RECORDING
TEST
Abbey Rd 1962/3?
|
| TRACK TITLE |
COMPOSER |
PRODUCER
|
RELEASED |
LABEL |
| Summertime |
(Gerschwin)
|
John Burgess
|
Unreleased
|
EMI
|
| Peter Gunn |
(Bernstein)
|
John Burgess
|
Unreleased
|
EMI
|
Engineered by Peter Vince. Our first time at
Abbey Road. The studio didn’t have the ‘awesome’
reputation worldwide, that it was to eventually gain,
thanks to ‘the Beatles’, but it was still an
‘awesome’ place. There were technical staff in
‘white’ coats everwhere. We were in and out in
a couple of hours. We recorded just two tracks, one
vocal (the Ricky Nelson version of ‘Summertime’)
and a guitar version of ‘Peter Gunn’ ‘a la
Shadows’, playing and singing ‘live’.
‘Lon’Lyons on rhythm guitar singing his harmony
on my ‘mike’ and ‘Shirt’ on drums
playing and singing his harmony into an overhead ‘mike’
above the kit. The tape was erased later, but we
got our recording contract! We were recording artists!
|
SINGLES 1963-1968
|
| TRACK TITLE |
COMPOSER |
PRODUCER |
RELEASED |
LABEL |
a
|
Shake Shake Shake |
Stevenson-Adams
|
John Burgess
|
1963
|
Columbia DB 7135
|
b
|
Row Row Row |
Vann
|
John Burgess
|
1963
|
|
A friend of
ours Van Doren guested on ‘vox continental’
organ.
|
a
|
I Love The Way You Walk |
Smith
|
John Burgess
|
1964
|
Columbia DB 7224
|
b
|
I Love You |
Thorpe
|
John Burgess
|
1964
|
|
The a-side
got released in the USA, but no success. A good record
though, and I particularly like the b-side, for it’s
simplicity. A great ‘LIVE’ sound. Abbey Rd at
it’s best.
|
a
|
Life’s
Too Short |
Bonner-Huth
|
John Burgess
|
1964
|
Columbia DB 7336
|
b
|
Don’t
You Ever Tell On Me |
Rivers
|
Tony Rivers
|
1964
|
|
A pretty
unusual song. Probably never had a chance of being a hit,
but I enjoyed doing the vocal. It was the record we had
on release when we had our road crash, very ‘prophetic’.
Shirt’s last recording. My first composition on the
b-side. I think it was recorded at Radio Luxembourg’s
studio in Bryanston St. for the radio series we used to
do back then.
|
a
|
She |
Jones
|
Tony Rivers
|
1965
|
Columbia DB 7448
|
b
|
Til
We Get Home |
Rivers Lyons Brown Scott
|
Tony Rivers
|
1965
|
|
New line up
for us after the accident. I think we had a temporary
drummer Wally Cockell, and possibly Chris Manders on bass.
‘She’ was a Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) song
found as usual, by our producer John Burgess. ‘Til
We Get Home’ the Beach Boys influence had kicked in,
so we sat round Lon’s house and tried to write in
that style. It doesn’t make much sense lyically,
something about a scooter. The start of things to come
for us?
|
a
|
Come
Back Baby |
Newell-Fahey
|
Tony Rivers
|
1966 |
Columbia DB 7536
|
b
|
What
To Do |
Rivers Lyons Brown Scott
|
Tony Rivers
|
1966 |
|
We were
starting to find the harmony style songs to record. This
was a good record and we got some TV exposure
on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ but still no hit. b-side,
another from the ‘Radio Lux’ sessions.
|
a
|
Girl
Don’t Tell Me |
Wilson
|
Andrew Oldham
|
1966 |
Immediate IM 027
|
b
|
Salt
Lake City |
Wilson
|
Andrew Oldham
|
1966 |
|
Both songs
engineered by Glyn Johns at IBC Studios, London. It was
just a ‘one off’ for Immediate Records. My
personal favourite Castaways single. We took the Brian
Wilson song which had no harmonies on and made it a
harmony song. I can hear some ‘balance’
things within the harmonies which I’d like to get
right, but-----!
|
a
|
God
Only Knows |
Wilson-Asher
|
Tony Rivers
|
1966 |
Columbia DB 7971
|
b
|
Charade (lead vocal Tony Harding) |
Mancini-Mercer
|
Tony Rivers
|
1966 |
|
Both recorded
at Regent Sound, Tott. Ct. Rd. London. Played to me by
Bruce Johnston from ‘the Beach Boys’. He
told me we should record it, we did, completely
different from the original. We did an ‘independant’
production and leased it to EMI. EMI then released the
Beach Boys version! Nuff said!!!! Love the
harmonies in the middle eight of the b-side.
|
a
|
I
Can Guarantee You Love |
Potter-Dee
|
Tony Rivers
|
1968 |
Polydor
|
b
|
Pantomime |
Rivers-Rowe
|
Tony Rivers
|
1968 |
|
Really nice
record I think. Intro seems to be very similar toa record
by ‘the Cyrcle’ I think it was ‘Red Rubber
Ball’. Recorded at the Polydor Studio, Carlos Olms
engineering. B-side, quite original sounding song with
some great vocal bits and double tracked bass guitar.
Last ‘Castaways’ record to be released.
|
UNRELEASED
TRACKS 1963 - 1966
|
| TRACK TITLE |
COMPOSER |
PRODUCER |
RECORDED |
LABEL |
| The Happy Song |
Sam Cooke
|
John Burgess
|
1963 |
unreleased
|
A Sam Cooke
song unused from one of ‘early’ Abbey Rd.
sessions, best forgotten I think!
|
| Baby What You Want Me To Do |
Reed
|
John Burgess
|
1964/66 |
unreleased
|
| Love You Baby |
Copyright Control
|
John Burgess
|
1964/66 |
unreleased
|
| Come On And Love Me To |
Copyright Control
|
John Burgess
|
1964/66 |
unreleased
|
| The Girl From New York City |
Wilson
|
John Burgess
|
1964/66 |
unreleased
|
| Pretend |
Copyright Control
|
|
1964/66 |
unreleased
|
| Nowhere Man |
Lennon and McCartney
|
|
1964/66 |
unreleased
|
Unused tracks
from Abbey Rd sessions. Nowhere Man was scheduled for
release by EMI, then we were signed by Brian Epstein, who
said we shouldn’t release it, so we didn’t.
Instead we released ‘Girl Don’t Tell Me’.
|
WITH OTHER
ARTISTS
|
| MAJOR ROWLEY Single |
COMPOSER
|
PRODUCER
|
RECORDED |
LABEL
|
| There’s A
Riot Going On |
Shel Talmy
|
Shel Talmy
|
1964/5? |
Stateside SS 438
|
| Do It The Right
Way |
Rowlands
|
Shel Talmy
|
|
|
Tony Rivers
and the Castaways playing and singing on both songs.
|
CHRIS FARLOWE
Album Track |
|
|
|
|
| It’s All Over Now Baby Blue |
Bob Dylan
|
Andrew Oldham
|
March
1966 |
Immediate IMLP 005
|
From
the album "14 Things To Think About" (Recorded
at IBC Studio), Tony Rivers and the Castaways sing
backing vocals.
|
UNRELEASED
TRACKS 1966 - 1967
|
| TRACK TITLE |
COMPOSER |
PRODUCER |
RECORDED |
LABEL |
| Can’t Make It Without You
Baby |
Copyright Control
|
Tony Rivers
|
1966/67? |
unreleased
|
Recorded at
Olympic Sound Studios, Barnes, SW. Steve Marriott popped
into the studio and volunteered to sing backing
vocals. The line-up was John, Pete and Geoff Swettenham,
Martin, Ray and me.
|
| Einer Kleiner Miser Music |
Tony Rivers - John Perry
|
Tony Rivers
|
1967 |
unreleased
|
| Graduation Day |
Troup
|
Tony Rivers
|
1967 |
unreleased
|
| Summer Dreaming |
Tony Rivers
|
Tony Rivers
|
1967 |
unreleased
|
| The Grass Will Sing For You |
Bruno / Millrose
|
Tony Rivers
|
1967 |
unreleased
|
| Mr. Sun |
Tony Rivers
|
Tony Rivers
|
1967 |
unreleased
|
| The Turn Of The Century |
Gibb
|
Tony Rivers
|
1967 |
unreleased
|
These six
songs were the only recordings made with the boys who
went on to become ‘Grapefruit’, that is Geoff
and Pete Swettenham and John Perry. Martin Shaer was also
in the band at this time. The vocal blend we had was as
good as any that had gone before. Martin eventually went
to Canada and discovered Bryan Adams! All these tracks
were recorded at our ‘favourite’ little Polydor
Studios. Engineered by our favourite German, Carlos
Adolph Olms.
|
