Cliff Richard - 1959 - Expresso Bongo FLAC

Love/A Voice In The Wilderness/ The Shrine On The Second Floor/Bongo Blues



Expresso Bongo is a 1959 film satire of the music industry directed by Val Guest, shot in uncredited black & white Dyaliscope and starring Laurence Harvey, Cliff Richard, and Yolande Donlan. It is adapted from the stage musical of the same name, which was first produced on the stage at the Saville Theatre, London, on 23 April 1958.

In the film, Cliff Richard and the Shadows made their second screen appearance in a film released during 1959, the first being the much darker Serious Charge. The later film was made at Shepperton Studios, near London, with certain scenes shot on location in London's Soho district.

In January 1960, an EP made up of all the Cliff Richard and the Shadows' tracks from the album was released. On the tenth of March, Record Retailer published the first UK EP Chart with Expresso Bongo topping the chart. Prior to this, the EP had also made the UK Singles Chart reaching number 14.

Billy J Kramer With The Dakotas - 1963 - The Billy J. Kramer Hits FLAC

Bad To Me/ I Call Your Name/Do You Want To Know A Secret/ I'll Be On My Way



Riding high at the top of the charts after toppling Cilla Black, were yet another act connected to The Beatles. Billy J Kramer with The Dakotas had scored three hits penned by Lennon and McCartney, the most popular being their 1963 number 1, Bad to Me.

Understandably, they decided if they wanted to secure a long-term future, they needed to step out of the shadow of the Fab Four. The fact The Dakotas had also scored a hit with their self-penned instrumental, The Cruel Sea, only backed this belief up. And so the group found themselves doing the unthinkable when they turned down another Lennon and McCartney original, One and One is Two, and opted to record Little Children instead. You have to admire the boldness of Kramer and co, but unfortunately it was as unwise a move as it was brave. If you’re going to try something new in 1964, don’t pick a song by former Elvis collaborators, whose best days were now behind them.

 Little Children is a rickety, sickly sweet slice of old-fashioned pop that not even George Martin could turn to gold. In recent years it has received criticism for its sub-paedophilic undertones. If you ask me, this is harsh. It’s a song written in more innocent times, and is actually about a teenager or young man who’s desperate to cop off with his girlfriend, but her siblings are getting in the way, so he tries to win them over and silence them by offering sweets and money. What I won’t excuse, though, is the fact this is a crap, irritating song, and Bad to Me was much better.

But in the short term, the group’s move proved to be a wise one, as following this final number 1, they released another Lennon and McCartney track, From a Window, which only made it to number 10.

In July, bassist Ray Jones left following an argument with Brian Epstein, which was the first in a series of line-up changes. Music was getting heavier and weirder in the next few years, and Kramer’s softer style, plus a drink problem, meant declining fortunes, so in September 1967, Kramer and The Dakotas went their separate ways.

The Dakotas split a year later, with several members joining Cliff Bennet’s band. They reformed in the 80s, with Eddie Mooney on vocals, and in addition to many appearances on the nostalgia circuit, they worked with comedian Peter Kay on the excellent Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights (2001) and the dire spin-off Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere (2004), with new member Toni Baker co-writing all the music to both series with Kay. Kramer is also a regular on package tours of yesteryear, and in 2016 released his autobiography, Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Billy J Kramer With The Dakotas - 1964 - I'll Keep You Satisfied FLAC

 I'll Keep You Satisfied/I Know/Dance With Me/It's Up To You




Billy Kramer (real name, William Howard Ashton) was an apprentice fitter for British Rail – He was also the lead singer for a Liverpool group called The Coasters when Brian Epstein spotted them playing at The Cavern. The Coasters did not want to turn professional so Epstein bought Kramer’s contract from his ageing manager Ted Knibbs for the princely sum of £50 and teamed him up with accomplished Manchester band The Dakotas – who included Elkie Brooks’ brother, Tony Mansfield on drums.

Given access to several compositions by Lennon and McCartney (four of the first five singles were written by the duo), most of which were unused by The Beatles themselves, Kramer & The Dakotas embarked on a brief but spectacular career as hit-makers. Do You Want To Know A Secret? was issued on 26 May 1963 after a harrowing recording session where double-tracking and George Martin‘s patchy piano tinkling hid a nervous Billy’s shortcomings, particularly on the falsetto line “I’m in love with you-oooooo”.

 John Lennon provided Bad To Me which went one better than its demanding predecessor when it snatched the top spot from The Searchers in August. Another Beatles-penned hit, I’ll Keep You Satisfied, saw the year out in fine style as did a high placing in the New Musical Express‘ chart survey and its prediction of a golden future for Billy J specifically on the silver screen.

Epstein wanted the group to continue recording Lennon and McCartney compositions because the formula clearly worked. But Kramer had heard a song he intended to record, written by American composers Mort Shuman and John McFarland. He defied Epstein and Little Children became his biggest-selling single ever.

Ray Jones left the group in July 1964 and Macdonald switched to bass allowing the dynamic Mick Green (ex Johnny Kidd & The Pirates) to come in as lead guitarist.

Following the failure of their last few singles, Kramer left The Dakotas in 1967 for an ultimately unsuccessful solo career. After a stint compering the pop show Discotheque he later moved to the United States. From 1973, Kramer toured with a re-formed Dakotas on the oldies-but-goldies circuit. He also recorded a dozen or so solo singles – all without success.

Sly and The Family Stone - 1971 - Dance To The Music FLAC

Dance to the Music/Life/Fun/Hot Fun in the Summertime



Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and included Stone's brother and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone, sister and singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham. It was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, male and female lineup

"Dance to the Music" is a 1967 hit single by soul/funk/rock band Sly and the Family Stone for the Epic/CBS Records label. It was the first single by the band to reach the Billboard Pop Singles Top 10, peaking at #8 and the first to popularize the band's sound, which would be emulated throughout the black music industry and dubbed "psychedelic soul". It was later ranked #223 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
 

 None of the band members particularly liked "Dance to the Music" when it was first recorded and released. The song, and the accompanying Dance to the Music LP, were made at the insistence of CBS Records executive Clive Davis, who wanted something more commercially viable than the band's 1967 LP, A Whole New Thing. Bandleader Sly Stone crafted a formula, blending the band's distinct psychedelic rock leanings with a more pop-friendly sound. The result was what saxophonist Jerry Martini called "glorified Motown beats. 'Dance to the Music' was such an unhip thing for us to do."About the song

However, "Dance to the Music" did what it was supposed to do: it launched Sly and the Family Stone into the pop consciousness. Even toned down for pop audiences, the band's radical sound caught many music fans and fellow recording artists completely off guard. "Dance to the Music" featured four co-lead singers, black musicians and white musicians in the same band, and a distinct blend of instrumental sounds: rock guitar riffs from Sly's brother Freddie Stone, a funk bassline from Larry Graham, Greg Errico's syncopated drum track, Sly's gospel-styled organ playing, and Jerry Martini and Cynthia Robinson on the horns.

 An unabashed party record, "Dance to the Music" opens with Robinson screaming to the audience, demanding that they "get on up...and dance to the music!" before the Stone brothers and Graham break into an a cappella scat before the song's verses begin. The actual lyrics of the song are sparse and self-referential. The song serves as a Family Stone theme song of sorts, introducing Errico, Robinson, and Martini by name. After calling on Robinson and Martini for their solo, Sly tells the audience that "Cynthia an' Jerry got a message that says...", which Robinson finishes: "All the squares go home!" The Stone Brothers and Graham repeat the a cappella portion before the refrain of the repeated title is mentioned over and over with the sound of the instruments dropping out, except for the electric guitar, being played in the upper register, before the song's fade.
 

 "Dance to the Music" was one of the most influential songs of the late-1960s. The Sly and the Family Stone sound became the dominating sound in African-American pop music for the next three years, and many established artists, such as The Temptations and their producer Norman Whitfield, Diana Ross & the Supremes, The Impressions, The Four Tops, The 5th Dimension, and War began turning out Family Stone-esque material. The Temptations' single "Cloud Nine" was inspired by "Dance to the Music" and was a top ten hit, winning a Grammy Award. "Dance to the Music" and the later Family Stone singles also helped lead to the development of funk music.

Various Arists - 1970 - Super Groups Vol. 1 FLAC

John Mayall - Room To Move/Jack Bruce - The Clearout/Blind Faith - Well All Right/ Taste - Blister On The Moon



 As the elder statesman of British blues, it is John Mayall's lot to be more renowned as a bandleader and mentor than as a performer in his own right. Throughout the '60s, his band the Bluesbreakers acted as a finishing school for the leading British blues-rock musicians of the era. Guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor joined his band in a remarkable succession in the mid-'60s, honing their chops with Mayall before going on to join Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and the Rolling Stones, respectively. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, Jack Bruce, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser (of Free), John Almond, and Jon Mark also played and recorded with Mayall for varying lengths of times in the '60s. 

Mayall recorded his debut single in early 1964; he made his first album, a live affair, near the end of the year. At this point the Bluesbreakers had a more pronounced R&B influence than would be exhibited on their most famous recordings, somewhat in the mold of younger combos like the Animals and Rolling Stones, but the Bluesbreakers would take a turn for the purer with the recruitment of Eric Clapton in the spring of 1965. Clapton had left the Yardbirds in order to play straight blues, and the Bluesbreakers allowed him that freedom (or stuck to well-defined restrictions, depending upon your viewpoint). Clapton began to inspire reverent acclaim as one of Britain's top virtuosos, as reflected in the famous "Clapton is God" graffiti that appeared in London in the mid-'60s.

In professional terms, though, 1965 wasn't the best of times for the group, which had been dropped by Decca. Clapton even left the group for a few months for an odd trip to Greece, leaving Mayall to straggle on with various fill-ins, including Peter Green. Clapton did return in late 1965, around the time an excellent blues-rock single, "I'm Your Witchdoctor" (with searing sustain-laden guitar riffs), was issued on Immediate. By early 1966, the band was back on Decca, and recorded its landmark Bluesbreakers LP. This was the album that, with its clean, loud, authoritative licks, firmly established Clapton as a guitar hero, on both reverent covers of tunes by the likes of Otis Rush and Freddie King and decent originals by Mayall himself. The record was also an unexpected commercial success, making the Top Ten in Britain. From that point on, in fact, Mayall became one of the first rock musicians to depend primarily upon the LP market; he recorded plenty of singles throughout the '60s, but none of them came close to becoming a hit.

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in mid-1966 to form Cream with Jack Bruce, who had played with Mayall briefly in late 1965. Mayall turned quickly to Peter Green, who managed the difficult feat of stepping into Clapton's shoes and gaining respect as a player of roughly equal imagination and virtuosity, although his style was quite distinctly his own. Green recorded one LP with Mayall, A Hard Road, and several singles, sometimes writing material and taking some respectable lead vocals. Green's talents, like those of Clapton, were too large to be confined by sideman status, and in mid-1967 he left to form a successful band of his own, Fleetwood Mac.

Mayall then enlisted 19-year-old Mick Taylor; remarkably, despite the consecutive departures of two star guitarists, Mayall maintained a high level of popularity. The late '60s were also a time of considerable experimentation for the Bluesbreakers, who moved into a form of blues-jazz-rock fusion with the addition of a horn section, and then retreated into mellower, acoustic-oriented music. Mick Taylor, the last of the famous triumvirate of Mayall-bred guitar heroes, left in mid-1969 to join the Rolling Stones. Yet in a way Mayall was thriving more than ever, as the U.S. market, which had been barely aware of him in the Clapton era, was beginning to open up for his music. In fact, at the end of the '60s, Mayall moved to Los Angeles. Released in 1969, The Turning Point, a live, all-acoustic affair, was a commercial and artistic high point.

In America at least, Mayall continued to be pretty popular in the early '70s. His band was as unstable as ever; at various points some American musicians flitted in and out of the Bluesbreakers, including Harvey Mandel, Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris. Although he's released numerous albums since, and remains a prodigiously busy and reasonably popular live act, his post-1970 output generally hasn't matched the quality of his '60s work. Following collaborations with an unholy number of guest celebrities, in the early '80s he re-teamed with a couple of his more renowned vets, John McVie and Mick Taylor, for a tour, which was chronicled by Great American Music's Blues Express, released in 2010. The '60s albums are what you want, though over the past decades, there's little doubt that Mayall has done a great deal to popularize the blues all over the globe. Continuing to record and tour into his eighties, Mayall released A Special Life, recorded at Entourage Studios in North Hollywood and featuring a guest spot by singer and accordion player C.J. Chenier, in 2014. The album was universally celebrated as one of his best. 

John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the co-lead vocalist, and bass guitarist of British rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.

In the early 1960s Bruce joined the Graham Bond Organisation, where he met his future bandmate Ginger Baker. After leaving the Graham Bond Organisation, he joined with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, where he met Eric Clapton, who also was his future bandmate. His time with the band was brief. In 1966, he formed Cream with lead guitarist Clapton and drummer Baker; he co-wrote some of their hits (including "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room" and "I Feel Free") with songwriter Pete Brown. After the group disbanded Bruce formed his own blues-rock band West, Bruce and Laing in 1972, with guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing. In the late 1960s he began recording solo albums. His first solo album, Songs for a Tailor, released in 1969, was a worldwide hit. His solo career spanned several decades. From the 1970s to the 1990s he played with several groups as a touring member. He reunited with Cream in 2005 for concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Bruce is considered to be one of the most important and influential bass guitarists of all time. Rolling Stone magazine readers ranked him number eight on their list of "10 Greatest Bass Guitarist Of All Time". He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, both as a member of Cream.

Blind Faith were an English supergroup featuring Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech, active in mostly 1969. They were eagerly anticipated by the music press as a continuation of Clapton and Baker's former group Cream and Winwood's former group Traffic, but they split after one album and tour.

The group originated with informal jamming by Clapton and Winwood in early 1969 following the break-ups of Cream and Traffic. Baker joined them in rehearsals and they decided to form a group. Grech joined as the fourth member from the band Family in May, and they began recording their eponymous debut album. It drew controversy for featuring a photograph of a topless 11-year-old girl on the front cover, and it was issued with a different cover in the United States.

The first Blind Faith concert was on 7 June in front of an estimated 100,000 fans in Hyde Park, London, but they felt that they had not rehearsed enough and were unprepared. They subsequently played concerts in Scandinavia and the US, but the lack of material in the live set led them to play old Cream and Traffic songs which pleased the audience but disillusioned the band. Clapton became increasingly isolated during the tour, preferring to spend time with support act Delaney & Bonnie, and the band split up immediately after their last performance on the tour. Clapton and Winwood both enjoyed the music that they played together in the group's limited time, and they have since collaborated on several tours playing Blind Faith material.


Taste (originally "The Taste") was formed in Cork, Ireland, in August 1966 as a trio consisting of Rory Gallagher on guitars and vocals, Eric Kitteringham on bass, and Norman Damery on drums. In their early years Taste toured in Hamburg and Ireland before becoming regulars at Maritime Hotel, an R&B club in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the summer of 1967.

 In 1968 Taste began performing in the UK where the original lineup split up. The new lineup formed with Richard McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums. The new Taste moved permanently to London where they signed with the record label Polydor. In November 1968, the band, along with Yes, opened for Cream at Cream's farewell concerts. While with Polydor, Taste began touring the United States and Canada with the British supergroup Blind Faith. In April 1969, Taste released the first of their two studio albums, the self-titled Taste, with On the Boards following in early 1970, the latter showing the band's jazz influences with Gallagher playing saxophone on numerous tracks.

One performance came in 1970 as part of the Isle of Wight Festival, alongside Jimi Hendrix and The Who. According to Donal Gallagher (Rory's brother who managed the band) filmmaker Murray Lerner had given instructions to his crew to shoot just two numbers from the new bands and to save the main film stock for Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Leonard Cohen and the other headliners but Taste’s performance prompted him to change his instructions.

"Murray didn’t know who Taste were but when he saw the spontaneity of the band and the audience and their interaction, he just told his guys keep filming and they just kept going and captured over an hour of the performance which was quite incredible." In the song "Sugar Mama", a photographer can be seen hurriedly bringing his camera up from a re-load to cover another camera angle.

Later the same year Taste toured Europe but were disbanded due to numerous reasons, the details of which are still unclear; but are generally acknowledged as having been due to managerial disputes and also tensions between Gallagher and the rest of the band, who wanted to be recognised as equals with him (Gallagher having been the sole songwriter in the band). They performed their last show on New Year's Eve in Belfast.  Wilson and McCracken immediately formed 'Stud' in early 1971, with Jim Cregan and John Weider, while Gallagher went on to pursue a solo career.

Chad & Jeremy - 1965 - If I Loved You FLAC

If I Loved You/Donna Donna/Dirty Old Town/The Truth Often Hurts The Heart



Chad & Jeremy were an English musical duo consisting of Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde, who began working together in 1962 and had their first hit song in the UK with "Yesterday's Gone". That song became a hit in the United States in the following year as part of the British Invasion. Unlike the rock-music sounds of their peers, Chad & Jeremy performed in a soft, folk-inflected style that is characterised by hushed and whispered vocals. The duo had a string of hits in the US, including "Willow Weep for Me", "Before and After", and their biggest hit, "A Summer Song". After some commercial failures and divergent personal ambitions, Chad & Jeremy disbanded in 1968.

Chad Stuart continued to work in the music industry while Jeremy Clyde became a film and stage actor. In the early 1980s, the duo reunited to record a new album and perform concerts, including a multi-band British Invasion nostalgia tour. After another long period of separation, in the early 2000s Chad & Jeremy began performing again and developed a semi-regular schedule of touring for many years. Stuart retired in 2018, and Clyde continues to tour and record as a solo artist. 

Butterfield Blues Band - 1967 - East West FLAC

Walkin' Blues/Get Out Of My Life, Woman/Mary, Mary/Two Trains Running



With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago's south side, the Butterfield Blues Band was instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid-'60s, and although the band wasn't a particularly huge commercial success, its influence has been enduring and pervasive. The band was formed when singer and harmonica player Paul Butterfield met guitarist and fellow University of Chicago student Elvin Bishop in the early '60s. Bonding over a love of the blues, the pair managed to hijack Howlin' Wolf's rhythm section (bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay) and began gigging in the city's blues houses, where they were spotted in 1964 by producer Paul Rothchild, who quickly had them signed to Elektra Records. 

 Guitar whiz Mike Bloomfield joined the band just before they entered the studio to record their debut album (and in time to be on-stage with the group when they backed up Bob Dylan at his infamous electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival). Organist and pianist Mark Naftalin also came on board during the sessions for the self-titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which was released by Elektra late in 1965. Lay became ill around this time, and his drum chair was taken by Billy Davenport, whose jazz and improvisational background came in handy during the recording of the band's second album, the Ravi Shankar-influenced East-West, released in 1966.

Bloomfield departed to form Electric Flag in 1967, and Bishop handled all the lead guitar on the more R&B-oriented third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, which was released later that year and featured an entirely new rhythm section of Bugsy Maugh on bass and Phil Wilson on drums. Bishop and Naftalin left the band following the recording of 1968's In My Own Dream, and Butterfield drafted in 19-year-old guitarist Buzzy Feiten to help with the recording of 1969's Keep On Moving, which also featured the return of drummer Billy Davenport.

  After a live album in 1970 and the lackluster Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin', released in 1971, Butterfield put the band to rest. In retrospect, the Butterfield Blues Band had pretty much put their cards on the table in their first two albums, both of which are classics of the era, featuring a heady mixture of folk, rock, psychedelia, and even Indian classical music played over an embedded base of good old Chicago blues.

The Pretty Things - 1965 - The Pretty Things FLAC

Don't Bring Me Down/Big Boss Man/Rosalyn/We'll Be Together



 The Pretty Things were an English rock band, formed in September 1963 in Sidcup, Kent. They took their name from Willie Dixon's 1955 song "Pretty Thing". A pure rhythm and blues band in their early years, with several singles charting in the United Kingdom, they later embraced other genres such as psychedelic rock in the late 1960s (with 1968 S.F. Sorrow being one of the first rock operas), hard rock in the early 1970s and new wave in the early 1980s. Despite this, they never managed to recapture the same level of commercial success of their early releases,

The tracks on the EP are the Pretty Things first 2 singles "Rosalyn" b/w "Big Boss Man" UK #41 Australia #67  "Don't Bring Me Down" b/w "We'll Be Together" UK #10    Australia #65     Canada  #34.

The Sunrays - 1965 - I Live For The Sun FLAC

 Andrea/Car Party/Outta Gas/I Live For The Sun




The Sunrays (previously known as The Renegades, The Renegade 5, Larry Tremaine & The Renegades, The Rangers and The Dirt Riders) were an American band from Pacific Palisades, California. The group was led by singer/songwriter/drummer Rick Henn, who was a friend of The Beach Boys member Carl Wilson. Other members of the band were guitarists Eddy Medora and Byron Case, keyboard player Marty DiGiovanni, and bassist Vince Hozier.

Their first job as the Renegades (in the late 1950s) was at the Seaside Session at Palisades Park in Pacific Palisades. In 1961 they teamed up with Larry Tremaine, and became Larry Tremaine and the Renegades, a rock and roll cover band, consisting of Larry Tremaine, Steve O'Riley (now deceased), Marty DiGiovanni, Rick Henn, Eddy Medora (November 28, 1945 – October 27, 2006), and Vince Hozier (February 26, 1946 – March 18, 2007). Tremaine booked them every week at radio dances, UCLA, clubs, celebrity parties, and corporate events.

 They appeared at Crescendo Interlude on the Sunset Strip with Joey Dee and the Starliters, the Teen Age Fair at Pacific Ocean Park, the after party for the 1963 Academy Awards, The Bob Eubanks TV Dance Party, and every Friday night as the house dance party band at the San Bernardino, California Civic Auditorium.

In 1963, Tremaine went into the radio stations KBLA and KRLA, and later television, and became the host of the syndicated nationwide Casino Royale Dance Party.

In 1964, Murry Wilson, the father of Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, started managing them and changed their name to The Sunrays. Eddy Medora switched from the saxophone to rhythm guitar. Steve O'Riley, who played lead guitar and sang, left the band when "I Live for the Sun" began to break, saying "I don't wanna be in the group anymore, I think I can make it on my own." O'Riley was replaced by Byron Case.

Their hits included "I Live for the Sun" (1965) (#51 US, #20 Australia), "Andrea" (1966) (#41 US), and "Still" (1966) (#93 US).

They toured the United States and opened for the Beach Boys in the U.S. and Canada.

Marty Wilde - 1969 - Abergavenny FLAC

Abergavenny/Alice In Blue/By The Time I Get To Phoenix/Shutters And Boards



Wilde was born in Blackheath, London. He was performing under the name Reg Patterson at London's Condor Club in 1957, when he was spotted by impresario Larry Parnes. Parnes gave his protégés stage names like Billy Fury, Duffy Power and Dickie Pride, hence the change to Wilde. The 'Marty' came from the commended 1955 film, Marty. Wilde was signed to the British recording arm of Philips Records, with US releases appearing on the Epic label via Philips' reciprocal licensing agreement with Columbia Records stateside. (Philips had yet to acquire the Mercury group as its US division.)

From mid-1958 to the end of 1959, Wilde was one of the leading British rock and roll singers, along with Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard Wilde's backing group was called the Wildcats. At various times they featured Big Jim Sullivan on lead guitar, Tony Belcher on rhythm guitar, Bobby Graham or Bobbie Clarke on drums, plus Brian Locking on bass guitar and Brian Bennett on drums who both later joined the Shadows.

 He appeared regularly on the BBC Television show 6.5 Special and was the main regular artiste on the Saturday ITV popular music shows Oh Boy! and Boy Meets Girls. There he met and married Joyce Baker, one of the Vernons Girls who were also show regulars. The courtship was highly public but, after the marriage, Wilde's popularity as a teen idol declined. He moved partly into all-round entertainment, appearing in musicals such as Conrad Birdie in the original West End production of Bye Bye Birdie and several films. He enjoyed success as a songwriter in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With Ronnie Scott, he co-wrote the one-hit wonders the Casuals' "Jesamine" under the pseudonyms of Frere Manston and Jack Gellar. The pair also wrote Lulu's "I'm a Tiger" and the early Status Quo hit, "Ice in the Sun".

He also tried to tap into the growing Glam Rock boom, releasing the single "Rock'n'Roll Crazy"/"Right On!" as Zappo, and recording as The Dazzling All Night Rock Show (20 Fantastic Bands), and Ruby Pearl and The Dreamboats (The Shang-A-Lang Song). None of the releases were a commercial success, and Wilde ditched the glam rock genre, going on to work with his son, Ricky Wilde.

Like many of his contemporaries, Wilde continued to perform in nostalgia tours in the UK and beyond. In 2007, he celebrated 50 years in the business with another UK tour which featured his youngest daughter Roxanne Wilde, and the issue of a compilation album, Born To Rock And Roll – The Greatest Hits. It included a duet with Kim Wilde of Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", which was released as a promotional only single.

The tour culminated in a concert recorded at the London Palladium, and reunited the remaining Shadows: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris, Brian Locking and Brian Bennett.
In 2017, Wilde went on a UK tour with The Solid Gold Rock'n'Roll Show, which also featured Eden Kane, Mark Wynter and Mike Berry.

Peter and Gordon - 1964 - Just For You FLAC

Soft As The Dawn/Leave Me Alone/Lonely Avenue/Roving Rambler




In June 1964, Peter & Gordon became the very first British Invasion act after the Beatles to take the number one spot on the American charts with "A World Without Love." That hit, and their subsequent successes, were due as much or more to their important connections as to their talent. Peter Asher was the older brother of Jane Asher, Paul McCartney's girlfriend for much of the '60s. This no doubt gave Asher and Gordon Waller access to Lennon-McCartney compositions that were unrecorded by the Beatles, such as "A World Without Love" and three of their other biggest hits, "Nobody I Know," "I Don't Want to See You Again," and "Woman" (the last of which was written by McCartney under a pseudonym). But Peter & Gordon were significant talents in their own right, a sort of Everly Brothers-styled duo for the British Invasion that faintly prefigured the folk-rock of the mid-'60s. In fact, when Gene Clark first approached Jim McGuinn in 1964 about working together in a group that would eventually evolve into the Byrds, he suggested that they could form a Peter & Gordon-styled act.
 

 Asher and Waller had been singing together since their days at Westminster School for Boys, a private school in London. "A World Without Love" was their biggest and best hit, one that sounded very much like the Beatles' more pop-oriented originals. Their other two 1964 hits, "Nobody I Know" and "I Don't Want to See You Again," were pleasant but less distinguished. Sounding like McCartney-dominated Beatles rejects (which, in fact, they were), the production employed a softer, more acoustic feel than the hits by the Beatles and other early British Invasion guitar bands. "I Don't Want to See You Again" used strings, as would several of the duo's subsequent hits, which became increasingly middle-of-the-road in their pop orientation.

Some scattered folky B-sides showed that Asher and Waller may have been capable of developing into decent songwriters, but like many of the less talented British Invaders, their lack of songwriting acumen and ability to move with the times, would eventually work against them. They did continue to hit the charts for a couple of years, with updates of the oldies "True Love Ways" (Buddy Holly) and "To Know You Is to Love You" (a variation of the Teddy Bears' "To Know Her Is to Love Her"). There was also a Top Ten cover of Del Shannon's "I Go to Pieces," and the brassy, McCartney-penned "Woman." The overtly cute British novelty "Lady Godiva," though, became their last big hit in late 1966.

After Peter & Gordon broke up in 1968, Asher became an enormously successful producer, first as the director of A&R at the Beatles' Apple Records (where he worked on James Taylor's first album). Relocating to Los Angeles in the '70s, he was one of the principal architects of mellow California rock, producing Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.

Everly Brothers - 1961 - No.6 WAVE

 ('Til) I Kissed You/Oh What A Feeling/Let It Be Me/Since You Broke My Heart



 "('Till) I Kissed You" is a song written by Don Everly of The Everly Brothers. It was released as a single in 1959 and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Recorded 7 July 1959 at RCA Victor Studio, Nashville, Tennessee, and issued as a single (Cadence 1369) July/August 1959 coupled with ‘Oh, What A Feeling’. In other countries the single made a great impact reaching #2 in Australia,#3 in Canada and #2 in the U.K.

"Let It Be Me" is a popular song originally published in French in 1955 as "Je t'appartiens" interpreted by Gilbert Bécaud. It became popular worldwide with an English version by the Everly Brothers. The Everly Brothers helped to further popularize the song with their 1960 rendition of "Let It Be Me" which reached #7 position on the Billboard Hot 100, #24 in Australia,#8 in Canada and #13 in the U.K. The harmony arrangement of this version was often emulated in subsequent remakes. This was the first Everly Brothers single to be recorded in New York, and not in Nashville. The musicians that backed up the brothers on the record included Howard Collins, Barry Galbraith and Mundell Lowe on guitar, Lloyd Trotman on bass, Jerry Allison on drums and Hank Rowland on piano.

Everly Brothers - 1959 - No.5 WAVE

Problems/Love Of My Life/Take A Message To Mary/ Poor Jenny



"Problems" is a song released in 1958 by The Everly Brothers. The song spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #2, "Problems" was kept out of #1 spot by To Know Him Is to Love Him by The Teddy Bears. Outside the US, "Problems" reached #5 on Canada's CHUM Hit Parade, #5 in the Netherlands #12 in Australia, and #6 on the UK's New Musical Express chart. B-side was "Love of My Life"

"Take a Message to Mary" is a song released in 1959 by The Everly Brothers. The song spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #16, while reaching #8 on Canada's CHUM Hit Parade, #2 in Australia and #20 on the United Kingdom's New Musical Express chart.

In the lyrics of the song, a man is thrown in jail for committing a crime, and not wanting to experience suffering, he asks a friend of his to deliver a message to his sweetheart, Mary, and tell her that he has gone to see the world, has to cancel their wedding day, and encourages her to find someone new. The song ends with a lament from the imprisoned man that his "cell is cold", implying that because of his crime, he loses what he cherishes the most.

Everly Brothers - 1959 - No.4 WAVE

 All I Have To Do Is Dream/Claudette/Bird Dog/Devoted To You



"Bird Dog" is a song written by Boudleaux Bryant and recorded by the Everly Brothers. It was released in 1958 and was a #1 hit on the Billboard Country Chart. The song also hit #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as well as peaking at #2 for three weeks on the R&B charts "Bird Dog" equaled the U.S success by going to #1 in Australia. B-side was "Devoted To You". The song deals with the singer's dismay that a boy by the name of Johnny is trying to take his girlfriend away. The singer calls him a bird dog as a result of his behavior.

 

 "All I Have to Do Is Dream" is a song made famous by the Everly Brothers, written by Boudleaux Bryant of the husband and wife songwriting team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, and published in 1958. The song is ranked No. 141 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The best-known version was recorded by The Everly Brothers at RCA Studio Nashville and released as a single in April 1958. It had been recorded by The Everly Brothers live in just two takes on March 6, 1958, and features Chet Atkins on guitar. It was the only single ever to be at #1 on all of the Billboard singles charts simultaneously, on June 2, 1958. It first reached #1 on the "Most played by Jockeys" and "Top 100" charts on May 19, 1958, and remained there for five and three weeks, respectively; with the August 1958 introduction of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song ended the year at #2. "All I Have to Do Is Dream" also hit #1 on the R&B chart as well as becoming The Everly Brothers' third chart topper on the country chart. Surprisingly it only reached #3 in Australia..

Outside the United States, "All I Have to Do Is Dream" saw massive success in various countries, most notably the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK's New Musical Express chart in June 1958 and remained there for seven weeks (including one week as a joint number one with Vic Damone's "On the Street Where You Live"), spending 21 weeks on the chart in Britain. The song has also featured on several notable lists of the best songs or singles of all time, including British music magazine Q's 1001 best songs ever in 2003. It was named one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2004.

The B-side, "Claudette", was the first major song writing success for Roy Orbison (who also recorded his own version of the song) and was named after his first wife. As a result of this success Orbison terminated his contract with Sun Records and affiliated himself with the Everly's publisher, Acuff-Rose Music. 

Everly Brothers - 1958 - No.3 WAVE

 Rip It Up/Leave My Woman Alone/Should We Tell Him/Hey Doll Baby



"Rip It Up" is a song written by Robert Blackwell and John Marascalco. It was first released by Little Richard in June 1956. The Everly Brothers recorded their version of this song in 1957 It reached #57 in Australia, it did not chart in US or UK.  All tracks on this EP are also taken from the Everly Brothers 1958 eponymous debut album .

Everly Brothers - 1958 - No.2 WAVE

This Little Girl Of Mine/Brand New Heartache/ Keep A Knockin'/Be-Bop-A-Lula



"This Little Girl of Mine" is a rhythm and blues single written and released as a single by Ray Charles in 1955 on the Atlantic label. The tune was re-made to top 40 pop status in 1958 by The Everly Brothers reaching #26.  All four tracks are from the 1958 eponymous debut album "The Everly Brothers" the album peaked at No. 16 on Billboard's "pop albums" chart and launched three very successful singles. Originally on the Cadence label, (CLP-3003)

Everly Brothers - 1958 - No.1 WAVE

Bye Bye Love/I Wonder If I Care As Much/Wake Up Little Susie/Maybe Tomorrow



"Wake Up Little Susie" is a popular song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and published in 1957.

The song is best known in a recording by the Everly Brothers, issued by Cadence Records as catalog number 1337. The Everly Brothers record reached #1 on the Billboard Pop chart and the Cash Box Best Selling Records chart, despite having been banned from Boston radio stations for lyrics that, at the time, were considered suggestive, according to a 1986 interview with Don Everly. "Wake Up Little Susie" also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard country chart and got to #2 on the UK Singles Chart as well as #3 in Australia. The song was ranked at No. 318 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song is written from the point of view of a high school boy to his girlfriend, Susie. In the song, the two go out on a date to a cinema (perhaps a drive-in), only to fall asleep during the movie. They do not wake up until 4 o'clock in the morning, well after her 10 o'clock curfew. They then contemplate the reactions of her parents and their friends. B-side was "Maybe Tomorrow".
  

"Bye Bye Love" is a popular song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and published in 1957. It is best known in a debut recording by the Everly Brothers, issued by Cadence Records as catalog number 1315. The song reached #2 on the US Billboard Pop charts and #1 on the Cash Box Best Selling Record charts the single also charted in Australia reaching #14. The Everly Brothers' version also enjoyed major success as a country song, reaching #1 in the spring of 1957. The Everlys' "Bye Bye Love" is ranked 210th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." It was the first song Paul McCartney performed live on stage, with his brother Mike at a holiday camp in Filey, North Yorkshire. The song was part of Rory Storm and The Hurricanes’ repertoire and a live version recorded in 1960 was released in 2012 on the album Live at the Jive Hive March 1960. The Beatles covered the song during the Let It Be sessions in 1969. George Harrison did a cover of the song in 1974 for his album Dark Horse, changing some of the words. The song has also been covered by Simon & Garfunkel.

The guitar intro to the song was not originally part of the song but was something that Don Everly had come up with that was just tacked on to the beginning. Chet Atkins was the lead guitar player on the session. Buddy Harman was the drummer. B-side was "I Wonder If I Care as Much"

Burt Bacharach - 1970 - The Bacharach Beat FLAC

 I Say A little Prayer/Bond Street/Do You Know The Way To San Jose/Pacific Coast Highway



Burt Bacharach, (born May 12, 1928, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.), American songwriter and pianist who from the late 1950s wrote dozens of hit popular songs and also composed for stage and film, mostly in collaboration with lyricist Hal David.

Bacharach studied under Darius Milhaud, Bohuslav Martinů, and Henry Cowell. In the 1950s he wrote arrangements for Steve Lawrence and Vic Damone and later toured with Marlene Dietrich. In the late 1950s he began his long association with David, which would produce many hits especially for singer Dionne Warwick, including “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” He and David created the successful musical Promises, Promises (1968), and their score for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) won an Academy Award, as did the movie’s song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” Bacharach later cowrote (with Carole Bayer Sager, among others) the Oscar-winning song “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” for the comedy Arthur (1981). He and Sager subsequently collaborated on a number of hits and were married from 1982 to 1991. His later works included the album Painted from Memory (1998), a collaboration with singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, and the score for the film A Boy Called Po (2016).

Bacharach received a number of Grammy Awards throughout his career, including for song of the year for “That’s What Friends Are For” (cowritten with Sager). In 2009 he was honoured with a Grammy for lifetime achievement, and three years later he and David shared the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Bacharach’s memoir, Anyone Who Had a Heart (cowritten with Robert Greenfield), was published in 2013.

Gerry And The Pacemakers - 1963 - How Do You Do It FLAC

How Do You Do It/ Away From You/I Like It/It's Happened To Me



"How Do You Do It?" was the debut single by Liverpudlian band Gerry and the Pacemakers. The song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 11 April 1963, where it stayed for three weeks.

The song was written by Mitch Murray, who offered it to Adam Faith and Brian Poole but was turned down. George Martin of EMI, feeling the song had enormous hit potential, decided to pick it up for the new group he was producing, the Beatles, as the A-side of their first record. The Beatles recorded the song on 4 September 1962 with Ringo Starr on drums. The group was initially opposed to recording it, feeling that it did not fit their sound, but worked out changes from Murray's demo-disc version. These included a new introduction, vocal harmony, an instrumental interlude, small lyric changes and removal of the half-step modulation for the last verse. Although Murray disliked their changes, the decision not to release the Beatles' version was primarily a business one. In fact, George Martin came very close to issuing "How Do You Do It?" as the Beatles' first single before settling instead on "Love Me Do", recorded during the same sessions. Martin commented later: "I looked very hard at 'How Do You Do It?', but in the end I went with 'Love Me Do', it was quite a good record." McCartney would remark: "We knew that the peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do 'How Do You Do It'."

The Beatles' version of "How Do You Do It?" was officially unissued for over 30 years, finally seeing release in November 1995 on the retrospective Anthology 1.

While the Beatles' recording remained in the vaults, Martin still had faith in the song's appeal. Consequently, he had another new client, Gerry and the Pacemakers, record "How Do You Do It?" as their debut single in early 1963. This version of "How Do You Do It?", also produced by Martin, became a number-one hit in the UK until it was replaced by "From Me to You" (the Beatles' third single). It was the title song of a 7-inch EP that also featured "Away From You", "I Like It" and "It's Happened to Me" (Columbia SEG8257, released July 1963).

Gerry and the Pacemakers' version of "How Do You Do It?" was initially issued in the US and Canada in the spring of 1963, but made no impact on the charts. After the group had issued several chart singles in North America, the track was reissued in the summer of 1964. "How Do You Do It?" entered the US charts on 5 July 1964, eventually reaching number nine, it did even better in Canada, peaking at number six.

Gerry And The Pacemakers - 1966 - I'll Be There FLAC

 I'll Be There/Give All Your Love To Me/Walk Hand In Hand/Pretend



Gerry and the Pacemakers were an English beat group prominent in the 1960s Merseybeat scene. In common with the Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, and were recorded by George Martin.

They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three single releases: "How Do You Do It?", "I Like It" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". This record was not equalled for 20 years, until the mid-1980s success of fellow Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Another of their most famous songs, "Ferry Cross the Mersey", refers to the River Mersey that flows through Liverpool.

"I'll Be There" #15 in the UK #14 in the US #9 in Australia and #1 in Canada.

"Give All Your Love to Me" A non album track #68 in the USA #45 in Australia and #17 in Canada not released in the UK.

"Walk Hand in Hand"  The biggest-selling version recorded of the song was sung by Tony Martin, reaching #2 in the UK and #10 on the United States Billboard chart in 1956. The same year, it was recorded by Andy Williams, whose version hit #54 on the chart, and by Ronnie Carroll, whose version reached No. 13 on the UK singles chart. A later recording by Gerry & The Pacemakers reached No.29 on the UK chart, No. 10 in Canada, and "bubbled under" at No.103 on the Billboard chart at the end of 1965.

"Pretend" reached #17 in Australia not released as a single in many other countries.