Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 9th June 2023...still coming to you from the land of the summer sun...over to..

Piers -

"This week Jayne and I took off for a short break in Buxton in Derbyshire and on Sunday we took the opportunity to climb up ‘Mow Cop’ a conical granite outcrop where, to improve the view from their mansion some few miles away, the toffs had a folly, (a ruined castle) built on the top, 1,100 feet above the summit of Gedney hill! It had astounding views out over the flat lands of Cheshire and Staffordshire.  So from there we took a trip over to Cheshire to visit another ‘old boy’ (a few weeks older than me in fact) who lives nearby. Chris and I fell to chatting about the albums which had the most influence on us. He came up with an album containing two cover versions of songs which we decided might seem incongruous on the same album if not for the artists involved.  From them, some of you might be able to work out which album Chris chose. My quick quiz question (answer at the end of my submission); Which album contained covers of these two originals?"

"Chris admitted that more than fifty years after he made his first attempts to do so, from time to time, at a club, or an open mic, he still performs those songs, and always 'back to back'!.  The album that Chris cited as his greatest influence?  ‘The Ballad of Easy Rider’ by The Byrds. My choice was ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’."

Dave -

"Hi everyone, hope all is good with you. Here’s 3 tunes I have played this week."

John -

"Hi RPMers, I hope all is well with you and your world. Here are three tracks I've listened to during the past week."

Jayne -

"With best wishes to the RPM collective..."

Jackie -

Nina -

"Hi folks. Hope all's good. Lovely to see & swim with Jackie in Cornwall during her visit to Penzance. Nice to host a dinner party for her + pals too.

My 3 are all acts I saw at the Great Estate festival last weekend.

Take care all. Cheers!"

Jean -

"As I shall be viewing the delights of country gardens around the Dieppe area this coming week, I thought a French theme was called for."

"Have a good week everyone. Au Revoir."

Now, two RPMers with similar thoughts this week....

Alan -

"Back in the late fifties and early sixties the US seemed to have a proliferation of talented duo's capable of composing songs of such simplistic brilliance that they could be covered by artists of a variety of styles.  In the mid to late fifties there were Leiber and Stoller, Pomus and Shuman, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and Marascalco and Blackwell amongst others. As the new decade dawned a new generation of young songwriters emerged, many based in NYC's Brill Building including Goffin and King, Greenwich and Barry and Bacharach and David. And then there was the seemingly Tamla Motown team of Holland, Dozier and Holland who seemed able to produce classic songs almost at will. However, before groups became 'self sufficient' by writing their own material from around 1962/3, there was another pair of Brill Building songwriters responsible for some of the greatest 'pop' songs ever recorded. That couple were Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and this week, as a tribute to Cynthia who passed away last Friday, it's gonna be three of their finest songs from my collection, but not always the version you may be familiar with. 

Cynthia was born in NYC in 1940 and after training as an actor and dancer developed a unique style of pop songwriting, alongside her husband Barry Mann, which would include protest songs ('We've gotta get out of this place'), social commentary ('Kick's'), 'pure pop' ('Make your own kind of music'), novelty songs ('Blame it on the Bossa Nova'), 'uptown soul' ('On Broadway' and 'Come on over to my place') and, especially, emotional ballads. Gene Pitney benefitted from 'I'm gonna be strong' and 'Looking through the eyes of love', Tony Christie hit with 'Bless You', the Righteous Brothers scored with '(You're my) Soul and Inspiration', plus the duo's greatest ever song 'You've lost that loving feeling' (with Phil Spector copping a cheeky co-composer credit for its closing  'Whoa a whoa oh' apparently). And then there's the plethora of 'girl group' classics including 'Walking in the rain' for the Ronettes and 'He's sure the boy I love' for the Crystals. 

So, here's my three picks."

Tony -

"This week I'd like to pay tribute to the late Cynthia Weil who passed away on1st June.

She was half of one of the famous partnerships of writers working out of the Brill Building and  1650 Broadway, New York. Together with her writing partner (later her husband) Barry Mann and others, she was responsible for many of the greatest hits of the late 50's and early 60's to emanate from there and was certainly responsible for  many popular hits of that era that caught my imagination and which I still get a lot of pleasure from hearing today. She continued to have success through to the end of last century. being inducted into several notable and prestigious Halls of Fame in the process. Here are just 3..."

Philip -

"Last weekend I had a session of clearing out bits of junk from cupboards, sometimes wondering "why did I keep that in the first place?"

However, I did come across one item of interest: a cassette tape I compiled about a quarter of a century ago that I had entitled "The Eighties." I remember that I made up 4 C90 tapes, the others being "The Fifties," "The Sixties," and "The Seventies." The concept was to have no artist or band represented more than once. I have no idea what happened to these other tapes, but I remember for example that The Beatles' song on "The Sixties" was "I Feel Fine" and the Dylan number was "Subterranean Homesick Blues" ("Like A Rolling Stone" was too long).

To my surprise, the surviving tape still plays perfectly. Here are performances of the first three songs on that tape."

"Best wishes as always."

Tim -

"Here's three that I thought made a particularly glorious sound this week..."

'Til Next Time...