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. 

Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 3: 1999-2025

Here's the third and final volume of the "Covered" series for Randy Newman.

Newman's usual solo albums have been released less frequently as he gets older, which is usually the case for songwriters. By now, 2026, he averages about one album a decade. But unlike a lot of aging songwriters, he's kept his standards high. Pretty much every album he's made has been critically praised. 

But he's been much busier and prolific with his other career, composing soundtracks for Hollywood movies. I mentioned in the write-up for "Volume 2" that his career got a big boost starting in 1995, when he composed the soundtrack for the first "Toy Story" movie. That led him to a new line of work making soundtracks for blockbuster movies for kids, such as the other "Toy Story" movies (including "Toy Story 6," released in 2026), "Cars," "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," and more. Most of those are a mix of songs with lyrics and background music. I didn't find a lot of songs from these movies sung by others that fit this collection, but there are a few in this volume. 

Some others are from earlier in his career. For instance, "Burn On," a 1972 song based on a true incident of the Cuyahoga River, which runs through Cleveland, Ohio, catching fire in 1969 due to excessive pollution. 

All the songs in all three volumes were officially released, except for the last two on this volume. "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)" is from Randy Newman's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2013. It's sung by Newman and Don Henley. The album ends with "I Love L.A.," one of Newman's better known songs. I had trouble finding a worthy version, until I found this one. It comes from the 2025 Grammy Awards ceremony, and features a bunch of stars singing together.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 When She Loved Me (Sarah McLachlan)
02 If I Didn't Have You (Billy Crystal & John Goodman)
03 Every Time It Rains (Joe Cocker)
04 Rider in the Rain (Reckless Kelly & Joe Ely)
05 Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father (Kim Richey)
06 Marie (Allison Moorer)
07 Our Town (James Taylor)
08 Burn On (Mason Williams)
09 I Will Go Sailing No More (Los Lobos)
10 Almost There (Anika Noni Rose)
11 Down in New Orleans (Dr. John)
12 Losing You (Mavis Staples)
13 It's Lonely at the Top (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy)
14 I'm Dead [But I Don't Know It] (Don Henley & Randy Newman)
15 I Love L.A. (Dawes, John Legend, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard, Brad Paisley & Sheryl Crow)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZoccZuhY

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/zKj0ZEWCA6LlgOM/file

The cover image is from 1995.

Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 2: 1973-1999

Here's the second out of three "Covered" albums for singer-songwriter Randy Newman.

As I mentioned in "Volume 1," in the early 1970s, Newman was considered a cult albums, very critically acclaimed, but with not much commercial success for his own career. Even the many covers of his songs were rarely hits, though there were exceptions, especially "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)," which was a Number One hit in the U.S. for Three Dog Night in 1970.

But things changed drastically for him in 1977, with the song "Short People." To pretty much everyone's surprise, his version was an massive novelty hit. It made it all the way to Number Two in the U.S., kept out of the top spot only by the all-time classic "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. It was wildly misunderstood, to say the least. A great many of his songs are sarcastic. For instance, his great song "Political Science" sarcastically advocates for blowing up the world with nuclear weapons. Many people who heard "Short People" didn't realize it was a sarcastic attack on prejudice by pointing out how silly it would be to hate short people for no reason, including ignoring the lyrics of the bridge, which explicitly run counter to the rest of the song. 

But in any case, the song made him a household name, even though his overall sales still didn't increase much. His only two really big hits on the singles charts remain "Short People" and "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)." Since Newman's version of "Short People" is so well known, it's the only song in this series I've included that's performed by him.

I also want to give a special mention to "Sail Away." I think it's an incredible song. But it also shows how unique his songwriting is, and how easy it can be for people to misunderstand his songs if they don't pay attention. It's basically an advertisement for a slave trader prior to the Civil War, attempting to coax Black Africans to come to the U.S. for a better life, when in fact the trader is tricking them into slavery. Yet somehow this sarcastic premise becomes a powerful song about the evils of slavery. It's been widely covered, including by the likes of Bobby Darin, Etta James, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Joe Cocker, and Kirsty MacColl. It was hard for me to pick just one cover, but I thought the version by Etta James is extra powerful.

From the start of Newman's songwriting career, he'd had a sideline writing instrumental music for T.V. shows, which then led to movie soundtrack work. That began way back in 1962, as I mentioned in the previous volume. His first movie soundtrack was in 1971. He did a few more movies here and there over the next couple decades. But his career took a turn in 1995, when he did the soundtrack for the hit movie "Toy Story." One song he did for that, "You've Got a Friend in Me," wasn't a hit per se, barely reaching the singles chart. But it became widely known, and widely beloved by children, and it's gone on to sell over three million copies! Surely that makes it one of the best selling non-hits ever. 

For that song, I've included a duet version between Newman and Lyle Lovett, since it's an interesting one that's also much less well known than the version just featuring Newman.

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 Have You Seen My Baby [Hold On] (Ringo Starr)
02 Sail Away (Etta James)
03 Last Night I Had a Dream (Fanny)
04 Let's Burn Down the Cornfield (Etta James)
05 Naked Man (Grass Roots)
06 Lucinda (Joe Cocker)
07 Short People (Randy Newman)
08 Baltimore (Nina Simone)
09 Mr. President (Marshall Tucker Band)
10 You Can Leave Your Hat On (Joe Cocker)
11 Louisiana 1927 (Aaron Neville)
12 Political Science (Everything but the Girl)
13 You've Got a Friend in Me (Randy Newman & Lyle Lovett)
14 Feels like Home (Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt & Dolly Parton)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6SB3U9ZA

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/f6YT8V3gAvHLIQ3/file 

The cover image is from 1978.

Richard Thompson - Boxed Set, Cowcaddens, Glasgow, Britain, 8-16-1999

Here's a very nice Richard Thompson concert. It's from 1999, just after he released what I consider one of his best solo albums, "Mock Tudor," earlier that year.

I have to admit, I had planned to post this as the next album in my long series of Thompson's BBC albums. Most versions of this label it as a BBC concert. But right before posting, I did a little more digging and discovered this concert was done for a British TV show, but not a BBC one. "Boxed Set" was a short-lived music show around 1999 and 2000, done for Scottish Television (STV) in association with ITV. But, BBC or not, it's a worthy concert and one of his most high-profile TV appearances, so I'm posting it here.

I didn't have to do much audio editing. There was a short interview section with Thompson in the middle of the show that I got rid of, since it wasn't actually from the concert. Also, some of the cheering at the ends of songs got cut off as the TV show quickly went to commercial breaks and things like that. So, in those cases, I copied and pasted in some cheering from the ends of other songs. But that was about it.

Note that he was joined by his son Teddy Thompson to help sing the song "Persuasion." Teddy has had a successful music career of his own. 

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

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 talk (Richard Thompson)
02 Cooksferry Queen (Richard Thompson)
03 Bathsheba Smiles (Richard Thompson)
04 talk (Richard Thompson)
05 Uninhabited Man (Richard Thompson)
06 Persuasion (Richard Thompson with Teddy Thompson)
07 Two Faced Love (Richard Thompson)
08 Al Bowlly's in Heaven (Richard Thompson)
09 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard Thompson)
10 The Sights and Sounds of London Town (Richard Thompson)
11 Tear-Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZeNZzz2P

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/Fd36kzW1Ex2q6fk/file

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

Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham - Nordwestradio, Bremen, Germany, 10-14-1999

The songwriting team of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham are responsible for many soul classics, such as "Don Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "The Dark End of the Street." I've made two albums of their songs for my "Covered" series. But in addition to being excellent songwriters, they also were excellent performers. In particular, Penn had a soulful voice, and could have been a star if he'd saved his best songs for himself. (He sings lead on most of the songs here.) However, the two of them preferred being songwriters and sessions musicians instead. This concert is a good overview of the best songs, most of which they wrote together.

Penn and Olham began writing songs together in the 1960s, and wrote many hits. Penn put out a solo album in 1973, but it was mostly ignored at the time, and it seems he didn't tour or otherwise promote it. He resumed a solo career in 1993, usually working closely with Oldham. As far as I can tell, they only began touring in 1998, and occasionally toured after that. A live album compiled from various 1998 concerts was released in 1999, called "Moments from This Theatre." I prefer this concert for several reasons. For one, I prefer hearing a single concert, rather than an album cobbled together from lots of different concerts. Also, the official live album has 14 songs on it, and this one is significantly longer, with 21 songs. Plus, this one also has more banter.

This concert was recorded for a German radio station. The music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

The concert is basically acoustic, with Penn playing an acoustic guitar and Oldham playing an organ, and not much else. 

This album is an hour and 32 minutes long. 

01 I'm Your Puppet (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
02 Sweet Inspiration (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
03 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
04 Cry like a Baby (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
05 Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
06 I Met Her in Church (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
07 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
08 Lonely Women Make Good Lovers (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
09 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
10 It Tears Me Up (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
11 The Dark End of the Street (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
12 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
13 You Left the Water Running (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
14 A Woman Left Lonely (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
15 I'm Living Good (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
16 Ol' Folks (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
17 Nobody's Fool (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
18 Zero Willpower (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
19 Hello Memphis (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
20 Rainbow Road (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
21 Goodbye London [Edit] (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
22 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
23 These Bars [Made a Prisoner Out of Me] (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
24 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
25 Memphis Women and Chicken (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
26 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
27 I Do (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
28 Out of Left Field (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yBuBTwFF

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/MlB0MsVI2exbusf/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except it was taken in 1996. Oldham has a beard and Penn is shown playing a guitar. 

Neil Finn, Roddy Frame, & Graham Gouldman - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-2-1999

Here's another episode of the BBC TV show "Songwriters' Circle." This show ran for only five episodes in 1999. Then it had a longer life about ten years later, with over a dozen episodes from 2010 to 2012. This is one of those 1999 episodes. It stars Neil Finn from Crowded House, Roddy Frame from Aztec Camera, and Graham Gouldman from 10cc. (Both Neil Finn returned for second appearances in 2011.)

As usual, the show had the format of each singer-songwriter taking turns performing their own songs. This episode, however, had more collaboration between them, especially in the second half of the show. That's one of the reasons I think this is one of the best shows in this series.

Unfortunately, this is the last episode I've been able to find. There are three others that were broadcast that remain elusive for me. There are two more 1999 episodes. One of them starred Joan Baez, Matraca Berg, and Gretchen Peters. The other one starred two duos, Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, and then Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, plus John Martyn. I'm also missing a 2012 episode starring Bill Anderson, Clint Black, and Bob DiPiero. If anyone has them and wants to share, I'd love to post them here as well. 

On a different note, I'm back from my week-long trip to Seattle. Now that I'm back, I fixed the cover of County JoeMcDonald's "BBC Sessions, Volume 3," so you might want to redownload that one. I also hope to finally respond to some comments I still haven't gotten to during my Peru trip, plus the ones from the last week. 

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

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 talk (Neil Finn)
02 Distant Sun (Neil Finn)
03 talk (Roddy Frame)
04 Bigger Brighter Better (Roddy Frame)
05 talk (Graham Gouldman)
06 Bus Stop (Graham Gouldman)
07 talk (Neil Finn)
08 Don't Dream It's Over (Neil Finn)
09 talk (Roddy Frame)
10 Hymn to Grace (Roddy Frame)
11 talk (Graham Gouldman)
12 Heart Full of Soul (Graham Gouldman)
13 talk (Neil Finn)
14 Throw Your Arms Around Me (Neil Finn)
15 talk (Roddy Frame)
16 Killermont Street (Roddy Frame)
17 talk (Graham Gouldman)
18 For Your Love (Graham Gouldman)
19 talk (Neil Finn, Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
20 Fall at Your Feet (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
21 talk (Roddy Frame)
22 Oblivious (Roddy Frame with Neil Finn & Graham Gouldman)
23 talk (Graham Gouldman)
24 I'm Not in Love (Graham Gouldman)
25 talk (Neil Finn)
26 Weather with You (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
27 talk (Neil Finn)
28 Ten Guitars (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
29 talk (Neil Finn, Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
30 Somewhere in My Heart (Roddy Frame with Neil Finn & Graham Gouldman)
31 talk (Graham Gouldman)
32 Dreadlock Holiday (Graham Gouldman with Neil Finn & Roddy Frame)
33 talk (Neil Finn)
34 Better Be Home Soon (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FbfQAr71

alternate: 

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

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Neil Finn, Roddy Frame, and Graham Gouldman.

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 7: 1987-2012 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I'm back from my two week vacation from Peru. It got off to a rough start due to the plane flight there, which I posted about. But everything else since then went great, with no more problems. :) I even had good weather the whole time, despite it being the rainy season there.

Here's the last album in a series that contains all the songs written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach and sung by Dionne Warwick. Though note that there's a bonus album of sorts still to come that will be explained later.

As I mentioned in Volume 6, the Bacharach-David songwriting partnership broke up around 1973, and they didn't collaborate for a long time after that. The second half of Volume 6 consisted entirely of songs written by Bacharach and another successful songwriter, Carole Bayer Sager. (In fact, Bacharach and Sager were married for a few years around this time). 

The Bacharach and Sager collaboration continued for a little while. The first songs are from a 1987, and are all co-written by those two. One song, "Love Power," was a hit. After that, there are a bunch of songs from 1989 to 2011, one song per year with many years skipped. "Sunny Weather Lover" from 1993 is a key song here, because it's the first song Bacharach and David wrote together since about 1972. However, that was a rare collaboration. Their songwriting partnership didn't reignite after that. (They also co-wrote two songs for the 2000 movie "Isn't She Great," but Warwick didn't sing them.) Furthermore, both of them were simply getting older and didn't write songs nearly as often as they used to. 

So the rest of the songs were written by Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" was a Number One hit in the U.S. for Christopher Cross in 1981, and was written by Bacharach with Sager and two others. Track 101 is an unreleased live version by Warwick recorded in 2005.

The last four songs are from a 2012 album called "Now." It was billed as a celebration of Bacharach and David songs. However, it mostly consisted of rerecordings of old hits. The four new songs, presented here, were written by either Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "99 Miles from L.A." was written by David with Albert Hammond, and was a hit for Hammond in 1975. 

Hal David died in 2012, so that ended the chance for any more songs written by both of them. Bacharach died in 2023.

While I was on vacation, a commenter noted that a song, "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" was included on Volume 4 of this series, despite neither Bacharach nor David being involved in writing it. Now that I'm back home, I was able to repost that album with that song removed. That also means that the numbering of all the songs after that has been fixed as well. So you might want to redownload Volumes 4, 5, and 6 if you're a stickler about such things. Also, since I had complaints about the cover art for Volume 1, I've posted an alternate version of the cover at the bottom of my write-up for that album that uses the original black and white photo, in case anyone wants that.

Thanks again to Mike Solof for putting this together.   

This album is one hour long. 

092 Take Good Care of You and Me (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
093 Love Power (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
094 In a World Such as This (Dionne Warwick)
095 Heartbreak of Love (Dionne Warwick & June Pointer)
096 On My Own (Dionne Warwick)
097 Sunny Weather Lover (Dionne Warwick)
098 Captives of the Heart (Dionne Warwick)
099 If I Want To (Dionne Warwick)
100 On My Way (Dionne Warwick)
101 Arthur's Theme [Best That You Can Do] (Dionne Warwick)
102 Keep Me in Mind (Dionne Warwick)
103 99 Miles from L.A. (Dionne Warwick)
104 Is There Anybody Out There (Dionne Warwick)
105 It Was Almost like a Song (Dionne Warwick)
106 Love Is Still the Answer (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ieF2gBUW

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/DKTsSUgj9dgKC43/file

The cover photo shows her in concert in an unknown location, in February 1989.

Covered: Neil Young, Volume 4: 1999-2005

Here’s the fourth album in the Neil Young covered series. Once again, thanks to Fabio from Rio for doing most of the work. I also want to mention that I have a long list of songwriters that I want to make Covered albums for. Many of the biggest ones, like Dylan, Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richard’s, Ray Davies, etc… are still to come. I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten around to Young for a couple more years. But Fabio’s involvement and energy brought this one to the front of the line.

Here are Fabio’s comments about the time period of this volume:

By the turn of the millennium, Neil Young's songwriting had become a shared reference point for several generations of musicians. Musical artists from the folk revival, alt-country movement, and indie rock scene were all revisiting different eras of his catalog - from the fragile acoustic songs of the late sixties to the electric epics recorded with Crazy Horse. During this period, Young himself remained remarkably active, releasing albums such as "Silver and Gold" and "Greendale" while continuing to tour extensively. The covers gathered here reflect that generational dialogue: younger singer-songwriters, Americana performers, and alternative rock musicians rediscovering both famous classics and some of the most obscure corners of Young's songwriting. 

--- 

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

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

01 Piece of Crap (Slobberbone)
02 Pushed It Over the End (South Ontario)
03 Long Walk Home (MrChuck)
04 I've Been Waiting for You (David Bowie)
05 Running Dry [Requiem for the Rockets] (Steve Von Till)
06 Albuquerque (Walkabouts)
07 Pocahontas (Gillian Welch)
08 The Old Laughing Lady (Thea Gilmore)
09 Old Man (Wilson Phillips)
10 I Believe in You (Patricia O'Callaghan)
11 Helpless (k.d. lang)
12 Barstool Blues (Maria McKee)
13 Broken Arrow (Kate Rogers)
14 Last Trip to Tulsa (Leo Koster)
15 Roll Another Number [For the Road] (Mike McClure)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xP2bMEgi

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/F0bJfmxhH1onFkG/file

The cover photo is from 1975. The original was in black and white. I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to improve details. 

I got a complaint that the cover image was ruined by AI. I don't think so. Here's the unaltered black and white original. As I've said elsewhere, I typically only use Krea AI to make minor changes, mostly with color and contrast. If you don't like the colorization and other changes, feel free to use this version. 

Covered: Neil Young, Volume 3: 1995-1999

I had a rough start getting to Peru, but I’m finishing my second full day here and I’m having a good time. Since Fabio from Rio wrote the notes as well as doing most of the work putting these albums together, once again, here’s Fabio:

By the mid-to-late 1990s, Neil Young was enjoying one of the most respected phases of his long career. After the grunge generation had embraced him earlier in the decade, Young reinforced that connection with the raw "Mirror Ball" album collaboration with Pearl Jam in 1995 and continued releasing strong albums that balanced electric noise with acoustic reflection. At the same time, a new wave of alternative, indie and Americana artists began rediscovering older corners of his catalog — not only the famous songs, but also deep cuts from albums like "Zuma," "Tonight's the Night," and "On the Beach." The covers collected in this volume reflect that moment: a mixture of roots musicians, indie rock artists and cult performers exploring both the best-known and the more obscure sides of Young's songwriting.

--- 

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

This album is an hour and three minutes long.  

01 After the Gold Rush (Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris)
02 Words [Between the Lines of Age] (Lifter & Campfire Girls)
03 Wrecking Ball (Emmylou Harris)
04 Don't Cry (Kristen Barry)
05 Grey Riders (Sand Rubies)
06 Campaigner (Snares & Kites)
07 This Note's for You (Colourful Dreams)
08 Down to the Wire (Grip Weeds)
09 When You Dance I Can Really Love (Continental Drifters)
10 Expecting to Fly (Sonya Hunter)
11 Danger Bird (27)
12 Tonight's the Night (Chris Cacavas)
13 Harvest Moon (Elliott Smith)
14 Midnight on the Bay (Red House Painters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qLPCQWr1

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/594QHjU6ivBQQa4/file

The cover photo is from 1969. The original was in black and white. I colorized it with the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. 

I got a complaint that I ruined the cover with AI. Here's the unchanged original, after it was colorized. (I didn't keep the black and white version.) In my opinion, the changes are minimal but improve the image quality. But you may feel differently.

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. 

Blondie - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-25-1999

I was all set to post a "PBS Soundstage" concert by Blondie today. But when I looked in my Blondie music folder, I noticed that I'd never posted this BBC concert, even though I was sure I had. So I'm posting this first. The Soundstage one will come soon. 

As an aside, note that I previously posted another Blondie BBC concert, from 1979. Since this is the second one I've found, today I renamed that other one "Volume 1." Here's a link to the updated version of that one if you want to redownload it:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/07/blondie-bbc-in-concert-apollo-theatre.html

Anyway, this concert is from 1999. The band Blondie was together from 1974 to 1982. They broke up for nearly two decades, but finally reunited in 1997, and put out a new studio album in 1999, called "No Exit." Usually when it comes to reunions like this, the new music doesn't sell very well. But Blondie found great success with their single "Maria," which reached Number One in Britain in 1999. So that made this a good time for another BBC concert. 

Naturally, they performed the song "Maria" here. But they only performed two other songs from their new album, "Screaming Skin" and "Nothing Is Real but the Girl." Otherwise, the album consists of their best known songs from the 1970s and 80s. One exception is "Shayla," a deep cut from their 1979 album "Eat to the Beat."

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

This album is an hour and eight minutes long. 

01 Call Me (Blondie)
02 Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie)
03 Screaming Skin (Blondie)
04 Atomic (Blondie)
05 Shayla (Blondie)
06 Union City Blue (Blondie)
07 Denis (Blondie)
08 The Tide Is High (Blondie)
09 Sunday Girl (Blondie)
10 Maria (Blondie)
11 One Way or Another (Blondie)
12 talk (Blondie)
13 Nothing Is Real but the Girl (Blondie)
14 Rapture (Blondie)
15 Heart of Glass (Blondie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t5nGFyef

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/GkOTF0gtR3szYep/file

The cover photo of lead singer Deborah Harry is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - Songs in the Key of Brian - Remembering Brian Wilson (1975-2021) (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

One of the all-time great musical geniuses, Brian Wilson, died a few days ago, on June 11, 2025. He was 82 years old. I wanted to post something to mark his passing. Luckily, I've recently been collaborating with a new musical friend, who goes by the name Fabio from Rio. He's a big fan of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and came up with the idea of creating an album consisting entirely of songs about Brian Wilson. So that's what this is. I gave him free reign, and only helped him some with suggestions on song selection.

I would have never come up with the idea for this album, because I had no idea that there would be enough songs about Brian Wilson to make up an entire album. I knew of the song "Brian Wilson" by Barenaked Ladies, since that was a hit back in the 1990s, but that was about it. But Fabio must be a really big fan, because he found so many songs that we had to cut some out to keep the album from getting too long.

The album starts with a rare demo written and sung by Wilson himself. It also ends with two more written and sung by him, including a rare live version of "Love and Mercy." Fabio explained the reasoning for this in an email, which I liked. I'll just paste in his explanation here:

"The Wilson tunes are bookends, as they serve to introduce and close the 'main event' (all the tracks written to him or about him) while bringing a personal Brian touch to the collection. The first song, a 1975, demo works as a prelude (acknowledging Brian's fragility and strength both simultaneously contained in his voice), 'The Last Song' is the epilogue, and 'Love and Mercy' is a coda." 

Regarding the rest of the songs, what Fabio calls the "main event," tracks 2 through 13, are basically divided into two parts. Tracks 2 through 8 are direct tributes to Brian. That's obvious by their titles, but it's not just that: the lyrics and musical style ooze reference and admiration for the man. That's followed by tracks 9 through 13, which are indirect tributes to Brian, or direct tributes to things related to him (the Beach Boys, his health shop, girls, his genius, family), all mentioning him either in the title or lyrics.

So, a big thanks to Fabio from Rio for coming up with the idea for this album and then finding and selecting the songs. As you could guess from the name, he's Brazilian, and hopefully in the future he'll be able to assist in sharing more music from Brazil. I like a lot of music from Brazil, despite not speaking Portuguese at all. I haven't really shared any music from Brazil until now, because I don't have worthy rarities. But he does, so look forward to that in the future. He also has some other plans, including creating one or more albums as a further tribute to Wilson that will consist of songs in a Beach Boys style composed by other musical acts. 

Fabio has also taped a great number of concerts in Brazil. You can find some of them on his YouTube page, here: 

https://www.youtube.com/@musicadequalidade2020/videos

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 In the Back of My Mind [Demo] (Brian Wilson)
02 The Love Songs of B. Douglas Wilson (Splitsville)
03 Mr. Wilson (Hormones)
04 Dear Brian (Chris Rainbow)
05 Brian Wilson Said (Tears for Fears)
06 Brian Wilson (Barenaked Ladies)
07 Mr. Wilson (John Cale)
08 Brian Wilson (Queers)
09 Crazy = Genius (Panic at the Disco)
10 Radiant Radish (Pearl & the Oysters)
11 Brian Wilson Is My Dad (Breakup Shoes)
12 Minnesota Girls (Shackletons)
13 Since God Invented Girls (Elton John)
14 The Last Song (Brian Wilson)
15 Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Kn42WH9u

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/EMCkcQ343EW7g0m/file

The cover photo shows Wilson in 2007. I added the font colors and type to match those used on the cover of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album.

Covered: Will Jennings, Volume 2: 1988-1999

Here's "Volume 2" celebrating the songwriting of Will Jennings.

With "Volume 1," I showed that Jennings co-wrote many popular hits in the late 1970s and all through the 1980s. His winning streak continued through all of the 1990s in this volume.

Jennings co-wrote five Number One hits in the U.S. in Volume 1. He only co-wrote two in this volume: "Roll with It" and "My Heart Will Go On." But it was a fluke "Tears in Heaven" only reached Number Two (held back by "Save the Best for Last" by Vanessa Williams), since it was one of the top five best selling singles of the year. Rolling Stone Magazine also put it on their list of the top 500 songs of all time.

I found an article that talked a bit about Jennings' involvement with "Tears in Heaven." Eric Clapton wrote the music and lyrics for the first verse, with lyrics about the tragic and untimely death of his young son. However, he got stuck at that point. He'd been impressed with Jennings being involved co-writing many hits for Steve Winwood, so Clapton recruited him to help. Jennings not only wrote the lyrics of the other verses, he wrote both the music and lyrics of the bridge. So that's a good example showing that while he was best known for his lyric writing, he was capable with music composition too.

The biggest hit here, though, has to be "My Heart Will Go On," the theme song for the blockbuster "Titanic" movie. It was a Number One song in the U.S., Britain, and over twenty more countries. It was the best selling single of 1998, and is currently listed as the tenth best selling single of all time, as I write this in 2025! It basically won all the awards, including Academy Award for Best Original Song, Grammy Award for Song of the Year, Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. 

The music to the song was written by James Horner. He didn't write many other big hits, but he did the scores to well over 100 movies. Originally, director James Cameron just wanted the theme song to be an instrumental. But Horner felt it needed lyrics, so he secretly got Jennings to write the lyrics, since he'd worked with Jennings on a few songs previously. After Cameron heard it, he wasn't keen on having vocals. But he was under intense pressure from the movie studio to make a profit since "Titanic" was the most expensive movie ever made up until that point. So Cameron ultimately gave the okay, and was glad he did, since the song helped make the movie the top grossing film of all time up until then.

After that though, Jennings didn't have many more hits. No doubt, at that point, he could have retired and slept on a hill of money from his "My Heart Will Go On" profits alone. He did have some more music projects into the early 2000s, but seems to have retired by about 2005. He died in 2024 at the age of 80.

As with "Volume 1," all the songs here are the original versions, which were usually hits. I could have included many more lesser hits, but I generally wanted to limit these volumes to the bigger hits, which usually were the best songs. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 Roll with It (Steve Winwood)
02 If We Hold On Together (Diana Ross)
03 Don't You Know What the Night Can Do (Steve Winwood)
04 Many a Long and Lonesome Highway (Rodney Crowell)
05 Holding On (Steve Winwood)
06 The Blues Come Over Me (B.B. King)
07 Tears in Heaven (Eric Clapton)
08 What Kind of Love (Rodney Crowell)
09 Help Me Up (Eric Clapton)
10 My Heart Will Go On [Love Theme from Titanic] (Celine Dion)
11 I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You (Tina Arena & Marc Anthony)
12 Please Remember Me (Tim McGraw)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3Pu5JVo1 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/XOU3PDIFFAyEJhE/file

The cover photo is from 1999. In full picture, Jennings is holding a Grammy Award in his hands.

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 6: 1994-2005

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted the last volume of Stevie Wonder's "Covered" series. There are two left to go. So I'm posting both of them today to finish them off. Here's Volume 6.

The time period of this album is 1994 to 2005. But note that's the time frame for when cover versions were released, not necessarily when the originals were released. By this time, Wonder's songwriting had slowed down, so most of the songs here are from earlier, usually from the 1970s. 

Wonder was still writing songs for others during this time period. However, in my opinion, they weren't up to snuff compared to the other songs on this album, so I didn't include any of them here.

One song I feel needs a little explaining is "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio with L.V. This is based on Wonder's 1976 song "Pastime Paradise." But Coolio significantly changed it with rap lyrics added. Normally, I'm not a big fan of rap, and I'm especially not a fan of songs where rap lyrics are added over classic songs. But in this case, I think Coolio did a really good job, keeping the heart of the original while adding something worthwhile and new. The general public thought so too, since it was the best selling single of 1995. So I've included this version here, but also I also included a more standard version of "Pastime Paradise" in Volume 4 in this series.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Maybe Your Baby (Prince)
02 Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio with L.V.)
03 You and I (Joe Cocker)
04 Knocks Me Off My Feet (Luther Vandross)
05 As (George Michael & Mary J.Blige)
06 I Wish (Lady Gaga)
07 Isn't She Lovely (Keb Mo)
08 I Ain't Gonna Stand for It (Eric Clapton)
09 Love's in Need of Love Today (Joan Osborne)
10 Too High (Michael McDonald)
11 Overjoyed (Mary J. Blige)
12 If It's Magic (Caetano Veloso)
13 Send One Your Love (Vanessa Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oNS96AJx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5qkLrQoBsrCXuF2/file

The cover photo is from 1993.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: 1999-2005

Here's another volume of Van Morrison performing for the BBC. This time, it's a collection of BBC TV performances.

Everything here comes from different episodes of the BBC TV show "Later... with Jools Holland." That's just by chance, as these were all the BBC sessions from the time period that I could find. The first two songs are from a 1999 episode. The next five are from another 1999 episode, a special year end celebration one. The three after that are from a 2000 episode. The last song is from a 2005 episode.

On many of these songs, Morrison shared the stage with some special guests. For the 1999 year-end episode (tracks 3 through 7), Morrison sang duets with Lonnie Donegan on three songs. Donegan was the "King of Skiffle" in the 1950s. The skiffle was a form of folk music that was extremely popular in Britain for a few years. Note that on one of the songs, "Midnight Special," Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music also joined Morrison and Donegan in singing different verses. For the 2000 episode (tracks 8 through 10), Morrison was prominently backed on vocals by Linda Gail Lewis. A duet album starring Morrison and Lewis was released in 2000.

There's one song I chose not to include from the 2005 session: "They Sold Me Out." I was fine with it at first, until I clearly heard the lyrics. They sound suspiciously antisemitic to me, and I don't want to further spread them. Even if they're not, the whole conceit of the song, in which he likens himself to being persecuted just like Jesus, is both ridiculous and offensive. Here's an article if you want a hint of the controversy this song caused:

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/27/van-morrisons-lyrical-antisemitism/

In fact, this is basically when I reach the limit of what I can take from Morrison's declining career. Musically, he was repeating himself, and lyrically he was turning into a grumpy old man. Things would reach an all time low with his 2021 album "Latest Record Project: Volume 1," which has to be one of the worst albums of all time by a famous musical act. (At the crowd-sourced rateyourmusic.com, it gets a 1.77 on a 1 to 5 scale as I write this in 2025, which is a shockingly low number for that site.)

The music on this album I still like. He's helped a lot by the support of Lonnie Donegan and Linda Gail Lewis. But after this, I only plan on posting one more BBC album from him (although there are others), which is a concert from 2003.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Back on Top (Van Morrison)
02 When the Leaves Come Falling Down (Van Morrison)
03 Precious Time (Van Morrison)
04 Lost John (Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan)
05 I Wanna Go Home [Sloop John B.] (Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan)
06 Philosopher's Stone (Van Morrison)
07 Midnight Special (Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Bryan Ferry)
08 Let's Talk about Us (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
09 Real Gone Lover (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
10 No Way Pedro (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
11 Celtic New Year (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/N4o2Wu5U

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/V8c1NTHQU6Y38dE/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of one of these TV episodes.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, London, Britain, 11-3-1999

Here's another BBC concert from Mary Chapin Carpenter. This one is from 1999.

I previously posted a BBC concert she did in 1994. I recently have discovered some more. I found one from 1993, but I decided not to post it, because I've posted a 1993 concert she did in Glasgow that is almost exactly the same, except with more songs, more banter, and slightly better sound quality. It took place only two days apart. I've also discovered this one, and two more one from later years that I plan to post soon.

This concert took place after Carpenter released the album "Party Doll and Other Favorites." It's kind of an odd duck, because it's a mix of new songs, rare songs, and alternate versions of previous hits. A couple of the songs here, like "Party Doll" and "Almost Home," were new songs from that album. She also performed a funny original song she's never released, "If I Were a Diva."

This album is 55 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 10, 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 Hard Way (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 Shut Up and Kiss Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 Almost Home (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 Stones in the Road (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 I Feel Lucky (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 It Works (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 Friend to Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Party Doll (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
12 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
13 If I Were a Diva (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
14 My Love Will Not Let You Down (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
15 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
16 Why Walk When You Can Fly (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3HUrydrc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/t1NFfrQc0ayDaJX/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in June 2001.

Joan Baez - 1999 BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, Britain, 11-4-1999

Here's the fourth, and for now last, album of Joan Baez performing for the BBC. I say "for now," because I'm pretty sure there are one or two more BBC concerts I can't find. So don't be surprised if this gets renumbered eventually. This is another BBC concert.

For Volume 3, I posted a 1993 concert. As I said in my write-up for that, I mostly knew her for her 1960s and 1970s music. I was pleasantly surprised with her mostly different later material. That's the case here, with a set list that's largely different from the 1993 show, and only a couple of well-known songs from much earlier in her career.

This concert is officially unreleased.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 No Mermaid (Joan Baez)
02 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez)
03 Crack in the Mirror (Joan Baez)
04 talk (Joan Baez)
05 Long Bed from Kenya (Joan Baez)
06 talk (Joan Baez)
07 Joe Hill (Joan Baez)
08 Jesse (Joan Baez)
09 talk (Joan Baez)
10 Lily (Joan Baez)
11 talk (Joan Baez)
12 Money for Floods (Joan Baez)
13 talk (Joan Baez)
14 Lily of the West [Edit] (Joan Baez)
15 talk (Joan Baez)
16 Welcome Me (Joan Baez)
17 talk (Joan Baez)
18 Gracias a La Vida (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CJsS86BN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Hl5u5W6T2HZlUYD/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Portsmouth, Britain, in October 1999.

John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-9-1999

I recently discovered a bunch of "Songwriters' Circle" albums, and I plan on posting more of them soon. Most of them are pretty hard to find, except this one. It probably gets around more due to the star line-up of John Cale (formerly of the Velvet Underground), Nick Cave, and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.

By the way, I've already posted two Songwriters' Circle albums. They all follow the same format, in which three singer-songwriters are chosen and take turns singing songs in an acoustic format. Sometimes they join in a bit on each other's songs, sometimes not. Then, at the end, they usually sing a song together. 

I've already posted two such shows. Here's one with Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor, and Nick Lowe:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/03/jimmy-webb-chip-taylor-nick-lowe.html

And here's one with Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Loudon Wainwright III:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/12/richard-thompson-suzanne-vega-loudon.html

I have figured out all of these come from a BBC TV show called "Songwriters' Circle." But the odd thing is, this show has had two brief runs. There were a bunch of shows in 1999, including the one I'm posting here. Then there was a second bunch in 2010 and 2011. There haven't been any since. All the episodes remain unreleased as audio albums, but you can often find the videos of them on YouTube.

For this show, I found out there are two versions. One ends with "The Ship Song," and goes into a BBC DJ announcing the end of the show. Another has one more song, a cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man" by the Velvet Underground. I used the shorter version for most of this concert, since I had that in better quality. But I added in the extra song from the other version.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 talk (John Cale)
02 Dying on the Vine (John Cale)
03 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
04 Talk of the Town (Chrissie Hynde)
05 talk (Nick Cave)
06 West Country Girl (Nick Cave)
07 Thoughtless Kind (John Cale)
08 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
09 Kid (Chrissie Hynde)
10 talk (Nick Cave)
11 Henry Lee (Nick Cave)
12 talk (John Cale)
13 Fear Is a Man's Best Friend (John Cale)
14 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
15 I'll Stand by You (Chrissie Hynde)
16 talk (Nick Cave)
17 Into My Arms (Nick Cave)
18 talk (John Cale)
19 Ship of Fools (John Cale)
20 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
21 The Ship Song (Nick Cave)
22 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
23 I'm Waiting for the Man (John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ewxUQBev

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/oKg50OZy7rZu2qu/file

The image is from this exact concert. I took it from a high-quality video. Nick Cave was far apart from the others on stage, due to him having to stick by the piano. I moved him in much closer.

David Bowie - BBC Sessions, Volume 11: 1999-2000

I love David Bowie's music from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. I think his songwriting wasn't as strong after that. However, he still was an excellent performer. I have a bunch of his BBC albums still to post from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Generally speaking, most of the songs he did in these sessions are from earlier in his career anyway, so you should like these albums even if you're not such a big fan of his new material from those years.

This album is a case in point. It's a collection of BBC studio sessions for the most part, with just three songs that were relatively new at the time ("Survive," "Something in the Air," and "Repetition"). The first seven tracks are from an October 1999 session before a very small audience. Tracks 8 and 9 are from an appearance on the BBC TV show "Later... with Jools Holland." 

Finally, the last four tracks are from the 2000 Glastonbury Festival, which was broadcast on the BBC. Normally, I would have posted the entire Glastonbury performance, but that has been officially released as the live album "Glastonbury 2000." Also, I have other very similar performances of most of the songs from that, since the next album in this series is a full BBC concert that took place just two days after Glastonbury. So I only included four songs that he didn't play in that concert.

I used the MVSEP audio editing program to remove the crowd noise from the first seven tracks plus the last four, so everything here would sound like it was recorded in a studio. There wasn't much clapping with the first seven anyway, since it sounds like the audience was quite small. Everything here is unreleased except for the four Glastonbury tracks.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Survive (David Bowie)
02 Drive-In Saturday (David Bowie)
03 Something in the Air (David Bowie)
04 Can't Help Thinking about Me (David Bowie)
05 talk (David Bowie)
06 Repetition (David Bowie)
07 China Girl (David Bowie)
08 Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
09 Cracked Actor (David Bowie)
10 Changes (David Bowie)
11 Station to Station (David Bowie)
12 talk (David Bowie)
13 Golden Years (David Bowie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1cf31ogH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zj9YKUraxwObErm/file

I'm not a fan of smoking cigarettes, so normally I wouldn't have chosen the cover photo I did for this album. However, this is the one and only photo I found of Bowie that actually comes from one of the BBC sessions included here, so I thought this was the most fitting photo. Specifically, this photo was taken during the October 25, 1999 BBC session in Maida Vale Studios in London. The first seven tracks here come from that session.

Chris Isaak - Acoustic, Volume 3: 1998-2016

Recently, a commenter pointed out to me that I had posted two volumes of Chris Isaak performing a third, yet I hadn't posted the third one. That was a very good point. I sometimes have albums all ready to go but then get distracted and fail to post them for some reason or another. So here's Volume 3.

As I mentioned with Volume 2 in this series, I really like how Isaak isn't afraid to perform songs just with an acoustic guitar or two. Typically, he's done this during short appearances, like in-person radio station promotions, where it probably isn't worth it for him to bring his entire band along. So this is mostly a compilation of unreleased performances from TV shows and radio shows. As usual, check the mp3 tags for all the details.

The only exceptions to that are tracks 7, 8, and 9. Track 7, "Forever Blue," is an acoustic version released on the album "Best of Chris Isaak." Tracks 8 and 9, "Don't Leave Me On My Own" and "Waiting," are also acoustic versions from the "Best of Chris Isaak" album, but only as bonus tracks on the iTunes version of that album.

Isaak's music career has been slowing down as he gets older, so this probably is the last album in this series. But never say never, I suppose.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Don't Get So Down on Yourself (Chris Isaak)
02 Sweet Leilani (Chris Isaak)
03 Blue Darlin' (Chris Isaak)
04 Speak of the Devil (Chris Isaak)
05 One Day (Chris Isaak)
06 Let Me Down Easy (Chris Isaak)
07 Forever Blue [Acoustic Version] (Chris Isaak)
08 Don't Leave Me On My Own [Acoustic Version] (Chris Isaak)
09 Waiting [Acoustic Version] (Chris Isaak)
10 Only the Lonely (Chris Isaak)
11 Somebody's Crying (Chris Isaak)
12 Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)
13 I Want You to Want Me (Chris Isaak)
14 Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing (Chris Isaak)
15 It Hurt Me So (Chris Isaak)
16 Great Balls of Fire (Chris Isaak)
17 Ring of Fire (Chris Isaak)
18 Oh, Pretty Woman (Chris Isaak)
19 My Happiness (Chris Isaak)
20 Live It Up (Chris Isaak)
21 Blue Christmas (Chris Isaak)
22 Perfect Lover (Chris Isaak)
23 Please Don't Call (Chris Isaak) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gpUPv5Xj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BpKi5r1ZG4I4Sh2/file

The cover photo shows Chris Isaak performing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in November 2004.