🎵 AotW AOTW: Hoyt Axton LESS THAN THE SONG (A&M SP 4376)

[LPJim]

Hoyt Axton
LESS THAN THE SONG
A&M SP4376

Oklahoma native Hoyt Axton (1938-99) was a prominent songwriter, best known for "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf), "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio) and Three Dog Night ("Never Been to Spain" & "Joy to the World").
His mother, Mae Axton, wrote Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel."

SIDE ONE
Sweet Misery 3:20/ Less Than the Song 3:00/ Sweet Fantasy 3:07/ Days are Short (Arlo Guthrie - Howard Beach Music ASCAP) 3:47/ Mary Makes Magic 3:24/ Peacemaker 3:00.

SIDE TWO
Nothin' to Lose 3:02/ Oklahoma Song 2:17/ Mexico City Hangover 3:16 (Screen Gems- Columbia Music BMI ... written by Axton) 3:16/ Hungry Man 2:43/ Somebody Turned on the Light 2:58/ Blue Prelude (Gordon Jenkins & Joe Bishop- World Music Inc. ASCAP) 1:47.

All songs by Hoyt Axton (Lady Jane Music BMI) except where indicated.

Produced by Bob Johnston/ Engineer: Bob Potter, Island Studios, London; Ray Stevens Sound Laboratory, Nashville; Tommy Viscari, A&M Studios, Hollywood; Remix: Bob Potter.

Hoyt Axton - acoustic guitar, vocals/ Ron Cornelius, Max Gordon - drums/ Karl Himmel - bass/ Tim Drummond - harmonica/ Ed Kollis - piano & organ/ Bob Wilson - fiddle/ Stephen Pace - piano/ Dana Brady, Claudia Linnear, Donna Washburn, Donna Weiss, Linda Ronstadt - background vocals/ Roland Young - art direction/ John Van Hammersveld - design/ Jim McCrary - photography/ Special thanks to Abe Somer, Allan McDougall and Reverend C.

A double-CD reissue of Hoyt Axton's A&M studio albums has been released.

JB


www.sixcats.com/axton/hoyt.htm

Credits:

 

[Dave]

I Am Less Than The Song That I'm Singing... sang Patti Page, at a concert of her's I attended almost a couple years ago... (...And my Ex- was driving in the next lane on my way to Patti's show... ) ...Guess Ms. Page was a Big Axton Fan, if that was her second song in the set... (The third was "Gentle On My Mind"!)

"Sweet Misery" was done by Martha Reeves (...of The Vandella's fame) and Hoyt played guitar on it, too! While John Davidson covered a song Hoyt wrote and produced for him, "Have A Nice Day"! "Someone Turned On The Light", "Lightnin' Bar Blues" and even "Oklahoma Song" were covered by Arlo Guthrie and Steppenwolf covered another song of his, "Snowblind Friend"! Oh, and another TWO "Never Been To Spain"'s exist: by The Lettermen and Elvis Presley!

Renee Armand and even Linda Ronstadt collaborated with him on a couple of songs on a later album of his and I sure would have loved to seen Hoyt Axton perform in concert, too!


Dave

 

[LPJim]

Thanks! I'm pretty tired from yesterday's road trip (see Finn Bros. post) and can't vouch for my mental competence until I get a full night's sleep.

I THINK the 2-disc A&M reissue package includes 4 Hoyt albums but am not sure about bonus trax or which company did the reissuing.
JB

 

[Dave]

I THINK a 2-disc A&M reissue package includes 4 Hoyt albums but am not sure about bonus trax or which company did the reissuing.
JB

Yes, I've heard of that 2-Disc Reissue of Hoyt's A&M albums...The A&M Years! I don't think there were any Bonus-Tracks on it and Polygram International is who actually reissued it; I know it's still available at Amazon, too...!


Dave

 

[AM Matt]

The late John Denver also covered Hoyt's "Sweet Misery" on "Farewell Andromeda" (RCA) back in June of 1973. Matt Clark Sanford, MI