Underrated Diva from the 60's
Bryan Barrow | Santa Cruz, CA USA | 05/13/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"To say that Sharon Tandy is a cross between Dusty Springfield and Julie Driscoll, while fairly accurate, is also a gross oversimplification. Ms. Tandy handles Pop, Rock, and Soul numbers with equal skill. This CD contains a wide variety of song styles from funky soul to psychedelic rock to string laden pop. A few of these cuts were recorded with members of Booker T and the MG's at the Stax studios. Some of my favorite tracks are You've Got To Believe It (pop), Hurry Hurry Choo Choo(soul), and Daughter of the Sun(psych). The booklet contains detailed notes, and Sharon's story in her own words. Check it out- you won't be disappointed!"
Fulsome CD testament
Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 04/07/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Sharon Tandy was on the legendary 1967 Hit The Road Stax UK tour and did a particularly blistering version of Hold On at Birmingham Town Hall, where she depped for Carla Thomas on her night off. Backed by Booker T and the MGs, recreating the magnificent recorded version on which she was backed by Les Fleur-de-Lys, down to the guitar break. She also performed a version of Eddie Floyd's Things Get Better. Her version, recorded with the MGs at Stax Studios in 1966, was unreleased until now.
Unavailable until 2001 when it was included on a Fleur-de-Lys compilation, Hold On is track 2 on this long-awaited CD. A mod classic now filed under "freakbeat" it was a much-loved B-side in our house when it came out, going on to become a hit in Europe and being re-released here the following year as an A-side. This meant unfortunately burying their other potential smash, the Julie Driscoll-ish Daughter Of The Sun as its flip, and to no avail as Hold On continued to uninspire the record-buying masses.
Although there are other recordings with the Fleur-de-Lys here, their reputed live onstage power and intensity is really only captured on those two tracks, though the original top side of Hold On, a version of Lorraine Ellison's smouldering Stay With Me (Baby) becomes her own through a distinctive arrangement and performance, stylistically unlike the original or its myriad covers, and actually "bubbled under" in the charts. There is also a sizzling version of Our Day Will Come, slowed down in true Vanilla Fudge style, but too often the band were subverted into creating "commercial" ballads.
When Sharon Tandy came over to England from her home town of Johannesburg, she was initially signed to Pye, who teamed her up with musical directors such as Charles Blackwell and pointed her towards the mainstream, the Brit girl pop department ruled at the time by Dusty, Sandie, Cilla and Lulu. Both sides of two singles from 1965 are included, and show her giving first class renditions of second class songs in the idiom of the time. One, Now That You've Gone, was a translation of a French power ballad written and originally recorded by Petula Clark.
In 1966 she became the first European to record at the Stax Studios, with producer Tom Dowd. She was signed to Stax in the States and spent 11 days in Memphis with Booker T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns, and with Isaac Hayes and Dave Porter on hand to write the songs. The results were sensational judging from the seven tracks included here, but only one British single resulted, a cover of Johnnie Taylor's Toe Hold, backed with a Steve Cropper song called I Can't Get Over It, although it did lead to her touring on the Stax-Volt tours.
This long overdue retrospective updates her career to 1969, after which she returned to South Africa, although sadly it omits her single of Beatle songs, A Fool On The Hill/For No One.
The tracks are presented non-chronological order which makes following the story a little difficult and adds to the confusion of the several styles she tackled throughout the sixties. I would suggest re-programming your CD player so that all the Stax material is heard together. Ultimately, it seems a story of bad luck and opportunities missed or not fully capitalised on, but at least we have this fulsome CD testament."
You Gotta Believe It's A Good CD
diskojoe | Salem, MA USA | 07/28/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"To me Sharon Tandy is like Alex Chilton in the sense that they both connect the worlds of 60's soul, rock and pop. I was very impressed overall with this CD, especially since it did comprise several musical areas. The freakbeat songs were great, especially "Hold On", which had a pretty intense guitar part which was rather unusual for a "girl" singer. Leslie Gore it ain't, if you know what I mean. As for the Stax session songs, they were more examples of why Booker T. & the MG's are one of the greatest bands of all time and why Al Jackson, Jr. was one of the best drummers of all time (and is still missed along with Otis). "Things Get Better", which was done by Eddie Floyd, was a standout to me. The pop-slanted stuff was about on the level of the Dustys, Petulas & Sandies running around at the time. The song that really grabbed me on this CD was her version of "Stay With Me", which came a close second to Lorriane Ellison's original, dispensing with the bombast (which I did enjoy), while retaining the intensity. This CD, which is all in glorious mono, also sounds great, a fact which I noticed while listening to it at a friend's house while watching the Red Sox beat on the Yankees on TV with the sound down (a great experience, by the way). Anyway, I do recommend this CD for anyone who is into the weird, wonderful world of '60s music or for anyone who likes good music period."
Track Listings (26) - Disc #1