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www.musicweek.com PRODUCTREISSUES PAUL & LINDA McCARTNEY • SHEENA EASTON • SHORTY LONG • THE CHRISTIANS


PAUL & LINDA McCARTNEY • Ram (MPL/Hearmusic 7233450)


Arguably Paul McCartney’s best post-Beatles album – it is certainly his best


catalogue seller aside from the more celebrated Band On The Run – Ram topped the chart in 1971, and is the fourth album by the Liverpudlian legend to get the deluxe Archive Collection treatment since his defection from EMI to Universal. Ram is a sumptuous and varied collection of songs, most of which were highly commercial. It is the only McCartney album to give equal billing to late wife Linda – and although it is undoubtedly Paul whose musical genius is responsible for composing and crafting the songs, Linda’s input is truly impressive, with intricate vocal interplay on Dear Boy, soothing harmonies on Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and general sweetening throughout. More than 40 years on,


these songs sound awesome in their newly remastered versions, and are heavily supplemented across a variety of formats, with the rare mono version of the album and the Percy Thrillington orchestral version of the album joining a further CD of bonus audio tracks and a DVD containing promotional clips and a new documentary, Ramming, voiced by McCartney.


SHEENA EASTON • The Collection (Music Club Deluxe MCDLX 146)


Launched on an unsuspecting world on Esther Rantzen’s early reality TV show


The Big Time, Scots singer Sheena Easton made the most of her break, racking up a string of hits. Clearly not one of the world’s most talented vocalists, Easton became successful through hard work, major record label support and some excellent song choices. The Collection is a 31-song two-CD


collection which anthologises her EMI output between 1980 and 1986, including all 11 of her UK chart entries in that period, and her 17 US chart entries. Some of her best songs – including Sugar Walls, which was written for her by Prince – and Strut were not UK chart entries but made the Top 10 in the US and are gathered here – though the album would have been improved by the inclusion of some of her subsequent MCA hits.


SHORTY LONG • Here Comes... Shorty Long(Kent CDTOP 369)


One of the more marginal artists in the history of Motown, Shorty Long scored his


one and only UK hit in 1968 – less than a year before his premature detah at 29 from drowning – with the novelty song Here Comes The Judge, influenced by a successful sketch in the enormously popular TV series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-


In. Finally redressing the balance, this new Kent compilation brings together the R&B singer’s two albums for the label, and a couple of bonus tracks, in their stereo mixes. Here Comes The Judge opens the 26-song proceedings and remains both funky and funny. Shorty pursues a similarly humorous line on tracks like Stranded In The Jungle and Chantilly Lace but it is tracks like Sing What You Wanna, an irresistible groover that would surely have been a smash if it had been recorded by The Four Tops; the terrific Northern Soul stomper Baby Come Home To Me; and an elegant version of Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade Of Pale that prove he had the chops.


THE CHRISTIANS • The Christians (Cherry Red CDBRED 526)/Colour (CDMRED 527)


A largely fraternal group from Liverpool, The Christians hit the


ground running, with their self-titled debut album spawning a string of five consecutive Top 40 hits. Their bright and breezy soulful sound, as heard on Ideal World, Forgotten Town, Hooverville et al, was briefly irresistible, and the album sold a million copies and reached No.2 on the charts. 1990 follow-up Colour got off to an even faster start, debuting at No.1, but it soon became clear that it was a less effective demonstration of their musical skills, with all but one single failing to breach the Top 40. It marked the beginning of a downturn in the band’s fortunes from which they never recovered. Some 25 years after the first Christians album was released, it has been reissued in a new deluxe edition, with the original album supplemented by a second CD featuring 12-inch mxies, B-sides and the non-album single Harvest For The World – an Isley Brothers cover that gave them their biggest hit. Colour is reissued simultaneously, and expanded.


04.05.12 MusicWeek 65


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