The Hollies - Wings - Non-Album Tracks (1968)

In the 1960s, the Hollies typically released at least one album of new studio material every year. They didn't release one in 1968, probably because key band member Graham Nash left the group at the end of that year to find bigger fame and fortune as part of Crosby, Stills and Nash (CSN). But they really should have, since they've released just enough material for such an album. Here's my version of it.

Most of the songs here are A- and B-sides, including two hit songs "Jennifer Eccles" and "Listen to Me." Another handful come from various rarities compilations. All of the songs are from when Nash was still in the band. One of the songs, "Blowin' in the Wind," would later appear in the 1969 album "Hollies Play Dylan," but ins an alternate version recorded with Nash.

I have some especially interesting and unreleased songs to end this album. One is a version of "Louisiana Rain" done with Bobbie Gentry for her BBC TV show. The song is written by Gentry and appears on one of her albums, but for this version, in my opinion, the Hollies actually do more of the singing.

The other unreleased song is the Hollie's version of Marrakesh Express. Nash would have a big hit with it with CSN in 1969, but he actually wrote it while he was still with the Hollies. The Hollies recorded a backing track for it, which has been bootlegged, but apparently never got around to adding vocals to it. Someone named "HolliesRareandUnreleased" has created a mash-up version using this Hollies backing track version with the vocals from an acoustic demo Nash made in 1968 that was released on the "Over the Years" archival collection in 2018.

The vocals and music match very well in my opinion, and it's mixed well. The only problems are that the drummer seems unsure about the best approach to take, so the rhythm isn't that great, and the usual Hollies backing vocals never got added. Still, it's pretty interesting to hear how the Hollies approached this song, which is fairly different from the CSN version.

By the way, squabbling over this song is one of the reasons Nash left the group, since the song has a hppie vibe to it (vacations to Morocco were very popular with hippie types back in those days) and Hollies were still square. Although they did wear hippie-style clothes sometimes, their hearts weren't in it and they still played cabarets in matching suits in 1968.

True, the Hollies were square and behind the times in 1968, but they still made great pop music, as this album shows.

This album is 41 minutes long.

UPDATE: On April 26, 2023, I updated the mp3 download file. I found a demo Graham Nash did in 1965 of a song the Hollies wrote for a different British band called the Mirage. This demo was recorded in 1965 to help the band learn the song. It actually was released on an archival Mirage album called "The World Goes On Around You." It doesn't fit in that well with the rest of this album chronologically, but I didn't have a better album to put it in.

I also added "Survival of the Fittest." This dates from a 1970 Hollies album of the same name, and it was recorded without Nash. But it's known there was a 1968 version done with Nash, but it's never been made publicly available. Surely song likely would have been included if the band released a 1968, so adding it here gives an idea what that might have sounded like.

01 Jennifer Eccles (Hollies)
02 Open Up Your Eyes (Hollies)
03 Listen to Me (Hollies)
04 Do the Best You Can (Hollies)
05 Blowin' in the Wind [Nash Version] (Hollies)
06 Like Every Time Before (Hollies)
07 Wings (Hollies)
08 Relax (Hollies)
09 Tomorrow When It Comes (Hollies)
10 Man with No Expression [Horses in a Rainstorm] (Hollies)
11 A Taste of Honey [Nash Version] (Hollies)
12 Louisiana Man (Bobbie Gentry & the Hollies)
13 Marrakesh Express [Edit] (Hollies)
14 Survival of the Fittest (Hollies)
15 Go Away [Demo] (Graham Nash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15175575/THollis_1968_Wngs_atse.zip.html

I made the album cover from a publicity photo of the band dating to 1968.