Rare! Buckingham Nicks!

Track Listing
01 Crying In The Night
02 Stephanie
03 Without A Leg To Stand On
04 Crystal
05 Long Distance Winner
06 Don't Let Me Down Again
07 Django
08 Races Are Run
09 Lola (My Love)
10 Frozen Love

Remastered
LP Catalog Number: Polydor PD-5058
LP Release Date: 09/1973
Recorded: 1973
Production & Session: Information

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Rare! Dusty Springfield - Longing!

Track Listing
01 Exclusively For Me
02 Beautiful Soul
03 Home To Myself
04 Angels
05 Corner of the Sky
06 In The Winter
07 Make The Man Love Me
08 I Am Your Child
09 Turn Me Around
10 A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday)

Intended Catalog Number: ABC-Dunhill DSD-50186
Intended Released Date: 11/1974
Recorded: 07-09/1974.
Production & Session: Information

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Rare! Dolly Parton - The Monument Years!

Track Listing
Disc One: Hello, I'm Dolly - Debut Monument Album
01 Dumb Blonde
02 Your Ole Handy Man
03 I Don't Wanna Throw Rice
04 Put It Off Until Tomorrow
05 I Wasted My Tears
06 Something Fishy
07 Fuel To The Flame
08 The Giving And The Taking
09 I'm In No Condition
10 The Company You Keep
11 I've Lived My Life
12 The Little Things

Disc Two: As Long As I Love - Second Monument Album
13 Why, Why, Why
14 I Wound Easy
15 I Don't Want You Around Me Anymore
16 Hillbilly Willy
17 This Boy Has Been Hurt
18 Daddy Won't Be Home Anymore
19 As Long As I Love
20 A Habit I Can't Break
21 I'm Not Worth The Tears
22 I Don't Trust Me Around You
23 I Couldn't Wait Forever
24 Too Lonely Too Long

Disc Three: Don't Drop Out - Rare & Unreleased
25 What Do You Think About Lovin' (B Side of Mon 869)
26 Happy, Happy Birthday Baby (A-Side of Mon 897)
27 Busy Signal (A Side of Mon 913)
28 I Took Him For Granted (B Side of Mon 913)
29 Don't Drop Out (B Side of Mon 922)
30 Ping Pong (B Side of Mon 1047)
31 I've Known You All My Life*
32 Send Me No Roses*
33 Wanted*
34 I Keep Intending To Tell You*
35 You Made A Woman Of Me Too Soon*
36 Only Me And My Hairdresser Know*
37 Not From My World*
38 You Never Took The Time*

*Previously unreleased track. All tracks recorded 1965-1967.

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Rare! Nikka Costa - Flipsides!

I have great news! I have readers now and I've been getting notes from them. One such reader (who I won't mention by name but hey *waves*) asked if I had anymore rare Nikka Costa to share.

This is a collection of rare Nikka Costa I put together entitled Flipsides. I hope you enjoy it and will let me know what you think in the comments.


Track Listing
01 Hey Joe
02 Right On To You
03 Some Love
04 When My Man Cries
05 Miss Celie's Blues
06 Skin
07 I Don't Want To Be The Rain
08 Heaven Sinner
09 Call Me
10 La La La
11 What Comes Around Goes Around
12 Stranger's Way
13 I Don't Think We've Met (Clean Radio Edit)
14 Till I Get To You (UK Edit)
15 Midday On Mars
16 Mean Sleep (with Van Hunt)
17 The Denial Twist
18 Maybe Baby
19 The Rules of the Road
[Bonus Track] Till I Get To You (112 BPM Mix)

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Rare! Tori Amos - The Bee Sides!

I've been a fan of Tori Amos in some form or another since I was about 16 years old. I had just started driving when I bought the first CD I ever purchased by her, a limited edition single Winter, taken from her debut album Little Earthquakes.

For those of you who weren't young enough to understand the physical single available at a place to buy music that just sold music and not dog food and toliet paper, I shall explain.

You would go to the record store (Remember those?) and see what exclusive track or tracks were on your favourite artist's latest single. These tracks or B-Sides were generally quite rare and were usually deleted for all time after the single went out of print in a few months or in some cases a few weeks after it's release.

The term "B-Side" is a nod to the 45 RPM Vinyl 7" single which had an A & a B side. The promoted song was the A side and the B side sometimes turned out to be better than the main song. Probably the most famous B-Side ever was Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive which actually was the flip side of a song few remember now called Subsitute.

Tori Amos, ladies and gentleman, was the QUEEN of the B-Side or in her case she released a piano book called The Bee Sides. Music critics claim she has over 60 hard-to-find or alternate tracks floating about in the world, of which I probably own 50. I was lucky enough to get into her before her music was sold for rediculous prices on eBay. I would hear of a new import single and casually go down to Sam Goody and order it out of the Phantom Imports book and in a few weeks it would be in my hot little hands and ears.

I feel sorry for kids today who don't understand the thrill of the B-Side or who upon seeing my CD collection proclaim, "HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS?! THIS IS THE GRAIL!!" Simple, I bought it when it came out. HAHA

So, a few years ago upon hearing the sad sound quality of mp3s currently being passed around as Tori's rare recordings, I set about putting together a collection of the most rare recordings she ever commited to disc and make them sound as good as possible. I remastered this collection, The Bee Sides, in 2005 in Atlanta, GA with the help of a gentleman who used to be an engineer to Shawn Mullins. I provided the music and he helped tweak them, teaching me a lot in the process.

It's 2011. Several of these are still not easily found online sounding great. I got several requests for Rare Tori after I discovered the preview player of her forthcoming new album to which I feel it's almost my obligation to share. These songs shouldn't be lost for good in some vault. They are some of the ladies' best work and after the botched up mess she made of her own box set a few years back, I feel what would help her best is her turning over the duty of compiling these songs to someone who knows what the people want, all the original rarities, sounding great!

I had a great time putting this collection together. I hope you enjoy the work that went into the sound, especially Mountain which only appeared as an audio stream on her long deleted website, Scarlet's Web. Enjoy!


Track Listing
01 Song For Eric
02 Here. In My Head
03 Mary (1992 Version)
04 Sugar
05 Flying Dutchman
06 Take To The Sky
07 Humpty Dumpty
08 Sweet Dreams (1992 Version)
09 Black Swan
10 Ode To The Banana King (Part One)
11 Baltimore
12 If 6 Was 9
13 Thoughts
14 The Pool
15 I'm On Fire
16 Landslide
17 Upside Down
18 Amazing Grace (Edit)
19 Famous Blue Raincoat
20 Strange Fruit
21 Honey (Demo)
22 A Case If You
23 Ring My Bell
24 Mountain
25 Etienne (Edit)

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Rare! Alanis Morissette - Rarities - 2011!

Alanis Morissette - Rarities - 2011 Version
01 That I Would Be Good (Demo)
02 Uninvited (Demo)
03 Thank U (Demo w/ Alternate Lyrics)
04 Unsent (Demo w/ Alternate Lyrics)
05 Ironic (Demo)
06 You Oughta Know (Demo)
07 Superstar Wonderful Weirdos (JLP Outtake)
08 These Are The Thoughts (B-Side)
09 So Unsexy (Alternate Version)
10 Uninvited (White Label)
11 Hands Clean (White Label)
12 London (Live B-Side)
13 Pollyanna Flower (B-Side)
14 Unsent (Radio Remix)*
15 Your House (Band Version)
16 Awakening Americans (B-Side)
17 Crazy (Glen Ballard Mix)
18 Baba (Ave Maria Mix)
19 Symptoms (B-Side)
20 Too Hot (Live Toronto 12-12-2002)
21 My Humps (BEPs Cover)
22 Not As We (Radio Version)
23 Break (B-Side)
24 Flinch (Radio Version)
25 20/20 (B-Side)
26 Underneath (Zoned Out Remix)
27 Professional Torturer (B-Side)
28 It's A Bitch To Grow Up (B-Side)
29 I Remain (B-Side)
30 Wunderkind (B-Side)

*remix re-edited for omnipop = pop culture blog

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Lost Soundtrack! Julie Andrews in Star!

I've always loved Julie Andrews. I know, you're not supposed to admit that out loud in 2011.

Julie has made a lot of movies that were sadly neglected or unappreciated at the time they were released but in hindsight were recognized for the classics they were.

Probably no Julie Andrews film was more misunderstood upon it's initial release than 1968's Star.

The film premiered in London & San Francisco and it was lavished with praise by local papers. 20th Century Fox thought it had a major hit on its hands and ordered a lavish promotional campaign including a press kit that came in a miniature trunk created by a toy company to look like a theater troop's traveling gear. The film was set to be sent into reserve seat theatres in most major markets in a sprawling 175 minute Road Show presentation.

Shortly thereafter, 20th Century Fox arranged a screening for the New York press, and the celluloid hit the fan. The audience in attendance started laughing in the wrong places. Film Critic Brett Daniels of The New York Times left at intermission and wrote a scathing review declaring the film was overblown and old fashioned. Star! was falling on it's face.

The previously good word of mouth stopped and like so many good films before it, it became the in film to hate that year. Fox, having spent a LOT of money on production and promotion of the film, started to panic hardcore.

A radical plan was put into action. Fox decided to re-edit the entire film and consulted with a focus group to re-name the film something that made people who came to see Julie in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, relate to the movie.

Those Were The Happy Times, a re-titled, 120 minute version of Star!, rolled into general admission theatres a few months after the original film tanked. This new version was considered such a departure from his original vision that director Robert Wise demanded Fox take his name off promotional materials promoting the new cut.

This new version was missing so many scenes that audiences walked out in droves, even from discount showings, because the film made absolutely no sense. Those Were The Happy Times met the same fate as Star! and tanked too.

It's the only time in Hollywood history a film was released twice under 2 different names and fail miserably both times.

Andrews was reportedly so devastated over what she felt was some of her best acting and singing being received so poorly, that she went into a period seclusion and depression.

Fast forward 20 years, a film library in San Francisco asked Fox if they could pay them to strike a fresh 35mm print of Star. Much to everyone's surprise, the original 70mm camera negative was completely intact and was in mostly good shape.

Because so few general admission theatres, such as drive in's and second run houses, were able to play 70mm in 1968, a 35mm print Star! was cut up to make Those Were The Happy Times. Ironically enough, this probably prevented the camera negative from being damaged or altered.

This brings me to the music of the film. Music, glorious music. Many Julie Andrews aficionados consider Julie's musical performance in Star! to rival even those of her earlier career triumphs. In other words, this is the definitive Julie Andrews at the peak of her powers as a performer, vocalist and actress.

She is mind blowing in the film's many and varied, lush musical production numbers. I dare anyone to find anything in MGM's canon of golden age musicals to rival the film's closing musical number The Saga of Jenny. Andrews dances, sings, shoots and lands on her feet though a ring of fire within the span of the number and is visibly out of breath at one point while singing LIVE during it. She deserved an award for just being able to sing while being balanced on a guy dressed as Satan's feet. Yes, this movie is bananas. Thanks for noticing.

Until you can be lucky enough to watch this wonderful, under appreciated musical for yourself, (Preferably on Laserdisc. The DVD is the wrong aspect ratio and B&W newsreel footage was incorrectly tinted Sepia on the DVD.) check out the expanded soundtrack album below featuring several versions that were never commercially released.

I like to give credit where credit is due. Huge props to The Rumor for creating this expanded soundtrack. Your work is greatly appreciated by myself and countless others who love this film. Thank you! :)


Julie Andrews - Star! - Expanded Film Soundtrack
01 Fanfare
02 Overture
03 Star!
04 Piccadilly
05 Oh, It's A Lovely War!
06 In My Garden of Joy
07 Forbidden Fruit
08 N' Everything
09 Burlington Bertie From Bow*
10 Parisian Pierotte*
11 Limehouse Blues*
12 Someone To Watch Over Me
13 Dear Little Boy
14 Intermission
15 Someday I'll Find You
16 The Physician Intro*
17 The Physician
18 Do, Do, Do
19 Has Anybody Seen Our Ship?
20 My Ship
21 The Saga Of Jenny*
22 Star (Extended Single Version)
23 Burlington Bertie From Bow^
24 Parisian Pierotte^
25 Limehouse Blues^
26 The Saga Of Jenny^
27 The Physician+
28 My Ship+
29 The Saga of Jenny+

*Film Version
^Edited Soundtrack Album Version
+Original Performance by Gertrude Lawrence [Bonus Tracks]

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