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Track listing is: Since You've Been Gone, plus 19 tracks from singles: Maybe Tomorrow, Margo, Colette, That's Love, Wondrous Place, A Thousand Stars, Halfway To Paradise, Jealousy, I'd Never Find Another You, Letter Full Of Tears, Last Night Was Made For Love, Once Upon A Dream, Because Of love, Like I've Never Been Gone, When Will You Say I Love You, In Summer, Do You Really Love Me Too, It's Only Make-Believe, In Thoughts Of You. AT £7.99 (Amazon's price - it could be a couple of pounds more in the shops) that's a pretty good deal. You do have to wonder, though, how many CDs there will eventually be on the market called Best Of Billy Fury. I complained to Decca about the sleeve notes. To be fair, I expected them to ignore me, but they have e-mailed me to acknowledge my complaint and to promise to correct errors when the notes are reprinted. The most serious mistake is to record Billy's birth year as 1941 instead of 1940. This sort of basic error is to be expected on the umpteenth repackaging of the K-Tel tracks by a company that couldn't care less, but it should never occur on something issued by Decca There are several other fundamental mistakes - primarily with the timing of the release of The One And Only LP, and with the suggestiont that a character called "Rocky Tempest" appeared in the film That'll Be The Day. The sound, I have to say, is of the highest quality. I am also impressed that Decca have taken the complaints to heart and have undertaken to put them right. |
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FINAL PERCY PHILIPS TRACKS ON NEW CD
It features 15 Billy Fury tracks, plus 12 by his brother Albie. It is available from Amazon for £11.99 plus post or by mail order from Ozit for £14 plus 75p post. Cheques should be made out to Recordrange and posted to Billy Fury Ltd, PO Box 116, Northwich, CW9 5UG, or pay by credit card or Switch by calling 01565 734066 or by faxing 01565 734196. This is a superb CD, containing a great deal of valuable material. I also have to declare that I am an Albie Wycherley fan, so the inclusion of 12 tracks by Billy's brother is a welcome bonus. The Wondrous Place Live CD featured two of the tracks that Billy recorded as a boy in Liverpool at the Percy Philips studio and the four remaining tracks from this acetate are on the new CD. These are Love's A Callin', Playin' For Keeps, Paralysed and Baby. Anyone unfamiliar with the history of these tracks should read Chris Eley's excellent Rare And Unreleased feature on this site. The other tracks are all unreleased versions. Peggy Sue, Halfway To Paradise, Slow Boat To China, When I Fall In Love, I May Be Wrong and Am I Blue, from recordings made in about 1961, are described on the CD as "tryouts of material considered for commercial release by Decca". These tracks have been heard in the past by several people, and they are believed also to have been used on the Radio Luxembourg show, Billy's Pad. In common with several people who have contacted me, I have difficulty in relating the lead vocal on Peggy Sue to Billy's voice at any particular stage of his career. The remaining five tracks, What Did I Do, Since You've Been Gone, Love Love Love, What I Need and You Wonder Why were demos made for the guidance of backing musicians at the recording of the Sound Of Fury 10-inch LP, although these titles did not subsequently appear on the CD. These five are the tracks mentioned by Terry Wilson as the ones he heard on a tape with the seven subsequently included on the Wondrous Place Live CD. (See report below.) Those tracks shown in italics have never been released in any version. It would be interesting to have on CD the tracks recorded by Billy's guests for the Luxembourg shows, as these are also believed to be on the source material from which these songs were taken. The Albie Wycherley tracks are also described as rareties. Four - Come On Baby, Watcha Gonna Do, True To You and Singing The Blues - were on singles produced by Joe Meek when Albie fronted Jason Eddie and the Centremen. These have been previously issued on a 1997 CD, Gem CD016. I Know I've Got A Heart is taken from Albie's superb CD I Never Met Colette, which I would recommend to anyone. Other tracks are 1960s recordings Heart And Soul, Playin' The Clown, Marble And Iron, Who Needs Love, She's So Beautiful, Mr Bus Driver, and A Wondrous Place, which was recorded live at a concert in 2000. There is also a 16-page booklet containing memorabilia from the scrapbooks of Billy's family. All in all, an essential item for any collector. |
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Jess Conrad CD |
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Review and purchase details of Colin Paul and the Persuaders' tribute CD. |
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The CDs are in a very smart box, but unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to open the box without tearing it. One CD has 14 of the K-Tel tracks, which Planet issued as PML1107 a couple of months earlier. They have not even troubled to re-order the tracks - it's exactly the same CD. The second CD has the same 26 tracks as the Going For A Song CD (GFS 307) described below. There are no sleeve notes and no one in his right mind would believe that this compilation represents Billy "at his best". The one point in its favour is that the double issue costs less than £6. |
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This is, in effect, a re-issue of the deleted 1991 Magnum Force CDMF 072 CD Rough Diamonds And Pure Gems, bringing together the tracks of the Sticks 'n' Stones and Loving You LPs, and the two tracks of the Suzanne In The Mirror EP which would otherwise be missed. This release is appealing, but it will probably not be found in conventional record shops, but in garages and on market stalls, etc. Going For A Song will supply only the trade. About 30 copies of the CD have been sold through this site to aid the Bronze Fund, but remaining stocks have been passed to Chris Eley of the fan club. The sleeve notes are also very interesting - especially to me, as I unknowingly wrote them. Chunks of Billy's biography from this site are reproduced word for word. One of the few changes they made was to get his age wrong. Unbelievable? Click this link for the proof.
Billy's first LP, the 10" The Sound Of Fury, was re-issued by Decca on 24 July 2000, in a replica of the original sleeve, and with the original issue number, LF1329.
At the same time, Decca issued a double CD 844 990-2, with the original LP artwork. The first CD has the LP tracks, and the second has ten stereo tracks - eight are versions of the LP tracks, one is an alternative take of That's Love, and the last is an alternative take of Maybe Tomorrow. The nine other tracks are My Christmas Prayer and B-sides that were not included on the 40th Anniversary double CD. A full listing appears on the Tracks page. Bith the CD and the LP benefit enormously from Chris Eley's impressively authoritative and literate notes. A CD, Wondrous Place Live, was released by Ozit Records, officially on 17 April, 2000 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Billy's birth - although it had been available for a short period before. There are eight tracks recorded live by a member of the audience at Lewisham Town Hall on February 5, 1974, and which have been given to Billy's family. A further seven tracks are early demo recordings, found by Billy's mother and brother in the attic of his Mrs Wycherley's home. A BBC news clip (link below) on this states that the recordings have "just" been found. However, Terry Wilson, in Canada, wrote to the Billy Fury egroup that he had heard five further tracks on a tape several years ago. He said the unissued demos were: What I Need (It's You I Need) Terry points out that the last two songs were never re-recorded by Billy. "It is interesting to note that of the 12 demos, a total of seven (studio versions) were issued on the nine-song Sound Of Fury album. The only two songs on the album not on the demo tape are You Don't Know and Turn My Back On You. "Each song is introduced by Billy just like the demos on the CD," writes Terry. The CD also includes two tracks from the first-ever demos Billy made, cut to a 78rpm disc in a Liverpool shop, P. F. Phillips of Kensington. The four other tracks on the demo will appear on a future release, according to notes on the CD. Billy's original guitar was also found in the attic and repaired, although it will not be played again, because it is too fragile. A sound file and a video file of a piece broadcast on BBC local television on March 24 are now available. The CD is available by post for £11.98 including post (a discount of over £3) from Key Mail Order. This is very much a CD for the Billy Fury fan. The backing on the concert recordings is loud and not of the highest standard, but from my point of view, the tracks are pure spine-tingling gems. However, this is not a commercial issue. Members of the public who are familiar with little other than Halfway To Paradise and the Toyota ad will not be won over. 01 Sticks And Stones 01-08 are tracks recorded on a Grundig tape recorder by a member of the audience at Lewisham Town Hall on 5 February 1974. A four page feature on the release of the CD appears in the June issue of the UK magazine, Record Mart And Buyer. This includes reminiscences by Joe Brown and Marty Wilde.
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Decca finally released their Best Of Billy Fury CD at the end of September, 2001 - this had been delayed since June.
Ozit Records, who produced the Wondrous Place
Live CD, issued a new CD on Wednesday 8 August.
A two-volume CD, the absurdly-titled Billy Fury At His Best (2X 2004-2) was issued by Planet Media in November 2000. 
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The sleeve uses modern "tuck-in" construction techniques, but a photographically-reproduced fake faded fold-over appears on the back of the sleeve. I hope that the picture (left) illustrates the point.
