Hanky Panky Rock 'n' Roll 2 Items

Over the course of their stop-start five years together, Honeybus ventured into the BBC studios on a dozen occasions, leaving a catalogue of recordings that mirrored their latest releases as well as offering up a fascinating alternate history. The songs that make up 1970’s much-loved “almost didn’t happen” Story album (reissued by Hanky Panky/Mapache in 2018, along with the rest of the group’s output) began appearing as early as the summer of 1968. The likes of ‘Scarlet Lady’, ‘Black Mourning Band’ and ‘Under The Silent Tree’ appear almost fully-formed, played as ensemble pieces, suggesting that their album counterparts were captured quickly and without fuss during snatched studio sessions throughout late 1968 and 1969. They also demonstrate Honeybus’s often overlooked skills as a live unit – BBC sessions notoriously allowed little scope for re-takes or overdubbing; you went in and you laid it down while the men in white coats watched the clock. Thrilling as it is to finally hear these alternate versions of familiar Honeybus cornerstones, it’s the surfeit of otherwise unrecorded material that’s the most startling revelation here. Under The Silent Tree: Gentle Sounds With Strings And Things At The BBC 1967-1973 presents no less than 10 unique Honeybus songs (plus a further four on the CD version only) that virtually constitute an entire second album’s worth of unheard material. We find ourselves in a kind of musical hall of mirrors, revealing in a whole new perspective on one of the last great cult pop groups of the ’60s, where every track offers a fresh outlook, a fresh thrill, a fresh sound. With strings and things.

By the late summer of 1963, Reprise Records — the independent record label founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier — had run into a few financial difficulties, partly because the label hadn't produced any major chart hits, and was purchased by Warner Bros. Morris "Mo" Ostin, Reprise's vice-president and general manager, had brought in "whiz kid" producer Jimmy Bowen in 1963. Bowen's main job, at least in the beginning, was to produce hits for some of the younger Reprise acts, including a brand-new recording artist, arranger/producer Jack Nitzsche. Those Bowen-produced Reprise singles, released under Jack Nitzsche's own name between July 1963 and October 1965, were compiled together for the first time and released by Hanky Panky Records on “The Reprise Singles 1963-1965.” The focus of this new collection is the work of Jack Nitzsche as arranger and producer for those hopeful Reprise acts, from 1963 to 1969. The number of records supervised, one way or another, by Nitzsche in this time - not only for the Reprise and Warner Bros. labels, but for myriad others -- is simply amazing. Many of them were assembled for the first time by Ken Barnes for a legendary interview with Nitzsche in the Winter ‘76/77 issue of Who Put the Bomp! magazine, entitled “The Arranger As Superman.” The aim of the compilers for this specific collection was to include some of the harder-to-find titles from Nitzsche's Warner/Reprise legacy, along with a few favorites and must-haves, with track-by-track annotation by Barnes himself. Most of the selections feature the talents of the Wrecking Crew regulars as backing musicians, as Nitzsche applies his magic to songs written by David Gates, Ellie Greenwich, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, Sharon Sheeley and Jackie DeShannon, Sonny Bono, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and the Everly Brothers themselves, among others! The amount of talent in the grooves is staggering, encompassing the decade’s forever-changing musical landscape.

Eighteen tracks, from harder-to-find titles to must-haves, some of them unavailable since their original release! Four-page insert includes notes and track-by-track annotation by Ken Barnes, with rare photographs and ephemera.