Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield & John Grant - Songwriters' Circle, Bush Hall, London, Britain, 9-30-2011

Here's another episode of the great "Songwriters' Circle" BBC TV show. This one stars Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield, and John Grant.

I don't think Allen Toussaint needs much introduction at this music blog. That's because I've already posted three albums of cover versions of his songs in my "Covered" series. Here's a link to the first one, in case you want to go back to that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/10/various-artists-covered-allen-toussaint.html

But just in case you need a little reminding, here's a paragraph from his Wikipedia entry: "He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as 'one of popular music's great backroom figures.'" And here's the link to the whole entry:

Allen Toussaint - Wikipedia

James Dean Bradfield is best known as the lead singer and guitarist for the Manic Street Preachers. Nearly all of his music career has been with that band, from 1986 until the current day (writing this in 2026). At the time of this concert, he'd only released on solo album, in 2006. And he's released one more since, in 2020. So solo appearances like this have been rare for him. The Manic Street Preachers have been quite popular, selling 10 million albums worldwide. They've been especially popular in Britain, where they had 34 Top Forty singles in a row, from 1991 to 2010. 

Here the Wikipedia link to that band:

Manic Street Preachers - Wikipedia

And here's the one just from Bradfield:

James Dean Bradfield - Wikipedia

Finally, there's John Grant. He was the lead singer and main songwriter for the band the Czars. That band put out six albums from 1994 to 2006 before splitting up. Then Grant started a solo career, which has been very successful. His debut album "Queen of Denmark" was named the album of the year by Mojo Magazine. His third solo album, "Grey Tickles, Black Pressure," made it all the way to Number Five in the British album chart.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for him:

John Grant (musician) - Wikipedia 

As is the style for this show, each musical artist took turns performing their own songs. Then, at the end, they all did a song together. That song, "Yes We Can Can," is a Allen Toussaint classic from the early 1970s. I don't know if there's much musical connection between these three, but they're all talented songwriters, so the episode is a good one. 

So far, I believe I've posted twelve episodes of this show. After this one, I have one more to post. There are a few more, but I haven't been able to find them. 

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 A Certain Girl (Allen Toussaint)
02 talk (James Dean Bradfield)
03 If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (James Dean Bradfield)
04 talk (John Grant)
05 Sigourney Weaver (John Grant)
06 talk (Allen Toussaint)
07 Get Out of My Life, Woman (Allen Toussaint)
08 talk (James Dean Bradfield)
09 Your Love Is Not Enough (James Dean Bradfield)
10 Where Dreams Go to Die (John Grant)
11 It's Raining (Allen Toussaint)
12 talk (James Dean Bradfield)
13 Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky (James Dean Bradfield)
14 Chicken Bones (John Grant)
15 Working in the Coal Mine (Allen Toussaint)
16 talk (Allen Toussaint)
17 This Is Yesterday (James Dean Bradfield)
18 Caramel (John Grant)
19 Southern Nights (Allen Toussaint)
20 A Design for Life (James Dean Bradfield)
21 Drug (John Grant)
22 Yes We Can Can (Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield & John Grant)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bpRoThJa 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/z1ZgmnnOWV5XUT4/file

I didn't post this album for a while, because coming up with a good photo was a challenge. I wanted an image with all three of the stars in it, from this exact concert. However, they were spread far around the stage. So I took a screenshot with Toussaint and Bradfield in it, and another one of Grant. Then I put Grant into the picture with the other two.

From left to right: Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield & John Grant.

Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 6-29-1982

"PBS Soundstage" was a hour-long concert TV show created by the Chicago PBS TV station WTTW. It ran from 1974 to 1985, then again from 2003 to 2018. It was picked up and shown around the US mainly by PBS, but some other stations too. Whoever picked the artists for this show must have known and loved music, because they made some interesting choices. Occasionally, they had artists join together, such as this show, which has the inspired union of Etta James, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint.

It you want to know more about them, I've posted individual albums by all three of them. (For Allen Toussaint, he was featured as part of my Covered series.) In short, Etta James was an acclaimed soul and blues singer, while Dr. John and Allen Toussaint were both closely associated with the music of New Orleans.

For this show, the three of them appeared on stage in various combinations, with a band backing them. For the song titles, I've only included those who could be heard singing. But it was often the case that Dr. John or Allen Toussaint were still on stage helping out by playing piano. And on some songs Dr. John played guitar instead, which was unusual for him at this point in his career. I know this because one can watch the video of the whole show on YouTube.

I did a little bit of editing and cutting. For instance, there were some short interview segments crammed in between some of the songs that clearly were filmed at a different place and time. I cut all those out. I'm sure there was more to this concert than what we have here. The makers had to fit it into an hour slot. So, for instance, it seems some of the banter before songs were cut. Even some of the songs were cut, especially the last one, "What I'd Say," which fades out after only a minute. But I figure having some of the concert is better than having none of it.

This album is 52 minutes long.

UPDATE: On March 17, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same. However, I figured out the exact date of the concert, so I changed the title. I also improved the cover art.

01 Groove Me (Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)
02 Such a Night (Dr. John)
03 Right Place, Wrong Time (Dr. John)
04 Something's Got a Hold on Me (Etta James)
05 talk (Etta James)
06 Tell Mama (Etta James)
07 talk (Etta James)
08 Sugar on the Floor (Etta James)
09 I'd Rather Go Blind (Etta James & Dr. John)
10 What Do You Want the Girl to Do (Allen Toussaint)
11 With You in Mind (Allen Toussaint)
12 Life (Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)
13 Amazing Grace (Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)
14 What'd I Say (Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eGXtY8Vk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/YsnE5MhNKXFQQgQ/file

For the cover, I took a screenshot from the YouTube video. From right to left, that's James singing, Toussaint on piano, and John on guitar. In March 2025, I updated the image with the use of the Krea AI program.

Various Artists - Covered: Allen Toussaint, Volume 3: 1974-2009

This is the third and final album in my "Covered" series of Allen Toussaint songs. If you're not familiar with his music, give it a try. It's mostly fun, good time music that will get you dancing.

All the songs on this album are solid in my opinion, but there are fewer hits than on the previous two albums. That said, there are some big hits here, especially "Southern Nights," which was a number one song for Glen Campbell. Most of the rest are songs that have been covered by many different artists, and these just happen to be the versions that I like the best.

I generally avoid including different version of the same song within one artist's "Covered" series. But I couldn't resist putting Devo's version of "Working in a Coalmine" here, even though I included the original hit version by Lee Dorsey in the first volume. Devo drastically changed the song into a new wave hit, so I think it's different enough to merit inclusion. By the way, the Judds transformed it a different way and had a country hit with it a few years later.

Toussaint was a much desired producer all through the 1970s, and many artists he produced did some of his songs. But his kind of music went out of fashion in the 1980s, so you see a sudden lack of songs after 1981. Happily though, his music came back into vogue in the 2000s. This was helped by the fact that, after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Toussaint began performing at benefits for New Orleans, and found that he liked it, and audiences liked it, so he became a much more active concert performer from that point to the end of his life in 2015. This revival is represented here by a few more of his songs done in the 2000s, including two from an album he did together with Elvis Costello.

01 Play Something Sweet [Brickyard Blues] (Frankie Miller)
02 Going Down Slowly (Pointer Sisters)
03 What Do You Want the Boy to Do (Bonnie Raitt)
04 Southern Nights (Glen Campbell)
05 Sweet Touch of Love (Etta James)
06 Night People (Robert Palmer)
07 Tears, Tears and More Tears (Nicolette Larson)
08 Working in a Coal Mine (Devo)
09 Broken Promise Land (Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint)
10 International Echo (Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint)
11 Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further (Ida Sand)
12 Victims of the Darkness (Tommy Castro)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687715/COVRDAllnToussnt_1974-2009_Volum3_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo dates from 2009.

Various Artists - Covered: Allen Toussaint, Volume 2: 1972-1974

Here's the second of three albums of songs written by Allen Toussaint.

Unlike others in my "Covered" series who often were part of a team or at least frequently had varying co-writers, Toussaint usually wrote his songs alone. Fewer of the songs this time around were hits, but some of the non-hits became very well known over time. A good example is "Sneakin' Sally Thru' the Alley." It was on Robert Palmer's first album, which sold very little. But it's grown in popularity because it's a great song, and it's on his greatest hits albums and such.

There's one song here that technically is not written by Toussaint: "Lady Marmalade." It was written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan. Both of them wrote lots of other hits, and Crewe is best known for co-writing tons of hits for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. However, in my opinion Toussaint should definitely have a songwriting credit, because he produced the version for Labelle that was a number one hit and has gone on to be one of the most popular songs of all time. He totally transformed the song with his production.

We know this because the original version was actually done by an obscure group called the Eleventh Hour, with lead vocals by Nolan, one of the song's co-writers. That version is terrible. You can confirm this for yourself by looking it up on YouTube. Toussaint heard the song and decided Labelle would be perfect for it, and got them to cover it. Then his production transformed the song, with all kinds of touches that weren't on the original version. So yeah, in my opinion, the fact that was a huge hit is mostly due to him.

I could have included a lot of songs performed by Toussaint himself in this series, but I only used one that is credited solely to him, "Freedom for the Stallion." It's a very good song that I knew I wanted to include, and I liked his version the best. But I could have included many more. Toussaint was a capable singer and performer in his own right, and his versions aren't well known mainly because he was shy and preferred to work behind the scenes in the music industry for most of his career.

01 Hercules (Aaron Neville)
02 Freedom for the Stallion (Three Dog Night)
03 From a Whisper to a Scream (Allen Toussaint)
04 Yes We Can Can (Pointer Sisters)
05 I've Cried My Last Tear (Brinsley Schwarz)
06 On Your Way Down (Little Feat)
07 Lady Marmalade (Labelle)
08 I'll Take a Melody (Frankie Miller)
09 Sneakin' Sally Thru' the Alley (Robert Palmer)
10 What Is Success (Bonnie Raitt)
11 Shoorah Shoorah (Betty Wright)
12 Occapella (Ringo Starr)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17181430/COVRDAllnToussnt1972-1974Volum2_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QJpcn9Ti

The photo I chose for the cover art seemed like a no-brainer, because it was the best looking color photo of him in the 1970s era that I could find. I'm not sure what year the photo was taken, but the general vibe as well as signs of his age make it obvious to me that it has to have been from the 1970s.

UPDATE: On September 30, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Various Artists - Covered: Allen Toussaint, Volume 1: 1961-1971

Here's the next major artist in my "Covered" series: Allen Toussaint. Have you heard of him? If you're a fan of music from New Orleans, there's no way you could have missed him. Otherwise, you may know who he is. But you almost certainly know a lot of his songs, because he's been behind many hits.

Toussaint has probably left an even bigger mark as a producer than as a composer. But this series focuses just on songwriting, so I'm only including songs he wrote or co-wrote. I don't want to write a whole essay on his life, so if you want to learn more, here's his Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Toussaint

This is the first of three albums I've compiled of his best known songs. Each one is about 45 minutes long. I must admit that I'm not a super fan of New Orleans music, so I haven't done a really deep dive into his music. He's written hundreds of songs and produced many times more than that. I've generally stuck to the songs he wrote that became hits, as well as some of his most acclaimed songs that weren't hits. I'm sure he has some rare gems that I've missed. If you know of some you think I should have included, please tell me and I'll consider updating these albums.

Toussaint, who died in 2015, was also a performer. However, he started out very shy, and only took to performing on stage with enthusiasm and frequency in the last decade of his life. Even his recording career didn't get off the ground until the early 1970s, with a few notable exceptions here and there. I've generally concentrated on others covering his songs instead of him doing his own, since there are some good "best of" collections for that.

Nearly all the songs on this particular volume were hits. In fact, some of them were hits for more than one artist, so I had to choose which version to include. For instance,  well known versions of "A Certain Girl" were done by Ernie K-Doe in 1964, the Yardbirds in 1965, and Warren Zevon in 1980. I went with the Yardbirds version.

The song "Ruler of My Heart" is a tricky case. I chose to include the original version, which was done by Irma Thomas in 1965. However, Otis Redding had a hit with it later that year, except that he changed the title to "Pain in My Heart." But for all intents and purposes it's the same song, so I didn't include both of them. Still, check out the Redding version if you haven't already, because it's very good too.

01 Mother-in-Law (Ernie K-Doe)
02 Fortune Teller (Benny Spellman)
03 It's Raining (Irma Thomas)
04 Lipstick Traces [On a Cigarette] (Benny Spellman)
05 Java (Al Hirt)
06 Ruler of My Heart (Irma Thomas)
07 A Certain Girl (Yardbirds)
08 I Like It like That (Dave Clark Five)
09 Ride Your Pony (Lee Dorsey)
10 Whipped Cream (Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass)
11 Holy Cow (Lee Dorsey)
12 Working in the Coalmine (Lee Dorsey)
13 Get Out of My Life Woman (Solomon Burke)
14 Mean Man (Betty Harris)
15 Give It Up (Lee Dorsey)
16 Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky [From Now On] (Don Covay)
17 Here Come the Girls (Ernie K-Doe)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687693/COVRDAllnToussnt_1961-1971_Volum1_atse.zip.html

I much prefer color photos, and it's next to impossible to find good color photos of Toussaint from the era covered by this album. For the album cover, I chose a "color" photo from a compilation of his songs. However, I'm 99 percent certain that it was colorized. Still, it's a good photo and I liked it better than any of the other options. I made some tweaks to it to try to make the colorization less obvious, including changing the background color. (It had been a weird shade of green.)