Revisiting A&M Records No. 38
Artie Butler: ‘Have You Met Miss Jones?’ (May/June ’68)
First of all: get a load of that groovy cover! Easily my favorite from this late-‘60s run of CTI releases circulated by Mr. A’s & Mr. M’s burgeoning boutique.
Vinyl Collector
A&M Records Highlights: Artie Butler
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Billy Burnette’s ‘Try Me’
We encountered this well-coiffured scion earlier in my fathoms-deep dive into the discography of the late great Christine McVie.
Billy Burnette — son of Dorsey, nephew of Johnny, heir to their rockabilly bona fides since he was a child star touring with Brenda Lee — first entered the Macverse back in ’83 as a creature in Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo. For the oft-overlooked detour ‘I’m Not Me’ (see previous post) he provided plenty of fretwork and sang four numbers: the title track, a Beach Boys obscurity, his dad’s ditty ‘Tear It Up’ and his own tune, ‘Gimme You.’
A&M Records Highlights: The Merry-Go-Round
Revisiting A&M Records No. 24
The Merry-Go-Round: ‘The Merry-Go-Round’ (November ‘67)
Ten installments ago I asserted Lee Michaels was the label’s first true rock star. I stand by that statement, even if it took him four years and five albums to score a genuine chart smash.
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Robbie Patton’s ‘Orders from Headquarters’
I get why Robbie Patton didn’t make it big, though I also see why so many in his orbit really thought he would — not just Atlantic Records execs looking for a new star but particularly Christine McVie, who sings on (but did not produce, as erroneously stated elsewhere*) this third album of his after co-helming his second.