I went down to the vaults from
Capitol Records and digged these tunes up! ;-) Some were easy catches, others were more hard to find. The Capitol Records Company was founded by songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of fellow songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs (1910–1971), owner of Music City, at the time the biggest record store in Los Angeles. The 1950s were very successful with artists like Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Shirley Bassey. Capitol began the 1960s with a stable of whitebread hitmakers such as The Kingston Trio (who in 1960 would account for 20 per cent of all record sales for Capitol), The Four Preps and The Four Freshmen, along with a revolving door of teens, TV stars and novelty acts. Thankfully, that all changed around 1962/1963. First with the arrival of surf music (The Beach Boys), and then with the British Invasion (The Beatles). Simultaneously, Capitol was also producing top-notch soul music from studios in California, Nashville and New York. I selected a few of them on this tribute to Capitol Records, which was partly inspired by the album ‘Soultown 2: a walk through the Capitol of soul’ that came out on Blue Note last year.
Actor David McCallum is well-known for his part of medical examiner Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard on NCIS, but he was also a musician in the 1960s. McCallum recorded four albums for Capitol Records with producer David Axelrod. His most famous piece today is ‘The Edge’, which was sampled by Dr. Dre as the intro and riff to the track ‘The Next Episode’. A remarkable story about McCallum is that his wife, actress Jill Ireland, left him for Charles Bronson, after McCallum had introduced him to her during the shoot of the movie 'The great escape'... McCallum became famous for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' and as interdimensional operative Steel in 'Sapphire & Steel'. I first saw him when he played Alan Breck Stewart in the TV Series ‘Kidnapped’ (1978). He was also Alexi Kaslov in an episode of the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ (1973). I selected 'House of mirrors' from McCallum's album 'It's happening now'. Enjoy that one and the others that I found in the cellars of Capitol Records!
Tracklist:
The Sylvers – Boogie Fever (1975)
T-Connection – Party Night [Album Version] (1981)
Gloria Jones – Windstorm (1979)
Tapestry – It’s Not The World That Is Messed Up (1976)
Eddie Henderson – Open Eyes (1976)
Twin Image – Love Lesson (1984)
Paul Laurence – Strung Out (1985)
Ashford & Simpson – Solid [Eddy’s Extended Edit] (1985)
Sly Fox – Let’s Go All The Way (1985)
Tavares – Don’t Take Away The Music (1976)
Natalie Cole – This Will Be (1975)
Bobby Lyle – Believe (1979)
David McCallum – House Of Mirrors (1967)
Mink DeVille – You Better Move On (1982)
McGuinn, Clark & Hillman – Backstage Pass (1979)
Dr. Hook – Sexy Eyes (1979)
Sun – Conscience (1977)
Brown Sugar – Lay Some Lovin' On Me (1976)
Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly – While I’m Alone (1977)
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