Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 9: February to March 1970

Here's another volume of music I compiled from episodes of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. By this point, we're well into the second and final season of the show.

This volume starts with a medley of songs by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. It's a particularly interesting performance because it had stripped down instrumentation, with minimal drums. 

I especially psyched that this includes two songs by Evie Sands. I still am mystified that she never became a big star. She had a great voice and was ridiculously beautiful (just look at the cover image). She even played an impressive guitar solo on her appearance on the "Johnny Cash Show" around this time. But she was signed to a crappy record company in the 1960s, and repeatedly had hit singles stolen from her by other acts who would hear her songs, quickly record their own versions, and get proper promotion. I posted a "best of" a few years ago to help draw more attention to her underappreciated career, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/11/evie-sands-best-of-evie-sands-1965-1974.html

There's almost no live recordings of her from this era, other than this one and the "Johnny Cash Show" appearance I mentioned above. It's especially nice to see her play a cover of "Light My Fire" here, because she never released any version of that one.

The Grass Roots performed on this show a year earlier. Unfortunately, that performance was lip-synced. But they played live for some reason on this, their second appearance. I believe they never released a version of the Motown classic "Dancing in the Street."

If anyone knows the name of the instrumental performed by Les McCann, please let me know so I can fix the title. 

It's nice this ends with a performance by jazz legend Sarah Vaughan. I'm pretty sure she never recorded "Didn't We," a song by Jimmy Webb, but only played it in concert around this time period. Similarly, R.B. Greaves, who is best known for his hit "Take a Letter Maria," never released "Danny Boy" on record.

Note that three songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. Those are more cases of talking over the music, especially advertisements for the airline company T.W.A. on the last song of each episode. I got rid of that in the usual way, with the help of the MVSEP program. 

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

01 Yesterlove (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
02 My Girl Has Gone (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
03 The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage - Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
04 In My Time (Noel Harrison)
05 But You Know I Love You (Evie Sands)
06 Light My Fire [Edit] (Evie Sands)
07 Shame and Scandal in the Family (Lloyd Haynes)
08 She Believes in Me (John Stewart)
09 Shackles and Chains (John Stewart)
10 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Johnny Mathis)
11 Aquarius - Let the Sunshine In (Johnny Mathis)
12 The Lady and the Outlaw [Edit] (John Stewart)
13 Instrumental (Les McCann)
14 Compared to What (Les McCann)
15 Walkin' through the Country (Grass Roots)
16 Dancing in the Street (Grass Roots)
17 [There's] Always Something There to Remind Me (R. B. Greaves)
18 Danny Boy (R. B. Greaves)
19 Didn't We [Edit] (Sarah Vaughan)
20 There Will Never Be Another You (Sarah Vaughan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vYoiMQPc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/m0BqV3Yakpx0YUN/file

The cover is a screenshot of Evie Sands I took from a video of one of these episodes.

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Live in Hyde Park Festival, Hyde Park, London, Britain, 9-8-2013

Here's the second BBC concert Smokey Robinson did for the BBC. If there are others, I'm not aware of them.

The first one I posted was from a few years earlier, 2009. This one is somewhat shorter. It seems he jettisoned the relatively recent songs from the set list, and focused more on classic hits. (Either that, or the BBC edited the concert down that way.) Virtually all the songs are big hits he had in the 1960s as part of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The exceptions are two big hits he had as a solo artist: "Just to See Her" and "Cruisin'." 

There's a lot of overlap in the set lists between these two concerts, but there are differences too. For instance, "Volume 1" contains "Being with You" but not "Cruisin'," and this one contains "Cruisin'" but not "Being with You." Those are his two biggest solo hits.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Going to a Go-Go (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second That Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
08 talk (Smokey Robinson)
09 Motown Boogie - The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
10 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
14 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson)
15 Cruisin' (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/deF5o7GQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xWNsyFcPOtqnbE1/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Electric Proms, The Roundhouse, London, Britain, 10-24-2009

Smokey Robinson is a true soul music legend. He was the leader of the Motown band Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in the 1960s, and had a successful solo career after that. I found two concerts he did for the BBC. Both of them are well past his commercial prime, but he could still his songs very well. Here's the first of the two, from 2009.

In 2009, Robinson put out a new studio album, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun." In this concert, he performed three songs from the album: "Don't Know Why," "Girlfriend," and "Time Flies." The first one is a cover, and was a major hit for Norah Jones in 2002. The other two were written by Robinson. Other than that, the concert mostly leans on hits he did with the Miracles in the 1960s, with a couple of solo hits near the end, plus another cover, "Fly Me to the Moon."

A couple of songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. I fixed this album a while back, so I don't remember the problem with those. But given they are the first and last songs, I'll bet there were BBC DJs talking over the music. 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Going to a Go-Go [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second that Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
08 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
09 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
10 talk (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl [Reprise] (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Don't Know Why (Smokey Robinson)
14 talk (Smokey Robinson)
15 Fly Me to the Moon (Smokey Robinson)
16 talk (Smokey Robinson)
17 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
18 Girlfriend (Smokey Robinson)
19 Being with You (Smokey Robinson)
20 Time Flies (Smokey Robinson)
21 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
22 The Tracks of My Tears [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CZnhNBsp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/e5oitpiTHD5Y4rK/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - The TAMI Show, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA, 10-29-1964

When I recently posted the 1964 NME Poll Winners' Concert, I got a request to post another stellar 1964, known as "The TAMI Show." Like the NME concerts, this has to be one of the greatest collection of musical talent on one stage in the 1960s. The TAMI Show was made for a movie, which was released at the end of 1964. But I haven't seen just the audio available. So I converted a video of the movie into audio and chopped it into mp3s.

There's so much to say about the TAMI Show. I'm going to try to be relatively brief. It seems some clever people decided that rock music was all the rage in 1964, so if they could get enough big stars together for a concert, it would make a profitable movie. They did, and it did. The result was a classic, regularly cited as one of the best music movies of all time. In 2006, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The key about the concert is that all the songs were performed live, at a time when lip-syncing was standard for TV appearances. Jan and Dean emceed the concert. They also performed its theme song, "Here They Come (From All Over the World)", written by songwriters P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. The concert brought together some British Invasion bands (Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, and the Rolling Stones) with Motown acts (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, and the Supremes), plus some other big names, like the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, and Lesley Gore.

The concert is probably best known for the performance by James Brown, and for good reason. The whole thing is worth watching, but especially his part. The Police even immortalized it in their song "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around," with the lyric:  

Turn on my V.C.R. 
Same one I've had for years
James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show
Same tape I've had for years

In other words, Sting (who wrote that song) has a video of the TAMI Show, and is fascinated by James Brown's performance, watching it over and over. It's easy to see why. Brown's dancing is so extraordinary, it almost defies the laws of physics. He was moonwalking, and more, back when Michael Jackson was just a little baby. The lyrics are also interesting in that the TAMI Show was very hard to find for decades, generally only being available as a bootleg video, so that probably was an especially prized possession for Sting. It was finally remastered and rereleased as a DVD in 2010.

I worked from the DVD version, converted it to audio, and chopped it into mp3s. The sound quality isn't great, but it's as good as you could hope for from a 1964 concert. The lead vocals were rather low in the mix, so I used the UVR5 program to boost them relative to the instruments.

There was some controversy at the time whether James Brown or the Rolling Stones should be the final act in the show. At the time, the Stones had barely toured the U.S. at all. In fact, this would be only the third stop on their first big U.S. tour. But they were rapidly rising stars, enough for them to be chosen as the final act. However, James Brown wasn't pleased about that, and made sure to steal the show.

Mick Jagger, lead singers for the Stones, later said, "James Brown was probably the best thing about our trip. He is a fantastic artist. When you've seen him, you've seen the act to end all acts. We appeared with him on the TAMI Show and we had to follow him. It was a disaster in a way because nobody can follow James Brown, it’s impossible." Despite the competition, it was a friendly rivalry, and they were on good terms with him when they crossed his path at various times in later years.

By the way, the "TAMI Show" stood for either "Teenage Awards Music International" and "Teen Age Music International" - the producers were inconsistent about the meaning. The fact that they were inconsistent shows it didn't really matter much. Apparently, they just wanted an interesting sounding acronym. 

Here's a good article about the concert, written in 2025, if you want to know more:

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/teenagers-world-unite-2/

And here's the Wikipedia article:

T.A.M.I. Show - Wikipedia 

This album is an hour and 52 minutes long. 

01 [Here They Come] From All Over the World (Jan & Dean)
02 talk (emcee)
03 talk (Jan & Dean)
04 Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)
05 Maybellene (Chuck Berry & Gerry & the Pacemakers)
06 Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
07 It's Gonna Be Alright (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
08 Sweet Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry)
09 How Do You Do It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
10 Nadine (Chuck Berry)
11 I Like It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
12 That's What Love Is Made Of (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
13 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
14 Mickey's Monkey (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
15 Stubborn Kind of Fellow (Marvin Gaye)
16 Pride and Joy (Marvin Gaye)
17 Can I Get a Witness (Marvin Gaye)
18 Hitch Hike (Marvin Gaye)
19 talk (Jan & Dean)
20 Maybe I Know (Lesley Gore)
21 You Don't Own Me (Lesley Gore)
22 You Didn't Look Around (Lesley Gore)
23 Hey Now (Lesley Gore)
24 It's My Party - Judy's Turn to Cry (Lesley Gore)
25 The Little Old Lady from Pasadena (Jan & Dean)
26 Sidewalk Surfin' [Surfin' Safari] (Jan & Dean)
27 Surfin' U.S.A. (Beach Boys)
28 I Get Around (Beach Boys)
29 Surfer Girl (Beach Boys)
30 Dance, Dance, Dance (Beach Boys)
31 Little Children (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
32 Bad to Me (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
33 I'll Keep You Satisfied (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
34 From a Window (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
35 When the Lovelight Starts Shining through His Eyes (Supremes)
36 Run, Run, Run (Supremes)
37 Baby Love (Supremes)
38 Where Did Our Love Go (Supremes)
39 Hey Little Bird (Barbarians)
40 talk (Jan & Dean)
41 Out of Sight (James Brown)
42 Prisoner of Love (James Brown)
43 Please, Please, Please (James Brown)
44 Night Train (James Brown)
45 Around and Around (Rolling Stones)
46 Off the Hook (Rolling Stones)
47 Time Is on My Side (Rolling Stones)
48 It's All Over Now (Rolling Stones)
49 I'm Alright (Rolling Stones)
50 Let's Get Together (Rolling Stones & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vRghL7X4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IlezlVz2skiZmQ5/file

Since James Brown had the most renowned performance in this concert, I decided it was fitting to have a photo of him on the cover. That photo is from this exact concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. All the other text and graphics comes from original promotional material for the concert. But I used Photoshop to do some repositioning and other editing.

Covered: Smokey Robinson, Volume 3: 1972-2013

This is the third and final Covered album celebrating Smokey Robinson, the songwriter, as opposed to Smokey Robinson, the singer. As with the previous two volumes, the focus is on songs he wrote or co-wrote. I've selected versions performed by others, even when the original hit version was performed by him.

The timing on this volume works out nicely, because 1972 was the farewell tour for his band Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and after that it was all his solo career. Note though that the Miracles continued on without Robinson, and even had some more hits, especially "Love Machine."

In retrospect, maybe I should have made this a Covered album of Smokey Robinson and Marv Tarplin, who was the guitarist for the Miracles, because they wrote many songs together. Tarplin left the Miracles the same time Robinson did, and continued to sometimes write songs with him. For instance, the big hit "Cruisin'" was cowritten by them. Band member Pete Moore also wrote many hits with Robinson. He even co-wrote "Love Machine" mentioned above, without him.

Robinson's solo career wasn't as successful as his career with the Miracles, in my opinion. There were a lot of mellow, soulful ballads that didn't distinguish themselves from each other much. In fact, the name of one of his solo hits, "Quiet Storm," became the name of a radio format for that type of music. But he did write some classics, including two huge hits all over the world, "Cruisin'" and "Being with You."

That said, a majority of the songs here are later covers of songs that were first hits by the Miracles in the 1960s. So many of them have timeless appeal and have been hits multiple times for different music acts.

I broke my rule of trying not to include any performances by Smokey Robinson himself by including one, "Baby That's Bachatcha." It's not because that was his best performance or something like that. Rather, it was a solo hit worthy of inclusion here, and I didn't find any decent cover versions.

As I previously mentioned in an earlier volume, Robinson is still alive as I write this in 2024. But he's 84 years old, so he's basically retired from music. May his music be enjoyed and remembered long after he's gone.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Floy Joy (Supremes)
02 Happy [Love Theme from 'Lady Sings the Blues'] (Michael Jackson)
03 The Tracks of My Tears (Linda Ronstadt)
04 The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game (Patti Smith)
05 Baby That's Backatcha (Smokey Robinson)
06 Don't Look Back (Peter Tosh with Mick Jagger)
07 Ooh Baby Baby (Linda Ronstadt)
08 The Tears of a Clown (English Beat)
09 More Love (Kim Carnes)
10 Going to a Go-Go (Rolling Stones)
11 Being with You (John Holt)
12 From Head to Toe (Elvis Costello)
13 Who's Loving You (Terence Trent D'Arby)
14 Cruisin' (Huey Lewis & the News & Gwyneth Paltrow)
15 I'll Be Doggone (Solomon Burke)
16 Quiet Storm (Eliza Lacerda)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17350557/COVRDSMOKYRBNSN1972-2013Vlum3_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RvZMuRGT

The cover photo is from 1980. That's all I know.

Covered: Smokey Robinson, Volume 2: 1966-1972

Here's the second out of three volumes of the Covered series that highlights Smokey Robinson as a songwriter, instead of the usual attention paid to him as a singer and leader of the band the Miracles.

This volume deals with the time period Robinson was slowly transitioning from being part of the highly successful group the Miracles to pursuing other interests, including starting out on a solo career. 

Robinson was critical to the success of Motown Records in the 1960s. He wasn't just leader of a hit-making act for the company, or a songwriter for other acts. He also was such a key leader of the company that he became vice president in the mid-1960s, making him second in importance only behind Berry Gordy. Robinson was tired of constantly touring with the Miracles and wanted to focus more on helping to run Motown. He also had married Claudette Rogers Robinson back in 1959 (who was the only female member of the Miracles, since the band's inception), and wanted to focus on raising a family with her, when she had a child with him in 1968, after many years of trying and miscarriages.

However, these plans were delayed by the song "The Tears of a Clown," in which he wrote most of the lyrics while Stevie Wonder came up with the music. It had been a little known album track released by the Miracles in 1967. But in 1970, with no new Miracles music on the horizon due to Robinson stepping back from the group, the British division of Motown looked for a song from that 1967 album to release as a "new" single, and decided on that one. It quickly went to Number One in Britain in 1970, causing it to be released as a single in the U.S. and reaching Number One there too. He had already planned on leaving the Miracles, but due to the song being one of the biggest hits of the year around the world, he was persuaded to stay on a little longer. He finally left the band for good in 1972, after a farewell tour.

As with Volume One, this album focuses on Robinson as songwriter, so there are no tracks performed by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles here. Sometimes, I had to pick non-hit versions, just to avoid including Miracles versions. As for "The Tears of a Clown" mentioned above, I chose a later version which appears on Volume Three. A bunch of other songs that were originally hits during this time period also don't appear until later versions included on Volume Three.

Just roughly guessing, I think about half of these songs were first hits by him and the Miracles, while the other half largely were hits he wrote for other Motown acts. Only a few performances here are by non-Motown acts - "Since I Lost My Baby" by the Action, "You've Got to Earn It" by the Staple Singers, "I Don't Blame You at All" by Rosetta Hightower, and "First I Look at the Purse" by the J. Geils Band. But I believe all of those are cover versions of songs first done by Motown acts.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Mighty Good Lovin' (Chris Clark)
02 Take This Heart of Mine (Marvin Gaye)
03 My Heart (Tammi Terrell)
04 Since I Lost My Baby (Action)
05 The Day You Take One [You Have to Take the Other] (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
06 The Composer (Diana Ross & the Supremes)
07 Way Over There (Edwin Starr)
08 I'll Try Something New (Diana Ross & the Supremes & the Temptations)
09 Get Ready (Rare Earth)
10 Fan the Flame (Edwin Starr)
11 I Second That Emotion (Diana Ross & the Supremes & the Temptations)
12 The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage (Uniques)
13 If You Can Want (Barbara McNair)
14 Still Water [Love] (Four Tops)
15 You've Got to Earn It (Staple Singers)
16 I Don't Blame You at All (Rosetta Hightower)
17 Automatically Sunshine (Supremes)
18 First I Look at the Purse (J. Geils Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17350538/COVRDSMOKYRBNSN1966-1972Vlum2_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zYHwYRVM

I don't know when the cover photo was taken, but I would guess the mid to late 1960s.

Covered: Smokey Robinson, Volume 1: 1961-1966

I want to get back to posting more albums from the best songwriters of the Motown Record company in the 1960s and 1970s. The time has come to post an album from a musical giant, Smokey Robinson. This is the first of three about him.

The odds are very good you're familiar with Robinson, because he sang many hits, both with his band the Miracles in the 1960s and as a solo artist after that. But this series isn't about Robinson as a performer, it's about Robinson as a songwriter. I have included no performances of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles here, and only one of Robinson solo on a later volume. That means there are lots of songs that were first hits by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles done by other musical acts. Plus, many songs are the ones wrote that were first hits for other acts, almost always other Motown acts.

Robinson, who is alive at the age of 84 as I write this in 2024, was basically one of the founders of the Motown Record company, and one of its most important employees for many years. 

Here is the Wikipedia entry about him:

Smokey Robinson - Wikipedia

He started his band the Miracle in 1955, but they struggled at first. Then he met Berry Gordy, the future head of Motown Records, in 1957, after a failed audition for another record company. Gordy was impressed by Robinson's vocal talent. But he was even more impressed that Robinson had brought a notebook with over a hundred original songs in it. Gordy had already written a few hits, and became a mentor, teaching Robinson the art of songwriting.

Robinson's music career with the Miracles started to take off. They had their first hit in 1958 (with a song Robinson didn't write). But they really hit it big in 1960 with the song "Shop Around," which was co-written by Robinson, along with Gordy. It hit Number One on one of the U.S. singles charts at the time, and was the first million seller for Motown. Rolling Stone Magazine would later put it on their list of the top 500 songs of all time.

From that time forward, Robinson went from success to success. At first, he was THE main hit songwriter. He wrote lots of hits for other musical acts on the Motown label, especially Mary Wells and the Temptations. But in a few years the Holland-Dozier-Holland team because the most successful songwriters for the company. Robinson still wrote lots of hits every year, but focused more on hits for his own group, the Miracles. By the way, "My Girl," "Ooh Baby Baby," and "Tracks of My Tears" also all made it to the Rolling Stone Magazine top 500 songs list. That's pretty incredible, to write four such songs in a five-year time span! 

As I mentioned above, I had to go out of my way to find versions of many Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hits, or this could have looked a lot like a greatest hits album from them, and that's less interesting, in my opinion. So, for instance, I went with a non-hit version of "Shop Around" by Mary Wells from 1961 rather than the big hit version mentioned above from 1960. But note that Robinson wrote many songs with others (though he didn't really have a long-lasting songwriting partner), so some of the Miracles versions show up on Covered albums for other songwriters. For instance, the Miracles version of "Shop Around" appears on the Covered album for Berry Gordy.

I'm too lazy to make a list of exactly which of these songs were hits for the Miracles and which were first hits for others. But there's a paragraph in his Wikipedia entry that lists most of the big hits for others from this time period. So I'm posting it here:

Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson was also one of the major songwriters and producers for Motown, penning many hit singles such as "Two Lovers", "The One Who Really Loves You", "You Beat Me to the Punch" and "My Guy" for Mary Wells; "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "My Girl", "Since I Lost My Baby", "It's Growing", and "Get Ready" for the Temptations; "Still Water (Love)" for the Four Tops; "When I'm Gone" and "Operator" for Brenda Holloway; "Don't Mess With Bill", "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" for the Marvelettes; and "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar" for Marvin Gaye.

Note that some of the songs mentioned there aren't included here because I chose versions with release dates after 1966. So they'll be on the later two volumes.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Shop Around (Mary Wells)
02 The One Who Really Loves You (Mary Wells)
03 Two Lovers (Mary Wells)
04 I Want a Love I Can See (Temptations)
05 You Beat Me to the Punch (Mary Wells)
06 Better Un-Said (LaBrenda Ben)
07 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Beatles)
08 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Temptations)
09 Lucky Lucky Me (Marvin Gaye)
10 My Guy (Mary Wells)
11 My Girl (Temptations)
12 My Smile Is Just a Frown [Turned Upside Down] (Caroline Crawford)
13 When I'm Gone (Brenda Holloway)
14 My Baby (Temptations)
15 Ain't that Peculiar (Marvin Gaye)
16 Don't Mess with Bill (Marvelettes)
17 Operator (Brenda Holloway)
18 It's Growing (Temptations)
19 One More Heartache (Marvin Gaye)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17350552/COVRDSMOKYRBNSN1961-1966Vlum1_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KDd8E5FS

The cover photo was taken on the set of the "Ready Steady Go" TV show in 1964. It was in color already, so I didn't have to do much to it.

Aretha Franklin - Duets, Nederlander Theatre, New York City, 4-28-1993

By the 1990s, Aretha Franklin had fallen from her golden era (1960s and 1970s) when it came to new material, but her mighty voice was still strong. A problem was that she suffered production issues, due to trying to sound current. That wasn't nearly as much of a problem when it came to live performances. Here's a very interesting one, because it's chock-a-block with duets with other big name musicians.

This was a benefit concert done for AIDS research. It was broadcast on national TV in the US as "Duets." As such, it was professionally recorded, and the sound quality is excellent. It also means that things moved very quickly, to make the best use of every second of screen time. Typically, even before the clapping from one song had finished, someone started had started to introduce the next one. Apparently, in real time, the show lasted four hours, with big delays between songs and multiple retakes. But then things were edited down for an hour-long show.

However, I found a review of the concert at the time in the New York Times, which you can read here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/29/arts/review-pop-aretha-franklin-in-stellar-company-and-on-her-own.html

From that, it sounds like this contains all of the songs performed, or at least all of the good stuff. (There's mention of a song Franklin lip-synced to at the end, strangely enough.) According to that review, Franklin sang circles around nearly all of her star guests, and I agree.

Musically, she wisely stuck to doing her classic songs, avoiding any songs from her latest album at the time, "What You See Is What You Sweat" (which wasn't very good). She also did two Motown songs she'd never done before, "Just to See Her" and "This Old Heart of Mine."

This seems like the sort of thing that was designed for an official release, but I see no sign of that having ever happened. By the way, it's rather odd in my opinion (since I don't see a logical Aretha connection), but actor Robert De Niro introduced one of the songs. And actor Dustin Hoffman also was on stage, but whatever role he had must have been cut from this recording.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin with Elton John, Smokey Robinson & Rod Stewart)
02 talk (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)
03 Border Song [Holy Moses] (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)
04 talk (Gloria Estefan)
05 Coming Out of the Dark (Aretha Franklin & Gloria Estefan)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 Just to See Her (Aretha Franklin & Smokey Robinson)
08 talk (Robert De Niro)
09 I Never Loved a Man [The Way I Love You] (Aretha Franklin)
10 Think (Aretha Franklin & P.M. Dawn)
11 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
12 Since You've Been Gone [Sweet Sweet Baby] (Aretha Franklin & Bonnie Raitt)
13 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin with Bonnie Raitt & Gloria Estefan)
14 talk (Rod Stewart)
15 This Old Heart of Mine (Aretha Franklin & Rod Stewart)
16 People Get Ready (Aretha Franklin & Rod Stewart)
17 Spirit in the Dark (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15289916/ArethaF_1993_DuetNederlandrTheatreNewYrkC__4-28-1993_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. Franklin is in front with her hand held up. Behind her, from left to right, is: Smokey Robinson, Gloria Estefan, Rod Stewart, and Bonnie Raitt. The font, including the colors, comes from one of her albums. I replicated that for the additional writing.

Various Artists - Apollo Hall of Fame, Apollo Theatre, New York City, 7-15-1993

The Apollo Theatre is a concert venue in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem with a legendary history. With Harlem being a predominantly black neighborhood and a center of black cultural trends, it's best known for featuring black musicians, especially in the soul genre. In 1993, the people running the venue decided to start a yearly hall of fame ceremony. For their first one, they had a two hour show broadcast on national TV honoring the first few inductees. Apparently, this hall of fame tradition has continued, but I've only found good recordings from the 1993 one.

I haven't been able to find the full show, so I only know bits and pieces. But it seems that year's inductees included Ray Charles, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald.

Here's an article about it, from Variety Magazine at the time:

Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame - Variety

Ray Charles showed up and played, but James Brown did not. Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had passed away by that time. But many other famous musicians performed. Some were in tribute to the inductees. For instance, Diana Ross sang two of Billie Holiday's songs. But other performers just seemed to be celebrating the legacy of the Apollo Theatre in general. 

When it comes to bootleg recordings, this concert is best known for the last few songs, led by blues guitarist B. B. King. First, he did a duet with guitarist Eric Clapton on the song "Rock Me Baby." Then he brought on guitarists Jeff Beck, Albert Collins, and Buddy Guy as well. The five of them all played solos on the same song, "Sweet Little Angel." After that, they were joined by everyone else from earlier in the show for the finale "Let the Good Times Roll." That probably was the only time those five guitar legends all played on stage together.

But the rest of the show has a lot going for it. Many soul legends from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s played. Some of them were getting up there in age and this would be their last time on a national TV, a kind of last hurrah.

This album is 54 minutes long. The TV special was two hours long. Even if you figure in time for commercials, there are songs I've missed. I found about half of this from a high quality bootleg, and the other half from YouTube videos. But, in my opinion, the sound quality is about the same from the two sources.

By the way, note that the shows two hosts were the actors Danny Glover and Bill Cosby. Since then, Cosby has been hit by sex scandal and has been imprisoned. It's strange for me to hear him host this show in light of what's happened to him. I've tried to minimize his comments between songs, but I kept the bare minimum in for things to be understood.

01 talk (Smokey Robinson)
02 This Little Light of Mine (Smokey Robinson & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 Little Girl of Mine (Smokey Robinson & the Cleftones)
05 talk (Smokey Robinson)
06 Good Times (Bryan Adams & Smokey Robinson)
07 talk (Chuck Jackson)
08 Any Day Now (Chuck Jackson)
09 talk (Ben E. King)
10 Save the Last Dance (Ben E. King)
11 talk (Al Green)
12 Let's Stay Together (Al Green)
13 talk (Teddy Pendergrass)
14 Close the Door (Teddy Pendergrass)
15 Stand by Me (Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Al Green & Teddy Pendergrass)
16 Still Crazy After All These Years (Ray Charles)
17 talk (Diana Ross)
18 God Bless the Child (Diana Ross)
19 Fine and Mellow (Diana Ross)
20 talk (B. B. King)
21 Rock Me Baby (B. B. King & Eric Clapton)
22 talk (B. B. King)
23 Sweet Little Angel (B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Albert Collins & Buddy Guy)
24 talk (B. B. King)
25 Let the Good Times Roll (B. B. King & Everyone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701193/VA-ApolloHallFmeAplloThetreNYC__7-15-1993_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I found a photo of all five guitarists that played together near the end of the show. From left to right, it's Jeff Beck, Albert Collins, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, and Buddy Guy. It looks like the photo was taken backstage before or after the show. It's rather blurry, so if you know of a better version, or a better one, please let me know.