🎵 AotW Classics THE SANDPIPERS (s/t) SP-4125

What is your favorite track?

  • The French Song

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Bon Soir Dame

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • For Baby

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Inch Worm

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It's Over

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Glass

    Votes: 3 42.9%
  • Rain, Rain Go Away

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yesterday (Ayer)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Michelle

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Try To Remember

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I'll Remember You

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Softly As I Leave You

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • Total voters
    7

Harry

Charter A&M Corner Member
Staff member
Site Admin
The Sandpipers
THE SANDPIPERS

A&M SP-4125

sp4125.jpg


Also available as mono LP-125 and on CD from Collectors' Choice as half of two-fer CCM-180-2

Tracks:

Side One
1. The French Song (Pease-Vincent) 3:10
2. Bon Soir Dame (Bud Dashiell) 2:45
3. For Baby (Deutchendorf) 2:46
4. Inch Worm (Frank Loesser) 3:15
5. It's Over (Jimmie Rodgers) 2:50
6. Glass (Sheldon-Marks) 3:08

Side Two
1. Rain, Rain Go Away (Kuiokalani Lee) 2:15
2. Yesterday (Ayer) (Lennon-McCartney) 2:21
3. Michelle (Lennon-McCartney) 3:00
4. Try To Remember (Schmidt-Jones) 2:55
5. I'll Remember You (Kuiokalani Lee) 2:34
6. Softly As I Leave You (Shaper-DeVita) 3:00

Credits:
Produced by: Tommy LiPuma
Side one arranged by: Nick DeCaro
Side two arranged by: Mort Garson
Engineered by: Bruce Botnick
Album designed by: Peter Whorf

Liner Notes:
The generation that has produced tones of harshness and repetition, elements of their lives they seem to see around then, has also produced sounds of gentleness and love. The intellects that have given birth to this awareness are housed in bodies that have souls which also cherish warmth and affection.

The reflections of the tender caring engendered by this bright new generation are captured in the warm and soothing sounds of the three young balladeers who catapulted to success during the turbulent middle '60's with their initial album, "Guantanamera."

Richard Shoff, James Brady and Michael Piano, The Sandpipers, blend a sense of honesty and caring with an innate musical craftmanship to produce an irresistable attraction for people the world over who think of love.

Guided by the sure hands of producer Tommy LiPuma, The Sandpipers, left an immediate and indelible mark on those who relish the quiet hours. The cool tones and gently pulating rhythms of the groups' first effort left a haunting desire to hear more.

The artistry and inventiveness which produced "Guantanamera" has joined hands again to create a second volume of musical offerings for those who romanced or simply daydreamed and reflected to the caressing sounds of The Sandpipers.

BARRY GOLD
 
This second Sandpipers album is pretty tepid compared to their first album, but at the same time, it is equally good...

I voted for "It's Over", one of the best Jimmie Rodgers compositions by a future A&M artist and this is a track from his years at Roulette which many others have later covered, including Andy Williams, but Sandpipers make it definitive, especially the way it foreshadows Larry Marks' stark and haunting "Glass"; second in my fav's... (Yeah, where's Marks' version???)

This is an album my mom once had and played often, though she also had The Chad Mitchell trio, whom these guys often sound alike, causing me to confuse the two...

A good second offering, which by now many A&M artists have gotten up to at this time while still introducing more up-and-coming talent as well...

Nice that it got packaged as a two-fer with the debut, Guantanamera, giving these guys, yet more recognition, though still resigned to an obscure sphere to this day...



Dave
 
Glass is as progressive as The Sandpipers would ever get. A wonderful arrangement and performance, it takes the group closer to an Association / Millennium direction. One wishes they would've taken this musical route as opposed to making LP after LP of music, which too much of the time, is essentially muzak.
 
I find this album literally a mixed bag. It's divided by the arrangers into two different sides. The first two tracks on side one are both French and both live. The rest of the side and album are all studio songs.

The two Beatles songs are bunched together on side two. The two "Remember" songs are bunched together on side two.

I have to agree with "Glass" as probably the most memorable offering, with "Softly As I Leave You" another one, though seemingly misplaced from their later album called SOFTLY.

Harry
 
It took me a long time to hear this one. I found it on LP for $1.99 at a store in Miles City quite a few years ago and it was kind of underwhelming. I still think their best albums are COME SATURDAY MORNING and A GIFT OF SONG, although I haven't really listened to any of the others in a long time. (I think my tastes have gotten more mellow over the years but not quite THIS mellow!)
 
My LP copy of this is somewhat odd, and I don't know how or from where I acquired it.

It's still in shrink-wrap, is a stereo LP, but the jacket is a mono variation with a "STEREO" oval sticker placed in the lower right corner over top of the [LP-125] box.

Harry
 
Harry said:
...The first two tracks on side one are both French and both live. The rest of the side and album are all studio songs.
Harry

Harry, the "audience" sounds totally canned to me -- the live ambiance just doesn't seem connected to the musicians. Therefore, I've always felt that these selections were not live; but, rather, were studio cuts that underwent an audience-patter reduction mix. Perhaps the recording notes will shed more light on this release.

I agree with Mike B. in that the last 2 Sandpipers LPs are their most rewarding (and the only ones I can get through -- well almost -- without picking up the tone arm a half-dozen times!).
 
Forgot, how the two Beatles songs here are also real "grabbers"...

Of the couple featured, "Michelle" is most preferred, moving at a fast pace with that Latin beat... Most covers of that song are very much at a slow tempo, exactly like the original; Sandpipers give it tons more spark...

Though not to be outdone, "Yesterday" seems to have their "Español Corazón" (Spanish Heart) on their sleeve, doing an interpretation in their "second, adopted" language, as "Ayer"...

And the "Deutchendorf", who authored "For Bobby" is none other than a John Henry Deutchendorf, Jr.-better known as John Denver... A song where these guys wear their heart on their sleeve, then in English...

"Rain, Rain Go Away" is sappy and we'd been spared by it not being the children's nursery rhyme (Peter, Paul & Mary converted that one into song and verse) and "Softly As I Leave You" gets to be a little TOO overly sentimental... (Perry Como recorded a version, too, that also borders on being just as shmaltzy...!) And, in comparison to the version We Five would later do, "The Inch Worm" sounds a little too didactic, interpreted by these three (or one-plus-two, or two-plus-one)... :laugh:

The album gets introduced by a couple songs sung in French so it is an easy change of pace, and the first one "The French Song" (Yes, "the one" done by Lucille Starr) sounds like it was recorded live, while "Bon Soir Dame" has a bouncy Euro-beat of its time...

"I'll Remember You" also has a sly swing to it, and those bent on swanky cocktail music will surely enjoy quaffing a Mai Tai to it...

"Try To Remember" is just the right tune to recall childhood and much happier, younger days (and to the point where these guys' namesake backed Captain Kangaroo on his Children's records; which was clearly not the same group) and good that an honest, down-to-earth Pop song, at least back in these days could never be called "schlock"...

"It's Over" is a narrative parable about breaking up, and along with the Andy Williams version I have, this one is also definitive...

"Glass", penned by A&M Records staff-songwriter and producer, Larry Marks, goes into territory that's more challenging, more daring and more ambitious... More simply put, it's First Rate...

And First Class for a second album by these three... The run of A&M's Sandpipers really did, or at least tried to, put the world in perfect harmony...



Dave
 
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