Disappointingly, all six CD's are cheaply made so-called "semi-CDR's". On top of that, no bonus material; session outtakes, demos, unissued live version and the like.
In fact, as each album is no longer than 35 minutes, there's plenty room to release those as three "two-fers" (two albums on 1 CD) instead of six whole CD's. Approx. 80 minutes of music fits onto 1 CD.
Rip-off, then? Well, sort of. But beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.
It's good to have all the albums finally out on CD and there does seem to have been some sort of sound-restoration (remastering, I guess) done in the process, although the sound level is unusually low for CD's - or "semi-CDR's" - made in 2012.
Next up then, a proposed proper "Best of" Shaun Cassidy, to replace that inadequate and incomplete "Greatest Hits" from 20 years ago?
Da Doo Ron Ron 2:49 From Shaun Cassidy ('77) Morning Girl 2:37 From Shaun Cassidy ('77) It's Too Late 2:44 From Shaun Cassidy ('77) That's Rock 'N' Roll 2:54 From Shaun Cassidy ('77) Holiday 3:07 From Shaun Cassidy ('77) Teen Dream 2:37 From Born Late ('77) Do You Believe In Magic 2:20 From Born Late ('77) It's Up To You 2:27 From Born Late ('77) Hey Deanie 3:42 From Born Late ('77) A Girl Like You 2:58 From Born Late ('77) Walk Away 3:15 From Born Late ('77) Carolina's Comin' Home 2:29 From Born Late ('77) Hard Love 3:44 From Under Wraps ('78) Taxi Dancer 3:02 From Under Wraps ('78) It's Like Heaven 3:11 From Under Wraps ('78) Our Night 4:14 From Under Wraps ('78) Fallin' IntoYou 4:43 From Room Service ('79) Time For A Change 3:20 From Room Service ('79) Are You Afraid Of Me? 3:55 From Room Service ('79) Break For The Street 4:28 From Room Service ('79) Cool Fire 4:21 From Wasp ('80) The Book IRead 3:40 From Wasp ('80) So Sad About Us 3:08 From Wasp ('80) One Bitten, Twice Shy 4:12 From Wasp ('80)
All the (obvious) hits, some self-penned stuff ("Teen Dream", "It's Up to You", "Taxi Dancer", "Break for the Street", "Cool Fire" - Arguably, Shaun was/is? a better songwriter than his big bro, with all due respect) as well as all those excellent almost-obscure covers ("It's Too Late", "Carolina's Coming Home", "It's Like Heaven") - they're all there. Mike Curb, again I appeal to you...
OK, for those interested I have another blog, "Rock & Roll Love Letters", going.
It deals with a more "wider scope" of music than this one, but is of no less importance and interest to me.
If interested, click here and you will be there ;-)
My latest installment deals with the very interesting (mainly) '70s phenomenon of Nederpop.
Hope to "see" you there!
There was a public outcry. Or at least a Facebook petition. But at long last, as of this past spring (2012), Shaun Cassidy's complete back catalogue is now available on the very nearly obsolete format that is a Compact Disc. Better late than never! My good old vinyl never looked - or sounded - so fine. Alas, the time for a reappraisal is ripe...
With his family tree as it is (Son of Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, half-brother of David), clearly Shaun was poised for some kind of stardom from the very beginning.
After having begun his career in local L.A. bands such as Longfellow in the early to mid '70s, industry veteran Mike Curb had the good sense to sign him as a solo act to his Curb Records on a licensing deal to Warner Brothers.
Long-time Curb-collaborator Michael Lloyd, then fresh off his work with the Osmonds, was assigned as a producer of the project and the ball was rolling...
Europe was used as a platform for launching the potential new star. Seemingly, as early as late 1975 debut single "Morning Girl", a fine cover of the Neon Philharmonic's quite unique sole 1969 hit, was a hit in the Netherlands.
The summer of '76 then saw the European release of 2nd single, a cover of Eric Carmen's excellent "That's Rock 'n' Roll". The debut album, also entitled "That's Rock 'n' Roll" was then also issued in Europe.
Around the same time Shaun's acting career also took off in America with his role as Joe Hardy on "The Hardy Boys" mysteries TV show. Thus, the time was deemed right for the release of his U.S. debut, the single "Da Doo Ron Ron", a cover of the Crystals Spector/Greenwich/Barry classic from 1963.
It swiftly secured the no. 1 slot on the Billboard Top 100 and a star was (briefly) born.
A self-titled album soon followed; but apart from the sleeve design and the title it was the very same LP as had been issued earlier in Europe.
Mostly made up of covers such as the aforementioned singles, it also contains Shaun's very own composition "Holiday", as well as a couple of Michael Lloyd originals. Goffin/King's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and "Be My Baby", another Spector/Greenwich/Barry classic, were also aired. But, best of all perhaps, is a cover of a relatively obscure Bobby Goldsboro tune (at least outside the U.S. of A.), "It's Too Late"....
Overall, the album has aged rather well. I hadn't listened to it in years and as much as I love the original of "Da Doo Ron Ron", I seemed to recall that Shaun's cover was rather dreadful in comparison. But it really isn't. It's just very 1977 sounding - nothing more, nothing less. It has a faint disco beat and it is very understandable why it became the big that it was. However, Shaun himself later said: ""Da Doo Ron Ron" I have a real hard time with, because I just love the Crystals' version of the record and I love Phil Spector's records. I think that mine sounds very bland in comparison." (from Barry Scott's "We Had Joy, We Had Fun", 1994 Faber and Faber)
Preceeded by perhaps Shaun's finest hour, another Eric Carmen-penned single "Hey Deanie", his second album, "Born Late" (1977) is also, in all probability, his best LP.
Not only were the originals getting a lot better (Album opener "Teen Dream", "It's Up to You" and the very excellent "Walk Away", in particular), but covers such as the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic" (a #31 single hit for Shaun), the Young Rascals' "A Girl Like You", and not to mention the White Plains' slightly more obscure "Carolina's Comin' Home" were a bit more inspired than the Spector/Goffin/King stuff from the first album.
Album number 3, "Under Wraps", appeared in 1978.
The self-penned opener "Hard Love", a rather decent "Hey Deanie" re-write, wasn't even issued as a single in the U.S. Instead, Warners opted for the more predictable - and bland - "Our Night" by the more established songwriting pair of Carole Bayer Sager & Bruce Roberts. It stalled at #80 on the Billboard Top 100 and became Shaun Cassidy's last charting single in his homeland. In Europe, though, "Hard Love" became the lead-off single.
The rest of the record consisted of the by now true and tested formula of covers and originals alike. Of the former, "It's Like Heaven", a Brian Wilson/Diane Rovell/Rushtyn Pamphlin composition originally made for American Spring in the early '70s, was a stand-out, while the aforementioned "Hard Love" and "Taxi Dancer" were in strong evidence of the latter.
But overall, this record was a drop in quality and clearly aimed at a "maturing" audience - ALWAYS a risky proposition in the world of '70s Teenpop. After all, this was years before George Michael and Robbie Williams...
"Room Service" (1979) offered more of the same, albeit more focused and thought-out.
It's somewhat surprising how much control Shaun seems to have obtained by this time in his short career. He has a hand in five out of the nine tracks here. Rather unusual for teen idols of that time.
The "mature" theme here persists, but the material overall is better than on the previous record. Nonetheless, an "obvious" single is hard to spot. Therefore, once more, different cuts were initially chosen for single releases in the U.S. ("You're Usin' Me") and Europe (the Bee Gees-like "Are You Afraid of Me"). Strange, though, that the perhaps strongest cut here, "Break for the Street", wasn't one of them...
Usually, when an artist's career is in a dire straits, there are two ways out: either the "Greatest Hits" solution or the ever-classic throw-them-to the-lions "Live" album answer. In Shaun's case, the latter was chosen as his next release.
"Shaun Cassidy Live! That's Rock 'n' Roll" came out in late 1979 and pretty much disappeared without a trace...
A bit of an odd mixture of Shaun's biggest hits ("Hey Deanie", "That's Rock 'n' Roll" and "Da Doo Ron Ron") and Rock & Roll/oldies standards alike ("Bad Boy", "Slow Down", "Rip it Up" - none of which had been previously recorded by Shaun), it comes off as a rather unconvincing and uninteresting effort from someone who (perhaps) clearly couldn't care less anymore...
Rather recently I accidentally obtained a German white label test pressing copy of this album. It came with a proposed first tracklisting which I have scanned here below...
Unfortunately, though, the record itself was the same as it ever was...to paraphrase Talking Heads.
OK, for better or for worse, but we could've gotten a completely different record here. Somewhere, someplace it must still exist. Mike Curb, are you reading this?
"Wasp" (1980) was Shaun Cassidy's last long player and the first one without Michael Lloyd at the helm. Instead, Shaun opted for a far more "edgy" collaborator that was Todd Rundgren. Well, just take a one look at that cover art and you can tell there's something very different afoot. Utopia, perhaps?
For starters, the covers here sound sublimely exotic in comparison to Shaun's earlier efforts. David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Who and Ian Hunter are among the main culprits.
In recent years this record has started to enjoy a little something called "cult following". Well, that in itself is just as fragile as this album. It's a pretty "interesting" effort, and very courageous at that. But a further collaboration between those two - Cassidy and Rundgren - possibly would've been even more daring...
But that, clearly, wasn't to be. After "Wasp" Shaun seems to have focused his energies more on acting rather than singing. With one small exception.
In 1989 he teamed up with the Dutch Bolland brothers (Falco, Suzi Quatro, Samantha Fox, the authors of Status Quo's "In the Army Now" hit) and came out with the forgettable Europop single "Memory Girl" ...
Since then, Shaun has mostly focused his attention on TV-production, writing and, to a lesser degree, acting.
In 1993, though, he teamed up with big brother David in the musical "Blood Brothers" and they took Broadway by storm. And recorded the Broadway cast CD in the process. The year before, (Mike) Curb Records had issued the Shaun Cassidy "Greatest Hits" CD.
Now, nearly 20 years later, it's been followed up with the aforementioned belated Shaun Cassidy catalogue on CD reissue program.
As I said before - and this is where we came in - better late than never....
SHAUN CASSIDY album discography:
"That's Rock 'n' Roll" (WB 56 342) (Germany, 1977)
"Shaun Cassidy" (BS 3067) (U.S. 1977) (The same as above) (CD, Curb Records, 2012)
Having produced (and written for) the Osmonds, Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy, Michael Lloyd is a seminal figure in the annals of '70s Teen pop. Along with co-culprit Mike Curb, he was the force behind the recorded output of all of the aforementioned acts during their '70s heyday.
The story, however, begins much earlier...
Born November 3, 1948 in New York, Michael Jeffrey Lloyd was something of a musical wunderkind. At the age of four he was already studying classical piano and by the age of twelve he had started his own band.
Often described as a "Multi-instrumentalist", early on he also took a keen interest in arranging, producing, writing...basically anything to do with the art of music-making.
Sometime during the mid '60s, teenager Lloyd ran into one Mike Curb, who via his label Tower Records (no, not that one) was churning out cheap quickie soundtracks for American International Pictures' B-movies like "Riot on the Sunset Strip" and "Psych Out". Lloyd was soon enough working on these and, in the process, began mastering the art of scoring films. A couple of years later, in 1968, he even wrote the score for Steven Spielberg's first proper film, the short "Amblin'". The title track, a slice of melancholy sunshine pop, is actually rather lovely. A vastly inferior Shaun Cassidy cover version from the '70s also exists.
Spielberg later named his production company Amblin Entertainment after the film.
Lloyd was also a founding member of the wonderfully weird West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. The story of this band just beggars belief and I defy anyone even remotely interested to become aquainted with it HERE It's a richly rewarding read. And so, by the way, is some of WCPAEB's music, although it is a far cry from most of the material Michael Lloyd became associated with later on in his long and lustrous career.
By the late '60s Lloyd's old friend Mike Curb had become president of MGM Records where - infamously - he made it his first order of business to "clean house", ie by getting rid of some of that label's artists who he felt had too strong of a connection to the "drug culture" of the day. Incidentally that included some of the more "critically credible" artists on MGM's roster, namely the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Somewhat odd seeing how Curb had had close connections to the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and their circle of friends and associates which counted the likes of notorious scenester (or shyster - take your pick) Kim Fowley. But maybe the fact that Curb had political aspirations within the Republican party had a little something to do with said decision.
Whatever, Curb quickly brought his old pal Lloyd, then only 20 years old, into MGM as a Vice President of A & R. And thus began their successful professional relationship with the Osmonds which saw the syblings become one of the biggest acts of the '70s.
In spite of that, Lloyd still harbored ambitions as a recording artist himself, not merely content with staying behind the scenes. So by 1975 he had formed the trio Cotton, Lloyd & Christian, along with Australian Darryl Cotton, who at one point had been in a group with fellow Aussie Rick Springfield, and Texan singer/songwriter Chris Christian. I just recently came across CLC's debut self-titled LP on 20th Century Records and it ain't half bad.
A soft pop serenade, co-produced by Messrs Curb & Lloyd, it served as a template for near-future Lloyd productions of Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy, as well as a tribute to times gone by with the Osmonds. At first listen I could've sworn that the album's closer "(You've Given me) Sunshine" - also issued as a single - was a then not-so-old Osmond tune.
A ballad(!) cover of the Supremes' "Baby Love" (admittedly, not one of my fave Supremes songs) surprisingly doesn't suck and betters the original in my humble opinion.
Debut single "I Go to Pieces", a cover of Peter & Gordon's finest moment (written by Del Shannon though), became a minor hit in the U.S. as well as an almost hit in the U.K. where it stalled at no. 51 - just outside the coveted Top 50. A year later Lloyd also chose that particular tune as Leif Garret's debut (flop) single, on 20th Century Records as well.
Arguably, and inspite of it having been covered in the late '70s by the likes of Rachel Sweet and the Ian Mitchell Band as well as Leif Garrett, CLC's version gets my vote as the ultimate '70s Teen Pop interpetation of this cool classic.
It's not all sunshine, lollipop and rainbows though. An ill-advised "Tommy Medley" sticks out like a sore thumb and hasn't aged well to say the least.
Oddly enough, this record in its entirety, in an altogether different sleeve, was then re-issued as the soundtrack to the 1976 teen B-flick "The Pom Pom Girls".
A second CLC album, unimaginatively entitled "Number Two", appeared in 1977.
From it, the sleek Barry Manilow-like ballad "I Don't Know Why You Love Me" made minor dents in the lower regions of the U.S. charts.
By then Lloyd's career as a producer was in an upswing once more with both Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy having well and truly hit their stride, albeit briefly. Furthermore, his production of Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" became one of the most successful worldwide singles of 1977.
But Michael Lloyd's greatest commercial success was yet to come. In 1987 he served as a music supervisor/producer to a little film known as "Dirty Dancing". Among the original numbers he produced for the film was this ditty...
Some of the other artists not mentioned above Lloyd has worked with over the years include Barry Manilow, Belinda Carlisle, Dionne Warwick, The Righteous Brothers, The Monkees, Lou Rawls, Eric Carmen, Sammy Davis Jr., Air Supply, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Pointer Sisters, Donny & Marie, Merry Clayton, and Frank Sinatra, performing a special collector's version of Silent Night.
However, I can think of no more appropriate ending to this short tribute to Michael Lloyd - the producer, musician and songwriter - than West Coast Experimental Pop Band's excellent "Transparent Day". Enjoy.
From circa 1971 to '79, Vic served as a bass player for one of the most underappreciated British acts of the '70s - Hello.
Primarily perceived as Glam Rock (after all, some of their key records were produced by Gary Glitter/Glitter Band producer Mike Leander), although their '70s Teen Pop credentials can not be questioned either. In 1972, at the time of their first released record, they were all aged 16. And during their mid-'70s heyday they regularily appeared on the pages of top European teen mags such as Jackie, Bravo and Pop.
Water under the bridge. The story of Hello can be found elsewhere in this blog. So, fast forward some 30 odd years....
Far behind are his days as a globe-trotting teenaged pop star, Vic Faulkner now resides in Spain playing the occasional acoustic gig at the local bar. I suppose there are worse ways to spend one's semi-retirement.
In 2010, Vic released his first solo CD "Hombre", which he followed up a year later with the aptly named "My Teenage Soundtrack" - a book focusing on his formative years with Hello in the '70s.
"Hombre" is a pleasant surprise to say the least. Vic never contributed songs to the Hello repertoire, but for the past 30 years he seems to have developed into a pretty decent songwriter. Nine of the fifteen songs on the CD are penned by Vic, while the remaining six come from his partner in crime Michael Cashmore-Hingley, who is also in charge of both the CD and book artwork.
"Hombre" is very atmospheric; all laid back, understated and relaxed with a suitably sparse percussive backing. It oozes the charm of a warm Spanish evening just after the sun has set. In my imagination at least, since I've never even been to Spain!
The opener "Road Song" is a particular favourite. (Vic can be seen in the video above performing the song, seemingly, in his kitchen. Perhaps the very same kitchen the album was reportedly recorded in). "Star Studded Sham" it isn't, but it's all the better for it. Another time, another place indeed.
Meanwhile, the suitably melancholy and minimal "Alone Without You" and "Single Life" hit you right where they're supposed to, while "Senorita" and "Young at Heart" provide slightly lighter moments.
The subject matters are pretty universal: life, love, loneliness and the occasional drink.
But overall "Hombre" is a strong selection of intimate and personal songs. Well done, Vic!
"My Teenage Soundtrack" is a slim publication (mere 152 pages containing large print and numerous illustrations by the aforementioned Michael Cashmore-Hingley) which can easily be processed in one sitting during the approximate time it takes "Hombre" - or for that matter, "The Best of Hello" - to play through.
It is clearly not supposed to be THE story of Hello or any such thing - only the author's own recollections of people, places and events. Like Vic explains in the introduction, "Others who were there may remember things differently, but I lay before you MY recollections, not theirs."
And as such, it works very well. Although I personally would have liked to get a lot longer book which would take into account things like recording sessions, stories behind certain songs as well as the dynamics and the relationships within the band itself, that would be an altogether different beast to say the least. And perhaps not a viable propostition to the casual reader with only a fleeting interest in the era's music and the people behind it.
Nonetheless, one of the book's more entertaining sections is where Vic entails close - and in the case of ABBA's Agnetha, not that close - encounters with other stars of the time.
Amusing run-ins with the Osmonds and the Bay City Rollers is another highlight.
All too many bands from the '60s, the '70s and the '80s were mis-managed and ended up virtually penniless while their agents, lawyers and managers seemingly lined their pockets with the profits. And Hello, it appears, was no different. Their manager David Blaylock being the main culprit and, in the process, using the band as a stepping stone to launch Hello guitarist Keith Marshall as a solo act.
However, Vic holds no serious grudges. He's still on good terms with Hello lead singer/guitarist Bob Bradbury, but both have sadly long since lost contact with drummer Jeff Allen and guitarist Keith Marshall.
A quick, enjoyable and easy read which no serious Glam or '70s Teen Pop fan should miss.
Many thanks to Vic Faulkner, the dude in the cowboy hat; the sordid tale of which can be read in "My Teenage Soundtrack".
Both the CD "Hombre" and the book "My Teenage Soundtrack" are available from amazon.com
