Guilty pleasures (albums)*

My two favorite albums are Abbey Road by The Beatles & Get Happy by Elvis Costello. I feel pretty comfortable defending that opinion to anyone, anytime.

But we all have a few albums that are special to us for a variety of reasons that the world at large may not be able to see the appeal of. I call them my guilty pleasure albums. And I thought it would make an interesting thread.

Some of my guilty pleasure albums are:

I Know A Place - Petula Clark. Great Spectorish early sixties British girl-pop. Some tunes are a bit middle of the road - well, soft actually. But her versions of You're The One, Heart & I Know A Place are classics!

Pinky Blue - Altered Images. Light as whipped cream nu wave pop. Claire Grogan has a little girls voice that is subversively sexy. Great hooks and amazing production by Martin Rushent.

God Bless Tiny Tim - Tiny Tim. Yep. Got this when I was about six years old. Strangely, it's actually a very good example of catchy psycadelia. Produced by a very young Richard Perry.

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, LTD - The Monkees. Came out at the same general time as Magical Mystery Tour. And as a whole, I think it aged better than MMT. Has the amazing Love Is Only Sleeping, the one-two punch of Cuddly Toy & Words and the hit Pleasant Valley Sunday. Great basslines by Chip Douglas.

Okay, I'm sure I've ruined what little credibility I may have had.

-Michael

 

BZ

>>>Bz......dont fret. Excellent choices there!!!


The Petula Clark LP is a real winner, I agree. I think her "Downtown" Lp , with the fantastic "Be Good To Me" is slightly better, but thats just me.

The Monkees Lp is a good also, but its not my fav. For my money, ya cant beat "More Of The Monkees" with the Wrecking crew playing on most of the tracks. Love that "She"!!!

he Tiny Tim sounds alike a great candidate for CC music to re-issue. YOu should send them an email, they are very nice folks there.

"I know a place.......where we can go"!!!!

Mikey

 

The Tiny Tim disc is (or maybe was) available as a Japanese import. Got it through Collectors Choice.

Found the Petula Clark disc in an HMV in Edinburgh.

To the best of my knowledge Pinky Blue has never been issued on CD.

-Michael

 

Ah, my guilty pleasure is Captain & Tennille - "Love Will Keep Us Together". Great songs (yes, really), great performance, and exceptionally well recorded (Daryl Dragon be da man!)

Wow, now I'm out of the closet. This feels so liberating!

 

"Third Rate Romance" by the Amazing Rythm Aces and "Vehicle" by the Ides of March.

 

There's quite a bit of 80's country that I like actually. One album that comes to mind is "Take The Long Way Home" by John Schneider (yes, of "The Dukes Of Hazzard"!). That CD is one beautiful bummer of an album; one of the saddest ever (seriously). There's this song "The Auction" that's just heartbreaking. A towering monument of despair. -that's one sad album....

I also find it's not the hip thing to like Christian music albums- they shouldn't really be guilty pleasures. I do find some old Amy Grant nice once in a while. One of my favorite albums of the 90's is the Newsboys "Take Me To Your Leader"- top notch all the way!


James

 

If I remember correctly, Pet Clark's version is the original of "You're The One", is it not? The Vogues' version was a cover.

 

One word:
ABBA
Elvis Costello has admitted to being an ABBA fan, so I'm not ashamed.

Dan C

(Holy smokes! Spell Check doesn't know "ABBA"! )

 

Re: Re: Guilty pleasures

>>>>>Yup!! The Vogues heard the LP and agreed with Nick Cenci to cover the tune. The Vogues version is MASTERFULL, one of favorite songs of the 60s. What harmonies!!!

While we're on the subject, I've been emailing with Steve Massie about YTO. He thought that he had found it in true stereo, but it turns out it was "5 Oclock World" that they had in true stereo. They are still looking, tho.

 

"You're The One" by The Vogues is in twin-track stereo; music one channel and voices the other.

I've never heard it that way, but that's Rhino's fault! They like mono.

 

I do like some CCM and gospel albums, James. I chat with someone on AOL IM who frequents the Both Sides Now website and he is a diehard CCM fan. For fans who don't know CCM=Contemporary Christian Music in this case. CCM is also used as an abbreviation for Collector's Choice Music.

 

They Don't Know About Us - Tracey Ullmann

 

Now it can be told...

I've always had an affection for the Eisenhower-era instrumentals of Percy Faith.

 

I can give you villified artists I like and listen to regularly:

The Partridge Family
Brady Kids
The Archies (OK, Ron Dante & friends)
Barry Manilow
Barbra Srtiesand
Captain & Tennille

Note that all above charted in the 70s.

 

Yes! God Bless Tiny Tim. A real original. He was actually a very knowledgeable music historian especially regarding vaudeville.
I treasure my original lp of God Bless Tiny Tim...and I'm proud of it!

 

>>>>>John, No it isnt. Trust me, I'm the YTO detective, and have spoken with everyone in the reissue camps about this record.
Bill Inglot doesnt have, and never HAD, a twin track for Youre The One. He said in interviews that he did, but he was confusing YTO with "5 Oclock World". The only person who *may* have this tape is Nick Cenci, who I hear is very uncooperative with the reissue companies, he just wants his money and supplies the 45 master.

He also, very stupidly, went thru his session tapes in the 70s and cut away and THREW OUT everything (almost) that wasnt on a 45 or LP. Most of the outakes were thrown away, some survived (I have some) .

The story on YTO is that there WAS, definetly, a twin track tape at some point, because the music was recorded on 1/2 inch 4 track, in NYC.

This 4 track tape was mixed to one side of a 1/4 inch two track tape.
This reel was then sent to Pittsburg, where The Vogues added their vocals, live onto the other channel.
THIS tape was then mixed to mono to create the mono master, which was used to make the 45 AND was located by Cary Masfield for use on the Varese "Vouges Greatest Hits" LP. The Rhino Cd of 1987 used a 4th or 5th gen copy of that tape, obtained from Warner Bros, who issued YTO on an Lp with an added string section. (as an aside, call me nutty, I like the strings version a lot better.......)

What Varese is trying to do is this:

They want to try and find the 4 track backing tracks, and the twin track tape, then sync the vocal track with the 4 track backing to make a genuine, mind blowing stereo mix of this song. So far, tho, all ANYBODY has found is the mono tape.

I'm still hoping tho. I just KNOW that nick Cenci has SOMETHING in his tape vault that hes forgotten about.

Whew!!

Mikey

 

This is a fun thread. I'm glad BZync (Michael) brought up this topic.

Abba - Gold (Greatest Hits)

Olivia Newton John - Greatest Hits Vol 3. (Australian import includes Xanadu)

Gary Wright - Dreamweaver

Saturday Night Fever - Movie Soundtrack

Yanni - (Mostly all of his CDs)

 

Saturday Night Fever

SNF is currently being restored from tjhe master reels for DVD release and all the music is going to be remixed in 5.1

cant wait, its one of my favorite movies.


Mikey

 

Re: Saturday Night Fever

Mikey, I second that. I hope they can pull it off with excellent video and sound quality. I might have to finally go buy a DVD player.

 

Nope... you're not the only one. I love this album!!! Sat In Your Lap and Suspeneded in Gaffa are just great tunes... I really miss Kate. I wish she would return!

 

Re: BZ

I still have the original LP I got back in the early 70's. I love "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)", "Mary, Mary", "When Love Comes Knockin' At Your Door", and "Auntie Grizelda" is silly fun.

As for some other Guilty Pleasures of mine, one of the biggest would have to be Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, but I really don't feel guilty about it because it's great stuff.

Also,

Tommy Roe, Emitt Rhodes, Bee Gees

 

Ditto Gary and Roman, I like the Dreaming and the Kick Inside - used to listen to it for hours.

 

I agree with you on John Schneider's "Take The Long Way Home." My all time favorite song that he has recorded is "I've Been Around Enough To Know."

 

Hope No One at Works Reads This...

Bee Gees - THEIR GREATEST HITS

I was actually disappointed that the re-recorded Hits-For-Other-Artists weren't in the same style as the originals. It kinda throws off the historical value of the set.

Gerry Rafferty - CITY TO CITY (DCC)

Of course I love this album, which is nothing to be ashamed of. What's shameful is how much I paid for this OOP DCC. But I must confess, to the only people in the world who might understand, and throw myself on the mercy of the court: $60! And I live in a trailer by the river!

When you're watching Weather Channel, I'll be the guy they chopper off the roof of an unmoored trailer, clutching an armload of CDs, leaving a dog and cat to the whims of fate and the prevailing current.