She's super bad now...

At one level as far as UK music fans are concerned the Jackson Five dissapeared in late 1972 with the Lookin' Through The Windows albums and reappeared in mid 1976 in reformed The Jackson form with Show You The Way To Go.

On the other this has lead to an underappreciation of just how good they were in their last Motown days as put simply few gave them a chance as as they ditched "The Corporation" the group of Motown songwriters and arrangers, they were up with the best Funkster of the day.

Thus when this was issued in 1977 sales were low and the UK edition dropped the odd track to make what had been concieved as a three lp set to a double which basically means you need the American edition.

Unfortunately my copy got damaged in the post looking like a heavy pointed intem pressed into and broke a portion of the first disc so we'll waiting on a replacement copy but as I only have cd's of the studio albums this would of been a great vinyl option removing some of the filler of the first four albums leaving us with the hits and greatest musical achievements.

Two discs and some memories

Sometimes an object ceases to be about just it but everything that was around it, times, events and people and for me two records, technically superceeded, come in to that category.

Music when I was very young eminated from a three foot piece of wood called a Radiogram which was literally a radio and record player all in bigish console, occupying the second most important space in our first house to the 19 inch black and white television which could get a grainy BBC 2 given the state of UHF transmission back then.

In the UK unlike the US the Beach Boys were not has bins, no longer hip in world of San Francisco hipper bands like Country Joe and the Fish, the Doors and naturally the Jefferson Airplane but respected by their UK pop peers, able to sustain large concert audiences.

Because of how things went, not least when Pet Sounds, lauded over here just didn't make much of impression over there, Capitol Records decided the best thing was to resell old hits issueing The Beach of the Beach Boys.

The UK issued it but with substancially different track list, that told more of the development of their sound and at that point a number of earlier albums hadn't been released.

This was the record my Aunt had and was borrowed by my parents the odd time which taped which is where I first heard it in its tiny white box holding a three inch reel.

I grew up learning to thread tape so liking music of various sorts I could play the tape all by myself as I read comics and played.

It had hits and the off "deep" album track. It reach the #2 for a massive 142 weeks on the UK album charts in November 1966.

As things had hardly improved in the States, a second volume was prepared and the UK issued another varient which like the previous album had some 14 tracks.

It was issued in "stereo" too but back then stereo also included fake stereo and our version had two mono tracks for good measure.

This one also made its way to our radio gram and was taped.

This offered a few early singles and some more recent singles such as Wouldn't It Be Nice, the number one smash Good Vibrations and Then I Kissed Her from 1967

These albums remained on catalogue unto the late 1970's gaining different label designs from the 1969 black One Box with the capitol logo in a box with the EMI logo at the bottom, a  1970 Lime Green target design and Salmon Pink mid 70's.

Over the years and two house moves those tapes came with us and as I was able to get money I replaced them with original records because being sat playing them took me back to my earliest days.

1983 and all that

Some years remain strong memories with you, others while you are aware of them tend to be much less so and for some of us they are a mish-mash fairly young things and rather more grown up things that you had to deal with the best you could.

In 1983 beyond the more formal presentations to adults you couldn't avoid, feeling tired from masking and generally repressing the authentic you talking around and deal with conversations you had scant interest with such as careers, being expected to have adult "small talk", I cultivated a much younger me building on from the previous years and the issues back then that had brought it all to a head.

See, by 1978 just entering my teenage years I realized I felt nothing like my peers and that brought no satisfaction and it wasn't just a  delay of a year or so, it just wasn't there.

So by 1983 we had the strange situation of wanting to run through parks kicking a ball about, playing with toys, cuddling a teddy with taking your A levels and seeing a Careers Master and suffice to say the way that got handled was messed up as the careers service "lost me" being very late in the day to offer ANY guidance.

it was that which really pushed down a way of thinking of just doing stuff on my own as clearly I couldn't rely on a grown up to so I made all my own arrangements to claim social security to get my N.I. contributions started and get a job which took a while in the Transport Industry.

Socially little changed, I read a mixture of comics and magazines, I watched mainly children's tv shows and even dabbled in a bit of flower decorating as I found great for resetting after a struggle dealing with grown ups.

Breakfast tv started January 17th  which I caught and discussed with schoolfriends as prior to that I just put the radio one for a bit while Top of the Pops and Tomorrow's World remained a must see shows.

The Compact Disc launched in Europe to a big fanfare although it was to be three more years before I bought a player but we did have our very first Now That's What I Call Music compilation lp.

Catalogues and brochures from newly arriving supermarkets came that inspired my outside of work look too.

There was much music I liked back then, Kajagoogoo, Rush, Duran Duran, the Flashdance soundtrack but one towered over all and actually that's a recent specialist edition in even high quality sound than my 1983 original.

I had always liked the Commodores and their lead singer Lionel Richie's voice and this, his second solo album had a great mixture of uptempo funk, slow soul ballads and the most amazing arrangements that still stand up even today.

Songs like All Night Long, Hello, Running With The Night and Penny Lover were events when released as singles with memorible, moving even videos that connected with many people because they were about universal feelings and emotions.

Some like Stuck On You were covered to great effect too.

It's great to own a fantastic sounding version of now to go with my memories of that era.

Rolling Stones "On Air"

After last weeks birthday excitement we return this week to something connected with that but got put off for several years.

The Rolling Stones were a group I followed although in so far as building a collection of albums went that didn't really take off until my mid to late teens, starting with a couple of compilations and then delving into individual albums.

Their recorded catalogue is split into two halves that recorded and released up to 1969/70 issued on Decca in the UK and owned by Abkco and that after that to date which the group own but license out over fixed period to other companies to press and distribute, currently Polydor Records.

Over the years we've had a number of live albums issued, some live shows from the past but like a good number of British groups they did appear on radio as BBC radio while being notoriously short on "needle time" seldom playing pop records in the early to mid 1960's did favour shows where artists could perform live a few songs at a time such as "Saturday Club".

Some other artists of this era have had their radio recordings issued on cd and record not least the Beatles with two volumes from the 1990's but with the Rolling Stones it wasn't until 2017 that two variants for them came out.

Called On Air, it mixes a whole series of recordings from 1963 through to 1965 where increased demand for world-wide concerts and recording sessions from top BBC Light Programme shows

It's not just valuable for in session versions of studio recorded and issues songs but for a good number that were never recorded at all even if they may of been in their live shows so we get new songs 

Of great interest is a series of songs recorded for an experimental stereo transmission using BBC Radio and TV transmitters for the left and right channel before the introduction of stereo radio on VHF/FM in the late 1960's.

Viewers and listeners were give instruction on how to set their sets up to gain the most from it so while their first two UK lps were in mono only this gives us some early stones in true stereo sounding surprisingly well.

The Beatles covered Chuck Berry's Roll Over, Beethoven on Beatles Second Album (Capitol) and for the UK With The Beatles albums but while the stones did a good number of covers that was one they never recorded in the studio so we get to hear their take on it.

For a variety of reasons I didn't get around to getting this in its two cd deluxe version with a disc of extra tracks so I'm delighted to finally get this set this year.

Meet The Beatles - last copy!

End of week, one more week left in the month and we are back with what might be the last part in the Beatles story where it began for the United States with what was the first issued album and unlike in the UK Stereo and mono copies were available immediately as the United States had a higher take up of stereo systems than the UK.

Pop records in the U.K. were generally the province of teenagers with shoe box mono portable record players.

It was common place to cut pop records with more an eye to avoiding any issues with cheap equipment with returns to shops and that tended to show with less "top" and limited bass and this was very much the case in the United States so cheap players wouldn't skip the groove.

As time went on, the records would be recut to higher standards but what was on your record was  often a matter of what "Stampers" somebody in the pressing plant "pulled" when more discs needed pressing.

By the late 1970's overall you'd stand a chance of getting an okay copy, okay compared with the U.K. With The Beatles but not that great.

That's where this, the last recut version comes in as by now fair more detail had made it so it was cleaner than any previous version just as the Beatles were to come to Compact Disc with titles from the UK catalogue

The front cover was based on the UK With The Beatles cover with a bluey tint becoming black towards the end with the title bodly showing at the top so it could be spotted easily in the shop record racks at a distance.

The rear cover was an attempt to explain by way of an essay who and where these "Beatles" came from and talks about their upcoming appearence on the must see Ed Sullivan popular entertainment show on CBS Tv.

I have had a number of copies over the decades, from a early 80's Purple label one to 2024's mono reissue but this is the 1986 edition that was only out for about 18 months at the most from the last new cutting.

The iconic "Rainbow Rim" label returned with the text newly typeset which was common feature of many 80's Capitol releases.

This copy sounds as good as it can, featuring the the new single and it's U.K .and U.S.  b sides which for some of takes us more back to those times than the british With The Beatles album regardless of that albums technical superiority.

45 rpm attachment

 There are a good five boxes of singles around my bedroom that go back to the early 1970's and cutting off around 1992 of the old vinyl wrap lockable sort even if a good many have songs that are on lp albums or cds in my collection.

There are a few select ones from the 1960's that I picked up over time, some that were played with early compilations of hits often containing original mono mixes that are otherwise hard to find but generally they're the hits of a time I really loved.

In the earliest years you had to effectively lodge an appeal for someone, usually Mum to buy you one although my copy of Jeepster by T Rex I had for Xmas 1971 has been missing for a while surviving a couple of house moves but as time went buy I had pocket money that I saved towards things like that such as my stash of Bay City Rollers singles or were bought at things like birthdays like my copy of Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army.

You could say they reason they're still here is actually down to the memories attached to each one played as the earliest were three in rotation on a autochanger before you flipped the pile over for their b sides with friends to those like Charles and Eddie's Would I Lie To You that were played a side at a time on my hifi set up before I got around to picking up the cd of the album it was taken from.

Memories these days count for such a lot.

Job done

 

Portable sound of sorts has been about since people started going out and wanting favourite sounds from pocket instruments, attaché case portable radios, record players tape and cds machines and so on.

We just seem to want that sound - our favourites - with us and at consumer shows like CES some of these things have been seen making a bit of a comeback with Toshiba's Sound Burger a open wide and play portable player selling well.

We have actually made our Pop and Rock lossless micro sd card from copies of my own cds and bought downloading 80's favs like Martha & The Muffins, 24 bit remasters by Rush and Taylor Swift's albums that only were on Mp3's on another card although the nature of it is other recordings will be added and I have added a few things to other cards too.

And we have a New unused player with case too to enjoy them on when I want to be free from staring at screens that really doesn't do me any good at all. 

Unfortunately unlike older cassette players there's no belt clip to put around my grey short trousers so you have to hold it in your hand but hey we've done it!

Restorations II

Autumn is very much in the air as I noticed on Wednesdsay going into town as we slowly work our way though this virius infection well wrapped up and masked between working on some of that restoration work.

Some of the work around downloads has been done so we should be getting somewhere with this by christmas as had adding the odd missing title from cd as sometimes a used cd can be cheaper than a download if for whatever reason you didn't get it at the time

The main thing is creating your folder structure and dealing artist labelling differences such as "Rolling Stones, the" and "THE ROLLING STONES" as that only ends creating two sets of files which isn't what you need.

I mean technically artist followed by the definative article ("the") is correct when it comes to making your  alphabetical order but some sites insist on The "Artist Name" which is then used to creat the artist folder that all abums by them get filed under.

Classical music is usually a nightmare as some prefer Composers (although recordings by more than one artists per work can get complicated), others performers such as Orchestras or Conductors.

Another kind of a restoration involved this record that in my original copies form had suffered from leeching from PVC outer jackets with a grey coloured haze plus some groove damage and worse still a pvc lined inner sleeve it had started to stick to that ironically back in mid 1983 I'd put it in thing it would protect better than the plain paper one!

Fortunately I tracked down a near mint copy as the record is much better sounding than any cd version, an early mixed down to stereo digitally one which was common place in Canada back then unlike the UK and at least on this copy worked out very well.

Restorations

Looking into the question of the missing Digital Music Players and more importantly the cards that were in them it looks that most can be replaced.

This is either in the case of some rock high defination downloads, they were backed up on a external hard drive and regular files were from discs that I had and still have so should over time I wish restore them as I have an an excellent cd ripping (copying) program that does lossless files with embedded art.

In others, lossless downloads, increasingly 24 bit are available from sites at cost that do sound sound very good sometimes with Pdf booklets too.

The history of downloads goes back almost as much as this blog thus there was always a legacy of Mp3 and Apples Aac files often downloaded from those heady days in 2008-2010 when downloads free of any digital rights management became available  as well as those I made myself when players were smaller had limited memory and everything was set around that

It's ironic that these older cards still survive as curated but making a new card will to be tied in getting a newer player to take full advantage of higher capacity cards, more suited for lossless espcially higher defination downloads as much as anything redone can be played from the Windows laptop.

Tuning In, Tuning Out

 Tuning in seventies style generally took three forms, the portable radio, something with it built in such as a radiogram or music centre or a seperate unit you attached to a Hifi of which this is one Tandy aka Radio Shack sold that did just what you needed.

It had VHF stereo for which a red coloured indicator came on if you tuned in a stereo station and Medium Wave (marked as AM) which had stations that weren't otherwise available although they didn't sound too good like Radio 1 for Pop Music.

Today there are different ways of "tuning" in such as internet radio stations, podcasts and streaming which is quite popular.

Streaming allows people to hear individual pieces of music or whole collections stored on line that you curate either for free with adverts and some restrictions or alternatively for a monthly or yearly subscription which in some ways is a virtual record or cd library when we paid so much for a weekly loan in the past and potentially the quality can be better.

Recently there has been some noise that a big player Spotify has improved the quality of its premium offer to something that potentially a bit better than standard cd but not as high as some specialist companies.

If your market is mainly people on the go, things like a persons data allowance comes into play on mobile phone contracts and in any event this tends to eat more battery current when the background itself may not that quiet.

All reproduction has compromises and perhaps this works best for their target audience rather than audiophiles with very quiet often treated rooms  and very fast home fibre internet?

A pile of Mud...

Music was one of our social currencies back in the day, exchanging likes and tidbits of information in an era devoid of internet, music television and mbile phones.

There were artists you were definately fans of, having posters, fan club memberships albums and singles of apart from seeing your heroes live on stage  which for me was The Rollers, Sweet and the Wombles and there were others you may of liked singles by but weren't your main thing.

 The Carlshalton, Surrey group Mud, originally a rock and roll revival act was one of those having been picked as a means of Rak Records owner and employer of a song writing team of having hits and you could say they went for the ride.

Those chart hits from Crazy, Tiger Feet, The Cat Crept In, Rocket, Oh Boy, Secrets That You Keep and Moonshine Sally were records I did like, fitting in as a cross between Glam Rock with a lead vocalist who could "do" Elvis well.

The Xmas hit Lonely This Christmas remains a favourite seasonal song of mine as while on the one hand its a tongue in cheek Elvis inpersonation, it does touch the very real issue of feeling alone at Christmas were everybody else isn't and that's all you see.

Two albums were issued but here that schism between their act and their chart hits shows because especially with Mud Rock, it's mainly a live album of rock and roll covers with only one full hit, Rocket, which isn't what a fan of the singles would of expected.

Mud Rock Vol: II is more of a fake live album with just odd really live track and the rest overdubbed with crowd noise but is a much easier listen for being better recorded and this did have a couple of full hits on it.

This was a "contractual obligation release" as after one day signing to Rak they signed to another record company Private Stock, home of the soon to take off Blondie and David Soul so Most of Mud Rock II actually was finished by December 1974 although it was a Spring 1975 release that didn't trouble the charts much.

I wouldn't say they were particulary worth seeking out unless you're a completest while that "Let's Have a Party-The Best Of Mud is compilation on cd of this era of the group.

Part of the reason for going to Private Stock records was they wanted more input into their songs and the arrangements  but those albums have been very hard to find so I did get this 2004 double compliation of singles and album tracks instead some years ago with singles and album tracks instead.

This does feature actual hits, not played as much as they might on oldies radio shows such as L L L Lucy, Show Me You're A Woman and Use Your Imagination plus the B side to Beating About The Bush, Under The Moon Of Love  was covered by Showaddywaddy reaching #1 in 1976 but the tide was turning from most of the glam rock era artists seeing sales drop and contracts end and Mud were no exception unfortunately however good this later material was.

If you just want the Rak era hits on vinyl, beyond the original singles I'd suggest Mud's Greatest Hits from late 1975 used as a good copy will sound great given it was mastered and cut at Abbey Road studios.

Billy Joel's Greatest Hits revisited

Suprisingly the last and only time we mentioned Billy Joel was February 2024 and that was to note after a long hiatus from recording anything he'd issued a new single.

Billy Joel and me go back a long way late 1977/1978 actually in that period Elton John was off the charts, he snucked in and grabbed my attention.

Suffice to say I bought whole albums by him, all currently on cd or hybrid super audio cds but no records but way back - well around this time 1985 - I was enjoying You're Only Human (Second Wind) which was the lead off single for a compilation of his called Greatest Hits Volumes 1-2 issued around that time on record and tape.

The main strength of that compilation was having the original edited singles versions all in chronological order that really showed how great he was at writing and performing songs and these songs are amongst my most favourite of all time.

Songs like, Piano Man, Moving Out, Only The Good Die Young,My Life, It's Still only Rock and Roll To Me, Allentown and Tell Her About It take me back to people and places and on August 22nd this was reissued on record.

Thus I bought it for the pleasure of just plunking the stylus down and enjoying the times and memories in the way I was used to back then.

It was the quietiest pressing I've had in a good while do for just £26 was a bargain.

July round up

The heat left us, which was no bad thing although here in the West Midlands we have been put on drought orders as I was beginning to feel I had been well baked with heatstroke.

We're almost finished when it comes to completing those Japanese Mini lp style cds of the Beatles with the very last one ordered and due here within a week with all the others having been checked over on arrival so that 2015/6 project is now done.

The final announcements in the Analogue Productions 75 years audiophile series have been announced although some titles are still scheduled to ship being later than first announced so the series finishes with 80 lps nearly all 45 rpm editions for the highest possible quality.

Connected with that attempt to deal with the backlog of some 43 super audio cd issues of these titles has been agreed as the plant that makes them was closed for over two months and as far as I'm aware there's only two in the world meeting everybodys  needs when it comes to cutting and pressing them.

As I've a few on pre-order still that's a relief.

Come september there will be some four modern classical lps issued which I have preorders for  as there are few new releases and most re-releases tend to be older analogue era titles.

Rubber Soul

Week has been cooler after the great heatwave of Monday and in preparation for the arrival in the last in a series books covering the life and times of the Beatles albums, I've been reaquianting myself with the cd portion of their albums here covering as the do a series of box albums (The Mono box, Capitol Albums Volumes 1&2, EP set) loose U.S. albums discs and a bespoke stereo box I assembled of 1987 original cds in stereo and Japan 2014-17 mini lp issues where titles were only release on cd originally in mono.

One that got missed off was the Japan 2017 remastered version of the 1986 remixed Rubber Soul that upsets purists but as the stereo original isn't that great with extreme seperation that one had remained in its rather brash sounding original UK cd form so I recently got a deleted copy in mint condition.

Part of the reason is that mini lp presentation, holding feels like a record rather than a tri-fold digipak and also the sound is fuller that takes some of the cold 80's digital feel from it (the mono cd set version has the original stereo mix as a bonus).

I feel it was worth it in the way with the more flawed remix of the stereo Help it just doesn't so I keep a copy of the original as a reference about.

Exiting May round up

 It's a bit late to be typing this with having a few unexpected things to attend to in the middle of the week but as we exit this month and enter official Summer there's two topics on my mind I'd like to talk about.

Unless you're a hermit in the UK, you will of heard of and perhaps had been impacted by the hacking of two shop websites including Marks and Spencers and a few other things for little apparent reason by some dispersed group that apart from affecting internet sales also rather messed up the stock control systems of their physical stores.

Well, it seems the same kind of thing is going on when it comes to interest based websites as Elvis Presley fans found when five were hacked beyond ribbons with not a jolt of useable content left which contained much talk around elvis recording, tours, projects that had been built up over the decades went although to be fair it seems the owners didn't do much around backing up regularily and keeping board security up to date.

That lead them to moving to another more generalist site trying to put together the course of events that lead me to remark over there that old school forums seem to be on the decline as people run Facebook (and other) groups that don't offer the ease of threads within a forum have.

We've seen that loss of content with Misterpoll in the last six months or so.

The other thing is this:

After much clamouring that box of 11 original UK catalogue albums in mono cut from tape in September 2014 with a double disc of non album singles and EP tracks is getting a repress with replicate jackets and inners.

I bought the individual discs in twos and threes back then, putting the cat on cheap rations, but since copies went off the selves several years ago prices shot right up with the full box with book going for over £1,500 as those who were late to the vinyl revival party kept saying  "I missed them" or "I couldn't make my mind up".

I knew I needed them, that high quality re-issues from the original tapes don't happen much as today they prefer to copy once to high resolution digital to cut wear and tear to that tape and made my plans.

I only hope those who didn't then and are are interested in this boxes content make the arrangements this time as there may not be another.

Buddy Holly and the weekend

It is almost Whit Bank Holiday so as we're likely to get rain I've sorted a couple of discs to play between getting the lego out and listening to the bank holiday specials on Boom Radio.

You might recall me mentioning about having to use pen, paper and cheque to send for a speciality cd on Rollercoaster Records and it came the other day.

What it is is the first Buddy Holly album credited for label reasons to the Crickets but using modern A.I. remixed from mono in stereo so well you'd never know it wasn't recorded that way with full seperation covering songs like That'll Be The Day, Oh! Boy and Not Fade Way and a version also in stereo that removed the ill advised background vocals by the rather square Picks producer Norman Petty added.

It sounds amazing.

That two on One cd came out in 2000 and adds the original mono Chirping Crickets to his second album attributed to him alone "Buddy Holly" from 1958 that featured Rave On, Listen To Me, Everyday and Peggy Sue.

Although various albums were issued since his death in 1959 from sessions that were too incomplete or earlier recordings often overdubbing new backing really these are the only two studio albums you need.

As we said way back in 1978 when the 20 Golden Greats compilation of hits was issued that webought back then Buddy Holly Lives, his music influencing british rock.

Physical media

After last weeks brief and sooner not had to mention anything about it post this week between sweltering in the heat that had followed me from the weekends activities I had spent a bit of time listening to some recordings on the newly installed amplifier after the hasty installation before going off as for me at least, it was and is all about the music and rather less "the gear".

The gear is a means to an end, the re-production (intended hyphenation) of that music as captured be it a vocal, a traditional instrument or a synthisizer at home as close to the performance as we can.

Thus when something is installed and I'm happy with it, then it stays around for a while because it is doing its job, it satisfies my ears.

It is interesting to note that physical reproduction via media is a fairly new thing becoming more popular from the early twentieth century and mass collecting really rather more from the nineteen fifties from records of shellac and vinyl, through tapes of various sorts to the compact disc.

People prior to that tended to have smaller numbers of titles with the Great Depression obviously affecting disposable income and in some ways the shift towards streaming rather than physical ownership is affected by things like sky high mortgage and rents and the overall cost of living crisis we're living through.

It doesn't mean there won't be physical media or for that matter people have turned their back on music and its reproduction simply that they're doing the best way they can given how life is and there are always those who hanker the the feel of owning something that's tangible.

In my lifetime I've bought different formats as each had their own strengths and weaknesses, a common criticism of the compact disc is the artwork and how you access it has less of the feel of holding and reading that gatefold cover and text is often small spread over many pages where the record is more like reading a newspaper.

Over the last year I have been picking a limited number of favourite albums from the nineteen eighties that originally had on compact for their seen at the time as outmoded lp record equilivents for that feel apart from anything about how some early compact discs sounded.

Examples of which do include Heart's self titled and Bad Animals albums, Depeche Mode's People Are People and Music For The Masses, the Tracy Chapman debut album from nineteen eighty-eight (a reissue after being deleted for decades) and The Pet Shop Boy's Please and Actually albums that were amongst the first cds I ever bought.

Holding them just feels different and more of a pleasure.

Hey! Hey! We're The Monkees

Something I had recently was three of the first five studio albums by the Monkees a band famously assembled for the TV show of the same name although two members Peter Tork and Michael Naismith were actual musicians.

For me the start point was this compilation on Music For Pleasure that while missing Alternate Title, does sound really good and gives a short but sweet overview of their hits and "deep cuts" such as She in its 1974 original form.

That's the 1981 reissue but using the original metalwork so it sounds just as good.

I had missed the tv show first time around by a few years but records by them were around the house as my older brother was old enough to of seem them and later on in the 1970's the BBC repeated the shows which I saw.

Much was happening in late 1965 and 1966, pop music was getting more sophesticated by the month with The Beatles issuing Rubber Soul and Revolver, the Stones issuing Aftermath, the Beach Boys issuing the brilliant Pet Sounds which was wonderful but had left what today we call "Tweenagers", the nine to thirteen year olds out who yearned for relatively simple songs that were relatable.

Similar in someways to why we for much of the early to mid 70's we loved our Partridge Family, Barry Blue and Bay City Rollers records while our older siblings went for Prog Rock or more mature music.

Perhaps that explains why several years on I fell for their music?

The first two albums have the music that originally featured in series one of the tv show and are relatively simple, sometimes more comedy but included gems like Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow, Mary Mary, Take A Giant Step as well as the hits I'm a Believer, A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You  and the Monkees Theme.

Interesting More Of The Monkees  issued in the U.S. in January 1967 was an album they knew nothing about until a fan at a concert brought it for signing  having neither taken part in an album photoshoot nor even been given complimentary copies!

That resulted in a major dust up with Don Kirshner, the person who was in control of their music and they won the right to control their music.

The third album Headquarters recorded after that dust up  sees them write, perform and arrange more of their own songs such as "Alternate Title", You Just Might Be The One and Shades of Grey and probably is the one essential album beyond of a compilation.

These issues from 2021,22 amd 24 respectively all come with a bonus disc of alternate version such as those recordings actual used on the tv show or songs while being featured in the show were not part of the albums issued at the groups height of fame.

They managed two more albums before the tv show got cancelled as ratings had dropped (however often tv shows featuring teen bands tend to have short runs anyway) and in time they went their seperate ways.

In October 2025 Rhino Hifi reissued Pieces, Aquarius,Capricon and Jones Ltd, issued late 1967 which contained the single Word and What Am I Doing Hanging 'Round.

I originally had these albums bought used in "mono" but really in the UK unlike the U.S. they were just the stereo recordings combined and cut in mono for the portable mono record players teens had back then so there wasn't much to be said for getting replacement originals and actually these records sound the best the albums ever could.

Teenbeat: 1979 revisited

Yesterday happened to be my birthday more of which will be written about elsewhere but birthdays are anniversaries that bring back memories from the past and for me 1979's was important as it was a year before my GCE's and I was laying the foundation of my record collector as a boy who loved music.

The Rolling Stones were an influence on me and between owning a few of their albums on record and having taped copies of others I bought this album originally issued in November 1966 as it had all but one of their pre 1967 singles on it.

It also happened it's September 1969 counterpart "Through The Past Darkly" was bought the same birthday for me by my older brother.

In terms of art and packaging it was excellent with a gatefold sleeve with the seriously arty "fish eye" picture of the group and photos on the gatefold.

The rear picture was used for the (inferior) U.S. version and at the time it was issued in mono and stereo.

If that wasn't enough there was an insert with even more photos and some information about the recordings.

It was a late 1970's pressing and I loved the disc, copying to tape straight away but it left after an ill advised clean with Surgical Spirit that destroyed one stylus as it unbonded the glue holding the stylus tip to the carrier.

I did get a early 80's edition but the cover and the vinyl was thin and by that point the insert had been dropped so I was very fortunate to spot a near mint (cover, insert, vinyl condition) edition from 1976 that was a very close match for that original recently.

So by this birthday, I've been able to restore it to the collection the way it was. 

In the same year an album entered my then meagre collection, a birthday present from the local independent store in the northern district of the city whose looks and track selection never really left me even in the days when it just was no longer available new in any format.

 

The collage style cover, bold coloured title and a great tag line on the rear top of the jacket just screamed Beatlemania as America fell for them in a package that mixed covers, new to america originals and a couple of newly recorded tracks that were to come on a British extended play 7 inch record.

 

My first copy with an Apple label went  for same reasons as the first album I mentioned being replaced in 1986 by a Purple capitol copy as I learned this and the other albums I grew up on were to be replaced by UK versions coming on compact disc too and hurried up being "last chance" copies for posterity.

After a long period where they were ignored as if they never existed, deleted from the catalogue they've  been reissued accepted as part of the legacy hence last years issue of the 1964 Capitol Albums in mono, a good number of which were bought.

 I decided to get a near mint  american stereo edition in the short lived 1980's rainbow rim label to go with my Canadian issues of the era probably as good as this record ever sounded, one I've always wanted.

This came while away for a few days and I'm delighted.

Looking back on it, a good number of those early albums were restored, often with period issues because to pick them up and play them takes me back to that time and all the memories from it.

Junior Beat: A new Badfinger album

 On what is likely to be quite a stormy day I'm playing a new record that's really not new as in freshly recorded but it's new out.

Late last year the iconic British band Badfinger was proud to unveil the forthcoming release of their long-lost album "Head First" scheduled for 2024 - exactly 50 years after it's original recording. 

1974 is one of those years I  seem perpectually stuck in to which music often takes me back to and this should of been their third album for Warner Bros after a fresh deal upon leaving Apple Records that itself was winding down.

This historic release features Peter Ham's final studio recordings and marks a significant milestone in the band's legacy, bringing forth an album that has been shrouded in mystery for decades. With hits such as "Come and Get It," "No Matter What," "Day After Day," and "Baby Blue," Badfinger has long been recognized as a formidable force in the power pop and classic rock genres of the 1970s. 

Originally recorded in 1974 at The Beatles' renowned Apple Recording Studio on Savile Row, London, "Head First" encapsulates a transformative era in Badfinger's storied career. 

The sessions for "Head First" took place during a tumultuous period for the band, marked by personal struggles and external challenges not least an explotative contract signed by a greedy manager, which ultimately led to the album being shelved and indeed was referenced in two of the featured songs.

For years, only a rough mix survived, with the master tapes thought to be lost. However, the recent rediscovery of the original multi-tracks has allowed for a meticulous mixing and mastering process, breathing new life into this long-hidden masterpiece. 

This release promises to provide fans with an authentic glimpse into the creative spirit of Badfinger during one of their most artistically rich periods and one I enjoyed playing from the moment it arrived earlier this week.