Various Artists - One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found Vol.2 (2005 Rhino) Flac & mp3@320

The importance of the girl group sound of the early '60s is often overlooked in the traditional telling of the history of rock & roll. In most accounts, after the first wave of rockers either died (Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran), quit (Little Richard), went into the army (Elvis), or married a cousin (Jerry Lee Lewis), hordes of one-named teen idols (Fabian, Frankie, Dion) and smoothies (Bobby Rydell, Paul Anka) took over and rock music withered away until the Beatles rescued it. This narrow-minded opinion leaves out so much amazing music (Del Shannon, Jackie Wilson, the Everly Brothers, Lou Christie, the start of Motown, the Beach Boys, and the surf sound as well as so much classic R&B) that it makes your head hurt. Add to that list of amazing music the girl group sound.

Add the Ronettes, the Shirelles, the Chiffons, Little Eva, and the Cookies. Add a style of music that when it's happy is just about the most exuberant sound on earth and when it's sad can completely rip your heart out. The sheer amount of girl group collections that have been released are a testament to the power of the sound, and with the release of Rhino's One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found, maybe even the rock snobs will get over themselves and get on board. Those who already are hip to the power of the girl group sound will be floating on a cloud after just one look at the track listing. Most of the major movers and shakers from behind the mics (everyone from the Shangri-Las, Barbara Lewis, Maxine Brown, to Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, and the Toys) and the mixing board (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, the Tokens, Tony Hatch, Shadow Morton, Bob Crewe, and Bert Berns) are here along with loads of acts that range from the obscure (Dorothy Berry, Sadina, Sylvan, the Pussycats) to the literally unknown (Marsha Gee). Best of all there are almost no hits to be found. There's no "Leader of the Pack," no "Stop! in the Name of Love," no "Going to the Chapel." Instead the compilers focus on under-rated or rare songs by the top names and the best songs by the second-tier and below artists. This decision means that there are no tracks that are overused or obvious and that the disc is brimming with surprises and new discoveries to all but the most in-the-know girl group fanatics. Even they might find something here that will knock their bobby socks off, and if not, at least they are in for almost five hours of pure fun.
Rhino's designers must have had fun too when coming up with the look of the set; it is packaged in a miniature hat box, the liner notes are made to look like a diary, and each separate disc is housed in a mock compact. Very cute, but a retailer's nightmare, no doubt.

The liner notes themselves are mostly wonderful, especially co-compiler Sheila Burgel's nifty track-by-track annotations, and there are tons of great photos, including a shot of the Shangri-Las in the studio that is almost worth the price of the set alone. The music is the real draw, however; the four discs and 120 songs are lovingly chosen and sequenced with great care, making sure to keep things interesting by blending styles, tempos, and moods in a glittering display of pop genius. The compilers (Sheryl Farber and Gary Stewart) make remarkably few missteps and quite a few brilliant decisions. The first and most important one was to cast a very wide net when gathering tracks, namely by looking to the U.K. for artists. There was very fertile scene there in the early to mid-'60s that produced some major talent like Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, and Lulu. Indeed some of the collection's most exciting tracks are drawn from the U.K. vaults like Petula Clark's pounding rocker "Heart," Lulu's even more pounding rocker "I'll Come Running" (featuring some wild guitar from session whiz Jimmy Page), P.P. Arnold's definitive version of "The First Cut Is the Deepest," and Dusty's majestic cover of the Baby Washington song "I Can't Wait to See My Baby's Face." Another fine strategy was picking artists who weren't usually associated with the girl group sound (like Dolly Parton, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Skeeter Davis, Toni Basil, and Wanda Jackson) as it adds some historical interest and all the tracks are really quite good too, especially Francis' "Don't Ever Leave Me" and Jackson's "Funnel of Love." They also chose to stretch the definition of the girl group sound to include late-'60s soul (the Lovelites' "How Can I Tell My Mom & Dad," the Flirtations' "Nothing But a Heartache"), garage rock (the Luv'd Ones' "Up Down Sue," the What Four's "I'm Gonna Destroy That Boy"), and tame psychedelia (Goldie & the Gingerbreads' "Walking in Different Circles," the Chiffons' "Nobody Knows What's Going On (In My Mind But Me)").

Lastly the inclusion of many songs like Reperata & the Delrons' "I'm Nobody's Baby Now," the Honeys' Brian Wilson-produced "The One You Can't Have," and Alder Ray's "Cause I Love Him" that are influenced by the productions of Phil Spector helps to offset the lack of any Spector-produced tracks. It seems that ABKCO Records keeps a very firm (and pricey) leash on the songs they own, so that means no prime Ronettes, no Crystals, and no Darlene Love (except when she is fronting the Blossoms). It also means that there are no tracks from the Cameo-Parkway vaults, so no Dee Dee Sharp, Orlons, or Candy & the Kisses either. Amazingly, the high quality of the tracks that are here mean you don't miss the exclusions too much. In fact there are so many great songs that listing the highlights would read like a reprint of the back cover of the box. Still, a few stand out as some of the best the girl group sound had to offer, like Cathy Saint's "Big Bad World," Twinkle's over-the-top death ballad (a girl group specialty that is well represented here) "Terry," the Exciters' "He's Got the Power," Earl-Jean's "I'm Into Something Good," the Girlfriends' "My One and Only Jimmy Boy," the Cake's "Baby, That's Me," the Girls' "Chico's Girl," Patty & the Emblems' raucous live version of "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl," Evie Sands' "I Can't Let Go," and Dorothy Berry's perfect "You're So Fine." That is a staggering chunk of solid gold, but the amazing thing is that you could grab any ten songs at random and come up with an extract just as strong.

Of course, with any collection like this there are going to be questions about songs and artists that don't appear. A short memory search might reveal big names like Baby Washington, Helen Shapiro, and the Dixie Cups (!), smaller names like the Pixies Three and Marcie Blaine, or songs like the Orchids' "Oo-Chang-a-Lang" and the Delicates' "Stop Shovin' Me Around." Any girl group fan will have additions to the list, but the great thing about One Kiss Can Lead to Another is that there are no obvious choices to remove to make room for anyone else. Each track fits just right and to take one out would be just plain painful. A follow-up set with more artists from around the world (France especially), more obscure artists, and even more rare tracks from the big names is definitely in order. If it's anything like One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found, it'll be thrilling from beginning to end and bring fans of the girl group sound (and great pop music) nothing but joy and happiness.(allmusic)

First, no you don't have missed part one. I post part two first because i just seen it as i uploaded it that it is the second part and not the first one.
This is a really wonderful collection of music made by women in the sixties. The only drop of bitterness if i may say so is the in my opinion not really nice artwork. I don't speak here about the booklet.Usually Rhino works on a better level. But like i said it's just my opinion and taste. Musically this is top notch in this genre.
Enjoy it
             Frank     Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3       mp3@320

p.s.: I post the artwork in a different folder in the next days!
       Maybe there is a kind soul who would scan the booklet if she/he have it?  :-)

2nd Part! Various Artists - Decca Originals - The Mod Scene 1998 (Decca Records) Flac & mp3

Hello Folks, here comes the next volume of the Decca Series ''The Scene''. Today volume is The Mod Scene with some very fine artists and songs on it. I hope a lot of you will have fun with this so here we go.

Have fun
              Frank       Flac p1  & Flac p2   - mp3@320

The Hollies - Another Night 1975 (1991 Magic Records, with bonus tracks) Flac & mp3

Another Night was a wholly unexpected album at the time of its release in February of 1975.
The Hollies' 15th official album, it also marked the return of Allan Clarke to the lineup for the first time since Distant Light in 1971 -- and it was, apart from one number, comprised entirely of group originals, a feat of songwriting acumen that the Hollies had not achieved since 1969's Hollies Sing Hollies (which was sort of a "ringer" in that regard); and just as much to the point, all of the songs and recordings were pretty much first-rate, ranging widely from lyrical pop/rock to harder, edgier, album-oriented sides, with a couple of classic performances among them. What's more, despite the range of sounds involved, the album offered a more cohesive group sound than anything that they had recorded since the mid-'60s. True, there were numbers that had strings added, and other embellishments, but at the core was a thoroughly unified group sound.

And while the most notable song here happened to be the only cover, a rendition of "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," authored by a up-and-coming, not-yet-famous new Columbia Records artist named Bruce Springsteen, that didn't mean that the rest of the record was in any way deficient. Indeed, this was the strongest album that they'd done since the psychedelic era, and the group's best body of rock songs ever, almost all solidly memorable, beautifully hook-laden numbers, harmony-driven but mostly not as soft as past releases often were. And while the harmonies were impeccable, the songs they were part of usually kept a great beat or solid rocking guitar (mostly courtesy of Tony Hicks). The Clarke-Hicks-Sylvester songwriting team peaked with this album for consistency, as did the same trio in a vocal capacity. And even some of the more unlikely titles, such as "Lonely Hobo Lullaby," were worth hearing more than once, alongside the obvious "plug" songs such as the title track and "I'm Down."

The diversity of sounds never let up across the original LP, and if anything was even more impressive on side two, with the radiant harmonies of "I'm Down" eventually leading to "You Gave Me Life (With That Look in Your Eyes)," the latter revealing a harder sound than they'd been known for since "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)"; and it led to the closer, "Lucy," a poignant ballad of the kind that the group had hardly ever presented on earlier records. It's no accident that this album, and the spirit of musical adventure behind it, lay behind the tour that became the basis for the first official live album by the band, or that its songs were more heavily represented on that resulting album than those off any other long-player in the group's history. Latter-day Hollies may not be first on too many peoples' lists of priority acquisitions, but if someone is going to start listening to the post-"Long Cool Woman" band, this is the place to begin.(allmusic)

This is a special album by the Hollies for me if i remember right. I believe it was the first one i heard conscious as an album by a band named Hollies. I was exactly 13 years old at the time it was released (it was my birthday month). In the windows of some record stores  you could see the cover hanging and i was magical interested in this because from somewhere i knew that this is the album with the song ''Sandy'' on it. And i loved this song. I listened Radio Luxembourg and WDR at the time then because that were the stations where my favourite songs were played. However, to make this story short: In the end my mother made the album as a delayed birthday present to me. And there was so much to discover, for example 'I'm down' was also a song who blew me with the vocals away then. Okay, enough from the memories of a long gone time (nevertheless often it feels like yesterday). Also with nearly 55 years the album sound great. I hope you have the same fun, too.

Cheers
           Frank   Flac p1 & Flac p2  & Flac p3     mp3@320

Various Artists - Decca Originals - The Psychedelic Scene Flac & mp3

This is from a series called ''Decca Originals - The Scene'' as far i know and have nine volumes i believe.
I am not sure because i have only seven volumes and i am too lazy to google around. I will look if a friend of mine can give me the missing two volumes.  Today i post ''Decca Originals - The Psychedelic Scene''. It's a fine collection of the psychedelic scene from the sixties. Here is the track list and i hope you will like it. Tomorrow the next volume will follow.

Have fun
               Frank    New Flac part1  & New Flac part2     -   Newmp3@320 link

Great Powerpop by We All Together - We All Together ll 1974 Flac & mp3

Their second and final album strongly echoes late-period Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney; in fact, it often seems pitched about midway between the 1969 and 1970 Beatles and the beginning of McCartney's solo career. Although it's hard to shake the nagging feeling while listening to this that it's somehow been created by a cover band who got access to discarded early-'70s McCartney demos, it's a convincing and enjoyable emulation of Lennon & McCartney's pop/rock craftsmanship, if more lightweight, less cogent and personal, and lacking in truly world-class tunes.

It's on a much higher plateau than Klaatu, for instance. And the Beatles aren't the sole point of reference; guitar riffs on "Follow Me If You Can," for instance, have been altered just enough from Yes' "Roundabout" to avoid plagiarism, while the full guitars and harmonies on many cuts will appeal to many a Badfinger fan. The CD reissue has five bonus cuts, some quite worthwhile. On "Rock of Ages," they offer a surprisingly convincing raunchy rocker, in contrast to their usual midtempo blends of voice, guitar, piano, and some orchestration; Carlos Guerrero's "Together Forever" and "It's Us Who Say Goodbye" are in the mold of folky White Album ballads like "I Will" and "Julia"; and there's a faithful version of McCartney's "Band on the Run," not exactly a common cover choice for bands of the time.(allmusic)

We All Together's second album is as strong as the first work of the band. Still more comes the strong influence of the Beatles here in the songs to a good hearing. In my opinion not one weak song here. If you liked the first album or the singles i posted before here you will like this, too.

Enjoy it
             Frank   Flac p1 & Flac p2       mp3@320

Fortune & Maltese And The Phabulous Pallbearers ‎– Konquer Kampus (1996 Hillside Records) Flac & mp3

First time i looked at the cover i thought it is an early sixties thing but it isn't. Naturally not. It is retro from the package to the music (not the price, lol) but it's very well done. The band really kicks ass with that Farfisa driven dance sound. To me this is a real good thing. It makes fun fun fun.
Give it a try if you don't know the album.

Enjoy
          Frank                   Flac p1 & Flac p2       mp3@320

Psychedelic Pop/Rock 1968: The Rainbow Press - There Is A War Going On 1968 (2006 Radioactive) Flac & mp3

This extremely short-lived band released two studio albums in their active period. This debut of theirs is probably the more famous of the two records but it's still a quite forgotten album as well. The Rainbow Press plays a nice mix of psych rock and pop psychedelia with some baroque influences here and there.

Although their sound is quite soft and pop oriented some of the tracks include some strong fuzzy guitarwork. Although the material gets a bit weaker on the second side I still would call this as a solid LP. The best songs here are very good and the weakest are pretty decent as well.(excerpt by CooperBolan,reader of rateyourmusic)  

It's a really nice pop psychedelia work from 1968.
Hope you have fun
Cheers
           Frank         Flac p1  &  Flac p2      - mp3@320

Great Powerpop From Peru: We All Together - We All Together 1973 (1997 Lazarus Audio Products) Flac & mp3

No date of release is given in the liner notes of the CD reissue of We All Together's first album, which was reportedly issued in 1972 -- but since it has a cover of a song from Paul McCartney's 1973 Band on the Run ("Bluebird") and since their second album came out in 1974, we can assume this is probably from 1973 or 1974. The Beatles, and particularly McCartney, fixation is obvious; they also cover a couple of obscure numbers from Wings' Wildlife album ("Tomorrow" and "Some People Never Know"), and throw in Badfinger's "Carry on Till Tomorrow" for good measure. Most of the album consists of original material, though, which is quite accomplished, well arranged, and melodic. What sets them apart from the leagues of other Beatles wannabes is that their song structures are usually not obviously derivative of well-known tunes by the real deal, and executed with a pretty unforced, natural ease. McCartney isn't the only one subject to tribute; "Dear Sally" has an echoey Lennon-esque hard rock vocal right from his Phil Spector-produced era, while "Ozzy" has a mock-Harrison slide guitar part. No, it doesn't get high marks for originality. But if you like late-'60s Beatles, early-'70s Beatles solo albums, and Badfinger, you'd be a fool not to try this on for size.(allmusic.com)

Yeah what had happened if these guys were from the US or UK? We'll never know.
This is great Pop/Power Pop.  It's a pity that these guys hadn't more success.

Enjoy,
cheers Frank   Flac p1 & Flac p2      - mp3@320
         

The Oxford Circle - Live At The Avalon 1966 (1997 Big Beat) Flac & mp3

Although the Oxford Circle are remembered by hardcore psychedelic collectors as a San Francisco psychedelic band due to their shows on the city's ballroom circuit in 1966 and 1967, they actually formed in Davis, about an hour to the east. The group played energetic garage-psychedelia that was heavily derivative of British bands such as the Yardbirds and Them, and managed to release just one single, "Foolish Woman"/"Mind Destruction," for the tiny World United label.

The flipside was a feedback-drenched piece of raw psychedelia, but it would not be appropriate to place the Oxford Circle in such rarefied air as unheralded Northern California psychedelic legends like the Great Society or even the Final Solution. The group's original material was unexceptional, owing more to punkish blues-rock than groundbreaking psychedelic sounds. Drummer Paul Whaley joined Blue Cheer, which sowed the seeds of the Oxford Circle's breakup, though oddly enough, future blues star Joe Louis Walker played with the group briefly.

Gary Lee Yoder, the Oxford Circle's principal songwriter, formed Kak (which recorded for Epic) and also showed up in a late version of Blue Cheer. An entire 1966 concert, in surprisingly excellent fidelity, formed the basis for an Oxford Circle CD in 1997 that also included their single and a couple of unissued cuts.(allmusic)

Powerful garage rock psychedelia.
Have fun
               Frank   Flac p1  & Flac p2 &  Flac p3            mp3@320

Squeeze - Piccadilly Collection 1996 A&M Records Flac & mp3@320

It bills itself as a greatest hits compilation, but Piccadilly Collection doesn't quite fit that description. Granted, the 18-track disc features some of Squeeze's biggest hits -- including "Tempted," "Black Coffee In Bed," "Pulling Mussels (From a Shell)," and "Hourglass" -- but the majority of the album consists of songs that will be totally unfamiliar to casual fans.

Aside from that handful of hits, Piccadilly Collection alternates between album tracks from latter-day Squeeze albums like Frank and Some Fantastic Place, and B-sides that have never before appeared on compact disc. Certainly, dedicated fans will be delighted to have the B-sides on CD, but they would have been better served by a full-fledged rarities collection. Similarly, casual fans would have been better served by a straight singles collection, or a more thorough retrospective -- even though this features 18 tracks, it short-changes all of the group's early records, including such classic new wave albums as Cool for Cats, Argybargy and East Side Story, in favor of the interminable medley "Squabs on Forty Fab." That said, apart from "Squabs on Forty Fab," there's no weak tracks here, and it all adds up to an entertaining listen, even if its very existence is a little puzzling.(allmusic)

This is naturally no 'Greatest Hits' album but it's an album with a lot great songs. It's slightly more relaxed in some songs as usual.
They are for sure one of the greatest pop bands who ever comes from Britain.
Viel Spass
                 Frank                 Flac p1  & Flac p2  & Flac p3     - mp3@320 p1  - mp3@320 p2

Various - Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story (Big Beat/Ace Records 2008) Flac & mp3@320

Ardent Studios is renowned as a place where everyone from R.E.M. and the Replacements to ZZ Top and the White Stripes cut great albums, but for many pop fans the name Ardent is associated with the Memphis-based independent label from the 1960s and '70s, the one that put out the three beloved albums by power pop legends Big Star. Ardent has a history that stretches back far before Big Star, as they issued their first single in 1960, a full twelve years before #1 Record.

This history is chronicled on Ace's astounding double-disc set Thank You Friends: The Ardent Record Story, the first thorough document of Ardent and, along with it, the Memphis underground pop movement of the '60s and '70s.
Ardent functioned as the fulcrum for all the Memphis misfits obsessed with the British Invasion and thereby not part of the city's soul and blues-drenched music scene: this was as true at the start of the '60s as it was during the label's power pop heyday in the '70s.

In fact, Thank You Friends makes a convincing case that the power pop glory years couldn't have happened without the foundation that Ardent head honcho John Fry laid during that first stretch of the '60s, when he was cutting garage bands and folk-rock. After cutting the stomping, gleefully moronic "Geraldine" with the Ole Miss Downbeats, Fry let the label lie for several years, during which time he became obsessed with the British Invasion -- not the gritty blues of the Rolling Stones, which he disdained, but the sterling pop of the Beatles, the crunching camp of the Kinks, and the modern pop art of the Who and the Yardbirds.

Eventually, Fry found a fellow traveler in maverick producer Jim Dickinson, who helped jump start Ardent in 1966 with sneering singles by Lawson & Four More. These, along with the Avengers' trippy tremeloed "Batarang," the Bitter Ind's odd viola infused "Hands Are Only to See," and especially the Beatles-meets-Byrds treat of the Wallabies previously unreleased "White Doors" hinted at the tremulous, trebly pop of the Big Star heyday in its sound, but it was the songs recorded in the next few years -- the 18 songs that fill out the remainder of the first disc -- that truly established the Memphis pop sound and sensibility.

Of these 18, only four were released at the time, a startlingly low ratio that suggests the extent of how underground this scene really was. Fry tried to place these singles at larger labels, getting few bites, and soon the resident producer torch passed from Dickinson to Terry Manning, a pop guy who let other pop guys record late into the night in Ardent, learning how to navigate the studio and creating the signature sound of Memphis, where guitars rang and clanged in equal measure. This is a key to how isolated this scene was, not just from the rest of Memphis but the world at large; they were shut off in the studio, creating their own sound, the precursor to indie kids holed away in the basement with a guitar and four-track. This scene eventually wormed its way into such solipsistic navel-gazing in the form of the endless unfinished sessions for Big Star's 3rd -- its darkness brushed upon with the inclusion of an original mix of "Holocaust," but for the most part ignored as the Big Star-centric second disc focuses in their brilliant, blinding pop, often present in alternate mixes or demos, some of which are revelatory (Chilton's spoken asides during the original version of "Mod Lang" are disarming), all of which help their very familiar music seem fresh again.

Big Star is clearly central to the Ardent story and Thank You Friends, which is appropriate as they are at the core of the label's mythology and legacy, as there were countless bands in the next decade as indebted to them as they were to the Beatles. The band dominates this collection, via these alternate mixes and rarities from both Chris Bell and Alex Chilton (the original mixes of "Free Again" and "The EMI Song (Smile for Me)" are particular highlights). This may hook in the Big Star fanatics who may not realize the depth of the band's scene. They might not know the pre-history of Rock City and Icewater, they might know who their peers Cargoe & the Hot Dogs were, they might not know that Tommy Hoehn & the Scruffs carried on the tradition after the band splintered in the mid-'70s. All that evidence is here on this glorious and important reissue, one that makes a convincing case for the uniqueness of the Ardent-based pop scene -- not just through Big Star but beyond -- through its wealth of ageless power pop.(allmusic.com)

I know most of the experts already will have this wonderful double disc. But, like the most music here, it's also meant for all the folks who don't know music by artists like here on the album or what i post here on the blog. For example younger people or people who are looking for another kind of music as presented in the so called 'Hot 100' or the mainstream media. Lol, what i want to say is if you don't know it grab it, it's a very nice piece of music and especially in american pop music a great piece of music history.

Enjoy it
             Frank     Flac p1 & Flac p2                mp3 p1   -   mp3 p2

Artwork added for ''Paul Jones - The Paul Jones Collection - Vol.1 My Way 1966/67 (1996 RPM Records) Flac & mp3''

Hello Folks i hope all of you have a nice weekend. Yesterday i posted the Paul Jones album My Way from the RPM Collection series. But i was too lazy yesterday scannning the artwork. But now it's ready and you can grab it. I put the link in the post of Paul Jones from yesterday.
Have fun and a nice day.

Cheers
           Frank