DOWNLOAD NO.234 - LORRAE DESMOND

Lorrae Desmond, born Beryl Hunt 1932 in Mittagong NSW, had a #5 hit in Australia with “On The Waterfront” in 1955 then went off to the UK where she formed a backing group called “The Rebels”. Lorrae had instant success and had 9 singles released between 1956 and 1960 mostly on the Columbia label, and later Decca. In this period she also became entangled with sometimes-married comedian Terry Thomas. While in the UK Lorrae also had her own TV specials and was a popular live singer with numerous cabaret performances to her credit. She even featured in her own comedy series Trouble For Two in 1958, was in the cast of several Terry Thomas TV specials and competed to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957.

Lorrae came back to Oz circa 1960, had a TV comedy/cabaret career, won a TV Week Logie in 1962, got married and by the end of the 1960s was providing much needed entertainment to the Oz troops fighting in Vietnam. Lorrae had a few other singles in the 1960s and early 1970s. By the 1980s she was back at the forefront in TV shows and variety until she scored the coveted role of Shirley Gilroy in one of Australia’s longest running TV series “A Country Practice”. While appearing in this show she also managed get the cast to "sing" a few cast albums and she performed live alongside other cast members that had a variety entertainment background.

Singles:

1955 On The Waterfront / Hold My Hand – got to #5 nationally in Oz.

1956 Written On The Wind / A House With Love In It - UK

1957 You Won't Be Around / Play The Music - UK

1957 Kansas City Special / Preacher, Preacher - UK

1957 Ding Dong Rock-A-Billy Weddin' / Cabin Boy - UK

1958 Two Ships / Little David - UK

1958 Secret Of Happiness / Down By The River - UK

1958 Soda Pop Hop / Blue Blue Day - UK

1959 Tall Paul / Wait For It - UK

1960 Tell Me Again / Get Your Daddy’s Car Tonight – UK

1964 Everybody's Got A Home But Me / Cannibal Mardi Gras – Oz

1965 Never Before / Between Hello And Goodbye – Oz

1970 Everybody’s Favourite Model Girl / Dear John – Oz

Country artist Don Gibson who wrote “Oh Lonesome Me” had many hits in the USA but his only hit in the UK was a song he didn't write: “Sea of Heartbreak”. The single was backed with a throwaway ditty called “Blue Blue Day” which was covered by Lorrae Desmond and The Rebels in a country rockabilly style that was prevalent in the 1950s. In 2008 the song “Blue Blue Day” appeared on a UK made CD for the first time - click cover picture just above of 3 CD set.

Here for download is an extended Tom Mix 12”version of this great old track (original running time 1:47 mins, now is a massive 2:45 mins):

http://rapidshare.com/files/260937678/lorrae_desmond_-_blue_blue_day__ext_tom_mix_.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.233 - JOHNNY FARNHAM

Johnny Farnham has a few old records hiding in the closet that EMI seem reluctant to release on CD. The songs do seem dated and his voice was squeaky but who cares he sings from the heart with conviction.

One of the unreleased albums is called "Johnny Farnham Sings The Shows" which includes the song "Charlie Girl". This one was on the EMI budget Axis label. Another on HMV was "Johnny Farnham Sings Hits From The Movies". This one includes the song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" which was not the version he released as a single. There are also a couple more albums that are still in the vaults.

Tracks from "Johnny Farnham Sings Hits From The Movies":

Cabaret
Speak Softly Love
Everybody's Talkin'
The Summer Knows
Carnival
Hi-Lily Hi-Lo
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
The Rain In Spain
Singing In The Rain
Love Story
Where's The Birdie
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Mrs Robinson

For download is the entire album in one non-stop file format inside a zip file. Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/259794229/farnsy_tom_mix.zip

The regular Tom Mix password applies so check my older posts for the password.

DOWNLOAD NO.232 - TWO MAN BAND

Mike Brady (born England 28 February, 1947) is an Australian musician most commonly associated with the Australian Rules football anthems "Up There Cazaly", referring to 1920s and 30s St Kilda player Roy Cazaly. "Up There Cazaly" topped the Australian singles charts in September 1979 and was briefly the best selling Australian single of all time. Both have become synonymous with Australian rules and are traditionally sung on AFL Grand Final day in September.

Brady was one-third of the 1960s pop trio MPD Ltd. which stood for Mike, Pete and Danny which had hits in Australia including "Little Boy Sad" and "Lonely Boy". The band toured Australia and played shows in Vietnam. After the breakup of MPD Ltd., Brady continued to record occasionally including a top 10 hit with "Sympathy" and another minor hit called "Finger Poppin'".

He continued to write material for AFL. In the early 1980's, he reworked "Up There Cazaly" into a theme song for the Sydney Swans relocation into Sydney. He wrote "One Day in September" about the AFL grand final and recorded versions of many of the AFL teams theme songs for an album in 1987. He also wrote the song "Courage in their Eyes" for the Seven Network's Olympics coverage.

After the 1979 success of "Up There Cazaly", Brady tried to write an anthem for Australia Day 1980 but it sank without a trace. The words were great but the delivery sounded like Mike was reaching for a lot of high unobtainable notes. It was commissioned by the Australia Day Council and appeared on Full Moon Records. The flipside was the instrumental version of the same song.

“You Are Australia” charted at #85 in a 5 week run starting in February 1980.

Lyrics:

You are the sunshine,

You are the ocean,

You are the wilderness, the mountains, the open air,
You are the city you are the country,

You are the people who made this country rare.
You are Australia
You are Australia

You are the children,

You are the future,

You are the young men who left not to return,

You are the freedom,

You are the heartache,

You are the youngster with still so much to learn.

You are Australia
You are Australia

Download link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/259721511/two_man_band_-_you_are_australia__vocal_vinyl_tom_mix_.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.231 - VARIOUS AUSSIE ARTISTS

At the previous weekend, as is my want, I went hunting for old Oz songs not yet on CD and found 2 albums with at least 11 songs. I got them from the Adamstown Markets which are held most Sunday mornings all year round here in Newcastle.

The 2 albums were: "Australian Showtime" released on Summit Records in 1974 and "24 Great Truck Drivin' Songs" released on K-Tel in 1976.

I removed the well-known songs that have been on CD a million times and songs by foreign artists to produce this fabulous collection of Oz oldies. Included with these tracks is a single by Ernie Sigley which I found recently at Morpeth.

Possibly the rarest song in the collection is "Keep On Smiling" by Johnny O'Keefe. It starts with him going "Brrrrrrrrr" just like the new advertisements for Coca-Cola.

Tech Specs: All tracks were in near-pristine condition. I used a Numark digital turntable to record the tracks (thanks to my wife and kids for their present) and then used "Wavelet Tech" to clean them up. Some tracks sound as good as CD quality. No pops, clicks etc. All tracks are in 320kb mp3 format.

Tracks:

Don Lane: One More Mountain To Climb (stereo)
Greg Anderson: Live For Life (stereo)
Johnny O'Keefe: Keep On Smiling (stereo)
Sandy Scott: Why (mono)
Normie Rowe: Come Hear My Song (mono)
Peter Hiscock: An Unfamiliar Kind Of Man (stereo)
Reg Lindsay: New World In The Morning (mono)
John Laws: Motivating Man (stereo)
Ernie Sigley: City Of The Angels (mono)
John Laws: Highway Heading North (stereo)
Col Joye w/Laurie Allen: 15 Gears & 14 Wheels (stereo)
Tex Morton: The Transport Man (stereo)

There is a password on the zip file: http://tommixmusic.blogspot.com/

http://rapidshare.com/files/259324948/tom_mix_oz_oldies.zip

DOWNLOAD NO.230 - GREG QUILL AND COUNTRY RADIO

Greg Quill and Country Radio have previously had a blog entry so I won't go into a lot of detail here - please use search facility to locate their other page where "Wintersong" is for download.

Recently, when working with two friends (Alan K and Jim B.) to catalogue old songs that charted in Sydney NSW 1955-1974, we came across an anomaly to do with time listed on record label as opposed to the actual time of the song...

Greg Quill's 1972 hit "Gypsy Queen" as shown on the label is supposed to run 3:20 mins but when you use a stopwatch to time the song it runs to 3:52 mins. I checked the old film clip on YouTube and it also runs to 3:52 mins. So this told us that they must have made a typo or mistake when they released the vinyl 7" single. (See record label as supplied by Jim B.).

But no, the mystery got a little deeper...

It seems that at one stage there was a proposed mono single edit that was to be issued and in fact it was evidently issued but only ever on the K-Tel album 20 Solid Hits Vol.3. At the last minute the album mix which was slightly longer was released but with a label still indicating the shorter running time.

The following pictures of the K-Tel album and track listing are courtesy of Peter Mc. Many thanks Pete. Peter sent me a copy of the K-Tel vinyl mix. One thing which is very noticeable is that the speed of the vinyl version is much faster when compared to the CD or film clip versions of the song. (Click track picture to enlarge).

This link is the B&W 3:52 mins "Gypsy Queen" clip on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fuUfCiUs38

Here for download is a Tom Mix exclusive an edited 3:20 mins "Gypsy Queen" mix from CD to match the original unissued mono single edit that only ever made it onto a K-Tel album.

Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/258707518/Country_Radio_-_Gypsy_Queen__Proposed_Edit_Mix_.mp3

There are surely more songs with the same anomaly where time doesn't match up with actual time. Please drop me a line in the comment box if you know of some...

DOWNLOAD NO.229 - BUDDY ENGLAND

Buddy England (born in England), was a former member of The Seekers, replacing Bruce Woodley and stayed with them for seven years. He was also a member of the Mixtures 1969-1970 replacing Idris Jones for 10 months. It was in this time when Buddy was lead singer on the #1 track "In The Summertime". Buddy didn't really like the Mungo Jerry song but little did he know it would hit the top position due to a radio ban on foreign artists and it launched the Mixtures Oz-wide. It was a similar sounding follow-up "The Pushbike Song" that got the Mixtures exposure in foreign lands but Buddy had gone solo by then.

Buddy England had his own singing, writing and recording success in Australia and in England prior to coming to Oz. Buddy was initially a solo singer/songwriter and producer and had great success prior to joining The Seekers/Mixtures.

Buddy wrote many songs for other artists...Tony Pantano, "Every Time You Touch Me"; The Vibrants, "I Can't Let Go of Your Love"; Benjamin Hugg...Album of the Year..."Early One Morning" and single of the year, "Thank God You're Hear With Me"; Tadpole, "Throw A Little Lovin' My Way", The Pattersons and so on. NB.Many of the aforementioned songs are lodged on this blog - use search facility to locate them.

Singles:

If I Never Get To Love You
Doll House
Question
There Goes My Baby
Sunny
What A Wonderful World
Movin' Man
Forgive and Forget
Name of My Sorrow
Josephine

Here for download is a copy of "Movin' Man" lovingly converted from a good vinyl copy:

http://rapidshare.com/files/258336362/Buddy_England_-_Movin__Man.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.228 - EASYBEATS

During early 1968 the Vanda/Young (writing team behind The Easybeats) scaled new heights of writing and production excellence with a string of superb singles but they were largely overlooked by radio outside Australia. In March '68 they released the epic "Hello, How Are You", which briefly took them back into the UK Top 20. The song was a deliberate attempt by Vanda and Young to emulate the 'big ballad' hits that were around at the time on UK radio. It's a fine song, and although Young later dismissed it as "cornball schmaltz", it obviously influenced some listeners. Some say that the first line of Jeff Lynne's 1974 ELO hit "Telephone Line" is undoubtedly a direct musical reference to the Easybeats' classic.

There were a couple of different versions of the song recorded. There was a long unedited album mix and a shorter single mix. Both versions have made it to CD in various parts of the world.

Here for download is the rare unedited 3:55 min version of the stereo album master of "Hello, How Are You". This copy was on a CD with studio cuts and rare items. I purchased it in London on my trip to England in 2006.

http://rapidshare.com/files/257733585/easybeats_-_hello__how_are_you__unedited_uk_version_.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.227 - SOMEBODY'S IMAGE

The career of Russell Morris is still going strong and he has numerous songs to his credit. His biggest hits were throughout the 1970s.

Before Russell went solo, with the urging of producer "Molly" Meldrum, he was formerly in a Melbourne pop group called Somebody's Image. They had 3 singles: "Heatwave", "Hush" and "Hide And Seek". They were destined for greater things when the group seemingly imploded. "Molly" Meldrum spent unprecedented hours and money to create a seven-minute production extravaganza around a song called "The Real Thing." Once the result was released to shocked radio programmers who had never been asked to play such a long Australian single before, it was up to Morris' personality, singing, and performing talents to make the record work. It reached Australia's number one spot in June 1969. Without any promotional support from Morris, "The Real Thing" reached number one in Chicago, Houston, and New York....The Americans split the song into two halves and placed them as an A-side and B-side on their version of the 7" single. The edited version of "The Real Thing" has appeared on a CD released by Barry Humphries to coincide with his TV series called "Flashbacks".

All 3 of the Somebody's Image singles are on a series of CDs released by David McLean at Canetoad Music in Sydney.

David McLean,
c/o Canetoad Music,
PO Box 1039,
Potts Point,
N.S.W.
2011.

Here for download is a 6 minute Tom Mix Megamix of Russell's early work in Somebody's Image with a song running order that goes: Hush / Hide And Seek / Heatwave.

Why you ask?

Because I can!

Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/257711294/Somebody_s_Image_-_Hush__Hide_And_Seek__Heatwave__Tom_Mix_Medley_.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.226 - NOELEEN BATLEY

Back when I was 4 years old I remember seeing and hearing Noeleen Batley on the TV show Bandstand in glorious black and white. She was a little cutie.

Her debut "Starry Eyes" was released in February 1960 on Festival's 'try-out' label Rex, but it was not a success. The breakthrough came with her winsome version of "Barefoot Boy " on which she was backed by Festival's 'house' band, The R'Jays, and written by 16-year-old Helen Grover, who had won a talent contest a year earlier with her own performance of the song.

Noeleen's version was released in October and it made the top 5 in all mainland capitals in November 1960, thereby making Noeleen the first Australian female pop singer to score a national hit (there was no national Oz chart until 1966).

Her first big hit "Barefoot Boy" was shrouded in controversy and nearly cost her recording company a big lawsuit but luckily Festival got away without having to pay...here is the short version of the story by one of The R'Jay backing band members:

...One of our favourites was Noeleen Batley, whose first song was Starry Eyed, which we recorded with her on February 11, 1960. This was later followed by Barefoot Boy (July 13, 1960) written by her girlfriend, Helen Grover, who was later sued by the publishers of Buddy Holly's "Everyday" because they said it sounded too similar!? Barefoot Boy was the only recording on the Rex label to go to No.1 on the Top Forty and the first national hit by a local female singer in the rock era. When Rex/Festival realised it was starting to get airplay, they immediately got Ray Swinfield to race into the studio and overdub a million flutes and bongos so it wouldn't sound too cheap and issued a second rare mix using the exact same catologue number. The result was really terrible but luckily for Noeleen the flutes were too late and the first version became a hit despite the efforts of Rex Records to substitute and replace it...

There was an additional version of "Barefoot Boy" done in 1962 for television. There has never been a commercial release for the "flute version" but the other two mixes were released on a CD (cover picture above).

My friend Jim B. recently asked for the "flute version" to be fixed up from his old 7" vinyl for one of his projects and he sent me a scanned copy of the record label too. Thanks Jim for the scan and your continued support of old Oz songs not yet on CD.

Instead of fixing up Jim's record I sent him a bootleg CD copy of the "flute version" which I got from another friend from Melbourne. Thank you to Mike in Melbourne, it's good to have friends in "low places"...(lol).

For download is the second issue of the single of "Barefoot Boy":

http://rapidshare.com/files/256425236/Noeleen_Batley_-_Barefoot_Boy__flute_version_from_tom_mix_.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.225 - BARRY CROCKER

It was by happenstance this week that we went to the town of Morpeth NSW and visited a place called The Trading Post - a sort of jumble sale/market place. Inside was packed to the rafters with stacks of those old vinyl round thingies called albums. To my surprise they had a very large selection and all priced from about $4.00.

I scoured for Oz songs which have never been on CD and the first album I picked up which was in pristine condition was Barry Crocker's album called "Favourite Songs". On side-1 there are copies of "The Pensioner" and "Love Is A Beautiful Song". The latter was a massive hit for Barry and it is still not on CD. The former is available at Ozzie The Music Man's blog (see links on left of this page to other Oz music sites).

I am extremely happy to finally find this album because the only version of "Love Is A Beautiful Song" that I have been able to score was an edited 2 min 38 secs version issued on a K-tel album called "Dynamic Hits Vol.2". Until now this was the only version made available on the Ozburn collection (which has now been corrected).

"Love Is A Beautiful Song" (edited K-tel version) appears on this blog further over as do some other tracks by Barry Crocker (use search facility top left corner to locate his work).

Here at last I can present a fabulous transfer of the original 3 min 10 secs single mix of the song:

http://rapidshare.com/files/256402165/barry_crocker_-_love_is_a_beautiful_song__full_single_tom_mix_.mp3

DOWNLOAD NO.224 - JOHN ST.PEETERS

John St. Peeters is a singer, songwriter, musician, and one of the most dynamic performers in Australia today.

He got his start under the name Johnny Lo Piccolo. His first singles were accordion tracks as the fresh-faced Johnny was known as the “Squeezebox Kid”. From humble beginnings as a child entertainer, John has achieved a number of chart-placed singles, including “Deep Inside of Me”, “High Class Woman”, “So Many Ways”, and “Wonderworld”.

His big run of hits 1978-1980 were on the RCA label and none of them have yet been on a commercial CD.

In 2001 John did some foreign language versions of his 1979 hit “So Many Ways”.

Singles:

JOHN LO PICCOLO

1968 Johnny Lo Piccolo goes Latin America (Accordion EP) - Bolero Records ASTOR

1970 Kiss Me Once and Kiss Me Twice - Johnny and Ines - Bolero Records ASTOR

1972 Tarantella Vurpigna - Telestar Records, Italy

1972 Tarantella Navarrina - Telestar Records, Italy

1973 Don't Leave Me - GV Records, Canada

1973 Arriva L'Emigrante - Telestar Records, Italy

JOHN ST. PEETERS

1975 Take Me If You Want Me - John St. Peeters & The Sharells - ASTOR

1976 You Know That You're Sexy - Crystal Clear Records EMI

1977 Shiny Side Up - EMI Records

1977 Love The Way You Move - EMI Records

1978 Deep Inside Of Me - RCA Records

1978 High Class Woman - RCA Records

1979 So Many Ways - RCA Records

1979 You You're The One - RCA Records

1980 Wonder World - RCA Records

1980 Love Is All We Need - RCA Records

1981 Dangerous Heart - John St. Peeters & Session - Full Moon Records

1982 You Wanna Be Loved - Back Street Boys - EMI Records

1984 Street Kids - RCA Records

1985 I Need That Someone to Love - John St. Peeters & Jane Scali - Powderworks, RCA

1986 Don't Make Love To Strangers - Powderworks, RCA

1990 Diamond In The Sun - Hamilton Island Theme - HMI

1991 See The Magpie Fly - EMI Records

2001 So Many Ways - Vorticity Music

Here for download are some 2001 remakes of “So Many Ways”:

http://rapidshare.com/files/196318735/john_st_peters.rar