Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!
When a Cover Me writer tackles the Full Albums category, he or she is really committing. Not only are they writing about a dozen or more songs (instead of the usual one, three, or five), they have to make sure there are actually covers of all the songs on the album. If you want to write about Prince’s 1999, it’s easy enough to find a cover of “Little Red Corvette,” but you’re going to need to do some digging to find a version of “Lady Cab Driver,” and maybe longer to find a good one.
Sometimes you don’t have enough songs to finish off the album, but you still want to share what you’ve found. For me, this post on the Millennium’s Begin is one of those times. So, even if it was “close, but no cigar” for me, why should that mean you can’t enjoy a couple puffs yourself? Hence this, and (Almost) Full Album look at sunshine pop producer Curt Boettcher’s masterpiece.
Boettcher had become a hot hand after working with the Association on their early songs, and when Columbia heard he had put a supergroup together, they threw all the money at him to record for them. Begin, only the second 16-track recording (Simon and Garfunkel’s Bookends was the first), combined baroque, pop, psychedelia, avant-garde, and more into a glorious harmonic stew. Somehow, it didn’t land its hooks – too heavy for AM, too light for FM – and it died a commercial death. But enough people heard it and passed it around (Brian Wilson was floored by it) that it was more than ready to take on the mantle of cult favorite. Re-released on CD in 1990, it found its audience and has been shedding the “cult” label ever since.
Not all the songs are cover-ready – “Anthem (Begin)” is arguably abstract for abstract’s sake – but there’s enough classics out there to give a good sense of the source album and to enjoy for their own merits. So here you have it – more than half of a classic album covered. I think it’s worth releasing even in its incompleteness, and I hope you do too.
Rockfour – Prelude
This is one of those tracks that I’m amazed exists. You wouldn’t think the instrumental that opens Begin would be a song that anyone would gravitate to for covering purposes. But Rockfour, the Israeli psychedelic rock band, chose it to lead off For Fans Only!, a rarities collection.
Denny Doherty & Jimmie Haskell – To Claudia On Thursday
When the Mamas and the Papas dissolved, Denny Doherty was at loose ends for a couple years. Then the label reminded him that he owed them a solo recording, and he snapped out of his funk enough to deliver Watcha Gonna Do and have a few songs left over. One of them, a cover of “To Claudia on Thursday” recorded with the help of Jimmie Haskell, was released as a single in 1971. The original was a high point on Begin; this matches it in quality.
The Brady Bunch – I Just Want to Be Your Friend
The Brady Bunch had an interesting relationship with the Millennium. Not only did they cover “I Just Want to Be Your Friend” on their Meet the Brady Bunch album, but Chris Knight & Maureen McCormick included a version of “There Is Nothing More to Say” on their one album together. Every day is a sunshine pop day for the Bradys, apparently.
The Hep Stars – 5 A.M.
The Hep Stars were big in Sweden, with seven #1 songs to their name, but they wanted to be bigger. Their 1968 release It’s Been a Long Long Time, an all-English album recorded in London, was supposed to be their worldwide breakthrough. It included four Curt Boettcher songs and “5 A.M.” from Begin, written by Sandy Salisbury. Alas, it failed to chart in the UK and never even got released in the US. Worldwide fame would just have to wait a little longer for the Hep Stars’ keyboardist, Benny Andersson, who would go on to co-found ABBA.
Beth Sorrentino – The Island
You would think there would be more Curt Boettcher tribute albums out there, as cult favorites have inspired a lot of artists who were/are excited to return the favor. But the only one I could find was by Beth Sorrentino, former leader of Suddenly, Tammy!, who released Would You Like Me To Go: A Curt Boettcher Songbook. Good thing she did, too, as she’s just the one to bring across the beauty of “The Island” with her piano playing and earnest vocal.
Bob Dileo – Sing To Me
Bob Dileo would have to be the most obscure performer in this bunch. He released singles with The Teamates (sic), The Giant Jellybean Copout, and a few solo ones for Columbia. It’s a shame he never made a full-on album, as he really has his finger on the sunshine pulse. “Sing To Me” was the B-side to “Jessica,” and it was released in 1969.
The Harries – It’s You
The Harries are a self-described music project from Japan; led by Harry Takagi, they have a lot of videos on YouTube, specializing in 1965-75 covers. They do a nice job with “It’s You,” maybe not as lush as the original but more than likely not using sixteen tracks either.
Goldenrod – Karmic Dream Sequence
Before Curt Boettcher formed the Millennium, he had a project named Ballroom. Three of the musicians from that collective – guitarist Ben Benay, bassist Jerry Scheff, and drummer Toxey French – would get together to form Goldenrod, a psychedelic jazz/acid rock instrumental band. Their sole album had four extended jams, including a cover of “Karmic Dream Sequence” that went further and longer than the Millennium version did.
The fin. – There Is Nothing More to Say
“There Is Nothing More to Say” was a beautiful album closer that didn’t quite close Begin (that honor went to “Anthem (Begin),” which was a sound collage a la “Revolution 9,” only much shorter). The fin., another Japanese band, have an acoustic version of it that, again, is more spare than lush, but the gentleness makes it just as soft and pleasurable to listen to.
The Association – Just About the Same
“Just About the Same” was recorded for a 7″ single after Begin was released. Columbia turned it down, and it didn’t see the light of day until the CD era, when it came out as a bonus track. Rarely has a track been more accurately named than the Association’s studio cover of “Just About the Same.” It had the exact same backing track as the Millennium’s version, with only the vocals differing. So to wrap up this post, I thought I’d go with a live version, just to show these songs aren’t studio-bound.
