GRAPEFRUIT / ALMA COGAN / MORTIMER - four 1960s Beatles-related tracks NOW IN STEREO

[DocRobert]

Here’s four more new stereo mixes I’ve done which I hope you’ll all like. To my knowledge none of these have ever had a stereo mix before. I’ve added some info about the artists plus some artwork. Enjoy! https://we.tl/t-Z8dyOErBgA

GRAPEFRUIT - DEAR DELILAH (RCA Records UK / Equinox Records USA 1967)

Grapefruit were one of the better Beatlesque 1960s British pop-rock bands. Led by Scotsman George Alexander (real name Alexander Young, and elder brother of The Easybeats' George Young and AC/DC founders Malcolm & Angus Young following their 1963 emigration to Australia).

George Alexander was signed to Apple Publishing, London, in the summer of 1967 by MD Terry Doran on the strength of his song demo “Lullaby (For A Lazy Day)” which John Lennon liked. A group was formed around George Alexander comprising several members of the Brian Epstein-managed harmony pop-rock act Tony Rivers & The Castaways who had unsuccessfully submitted songs to Apple. In 1968 John Lennon named the new group after Yoko Ono's book of the same title, and Grapefruit were launched with an Apple Press Conference on 17th January 1968. The group’s records were issued on RCA UK / Equinox USA as Apple Records were not yet up and running. In April 1968 the group reached #21 on the UK charts (and #18 in Canada) with their debut single "Dear Delilah" featuring orchestration, fuzzy guitars and heavy phasing. However, nothing else they released would hit home, and their LP ‘Around Grapefruit’ was largely comprised of the first five singles. Paul McCartney directed an unreleased promo film for their next single "Elevator”, and that summer, over at Trident Studios, one of the band - John Perry - sang harmonies on “Hey Jude” with the fab four. Paul would also play bass on another planned 45 “Lullaby (For a Lazy Day)” which was the first record to be produced by Lennon & McCartney, but this remained unreleased until a 2016 Apple CD compilation. Grapefruit’s deals with Apple Publishing and RCA Records ended at the end of 1968, while, in early 1969, John Lennon suggested that they record the then-unreleased Beatles song "Two Of Us”. But they didn't. And following a second, more rocky LP for Equinox, and some line-up changes, the group finally broke up at the end of the year.

Grapefruit’s debut single, “Dear Delilah”, was recorded in late 1967 and only ever released in mono, having a rather congested, over-recorded sound quality. Here’s my first-time stereo mix.

ALMA COGAN - I KNEW RIGHT AWAY (Columbia / EMI Records UK 1964)

Alma was the UK's most successful female star of the 1950s with eighteen Top 40 hits. She topped the annual New Musical Express reader's poll as "Outstanding British Female Singer" four times between 1956 and 1960, and famously turned down a proposal of marriage from Cary Grant. When beat groups took over the music scene her spotlight dimmed, but on 12th January 1964, after appearing on live TV supporting new headline act The Beatles on 'Sunday Night At The London Palladium’, she formed a close bond with the boys and invited them all back to her flat after the show. She would grow particularly close to Paul and, especially, John. Later that year the music press reported that Paul would be playing tambourine on Alma's upcoming self-penned Columbia single ("It's You" / "I Knew Right Away”) with both sides published by a company owned by Alma's good friend Brian Epstein and Dick James. But Paul's tambourine contribution never came to fruition according to the record's producer David Gooch, and her new single failed to chart. Alma was seen by the public as distinctly passé and her career had dwindled away to nothing. To Beatle fans she was someone their parents would to listen to when they were kids. A couple of years later she succumbed to cancer aged just 34 just as her final LP was being prepared for release. Her sister's biography would later confirm Alma had had an affair with the then newly-married John Lennon, and in 1989, John's ex-wife Cynthia told a reporter "It wasn’t Yoko that split up our marriage, it was Alma Cogan. Had she lived, their affair would run its course and John would come home with his tail between his legs. But, crazed with grief, he believed Alma was a reincarnation of his late mother Julia. And two weeks after Alma's death John found his new ‘Aunt Mimi replacement’ in Yoko Ono”.

This single was only ever released in mono, so here is my first-time stereo mix of Alma Cogan's upbeat 1964 UK single “I Knew Right Away”.


MORTIMER - INGENUE’S THEME (Recorded Autumn 1967. Released Spring 1968 on Philips Records USA)
MORTIMER - LAUGH, CHILDREN, LAUGH (Apple Records UK, Spring 1969 - release cancelled)

Mortimer were a teenage ‘acoustic guitars and conga’ soft-rock trio from Upstate New York consisting of Guy Masson (vocals, percussion), Tom Smith (vocals, guitar) and Anthony Van Benschoten (vocals, guitar, bass). After moving to Manhattan and living at the Chelsea Hotel for four and half years, they eventually signed a production deal with UK producer Daniel Secunda - cousin of The Move and Procol Harum manager Tony Secunda. In 1967 they entered the recording studios in New York City and cut a US album and a couple of 45s for Philips but without success, so in 1968 Secunda brought them to London where they played all the top clubs. The day before they were due to head home they heard on the radio that Apple were looking for songs for Mary Hopkin. On a whim, and without any demo tape, they turned up at 3 Savile Row with guitars and conga to sing and play for Apple. After a few bars, a door opened and in came George Harrison smiling and dancing away to the rhythm, and he said “Sign them!” A few days later the three 21-year olds were signed to Apple Records and Apple Publishing. Apple A&R manager Peter Asher would soon be producing their next album at Trident Studios with arranger Richard Hewson. Paul McCartney gave them the song “Two Of Us” (On Our Way Back Home) as their first single, and their debut Apple album was all set for a July 1969 release just before the planned Beatles swansong LP “Get Back” which contained this song. But everything changed when Allen Klein took the reins and began implementing cost-cutting measures at Beatles HQ, and, suddenly finding themselves without a publisher or record label, Mortimer finally did return home to New York and would split up later that year.

Their 1969 Apple recordings languished in the vaults for nearly 50 years until Cherry Red released a Mortimer compilation CD in 2017. An unreleased song from the Apple sessions, “Laugh Children Laugh”, and the earlier 1968 US Philips single “Ingenue’s Theme”, were only ever in mono, so I have now given each of them a first-time stereo mix.

[Getback69]

Thanks for posting this!!!

[Claude_de_Faux]

Thank you.

A question : are these tracks real collaborations from the Beatles ?

[DocRobert]

Claude - they're not collaborations as such but, as outlined in my notes, each artist has a definite connection to the fab four. For that reason I thought Beatle fans would like to hear these.

[beatlesnyttigt]

So great DocRobert, many thanks for these! Robert

[DocRobert]

Thanks guys for your positive feedback

[beatlesondvd]

MORTIMER - INGENUE’S THEME (Recorded Autumn 1967. Released Spring 1968 on Philips Records USA)
MORTIMER - LAUGH, CHILDREN, LAUGH (Apple Records UK, Spring 1969 - release cancelled)

At least two of the members are wearing similar outfits to those the Beatles wore on their Mad Day Out (28 July 1968).

[Andrewshcka]

Wow! I liked it very much.

[Claude_de_Faux]

Claude - they're not collaborations as such but, as outlined in my notes, each artist has a definite connection to the fab four. For that reason I thought Beatle fans would like to hear these.

Thank you.

[datters]

Already gone. Any chance of a re-up please?