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Volume 1
August 25, 2008

Product Description
26 original versions of some of the most enduring classics of the 1950s and 1960s.

These tracks embrace some of the greatest country, soul, pop, rock`n'roll and R&B tunes ever recorded. We may never know why these songs did not become hits first time around, but musical inferiority is certainly not among the reasons why they didn't.

Some of these originals are well known, others are hardly known at all. Most people with a passion for rock`n'roll will know that Richard Berry wrote and recorded the original `Louie Louie', but hardly anyone will know that the Kingston Trio and Mark James did `Get Together' and `Suspicious Minds' before the Youngbloods and Elvis Presley did.

Hear how `Rock Around The Clock' sounded three years before Bill Haley and the Comets got to it, or how the Crickets `Fought The Law' almost half a decade before the Bobby Fuller Four and 15 years before the Clash did. Find out where Led Zeppelin acquired the source material for `Whole Lotta Love' and the Animals got `Baby Let Me take You Home' from. Marvel at how closely the later hit versions were often modelled on these originals, and wonder how come they weren't hits in their own right.

1. Tainted Love - Gloria Jones
2. Suspicious Minds - Mark James
3. Wild Thing - The Wild Ones
4. I Fought The Law - The Crickets
5. The Red Rooster - Howlin' Wolf
6. Hanky Panky - The Raindrops
7. Go Now - Bessie Banks
8. A Rockin' Good Way - Priscilla Bowman & The Spaniels
9. This Diamond Ring - Sammy Ambrose
10. Tobacco Road - John D. Loudermilk
11. I Found You - Yvonne Fair
12. Ain't That Loving You Baby - Eddie Riff
13. Louie Louie - Richard Berry & The Pharaohs
14. My Boy Lollipop - Barbie Gaye
15. Little Bit O'soul - The Little Darlings
16. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town - Johnny Darrell
17. Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand - Hoagy Lands
18. You Need Love - Muddy Waters
19. A Groovy Kind Of Love - Diane & Annita
20. You Were On My Mind - Ian & Sylvia
21. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - Tommy Hunt
22. Let's Get Together [Live] - The Kingston Trio
23. California Sun - Joe Jones
24. Something Stupid - Carson & Gaile
25. Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go - The Leaves
26. Rock Around The Clock - Sunny Dae & The Knights

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I remember when I saw the Crickets in concert, I was really surprised that they were the first to record "I Fought the law", I always thought it was Bobby Fuller Four.

And it was written by Sonny Curtis, who also wrote the theme to the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and "Walk Right Back," by the Everly Brothers.

I did my own comp of this kind some years ago, which I titled "Look What They've Done to My Song," but with more obvious choices. I know only 3 or 4 of the recordings on this CD--gotta have it!

Yeah, I complimented Sonny Curtis on his song when I met him backstage.

How about a tracklisting for your comp, Jimbo?

The Coverville podcast (which plays covers of well known songs) occasionally has "Originalville" episodes featuring the original versions of songs made popular by others. It's always a lot of fun to hear these and this looks like a good collection.

This comp looks awesome! I was completely unaware how many of these songs were covers!

A (now-defunct, of course) oldies station in my area used to devote entire weekends to playing well-known songs and their original (lesser-known) versions. But that was back when I used to bother listening to the radio.

Volume 2
January 25, 2010

Product Description
Here are another two dozen tracks that mostly went unheard and unheeded on release, only for someone else's second attempt to take them high into the Hot 100. Here are the original recordings of, or templates for, such iconic US hits as `Hush', `Cold Sweat', `The Lion Sleeps Tonight', `California Dreamin'', `Bend Me Shape Me' and more, all as you have probably never heard them.

The majority of these recordings are as good as, if not better than, the hit versions that followed in their wake. Many will be a revelation to those who bought and have long cherished those hit versions. At least half of them have never been reissued before, much less appeared on CD.

Happily there is plenty more where these come from, and plans are already afoot for a third volume for 2011 release...

1. Hush - Billy Joe Royal
2. Love Of The Common People - The Four Preps
3. Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
4. California Dreamin' - Barry Mcguire
5. Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te) - Pino Donaggio
6. Higher And Higher - The Dells
7. I Don't Care - James Brown
8. You Got What It Takes - Bobby Parker
9. Old Man Willis - Tony Joe White
10. I'm Your Puppet - Dan Penn
11. Mustang Sally - Sir Mack Rice
12. Mbube - Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds
13. I Got My Mind Set On You Parts 1 & 2 - James Ray
14. Sorrow - The Mccoys
15. Candida - The Corporation
16. Sealed With A Kiss - The Four Voices
17. Everybody's Talkin' - Fred Neil
18. Bend Me Shape Me - The Outsiders
19. Sing In The Sunshine - Hoyt Axton
20. Someone To Love - The Great Society
21. Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye - Don Cherry
22. Different Drum - The Greenbriar Boys
23. Leavin' It All It Up To You - Don & Dewey
24. Come On - Chuck Berry

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