"The Best of George Harrison"

Following a post earlier this month about best-of compilation albums for Paul McCartney, this time around, I'm looking to fix 1976's The Best of George Harrison.

This first compilation of George Harrison's songs is an odd one. Side one includes only Beatles songs that he wrote, and the second side is solo tracks. I don't know whose idea this was, but after five years and four solo albums (since the Beatles broke up), plus contributions to a live album and non-album tracks, there were enough songs to fill out one best-of compilation.

So this is a "fixed" version, featuring only solo George.

SIDE A

1.       My Sweet Lord

2.       Dark Horse

3.       You 

4.       Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)

5.       Deep Blue

6.       What is Life

SIDE B

1.       Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long

2.       Isn't It a Pity (version one)

3.       Bangladesh

4.       All Things Must Pass

5.       Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

6.       Ding Dong, Ding Dong

Besides the six solo songs on the original album, I added six more. The album begins with George's best-known song and probably his biggest hit. The "new" tunes include:

• "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)," while not a single, has become highly regarded since its release.
• "Deep Blue," part of the double a-side of the "Bangladesh" single;
• "Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long," which was scheduled to be released as a single, but was subsequently withdrawn;
• "Isn't It a Pity (version one)," part of the double a-side of the "My Sweet Lord" single;
• "All Things Must Pass," the title track of the hugely popular album, and
• "Ding Dong, Ding Dong," a holiday single from 1974.

Both sides end up being about 24 minutes in length. The result here is a better overall look at George's post-Beatles career through 1975 and does his solo career a bit more justice. Let Beatles songs be Beatles songs, and solo ones be solo ones.

King Crimson - "In the Wake of Poseidon" (double album version)

Despite a successful debut album, King Crimson splintered soon after its supporting tour. Singer and bassist Greg Lake co-formed Emerson, Lake and Palmer and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and drummer Michael Giles formed the duo McDonald and Giles. That left only guitarist Robert Fripp and lyricist Pete Sinfield. Perhaps it was a case of too many chefs in the kitchen.

According to the liner notes of McDonald and Giles' sole album, much of it was written while they were in King Crimson. I'm not sure of Greg Lake's songs for the first ELP album, but it seems probable that they, too, were originally intended for King Crimson's sophomore effort.

With this in mind, I attempted to create a new version of King Crimson's second album In the Wake of Poseidon if the original band members had remained together.

SIDE A

1. Peace - A Beginning

2. The Devil’s Triangle

3. Cadence & Cascade (Lake vocals version)

4. Lucky Man (solo version)

SIDE B

1. Take a Pebble

2. Cat Food

3. Is She Waiting

SIDE C

1. Birdman

SIDE D

1. Groon

2. Tomorrow’s People - The Children of Today

3. In the Wake of Poseidon

4. Peace - An End

As you might imagine, with three albums worth of material, there's a lot to choose from (plus, some tracks are really long), and trying to distill it down to a single disc just didn't seem reasonable.

But there are only two songs on ELP's debut album that were written solely by Lake so I used both. I used a true solo version of "Lucky Man" that appears as a bonus track on the 2012 reissue. So no Emerson and Palmer. And that's fine because I hate Emerson's annoying synthesizer at the end of the originally released version. We're not as fortunate with "Take a Pebble," but it is what it is - maybe think of Emerson and Palmer as "guests."

From McDonald and Giles, I took the full "Birdman" as McDonald co-wrote it with Sinfield, as well as McDonald's "Is She Waiting" and Giles' "Tomorrow's People."

From the actual In the Wake of Poseidon, I chose seven tracks. Two, "The Devil's Triangle" and "Cat Food" were co-written by McDonald before he left. In addition, the two "Peace" bookend tracks still begin and end the album, and the title track and the non-album b-side "Groon" are included. And finally, I also added a version of "Cascade & Cadence" that features Lake on vocals. It was a bonus track on the 40th anniversary version. That puts each side at about 20 to 21 1/2 minutes.

What's nice about this reimagined album, I think, is that every band member has at least one track. So now it's a band effort rather than a Robert Fripp show.

The Who -- "The Who Sell Out" double album version

Some people consider The Who’s The Who Sell Out to be the best concept album of the 1960s, better even than Tommy. Released just five months after The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, this album took The Who to a whole new level of creativity. The concept of The Who Sell Out is that of a pirate radio station, and the band recorded not only faux commercial jingles but also tried to record songs that didn’t sound like The Who. This was an attempt to make the album sound like you were listening to a radio station.

But The Who Sell Out might have been either a watershed moment in rock history or a complete financial disaster had it been released as a double album. In fact, the band recorded enough songs and jingles for an extra disc. Whether that had been the original plan, or if the band just didn’t know when to stop, I’m not sure.

In creating this re-imagined album, I took the same tack as I did with the expansion of Led Zeppelin III into a double album a few months ago. That is, I left the first two sides as is (except for inserting “Bag O’Nails” and “Rael 2 / Top Gear” on Side B), and simply created the third and fourth sides. Some may consider this lazy. And those some people may be right. However for my version, I add the commercial jingle titles as well, so there’s a bonus for you. Included are some actual commercials and PSAs recorded by band members.

SIDE A - 20:51

1. Armenia, City in the Sky / Radio London                                                
2. Heinz Baked Beans / More Music                                             
3. Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand / Premier Drums            
4. Odorono / Wonderful Radio London                                       
5. Tattoo / Church of Your Choice                                                 
6. Our Love Was / Rotosound Strings                                           
7. I Can See for Miles / Charles Atlas                                            

 SIDE B - 20:15

1. I Can’t Reach You                                                                            
2. Medac                                                                                                 
3. Relax / Rotosound Strings                                                            
4. Silas Stingy                                                                                          
5. Bag O’Nails                                                                                         
6. Sunrise                                                                                                 
7. Rael [full version]                                                                                                   
8. Top Gear                                                                            

SIDE C - 20:21

1. Glittering Girl / Coke After Coke                                                                
2. Someone’s Coming / John Mason                                            
3. Girl’s Eyes / Odorono                                                                     
4. Early Morning Cold Taxi / Things Go Better with Coke      
5. Jaguar / John Mason Cars                                                             
6. Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand (U.S. Mirasound version)              

SIDE D - 21:01

1. Smooth Sailing                                                                                
2. Summertime Blues                                                                        
3. Great Shakes!                                                                                   
4. Doctor Doctor                                                                                    
5. Hall of the Mountain King / Radio One                                    
6. Sodding About                                                                                 
7. Pictures of Lily                                                                                   
8. Air Force PSA                                                                                     
9. My Way                                                                                               
10. Track Records                                                                                    

Can you imagine what the impact might have been if this double album of wackiness had been released? The version that was released was crazy enough, but this would have been lunacy.

I tried to keep each side approximately the same length, which is why the addition of two tracks on Side B (it was actually too short to begin with!) And that's the studio version of "Summertime Blues" on Side D, by the way. The cover, of course, remains the same. Most of these tracks can be found on the deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out, while others are available on the band’s Thirty Years of Maximum R&B box set as well as other releases.

Paul McCartney compilation albums

Creating a "best of" album might seem rather unnecessary. But this first one fills a noticeable gap. In 1975, the Apple Records contracts of the former Beatles members expired. The final releases from John, George and Ringo on Apple were "best of" compilations Shaved Fish, The Best of George Harrison and Blast from Your Past respectively. (Well, actually George's album was delayed and ended up released on Capitol).

As originally conceived, McCartney's compilation was to be a bit different than that of his ex-bandmates. Tentatively titled Cold Cuts (or alternately Hot Hitz and Kold Kutz), the album was to be composed of non-album singles and previously unreleased tracks. McCartney then began recording several new songs and overdubbing older unused tracks. But eventually the project was scrapped, and McCartney turned his attention to recording a new Wings studio album, Venus and Mars.

I don't know the reason there was no "best of" from Paul McCartney at the time, but it might have something to do with the fact that he released music under his own name, as a duo with his wife Linda, and with the band Wings. So unlike his former bandmates, it wasn't really possible to release a "solo" best-of compilation. However, if this was the reason, it didn't stop him from releasing just such a compilation in 1978 titled Wings Greatest, even though more than half the songs are not by Wings.

Ignoring that, I assembled a compilation album of all his A-side singles from 1971-1974 that were on Apple. That resulted in a record I've titled Wings & Things (which I think is a better title than Cold Cuts).

SIDE A
1. Another Day
2. Eat at Home
3. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
4. Back Seat of My Car
5. Love is Strange
6. Give Ireland Back to the Irish
7. Mary Had a Little Lamb

SIDE B
1. Hi Hi Hi
2. My Love
3. Live and Let Die
4. Helen Wheels
5. Jet
6. Band on the Run
7. Junior's Farm

I tried tinkering with the track order but finally decided to just keep them in chronological order. The only A-side I left off was "Mrs. Vanderbilt" because it wasn't widely distributed and because I thought four songs from the same album were too many. I went back and forth for a while with the idea of including B-sides as well. But that would have made it a double album, and in keeping with the other ex-Beatle compilations I left it as a single LP. I struggled a bit with a cover design, but eventually went with a stream of butterflies I found on the web and added titles.

Having assembled Wings & Things, I decided to redo Wings Greatest, re-titling it Wings Greatest 1975 - 1980. Unlike the original version, all tracks are actually by Wings:

SIDE A
1. Listen to What the Man Said
2. Letting Go
3. Venus and Mars/Rock Show
4. Silly Love Songs
5. Let 'Em In
6. Maybe I'm Amazed [live]
7. Mull of Kintyre
8. With a Little Luck

SIDE B
1. I've Had Enough
2. London Town
3. Goodnight Tonight
4. Old Siam, Sir
5. Getting Closer
6. Arrow Through Me
7. Coming Up [live]
8. Wonderful Christmastime

Like the previous compilation, I put all of the A-sides of the singles in chronological order, except for moving the holiday song to the end. With Wings ceasing to be a band by 1981, this acts as a nice end note. For the cover, I used the original and added the years.