Double Diamonds! Famous Double Albums Sold Individually

by Stuart Penney

We all love records, right? Despite being declared dead and buried at the turn of the century, vinyl is back with a vengeance. Tactile, with proper, decent sized artwork, LPs really are the most desirable way to listen to recorded music. Add to this the powerful nostalgia factor and the lure of old records is irresistible.

On the minus side, records are extremely easy to damage and need to be handled with great care. They are also bulky, ridiculously heavy in quantity and prohibitively costly to ship. All of which explains why they were so easily superseded by the soulless CD. But, against the odds, LP records have made a Lazarus-like comeback in recent years.

You may have noticed that new “vinyls” (as the kids of today like to call their records) are also exorbitantly expensive, often retailing at more than two or three times the price of a CD.

But then, records have never been especially cheap. Except, perhaps for that brief period in the early 2000s when those pesky CDs were poised to take over the world and vinyl was experiencing a worldwide slump in popularity, LPs have always been costly (OK, they were always much cheaper in America than in the UK and Europe, but that’s another story for another time).

Come with me now back to the late 60s when records were king. This was a time when our favourite artists were getting serious about their art and some of the more cerebral musicians (Pete Townshend, I’m looking at you) felt that a solitary LP was simply not enough to contain the fruits of their genius. That’s when we started to see double albums appearing by some of the biggest names in rock.

OK, Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa had got there first in a 1966 photo finish with Blonde on Blonde and Freak Out respectively but, as they did with so many other things, it was the Beatles who really kick-started the double LP craze in 1968 with The Beatles (aka "The White Album").

The problem was, late 60s UK double albums often retailed at literally twice the price of a single LP, making them unaffordable for many record buyers. While regular single albums hovered around the 40 shillings (£2) mark, some double sets – Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland for example - sold for 85 shillings (£4.25). That translates to a not-insignificant £62 today.

Polydor was one of the main offenders in the LP price wars and in 1968 they came up with the bright idea of splitting some of their popular double albums and offering them as individual single LPs, presumably to soften the financial blow. The theory seemed to be: you could buy one half now and the other half next payday. Or perhaps you'd decided you didn't like 50% of the album, who knows? It was a curious phenomenon which must have made some kind of sense in the Polydor boardroom at the time, although it seems little short of madness from this distance. 

Even though the truncated versions often had new and interesting artwork, it was a flawed artistic and commercial concept which simply didn’t catch on, for obvious reasons. But, for a brief period, we saw big-name UK double album sets on Polydor (and their affiliated family of labels Track and Elektra) such as Tommy, Electric Ladyland and Wheels of Fire sold individually as parts 1 and 2.

It had been tried before, of course. Jazz, folk and classical multi-LP sets had long been sold in separate volumes, but it was a brand-new innovation in rock and pop.

This is not a comprehensive list of late 60s double albums, by the way, just a handful that were offered as both 2/LP sets and single albums. 

DONOVAN - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden (Epic 1967)

The earliest rock double album I remember being split and offered individually was Donovan’s 1967 A Gift From A Flower To A Garden. Unlike most of the other titles mentioned here, this elaborate box set was not a Polydor release. It appeared on the Epic label in the US and on Pye records in Britain.

When originally issued in the UK in early 1968 AGFAFTAG retailed at £3/17s/6d (£3.88), twice the price of a single LP at that time and the equivalent of almost £60 today. The British release was delayed for three months, so in late 1967 I bit the bullet and bought a US Epic pressing at a London import store for £5, which converts to a wallet-worrying £81 in 2026. That was more than 50% of my weekly wage at the time.

In America the two LPs were also sold individually as Wear Your Love Like Heaven and For Little Ones. In fact, in some territories (eg Australia, S.E. Asia and parts of mainland Europe) the box set was considered too extravagant for local release and the A Gift From A Flower To A Garden material was only ever sold as these two separate records. The pair were scheduled to be issued this way in Britain and were even allocated Pye catalogue numbers, but the release was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

Japan didn't get the individual LPs but typically went one better and in 1969 issued the AGFAFTAG double album, not in a box, but in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with a unique 12-page colour booklet featuring lyrics (in Japanese and English) and photos, some taken from the Donovan's Greatest Hits album insert booklet, others unseen elsewhere.

In December 2023 Donovan re-released a signed, limited edition of the mono vinyl box set with all inserts through his website. The asking price was an eye-watering £180.

The sleeve design of For Little Ones was taken from the inside tray of the AGFAFTAG box, while the artwork for Wear Your Love Like Heaven appeared nowhere else at the time. Both covers were photographed by Karl Ferris in the moat at the 14th century Bodiam Castle, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, 10 miles north of Hastings and roughly 53 miles southeast of London. 

Mick Taylor (no relation to the Rolling Stones/John Mayall guitarist) and Sheena McCall are jointly credited with the artwork for these three albums as well as other Donovan releases Sunshine Superman (US and UK versions), Mellow Yellow and Hurdy Gurdy Man, plus the 1975 Maggie Bell album Suicide Sal.

Trivia fans will delight in the knowledge that Sheena McCall is the aunt of UK TV personality Davina McCall, who presented the British version of the Big Brother reality show for several years. 

INCREDIBLE STRING BAND - Wee Tam & the Big Huge (Elektra 1968)

No one expected it to set the charts alight, so it was a surprise when the Incredible String Band’s Wee Tam and the Big Huge received the same treatment. Elektra was part of the UK Polydor stable until 1971, so the ISB’s 1968 fourth album was sold (in mono and stereo) as both a double album and two single LPs in Britain but not in America where it was available only as the individual titles Wee Tam OR The Big Huge. 

This decision killed the album’s sales in the US where both LPs barely scraped into the Billboard top 200. Although, having said that, neither the double album nor the two single LPs enjoyed any chart action whatsoever in Britain. Confusingly, the single LPs appeared with several different sleeve designs in both the UK and US, some of which are pictured here.

The UK double LPs retailed at 79s/10d (2d under £4) and contained a sleeve insert featuring "The Head", a poem by Robin Williamson.

We are assured that the cover photos were taken in Frank Zappa's Los Angeles garden, probably at the house known as the "Log Cabin" at 2401 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. I asked producer Joe Boyd about this (he said, casually name-dropping) and, while he confirmed the Zappa connection, Joe couldn’t remember which house was involved, as Frank moved to a different property a mile or so up the Canyon in mid-1968, around the time the ISB visited America.

John Mayall also spent time at the Zappa house where he wrote the song "2401". This track appeared on Mayall's 1968 LP Blues From Laurel Canyon.

The florid shirts worn by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in the various cover photos were made by Jeannie "The Tailor" Franklyn, then-girlfriend of Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson and seamstress to the rock world in general. Sadly, she was killed in the same May 1969 motorway accident which also claimed Fairport's drummer, Martin Lamble. Jack Bruce titled his debut solo album Songs for a Tailor in Jeannie's memory.

CREAM - Wheels of Fire (Polydor 1968)

One release which seemed to fit the format better than most was Cream’s Wheels of Fire which was split neatly into In The Studio and Live At The Fillmore. Martin Sharp's wonderful artwork from the front of the double album was retained for the UK studio LP, while a black on silver version with a negative effect was adapted for the live album sleeve.

In other countries the artwork varied with most territories getting the silver (or sometimes a faint gold tint) cover for both albums. The USA just had the double album set while Australia only got the two individual LPs.

Australian single LPs

The double Wheels of Fire set was released in Britain on August 9, 1968, in mono and stereo. It retailed at 72s/2d (£3.60), while the studio single album (released the same day also in mono and stereo) sold for exactly half price at 36s/1d (£1.80).

For reasons unknown the Live At The Fillmore half of the package didn’t appear until four months later in December 1968, also in mono and stereo. These single LPs stayed on catalogue for quite some time and were still available well into the 70s. In fact, most of the live album was recorded at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Only "Toad" originated from the Fillmore.

Live At The Fillmore was re-issued as an extended 3/LP set for Record Store Day 2026 with the same “negative” front cover as the 1968 version. And as I write (March 2026) we learned that Wheels of Fire is to be reissued as a 5/CD Super Deluxe Edition featuring dozens of unreleased recordings including lost mixes sourced from producer Felix Pappalardi’s personal tapes.

THE WHO - Tommy (Track 1969)

However disjointed, Pete Townshend’s rock opera Tommy was always intended to be listened to in its entirety. Which makes the decision to split it into two volumes quite baffling. The double LP set was first released in May 1969 in an elaborate multi-fold sleeve with numbered booklet. Oddly, it was three years before the individual LPs arrived in May 1972 as Tommy Part 1 and Tommy Revisited Part 2, seemingly as a stopgap measure between Who’s Next (1971) and Quadrophenia (1973).

Both parts had lyric sheet inserts and new sleeve designs adapted from Mike McInnerney’s artwork seen inside the double album gatefold. Tommy appears to have been offered this way only in the UK and almost nowhere else.

Mike McInnerney is also credited with artwork on albums by the Faces (The First Step and the giant poster which came with A Nod Is As Good As A Wink), Pete Townshend (Who Came First), The London Symphony Orchestra’s 1972 recording of Tommy and many others.

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - Electric Ladyland (Track 1968)

Electric Ladyland had several different sleeves over the years, but the one which caused the biggest brouhaha was the original November 1968 UK pressing with the saucy nude ladies on the cover. It’s been reported that Hendrix himself didn’t much care for this sleeve, but I suspect it was not so much the content which upset him, more the lighting and wide-angle lens photography which didn’t present the girls in the most flattering light. 

November 1968 turned out to be quite a popular month for nude record sleeves, with John and Yoko's controversial Two Virgins LP causing an even bigger stir around the same time. You probably wouldn't get away with a cover like this today, but although it was something of a cause célèbre back in the day Electric Ladyland was displayed quite openly in UK record stores. The double set appeared in America with a totally different sleeve. 

The controversial Blind Faith "nude" LP sleeve of August 1969 would also ruffle feathers and while not exactly banned in the US, it was offered with an alternative "safe" sleeve in many stores. 

The two parts of Electric Ladyland are possibly the most interesting of all the records discussed here, artistically at least. Part 1 boasts a lurid cut and paste yellow sleeve montage showing Jimi and the boys in a post-apocalyptic landscape with 50s spaceships, aliens and multiple images of New York’s Chrysler building. On the front and back are colourised images of Mae West dressed as the Statue of Liberty in a promotional photo for her 1934 film, Belle of the Nineties.

The artwork is credited to David King who worked on several iconic sleeves for the Track label, including The Who Sell Out, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland (that notorious UK “nude” cover discussed above) and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. He also created the sleeve for the rare sampler LP The House That Track Built. 

In the 70s King designed posters and logos for the Anti-Nazi League, the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Rock Against Racism. An art historian with a special interest in Leon Trotsky, part of his huge collection of 250,000 Soviet graphics and photographs is housed in the Tate Modern, London.

David King is also credited with the artwork for the Part 2 sleeve. This is just an adaptation of the inside gatefold sleeve of the UK double LP featuring a tightly cropped head shot of Jimi on the front taken from the original photo by David Montgomery. On the back are Donald Silverstein’s pictures of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. These are tinted blue, unlike the smaller sepia tint versions on the double LP.

Silverstein is credited with countless jazz LP sleeves for the Riverside label during the 50s and 60s, but he photographed only a handful of important rock albums. They included Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland and the self-titled debut Fairport Convention album. He also shot some iconic posters of Hendrix which adorned countless bed-sit walls in the late 60s. He died in 1975, aged just 41.

If the published release dates are to be believed, these two single LPs appeared a month before the Electric Ladyland double set arrived. That’s unusual in itself and very different to The Who’s Tommy which turned up three years after the double LP as Parts 1&2.

THE BEATLES - Rock 'N' Roll Music (Parlophone 1976)

Things reached a pretty pass in 1980 when Rock 'n' Roll Music, the 1976 Beatles double compilation LP nobody asked for (and very few wanted), was bizarrely reissued as two individual volumes on EMI’s budget Music For Pleasure label. It was probably the first time we'd seen the Fab Four on a cut-price release.

The double LP artwork - designed in-house by Capitol records in the US - was widely criticised on release, not least by the band themselves. Interviewed in Rolling Stone magazine, Ringo said this about the (inside) sleeve "It made us look cheap and we never were cheap. All that Coca-Cola and cars with big fins was the Fifties!" Lennon was also critical and wrote an angry letter to Capitol Records complaining it "looks like a Monkees reject". John offered to design the sleeve himself, but his offer was rejected.

On original pressings those life-sized thumbs on the front and back were embossed, obviously to give the impression of someone holding the record. The two MFP sleeves weren't much better. The US release showed a 1964 image of the group set against a crowd background. The UK version (above) eliminated the crowd and used a white background. 

There was also some controversy over the mixes used for the album. George Martin was unhappy with the chosen mixes and remixed the tracks for the US Capitol release. EMI in the UK refused the new mixes and issued the Parlophone double LP with the original mixes which Martin had considered inferior. These included five stereo mixes of songs that had not yet been issued in stereo in the UK: the Long Tall Sally EP and "I'm Down". The 1980 UK MFP reissues finally used George Martin's corrected mixes taken from the US double album.

So, with the UK and US double sets featuring different mixes, that makes Rock 'n' Roll Music worth owning, kind of, for completists, at least. Apart from that, the album has since been virtually disowned by all concerned and, significantly, has never officially appeared on CD, except maybe in Japan, where anything is possible.

Call Out The Instigators! I Was A Teenage Record Thief

by Stuart Penney

Part One: Polydor and Thunderclap Newman

Here’s something you don’t hear every day.  For a couple of years between 1969-71 my mate Charlie single-handedly ran the UK branch of the James Brown fan club.  It sounds unlikely, but it’s absolutely true. Once a month Charlie was allocated office space at Polydor Records’ London HQ to mail out newsletters and 8 x 10 glossy photos of Soul Brother No.1 to subscription-paying members.  This was not only pre-computers, of course, but also before the widespread implementation of photocopiers. So, Charlie would crank out the letters by hand on a noisy Gestetner duplicating machine. It was a tiresome, labour-intensive process, taking up most of an afternoon.  To speed things up he sometimes invited me along to help stuff the envelopes and generally assist with admin. This is the story of one such visit we made in September 1970. 

Lifetime single - One Word

I wasn’t really a soul / funk music fan at that time, I must confess, much preferring the heavy blues of Cream, Hendrix and Zeppelin. But I thoroughly enjoyed these trips, mainly because we always came away with plenty of free vinyl.  Like many of my generation, I lived for records and almost every waking minute was devoted to the acquisition of albums. But as a poverty-stricken teenager on minimum wage, my obsession far exceeded any available cash. So, whenever there was the slightest chance of getting records cheap, or better still, for free, I was there like a shot.  

Derek & the Dominos withdrawn single - Tell The Truth

At that time the Polydor offices occupied several floors of Swan House on Stratford Place, an elegant

Georgian cul-de-sac just off Oxford Street.  Although almost directly opposite Bond Street tube station and a stone’s throw from the original HMV shop, Stratford Place is something of a backwater, isolated from the incessant noise of West End traffic.  Like the other major labels, Polydor was booming at the time and in every office and alcove, desks were piled high with promotional records, DJ mail-outs, posters, shop displays and the general clutter of music related paraphernalia. There was stuff everywhere. It was like an Aladdin's cave. We always timed our visits close to midday when we knew most of the staff would be out at lunch and the place was quiet, giving us free run of the building for an hour or two.  

Alongside records by current Polydor chart acts such as the Bee Gees and the New Seekers (in which I had little interest) there were all manner of rare and obscure items guaranteed to make the pulse race.  Here were a dozen copies of Rory Gallagher's “Sinner Boy”, a promo-only three-track single from his forthcoming debut solo album. Over there was a box of “One Word”, an unfeasibly scarce 45 by Tony Williams' Lifetime, featuring Jack Bruce and John McLaughlin.  On the floor under a desk I almost tripped over a carton of Eric Clapton’s Derek and the Dominos single “Tell The Truth”, the Phil Spector-produced fast version which was immediately withdrawn after release and would soon rocket in value. I held up a copy of the Dominos’ 45 to attract Charlie’s attention. “Help yourself!” he mouthed over the clank and wheeze of the Gestetner before returning to the task in hand.  Might as well take the whole box, in that case, I reasoned.

I’d known Charlie for a few years since we worked together at a Soho music publisher and although we were very different in background and temperament, it was impossible to dislike him.  A Londoner born and bred, from Walthamstow via Chingford to be exact, he was a lovable rogue with an eye for the main chance. With his barrow boy mentality, he never missed an opportunity to earn a few quid even if it meant sailing close to the wind, legally speaking.  He once sold me a car on which he still owed money to the finance company, causing all kinds of grief when I came to resell it. "Oh, yeah. Perhaps I should have mentioned that" was his only defence when challenged.

James Brown - Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine (Pt1)

In the mid-70s Charlie ran a record stall in Brick Lane market where his cockney bravado and gift of the gab helped him out of more than a few sticky situations, especially when he was caught selling bootlegs and other unauthorised gear, some of it fresh off the back of a lorry, I shouldn’t wonder.

But we didn’t think of this as stealing.  Goodness me, no. As unofficial (albeit temporary) Polydor workers we naturally assumed we had tacit approval to take a few records home with us and early 70s record company largesse meant it was just a perk of the job as far as we were concerned.  Anyway, most of the records we liberated were promos, which would soon be given away free to radio stations and music papers. That’s what we told ourselves, anyway.

Rory Gallagher - It's You / Just The Smile / Sinner Boy - Promo

The fan club work continued apace as we helped ourselves to whatever records we fancied during breaks.  I remember finding a US single of “Love Like A Man” by Ten Years After with a different B-side to the UK pressing. There was a brief, golden period in the early 70s when so-called underground bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Atomic Rooster and Jethro Tull regularly troubled the British singles charts and the Ten Years After 45 had been a surprise top ten hit only a few weeks previously. "Love Like A Man" was on the Deram label, so who knows what it was doing at Polydor, but we nabbed it anyway. Then I saw it: a white label LP in a plain cover.  Written on the sleeve in pencil it said, simply, “Thunderclap Newman – Hollywood Dream”.  “This is the band who did “Something In The Air”, isn’t it?” I said, referring to the big hit of June 1969 which had deposed the Beatles’ “The Ballad of John and Yoko” at the top of the charts.  It was seemingly a test pressing of their forthcoming LP, of which I knew nothing. “Stick it in the bag!” repeated Charlie, without even looking up from his work. Finally, our task was complete and, in between filling hundreds of envelopes and cranking the Gestetner, I could see we had amassed a decent pile of vinyl.  It had been a productive afternoon’s work.  We deposited the James Brown fan club letters in the Polydor mailroom and with Charlie bidding a cheery (not to say cheeky) farewell to the uniformed doorman (who didn’t check our bags, thankfully), we left Swan House weighed down but pleased with our monthly haul of illicit records.

Over the following weeks the Thunderclap Newman LP bothered me, however.  The white sleeve contained absolutely no recording details or even a track listing and in those pre-internet days it was near-impossible to get such information ahead of release. It seemed unfinished and I resolved to secure a proper cover.  As luck would have it I worked in Old Compton Street at the time, just a stone's throw from the Soho offices of the band’s label, Track Records. 

Track was formed in late 1966 by the Who’s managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. The label's two biggest money-spinners by far were Jimi Hendrix and the Who, but they also had several smaller, yet no less interesting, names on the roster such as John’s Children (featuring Marc Bolan), The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Marsha Hunt and recent Pete Townshend protégés Thunderclap Newman. In fact, it was Arthur Brown who gave Track their first number one hit in August 1968 with his single "Fire", while Thunderclap Newman provided the label's second chart topper with "Something In The Air". Their hip credentials received a boost when, in late 1968, Track agreed to distribute John & Yoko's Two Virgins Apple LP, after EMI had flatly refused to handle the nude sleeve photo. All Track releases were, in turn, wholly distributed by Polydor, however, which explains why I'd found the white label LP there. So, one lunchtime a few days later, I breezed into the Track reception at 58 Old Compton Street as bold as you like and asked if they had any spare sleeves for Hollywood Dream (you could do that kind of thing in those days).  “Hang on a minute” said the bored receptionist, as she flipped a switch and said something I didn’t catch into the intercom.  A few minutes later a young man came bounding down the stairs two at a time. Fashionably dressed in a flowery shirt, corduroy jeans and longish hair, he looked every inch the young record company executive. “I hear you've got a copy of the Thunderclap Newman LP” he said, eyeing me quizzically.  “Yeah, that’s right” I answered cheerily, “But the thing is, I don't have a sleeve, see?” “Well, that’s strange”, he fired back. “The record is not actually released until next Friday [October 2, 1970 to be exact], so perhaps you can explain how you have a copy already?”

Melody Maker May 1969

This was awkward. I clearly hadn't thought my plan through.  “Ah, well, I have a mate who, er, works at Polydor, you see, and he gave me his copy” I blustered, thinking on my feet.  I figured it was close enough to the truth to be plausible. After a long pause followed by a few more probing questions, he bought the story, saying “OK, come back next week and we’ll give you a cover”.  Then he turned and ran back up the stairs.

I later discovered I'd been speaking with none other than Vernon Brewer, the famous Track Records promotions manager. Sure enough, Vernon was true to his word and a week later, a complimentary gatefold sleeve, packed with photos, recording information and that all-important track listing, was waiting for me in reception.  Finally, the package was complete and what a great, unassuming record it was. Every track was a joy. From the ten-minute version of “Accidents” (possibly the only pop song in history to warn of the dangers of train spotting) to the unreleased Bob Dylan number “Open the Door, Homer”, via every strange piano interlude, guitar instrumental and quirky pop/psych gem along the way. I loved it all.  And underpinning everything was “Something In The Air” the gently euphoric worldwide number one hit single, soon to become a timeless and indestructible staple of 1960s classic rock radio.  

Originally titled "Revolution", it was renamed "Something In The Air" to avoid confusion with the Beatles' track of the same name. The song’s unashamed call for civil insurrection, including the line “Hand out the arms and ammo”, was completely at odds with its lilting melody, soothing two chord progression (E major to F♯ minor, just like Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross”) subtle key changes and mellow string arrangement.  Deceptively simple in structure, “Something In The Air” was far greater than the sum of its parts.

 Sheet music

Thunderclap Newman was assembled in late 1968 to showcase the piano playing of Andy Newman and the song writing talent of Speedy Keen.  Pete Townshend had been an admirer of Newman’s unusual piano style since they were at art school together (see below). Speedy was Townshend’s driver and erstwhile flatmate who wrote “Armenia City in the Sky”, the opening track on the album The Who Sell Out. His quirky songs and reedy falsetto vocals suited the Thunderclap Newman sound perfectly.  

Guitar prodigy Jimmy McCulloch was only 14 or 15 when he joined the band but already played like a veteran, contributing some unexpectedly tough blues lead guitar to the album.  He and Andy Newman met for the first time on the day “Something In The Air” was demoed in early 1969. After Thunderclap Newman folded. Jimmy worked with around a dozen bands, including John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and fellow Scots Stone the Crows.  Most notably he played lead guitar in Paul McCartney’s Wings between 1974-77 before his untimely death at age 26 in 1979.

Reinforcing it all was the piano work of Andy “Thunderclap” Newman himself.  A former GPO telephone engineer, Newman played an incongruous mix of honky-tonk and Bix Beiderbecke style boogie-woogie and his jazzy solos were shoehorned into almost every song.  This became the band’s trademark, whereby each tune would change key / tempo and veer off at a tangent to allow the piano interlude to happen. It was a strange and wondrous thing to behold, although I’m sure it put off as many casual listeners as it attracted.

Thunderclap Newman with Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend produced the album, arranged the strings and played bass under the name “Bijou Drains”.  Speedy Keen is credited with drums on the LP, while Jimmy McCulloch’s brother Jack (co-writer of the Hollywood Dream instrumental title track) occupied the kit for live performances.  Jim Pitman-Avery was also brought in on bass for stage work. Even within the band, recollections vary regarding the amount of concerts they actually played. Some say it was a mere handful of live dates, while others claim they completed a full tour.

Record Mirror May 1969

After just the one album and four singles, Thunderclap Newman broke up in April 1971. Hollywood Dream was a sales flop in Britain and the band narrowly escaped the dreaded one-hit wonder tag when a short version of “Accidents”, the follow-up to “Something In The Air”, scraped into the UK top 50 in June 1970, peaking at #46.

Meanwhile, “Something In The Air” took on a life of its own.  The song has appeared in countless movies, television programmes and adverts, usually whenever a 60s mood is required.  It has been covered by many artists including Labelle, Herbie Mann, Eurythmics, Fish (ex-Marillion), The Lightning Seeds, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and The Dukes of September (featuring Donald Fagen, Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald).  Today, turn on any classic rock radio station anywhere in the world and the chances are you’ll hear “Something In The Air” within the hour.

1973 US reissue of Hollywood Dream used a different sleeve

I treasured the album for decades until the CD era dawned and Hollywood Dream became available with pristine sound and bonus tracks (albeit with a different running order to the original LP).  Without a moment’s hesitation or regret I sold the white label copy for around £50 on eBay.  I’d already traded most of the Derek and the Dominos withdrawn singles years earlier for a pound each at the record stall in Kensington Market and after both tracks became available on Eric Clapton’s Crossroads box set, the rest went to eBay as well.  The rare Dominos’ single now sells for around 50 times the amount I got for them but, hey, you win some and you lose some.  But Hollywood Dream remains a favourite album and occasionally gets pulled out for a spin to this day.  So, thank you Polydor and thank you to Vernon Brewer at Track Records. But most of all, thank you Charlie, wherever you are today.

Pete Townshend speaking about Andy "Thunderclap" Newman in a 1970 promo interview for the Hollywood Dream album

“The first time I met Andy Newman I was at art school.  Everywhere I went in the college one day, there were posters saying ‘Thunderclap Newman plays today’.  So, we all thought Thunderclap Newman must be an obsolete jazz star. So, we collect in the theatre and waited.  And out of the corner of my eye I see this peculiar guy with… the first image I got was his shape, which was a bit like a turnip. And he gets on the piano and starts to play, and as his fingers starts to tinkle, you know, I mean the magic mood that just sifted through.  After the theatre appearance he disappeared, and then friends and I used to get hold of tapes of his and listen to them, and completely worship him from afar.

I remember the second time I met him we saw him in the street, my mate and me, we saw him walking in the street, looking in the gutter at things, and stopping and taking off his glasses and looking at something here and something there, and stroking his beard, and walking on a bit.  And we were following him going ‘Blimey! It’s him! It’s Thunderclap Newman!’ Like a couple of teeny boppers. And just as we were about to scream and ask for his autograph, he got on a bus and disappeared. Andy is a complete farce, he’s a walking farce. Just the sight of him makes me laugh sometimes. Although I’m getting used to him now. His music though, I never laugh at that. I mean if I do laugh, it’s laughter of someone who is hysterically happy.  His music is just completely… I feel that it’s partly mine. And I think a lot of people get that feeling.” 

One of the many Basement Tapes acetates. "Open The Door, Homer" often
erroneously appeared as "Open The Door, Richard"

Part Two: The Basement Tapes Connection

Quite how Thunderclap Newman, a little-known band with only one hit single under their belts came to be awarded that most valuable of pop music prizes, an unreleased Bob Dylan song, is part of a much bigger story and deserves further explanation here.  

Considering Dylan was semi-retired following his motorcycle accident and out of the public eye for much of 1967, his songs were everywhere.  A collection of over 100 tracks recorded informally on borrowed equipment with the Hawks (soon to become The Band) between March and September of 1967 at Big Pink, the house they shared in Woodstock, were copyrighted by Dylan’s US publisher Dwarf Music. These lo-fi amateur recordings became known as the Basement Tapes.

In late 1967, a 14-track acetate disc of the strongest songs, compiled by Hawks’ keyboardist Garth Hudson, was circulated among publishers in London and New York with a view to finding artists who might want to record them.  

Dylan himself wasn’t especially precious about the material, admitting to Rolling Stone editor Kurt Loder in 1984 “They were just songs we had done for the publishing company for other artists to record those songs.  I wouldn’t have put them out.”

Bob may not have wanted the songs released, but other people had very different ideas, none of which involved copyright royalties or other legal niceties.  Around 50 tracks were swiftly bootlegged, appearing on famous titles such as Great White Wonder from June 1969 and regarded as the first notable rock bootleg album.  A flood of similar unauthorised releases followed until, in June 1975, CBS/Columbia felt duty-bound to officially issue The Basement Tapes album containing 24 of the original 1967 tracks.

The songs on Hudson’s 14-track acetate were: "Million Dollar Bash", "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread", "Please, Mrs. Henry", "Down in the Flood", "Lo and Behold", "Tiny Montgomery", "This Wheel's on Fire", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "I Shall Be Released", "Tears of Rage", "Too Much of Nothing", "The Mighty Quinn", "Open the Door, Homer" and "Nothing Was Delivered”.

Bob Dylan's Great White Wonder - The first rock bootleg?

Here is a brief account of what happened to some of those songs. 

Peter, Paul and Mary, managed by Dylan’s then-manager Albert Grossman, had the first hit with a Basement Tapes song when their cover of “Too Much of Nothing” reached number 35 on the Billboard chart in November 1967.  PP&M also recorded “I Shall Be Released” around the same time and both songs were included on their 1968 album Late Again.

In January 1968, Manfred Mann (a serial Dylan covers band) reached number one on the UK charts with a version of “The Mighty Quinn”, while in April “This Wheel’s on Fire”, recorded by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity, hit #5 in Britain.  At the last count “This Wheel’s on Fire” had been covered around 30 times by artists as diverse as Mountain and Kylie Minogue.

Also in April 1968 “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” was a minor UK/US hit for the Byrds.  Along with “Nothing Was Delivered” it appeared on their August 1968 watershed country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  UK beat merchants Unit 4 + 2 also released “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” as a single during 1968. 

In May 1968 Boz Burrell, later of King Crimson and Bad Company, recorded “I Shall Be Released” and “Down In The Flood” as both sides of a single under the name “Boz”.  The backing musicians on the record included Ritchie Blackmore, Nick Simper and Jon Lord of the newly formed Deep Purple, plus bassist Chas Hodges, later with Chas and Dave. The B-side appeared incorrectly spelled as “Dove In The Flood”.  

UK psych/prog outfit Spooky Tooth included “Too Much Of Nothing” on their June 1968 Island debut It’s All About.  Two years later another Island band Fotheringay, fronted by Sandy Denny, recorded the song for their 1970 self-titled debut album.  

Ian & Sylvia, another of Albert Grossman’s folk acts, recorded “Tears of Rage”, “The Mighty Quinn” and “This Wheel’s On Fire” on two 1968 albums Nashville and Full Circle.

Still in 1968, bluegrass pickers Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs recorded “Down In The Flood” on their album Changin’ Times.

The Hawks, by now re-named renamed The Band, tackled “This Wheel’s on Fire”, “I Shall Be Released” and “Tears of Rage” for their debut album, Music from Big Pink, released in July 1968.  Joan Baez also covered “Tears Of Rage” and “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” on her 1968 LP of Dylan songs Any Day Now.

Little-known LA band Stone Country covered “Million Dollar Bash” in 1968, while Fairport Convention recorded it on their 1969 Island album Unhalfbricking.  Disgraced producer/singer/entrepreneur Jonathan King also released the song as a Decca single in 1970.  

In October 1970, ace guitarist Chris Spedding recorded the first known cover version of “Please, Mrs Henry” on his Harvest album Backwood Progression.

Along with Thunderclap Newman, several other artists covered “Open The Door, Homer”, including John Walker of the Walker Brothers who recorded it as the B-side of his 1968 solo single “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, a Dylan song from the John Wesley Harding album.  

Trials and Tribulations covered "Please, Mrs Henry" and "Open the Door, Homer" on their 1970 self-titled Vanguard LP. They also recorded an early Robbie Robertson song "Stones That I Throw."

Within three years, 11 of the 14 tracks on Garth Hudson’s acetate had been covered by dozens of different artists.  Not a bad average for a bunch of orphan songs Dylan originally had little interest in. Since then, the total number of individual Basement Tapes covers has reached at least 300, with the anthemic “I Shall Be Released” leading the pack by a long way with over 150 English language versions alone, including recordings by Joe Cocker, the Box Tops, the Hollies and the Tremeloes.

The complete Basement Tapes box set was finally released in 2014

So, how did Thunderclap Newman come to record “Open The Door, Homer”?  Their connection to Pete Townshend may have had something to do with it.  It’s known that several big rock names. including George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young, had copies of the basement tapes material in 1968, long before they were widely bootlegged.  So maybe Pete also had access to them and earmarked the song for his new band. Alternatively, the songs were freely circulating among Denmark Street publishers at the time, seemingly up for grabs by anyone with the right credentials and/or with a savvy agent/manager behind them. 

In memory of Thunderclap Newman:

James "Jimmy" McCulloch - 4 June 1953 – 27 September 1979

John "Speedy" Keen - 29 March 1945 – 12 March 2002

Andy "Thunderclap" Newman - 21 November 1942 - 29 March 2016