Ray Brown & The Whispers burst onto the charts in January 1965 with their debut single, a revival of Chubby Checker's "20 Miles".It went to #1 in Sydney, and also fared well in Melbourne, reaching #26. By the end of 1965 Ray Brown & The Whispers ranked with Normie Rowe, The Aztecs and the Easybeats as one of the hottest acts in the country. Ray and the original Whispers split at the end of 1966, after a final tour in late '66 with their old mates Max Merritt & The Meteors and Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs (who also split after this tour). Ray put together a New Whispers in early 1967 with Dave Russell (ex-Ray Columbus & The Invaders) on guitar, Ronnie Peel ( ex-Missing Links) on bass and Steve Hardy on drums. With the departure of Russell, Brown took over on guitar and the band was renamed The Ray Brown Three, but both groups lasted only a short time. Seeking to extend his career, Ray headed overseas late '67 and he spent two years working in the U.S.A. which included the recording of a solo album Just Ray Brown for Capitol, produced by American composer arranger producer David Axelrod. Despite the name producer and large budget, it flopped, largely due to poor choices of material by the company. According to a contemporary interview from Go-Set, Ray declared that "Capitol spent $30,000 on it, put in a 30 piece orchestra and then wouldn't let me pick my own material." Here for you to download is that LP recorded in 1969 "Just Ray Brown" (ST-186).
Wow.... just came across this bit of treasure. Never really expected to come across the actual album that I could download. In 1965 at age 14 my family migrated from California to Australia, so I was very caught up in the Aussie pop scene during the'65-'68 era. Loved Ray Brown and his songs, although I never got to see him in person back then. Sorry when I learned of his passing in '96, I finally returned to Australia for the first time in 2004 and have been back now about 8 times.
A big thanks to Ozzie Music Man for making this album still available for some of us old-timers!
I HAVE AN ORIGINAL VINAL ALBUM OF RAY BROWNS JUST RAY BROWN ALSO AN ORIGINAL VINAL OF THE ALBUMS GIRL BACKING VOCALS ON THERE OWN BEFORE RAYS VOICE WAS ADDED BUT NO ALBUM COVERS I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS RAY & I WERE FRIENDS Paul EMAIL paul.morgan@optusnet.com.au
Enjoy these rare Australian classics and not so classics converted from vinyl to Mp3. Any copyright owner who does not wish to be included in this blog, please contact me and I will remove the posting immediately. What I would like this blog to accomplish is to get Australian music out there that will probably never make it to CD. I hope that these samples will take you on a trip down memory lane, or introduce this great music to people who may have never heard it before.
WE CREATED THIS MUSIC BLOG IN HOPE TO PROMOTE THOSE AUSSIE TRACKS THAT WERE EVENTUALLY VAULTED BY THE MAJOR RECORD COMPANIES. MOST OF THESE TRACKS ARE ONLY COLLECTING COBWEBS AND WILL NEVER BE RELEASED ON CD. MAYBE AFTER PEOPLE HEAR THE TRACKS THAT I PUT ON THIS BLOG, WITH EMAILS TO THE RECORD COMPANIES WE CAN TWIST THEIR ARM TO RELEASE THEM ON CD. TO MY KNOWLEDGE THE TRACKS THAT I'M POSTING HAVE NEVER BEEN PUT ON CD. REMINDER: IF YOU ARE THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OF ANY OF THESE RECORDING AND DO NOT WISH TO HAVE THEM INCLUDED ON THIS BLOG, PLEASE CONTACT ME AND I WILL REMOVE THEM IMMEDIATELY. ALL VISITORS: ENJOY!
In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, any copyrighted work on this site is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for non-profit research and educational or criticism purposes only, and is NOT an infringement of copyright http://www.law.cornell.edu
3 comments:
A fabulous addition Ossie. Thanks heaps for this. My Ray Brown collection is now complete, if not with the original L.P.'s
Cheers mate
Micko
Wow.... just came across this bit of treasure. Never really expected to come across the actual album that I could download. In 1965 at age 14 my family migrated from California to Australia, so I was very caught up in the Aussie pop scene during the'65-'68 era. Loved Ray Brown and his songs, although I never got to see him in person back then. Sorry when I learned of his passing in '96, I finally returned to Australia for the first time in 2004 and have been back now about 8 times.
A big thanks to Ozzie Music Man for making this album still available for some of us old-timers!
Doug
I HAVE AN ORIGINAL VINAL ALBUM OF RAY BROWNS JUST RAY BROWN ALSO AN ORIGINAL VINAL OF THE ALBUMS GIRL BACKING VOCALS ON THERE OWN BEFORE RAYS VOICE WAS ADDED BUT NO ALBUM COVERS I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS RAY & I WERE FRIENDS
Paul
EMAIL
paul.morgan@optusnet.com.au
Post a Comment