Various Artists - BBC In Concert, Giants of Motown, NEC, Birmingham, Britain, 4-6-1992

Here's a pretty interesting BBC concert. It's from a Motown package tour in 1992. It features many of the big Motown names who were touring in 1992, though certainly not all. The first part stars Edwin Starr, the Marvelettes, the Supremes, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Then the second half features the Temptations and the Four Tops, performing separately and also doing some songs together.

Note that some key members were missing. A key missing person was Diana Ross, who sang the lead vocals on nearly all Supremes songs. So some other former members of the Supremes had to bill themselves as the "Former Ladies of the Supremes" for legal reasons. They were Jean Terrell, Scherrie Payne, and Lynda Laurence. Terrell was the lead singer who replaced Ross in 1970. The other two also were only members of that group after Ross left. 

So the Supremes were more like the 1970s version, which was practically a different group with the same name. They did have some big hits though, including "Up the Ladder to the Roof" and "Stoned Love," both of which were performed here, and were originally sung by Terrell.

 

However, most of the other groups fared better. There was personnel turnover, but key lead singers remained. For instance, Gladys Horton was the lead singer on all the Marvelettes records, and Martha Reeves was the lead singer for all the Vandellas records. The Four Tops were amazingly consistent, keeping the same four members from 1953 until 1997. 

The situation with the Temptations was more complicated, since that band had a lot of personnel turnover even during their most popular eras, including quite a few different lead singers. At the time of this concert, the band consisted of Ali-Ollie Woodson (lead tenor), Otis Williams (baritone), Ron Tyson (tenor), Richard Street (second tenor) and Melvin Franklin (bass). Williams and Franklin were original members.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think this Giants of Motown "tour" may have just done these two concerts, in London and Birmingham. I can't find any references to any other concerts. So it's a lucky thing one of them was recorded by the BBC.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I do have "[Edit]" in the titles of a couple of songs, but it's been so long since I edited this that I forget why.  

This album is an hour and 56 minutes long.

01 25 Miles (Edwin Starr)
02 S.O.S. [Stop Her on Sight] (Edwin Starr)
03 War - I Heard It through the Grapevine (Edwin Starr)
04 H.A.P.P.Y. Radio (Edwin Starr)
05 Too Many Fish in the Sea (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
06 talk (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
07 When You're Young and in Love (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
08 Please Mr. Postman [Edit] (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
09 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
10 Band Intros (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
11 Reflections (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
12 Where Did Our Love Go - Baby Love - My World Is Empty without You (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
13 Up the Ladder to the Roof (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
14 Stoned Love (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
15 talk (emcee)
16 [Love Is like A] Heat Wave - Nowhere to Run (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
17 Jimmy Mack (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
18 talk (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
19 Third Finger, Left Hand (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
20 talk (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
21 Dancing in the Street (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
22 Superstar [Remember How You Got Where You Are] (Temptations & the Four Tops)
23 Something about You (Temptations & the Four Tops)
24 Papa Was a Rolling Stone - Baby, I Need Your Loving (Temptations & the Four Tops)
25 talk (Temptations & the Four Tops)
26 7 Rooms of Gloom (Temptations & the Four Tops)
27 Girl [Why You Wanna Make Me Blue] (Temptations)
28 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Temptations)
29 Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Temptations)
30 Ball of Confusion [That's What the World Is Today] (Temptations)
31 Just My Imagination (Temptations)
32 Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Temptations)
33 Get Ready (Temptations)
34 Treat Her like a Lady (Temptations)
35 My Girl (Temptations)
36 I Can't Get Next to You (Temptations)
37 Baby, I Need Your Loving (Four Tops)
38 When She Was My Girl (Four Tops)
39 Bernadette (Four Tops)
40 It's the Same Old Song (Four Tops)
41 Walk Away Renee (Four Tops)
42 Reach Out, I'll Be There - Standing in the Shadows of Love (Four Tops)
43 I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch] [Edit] (Four Tops)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NJBgHJ2c

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/amUebhRMAqADjoo/file

The cover photo is a promotional poster for this concert. It actually was meant to promote two concerts: this one, and one in Wembley Arena, in London, one day earlier. So I put a photo from this concert in the square that had the details about the London concert. The photo was very low-res, so it wouldn't have made a good cover on its own. This poster was pretty low res as well, but I was able to clean it up with the use of Photoshop and Krea AI.

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: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland, Volume 5: 1967

The Motown magic continues with another volume of the Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland songwriting team, better known as Holland-Dozier-Holland. Once again, they came up so many excellent songs that this volume in the Covered series only deals with a single year, 1967.

1967 was a year of great change in rock music, with psychedelia being all the range, and songs getting more sophisticated and diverse. But Holland-Dozier-Holland had a wildly successful formula, and they didn't change it much at all. Their thing was a poppy version of soul music, and I read an interview with them in which they said they didn't have much interest in rock music. But despite all the changing musical trends, the hits kept on coming.

Again, I managed to order the songs by the dates of the singles releases, more or less. I had to guesstimate with some songs that were only album tracks, or weren't Motown releases.

Speaking on Motown, as expected, the vast majority of songs here were put out on the Motown label. But there are a couple of exceptions. "Too Many Fish in the Sea" was a hit for the Marvelettes in 1964. It was a rare case in which the song was written by Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland. I already have the Marvelettes version in my Covered series for Whitfield. So instead I used a version here by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, a non-Motown band. I also decided to include "Your Keep Me Hangin' On" by Vanilla Fudge, even though I included the original hit version by the Supremes in the previous volume in this series. That's because both versions were massive hits, and yet are drastically different from each other. I like both versions quite a lot, as they bring out different aspects of the song.

This volume, unfortunately, is basically the end of Holland-Dozier-Holland at Motown Records. But it was far from the end for them, as they set up their own record companies and kept coming up with hit after hit. All that shall be explained in the next volume in this series.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Love Is Here and Now You're Gone (Supremes)
02 Jimmy Mack (Martha & the Vandellas)
03 Bernadette (Four Tops)
04 The Happening (Supremes)
05 There's a Ghost in My House (R. Dean Taylor)
06 All I Need (Temptations)
07 Too Many Fish in the Sea - Three Little Fishes (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels)
08 7 Rooms of Gloom (Four Tops)
09 Everybody Needs Love (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Vanilla Fudge)
11 I'll Turn to Stone (Four Tops)
12 Reflections (Supremes)
13 Going Down for the Third Time (Supremes)
14 [Loneliness Made Me Realize] It's You that I Need (Temptations)
15 In and Out of Love (Supremes)
16 You Keep Running Away (Four Tops)
17 I Got a Feeling (Barbara Randolph)
18 Whisper You Love Me Boy (Chris Clark)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17429370/COVRDHOLLNDDZRHLLND1967Vlum5_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qLpjdSbN

The cover image is one where I had to create something out of very little. I was lacking having enough photos of Holland-Dozier-Holland together, so in this case I had to make one. I found three photos of them individually, probably all from the early 1970s. That's not too close to 1967, I know, but it was the best I could do. Then I colorized them using the Palette program, since all three were in black and white. Then I put them all together in Photoshop. Finally, I ran the merged image through Krea AI, which helped give more of a consistent look to the whole thing. It's still not ideal, but at least it's something.

Covered: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland, Volume 4: 1966

This is the fourth volume highlighting the unstoppable hit making machine that was the songwriting team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland (usually known as just Holland-Dozier-Holland). This volume deals with just the year 1966. If you're not listening to these albums, you're really missing out.

If anything, Holland-Dozier-Holland was even more successful in 1966 than any previous year. Consider that the previous three volumes in this series were from 40 to 44 minutes long, whereas this one is an hour long. They still were the top songwriting entity for Motown Records, writing and producing hits for pretty much all of Motown's top acts this year. After "only" having two songs in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 songs of all time, they had three in 1966: "Reach Out, I'll Be There" by the Four Tops, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by the Supremes, and "Standing in the Shadows of Love" by the Four Tops. 

Once again, I tried my best to list the songs by the exact order of the single releases. However, I had to guesstimate some, especially the few songs that were mere album tracks instead of singles. Those are songs I generally consider ones that should have been hits, but were overlooked or not properly promoted. Examples of those would include "Any Girl in Love (Knows What I'm Going Through)" by the Supremes and "Suspicion" by the Originals.

Generally speaking, these are all the original versions of each song. Note though that "Greetings (This Is Uncle Sam)" was originally a minor hit for the band the Valadiers in 1961. Brian Holland wrote the song with some others. But it was a bigger hit in 1966 by the Monitors, when it had more relevance due to the increasingly bloody Vietnam War.

"Everybody Needs Love" by Mary Wells is another oddity. Wells left Motown in 1964, and didn't have much success with other record companies. This song was recorded by Wells in 1964 while she was still with Motown, but wasn't officially released until it came out on a Motown various artists collection in 1966.

This album is an hour long.

01 Put Yourself in My Place (Chris Clark)
02 Greetings [This Is Uncle Sam] (Monitors)
03 Shake Me, Wake Me [When It's Over] (Four Tops)
04 This Old Heart of Mine [Is Weak for You] (Isley Brothers)
05 Helpless (Kim Weston)
06 [I'm a] Road Runner (Jr. Walker & the All Stars)
07 Love Is like an Itching in My Heart (Supremes)
08 I Guess I'll Always Love You (Isley Brothers)
09 You Can't Hurry Love (Supremes)
10 Any Girl in Love [Knows What I'm Going Through] (Supremes)
11 Little Darling [I Need You] (Marvin Gaye)
12 Reach Out, I'll Be There (Four Tops)
13 Function at the Junction (Shorty Long)
14 Everybody Needs Love (Mary Wells)
15 Heaven Must Have Sent You (Elgins)
16 Love's Gone Bad (Chris Clark)
17 I'm Ready for Love (Martha & the Vandellas)
18 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Supremes)
19 Suspicion (Originals)
20 [Come Round Here] I'm the One You Need (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
21 Standing in the Shadows of Love (Four Tops)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17402924/COVRDHOLLNDDZRHLLND1966Vlum4_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Yi2mc7hd

The cover image is from around 1970 apparently. That's probably right, given that the two Holland brothers grew goatees which weren't there on any pictures of them from the 1960s. The original of the image was in black and white, but I converted it using the Palette and Photoshop programs. Then I improved the image detail with the Krea AI program.

Covered: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland, Volume 3: 1965

The non-stop hits keep on coming with Volume Three of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland (usually known as Holland-Dozier-Holland) for my Covered series on songwriters. All the songs in this volume were released in 1965.

In 1965, Holland-Dozier-Holland were in a hit making groove. Look at how many of the songs here were big hits that still get played on the radio. 

Their accomplishment is even more impressive considering that they not only wrote all these songs, they produced nearly all of them too. In case you're curious, I found a 2022 with all three of them were they explained their successful formula. Here are some excerpts.

Brian Holland: "Lamont and I would start writing the songs on piano. Eddie would also be there early on, and we would discuss what the melody and structure should be. Lamont and I would then start recording the tracks, which would be the actual tracks for the master (not just demo tracks)."

Lamont Dozier: "In the recording studio, Brian and I would split the room. Brian would work with the drummer (usually Benny Benjamin). I would get with the keyboard players (usually Earl Van Dyke or Joe Hunter) and show them how to play the track and chords. I would also give the bass lines to James Jamerson, then he would inject his own bass ideas to make it stronger. We wanted to guide the musicians, so we could create our own sound. We would never let the band just go in and play the chord sheets. We were very focused on what we had in mind for these productions."

Brian Holland: "We would record the full track, which would include the melody with a scratch vocal, without lyrics yet. Although sometimes, we would have the title, and some of the chorus lyrics. Then we would give the track to Eddie, who would go off and write the lyrics."

Eddie Holland: "When I got the track, I would spend many days writing. I would lock myself away. I had a townhouse in Detroit; I would close all the curtains and shades, and there was no telephone. I didn’t go out much; most of my life was devoted to writing lyrics."

So basically, together with the Motown backing band later nicknamed the Funk Brothers, they did it all. The only thing the star performer would have to do is come in and sing the lead vocals, helped by the guide vocals already done by Holland-Dozier-Holland. Some groups, like the Temptations, would often do their own backing vocals, but in most cases that was done already as part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland production too, by a little known female trio called the Andantes. Incredibly, they sang backing vocals on about 20,000 songs, which was about 90 percent of all the songs recorded for the Motown label! 

Virtually all the songs here are the original hit versions by Motown artists. As with the previous volumes, I did my best to order the songs by their release dates, though I had to guess for a few of them.

There is one non-Motown version here though, and that's "1 2 3" by Len Berry. This was a big hit originally written by Berry and two others. But it turns out the song had a great similarity to the song "Ask Any Girl," a B-side for the Supremes. So after two years of lawsuits, Holland-Dozier-Holland were added to the songwriting credits and got a share of all the royalties.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Stop, In the Name of Love (Supremes)
02 Beauty Is Only Skin Deep (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
03 Nowhere to Run (Martha & the Vandellas)
04 Back in My Arms Again (Supremes)
05 I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch] (Four Tops)
06 Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I (Velvelettes)
07 It's the Same Old Song (Four Tops)
08 Mother Dear (Supremes)
09 Nothing but Heartaches (Supremes)
10 1 2 3 (Len Barry)
11 Take Me in Your Arms [Rock Me a Little While] (Kim Weston)
12 Love [Makes Me Do Foolish Things] (Martha & the Vandellas)
13 I Hear a Symphony (Supremes)
14 Something about You (Four Tops)
15 My World Is Empty without You (Supremes)
16 Everything Is Good about You (Supremes)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17402922/COVRDHOLLNDDZRHLLND1965Vlum3_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cCmxZH6k

The cover photo is almost certainly from the same photo session as the photo I used for the 1964 album in this series. The three of them look to be wearing the exact same clothes, and were around a piano in both. But when I colorized this one with the help of the Palette program, I picked different colors for their clothes, so it wouldn't look so similar. I also moved them a bit in Photoshop so they'd be closer together. Finally, I ran the image through the Krea AI program to improve the detail level.

Covered: Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland, Volume 2: 1964

Earlier today, I posted Volume One of my Covered songwriting series for the Motown team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, commonly referred to as Holland-Dozier-Holland. I explained quite a bit about them in my write-up for that volume, so I suggest you read that to learn more. They were such successful hit makers that this and the next three volumes in the series will cover just one year. This one showcases their hits from 1964.

As you can see from all the classic songs in the song list, Holland-Dozier-Holland were really hitting their stride in 1964. Three of the songs here made it to Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 songs of all time: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby I Need Your Loving," and "Baby Love." I'm surprised "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" didn't make that list too.

As with most of the other albums in this series, I went the extra mile, and tried to order the songs chronologically not just by year of release, as I usually do with Covered albums, but also putting them in the exact order they were released. I couldn't manage that for all the songs, because a few were album tracks where I couldn't accurately figure out release dates.

Pretty much all the versions here are the original hit versions, by Motown artists. However, "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)" is by the Action, a non-Motown band from Britain. 

Also, note that two of the songs here, "Just Ain't Enough Love" and "Candy to Me," were performed by Eddie Holland, a member of Holland-Dozier-Holland. As I mentioned in Volume One, he had some early singles, including a hit in 1961. But this was the last gasp of his 1964 recording career, since he suffered from stage fright and found being a songwriter and producer worked much better for him. 

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 Live Wire (Martha & the Vandellas)
02 Run, Run, Run (Supremes)
03 You're a Wonderful One (Marvin Gaye)
04 In My Lonely Room (Martha & the Vandellas)
05 Just Ain't Enough Love (Eddie Holland)
06 The Girl's Alright with Me (Temptations)
07 Where Did Our Love Go (Supremes)
08 Baby I Need Your Loving (Four Tops)
09 Candy to Me (Eddie Holland)
10 Girl [Why You Wanna Make Me Blue] (Action)
11 Baby Don't You Do It [Don't Do It] (Marvin Gaye)
12 Baby Love (Supremes)
13 Come See about Me (Supremes)
14 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Marvin Gaye)
15 He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' (Velvelettes)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17402266/COVRDHOLLNDDZRHLLND1964Vlum2_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iuhYh4g8

Of all the cover photos I made for this series, this is probably the one I manipulated the least. Unlike most of the others, the original had them in these exact poses. But it was in black and white, so I colorized it with the help of the Palette and Photoshop programs. I also ran it through the Krea AI program to help with the detail. I don't know when the photo was taken, but I'm guessing it was in the mid-1960s, based on the short haircuts and clothing styles and such.

Various Artists - KHJ Second Annual Appreciation Concert, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA, 4-29-1967

Here's a really special concert, in my opinion. It's a totally unreleased, and even rarely shared as a bootleg, concert from the magic year of 1967. Check out the acts: Buffalo Springfield, the Fifth Dimension, Brenda Holloway, the Seeds, Johnny Rivers, and the Supremes! Those are all acts who have little to no unreleased live recordings, and in some cases virtually no live recordings at all.

The reason this is unreleased and even rarely shared as a bootleg, has to do with sound quality. The concert was professionally recorded, probably by the radio station that promoted the show, KHJ. But there was one problem that was essentially a fatal flaw, making this nearly unlistenable. The concert took place at the famous Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California. In early 1967, this venue was updating their sound system. They introduced a new piece of equipment, the radio mic. Unfortunately, there were technical problems with this. A high-pitched squeal could be heard through the entire recording that apparently was heard by the audience there at the time.

Due to this problem, I had been aware of this recording for years, and intrigued by the list of acts, but I never added it to my music collection due to that fatal flaw. However, recently I remembered it, and realized that the technological advancements in audio editing could possibly get rid of that annoying squeal. So I gave it a try. The good news is, I got rid of the vast majority of the problem. The bad news is, I couldn't get rid of it entirely. But I believe this is now very listenable. Even when the squeal can be heard, it's much lower in the mix.

Actually, the squeal wasn't as bad as it sounds at first because it really was only a problem during times of relative quiet, usually between songs. When there was a full band playing, the squeal usually disappeared entirely. So my challenge was to get rid of the squeal whenever it showed up. Using the UVR5 program, I split the songs into different tracks (vocals, drums, bass, and other). I often found the squeal would only be on one track, which I could then reduce or eliminate entirely. For instance, during the banter between songs, much of the squeal would be on the "other" track, and all I needed was the "vocals" track. 

When that wasn't enough, I also used noise reduction with the Audacity program. People rightly object to the use of this technique because it degrades the music. But I've found it usually doesn't cause a problem when it's only used for talking between songs, so that's all I used it for here. Sometimes, even that wasn't enough, so I would manually drastically lower the volume of the squeal whenever it appeared during significant pauses in the banter.

I'd say I was about 90 percent successful overall. The squeal is still there in some places where I couldn't get to it without harming the music. One example is the song "Yesterday" by the Supremes. That one was quiet enough for the squeal to show up. But because it was a song and not just banter, I couldn't use noise reduction and other techniques. Luckily, there are only a couple other songs like that.

Otherwise, the recording is surprisingly good for a 1967 bootleg. At times, the vocals microphone would max out, especially when backing vocals were added. So some parts sound a bit rough. But overall, this is a good soundboard quality bootleg. Considering the acts involved, the recording is pretty amazing, in my opinion.

The only other significant problem I had was with the song "Do What You Gotta Do" by Johnny Rivers. The first half and then some was completely missing. As an experiment, I found his studio version from a 1967 album, and I tried filling in the missing section with that. I think it worked out okay, though not perfectly. The fact that it even comes close to matching is an indication of the overall quality of this boot. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in the title.

Now, let me discuss the musical content here. This concert was put on by the Los Angeles radio station KHJ, and they used it as a way to promote themselves and especially their DJ's. I must admit I cut out a lot of what I consider unnecessary DJ chatter between the acts, while keeping all the music. Some of the DJs went on and on way too long. For instance, the DJ who introduced the Seeds took six minutes for the introduction, repeating the fact that he was holding flowers to give the band over and over. I suspect the band wasn't ready, so he was stalling for time. Still, it's painful to hear. I cut those six minutes down to one. I did a lot of editing with the others, cutting things down to just the basic introductions of each act, and getting rid of a lot of the radio station promotion and hype. 

There also was a section in the middle of the Supremes set where Berry Gordy, the head of Motown Records, gave a speech and presented an award. I thought that was somewhat interesting, since Gordy is a famous figure, so I kept most of his speech. But I cut out a lot of that section too, including the entire speech by the person who received the award.

Let's consider the acts involved here. The sheer musical diversity is pretty amazing. Every single act in the concert is interesting to me. Note that the more popular acts came later, with each succeeding act getting more stage time. The first two acts only got 16 minutes each, but the final act, the Supremes, got 48 minutes.

These days, I think people would be most interested to hear Buffalo Springfield's set. Unfortunately, it was only four songs long. But on the plus side, it's historic, because it included the very first public performance of "Mr. Soul," which was on the verge of being released as a single at the time. Even though the Buffalo Springfield set is only 16 minutes long, it's still a gem due to the rarity of live recordings by them with this quality.

The Fifth Dimension were just starting to get popular when this concert happened, which is why they only had a short set at the start of the concert. Their debut album, "Up, Up and Away," wouldn't be released until a couple of months after this concert. They had released a few singles already, but their first really big hit, also "Up, Up and Away," hadn't been released yet either. But they did play it here. I'm not aware of ANY Fifth Dimension bootlegs, and their one live album, simple called "Live," is from 1971, with a very different set list.

Brenda Holloway was a Motown act. She was often ignored by Motown. Consider how she released tons of singles in the 1960s, but was only allowed to release one album, in 1964. At the time of this concert, she hadn't had a hit in two years. But she was promoting her latest single, "Just Look What You've Done," which would prove to be a minor hit (in the Top Twenty of the Soul chart), and should have been a bigger hit. She never released a live album in the 1960s and I'm not aware of any bootlegs by her either.

The Seeds were a garage rock band was a very simple and primitive sound. Their most famous song, "Pushin' Too Hard," only uses two chords, and most of their other songs are just like that, and sound similar to each other. Yet somehow there's charm in their simplicity. The Seeds only had two national hits, "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," both of them scraping around the bottom of the Top Forty. But they were based in Los Angeles and much more popular there, which explains why they got a more prominent billing and longer set time than some other acts here. The Seeds never released a live album in the 1960s (although there is one studio album with fake crowd noise added, bizarrely). I could only find one bootleg from the 1960s, an Anaheim concert in 1968, but the sound quality of that is a lot poorer than this.

Johnny Rivers was a big star in 1967. He'd had a bunch of big hits, including the self-composed "Poor Side of Town," which was Number One in 1966. His version of the Motown classic "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" was a Number Three hit around the time of this concert, an even bigger hit than the original by the Four Tops. But he was possibly even better known for his series of live albums, which were all good sellers. Between 1964 and 1967, he released no fewer than five live albums! That said, this is probably a better set list than any of those albums, because it contains all of his biggest hits by that point in his career. 

One interesting side note is that Rivers played with an orchestra, and it was conducted in person by none other than Jimmy Webb. Webb would go on to become a famous songwriter, with many classic hits written by him but performed by others. But at the time of this concert he was just starting to find success with his songs. He wrote seven songs on Rivers most recent album at the time, but none of them were hits. However, "Up, Up and Away," played by the Fifth Dimension earlier in the concert, would be the first big hit for him a couple of months later, reaching the Top Ten.

That takes us to the closing act, the Supremes. They were the jewel in the crown for Motown, having hit after hit after hit all through the 1960s. At the time of this concert, the Supremes were promoting their latest single, "The Happening." It would hit Number One a few weeks after this concert. The Supremes did release a few live albums, including one in 1965 and another in 1968. But I'm not aware of any bootlegs by them, so this is an interesting addition.

I believe that at the time of this concert, band member Florence Ballard was having trouble due to alcoholism and depression. As a result, she was missing many concerts. This led to her being replaced by Cindy Birdsong, a member of the Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. I believe that Birdsong was on stage here, not Ballard. Ballard returned to the Supremes in May, but performed badly. She was permanently replaced by Birdsong in July.

I'd be curious what people think of this concert, and especially if any of the lingering squeal sound is still bothersome.

By the way, I found a poster for the first KHJ appreciation concert, also at the Hollywood Bowl, on April 2, 1966. Here's the list of acts: Sonny and Cher (who were the main headliners), Donovan, Jan & Dean, Bob Lind, the Knickerbockers, the Mamas & the Papas, the Modern Folk Quartet, Otis Redding, and the Turtles. (Though I hear Jan & Dean didn't play.) That's quite a line-up! I hope a recording of that emerges someday.

This album is two hours and 24 minutes long.

01 talk by Gary Mack (Buffalo Springfield)
02 Pay the Price (Buffalo Springfield)
03 talk (Buffalo Springfield)
04 Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Buffalo Springfield)
05 For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield)
06 Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield)
07 talk by Gary Mack (Buffalo Springfield)
08 talk by Johnny Williams (Fifth Dimension)
09 It's Not Unusual (Fifth Dimension)
10 Go Where You Wanna Go (Fifth Dimension)
11 On Broadway (Fifth Dimension)
12 talk (Fifth Dimension)
13 Up, Up and Away (Fifth Dimension)
14 The Beat Goes On (Fifth Dimension)
15 talk by Bobby Tripp (Brenda Holloway)
16 Happy Together - Sunny (Brenda Holloway)
17 talk (Brenda Holloway)
18 Just Look What You've Done (Brenda Holloway)
19 Every Little Bit Hurts (Brenda Holloway)
20 talk by Humble Harve (Seeds)
21 talk (Seeds)
22 Tripmaker (Seeds)
23 talk (Seeds)
24 Pushin' Too Hard (Seeds)
25 talk (Seeds)
26 Mr. Farmer (Seeds)
27 talk (Seeds)
28 Up in Her Room (Seeds)
29 talk (Seeds)
30 Can't Seem to Make You Mine (Seeds)
31 talk by Humble Harve (Seeds)
32 talk by Johnny Mitchell (Johnny Rivers)
33 Seventh Son (Johnny Rivers)
34 California Dreamin' (Johnny Rivers)
35 Mountain of Love (Johnny Rivers)
36 Do What You Gotta Do (Johnny Rivers)
37 The Tracks of My Tears (Johnny Rivers)
38 talk (Johnny Rivers)
39 Baby, I Need Your Lovin' (Johnny Rivers)
40 Memphis, Tennessee (Johnny Rivers)
41 talk (Johnny Rivers)
42 Poor Side of Town (Johnny Rivers)
43 talk (Johnny Rivers)
44 Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers)
45 tallk by Don Steele (Supremes)
46 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Supremes)
47 Stop in the Name of Love - Come See about Me - My World Is Empty without You - Baby Love (Supremes)
48 Michelle (Supremes)
49 More [Theme from Mondo Cane] (Supremes)
50 talk (Supremes)
51 Back in My Arms Again (Supremes)
52 talk (Supremes)
53 Love Is Here and Now You're Gone (Supremes)
54 Yesterday (Supremes)
55 You Can't Hurry Love (Supremes)
56 talk (Supremes)
57 talk by Berry Gordy (Supremes)
58 talk (Supremes)
59 The Happening (Supremes)
60 Somewhere (Supremes)
61 I Hear a Symphony (Supremes)
62 talk (Supremes)
63 You Send Me - For Sentimental Reasons - Cupid - Chain Gang - Bring It on Home to Me - Shake (Supremes)
64 talk by Gary Mack (Supremes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/haPnF512

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/SYOuJD5qrEslLqN/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/bgXf3

I couldn't find any photos of the acts on stage at this concert. However, I did find a promotional poster for the concert, so I decided to use that as the basis of the cover. I made some edits to get everything to fit in the necessary square space and to look nice. I greatly enlarged the title in purple at the top, and I cut out some other text. But all the rest of the text is original and unchanged.