A WHOLE LOTTA SHAKY

Shakin' Stevens was the UK's biggest selling singles artist of the 1980s with over thirty Top 40 hit singles, four chart-toppers, a string of successful albums and sell out tours across the UK and Europe. However, it wasn't an overnight success.

His recording and performing career had started in the late-1960's when, having changed his name from Michael Barratt, he fronted the rock 'n' roll band Shakin' Stevens and The Sunsets. They gained a recording contract with Parlophone Records and released the album A Legend, produced by Dave Edmunds who would go on to play a part in his later career. They toured night after night across the length and breadth of the UK but didn't achieve the success they deserved. However, in Europe they had several hits and were also a regular on the concert circuit.

In 1977, following the death of Elvis Presley, Jack Good was holding auditions for his West End musical Elvis! He had seen the Sunsets at a gig in London and asked Shaky, as he was often called at this time, to audition for the middle-period Elvis. Good was so impressed and offered him the role. A cast album was released featuring many of his songs from the show including King Creole, Dixieland Rock, Got A Lot Of Livin' To Do and Tupelo Mississipi Flash. The show ran for six-months during which time The Sunsets were expecting him to return but his career was set to take him on a more successful path.

Following the closing of the musical, Jack Good revived the Oh Boy! show and Shaky was a regular on this and the follow-up show, Let's Rock, which ran for thirty weeks and was broadcast here and in the USA.

During this period, pre- and post- Elvis!, Shaky had the chance to record material with Charlie Gillett and Mike Hurst for Track Records. Several singles were released including Somebody Touched Me, Never, Spooky and Treat Her Right. He then teamed up with two new producers, Mike Shaw and John Fenton and recorded an album, Shakin' Stevens, released in 1978 and which featured sax player Alan Holmes from the legendary band Sounds Incorporated. Unfortunately Track Records closed down soon after but his future was assured and he was signed up by Epic Records, who released some of his recently recorded material. Several unreleased recordings and rarities from this period found a release on an album titled The Track Years, released in 1983 after he had hit the big time.

This led to his first chart success with a re-worked cover of Hot Dog, a song originally recorded by Buck Owens and a career move that would make him one of the most successful recording and touring artists of the 1980s. He signed a management deal with Freya Miller in 1979 and she suggested he end his association with The Sunsets and pursue a solo career.

Hot Dog, and the follow-up Hey Mae, were successful and a sign of what was to come but his career really took off with the release of the single Marie, Marie and in concert he would often credit the song as... "the one which kicked it all off for me."

His first number one was another re-working of an old song, This Ole House, originally recorded by Rosemary Clooney. He followed with a run of top ten hits including three more that reached the top spot... Green Door, Oh Julie and Merry Christmas Everyone. 

He was a regular on TV shows including Top Of The Pops, toured every year to sell-out audiences across the UK and Europe and released hit after hit including You Drive Me Crazy, Give Me Your Heart Tonight, A Love Worth Waiting For, Teardrops, Breaking Up My Heart, Cry Just A Little Bit and A Letter To You. It wasn't only the singles that charted and he placed several albums on the chart including Marie Marie (later renamed This Ole House to capitalise on the success of the single), Shaky (which reached number one), The Bob Won't Stop, Lipstick, Powder And Paint and A Whole Lotta Shaky.

By the 1990s success started to slip away and although still a big draw on the concert circuit his records failed to make much impression on the charts. His highest placed single from this period was another festive offering, The Best Christmas Of Them All which only just scraped into the top twenty. He only released two albums in the nineties, There Are Two Kinds Of Music... Rock 'N' Roll and Merry Christmas Everyone.

It would be sixteen years before he would release a new album, Now Listen, and a further nine years before his most recent studio album, the excellent Echoes Of Our Times, an album based on research into his family history and a complete departure from his rock and roll days. It became his first chart album to reach the top thirty in over three decades.

With the advent of CD, and despite all the hit singles and albums, Shaky's back-catalogue was largely ignored by the record companies and it was several years before his material started appearing on CD and even then it was mainly hit compilations like The Epic Years, The Hits Of..., The Collection and Red Hot And Rockin'. This changed in 2009 with the release of the 10-CD and digital download, The Epic Masters which included all his albums, except Merry Christmas Everyone. I could never understand why it was omitted but maybe the fact it had already been released on CD was the reason it wasn't included. Each CD featured bonus tracks and there was a CD of 12" extended mixes. However, this still left plenty of material unavailable on CD.

This brings us to the release of what is without doubt the definitive Shakin' Stevens release... Fire In The Blood.

The set contains 19 CDs with 266 tracks, many making their first appearance on CD and many more rare and unreleased tracks.

The set includes all his studio albums from Shakin' Stevens to Echoes Of Our Times. What I really like about this new release is the fact that the albums are presented as the originals with no bonus tracks. 

With the exception of some 'live' b-sides, Shaky never released a live album and this new set gives us two. First up is a recording from The Paris Theatre in London first broadcast on Radio in 1980. Highlights from this show include Don't Bug Me Baby, Don't Knock Upon My Door, A Big Hunk Of Love and Marie, Marie. I actually recorded this off the radio at the time and still have the cassette.  The second is a recording from his 2019 tour of Europe and the UK which features many of the tracks from his current album, Echoes Of Our Times, along with several earlier hits. Both are welcome additions to this impressive collection.

But wait, there is more. Four discs of live, rare and previously unreleased tracks, most of which are making their first appearance on CD. Many of his singles were never included on albums and these are also present on these discs. Along with the extended versions, remixes, acoustic versions, b-sides and live tracks are two previously unreleased songs, I Need You Now and Wild At Heart.

The music is matched by the deluxe packaging. Presented in a bound 12" x 12" illustrated hard-backed book with an essay by Paul Sexton it also includes a reproduction promo poster, the Oh Julie sheet music, a 36-page tour brochure, art prints and an autograph book signed by Shakin' Stevens. An impressive package which, with a retail price of under £100, has to be one of the best 'value-for-money' career retrospectives I've ever seen.

I have followed Shaky's career since 1977 when I first saw him in the Elvis! musical and went twice more before its run ended. I bought every single and album and have seen him in concert more than a dozen times. I was also fortunate to have worked for him on a number of archive related projects covering his recording and touring career. This new set is a reminder of those great singles, albums and concerts and is worth every penny. Pick up a copy while you can as I am sure it will soon become a collectors item and end up being offered for crazy prices on various online sites.

There is 'A Whole Lotta Shaky' for your money.

JOHNNY CASH THE OUTTAKES

Having already released The Everly Brothers The Outtakes and Janis Martin The Outtakes which, as the titles suggest, contained outtakes and false starts, in early 2007 Bear Family Records turned their attention to Johnny Cash with a three-CD set of outtakes, false starts and studio chat from the Sun Records period. I was fortunate to have been approached to compile the set and write the liner-notes. In this article I will look back at the work that was involved in putting the set together. 

Towards the end of 2006 I was approached by Richard Weize, owner of Bear Family Family, who asked if I would be interested in putting together the set and, of course, I agreed.

My first task was to work out which outtakes had already been issued on the Man In Black 1954-1958 and other releases and compile a spreadsheet detailing where these could be found. I then received nine CDs with various outtakes, false starts and studio chat that also contained some material that had been out before. Unfortunately there were many Sun tracks for which no alternates have survived although what was there made interesting listening.

With a release date set for late-February 2007 I was working to a tight deadline and had to supply a final track listing by the beginning of January. I copied all the material onto the computer as it would be easier to stop and start songs or pick out particular passages than would have been possible on a standard CD player. There were several problems I encountered during the initial stages, not least of which was the lack of information regarding the different versions. Sam Phillips was notoriously bad at keeping records and with no written notes or take numbers to go by it was a case of going through each and every track listening for differences. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that many of the outtakes sounded so similar.

It took several weeks before I had the final track listing finalised which I then compiled on a spreadsheet and forwarded it to the record company. It would be a while before I received the remastered tracks to approve and in the meantime I made a start on the liner-notes.

Rather than writing a track-by-track guide I chose to write an overview of Cash's career at Sun Records while picking out those tracks that were noticeably different and deserved a more detailed description. By the end of January the liner-notes were completed and sent off to the designers to start work on the artwork and booklet.

In due course CD-R copies of the remastered tracks arrived and needed to be checked. I listened to all three CDs comparing them to my list to ensure the right versions had been used and compiled in the correct running order. Fortunately, with only a few minor exceptions which would be corrected before release, everything was fine. I was really impressed with the sound quality which to my ears had never sounded so good.

My next job was to check and approve the artwork and booklet which all looked fine except for the odd typo and layout error. I confirmed this and waited while production of the set took place.

I was impressed with the final product. The three CDs, which were made to look like reels of tape, were housed in individual sleeves with the track listings detailed on the back. The 100 page booklet included my comprehensive liner notes, recording session details, period photos and, as a bonus, a wealth of previously unseen photos of Cash and good friend Johnny Horton on a fishing trip. These were not from the period but were a welcome addition. All this was housed in a reproduction tape-box which looked very classy.

The set featured 111 tracks, presented in chronological order, with over 50 previously unreleased. The listener was able to hear work in progress and the subtle differences between each take as the songs developed in the studio. You would hear Cash fluff a lyric or guitarist Luther Perkins miss a note meaning another take was required. Many of the songs were recorded in two or three takes but a few required many more before a finished master was sucessfully 'in the can.' Among these were the eight takes of Don't Make Me Go and the eleven takes of Always Alone.

Among the fifty previously unreleased tracks were multiple takes of songs including Folsom Prison Blues, Don't Make Me Go, Katy Too, Get Rhythm, Always Alone, Thanks A Lot, I Just Thought You'd Like To Know and It's Just About Time.

I don't need to say how proud I am of this set. I've worked on many Johnny Cash projects over the years and this ranks high on the list.

'Whether it's the thrill of hearing a previously unknown lyric, a slightly different instrumental sound or eavesdropping on a vocal or guitar fluff, this collection offers the most penetrating look beyond the famous master recordings made by a man who has become a towering figure in American music.' - Bear Family Records Press Release