Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

(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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More Any Major Soul
More CD-R Mixes

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

More CD-R Mixes

After a brutal start, with Gordon Lightfoot and Linda Lewis leaving us within a couple of days of one another, May ambled along relatively easily, and then became hectic again three weeks in, before the Reaper took his foot of his lethal pedal.

It was a bad month for bassists: within one week, we lost Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, heavy metal bassist Algy Ward (who in 1979 also was a member of The Damned), session bassist John Giblin (who played on many songs you probably know), South African jazz bassist Musa Manzini — and Chas Newby.

Chas Newby might have been a member of the Fab Five! After Stu Sutcliffe dropped out of the Beatles to stay in Hamburg, Newby filled in on bass for him. Before the group’s second trip to Hamburg, Chas was asked to join the band. Newby declined in order to go to university, and McCartney reluctantly took over bass duties. Newby went on to become a maths teacher. But it might have been John, Paul, George, Chas and Ringo…

The Acid Queen
There really isn’t much left to say about Tina Turner. I posted a mix of covers by Tina Turner (with and without Ike) the day after her death at 83, and offered some thoughts about Tina (whose name I stubbornly mistyped as Tuna). Get it here.

Featured here is her first-ever released single from 1958, on which she was billed as Little Ann, given that her real name was Anna Mae Bullock. Not very well known is that Tina was also a songwriter, especially towards the end of her time with Ike. Much of their 1974 album Sweet Rhode Island Red was written by Tina. Two of her works feature here, including a track on which we hear the singer in full-blown soul-gospel mode.

The Singer-Songwriter
Likewise, I have already paid tribute to Gordon Lightfoot, who died on May 1 at 84, by way of a Songbook. Lightfoot was one of many legends in the field of singing-songwriting, at a time when that genre was in its prime. Canada gave us four of these legends: Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Lightfoot.

I don’t know whether the Turner and Lightfoot mixes were in any way welcome (or the Prince Songbook, or the Power Ballads). The new filehosting service I use provides no stats, unlike Zippyshare, which used to give me a good idea as to what was popular and what was more niche. And without comments from readers, and that function has not been used much lately, I have no idea what hits and what misses.

The Songbird
As mentioned, the month of May kicked off in a nasty way. First Lightfoot died, two days later Linda Lewis. The English singer had an incredible range, in terms of voice — it is said that her range topped even that of Minnie Riperton — and of musical styles. She fused folk, soul and funk effortlessly.

On some of her early songs, Linda’s voice is just a little too high, too childlike for my taste. I call it the Joni Syndrome. Take the chorus of her hit Rock A Doodle Doo, which spoils a decent song for me. When she dropped her voice a little, it was gorgeous. Check out the featured Love Love Love from the aptly titled and very good Not A Little Girl Anymore album from 1975. It also shows off her fine songwriting skills.

Later she had a superb dance track in 1984 with Class/Style (I’ve Got It), which should have been a huge hit but inexplicably wasn’t.

Lewis also sang back-up for acts like David Bowie (on the Aladdin Sane album), Cat Stevens, Rick Wakeman, Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel, Rod Stewart, and later Joan Armatrading, Turin Brakes, Fatboy Slim, Paul Weller and Oasis.

The Smith
With the death at only 59 of Andy Rourke, bassist of The Smiths, huge numbers of Gen-Xers have lost a co-creator of a sound that accompanied them in dark times. No matter that Morrissey these days is an insufferable ass, The Smiths are giants in 1980s music.

Of course, the focus was on the frontman and guitarist Johnny Marr. Quite likely, only Smiths fans could easily name the other two (can you name the drummer?). But make no mistake Rourke’s bass drives the music. Just think of the oppressive bassline in How Soon Is Now, without which Marr’s meowing guitar would seem gratuitous. Marr has acknowledged Rourke’s huge contribution to the Smiths sound, noting that the two funk fans played off one another.

After the band split, Rourke was involved in various projects, including a Mancunian supergroup called Freebass with fellow bass players Mani (Stone Roses) and Peter Hook (New Order). He backed acts like the Pretenders, Killing Joke, Badly Drawn Boy and Ian Brown, as well as his old Smiths colleague Morrissey on hits like November Spawned A Monster, Interesting Drug, and The Last Of The Famous International Playboys. Rourke’s last band was the rock band D.A.R.K., with the late ex-Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan on lead vocals

Oh, and the drummer was Mike Joyce.

The Session Bassist
Not only The Smiths mourned the loss of a bassist, but also acts like Kate Bush, Phil Collins, Chris de Burgh, and Peter Gabriel. Scottish bassist Jon Giblin, who has died at 71, played on hits such as Bush’s Babooshka, and Collins’ In The Air Tonight and You Can’t Hurry Love, Annie Lennox’s Why, and De Burgh’s Don’t Pay The Ferryman and Lady In Red. He was especially active on many Kate Bush albums since 1980.

Giblin also backed acts like Simple Minds, Elkie Brooks, Paul McCartney, Stephen Bishop, Hugh Masekela, Jon Anderson, Marcia Hines, John Martyn, Donovan, Johnny Hallyday, Judie Tzuke, Jim Capaldi, Annie Lennox, Mavis Staples, Alan Parsons, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Richard Ashcroft, Papa Wemba, The Everly Brothers, Brand X, Scott Walker, David Sylvian, Fish, Tanita Tikaram, Joan Armatrading, and many others.

The Soul Blower
If you hear any number of Stax or Stax-recorded tracks that feature horns by the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, King Curtis, Carla Thomas, Aretha Franklin and so on, you’ll probably hear the baritone sax of Floyd Newman, who has died at 91. Newman was a member of the Stax houseband The Mar-Keys and the Memphis Horns.

Newman played in the 1940s with BB King and toured in the 1950s with Sam Cooke before he formed a live band that also included future Stax legend Isaac Hayes, whom he later backed on many albums. Hayes also played on Newman’s one single release, 1964’s Frog Stomp, on Stax.

The Ska Pioneer
With the passing of alto saxophonist Lester Sterling, only one of the ten founding member of Jamaica’s influential band The Skatalites is still alive. Apart from pioneering ska music, the band also backed many future reggae legends, including Prince Buster and, on their first single (titled Simmer Down), Bob Marley & The Wailers.

After The Skatalites first split in 1965, Sterling joined up with Byron Lee & The Dragonaires, and also released several solo records and other collaborations. When The Skatalites reformed in the mid-1970s, Sterling rejoined the band and remained its one constant member over the next few decades.

The In-Crowd Drummer
With the death of drummer Redd Holt, all three members of the Ramsey Lewis Trio are now gone into the Great Jazz Club in the Sky. Holt and double-bassist Eldee Young, who died in 2007, played with Lewis (whom we lost in September last year) for ten years, scoring hits such The In-Crowd, Wade In The Water and Hang On Sloopy.

In 1967 Holt and Young split from Lewis to form their own group, Young-Holt Unlimited. They had a huge hit in 1969 with Soulful Strut, basically the instrumental backing track plus piano solo of Barbara Acklin’s song Am I The Same Girl — on which neither Young or Holt are said to have played (blame the record company for that scheme). Young and Holt continued to record together for several years, and Holt also released a number of solo albums.

The Teenage Pioneer
He was only 15 years old when Dickie Harrell drummed on one of rock & roll’s defining pioneer hits, 1956’s Be-Bop-A-Lula by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. Vincent’s vocals and Cliff Gallup’s guitar solo are the focal of this great rockabilly song. But Harrell’s two screams, at 37 seconds and again at 1:31, help give it that anarchic rock & roll sensibility. Harrell later said that he screamed so that his mom could hear him on record.

Dickie toured with Vincent for just a year, and left the Blue Caps after scoring another huge hit with Blue Jean Bop. He released one album, a Latin dance effort titled Drums And More Drums, in 1961, and would occasionally play with surviving Blue Caps. But much of his life was spent in the less glamorous domain of hazardous waste.

The Spike Composer
Perhaps Bill Lee is best-known as the composer of the scores for the first four films of his son Spike Lee, with whom he had a complicated relationship. But by then, Bill had accumulated an impressive string of credits as a session man, especially on folk records in the 1960s. As a bassist, he backed Odetta, Bob Dylan, Ian & Sylvia, Peter Paul & Mary, Theodore Bikel, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, The Chad Mitchell Trio, Tom Paxton and others. He also played on Gordon Lightfoot’s debut album, including the featured For Lovin’ Me.

Outside folk, he backed acts like (pre-soul) Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, Ray Bryant Trio, and John Lee Hooker. But his revival came when he scored Spike’s films She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, and Mo’ Better Blues. The scoring ended when Bill and Lee had a falling out.

The Cream Poet
Pete Brown is probably best remembered as the lyricist of Cream hits such as Sunshine Of Your Love, White Room, I Feel Free, and SWLABR. Before all that he was a performance poet; after writing for Cream, he became a recording artist.

The first band he founded was Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments. The day before the band was to open for the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, the band fired its founder — and with that the first part of its name. He was replaced by Chris Spedding. Brown kept recording, releasing his final album in 2010. In 2017, he contributed lyrics Procol Harum’s final album, Novum.

The Ames Brother
With the death at 95 of Ed Ames, all of easy listening quartet The Ames Brothers are now gone. They started their recording career in 1948 and had their biggest hits in the early and mid-1950s, including Rag Mop, Sentimental Me, You You You, Undecided, The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, and Tammy (their version and Debbie Reynolds’ both featured in the film of that name).

Ed Ames went on to have a number of easy listening solo hits in the 1960s, but was maybe more famous for playing the Native American Mingo in the TV series Daniel Boone. (Casting the son of Ukrainian Jews as an indigenous American made perfect sense in the ’60s, apparently.)

It is with that background that in 1965 Ames appeared on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, tasked with showing off his tomahawk-throwing skills. Aiming at the drawn outline of a cowboy, the tomahawk got stuck almost exactly in the cowboy’s crotch — handle pointing upwards. It got one of the longest laughs in TV history, milked by Carson, who then riffed on the notion of circumcision. “I didn’t even know you were Jewish,” Carson exclaimed — which, of course, Ames was.  See the clip here.

The Net Slipper
Some deaths slip through the net. I learnt only in May of the passing on January 27 of Daniel Boone, who had a massive global hit in 1972 with Beautiful Sunday. His death was reported only in March. Beautiful Sunday featured on Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 1, which was posted almost exactly a year before Boone’s death at the age of 80. It was his second and final big hit; the first had been in 1971 with Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast, a hit in the US for Wayne Newton, which in Boone’s original recording reached #17 in the UK and topped the charts in South Africa. By all accounts, Boone (born Peter Green) was a delightful person to know6.As always, this post is reproduced in illustrated PDF format in the package, which also includes my personal playlist of the featured tracks. PW in comments.

Daniel Boone, 80, English pop singer, on January 27
Daniel Boone – Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast (1971)
Daniel Boone – Beautiful Sunday (German Version) (1972)

Gordon Lightfoot, 84, Canadian singer-songwriter, on May 1
Gordon Lightfoot – For Lovin’ Me (1966)
Gordon Lightfoot – Looking At The Rain (1972)
Gordon Lightfoot – Carefree Highway (1974)
Gordon Lightfoot – Triangle (1982)

Pugh Rogefeldt, 76, Swedish musician, on May 1

Linda Lewis, 72, English singer-songwriter, on May 3
Linda Lewis – You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet (1967)
Linda Lewis – On The Stage (1973)
Linda Lewis – Love, Love, Love (1975)
Linda Lewis – Class/Style (I’ve Got It) (1984)

John Albert, 58, ex-member of punk band Bad Religion, music journalist, on May 3

Rob Laakso, 44, indie multi-instrumentalist and producer, on May 4
Kurt Vile – Lost My Head There (2015, on bass and as producer and engineer)

Jack Wilkins, 78, jazz guitarist, on May 5

Seán Keane, 76, fiddler with Irish folk band The Chieftains, on May 7
The Chieftains – Lord Mayo (1973)
The Chieftains with Jackson Browne – The Rebel Jesus (1991)

Rita Lee, 75, singer with Brazilian rock band Os Mutantes, on May 8
Rita Lee – Calma (1970)

Jon Povey, 80, keyboardist of UK rock band The Pretty Things, on May 9
The Pretty Things – Baron Saturday (1969)

Stu James, 77, lead singer of British beat group The Mojos, music executive, on May 10
The Mojos – Everything’s Al’right (1964)

Rolf Harris, 93, Australian entertainer, singer, convicted sex offender, on May 10
…no fucking way…

Francis Monkman, 73, musician and co-founder of Curved Air, Sky, and composer, on May 11
Curved Air – Melinda (More Or Less)
Sky – Toccata (1980)

Dum-Dum, 54, rapper with Brazilian hip hop group Facção Central, on May 12

John ‘Doc’ Wilson, 96, jazz trumpeter and arranger, on May 13

John Giblin, 71, Scottish bass player, on May 14
Kate Bush – Babooshka (1980, on bass)
Phil Collins – Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away (1982, on bass)
David Sylvian – Wanderlust (1999, on bass)

Bernt Rosengren, 85, Swedish jazz tenor saxophonist, on May 14

Musa Manzini, 52, South African jazz bassist, on May 15
Musa Manzini – Renaissance Song (2000)

Richard Landis, 77, singer-songwriter, producer, label executive, on May 16
Richard Landis – Natural Causes (1972, also as writer)
Juice Newton – Queen Of Hearts (1981, as producer)

Lester Sterling, 87, Jamaican saxophonist, co-founder of The Skatalites, on May 16
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Simmer Down (1963, as backing musician)
Prince Buster & The Skatalites – Mule Train (1964)
Lester Sterling & Stranger Cole – Bangarang (1969, also as writer)

Akwaboah Snr., Ghanaian singer-songwriter, on May 16

Algy Ward, 63, English heavy metal and punk bassist, on May 17
Tank – Turn Your Head Around (1982, also as co-writer)

Andy Rourke, 59, bassist of The Smiths, on May 19
The Smiths – This Charming Man (1984)
The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (1986)
Freebass – You Don’t Know (This About Me) (2010, as member on guitar & co-writer)

Pete Brown, 82, lyricist, singer and poet, on May 19
Cream – Sunshine Of Your Love (1967, as lyricist)
Pete Brown & Piblokto! – Living Life Backwards (1969, on vocals and as lyricist)
Pete Brown & Phil Ryan – Dark City Coals (1993, on vocals and as lyricist)

Josef Aichberger, 87, Austrian trombone and flugelhorn player in dance hall/jazz band Die Rhythmiker, on May 20

Ed Ames, 95, singer and TV actor, on May 21
Ames Brothers – If You Had All The World And Its Gold (1948, as member)
Eddie Ames – The Bean Song (Which Way To Boston) (1956)
Ed Ames – Timeless Love (1967)

Peter Luboff, 77, soul songwriter, on May 21
Bobby Womack – I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much (1985, as co-writer)

Kirk Arrington, 61, drummer of metal band Metal Church, on May 22

James Lewis, 63, singer with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, on May 22
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Who I Am (2015)

Sheldon Reynolds, 63, funk and soul guitarist, vocalist, on May 23
The Commodores – Night Shift (1985, as member on guitar
Earth, Wind Fire – Wanna Be The Man (1990, as member and co-writer)

Floyd Newman, 91, soul saxophonist with the Mar-Keys, on May 23
Mar-Keys – Last Night (1961, also on vocals)
Floyd Newman – Frog Stomp (1963, also as writer)
Etta James – I’d Rather Go Blind (1967, on baritone sax)
Otis Redding – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (1967, live at Monterrey)

Redd Holt, 91, jazz drummer (Ramsey Lewis Trio; Young-Holt Unlimited), on May 23
James Moody – Last Train From Overbrook (1958, on drums)
Ramsey Lewis Trio – Hang On Sloopy (1965)
Young-Holt Unlimited – Who’s Making Love Strut (1968)

Mark Adams, 64, bassist of metal band Saint Vitus, on May 23

Tina Turner, 83, soul, rock and pop singer, on May 24
Ike Turner, Carlson Olivier & Little Ann – Boxtop (1958, as Little Ann)
Ike & Tina Tuner – I Am A Motherless Child (1968, also as co-writer)
Ike & Tina Turner – Feel Good (1972, also as writer)
Tina Turner – Let’s Stay Together (1983)

Bill Lee, 94, jazz and folk musician and film composer, father of Spike, on May 24
Odetta – Jumpin’ Judy (1959, on string-bass)
Bob Dylan – It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (1965, on bass)
Gordon Lightfoot – For Lovin’ Me (1966, on bass; see above)
Bill Lee feat. Branford Marsalis – Malcolm And Martin (1989, as composer and conductor)

George Maharis, 94, actor and singer, on May 24
George Maharis – Teach Me Tonight (1962)

Jean-Louis Murat, 71, French singer-songwriter, on May 25
Jean-Louis Murat – Si je devais manquer de toi (1987)

Joy McKean, 93, Australian country singer and songwriter, wife if Slim Dusty, on May 25
Slim Dusty – The Biggest Disappointment (1974, as writer)

Juan Carlos Formell, 59, Cuban singer and songwriter, on May 26

Reuben Wilson, 88, jazz organist, on May 26
Reuben Wilson – Got To Get Your Own (1975)

Eris O’Brien, Australian country songwriter, announced May 31

Dickie Harrell, 82, drummer of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, announced May 31
Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps – Be-Bop-A-Lula (1956)
Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps – Bluejean Bop! (1957)
Dickie Harrell – Rock-Rock-Cha-Cha (1961)

On June 7, Prince would have reached the retirement age of 65. Which is as good a reason as any to issue the first of two Prince Songbooks. It is remarkable that the three most iconic (a rare occasion when this word finds correct application) pop stars of the 1980s were born within a few months of one another in 1958: Prince in June, Michael Jackson and Madonna in August (29^th and 16^th respectively).

The mix kicks off with Sheila E.’s wonderful Love Bizarre, which features Prince on vocals and various instruments. It was co-written with Sheila E. Likewise, Martika’s 1991 hit Love…Thy Will Be Done was produced by Prince, and co-written with the singer. Prince wrote Sheena Easton’s Sugar Walls under the pseudonym Alexander Nevermind, and did backing vocals on it, played several instruments, and co-produced.

When you contemplate the obvious candidates for doing Prince songs, the name Kenny Rogers will not come to mind immediately. Yet there he was in 1986, recording a Prince song titled You’re My Love that hitherto had been unreleased (of which there were, and apparently still are, many). It is not true, as the popular story goes, that Prince wrote the song for Rogers specifically.

Prince had demoed You’re My Love — a title you’d expect rather from Ken’s other soul friend, Lionel Richie — in 1982. When Prince fan Rogers called the man to ask for a song, the Purple One dug into his vaults and gave him this power ballad, demo and all. It was an astute choice; the song suited Rogers well. Hear Prince’s version. The songwriting credit was Joey Coco, one of the many pseudonyms Prince used.

The cover of Raspberry Beret is credited here to Warren Zevon. I must confess, it is a bit of a honey trap. To be sure, Zevon sings the song, and it has appeared on at least two best-of-type compilations. But it was first released in 1990 by the supergroup Hindu Love Gods, which included members of REM and Zevon.

In 1984, Chaka Khan had a mega-hit with I Feel For You, a song that appeared on Prince’s eponymous sophomore album in 1979. But two years before Khan turned a decent song into a minor masterpiece, The Pointer Sisters tried their hands at it. Their version features here, and it’s a fine cover.

Chaka Khan would later work with Prince. She features here with a track from her 1988 album, CK. Eternity is a Prince composition, but originally for Sheena Easton. Prince contributed another track to CK, Sticky Wicked, which he also produced, on which Chaka raps (hear it here — or check out Prince’s unreleased recording).

I imagine the track many will skip to first will be Patti Smith’s version of When Doves Cry. It takes courage or foolhardiness (or both) to cover a song like that, possibly Prince’s greatest. Smith was so confident that she pulled it off that she released it as a single. Her confidence was not misplaced, even if nobody could possibly eclipse Prince’s astonishing original.

On her debut album in 2001, Alicia Keyes covered How Come You Don’t Call Me, which in Prince’s hands was the b-side of his big hit 1999. It was, however, a regular in his live shows, from 1982, when it was first released, until his last concert on 14 April 2016 in Atlanta, a few days before his death.

The first Prince songbook closes with Prince’s demo of a song that would become a massive hit for Sinead O’Connor six years later. Prince recorded Nothing Compares 2 U in July 1984 — he had just released Purple Rain — and gave it to his project, The Family (featured on The Originals: 1990s & 2000s). The song made no impact until O’Connor had a hit with her superior version. Incidentally, the subject of the song was Prince’s personal assistant, Sandy Scipioni, who had left his employ after her father’s death.

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

1. Sheila E – Love Bizarre (1985)
2. The Pointer Sisters – I Feel For You (1982)
3. Corinne Bailey Rae – I Wanna Be Your Lover (2011)
4. Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs – I Would Die 4 U (2015)
5. Warren Zevon – Raspberry Beret (1990)
6. Foo Fighters – Darling Nikki (2003)
7. Lucky Peterson – Purple Rain (1997)
8. Alicia Keyes – How Come You Don’t Call Me (2001)
9. Valerie Carter – Crazy You (2000)
10. Kenny Rogers – You’re My Love (1986)
11. Martika – Love…Thy Will Be Done (1991)
12. Matt Nathanson – Starfish And Coffee (2004)
13. Eels – I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (2006)
14. Marshall Crenshaw – Take Me With U (2004)
15. Patti Smith – When Doves Cry (2002)
16. TLC – If I Was Your Girlfriend (1994)
17. Sheena Easton – Sugar Walls (1984)
18. Chaka Khan – Eternity (1988)
19. Bob Belden feat. Phil Perry & Everette Harp – Diamonds And Pearls (1994)
20. Prince – Nothing Compares 2 U (1984)

GET IT!

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
Rod Temperton
Sly Stone
Steely Dan

More Songbooks
More Covers Mixes
More CD-R Mixes

The death of Tina Turner yesterday brought to a close one of the great stories in pop music. It’s a well-known story, and it requires no rehashing here (in any case, if you didn’t know it and missed the movie, you’ll read it in the obituaries). Still, it is a triumph of the human spirit that Tina left her abusive husband at the risk of everything she had and knew, and came back, eventually, a bigger star than she was with him.

I don’t have much love for Tina’s output after the Private Dancer album, her big comeback in 1984, but I love her success, which was a permanent fuck-you to her erstwhile abuser, who lived out huis days as a public fool. I hope Tina’s story inspired many abused women to leave their abusive partners (and before anyone objects, “Men are abused, too”, yeah, sure. But that is a different story).

It is remarkable that Tina Turner was seen as a bit of a rock granny when she made her comeback at the age of 44. It seemed so unlikely, and it was unprecedented that a woman of that age might have a second stab at superstardom (and here we might remember the role the members of Heaven 17 played in returning Tina to the big stage). If you were a woman, you were considered past-it once you had crossed the threshold of 30. That comeback helped change things for women in popular music. Beyoncé is only three years younger than Tina was in 1984; nobody would even think of calling her a granny, or even an aunty. At 43, Pink is topping the album charts around the world; try calling her “old”…

Poster of Tina Turner in Germany’s Bravo magazine in February 1974.

As performers, Ike and Tina were dynamite, especially when they were backed by The Ikettes. Ike’s arrangements were of such genius that the covers he produced often turned out to be new songs (check out what he and Tina did to the hoary old standard You Are My Sunshine as an example), or improved on the original, even when the initial version seemed pretty much perfect (Proud Mary is a good example).

Tina’s vocals might have lacked in elegant beauty, but Tina inserted so much character in their delivery — and when required also explosive energy. She sang with authority, even when she lacked that in her private life. Few vocalists have ever been both soul and rock singers simultaneously, and nobody in the way Tina Turner was. She was unique.

This mix of covers by Tina Turner demonstrates that duality in music sensibility; and a couple of tracks here — Kris Kristofferson’s Lovin’ Him Was Easier and Brenda Lee’s If This Is Our Last Time — are from her foray into country in 1974 , though they were released only in 1979.

By then she had already released her cover of Dan Hill’s Sometimes When We Touch, the original of which features on the Any Major Power Ballads Vol. 2 mix, which I posted only a day before Tina Turner’s death.

Some of Turner’s biggest post-comeback hits were covers, though they don’t feature here. The comeback started with her fine version of Al Greens Let’s Stay Together and took pace with What’s Love Got To Do With It, a much superior cover of a song by Bucks Fizz. Her signature tune probably is (Simply) The Best, a terrible song first recorded by Bonnie Tyler, which was included in The Originals: 1980s Vol. 2. None of them feature here, but I close the mix with her slowed-down interpretation of Help, from Private Dancer, which was in contention for the Beatles 1962-66 Recovered mix I posted in March.

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

1. Ike & Tina Turner – Proud Mary (1971)
2. Ike & Tina Turner and The Ikettes – Gimme Some Lovin’/Sweet Soul Music (1969)
3. Ike & Tina Turner and The Ikettes – Respect (1969)
4. Ike & Tina Turner – Honky Tonk Woman (1973)
5. Tina Turner – The Bitch Is Back (1978)
6. Tina Turner – Whole Lotta Love (1975)
7. Ike & Tina Turner – Higher Ground (1974)
8. Tina Turner – Back Stabbers (1979)
9. Ike & Tina Turner – You Are My Sunshine (1973)
10. Ike & Tina Turner and The Ikettes – Son Of A Preacher Man (1969)
11. Ike & Tina Turner – With A Little Help From My Friends (1973)
12. Tina Turner – Let’s Spend The Night Together (1975)
14. Ike & Tina Turner – I Wish It Would Rain (1969)
15. Ike & Tina Turner – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (1969)
16. Ike & Tina Turner – Save The Last Dance For Me (1966)
17. Tina Turner – If This Is Our Last Time (1974)
18. Ike & Tina Turner – Drift Away (1973)
19. Tina Turner – Lovin’ Him Was Easier (1974)
20. Tina Turner – Sometimes When We Touch (1978)
21. Tina Turner – Help (1984)

GET IT! or HERE!

More Covers Mixes

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)

GET IT! or HERE!

More CD-R Mixes

On May 1 we lost the great Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, one of the great poets in popular music who also had a good turn in writing engaging music. And he was a fine singer with a warm, appealing voice. I would suggest that no time spent with the music of Gordon Lightfoot has ever been entirely wasted.

Lightfoot’s lyrics told of love, loss, nature, history and — sometimes and without occupying a podium — social issues. The man was an accomplished storyteller, and the acts featured on this songbook tell these stories.

Musically, Lightfoot rarely attracted covers from artists outside the folk-rock and country scene, except perhaps the odd easy listening merchant muzaking the hits. There are no soul covers on this mix because I know if no soul covers of Lightfoot songs — though I can imagine someone like Roberta Flack doing justice to If You Could Read My Mind.

Still, there are a couple of unexpected acts featured here. Indie band The Dandy Warhols, for example, or — talking of Warhol! — future Velvet Underground singer Nico. The German singer’s version of I’m Not Sayin (the label renders the song without the necessary apostrophe) was released in 1965, a year before she hooked up with the Velvet Underground.

It’s a bit poignant that this collection also features Harry Belafonte, who predeceased Lightfoot by less than a week.

As ever, the mix is timed to CD-R length, and includes home-mindread covers as well as the above text in an illustrated PDF. Password in comments.

1. Gordon Lightfoot – Rainy Day People (1975)
2. Richie Havens – I Can’t Make it Any More (1966)
3. Elvis Presley – That’s What You Get For Lovin Me (1973)
4. Eric Clapton – Looking At The Rain (1977)
5. Herb Pedersen – It’s Worth Believing (1984)
6. Richard Hawley – Early Morning Rain (2009)
7. Ron Sexsmith – Drifters (2003)
8. Gretchen Peters – Song For A Winter’s Night (2006)
9. Johnny Cash – If You Could Read My Mind (rel. 2006)
10. Eddy McManus – Carefree Highway (2018)
11. Trout Fishing In America – Ode To Big Blue (1990)
12. Nico – I’m Not Sayin (1965)
13. Spanky And Our Gang – Steel Rail Blues (1967)
14. Harry Belafonte – The Last Time I Saw Her (1969)
15. Johnny Mathis – Wherefore And Why (1970)
16. Joe Dassin – L’amour etc (Sundown) (1974)
17. The Dandy Warhols – The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (1998)
18. Cowboy Junkies – The Way I Feel (2003)
19. Nanci Griffith – Ten Degrees And Getting Colder (1993)
20. Poco – Ribbon Of Darkness (1982)
21. Kenny Rankin – Pussywillows Cattails (1974)
22. Anne Murray – Cotton Jenny (1972)
23. Ronnie Hawkins – Bitter Green (1970)

GET IT! or HERE!

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
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
Sly Stone
Steely Dan

More Songbooks
More Covers Mixes
More CD-R Mixes

Apart from the passing of Harry Belafonte, and outside of music, the headliner in April was Al Jaffee, the Mad magazine artist who offered us the ingenious fold-ins, the Clever Answers To Stupid Questions and a range of crazy inventions which Elon Musk might have paid billions for. The man reached the age of 102! On the flip side, also departing this mortal coil in April was Carolyn Bryant, the Mississippi woman whose false claims of sexual harassment led to the lynching if Emmett Till.

You can see how the fold-in for “Rock Hits of Yesteryear” turned out in the included PDF or on my Facebook (are you a friend yet to keep up to date with what gets posted here?). RIP, Al Jaffee!

The Activist
At this point, there isn’t really much to add to the many obits for Harry Belafonte. Three things strike me as worth raising, however. Firstly, the man had integrity and courage. At the height of his Hollywood career, he walked away from it, because he believed the roles he was offered were demeaning. He might have been a bigger movie star even than Sydney Poitier, had he played their game. But he put his personal integrity first. That is admirable.

Not getting much play in the obituaries was his engagement in the struggle against apartheid, no doubt fuelled by his marriage to Miriam Makeba. But that commitment outlasted their brief marriage, and it found expression in his music much as the calypso did in his earlier recordings. When in 1988 he released an album partly recorded in Johannesburg, using South African musicians, nobody pulled a Paul Simon on him and accused him of breaking the cultural boycott. Belafonte’s commitment to South Africa, unlike that of some other anti-apartheid artists, continued long beyond the apartheid era.

Belafonte was also committed to the rest of Africa, it musicians and its people. In December 1984, he initiated the project that would become We Are The World and culminate in Live Aid. Unlike Bob Geldof in Britain, Belafonte didn’t put himself he centre of the thing. The story of USA For Africa was briefly recounted in the entry for the late Ken Kragen in In Memoriam – December 2021.

The Sultry Voice
The sultry voice of April Stevens has fallen silent. Born Carol LoTempio, she was best known for her duets with brother Nino Tempo, such as the 1960s hits All Strung Out, Deep Purple and Whispering.

But Stevens also had a successful solo career before that, kicking off in 1951 with the Cole Porter song I’m In Love Again. More hits followed, such as Gimme A Little Kiss Will Ya, Huh?, and And So To Sleep Again. Her most notorious hit was 1959’s Teach Me Tiger, which was considered too sensual for airplay in the puritanical USA. It was later covered by artists such as Peggy Lee and Sofie Tucker.

Stevens continued to record and perform throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but her popularity waned in the 1980s. She also appeared in several films and TV shows, including The Interns, The Red Skelton Hour, and The Love Boat.

The Cool Jazz Pioneer
With the death at 92 of Ahmad Jamal, jazz has lost another of its pioneers. The Pittsburgh-born jazz pianist, known to his school teachers as Frederick Jones, was a pioneer of the “cool jazz” movement. By the time he was 21, in 1951, he was recording with the trio named after him. With their hit Poinciana, the Ahmad Jamal Trio became one of the most popular jazz acts of their time.

In 2017, Jamal received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, one of many awards he accumulated over his long career.

The Experimenter
With the death of English musician, composer and producer Mark Stewart, music has lost a pioneer in alternative and experimental music. With his punk band The Pop Group and in his solo work, Stewart pushed the boundaries of pop music.

The Pop Group fused punk, funk, free jazz and dub influences. Its politically charged lyrics and confrontational performances helped to establish them as a major voice in the punk scene.

After The Pop Group split in 1981, Stewart continued to experiment with industrial, hip-hop and electronic music, and collaborated with acts like Tricky, Massive Attack and, just a couple of years ago, Jah Wobble. He also produced albums for artists such as Primal Scream and The Raincoats.

The Dub Pioneer
He might not have been a household name, but Jah Shaka had a huge influence on the development of dub music and other forms of dance music, with his heavy, bass-driven sound and his use of custom-built sound systems in his live performances.

Known to his mom as Clifton George Bailey III, the Jamaican-born Jah Shaka was instrumental (as it were) in popularising dub music in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, and his sound system performances helped shape British reggae during that time.

Jah Shaka was also a social and political activist, with his lyrics often addressing themes of social injustice and resistance.

The Multi-instrumentalist
Session musician Ian Bairnson, who has died at 69, has had a namecheck before on this blog. In my collection of favourite guitar solos, his axemanship featured on Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. Formerly a member of Pilot, whose great song was Magic but biggest hit the inferior January, Bairnson was a sought-after session musician, and featured on every Alan Parsons Project album, right up to the last one, in 2019.

Apart from Bush, he also backed acts like Jon Anderson, Mick Fleetwood, Joe Cocker, Jon Anderson, Chris DeBurgh, Bucks Fizz, and Neil Diamond.

The ABBA Axeman
It cannot be said that ABBA’s music is predicated on heavy guitar riffs or face-contorting solos, and yet in their songs, there always is place for a bit of electric guitar. Most often, that was the work of Lasse Wellander, who accompanied the group in the studio and on stage. He arguably did his best work on ABBA’s 1977 LP The Album, notably on The Name Of The Game and Eagle. On the latter he even got a solo. He also played on hits like Knowing Me Knowing You (that lovely recurring guitar shape), Fernando, Take A Chance On Me, Summer Night City, Chiquitita, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Winner Takes It All, Does Your Mother Know, One Of Us, and many others.

During and after ABBA, Wellander also released solo albums, and a rather fine LP with Swedish singer Mats Ronander. He also contributed to the Chess album (including the UK #1 I Know Him So Well), the Mamma Mia musical, various solo efforts by Agnetha, and ABBA’s 2021 comeback album.

The Discoverer
It takes something to start a small record label and go on to launch the careers of two hugely influential acts in different genres of pop. Seymour Stein, co-founder of Sire Records, did that with the Ramones and almost a decade later with Madonna. He also signed seminal acts like the Talking Heads and Ice-T, and gave US contracts to the UK-based likes of The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure and the Pretenders. But he also managed to reject Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s! It is said that Stein came up with the term “new wave” to counteract the word “punk”, which he disliked.

As a teenager in 1958, he worked at Billboard magazine, at a time when it developed its charts. Later he formed a partnership with Leiber & Stoller and was a denizen of the Brill Building music publishing scene. There he met producer Richard Gottehrer, with whom he founded Sire in 1966.As always, this post is reproduced in illustrated PDF format in the package, which also includes my personal playlist of the featured tracks. PW in comments.

Dario Campeotto, 84, Danish singer, entertainer and actor, on April 1

Seymour Stein, 80, co-founder of Sire Records, on April 2
Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop (1976, as label owner)
Madonna – Everybody (1982, as label owner)

Rena Koumioti, 81, Greek pop singer, on April 3
Rena Koumioti – Dose Mou To Stoma Sou (1970)

Jack Vreeswijk, 59, Swedish singer and composer, on April 3

Vivian Trimble, 59, keyboardist of alt.rock band Luscious Jackson, on April 4
Luscious Jackson – Naked Eye (1996)

Andrew Laing, drummer of UK punk band Cockney Rejects, on April 4

Booker Newberry III, 67, soul singer and keyboardist, on April 5
Sweet Thunder – ‎I Leave You Stronger (1979, as lead singer)
Booker Newberry III – Love Town (1983)

Duško Gojković, 91, Serbian jazz trumpeter, composer, on April 5

Paul Cattermole, 46, singer with British pop group S Club 7, on April 6
S Club 7 – Don’t Stop Movin’ (2001)

Harrison Bankhead, 68, jazz double bassist, on April 6

Lasse Wellander, 70, Swedish guitarist with ABBA, on April 7
ABBA – Eagle (1977, on lead guitar)
Wellander & Ronander – EMH 870 (1978)
Agnetha Fältskog – Wrap Your Arms Around Me (1983, on guitar)
ABBA – Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (live) (released 1986)

John Regan, 71, bassist with rock band Frehley’s Comet, on April 8
Billy Idol – To Be A Lover (1988, on bass)

Kidd Jordan, 87, jazz saxophonist, on April 7

Ian Bairnson, 69, Scottish multi-instrumentalist (Alan Parsons Project), on April 7
Pilot – Magic (1974)
Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights (1978, on electric guitar)
Alan Parsons Project – Damned If I Do (1979, on electric guitar)

Guy Bailey, guitarist and songwriter with UK rock band The Quireboys, on April 7
The Quireboys – Hey You (1989, also as co-writer)

Bob Heatlie, 76, Scottish songwriter and producer, on April 8
Shakin’ Stevens – Cry Just A Little Bit (1983, as writer)

Chuck Morris, 46, percussionist of electronic band Lotus, found on April 9

Cynara, 78, singer with Brazilian girl band Quarteto em Cy, on April 11
Quarteto em Cy – Pedro Pedreiro (1964)

Jah Shaka, 75, Jamaican dub/reggae musician and producer, on April 12
Jah Shaka – Conquering Lion (1980)
Jah Shaka – I And I Survive (1982)

Doug Tibbles, 83, drummer of The Stone Coyotes and TV writer, on April 12

Mark Sheehan, 46, guitarist and songwriter with Irish group The Script, on April 14
The Script – The Man Who Can’t Be Moved (2008, also as co-writer)
The Script feat. will.i.am – Hall Of Fame (2012, also as co-writer)

Cliff Fish, 73, bassist of British pop group Paper Lace, on April 14
Paper Lace – Billy, Don’t Be A Hero (1974)

Peter Badie, 97, jazz bass player, on April 15
Lionel Hampton – Perdido (live) (1956, on double bass)

Ahmad Jamal, 92, jazz pianist, on April 16
Ahmad Jamal Trio – Poinciana (live, 1958)
Ahmad Jamal Trio – Falling In Love With Love (live, 1961)
Ahmad Jamal – Déjà Vu (1980)

Ivan Conti, 76, drummer of Brazilian jazz band Azymuth, on April 17
Azymuth – Manha (1972)

April Stevens, 93, pop and jazz singer, on April 17
April Stevens – I’m In Love Again (1951)
April Stevens – Teach Me Tiger (1959)
Nino Tempo & April Stevens – Deep Purple (1963)

Federico Salvatore, 63, Italian singer-songwriter and comedian, on April 19

Otis Redding III, 59, singer-guitarist with soul band The Reddings, son of Otis, on April 20
The Reddings – Remote Control (1980)

Moonbin, 25, South Korean singer with boy band Astro, on April 19

Mark Stewart, 62, English post-punk musician and songwriter, on April 21
The Pop Group – She Is Beyond Good And Evil (1979)
Mark Stewart – Stranger Than Love (1987)
Jah Wobble feat. Mark Stewart – A Very British Coup (2020)

Barry Humphries, 89, Australian comedian (Dame Edna Everage), on April 22
Dame Edna Everage – Every Mother Wants A Boy Like Elton (1978)

Keith Gattis, 52, country singer, songwriter, in tractor accident on April 23
Keith Gattis – El Cerrito Place (2005, also as writer)

Isaac Wiley Jr, 69, drummer of funk band Dazz Band, on April 23
The Dazz Band – Let It Whip (1982)
The Dazz Band – Swoop (I’m Yours) (1983)

Lilian Day Jackson, 63, US-born singer of Dutch disco band Spargo, on April 24
Spargo – You And Me (1980)

Harry Belafonte, 96, singer, actor, and civil rights activist, on April 25
Harry Belafonte – Suzanne (1956)
Harry Belafonte & Miriam Makeba – Give Us Our Land (1965)
Harry Belafonte – New York Taxi (1977)
Harry Belafonte – Capetown (1988)

MoneySign Suede, 22, American rapper, stabbed on April 25

Ralph Humphrey, 79, drummer with The Mothers of Invention (1973-74), on April 25
The Mothers – Camarillo Brillo (1973)

Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson, 97, R&B singer-songwriter, on April 25
Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson – Red Hot (1955)

Wee Willie Harris, 90, English rock & roll singer, on April 27
Wee Willie Harris – Rockin At The Two I’s (1957)

Claude Gray, 91, country singer-songwriter, on April 28
Claude Gray – I’ll Just Have A Cup of Coffee (Then I’ll Go) (1960)

Johnny Fean, 71, guitarist of Irish Celtic rock group Horslips, on April 28
Horslips – Faster Than The Hound (1973)

Tim Bachman, 71, founding guitarist of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, on April 28
Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Let It Ride (1973)

Helge Engelke, 61, guitarist of German hard rock band Fair Warning, on April 28
Fair Warning – When Love Fails (1992, also as writer)

Broderick Smith, 75, English-born Australian musician, on April 30
Broderick Smith’s Big Combo – Faded Roses (1981)

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)

GET IT!

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[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)

GET IT!

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