🎵 AotW Classics Julius Wechter & the Baja Marimba Band FOURSIDER (SP-3523)

How would you rate FOURSIDER as a compilation?

  • ***** Perfect

    Votes: 4 22.2%
  • **** Very Good

    Votes: 8 44.4%
  • *** Good/Average

    Votes: 5 27.8%
  • ** Poor

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • * Extremely Poor

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I've Never Heard Of It

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • Total voters
    18

Harry

Charter A&M Corner Member
Staff member
Site Admin
JULIUS WECHTER & THE
BAJA MARIMBA BAND

FOURSIDER
A&M SP-3523

FoursiderBajaMarimba.jpgFoursiderBajaRear.JPG

Track listing:

Side One
1. COMIN IN THE BACK DOOR (Scott Turner) 2:16
2. SPANISH FLEA (Julius Wechter) 2:20
3. FOR ANIMALS ONLY (Julius Wechter) 2:06
4. RHODE ISLAND RED (David Wells) 2:41
5. BIG RED (Frank De Vito) 2:16
6. FRESH AIR (Bert Kaempfert) 2:09


Side Two
7. SPANISH EYES (Bert Kaempfert) 2:33
8. SUMMER SAMBA (Gimbel-M.Valle-P.Valle) 2:15
9. I'LL MARIMBA YOU (Julius Wechter) 2:15
10. SAMBA DE ORFEU (A.Mario-L.Bonfa) 2:59
11. LAS MANAÑITAS (Julius Wechter) 2:55


Side Three
12. SUNRISE SUNSET (Sheldon-Harnich-Jerry Bock) 3:26
13. WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN (Paul Williams-Roger Nichols) 2:51
14. CAST YOUR FATE TO THE WIND (Guaraldi-Werber) 2:46
15. THOSE WERE THE DAYS (Gene Raskin) 3:15
16. AS TIME GOES BY (Herman Hupfield) 3:18


Side Four
17. WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL (Geoff Stephens) 2:08
18. YES SIR, THAT'S MY BABY (Gus Kahn-W.Donaldson) 2:14
19. ACAPULCO 1922 (Dave Alpert) 2:09
20. THE PORTUGUESE WASHERWOMAN (Popp-Lucchesi) 1:54
21. WINDY (Ruthann Friedman) 2:45
22. GOING OUT THE SIDE DOOR (Julius Wechter) 2:34


VARIOUS SELECTIONS PRODUCED BY COMBINATIONS OF
HERB ALPERT, JERRY MOSS, AND JULIUS WECHTER


Compiled and edited by
Claire Baren and Richard Burns
Art Direction by Roland Young
Concept and Design by Junie Osaki
Illustrations by Jim Gilbert


A&M Records, Inc.
P.O.Box 782, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90213
Printed in U.S.A.
 
Last edited:
Third in the FOURSIDER series for A&M, the Julius Wechter & the Baja Marimba Band entry never got a release on CD, so you'll have to seek out the older formats for this one.

My copy is a promotional LP with the die-cut "PROMOTIONAL NOT FOR SALE" words stamped into the cover. It has no angled titles, just plain black borders.

Also of note is the error in the track listing: Side Two lists "Brasilia" as the second track on both the jacket and the label, but the audio is actually "Summer Samba". This creates a problem for those actually seeking the "Brasilia" track, which though listed, is not present at all. Another minor error in spelling gets Bert Kaempfert's first name mispelled as "Burt" - everywhere it's listed.

One other factoid about all of these FOURSIDER LPs is the location of the sides. As was the custom of the day, Side Four is placed on the flip side of Side One, while Sides Two and Three are placed on the other LP. This was done to allow stacking and flipping on automatic turntables. You'd place the Side Two disc up, stacked over Side One. When Side One finished, the Side Two record would plop down and begin. When that finished, you'd lift both records off of the turntable, flip them over in tandem, and be ready for Sides Three and Four, in order. None of this would matter on a CD, if it existed, as the tracks just play in order.

Harry
 
This is a great compilation - I gave it away at some point, which I now regret......the wrong title always confused (and bugged) me too.
 
Bert Kaempfert's first name mispelled as "Burt" - everywhere it's listed.
I guess that's understandable since A&M was releasing Burt Bacharach LPs around this time too, so anybody at A&M probably had to type the word "Burt" pretty often.

One thing I noted: On that BBC interview program about Herb Alpert, Herb talks a bit about "Comin' in the Back Door" and I believe he says that he wrote the song. I see on this album it was actually written by Scott Turner. Maybe Herb was talking about writing the arrangement?
 
I suspect as far as the writing credits at that time go all these guys were working together perfecting their product (and their craft) much like the folks in the Brill Bldg. Turner, Alpert (and his borther Dave), Julius, Sol Lake and Bud Coleman all probably had influence on the final tune in those early days. Just a guess, but there you go.
 
I tend to agree with Mr. Bill about the songwriting. All of those guys probably had a hand in crafting some of those early songs and arrangements and then traded off who would get credit for which song.

As for compilations, this one's probably the best for the Baja Marimba Band. It's got a lot of homegrown tunes and some of the best of the covers. Lately I've found myself being fond of "Windy" - I think it's the neat brass arrangement in the chorus with the traveling trombone line - brilliant!

If this comp only had my favorite, "Flyin' High", I'd rate it perfect.

Harry
 
Since A&M never issued the Baja FOURSIDER on CD, if you want one, you'll have to do it yourself.

The following tracks are available on CD somewhere in the world at one time or another:

Acapulco 1922 - Timeless 3 CD, Digitally Remastered, Collectors Choice, and the rare original BMB CD
Big Red - Those Were The Days CD
Cast Your Fate To The Wind - Timeless, Latin Lounge
Comin' In The Back Door - same choices as Acapulco 1922
Fresh Air - the FRESH AIR CD
I'll Marimba You - FRESH AIR, Digitally Remastered, Collectors Choice
The Portuguese Washerwoman - Timeless, Collectors Choice, Digitally Remastered
Samba De Orpheu - the rare BMB album from Japan
Spanish Eyes - Digitally Remastered, Collectors Choice
Sunrise, Sunset - Collectors Choice (Thanks Steve!)
Those Were The Days - THOSE WERE THE DAYS, Digitally Remastered, Collectors Choice, Timeless
We've Only Just Begun - Nichols Williams COMPOSERS SERIES
Winchester Cathedral - Timeless
Windy - Timeless, Digitally Remastered, Collectors Choice
Yes Sir That's My Baby - Timeless

So that's 15 of the 22 (or 23 if you also include "Brasilia", I did). The others you'll have to source from LP:

As Time Goes By
Brasilia
For Animals Only
Goin' Out The Side Door
Las Manañitas
Rhode Island Red
Spanish Flea
Summer Samba

Harry
 
I always thought it odd that Julius never covered, until his final A&M LP, the one song that probably paid for his home and likely put most of the food on his table. And it's a rather odd arrangement at that. Of course, I'm speaking of the tune "Spanish Flea." It could've easily been part of the For Animals Only sessions (from which we learned, courtesy of Steve, that "Lonely Bull" was also recorded BMB-style but remains unreleased)...

--Mr Bill
 
I suspect as far as the writing credits at that time go all these guys were working together perfecting their product (and their craft) much like the folks in the Brill Bldg. Turner, Alpert (and his borther Dave), Julius, Sol Lake and Bud Coleman all probably had influence on the final tune in those early days. Just a guess, but there you go.

I remember Herb saying that he wrote "Acapulco 1922" and gave it to brother Dave. Could be the same thing happened on "Back Door".....


Capt. Bacardi
 
And who wrote "Little Lost Lover"??? "Acapulco 1922" gives more than a nod of influence to that terrific Dore tune!

--Mr Bill
 
"Little Lost Lover" has Ray Stanley as the composer. My guess is that Alpert took the chord changes from this tune and created "Acapulco 1922". Jazz musicians do this a lot, such as Charlie Parker creating "Donna Lee" using the chord changes of "Back Home Again In Indiana". There's no copyright violations doing that.


Capt. Bacardi
 
Ripoffs also occurred in the 50s and 60s. The Len Barry song "1-2-3" was actually a copy of "Ask Any Girl," a Supremes B-side written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, who successfully sued the writers of "1-2-3" and all six now receive writing credit on the song.

Even Led Zeppelin is guilty of that. "Whole Lotta Love" is actually a remake of a Muddy Waters song, "You Need Love," written by Willie Dixon. The Small Faces covered it as "You Need Lovin'," and the vocal stylings of Steve Marriott (especially "You need coolin'...") are something else Robert Plant would take for his own vocal performance. Dixon sued Page and Plant, and they settled out of court; Dixon is now credited along with Page and Plant. Surprisingly, the writing credits for the Small Faces song were never challenged, and that song is actually closer to the Muddy Waters version.

Plenty of examples...it's all kind of neat to learn about!
 
A good set for the uninitiated, while probably marginal for the true fan or collector who has everything...

No surprise the set does concentrate on hits ("As Time Goes By") as well as stuff w/ their trade mark sound ("I'll Marimba You") and stuff which probably should have served as both ("Windy")...


-- Dave
 
I think it's a pretty great compilation - their songs that charted are here, covers, originals, some songs where Julius gets to really show his chops.....haven't heard it in years (I think I got it of it, stupid me) but I used to love it....
 
I like how it begins with "Comin' in the Back Door" and ends with "Going out the Side Door". For my favorite track though, I would pick "Big Red" as I heard it a lot as the theme to Ben Hunter's local afternoon movie program in the Los Angeles area. I think this Foursider has a great selection of tunes and am glad it was the only one I ever got on LP. It's a shame it never made it to CD :sad:
 
You can say what you want but I really enjoy this album, yes I have it, more than the Greatest Hits LP which focused too much on covers.
 
I finally got around to making a rear cover for Julius' FOURSIDER. Be advised that this includes both "Summer Samba" and "Brasilia".

WechterFoursiderRear_zpsu9wbuhn3.jpg


http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss30/HGN2001/Music/WechterFoursiderRear_zpsu9wbuhn3.jpg

Harry
 
Thanks. I've been working on my Photoshop skills and wanted to see if I could manage it. It's all done with colors, text and fonts. My biggest pain in the neck here was that after placing some text, or lines of text, I'd have to save the thing and call it back up. It's like once you've added something in Photoshop - text - pasted picture - , it won't let you add anything else until you save it - at least that's the only way I found around it.

I also had to find a font that had numbers in squares. I didn't bother with a UPC code since this really didn't have one.

Harry
 
Nice cover. Wonder if the BMB 4-Sider would have been reissued with a "6000" catalog number like others in the series. BMB & Sandpipers were the only ones without CD releases.
JB
 
I have to agree with @A&Mguyfromwayback, @junglero and @TallPaul - this is a pretty nifty compilation. I put it on while driving around today and really enjoyed the songs, the track order - and if I do say so myself, my CD sounded pretty darned good.

Harry
 
I had this comp many years ago and i wore it out so bad i discarded it but i have all the albums from which these songs were drawn from. But still i regret it as i should have saved it for at least historical purposes but at least i know where i can get another copy in decent playable condition
 
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