Various Artists - Covered: Graham Gouldman, Volume 3: 1972-2017

In recent weeks, I've posted the first two albums in this series. Here's the third and last. Note that this period covers Graham Gouldman's success with the band 10cc, but I haven't included any 10cc versions of songs whatsoever. The whole idea of this album series is to present other musicians doing his songs, not versions by bands he was in.

1972 was a pivotal year in the musical career of Gouldman. Prior to that year, he'd had many successes as a songwriter, but his own career as a singer and performer had never really gotten off the ground. But he hooked up with three other talented singer songwriters as 10cc, and they started having hits. Gouldman is still leading 10cc as I write this, though the other three fell away and the hits generally stopped coming after the 1970s.

One thing about 10cc is that they were always considered quirky, often classified as "art rock" instead of just rock. Their style was so unique and unorthodox that it means few other bands have covered their songs, with the exception of a couple of their more mainstream sounding love songs, "I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love," which have been covered a lot. So I had a really hard time finding cover versions of some songs. Certain ones, such as "Art for Art's Sake" and "I'm Mandy, Fly Me," haven't been included because I couldn't find any good covers at all. (If you know of some, please let me know.)

However, I was able to find good versions of most of the other key 10cc songs which Gouldman wrote or co-wrote. There are five of those here. The rest are a mixed bag. Gouldman has remained an active songwriter to the present day, and has taken part in lots of songwriting collaborations in addition to his solo albums and 10cc albums. The two songs he cowrote here with Kirsty MacColl are a case in point. I didn't track down and listen to every single song he had a songwriting share in, so I probably missed some good ones, but hopefully I got most of the really worthy ones.

As a finally note, Gouldman is 74 years old as I write this, but he's still going strong. He put out a solo album in 2020, "Modesty Forbids," and I honestly think it's one of the best thing he's done since the 1970s. So if you like his style, you should check that out.

Meanwhile, the "Covered" series will continue. I've got a lot more songwriters who made their names in the 1960s coming up, including some who are best known for writing Motown hits.

01 Warm Me (Festival)
02 Travelin' Man (Tristar Airbus)
03 I'm Not in Love (Richie Havens)
04 Love's Not for Me [Rene's Song] (Carole Anne Berry)
05 Rubber Bullets (Men They Couldn't Hang)
06 The Things We Do for Love (Gregson & Collister)
07 Things Happen (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Treachery (Kirsty MacColl)
09 I've Got You (McFly)
10 Dreadlock Holiday (Jake & Flo)
11 The Wall Street Shuffle (Take It Easy)
12 Say the Word (Hornal with Matt Berry, Graham Gouldman & Kevin Godley)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15904626/CoveredGrahamG_1972-2017_Volum3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from an awards show in 2015. There was song writing on the wall behind him, but I found that distracting so I erased it in Photoshop.