The Box Tops - NonStop (1968)

This one got deleted a few times, which I think is kind of odd considering all of the other stuff on here. I don't feel like re-writing this, so here is what I wrote about a year ago:

Here is another Box Tops/Alex Chilton item - this one was released in 1968 just under a year after the chart-topping The Letter. Here, Alex Chilton is only about 16 or 17 years old, playing in a poppy-bluesy kind of outfit, and his voice is deeper and more gravelly than it is on anything else that I've heard by him. If you listened to that Big Star album below, you'll notice that he talks about The Box Tops leading a kind of 'scummy' existence and being controlled by their producers - Dan Penn and others, who wrote all of the songs for their album and often replaced the band members (except Chilton) with studio musicians during recording. However, Chilton managed to get a song of his own on Non-Stop, "I Can Dig It", which is one of my favourites. Other favourites include the darker "Yesterday Where's My Mind" and the classic sounding "I Met Her In Church".

Track Listing:
Side One
1. Choo Choo Train
2. I'm Movin' On
3. Sandman
4. She Shot A Hole In My Soul
5. People Gonna Talk
Side Two
6. I Met Her In Church
7. Rock Me Baby
8. Rollin' In My Sleep
9. I Can Dig It
10. Yesterday Where's My Mind
11. If I Had Let You In

NonStop - 320kbps

KJR 16 All American Hits (VA) (1967)

This compilation was made in 1967 for a radio station in Seattle, KJR, by a record company that seems to have specialized in making compilations, Take 6. In fact, it seems like Take 6 specialized in making many of the same compilation and putting different labels on them (sometimes). Like those custom wine-makers that have bad wine and put peoples' labels on them. What is that called? Private label wine? But these songs are actually pretty good, and a lot of the artists have either faded into obscurity over the years, have hits that have become dissociated with their names, or have members that have moved onto bigger and better things under different names. For example, here we have the original version of Gloria by Them, aka Van Morrison's old band. And also, despite the title, these are not all necessarily "All American Hits". About half of the artists are part of the British Invasion. For example, Them.

But I liked about all of the tracks. A lot of them are pretty garagey (The Seeds), and others totally fit the bill for 60's pop. Which is a lot of fun. My favourites were probably the tracks by the Association, B.J. Thomas, The Leaves, and the Shangri-Las. For a little trivia, See You In September by The Happenings was part of a list of songs that Clear Channel suggested be taken off the airwaves following 9/11. Which makes the song that much more intense, despite the obvious anachronism.

Track List:

Side One

1. Association - Along Comes Mary

2. Five Americans - Western Union

3. Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy vs. Red Baron

4. B.J. Thomas - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

5. Lovin' Spoonful - Summer In The City

6. Them - Gloria

7. Neil Diamond - Cherry, Cherry

8. The Happenings - See You In September

Side Two

9. Tommy James and the Shondells - Hanky Panky

10. The Leaves - Hey Joe

11. The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard

12. Ian Whitcomb - You Turn Me On

13. Canibal and the Head Hunters - Lord of 1000 Dances

14. The Sonics - The Witch

15. Shangrilas - Leader of the Pack

16. The Standells - Dirty Water

KJR - 320kbps