Your Navy Presents (again)

Harry

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A year or so ago, we had a thread where someone had uploaded both LPs of YOUR NAVY PRESENTS. The audio was wonky but salvageable. Those videos, I believe, are gone.

Well someone else has uploaded what I believe is the second of the two discs in much better audio quality. The first half (one side) is here:

 
Wasn't there one of these floating around that was around 50 minutes? If so, what's the difference?
 
There were originally FOUR 15-minute segments to air over four different weeks in 1970.

They were distributed on TWO LPs, with a 15-minute show on each side.
The prior upload had all four 15-minute segments.
This one only has two, apparently from just one of the LPs.

These original LPs were not sent out as a 2-disc set. They were in individual jackets, with individual printed instructions, so they were easily separated, split up, etc. over time.

I posted the link to these two segments because the audio is the best I've heard from one of these.
 
At the risk of sounding like an idiot, where exactly were the recordings played? I always thought they did a whole set live on air and that was just recorded.
 
YOUR NAVY PRESENTS was a considered a "public affairs" program. It was sent to radio stations all across the country on LPs for free, for their use wherever they wanted to fit it into their schedule. Commercial radio stations are licensed by the federal government and have a commitment to air "X" amount of public affairs programming each week. These are typically buried on early Sunday mornings when most of the target audience is asleep. It also allowed the station to have only an operator on duty, rather than a DJ. The board operator or engineer would spin the NAVY records and other taped programs during those designated public affairs hours.

YOUR NAVY PRESENTS was easily slipped into music radio stations as they featured current musical artists from the charts, interspersed with recruitment ads for the Navy, sounding almost like part of the regular programming. There were versions for the other branches of service too. The shows were all scripted - you can hear the stiltedness of Richard and Karen's interview sections as they read their responses. It was also likely that the host and the artists were not in the same studio at the same time.
 
Thanks, Harry for editing these. I enjoyed listening to them! There is a certain innocence in their young sound that is very appealing.

Craig
 
I had nothing to do with putting them on YouTube. I just found them, was pleased by the improved sound, and reposted the links.
 
I am an occasional forum visitor and a huge Carpenters fan. I've read much of the forum discussions.

This thread prompted me to post because it was delightful to hear this. I've heard most Carpenters stuff over the years, but not this. Thanks for posting this.
 
Well, there's the US Navy, but I'm not sure they're even aware of this stuff. Richard Carpenter and A&M released "Get Together" on the two box sets, FROM THE TOP and ESSENTIAL COLLECTION.

All of the rest has only ever seen the light of day through the rare LPs of the original shows.
 
Sam Riddle was a California DJ hired by the Navy for these shows.
 
Incredible!! What talent!! Why didn’t Richard put more of these (instead of the corny dialogue) on From The Top?!?
Probably licensing issues. From the sounds of it neither Richard nor A&M own the original masters, so to even do one whole CD of the recordings would involve a ton of licensing fees, not just the usual mechanical and recording rights to the songs, but also the rights to license the recording masters. Just like in TV, if something was only licensed for broadcast originally (at least in North America) then it is usually harder and more expensive to get distribution rights later for digital and private issuance (i.e. A Muppet Family Christmas, Quantum Leap)
So it was probably cheaper to just license Get Together and the Interview segments rather than the whole thing; at least that way fans got a taste of the program. And with the Interview, the script was probably written by Sam Riddle, so he would've been the sole person needed to sign a release and pay monies to. (Kind of like how Captiol Records would've had to have gotten a release from Jack Wagner to release the Brian Wilson Interview, that appeared on the 1964 Capitol Silver Platter Service: The Beach Boys Christmas Special, but in that case Capitol Records owned the master recording to the interview, so there was no need to pay additional monies to an outside organization for the master when it was released in 1998 on The Beach Boys Ultimate Christmas.)
 
Thanks to all for bringing this thread back to life! I am a big fan of these recordings. The highlight for me; Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing seguing into All I Can Do. Their harmonies and Karen's drumming leave me in "awe".
 
Probably licensing issues. From the sounds of it neither Richard nor A&M own the original masters, so to even do one whole CD of the recordings would involve a ton of licensing fees, not just the usual mechanical and recording rights to the songs, but also the rights to license the recording masters. Just like in TV, if something was only licensed for broadcast originally (at least in North America) then it is usually harder and more expensive to get distribution rights later for digital and private issuance (i.e. A Muppet Family Christmas, Quantum Leap)
So it was probably cheaper to just license Get Together and the Interview segments rather than the whole thing; at least that way fans got a taste of the program. And with the Interview, the script was probably written by Sam Riddle, so he would've been the sole person needed to sign a release and pay monies to. (Kind of like how Captiol Records would've had to have gotten a release from Jack Wagner to release the Brian Wilson Interview, that appeared on the 1964 Capitol Silver Platter Service: The Beach Boys Christmas Special, but in that case Capitol Records owned the master recording to the interview, so there was no need to pay additional monies to an outside organization for the master when it was released in 1998 on The Beach Boys Ultimate Christmas.)

It might be that no one owns the rights, I have found in the past with not just music but movies as well that no one can find out who owns the item and would take years of time and money to find out?
 
It might be that no one owns the rights, I have found in the past with not just music but movies as well that no one can find out who owns the item and would take years of time and money to find out?
I just looked at “From The Top”, and for “Get Together” it says ‘Licensed From Kim Voeller” while the Interview says “Courtesy Sam Riddle”, so it sounds like just the way the programs production company handled the rights, there might’ve been a couple of hands “in the pot”. So it probably has not been abandoned, just to many licensing issues. Plus if they weren’t able to track down the rights, neither track would’ve been released as that would mean that the program would’ve been in legal limbo (assuming that there was a copyright notice given on the original broadcast).
 
Thanks to all for bringing this thread back to life! I am a big fan of these recordings. The highlight for me; Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing seguing into All I Can Do. Their harmonies and Karen's drumming leave me in "awe".

There were some great recordings on the Your Navy Presents set - it's a shame they didn't include more of these on From the Top (presumably if they were able to license one track, the option would have been there to have done the same for a few other tracks) - their take on 'Can't Buy Me Love' and the 'Clancy/All I Can Do' medley are both excellent.

The one issue I have with the set (and it was a recurrent problem in their early concerts as well) is the inclusion of the novelty tracks 'Cinderella Rockefella' and 'I Fell in Love with You'. I'm sure they had fun performing them, but they're both quite silly and annoying songs that are way beneath them, and I'm sure did them no favours in terms of being taken seriously.
 
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