Embassy label - The Typhoons - Beatles hits 1963/1964

This month a series of budget cover versions. These records were released mainly between 1960 and 1966, although in the UK the Top Of The Pops series continued deep into the 1970s.
One of the most collectable labels became Embassy. It was the houselabel of British department store Woolworth and their "beat group" were The Typhoons. In fact, there was not such a group as The Typhoons. Their "lead singer" was a session singer called Ray Pilgrim, a former big band singer, who also recorded under dozens of aliases. For the rest The Typhoons were whoever was available for a session in the Oriole studio in New Bond Street (London).
Oriole was taken over by CBS in 1965 and soon after Woolworth decided to stop selling budget records as the standard of living was rapidly rising and people could afford "the real thing".
Ironically CBS revived the Embassy name for a series of budget albums (by the original artists) most of them reissues of CBS albums.

Rating: ***

Discofoon label - The Bottles - Beatles hits 1963 - 1964

There were many Beatles covering "beatgroups" in the 1960s and one of those had the not so original name The Bottles. Records by The Bottles were released on the Discofoon label from The Netherlands (some also were sold on the Belgium market on the Smash label). Discofoon was the houselabel of department store chain Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D). They leased tracks from both the British Embassy label (CBS) and the Top Six label, which was controlled by Pye records in the UK.



The Bottles recordings came from Top Six, but the UK releases were anonymous, so in England nobody knew about The Bottles. Those tracks were also released by the German Pye distributor Deutsche Vogue in an LP series on the POP label called Original Beat aus England (aus=from). Bottles tracks appeared on those LP's under names like The Beat Kings when they were covering the Beatles, but The High Tops sounded conspicuously similar.
The Bottles were one of the best Beatles cover bands at the time. Their version of I wanna be your man beats both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones versions.

Rating: ****

Cannon label - Beatles hits 1963 - 1964

Like Top Six the Cannon label released six track EP's. The Cannon label was set up by Australian Allan Crawford in the early Sixties. Crawford also worked together with Ronan O'Rahilly in setting up Radio Caroline and was involved in music publishing company Southern Music. This label has become the rarest of all the budget cover labels as future star singer / songwriter / producer John Carter sang on a lot of the tracks. Carter (under contract to Southern Musci) sang in Carter/Lewis & the Southerners (with Jimmy Page on guitar) and The Ivy League, then proceeded to write/sing/produce hits under aliases like The Flower Pot Men (with his Ivy League partner Ken Lewis), Kincade (Dreams are ten a penny) and First Class (Beach Baby). He also co-wrote Mary Hopkins's Eurovision entry Knock knock who's there and sang the hit Winchester Cathedral. Between 1962 and 1964 he recorded for Cannon under such names as Frank Bacon, The Baconeers, The Bell Boys and The Sparrows, concentrating on hits by The Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers and Freddie & the Dreamers. In 2010 the RPM label released two download only albums with tracks sung by Carter (digitized from records from Carter's private collection) from which a six track Beatles compilation included here.

Rating: ****

Fonodisc label - Beatles hits 1964 - 1965

The label I know the least about is Fonodisc (confusing: Discofoon and Fonodisc). The Beatles hits were covered here by The Stars. Where the recordings came from remains a mystery. The pronunciation of the lyrics sounds British, but the audio quality of the records is tinny. Obviously these recordings were made with less professional musicians. The Extended Play records (4 tracks) were also relatively expensive at Hfl. 3,95 (the same price of a regular single), but they had stylish full colour sleeves with ladies in cocktail dresses or dancing teenagers and they were sold in sealed plastic outer sleeves in supermarkets and petrol stations.

Rating: **

"Have you seen her face" b/w "Don't make waves" by The Byrds (CBS 2789)

This month a quartet by The Byrds. "Have you seen her face" was not a hit and it was one of those typical bargain bin singles. The "Younger than yesterday" album has remained one of my all time favourites apart from the dreadful "Mind gardens", but this Chris Hillman track was no doubt one of the highlights. Un-Byrds like guitar work, no Rickenbacker 12-string here. Although McGuinn played the guitar solo live on a 6-string Gretsch Country Gentleman it could well be that it's actually Clarence White playing. He is mentioned on the back of the "Younger than yesterday" sleeve, no doubt because of his work on "Time between". For years the flipside was a bit of a rarity as this song wasn't on any Byrds album, but "Don't make waves" isn't a very good song. The film version is even worse, but that's quite another story.
Rating:*****

"My back pages" b/w "Renaissance fair" by The Byrds (CBS 2648)

This was the most "Mr Tambourine Man" like track on the great "Younger than yesterday" album. Another great Dylan interpretation. Not as big a hit as it should have been, especially since the flipside "Renaissance fair" was one of Crosby's most beautiful compositions. I think he even sang it all by himself overdubbing the harmonies as all the voices sound so angelic. "I think that maybe I'm dreaming............."
Rating:*****

"Eight miles high" b/w "Why" by The Byrds (CBS 267)

The best single ever? It could well be. "Eight miles high" has it all: great melody, beautiful harmonies, good lyrics and innovative playing by the whole band, including Crosby's incredible rhythm guitar.
The flipside is a great track too, driving guitar chords and beautiful melody line. Crosby manages some intricate harmony lines again. It is a bit of a confusing song in the Byrds history as at least three versions were publicly released. This one is the single version (also known as the "raga version") and generally regarded as the best one. But I don't agree: I like the re-recorded version off "Younger than yesterday" better. Then there's also the "RCA-version", an early attempt to record the song, but it was still in its formative stage by then.
Rating:*****

"Turn turn turn" b/w "She don't care about time" by The Byrds (CBS 1897)

After the relative failure of "All I really want to do" The Byrds retrubned to the #1 spot with a vengeance. Incredible guitar work by Jim McGuinn and one of the few Byrds records to actually feature THREE part harmonies, albeit only in the last line of the chorus.
Rating: *****