Buddy Holly - Buddy Holly and The Fireballs (1969)

 After he died, there was a scramble to overdub the final demos that Buddy Holly made. There were some done in 1959 and 1960, but I don't like those, so I'm electing to ignore them. The ones I prefer were the ones done by the group The Fireballs, but even then, like I said, it wasn't always appropriate. Generally, when it comes to Holly's 1959 acoustic apartment demos, they work more often than not. Outside of those, the only one I really think improves the original is Bo Diddley, so I'll slap that on as a bonus track.

The Fireballs recorded their overdubs between 1962 and 1969, so maybe this could have come out on the 10 year anniversary of his death.

Side One

1. Peggy Sue Got Married
2. What To Do
3. Crying, Waiting, Hoping
4. That Makes It Tough
5. Learning The Game
6. That's What They Say

Side Two

1. Slippin' and Slidin'
2. Wait Till The Sun Shines, Nellie
3. Smokey Joe's Cafe
4. You're The One
5. Love Is Strange
6. (Ummm, Oh Yeah) Dearest

Bonus Tracks

• Bo Diddley
• Slippin' and Slidin' (Other version)
  

Buddy Holly - Alone (1959)

 Like most musicians, Buddy Holly liked to play music at home, and write there too. He had gotten married to a woman named Maria Elana, and they got an apartment together in New York City, where Buddy Holly made some home recordings on his acoustic guitar. These recordings, much like his final studio recordings, are superb. These recordings just go to highlight Holly's superb skill as a songwriter and as a performer.

Side One

1. That's What They Say
2. What To Do
3. Peggy Sue Got Married
4. That Makes It Tough
5. Crying, Waiting, Hoping
6. Learning The Game

Side Two

1. Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie
2. You're The One
3. Slippin' and Slidin'
4. Love Is Strange
5. Smokey Joe's Cafe
6. (Ummm, Oh Yeah) Dearest

Bonus Tracks

• Untitled Instrumental
• Slippin' and Slidin' (Other Version)
  

Buddy Holly - Reminiscing EP (1958)

 Before he died, Buddy Holly seemed to be branching out, stylisticly. He was incorporating more strings, more balladry. Borderline crooner. These would be Buddy Holly's final studio recordings. In total, they're only about half an LP, but they still make an impact as some of his finest work. These would be among the first tracks released after his demise.

Side One

1. Reminiscing
2. Moondreams
3. Raining In My Heart

Side Two

1. Come Back, Baby
2. It Doesn't Matter Anymore
3. True Love Ways
   

Buddy Holly - You'll Miss Me (1958)

 So in 1957, Buddy Holly and The Crickets hit it big with a long line of hit singles, most of which made it onto their debut album. More hits followed on the next album, issued in '58 as a Holly solo album, though the group still performed on it. In addition to all that, there were still plenty of outtakes, b-sides, and whatnot. A lot of them would appear in 1959 on the "The Buddy Holly Story" LP, rush-released after his death in February. They could have been put out as another LP, however, which I've tried to put together here.

Once again, all of these are undubbed, as they were complete when they were originally recorded. EXCEPT! "Wishing", of which the original undubbed version no longer exists, or is otherwise lost. However, the overdubs seem to have been kept tasteful, or otherwise to a minimum on that release, so I reckon it's okay.

Side One

1. Wishing
2. That's My Desire
3. Well... All Right
4. Take Your Time
5. Fool's Paradise
6. Think It Over

Side Two

1. Lonesome Tears
2. It's So Easy
3. Heartbeat
4. Love's Made A Fool Of You
5. Early In The Morning
6. Now We're One
   

Buddy Holly - Holly At Home (1956)

The Crickets were the first garage band. At least if the liner notes of the Not Fade Away box are anything to be believed. The group recorded a number of home demos in the Holley family home's garage. Once again, these are lo-fi recordings, in line with the Buddy & Bob recordings, except these tracks are very plainly rock and roll. Immortals like "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" and "Blue Suede Shoes" find homes here. These aren't all of the Crickets' garage tapes, however. During these demo sessions, they also did versions of "Bo Diddley" and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", of which I've included the studio versions as bonus tracks on the previous "Holly Hits!" EP. However, if you wish to include them, and to catigorise this as a live album, by all means.

I wasn't keen on the overdubs of these, as I found that the professionally recorded backing tracks clashed with the existing lo-fi instrumentation. 

Side One

1. Rip It Up
2. Good Rockin' Tonight
3. Gone
4. Have You Ever Been Lonely? (Have You Ever Been Blue?)
5. Honky Tonk

Side Two

1. Shake, Rattle, and Roll
2.  Blue Suede Shoes
3. Blue Monday
4. Ain't Got No Home
5. Holly Hop
   

Buddy Holly - Holly Hits! EP (1956)

 Throughout 1956, Buddy Holly recorded several songs for Decca Records, and of them, four or so were put out as singles. They didn't do well, so Decca shelved them, because they're thots or something, idk. Later, in 1957, when Holly hit it big on a smaller label (though still technically owned by Decca), Decca realised their mistake, and finally put out 11 of his early recordings with them on an lp, decepively titled That'll Be The Day, to capitalise on the hit single of the same name. The version of the track on that album was very different from the hit single version, since it was recorded earler and with a different producer, who didn't give Holly much freedom (probably explaining why Decca didn't have any hits with him). 

There were still a handful of good tracks in the Decca vaults that they didn't issue on the LP, so I've put them together in this here EP. At the time, if I reccall correctly, EPs were still a viable concept in the states, so I don't see why they wouldn't have put this out at the time. I've also included two bonus tracks recorded with Norman Petty as producer, who would go on to lead Buddy to stardom. They didn't really fit anywhere else, and they were recorded around the same time as these tracks, plus one of them isn't the best quality, but I'll touch on that later.

Once again, all tracks are their undubbed originals

Side One

1. Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight
2. I Guess I Was Just A Fool
3. It's Not My Fault

Side Two

1. I'm Gonna Set My Foot Down
2. Rockabye Rock
3. Because I Love You
   

Bonus Tracks

• Bo Diddley
• Brown Eyed Handsome Man
  

•  
  

Buddy Holly - Buddy & Bob (1955)

 The Buddy Holly Story is one that is equal parts inspiring and tragic. Following a shockingly quick rise to stardom, Buddy Holly would infamously pass away in a plane crash alongside The Big Bopper and Richie Valenz. What Holly left behind were three studio albums, a handful of non album singles, buckets of outtakes, some early demos, some later demos, and some mid era demos. After his death, these tracks would be plundered and overdubbed to varying levels of success in no particular order. 

What I've tried to do is, using the Not Fade Away box set, compile all the orignal, undubbed recordings in a logical order. After he died, some of the demos Buddy Holly recorded were simple acoustic recordings done in his apartment in New York. Overdubbing those made sense, I reckon. What I take issue with was the overdubbing of earlier material that didn't need to be done, as the original recordings were complete tracks to begin with. I've used those original recordings in all but one instance, and the overdubs I don't really take issue with I've put in their own catigory. 

The first of these albums I've put together would've been in 1955, with the earliest recordings going back to potentially 1953. These are, by and large, country and western recordings either put down on Acetate or done on home recording equiptment. Lo-Fi stuff. Some of it sounds alright, while others sound like they've seen better days - but are still putting up a fight. I've included three bonus tracks that sound a lot rougher than the others, one of which was Buddy Holly's first ever recording, a cover of the track "My Two Timin' Woman", recorded when Holly was just 13 (His voice hadn't even dropped yet!). 

Just about all of these recordings are with Bob Montgomery, as Holly was in a duo with him called "Buddy & Bob", hence the name of the album. Other members include Sonny Curtis, who featured on fiddle and guitar. This would have made an interesting start to Buddy Holly's career, and one can see the roots of this style in his Decca recordings.

Side One

1. Flower of my Heart
2. Door To My Heart
3. Soft Place In My Heart
4. Gotta Get You Near Me Blues
5. I Gambled My Heart
6. You And I Are Through

Side Two

1. Down The Line 
2. Baby, It's Love
3. Memories
4. Queen of the Ballroom
5. Footprints In The Snow
6.  Baby, Let's Play House

Bonus Tracks

• My Two-Timin' Woman
• I'll Just Pretend
• Take These Shackles From My Heart
  

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - The Cost of Freedom (1970)

 CSNY are one of the greatest bands of all time, but oh were they fleeting. One album in 1969, a second in 1970, and then a live album in 1971, and then... a five year hiatus, after which nothing was the same. Lighning in a bottle, those three years were. Between those two albums, however, were more than enough outtakes for a third LP. Between these, there's a couple covers, and some studio versions of tracks that they'd only ever play live. Additionally, they recorded songs that each member would use later on respective solo projects, but I'll be ignoring those (for now).

Ignoring songs the band used latter, that leaves me with 14 songs to use. This is a combination of outtakes from their debut album and from Deja Vu, plus the Ohio / Find The Cost Of Freedom 45. Now, that comes out to about 48 minutes of music, which wouldn't have fit on an album. Taking the two covers off of the album ("Blackbird" and "Everybody's Talkin'") brings it to a comfortable 12 tracks and 42 mintues and 32 seconds. To this point, CSN(Y) had only included 10 tracks on both of their albums, but, well, who cares? They had the tracks.

 

For the cover I used a modified version of the Ohio / Find The Cost Of Freedom single sleeve

Side One

1. Ohio
2. How Have You Been?
3. Horses Through A Rainstorm
4. Thirty Dollar Fine
5. Sea of Madness
6. Ivory Tower
7. Right On Rock And Roll

Side Two

1. Same Old Song
2. Everyday We Live
3. The Lee Shore
4. I'll Be There 
5. Find The Cost Of Freedom

• Everybody's Talkin'
• Blackbird
  

The Hollies - Listen To Us (1968)

 1968 was the last year Graham Nash would be in The Hollies, growing dissatisfied with their infighting, and seeking hope in L.A. with CSN. Before he left to join Crosby and Stills in the states, he recorded some more singles before bouncing from The Hollies. Again, there's only eleven tracks, and one of them is an edit where they took the vocals from a Nash solo demo of the later CSN tune "Marrakesh Express", and laid them over an instrumental backing track recorded by The Hollies in '68.

The cover is a modified version of the 1968 "Hollies' Greatest" lp

Side One

1. Open Up Your Eyes
2. Do The Best You Can
3. Relax
4. Tomorrow When It Comes
5. Man With No Expression (Horses Through A Rainstorm)
6. Like Every Time Before

Side Two

1. Wings
2. Jennifer Eccles
3. Blowin' in the Wind (Nash Version)
4. Listen To Me
5. Marrakesh Express
   (To get the version of Marrakesh Express, look up "Rare&UnreleasedHollies", and it's on the soundcloud)
   

The Hollies - King Midas In Reverse (1967)

 In 1967, The Hollies made the great leap into psychedelic rock, mostly spearheaded by Graham Nash. They recorded and released two psych classics that year, Evolution and Butterfly. They also releases several singles that didn't end up on either album, either. Cheif amoung these is Nash's "King Midas in Reverse", which he would go on to perform with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, despite the underperformance of the song when released by The Hollies. 

Also in '67, The Hollies recorded two singles specifically for release in Italy, two of the four songs being in Italian. Huh. There's only Eleven songs this time around, and they're bookened by the Italian tracks. All 11 of the songs were recorded in '67.

The cover is from The American release of Butterfly, which included "King Midas in Reverse", so was titled Dear Eloise / King Midas In Reverse, but I removed the "Dear Eloise" part, since that's the opening track of Butterfly.

Side One

1. Non Prego Per Me
2. We're Alive
3. On A Carousel
4. Carrie Anne
5. All The World Is Love

Side Two

1. Schoolgirl
2. Everything is Sunshine
3. Sighns That Will Never Change
4. Kill Me Quick
5. King Midas in Reverse
6. Devi Aver Fiducia In Me
   

The Hollies - Bus Stop (1966)

 By 1966, the Hollies were hitting their stride. They were coming into their own in terms of sound, as well as hits. Additionally, they were writing more of their own songs. They didn't shake off covers right away, but that's not a terrible thing, since they sound as good as always. The big hits on this lp are the titular "Bus Stop", as well as "Look Through Any Window". Also here is a cover of "If I Needed Someone", originally done by The Beatles, who cristicized The Hollies version as sounding like it was recorded by "souless session men". Whatever, it sounds good.

There's only elevin tracks here, including "After The Fox", which was recorded for and featured in the film of the same name starring Peter Sellers. The song is okay enough, but, it also features Peter Sellers singing in response to The Hollies: "Who is the fox?" "I am the fox" etc. The whole thing is kind of silly, but the harmonies are impeccable.

The album art is just the US cover for the album of the same name.

Side One

1. Don't Run and Hide
2. A Taste of Honey
3. Running Through The Night
4. I Can't Get Nowhere With You
5. Look Through Any Window 
6. After The Fox (Feat. Peter Sellers)
   

Side Two

1. If I Needed Someone
2. I've Got A Way Of My Own
3. Little Bitty Pretty One
4. She Gives Me Everything
5. Bus Stop

The Hollies - Hollies' Days (1965)

By 1965, The Hollies still weren't too popular, but they had minor hits here and there. This lp covers tracks from April 1964 through May 1965. The main hits on this lp, as far as I can tell, are the tracks "Here I Go Again" and "We're Through, which stem from April '64 and August '64 sessions, respectively. The span of time this covers is a tad broad, starting just after the band's debut album would come out, and continuing through their second, and moving into the sessions for their third. Ultimately, though, it seems to work out.

The title and cover are taken from an international version of one of their albums.

Side One

1. Baby That's All
2. You Know He Did
3. I'm Alive
4. Honey and Wine
5. She Said Yeah
6. Bring Back Your Love To Me 

Side Two

1. Nobody
2. Listen Here To Me
3. Here I Go Again
4. We're Through
5. Come On Back
6. Yes I Will
   

The Hollies - Just One Look (1964)

The Hollies are where Graham Nash came from, and rose to prominence alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. However, they have had nowhere near the amount of longevity that those other two have. How is that? Well, basically they were very uncool in their time. They weren't as fun as The Beatles, and they weren't as dangerous as The Stones. They were kind of a goody-two-shoes band. That being said, they weren't bad. Not even boring! They just didn't have an ambitious producer or manager. 

Eventually, one of the three main songwriters, Graham Nash, left the group to go onto better things with the band Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He rose to prominence in 1963 with The Hollies, however, which is where this album takes place.

As was the standard practice at the time (especially in the UK, where this band is from), The Hollies recorded a lot of singles that never made it onto any studio album. As was also the standard practice, the US releases of these albums were quite different, featuring different tracks, different orders, etc. Unlike I did with The Stones, I won't be using their US albums as a base, since The Stones (or at least their manager) oversaw the production of the US albums, which wasn't the case with The Hollies.

Thus, this first album cleans up the outtakes, A-sides, B-sides, and EP exclusive tracks that The Hollies recorded between April 1963 and March 1964. I'll keep it to twelve tracks to make future albums easier, as well as the fact that besides the first Hollies album, they usually only had twelve tracks per album.

For the album art, I altered the US debut cover.

Side One

1. (Ain't That) Just Like Me
2. Hey, What's Wrong With Me?
3. Searchin'
4. Now's The Time
5. Just One Look
6. Whole World Over 

Side Two

1. I Understand
2. Poison Ivy
3. What Kind Of Love
   
4. Zip A Dee Doo Dah
5. Keep Off That Friend Of Mine
6. When I'm Not There
   

Elton John - Elsewhere (1977)

 By the start of the second half of the 70s, Elton John's long and painful decline had begun: his albums were getting less overall good, and he was less productive overall, falling extremely deep into drug addiction, eating disorders, and proably severe burnout. That all being said, he was still putting out bangers, if even at a less consistent rate. 

This album covers the period between 1975 and very early 1977, with "The Goaldigger's Song" being the newest song on here, recorded in April of '77. I decided to call the album Elsewhere becuase after this, Elton would start looking elsewhere for songwriting partnership, musicianship, production, etc. Even on this album, three of the songs are covers (Pinball Wizard, One Day at a Time, and Sugar on the Floor), and two of them are collaborations with Kiki Dee.

For the album art I used a picture of Elton looking whistfully out of a window.

Side One

1. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
2. House of Cards
3. Planes
4. One Day at a Time
5. The Goaldigger's Song
   

Side Two

1. Sugar on the Floor
2. Snow Queen
3. Pinball Wizard
   
4. Philadelphia Freedom
   

Elton John - Young Man's Blues (1974)

 By 1974, Elton John was on top of the world. He'd put out Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player, Honky Chateau, Madman Across The Water, Friends, Tumbleweed Connection, and his self titled sophomore album all in the matter of three years. That's a lot of grinding. I picked up his scraps from the starts of his career, but he left enough breadcrumbs to make a full album out of his tunes from 1973 to 1974 (Yes, I'm including the christmas songs, becuase even disconected from christmas Step Into Christmas slaps). These include outtakes, B-sides, non album singles, and whatnot.

 I got the cover from this blog, which has a similar premise.

 

Side One

1. Screw You (Young Man's Blues)
2. Cold Highway
3. Sick City
4. Step Into Christmas

Side Two

1. Ho! Ho! Ho! (Who'd be a Turkey at Chrstimas?)
   
2. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
3. Whenever you're Ready (We'll Go Steady Again)
4. Jack Rabbit
5. Let Me Be Your Car

Elton John - Rock N Roll Madonna (1971)

 Elton John was a goddamn maniac. He put out so many albums back in the day, usually two a year, which was common in the early to mid 60s, but fell out of favour by 1970 or so. Elton just kept on chooglin', though. Maybe it was the cocaine, who knows? Anyway, you'd think that that wouldn't leave much room for outtakes or non album singles, but shockingly, he was churning those out left and right, too! A real workhorse.

The tracks on this range from 1969 to 1970, with one track from 1971 to fill out the rest, since there's a bit of a gap between that one and the next ones. Anyways. The cover is from 1970, IIRC

Side One

1. Rock N Roll Madonna
2. All Across The Havens
3. In The Morning
4. It's Me That You Need
5. Sing Me No Sad Songs
6. From Denver to L.A.

Side Two

1. One Time, Sometime, or Never
2. Into the Old Man's Shoes
3. Just like Strange Rain
4. Rock Me When He's Gone
5. Lady Samantha
6. Bad Side of the Moon
   

Elton John - Two of a Kind (1968)

 Elton John's debut album Empty Sky came out in 1969 to little fanfare, but in 1968, he recorded a whole different album with a whole different vibe called Regemental Sgt. Zippo, which would've been a kind of summer of love type deal, but a year late, like Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies. Zippo finally came out this year, but maybe like two years ago or something, Elton John released a career and rarities retrospectve called Jewel Box which included a fat stack of early demos and previously unreleased tracks.
If one only uses the Arranged Band tracks and Band Demos, then you see that Elton could've put out two full lenth LPs in 1968!

The cover I use is a colourised photo of Elton John from 1968

These are songs that were recorded with a full band, sourced from the Jewel Box.

Side One

1. If I Asked You
2. Cry, Willow, Cry
3. Two of a Kind
4. I've Been Loving You
5. The Girl on Angel Pavement
6. Smokestack Children
7. 71-75 New Oxford Street

Side Two

1. Here's to the Next Time
2. Taking the Sun From My Eyes
3. There is Still a Little Love
4. Baby I Miss You
5. I Can't Go On Living Without You
6. When The First Tear Shows
7. Thank You For All Your Loving
   

Creedence Clearwater Revival (The Golliwogs) - Fight Fire (1967)

 In 1967, the group put out a tune called "Fight Fire", and lead guitarist and singer John Fogerty was gradually claiming more control over the group while they still languished in obscurity, despite their label's efforts to promote their "Fight Fire" single. For whatever reason, they still hadn't put out an album. Lord knows why, they had the tunes. 

With this album, some of the tracks need some explanation. "You Can't Be True" appeared on the previous album, but this version is a remade version and fits this album fine. "Walking On The Water" would be re-recorded in 1968 for Creedence's debut self titled album, titled there "Walk On The Water", but as that was a remake and released under a different name, I figure, what the hell, why not put it on here? "Call It Pretending" was, I belive, the b-side to the Creedence single "Porterville", but because it didn't end up on any Creedence album, it has a home here, shining a light onto the Creedence jammin' that was to come.

I wasn't able to come up with a cover I'm happy with, since like, all the pictures of the band that have any sembelance of quality come from either the photoshoot of the last cover, or from 1969, so...
go wild.

Side One

1. Fight Fire
2. Fragile Child
3. She Was Mine
4. Try Try Try
5. Instrumental #1
6. Little Tina

Side Two

1. Tell Me
2. You Can't Be True (Remake Version)
3. Walking On The Water (Original Version)
4. You Better Get It Before It Gets You
5. Call It Pretending (Porterville B-side)
   

Creedence Clearwater Revival (The Golliwogs) - The Golliwogs (1965)

 So what I've done in terms of rounding up the pre-Creedence tracks by CCR is take all the tunes recorded and released for the years of 1964 and 1965 and put them together in an album. Though, excluding the '62 songs, which I've put on their own ep due to their stylistic difference to their later stuff, the album only comes out to ten tracks, which is reasonable enough, but only 22 minutes or so, which might seem like a stretch, but keep in mind that the US Kinks album 'Kinks-Size' has the same specifications, being about 22 minutes long and 10 tracks long, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that a record label would put out a short album like this, especially if the band hasn't had any success.

The photo I've used for the cover is taken from the band's Complete Recordings archive release.

 

Side One

1. Gonna Hang Around
2. Brown-Eyed Girl
3. I Only Met You Just An Hour Ago
4. You Better Be Careful
5. Don't Tell Me No Lies

Side Two

1. Little Girl (Does Your Momma Know?)
2. Where You Been?
3. You Came Walking
4. You Can't Be True
5. You Ain't Got Nothin' On Me
   

Creedence Clearwater Revival (Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets) - Oh My Love (1962 EP)

 What it seems a lot of people don't know about CCR is that their debut album came out only after ten years of being a group, with a long line of singles behind them, dating back all the way to 1962, back when they were led by Tom Fogerty, rather than John. 

When they were 'Tommy Fogerty and The Blue Velvets', they only put out three singles, so that's what this EP is. After these, they were breifly called 'The Visions', before switching to 'The Golliwogs' from 1964-1967, before switching their name to 'Creedence Clearwater Revival, almost immidiately becoming a popular group.

Side One (6:24)

1. Come On, Baby
2. Oh, My Love
3. Have You Ever Been Lonely?
   

Side Two (5:54)

1. Bonita 
2. Yes You Did
3. Now You're Not Mine