This album is a continuation of the songs for Jan and Richard Moore, see Previous Album, again with a few extras tossed in to fill up the CD. I couldn't resist the flip side thing with the title. I did that on a whim, but the "flip side" got me to thinking about a conversation I had with Jan about making the songs sound like the originals.
My parents had a large collection of 78 RPM Records when I was a little brat, (as opposed to my current incarnation as a seventy year old brat.) The 45 RPM Records were starting to take over, but a few of the 78's were still being produced. The music industry was very different in those early 50's days. Similar to the movie industry, many of the musicians were contractually tied to a particular recording company - and recorded only what the label selected for them.
Sometimes the record label would issue 78's and later 45's with the same song on both sides, but by different artists. Often one was well known and the other was the originator of the song. Pat Boone (and others, The Everly Brothers come to mind,) covered some of Little Richard's songs such as Tutti‑Frutti, Long Tall Sally, and Rip It Up. In time, the originator's version become the version people remember, (with good reason!!)
However, there was another flip side phenomenon, particularly on the later 78's, where the same song was recorded as a vocal and as an instrumental. A good example was Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White as an instrumental by Perez Prado and by Alan Dale as a vocal. Another is Around the World from the Michael Todd movie Around the World in 80 Days as an instrumental by Victor Young and by Bing Crosby as a vocal. In these cases, both versions hold up well.
I've tried to do the "instrumental" flip side version of songs and maintain the same musical integrity. In other words, I've aimed for Perez Prado and Victor Young while hopefully avoiding anything like Pat Boone's ridiculous butchering of Little Richard's songs.
Reeves
PS The album photo is from the California trip mentioned on the Previous Album. This was taken of the boat basin near the hotel we stayed at in Monterey.
Click on the song description below to go to the song's page for more details
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