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Any Major Schlager

September 26th, 2023 6 comments

Top row: Michael Holm, Francoise Hardy, Katja Ebstein, Marianne Rosenberg, Ricky Shayne. Centre: Vicky Leandros, Udo Jürgens, Daliah Lavi, Jürgen Marcus. Bottom: Juliane Werding, Agnetha, Alexandra, Peter Maffay, Manuela

 

To mark Germany’s national day next week, on October 3, here’s a mix of German schlager and chanson tracks from the golden era between 1965 and 1975. Don’t be alarmed, we’re looking at the higher end of quality in schlager music.

Almost anyone who was a child in West Germany in the first half of the 1970s will tell you the routine on a Saturday, once a month: Have a bath, then into payamas, and at 18:45, the ZDF Hitparade would come on (ZDF was the channel on which the show was broadcast). Launched in 1969, it was the premier showcase for the German schlager — and it was incredibly popular. I watched it, in my payamas. Bath-time would be some time after 5, so that we’d catch Star Trek or Riptide (known in Germany as “Raumschiff Enterprise” and “SOS Charterboot”), and then once a month the Hitparade. In weeks when there was no Hitparade, we might have our bath after Star Trek.

 

Dieter “Thomas” Heck, shorn of his sideburns, presents the ZDF Hitparade on a Saturday evening in March 1976.

 

Presented by the bespectacled and sideburned Dieter “Thomas” Heck, the ZDF Hitparade came live from Berlin, filmed on a sparse set on which the stars, both established and budding, would sit among the audience. Mid-song, audience members would often get up and present the singer with flowers. It was superbly presented, even if the music was mostly awful.

Not that I cared about the defects in musical standards at the time. I loved the entertainment values, but by the time I was 10 years old, I started to become more discerning, and soon I denounced the whole schlager scene with increasing militancy. That attitude would carry me into adulthood. For a long time, I had no time for nor interest in the banal clap-along schlager fare.

In that I was with the majority of Germany’s youth. But the rejection of schlager followed no consensus. In a 1973 episode of the Disco TV show, super-square and conservative singer Heino performs his latest hit, a popular (and admittedly pretty catchy) clap-along number. The young people, guys with long hair and girls in tight stripey trousers, party to it like it’s 1999. At other times, the Disco audience would sit impassively to the glamrock of Slade or the dance-pop of ABBA or the rock of Status Quo or the disco-pop of Boney M, which suggests that this Heino mania was a spontaneous outbreak of schlager frenzy.

On the subject of Heino, a truly fascinating phenomenon who ended up doing duets with Rammstein, I recommend the documentary Made In Germany, which counts among its pundits, of all people, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys. You need not know a thing about Heino to appreciate it.

Eventually I reached the age at which one may indulge in the nostalgia that evokes fond childhood memories. And many of the old schlager songs transported me back to the days when I’d sit with my payamas on the couch and watch the Hitparade with my mother, sister and brother. Much of the music might be questionable, but it recalls happy memories. Sometimes I find some old song, long-forgotten but instantly recognisable, and it’s back into the time capsule. Psychologist refer to this as our autobiographical memory, which is biased towards finding refuge in memories that recall moments when we felt safe — like sitting on the couch, watching TV with the family.

Schlager music has a bad reputation, and not without good reason. Most of it was banal and poor. But some of it was very good. ABBA fans will know that the Swedes were influenced by schlager. Before becoming an A in the group’s name, Agnetha Faltskrög tried her luck in German schlager, releasing six singles them between 1968-72; none of them was a hit. The last of these features on this mix. What might have been had Agnetha had become a big schlager star, too busy to join her husband and pals in their new pop combo? Would BBA have been as successful as they became?

Schlager star Michael Holm initiated two global hits, co-writing with Giorgio Moroder and recording the original of Chicory Tip’s Son Of My Father, and creating the first vocal version of the Italian instrumental which would become a Christmas hit for Johnny Mathis as When A Child Is Born. In Holm’s hands that song had no reference to Christmas: “Tränen lügen nicht” translates as “Tears don’t lie”.

Michael Holm performs on the ZDF Hitparade.

 

Drafi Deutscher kicks off this mix with one of the great schlager classics, “Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht”. He entered the US Billboard Top 100 with an English version of it, retitled “Marble Breaks And Iron Bends”.

Many schlager stars were straitjacketed into the genre’s formula. Some were broken by it, others made the best of it. Husband-and-wife duo Cindy & Bert found fame with hackneyed songs about Spanish guitars and “gypsies”, but at heart they were a rock act. They featured here before with their cover of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (On Any Major Schlager Covers Vol. 2); the song on this mix shows them as they wanted to be seen, rather than how their record company sought to present them.

Some of the songs here were big schlager hits, but the only one that invites a jolly clap-along is by Jürgen Marcus. I include it as an example of how that brand of schlager actually could be well-executed.

Marcus was a great singer who too often was stuck with sub-standard material. Israeli actress and singer Daliah Lavi — featuring here with as cover of a song by South African singer Emil Dean Zoghby, “Won’t You Join Me” — was more discerning. She had huge hits, usually with covers of English songs, and was a superstar among schlager singers, but musically she was closer to French chansoneers than most of her German colleagues.

As was Alexandra, the most tragic of the artists on this mix. The singer was just hitting the big time when she was killed in a car crash on July 31, 1969. She was only 27 (and thus became an unwilling member of the so-called 27 Club, comprising artists who died at that age). Rumours have it that the accident was caused by foul play. The featured song, the beautiful “Mein Freund, der Baum” (My friend, the tree) became a hit only after her death.

The wonderfully talented singer Alexandra on German TV in 1969, the year she died in a mysterious car crash.

 

International stars also formed part of the schlager firmament. Greek-born Vicky Leandros — who features here with her German version of the Eurovision winner Aprés toi — grew up and lived in West Germany. But stars like Caterina Valente, Mireille Mathieu, Gilbert Bécaud, France Gall, Nana Mouskouri, Danyel Gerard, Salvatore Adamo, Ricky Shayne or Françoise Hardy had hits with German songs, some originals and some covers of their mostly French originals, though Mathieu had several hits written for her by German producers (particularly Christian Bruhn, of whom more later). Of these international stars, Françoise Hardy and Ricky Shayne feature here.

Almost all songs here were single releases, albeit some of them as b-sides. Two, however, are album deep tracks. Manuela’s “Sonntag im Zoo” from 1967 is a delightful song that sounds like a Jimmy Webb or Burt Bacharach number arranged by The 5th Dimension. It was co-written by Christian Bruhn, who co-wrote many schlager hits, including the tracks here by Drafi Deutscher, Marion Maerz, Peter Maffay, and the wonderful Katja Ebstein, for whom he also wrote the magnificent “Wunder gibt es immer wieder” (featured on Any Major Eurovision).

Mary Roos was highly regarded in France as a chanson singer, and even played at the Olympia. Her “Schmetterlinge weinen nicht” (Butterflies don’t cry) of 1970 sounds even more like a Bacharach song; one might think it might be a cover of a Dionne Warwick song. It was co-written and produced by the multi-talented Michael Holm.

The mix concludes with three tracks from 1975 that can be ID-tagged under different labels than “Schlager”. Joy Fleming was a blues and soul singer, Marianne Rosenberg had the first German-language disco hit in 1975 with “Ich bin wie Du”, and Juliane Werding, who broke through in 1972 as a teenager with a powerful cover of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, delivers a fine German country song with the not snappily titled “Wenn Du denkst Du denkst, dann denkst Du nur Du denkst” (“When you think you think, then you only think you think”).

I’ve re-upped the two companion mixes, wherein schlager stars sing German covers of Englosh songs — Any Major Schlager Covers Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), s well as Any Major Originals – Schlager Edition, which comprises mostly international originals of schlager hits, including Emil Drean Zoghby’s original of the Daliah Lavi song.

As a bonus I include the greatest German schlager: what it lacks in highest artistic merits it compensates for the the highest levels of banality and an overdose of cliché, but there is no song in the genre that is as catchy as this track. Germans probably already know which track it is.

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

1. Drafi Deutscher – Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht (1965)
2. Udo Jürgens – Siebzehn Jahr, Blondes Haar (1965)
3. Marion – Er ist wieder da (1965)
4. Françoise Hardy – Wenn dieses Lied erklingt (1965)
5. Manuela – Sonntag im Zoo (1967)
6. Hildegard Knef – Von nun an ging’s bergab (1968)
7. Alexandra – Mein Freund, der Baum (1968)
8. Lil Walker – Abschied im September (1968)
9. Mary Roos – Schmetterlinge weinen nicht (1970)
10. Haide Hansson – Du bist das Leben (1970)
11. Katja Ebstein – Und wenn ein neuer Tag erwacht (1970)
12. Peter Maffay – Du bist anders (1970)
13. Daliah Lavi – Willst du mit mir geh’n (1971)
14. Vicky Leandros – Dann kamst Du (1972)
15. Cindy & Bert – Geh’ die Straße (1972)
16. Ricky Shayne – Delta Queen (1972)
17. Su Kramer – Glaub’ an dich selbst (1972)
18. Elke Best – Nichts bleibt ungescheh’n (1972)
19. Agnetha – Komm’ doch zu mir (1972)
20. Jürgen Marcus – Eine neue Liebe ist wie ein neues Leben (1972)
21. Bernd Glüver – Der Junge mit der Mundhamonika (1973)
22. Michael Holm – Tränen lügen nicht (1974)
23. Joy Fleming – Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein (1975)
24. Marianne Rosenberg – Ich bin wie Du (1975)
25. Juliane Werding – Wenn Du denkst Du denkst, dann denkst Du nur Du denkst (1975)

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Any Major Hank Williams Songbook

September 14th, 2023 3 comments

In 1975, Waylon Jennings asked in his song: “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”. His point was to criticise the rhinestone commercialism of country music, but it’s a question that may be applied to this Hank Williams Songbook. Well, Waylon, the answer is that, musically, most of these songs very much are not the way Hank done them. But, I venture, Hank would probably have approved of most of these versions of his songs anyway.

On September 17, we mark the 100th anniversary of Hank Williams’ birth. Born Hiram King Williams in Mount Olive, Alabama, Hank was a pivotal figure in the development of country music, and therefore also of rock & roll (even if rock & roll covers of Hank’s songs are pretty scarce). “The Hillbilly Shakespeare”, as he came to be dubbed for his lyrical faculties, was a big star in the late 1940s and early 1950s during which he created an astonishing number of great songs.

But the stardom came with personal challenges and health issues, including dependence on alcohol and pain killers, the latter due to chronic back pain caused by spina bifida occulta, a birth defect of the spinal column. When he died at the age of 29, he looked 20 years older.

Williams was scheduled to perform in Charleston, West Virginia, on New Year’s Eve 1952, having cancelled a number of shows before that due to his poor health. While he was being driven there in his blue Cadillac by his friend Charles Carr, Hank’s condition suddenly deteriorated. He never made it there, and the two went on to Canton Ohio, for a gig on January 1, 1953. Somewhere on the way to Canton, Hank died in the back seat of his Cadillac. Carr found him dead when he stopped at a filling station in Oak Hill, West Virginia. As Hank once sang, “I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive”.

The official cause of death was listed as heart failure. The coroner’s report also mentioned the presence of alcohol and morphine in Williams’ system. Hank left behind his recently divorced wife. country singer Audrey Sheppard whom Hank had married in 1944, and their three-year-old son, future country star Hank Williams Jr.

Hank left a rich legacy of songs, including 55 Top 10 hits in the Billboard Country & Western Charts. Some of them have become standards which have been covered dozens or even more than 100 times. Some went on to become even bigger hits as pop songs, such as 1951’s Cold, Cold Heart for Tony Bennett in 1953. It later became a signature tune for Dinah Washington, whose version features here. Bennett is represented her with another hit Hank cover, There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight.

Other Hank standards include Hey Good Lookin’, Your Cheatin’ Heart, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Kaw-Liga, Move It On Over (later ripped off for Rock Around The Clock), You Win Again, and Jambalaya.

Three of these feature twice in this mix: Al Green’s and Barbara Lynn’s versions of I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Fats Domino’s and James Brown’s interpretations of Your Cheatin’ Heart, and Johnny Cash’s 1958 version of You Win Again is echoed in 1978 by The Rolling Stones (who themselves were the subject of a Songbook in June). You Win Again also featured in The Beatles’ film Let It Be, sung by John Lennon.

Hank Williams and wife Audrey Sheppard with Hank’s band The Drifting Cowboys.

The two Hanks, Senior and Junior, open the mix in a pairing that anticipates Nat and Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable duet by 25 years (Nat, by the way, covered Hank at least twice). In 1965 the technology wasn’t quite so advanced as it would be in 1990, so the recording of Move It On Over basically is an overdub of Hank Jr mixed with the original recording from 1947.

The line-up of artists in this collection shows just how adaptable Hank’s songs were: from various types of country to the jazz crooning of Tony Bennett to the rock & roll of Little Richard to the soul of Isaac Hayes to the new wave of Elvis Costello to the folk-rock of Patty Griffin to the indie of Camper Van Beethoven to the jazz of Madeleine Peyroux. Even the Red Hot Chilli Peppers recorded Hank on their 1984 debut, though I won’t feature their version of Why Don’t You Love Me, because it isn’t very good (here we have Elvis Costello’s version).

I can imagine that some people might be put off from investigating Hank Williams’ music because they don’t like his voice, or the songs’ arrangements, or because they are just suspicious of country music, or don’t know where to start. I hope this mix will serve as a decent introduction to the songs of one of the greatest songwriters in popular music.

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

1. Hank Williams Sr. & Hank Williams Jr. – Move It On Over (1965)
2. Johnny Cash – You Win Again (1958)
3. Hawkshaw Hawkins – Kaw Liga (1953)
4. Roberta Lee with The Blue Diamond Melody Boys – We’re Really In Love (1952)
5. Joni James – I’m Sorry For You My Friend (1959)
6. Tony Bennett – There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight (1953)
7. Dinah Washington – Cold, Cold Heart (1962)
8. Ray Charles – Hey, Good Lookin’ (1962)
9. Fats Domino – Your Cheatin’ Heart (1964)
10. Little Richard – Settin’ The Woods On Fire (1971)
11. Professor Longhair – Jambalaya (1974)
12. Townes Van Zandt – Honky Tonkin’ (1972)
13. Waylon Jennings – Let’s Turn Back The Years (1975)
14. Elvis Presley – Men With Broken Hearts (live) (1970)
15. Al Green – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (1973)
16. Isaac Hayes – I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love In Love With You) (1973)
17. Madeleine Peyroux – Take These Chains From My Heart (2012)
18. Cat Power – Ramblin’ (Wo)man (2008)
19. Patty Griffin – House Of Gold (2010)
20. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – My Heart Would Know (2021)
21. Billy Bragg & Joe Henry – Lonesome Whistle (2016)
22. Bap Kennedy – Angel Of Death (1999)
23. Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler – Alone & Forsaken (2001)
24. Patty Loveless – I Can’t Get You Off Of My Mind (1988)
25. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used To Do (1981)
26. John Prine – Dear John (I Sent Your Saddle Home) (1999)
27. Tompall And The Glaser Brothers – A Mansion On The Hill (1981)
BONUS TRACKS
28. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – I Saw The Light (1972)
29. Asleep At The Wheel – I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (1973)
30. James Brown – Your Cheatin’ Heart (1969)
31. Barbara Lynn – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (1969)
32. George Jones – I’m A Long Gone Daddy (1987)
33. Huey Lewis & The News – Honky Tonk Blues (1983)
34. Camper Van Beethoven – Six More Miles To The Graveyard (1993)
35. The The – I Can’t Escape From You (1995)
36. The Rolling Stones – You Win Again (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 Vol. 1
Burt Bacharach & Hal David Vol. 2
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
George Harrison
Gordon Lightfoot
Holland-Dozier-Holland
John Prine
Jimmy Webb Vol. 1
Jimmy Webb Vol. 2
Jimmy Webb Vol. 3
Lamont Dozier
Laura Nyro
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Paul McCartney Vol. 1
Paul McCartney Vol. 2
Prince
Rod Temperton
Rolling Stones Vol. 1
Sly Stone
Steely Dan

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Any Major Soul 1983

August 17th, 2023 2 comments

 

Nobody vaguely sane has ever claimed that 1983 represents a pinnacle in soul music. Still, there was enough good stuff around to produce a fine mix — one on which synth stabs and lazily programmed drum machines, which blighted so much soul in the ’80s, are in short supply. So the music on this mix is relatively timeless, rather than being a time capsule.

If Patti LaBelle’s Love, Need And Want You sounds vaguely familiar, then it is because it was prominently sampled by Nelly for his 2002 hit with Kelly Rowland, the superb Dilemma. In the video, LaBelle appeared as Kelly’s mother, which was a great touch.

The Mary Jane Girls’ All Night Long has also been liberally sampled, most famously by LL Cool J on his 1991 hit Around The Way Girl, and a few years later by Mary J Blige on Mary Jane (All Night Long), which was more tribute than sample. But in recording the Mary Jane Girls song, Rick James did a bit of copying themselves: the bassline borrows from Keni Burke’s song Risin’ To The Top from a year earlier.

Perhaps the most sampled song on this mix is Between The Sheets by the Isley Brothers. Wikipedia counts 50 samples, including on Da Brat’s Funkified, The Notorious B.I.G.’s Big Poppa, Doja Cat’s Like That, Gwen Stefani’s Luxurious, and Pretty Ricky’s On The Hotline.

One place you probably would not begin a search for soul music is Sweden. And yet, our Scandinavian friends are represented here in the form of the band Shine. The band’s creative main man was the Ghanaian/Dutch jazz funk musician Kofi Bentsi-Enchill, who also takes lead vocals on So Into You, along with Swedish-French jazz singer Babette Kontomanou. Shine released one album, and then faded away. Babette went on to have a good solo career.

Joyce Lawson has three albums to her credit. Her eponymous 1983 debut was followed by an album in 1987, and a third set 14 years after that. Her career took off after winning the US talent programme The Gong Show. I have found no further biographical info on Lawson, except that she appears to be no longer with us.

I think I ought to issue an earworm warning in regard to Baby I’m Scared Of You by Womack & Womack. That line, “Houdini, was great magician, he could crack a lock [dut dut] from any position”, has kept me awake as it refused to leave my ear. And once I succeeded to dispel it, there was Cecil Womack sitting in my ear: “Oh, like Rudolph Valentino, I can fall down on my knees…” You’ve been warned!

The great cover version of Superstar by Luther Vandross was one of the first tracks on my shortlist, but at nine minutes it’s rather too long to be included on a CD-R length mix. It’s included as a bonus track. Superstar is the redeeming feature of the album it closes, Busy Body, which I regard as Luther Vandross’ weakest effort.

By the way, all Any Major Soul mixes from 1964 onwards are up again.

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

1. Rufus & Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody
2. Lionel Richie – Love Will Find A Way
3. Isley Brothers – Between The Sheets
4. The Manhattans – Forever By Your Side
5. Womack & Womack – Baby I’m Scared Of You Baby
6. Patti LaBelle – Love, Need And Want You
7. Al Jarreau – I Will Be Here For You (Nitakungodea Milele)
8. Randy Crawford – Why?
9. Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson – Maybe
10. Enchantment – Don’t Fight The Feeling
11. Gwen Guthrie – Oh What A Life
12. Shine – So Into You
13. Joyce Lawson – Try Me Tonight
14. Sister Sledge – Gotta Get Back To Love
15. Atlantic Starr – Touch A Four Leaf Clover
16. Mtume – Juicy Fruit
17. Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long
Bonus Track:
Luther Vandross – Superstar

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Any Major Telephone Vol. 4

August 10th, 2023 8 comments

 

Sometimes the lack of feedback can kill off a series of mixes. So it was with the Any Major Telephone series which I started in April 2013 with Volume 1. Any Major Telephone Vol. 2 dropped a few months later, and Vol. 3 in March 2014. The first two mixes got a lot of comments; the third only four (which in those days was rather little. Nowadays it would be a pleasing reaction). I thought the thing had run its course.

I had cause to revisit the Any Major Telephones when reader Jungle Jim (possibly not his real name) asked me to re-up Vol. 1 in the series, which he had somehow lost. I was happy to oblige — as I always am, provided I still have the requested mixes. Jim still had the other two volumes, but I have re-upped them as well. I reckon Vol. 2 is the best of the three.

And as I looked up the folder with Vol. 1, I noticed that I still had a long shortlist of telephone-related songs. So, after nine years, here’s Volume 4!

On the first two mixes, I used only songs that featured actual phone calls, direct or implied. Vol. 3 featured mostly tracks nominated by readers. This mix, like Vol. 3, places no restrictions on the nature of telephone-related subject matter, so there are a lot of ruminations about the potential of phone calls, usually involving a theme around the invitation or hope to receive a call.

The present mix closes with a French cover of Andy Williams’ Music To Watch ls Go By. Since our French singer from 1967 is a girl, who doubtless had her share of unnerving men watching her go by, she changes the subject to telephone games. Both song’s lyrics would have little application in the 2020s, when neither telephones and advocacy of sexist attitudes are appropriate subject matters in pop music.

Conversely, the song by the Drive-By Truckers, from almost 20 years ago, has a great message for our current age. When you drive, leave that cellphone alone! Or you might end up like country star George Jones, who in 1999 crashed into a bridge and was lucky to survive for another 14 years. He blamed talking on his cellphone while driving, though he later admitted to also having been under the influence of alcohol. The experience drove the hard drinker to sobriety. So, obviously, don’t drink (or smoke weed) and drive — and, please, don’t text and drive!As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and include home-payphoned covers. PW in comments.

1. Curiosity Killed The Cat – Name And Number (1989)
2. Blondie – Call Me (1980)
3. City Boy – 5.7.0.5. (1977)
4. Foreigner – Love On The Telephone (1979)
5. RAH Band – Clouds Across The Moon (1985)
6. Deacon Blue – When Will You Make My Telephone Ring (1988)
7. Prince – How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore (1982)
8. Chaka Khan – Telephone (1992)
9. Corinne Bailey Rae – Call Me When You Get This (2006)
10. Mayer Hawthorne – You Called Me (2011)
11. The Sylvers – Hot Line (1976)
12. Aaron Neville – Wrong Number (I’m Sorry, Goodbye) (1962)
13. Billy Fury – Phone Call (1960)
14. Hawkshaw Hawkins – Lonesome 7-7203 (1963)
15. Mel Tillis – Coca Cola Cowboy (1979)
16. Drive-By Truckers – George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues (2009)
17. Shelby Lynne – Telephone (2003)
18. Sheryl Crow – Callin’ Me When I’m Lonely (2013)
19. Wings – Call Me Back Again (1973)
20. 10cc – Donna (1972)
21. ABBA – Ring Ring (1973)
22. Natacha Snitkine – Le Jeu du telephone (1967)

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Any Major Blue-Eyed Soul

June 27th, 2023 6 comments

 

 

(This post is recycled from February 2019)

The term commonly used for white people doing R&B, or music influenced by the genre, is “blue-eyed soul”. I’m not sure I like the term much, because it suggests that only black people are able to produce authentic soul music. This mix shows that this notion is nonsense.

This lot of songs draws from, the period 1964-73, the prime of soul music. For the challenge of it, I’ve even left out some obvious choices, such as the Righteous Brothers, The Four Seasons or Motown’s Chris Clark. And not all of the acts here were strictly or always soul, but they all produced records that nonetheless merit inclusion in the genre. Including the effort by a future country superstar.

 

Linda Lyndell, targetted by racist assholes for singing soul music.

One of the artists here had her career destroyed by the Ku Klax Klan. Linda Lyndell was beginning to enjoy some success on Stax records with the original version of the Salt N Pepa hit What A Man when death threats by the KKK, which objected to a white woman singing black music on a black label, persuaded her to go into retirement. She made a comeback much later, and still performs occasionally.

Another white singer, from a country background, once recorded soul music before selling records by the shedload to audiences which included KKK types. Charlie Rich started his career in the late 1950s as a rock & roll singer. In the mid-1960s he branched out into soul, recording with Willie Mitchell at Hi Records, including the original recording of the Sam & Dave classic When Something Is Wrong With My Baby (which went unreleased until 1988). The Silver Fox escaped commercial success as a soul singer and the wrath of racists, and went on to become the self-appointed guardian of pure country.

Another exponent of blue-eyed soul who went country was Roy Head, whose Treat Her Right is something of a blue-eyed soul anthem, having been kept off the US #1 by The Beatles’ Yesterday.

On December 9, 1967, Mitch Ryder played with Otis Redding on a Cleveland TV station (the song was Knock On Wood.) The following day, Otis Redding died in a plane crash. Had Otis lived, he might well have made a star of a white teenage kid with a real soul voice whom he had discovered in Pittsburgh, Johnny Daye. In the event, Daye released just a few singles on Stax before retiring from music in 1968. The featured song is the flip side of his best-known song, What’ll I Do for Satisfaction (which Janet Jackson covered in 1993 as What’ll I Do).

 

Bob Kuban & The In-Men, with the ill-fated lead singer Walter Scott in front.

Bob Kuban & The In-Men occupy a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s one-hit wonder exhibit for their 1966 #12 hit The Cheater, which features here. The eponymous Bob Kuban was the bandleader and drummer. The singer on The Cheater was Walter Scott. In a cruel twist of irony, Scott was murdered with premeditation in 1983 by his wife’s lover, who had also killed his own wife. There’s another murder coming up later.

We know Robert John better for his 1979 hit Sad Eyes (which featured on Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 1). He had enjoyed his first chart action as a 12-year-old in 1958 under his birth-name, Bobby Pedrick Jr. His claim to blue-eyed soulness dates to his short-lived time at A&M records, which saw the release of only two singles.

Jimmy Beaumont was the lead singer of the doo wop band The Skyliners – who had hits with their superb Since I Don’t Have You and Pennies Of Heaven – before he tried his hand as a soul singer. Commercial success eluded him, but soul aficionados know to appreciate his vocal stylings. Later life Beaumont returned to The Skyliners, whom he fronted until his death in 2017.

We have a few UK artists doing their soulful thing; Dusty Springfield‘s meddling in the genre is well-known, especially her Dusty In Memphis album, whence the featured track comes. Kiki Dee is less celebrated for her soul exploits (and internationally most famous for her 1976 duet with Elton John, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart). Early in her career, Kiki Dee was styled as a Spectoresque girl singer. She also did backing vocals for Dusty Springfield. She was doing well enough as a soul singer to become the first white British artist to be signed by Motown in 1970. Other UK acts featured here are the Spencer Davis Group and Junior Campbell, whom I introduced in the Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 9 post.

 

South African soul singer Una Valli, pictured in 1964.

Geographically most remote is South Africa’s Una Valli, who as a white woman singing black music probably did not earn the love of the apartheid regime. Valli performed almost exclusively cover versions of soul and pop songs. In any other world, she might have become a stone-cold soul legend (she previously featured on Covered With Soul Vol. 6 and Vol. 11 and Covered With Soul: Beatles Edition). Stop Thief is one of her more obscure covers, a Carla Thomas b-side written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Half of Valli’s 1968 album Soul Meeting was recorded with the backing of a pop group called The Peanut Butter Conspiracy; the other half (including Stop Thief) with a soul-funk band called The Flames, whose Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin later joined the Beach Boys on three albums.

Two years after the featured song by Bill Deal and the Rhondels was released, saxophonist Freddy Owens joined the group. In 1979 the band was playing in Richmond, Virginia, when Owens was shot dead in the pursuit of a man who had raped his wife. Bill Deal never really got over that and four years later quit the music industry. He died in 2003.

Several of the songs featured here were favourites on England’s Northern Soul scene, in which DJs would compete to find the most obscure 1960s soul records to be played in specialist clubs which were located mostly in northern England. The most famous venue in this sub-culture, which had its own dress codes and dancing styles, was the Wigan Casino. When the venue closed in 1981, Dean Parrish‘s I’m On My Way was the last record to be played there. Six years earlier, the popularity of the 1967 tune on the Northern Soul scene had led to its re-release, selling a million copies in the UK – and Parrish earned no money from it.

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

1. The O’Kaysions – The Soul Clap (1968)
2. Soul Survivors – Expressway To Your Heart (1967)
3. The Young Rascals – A Girl Like You (1967)
4. Robert John – Raindrops, Love And Sunshine (1970)
5. Bill Deal and the Rhondels – What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am (1969)
6. Charlie Rich – Don’t Tear Me Down (1966)
7. Johnny Daye – I Need Somebody (1968)
8. Linda Lyndell – What A Man (1969)
9. Roy Head – Treat Her Right (1965)
10. Sunday Funnies – Whatcha Gonna Do (When The Dance Is Over) (1967)
11. Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels – Sock It To Me Baby (1967)
12. Bob Kuban & The In-Men – The Cheater (1966)
13. Jimmy Beaumont – I Never Loved Her Anyway (1966)
14. Flaming Ember – The Empty Crowded Room (1971)
15. The Box Tops – Turn On A Dream (1967)
16. Kiki Dee – On A Magic Carpet Ride (1968)
17. Laura Nyro – Stoned Soul Picnic (1968)
18. Dusty Springfield – Just A Little Lovin’ (1969)
19. The Illusion – Falling In Love (1969)
20. Una Valli and The Flames – Stop Thief (1968)
21. The Monzas – Instant Love (1964)
22. Len Barry – 1-2-3 (1965)
23. The Grass Roots – Midnight Confessions (1967)
24. Junior Campbell – Sweet Illusion (1973)
25. Dean Parrish – I’m On My Way (1967)
26. The Spencer Davis Group – I’m A Man (1967)
27. Chi Coltrane – Thunder And Lightning (1971)
28. Tommy James & The Shondells – Crystal Blue Persuasion (1969)

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Any Major Hits from 1973 – Vol. 2

June 15th, 2023 9 comments

 

In Any Major Hits from 1973 Vol. 1, which dropped in January, I noted how few UK hits made it big in the US that year. On the other hand, US acts were very successful in the UK charts, even as the British pop scene was thriving, especially with glam rock peaking.

Where Vol. 1 concentrated on the US charts, the second mix of 1973 hits reflects some of what was happening in the UK. And rightly, it kicks off with a triple whammy of stone cold glam classics featuring Slade, Sweet and Wizzard — and had Gary Glitter not been an unrepentant sexual abuser, it might have been four… The playlist returns to glam towards the end. And if you still need more of a glam fix, try the Any Major Glam Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 mixes.

Junior Campbell had a #15 hit with the blue-eyed soul track Sweet Illusion in the summer of 1973. It was his last chart hit, following on from his first solo hit a year earlier, which reached #10. But Campbell already had his fill of hits as founder member, lead guitarist, keyboard player, vocalist and songwriter with the Scottish band Marmalade. He co-wrote songs like the global hit Reflections Of My Life (on which he played the guitar solo) and I See The Rain, a hit in Europe and now something of a cult classic.

After his solo career, Campbell went to arranging and producing, carving out a fine career for himself.

US soul group Limmie & Family Cookin’ (fronted by the unlikely-named Limmie Snell) were more successful in the UK than at home. Their quite wonderful You Can Do Magic was their only US chart entry, stalling at #86 and getting to only #42 on the R&B charts. In Britain, however, it reached #3 in 1973. The group had another UK Top 10 hit in 1974, with A Walkin’ Miracle.

Jimmy Helms is another US-born soul singer who made it big in Britain. Having signed for a British label, he had a #8 hit with the falsetto classic Gonna Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse. It sounds as if it was recorded by Gamble & Huff in Philadelphia, but the track was in fact produced by a white guy named Mike Moran, who’d later sing the Eurovision classic Rock Bottom with Linsey de Paul.

Helms didn’t bother the UK charts again as a solo artist, but after a few years of doing session work — including backing vocals on the Deacon Blue hit When Will You Make My Telephone Ring and the Fine Young Cannibals’ Good Thing — he made a comeback in the late 1980s as a founding member of Londonbeat, putting his falsetto to good use on tracks such as the huge hit I’ve Been Thinking About You and A Better Love, both of which he also co-wrote.

The track that is probably the most anachronistic in this mix is The Strawbs’ Part Of The Union, an anthem celebrating trade unionism and collective solidarity, which went as high as #2 in early 1973. You’re not likely to hear much political content of that kind in pop hits these days, and Thatcher succeeded in smashing working class solidarity. And with the current Labour leadership, The Strawbs would have little to brag about today. Still, here they are in 1973, performing on the BBC on Top of the Pops, being introduced by a prominent Tory…

Likewise, I doubt that Hot Chocolate could record Brother Louie in quite the same way today as they did 50 years ago. A song about racial prejudice in the face of an interracial romance, the song’s spoken bits (one of them by Alexis Korner) includes racial pejoratives that would not be tolerated today, even if applied to criticise these attitudes (and that might be a good thing). A cover by the US band Stories topped the US charts later in 1973.

As a bonus track I include a Euro hit from 1973, Simon Butterfly’s Rain Rain Rain. The singer and writer of the song was a German, so you will not be shocked to learn that his real name wasn’t Butterfly but Bernd Simon. His song, on which he sounds a lot like the great, late singer-songwriter Udo Jürgens, was a big radio hit in West Germany, though it peaked at a lowly #20. Oddly, Simon released his song only in English. But it was a success in France, where Marie Laforêt recorded it as Viens Viens, and in Italy, where Dalida rendered it as Lei Lei. Simon released a few more records, but without success, and also did some producing. He died in 2017 at the age of 71.

A companion series to the Hits of the Year series is A Life In Vinyl, which goes back to 1977, when I started to invest seriously in records. .

If you dig the feel of 1973, take a look at the collection of posters from West-Germany’s Bravo magazine in 1973 (other years, from 1957 to 1985, feature too).

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

1. Slade – Cum On Feel The Noize
2. Sweet – Ballroom Blitz
3. Wizzard – See My Baby Jive
4. Mungo Jerry – Alright Alright Alright
5. Junior Campbell – Sweet Illusion
6. Hot Chocolate – Brother Louie
7. Limmie & Family Cookin’ – You Can Do Magic
8. The Spinners – Could It Be I’m Falling In Love
9. Jimmy Helms – Gonna Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse
10. David Cassidy – Daydreamer
11. David Bowie – Sorrow
12. Argent – God Gave Rock & Roll To You
13. The Faces – Cindy Incidentally
14. Wings – Hi Hi Hi
15. The Strawbs – Part Of The Union
16. Albert Hammond – The Free Electric Band
17. Geordie – All Because Of You
18. Nazareth – Broken Down Angel
19. Mott The Hoople – Roll Away The Stone
20. Suzi Quatro – 48 Crash
21. Mud – Dyna-mite
22. Barry Blue – Dancing (On A Saturday Night)
23. Jackson 5 – Hallelujah Day
Bonus Track
Simon Butterfly – Rain Rain Rain

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Any Major Hits from 1944
Any Major Hits from 1947
Any Major Hits from 1961
Any Major Hits from 1970
Any Major Hits from 1971
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 1
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 2
Any Major Hits from 1973 Vol. 1

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Any Major Power Ballads Vol. 2

May 23rd, 2023 1 comment

 

When I posted the first Any Major Power Ballads mix in 2020, I promised that I had a second volume all lined up. Three years on, I finally get around to posting one. The shortlist grew a bit since, also thanks to the suggestions from readers — though, sorry, I can’t see Livin’ On A Prayer as a ballad.

It was sort of a given that Journey would feature again in some way. In the event, I opted for the solo hit by singer Steve Perry. One problem I have with Perry is his diction, which is permanently in the kind of state one might be temporarily after receiving new, ill-fitting dentures. On Oh Sherrie, is he really singing: “Oh Sherrie, how low, with clothes on, clothes off”?

On the notes for Volume 1 (which is still live, by the way), I ruled out the inclusion of Celine Dion. Since then, Jim Steinman died and I had to confront myself with Dion’s version of It’s All Coming Back To Me Now. It was time to discard my prejudices against the artistry of Ms Dion — she nails the song. I have since experimented with the music of Celine Dion (that is to say, I listened to a few of her hits on YouTube). It’s better than my memory had given it credit for, but you still won’t see much more of it featured here.

In any case, as I have previously noted, power ballads give us an excuse to like music by acts we’d normally not listen to. I have albums by five of the acts featured here, and even then, I have to question my wisdom in buying two of them. And yet, this mix is great. This is as close as I’ll ever get to giving any currency to the misconceived notion of “guilty pleasures”.

There recently was an entertaining two-part documentary on British TV on power balladry (they adopted a broader definition that I would allow), which riffed a bit on the guilty pleasure fallacy. The thing was titled “Sometimes When We Touch”, after the Dan Hill hit. So it seems right to include the song here, perhaps doing my bit to dismiss the myth that this perfectly good song is in some way deficient.

And then it seemed right to accompany it with the godfather of all power ballads: Harry Nilsson’s Without You, even if I prefer it in Badfinger’s original version (the story is told in The Originals: The 1970s).Here’s hoping that Volume 3 — yes, I have enough for another one, though I remain open to suggestions — won’t take another three years to run.

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

1. Aerosmith – Dream On (1973)
2. Nilsson – Without You (1971)
3. Dan Hill – Sometimes When We Touch (1977)
4. The Babys – Every Time I Think Of You (1978)
5. Heart – What About Love (1985)
6. REO Speedwagon – Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore (1984)
7. Steve Perry – Oh Sherrie (1984)
8. Firehouse – Love Of A Lifetime (1990)
9. Air Supply – All Out Of Love (1980)
10. Meat Loaf – Read ‘Em And Weep (1981)
11. Celine Dion – It’s All Coming Back To Me Now (1996)
12. Roxette – Listen To Your Heart (1988)
13. INXS – Never Tear Us Apart (1987)
14. Bad English – When I See You Smile (1989)
15. Whitesnake – Is This Love (1987)
16. April Wine – Just Between You And Me (1981)
17. Sheriff – When I’m With You (1982)
18. Bryan Adams – Heaven (1983)

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Any Major Morning Vol. 2

April 27th, 2023 9 comments

Any Major Morning_2

Last week I reposted ago I recycled from August 2013 one of the Any Major CD-R mixes I have listened to more than most other collection of music, Any Major Morning Vol. 1. Likewise, I have have played the present, second morning mix many, many times. It’s that good, and it is high time I re-share it with you, having originally run in August 2014.

The previous mix simply featured songs with the word “morning” in the title, provided the lyrics were set in the morning. The titles in this lot don’t all include the word “morning”, but they abide broadly by the latter rule. So I disqualify songs like Touch Me In The Morning or Angel Of The Morning wherein the singer is anticipating behaviours that still lie ahead. I’ve not been steadfast with that rule; the Crash Test Dummies survived it, as did Hall & Oates.

Obviously I have tried to avoid songs that use the idea of “morning” as a metaphor, so no It’s Morning Britain by Aztec Camera. And, Faron Young: 4 am is hardly “morning”, chum.

I’m surprised by how few songs there are about that great morning activity: breakfasts. The songs included here are not exactly about croissants and flapjacks (unless those can be applied as euphemisms), though the cute and amusing K’s Choice song sort of is.

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

1. The Beatles – Good Morning Good Morning (1967)
2. The Pretty Things – She Says Good Morning (1968)
3. Big Star – Watch The Sunrise (1972)
4. Richie Havens – Morning, Morning (1968)
5. Badfinger – Sweet Tuesday Morning (1971)
6. Daryl Hall & John Oates – When The Morning Comes (1973)
7. Neil Diamond – Deep In The Morning (1969)
8. Jimmy James & The Vagabonds – Good Day Sunshine (1968)
9. Chuck Jackson – I Wake Up Crying (1961)
10. The Rascals – A Beautiful Morning (1968)
11. The Monkees – Sometime In The Morning (1967)
12. Dusty Springfield – Breakfast in Bed (1969)
13. Gil Scott-Heron – I Think I’ll Call It Morning (1971)
14. The Bar Kays – Memphis At Sunrise (1972)
15. Bill Withers – Lovely Day (1977)
16. The Partridge Family – I Woke Up In Love This Morning (1971)
17. Glen Campbell – Sunflower (1977)
18. George Strait – Amarillo By Morning (1982)
19. Cowboy Junkies – Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning (1990)
20. Crash Test Dummies – Get You In The Morning (1999)
21. The Boo Radleys – Wake Up Boo! (1995)
22. Eels – Saturday Morning (2003)
23. Richard Hawley – As The Dawn Breaks (2009)
24. Billy Bragg & Wilco – Someday Some Morning Sometime (2000)
25. K’s Choice – Breakfast (1993)
26. Norah Jones – Sunrise (2004)

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Any Major Morning Vol. 1

April 20th, 2023 16 comments

Any Major Morning

[This is a repost from August 2013. This mix and its follow-up are among my all-time Any Major CD-R mixes, so after almost a decade, it’s good to recycle them.]

Here’s a mix I have played more often than perhaps any I have ever done on this site. I dreamed it up, almost literally, when I had to drop my son at the airport for a red-eye flight. Trying to cheer myself up, I sang the Good Morning song from Singin’ In The Rain, Good Day Sunshine by The Beatles, and “It’s Four In The Morning by Faron Young. Funny enough, none of these made it into this eclectic mix.

It kicks off with the full version of the song you’ll know as the theme to The Sopranos, by London band Alabama 3. I hope you’ll have better mornings than the subjects of the song. It’s based on the 1989 killing of English wife-beater Malcolm Thornton by his wife Sarah, who stabbed him 20 times. A trial in 1990 found her guilty of murder; a retrial in 1996 reduced the verdict to manslaughter and Sarah was set free for time served.

The version featured here of Kevin Ayer‘s infectious Religious Experience (Singing A Song In The Morning), the psychedelic rocker”s first single in 1970, is the longer one which remained unreleased until 2003. It has Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett on guitar, while The Ladybirds, who are best known from The Benny Hill Show, perform the backing vocals.

Perhaps the most obscure track here is Joyce Williams‘ The First Thing I Do In The Morning. This gospel-funk number burns it up, with its hot flutes, sizzling wah-wah guitar and incendiary bass. The only other record Williams seems to have recorded was a single titled Dance The Wrangler Shake (take that, Harlem) six years earlier, in 1966 — for the jeans company.

A few songs here are covers of well-known songs. Harry Nilsson covers Louis Jordan’s 1947 hit Early In The Morning, Paul Weller does Paul Lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain.

And listen to Bernard Purdie’s great drums on the Tim Rose track.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-brewed covers. Volume 2 will follow next week.

1. Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning (1997)
2. Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning (1967)
3. Harry Nilsson – Early In The Morning (1971)
4. Tim Rose – Morning Dew (1967)
5. Kevin Ayers – Religious Experience (Singing A Song In The Morning) (1970)
6. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Deep One Perfect Morning (1987)
7. The Lilac Time – This Morning (2001)
8. The Pogues – Tuesday Morning (1993)
9. Paul Weller – Early Morning Rain (2004)
10. Brandi Carlile – Late Morning Lullaby (2007)
11. Lyle Lovett – Just The Morning (1994)
12. Rusty Wier – Texas Morning (1974)
13. Dolly Parton – Early Morning Breeze (1971)
14. Isaac Hayes – Early Sunday Morning (1971)
15. Joyce Williams – The First Thing I Do In The Morning (1972)
16. David Ruffin – Morning Sun Looks Blue (1979)
17. Al Jarreau – Mornin’ (1983)
18. Major Harris – Each Morning I Wake Up (1974)
19. The Temptations – Love Woke Me Up This Morning (1972)
20. Tim Buckley – Morning Glory (1967)
21. Townes Van Zandt – I’ll Be Here In The Morning (1968)
22. Bobbie Gentry – Mornin’ Glory (1968)
23. Joan Baez & Bill Wood – So Soon In The Morning (1959)

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Bacharach & David Songbook Vol. 2

February 14th, 2023 15 comments

 

The 1960s had a generation of songwriters which in its breadth and quality is ummatched.

Jimmy Webb, Bob Dylan, Lennon & McCartney, Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, King & Goffin and the rest of the Brill Building scene, Holland/Dozier/Holland and Smokey Robinson and the rest of the Motown crew, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Curtis Mayfield, Hayes & Porter, Ray Davies, the evil John Phillips, Bert Berns, Crewe & Gaudio, James Brown, Sly Stone, Neil Diamond, Lee Hazlewood, Shadow Morton, Jagger & Richards, Stephen Stills, Van Morrison, and God knows whom I have forgotten and whose name you’ve just shouted out, unable to understand their inexplicable omission.

I don’t think it is remotely possible to name a “greatest” from that lot, but Burt Bacharach was a towering figure in that collection of genius songsmiths. His collaborations with Hal David, which comprises almost all of Burt’s 1960s prime, are near the level of Cole Porter, who perhaps was the greatest songwriter of all time (of course, Porter did music & lyrics himself).

Many of these songwriters and tunesmiths have already left us, some may follow soon. Burt Bacharach followed Hal David to the great recording studio in the sky last week. So this mix — a long overdue Vol. 2 to the Bacharach/David Songbook I posted in 2017 —  is by way of tribute to this giant in popular music. A third Bacharach/David mix will follow later in the year; it will include some songs that didn’t make it on this collection, and a few versions of songs that did.

Long-time readers of this blog will recall that I have previously put up three Bacharach Songbooks:
The Bacharach/David Songbook Vol. 1
Bacharach: The Lesser Known Songbook
Covered With Soul: Bacharach/David Edition
Any Major Originals: Bacharach Edition

As ever, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-trumpeted covers.

1. Gwen Guthrie – (They Long To Be) Close To You (1986)
2. Robin McKelle & The FlyTones – Walk On By (2013)
3. Jennifer Warnes – Don’t Make Me Over (1979)
4. Luther Vandross – A House Is Not A Home (1980)
5. James Brown – What The World Needs Now Is Love (1976)
6. Lyn Collins – Reach Out For Me (1972)
7. Jimmy Ruffin – Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (1970)
8. The Dells – I Just Dont Know What To Do With Myself (1972)
9. Barbara Acklin – The Look Of Love (1969)
10. Dionne Warwick – I Say A Little Prayer (1967)
11. Dusty Springfield – TwentyFour Hours From Tulsa (1964)
12. Nancy Sinatra – Wishin’ And Hopin’ (1966)
13. Dee Dee Warwick – Alfie (1969)
14. Jackie Trent – Make It Easy On Yourself (1969)
15. Bobbie Gentry – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again (1969)
16. The Fifth Dimension – One Less Bell To Answer (1970)
17. Gabor Szabo & Lena Horne – A Message To Michael (1970)
18. Pretenders – The Windows Of The World (1988)
19. Neil Diamond – Do You Know The Way To San José (1993)
20. Rumer – You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) (2016)
21. Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach – In Between The Heartaches (2003)
22. Bob Marley and The Wailers – What’s New Pussycat (1965)

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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
Lamont Dozier
Laura Nyro
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Paul McCartney Vol. 1
Paul McCartney Vol. 2
Rod Temperton
Steely Dan

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