Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

A few weeks ago we marked the death on August 8 of Lamont Dozier with a mix of songs he wrote at Motown with the brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. This is a sequel to the Any Major Holland-Dozier-Holland Songbook, covering almost exclusively the post-Motown era, during which Dozier still worked with the Hollands, but also with others and on his own.

Holland-Dozier-Holland split from Motown acrimoniously. Having founded the Invictus label, which created some of the greatest early-‘70s soul music, the trio were precluded by a lawsuit from crediting themselves for the songs they wrote. That’s how the fictional Edith Wayne, a pseudonym for HDH, came to co-write soul classics such as Band Of Gold, Give Me Just A Little More Time, Dangling On A String, Everything’s Tuesday, Westbound No. 9, Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup), and others.

The legal strife with Berry Gordy Jr was nasty business, but according to Dozier it was exactly that: just business. So by the mid-1970s, the Hollands worked with Motown again, in a delightful twist producing The Supremes, the band which in the 1960s they had produced to superstardom (and listen to Freda Payne’s Deeper And Deeper to hear some of that residual Supremes-like magic). On The Supremes’ 1976’s hit album High Energy, only Mary Wilson was left of the classic line-up. Sharing the lead by then was Scherrie Payne, Freda’s younger sister. But on the featured track, the Dozier co-written Don’t Let My Teardrops Bother You, Wilson takes the lead.

Before Scherrie joined The Supremes in 1973, she was in the Invictus band The Glass House, featured here with the gospel-funk track Heaven Is There To Guide Us, for which she received a co-writer’s credit, as she did for Crumbs Off The Table, a Glass House track covered here by Dusty Springfield.

There are two other songs with a faith-based theme here, both glorious grooves. The Sylvers’ Touch Me Jesus and Harrison Kennedy’s Sunday Morning People (which attacks the hypocrisy of people in the pews). In their original versions, by The Glass House (actually recorded by Darlene Love’s The Blossoms) and The Honey Cone respectively, both songs featured on the excellent Saved! The Soul Edition mix.

Perhaps the second-most surprising cover artist here, after Motörhead, is Donny Osmond. He covers the Chairmen of the Board’s glorious Dangling On A String. One might fear the worst, since Donald’s artistic reputation did not hinge on his powress as a traditional soul man. In the event, it is an agreeable interpretation — and not surprisingly, since co-writer Brian Holland produced the 1977 album this comes from.

Motörhead’s contribution from 1977, Leaving Here, is the only song here that belongs firmly in the Holland-Dozier-Holland Motown era. It was one of the trio’s earliest compositions, having been first released as a single in 1963 by Eddie Holland. It made no commercial impression, but in 1977, Lemmy and his pals Phil and Eddie recorded the song as their debut single. It’s not like Motörhead were deep-tracking obscure Motown material; their inspiration was a 1965 recording by the group The Birds, which counted among its members a fresh-faced Ronnie Woods.

The mix kicks off with Odyssey’s magnificent version of Going Back To My Roots, a song Dozier wrote on his own and recorded in 1977. Hugh Masekela helped Dozier infuse the song with its Afro-pop sensibility, which the Odyssey cover retained (including the Yoruba chant). It had already been covered by Richie Haven, but Odyssey had a huge hit with it in Europe in 1981. It topped the charts in South Africa, the home which Masekela could not return to… Dozier’s original featured on Any Major Originals: Soul Vol. 1).

Most tracks here were co-written by Dozier with others; the writing credits can be found in the ID3 tags of the song files. On 12 of the 30 tracks here, Ron Dunbar got a co-writing credit, mostly alongside that of Edith Wayne. Dunbar left us in April 2018. Dozier later claimed that Dunbar, an A&R man for Invictus, served as a composing front for Brian Holland, again because of the legal troubles with Motown. Dozier and Dunbar can sort that out in pop heaven.

This mix features 30 tracks. If you want to cut it in a standard CD-R, take tracks 1-22. The mix includes home-produced covers, and the above in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

1. Odyssey – Going Back To My Roots (1981)
2. Angela Clemmons – Give Me Just A Little More Time (1982)
3. Donny Osmond – Dangling On A String (1977)
4. Lamont Dozier – Why Can’t We Be Lovers (1974)
5. Flaming Ember – Westbound No. 9 (1971)
6. The Honey Cone – While You’re Out Looking For Sugar (1969)
7. Ronnie Dyson – Band Of Gold (1970)
8. Chairmen Of The Board – Everything’s Tuesday (1970)
9. 100 Proof Aged In Soul – Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup) (1971)
10. McKinley Jackson & Politicians – Love Machine (1971)
11. Dusty Springfield – Crumbs Off The Table (1972)
12. Harrison Kennedy – Sunday Morning People (1972)
13. Freda Payne – Deeper And Deeper (1970)
14. The Glass House – Heaven Is There To Guide Us (1971)
15. The Sylvers – Touch Me Jesus (1972)
16. The Blossoms – Cherish What Is Dear To You (1972)
17. The Jones Girls – Come Back (1972)
18. James Gilstrap – Put Out The Fire (1975)
19. Millie Jackson – You Created A Monster (1977)
20. Ben E. King – Let Me Live In Your Life (1978)
21. The Supremes – Don’t Let My Teardrops Bother You (1976)
22. Holland-Dozier – New Breed Kinda Woman (1973)
Bonus Tracks:
23. Syreeta – Mind, Body And Soul (c.1969)
24. Dionne Warwick – Don’t Burn The Bridge (That You Took Across) (1973)
25. The Originals – Sweet Rhapsody (1975)
26. Margie Joseph – All Cried Out (1976)
27. Alison Moyet – Invisible (1984)
28. Boy George – To Be Reborn (1987)
29. The Style Council – Hanging On To A Memory (live) (1984)
30. Motörhead – Leaving Here (1978)

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Previous Songbooks:
ABBA
Ashford & Simpson
Barry Gibb Vol. 1
Barry Gibb Vol. 2
Bill Withers
Bob Dylan Volumes 1-5
Brian Wilson
Bruce Springsteen
Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Burt Bacharach’s Lesser-Known Songbook
Carole Bayer Sager
Carole King Vol. 1
Carole King Vol. 2
Chuck Berry
Cole Porter Vol. 1
Cole Porter Vol. 2
Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Holland-Dozier-Holland
John Prine
Jimmy Webb Vol. 1
Jimmy Webb Vol. 2
Jimmy Webb Vol. 3
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Paul McCartney Vol. 1
Rod Temperton
Steely Dan

Here’s a mix that riffs on a current event, in as far as that event inspired the theme: songs by people called Charles or derivations of that name. It’s basically an excuse to put together a collection of good songs that span various genres. You’ll know some of the Charlies featured, and you may discover a few you might not have known.

As for the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha chap (Windsor is really a made-up stage name), well, good luck to him. After 70 year of his mummy on the throne, the poor sap can’t really succeed. Not that I care much for the robber baron institutions that drain public purses, whether in Britain, Thailand or Eswatini. All systems of inherited privilege are objectionable. I’d not want to take part in the servility that props up aristocracies, with the bowing and scraping and bootlicking and letting miscreants of various levels of sweatiness get away with rape and murder. In the words of a Chuck not featured on this mix: Fight the Power!

But you don’t come here for my outbursts of civic sagacity, but for the music. So here’s the mix of people called Charles, Charley, Charlie, Chuck, Chas, Chaz, Charlotte or Carla, including a track featuring Inez Foxx (with brother Charlie), who died last month. And, fittingly, the Chuck Jackson track was produced by Carole King.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-curtsied covers. PW in comments.

1. Carla Thomas – Stop Thief (1967)
2. Inez & Charlie Foxx – Hurt By Love (1964)
3. Chuck Jackson – I Don’t Want To Cry (1961)
4. Chuck Berry – No Particular Place To Go (1964)
5. Charlie Rich – Rebound (1959)
6. Charles Brown – Trouble Blues (1947)
7. Charles Trenet – La Mer (1946)
8. Charlie Watts Quintet feat. Bernard Fowler – My Ship (1993)
9. Ray Charles with Willie Nelson – Seven Spanish Angels (1984)
10. Bobby Charles – I Must Be In A Good Place Now (1972)
11. Chuck Pyle – Colorado (2007)
12. Charlotte Kendrick – Feels Right (2007)
13. Charlie Dore – Pilot Of The Airwaves (1980)
14. Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie To You (Acoustic Version) (1992)
15. Charlie Singleton – Sorry Charlie (1989)
16. Chas & Dave – Ain’t No Pleasing You (1982)
17. Charley Pride – Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger (1967)
18. Charlie Daniels Band – Long Haired Country Boy (1974)
19. Sonny Charles & The Checkmates – Black Pearl (1969)
20. Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – Road Without An End (1970)
21. Carla Whitney – Wisdom Song (1975)
22. Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – Come On And Boogie (Part 1) (1980)
23. Tina Charles – I Love To Love (1976)
24. Chaz Jankel – Without You (1983)

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Rarely, if ever, has so much musical talent been concentrated in one suburb as it was in the decade between the mid-1960s and mid-70s in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles.

A popular residential area for film stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, by the late 1960s Laurel Canyon had become a bohemian refuge, a place where hippies did lots of drugs and wore few clothes.

The pioneer denizen was Frank Zappa, but the sounds that came out of Laurel Canyon were mostly folk and rock and folk-rock. Zappa, The Doors and Alice Coopers were musical outliers amid the likes of Joni Mitchell, Cass Elliott or James Taylor, or even popsters like The Monkees’ Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz.

Queen Bee of Laurel Canyon

The queen bee was Cass Elliott of The Mamas and the Papas — whose producer, the legendary Lou Adler, also lived there. Her parties were the place to be, according to virtually every alumnus. At one of these parties, Cass suggested that David Crosby of The Byrds should team up with Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield and Graham Nash of The Hollies, believing that their voices would go well together. The idea, as it turned out, was inspired.

Nash would later write a song about life on Laurel Canyon. Our House, on CSN&Y’s Déjà Vu album, was written about his domestic bliss with girlfriend Joni Mitchell. The two even home-recorded a demo of the song. But by the time Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded it, Mitchell had dumped Nash. In fact, during the recording of Déjà Vu, all four members were nursing broken hearts (in Crosby’s case due to a tragic bereavement).

If Cass Elliott was the social locus of Laurel Canyon, with Dolenz’s home running a close second, then Joni Mitchell might have been the artistic leader. She’d even make an album about Laurel Canyon, sensibly called Ladies Of The Canyon.

As word spread about this musical refuge, more musicians moved in. In the 1970s, this was also accompanied by a different kind of drug culture, with cocaine supplanting weed and acid as the favoured form of substance use. The extended Summer of Love was ending in Laurel Canyon as well, with external events like the Manson Murders darkening the good vibes.

Tragic Singer

Not every member of the Canyon set became big stars like Joni Mitchell or James Taylor. Sadly, gifted artists like Judee Sill or Linda Perhacs never broke through and today are widely forgotten, unjustly so. Perhacs debut album in 1970 remained her only one for 44 years.

The extravangantly gifted Judee Sill, perhaps best-known for her song Jesus Was a Cross Maker, might be Laurel Canyon’s most tragic singer. In her young days, she was engaged in criminal activities, including robberies. She mended her ways in reform school, where she picked up an interest in Christianity which would find expression in her songs. Moving to LA, she soon experimented with drugs, picking up a heroin addiction (which led her to a stint in jail in the 1960s).

As a person Sill was troubled, as a musician, however, she excelled. Nash and Crosby appointed her as their opening act on tour, through which she landed a recording contract. She recorded two fine albums, but to no commercial success. Injuries from car accidents, health problems and drug abuse followed her until a drug overdose killed Sill in 1979.

Laurel Canyon on LP Covers

A couple of famous album covers were shot in Laurel Canyon. The cover photo Carole King’s Tapestry was taken in the living room of her house at 8815 Appian Way (the story of that cover is told in the Tapestry Recovered post).

The cover of Crosby, Still & Nash’s eponymous album, the one with the beaten-up sofa on a porch, was taken at a random house Graham Nash had discovered in Palm Avenue (between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards). The shoot, by Henry Diltz, was great, but there was a snag: the trio had yet to decide on the order of their names in the supergroup. When they decided on the Crosby-Stills-Nash order, their positions on the couch photo were in the incorrect order. So a couple of days later, they piled into the car to reshoot the image, in which the members would sit in the correct order — but when the group got there, the house had been torn down. In the end, they just went with that perfect shot, sitting order notwithstanding.

Diltz was a major contributor to the excellent 2020 two-part documentary Laurel Canyon, which features rare photo and video material. A great companion piece is the 2019 documentary Echo In The Canyon, which was a project of Jakob Dylan, which connects the Laurel Canyon scene with contemporary musicians.The mix is sequenced to fit on a standard CD-R, if you take tracks 1-25, but there are seven more songs to enjoy. It includes home-smoked covers and the above as an illustrated linernotes PDF. PW in comments.

1. Jackie DeShannon – Laurel Canyon (1969)
2. The Mamas & The Papas – Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon) (1968)
3. The Byrds – Eight Miles High (1966)
4. Love – Orange Skies (1966)
5. Buffalo Springfield – Sit Down I Think I Love You (1966)
6. Joni Mitchell – Ladies Of The Canyon (1970)
7. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Our House (1970)
8. Judee Sill – Crayon Angels (1971)
9. Jackson Browne – Jamaica Say You Will (1970)
10. Carole King – Sweet Seasons (1970)
11. Dave Mason – Just A Song (1970)
12. Little Feat – Fool Yourself (1973)
13. Bonnie Raitt – Too Long At The Fair (1971)
14. Carly Simon – The Right Thing To Do (1972)
15. James Taylor – Blossom (1970)
16. Linda Perhacs – Sandy Toes (1972)
17. Poco – Just For Me And You (1971))
18. Eagles – Peaceful Easy Feeling (1972)
19. America – Lonely People (1974)
20. Ned Deheny – On And On (1973)
21. The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band – Border Town (1974)
22. Mama Cass – Make You Own Kind Of Music (1969)
23. Flying Burrito Brothers – Sin City (1969)
24. Judy Henske & Jerry Yester – Charity (1969)
25. The Monkees – For Pete’s Sake (1969)
Bonus Tracks:
26. The Turtles – So Happy Together (1966)
27. Three Dog Night – Never Been To Spain (1971)
28. Linda Ronstadt – Long Long Time (1970)
29. Fleetwood Mac – Landslide (1975)
30. John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers – Laurel Canyon Home (1968)
31. The Doors – Love Street (1968)
32. Alice Cooper – Living (1969)

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Summertime is party time. I was thinking of that when I mused about the best-ever movie about a party. Superbad might the funniest (and one of the best about real friendship), and some people might swear by Belushi comedies or John Hughes films or 1960s beach flicks involving Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. After due consideration, I regard Dazed And Confused as the greatest film about partying. In fact, I think it’s really a documentary.

But you’re not here to read about my preferences in the domain of films, but for the music. So here is a mix of songs about parties. They must be, or at least pretend to be, about get-togethers. And I limited an endless list by allowing only songs that have the word “party” in the title, and even avoided the one most people will have thought of first, because at my parties, no tears! Not much more to it, so everybody, it’s time to party down.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-boogiedowned covers, and this whole post in PDF. PW in comment.

Marvin Gaye – It’s Party Time (1962)
The Party Vibe: Boogie down with endurance. “We can shake it, we can take it, woo!”

The Show Stoppers – Ain’t Nothing But A Houseparty (1968)
The Party Vibe: Architecturally instructive. “They’re dancing on the ceiling, they’re dancing on the floor.”

Curtis Mayfield – Party Night (1976)
The Party Vibe: Food, dance, possibility of sex. “Having cheese and wine, dancing all the time.”

Dee Dee Sharp Gamble – Let’s Get This Party Started (1980)
The Party Vibe: Expectant. “Don’t you want to get funky?”

Raydio – It’s Time To Party Now (1980)
The Party Vibe: Talking, fronting, man-chasing. “But whatever you’re here for, you’ve got to get on down.

Gloria Gaynor – Anybody Wanna Party? (1978)
The Party Vibe: Prelude to hot lurve. “I could dig some slow dance, I could dig some girl-meets-boy.”

Luther Vandross – Bad Boy/Having A Party (1982)
The Party Vibe: Joyfully destructive. “The chandelier downstairs has fallen.”

Rhinestones – Party Music (1975)
The Party Vibe: Eclectic. “Moving with the masters, Motown to Ravel.”

Jona Lewie – You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties (1980)
The Party Vibe: Dull. “At last I met a pretty girl, she laughed and talked with me. We both walked out of the kitchen and danced in a new way.”

Dar Williams – Party Generation (1997)
The Party Vibe: Nerdy. “And he said, ‘Don’t you know the game Kazaam? It’s a better game’.”

Rick Nelson – Garden Party (1972)
The Party Vibe: Celeb-filled. “Everyone was there, Yoko brought her walrus.”

Don Gibson – Give Myself A Party (1958)
The Party Vibe: Masturbatory. “I’m gonna give myself a party and serve old memories.”

Elvis Presley – Party (1957)
The Party Vibe: Zoological. “I’ve never kissed a bear, I’ve never kissed a goon, but I can shake a chicken in the middle of the room.”

Claudine Clark – Party Lights (1962)
The Party Vibe: Lonesome. “Oh, everybody in the crowd is there. Ooh, but you [Mama] won’t let me make the scene.”

The Pixies Three – Birthday Party (1964)
The Party Vibe: Platter-spinning. “I got the latest records we all know and we can dance to the radio.”

Stevie Wonder – The Party At The Beach House (1964)
The Party Vibe: Grammatically incorrect. “You’re gonna see all of your friends you haven’t seen since school begins.”

Tami Lynn – At The Party (1966)
The Party Vibe: Is this a party? “If I show you how to shimmy will you show me how to shout… shake it up and shake it down.”

Jay W. McGee – When We Party (Uptown, Downtown) (1982)
The Party Vibe: Peaceful. “And there’s never any trouble ’cause we know what we come for.”

Harari – Party (1981)
The Party Vibe: Groovin’. “Everybody was dancing and rocking. My feet got the message too.”

Prince – Partyup (1980)
The Party Vibe: Anti-war. “I don’t want to die, I just want to have a bloody good time.”

The Holmes Brothers – Stayed At The Party (2013)
The Party Vibe: Regretful. “If it was dry, I’d smoke, if it was wet, I’d drink it.”

Alexander O’Neal – When The Party Is Over (1987)
The Party Vibe: Hopeful. “There’s no need to leave when the party’s over.”

Allen Toussaint – When The Party’s Over (1973)
The Party Vibe: Winding down romantically. “When the party’s over and everybody’s gone, we can trip out to a space where we can be alone.”

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For us in the southern hemisphere, it’s winter. Though where I am, it’s a beautiful day today; the sun is shining, the windows are open, and it’s 23 degrees Celsius. Still, brrrr…

On the other side of the planet, where most of you, the readers, reside, it’s summer. Some of you might be suffering heatwaves; some might even enjoy those, as a relief from summer rains.

So to keep you in the sunshiney mood, here’s a Best of Any Major Summer collection, drawn from the five Any Major Summer and three Any Major Beach mixes. All these mixes are still up, as well as all five summer mixes in two convenient parcels.

Are these 23 tracks really the “best” of the 170+ songs on those eight seasonal collections? Well, it’s subjective; some are obvious and inevitable summer song choices, others may be a bit more unexpected. On another day, I might have chosen some other songs — and I add seven of those that didn’t make the cut as bonus tracks — but this compilation certainly captures the summer vibe. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-suntanned covers. PW in comments.

1. Meat Loaf – You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (1977)
2. Jay Ferguson – Thunder Island (1977)
3. Billy Idol – Hot In The City (1982)
4. The Style Council – Long Hot Summer (1983)
5. Chris Rea – On The Beach (Summer ‘88) (1988)
6. The Blackbyrds – Hot Day Today (1974)
7. Osibisa – Sunshine Day (1975)
8. Sly and the Family Stone – Hot Fun In The Summertime (1969)
9. War – All Day Music (1971)
10. Seals & Croft – Summer Breeze (1972)
11. Lovin’ Spoonful – Summer In The City (1966)
12. Young Rascals – Groovin’ (1967)
13. The Beach Boys – All Summer Long (1964)
14. Martha and the Vandellas – Dancing In The Streets (1964)
15. Ann Cole – Summer Nights (1958)
16. Sam Cooke – Summertime (1959)
17. Pat Boone – Love Letters In The Sand (1957)
18. The Drifters – Under The Boardwalk (1964)
19. Mungo Jerry – In The Summertime (1970)
20. First Class – Beach Baby (1974)
21. Corinne Bailey Rae – Put Your Records On (2006)
22. Sheryl Crow – Soak Up The Sun (2002)
23. Jens Lekman – A Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill (2005)

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Previously in Any Major Summer & Beaches
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Here’s the second mix of Hits from 1972, Volume 1 having dropped in January. While the first mix was mostly US-centric, this one reflects the UK and/or European experience, even as some of these songs were also hits in the US. And by hits, I also mean Top 30 numbers, for these too received airplay. As always, the songs are collated not for their high musical merit, though none are included because I think they’re rubbish — I like them all. The idea is to capture the vibe of the year, and perhaps to place pop standards by the likes of Bowie or T. Rex in their charting context.

The opening track was a novelty hit for funk band The Jimmy Castor Bunch, the title of which describes certain sections of the US political establishment quite perfectly. Advisory warning: the lyrics do not enlightened gender politics. It was a Top 30 hit in the US and in West-Germany, but did not chart in the UK.

One track here charted in neither US nor UK, but was a hit in Europe. Proudfoot was a South African band quickly put together after their big hit was recorded! Their hit Delta Queen was recorded by a group of session musicians which included the legendary producer and songwriter Mutt Lange on bass and future Yes member and film score composer Trevor Rabin on guitar. When the song caught on, new personnel was quickly assembled to become a band that continued to have some success. Delta Queen was a big hit in the Low Countries, and a Top 30 hit in West-Germany, where French singer Ricky Shane recorded a German cover, which became a bigger hit than the original.

No relations to the South African at are Blackfoot Sue, not to be confused with Southern Rock band Blackfoot. A British foursome, Blackfoot Sue had one UK #4 hit, the featured Standing In The Road, and another track later that year which scraped into the Top 40. And that was it for Blackfoot Sue as far as hits were concerned. They had minor success in the US and UK in 1977 with an Arif Mardin-produced album on which Cissy Houston did backing vocals.

Dutch band The Cats on a poster in the German ‘Bravo’ magazine in September 1972.

Before they became teen idols, the Bay City Rollers aimed to be a serious pop band. In 1972 they released their single Mañana, written by Alan Blaikley (who died last week) and Jen Howard. The line-up included Nobby Clark on vocals, and from the incarnation that made girls faint, only the two Longmuir brothers — the two guys least likely to make little girls’ hearts race faster — were present. Mañana was later re-recorded with Leslie McKeown on vocals, but it was the Clark-led version that was a hit in West-Germany.

One of the biggest stars on the German music scene was Vicky Leandros, the Greek-born and Hamburg-based singer who won the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg with the superb Apres Toi. The song became a hit in various languages; in the UK it was titled Come What May (in Germany it was called Dann Kammst Du). Leandros became internationally know in 1967 when she came fourth in the Eurovision with the excellent L’amour Est Bleu, which became a worldwide hit in Paul Mauriat’s easy listening version. Both Leandros songs feature on Any Major Eurovision.

Two songs in particular remind me of my very first days of schooling. One is the plaintive One Way Wind (which is not about flatulence) by Dutch band The Cats (named after a creature that can be flatulent). Between 1968 and 1983, The Cats were perhaps the biggest act in the Netherlands, with 18 Top Ten hits there, including five #1s, and twenty-nine Top 20 hits. But their international breakthrough was One Way Wind in 1972. In West-Germany, the world’s third-biggest singles market, it reached #4. Follow-up Let’s Dance did even one rung better.

The other song that reminds me of my first school-day is the synth instrumental Popcorn by Hot Butter, a much-covered song originally by Gershon Kingsley (see Any Major Originals – The 1970s Vol. 2). In Hot Butter’s version, it was a Top 10 hit all over the world, also in the US and UK. In West-Germany it topped the charts for here weeks. Hot Butter was really Stan Free, an American jazz musician, composer, conductor and arranger, plus a bunch of session musicians.

1972 was the year when the Moog synthesizer settled in the music charts. British band Chicory Tip claim to have been the first to use it on a UK chart hit. The stomping Son Of My Father may well have been, but Chicory Tip were hardly the innovators they claimed to be. Their version is a faithful cover of the original by Giorgio Moroder, who wrote it in Germany with singer Michael Holm, who first released the song in German.  The story is also told in Any Major Originals – The 1970s Vol. 2.

Finally, there was Marc Bolan of T. Rex. In his Children Of The Revolution, he sings: “I drive a Rolls Royce ’cause it’s good for my voice”. Being a passenger in a Mini was less so…

So, what were the hits that soundtracked your 1972?

If you dig the feel of 1972, take a look at the collection of posters from West-Germany’s Bravo magazine in 1972 (other years are available, too).

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, includes home-popcorned covers, and the above text in an illustrated PDF. PW in Comments.

1. The Jimmy Castor Bunch – Troglodyte (Cave Man)
2. Deep Purple – Never Before
3. Jo Jo Gunne – Run Run Run
4. Blackfoot Sue – Standing In The Road
5. Slade – Mama Weer All Crazee Now
6. T. Rex – Children Of The Revolution
7. David Bowie – Starman
8. Lindisfarne – Meet Me On The Corner
9. Bee Gees – Run To Me
10. Don McLean – Vincent
11. Python Lee Jackson feat. Rod Stewart – In A Broken Dream
12. The Fortunes – Storm In A Teacup
13. The O’Jays – Back Stabbers
14. Chi-Lites – Oh Girl
15. The Stylistics – I’m Stone In Love With You
16. Vicky Leandros – Come What May
17. The Cats – One Way Wind
18. Proudfoot – Delta Queen
19. Elton John – Crocodile Rock
20. John Kincade – Dreams Are Ten A Penny
21. Bay City Rollers – Mañana
22. Middle Of The Road – Bottom’s Up
23. Chicory Tip – Son Of My Father
24. Hot Butter – Popcorn

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Any Major Hits from 1944
Any Major Hits from 1961
Any Major Hits from 1970
Any Major Hits from 1971
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 1

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Today I’ll provide a little glimpse into Any Major Dude’s sausage factory. Every day people stop me in the streets and ask: “Any Major Dude With Half A Heart, how the blazes do you come up with all those brilliant ideas for CD-R mixes?” Usually I just tap the side of my nose and sign their autograph books, and politely decline their request for selfies.

It was last week, after just one such episode, or maybe it was while I was having my annual shower, when my interior monologue observed that Canada has produced a good number of famous musicians, with the obvious implication that I should do something about that. I decided that this was a good idea indeed, and concluded that the ABC of … series might be a good platform for that endeavour. It would place discipline upon me by limiting the number of artists that I could feature.

The idea for an ABC of Canada duly put into the works, I set out to make a shortlist of Canadian acts. The letters B, J, L and N selected themselves. And I have fond memories of the song that represents H, so that picked itself. “And out of interest,” I said to myself, “when is Canada’s national day?” Turns out, it’s on Friday, July 1. “Well, in that case, better get cracking,” I instructed myself. Get cracking I did, and here’s the result.

One can argue the toss about some acts I picked over others. Gino Vanelli over Gordon Lightfoot or the Guess Who? Kate & Anna McGarrigle over k.d. lang? Tragically Hip over The Band? Why no Weeknd? No French-language song (but one in Italian)? Well, it’s all a bit random. But having listened to this mix several times, I think it’s a really good one, ranging from rock to nu-soul, folk to indie.

Some of these acts are well-known outside Canada. Everybody knows Joni, Lenny and Neil, and everybody knows at least the voice of David Clayton-Thomas from his hits with Blood, Sweat & Tears. Folk fans will know and love the McGarrigles. April Wine surely are legends in their genre, as are Martha and The Muffins. Acts like Crash Test Dummies, Feist and the Barenaked Ladies (who did the Big Bang Theory theme song), Ron Sexsmith and perhaps Tragically Hip have crossed borders as well.

Readers of the In Memoriam series will have encountered soul singer Eric Mercury in the March 2022 instalment. He was the writer and co-producer of a number of tracks for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway who produced a couple of underappreciated albums.

Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly most topical, act in this collection is Willie Thrasher, an Inuit who was taken from his family at age 5 and placed the Canadian government’s controversial residential school system, which was designed to alienate indigenous people from their cultural roots and force their assimilation into the dominant Western culture. Thrasher left that compulsory system at 16, worked as a forest firefighter, and took up music — returning to his Inuit roots which he incorporated into his folk-rock style, and using his music to speak out on political issues.

Their name might sound like that of a metal or ’80s new wave group, but UHF is a folk-rock supergroup, consisting of singer-songwriters Shari Ulrich, Bill Henderson (of rock band Chilliwack) and Roy Forbes. In the same genre, Valdy is a bit of a legend in Canada, but he doesn’t seem to have made much impact outside the country.

Also from the folk tradition is Oh Susanna, the name under which Suzie Ungerleider used to recorded. She was actually born in the US but has obtained Canadian citizenship.

Jazz singer Salomé Bey was also born in the US but emigrated to Canada in 1966, at the age of 33. Bey died in 2020; this year she was honoured with a commemorative postage stamp.

You’ll find two playlists here: one is a straight A-Z, the other a more ordered sequence of the same tracks.

Though this mix exceeds CD-R length, it includes home-canucked covers. The text above is in PDF, and PW is in comments.

1. April Wine – Roller (1978)
2. Barenaked Ladies – What a Good Boy (live, 1996)
3. Crash Test Dummies – Afternoons And Coffeespoons (1993)
4. David Clayton-Thomas – Anytime…Babe (1974)
5. Eric Mercury – Long Way Down (1969)
6. Feist – 1234 (2007)
7. Gino Vannelli – Wheels Of Life (1978)
8. Hot Hot Heat – Middle of Nowhere (2005)
9. Ivana Santilli – Nostalgia (1999)
10. Joni Mitchell – The Circle Game (1970)
11. Kate & Anna McGarrigle – My Town (1975)
12. Leonard Cohen – One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (live, 1968)
13. Martha and The Muffins – There’s A Song In My Head (1986)
14. Neil Young – Comes A Time (1978)
15. Oh Susanna – Tangled And Wild (1999)
16. Pukka Orchestra – Might As Well Be On Mars (1984)
17. Quanteisha – Someday (2009)
18. Ron Sexsmith – Whatever It Takes (2004)
19. Salome Bey – Hit The Nail Right On The Head (1970)
20. Tragically Hip – Fiddler’s Green (1991)
21. UHF – Day By Day (1990)
22. Valdy – Rock And Roll Song (1972)
23. Willie Thrasher – Old Man Carver (1981)
24. X-Quisite – No Regrets (2003)
25. Yves Jarvis – In Every Mountain (2020)
26. Zaki Ibrahim – Draw The Line (2013)

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PREVIOUS ABCs:
ABC of 1950s
ABC of 1960s
ABC of 1970s
ABC of 1990s
ABC of 2000s
ABC of Soul
ABC of Country
ABC of Christmas
ABC of South Africa

Yesterday, on June 20, Brian Wilson turned 80, just two days after his fellow songwriting genius Paul McCartney, who was the subject of a Songbook last week, turned 80 himself. How were the stars aligned (if you subscribe to that kind of thing) that June 1942 to create two such man within two days of one another?

Wilson and McCartney (and his fellow Beatles) ran a pop music innovations race in the mid-1960s, a serious but friendly competition that spurred each other to greater heights. If a winner must be declared, then it is McCartney, who kept going with some great work while Wilson collapsed under the weight of his own ambitions, and fragile mental health. Crucially, where McCartney had the support, even if often troubled, of his fellow Beatles, who shared in the processes of artistic growth, Wilson had to contend with those, in the band and commercial departments, who still wanted fun fun fun songs about hot cars ‘n’ tanned gals.

The Beach Boys and their striped shirts. Brian Wilson is front right.

When Wilson heard The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album in 1965, he immediately wrote God Only Knows (with Tony Asher), the first track for what would become the Pet Sounds albums. That album, in turn, motivated The Beatles to up their game — from the already astonishing Revolver album — to create Sgt Pepper’s.

Four months before that album was released in June 1967, The Beatles had released Lennon’s Strawberry Fields Forever. Reportedly, when Wilson heard that song, he broke down and cried, saying: “They got there first!” That was quite a concession from the man who by then had already produced the stroke of eternal genius that is Good Vibrations.

Wilson’s attempt to top Sgt Pepper’s — and let’s cut a sad story short — ended in artistic and personal decline following the stressful production of the aborted Smile project, and the disastrous reception of what turned out to be the compromise album, Smiley Smile. Wilson completed that project in 2005 with the release of his Smile album.

In the studio during that productive mid-‘60s period, Wilson didn’t even have the Beach Boys with him. His “band” comprised various members of the Wrecking Crew, the collective of highly professional session musicians. One of them, guitarist Glenn Campbell, actually became a member of The Beach Boys in their touring formation. Carl and Dennis, Jardine and Love would come in to lay down vocal tracks — and, of course, their harmonies were integral to the Beach Boys sound. Mike Love would co-write some songs, though in many cases, the extent of his contributions is a matter of diverging memories.

Actors like De Niro and Pacino have their ways of getting into character; Wilson was a method musician, once even filling his home studio with sand to recreate a beach (as if a feature of beaches is grand pianos just standing there). By then he had already experimented with LSD — a year before that drug reached The Beatles — and other drugs. The riff for California Girls came to him after his acid trip.

The progress in Wilson’s songwriting was as spectacular as that of The Beatles. Between the plagiarised Surfin’ USA in 1963 (for which Chuck Berry rightly got a co-writing credit) and the intricate but appealing Wouldn’t It Be Nice were only three years.

So here we have the Brian Wilson Songbook. Nancy Sinatra’s version of California Girls from a 2003 album, features the backing vocals of Brian Wilson and ex-Beach Boy Jeffrey Foskett. Nancy’s version opens this set, so suitably the first voice we hear is Brian Wilson’s. And Wilson closes this collection with a cover of his own song from 2005’s Smile album, Surf’s Up. The Nancy Sinatra track was co-produced by the legendary Billy Strange, who arranged These Boots Are Made For Walking, as well as Duane Eddy and The Ventures, who in turn had influenced the Beach Boys.

Wilson originally offered Don’t Worry Baby to The Ronettes, and was profoundly inspired by their hit Be My Baby. They didn’t record it because Phil Spector declined it. Instead The Beach Boys recorded in 1964. Wilson once said he thought it was their finest moment. It later was a hit for BJ Thomas. Thirty-odd years after Spector vetoed Don’t Worry Baby, Ronnie Spector finally recorded it, co-produced by Joey Ramone, a fan of both The Ronettes and The Beach Boys. The Ramones themselves feature later in the mix with Surfin’ Safari.

Spector might have rejected Wilson’s composition, but fellow Capitol signing Sharon Marie recorded Wilson and Mike Love’s Thinkin’ ’Bout You Baby, which Wilson also produced and arranged, with another Wilson/Love composition, The Story Of My Life, on the flip-side. It was not a success, nor was the previous year’s Wilson job Run-Around Lover. The Beach Boys rejigged Thinkin’ ’Bout You Baby and recorded it as Darlin’ in 1967.

If we have ever wondered what ABBA might have sounded like if they had been The Beach Boys, Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s Swedish cover of Wouldn’t It Be Nice gives us a hint. She recorded it for her 1975 Swedish language LP Frida Ensam, which was produced by Benny Anderson, another genius of arrangement, with Björn Ulvaeus on guitar. The album also included the original version of ABBA’s Fernando (featured on Any Major Originals: 1970s).

There are some Beach Boys songs that are impossible to cover well, unless you change the whole structure of it. Good Vibrations is a good example of that. The original is one of pop music’s towering achievements; covering it straight is to punch upwards, even if you do it competent, as Todd Rundgren did in 1976. So I’ve opted for the 1975 cover by The Troggs, which deconstructs the original’s entire arrangement, and does to it what William Shatner had done a few years earlier with other hits, though The Troggs do it with greater discipline and restraint than old Cap’n Kirk. I doubt I’ll ever love what The Troggs did with it, but it’s good fun fun fun.

The same applies to I Get Around; the psychedelic version by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra — whose version of the Rolling Stone’s The Last Time (featured on the Copy Borrow Steal mix) gave the Verve’s Bitter-Sweet Symphony its hook — is joyfully mad.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, includes home-good-vibrationed covers, and the above text in PDF format. PW in comments.

1. Nancy Sinatra – California Girls (2003)
2. The Carpenters – Fun, Fun, Fun (1973)
3. Anni-Frid Lyngstad – Skulle de’ va’ skönt (Wouldn’t It Be Nice, 1975)
4. Johnny Rivers – Help Me Rhonda (1975)
5. Ronnie Spector – Don’t Worry Baby (1999)
6. Bruce Springsteen – When I Grow Up To Be A Man (live, 1985)
7. Dave Alvin – Surfer Girl (2006)
8. Rumer – The Warmth Of The Sun (2015)
9. Linda Ronstadt – In My Room (1996)
10. Andrew Oldham Orchestra – I Get Around (1965)
11. The Troggs – Good Vibrations (1975)
12. Bobby Vee – Here Today (1966)
13. P.P. Arnold – God Only Knows (1968)
14. Carmen McRae – Don’t Talk (1967)
15. Sharon Marie – Thinkin’ ‘Bout You Baby (1964)
16. Jan & Dean – Surf City (1963)
17. The Surfaris – Be True To Your School (1964)
18. Nick DeCaro – Caroline, No (1969)
19. Nazareth – Wild Honey (1976)
20. David Garland – I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (1993)
21. Kirsty MacColl – You Still Believe In Me (1981)
22. Wall Of Voodoo – Do It Again (1987)
23. The Rubinoos – Heroes And Villains (2002)
24. The Smithereens – Girl Don’t Tell Me (1995)
25. Ramones – Surfin’ Safari (1993)
26. Frank Black – Hang On To Your Ego (1993)
27. Brian Wilson – Surf’s Up (2005)

GET IT! or HERE!

Previous Songbooks:
ABBA
Ashford & Simpson
Barry Gibb Vol. 1
Barry Gibb Vol. 2
Bill Withers
Bob Dylan Volumes 1-5
Bruce Springsteen
Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Burt Bacharach’s Lesser-Known Songbook
Carole Bayer Sager
Carole King Vol. 1
Carole King Vol. 2
Chuck Berry
Cole Porter Vol. 1
Cole Porter Vol. 2
Elton John & Bernie Taupin
John Prine
Jimmy Webb Vol. 1
Jimmy Webb Vol. 2
Jimmy Webb Vol. 3
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Paul McCartney Vol. 1
Rod Temperton
Steely Dan

More Songbooks
More Cover Mixes

Next week, on June 16, it will be 50 years since the release of David Bowie’s landmark album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I recovered that album some years ago, and posted the story behind the cover to go with it. I’m reposting that story with that first Ziggy Stardust Recovered mix — but I have made a NEW Ziggy Stardust Re-recovered mix. So download them and mix-and-match to your preference.

There is a sweet irony in the cover picture of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: the alien superstar is photographed in a seedy sidestreet in London’s West End, not a glitzy glamour spot. Instead of shining brightly in a metallic science fiction wonderland, the monochrome photo is hand-coloured in the way of postcards from the turn of the last century.

The cover holds not the promise of the story we are coming to hear, but its denouement: Ziggy has come back down to earth as David Bowie. There’s trash, there’s rain, there’s a bin, there’s the sign of the furrier K. West, where the fiction of left-handed Ziggy and the fact of Bowie, holding his guitar right-handed, come together.

Or that’s how I choose to see it. The story of Ziggy Stardust is vague enough to let you project your own ideas upon it. In fact, by writing about the cover, by stripping away a veneer of its mystique, I may be depriving you, if you do not know the story of the cover, of your ability to freely project. Read on at your own peril.

What we will find is that the story of the cover is rather ordinary. The photo was taken on a cold January night in 1972 in Soho’s Heddon Street, then an insalubrious sidestreet, but today a fashionable pedestrian zone. The photographer was Brian Ward, who had studio in the street.

He took 17 photos that night, including the back cover shot of Ziggy/Bowie in the telephone booth. The front cover pic was taken at house number 23, under the big sign for K. West. Apparently Bowie turned up (with a posse of two girls), posed for a few minutes, and quickly disappeared into the rainy night, leaving Ward to develop his black-and-white photos. Did Bowie feel like Ziggy in “Five Years”? “It was cold and it rained and I felt like an actor.”

The winning shot was colourised, giving the jumpsuit a blue hue when it was, in fact, green. Have look at all 17 photos of the session at the Five Years site (from which I’ve borrowed one here).

As for the signs on the wall? They were for Paquerette Dresses (4th Floor), Ramar Dresses Ltd (3rd Floor), International Wool Secretariat, Cravats Ltd (main entrance), and T.H. Ferris (2nd Floor)

So, to mark the Ziggy anniversary, here are the two track-by-track mixes of Ziggy covers. Every track of the album is performed in sequence by various artists. On the first Ziggy Stardust Recovered mix, two tracks are by Bowie himself. One is from the famous Hammersmith Odeon concert at which he killed off Ziggy Stardust — obviously the final track, Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide — the other a new mix of the largely uncovered Star. In fact, there’s a third Bowie number: The Arnold Corns was a Bowie project on which he test-drove some Ziggy tracks a year before he gave birth to the alien superstar. They feature on both the Ziggy Stardust Recovered and Ziggy Stardust Re-Recovered mixes. One song on the album was a cover itself: It Ain’t Easy was a Ron Davies song. The cover of that on the Recovered mix also precedes the Ziggy LP.

Obviously, each mix will fit on a standard CD-R. I’ve not made home-ziggied covers, but the text above is included in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

ZIGGY STARDUST RE-RECOVERED
1. Old 97’s – Five Years (2010)
2. Cerys Matthews – Soul Love (2006)
3. The Chameleons – Moonage Daydream (2002)
4. Culture Club – Starman (1999)
5. Claudia Lennear – It Ain’t Easy (1973)
6. Midge Ure – Lady Stardust (2008)
7. Cuff The Duke – Star (2013)
8. The Arnold Corns – Hang On To Yourself (1971)
9. Def Leppard – Ziggy Stardust (1995)
10. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Suffragette City (1986)
11. Black Box Recorder – Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide (2000)

ZIGGY STARDUST RECOVERED
1. The Polyphonic Spree – Five Years (2002)
2. Marti Jones – Soul Love (1986)
3. The Arnold Corns – Moonage Daydream (1971)
4. Leningrad Cowboys – Starman (2006)
5. Three Dog Night – It Ain’t Easy (1970)
6. Seu Jorge – Lady Stardust (2005)
7. David Bowie – Star (40th Anniversary Mix) (1972/2012)
8. Contraband – Hang On To Yourself (1991)
9. Bauhaus – Ziggy Stardust (1982)
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Suffragette City (2012)
11. David Bowie – Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide (live) (1973)

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More great cover art
More great cover versions

To coincide with Barry Gibb’s 75^th birthday on September 1 last year, I posted Volume 1 of the Barry Gibb Songbook. Here’s Volume 2, covering the years after 1975, when the Brothers Gibb stumbled into disco to become their supposed kings (it’s a discussion for another day why they most certainly were not).

The falsetto disco era brought the Gibbs much fortune, but at the end of it, they — much as Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernie Edwards — were not wanted any longer as headliners. And like the Chic collective, the Bee Gees moved into the background, writing and producing mid-tempo stuff for adult acts like Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick and, later, Diana Ross.

While the early-era Bee Gees were eminently coverable, as we saw on Volume 1, the disco stuff was more difficult to reinterpret. It’s no accident that two of the Bee Gees’ greatest disco-era hits —Night Fever and Tragedy (I wasn’t going to use the Steps cover of Tragedy, thank you) — are missing here. On the other hand, in the hands of the gifted, the disco stuff could be covered to great effect. Exhibit A: Chaka Khan’s slow-burning take on Jive Talking.

I also found no takers for the Streisand ballad Woman In Love, which was rather overplayed when it came out (Babs features here with the infinitely superior Guilty). Even Too Much Heaven has rarely been well covered. In the end, it was a toss-up between the reggae version by Claudette Miller or the cover by serial-coverer Bunny Chanel, the recording moniker used by Filipina actress Helen Gamboa. Chanel’s lush arrangement and warm vocals won out, but Miller’s lovers rock version is included as a bonus track..

A word about the beards designation: let it serve as a rough guide. Of course Barry sported beards for some time during the Volume 1 period, and was clean-shaven for some of the disco years. But latter-day Barry certainly was more often than not luxuriously hirsute.

That dealt with, here’s the conclusion of the Barry Gibb Songbook, which in large part is also the Maurice and Robin Songbook. So it makes perfect sense to issue this second volume on the 10th anniversary of Robin’s death, which we mark today, on May 20.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-falsettoed covers. PW in comments.

1. Barbra Streisand feat. Barry Gibb – Guilty (1980)
2. Candi Staton – Nights On Broadway (1977)
3. Rufus featuring Chaka Khan – Jive Talkin’ (1975)
4. Foo Fighters – You Should Be Dancing (2021)
5. Tavares – More Than A Woman (1977)
6. Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams – Emotion (1978)
7. Bunny Chanel – Too Much Heaven (1979)
8. Andy Gibb & Olivia Newton-John – Rest Your Love On Me (1980)
9. En Vogue – How Deep Is Your Love (2003)
10. Nick Lowe – Heartbreaker (2018)
11. The Twang – Staying Alive (2018)
12. Feist – Inside And Out (2004)
13. Vivian Reed – Shadow Dancing (1979)
14. Melba Moore – You Stepped Into My Life (1978)
15. Donnie Elbert – Love So Right (1977)
16. Dionne Warwick – All The Love In The World (1982)
17. Diana Ross – Chain Reaction (1986)
18. The McAuley Boys – I Just Want To Be Your Everything (1996)
19. Bee Gees – If I Can’t Have You (1977)
Bonus Tracks:
Garth Taylor & Melanie Louw – Islands In The Stream (2003)
The Salsoul Strings – More Than A Woman (1978)
Lionel Hampton – You Should Be Dancing (1978)
Claudette Miller & The Ebonies – Too Much Heaven (1977)
Connie Smith – I Just Want To Be Your Everything (1977)

GET IT! or HERE!

Previous Songbooks:
ABBA
Ashford & Simpson
Barry Gibb Vol. 1
Bill Withers
Bob Dylan Volumes 1-5
Bruce Springsteen
Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Burt Bacharach’s Lesser-Known Songbook
Carole Bayer Sager
Carole King Vol. 1
Carole King Vol. 2
Chuck Berry
Cole Porter Vol. 1
Cole Porter Vol. 2
Elton John & Bernie Taupin
John Prine
Jimmy Webb Vol. 1
Jimmy Webb Vol. 2
Jimmy Webb Vol. 3
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Rod Temperton
Steely Dan

More Songbooks
More Cover Mixes
More CD-R Mixes