Chuck Leavell – Chuck Gets Big (with The Frankfurt Radio Big Band) (2018)

Charles Alfred Leavell (born April 28, 1952) is an American musician. A member of the Allman Brothers Band throughout their commercial zenith in the 1970s, he subsequently became a founding member of the band Sea Level. He has served as the principal touring keyboardist and musical director of the Rolling Stones since 1982. As a session musician, Leavell has performed on every Rolling Stones studio album released since 1983 with the exception of Bridges to Babylon (1997). He has also toured and recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Gov’t Mule and John Mayer. (wikipedia)

In the who’s who of rock & roll, Chuck Leavell is a very big someone. His piano and keyboard playing has graced the albums and/or stages of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, the Black Crowes, George Harrison, Blues Traveler, the Marshall Tucker Band, Hank Williams Jr., and a long list of others. Leavell was born in Birmingham, AL, on April 28, 1952. At age 13 he formed his first band, the Misfitz, playing both organ and guitar. While still in high school, he played on his first local recording sessions.

At 15, Leavell moved to Muscle Shoals, AL, and spent the next two years in and out of the world famous studios there. His recording during that time included an appearance on Freddy North’s “Don’t Take Her, She’s All I’ve Got.” He then left for Macon, GA, and became connected with the newly formed Capricorn Records, joining Alex Taylor’s band for With Friends & Neighbours (Taylor is the brother of singer James Taylor). After a year and a half, Leavell went on the road with Dr. John, spending six months observing and soaking up all he could. Leavell was recruited by the Allman Brothers Band in 1972, shortly after the death of Duane Allman.

He was just 20 years old. His first Allman Brothers Band record was the Billboard chart-topper Brothers and Sisters, yielding the hits “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica.” He remained with the band for four years; after its 1976 breakup, he formed Sea Level (pun intended) with Jimmy Nalls and former Allmans Jai Johanny Johanson and Lamar Williams. They recorded four albums that were embraced by fans and critics alike, and they toured extensively for five years. The Best of Sea Level was released in 1978. Leavell’s career has been bringing him to new heights ever since, including album contributions and immense tours with the Rolling Stones (he’s often referred to as the “sixth Rolling Stone”) as well as numerous other accomplishments, the extent of which can really only be appreciated by a study of his discography. His first solo piano CD, Forever Blue, was released in 2001. It went hand in hand with his book, Forever Green: The History and Hope of the American Forest. The book is a result of Leavell’s passion for forestry and conservation, which began developing in the late ’80s. He and his wife, Rose Lane White, developed her family’s 1,200-acre ranch near Macon, GA, into a tree farm they named Charlane Plantation. When Leavell isn’t in the studio or on the road, he can be found there with his family, horses, and the bird dogs he trains for field trials and quail hunting. Southscape was released on Mega Force Records in 2005. (by Ann Wickstrom)

And here is a wonderful collaboration with a German big band:

In September 2011, I had the great pleasure of playing a live concert in Germany with the incredible hr big band in the stunning setting of Wolfsgarten Castle, not far from Frankfurt, owned by the royal family of Hesse-Darmstadt. Heinrich Donatus Prince of Hesse, a fine man and the current head of the family, was our host. My good friend Christian Raupach had arranged it for me, and Hessischer Rundfunk worked with three different arrangers on a dozen songs I had chosen for it. the conductor (who was also one of the arrangers), Ed Partyka, rehearsed with the band on the arrangements without me being present beforehand, and we had only one day of rehearsals the day before the show. I was totally blown away by the quality of the arrangements, the skill and power of the players in the hr big band and Ed’s conducting skills. Everyone was on point, professional and extremely talented.

The next day we had sound check and a few hours later we went on stage. The audience was wonderful, the environment was surreal and invigorating, and everyone seemed to be feeling “the spirit”.

Since I had released a live recording two years earlier (Chuck Leavell: Live in Germany) of a “live in the studio” performance with a smaller five-piece band at hr studios, which included some of the same songs, I decided not to release the big band recording right away because I thought it would be too repetitive at the time. So I put the recording of the big band concert on hold for 7 years and rarely listened to it during that time. Then one day in early 2018, I decided to listen to it again. I was reminded of what a joy it was to play with all these great musicians and how the arrangements made all these songs sound so different. I was also impressed by the sound quality, the sharpness of the recording and the surprising separation of the instruments that the hr sound engineers had achieved, which made it possible to remix the concert evening. Even the audience’s applause was clearly separated from the pieces in the recordings.

So I decided to put everything under a “microscope” in the studio and play with the possibilities on the spot. I went with my good friend, Gerry Hansen, who is a great drummer, producer and sound engineer, to his studio to work on the tracks. I decided to make it sound less like a typical live album and focus more on the performance itself … so I left out the audience applause to make it sound more like a studio record. I wanted it to feel like one person going into a nice room and getting a private concert played just for them. That’s exactly what we did, and here’s the result. It gives the songs a new and fresh life and I am grateful to all the players, the sound engineers, the arrangers, Maestro Partyka, my buddy Christian Raupach and all the people at hr who helped make this project a reality. This concert was one of the most memorable of my career. Many thanks to all of you! (Chuck Leavell)

It’s 2011 and Chuck Leavell, pianist extraordinaire who has often lent himself to rock (Allman Brothers Band and, today, Rolling Stones, just to name two bands), is on tour in Europe. Arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, he is asked to play with a big band, The Frankfurt Radio Big Band, a mighty ensemble of about fifteen brass players, plus a guitarist, bassist and drummer. Chuck’s grand piano fits right in, despite having had little time to arrange the songs and play them live. Fortunately, someone decided to record (well) the concert, which Chuck then kept in his drawers for many years before listening to it again, appreciating it and finally deciding to publish it.

Chuck, despite such a long list of great collaborations, has not made many studio records and this is probably the best testimony to his name, despite, clearly, the decisive contribution of the German ensemble. A pianist with a southern touch, he moves nimbly between rock and jazz, with impressive fluidity, as well as having a more than good voice. A long, jammed-out, improvised, at times exhilarating disc, it features some Leavell tunes (excellent ‘Blue Rose’), along with two Stones tunes and two in the Allman Bros repertoire. The rest are standards like ‘Georgia On My Mind’ or ‘Route 66’. An exhilarating journey through American music, played with great force by the big band, which leaves just the right amount of space for Chuck to let us hear his shimmering piano. Surprisingly, one of the records of the year and the definitive example, if any were needed, that Leavell is on the same level as a Nicky Hopkins or a Bruce Hornsby, just to name two of his colleagues between rock and jazz. (by Luca Mazzocchi)

Yes … what a fine concert !

Recorded live at Schloss Wolfsgarten (near Frankfurt/Germany), September 03,  2011

Personnel:
Chuck Leavell (piano, vocals)
+
Frankfurt Radio Big Band conducted by Ed Partyka

The concert at Schloss Wolfsgarten:

Tracklist:
01. Route 66 (Troup) 4:47
02. King Grand (Bramblett/Causey) 6:14
03. Losing Hand (Calhoun) 4:48
04. Honky Tonk Woman (Jagger/Richards) 4:26
05. Living In A Dream (Pearson/Causey/Bramlett) 6.38
06. Blue Rose (Leavell) 8:18
07. Southbound (Betts) 5:06
08. Tumbling Dice (Jagger/Richards) 3:45
09. Ashley (Leavell) 5:48
10. Statesboro Blues (McTell) 5:39
11. Georgia On My Mind (Carmichael/Gorrell) 5:11
12. Compared To What (McDaniels) 8:22
13. Tomato Jam (Leavell) 3:54

*
**

Ed Partyka is a bass trombonist/tubist, composer/arranger and conductor. Originally from Chicago Illinois, he received a BA degree from Northern Illinois University before moving to Germany in 1990. He completed a Masters degree in jazz trombone performance at the Conservatory of Music in Cologne, where he was also a member of the G.E.M.A. Jazz Composers Workshop, led by Bob Brookmeyer.

He was recipient of the 2000 “A.S.C.A.P. / I.A.J.E. Commission Honouring the Centenary of Louis Armstrong”. He was 1st prize-winner of the 1998 “NDR Musikpreis” (Hamburg), 1st prize winner of the Jazz Composers Alliance 1998 Julius Hemphill Composition Awards (Boston) and finalist in the 1996 HR Emerging Composers Competition (Frankfurt).

Ed has toured and recorded with the Bob Brookmeyer New Art Orchestra, Vienna Art Orchestra, Carla Bley, WDR Big Band, NDR Big Band, Mnozil Brass, Gansch & Roses and the Roman Schwaller Nonet.

He leads the Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra EPJO, is musical director of the Jazz Orchestra Regensburg and is Co-Leader of the Flip Philipp/Ed Partyka Dectet.

From 2000 – 2007 he was musical director of the Concert Jazz Orchestra Vienna, and 1999 – 2006 from the Sunday Night Orchestra.

Mr. Partyka has appeared as a guest conductor with the HR Big Band, NDR Big Band, RIAS Big Band, RTV Big Band Slovenia, Summit Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Lucerne Jazz Orchestra, West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, Generations Festival Big Band, Zürich Jazz Orchestra, Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, Klüvers Big Band, Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, Sandvika Storband, Milan Svoboda´s Prague Big Band. press release)

More from Chuck Leavell:

The official website:

Roy Orbinson – Golden Days (The Collection Of 20 All-Time Greats)

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames “The Caruso of Rock” and “The Big O.” Many of Orbison’s songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project machismo. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.

Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison’s singles reached the Billboard Top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including “Only the Lonely” (1960), “Running Scared” (1961), “Crying” (1961), “In Dreams” (1963), and “Oh, Pretty Woman” (1964).

After the mid-1960s, Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s following the success of several cover versions of his songs. In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys (a rock supergroup) with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988 at age 52. One month later, his song “You Got It” (1989) was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach the US and UK Top 10 in nearly 25 years.

Orbison’s honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and five other Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on its list of the “Greatest Artists of All Time” and number 13 on its list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top 600 recording artists. (wikipedia)

And here´s a nice compilation with some of his best songs.

A add my favourite Roy Orbinson song “I Got It”.

Personnel:
Roy Orbinson (vocals, guitar)
+
many, many studio musicians

Tracklist:
01. Oh Pretty Woman (Dees/Orbison) 2.57
02. Running Scared (Melson/Orbison) 2.10
03. Falling (Orbison) 2.22
04. Love Hurts (Bryant) 2.27
05. Mean Woman Blues (de Metrius) 2.25
06. I Can’t Stop Loving You (Gibson) 2.49
07. The Crowd (Melson/Orbison) 2.22
08. Blue Bayou (Melson/Orbison) 2.30
09. Borne On The Wind (Dees/Orbison) 2.52
10. Lana (Melson/Orbison) 2.52
11. Only The Lonely (Melson/Orbison) 2.30
12. It’s Over (Dees/Orbison) 2.49
13. Crying (Melson/Orbison) 2.47
14. Pretty Paper (Nelson) 2.44
15. All I Have To Do Is Dream (Bryant) 2.24
16. Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream) (Walker) 2.34
17. Blue Angel (Melson/Orbison) 2.43
18. Working For The Man (Orbison) 2.27
19. Candy Man (Ross/Neil) 2.46
20. In Dreams (Orbison) 2.51
+
21. You Got It (Lynne/Orbison/Petty) 3.31

*
**

More from Roy Orbinson:

Various Arists – Texas Rockabilly – Rockabilly And Rock ‘N’ Roll From Sarg Records Of Luling, Texas (1999)

The story of Sarg Records is a simple tale of minor enterprise in 1950s small town America. A town called Luling, Texas, a place so small that it’s barely on the map and certainly not on any tourist route. The nearest city is San Antonio, 40 miles away. Luling’s decline began in the late 60s when they built Highway 10 between Houston and San Antonio, effectively isolating Luling from through traffic. From then on, the only people who went there were its residents, a few oil-workers and folks who’d lost their way.

Raymond Topping described it admirably in the liner notes of our original vinyl release: “As you drive down the Main Street, you get a definite sense of going back in time to one of the old Western towns you sometimes see in the movies. The town is divided by the railroad which runs down the centre of the main thoroughfare, Davis Street. Most of the houses and shops are single storey wooden buildings which are dwarfed by the huge noisy diesel trains that pass slowly through the town at regular intervals. Across the tracks on East Davis Street is a small wooden store with a sign above the door announcing the Sarg Record Company. As you enter, you are confronted by a display of old 40s and 50s jukeboxes bearing such legendary names as Wurlitzer and Seeburg and behind the counter stands the friendly proprietor, Charlie Fitch.”

Other visitors paint a less romantic picture of Luling’s main drag. The skyline is dotted with oil rigs and small oil pumps – so-called ‘nodding donkeys’ – set in perpetual motion. Fitch’s store was positioned near a poultry farm which gave off a putrid stench in the blazing heat of the Texas sun. This, combined with air thickened by the noxious vapour of crude oil, impeded normal respiratory function. Not that the locals seemed to mind. His TV repair shop and record store did good business from the moment it opened, as leathery-faced men wearing Stetsons and dungarees popped in to get their TV pictures de-fuzzed, purchase the odd 78 or simply exchange gossip.

Fitch got into the record business after he’d been discharged from the US Air Force in 1950. He began selling records from the small store at 311 East Davis Street and also operated a jukebox round serving Luling and surrounding towns. This inevitably led to other record-related ventures, including the formation of his own label. He began issuing records by local hillbillies as well as waltzes and polkas which sold particularly well in the San Antonio area, a legacy from the time when German settlers arrived in the 1840s after the Battle of the Alamo had been fought there in 1836.

Fitch was the first to record Doug (‘Sir Douglas’) Sahm who cut a country novelty disc as Little Doug for Sarg at the age of 14 in 1955, though the label copy attempted to pass him off as a 12 year-old. Later that year Fitch recorded another San Antonio artist, a friend of Sahm’s named Eddie Dugosh who fronted the oddly named Ah-Ha Playboys. Originally a country outfit, they switched to rock’n’roll for their second release, recording Strange Kinda Feeling, an Elmore James blues reworked rockabilly style. This marked the start of Sarg’s involvement with the burgeoning rock’n’roll market. Fitch pretty much gave artists their head in the studio, exercising no control over the end product other than deciding whether to release it or not. This made for great rock’n’roll records but not necessarily ones that were commercial in the cosmetic sense. There was a tough, raw edge to them, plainly evident on TEXAS ROCKABILLY which contains the cream of Sarg’s rockabilly and rock’n’roll output. You can almost smell the hickory smoke and hear the slap of leather as these Lone Star cowboys strut their way through 28 hard-edged rockers. Not for cissies! (taken from the original liner notes)

I bought this not knowing what to expect exept that it was music from the rock and roll area and texas music has always been special to me. If you like the rock and roll area of the late 50’s/60’s this one will not disappoint you. At first I thought it might become monotonous with the same music, but it is a revelation, different groups and different styles, making you wonder if you think sometimes if you listen to the group who had the actual hit with a particular song. A revelation CD and a joy to listen to time and time again. 28 tracks not to disappoint any old rocker (or young one). It makes you feel that you are listening to a life band. (by H. Nieuwenhuizen)

Indeed … a wonderful compilation of really – at least for me – completely unknown groups and musicians from Texas … I’ve never heard of anything from groups an musicians like The Moods, Eddie Dugosh And The Ah-Ha Playboys, Glen Bland With The Rhythm Kings or Al Urban … 

… but they did a real great job …back then
And so I dedicate this post to all these unsung heroes of Rock n Roll and Rockabilly.

Personnel:
see booklet

Tracklist:.
01. The Moods: Let Me Have Your Love (Bazar) 2.09
02. Jeff Stone: Everybody Rock (Stone) 2.12
03.  Al Urban: Gonna Be Better Times (Urban) 2.23
04. Cecil Moore: Walkin’ Fever (Moore) 2.33
05. Jimmy Payne And The Midnighters: I Get The Blues (Payne) 2.05
06. The Medalions: Home Town (Bell) 2.04
07. Al Urban: Lookin’ For Money (Urban) 1.52
08. Cecil Moore And Ray’s Trio: My Money’s Gone (Moore) 2.03
09. Al Urban: Won’t Tell You Her Name (Urban) 2.05
10. Dick Fagin: I Got A Ticket (Fagin) 2.01
11. Glen Bland With The Rhythm Kings: When My Baby Passes By (Bland) 1.53
12. The Midnighters: Rockin’ Romance (Gaida) .02
13. The Downbeats: Come On Over (Lightheard) 2.10
14. Eddie Dugosh And The Ah-Ha Playboys: Strange Kinda Feeling (James/Josea) 2.53
15. Jimmy Farmer With The Notes: Long Black Train (Farmer) 2.43
16. Dick Fagin: I Gotta Learn (Fagin/Blevins) 1.50
17. Cecil Moore And The Notes: Diamond Back (Moore) 1.44
18. Cecil Moore And The Kings Of Rhythm: Moonshine (Moore) 2.12
19. Cecil Moore: I Lost My Little Baby (Moore) 2.31
20. Chester McIntyre: I’m Gonna Rock With My Baby Tonight (McIntyre) 2.20
21. Link Davis: Cockroach (Smith/Davis) 2.07
22. Bash Hoffner And The Pearl Ramblers: Rockin’ And A-Boppin’ (Bowers) 2.42
23. Glen Bland And The Rhythm Kings: Mean Gene (Bland) 2.42
24. Harmon Boazeman: No Love In You ( Boazeman/Christofoletti) 2.16
25. Cecil Moore And The Diamond Backs: Stormy (Moore) 1.56
26. The Downbeats: Oh Please (Grant) 2.00
27. The Moods: Little Alice (Wallace) 2.47
28. The Midnighters: Yes Baby, I’m Scared (Gaida/Dunlap) 2.14

*
**

Jerry Lee Lewis – Last Man Standing (2006)

Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “the Killer”, he was described as “Rock and roll’s first great wild man and one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century.” A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. “Crazy Arms” sold 300,000 copies in the South, and his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with the major hits “Great Balls of Fire”, “Breathless”, and “High School Confidential”. His rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin once removed.

His popularity quickly eroded following the scandal and with few exceptions such as a cover of Ray Charles’s “What’d I Say”, he did not have much chart success in the early 1960s. His live performances at this time were increasingly wild and energetic. His 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is regarded by many music journalists and fans in general as one of the wildest and greatest live rock albums ever. In 1968, Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as “Another Place, Another Time”. This reignited his career, and throughout the late 1960s and 1970s he regularly topped the country-western charts; throughout his seven-decade career, Lewis had 30 songs reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Country and Western Chart. His No. 1 country hits included “To Make Love Sweeter for You”, “There Must Be More to Love Than This”, “Would You Take Another Chance on Me”, and “Me and Bobby McGee”.

Lewis’s successes continued throughout the decades and he embraced his rock and roll past with songs such as a cover of The Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” and Mack Vickery’s “Rockin’ My Life Away”. In the 21st century, Lewis continued to tour around the world and released new albums. His 2006 album Last Man Standing was his best selling release, with over a million copies worldwide. This was followed by Mean Old Man in 2010, another of his best-selling albums.

Lewis had a dozen gold records in rock and country. He won four Grammy awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and two Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022.

In 1989, his life was chronicled in the movie Great Balls of Fire, starring Dennis Quaid. In 2003, Rolling Stone listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology at number 242 on their list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. In 2004, they ranked him No. 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Lewis was the last surviving member of Sun Records’ Million Dollar Quartet and the album Class of ’55, which also included Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley.

Music critic Robert Christgau said of Lewis: “His drive, his timing, his offhand vocal power, his unmistakable boogie-plus piano, and his absolute confidence in the face of the void make Jerry Lee the quintessential rock and roller.” (wikipedia)

Last Man Standing is the 39th studio album released by American recording artist, pianist, and rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis in September 2006. The album consists of duets between Lewis and some of the biggest names in both rock and country music, past and present. The title derives from the generation of 1950s Sun Studios recording artists such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley, all of whom have died, leaving Lewis the “last man standing”. Following the success of the album, a DVD Last Man Standing Live was released featuring similar duets with famous artists.

Last Man Standing received very positive reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the recording, “a record that celebrates life, both in its joys and sorrows, and it’s hard not to see it as nothing short of inspiring” and the editorial team of the site gave it four out of five stars.[1] The same score was awarded by Gavin Edwards in Rolling Stone, praising the performance by writing, “his throat is in better shape than you might expect, most of his command now comes from the slamming, swinging passion of his barrelhouse piano”.[4] For PopMatters, Vladimir Wormwood gave the album seven out of 10, summing up his review by focusing on the Merle Haggard duet “Just Bummin’ Around”: “It is a portrait of the aging musician with the showmanship removed. Long live Jerry Lee Lewis”.(wikipedia)

L-r: Keith Allison, Nils Lofgren, Jimmy Rip, Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hutch Hutchinson, Ivan Neville and Kenny Lovelace. From Last Man Standing sessions, The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA, March 2005:

It often seems like there are only two ways for rock, country, and blues veterans to launch comebacks when they’re senior citizens: confront mortality head on or surround yourself with superstar guests to help carry you through a half-hearted stroll through your back catalog, scattering a few new tunes along the way. At first glance, Jerry Lee Lewis’ Last Man Standing seems to fall into both categories: the title suggests that Jerry Lee is in the mood to take a long look back, and certainly the very concept of the album — pairing Lewis with 21 other stars for a succession of duets, often on material that his guests either wrote or made famous — seems like a typical superstar duet record. But the Killer has never been predictable, and nowhere is that truer than it is here, where Jerry Lee treats Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Page, and 16 other stars as he treated the Nashville Teens at the Star Club in 1964 — as game amateurs who have to sprint to keep up with the master.

This is the only guest-studded superstar album where all the guests bend to the will of the main act, who dominates the proceedings in every conceivable way. Jerry Lee doesn’t just run the guests ragged; he turns their songs inside out, too — and nowhere is that clearer than on the opening “Rock and Roll,” the Led Zeppelin classic that is now stripped of its signature riff and sounds as if it were a lost gem dug out of the Sun vaults. Far from struggling with this, Jimmy Page embraces it, following the Killer as he runs off on his own course — he turns into support, and the rest of other 20 guests follow suit (with the possible exception of Kid Rock, who sounds like the party guest who won’t go home on an otherwise strong version of “Honky Tonk Woman”).

The label might sell Last Man Standing on the backs of the duet partners — after all, it’s awful hard to drum up interest in a record by a 71-year-old man no matter how great he is, so you need a hook like superstars — but the album by no stretch of the imagination belongs to them. This is completely Jerry Lee’s show from the second that he calls out, “It’s been a long time since I rock & rolled,” at the beginning of the record — and those are true words, since he hasn’t rocked on record in a long, long time. Ten years ago he cut the Andy Paley-produced Young Blood, but that was a typically tasteful self-conscious comeback record; it was driven as much by the producer’s conception of the artist as it was the artist himself. The opposite is true here, where the production is simple and transparent, never interfering with the performances; it has the welcome effect of making it sound like there is simply no way to tame Jerry Lee, even though he’s now in his seventies. And that doesn’t mean that this is merely a hard-rocking record, although “Rock and Roll,” “Pink Cadillac,” and “Travelin’ Band” do indeed rock harder than anything he’s done since the ’70s — so hard that they stand proudly next to his classic Sun records, even if they don’t have the unbridled fire of those peerless sides.

Merle Haggard, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis & Kid Rock:

No, this album touches on everything that Jerry Lee has done musically through his career, as the furious rock & roll is balanced by pure hardcore country, piledriving boogie-woogie, rambling blues, old-timey folk songs, and, especially, reinterpretations of familiar songs that are so thoroughly reimagined they seem like they were written specifically for Jerry Lee. And he does this the same way he’s always done it: by singing and playing the hell out of the songs. His phrasing remains original and unpredictable, twisting phrases in unexpected ways — and, yes, throwing his name into the mix frequently, too — and his piano is equally vigorous and vital. This is a record that stays true to his music, and in doing so, it’s not so much a comeback as it is a summation: a final testament from a true American original, one that explains exactly why he’s important. But that makes Last Man Standing sound too serious, as if it were one of those self-consciously morbid Johnny Cash records — no, this is a record that celebrates life, both in its joys and sorrows, and it’s hard not to see it as nothing short of inspiring. (by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Personnel:
B.B. Cunningham (bass on 01., 06.. 11., 19.)
Robert Hall (drums on 01., 06., 19.)
Hutch Hutchinson (bass on 02.- 05., 07., – 10., 14. -17., 20. + 21.)
Jim Keltner (drums on 02. – 05.. 07. – 10.,13. – 17., 20. + 21. percussion on 06., 07.)
Jerry Lee Lewis (vocals, keyboards)
Ken Lovelace (guitar on 02., 03.. 04., 06., 08. – 11., 13. – 16.,19., 20. + 21., fiddle on 20.)
Jimmy Rip (guitar on 01. – 11, 13. – 21.)
+
Keith Allison (guitar on 09.)
Delaney Bramlett (vocals on 18.)
Eric Clapton (lead guitar on 16.)
John Fogerty (vocals on 07.)
Buddy Guy (vocals on 19.)
Merle Haggard (vocals on 10.)
Don Henley (vocals on 20.)
Mick Jagger (vocals on 04.)
George Jones (vocals, bass on 13.)
B.B. King (lead guitar on 02.)
Jimmy Page (lead guitar on 01.)
Toby Keith (vocals on 15.)
Kris Kristofferson (vocals on 21.)
Greg Lieze (pedal steel-guitar on 08., 15. + 21.)
Nils Lofgren (pedal steel-guitar on 09.)
Paddy Maloney (pipe, whistle on 20.)
Willie Nelson (vocals on 14.)
Ivan Neville (organ on 05., 09.)
Mickey Raphael (harmonica on 12.)
Keith Richards (vocals, lead guitar on 08.)
Little Richard (vocals on 17.)
Robbie Robertson (lead guitar on 06.)
Kid Rock (vocals on 11.)
Bruce Springsteen 8vocals on 03.)
Ringo Starr (vocals on 09.)
Bill Strom (organ on 06. + 19.)
James Stroud (drums on 11.)
Ronnie Wood (pedal steel-guitar on 04.)
Dave Woodruff (saxophone on 03., 07.)
Neil Young (guitar, vocals on 05.)
+
background vocals (on 06.):
Brandy Jones Bernard Fowler – Bambi Jones – Stacy Michelle

background  vocals (on 11.)
Jewel Jones – Phyllis Duncan – Stacy Michelle

Tracklist:
01. w/Jimmy Page: Rock And Roll (Page/Baldwin/Bonham/Plant) 2.15
02. w/B.B. King: Before The Night Is Over (Peters) 3.39
03. w/Bruce Springsteen: Pink Cadillac (Springsteen) 3.52
04. w/Mick Jagger & Ron Wood: Evening Gown (Jagger) 3.57
05. w/Neil Young: You Don’t Have To Go (Reed) 3.59
06. w/Robbie Robertson: Twilight (Robertson) 2.48
07. w/John Fogerty: Travelin’ Band (Fogerty) 2.01
08. w/Keith Richards: That Kind Of Fool (Vickery) 4.15
09. w/Ringo Starr: Little Sixteen (Berry) 3.05
10. w/Merle Haggard: Just A Bummin’ Around (Graves) 2.43
11. w/Kid Rock: Honky Tonk Woman (Jagger/Richards) 2.22
12. w/Rod Stewart: What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Sutton) 2.39
13. w/George Jones: Don’t Be Ashamed Of Your Age (Wills/Walker) 2.00
14. w/Willie Nelson: Couple More Years (Locorriere/Silverstein) 5.12
15. w/Toby Keith: Ol’ Glory (Lewis/Roberts/Darnell) 2.04
16. w/Eric Clapton: Trouble In Mind (Jones)
17. w/Little Richard: I Saw Her Standing There (Lennon/McCartney) 2.21
18. w/Delaney Bramlett: Lost Highway (Payne) 3.00
19. w/Buddy Guy: Hadacol Boogie (Nettles) 3.19
20. w/Don Henley: What Makes The Irish Heart Beat (Morrison) 4.10
21. w/Kris Kristofferson: The Pilgrim (Kristofferson) 3.00

*
**

More from Jerry Lee Lewis:

The official website:

But:

His third marriage was to 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown, his first cousin once removed, on December 12, 1957. His divorce from Jane Mitchum was not finalized before the ceremony took place, so he remarried Brown on June 4, 1958. In 1970, Brown filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery and abuse, charging that she had been “subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable.” (wikipedia)

A man fucking a 13-year-old girl … is an asshole  … There is no excuse for that !

Jellybread – Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu + Readin’ The Meters (1970)

I have to reduce my singles collection:

Formed at England’s Sussex University by pianist Pete Wingfield, Jellybread was originally completed by Paul Butler (guitar/vocals), John Best (bass), and Chris Waters (drums). In 1969 the quartet secured a recording contract with the exemplary Blue Horizon Records label and although largely unadventurous, their albums offered a highly competent grasp of black music, including both blues and soul. They provided stellar accompaniment on Lightnin’ Slim’s London Gumbo and B.B. King in London, but the unit dissolved in 1971 with the departure of Wingfield and Waters. Newcomers Rick Birkett (guitar, ex-Accent) and Kenny Lamb (drums) joined for Back to Begin Again, but Jellybread broke up when the set failed to make commercial headway. However, Wingfield enjoyed success as a solo artist, session pianist, and member of Olympic Runners. (by allmusic)

Amd here´s a very rare single from Jellybread with two non-LP tracks (as far as I now).

On side 1 we hear the great old Huey ‘Piano’ Smith hit (Deep Purple are also doing a version of this song in 2021) and on side 2 a short, but rally nice instrumental.

Jellybread was a criminally underrated band … listen and enjoy this rarity !

Personnel:
John Best (bass)
Paul Butler (guitar, vocals)
Chris Waters (drums)
Pete Wingfield (keyboards, vocals)
+
John Altman (saxophone on 01.)

Tracklist:
01. Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu (Smith/Vincent) 2.44
02. Readin’ The Meters (Wingfield/Best/Butler/Waters) 2.22

*
**

More from Jellybread:

Elvis Presley – All The Best (1988)

Elvis Presley belongs on the short list of artists who changed the course of popular music in the 20th century. He may not have invented rock & roll, but he was indisputably its first rock star, a singer whose charisma intertwined tightly with his natural talent for a combination that seemed combustible, sexy, and dangerous when Presley seized the imagination of America in 1956 with four successive number one singles in 1956. Elvis spent the next two decades near the top of the charts, weathering changes in fashion, self-inflicted career missteps, and comebacks as his music expanded and evolved. Throughout his career, Presley never abandoned the rock & roll he pioneered on his early singles for Sun Records, but he developed an effective counterpoint to his primal rockabilly by honing a rich, resonant ballad style while also delving into blues, country, and soul, progressions that came into sharp relief with his celebrated “comeback” in the late 1960s.

Some musical nuances were overshadowed by Presley’s phenomenal celebrity, a fame maintained by a long string of B-movies in the ’60s and extravagant Las Vegas shows in the ’70s, elements that were essential in creating a stardom that persisted long after his premature death in 1977. The myth of Elvis grew in his absence, aided by turning his Memphis home Graceland into a tourist attraction, which made him an enormous cultural icon only loosely tied to his rock & roll origins; fortunately, the passage of time helped clarify the depth and range of his musical achievements. He undeniably kick-started the rock & roll era, shaping the sound and attitudes of the last few decades of the 20th century in the process, but he also built a distinctive body of work that reflected the best of what American music has to offer. (by Richie Unterberger)

And here´s another low budget with 41 (!) songs from “the one and only Elvis Presley … many of them are not so popular. taken from from a time when he was still known, but no longer so successful as in the Fifties.

Enjoy this sentimental trip, but I missed “One Night” !

Personnel:
Elvis Presley (vocals)
+
many, many studio musicians

Tracklist:

CD 1:
01. Heartbreak Hotel (Axton/Durden/Presley) 2.09
02. Blue Suede Shoes (Perkins) 2.01
03. Hound Dog (Leiber/Stoller) 2.17
04. Don´t Be Cruel (Blackwell) 2.04
05. Love Me Tender Matson, Presley 2.47
06. Old Shep (Foley/Willis) 4.10
07. All Shook Up (Blackwell/Presley) 1.59
08. Loving You (Leiber/Stoller) 2.16
09. Teddy Bear (Mann/Lowe) 1.49
10. Jailhouse Rock (Leiber/Stoller) 2.26
11. Treat Me Nice (Leiber/Stoller) 2.14
12. Hard Headed Woman (De Metrius) 1.57
13. Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby (Otis/Hunter) 2.35
14. A Fool Such As I (Trader) 2.40
15. Stuck On You (McFarland/Schroeder) 2.17
16. It´s Now Or Never (Gold/Schroeder/di Capua) 3.16
17. Such A Night (Chase) 3.01
18. Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Turk/Handman) 3.08
19. Wooden Heart (Wise/Weisman/Twomey/Kaempfert) 2.03
20. Flaming Star (Edwards/Wayne) 2.26
21. Surrender (Pomus/Shuman/de Curtis) 1.54
22. Crying In The Chapel (Glenn) 2.24

CD 2:
01. Can’t Help Falling In Love (Peretti/Creatore/Weiss) 3.02
02. (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame (Pomus/Shuman) 2.09
03. Little Sister (Pomus/Shuman) 2.31
04. Good Luck Charm (Schroeder) 2.24
05. Suspicion (Pomus/Shuman) 2.35
06. Return To Sender (Blackwell/Scott) 2.09
07. (You’re The) Devil In Disguise (Giant/Baum/Kaye) 2.21
08. Viva Las Vegas (Pomus/Shuman) 2.13
09. Edge Of Reality (Giant/Baum/Kaye) 3.13
10. Don’t Cry Daddy (Davis) 2.47
11. In The Ghetto (Davis) 2.48
12. Suspicious Minds (James) 4.20
13. Kentucky Rain (Rabbitt/Heard) 3.23
14. Seperate Ways (West/Mainegra) 2.32
15. Burning Love (Linde) 2.55
16. The Wonder Of You (Knight) 2.38
17. American Trilogy (Newbury) 4.24
18. My Way (François/Revaux/Anka) 3.58
19. Softly As I Leave You (de Vita/Shaper) 2.56

*
**

More from Elvis Presley:

Ronnie Hawkins – Rock And Roll Resurrection (1972)

Ronald Hawkins, OC (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American/Canadian rock and roll musician whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, where he was born and raised. He found success in Ontario, Canada, and lived there for most of his life. He is considered highly influential in the establishment and evolution of rock music in Canada.

Also known as “Rompin’ Ronnie”, “Mr. Dynamo”, or simply “The Hawk”, he was one of the key players in the 1960s rock scene in Toronto. Throughout his career, Hawkins performed all across North America and recorded more than twenty-five albums. His hit songs included covers of Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days” (entitled “Forty Days” by Hawkins) and Young Jessie’s “Mary Lou”, a song about a “gold-digging woman”. Other well-known recordings are a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” (Hawkins’ version was released without the question mark), “Hey Bo Diddley”, and “Susie Q”, which was written by his cousin, rockabilly artist Dale Hawkins.

Hawkins was also notable for his role as a talent scout and mentor of musicians he recruited for his band the Hawks. Roy Buchanan was an early Hawks guitarist on the song “Who Do You Love”. The most successful example of this were the musicians who left him to form The Band. Other musicians Hawkins had recruited went on to form Robbie Lane and the Disciples, Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogie Band, Crowbar, Bearfoot, and Skylark.

Hawkins was born on January 10, 1935, in Huntsville, Arkansas, two days after the birth of Elvis Presley. When he was nine years old, his family moved to nearby Fayetteville, Arkansas. After graduating from high school, he studied physical education at the University of Arkansas, where he formed his first band, the Hawks. He toured with them throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Hawkins also owned and operated the Rockwood Club in Fayetteville, where some of rock and roll’s earliest pioneers came to play including Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty.

On advice from Twitty, Hawkins began touring Canada in 1958. His first gig there was at the Golden Rail Tavern in Hamilton, Ontario, where he became an overnight success. Hawkins decided to move to Canada, and in 1964 became a permanent resident, eventually making Peterborough, Ontario area, his home in 1970.[5] Hawkins moved from their Stoney Lake Manor in Douro-Dummer after selling in 2017 to live in Peterborough.

After the move, the Hawks, with the exception of Hawkins and drummer Levon Helm, dropped out of the band. Their vacancies were filled by Canadians Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson, all hailing from Southwestern Ontario. Helm and the rest of those Hawks would leave Hawkins in 1964 to form an act of their own, which eventually came to be named The Band.

In December 1969, Hawkins hosted John Lennon and Yoko Ono for a stay at his home in Mississauga, Ontario, during the couple’s campaign to promote world peace. Lennon signed his erotic “Bag One” lithographs during his stay there. Lennon also did a radio promo for a Hawkins single, “Down in the Alley”.

In the early 1970s, Hawkins noticed guitarist Pat Travers performing in Ontario nightclubs and was so impressed with the young musician that he invited him to join his band. Travers later had a very successful recording career and became one of the most influential guitarists of the 1970s hard rock genre.

In 1975, Dylan cast Hawkins to play the role of “Bob Dylan” in the movie, Renaldo and Clara. The following year he was a featured performer at the Band’s Thanksgiving Day farewell concert, which was documented in the 1978 film The Last Waltz.[8] His 1984 LP, Making It Again, garnered him a Juno Award as Canada’s best Country Male Vocalist. In addition to his music, he has also become an accomplished actor, hosting his own television show Honky Tonk in the early 1980s and appearing in such films as Heaven’s Gate with his friend Kris Kristofferson, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II and Snake Eater.

On January 10, 1995, Hawkins celebrated his 60th birthday by throwing a concert at Massey Hall in Toronto, which was documented on the album Let It Rock. The concert featured performances by Hawkins, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Band and Larry Gowan. Jeff Healey sat in on guitar for most, if not all, of the performances. Hawkins’s band, the Hawks, or permutations of it, backed most, if not all, of the acts. All of the musicians performing that night were collectively dubbed “the Rock ‘n’ Roll Orchestra”.[citation needed]
Ronnie Hawkins’s star on Canada’s Walk of Fame

In 2002, October 4 was declared “Ronnie Hawkins Day” by the city of Toronto as he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame, in recognition of his lifetime contribution to music and his generous support of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario and other charitable organizations. Hawkins was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame at the Canadian Music Industry Awards on March 4, 2004. His pioneering contribution to the genre was also recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

In later years, Hawkins developed pancreatic cancer. His state of health, attributed to everything from psychic healers to native herbal medicine, was featured in the 2012 film Ronnie Hawkins: Still Alive and Kicking.

In 2005, he was awarded an honorary degree from Laurentian University. On May 2, 2013, Hawkins was made an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada. He was invested on May 7, 2014. The citation read:

For his contributions to the development of the music industry in Canada, as a rock and roll musician, and for his support of charitable causes. For more than 50 years, musician Ronnie Hawkins has demonstrated a strong devotion to Canada’s music industry. Often referred to as the “father of Canadian rock n’ roll”, he was a key player in the 1960s rock scene, with his band The Hawks serving as a launching pad for a host of Canadian musicians. In addition to producing scores of singles and albums, he has performed in support of many charitable causes, notably the Peterborough Flood Relief and the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario.

Hawkins later reissued most of his albums on CD through Unidisc Music Inc.[citation needed]

Hawkins died on May 29, 2022, at age 87. (wikipedia)

And here´s one of his real hot albums:

Recorded a couple of years after the premature end of his contract with Atlantic Records, and three years after he parted company with Roulette (where he’d spent the late 1950s and all of the ’60s), Ronnie Hawkins’ Rock & Roll Resurrection was the result of a chance meeting between Hawkins and Kris Kristofferson, who was signed to Fred Foster’s Monument Records at the time, and was persuaded that the oldies boom made it the right time to record Hawkins anew. Cut in Nashville in August of 1972, with a band that included Grady Martin, Pete Drake, Charlie McCoy, Stan Szelest, and Boots Randolph, Rock & Roll Resurrection captures captures Hawkins in amazingly good form, not quite a decade past his prime hit-making years.

Though the first day’s sessions reportedly degenerated into a drunken party — or perhaps because they did, and Foster was forced to seize the reins of what was going on — the ten songs that were issued are stripped down, highly energetic, and well-performed classics of the rock & roll genre, by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Larry Williams, Bo Diddley, et al, augmented by one great Hawkins original, “Cora Mae,” plus a Kristofferson original composed for the occasion, “The Same Old Song”.” The latter, released as a single, was, alas, the one miscalculation in the body of music cut for the album, a slow-tempo, much too serious and over-produced number that utterly failed to capture what the rest of the sessions had been about, the spirit of the album, or the imagination of either the country or the oldies audiences — it isn’t bad listening,, and to be fair, it is a good compositional effort by Kristofferson, but in the context of this album it stands outside of the rest of what’s here. The rest of Rock & Roll Resurrection has held up well, and certainly was to the credit of all involved, most especially Hawkins, who delivered his requisite energy and a good, raw performance. (Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
David Briggs (organ)
Kenneth Buttrey (drums)
Jerry Carrigan (drums)
Fred Carter (guitar)
Pete Drake (pedal steel-guitar)
Tim Drummond (bass)
Dave Kirby (guitar)
Grady Martin (guiar)
Charlie McCoy  (organ, harmonica)
Farrell Morris (percussion)
William Puett (saxophone)
Boots Randolph (saxophone)
Norman Ray (saxophone)
Don Sheffield (trumpet)
Stan Szelest (piano)
+
The Holiday Sisters (background vocals:
D. Bergen White – James Cason – Jeanie Greene – June Page

Tracklist:
01. Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Price) 2.42
02. When My Dreamboat Comes Home (Friend/Franklin) 2.26
03. Cora Mae (Hawkins) 2.12
04. Memphis, Tennessee (Berry) 2.46
05. Ain’t That A Shame (Domino/Bartholomew) 2.19
06. Bony Moronie (Williams) 2.27
07. Diddley Daddy (MacDaniel/Fuqua) 2.27
08. I’m In Love Again (Domino/Bartholomew) 2.11
09. Maybellene (Freed/Berry/Fratto) 2.33
10. The Same Old Song (Kristofferson) 3.01

*
**

The official website:

Elvis Costello – Kojak Variety (1995)

Declan Patrick MacManus, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter.

He has won multiple awards in his career, including Grammy Awards in 1999 and 2020, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Kojak Variety is a 1995 album by Elvis Costello, composed of cover songs written by others. Rhino Records reissued an expanded, double-CD in 2004 containing a bonus disc.

Costello said in the liner notes this was a “record of some of my favourite songs performed with some of my favourite musicians.”[13] but that he didn’t want to record songs that were too familiar. Costello had searched independent record shops: Potter’s Music in Richmond, Probe in Liverpool, Rock On in Camden Town, and many American thrift stores and pawn shops to discover albums that he previously had only known from singles or compilations. Costello said he made his best discoveries in what he called “the greatest record collecting store in the world”, Village Music in Mill Valley, California.

The first song recorded for the album was “Running Out of Fools”, while the last was a new rendering of “Days” by The Kinks, which he had previously recorded for the album soundtrack album Until the End of the World, for the Wim Wenders’ film of the same name. The title Kojak Variety refers to the name of a variety store in Barbados near where the album was recorded; Costello was amused by the seemingly random name of the enterprise, and in a similar spirit, decided to apply the name to his album.[14]

With Almost Blue, Elvis Costello wanted to be a honky tonker. With Kojak Variety, he’s a crooner, picking forgotten tunes by both minor and major artists (anyone from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to Bob Dylan). From his song selections to the pseudo-avant-rock/R&B band, Costello doesn’t make any obvious moves. Yet that doesn’t mean that the record is difficult — it just shows the depths of Costello’s affection for music and record collecting (which is also clear from his loving, detailed liner notes). Costello and his band (featuring guitarists James Burton and Marc Ribot, drummer Jim Keltner and Attraction Pete Thomas) play with gusto, tearing through the songs with the vigor of a bar band on a Friday night. Some of the rockers sound slightly forced, although there’s no denying the power of Costello’s passionate vocals, even if he stretches his range a little too much (Little Richard’s “Bama Lama Bama Loo”). What matters here are the performances, and the majority of Kojak Variety is filled with fine interpretations. Kojak Variety does what any good covers album should do — it makes you want to seek out the originals. (by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

This album is as good as any of Costello’s best. Sure, it’s a cover album. But, it doesn’t cover any songs you’re likely to have ever heard before. And that’s what elevates it from you run of the mill, dialed in cover collection. Costello has a passion for these tunes. He had been touring with this band and this album was their last opportunity to play together. You can tell that they’re truly enjoying the collaboration—there’s an energy and enthusiasm here. This is a hard driving, nostalgic rock & roll/R&B album featuring musicians who are at the top of their game. It’s a joy to listen to, and over the years, I’ve found myself returning to it again and again. The All Music two star rating doesn’t give this set the attention it deserves. (Jeremy Feldman)

Personnel:
James Burton (guitar)
Elvis Costello (vocals, harmonica)
Jim Keltner (drums)
Larry Knechtel (keyboards)
Marc Ribot (banjo, guitar, horn)
Jerry Scheff (bass)
Pete Thomas (drums)

Tracklist:
01. Strange (Hawkins) 2.42
02. Hidden Charms (Dixon) 3.33
03. Remove This Doubt (B.Holland/Dozier/E.Holland, Jr.) 3.54
04. I Threw It All Away (Dylan) 3.26
05. Leave My Kitten Alone (John/Turner) 3.13
06. Everybody’s Crying Mercy (Allison) 4.08
07. I’ve Been Wrong Before (Newman) 3.03
08. Bama Lama Bama Loo (Penniman) 2.47
09. Must You Throw Dirt In My Face? (Anderson) Louvin Brothers 3.51
10. Pouring Water On A Drowning Man (Baker/McCormick) James Carr 3.40
11. The Very Thought Of You (Noble) Nat King Cole 3.43
12. Payday (Winchester) Jesse Winchester 3.00
13. Please Stay (Bacharach/Hilliard) 4.50
14. Running Out Of Fools (Ahlert/Rogers) 3.04
15. Days (Davies) The Kinks 4.56

*
**

More from Elvis Costello:

The official website:

Ricky Nelson – Hello Mary Lou + Travelin‘ Man (1961)

Eric Hilliard Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985), known professionally as Ricky Nelson, was an American musician, songwriter and actor. From age eight he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1957, he began a long and successful career as a popular recording artist. The expression “teen idol” was first coined to describe Nelson, and his fame as both a recording artist and television star also led to a motion picture role co-starring alongside John Wayne, Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson in Howard Hawks’s western feature film Rio Bravo (1959). He placed 53 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and its predecessors, between 1957 and 1973, including “Poor Little Fool” in 1958, which was the first number one song on Billboard magazine’s then-newly created Hot 100 chart. He recorded 19 additional top ten hits and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 21, 1987. In 1996 Nelson was ranked No. 49 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.

Nelson began his entertainment career in 1949, playing himself in the radio sitcom series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1952, he appeared in his first feature film, Here Come the Nelsons. In 1957, he recorded his first single (“Im Walkin’ b/w “A Teenagers Romance”, Verve 10047X4S), debuted as a singer on the television version of the sitcom, and released the No. 1 album titled Ricky. In 1958, Nelson released his first #1 single, “Poor Little Fool”, and in 1959 received a Golden Globe nomination for “Most Promising Male Newcomer” after starring in Rio Bravo. A few films followed, and when the television series was cancelled in 1966, Nelson made occasional appearances as a guest star on various television programs. In his twenties, he moved away from the pop music of his youth, and began to perform in a more country rock style. After recording several albums with mostly session musicians, most of which flopped, he formed the Stone Canyon Band in 1969 and experienced a career resurgence, buoyed by the live album In Concert at the Troubadour, 1969 and had a surprise hit with 1972’s “Garden Party”, which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. His comeback was short-lived, however, as his record label was bought out and folded, and his followup albums were not well promoted by his new label. He continued to perform live and take small television roles through the 1970s, though his label dropped him by the end of the decade. He released two more albums, with unimpressive results, before his death in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve, 1985.

Nelson was married once, to Sharon Kristin Harmon, from 1963 until their divorce in 1982. They had four children: actress Tracy Nelson, twin sons and musicians Gunnar and Matthew, and actor Sam.

Nelson died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1985, flying from Guntersville, Alabama, to Dallas, Texas, for a concert. The plane he was on, a Douglas DC-3, had a history of mechanical problems. All seven passengers, including Blair, died. Only the two pilots survived.

Nelson’s funeral took place at the Church of the Hills, Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery, on January 6, 1986, and he was privately buried in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery, in Los Angeles. His estate was bequeathed to his children, and he did not provide for ex-wife Kris Nelson. (wikipedia)

And here´s one of his greatest hits … a worldwide hit …

… enjoy this little trip in the early Sixties.

Alternate frontcovers:

Personnel:
Ricky Nelson (vocals)
+
a bunch of unknown studio musicians

The German edition:

Tracklist:
01. Hello Mary Lou (Pitney) 2.31
02. Travelin‘ Man (Fuller) 2.30

*
**

Elvis Presley – Pure Gold (1975)

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll”, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues.

In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley’s classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley’s first RCA Victor single, “Heartbreak Hotel”, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours.

Presley meets U.S. President Richard Nixon in the White House Oval Office,
December 21, 1970

In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Having sold over 500 million records worldwide, Presley is recognized as the best-selling solo music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump. (wikipedia)

Pure Gold is a compilation album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, issued in 1975 by RCA Records with catalog number ANL1-0971(e) as part of the RCA budget Pure Gold series of albums. At the time of this release, Presley was at the final stage of his career; he was focused more on the country music market, where he had a string of chart-topping records in recent years. This short and rather haphazard collection focused more on his earlier Rock and Roll material than later hits. Although considered a mediocre compilation at best, Pure Gold became an extremely popular seller in the wake of Elvis’ unexpected death in August, 1977.

“Fever”, “It’s Impossible”, and “In The Ghetto” are heard in true stereo; “Kentucky Rain” utilized the mono single version, with mild rechanneled or “fake stereo” effect. The other six tracks on the album are original 1950s monophonic recordings with “stereo effect reprocessed from monophonic”, or “fake stereo”. When RCA reissued the album on compact disc in 1992, the “fake stereo” tracks were restored to their original mono sound. The album was certified Gold on September 12, 1977, Platinum on March 20, 1988 and 2x Platinum on March 27, 1992 by the RIAA.

The front cover photo features Elvis from his Aloha from Hawaii concert in January, 1973. The original back cover featured a list of other albums available in the RCA Pure Gold series. The album was reissued in the early 1980s with the catalog number AYL1-3732(e) as part of the RCA budget ‘Best Buy’ series. (wikipedia)

The precise motivation behind the release of Pure Gold is difficult to fathom, based on its content: ten songs spanning 16 years of Elvis Presley’s recorded history, from “I Got a Woman” in January 1956 through “It’s Impossible,” cut in February 1972. What’s more, three of the songs are title tracks to films: “Love Me Tender,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Loving You.” As the extensive notes by Patrick Snyder fail to give any particular motivation for choosing these ten songs, let’s just go with what’s here — the songs, which do represent a decent cross section of some of his most familiar material from a few prime moments in his career. The mature, more finely nuanced Elvis of “Kentucky Rain,” “It’s Impossible,” and “In the Ghetto” makes an interesting contrast with the younger, more threatening Elvis of “Jailhouse Rock,” etc. One marvels at how underrated he was by his critics, and also how much more he had to offer than just a few years of rock & roll excitement. As a crude statement of the man’s range and talent, Pure Gold is just fine — but there are a dozen other collections that do the job better. (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
Elvis Presley (vocals)
+
many, many studio musicians

Tracklist:
01.Kentucky Rain (Rabbitt/Heard) (1969) 3.25
02. Fever (from Elvis Is Back!) (Cooley/Blackwell) (1960) 3.34
03. It’s Impossible (from Elvis) (Manzanero/Wayne) (1972) 2.52
04. Jailhouse Rock (from Jailhouse Rock) (Leiber/Stoller) (1957) 2.28
05. Don’t Be Cruel (Blackwell/Presley) (1956) 2.05
06. I Got A Woman (from Elvis Presley) (Charles/Richard) (1956) 2.26
07. All Shook Up (Blackwell/Presley) (1957) 1.59
08. Loving You (from Loving You) (Leiber/Stoller) (1957) 2.14
09. In The Ghetto (from From Elvis in Memphis) (Davis) (1969) 2.49
10. Love Me Tender (from Love Me Tender) (Matson/Presley) (1956) 2.42

*
**

More from Elvis Presley: