Alan Copeland Conspiracy - Here There and Everywhere

Here's a rather superior vocal lounge album by one of the US's top vocal outfit of the 60s and 70s. Mr Copeland is apparently still active today. Its my own rip so enjoy.

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Norman Whitfield a tribute

Norman Whitfield (1943 – September 16, 2008)

Norman Whitfield, the man behind many of Motown’s biggest hits, has died after a long bout with diabetes.

Whitfield began writing for Motown when he was 19 years old. Some of the classic songs he wrote for Motown artists, were covered by some of the biggest acts in the world. The Beatles’ covered ‘Money (That’s What I Want), The Stones did a version of his ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, Creedence Clearwater Revival did a cover of his ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’.

Between 1966 and 1974, Whitfield produced nearly every song by The Temptations.

This is Wikipedia's list of Whitfield's highlights. I tried to find a compilation which featured most or all of these tracks but that proved impossible so I decided to do one myself.

I already had most of the Temptations stuff as they are one of my favourite groups but I had to do some serious searching to find the rest. The only one I failed to find was Rose Royce's obscure (to me) song Ooh Boy. The surprises were how funky Gladys Knight's cuts were, how good the Undisputed Truth are especially Smiling Faces and the raw beat of the Velvelettes who inspired more than one beat group. So here then is my (nearly complete) collection of the following highlights by one of the best producers who ever lived.

Highlights of the hits of Norman Whitfield are:

1963: "Pride & Joy" - Marvin Gaye
1964: "Too Many Fish in the Sea" - The Marvelettes
1964: "Needle in a Haystack" - The Velvelettes
1964: "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'" - The Velvelettes
1964: "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)" - The Temptations
1966: "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" - The Temptations
1966: "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" - The Temptations
1966: "(I Know) I'm Losing You" - The Temptations
1967: "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" - Gladys Knight & the Pips, also recorded by Marvin Gaye and Creedence Clearwater Revival
1967: "You're My Everything" - The Temptations
1967: "I Wish It Would Rain" - The Temptations
1968: "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You) - The Temptations
1968: "The End Of Our Road" - Gladys Knight & The Pips
1968: "Cloud Nine" - The Temptations
1969: "Friendship Train" - Gladys Knight & the Pips
1969: "Runaway Child, Running Wild" - The Temptations
1969: "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" - Marvin Gaye
1969: "I Can't Get Next to You" - The Temptations
1969: "Don't Let The Joneses Get You Down" - The Temptations
1970: "You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You)" - Gladys Knight & The Pips, also recorded by The Temptations
1970: "Psychedelic Shack" - The Temptations
1970: "Hum Along and Dance" - The Temptations (later covered by Rare Earth and The Jackson 5)
1970: "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" - The Temptations
1970: "War" - Edwin Starr
1971: "Smiling Faces Sometimes" - The Undisputed Truth, originally recorded by The Temptations
1971: "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" - The Temptations
1972: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" - The Temptations
1973: "Masterpiece" - The Temptations
1973: "Let Your Hair Down" - The Temptations
1976: "Car Wash" - Rose Royce
1976: "I'm Going Down" - Rose Royce
1976: "I Wanna Get Next to You" - Rose Royce
1977: "Ooh Boy" - Rose Royce
1977: "Wishing on a Star" - Rose Royce
1978: "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" - Rose Royce

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The Pepperpots - We Remember the Supremes

I've been on a bit of a Motown trip at the moment probably due to the recent passing of Norman Whitfield a genius writer/producer mainly remembered for his stellar late 60s Temptation's productions.

Anyway in my travels I came across this clip for the intriguingly named Pepper Pots and was surprised to find a reggae inspired Supremes tribute by a band from Barcelona featuring three very sexy girls.

And this is great too:

The Surfmen

No not a film about the Bondi lifesavers this is a couple of albums put out by 50s exotica group the Surfmen. This is a request by my faithful correspondent Paul. Nice version of Quiet Village.


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Its a riddle

Its a Riddle why Nelson wasn't included in the top ten. Actually he was there but then I realised that I'd left John Barry out. Anyway no matter here is his prime stuff. He was of course the man who kick started Sinatra's career in the 50s but he's much more than that.

Lots of TV theme music is here including maybe his best tune the theme from Route 66. Who can forget Lolita Ya Ya too? Anyway this might just be one of the best comps of the lot.

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Hank is No. 1

Who else could it be? This whole series started because some time ago I acquired a 3 cd set of Hank's stuff and I picked the eyes out of it for a personal playlist which became one of my most played items. Of course in the meantime I've managed to obtain nearly all of his albums and while some later ones smelled of product put out for contractural obligations the playing and arranging was always first class.

Here then is the King of lounge and a really nice guy to boot.

Hank

Stu (Hollyridge) Phillips is No. 2

I just like Stu Phillips. There was something about his string arrangements that made them seem to soar more than anyone else. The Hollyridge Strings were my first intro to Stu when my local radio station played them alongside the Beatles originals and dang they were good!

He did lots of other stuff too like the Knight Rider score, Battlestar Galactica and Valley of the Dolls just to mention a few. The Hollyridge Strings album Hits of the 70s is just about my fave easy record of all time.

Track 23 is the theme to Knight Rider.

Stu is here (I used 7zip a freeware zipper so just rename the ext to zip if you're having problems or use 7zip).

The Dangers of Crate Digging

Thank goodness I don't do it anymore. Mind you just obsessive collecting can do it for you. More great pics here.

John Barry is No 3

Well I can see the tunnel at the end of the light here's number 3 John Barry. What a tough job this was. Over 2 gigabytes of music and I had to whittle it down to just over 100mbs. I decided there were at least two great phases to Barry's music. The first covered by this compilation is his beat phase where he wrote soundtrack music for B movies and he had a guitar group as well sort of like a British Ventures. The second was his Bond phase where he wrote most of the Bond movies, well the first dozen or so anyway. Classic film music which will probably never be bettered. There was a more forgettable third phase where he wrote grand screen music for epics like Out of Africa.

Anyway scroll down for his second phase the Bond era.

Great and grand music, all of his Bond soundtracks are absolute classics and must haves. Both albums in Super Enhanced Sound-a-rama.

Beatnik Beat

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Roy Budd is No. 4

Roy Budd is number 4 in my list of favourite lounge stars. If he only wrote the theme to Get Carter he would still be in my top 10 but he wrote lots of other goodies also. He could write grand themes ala Goodwin but he was also funky when he needed to be.

Here then is my choice of his cream stuff no filler here. If you can find it, get Vigilante which is a really good compilation of his stuff and I've tried not to clash too much with that comp.

In the making of this compilation I lost track of a couple of themes but I've worked out track 11 is from Diamonds, 15 is The Stone Killer and 17 is Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger . Also 3 versions of Get Carter are here all a bit different and all brilliant. My fave is the first one, Carter takes a train which is cool with the sound of the train in the background.

Also now with Super Sound-a-Rama (tm) which should enhance your listening pleasure especially if you're over 40.

Here!

Enoch Light is No. 5

Lounge Appeal: 10 Hipness: Now Sound: 8 Stereo etc: 5

Enoch Light is so good he needed two compilations. One is his ping pong stereo demonstration stuff and the other is his now sound later stuff. Both styles are great and I wouldn't like to choose my fave but if pushed I'd pick his now sound.

He was one of the first lounge artists I got into. I can remember buying Spaced Out on CD some years ago and being slightly disappointed it was obviously from a record. I had a lot of trouble getting more of his stuff and had to rely on a podcast done by Basic Hip I think.

The floodgates eventually burst when I found about 10 mint copies of his records on Ebay for less than $10 all up. It took ages to arrive from the US but the thick cardboard gatefold sleeves were a thing to behold. Of course now he's probably my most represented lounge artist.

I'm trying a new idea of incorporating the song titles in the cover, just click to see the larger readable size. Let me know what you think.

Links: Stereo Ping Pong Now Sound

The Funkiest album in the world?

This may not be the funkiest album in the world but its pretty damn close. 33 tunes which refer to funk in their titles and they're not joking.

Download both files before you unzip. 1 2

Note: Mac users download a freeware app called Split & Concat: http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/Split&Concat/

This will concatenate parts 1 and 2 into a single ZIP file which can be expanded normally.

Irresponsible doesn't seem strong enough

Heart attack with that? ... This burger contains four beef patties, four slices of cheese, two rashers of bacon, barbecue sauce and two sugared buns - and obesity experts are outraged.

Australia's version of Burger King is running an ad for this obesity obscenity on TV. No salad just loads of fat and kilojoules. The only thing this picture does for me is to make me feel bilious.

Australia proud of its heritage as a sports and Olympics over achiever is now ahead of the US as the fattest nation on Earth. Luckily I'm not one of the obese majority.

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Stoned in the 60s

Stones instros? Not many I'm afraid. Here's all I've got hence a few versions of 2120 South Michigan Avenue but hey I love it. There's some more tunes though which suit the keef mood.

Don't you just love that photo, it really sums up the rock stars hedonistic lifestyle circa the 60s and 70s and probably now too. And he still survives! Just think if he didn't indulge himself so much he would live to 100 at least or maybe he would have died of an ulcer in his forties. I had to laugh when on a recent trip to New Zealand he fell out of a tree and his survival was touch and go for a while. I think I was more surprised that he was climbing the tree in the first place than that he survived it with apparently no ill effects.

Oh and see if you can guess which group's hit single used a few seconds of track 9 and paid a heavy price for doing so.

Sorry if there's any overlap with my other comps but I have trouble remembering what I did an hour ago much less what I've posted before.

Track list in the comments.

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