Label / Cat. No: Decca PFS 4212
First Released: 1970

What The Album Blurb Says…

The Moog Synthesizer, this incredible and new electronic musical wonder, has had an uneven ride on records, especially in the popular field. Effectively used on two great-selling albums (Switched-on Bach and The Well-Tempered Synthesizer), the Moog served the classics as a kind of musical duplicator, that is, reproducing and imitating the sound of real instruments. In the “pop” field it has been a fairly different story. Most often used as a gimmick for the odd effect, the Moog has not fully come into its own in the popular field. This may be due to the Moog’s personality: it speaks with strength, it doesn’t care to be in the background and if used improperly it completely overshadows everything else that is going on.

On this LP Claude Denjean comes to terms with the problem by giving the Moog its rightful place in a fair exchange between synthesizer and orchestra. To exciting settings of twelve great hit sons, this LP really gives the Moog, it all its electronic glory. That plus the stereo excellence of Phase 4 adds up to irresistible listening.

What I Say

Imagine it – 1970. It was a good year, vintage some might say. An especially good year for boys born in Croydon. Around September time I’d say. Yes, very good indeed.

Of course, space was still sexy, the Moon looming large in people’s minds as well as in the sky. Music and technology coming together in one big cosmic fusion, with the magnificent Moog! leading the charge. Wibbly wobbly farty noises added a bit of universal mystery to any song, and boy is that a lesson that Claude Denjean has learnt.

Claude Denjean. Ah, the mysterious Dutchman who rode to the rescue of the Moog!’s reputation. Noble Claude, the man who was going to put the Moog! centre stage to show it’s critics what it could do. What I can’t understand is why anybody wouldn’t like the Moog! it’s got an exclamation mark and everything. It’s also one of only three instruments named after a real person – The Moog!, The Sousaphone, and of course Rolf Harris’ Stylophone. Actually, that would be an album I would pay to hear, one combining those three iconic instruments. Someone should pitch this to E.M.I.

Anyway, it seems a bit unfair to call this a ‘Forgotten Album’, because there’s plenty of pictures and copies of it all over the internet. I fear that it may have become a bit of a cult classic because, like the moon, this album is made of pure cheese. Extremely cheesey cheese at that.

I shouldn’t be harsh. It’s just a reflection of the times, and I’m happy to accept an album that hangs on the idea of a synthesizer as a novelty. I would of course be happier if it was a better album though.

Stylistic tics aside, this could have been an opportunity not only to showcase the versatility of the Moog!, but also to use it to enhance the songs chosen for the album. Instead, it really is mostly an opportunity to make wibbly wobbly farty noises over pretty bland arrangements of popular songs.

The Moog! also seems to take on the melody lines of the songs, which is fair enough. It is after all the Moog!’s album – it says so on the cover and everything. It’s trying to have its cake and eat it (do Moog!’s eat cake? I’m not sure….) It could work if it were being purely tuneful, it could work if it were trying to be atmospheric, but trying to be both ends up as overkill.

The Moog! may well be a victim of its own success. It shows too much variety in what it can do to give this album any kind of thematic structure (oh, look at him, old Mr. Forgottenalbums, getting above himself and talking about thematic structure….) There’s no common thread through the (wildly differently arranged) songs here.

And the arrangements themselves are, frankly, weird. Not just odd, but outright looney tunes. All you need to do is play the two (yes, two!) ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ clips to see what I mean. Without the sleeve notes, it took me over half a minute to work out what the song was.

‘Come Together’ is unusually sombre, ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ has completely removed that beautiful rolling guitar that makes the song, and ‘Lay Lady Lay’ literally, honestly made me laugh out loud.

If this is the sound of the future, then we are all doomed. Doomed I tell you.

Tracks

Side 1

1. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
2. Nights In White Satin
3. Sugar, Sugar
4. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head
5. House Of The Rising Sun
6. Everybody’s Talkin’

Side 2

1. Venus
2. Come Together
3. Bridge Over Troubled Water Clip 1 Clip 2
4. Lay Lady Lay
5. United We Stand
6. Proud Mary

Final score:

3! out of 10

Label / Cat. No: FONTANA 700 151 WGY
First Released: 1965+

What The Album Blurb Says…

FONTANA – spezial – Langspielplatten sing nach dem modernsten Stand der Schallplatten – Aufnahmetechnik hergestellt. Alle Aufnahmen sind mit den neuesten professionelien stereo-Bandgeräten und Stereo – Kondensator – Mikrofonen gemacht, die alle mit dem menschlichen Ohr wahrnehmbaren Frequenzen des Hörspectrums zwischen 16 und 16 000 Hertz erfassen. Sie garantieren – auch in der Monofassung – eine unübertroffene Klarheit des Klanggeschehens und ermöglichen die Reproduktion des Originalklanges in voller Dynamik, naturgetreuer Klangfarbe und absoluter Reinheit der Tonhöhe. Die Überspielung dieser hochwertigen Originalaufnahmen und Übertragung auf Pressmatrizen geschieht mit höchster technischer Präzision in klimatisch regulierten Räumen unter Verwendung elektronischer Kontrollsysteme. Die fertiggestellten Langspielplatten werden laufend optisch und akustisch überprüft und dann mit einer neuartigen Vakuum – Schutzfilm – Verpackung fabrikmässig versiegelt.

Der Käufer der FONTANA – spezial – Langspielplatten kommt somit in den vollen Genuss dieser hervorragenden Aufnahmetechnik. Voraussetzung dafür ist jedoch die einwandfreie Beschaffenheit der Wiedergabeapparate, insbesondere der Zustand des Abtastsaphirs. Auf dieser winzigen Spitze lastet auch bei geringstem Gewicht des Tonarmes eine Kraft, die dem Gewicht eines mittleren Kraftwagens auf der Fläche eines Zehnpfennig – stückes entspricht. Der Saphir ist daher der Abnutzung unterworfen und sollte auch bei normalem Gebrauch in regelmässigen Abständen ausgewechselt werden.

What I Say

OK, OK, first things first. I know quite well that the album blurb is really just FONTANA telling us what great records they make, and not directly related to Claude Meunier or his Orchestra, but I just love the German language. It really is the language of love with all those sexy guttural sounds and harsh grating consonant clashes. Mmmm…. does it for me every time, though that might in part be from a childhood watching ”Allo ‘Allo’ and the sexy secretary to Herr Flick.

And anyway, it’s harder than it looks, typing in another language. But I love the way FONTANA capitalise their entire name, and any phrase which may reflect on them also gets capitalised, you know, just in case.

The previous owners of this album thoughtfully left a sticker with their name, address and telephone number on the front of this record. So, Basil and Marjorie of Droitwich Spa, what posessed you to buy this album? I mean, it’s pretty inoffensive, but how did you think it was going to enhance your life?

The conceit for this album is that it’s a Party. At Madeleine’s house. And not just any kind of party, oh no! The only cirumstances under which this album could possibly come about are something like the dramatisation below. I shall call the characters Marjory and Basil entirely as a random choice…

Basil: Hey, have you heard, there’s a party at Madeleine’s.

Marj: A party? At Madeleine’s?

Basil: Yes, a party at Madeleines. And guess what!

Marj: What?

Basil: It’s a Dance Party.

Marj: Terrific. So no food or drink to get in the way of our non-stop dancing then.

Basil: None. In fact, so as not to distract us at all, she’s holding her Dance Party in a big red room, empty except for a few inconveniently placed miniature packing cases right slap bang in the middle of the dance floor.

Marj: Groovy.

Basil: You said it Daddio.

Marj: I’d better get my striped top if I’m really going to swing the joint.

Basil: And don’t forget your ski pants either.

I do have to ask if anyone has ever been to a party, Dance or otherwise where people have come together to form the combination of shapes that we have on the cover. It is so posed as to be laughable to our cynical 21st Century eyes, but there surely must’ve been a time when this image truly depicted teenagers having a groovy time.

And who, except those wishing to trick their friends who’ve just taken acid, would party in a plain red room. Well, OK, who apart from David Lynch.

But my absolute favourite part of the cover is the girl in the background in the red and white striped top. While all the others are carefully holding their poses in a pretence of a) enjoying themselves and b) dancing with all the gay abandon of youth, our girl is making a half-hearted hand movement, and staring straight at the camera!. Good girl! They’ve tried to hide this by putting the word ‘Claude’ right across her face, but her eyes line up beautifully with the ‘u’ and ‘d’ making it look like she’s wearing avant-garde spectacles. Marvellous!

What do you mean, ‘what about the music’? It’s fairly innocuous, bog-standard Hammond Organ stuff. ‘The Happy Organ Player’ just about sums this all up. Actually, so does the ‘Happy Sailor’. When you’re at a Dance Party, everybody’s happy. Not the kind of thing I’d be likely to dance to, or even use to liven up my party, but then that’s where Madeleine and I differ.

Tracks

Seite 1

1.Skiffy
2. Amalita
3.Pierre et Madeleine
4. Tête à tête
5. Deseo
6.Happy Sailor
7. Huckleberry Finn

Seite 2

1. Jumping Jacks
2.The Happy Organ Player
3. Lorena
4. Croisettes
5. Baquita
6.Jolly Melody
7. Samba Mobile

Final score:

4 out of 10. Inoffensive is the best I can muster.

Label / Cat. No: World Wide Recordings BG 2932
First Released: 1970

What The Album Blurb Says…

On July 7, 1967, Billy Graham crossed the Yugoslav border above Trieste, en route to his first public meetings in Eastern Europe. We well remember the enthusiastic reception he received in Zagreb. During his EURO 70 Crusade, the evangelist “returned” to the same city when it joined 35 others to be linked with Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle, in Europe’s largest ever, closed circuit TV network.

Although Mr. Graham has not yet visited Czechoslovakia, members of the team have taken his personal greetings to Christians there. They have confirmed my own conviction that God’s people in Eastern Europe can be more closely identified with those described in the Book of Acts than any others we have seen.

This record, introduced by Cliff Barrows leading congregational singing in Prague, captures something of the victorious spirit of these our fellow members of the Body of Christ. It is presented with the hope that it will encourage Western Christians to pray for them, as they pray for us, and thus strengthen the ties which bind our hearts in Christian love.

Dave Foster, Eurovangelism

What I Say

What an oddity we have to mark the “long-awaited” return of , a 1970 souvenir of Billy Graham’s tour to Europe. I have to admit something of a vested interest here, in that in 1984 I saw Billy at Ipswich Town Football Stadium where his doom mongering, predictions of an imminent nuclear war and obvious showmanship had the opposite effect on me than that intended.

For me, the most striking thing about this record is that half of the front cover is taken up with the stark warning “Phongraphic RECORD – DO NOT DROP OR CRUSH. KEEP AWAY FROM EXCESSIVE HEAT”. I’m not sure if Mr. Graham’s records are more prone to being dropped or crushed, but by 1970 I’m pretty sure most people with phonographic reproduction equipment were pretty au fait with vinyl handling techniques. I’m tempted to analyse further, but good taste and decency prevents me…

Anyway, first thing to note is that this ‘Billy Graham’ album contains no actual Billy Graham. Not a bit of it. The spoken introduction and final prayer are from his ‘music and program director’, Cliff Barrows. While I’ve got nothing against Cliff (well, apart from the fact that he made a film with Cliff Richard which would prejudice you against most people), you buy a Billy Graham album, you expect a bit of Billy action. I’m tempted to complain of false advertising here…

Cliff’s proselytizing bookends the musical content of the album, Christian music sung by a variety of Eastern European choirs and organisations. There’s some diversity here, from the almost but not quite Welsh stylings of the Prague Male Voice Choir, to the instrumental pieces which sound like the soundtrack to a piece of avant-garde Soviet animation.

However, my clear favourite by a country mile is the Bratislava Youth Ensemble. While the rest of the album provides foreign language versions of Western favourites or tunes embedded in Romantic folk, the Youth Ensemble are giving it large in a very 1970s Eastern European understated way. The songs are just that little bit more chirpy than the Wesleyan sounding hymns, and there’s the acoustic guitar, so beloved on Christian Youth Groups. During ‘Mary Magdalene’, there’s even a bass guitar, and you can tell that the bassist is just itching for an excuse to burst into ‘Jazz Oddysey’. Thirty seven years on, their exciting, youthful glee sounds like every other progressive Christian Youth Group of the last couple of generations, only in Slovak.

The rest of the album is…. curious. It’s like trying to watch ‘The Weakest Link’ in a language you don’t understand. You understand the format and the mechanics, but lack the comprehension. I have the tune of ‘What a Friend We Have In Jesus’ ingrained on my memory from years of Sunday School, but the novelty here is that it’s in Czech. Almost like a cover version. Which reminds me, I have an excellent version of ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ by the Smiths sung in German. Nothing to do with Billy Graham, but then again, nor has this album really.

Tracks

Side 1

1. Greetings and congregational singing of Blessed Assurance (Cliff Barrows and congregation of Baptist Church, Prague)
2. Jerusalem The Golden (Baptist Choir, Bratislava) Slovak
3. His Eye Is On The Sparrow (Rumanian solo)
4. The Head That Once Was Crowned With Thorns (Male Voice Choir, Prague)
5. Mary Magdalene (Youth Ensemble, Bratislava) Slovak
6. Wonderful Name Of Jesus (Euro 70 Choir, Dortmund) German
7. Doxology (Male Voice Choir, Prague) Czech

Side 2

1. What A Friend We Have In Jesus (Male Voice Choir, Prague) Czech
2. Roll Jordan Roll (in English) (Male Voice Choir, Prague) Czech
3. This Little Light Of Mine (Unique Instrumental Duet) Czech
4. What Is He To You? (Youth Ensemble, Bratislava) Slovak
5. Surely Goodness And Mercy (Baptist Choir, Zagreb) Yugoslavia
6. Just As I Am (with final prayer by Cliff Barrows) (Baptist Choir, Bratislava) Slovak

Final score:

3 out of 10 for incomprehensible (to me) cover versions..

Label / Cat. No: Polydor Super 2371 054
First Released: No earlier than 1969

What The Album Blurb Says…

Even if it sounds like a contradiction in terms, it’s got to be said that James Last is first. First in providing orchestral “happy” music that splinters the so-called generation gap in popular musical taste.

Last is first when it comes to producing albums that sell. And sell and sell. Whatever the style of material – be it classical, discotheque, dance instrumental – the Last sound is first all over the world. The formula is deceptively simple. Select familiar themes, treat the melodic lines with respect, dress them up in arrangements where the emphasis is on bass and brass.

Many a bandleader has tried to do the same. But the Last “touch” is unique. Maybe that is the one-word summing-up of his amazing multi-million disc sales… he’s unique. It’s an overworked word in popular music, but James Last remains unique even when reproducing his disc sounds on stage.

A man’s music reflects the man himself, so they say. James Last is well-dressed, neat, dynamic, energetic – the last shows through in his love of ski-ing and tennis. His music, too, is well-dressed, neat, dynamic, energetic. The man himself likes parties, so it’s only right that his music has made a few million parties swing that little bit more.

Of course, communication is a lot to do with it. Even though James Last speaks German, he somehow communicates with English-speaking audiences. Or any other audiences, come to that.

Yet it was very much a matter of chance that drew James Last into the popular music field. As a kid he showed promise on piano so his parents encouraged him in a musical career. At the Conservatoire of Music In Bueckeburg, from the age of fourteen, he studied composition, double bass and piano. It looked very much as though he’d stick with the classics.

But after World War II, his schooldays behind him, he “discovered” American dance music. He formed his own band, playing double bass. His skill in arranging was evident and he joined the Northwest German Radio station in Hamburg, working with top artist like Caterina Valente and Helmut Zacharias.

His reputation grew. But he had so much to say musically that it was obviously better for him to say it himself. His first album “Non-Stop Dancing,’65″ was a massive seller. It’s been non-stop recording ever since. Each idea such as “Trumpet-A-Go-Go”, produced a whole series of albums. That’s why James Last really needs a disc catalogue all of his own.

Nowadays he spreads his wings all over the world. Canada, South Africa, Australia – most of the world knows now that Last is first. Bass and brass… happy music… distinctive sounds.

Distinctive sounds abound in this “Best of James Last” collection. There’s “Happy Heart” and “Happy Music” to stress that Last orchestrations are built both to last and to give lasting pleasure. Or try “Games That Lovers Play” and hear for ourself that much-recorded numbers don’t have to have that well-worn feel to them.

Perhaps there are some people who don’t succumb to the charms of a James Last album. But it’s odds- on that they are in some mysterious form of coma.

Peter Jones.

What I Say

Oh, so “A man’s music reflects the man himself” is what they say is it? Well, I looked and it seems that nobody is saying that. I don’t wish to call Peter Jones a liar, but I think he’s overstating the case somewhat. I mean, I can accept that music may be described as “neat, dynamic, energetic,” but ‘well-dressed’? Can I expect to one of his ‘Happy Tunes’ to turn up at my place wearing a cravat and plus fours? I think not.

And look, the man’s not even called ‘James Last’. All these years his grinning, bearded face has been staring out at me from Charity Shop records, and I found out today that his real name is Hans. It’s as if I never knew the man at all.

However, I am prepared to forgive him, for I can understand that in post-war Britain and America, a musical act called Hans might not go down too well. But note, these sleeve notes seem to suggest that Herr Last’s schooldays ended roughly at the same time as the end of World War II. Just to remind you, they say, “But after World War II, his schooldays behind him, he “discovered” American dance music.” It might be slightly fairer to say he was exposed to American dance music thanks to the overwhelming presence of American armed forces in his country after the war.

Anyway, if this is the best of James Last, then I’m not sure what constitutes ‘the rest’. I’d liken this album to musical mashed potato – plain, unchallenging, reassuringly familiar and yet unrelentingly boring. Just a tip James / Hans, but not every tune can be spiced up with racy strings, driving snare drum rhythms and European backing singers adding textured washes over the top. Rather than bring out the beauty of the tunes, Herr Last’s skill is to homogenize them, until a song from a 60s musical sounds that same as a piece from Bizet or a traditional dance tune.

I can’t fault the music as such – it’s kept Mr Last very well in royalties, and there simply must be an audience for it, seeing as he manages to shift so many records. I think he suffers from the British disdain for anything popular in Europe. There’s something so cheesy about it, but there’s also a naivete, a lack of that cynical post-modern ‘knowingness’ that the English do so well.

Sadly, I can’t say that I’m unaffected by that, and still see Mr Last’s offerings as some kind of continental European speciality. Like crisp-bread, processed smoked cheese and window shutters instead of curtains, it’s something ‘enjoyed by foreigners’ which doesn’t quite translate.

However, easy listening comes no easier than this. Clearly a man at the top of his game. Just a game you have to ask whether it’s worth playing.

Tracks

Side 1

Games That Lovers Play
The “In” Crowd
Happy Heart
Aquarius
Lara’s Theme
American Patrol

Side 2

That’s Life
Toreadors’ March
Guantanamera
Happy Music
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
The Last Waltz

Final score:

6.5 out of 10