Month: June 2025

10cc released their first record, ‘Donna’ in September in 1972. A parody of doo-wop records, it was a number 2 hit on the UK singles chart. The follow up, ’Johnny Don’t Do It’ was also an homage to late 50s music but was too similar to ‘Donna’ and did not chart. However, their third single, ‘Rubber Bullets’ hit number 1 and the band continued to have success in both the singles and album charts for the rest of the decade. 

10cc did not come out of nowhere either. All four members had been in the recording industry in one form or another since the early 60’s. Graham Gouldman had been in a band called The Whirlwinds which had recorded a song by Lol Creme on the B-Side of their one and only single. Kevin Godley had been in a band with Lol Creme but would join Gouldman in ‘The Mockingbirds’. Godley and Creme reunited and released records under a series of pseudonyms such as The Yellow Bellow Room Boom, Fratboy & Runcible Spoon as well as Doctor Father.

Goudman meanwhile became a songwriter of note, providing songs for ‘The Yardbirds’, ‘The Hollies’ and ‘Herman’s Hermits’. He also spent some time in ‘The Mindbenders’; the lead singer and guitar of which was Eric Stewart. As ‘The Mindbenders’ came to an end, Stewart invested in a recording studio that would eventually be known as Strawberry Studios. Gouldman started recording demos at the studios and soon he would also be a financial partner there. Godley and Creme were also using the studios and eventually all four members would record together, the first being a single called ‘Sausalito’ released under the band name of Ohio Express. The four musicians ended up recorded a lot of what would be called today, bubblegum records for American writer-producers Kasenetz-Katz. The deal meant that they recorded a number of forgettable songs but it did mean that they had the financial backing to upgrade the studio. 

Some of this equipment needed testing and out of these experiments came a single called ‘Neanderthal Man’, released under the name of ‘Hotlegs’ (Gouldman was not on this record). The single was a number 2 hit in the UK, but the resulting album was not a success. The musicians continued to create their own music as well as back others who were using the studios. These included Ramases, Dave Berry, Wayne Fontana and most importantly of all, Neil Sedaka. 

It was whilst recording with Sedarka that the four musicians decided they should try and make a more concerted effort at not just being sessions guys, but promote the material they had been working on. They released a single under the name of Festival which only reached the promo stage, and then they took a song to Apple Records who rejected it for not being commercial. It was then they came up with Donna, and Eric Stewart later said that there was only one person mad enough to realise it. That mad man was Jonathan King. King heard the track, loved it and signed the band to his UK Records label and the rest is history. 

With this, I was looking at releasing a compilation of 10cc that concluded all of the single edits and B-Sides that were different to the versions released on their albums. I was quite surprised at how many there were. It would seem that 10cc were one of the last bands who truly made their single edits different for m the album versions. The cover art is based upon the 2017 compilation During // After – The Best of 10cc. Being a vinyl nut, I also thought it should be released in that format even though it would need to be a triple with a bonus 7″ single thrown for good measure. 

Side A

1. Donna (Single Mix)
2. Hot Sun Rock (B-Side To Donna)
3. Johnny, Don’t Do It (Single Mix)
4. 4% Of Something (B-Side Of Johnny Don’t Do It) 
5. Rubber Bullets (Single Mix)
6. Waterfall (B-Side To Rubber Bullets)
7. The Dean & I (Single Mix)
8. Bee In My Bonnet (B-Side To The Dean & I)

Side B

1. The Worst Band In The World (Radio Version)
2. 18 Carat Man Of Means (B-Side To The Worst Band In The World) 
3. The Wall Street Shuffle (Single Version)
4. Gismo My Way (B-Side To The Wall Street Shuffle)
5. Life Is A Minestrone (Single Edit)
6. Channel Swimmer (B-Side Top Life Is A Minestrone)
7. I’m Not In Love (Single Edit)

Side C

1. Good News (B-Side To I’m Not In Love)
2. Art For Art’s Sake (Single Edit)
3. Get It While You Can (B-Side Of Art For Art’s Sake)
4. I’m Mandy Fly Me (Single Edit)
5. Hot To Trot (B-Side To I’m many Fly Me)
6. Don’t Squeeze Me Like Toothpaste (B-Side To Good Morning Judge)

Side D

1. I’m So Laid Back, I’m Laid Out (B-Side To People In Love)
2. Nothing Can Move Me (B-Side To Dreadlock Holiday)
3. For You & I (DJ Edit)
4. One-Two-Five (Single Edit)
5. Les Nouveaux Riches (Single Mix)
6. Dreadlock Holiday – Live (B-Side To 10” Of 24 Hours)

Side E

1. I’m Not In Love – Live (B-Side To 10” Of 24 Hours)
2. Feel The Love – Oomachasaooma (Radio Edit)
3. She Gives Me Pain (B-Side To Feel The Love)
4. Food For Thought (Radio Edit)
5. The Secret Life Of Henry (B-Side To Food For Thought)

Side F

1. Woman In Love (Radio Edit)
2.  Man With A Mission (B-Side To Woman In Love)
3. Welcome To Paradise (7” Edit)
4. Don’t (B-Side To Welcome To Paradise)
5. Lost In Love (B-Side To CD Single Welcome To Paradise)

Bonus 7”

1. Memories (US Mix)
2. Woman In Love (DJ Edit)

I was trawling through the soundtrack section of my record collection when I came across a selection of Muppet Show LPs, so I decided to give them a play. 

The Muppet Show dates to the mid 1970s, but their origin dates back to 1955 when a puppeteer called Jim Henson created a character he called Kermit the Frog. Henson also coined the term Muppet as a portmanteau of marionette and puppet. As the cast of muppet characters increased, so did their exposure. They appeared on shows such as ‘Sam & Friends’, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and most famously, ‘Sesame Street’. Henson was keen to develop his own show and a couple of pilots were produced for the ABC Network, but neither was picked up. 

However, someone in the UK was watching. That person was Lew Grade. He had had experience of producing puppet shows for TV in the form of ‘Thunderbirds’ and ‘Captain Scarlet’. The show ran from 1976 to 1981 and consisted of 120 episodes. It can best be described as a variety show as it included sketches, musical numbers and running gags. It was also famous for the guest stars who took part. Names such as Steve Martin, Christopher Reeve, Vincent Price, Elton John, Leo Sayer and Alice Cooper all signed on to take part in this unique show.  

So back to the records. After a quick spin, it made me realise what a wide musical pallet they had introduced me to. There was folk, rock, pop, music hall, blue grass, light opera, jazz, novelty and even a song featured in an Italian modo movie. The people who put together The Muppet Show must have been well versed in the music of the 19th as well as early to mid 20th Century. This got me thinking. What about the original versions of those records. 

What I have tried to do on this compilation is to include the oldest recorded version of each song where possible spread over four sides of a vinyl record. 

Disc 1

1. You Are My Sunshine – Pine Ridge Boys
2. Lydia, The Tattooed Lady – Groucho Marx
3. Mississippi Mud/I Left My Sugar – Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys
4. Blue Skies – Al Jolson
5. Mad About The Boy – Phyllis Robins with Jack Hylton & His Orchestra
6. Baby Feet – Jan Garber & His Orchestra
7. Who – George Olsen
8. A Foggy Day – Fred Astaire

Side 2

1. Happy Feet – Paul Whiteman Orchestra with The Rhythm Boys
2. Sixty Seconds Got Together – The Mills Brothers
3. On A Tree By The River, A Little Tom-Tit – The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
4. Pennsylvania 6-5000 – Glenn Miller
5. I’m Five – Danny Kaye
6. Pachalafaka – Irving Taylor (Vocal by Earl Brown)
7. Cuanto Le Gusta – Carmen Miranda & Andrews Sisters
8. The Gypsys Violin – Abe Burrows
9. It Was a Very Good Year – The Kingston Trio

Side 3

1. There’s A New Sound – Tony Burrell
2. Mr Bass Man – Johnny Cymbal
3. Do Wah Diddy Diddy – The Exciters
4. Simon Smith & His Amazing Dancing Bear – Alan Price Set
5. I’m In Love With A Big Blue Frog – Peter, Paul & Mary
6. For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
7. Dog Walk – Paul Tracey
8. Just One Person (From Snoopy, The Musical) – Ensemble Cast
9. What now My Love – Jane Morgan
10. When – Abe Burrows

Disc 4

1. Macho Man (Single Version) – The Village People
2. Coconut – Harry Nilsson
3. New York State Of Mind – Billy Joel
4. Mah Nà Mah Nà (Single Version) – Piero Umiliani
5. Time In A Bottle – Jim Croce
6. The Wishing Song – Paul Tracey
7. Garden Song – David Mallett

Just to finish off, the albums I have in my collection and were the basis for this compilation were ‘The Muppet Show’ (1977), ‘The Muppet Show 2’ (1978) and ‘Jim Henson’s Muppet Show Music Album’ (1979). I also have an EP of music hall songs and ‘A Christmas Together’ which The Muppets produced along with John Denver. However, neither the EP or the Christmas album got much of an airing but the other three albums did. All the music comes from the first four season of the show.

Disney bought the Henson Company and so I thought it was appropriate to have this LP appear on Walt Disney Records.

In April of 2015 (or around that time anyway), something popped up on one my socials about a subscription service where, for £20 a month each subscriber would receive a box of five brand new 7” inch singles. Well, in June of that year, the first of those singles boxes dropped through my letter box and for the next six years, a new box would be on the door matt waiting for me. 

This would continue until 2021 when supply chain issues, Brexit and Covid made producing those box sets became increasingly difficult for the company to produce so they decided to stop production. So, in the 76 boxes that did come out and the 400 plus artists that featured on there, a lot of excellent music was produced by bands that I may never had heard of otherwise. 

To celebrate the ten years since the foundation of Flying Vinyl, I have deiced to produce a series of sample records. Unlike the samplers I made for Blood Records, there is no way I could feature every artist that featured on this singles, so I had a couple of criteria. One was that the song has not already featured on the podcasts I made celebrating the label. I only did the first two years so that would not be too difficult. The second was that the songs had to be available on Spotify so the artist would hopefully earn some money from this, however pitiful the royalty rate is. 

What was interesting was finding that even though these songs are available on that streaming service, some of them are not available in the same version as on the single. What would be interesting to know if these versions were only available on the Flying Vinyl singles? As there was so many good records, I have followed the Blood Records Sampler template and made this a double album. 

Side A

1. Misty Maker Stomp – Jouris
2. Saviour – Groves
3. Made Of Concrete – Cagoule
4. Something In The Water – The Amazons
5. Fly – Meadowlark

Side B

1. Eureka Moment – The Big Moon
2. Shaking Hands – B.Miles
3. All My Love – Trudy & The Romance
4. Shalala – Moses Gunn Collective
5. Ladybird – Beach Baby
6. World’s Too Fast – The Jar Family

Side C

1. Father Of The Universe – Venice Trip
2. Joy In A Small Wage – Asylums
3. Dove In Your Mouth – Eaves
4. Voices – The Belligerents
5. Go – Pleasure Beach

Side D 

1. Hold Me Closer – Lanka
2. Booored – Magic Potion
3. Time Won’t Leave – The Temperance Movement
4. Water’s Fall – Oh So Quiet
5. Oslo – Holy Esque

The front cover is based on the logo that Flying Records had when they first launched. 

For those of a certain vintage, like myself, Marty Wilde was Kim Wilde’s dad. Marty, along with his son Ricky were the songwriting team behind most (if not all) of Kim’s early hits, including the classic ‘Kids In America’. What I didn’t realise until much later was that Marty had been a performer in his own right and was one of the first British rock ’n’ rollers along with Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard. Performing with his backing band the Wildcats, Wilde had a number of hits in the late 50s and early 60s as well as being a regular performer on early British music shows, 6.5 Special, Oh Boy! and Boy Meets Girl. His marriage to Vernon Girl Joyce Baker lead to a decline in his popularity as a teen idol but Wilde was not finished with the music business. 

He appeared in a West End production of the musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ as well as becoming a noted songwriter. This included penning such tunes aa ‘Jesamine’ for The Casuals, ‘I’m A Tiger’ for Lulu and ‘Ice In The Sun’ for Status Quo. However, Wilde also continued to perform and throughout the late 60s and 70 he released a number of singles under pseudonyms. What this compilation does is collect all of those singles together and present them in chronological order. 

Side A

1. Abagevenney – Shannon (1968)
2. Alice In Blue – Shannon (1968)
3. Jesamine – Shannon (1969)
4. Lullaby – Shannon (1969)
5. When You Wish Upon A Star – The Scrumpy N Dumpy (1972)
6. The Scrumpy N Dumpy Boogaloo – The Scrumpy N Dumpy (1972)
7. Caterpillar – Cold Fly (1973)
8. Yesterday Started For Judy – Cold Fly (1973)

Side B

1. Rock & Roll Crazy – Zappo (1973)
2. Right On! – Zappo (1973)
3. 20 Fantastic Bands – The Dazzling All Night Rock Band (1973)
4. 20 Fantastic Bands (Continued) – The Dazzling All Night Rock Band (1973)
5. Shang-a-Lang Song – Ruby Pearl and The Dreamboats (1974)
6. Will You Stop That – Ruby Pearl and The Dreamboats (1974)
7. Come Back & Love Me – Shannon (1975)
8. She’s A High Flyer – Shannon (1975)

The front cover of the LP is adapted from the picture sleeve of the ‘Rock & Roll Crazy’ single that was released under the name of Zappo. A good deal of the these records came out on the Magnet label that was bought up by Warner Brothers. That is why that companies logo is on the front cover. 

As a bonus, here is a mini album with all of the songs that Marty Wilde recorded under the name of ‘The Wilde Three’. These recordings came out on two singles and featured not only Wilde, but his wife and a pre-Moody Blues Justin Hayward. Side A contains these singles whereas the B-Side contains demos/alternative versions of songs that the group did not release at the time. 

Side A

1. Since You’ve Gone – The Wilde Three (1965)
2. Just As Long – The Wilde Three (1965)
3. I Cried – The Wilde Three (1965)

Side B

1. Well Who’s That  – The Wilde Three (1965)
2. Since You’ve Gone (Alternative Take) (1965)
3. Just As Long (Alternative Take) (1965)
4. I Just Wanna Dance (Demo) (1965)

There aren’t that many pictures out there of this group, but this is one of the better ones and is made to look like a Decca EP sleeve from the 60s.