if there's a better compiler than Bob Stanley out there, I'd sure like to know...

Also otm about old music - I've hardly bought anything new this year and it's totally down to hearing something on comps.

srsy, "the trip" introduced some incredible songs to me.

Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs also compiled the two-disc Glen Campbell compilation The Capitol Years...anybody with a passing interest in Glen might consider this a one-stop shopping trip...also, Bob has compiled a number of girl-group collections, also for RPM...

Link: http://www.saintetienne.com/eclipse1

Is this the same Bob Stanley? He's a member of St. Etienne and wrote this article for the Guardian about an obscure movie doc about 60s London...

this looks good too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-So-Fine-Pye-Girls/dp/tracks/B0009HL0OO/ref=dp_tracks_all_1/202-3189635-6772613#disc_1

Think harder. Folk Is Not a Four Letter Word, Prog Is Not a Four Letter Word, Vertigo Mixed, Welsh Rare Beat, Songs in the Key of Death, Music to Watch Girls Cry: unbeatable run there.

ps hiya arthur!

I have to say, though, that the Finders Keepers releases I own do not get into the rotation as much as, say, The Trip or Velvet Tinmine...

Mind you, I'm glad they do. The St Et The Trip comp is exceptional (will somebody tell me more about Mandy More?) and the Selda album which Votel's recently reissued is a thing of wonder.

Can't tell you anything about her, but here's a few titbits online about her LP:

- from a Q&A with Bob Stanley @ saintetienne.com:

"Ember Glance asks who the hell is Mandy More. Well, her mindblowing If Not By Fire appeared on The Trip. It's from an album called But That Is Me on Philips in 1972 (which includes a great cover of God Only Knows, an almost impossible feat!). I know she did a few equally intriguing non album singles including Coffee Cups which is very proto Kate Bush. Most of the album is, too."

- review @ the vinylvulture.co.uk forum:

"Mandy More – But that is me, Philips 1972
A beautiful and moving album, one I know nothing about. On playing it through I discovered that ‘If Not by Fire’ was familiar – featured on St Etienne’s Trip compilation. This is one of the 2 tracks which features some great electronic / moogy effects (freaking out at the end) and is mighty fine. But the album is so not a 1-tracker, it is one of those perfectly formed complete albums. A little like Melanie’s earlier LPs, but IMHO so much better. Mandy More has a great voice and the arrangements are gloriously baroque – strings, harp, layers of voices, piano – and great songs too. Highlights, if I must pick them are: ‘But That is Me’ (almost a single – catchy uplifting song), ‘Listen Babe’ (gentle grooving number), ‘Come to me Jesus’ (lush complex orchestral, with a great twisting and swelling ending); ‘If I smiled on Saturdays’ (catchy uptempo number featuring congas and melodica). For me the best is the closing number – a fantastic cover of ‘God only Knows’ – the moog comes back (or it might be guitar through effects) and the drums are funky even has a harmonica solo from Mandy! Produced by a certain Tony Hall, if that means anything to anyone.... Find this album if you can, you need it!"

related to xposts: can anybody tell me more about Esther Williams (not the swimmer who turned up on the cover of the first Blur LP, but the soul singer whose "Last Night Changed It All" appears on The Trip)?

I liked that Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word comp Votel did, and the welsh one he did with Gruff Rhys, but thought the prog one was just dreadful. Though I'd probably have dug the song selection if I was out at a club and those were the records a dj was playing. It didn't work so well as an at home listening experience for me.

those 2cd Virgin compilations were so beautiful.... i'm the only fan of "monster, robot and bugmen" compiled by simon hopkins and "jazz satellites" by kevin martin )and "kosmic kuruschi monster (vol.1, sigh....))? wish kevin martin would/could compile more...

Was going to say a similar thing but wanted to articulate *how* and not sure i can right now.

I've been waiting for eons for Vol. 2. Jazz Satellites Vol. 1 was a life-changer. Some key person at Virgin must've got sacked, because it seems like all those amazing comps stopped issuing forth about 5 years ago.

Check out this lineup for the unreleased second volume: http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/articles/satellites.htm

talking of wire/tony harrington compiled comps, the wire 3cd box on Mute i think is really good, but have never seen reviewed or talked about. Check the tracklist:
http://www.discogs.com/release/125213

Anyway bored that downloading will actually be a pain for little (or big) records companies that will decide so that to issue comps, and the problems about it (licensing), it's no long useful and profitable (even if of unavailable music).

The Garbarek-Coltrane-23 Skidoo-Melle stretch on Jazz Satellites is one of my favorite sequences.

Bought the Paul Williams Songbook comp w/o knowing that it is compiled and annotated by Stanley, so there's another one for completists.

Yeah, they come at you thick and fast. I picked up a Dusty Springfield comp some time ago, and sure enough, Bob Stanley.

The link I posted in 2018 is still updated.

Thanks! That is a well-annotated web page. Do you happen to know what the red asterisks indicate?

I do not. At first I thought it might indicate "out of print" but that's not the case.

Bob’s Patreon is excellent, a constant stream of quality content.

Always a bit surprised when ppl I'd considered Proper Famous (within the music world, not saying joe average would know him) have patreons but I guess that's where we're at now. Will def suscribe!

https://acerecords.co.uk/american-baroque-chamber-pop-and-beyond-1967-1971-1

"American Baroque - Chamber Pop And Beyond 1967 - 1971" - will be released: 31.01.2025.

The heyday of American baroque pop – or chamber pop - ran from 1966 to the turn of the seventies. It used string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to create a summer-into-autumn melancholy that was quite new, and quite far removed from rock’n’roll as Eddie Cochran would have known it. Baroque pop’s musicians often came from a folk background, with an affinity for acoustic instrumentation. Linda Ronstadt's first band the Stone Poneys had introduced the autoharp to their line-ups in 1965, while the likes of Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with a string quartet’s, searching for different, post-electric Dylan directions.

You can trace it back to the Left Banke who created a sound that was soft but insistently sad - where were the guitars? Their guitarist Rick Brand claimed their lyrics "were written as rather self-consciously beautiful musical whimsy, as you find in the latter 18th-century Romantic music, pre-Beethoven". They had a huge hit with ‘Walk Away Renee’ and effectively invented a genre before combusting after just one album. Splinter group Montage produced a very rare album and singer Steve Martin Caro an equally rare single - both are represented on “American Baroque”.

Though the baroque sound was quickly forced into a corner by the back-to-basics stance of power trios like Cream and Blue Cheer, many musicians weren’t yet ready to ditch cellos and harpsichords. Some groups like the Blades of Grass aimed their minor key melodies at an early or even pre-teen following. And others like Emmit Rhodes' Merry Go Round, H.P. Lovecraft and Appaloosa simply loved the feel of string quartets and woodwinds and continued to explore orchestral pop further, into the early seventies.

In doing so, they created this tapestry of delights. There was no single blueprint for the American baroque sound – it could be bordering on the gothic (Russ Giguere of the Association’s extraordinary ‘My Plan’) or as small and precise as a music box (Tom Northcott’s ‘Other Times’).

1. YOU'RE A VERY LOVELY WOMAN -
The Merry-Go-Round
2. I SHALL CALL HER MARY - The Montage
3. RAGGEDY ANN - John Randolph Marr
4. TULU ROGERS - Appaloosa
5. TURNAWAY - The Pleasure Fair
6. DIFFERENT DRUM –
The Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt
7. EMILY'S ILLNESS - Nora Guthrie
8. BAREFOOT GENTLEMAN - The Association
9. LAND OF SENSATIONS & DELIGHTS - J.K. & CO
10. BLUE JACK OF DIAMONDS - H.P. Lovecraft
11. TIME - Bonnie Dobson
12. SATIN SLIPPER - The Blades Of Grass
13. MY SILENT SYMPHONY - Chris & Peter Allen
14. MR WEBSTER - The Monkees
15. AGAIN AGAIN - Eternity's Children
16. MY PLAN - Russ Giguere
17. THE FAIREST OF THE SEASONS - Nico
18. OTHER TIMES - Tom Northcott
19. YOU LIED - The Neon Philharmonic
20. CLOSE TO CARMEL - The Fun & Games
21. HOME BEFORE DARK - Nora Guthrie
22. I HAVE BEEN ALONE - The Common People
23. TWO BY TWO (I'M LOSING YOU) - Steve Martin
24. LORELEI – Rosebud

Saw a listing for that the other day! Complement to the Tea & Symphony comps I'd guess. Got the Paul Williams, library electronica and New Jill Swing sets last week.

All look good

"Bob Stanley Presents Liverpool Sunset - The City After Merseybeat 1964-1969" will be released: 28.02.2025

‘Waterloo Sunset’ is now regarded as the greatest song about London. It comes as a shock, then, to discover it was originally about another city altogether. Watching acts who had been huge stars just three years earlier but now couldn’t buy a hit – The Searchers, Billy J Kramer, Gerry and the Pacemakers – the Kinks’ Ray Davies wrote ‘Liverpool Sunset’ in sympathy.

Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley, with comprehensive sleevenotes, “Liverpool Sunset” investigates a thrilling but overlooked era in the city’s musical history, covering soul, R&B, psychedelia and freakbeat.

As this collection makes clear, the city was still producing new acts in the late 60s, and still making great records, it was just that the world had started looking elsewhere for its musical fix.

By 1965 the Iron Door club, once the Searchers’ Merseybeat home, was beginning to host soul all-nighters where local band the Chants were often on the bill. The Cavern was by now hosting the likes of Solomon Burke, Stevie Wonder and Ben E King.

All of this music was an inspiration to the next wave of Liverpool acts like Just Four Men, Tiffany’s Thoughts and the Clayton Squares. The latter were so highly regarded that breaking out nationally seemed a formality: they had two singles released on Decca, a six-week stint in Hamburg, a Ready Steady Go performance, and management by both the Cavern’s owner Bob Wooler and London tough-nut Don Arden.

“Liverpool Sunset” also includes overlooked tracks by some of the original Merseybeat stars, Billy J Kramer’s soulful ‘We’re Doing Fine’ deserves to be better known, and Cilla Black’s wildly odd ‘Abyssinian Secret’ in 1968 was considered too outré by Parlophone and ended up buried on an EP. Adventurousness wasn’t an issue. Joe Meek produced both the Cryin’ Shames and Billy Fury’s brother Jason Eddie, while McGough and McGear had Jimi Hendrix helping out on the terrific psych-pop So ‘Much In Love’.

Here are two dozen lost gems; 60s Liverpool classics once hidden now uncovered…

1. IT'S A CRIME - The Kirkbys
2. FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING –
Tiffany with the Thoughts
3. NOBODY LIKE MY BABE - The Dennisons
4. JUST TO BE WITH YOU –
Johnny Gustafson
(aka Johnny Gus & Johnny Gus Set)
5. IT'S ALMOST GOOD - Eddie Cave & the FYX
6. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHISPER - The Dimensions
7. WHATCHA GONNA DO –
Jason Eddie & the Centremen
8. DON'T LET A LITTLE PRIDE (STAND IN YOUR WAY) –
Billy Fury
9. IMAGINATION - The Clayton Squares
10. COME ON BACK -
Paul & Ritchie & the Crying Shames
11. NEVER LEAVE YOUR BABY'S SIDE - Tony Jackson
12. THE CAT - The Merseys
13. ATMOSPHERES – The Wimple Winch
14. SO MUCH TO LOVE - McGough & McGear
15. MICHAELANGELO - 23rd Turnoff
16. SUMMER COMES SUNDAY - Swinging Blue Jeans
17. A MAN WITHOUT A FACE - The Chants
18. ABYSSINIAN SECRET - Cilla Black
19. WE'RE DOING FINE - Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas
20. COME ON - The Carrolls
21. CONSTANTLY CHANGING - The Koobas
22. GIRL ON THE CORNER - Focal Point
23. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME - Crackers
24. INTO MY LIFE SHE CAME - The Penny Peeps

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/liverpool-sunset

Looks solid!

"Gather In The Mushrooms: The British Folk Underground 1969-1975" will be released on CD & 2LP gatefold: 25.04.2025 🙏

Compiled by Bob Stanley to document the acid folk scene, “Gather In The Mushrooms” was first issued in 2004 on Sanctuary as a CD-only release; it proved popular enough for a sequel entitled “Early Morning Hush” two years later.

This new edition of “Gather In The Mushrooms” contains the cream of both long-deleted compilations with a few additions – COB, Roy Harper, Fotheringay – that weren’t available to Sanctuary at the time. Though they aren’t traditional, these songs have an authenticity of their own, an autumnal atmosphere and a naivety which proved influential in the 00s neo-folk boom (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Alasdair Roberts, Tunng et al) but impossible to replicate. For many of these acts at the end of the 60s, folk music and the hippy world that surrounded them was a way of life, a way of opting out from the Vietnam war, Angry Brigade and three-day-week early 70s. Anne Briggs lived in a caravan in Suffolk, Shelagh McDonald lived in a tent, Vashti Bunyan eschewed electricity; they weren’t part-timers. Listening to “Gather In The Mushrooms”, we are transported to a time when no one used the term post-modernist.

It may not have resonated with dyed-in-the wool political folkies, but over five decades later this music sounds very evocative of an England of yore – not necessarily one of poachers and pedlars, but one of long-haired youths in tie-dye T-shirts, bikers and hippies, acoustic guitars played in white stone cottages. Groups like Stone Angel (Bonus Track), Midwinter and Oberon made primitive, privately recorded folk albums; today they sound as distant and mystical as the field recordings of Alan Lomax. The sincerity and folk knowledge of a group like Forest becomes irrelevant once you hear something as eerie and evocative as ‘Graveyard’. Home-made, homely, warm as soup or chilling as a hoar frost, this is music of innocence and rare beauty.

1. CORN RIGS – MAGNET and PAUL GIOVANNI LP Silva Screen FILMCD 330 (2002) 2.36
2. MORNING WAY - TRADER HORNE LP Dawn DNLS 3004 (1970) 4.24
3. NOTTANUM TOWN - OBERON LP OBE LPS 1 (1971) 4.41
4. GRAVEYARD - FOREST LP Harvest SHVL 784 (1970) 5.42
5. THE SKATER - MIDWINTER CD Kissing Spell KSCD 9320 (1993)3.20
6. WINTER WINDS - FOTHERINGAY LP Island ILPS 9125 (1970) 2.11
7. LORD AND MASTER - HERON LP Dawn DNLS 3010 (1970) 4.50
8. FLY HIGH - BRIDGET ST JOHN Dandelion 2001-280 (1972) 3.17
9. SHEEP SEASON - MELLOW CANDLE LP Deram SDL 7 (1972) 4.58
10. THE SEAGULLS SCREAM - CHRISTINE QUAYLE LP Sentinel SENS 1001 (1970) 4.01
11. FOREST AND THE SHORE - KEITH CHRISTMAS B&C CAS 1041 (1971) 7.04
12. ROSEMARY HILL - FRESH MAGGOTS LP RCA SF 8205 (1971) 3.33
13. FINE HORSEMAN - ANNE BRIGGS LP RCA S64612 (1971) 3.02
14. THE WEREWOLF - BARRY DRANSFIELD LP Polydor Folk Mill 2383 160 (1972) 3.46
15. ANOTHER DAY - ROY HARPER LP Harvest SHVL 766 (1969) 2.58
16. WINDOW OVER THE BAY - VASHTI BUNYAN LP Philips 6308 019 (1970) 1.47
17. ELEVEN WILLOWS - COB (CLIVE’S ORIGINAL BAND) LP Polydor Folk Mill 2383 161 (1972) 2.24
18. THE HERALD - COMUS LP Dawn DNLS 3019 (1971) 12.10

https://acerecords.co.uk/gather-in-the-mushrooms-1

That's pretty cool -- I have both the original comps on CD but I might get this for the new additions.

So this is almost the case where this specific ILX thread inspired a whole piece of mine! And here it is!

https://theshfl.com/guide/Bob-Stanley-Compiler

For Shfl, guides like these max out at 20, so I could have included more but I wanted a good sense of range over the moons.

I especially like his compilations that attempt to soundtrack a particular place (Cafe Exil, Mario's Cafe, Fountain Coffee Room, Tim Peaks, etc.) My irl local hangouts are shite compared to these!

Haha yeah, you keep wanting to imagine being there and enjoying the food and drink just so

He puts together some great playlists on his Patreon, as well.

Incident at a Free Festival sorely overlooked, "Out Demons Out" by the Edgar Broughton Band was a revelation of sorts

The one I'd have added more than anything else is 76 In The Shade, which I come back to every summer.

Can't Stop Won't Stop Chip Shop Pop

At the turn of the 70s, songwriters like Tony Macaulay (‘Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes’), Cook and Greenaway (‘Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart’), Lynsey De Paul and Barry Blue (‘Storm In A Teacup’) and John Carter (‘Beach Baby’) were bossing the singles charts and Radio 1 while more serious acts like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd concentrated on album sales.

“Chip Shop Pop” is a stellar collection of super-melodic, expertly crafted songs; it gathers two dozen of the songs that got away, all potential hits written by these Denmark Street-schooled songwriters. You might have only heard these records once or twice before, coming out of a passing kid's transistor radio, or in the background in a cafe, or a chippie, and then they disappeared into the ether never to be heard again - until now.

Aside from the Fortunes, Marty Wilde and Candlewick Green, very few of these names will be at all familiar but the harmonies, the string and brass arrangements and top session musician playing will all be familiar to anyone who loves the sound of ‘My Baby Loves Lovin'’, ‘Silver Lady’ or ‘(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice’. They are all incredibly catchy.

Compiled by Bob Stanley from his sizeable collection of 70s 7" singles, ”Chip Shop Pop” revives records on Bell, UK, Young Blood and Bradley's, labels that were home to these unabashed radio-friendly sounds that would disappear when first disco, then punk, came along later in the 70s.

Dormant for decades, many unavailable for more than fifty years, here is a perfect collection of sunshine-friendly pop with a capital P.

01 Hello Hello Hello - Stormy Petrel
02 Melanie Makes Me Smile - Tony Burrows
03 Tip Of My Tongue - Brotherly Love
04 Lost And Found - Whiskey Mac
05 On a Plane to Nowhere - Barracade
06 Leave A Little Love - Candlewick Green
07 Lady Pearl - Currant Kraze
08 On The Run - Scorched Earth
09 I Want To Be Where You Are - Scarecrow
10 Telltale - Patches
11 Rusty Hands Of Time - Peter Doyle
12. A Little Thing Like Love - River
13 Dreams Are Ten a Penny - John Kincade
14 In the Morning - Bitter Almond
15 Every Little Move She Makes - White Plains
16 Schoolgirl Notion - Janie & The Marlettes
17 Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again - Fortunes
18 Yellow Bird (Have You No Home) - Design
19 Clovelly - Roger Holman & Simon May
20 I Need Your Everlasting Love - Liberty Helm
21 Bye Goodbye - Silver Lining
22 It's Getting Sweeter All The Time - Shorty
23 Caterpillar - Cold Fly
24 This Is My Life - Wei Wei Wong

https://acerecords.co.uk/chip-shop-pop

Man not EVERYTHING there is obscure as such, I know I've heard "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again" a few times -- think it was on a Have a Nice Day volume.

(Nothing against Bob, obv! But sometimes the ad copy needs to mellow. :-D )

Looks good. I know the Kincade track, and I recognise the names of a few others that I inherited and sold on.

This looks very up my street. Reminds me of the britgum canon, such as it is, although Bob's compilation extends further in scope and time. Give how toytown pop has been anthologised at least twice it's nice to see its evolution into high quality, similarly somewhat faceless/session musician-heavy but less whimsical 70s pop get more of an outlet.

I've checked, and 12 of these 24 have passed through my hands, selling for a total of £43.80. So if I get the CD, I'm quids in!

I really didn't expect to get blown away by a compilation of 60's beat pop in 2025 - figured I'd long exhausted that genre's best stuff - but Liverpool Sunset, the CD only comp Stanley brought out earlier this year, is really strong stuff. Doubly surprised to find my favourite track on it is by Billy Fury:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMA7x8I-YJ0

I really didn't expect to get blown away by a compilation of 60's beat pop in 2025 - figured I'd long exhausted that genre's best stuff - but Liverpool Sunset, the CD only comp Stanley brought out earlier this year, is really strong stuff. Doubly surprised to find my favourite track on it is by Billy Fury:

📹

Why can I hear the 5th Dimension singing this in my mind?

I thought it would be about "Halfway to Paradise."

"Safe In My Garden - American Pop In the Shadows 1967-1972" will be released 31.10.2025 🙏

Peace and love in late 60s America did not come without parallel feelings of fear and confusion about the social situation – specifically about Vietnam. “Safe In My Garden” is the latest Ace compilation in an acclaimed series compiled by Bob Stanley – it’s a companion piece to the much-praised “State Of The Union (The American Dream In Crisis 1967 – 1973” Ace CDCHD 1533/XXQLP2 057 2018).

The music on “Safe In My Garden” is harmony-laden, beautifully produced soft rock. Sunshine pop, even - a melodic, innovative style of American music that grew in the mid-60s out of the folk and surf scenes, exemplified the Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas. You will hear orchestral arrangements, and soft boy-girl vocals. But it wasn’t made in isolation from what was going on in the outside world. There are clouds and minor chords, plenty of melancholy in those harmonies.

“Safe In My Garden” includes songs of escape (Mark Eric’s ‘Move With The Dawn’, the Groop’s ‘A Famous Myth’), loss (the Eighth Day’s ‘How Can I Stop Loving You’, the New Colony Six’s ‘Prairie Grey’), dreamscapes (Tommy James and the Shondells’ ‘She’, Nancy Priddy’s ‘You’ve Come This Way Before’), rebirth (Smokey and his Sister’s ‘Creators Of Rain’), a simpler world (the Free Design’s ‘My Brother Woody’) and a philosophically sounder future (Chad & Jeremy’s ‘The Ark’, Best of Friends’ ‘Summer Sound’).

It contains some surprisingly dark messages paired with beautiful melodies, as well as songs of hope. Thousands of young musicians in cities, suburbs and small towns across the States from the mid to late 60s spent their mornings hiding from the mailman, dreading the draft. This is the Sound of Young America in the late 60s, keeping its fingers crossed.

1. ALWAYS YOU - THE SUNDOWNERS LP Decca DL 75036 (1969) 2.58
2. MOVE WITH THE DAWN - MARK ERIC LP Revue RS 7210 (1969) 2.43
3. SHE - TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS Roulette R-7066 (1969) 2.10
4. A FAMOUS MYTH - THE GROOP Bell 800 (1969) 2.24
5. DREAMIN' IN THE SHADE (DOWN IN L.A.) - BREWER & SHIPLEY LP A&M SP 4154 (1968) 2.11
6. I DON'T THINK I KNOW HER - TEE & CARA LP United Artists UAS 6683 (1968) 2.46
7. KNOCK ON WOOD - HARPERS BIZARRE LP Warner Bros., Seven Arts WS 1784 (1969) 2.09
8. THE VISIT (SHE WAS HERE) - THE CYRKLE Columbia 4-43965 (1967) 2.18
9. I SEE IT NOW - FARGO LP RCA LSP-4178 (1969) 2.25
10. SUMMER SOUND - BEST OF FRIENDS LP Quartin LP-RSQ-4 (1971) 2.50
11. A MOMENT OF BEING WITH YOU - THE CRITTERS LP Project 3 Total Sound PR 4001 SD (1968) 2.44
12. BLIGHT - THE MILLENNIUM 3-CD Sundazed Music SC 11102 (2001) 2.52*
13. JILL - GARY LEWIS AND THE PLAYBOYS Liberty 55985 (1967) 2.18
14. I CAN SEE ONLY YOU - ROGER NICHOLS AND THE SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS LP A&M SP 4139 (1968) 2.52
15. LITTLE DREAMS - THE NEW WAVE LP Canterbury CLPS 1501 (1967) 2.24
16. MY BROTHER WOODY - THE FREE DESIGN LP Project 3 Total Sound PR 5019 SD (1967) 2.32
17. CHRISTINA'S WORLD - NANCY PRIDDY LP Dot DLP 25893 (1968) 2.42
18. THE ARK - CHAD & JEREMY LP Columbia CS 9699 (1968) 4.52
19. CREATORS OF RAIN - SMOKEY AND HIS SISTER Columbia 4-43995 (1967) 2.42
20. HOW CAN I STOP LOVING YOU - THE EIGHTH DAY LP Kapp KS 3554 (1968) 2.46
21. LOVE IS A RAINY SUNDAY - LOVE GENERATION LP Imperial LP-12408 (1968) 2.40
22. SPRINGTIME MEADOWS - THE SUNSHINE COMPANY LP Imperial LP-12399 (1968) 4.27
23. THE WORD IS LOVE - THOMAS AND RICHARD FROST Imperial 66405 (1969) 2.42
24. PRAIRIE GREY - NEW COLONY SIX LP Mercury SR 61228 (1969) 2.43

Final Boss Material -- Freddie & The Dreamers box over at Cherry Red: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/freddie-and-the-dreamers-you-were-made-for-me-the-complete-recordings-1963-1970-5cd

• The complete recordings by Manchester beat group Freddie And The Dreamers for EMI in the 1960s compiled and annotated by respected author and pop historian Bob Stanley of St. Etienne.

• Includes the UK Top 10 hits ‘If You Want To Make A Fool Of Somebody’ (#3), ‘I’m Tellin’ You Now’ (#2), ‘You Were Made For Me’ (#3) and ‘I Understand’ (#5) and all their albums including their UK Top 5 self-titled debut.

• The band were also loved in the USA where they were part of the “British Invasion”, ‘I’m Tellin’ You Now’ topped The Billboard Hot 100 and they reached the Top 20 with ‘Do The Freddie’.

• Two albums, Sing-Along Party (1965) and what Bob Stanley refers to as a “psychedelic pop primer for kids” Oliver In The Overworld (1970) are issued on CD for the first time plus another makes its debut on CD in the UK, King Freddie And His Dreaming Knights (1967).

Bob Stanley writes in the the box's booklet notes that:

"Freddie & The Dreamers were the jokers in the pack of the British beat boom, or what America knew as the British Invasion. They were a great visual act and, especially, a conduit for children who may have loved The Beatles too but wanted someone of their own. TV shows like Crackerjack and Blue Peter were happy to invite them on, and gave them a ready-made audience. The Monkees may have been tagged the Pre-Fab Four, but there’s little doubt some of their zaniness sprung from the on-stage antics of Freddie Garrity and the group’s candy beat, proto-bubblegum music."

Drink This It’ll Make You Sleep.

Scariest song title ever!

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJJ1HyBVXWvPfp46zDFPz6d8Lng7RGwPOGK8zQDLuI8y9Uz4PzIZUZrbKO&s=10

Kelsey Grammer Freddie Garrity looks like a motherfucker with some dark secrets

Their 1978 album has one of the most baffling, not to say unfortunate, sleeves of the age

Stanley on patreon the other day was praising a Freddie & The Dreamers track and then went "or maybe I just have stockholm syndrome", explaining he was working on this box. It kinda reminds me of when one of the movie critics I follow falls into some rabbit hole of cinephilia and ends up reviewing twenty films made by some mediocre journeyman trying to tease out if there's something special there. Truly fascinating to see someone attempt that with Freddie & The Dreamers but the complete recordings...I don't think I can handle that.

I would recommend the CBS version of the "Oliver in the Overworld" soundtrack - it's not in this box but the original version is.

Their 1978 album has one of the most baffling, not to say unfortunate, sleeves of the age

Oh wow

https://i.discogs.com/JZYGxy5-E0hPrQev52r5P94xPDaV8n9mR1D_m1d8p6g/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:576/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4Nzky/MjUtMTQ4NTYwNDY5/MC05NDcwLmpwZWc.jpeg

I mean, I love Bob to the moon and back, but Freddie & The Dreamers? Really?

I'm reminded of a moment years ago when a friend of mine told me that a friend of his had told him he looked like the guitarist of Freddie & the Dreamers. "I don't see it at all," said my friend.

In fact, he was the spitting image of Freddie Garrity himself, and I found it funny that he was unable to see that the message got garbled and obviously his friend meant that he looked like Freddie.

what exactly does "compiled by" mean in the context of "the complete recordings" ?

i pretty much have time for any british invasion band's (1) 1967-ish psychedelic cash-in record and/or (2) 1970-ish rootsy sepia-sleeved record. the '67 and '70 freddie records are hard to come by. whether they offer anything interesting, i have no idea, but all the research i've done (admittedly not much) has indicated no

XP I think it's just a catch-all for producing/cheerleading/instigating/realizing the project.

Even for "complete recordings" there are decisions to be made regarding the presentation and ordering of the material, annotations, etc.

When I read Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Pop Music, I made a Spotify playlist of every song mentioned, if anyone wants to give it a go. It took me two years to listen to it as my go-to “I don’t know what to listen to” walk the dog playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3seDeDLhycytZX5WxUNvkl?si=k0mtofByTIqka1fxtTvWBw&pi=Y9gDsx0HTaWhB

Nice, thanks! Once upon a time I started a Spotify playlist called Stanley Sez, and was meant to include all of the more obscure/unexpected songs that he's championed over the years, in liner notes, reviews, blog entries, etc. A daunting list, as you can imagine! I bailed not too long after I started, but one day...

Scrolling to the bottom of the 3145 song playlist to see what Spotify suggests was left out. Waterloo Sunset, lol.

lool!

I mentioned, some years ago, the song "Drink this up, it'll help you sleep" from the first F&TD album, to Bob. I couldn't bring myself to listen to it, seeing as how that's the creepiest song title I've ever seen.