At Request: Sunshine Pop/AM Pop by Dino, Desi & Billy - The Rebel Kind (The Best Of) (1996 Sundazed) Flac & mp3@320

A Hollywood trio that were barely into their teens when they hit the charts in 1965, Dino, Desi & Billy anticipated the bubblegum fad with records that usually featured none of their own contributions, except their characterless vocals. That may be phrasing matters too kindly. The best bubblegum is far more distinctive and catchy than the lowest-common-denominator L.A. session pop/rock that they recorded. But they knew the right people, as they say in the business, which made them stars for a brief time, although they never had an ounce of credibility.

This mid-'60s trio were kind of a cross between the Monkees and Gary Lewis in a few key respects. Like Gary Lewis, their very opportunities to record came about primarily because of their distinguished Hollywood fathers. In the case of these guys, however, the nepotism was rather extreme: Dino was Dino Martin, son of singer/comedian Dean Martin, and Desi was the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Along with classmate Billy Hinsche, they began playing for fun. They'd barely gotten their equipment together when they auditioned for Dean Martin's buddy, Frank Sinatra -- who just happened to record for and run Martin's label, Reprise.

By the end of 1964, they'd released their first single for the label, although it was made clear to them that session musicians would handle the instruments.
Top producers and arrangers Lee Hazlewood, Billy Strange, and Jimmy Bowen would oversee the trio's recording dates over the next couple of years. "I'm a Fool" made the Top 20 in 1965; "Not the Lovin' Kind" got into the Top 30 a few months later. None of the group had reached the age of 15 yet, but there they were, playing to screaming crowds as a support act to a Beach Boys tour in 1965, and (for a few months) outselling Sinatra on his own label.

This despite (or because of?) the fact that their music was innocuously bland in the extreme, making the Monkees (who also used a pool of L.A. session players) sound positively innovative and hard-nosed in comparison.
Dino, Desi & Billy never got into the Top 40 after 1965, but they recorded singles and albums for years to come (perhaps it would have caused tensions among their families if they hadn't). They were the recipients of compositions by top pop/rock songwriters like Lee Hazlewood, David Gates, Boyce & Hart, Clint Ballard, Jr., and Bonner & Gordon.

But it seemed like these songsmiths took care not to give them anything too good, in the manner of Goffin-King's substandard leftovers for early-'60s teen idols.
Billy Hinsche's sister married Carl Wilson, which probably helped the band secure a Brian Wilson composition (which Hinsche helped finish off) for one of their final Reprise singles in 1970, "Lady Love." The group did start to get involved in their recording sessions, as players and composers, toward the end of the '60s. But the talent wasn't there, and in any case the results were much more pop than rock.

Perhaps it's being unduly touchy to come down on the band so hard; they had no aspirations towards anything but wholesome fun, apparently, and 98-percent of other kids their age would have taken advantage of the same connections given the same silver spoons. Keep in mind, though, that bands like Dino, Desi & Billy took away valuable air time and sales from much better groups that really needed it, in an era in which chart considerations were much more vital to ensure an ongoing career. And if you don't believe that, look at the nose dive experienced after the mid-'60s by the Kinks -- who, as it happened, were on Dino, Desi & Billy's U.S. label, and may have been competing for the same promotional budget.(allmusic.com)

Some guys have all the luck...maybe. Nice sunshine pop from the studio cracks of the sixties. However some really nice songs here and the collection is well done. Very good sound and the whole package by Sundazed is very well done.

Enjoy
          Frank                            New Flac part 1   &   New Link part 2         New mp3@320 link

Mickey Newbury - Harlequin Melodies 1968 (RCA Victor) LP, Flac & mp3

To paraphrase Marc Antony, the listener may not be able to decide whether to praise Mickey Newbury or bury him. This record hits one with the full Newbury experience, because, debut album or not, he comes across as a fully developed artist. His originality and talent is wonderfully evident in a series of songs that, whether brilliant or dreadful, always reveal an incredible amount of care being taken. Newbury never settled into any kind of standard arrangements or simple combo sound in his career, preferring to perform solo on acoustic guitar. But he and his producers went wild in the recording studio, baking in multiple layers that are likely to include any and all possible instruments, combined in a manner both audacitious and typical of the anything-goes '60s.

Newbury came out of the country and western scene, and no matter how far away he went the heritage was always evident in his vocal phrasing as well as his subject matter, frequently tragic, as is the C&W norm. There was also a Roy Orbison side to Newbury. His control of falsetto and penchant for heavy sentimentality and great dramatic moments will only appeal to listeners who enjoy Orbison. But he is gifted at many other types of material, and in the memorable "Just Dropped In" he created an absolute classic, undoubtedly the most perfect fusion of country and western and freaky psychedelic music ever recorded. The original Newbury version is really weird, even compared to the more well-known cover version by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. Rogers' band had a hit with this song when the band was still considered a rock outfit, years before the leader emerged in his true colors as a country artist, all of which is very appropriate to the Newbury story. The sadness of the songs is deep, at times hard to take. "Here Comes the Rain, Baby" is a gorgeous bit of tragedy. Some of the tunes are just too much, though, such as the obnoxious, pretentious "Weeping Annaleah." Sitars, orchestras, backup singers, gospel piano licks, and the kitchen sink all share equal space in the arrangements. (allmusic.com)

The review say it all.

Listen
           Frank      Flac  &  mp3@320

Mod Pop Psychedelia: The State Of Micky And Tommy - The State Of Micky And Tommy 1965-71 (2008 Magix Records) Flac & mp3@320

It's not well known, but long before he joined Foreigner -- and even before he was in Spooky Tooth -- Mick Jones made quite a few records with Tommy Brown, the pair working in France for much of the period. This French CD collects 24 tracks in which they were involved between 1965 and 1971, encompassing recordings billed to several different monikers, including the State of Mickey & Tommy, the Blackburds, Nimrod, the J&B, and Thomas F. Browne.

It may be that the singles they released as the State of Mickey & Tommy, obscure as those 45s are, are the best known of the lot, especially "With Love from One to Five," which has shown up on a few relatively high-profile U.K. psychedelia compilations. That does happen to be one of the better numbers, but generally this CD has fair, though not exceptional, music that reflects the British mod, pop/rock, and psychedelic trends of the time with occasional hints of French and Continental influences.

"With Love from One to Five" is typical if classy 1967 orchestrated psychedelic pop; "Nobody Knows Where You've Been" strongly recalls the arrangements on Sgt. Pepper's cuts like "Within You, Without You"; and "Frisco Bay" is nice dainty, dreamy pop with beatific Summer of Love lyrics and the lightest hints of raga-rock. All of those songs were found on singles credited to the State of Mickey & Tommy; the ones billed to the Blackburds are more like soul-flavored British mod rock that could serve as incidental film music, while Nimrod's 1969 single "The Bird" (previously included on several collector-oriented comps of rare British psychedelia) is a fairly strong relic bridging psychedelia with early progressive rock.

The best track, however, is the relatively unheralded 1966 single "There She Goes" by the J&B, a quite haunting, dramatic song that's a bit like a mini-soundtrack to a story of Swinging London heartbreak. As a whole, this will hardly qualify Jones and Brown as lost masters of mid- to late-'60s British rock, but there's pleasant period music of the genre to be heard, virtually all of it from extremely rare recordings (including soundtracks).(allmusic.com)

Well done '60s pop music. Very good popsike songs here and you will love it. Catchy mod pop psychedelia.

Have fun
               Frank          Flac part 1 & Flac part 2  & Flac part 3             mp3@320

A Lost Gem Of British Mod Pop Psychedelia! Mike Stuart Span - Children Of Tomorrow 1964-68 (2011 Grapefruit Records) Flac & mp3320

Fifteen tracks from 1967-1969 (some from the very end of that span were recorded when the group were known as "Leviathan"). "Children of Tomorrow" and its B-side are the only two of these items that saw official (and very limited) release; the rest are taken from demos and a 1968 session for John Peel on the BBC. While "Children of Tomorrow" is the unquestioned highlight, much of this is pretty fair pop-psych. It takes a more raucous guitar-based approach than many of their psych contemporaries, only faltering when the band occasionally opts for a hard blues/soul approach. If you like British cult bands of the time such as Tomorrow, or are in the market for psychedelia that dips the usual spacy lyrics and full harmonies in guitars that owe a lot to late-'60s Who and Yardbirds, you'll be satisfied with much of what's on tap here.

A band with a confusing name and a confusing history, the Mike Stuart Span did manage to record a classic British psychedelic single in 1967, "Children of Tomorrow." With its driving power chords, squealing guitar leads, and haunting harmonies, the song struck a classic midpoint between hard mod-pop and the early psychedelia of UK groups like the Pink Floyd and Tomorrow. The problem was that hardly anyone actually heard the record, as it was pressed in a run of 500 copies on a small independent label.

The Brighton group had been around since the mid-'60s, and recorded a few other singles for Columbia and Fontana with a much more conventional pop approach. There was actually no one named Mike Stuart in the act, which began to rely much more upon self-penned psychedelic material in 1967. Most of this never got beyond the demo/Peel session stage, though. The band was pressured by management to make an out-and-out pop single in 1968 that flopped, helping to squelch any prospects of the musicians asserting themselves as a significant presence in the British psych/prog scene.

In the late '60s, the Mike Stuart Span were actually featured in a BBC TV documentary entitled A Year in the Life (Big Deal Group), which charted the band's successes and (more commonly) failures over the course of a year. By the time it aired in September 1969, however, the group had changed their name to Leviathan, signed with Elektra, released a few singles, completed an unreleased album, and broken up.

Nothing else they recorded matched the brilliance of "Children of Tomorrow," though most of their original material was infused with the same yearning for some sort of just-past-the-horizon utopia. But they left behind a number of demos that demonstrated a promising ability to wed hard psychedelic guitars with a fair knack for melody and harmony. Interest in the band increased in the '80s when "Children of Tomorrow" was featured on a few psychedelic compilations. An entire album's worth of tracks, culled from singles, demos, and a BBC session, finally saw the light of day in the mid-'90s.(allmusic.com)

This is a really fine piece of music in the genre of pop psychedelia. Highly recommend if you like british popsike of the sixties.

Enjoy
          Frank                      New Flac part 1   &  New flac part 2       -  New mp3@320

The Crystal Mansion - The Crystal Mansion 1972 (2016 Big Pink Records) Flac & mp3

The Crystal Mansion's relatively short story is that of a white R&B band moving towards groovy psychedelic rock in the '70s. At times they sound like Rare Earth but lack some of their force. The origins of the band are found in a cover band called the Secrets that existed from 1962 to 1968. The original setting included drummer Rick Morley and guitarist Ronnie Gentile. Later singer Johnny Caswell and organist Sal Rota were recruited.

In 1968 they released The Thought of Loving You, their first single to get national airplay, and in the process decided to change the name to the Crystal Mansion. Capitol Records showed interest and let the band record The Crystal Mansion, an album that turned out a disappointment for all involved and did not sell much. A bass player had been lacking for a longtime but finally Billy Crawford was recruited, and in 1970 the single Carolina in My Mind was released, but only got to number 44 on the national charts. This song hinted a shift towards pop, maybe even sunshine pop similar to that of groups like the Mamas & the Papas, but that was never to be.

Percussionist Mario Sanchez joined the band in 1971, and in 1972 the album Crystal Mansion (the title confusingly similar to that of their debut album) was released on the Motown label Rare Earth. This time the group made much more use of their funky qualities but also showed strong influences from the psychedelic and progressive rock scene.(allmusic.com)

The album works at its best if the funk will used as an attendant element for the psychedelic sound of the band.

Enjoy
          Frank                              Flac part 1  &   Flac part 2       -   mp3@320

                               

US Psychedelic Pop Rock From The Sixties: Lowell George & The Factory - Lightning-Rod Man 1966/67 (1993 Edsel Records ) Flac & mp3@320

Before emerging as a cult star in the 1970s, Lowell George was a presence on the L.A. folk-rock/psychedelic scene in the 1960s. With his group the Factory, he only managed to release one single during this time. Lightning-Rod Man rescues 15 tunes cut by this unit, including the single and over a dozen outtakes and demos. Almost exclusively original material, most of these tracks were recorded in 1966 and 1967. They show the group pursuing a slightly eccentric folk-rock vision that neither bears much similarity to George's more famous work nor matches the best work done in this genre by their L.A. peers.

At times they echo Kaleidoscope in their vaguely spacy, good-natured folkish rock; just as often, they take cues from Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa in their skewed blues-rock and obtuse songwriting. In fact, Zappa himself produced and played on a couple of the demos, and one-time Mothers of Invention members Elliot Ingber and Roy Estrada show up on a few others. A few songs cut toward the end of the decade feature a heavier, bluesier sound that show George edging in a different direction. An enjoyable vault find, but not a major revelation. (allmusic, Richie Unterberger)

Very good songs of psychpop with catchy melodies. In some songs is also the influence of Syd Barrett listenable ( The Loved One). ''Crack In Your Door'' already betokened George wanted to go in a particular different direction with his music.

Have fun
               Frank                     Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2           mp3@320

Two On One: Peter & Gordon Woman/Lady Godiva 1966/1967 (1998 Collectables) Flac & mp3@320

Two of Peter & Gordon's early albums, Woman and Lady Godiva, were combined on this single-CD reissue by Collectables. Although the sound and the packaging could be a little better, this still is a fine way for collectors to pick up these two records on disc. Casual fans will want to stick with hits collections.(allmusic) 

I think i don't must tell you a lot of Peter & Gordon. Sixties Folk Pop Duo with often orchestrated songs. This are two albums from their middle period. I like this guys and the music they've done.
Folks here who don't know the music should give it a try. (You will find more Peter & Gordon on the blog)

Enjoy
          Frank       Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2  &  Flac part 3      -    mp3@320

2 on 1 - The Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought the Law + KRLA King of the Wheels 1965 (1995 Ace Records) Flac & mp3

Del-Fi combined the Bobby Fuller Four's first two albums, KRLA King of the Wheels and I Fought the Law, on a single disc. Producer Bob Keane and disc jockeys from KRLA in Los Angeles helped conceive the idea for KRLA King of the Wheels. The KRLA Top Eliminator was a customized dragster made for promotion, and the Bobby Fuller Four provided this 11-song album. The title track is a reworking of "King of the Beach," and an earlier record from the band's days in El Paso, TX. There are three other car songs, a killer version of Buddy Holly's "Love's Made a Fool of You," and two non-original songs that Bobby Fuller hated, "I'm a Lucky Guy" and "The Magic Touch." Meanwhile, the title track of I Fought the Law was an international smash for the group and certainly their most recognized and popular single.

Fuller's idol was Buddy Holly, and former Cricket Sonny Curtis wrote the song that first came out on the Crickets 1962 album In Style with the Crickets. "Let Her Dance" was also a hit and is included. Chip Taylor wrote "Julie," a Hollyesque pounder of infectious proportion. Ten of the 12 songs are Bobby Fuller Four original compositions. "Only When I Dream" could have been written for the Everly Brothers, while "A New Shade of Blue" and "Fool of Love" are more moderate ballads that contrast to the upbeat and infectiously danceable quality of the remaining songs.

More consistent than KRLA King of the Wheels, it is a masterpiece from the mid-'60s and the best album released in Fuller's lifetime.

Hello Folks i wanna start today with The Bobby Fuller Four and their first two albums. And like it is noted in the review i second that. ''I Fought The Law is really a pop masterpiece and by far the best Fuller released in his career. KRLA King Of The Wheels is a fine album, too but it don't have the songs that can standalone as well as the songs from ''I Fought...''. This two albums arte the finest you can get by Bobby Fuller in my opinion.

Have fun
               Frank                     Flac part 1 &  Flac part 2             mp3@320

A Classic Psychedelic Pop Album: The Asylum Choir - Look Inside 1968 (2007 Rev-Ola) Flac & mp3@320

A far out 420 friendly acid trip of a record that never gets old. Welcome To Hollywood, Henri The Clown, and Icicle Star Tree
are all first rate hooky tunes wrapped in psych production that was way ahead of its time. Leon Russell and Marc Benno join forces here and the result is a blissful creative record that never got the credit it deserves, even to this day. If you see one turn up in the dollar bin, grab it and run.(K.Liotti Allmusic user)

Super fun crazy record! Flamin' Groovies one second, New Riders Of The Purple Sage for a quick sec, then The Move! Genius magical mysterious pop trip!(L Hinkhouse, allmusic user)

I second that completely. And i see the readers here throw their hands up in horror if i say now that's the best work the both musicians have done in their careers...;-)...and naturaly that is just the half truth. My truth. Surely Leon Russell have done so much of music, on own albums, for other musicians in his life that no one can make such a statement. I know a lot of music by Leon Russel (not so much by Marc Benno) and i've heard very good songs by him but...never an entire album that impressed me so much like this. Anyway i love this album and i highly recommend it to the folks here who haven't heard it yet.

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

Ex Strawbs Pop Rock: Hudson - Ford - Nickelodeon 1973 (2015 Big Pink Records) remastered Flac & mp3@320

Though best known for their membership in The Strawbs, the rhythm section of John Ford (bass) and Richard Husdon (drums) worked together both before and after their '70 - '73 stint with the folk-prog band. Previously with Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, and then The Velvet Opera, the duo moved on from the songwriting disputes of The Strawbs to form Hudson Ford in 1975. The two are well matched: in The Strawbs, Hudson would play low in the mix, often leaving the kit for entire songs to sing or play sitar, while Ford danced into the gap by playing a strongly precussive style of bass guitar. Their sound for Hudson Ford, though, ranged from McCartney-esque soft rock to glam, with a occasional nod to their electric folk past. Their roles broadened as well, with Hudson leaving the drums to others in order to focus on singing and lead guitar, and Ford expanding his vocal and acoustic guitar duties. The debut album "Nickolodeon" was bolstered by by the presence of Rick Wakeman and other studio sharpshooters, and the band scored a hit in the U.K. with the single "Pick Up the Pieces." Each successive album saw a dampening of their impact, though, and the two called it a day in 1977. Soon afterwards, though, the formed two more bands together: The Monks, and High Society (allmusic)

A nice album with different directions.Some very Beatlesque, some remembers to old Strawbs and between all this also funky guitars sometimes.It's a good mix and the album makes fun. My favourites are the Beatles influenced songs.

Enjoy
         Frank                               Flac p1  &  Flac p2      -  mp3@320

         

A Godfather of Rock: Little Richard - His 3 Original Specialty Albums 1957-1959 (1989 Ace Records) NOT REMASTERED! Flac & mp3@320

One of the most important musicians for the modern rock and pop music i can't often enough say that this guy was the number one performer who influenced the performances of rock and pop musicians until today. All the wild rock shows you've ever seen in your life and musicians have done all over the world go back to this man from the south of the US. Just one example; Townshend's windmill guitar playin' was the copy of Richards feet hammering triplets on the piano. Jagger once sang  ''What can a poor boy do...'' and yes what could this poor boy, this poor black boy, this poor black boy from the south of the US, this poor black boy who's gay from the south of the US with the friendly guys of the KKK in the neighbourhood do? Singin' rock'n'roll songs. And his performances was the hottest sexual charged shows teenager ever had seen. Sure there was Elvis without him the rock'n'roll maybe would have stay a black phenomenon. But the chief and master was definitely Little Richard in performance. Elvis was the good lookin' boy and way more important he was white. To make a long story short, i believe that this two guys from the south of the US made it possible that rock'n'roll came all over the whole world. This two guys definitely changed the world and not only in musical respect (or aspect? i'm not sure of the right word). Rock'n'Roll had so much impact also in social things of the society. It's still a phenomenon and i don't know if rock'n'roll will fade out of this world but i know that i am so grateful that it was and is a part of my life.

Enjoy

          Frank

One of the original rock & roll greats, Little Richard merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon. While numerous other R&B greats of the early '50s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his bullet-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock & roll. Although he was only a hitmaker for a couple of years or so, his influence upon both the soul and British Invasion stars of the 1960s was vast, and his early hits remain core classics of the rock repertoire.

Heavily steeped in gospel music while growing up in Georgia, when Little Richard began recording in the early '50s he played unexceptional jump blues/R&B that owed a lot to his early inspirations Billy Wright and Roy Brown. In 1955, at Lloyd Price's suggestion, Richard sent a demo tape to Specialty Records, who were impressed enough to sign him and arrange a session for him in New Orleans. That session, however, didn't get off the ground until Richard began fooling around with a slightly obscene ditty during a break. With slightly cleaned-up lyrics, "Tutti Frutti" was the record that gave birth to Little Richard as he is now known -- the gleeful "woo!"s, the furious piano playing, the sax-driven, pedal-to-the-metal rhythm section. It was also his first hit, although, ridiculous as it now seems, Pat Boone's cover version outdid Richard's on the hit parade.
Boone would also try to cover Richard's next hit, "Long Tall Sally," but by that time it was evident that audiences black and white much preferred the real deal. In 1956 and 1957, Richard reeled off a string of classic hits -- "Long Tall Sally," "Slippin' and "Slidin'," "Jenny, Jenny," "Keep a Knockin'," "Good Golly, Miss Molly," "The Girl Can't Help It" -- that remain the foundation of his fame.

While Richard's inimitable mania was the key to his best records, he also owed a lot of his success to the gutsy playing of ace New Orleans session players like Lee Allen (tenor sax), Alvin Tyler (baritone sax), and especially Earl Palmer (drummer), who usually accompanied the singer in both New Orleans and Los Angeles studios. Richard's unforgettable appearances in early rock & roll movies, especially The Girl Can't Help It, also did a lot to spread the rock & roll gospel to the masses.
Richard was at the height of his commercial and artistic powers when he suddenly quit the business during an Australian tour in late 1957, enrolling in a Bible college in Alabama shortly after returning to the States. Richard had actually been feeling the call of religion for a while before his announcement, but it was nonetheless a shock to both his fans and the music industry. Specialty drew on unreleased sessions for a few more hard-rocking singles in the late '50s, but Richard virtually vanished from the public eye for a few years. When he did return to recording, it was as a gospel singer, cutting a few little-heard sacred sides for End, Mercury, and Atlantic in the early '60s.
By 1962, though, Richard had returned to rock & roll, touring Britain to an enthusiastic reception. Among the groups that supported him on those jaunts were the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, whose vocals (Paul McCartney's especially) took a lot of inspiration from Richard's.

In 1964, the Beatles cut a knockout version of "Long Tall Sally," with McCartney on lead, that may have even outdone the original. It's been speculated that the success of the Beatles, and other British Invaders who idolized Richard, finally prompted the singer into making a full-scale comeback as an unapologetic rock & roller. Hooking up with Specialty once again, he had a small hit in 1964 with "Bama Lama Bama Loo." These and other sides were respectable efforts in the mold of his classic '50s sides, but tastes had changed too much for Richard to climb the charts again. He spent the rest of the '60s in a continual unsuccessful comeback, recording for Vee-Jay (accompanied on some sides by Jimi Hendrix, who was briefly in Richard's band), OKeh, and Modern (for whom he even tried recording in Memphis with Stax session musicians).
It was the rock & roll revival of the late '60s and early '70s, though, that really saved Richard's career, enabling him to play on the nostalgia circuit with great success (though he had a small hit, "Freedom Blues," in 1970).

He had always been a flamboyant performer, brandishing a six-inch pompadour and mascara, and constant entertaining appearances on television talk shows seemed to ensure his continuing success as a living legend. Yet by the late '70s, he'd returned to the church again. Somewhat predictably, he eased back into rock and show business by the mid-'80s. Since then, he's maintained his profile with a role in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (the movie's soundtrack also returned him to the charts, this time with "Great Gosh a-Mighty") and guest appearances on soundtracks, compilations, and children's rock records. At this point it's safe to assume that he never will get that much-hungered-for comeback hit, but he remains one of rock & roll's most colorful icons, still capable of turning on the charm and charisma in his infrequent appearances in the limelight.(allmusic.com)

New Flac part 1 & New Flac part 2  &New Flac part 3   - mp3@320 part1  - mp3@320 part 2