indy mike sez: New pick ONE tune per hour topic - BIG PRODUCTIONS!!!!

Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me

 

Yes! A very underrated number. Check out the backing track on the Hawthorne, CA release.

Surf's Up

Chris

 

The Voice-The Moody Blues

 

New York City Serenade-Bruce Springsteen.

 

Come Dancing-The Kinks

 

Yes, an amazing recording, should have been a bit hit back in '66 but wasn't. Unfortunately, the 45 mix is still nowhere to be found on CD, AFAIK, and it's essential, as the stereo uses a different vocal take.
But either version, it's a beauty.

"Virginia Plain"--Roxy Music

Recorded while Brian Eno was still with the band, and it shows! The slashing guitar of Phil Manzanera remains impressive.

ED

 

"We wait without knowing if we're hits of the year..."

Squeeze - "Hits Of The Year" from 1985's Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti LP, which found 4 of the 5 original members, including Julian "Jools" Holland back from a 3 year hiatus. Many Squeeze fans and music critics cried fowl play, pointing the finger at producer Lauire Lathem for OVER producing the LP. Happens to be my favourite Squeeze album, and maybe for that reason; big production.

A quote from an essay written about Cosi says this. "...When a band has recorded as many albums as Squeeze, it's surely no sin for one of those albums to revel in sonic excess and production overload..."

"Hits Of The Year", a song about aeroplane hijacking (way before its time) should have been a much bigger HIT, IMHO.

 

"A Fine, Fine Boy"--Darlene Love

"He's a fine, fine superfine boy!" One of the lesser known Phil Spector classics....

ED

 

"I Can Hear Music" -- Larry Lurex

From the opening notes, this is multi-layered mush, but what a glorious flavor of mush. This 1973 single, on the short-lived Anthem label, may have made the charts in only one city in the United States, but it happened to be Philadelphia, so I caught it on the air there. The single was a real bitch to find, even then; now it's a major collectible.

Little did anyone know in 1973 that "Larry Lurex" (a take-off on "Gary Glitter") was in reality Freddie Mercury, whose band (Queen) was just about to release its first album when this single came out. And that guitar solo that somehow sticks out of all that mud was by none other than bandmate Brian May.

The flip side of the 45 is a remake of the Goffin-King song "Goin' Back" that the Byrds made famous. The production there is almost exactly opposite of the A-side; it's almost acoustic.

 

"Pulstar"--Vangelis

Big productions are the norm for this Oscar-winning composer, but this one came to mind first, seeing as it was also used for TV news broadcasts back in the late '70s and early '80s in some markets. Lotsa synth bombast. If this sort of thing is ever remixed to 5.1, watch out!

ED

 

Actually, I think his earlier "Heaven And Hell" LP (with Jon Anderson on one track) has an even bigger sound.

The theme from 1492: Conquest Of Paradise is another contender from him. Curiously, I've read that this became a massive hit in Germany a few years after it was initially released...

 

"She's The One"--Bruce Springsteen

Before NEBRASKA, the only mono-only Springsteen track, and obviously intentionally so. Nod to Bo Diddley, but the sound owes much to Spector. True of much of that album, of course.

ED

 

"Read 'Em and Weep" -- Barry Manilow

His last Top 20 hit, in early 1984; a Jim Steinman production, a remake of a Meat Loaf song (from the Dead Ringer LP) and an absolute blast. Many of Manilow's other hits (produced mostly by Ron Dante) are pretty bombastic, with modulations, gradual buildups of sound and sudden fades, so he fits in with Steinman like a glove. It would have been interesting to hear them do an entire LP together.

 

Mickey-Toni Basil

 

I'll add the other Rockestra track from Back to the Egg:
So Glad To See You Here

Look at this lineup...
Guitars: Denny Laine, Laurence Juber, Dave Gilmour, Hank Marvin, Pete Townshend.
Drums: Steve Holly, John Bonham, Kenney Jones.
Basses: Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Bruce Thomas.
Pianos: Paul McCartney, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones.
Keyboards: Linda McCartney, Tony Ashton.
Percussion: Speedy Acquaye, Tony Carr, Ray Cooper, Morris Pert.
Horns: Howie Casey, Tony Dorsey, Steve Howard, Thaddeus Richard.

 

"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" -- The Beach Boys (early 1964)

The B-side of "Fun, Fun, Fun," and in some ways even more fun, fun, fun than the A-side. Brian Wilson was starting to learn his Spectorian tricks with this remake of the Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers classic. Worth a listen, especially in mono. Lots 'n' lots of echo.

 

"Trans Europa Express"--Kraftwerk

Original German version.

ED

 

John Loves Mary-Robert Palmer

 

"Live And Let Die"--Wings

Best of the '70s Bond theme songs, bar none. Bigger than the movie, and that's aa fact, the first not to be shot in Panavison since Goldfinger.

ED

 

Come See About Me-Diana Ross And The Supremes

 

Rock The Casbah (Extended 12' mix)-The Clash

 

Safety Dance-Men Without Hats

 

We Are The Champions-Queen

 

"Love Is Strange" -- Buddy Holly

The purists must still howl at this one. In the late 1960s, Norman Petty took Buddy Holly's demo recording of the Mickey and Sylvia hit, which he made on a home tape deck in the last weeks of his life, doubled its length, overdubbed not only the Fireballs but what sounds like the friggin' 101 Strings, and turned the bare-bones demo into a work of pure wonder. It makes what Phil Spector did to "The Long and Winding Road" seem like a minor touch-up -- but I love the final results.

 

Dream Police--Cheap Trick. Or "Surrender." Take your pick!