As requested (and delayed by those darn holidays) a Glen Gray and The Casa Loma Orch. list ....

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra

The Casa Loma Orchestra was a popular American dance band active from 1927 to 1963. From 1929 until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands. It did not tour after 1950 but continued to record as a studio group.

The future members of the band first came together in 1927 as the Orange Blossoms, one of several Detroit-area groups that came out of the Jean Goldkette office. The band had adopted the Casa Loma name by the time of its first recordings in 1929, shortly after it played an eight-month engagement at Casa Loma Hotel in Toronto. The band never actually played the Casa Loma under that name, still appearing as the Orange Blossoms at that time.

In 1930, the Casa Loma Orchestra was officially incorporated in New York as a corporation with the members all stockholders and board members. The band members were hired on the grounds of "musical and congenial" competence and followed strict conduct and financial rules. Members who broke the rules could be summoned before the "board", have their contract bought out and be ejected from the band.

The band was fronted for the first few years by violinist Hank Biagini, although the eventual leader, saxophonist Glen Gray (1900-1963) was from the very beginning "first among equals." The complex arrangements called for talented musicians such as trombonist Pee Wee Hunt, trumpeter Frank L. Ryerson, trumpeter Sonny Dunham, clarinetist Clarence Hutchenrider, drummer Tony Briglia and singer Kenny Sargent. Arrangements were by Gene Gifford, who also composed much of the band's book, Spud Murphy, Larry Wagner, Salvador "Tutti" Camarata and Horace Henderson. Gifford's arrangements were credited in large part to giving the band its sound, but even he fell victim to the band's strict rules, being bought out in 1935 due to alcohol-related infractions.

Manager Cork O'Keefe was made a Vice President in the corporation and arranged bookings in venues such as Glen Island Casino, which they helped popularize, and the Essex House Hotel, that lead to their radio appearances.  

Their mid-1930s appearances on the long-run radio comedy-variety program, the Camel Caravan (introduced with their theme, "Smoke Rings") increased their popularity. Interestingly enough, Gray chose not to conduct the band in the early years, playing in the saxophone section while violinist Mel Jenssen acted as conductor. In 1937, the band overwhelmingly voted in favor of Glen leading the orchestra, and Gray finally accepted the job.

Hits included "Casa Loma Stomp," "No Name Jive" and "Maniac's Ball". Part of the reason for the band's decline is that other big bands included in their books hard-swinging numbers emulating the hot Casa Loma style. In the late 1930s Gray took top billing, and by the mid-1940s (as the other original players left) Gray would come to own the band and the Casa Loma name. For a time, during this period, the band featured guitarist Herb Ellis, trumpeter Bobby Hackett, pianist Nick Denucci and cornetist Red Nichols. By 1950, the Casa Loma band had ceased touring, Gray retired to Massachusetts, and the later recordings on Capitol (beginning with Casa Loma in Hi-Fi in 1956 and continuing through the Sounds of the Great Bands series) were done by studio musicians in Hollywood (with several of Gray's "alumni" occasionally featured). Jazz historian George A. Borgman wrote a book about Glen Gray and the orchestra.

In October 1929, the band debuted on Okeh Records. The following year, they signed with Brunswick where they recorded until 1934. They briefly recorded for Victor in 1933 as "Glen Gray and his Orchestra", the Casa Loma name being under contract to Brunswick. In late 1934, they followed Jack Kapp to the newly formed Decca Records and stayed there well into the LP era when they signed with Capitol. Most of the Okeh's and many of the Brunswick's were out-and-out jazz (albeit very rehearsed) and remain highly collectible.

Maybe not my most researched list........I may have to return with more recording date details, but since this a request that I've ignored for awhile, due to the holidays...........here 'Tis!!

 
Black jazz 1931
Linger awhile
Can't we be friends
For you
Casa Loma stomp
I got rhythm
Limehouse blues
It's the talk of the town 1933 v=Kenny Sargent
Champagne waltz 1934
Dixie Lee 1934
Infatuation 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
This house is haunted (by the echo of your last goodbye) 1934
Fare Thee well Annabelle 1935 v=Pee Wee Hunt
Got my heart set on you 1937 v=Kenny Sargent
If I had my way 1939 v=Kenny Sargent
Don't do it darling 1942
Don't get around much anymore 1942
Don't take your love from me 1944
China girl
Dardanella/Black eyed Susan Brown/Casa Loma Stomp 1933
By the river Saint Marie (from b'cast)
C Sharp minor (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Git away day (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Indian summer v=Kenny Sargent (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Honeysuckle Rose v=Steve Young (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Drifting apart 1937
Love is a dreamer 1929
A friend of yours v=Glen Gray 1945
Girl of my dreams v=Kenny Sargent
Always
Blue moon 1935
Breeze (blow my baby back to me)
Carry me back to the lone prairie
Casa Loma stomp 1930
Chinatown my Chinatown
Desert skies
Goodnight angel
I cried for you
Little old lady
Heat wave 1933 v=Mildred Bailey
After you've gone (trumpet=Buddy Hackett)
Heaven can wait 1939 v=Clyde Burke
Alexander's ragtime band 1930 v=Pee Wee Hunt
Little man on the hammer 1943 v=Pee Wee Hunt (04/17/1943 Command Performance) Pretty sure that's Dinah Shore introducing the band
Dust 1930 (From MGM's "Children of pleasure")

http://www.4shared.com/file/fY4zqmz9/glen_gray_1.html

Smoke rings 1937
The man I love (04/17/1943 Command Performance b'cast v=Eugenie Baird) Pretty sure it's Dinah Shore introducing the band
I'm Tired of it all
Maniac's ball 1927
White star stomp
Loveless love
Stompin' around
Under a blanket of blue
Sunny disposish
New Orleans
Wolverine blues
My man
Ol' man river
Shadows of love
Should I
Walkin' the dog
Trouble in paradise 1933 v=Kenny Sargent
You have taken my heart 1933 v=Kenny Sargent
Object of my affection 1934 v=Pee Wee Hunt
Pardon my southern accent 1934
Two cigarettes in the dark 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
Never in a million years 1937
My Bonnie lies over the ocean 1938
Sunrise serenade 1939
One dozen roses 1942
Suddenly it's spring 1944 v=Eugenie Baird
Shades of hades 1936
San Sue strut (As The OK Rhythm Kings)
The Isle of May v=Kenny Sargent (live at The Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Save your sorrow v=Pee Wee Hunt (live at The Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
You're a lucky guy v=Steve Young (live at The Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Rose of the Rio Grande 1936
Meet me tonight in dreamland
Narcissus
Smoke rings 2
Sophisticated lady
Take the A train
Was I to blame (theme song)
Well git it
White jazz 1933
Zig zag 1939 (from b'cast)
Why can't this life go one forever v=Kenny Sargent
Sugar blues w/ Jonah Jones
Love is the thing v=Kenny Sargent
A hundred years from today 1034 v=Lee Wiley
Put on your old grey bonnet 1930 v=Pee Wee Hunt
No name jive 1943 (from b'cast)
My shining hour
Tears from my inkwell 1939
This night will be my souvenir 1939

http://www.4shared.com/file/7rXwIy4b/glen_gray_2.html




Blue jazz 1932
I never had a chance 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
Learning 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
Casa Loma Stomp 1937 w/ Gene Gifford
Clarinet marmalade
Copenhagen
Here come the British 1934
My heart tells me
Spellbound 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
The goblin band
The man I love 1943 v=Eugenie Baird
Tumbling tumbleweeds 1939

http://www.4shared.com/file/BL5sCzxq/glen_gray_3.html

Hedy Lamarr......actress of the day......

Usually I post some pics regularly of favourite actresses....it's a vanity post, I suppose, because I'm not always basing it on acting ability....

Well, tonight...Hedy Lamarr.  Here's a little bit about Hedy, other than bio, which you may, or may not know:

http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html

http://www.hedylamarr.org/hedystory5.html

From Strapless to Wireless

Hedy Lamarr helped to set the groundwork for some of the most revolutionary technology of our time.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Lamarr, a passionate opponent of the Nazis, wanted to contribute more to the allied effort. As Mrs. Fritz Mandl, she had closely observed the planning and discussions that went into attempting to design remote-controlled torpedoes. These never went into production, because the radio-controlled guidance system was too susceptible to disruption. She got the idea of distributing the torpedo guidance signal over several frequencies, thus protecting it from enemy jamming. The only weak point was how to employ the synchronization of the signal's transmitter and receiver. 

In 1940, Lamarr met the American avant-garde composer George Antheil of "ballet mécanique" fame. She described her idea to him, and asked him to help her construct a device that would enable this signal to be synchronized. Antheil laid out a system based on 88 frequencies, corresponding to the number of keys on a piano, using perforated paper rolls which would turn in sync with one another, transmitting and receiving ever-changing frequencies, preventing interceptance and jamming. 

In December of 1940, the "frequency hopping" device developed by Lamarr and Antheil was submitted to the national inventors council, a semi-military inventors' association. Lamarr and Antheil went on to file for a patent application for the "Secret Communication System," June 10, 1941. The patent was granted by the United States patent office on august 11, 1942.

Lamarr and Antheil immediately placed their patent at the disposal of the US military. Though the us government did not deploy the "secret communication system" during World War II, the US Navy commissioned a project to acoustically detect submarines using sonar buoys remote-controlled from airplanes employing "frequency hopping" in the 1950s. 

Twenty years after its conceptualization, during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the first instance of large-scale military deployment of Lamarr and Antheil's frequency hopping technology was implemented-- not for the remote-controlled guidance of torpedoes, but to provide secure communications among the ships involved in the naval blockade. The early '60s saw the development of reconnaissance drones based on frequency hopping, which were later deployed in Vietnam. With the emergence of digital technology and the military's release of frequency hopping for public use in the 1980s, Lamarr and Antheil's invention took on new significance. Instead of "frequency hopping," today's term is "spread spectrum" but the basic idea is the same. The FCC recently allotted a special section of the radio spectrum for an experiment using the spread spectrum idea in a test designed to make cell phone calls more secure. A lot of corporate dollars have been invested in this process which has allowed more cell phone users to use the existing frequency spectrum.

Anyway....here are some more pics....

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."-Hedy Lamarr 


But glamorous and bright......that's a rare commodity ;)

More Trudy Pitts...alas, it's not yet a copy of "Bucket full of soul", but DO go to this link!!

A great blog, and a great post........The Van Groove Express blog, and a link to a Trudy Pitts LP that I didn't have a copy of to post-"These blues of mine", from 1967:

http://vangrooveexpress.blogspot.com/2010/12/trudy-pitts-introducing-fabulousthese.html

'Tis nearly 2011........a few pics to bring us into the spirit.........

OTR New Year's Dancing Party AFRS 1945 This is a great one, kids :)

AFRS New Year's Dancing Party-December 31, 1945..swinging you into 1946 with live broadcasts from all over the country...Harry James, Count Basie, Freddy Martin, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Henry King, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Dorsey, Les Brown, Artie Shaw w/ Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Stan Kenton w/ June Christy on vox, Tommy Dorsey, Carmen Cavallaro, Louis Prima, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Guy Lombardo.  This is a nice one.....enjoy! :)

http://www.4shared.com/file/be5Vw8--/all-star-new-years-dancing-par.html

A few songs for "wringing" out the old, and bringing in the new.....

The Heatbeats-After New Years Eve

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards-Auld Lang Syne (You dinna think I'd do a list without a pipes and drums version?? lol)

Aretha Franklin and Billy Preston-Auld Lang Syne

The Beach Boys-Auld Lang Syne

The Crew Cuts-Auld Lang Syne

Peter Dawson-Auld Lang Syne

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians-Auld Lang Syne (the version that I grew up with)

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin-Auld Lang Syne

Navada Van Der Veer-Auld Lang Syne

Bobby Darin-Christmas Auld Lang Syne

Johnny Otis and his Orch.-Happy New Year baby

Billy Ward and the Dominoes-Ringing in a brand new year

The Orioles-What are you doing New Year's Eve

Billy Ward and the Dominoes-Wat are you doing New Year's Eve

Nancy Wilson-What are you doing New Year's Eve

Ella Fitzgerald-What are you doing New Year's Eve

http://www.4shared.com/file/_nUm8jwy/new_years_eve_auld_lang_syne.html

The actress post....part 5, or 6...something like that....Anita Page

The only way to fly.................

Sarah just discovered a better way to fly this year........... :)

No more breakable plastic sleds. Bruce and I dug out the REAL sled.....steel wool and then wax on the blades...it moves faster than sh*t through a Canada Goose ;) Sarah was always scared of it. Not anymore. She found out that not only can you go faster than everyone else on Mt. Trashmore (it's in Evanston, Illinois), you can steer, too.....

She's finally realizing that "safety" was a non-issue when her father and I were kids.  I think we had more fun in a world without legalities, liabilities, threats of litigation over a band aide on a kid's finger....blah, blah, blah.

I mean, seriously....one day I hope she shows her kids the joys of shooting street signs with a BB gun aimed out the 2nd floor bedroom window at night, and sledding down hills with "NO sledding" signs.....I'll continue being a bad role model in hope that she does :)

Mt. Trashmore on a snowless day

Sign? I didn't see any signs...'gju see a sign? Nah....

Mount Trashmore is a 65 ft. hill located in Robert E. James Park in Evanston, Illinois. Mount Trashmore is an example of landfill reuse as it was a solid waste landfill that was closed and converted into a park in 1965.

In 1973, Evanston began allowing skiing on Mount Trashmore,  installing a tow rope and snow making machines.

Since skiing was prohibited in the 80's, Mount Trashmore remained a popular sledding and tobogganing hill in the winter as well as a popular destination for runners and hikers in the summer.

In the summer of 1995, Northwestern University football strength and conditioning director, Larry Lilja planted a small Rose Bowl flag at the top of Mount Trashmore and had the Wildcats repeatedly run up the mountain.  They went on to play in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1996.

This afternoon's OTR...Benny Goodman NBC "Let's Dance" broadcast from January 1935

A great one today.....January of 1935............"Let's Dance", coming to you from WEAF, New York. 41 hot minutes of music :)

http://www.4shared.com/file/oKuu_Sjj/OTR_35-01-xxepxxxLetsDance-Ben.html

Fletcher Henderson.....part 2

Here comes part 2 of the huge Fletcher Henderson list...........it got a bit derailed by the holidays, but I'm trying to get back into the groove...........enjoy!

'D' natural blues 3-14-1928
Darktown has a gay white way  1-1924
Dear, on a night like this 1927 (F.H.'s Collegians)
Dicty blues 8-7-1923
Dinah 1-6-1926
Dixie moon 1923
Do you or don't you love me 5-23-1936 v=Teddy Lewis
Do-doodle-oom 10-1923 (as The Seven Brown Babies)
Don't forget you'll regret by day 10-10-1924
Don't let the rhythm go to your head 1938
Down south camp meeting 9-12-1934
Downhearted blues 6-28-1923
Dynamite 4-14-1926 (As The Dixie Stompers) v=Don Redman
Easy money blues 12-12-1928
Everybody loves my baby 1 (w/ Louis Armstrong) 11-24-1924
Everybody loves my baby 2 (w/ Louis Armstrong) 11-24-1924
Feelin' good (from "Rain Or Shine")   4-6-1928 (As The Dixie Stompers)
Feeling the way I do 4-1924
Fidgety feet 3-19-1927  (As The Dixie Stompers)
Florida stomp (As The Dixie Stompers) 12-22-1925
Forsaken blues 9-24-1924
Freeze and melt 4-1929
Get it fixed 12-22-1925 (As The Dixie Stompers) v=Don Redman
Go 'long mule 10-7-1924 (w/ Louis Armstrong)
Goodbye blues 1932 (As The Connie's Inn Orch.)
Goose pimples 10-24-1927 (As The Dixie Stompers)
Grand Terrace rhythm 5-23-1936
Great Ceasar's ghost 1937
Happy as he day is long 9-11-1934 featuring Ben Webster
Happy feet 1932
Hard hearted Hannah 7-1924
Hard-to-get Gertie 3-22-1926
Harlem madness 3-6-1934
Have it ready 1  1-20-1927 (As The Dixie Stompers)
Have it ready 2   1-22-1927
Hay foot straw foot 12-7-1925
He's the hottest man in town  9-8-1924
Henderson stomp 11-3-1926
Hi-diddle diddle 3-22-1926
Hocus Pocus 3-6-1934
Honeybunch 3-29-1926
Honeysuckle Rose 12-9-1932
Hop off 1 9-14-1928
Hop off 2 (as Louisiana Stompers) 1927
Hop off 3 11-4-1927
Hot 'n' anxious 3-19-1931
Hot mustard 12-6-1926
Hotter 'n hell 9-25-1934
Houston blues 6-21-1924
How am I doin' hey hey 1932 (As Connie's Inn Orch.)
How come you do me like you do 1 (w/ Louis Armstrong) 11-17-1924
How come you do me like you do 2 (w/ Louis Armstrong) 11-17-1924
How come you do me like you do 3 (w/ Louis Armstrong) 11-17-1924
The gouge of Armour Avenue 7-31-1924 (As  Henderson's Club Alabam Orch.)
The House of David blues 1931 (As Connie's Inn Orch.)

http://www.4shared.com/file/L7yOAZ-V/fletcher_henderson_2.html

A Lou Johnson list......

Lou Johnson

From:  http://www.soulmusichq.com/artists/johnson.htm

Lou Johnson had a couple of hits in America in '63 and '64 with 'Reach Out For Me' and 'Always Something There To Remind Me' but he did not seem to have what it takes to maintain a sufficient level of commercial success or to keep on making records. He could not establish a strong enough identity on which to form a large fan base in the way some of his contemporaries like James Brown, the Isley brothers or Al Green did.

But he did keep on touring regularly in America.

 
Lou Johnson was born in Brooklyn where he grew up during the late forties and fifties. Like many contemporaries he started singing in choirs and gospel groups at local Pentecostal churches in his early teens. Unlike many others he studied at Brooklyn University in the late 50s where he majored in Music Studies. In the process Johnson became an accomplished musician on keyboards and percussion. He sang lead with the Zionettes who were signed to Simpson Records and cut a few gospel tunes there. 'Talkin' About the Man' created a lot of local interest and Lou went secular with the Coanjos and ‘Dance The Boomerang’. The Boomerang didn’t click and two thirds of the trio Tresia Cleveland and Ann Gissendnner left to form the Soul Sisters, so Johnson began to perform solo. He signed to New York label Big Top that operated out of the Brill Building through Larry Utall’s Hill & Range publishing house in ’62. Utall introduced Lou to Burt Bacharach who liked what he heard and saw great possibilities for him as a solo act. At the first session Johnson met Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye who were just getting established as a song writing and production team and were staffing at Big Top Records. During the next five years this team were to supply Johnson with some great material. But good as the tracks were, they were not considered a strong enough introduction and Utall put Lou in the studio with Bacharach to produce ‘If I Never Get To Love You’. The results were promising but the record was not a hit and the follow up ‘Wouldn’t That Be Something’/’You Better Let Him Go’ met with much the same reaction.

Almost a year later Lou cut the first of two great songs that he will be remembered most for but ‘Reach Out For Me’ only became a minor US R&B hit at #74 in October the following year. It's an outstanding song, one of Bacharach & David’s best and it inspired a mesmerising delivery from Lou with powerful production values from Bacharach. It is simply one of the best records of its kind and still sounds superb now. Fate dealt itself into the equation however when Big Top went broke just as 'Reach Out...' was moving up the Hot 100 and they simply could not keep up with the public’s demand for the record. Its success did register in the UK though and London issued it as Lou’s first single that enjoyed bubble under sales.

By this time Bacharach & David writing team were really beginning to gain some momentum they had already clocked up several hits with Gene McDaniels, Dee Clark and Johnny Mathis and were now having success with the Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, Tommy Hunt and the Drifters. Burt had discovered Dionne Warwick working at a Drifters session he did arrangements for and she had already scored her first solo hit with ‘Don’t Make Me Over’. Lou got his biggest hit with the classic ‘(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me’ that reached #49 on the R&B charts and enjoyed pretty good pop sales in August ’64 but didn’t quite make the US Top 40. Bacharach concentrated on Dionne and they had hits together for the next decade but Lou and Burt did not work together again.

London released Lou’s hit in the UK but Sandie Shaw's cover snatched all the sales and gave her a UK number one with her debut, in September and October that year. For the first time Johnson was clobbered by the cover version, and suffered accordingly. 'Kentucky Bluebird (Message To Martha)', also cut at Lou and Burt’s last session was the next single that inexplicably missed both American charts but better in the UK, despite Adam Faith's cover that went to #12 while Lou had to be content with the #36 slot. Still it was his biggest UK hit and gained him a little more recognition here.

Johnson continued to work with Giant, Baum & Kaye who came up with 'Please Stop The Wedding' /'Park Avenue' next. Once again though it sold quite well both sides of the Atlantic there was not enough general interest to create any chart action at all. G/B/K realised that they were going to have to find some broader appeal in order to survive this string of flops. So they wrote lyrics to and re-arranged Sidney Bechet's 'Petite Fleur' that had been a worldwide hit in the late '50s. They gave it the new title of 'A Time To Love, A Time To Cry' and it came out on the reactivated Big Top Label in ‘65. Lou made the transatlantic crossing to promote the single with club appearances. He began well with a TV spot on 'Ready, Steady, Go!' on 24 September where he performed impeccably and was seen for the first time in Britain. Unfortunately 'A Time To Love...' was a bigger miss than his other singles. In trying to create wider appeal his producers had missed the soul fans completely, who were not interested in a tune they associated with Trad Jazz. Giant, Baum and Kaye were unaware of this and followed up with 'Anytime' a reworked standard that they treated to the same concept. The record dropped out of sight like a lead balloon. Big Top had an album entitled 'Anytime' scheduled and pressed some review copies but the company went under again in ‘66 before the record was released. Lou's last single for the label was an offbeat version of 'Walk On By' that was produced by R&B promoter Marshall Sehorn and Allen Toussaint. It was an odd choice for a single, only two years on from Dionne's big hit with the same song and went the way of most of the others.

The second phase of Johnson's recording career began with Cotillion Records in 1968. Due to a lack of hits it turned out to be just a one-album deal. Sweet Southern Soul indicated his move south, when Lou left his native New York and relocated in Dallas. Of the eleven songs on the album only two written by Don Covay were new songs. Amongst the rest were Johnson's versions of Ben E King and Drifters records given the Muscle Shoals treatment. The album was produced by Atlantic heavyweights Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd with arrangements by Arif Mardin. But Sweet Southern Soul received tepid reviews and was not released in the UK. Not many vinyl copies found their way into British record shops but there was an unofficial CD issued by Marginal (in Belgium) that also includes an extra 13 Big Top sides. More recently the US Water label reissued Sweet Southern Soul in July ’04.

The third stage of Johnson's recording career came with Volt Records in '71. The company reunited Lou with Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn and they began work on With You In Mind the superb but very underrated final album (so far). Toussaint constructed the set like a concept album, where the songs seem to run almost continually. It has the soulfully relaxed feel of an intimate late night small club atmosphere. Again, as with the previous album, it did not fall into any soul mainstream but this time everything came together perfectly. Volt issued only one single at the time and still his greatest album was not issued in the UK and has not yet been issued on CD.

Ady Croasdell who runs the legendary Soul Nights at London's 100 Club and manages the great Kent label was in touch with Johnson five years ago and attempted to bring Lou over for a UK tour. Sadly, for a number of reasons, this did not transpire. It did establish however that Johnson was still alive, well and again regularly performing at clubs and venues in the California area. In the meantime, the cult of Lou Johnson still grows through the interest of collectors and fans of his records.

Peter Burns, August ‘04

A big fave for a long time, I've been listening to a lot of him, lately. I've always been impressed by his voice and vocal style, especially on the Bacharach/David selections. I realize that over the years many folks have mistakenly referred to him as "The male Dionne Warwick", but I don't think that's a fair assessment of his talent.  Dionne herself said that she loved his voice, felt honored to be the one to cover the songs he did first, and that songs of hers that he covered...no one did them as well as he did.....'Nuff Sed....here's a nice little selection of him:

Any time
Beat
Crazy about you baby
Don't play that song (you lied)
Frisco here I come
Gypsy woman
I can't change
If I never get to love you
It ain't no use
It's in the wind
Just be a woman
Kentucky bluebird
Little girl
Living without you
Love build a fence
Loving way
Magic potion
Move and groove together
Nearer
No other guy
The last one to be loved
The panic is on

http://www.4shared.com/file/appLQN-Z/lou_johnson_1.html

Rock me baby
A time to love a time to cry
Always something there to remind me
Park Avenue
People in love
Please stay
Please stop the wedding
Reach out for me
She thinks I still care
Tears tears tears
Thank You anyway
The panic is on
There were times
This magic moment
This night
Transition
Unsatisfied (alt take)
Unsatisfied
Walk on  by
What am I crying for
Who am I
Who is it now
Wouldn't that be something
Wrong number
You better let him go

http://www.4shared.com/file/Zi91vXIo/lou_johnson_2.html