🎵 AotW AOTW: Peter Allen CONTINENTAL AMERICAN (SP 3643)

[LPJim]

Peter Allen
CONTINENTAL AMERICAN
A&M SP3643

Peter Allen, b. 2-10-44 and d. 6-18-92, was an Australian singer and songwriter whose commercial breakthrough came from "I Honestly Love You," a huge hit for Olivia Newton-John.
He was briefly married to Liza Minnelli in the late '60s and won an Oscar for co-writing "Arthur's Theme."

TRACKS:

Just a Gigolo/ Everything Old is New Again/ The Natural Thing to Do/ Pretty, Pretty/ Continental American/ Just Ask Me, I've Been There/ I Honestly Love You/ The Side Show's Leaving Town/ Just a Gigolo (Reprise).

For biography and discography information, please visit:

www.bluedesert.dk/peterallen.html

JB

 

[Dave]

This one by Peter is VERY hard-of-hard to come by... The one copy I managed to see and get many years ago, I think I bought for 99¢ at that!



Just a Gigolo -- Definitely years ahead of David Lee Roth of Van Halen as far as the cover of a Pop Standard goes...

Everything Old is New Again -- Remember a (former) Big Band Radio Station playing what seemed to be a Ray Conniff-styled version of this song; pretty sure it was not the "original"...

The Natural Thing to Do -- I can't recall how this one goes and I'm sure someone did a cover version of it...

Pretty, Pretty -- Another sad, tear-jerkin' song... --Particularily the line that goes: Pretty, pretty, what about your kitty, wondering when you're coming home to feed it... :cat: --Hopefully it BETTER have gotten FED! Witness versions by Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere and The Raiders-fame, done on a THIRD solo album, You've Got A Friend, which followed up Silverbird and Arizona, as well as, also, a remake by (Of Course!) Helen Reddy...

Continental American -- ...Nights would end at 6AM, sleep all day, and then start dancing again... Some song about a dancer in a Night Club; not sure what role the "Continental American" really plays... Builds up to an "overdubbed female voice" ad-libbing towards the end...

Just Ask Me, I've Been There -- ...I've seen angels and sin there; They're not gonna let me in there... --See Below:

I Honestly Love You -- Had a Peter Allen compilation on CD, which at the time seemed to be the Only, if not Best, most Thought-Out Compilation, which This Number as well as Just Ask Me... were on... (It had GOOD Stuff from I Could'a Been A Sailor...!), so that was my first exposure to his best-known song, covered also very notably by Olivia Newton-John...

The Side Show's Leaving Town -- ...Ahhh, this one I really DON'T remember...!!

Just a Gigolo (Reprise) -- ...Just a Gigolo..., cries out another female voice in the background, distinguishing a reprise of the first track and a fitting way to end this album...

My discovery of Peter Allen was simply in search for "other albums" a favorite guitarist I admired played on, which started with a Sealed Copy of I Could've Been A Sailor, which after buying and opening, he "by luck" appeared in the credits of, though this just wasn't a record I was particularily ready for and ditched after one play, just to afterwards be on the hunt for another "perfect one"... (Think ...Sailor was a small hit for Peter Allen, too; it DID get some fairly good radio play--my dad, I think even remembers it, as I believe I do, too) Funny with the way Peter A-llen, begins with "A" and it being where I start in a typical record search, I just never thought highly of looking into his stuff... And all I mostly saw was the ill-chosen compilation, The Best, as well as the Double-Live LP, It Is Time For Peter Allen... But I did acquire Taught By Experts (with the cameo by Herb Alpert, playing, or rather, BLOWING his trumpet on The More I See You) and somehow despite that particular guitarist playing on at least one of Allen's early Metromedia efforts, I never had the incentive to buy any of them... But fortunately he was on this release, so it was a long-overdue addition, and for around a Buck, in suprisingly Excellent Condition--both Vinyl and Cover...!

So I did like this and just before it came along, also managed to find a good CD, just entitled The Best Of Peter Allen, which gave me a good overview of his stuff, including another popular hit, I Go To Rio--though it was the one done Live; Pablo Cruise even covered Allen's ...Rio, too... (Far better than the 20th Century Masters set, which would follow...) Too bad I missed out on the 3-CD boxed-set, featuring Peter's The Early Years, The Songwriter Years and The Star Years--now THERE was something that had EVERYTHING in it...

Guess Allen was a very "undiscovered, unrealized, unrecognized and underrated" talent whom later got fortunate enough to be signed onto his ex-wife, Liza Minnelli's label... Thank God!



Dave

 

[henryjg]

I haven't heard Peter Allen's original version, but Ellen Greene (of "Little Shop of Horrors" fame) recorded a great version of "Pretty Pretty" a couple of years ago.

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

Peter's version of "Everything Old Is New Again" was featured in the Bob Fosse movie "All That Jazz"....is it the version from this record??