Hoo Wee, things are going to get hotter in July with our release slate coming out the first of the month! The Complete Mercury Singles of Spanky and Our Gang, the complete Atco sessions of Lulu, the complete Ode recordings of Peggy Lipton, the 1969 self-titled album by Gal Costa (just in time for the World Cup, doncha know), Ronnie Doves Complete Original Chart Hits 1964-1969, the Expanded and Remastered Edition of X: More Fun in the New World, The New York Community Choir: Make Every Day Count (Expanded Edition) and another Dicks Pick from the Grateful Dead! Full details below Los Angeles, California -- Real Gone Music has made female vocalists from the 60s something of a specialty for the label, and the labels July 1 schedule drives the point home with no less than four releases featuring girl singers from the decade. First up are the timeless folk-pop sounds of Elaine Spanky McFarlane & Our Gang, highlighted on a 21-track CD featuring their complete single sides for the Mercury label. Then, Real Gone reissues a pair of film and TV stars in the august personages of Lulu (To Sir with Love) and Peggy Lipton (The Mod Squad), offering each singers complete Atco and Ode recordings, respectively. And the label releases one of the key albums in the tropicalia movement, Gal Costas self-titled 1969 album for Philips, just in time for the World Cup tournament in Brazil. Staying in the 60s but switching genders, pop hitmaker Ronnie Dove finally is the subject of a proper collection, with all 21 of the pop hits he notched during the 60s on a single CD, many remastered from newly available tape sources. Then, the label jumps forward a couple of decades for Xs fourth album, More Fun in the New World, reissued with four bonus tracks. The gospel/disco group New York Community Choir finally sees their 1978 album for RCA released on CD with two bonus tracks including the single version of the title track (and disco anthem) Make Every Day Count. And the label continues its odyssey through the Dicks Picks series of live Grateful Dead concert recordings with a 3-CD set taken from a 1991 show at the Boston Garden. Having compiled the singles of such hit-happy artists as Gary Lewis & the Playboys and the Grass Roots, Real Gone Music now turns its attention to another quintessential 60s singles band with Spanky & Our Gang: The Complete Mercury Singles, a 21-track collection that includes every unique A and B-side the band released on Mercury during their spectacular 1966-69 stint with the label. Led by Elaine Spanky McFarlane, Spanky and Our Gang had a folk-pop sound oft-compared to the Mamas and the Papas, but their harmonies and arrangements were, if anything, a little more sophisticated and varied, incorporating pop and jazz influences (while admittedly lacking a songwriter of the stature of John Phillips). As a result, the music of Spanky & Our Gang has aged better than many of their more self-consciously psychedelic contemporaries; there is a timeless quantity to their sound that explains why songs like Sunday Will Never Be the Same, Lazy Day, and Like to Get to Know You have remained fixtures on oldies radio over the years. Youll hear all those songs and every other unique single side (include two differently-titled and mixed versions of Fred Neils Everybodys Talkin) in their original mono single mixes on this collection, which includes liner notes by co-producer Ed Osborne that feature fresh interviews with Spanky McFarlane, producers Jerry Ross and Bob Dorough and arranger Jimmy Wisner along with some great photos. The definitive Spanky and Our Gang single-CD retrospective! Atco/Atlantic had struck artistic and commercial gold when they brought Dusty Springfield to the States to record with Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd and topnotch Southern session musicians, so it made sense for the label to introduce another great British pop-soul singer, Lulu, to the same stellar production team. And Lulu, who had just married Bee Gee (and Atco label-mate) Maurice Gibb, didnt need much convincing given the success of Dusty in Memphis. The result was two overlooked classics: New Routes paired the Scottish singer with the classic Muscle Shoals session squad of Barry Beckett, David Hood, Roger Hawkins and Jimmy Johnson, with Eddie Hinton, Cornell Dupree and Duane Allman all sitting in on guitar. And Melody Fair, which also came out in 1970, retained the same production team but moved the sessions to Miami with the Dixie Flyers the back-up band. Those two albums comprise disc one of Lulu: The Atco Sessions 1969-1972; the other disc features almost an albums worth of unreleased material produced by Dowd, plus alternate takes, the great single It Takes a Real Man (to Bring Out the Woman in Me)/You Aint Wrong You Just Aint Right and other stray tracks. Real Gones reissue of this compilation (which came and went in a heartbeat in the U,K. about seven years ago and sells for a queenly sum) includes new liner notes by Richie Unterberger; its a fascinating look at forgotten phase in the career of one of the British Invasions leading female figures. Model-turned-actress Peggy Lipton was (and is) one of the great beauties of her generation, and in her role as flower child Julie Barnes on The Mod Squad, became the It Girl during the shows late-60s/early-70s run. The same year (1968) that she premiered on the show, Peggy also unveiled her formidable singing talent on a self-titled album produced by Lou Adler and released on his Ode record label. The album yielded a charting single in Stoney End and led to some other Bubbling Under non-album single releases for Ode including evocative covers of Laura Nyros Lu and Donovans Wear Your Love Like Heaven plus a collaboration with writer-producer Jimmy Webb on his song Red Clay County Line -- all of which weve collected on Peggy Lipton: The Complete Ode Recordings, which features everything she released on the label plus an unreleased track, a version of Brian Wilsons I Just Wasnt Made for These Times. Our Real Gone reissue of this lost gem (which has only come out on CD in Japan as a straight album reissue without the bonus tracks) replicates the original albums gatefold art with wallet packaging that includes a booklet displaying rare photos and single picture sleeves, with notes by Joe Marchese. An earful and an eye-full from the multitalented Ms. Lipton. With arrangements by the legendary Rogerio Duprat, and featuring songs by Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben (with musical contributions by both Velose and Gil), its no surprise that Gal Costa: Gal Costa, the 1969 album by the Brazilian chanteuse, is considered a landmark tropicalia album. But its not just her highly esteemed collaborators that set this record apart; Costa herself is light years beyond her earlier bossa material, and emerges here as a powerful vocalist who deftly straddles jazz and psychedelia, electronic and acoustic settings, and all the other criss-crossed styles that make up the tropicalia polyglot. This Real Gone Music/Dusty Groove reissue of this classic record features new liner notes by Peter Margasak. A cornerstone of any tropicalia collection, released in timely fashion during the World Cup tournament! He notched over 20 hits and was a fixture on the charts throughout the mid-60s, but to date Ronnie Dove has not received the definitive retrospective he deserves, as inferior-sounding album reissues and compilations have cluttered up the marketplace. Now, at last, Real Gone is filling a BIG gap in 60s pop collecting with the release of The Complete Original Chart Hits 1964-1969, a 21-track collection (16 in stereo) that includes every pop hit this Baltimore-based legend had during his sterling career, remastered by Evren Göknar and Marty Wekser at Capitol Mastering Studios mostly from newly available Diamond label tape sources. Joseph Lanzas liner notes include quotes from Ronnie himself as well as never before seen photos and memorabilia from his and co-compiler Tom Diehls personal collections. By far the most comprehensive and best-sounding Ronnie Dove collection ever compiled, with several tracks appearing on CD in first-time stereo. 1983s More Fun in the New World marked yet another masterpiece for X; produced, like their first three albums, by ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, it offered a surplus of great songs, highlighted by the riposte to the Reagan years ballad I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts and the rockers Breathless, Devil Doll and Hot House. This is the Expanded & Remastered Edition (complete with four bonus alternate demo/remix tracks and great liner notes/lyrics and photos) that went out of print years ago; its an essential part of any rock library. Formed in the late 60s, The New York Community Choir -- originally consisting of some eighty members under the direction of Benny Diggs -- first came to national prominence in the U.S. in 1971 on a much-acclaimed album by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, The Truth Is on Its Way. Primary members of the group included Diggs and prominent writer Arthur Freeman along with Philip Ballou and Arnold McCuller, who were part of the 1966 Grammy-nominated Isaac Douglas Singers. The quartet formed the basis for Revelation, who were signed in 1974 to RSO Records, where they recorded one album. Then, in 1977, NYCC signed with RCA Records; their self-titled debut LP included the dance hit, Express Yourself. Released in 1978, their follow-up set, Make Every Day Count, was produced -- like its predecessor -- by RCA executive Warren Schatz. The album boasted arrangements by Leon Pendarvis (the co-leader of the Saturday Night Live band) and featured such stellar New York session musicians as Paul Shaffer and Richard Tee on keyboards, Jeff Mironov and John Tropea on guitars, Errol Crusher Bennett on percussion, Will Lee on bass and Steve Gadd on drums. The albums infectious title track became popular particularly in East Coast discos, and has remained a popular inspirational anthem among gospel and R&B music lovers. The original LP is making its worldwide CD debut with this release by Real Gone Music in association with SoulMusic Records, and this Expanded Edition includes six-minute plus 12 single versions of Make Every Day Count and Ill Keep My Light in My Window, with liner notes by SoulMusic Records founder David Nathan and remastering at Sonys Battery Studios. Funky, soulful, spiritual. Grateful Dead: Dicks Pick Vol. 17 -- Boston Garden 9/25/91 was, at the time it was released, chronologically the latest live show in the Grateful Dead discography, and its still the second latest concert to be officially released in their vast library. And it chronicles a very special period in Dead history, when Bruce Hornsby sat in with the band to form, along with former Tube Vince Welnick, a formidable, two-pronged keyboard attack. This particular volume -- culled from a complete 9/25/91 show at the Boston Garden (a consistently good stadium venue for the band) and a bonus half hour from a 3/31/91 show in Greensboro, NC -- is also notable for including the first-ever performance of Paul McCartneys That Would Be Something and the first-ever appearance of Dylans The Mighty Quinn on a Dead album. Add to that the stunning, 23-minute version of Eyes of the World that caps off the third disc and Dicks Picks Vol. 17 is a exemplary document of late-period Dead. Out of print for years! July 1, 2014 Releases from Real Gone Music Spanky & Our Gang: The Complete Mercury Singles Lulu: The Atco Sessions 1969-1972 Peggy Lipton: The Complete Ode Recordings Gal Costa: Gal Costa Ronnie Dove: The Complete Original Chart Hits 1964-1969 X: More Fun in the New World (Expanded & Remastered Edition) The New York Community Choir: Make Every Day Count (Expanded Edition) Grateful Dead: Dicks Picks Vol. 17 -- Boston Garden 9/25/91
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 18:24:02 +0000
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