The Joker Is Wild is the second album released by Alex Harvey after the demise of The Soul Band. The album was released in 1972. Some time after 1972, the album was reissued and repackaged. The song listings stayed the same, but the album was credited to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, although this band did not exist at the time, and the title was changed to This Is.
The album was recorded at Regent Sound Studio, London, in early 1972. These songs are unfinished demos only, recorded for a Spanish singer named Tony Caldeira (who wrote "The Joker Is Wild" and "Silhouette and Shadow"). Alex was teaching Tony vocal delivery and phrasing. Alex received a cheque for the session that subsequently bounced. The producer, Paul Murphy, sold the tapes to Metronome Records in Germany, and they issued the album as The Joker Is Wild in 1972. This Is SAHB is a low budget reissue of "Joker" intended to cash in on SAHB's success (although Zal, Chris, Ted and Hugh weren't involved with the recordings). The photo of SAHB on the sleeve features keyboard player John Martin on the far left.[citation needed]
Leslie Harvey, brother of Alex Harvey, plays guitar on this session. "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" is not a tribute to Leslie, who was electrocuted on stage at the Swansea Top Rank Ballroom on 3 May 1972 while playing with Stone The Crows. Alex recorded this song because he used to hang out with members of The Hollies in the 1960s.[citation needed]
Jim Condron and George Butler were members of Harvey's flower-power band Giant Moth in 1967. Although they never recorded under this name, they did release two singles for Decca Records under Alex's own name. The singles were "The Sunday Song", backed with "Horizons" (Decca F12640), and "Maybe Someday", backed with "Curtains For My Baby" (Decca F12660). Harvey and Condron co-wrote the song "There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree, Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight", which Alex went on to record with the Hairband in 1969 and with SAHB in 1972.
Alexander James Harvey was a Scottish rock and blues musician. Although his career spanned almost three decades, he is best remembered as the frontman of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s.
Black Oak Arkansas is an American Southern rock band named after the band's hometown of Black Oak, Arkansas. The band reached the height of its fame in the 1970s, charting ten albums according to Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Their style is punctuated by multiple guitar players and the raspy voice and on-stage antics of vocalist Jim "Dandy" Mangrum.
Jokers Wild were a British rock band formed in Cambridge, England, in 1964. The group were active until 1967, and are best known for launching the career of guitarist David Gilmour, who went on to join Pink Floyd.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1972. Fronted by Alex Harvey accompanied by Zal Cleminson on guitar, bassist Chris Glen, keyboard player Hugh McKenna and drummer Ted McKenna, their music was a blend of glam rock, blues rock and hard rock, with cabaret elements. Their stage performances incorporated theatrical elements. The band were popular in continental Europe, and influential in Australia, most notably on AC/DC and on the young Nick Cave and his first band The Boys Next Door.
The Magnificent Moodies is the 1965 debut album by British rock band The Moody Blues, released on Decca Records. It is the only album by the original line-up of Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Clint Warwick (bass/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (flute/harmonica/percussion/vocals) and Graeme Edge (drums). Lead vocals were shared by Laine, Pinder and Thomas. The album is a mix of rhythm and blues covers, including "Go Now" which had been a Number 1 hit single for the band earlier that year, and original songs by Laine and Pinder which show more of a Merseybeat influence. Also included is a cover of the George and Ira Gershwin standard "It Ain't Necessarily So". The album was produced by Denny Cordell, with the exception of "Go Now" which was produced by Alex Wharton. In-between "Go Now" and The Magnificent Moodies the band had released two more singles, "I Don't Want to Go On Without You" and "From the Bottom of My Heart", neither of which were included on the album. For the American and Canadian release on London Records, with the title Go Now: The Moody Blues #1, four songs were replaced with those two preceding singles and two B-sides, with a different running order of the tracks. One of the tracks that was replaced, "Stop", was released as a single in America and Canada later that year. The American and Canadian album also titled three of the songs incorrectly.
Songs from the Mirror is the third solo album by Scottish singer-songwriter Fish, released in 1993 as his final album for Polydor. It does not contain any original material; instead it is a cover album featuring Fish's versions of songs by artists who inspired him before his career started. It reached 46 on the UK Albums Chart.
Alistair Macdonald "Zal" Cleminson is a Scottish guitarist, best known for his role in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band between 1972 and 1978. He was subsequently a member of Nazareth for three years. In 2017, Cleminson put together a new rock band - /sin'dogs/, which recorded and released a four-song CD and toured Scotland and England at the end of that year.
Framed is the 1972 debut album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. The title track is a cover of a Leiber and Stoller song originally recorded by The Robins. Other tracks include a cover of the Willie Dixon song "I Just Want to Make Love to You", originally performed by Muddy Waters. Both of these songs had appeared on Alex Harvey recordings as far back as the 1963 live recording from Hamburg, released in 1964 as "Alex Harvey and His Soul Band". "Hammer Song" and "Midnight Moses" are two Harvey originals that first appeared on his solo LP Roman Wall Blues in 1969. "Hole In Her Stocking" had been recorded by Alex Harvey in 1970 on the Rock Workshop eponymous release of the same year.
The Impossible Dream was the third album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, released October 4, 1974. The album was released separately on CD but can be hard to find; however, the CD is widely available on a 2-in-1 album, the other album being Tomorrow Belongs to Me. It was the band's first release to chart, peaking at No. 16 on the UK Album Chart. "Anthem" was the last single released by SAHB in the U.S.
Tomorrow Belongs to Me is the fourth studio album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. It was released in 1975 on Vertigo Records. While no A-side singles were released from this album, three compositions were used as B-sides to other SAHB singles: "Soul in Chains", as a live version taken from the subsequent tour, "Shake That Thing" and "Snake Bite". The album's title track was a cover of a key song in the 1966 musical Cabaret and its 1972 film adaptation.
SAHB Stories is the sixth studio album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, released in 1976. It features their hit single "Boston Tea Party", as well as a cover of the Jerry Reed song, "Amos Moses". Harvey left the band shortly after this album was released, but returned in 1977. The album was re-released in 1984 on the Sahara Records label.
Fourplay is the seventh studio album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and the first of the group's albums to be made without Alex Harvey: the band was identified as "SAHB " on the album cover. Harvey had quit the group and was recording another album called Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster at the time. Most of the group had recorded two albums under the name Tear Gas in the early 1970s, and John Neil Munro states in his 2002 book The Sensational Alex Harvey that they had been planning to record without Harvey for at least a year prior to the split. Harvey helped to select songs for the album and contributed some production assistance. Some songs, such as "Smouldering" and "Outer Boogie" had been road-tested by the group during portions of shows for their 1976 tour of Europe during which Harvey was required to rest. In 2004, Ted McKenna told John Clarkson:
Rock Drill is the eighth studio album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, which was released in Europe in 1977 and in the UK in 1978. The album includes Tommy Eyre on keyboards; the band's original keyboardist Hugh McKenna was absent due to an internal dispute - however, three songs from the album are co-credited to him. McKenna has since recorded his regrets at the dispute, given what lay ahead in the next five years.
Zalvation: Live In The 21st Century is a live album, released in 2006, which served as a The Sensational Alex Harvey Band reunion notwithstanding that Harvey himself had died in 1982. This was the third SAHB album to be made without Alex Harvey, the others being the band's seventh studio album, Fourplay and another reunion album Live in Glasgow 1993. This album features Max Maxwell on vocals, and sees the return of Hugh McKenna to the band, his last appearance being on the Fourplay album, for which he had been vocalist. The album commemorated a reunion tour, but was also intended as a farewell tour; however the tour had been so successful that the band decided to continue. The album release contains 2 CDs and comprises new versions of songs written or covered by the original SAHB. Although four fifths of the group on Zalvation were responsible for 1977's SAHB album Fourplay, no songs from this album are included.
Alex Harvey and His Soul Band is the debut album by Alex Harvey accompanied by his Soul Band. It was originally released in 1964 on vinyl, and was re-released on vinyl in Germany in 1985 or 1986. The 1999 release is a compilation of 20 unreleased songs of the Soul Band, including two songs recorded before the debut album. The album is available on CD.
New Birth is an American funk and R&B group. It was originally conceived in Detroit, Michigan by former Motown songwriter/producer, Vernon Bullock and co-founded in Louisville, Kentucky by him with former singer and Motown songwriter/producer Harvey Fuqua and musicians Tony Churchill, James Baker, Robin Russell, Austin Lander, Robert "Lurch" Jackson, Leroy Taylor, Charlie Hearndon, Bruce Marshall and Nathaniel "Nebs" Neblett (1946–2016).
The Blues is the second album by Alex Harvey, released in 1964. Harvey was accompanied by his brother Les Harvey.
Christopher John Glen, known simply as Chris Glen, is a Scottish rock musician. He is best known for playing with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band from 1972 to 1977, and Michael Schenker Group from 1980 to 1984, 2008 to 2010, and 2016 to 2020. He also performed with Michael Schenker Fest; featuring original MSG band members.
Edward McKenna was a Scottish drummer who played with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rory Gallagher, The Greg Lake Band, and The Michael Schenker Group. He also toured with Ian Gillan for a short period of time in 1990, alongside fellow former SAHB member, bassist Chris Glen. He lectured in Applied Arts at North Glasgow College from 1996 to 2011.
The Beatstalkers are a Glasgow beat group formed in the late 1960s. They were sometimes billed as "the Scottish Beatles", because of the hoards of screaming girls attending their concerts, and like other Scottish beat groups The Poets, The Athenians and The Pathfinders, specialised in covers of US hits.
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