A&M Cover Versions 1965-70: "Wanderlove"

Which cover version is your favourite?

  • Claudine Longet

    Votes: 10 100.0%
  • The Sandpipers

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Judith Durham

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

JOv2

Well-Known Member
Vote for your favourite cover version and tell us a bit about why you made your selection. (The selections are listed in release order.)



 
I first heard this one on FAMILY PORTRAIT, which contained Claudine's recording. I hadn't heard MUSIC BOX which had The Sandpiper's track.
 
Its Claudine for the win The Sandpipers came second i never heard of Judith Durham until now Judith's sounds like A female attempt at Mason Williams's arrangement
 
Judith Durham had been lead singer for The Seekers. A&M tried to launch her as a solo act with the album GIFT OF SONG.
 
I like Claudine Longet as a vocalist. I think her 5 A&M LPs are top-notch efforts: no filler and no throwaways. Of all the A&M artists during the '60s era, her LPs were consistently the most rewarding and enjoyable.

(I have Mason's 5 WB LPs (1967-71); he reminds me of Steve Allen: jack of all trades -- master of none. His music, like that of Lee Hazelwood, slots in between '60s non-rock pop (Mancini) and the "new" pop (Lennon & McCartney). According to Stan Cornyn, Wanderlove is in 10/4; however, the critical ear will quickly note that the sections are truly 8-bar lengths that have been s t r e t c h e d... Personally, I think Mason was trying hard to write something in uncommon time and took the easy way out. If one hums the piece in 8-bar lengths it comes across with far more musical agility.)
 
Claudine Longet as a vocalist. I think her 5 A&M LPs are top-notch efforts
In my years here, it seems that men are far more likely to accept and like Claudine's records than women. I, too, enjoy them, with this track being a favorite. I also really like her work on Roger Nichols' songs.
 
it seems that men are far more likely to accept and like Claudine's records than women
Good. Then Harry you’ll appreciate this anecdote.

Round about 1985, while in college and working part time as a DJ, I brought home about a dozen or so '60s A&M 45s that I wanted to dub — one was Claudine Longet. I’ll never forget the look my gf at the time gave me when I was spinning The Look Of Love / Good Day Sunshine: Something of a cross between a repulsive smirk and a WHAT-IN-THE-$&%#-IS-THAT-$@%&!! I recall throwing something off-the-cuff about it being sort like "men’s music" — kinda like the male counterpart, in a certain aspect, to an Engelbert Humperdinck LP. She understood, but still did not like the music. At all.
 
My history with Claudine recordings goes back to the birth years of this forum (other than her entry on the FAMILY PORTRAIT LP). Back then, Amazon pretty much sold only books and eBay was in its infancy. We here at the Corner had gotten wind of an online outfit based in Tennessee, I think, called Thoughtscape Sounds. They had a catalog of available CDs, many, many from Japan and unheard of elsewhere. It was where early purchases of Brasil '66 CDs were found. And I bought three of the DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST CDs from them - BMB, Sandpipers and Claudine Longet.

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Anyway, one day I got a catalog from them with a close-out on some Japan CDs, including four Claudine titles from a 1994 series of releases. They were CLAUDINE, THE LOOK OF LOVE, LOVE IS BLUE, and COLOURS. (POCM-1939-1942). And they were only $9.99 a piece, quite a discount from the usual $25 price point for Japan CDs.

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I was pretty happy with these, giving them all turns in my car CD player on the way to and from work.

From online postings, I knew of a rarer fifth album on A&M called RUN WILD, RUN FREE. There had been a CD in Japan, but it was either ridiculously priced or just plain unavailable, so I searched the newish eBay and found an LP of the album to go along with the other four albums on CD.

A website sprang up in the late 90s/early 2000s called Cuddle Up With Claudine. At that time, there was virtually nothing about Claudine Longet on the web, and the fellow who set up the site - named Eb, I think - did what he could to bring all of the known Claudine Longet facts to a website. It detailed her albums, appearances on others albums, TV shows, movies, etc. I contributed a few scans and tidbits of info as I found them. Eb was grateful and sent me a copy of the CD he and his site had commissioned with Varese Sarabande. They were only able to license four or five tracks from the A&M catalog, and the rest came from the Barnaby days and an unreleased album called SUGAR ME. It was called THE VERY BEST OF CLAUDINE LONGET.

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Around 2005, Cherry Red/RevOla got into the act by releasing HELLO, HELLO: THE BEST OF CLAUDINE LONGET. I picked up this one too.

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Meanwhile, in Japan in 2007, another issue of RUN WILD, RUN FREE on CD came about in a series called Beautiful Covers in a cardboard sleeve.

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And other than some multi-artist comps, that's it for my Claudine Longet collection. Oh, and my wife can't stand her voice!
 
Since my usual musical tastes tend to match Harry's when it comes to A&M Records, I probably should give Claudine another listen. Or I should say "a" listen because I've never heard any of her LPs. I've only heard the one song that appeared on Music Box, and now "Wanderlove" from the link above, which is quite appealing. It made me wish Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 had recorded the song -- Lani's vocals on this arrangement would have been killer.

I'm most familiar with the Sandpipers version, and I think it's a beautiful melody so that's the one that gets my vote. Unlike (apparently) a lot of guys, I just can't get into Claudine's voice and accent. As Rood would say - "not my cuppa."
 
Very enjoyable story, Harry.

After dubbing that single back in 1985, I had nothing until I found a used copy of The Look of Love LP at a record store I worked at round about 1989. (Incidentally, that's where I first heard Manha de Carnaval and was convinced that Herb was playing the double-tracked solo on the fade out!) In the mid-'90s I struck up a conversation with a local record store buyer and asked him if he had heard anything regarding CD releases of the pre-1970 A&M recordings. He said the MOR stuff was a big hit in Japan -- and he specifically singled out Claudine's releases. Like you, I eventually found affordable (i.e. used) copies of those four '94 Japanese titles. Round about 2012, for the Japanese A&M 50th Anniversary series, I snapped up the first four. As for the elusive 5th release, I had found it "new" a few years earlier.

Her five A&M releases, as mini-LPs, are straddled by Gordon Lightfoot and Love:

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Here are the mini-LPs themselves. My only quibble was that these Japanese issues did not include non-LP single recordings (the first three did include the mono mixes, however):

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Since my usual musical tastes tend to match Harry's when it comes to A&M Records, I probably should give Claudine another listen. Or I should say "a" listen because I've never heard any of her LPs. I've only heard the one song that appeared on Music Box, and now "Wanderlove" from the link above, which is quite appealing.
Mike, I normally recommended Colours as a good place to start. Ron Elliot (Beau Brummels) contributed the acoustic guitar throughout and Randy Newman duetted with her on his I Think It's Going to Rain Today.
 
My only quibble was that these Japanese issues did not include non-LP single recordings (the first three did include the mono mixes, however):

I have a couple dozen of the various Mini LPs by some of my favorite artists and all of them are exact replicas of the album. Maybe they figure that bonus tracks would be missing the point.
 
I would agree with that. I'm one who only likes bonus tracks on bonus media. I want albums on CD to exactly reflect what the album had originally, down to liner notes, logos, labels, innersleeves, etc. The Carpenters box set from Japan, and The Beatles in mono box sets are nearly perfect in that respect.

The Claudine compilations are fine for all sorts of non-released, non-LP tracks, and all three of mine have such things.
 
Even though I do enjoy these Claudine records, I think it’s a little puzzling how all or most of her albums were remastered, but the Baja Marimba Band’s catalogue has remained for the most part untouched.
 
I think the Tommy LiPuma/Nick De Caro pedigree seemed to help the efforts for Claudine's re-releases. Nick's involvement spurred the CD releases of both FRESH AIR and THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
 
Also, Claudine's "little girl" vocals seem appealing to the Japanese sensibility.
 
I would agree with that. I'm one who only likes bonus tracks on bonus media. I want albums on CD to exactly reflect what the album had originally, down to liner notes, logos, labels, innersleeves, etc.
I suppose, but the 50th Anniversary series included several release with adjacent 45s as additional selections (e.g., The Merry-Go-Round, Boyce & Hart, even Nick De Caro), so I was getting spoiled... Besides at $25 a crack, adding little extra umph ain't a bad idea 😉.

(I've been applying my own sacrilege to LP song orders since 1980 -- the year I bought a quality cassette deck component and started making cassette copies of my LPs onto 90min UDXL IIs. On a whim, I added Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever between side I and II of Sgt. Pepper -- because to me they always sounded like the belonged there -- and voila! I was very happy with the results. Next, I added Paperback Writer and Rain to Revolver and never looked back. My feeling is that given the music was from the same sessions and was sonically in sync with the original LP, then why not give it a go? To this day, some of my friends genuinely hate the idea; nevertheless, with all due respect I've been re-sequencing LP running orders and adding representative material for over 40 years... CD-Rs were a blessing and a half.)
 
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Sometimes extra tracks are nice if they are something I appreciate. What I don't like are demos or redundant alternate takes. Non-album singles or mono versions of old albums are most welcome in my opinion. My favorite of these Japanese releases in recent years was the ROGER NICHOLS & THE SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS package that was comprised of 2 CDs, one with the stereo mix of the album and one with the original, dedicated mono mix of it. Each disc also contained non-album singles, too, with the stereo tracks on the stereo disc and the mono tracks on the mono disc. It was quite a revelation to hear the mono mixes. I probably would have like the Claudine mono mixes too, but my CDs are from the 90s series with no extras.
 
I've told the story here before, but it may be worth a "re-run" in this Claudine-intense thread...

Back in 1982, when I was stationed in Norfolk Virginia, My roommate and I decided too host a party at our house. We called it "The Claudine Longet Listening Party" and invited our co-workers from our command, Fleet Audio Visual Command... I had all 5 of the A&M LPs lined up on the shelf in front of my system and started with Claudine. Most guests had arrived during the playing of this album. Almost immediately after I put on The Look of Love, there was a rebellion. I was told if I didn't stop playing Claudine they would all leave, adding that they thought I was kidding about the party's theme. Many were shocked that someone actually owned all of her albums and actually listened to them. There were even threats of "Frisbeeing" the Claudine albums out in the Chesapeake Bay tributary on which my house was located.

Needless to say, the music switched to more of the 80s new wave material my roommate and I were known for playing... This would go down as one of my better parties (once Claudine was muted) until the infamous Halloween Party of 1989 when I was stationed in San Diego...

--Mr Bill
 
Nice! With a double feature showing of "Herb Alpert Is" and "Sergio Mendes: In the Key of Joy" as the grand finale! (although we would probably get a few more takers if we put Carpenters in there somewhere too) :D
 
What I don't like are demos or redundant alternate takes.
Agreed.

(I think those three Beatles 2-CD sets from the mid-90s opened that floodgate. While initially interesting, repeated listenings only resulted in a meteoric plunge in further enjoyment and after a handful of listenings I haven't played those things in 25 years. (Ringo was correct when back in the day he quipped something like, "I thought we already issued the best stuff".) Perhaps an archivist finds merit in perusing session tapes; for me, I just want the finished works. That said, I will always jump at the chance to hear complete songs that were unissued or alternate arrangements, or in the case of Brasil '66 LPs, circa 1968-70, the non-Gruisinified versions, but demos and alternate takes are of no lasting interest to me.)
 
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