FEVERS: OS REIS DO BAILE

EDIÇÃO ORIGINAL EM LP LONDON LLB 1057 (1969/10)

Grupo vocal-instrumental formado no Rio de Janeiro em 1964 e inserido no movimento da Jovem Guarda, estreou oficialmente em 65, nos programas "Hoje É Dia de Rock", da TV Rio, "Chacrinha", na TV Excelsior, e "Euclides Duarte", na Rádio Mauá. Durante o auge da Jovem Guarda lançaram vários discos e foram muito requisitados em programas de rádio e televisão, festas e bailes. Fizeram também backing vocals para outros artistas como Eduardo Araújo, Roberto e Erasmo Carlos. O grupo continua em plena atividade hoje em dia, consolidando-se como um dos mais duradouros do rock brasileiro.

ORKUT

Rato Records agradece aqui à comunidade brasileira ORKUT que tão amavelmente resolveu contribuir para este blog enviando centenas de raridades musicais dos anos 60.

Um MUITO OBRIGADO!

LOVE HER, PLEASE LOVE HER

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP PYE NSPL 18205 (1967/11)

This is quite definitely Sandie's best album yet. She tackies the original material with her usual aplomb, but she also goes for a few standards like Chaplin's "Smile". Now if you regard her chart material as mainly trivial..., well, here's a chance to judge the enormous improvements in style, attack, phrasing and confidence that shows through on the established class material. Her "One Note Samba" is an exciting excursion into tongue-twisting; her "Ne Me Quitte Pas" appears in French, no less. Too many people put Sandie down for a career based on alleged gimmickry. In fact, she is a tremendous vocal artiste. Still dubious? Then kindly step outside and buy this LP (P. J., November 67 review)

MOTTOLA'S "GUITAR FACTORY"

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP PROJECT3 PR-5044 SD
(1970)
One of the best instrumental albums ever!
And... I wished I've had a guitar teacher like this one...

JUCA CHAVES 1974

E agora uma coisa completamente diferente...

CLIFF RICHARD: "21 TODAY"

Not exactly true..., 'cause Sir Cliff Richard is today 66 years old. Anyway, happy birthday to you, Mister C!

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP COLUMBIA (1961/10/14)
33SX 1368 (MONO); SCX 3409 (STEREO)

First part-rock, second part-ballad album, 21 Today was released on the exact date of Cliff's twenty-first birthday. It went on to become his first No.1 album, taking over, interestingly enough, from the Shadows' first LP which had been in the top spot for the past five weeks.

Straight after a 21st birthday party in London, Cliff Richard and the Shadows hopped on a plane for their first journey down under. He actually turned 21 on the flight. On this tour Cliff played in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and then on to New Zealand. He has since toured this region more than thirty times and has had the third highest amount of hit singles of any artist in Australia. It was on this tour that Cliff began to explore spiritual matters after the loss of his father.

Not many albums are titled after their release date, but October 14, 1961, was a significant date whichever way you look at it, as Cliff Richard finally advanced into adulthood. He could drink alcohol. He could vote. He could drive a car. He could even have sex. And the fact that he was already the single most popular and successful solo pop star Britain had (or would) ever produced did not diminish the significance of the event. His fifth album even opens with a distinctly stylized Shadows version of "Happy Birthday To You," over which Cliff, the band and sundry friends revel in his new found freedom... "we should get the young ladies a drink," says someone and, perhaps, we should be grateful that the track fades out quickly after.

In fact, it would not necessarily be a bad thing if the entire album followed suit. While by no means the nadir of Cliff's recording career, 21 Today is very much a portrait of the artist on auto-pilot, a succession of pleasant mid-tempo ballads, with Shadows-lite backing, soaring strings a-go-go and - the curse of British MOR later in the decade - the utterly wholesome oohs, aahs and echoes of an army of clean-living backing youths. A couple of tracks buck the trend - "Without You" and "Tough Enough" are gritty Shadows-led stompers, while Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch's "Y'Arriva" at least packs an intriguingly mock-Spanish backing, to match vocal stylings lifted straight from an old Speedy Gonzales cartoon.

There is also a bizarre version of "Tea For Two," Cliff giving it his best well-mannered showband vocal, while the Shadows noodle away in best smokey jazzclub style. Overall, however, 21 Today is the sound of a singer growing old before his time and hindsight insists that it is no coincidence that, within a year of its release, the arrival of the Beatles had already consigned Cliff to Boring Old Fartdom. How, the sniggering Fabs fans whispered each other, how would he ever escape from those clutches? And, more importantly, would he even want to? (Dave Thompson in AllMusic)

LET'S LIMBO!

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP PARKWAY P 7020 (1962)

Abandoning for a moment his obsession with "The Twist," Chubby Checker branches out into new territory on this 1962 epic entitled Limbo Party. The half-tacky/half-serious liner notes are unusual — and uncredited — in fact, the only credit is to singer Chubby Checker, with a rare mention of his birth name, Ernest Evans, and the statement that he was barely 20 when releasing this. He was actually four days away from turning 21 when the Sheldon/Strange composition shot to Number Two on the charts, the singer's third biggest hit behind "Pony Time" and "The Twist." Where other Checker albums beat the same formula into the ground, all songs sounding like the production of his double-Number One-hit, "The Twist," here the producers explore salsa, soft rock, and other styles. "The Bossa Nova" is not "Blame It on the Bossa Nova," and pre-dated Eydie Gorme's hit by a half-a-year or so. It also has that cabaret feel which would be embraced by contemporary Chris Montez four years later — though Montez was rocking harder than this with "Let's Dance" the same month "Limbo Rock" hit. "When the Saints Go Limbo In," instead of 'marching in' is a bit of a stretch, while "Jamaica Farewell" is a chance for Chubby to sing an island tune.

Sing it he does, taking advantage of the opportunity, though the powers that be do slip the word "limbo" into the tender reading, keeping in line with the formula which couldn't be argued with. Checker had a home on the Top 40 charts that eluded other artists, so when he has a "Banana Boat Limbo Song" concocted for him, it is an indulgence the singer is allowed — and has earned. "Desafinado (Slightly Out of Tune)" is slightly out of tune music designed for playing on a cruise ship: truly a different arena for the twister. Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" gets re-designed with obligatory nods to samba and limbo, and is a fun conclusion to this respectable disc whose hit is its highlight. (Joe Viglione in AllMusic)

STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP COLUMBIA 33540 (1975/10)

The third new studio album of Paul Simon's post-Simon & Garfunkel career was a musical and lyrical change of pace from his first two, Paul Simon and There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Where Simon had taken an eclectic approach before, delving into a variety of musical styles and recording all over the world, Still Crazy found him working for the most part with a group of jazz-pop New York session players, though he did do a couple of tracks ("My Little Town" and "Still Crazy After All These Years") with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section that had appeared on Rhymin' Simon and another ("Gone at Last") returned to the gospel style of earlier songs like "Loves Me Like a Rock." Of course, "My Little Town" also marked a return to working with Art Garfunkel, and another Top Ten entry for S&G. But the overall feel of Still Crazy was of a jazzy style subtly augmented with strings and horns. Perhaps more striking, however, was Simon's lyrical approach. Where Rhymin' Simon was the work of a confident family man, Still Crazy came off as a post-divorce album, its songs reeking of smug self-satisfaction and romantic disillusionment. At their best, such sentiments were undercut by humor and made palatable by musical hooks, as on "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," which became the biggest solo hit of Simon's career. But elsewhere, as on "Have a Good Time" (written for but not used in the film Shampoo and perhaps intended to express the shallow feelings of the main character), the singer's cynicism seemed unearned. Still, as out of sorts as Simon may have been, he was never more in tune with his audience: Still Crazy topped the charts, spawned four Top 40 hits, and won Grammys for Song of the Year and Best Vocal Performance.

(William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

PAUL SIMON CELEBRATES TODAY HIS 65th BIRTHDAY.

CON-GRA-TU-LA-TI-ONS!!!

THE BRAZILIAN BITLES

Em 1965,cinco rapazes se juntaram e fizeram a Banda de Rock de maior sucesso na década de 60 no Rio de Janeiro. Seu programa na TV Excelcior aos sábados, (com o 2º lugar em audiência) se chamava "Brazilian Bitles Club" e serviu para lançar vários artistas e bandas no cenário nacional.
Sua formação era a seguinte:
Luiz Toth - Lider e baterista da banda
Fábio Block - Baixista e compositor, algum tempo depois trocou de instrumento com o Vitor passando a tocar Guitarra de solo
Eliseu da Silva Barra - Cantor tecladista
Vitor Henrique Trucco - Guitarra de solo e compositor, depois baixista
Jorge Eduardo de Almeida - Cantor e Guitarra de base
RATO RECORDS tem o orgulho de aqui apresentar uma grande antologia desta banda histórica. Um obrigado muito especial ao Paulo Faria que enviou todos os temas.

BOBBY VEE 61

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP LIBERTY LST 7181 (1961/02)

Bobby Vee's self-titled 1961 disc contains his first two Top Ten hits that broke toward the end of 1960, his remake of a tune by the Clovers from a few years earlier, "Devil or Angel," as well as "Rubber Ball." Produced by the great Snuff Garrett, the hits have a timeless charm that puts them in a class above much of the close-to filler material here — covers of Johnny Tillotson's "Poetry in Motion," the Chordettes / the Four Aces '50s hit "Mr. Sandman," the Fireballs / the Crickets "More Than I Can Say" (an eventual hit for Leo Sayer), and Little Willie John's "Talk to Me, Talk to Me." Though Bobby Vee had the credibility of playing with his Shadows on the circuit, the album doesn't have the consistency of, say, The Young Frankie Avalon from a couple of years before. Of course with the hit songs to carry it, the teen idol look of the album and familiar material from other sources made for good marketing. The "Love Love Love" that closes this LP is not the British Bobby Hebb hit written by producer Jerry Ross, this composition from David/McRae/Wyche was part of Dean Martin's repertoire as well as the Clovers. An artist of substance, Vee does a good job with all of the material, though it would have been more interesting had Garrett allowed more of the singer's personality to come through by giving him a more varied song selection.

(Joe Viglione in AllMusic)

RONNIE VON 69

EDIÇÃO ORIGINAL EM LP POLYDOR, JANEIRO 1969

A CLASSIC ALBUM IN BRASILIAN PSYCHEDELISM!

... Com uma capa totalmente psicodélica, onde Ronnie posa de peito nú, como uma espécie de Joe D'Alessandro (ator dos filmes de Andy Wharol) dos trópicos, o álbum não deixava dúvidas sobre o seu conteúdo musical. À frente dos arranjos estava o maestro Damiano Cozzela, de orientação e formação concretista, da mesma escola que já tinha projetado Rogério Duprat (responsável pela apresentação) junto aos Mutantes e demais tropicalistas. O repertório, coeso e instigante, trazia desde peças "espaciais" pré-Pink Floyd, como "Mil Novecentos e Além" ou "Tristeza Num Dia Alegre", pequenas sinfonias pop do porte de "Espelhos Quebrados" (na linha de "Eleanor Rugby") e maravilhas garageiras-psicodélicas como "Silvia 20 Horas Domingo", entre outras - o compacto com essas duas canções é um clássico da discografia roqueira nacional...

(Fernando Torres)