The Hollies - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1965

Next up for BBC material is the Hollies. I don't know why, but it seems like the Hollies got unlucky when it comes to surviving BBC recordings. I found a list of at least 40 sessions the band did for the BBC. Since each session usually meant two or three songs played, that would be well over 100 songs. But it seems the majority of that either was lost or is sitting in a vault somewhere. Only one single album of their BBC material has been officially released, an album called "Radio Fun." That album is woefully inadequate, since I've been able to find three album's worth of material. Here's the first one.

For this album, most of the songs come from that "Radio Fun" album I mentioned. But four of the songs remain officially unreleased. Their sound quality is pretty much the same as the others though. There are some more recordings out there that survive but with really poor sound quality, so I'm not even including those as bonus tracks.

I did include one bonus track here though, "Yes I Will." I considered that one close to being worthy of inclusion, but it fell just short.

The usual problem with BBC recordings is how BBC DJs tended to frequently talk over the starts and ends of songs. For the officially released BBC versions, the songs were faded in and out to remove such talking. Those were the versions I used when I first posted this album. But when I updated it in November 2021, I was able to find unreleased versions that sound just as good, and had the DJ talking. Then I used the audio editing program X-Minus to wipe that talking while keeping the underlying music. The ones I edited like that have "[Edit]" in their titles.

Most of the songs here that have survived are different performances of songs the band put on record. But occasionally they did some exclusive material for the BBC. The only song here I'm sure they didn't put out on record is "Ride Your Pony," but there could be others. If anyone knows, please let me know and I'll update this text.

This album is 51 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 27, 2021, I updated the mp3 download file. In addition to fixing the BBC DJ talking problem mentioned above, I added "Mickey's Monkey," which I'd somehow previously missed.  I also found a much better sounding version of "Yes I Will," so I was able to remove that as a bonus track and add it with the other songs. Finally, I found a different version of "You Must Believe Me," so I added that as a bonus track. It sounds as good as the others, but I just dislike having two versions of the same song on the same album.

01 Here I Go Again (Hollies)
02 Set Me Free [Edit] (Hollies)
03 Something's Got a Hold of Me (Hollies)
04 We're Through [Edit] (Hollies)
05 Nobody (Hollies)
06 She Said Yeah (Hollies)
07 Yes I Will (Hollies)
08 You Must Believe Me [Edit] (Hollies)
09 Mickey's Monkey [Edit] (Hollies)
10 I'm Alive (Hollies)
11 You Know He Did [Edit] (Hollies)
12 Stay (Hollies)
13 Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Hollies)
14 Look through Any Window (Hollies)
15 Put Yourself in My Place (Hollies)
16 Ride Your Pony (Hollies)
17 Too Many People (Hollies)
18 So Lonely [Edit] (Hollies)
19 If I Needed Someone (Hollies)
20 I've Got a Way of My Own (Hollies)
21 A Taste of Honey (Hollies)

You Must Believe Me (Hollies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15122402/THollis_1964-1965_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

The promo photo used for the cover art is from 1964.