was her most eclectic set list ever, and the fact the last song was a duet with Annie Lennox was even more interesting.   

By the way, I saw that both actors Peter Richardson and Harry Enfield spoke during the concert. So I figure one of them has to be the emcee talking between songs. It sounds like the same person talking each time, but I'm not familiar with their voices, so I don't know which one it would be. If anyone can tell, please let me know so I can fix the song title info.   

This album is exactly two hours long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler] (Working Week)
03 Sweet Nothing (Working Week)
04 South Africa (Working Week)
05 Shot in the Dark (Working Week)
06 talk (emcee)
07 Heaven Knows (Jaki Graham)
08 talk (emcee)
09 Sentimental Journey (Communards)
10 Forbidden Love (Communards)
11 Don't Slip Away (Communards)
12 talk (emcee)
13 talk (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
14 Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
15 talk (emcee)
16 You Know I'm Right (David Gilmour)
17 Run like Hell (David Gilmour)
18 Out of the Blue (David Gilmour)
19 Comfortably Numb (David Gilmour)
20 talk (emcee)
21 I'm One (Pete Townshend)
22 talk (Pete Townshend)
23 Save It for Later (Pete Townshend)
24 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townshend)
25 Magic Bus (Pete Townshend)
26 talk (emcee)
27 Blame It on the Sun (Annie Lennox)
28 talk (emcee)
29 Time, the Avenger (Chrissie Hynde)
30 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
31 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
32 In My Life (Chrissie Hynde)
33 Little Latin Lupe Lu (Chrissie Hynde)
34 Property of Jesus (Chrissie Hynde)
35 Give It Up (Chrissie Hynde & Annie Lennox)
36 talk (emcee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t9XbbPYK 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DEK86KzNjctEOg0/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from a video. It shows Chrissie Hynde and Annie Lennox together, on the last song in the concert. The video was very low-res and blurry, so the image has issues. But I was happy to at least come up with this, since I couldn't find any images of the two of them together. 

The Beach Boys and Friends - 25 Years Together, Waikiki Shell, Honolulu, HI, 12-12-1986

Here's a really interesting Beach Boys concert, featuring lots of special guest stars. It was a TV special filmed in Waikiki Beach in Hawaii to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the formation of the band, back in 1961. The Beach Boys stayed on stage the entire time. Often they performed their own songs, but sometimes they were the backing band for: Ray Charles, Gloria Loring, Glen Campbell, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Everly Brothers, Jeffrey Osborne, Belinda Carlisle, and Three Dog Night. That's a pretty impressive list.

I happened to stumble across a video of this concert on YouTube. I converted that to an audio file and cut it into mp3s. While doing so, I deliberately cut out some things. For instance, there were some long talking segments by actor Patrick Duffy in which he talked extensively about the history of the Beach Boys. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't have relistening value, so I axed it. I also cut out a few other little things, like some really bad jokes or cheesy comments made by the Beach Boys between songs. 

I gotta say, I put a lot of effort into making this a better listen. One big problem was there was a constant noise coming from the crowd all the time, through every song. Probably, microphones were stuck in the crowd to capture that audience noise in order to supposedly increase the excitement level. Or some of it could have been added in later. That has happened even to officially released live albums occasionally. Regardless, I used the MVSEP to get rid of most of the crowd noise, except for the bits you'd expect at the starts and ends of the songs. The sonic difference was dramatic, like suddenly being able to hear after taking ear muffs off. 

The last two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles due to extra editing on them. For "The Spirit of Rock and Roll," an announcer came on near the end of the song and talked over it. Luckily, that didn't last too long, and I was able to patch it by bringing in a section from elsewhere in the song. "Good Vibrations" was much more difficult. For some stupid reason, the song was repeatedly interrupted by brief comments made by random people, saying things like "Happy anniversary to the Beach Boys!" These comments clearly were filmed on the beach at a different time and spliced into the footage. This happened about ten times, through random points in the song. Worse, the volume of the song itself was briefly turned way down, ruining the rhythm. I found a different live version of the song from the 1980s and patched in bits of that, or patched in sections from elsewhere in the same version. It was a real pain in the ass to fix, but all those dumb comments are gone now.

I think this is a really interesting concert, a lot better than what I'd expected from the Beach Boys at this point in their career. The main negative is that the band tried to cram in too many songs for the limited time they had for their TV special. So many of the songs are short versions, sometimes in medleys. There's even a couple that are a minute or less. But there are a lot of plus sides. One nice thing is that Brian Wilson usually didn't tour with the band, but he was here and involved. In fact, he looked as healthy and fit as he ever did, after some rough years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

And while the Beach Boys mostly played their expected classics, there was a couple of really nice surprises. One was a version of "Heaven" near the end of the concert. This was released on a Carl Wilson solo album and never officially done by the Beach Boys. The other one that is even more interesting is the closing song, "The Spirit of Rock and Roll." At the time, Brian Wilson was working on his first solo album. But there were many false starts before the album, simply called "Brian Wilson," was released in 1988. At one point, there was nearly enough material for an album to be released, only for it to be scrapped and most of the songs discarded. Some of this later became a popular bootleg called "Sweet Insanity." "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" was one of those discarded songs. So it's interesting that it was not only chosen for inclusion in this special, but it was the finale. This appears to be the ONLY time the song was ever performed by the Beach Boys, as opposed to Brian Wilson solo.

But maybe the most interesting thing of all were the special guests, the vast majority of whom have stood the test of time. Gloria Loring is better known as an actress than a singer, but she had a good voice and had a big hit in 1986 with "Friends and Lovers," which she sang here. Other than that though, the guests mostly sang Beach Boys songs, while being backed by the actual Beach Boys on backing vocals and instruments. For instance, not only did the back up Ray Charles singing and playing keyboards on "Sail On, Sailor," but Charles was the one playing the prominent keyboard part in the "Good Vibrations" finale. I particularly liked hearing Belinda Carlisle singing a Beach Boys song as well as a soul classic.

Everything here is unreleased, I believe. The sound quality is very good, though not great. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 talk (Beach Boys)
02 Help Me, Rhonda (Beach Boys)
03 Fun, Fun, Fun (Beach Boys)
04 California Girls (Beach Boys)
05 California Dreamin' (Beach Boys)
06 talk (Beach Boys)
07 Sail On, Sailor (Beach Boys & Ray Charles)
08 Sloop John B (Beach Boys)
09 Do It Again (Beach Boys)
10 talk (Beach Boys)
11 Friends and Lovers (Beach Boys & Gloria Loring)
12 I Can Hear Music (Beach Boys & Gloria Loring)
13 talk (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
14 In Cars (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
15 talk (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
16 Little Deuce Coupe (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
17 The Little Old Lady from Pasadena (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
18 I Get Around (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
19 Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
20 talk (Beach Boys & the Fabulous Thunderbirds)
21 Rock and Roll Music (Beach Boys & the Fabulous Thunderbirds)
22 Be True to Your School (Beach Boys)
23 Don't Worry Baby - Getcha Back (Beach Boys & the Everly Brothers)
24 Wake Up Little Susie (Beach Boys & the Everly Brothers)
25 Surfer Girl (Beach Boys)
26 Come Go with Me (Beach Boys)
27 talk (Beach Boys)
28 Disney Girls [1957] (Beach Boys)
29 God Only Knows (Beach Boys & Jeffrey Osborne)
30 talk (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
31 Surfer Girl [Reprise] (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
32 Surf City (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
33 Surfin' U.S.A. (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
34 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys & Belinda Carlisle)
35 Band of Gold (Beach Boys & Belinda Carlisle)
36 talk (Beach Boys & Three Dog Night)
37 Darlin' (Beach Boys & Three Dog Night)
38 talk (Beach Boys)
39 Heaven (Beach Boys)
40 Good Vibrations [Edit] (Beach Boys & Everyone)
41 talk (Beach Boys)
42 The Spirit of Rock and Roll [Edit] (Beach Boys & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eYAr29uv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lny0w2Q0FB2gE8x/file

I had a hard time finding a good cover photo by taking a screenshot from a video. If I used a long distance shot showing many people, it was too low-res and blurry. I chose this one from the "Good Vibrations" finale. From right to left, that's Gloria Loring, unknown, Al Jardine, and Belinda Carlile. I used Krea AI to boost the image quality.

Covered: Henry Mancini: 1959-1998

I have so much material for Covered series albums that I'm going to try to make another concerted effort to post a lot more of them. So here's another, focusing on the songwriting of Henry Mancini.

Mancini is a bit of a left field choice for the Covered series, since he mostly composed instrumental music for movies, and is far removed from rock and roll. But he was responsible for so many classic songs that I feel I can't leave him out. The intro to his Wikipedia article sums him up well, stating that Mancini "was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995."

Mancini was born in 1924 and grew up in rural Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, he studied at the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York City for two years. But then he was drafted in the U.S. Army and fought in World War II from 1943 to 1945. After the war, he became a pianist and arranger for the Glenn Miller Orchestra (which continued despite the fact Miller died in World War II). In 1952, he got a job writing music for movies for Universal Pictures, a major movie studio in Hollywood. 

However, he didn't really become famous until after he left that company in 1958 to become an independent composer and arranger. One of his first jobs was writing the theme for a new TV show called "Peter Gunn." His song, the "Peter Gunn Theme," was a big hit for Duane Eddy, and has since become an often covered classic. It won an Emmy award and two Grammys, and put Mancini in high demand writing for more TV and movie projects.

Mancini typically only wrote music, usually instrumentals. But sometimes he would work with another songwriter who would write the lyrics. His next major hit, "Moon River," was such a case, with the lyrics written by famed songwriter Johnny Mercer. The version sung by actress Audrey Hepburn in the movie of the same name in 1961 went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as Grammys for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

After that, Mancini kept steadily releasing music for decades, including scores for dozens of movies. He recorded over 90 albums on his own, from big band to jazz to light classical. He became, and remains, one of the biggest names in the "easy listening" genre. 

For this album, I tried to boil the selections down to just his very best known songs, so that even people who aren't typically into can easy listening style can enjoy this. For instance, I find it hard to believe there's anyone out there who doesn't enjoy hearing the highly creative "Pink Panther Theme." Like that song, the vast majority of songs here are instrumentals. "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" wasn't actually written by him, but his arrangement changed the song so drastically that I've included it here anyway.

Most of Mancini's best known songs date from the 1960s. After that decade, he switched more to arranging songs written by other people, though he did sometimes write his own material. Some of the songs near the end of this album are covers of songs from much earlier in his career. I generally tried to avoid Mancini's own versions, as I usually do with these Covered albums. But I have two songs by him here since I couldn't find good versions of those ones otherwise.

He was still composing and arranging, though less prolifically, when he died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 70 years old. His music made such a cultural impact that in 2004 he was the subject of a U.S. postage stamp. 

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Peter Gunn Theme (Ray Anthony & His Orchestra)
02 Moon River (Audrey Hepburn)
03 Baby Elephant Walk (Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra)
04 Theme from Hatari (Henry Mancini & His Orchestra)
05 A Shot in the Dark (Shirley Scott)
06 The Shadows of Paris (Elsie Bianchi)
07 Pink Panther Theme (Those Fantabulous Strings)
08 Slow Hot Wind (Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66)
09 Two for the Road (Peggy Lee)
10 Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet [A Time for Us] (Johnny Mathis)
11 Send a Little Love My Way (Anne Murray)
12 Newhart (Henry Mancini)
13 Days of Wine and Roses (Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass)
14 Dreamsville (Dave Grusin with Diana Krall)
15 Charade (Monica Mancini)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YcfTBdHW

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/nDvHfXT0X64bFSQ/file

The cover photo dates from 1985. I don't know any other details.

Covered: Will Jennings, Volume 1: 1975-1987

Here's more music for my "Covered" series highlighting excellent songwriters. I'm trying to get to the older stuff before moving to newer stuff, so this one was not the one I planned to post next. But I recently stumbled across the fact that Will Jennings died in September 2024, and it's now June 2025, so this is a belated post to mark his passing. I found enough music for two volumes; this is the first one.

Will Jennings was born and raised in Texas. After getting bachelor's and master's degrees, starting in the late 1960s, he worked for a few years as a professor of English. Then in 1971, he got the songwriting bug. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee and tried to become a professional songwriter. It took a few years before he had much success, but by the end of the 1970s, he was in high demand. His songwriting strength was his lyric writing, though he could write music as well. No doubt, his experience as an English professor helped with that.

Jennings almost always co-wrote songs. He developed good relationships with some musicians, leading to many years of collaborations. A key example is Steve Winwood. While Winwood found success with the band Traffic in the late 1960s and 1970s, he co-wrote the vast majority of his songs then with band member Jim Capaldi, with Winwood generally writing the music and Capaldi the lyrics. So when Winwood started his solo career in the late 1970s, he needed a new songwriting partner. He didn't write that many songs with Jennings, but a big percentage of them turned out to be hits. There are more of them in Volume 2. He also collaborated a lot with B.B. King and Rodney Crowell, amongst others. 

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Will Jennings - Wikipedia 

I'm pretty sure all of the songs here are the original versions, with the vast majority of them being hits. In this time period, he co-wrote five songs which were Number One hits in the U.S.: "Looks like We Made It," "Up Where We Belong," "Higher Love," "Back in the High Life Again," and "Didn't We Almost Have It All."

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

01 Somewhere in the Night (Helen Reddy)
02 Feelins' (Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn)
03 Looks like We Made It (Barry Manilow)
04 Street Life (Crusaders with Randy Crawford)
05 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
06 Better Not Look Down (B.B. King)
07 While You See a Chance (Steve Winwood)
08 One Day I'll Fly Away (Randy Crawford)
09 Valerie (Steve Winwood)
10 Never Make a Move Too Soon (Crusaders & B.B. King)
11 Up Where We Belong (Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes)
12 Higher Love (Steve Winwood)
13 Finer Things (Steve Winwood)
14 Didn't We Almost Have It All (Whitney Houston)
15 Back in the High Life Again (Steve Winwood) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CNYC7Jdh

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/prlFwIDwbU4DlcW/file

I don't know when the cover photo is from exactly, but he looks younger than the one I chose for the second volume. In the full photo, he's holding an Academy Award in his hands. He won two Academy Awards in his career, one for "Up Where We Belong" in 1982 and the other for "My Heart Will Go On" in 1997, so this is very likely to be from 1982.

Elvis Costello - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: This Is Tomorrow, Royalty Theatre, London, Britain, 11-23-1986

I'm continuing to try to emphasize posting albums resulting from the BBC poll done a few months ago. So here's another one from one of the top vote getters, Elvis Costello. This is a full BBC concert from 1986.

In September 1986, Costello released the album "Blood and Chocolate," which was his ninth backed by the Attractions, and the last one backed by them for quite a long time. So naturally there are a lot of songs from that album. I believe there were nine.

Only three songs were cover versions: "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down," "Leave My Kitten Alone," and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding."  

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is pretty good, though not great. 

This album is an hour and 56 minutes long.

01 Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello)
02 The Beat (Elvis Costello)
03 Tokyo Storm Warning (Elvis Costello)
04 Watching the Detectives (Elvis Costello)
05 talk (Elvis Costello)
06 Battered Old Bird (Elvis Costello)
07 Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind (Elvis Costello)
08 Temptation (Elvis Costello)
09 New Lace Sleeves (Elvis Costello)
10 talk (Elvis Costello)
11 Blue Chair (Elvis Costello)
12 Jack of All Parades (Elvis Costello)
13 Uncomplicated (Elvis Costello)
14 Lipstick Vogue (Elvis Costello)
15 Beyond Belief (Elvis Costello)
16 Clubland (Elvis Costello)
17 I Want You (Elvis Costello)
18 I Hope You're Happy Now (Elvis Costello)
19 Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head (Elvis Costello)
20 Lovable (Elvis Costello)
21 Leave My Kitten Alone (Elvis Costello)
22 Oliver's Army (Elvis Costello)
23 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Elvis Costello)
24 I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down (Elvis Costello)
25 Pump It Up (Elvis Costello)
26 Poor Napoleon (Elvis Costello)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PPRBjSjJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/OfkSvKjjN8YlG9F/file 

The cover photo was taken in London on August 1, 1986.

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Hammersmith Palais, London, Britain, 11-20-1986

Here's another volume of Richard Thompson performing for the BBC. This time, it's a concert from 1986.

"Volume 3" in this series is a concert from 1985. This concert is pretty similar, except it's shorter. Most likely, it was edited down to fit an hour-long radio slot. That includes getting rid of pretty much any banter between songs. Between the 1985 show and this one, however, Thompson released another studio album, "Daring Adventures." So there are three songs performed from that album here: "Valerie," "Jennie," and "A Bone through Her Nose." Too bad "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" from that album also wasn't included, since I think it's one of his greatest songs. (But a version of that song was included in "Volume 1.")

Six of the songs here made it onto the official box set "Live at the BBC." Those are tracks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The rest are unreleased, from the BBC broadcast. The lead vocals were rather low on some songs, especially the unreleased ones, so I adjusted that using the UVR5 audio editing program.

During this tour, like the 1985, the folk duo of Clive Gregson and Christine Collister were a part of Thompson's band, helping with backing vocals and Gregson guitar. So that's why one song, "Like a Man," has the lead vocals by Gregson. 

This album is 56 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 The Angels Took My Racehorse Away (Richard Thompson)
02 Valerie (Richard Thompson)
03 Jennie (Richard Thompson)
04 A Bone through Her Nose (Richard Thompson)
05 When the Spell Is Broken (Richard Thompson)
06 Like a Man (Richard Thompson with Clive Gregson)
07 You Don't Say (Richard Thompson)
08 Fire in the Engine Room (Richard Thompson)
09 Wall of Death (Richard Thompson)
10 Nearly in Love (Richard Thompson)
11 Tear-Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ELKALRpF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/rcpMUTVQXYBMfo8/file

The cover photo was taken in Los Angeles, California, on March 18, 1985.

Covered: Bob Crewe & Bob Gaudio, Volume 2: 1974-2024

Here's the second of two "Covered" volumes highlighting the songwriting of Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio.

In Volume 1, the vast majority of the songs were written by Crewe and Gaudio together. In this volume, all or nearly all of the new songs (meaning new at the time) were written by either Crewe with others or Gaudio with others. However, as far as I can tell, it doesn't seem that they had a falling out, or even stopped writing songs together. For instance, as late as 1983 they co-wrote a couple of minor hit songs for the duo of Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson. It's just that it seemed both of them had better success with other songwriters when it came to big hits in this era.

As I mentioned in my write-up for Volume 1, by the start of 1974, it seemed as if the songwriting success of both Crewe and Gaudio had petered out. Also around 1971, Gaudio phased himself out of being a member of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons, apparently due to stage fright and introversion. However, he retained a key financial stake, and continued to write songs for the group. So their musical futures were looking bleak. But both of them had a series of stunning songwriting successes, especially in 1974 and 1975.

For instance, I consider the first song here, "Lady Marmalade" by Labelle, one of the greatest dance songs of all time. It was a Number One hit in the U.S. in 1974, and then a cover of it was an even bigger Number One hit by Christina Aguiliera, Pink, and others in 2001. It was co-written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, another professional songwriter Crewe started working with around this time. Crewe also wrote "My Eyes Adored You" and "Get Dancin'" with Nolan, as well as "Swearin' to God" with another songwriter.

Crewe's "My Eyes Adored You" totally turned out the fortunes of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons, as it was a Number One hit in the U.S. in early 1975. (As with Volume 1, I've tried to avoid having lots of songs by that act, so I chose a duet version by Isaac Hayes and Dionne Warwick instead.) But then Gaudio also rose to the occasion in 1975, writing "Who Loves You" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" with Judy Parker, who would later become his wife. "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" in particular was a massive hit, not only reaching Number One in both the U.S. and Britain, but was the fourth best selling song of the year. (Again not wanting to include too many Franki Valli and the Four Seasons performances, I chose an interesting mostly acappella version from 2024.)

Unfortunately, the revived successes of Crewe and Gaudio didn't last that long. Gaudio co-wrote "Silver Star," which was a big hit in 1976. But after that, the new hits for both of them became smaller and fewer, and petered out altogether in the early 1980s. However, they still had more big successes with earlier songs that eventually became hits with cover versions. For instance, "Bye Bye Baby," a minor Franki Valli and the Four Seasons hit in the 1960s, was a Number One hit in Britain for the Bay City Rollers in 1975. 

Some songs kept coming around again and again. For instance, "Let's Hang On," a Four Seasons hit in 1965, was a big hit by the Darts in Britain in 1980, then again by Barry Manilow in 1981. And "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," a hit first for Franki Valli in 1967, has been hits by other musical acts so many times that it's hard to keep track, including making Number Four in Britain in 1982 by the Boys Town Gang.

Crewe, who was 13 years older than Gaudio, died in 2014 at the age of 84. Gaudio is still alive at the age of 82 years old as I write this in 2025.

As I said in Volume 1, I think these two are very underrated songwriters. I could have included many more hits, enough for another volume or two, but I wanted to give this a stronger appeal by including only their biggest hits. It seems some of their songs are going to be hits forever, periodically revived with new cover versions. For instance, "Beggin'," a minor hit when first released by Franki Valli and the Four Seasons in 1967, is another one that keeps getting covered to big success, with Madcon having a Number Five hit in Britain with it in 2008, and then Maneskin having a Number Six hit with it there in 2020.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Lady Marmalade (Labelle)
02 Get Dancin' (Disco Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes)
03 Swearin' to God (Frankie Valli)
04 Sherry (Adrian Baker)
05 Bye Bye Baby [Baby Goodbye] (Bay City Rollers)
06 My Eyes Adored You (Isaac Hayes & Dionne Warwick)
07 Silver Star (Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons)
08 Rag Doll (Steeleye Span)
09 Buzz Buzz a Diddle It (Matchbox)
10 The Night (Lene Lovich)
11 Let's Hang On (Barry Manilow)
12 Walk like a Man (Mary Jane Girls)
13 Barbarella (Wondermints)
14 Who Loves You (Murray Head)
15 December, 1963 [Oh, What a Night] (Jared Halle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8irSCEPX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Ia2z6pVWw86bXGm/file

As with Volume 1, I couldn't find good photos of the two of them together. So I found individual photos and put them on the cover. The Bob Crewe one (with red hair) is from 1976. I don't know the date of the Bob Gaudio one, but I'd guess it's from the 1970s. Both were in black and white, but I colorized them using the Kolorize program. Then I improved the quality with the Krea AI program.

Elvis Costello - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1981-1986

In the BBC poll I conducted here in February 2025, Elvis Costello was tied for the third most votes. So here's something else from him. This is a collection of BBC studio sessions from 1981 to 1986.

This album was rather tough to compile, because Costello performed for the BBC many times, both for TV and radio shows. This gathers together eight different appearances, most of them unreleased. The first song is from an appearance on "Jim'll Fix It" in early 1981, and is a duet with Glenn Tilbrook, lead singer of Squeeze. The next two songs are from a 1981 benefit concert that was broadcast on the BBC. One of them, "Psycho Song," was released on a very obscure official album of the concert, called "Fundamental Frolics."

Tracks four through seven are from a conventional BBC radio session, for the Kid Jensen show in 1981. The next four, tracks eight through 11, are from another Kid Jensen show, in 1983. Two them, "Danger Zone" and "Big Sister's Clothes - Stand Down Margaret," later appeared as bonus tracks for the "Punch the Clock" album. "Peace in Our Time" is from a 1983 BBC TV show. "Georgia on My Mind" is from a 1985 BBC TV show. That's quite an interesting version, because it was done as a duet with his father, Ross MacManus, who was a professional trumpet player and singer in jazz bands. (Costello's birth name is Declan MacManus.)

 

"Don't Get Above Your Raising" is a duet with Ricky Scaggs. It was part of a Scaggs concert broadcast by the BBC in 1986, which was later released as the live album "Ricky Scaggs: Live in London." That makes it the fourth and final officially released performance on this album. The last three songs are from an appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1986.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 From a Whisper to a Scream [Edit] (Elvis Costello & Glenn Tilbrook)
02 Gloomy Sunday (Elvis Costello)
03 Psycho Song (Elvis Costello)
04 Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down (Elvis Costello)
05 Sweet Dreams (Elvis Costello)
06 Colour of the Blues (Elvis Costello)
07 Why Don't You Love Me (Elvis Costello)
08 Danger Zone (Elvis Costello)
09 Big Sister's Clothes - Stand Down Margaret (Elvis Costello)
10 Pills and Soap (Elvis Costello)
11 Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello)
12 Peace in Our Time (Elvis Costello)
13 Georgia on My Mind (Elvis Costello & Ross MacManus)
14 Don't Get Above Your Raising (Ricky Skaggs & Elvis Costello)
15 I Hope You're Happy Now (Elvis Costello)
16 Uncomplicated (Elvis Costello)
17 Leave My Kitten Alone (Elvis Costello)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sUcXKCFr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/PvXCJSalBkFgBtZ/file

The cover photo shows Costello in concert in 1982. I don't know the details beyond that.

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.

Covered: Norman Gimbel: 1953-1986

It occurred to me the other day that I have dozens of albums in my Covered series ready to go, but I rarely seem to get around to posting them. So I'm going to make more of an effort to post these. I haven't gotten that much feedback on them, but I think they're pretty unique and interesting. So here's an especially interesting and unique songwriter: Norman Gimbel.

Who would have ever imagined that the same person involved in writing "The Girl from Ipanema" also helped write "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and the theme to the "Happy Days" TV show? That's range. I just found his obituary in the New York Times (he died in 2019 at the age of 94), and that called him "wildly versatile," adding that "Any attempt to categorize [his] musical leanings would be complicated." 

Gimbel was first and foremost a lyricist. He rarely wrote songs on his own. Typically, someone else would write the music while he would write the lyrics. But he also had a specialty of taking interesting songs in foreign languages and coming up with English lyrics for them. 

A typical case was "The Girl from Ipanema." It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. In early 1963, Jobim was recording the song in New York City with Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz when they came up with the idea of doing an English version. Gimbel was rushed in to come up with English lyrics on the spot. Gilberto's wife Astrid Gilberto happened to be the only Brazilian there who could speak English well, so she was drafted to sing the song, even though she had no professional singing background whatsoever. The result was a classic that shall be played in elevators until the end of time.

That collaboration worked so well that Gimbel ended up writing English lyrics to many of the biggest bossa nova classics from Brazil, like "How Insensitive (Insensatez)," "Meditation (Meditacao)," "So Nice (Summer Samba)," and "Drinking Water (Agua de Beber)." "Sway" is another classic that was originally in Spanish. "Bluesette" is a case where he wrote lyrics to an instrumental hit by Toots Thielemans.

But Gimbel just didn't have the skill of writing new lyrics for already existing songs. He often worked with other songwriters to create songs from scratch. His first song here is from 1953, and he stayed active songwriting well into the 2000s. He often co-wrote songs for TV shows, movies, and plays. Five of his songs were nominated for Academy Awards or Golden Globes or both. He won an Academy Award in 1979 for "It Goes like It Goes," the theme to the movie "Norma Rae."

In the 1970s, Gimbel often collaborated with Charles Fox on songs (though not exclusively). This led to the writing of "Killing Me Softly with His Song," which Rolling Stone Magazine has put on a list of the top 500 songs of all time. In the early 1970s, Gimbel and Fox signed an aspiring female musician, Lori Lieberman, to a management contract, promising to write songs for her. Lieberman went to see Don McLean in concert. She was so inspired by one of his songs ("Empty Chair," not "American Pie," though he played that too), that she wrote lots of notes for a potential. Excited, she immediately called Gimbel on the phone and shared her ideas. Gimbel honed them into lyrics, including coming up with the "Killing me softly with his song" line. He later said, "Her conversation fed me, inspired me, gave me some language and a choice of words." He then passed the lyrics to Fox, who wrote the music. 

So far, so good. But the controversy is that Gimbel and Fox took full songwriting credit, even though clearly Lieberman had an essential role in creating the song. Lieberman released a version of the song as a single in 1972 (produced by Gimbel and Fox), but it went nowhere. When Roberta Flack released her version in 1973, it went to Number One on the singles chart in the U.S., and Lieberman got nothing for it. (Flack's version was probably much more successful because she came up with a very different arrangement, even changing some of the melody and the chords.) Adding insult to injury, in later decades, both Gimbel and Fox denied that Lieberman had a role in writing the song, and also denied that it was inspired by a Don McLean concert, even though they'd already been quoted many times admitting both things. Presumably they got scared about being sued by Lieberman for a cut of the profits, but it turned out she never sued them.

You can read the whole story here. It paints Gimbel and Fox in a pretty bad light, especially since Gimbel was married yet having a secret affair with the much younger Lieberman at the time:

Killing Me Softly with His Song - Wikipedia

Also, here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to read more about him in general:

Norman Gimbel - Wikipedia

Anyway, Gimbel may have done some ethically dubious things, but there's no doubt he was a great lyricist. Fox later said of him, "Norman had the extraordinary ability with his lyrics to capture the human condition with never an excessive word to describe a feeling or an action." He then pointed out how Gimbel could often conjure an entire song with its first line, and he offered examples: "Tall and tan and young and lovely," "Strumming my pain with his fingers," and "If it takes forever, I will wait for you."

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Ricochet [Rick-O-Shay] (Teresa Brewer)
02 Canadian Sunset (Sam Cooke)
03 The Girl from Ipanema (Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto)
04 I Will Follow Him (Peggy March)
05 How Insensitive [Insensatez] (Astrud Gilberto)
06 Bluesette (Vikki Carr)
07 Meditation [Meditacao] (Doris Day)
08 I Will Wait for You (Connie Francis)
09 So Nice [Summer Samba] (Astrud Gilberto & Walter Wanderley)
10 Watch What Happens (Lena Horne & Gabor Szabo)
11 Drinking Water [Agua de Beber] (Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim)
12 I Got a Name (Jim Croce)
13 Killing Me Softly with His Song (Roberta Flack)
14 Wonder Woman (John Bahler)
15 Happy Days (Pratt & McClain)
16 Sway (Bobby Rydell)
17 Making Our Dreams Come True (Cyndi Grecco)
18 Ready to Take a Chance Again (Barry Manilow)
19 Different Worlds (Maureen McGovern)
20 It Goes like It Goes (Jennifer Warnes)
21 Only Love (Nana Mouskouri)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P2BYQLtv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/MpTyosybz70Db69/file

Gimbel was very private and rarely photographed. The best I could find was a black and white photo from a 1984 awards ceremony. I colorized it using the Palette program, then improved it with the Krea AI program.

Joe Jackson - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan, 10-21-1986

Just a few days ago, I posted Volume 4 in a series of BBC albums by Joe Jackson. Here's Volume 5, from 1986.

Note that involves yet another renumbering. I already posted a Volume 5, which is a 1995 concert. This one slipped my attention, since it usually isn't mentioned as a BBC concert. But I found it on the BBC website, so it definitely is. Thus, that 1995 concert has become Volume 6. You can find an updated link to it here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/02/joe-jackson-bbc-sessions-volume-5-in.html

This concert took place a few months after the release of Jackson's album "Big World." So naturally a lot of songs are from that. But it's a complete and generously long concert, so there are also lots of songs from earlier in his career.

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

This album is an hour and 44 minutes long.

01 One More Time (Joe Jackson)
02 talk (Joe Jackson)
03 Wild West (Joe Jackson)
04 talk (Joe Jackson)
05 Right and Wrong (Joe Jackson)
06 You Can't Get What You Want [Til You Know What You Want] (Joe Jackson)
07 talk (Joe Jackson)
08 [It's A] Big World (Joe Jackson)
09 Home Town (Joe Jackson)
10 On Your Radio (Joe Jackson)
11 Shanghai Sky (Joe Jackson)
12 talk (Joe Jackson)
13 Fifty Dollar Love Affair (Joe Jackson)
14 talk (Joe Jackson)
15 Cancer (Joe Jackson)
16 Be My Number Two (Joe Jackson)
17 Breaking Us in Two (Joe Jackson)
18 Steppin' Out (Joe Jackson)
19 Survival (Joe Jackson)
20 Soul Kiss (Joe Jackson)
21 talk (Joe Jackson)
22 It's Different for Girls (Joe Jackson)
23 talk (Joe Jackson)
24 The Jet Set (Joe Jackson)
25 talk (Joe Jackson)
26 Monday Papers [Sunday Papers] (Joe Jackson)
27 talk (Joe Jackson)
28 Tonight and Forever (Joe Jackson)
29 talk (Joe Jackson)
30 Jack You're Dead - What's the Use of Getting Sober - Jumpin' Jive (Joe Jackson)
31 I'm the Man (Joe Jackson)
32 Man in the Street (Joe Jackson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GFiBApCp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hK4OUtEX2bqUscJ/file

The cover photo is from a concert in 1986 Arnhem, Netherlands, on December 14, 1986.

Rod Stewart - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Wembley Stadium, London, Britain, 7-6-1986

Here's another BBC concert by Rod Stewart. This one is from 1986.

Personally, I think Stewart was at his creative best in the 1960s and 1970s. But it can't be denied that he kept going strong all through the 1980s, racking up hit after hit. He would eventually sell over 120 million records worldwide. So this is another unreleased BBC concert. In 1986, he released the studio album "Every Beat of My Heart." It wasn't a particularly big seller, but it contained a couple of hits, like just about all his 1980s albums.

I have one very, very big disappointment about this album though: it appears to be the full concert, but the encore wasn't included. Normally, that wouldn't have mattered much, except it so happens this encore was the one time all the members of Faces reunited on stage! The Faces were Stewart's main band in the first half of the 1970s, but they broke up for good in 1975. The encore to this show was really the only time all the members of the Faces reunited. This was mainly due to the increasing health problems of band member Ronnie Lane. Already by this time, his multiple sclerosis condition was so poor that he had to be in a wheelchair for the encore here. Although Lane sang, he could no longer play bass guitar, so Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones played bass for him.

It is known the Faces performed four songs for the encore: "(I Know) I'm Losing You," "Twistin' the Night Away," "Stay with Me," and "We'll Meet Again." I'm guessing the BBC didn't broadcast this due to some legal issue. Perhaps one or more of the other Faces were signed to a different record company, and wouldn't give permission? Anyway, I can't even find an audience bootleg of the encore. If anyone has something like that, please let me know so I can add it in. 

The Faces, minus Lane, reunited again to play a few songs for the Brit Awards in 1993. After that, there were some partial reunions, including a tour in 2010 and 2011 that didn't include Stewart. Keyboardist Ian McLagan died in 2014, so occasional reunions since then have been that much more incomplete.

The lead vocals were rather low in the mix for this concert, so I fixed that for all the songs using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long.

01 Hot Legs (Rod Stewart)
02 Tonight's the Night [Gonna Be Alright] (Rod Stewart)
03 talk (Rod Stewart)
04 Passion (Rod Stewart)
05 talk (Rod Stewart)
06 Some Guys Have All the Luck (Rod Stewart)
07 talk (Rod Stewart)
08 Tonight I'm Yours [Don't Hurt Me] (Rod Stewart)
09 talk (Rod Stewart)
10 I Don't Want to Talk about It (Rod Stewart)
11 talk (Rod Stewart)
12 You're in My Heart [The Final Acclaim] (Rod Stewart)
13 Young Turks (Rod Stewart)
14 talk (Rod Stewart)
15 Infatuation (Rod Stewart)
16 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Rod Stewart)
17 talk (Rod Stewart)
18 Every Beat of My Heart (Rod Stewart)
19 Da Ya Think I'm Sexy (Rod Stewart)
20 talk (Rod Stewart)
21 You Wear It Well (Rod Stewart)
22 Maggie May (Rod Stewart)
23 talk (Rod Stewart)
24 Baby Jane (Rod Stewart)
25 Sailing (Rod Stewart)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/82V4nDcg

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/HRZie9HbZS2HA9K/file

The cover photo is of Stewart performing at Wembley Stadium in July 1986, but it's from July 15th instead of July 6th.

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.