The Fortunes - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1967-1972

Here's the third and final album of the Fortunes performing for the BBC. Like the first two, it consists of studio sessions.

As I mentioned in my comments in the previous volumes, the Fortunes had unusual commercial, well, fortune. They had three big hits in 1965 and 1966, then pretty much disappeared from the charts for a bunch of years, only to return with more hits in 1971 and 1972. Then the disappeared again, and became an oldies act. 

Specifically their later hits were "Here Comes that Rainy Day Feeling Again" and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go" in 1971, and "Storm in a Teacup" in 1972. The first one almost made the Top Ten in the U.S., and the last two did make the Top Ten in Britain. The key to their revival was the use of professional songwriters, since the band never excelled writing hits on their own.  

This album starts out with their commercial prospects declining, and getting worse. All the songs are from the pop hit focused BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." The first two songs are from 1967. That's a continuation from "Volume 2," when they had five more songs in 1967. Tracks 3 through 5 are from 1968. Then tracks 6 and 7 are from 1969. They had no tracks from 1970. So, as you can see, it looks like they were getting less attention from the BBC every year, until it seems they dropped off the radar altogether. But then they had that second burst of hits, so they got three more songs on the BBC in 1971 (tracks 8 through 10) and six more in 1972 (tracks 11 through 16). 

As with the two previous volumes, everything here is from the official album "Live at the BBC." But many of these versions are different because I removed the BBC DJs talking over the music, using the UVR5 audio editing program. Those are the ones with "[Edit]" in their titles. As you can see, the last bunch of songs are free of that problem, since the DJs finally stopped this bad habit around 1972. 

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 The Idol (Fortunes)
02 I Was Made to Love Her [Edit] (Fortunes)
03 Loving Cup [Edit] (Fortunes)
04 Do You Know the Way to San Jose [Edit] (Fortunes)
05 Time for Living [Edit] (Fortunes)
06 Ballad of the Alamo [Edit] (Fortunes)
07 Sad Sad Sad [Edit] (Fortunes)
08 Here Comes that Rainy Day Feeling Again [Edit] (Fortunes)
09 Freedom Come, Freedom Go [Edit] (Fortunes)
10 People I've Gotta Dream (Fortunes)
11 Storm in a Teacup (Fortunes)
12 Baby by the Way (Fortunes)
13 Everything Is Out of Season (Fortunes)
14 Wait Until September (Fortunes)
15 Secret Love (Fortunes)
16 Just a Line to Let You Know (Fortunes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/R9jQNEne

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5K08uKAzU3ijdgl/file

The cover photo shows the band in 1972. I used Krea AI to improve it a bit.

The Fortunes - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1966-1967

This is a second volume of the British band the Fortunes performing for the BBC. Like the first volume, it consists entirely of studio sessions.

As I mentioned in Volume 1, the Fortunes had a rather strange history of success, compared to other bands similar to them at the time. They had three hits in 1965 and 1966. But then, for many years, they had no hits at all, only to have some more hits in 1971 and 1972. Yet, despite that dry spell, the BBC kept putting them on their broadcasts. 

All the songs here are from the "Top of the Pops" radio show. That show is pretty much unique in how the vast majority of the broadcasts from this era survived in pristine condition, and that's the case with these.

During this time period, the band wasn't popular enough to put out albums, due to the lack of hits. In fact, they'd have no studio album between 1965 and 1970. For a lot of the songs here, no studio version was ever released on either singles or albums. That's especially the case for cover versions, like "Working in a Coalmine," "Opus 17," "I Couldn't Live without Your Love," "If I Were a Carpenter," "I Can't Help Myself," and "Waterloo Sunset."

All of the performances here have been officially released on the album "Live at the BBC." However, many of these versions are edited by me, to get rid of the BBC DJs talking over the beginnings or ends of songs. As usual, I used the UVR5 program to fix those, all ten songs with "[Edit]" in their titles.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Maria (Fortunes)
02 You Gave Me Somebody to Love (Fortunes)
03 Silent Street (Fortunes)
04 Opus 17 [Edit] (Fortunes)
05 Working in a Coalmine [Edit] (Fortunes)
06 Is It Really Worth Your While (Fortunes)
07 I Couldn't Live without Your Love [Edit] (Fortunes)
08 If I Were a Carpenter (Fortunes)
09 Sleeping Partner (Fortunes)
10 It's the Time of the Year [Edit] (Fortunes)
11 Just Give Me Something to Remind Me [Edit] (Fortunes)
12 I Know Just How You Feel (Fortunes)
13 Try a Little Harder (Fortunes)
14 Just One Smile [Edit] (Fortunes)
15 I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie Honey Bunch] [Edit] (Fortunes)
16 Waterloo Sunset [Edit] (Fortunes)
17 Just Another Dream [Edit] (Fortunes)
18 To Love Somebody [Edit] (Fortunes)

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

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/qiN8p2yHjZEgebP/file

I don't know anything about this cover photo of the band except that it's "circa 1967." I used Photoshop to extended it at both the top and bottom. The AI couldn't extend the flower pattern on one of the jackets, which is why that stops.

The Fortunes - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1965-1966

Here's BBC material from another key band from the British Invasion: the Fortunes. I have enough material for three volumes. Here's the first one.

The Fortunes have an unusual history. In short, they had a lot of commercial success in 1965 and 1966, then they fell off the charts. But they stayed together and kept releasing singles. Finally, in 1971 and 1972, they had a few more big hits. Then they suddenly disappeared from the charts and became an oldies act. 

The band first got started in 1961. But when "beat groups" like themselves started having big success in 1963 and 1964, they only had failed singles. But everything changed in 1965 with the song "You're Got Your Troubles" (written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, who I recently profiled in my "Covered" series). It reached Number Two in Britain, and was a big hit in other countries, including hitting Number One in Canada. "Here It Comes Again" was another big hit later in 1965, reaching the Top Five in Britain. Then "This Golden Ring" was another hit in early 1966. 

But, unfortunately, that was pretty much it. The band didn't have much success with songs they wrote themselves, and a few other songs written by professionals didn't hit home with the public. Three hits wasn't a lot, compared to many other musical acts. So their record company allowed them to release an album in 1965, but they wouldn't release another one for a long time.

Everything here has been officially released on the album "Live at the BBC." However, I'm posting their BBC stuff because they were plagued by the usual problem in that era of BBC DJs talking over the music. As I usually do, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to wipe out the talking while keeping the music. That's why eight of the songs here have "[Edit]" in their names.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Getting Mighty Crowded [Edit] (Fortunes)
02 You've Got Your Troubles (Fortunes)
03 Walk like a Man (Fortunes)
04 Just One More Chance [Edit] (Fortunes)
05 Wedding Day (Fortunes)
06 Here It Comes Again (Fortunes)
07 Can't Hear You No More [Edit] (Fortunes)
08 Things I Should Have Known [Edit] (Fortunes)
09 Yesterday (Fortunes)
10 I'm Still Alone (Fortunes)
11 This Empty Place [Edit] (Fortunes)
12 Someone to Care [Edit] (Fortunes)
13 This Golden Ring (Fortunes)
14 I Believe [Edit] (Fortunes)
15 Come Over to My Place (Fortunes)
16 I'll Take You to Where the Music's Playing (Fortunes)
17 Running Around in Circles (Fortunes)
18 I'll Have My Tears to Remind Me (Fortunes)
19 Daydream [Edit] (Fortunes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wBzAGZvq

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/HNCDCz8hVcc3vGL/file 

The cover photo shows the band in 1965.