Doris Troy (album)

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by CRM-Factory (talk | contribs) at 09:03, 27 December 2013. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Untitled

Doris Troy is an album released in 1970 on the Beatles' Apple Records label by American soul singer Doris Troy. It features songs written by Troy and a number of the participants on the sessions, including George Harrison, Stephen Stills, Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr. Through the extended period of recording, the album became an all-star collaborative effort, typical of many Apple projects during 1968–70, although it was Troy's only album on the Beatles' label. Other guest musicians included Billy Preston, Peter Frampton, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton and members of the Delaney & Bonnie Friends band. Like the Harrison-produced single "Ain't That Cute", Doris Troy failed to chart in Britain or America on release.

The album was reissued in 1992 and 2010 with bonus tracks such as Troy's version of the Beatles' hit song "Get Back".

Background

After having a one-off international hit with her song "Just One Look" in 1963, Doris Troy increasingly looked to Britain for continued success as a solo artist.[1] Her brand of soul music was revered there throughout the 1960s[2] and had produced hits for bands such as the Hollies and the Small Faces.[3][4] Troy settled in London in 1969[5] and became a sought-after vocal arranger,[1] most notably contributing the gospel-inflected chorus to the Rolling Stones' song "You Can't Always Get What You Want".[6][7] In the early summer of 1969, at the invitation of singer Madeline Bell, Troy attended the overdub sessions for Billy Preston's first album on Apple Records, That's the Way God Planned It.[7][8] On meeting Preston's producer, George Harrison, Troy was surprised to learn that he was a fan of her work,[7] and following the sessions, Harrison offered her a recording contract with Apple.[8][9]

Having experienced fleeting success on Atlantic Records in America, Troy was more demanding than new label-mates such as Preston,[10] and she in fact signed three contracts with Apple: as an artist, a songwriter, and a producer.[7][11] She was given her own office at Apple's headquarters, with a piano installed[7] – a provision that encouraged songwriting collaborations with Beatles Harrison and Ringo Starr, and with other visitors to the band's premises at 3 Savile Row.[1]

Production

Some of Troy's material was routined and developed at Harrison's home in Surrey, with input from Preston,[11] whose non-album single "All That I've Got (I'm Gonna Give It to You)" Troy co-wrote during this period.[12] Other songs that Troy would record for her album came about later, in the recording studio,[11] a process that Harrison admitted, in a March 1970 BBC Radio 1 interview,[13] was a "good exercise" after the more regimented approach he was used to with the Beatles.[14] Although he would only receive a production credit for "Ain't That Cute", Harrison is recognised as having co-produced all of Troy's Apple sessions.[7][8][12] Other songs recorded for Doris Troy include "Hurry", co-written with "Just One Look" collaborator Greg Carroll and originally recorded years before while Troy was signed to Atlantic; "You Tore Me Up Inside", one of two tracks written with New York guitarist Ray Schinnery; and "I've Got to Be Strong", Troy's rewrite of Apple artist Jackie Lomax's "You've Got to Be Strong".[7]

Sources give the starting date of the Doris Troy sessions variously as June,[7] September[11] October[12] and November 1969.[15] Harrison biographer Simon Leng's claim of early autumn ties in with Harrison's commitments to completing That's the Way God Planned It and The Beatles' Abbey Road;[11] recording for the Troy album continued alongside Harrison's many other projects at the time – including session work on Leon Russell's eponymous solo album and the Plastic Ono Band single "Instant Karma!", producing Preston's Encouraging Words and recordings by Jackie Lomax and Radha Krishna Temple (London), and undertaking a brief tour with Delaney & Bonnie.[16][17][18] Through these activities, other associates of Harrison offered to contribute to Troy's album, which, in Leng's words, soon "[mutated] into an all-star affair"[11] with an emphasis on spontaneous collaboration.[1][7] Peter Frampton recalls turning up at Trident Studios as a 19-year-old for an early session for "Ain't That Cute" in October.[19] In November, just before their European tour, Delaney & Bonnie arrived in London from the United States and immediately participated in Troy's session for the song "So Far", co-written by bassist Klaus Voormann.[20] Stephen Stills was also in London, soon to record his first solo album there, and contributed to a number of tracks,[8] including Troy's upbeat rendition of his 1967 Buffalo Springfield composition "Special Care".[7]

Originally intended as a standalone single,[7] "Ain't That Cute", backed with a cover of "Vaya Con Dios", was released in February 1970.[21] It failed to chart in Britain or America, but the A-side was later voted 1970's Soul Record of the Year by readers of Melody Maker.[3] With the Beatles having broken up in April that year, Harrison completed mixing on Troy's album on 7 June,[22] early on in the sessions for his All Things Must Pass triple album.[23]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[24]

Doris Troy was released on 11 September 1970 in the United Kingdom (with Apple catalogue number SAPCOR 13) and 9 November in the United States (as Apple ST 3371).[15] The album cover featured a photo taken by Beatles assistant Mal Evans, showing Troy seated at a piano.[25] Harrison and Troy's arrangement of the gospel traditional "Jacob's Ladder" was issued as an advance single,[26] with her "fiery" cover of the Beatles' "Get Back" on the B-side.[3] Like Billy Preston's concurrently released Encouraging Words, Troy's album suffered from a lack of promotion under Allen Klein's control of Apple Records[8] and did not chart at all,[1] despite receiving good reviews from a number of music critics.[24][27]

Beatles author Bruce Spizer describes Troy's Apple output as "first rate" and singles out "Ain't That Cute" as "a great gospel-style R&B rocker".[12] Allmusic's Richie Unterberger finds Troy "in great voice" on the album but bemoans the "pedestrian" quality of much of the material, adding: "[T]he heavy rock/soul arrangements often have an over-beefy, early-'70s super-session feel. It works best when Troy puts the brakes on the hard rock to deliver emotional, slower soul tunes."[24] Leng similarly views some of the tracks' "period heaviness" as regrettable while opining that the "power and panache" of Troy's singing "transcends any rock overkill".[11] Leng identifies "So Far" as the "songwriting highlight" and, with regard to George Harrison's career, "Jacob's Ladder" as the "pivotal" track – "an unlikely companion piece to the 'Hare Krishna Mantra' and a pointer to 'My Sweet Lord'".[28] David Nathan, a noted authority on soul music, and a friend of Troy's during (and long after) her brief stint on Apple,[29] regards Doris Troy as "certainly her most personal work", and concludes: "In that sense you could say that it is her best album. It is so reflective of who she was at the time."[7]

The album was issued on CD in June 1992, with five bonus tracks including the two 1970 B-sides and Troy's version of "All That I've Got".[30] In 2010, Doris Troy was reissued in remastered form, and "Ain't That Cute" was also included on the 2-CD compilation Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records.[31] Both this song and "You Tore Me Up Inside" appear on the 2011 career retrospective I'll Do Anything: The Doris Troy Anthology.[32]

Track listing

Original release

Side one

  1. "Ain't That Cute" (George Harrison, Doris Troy) – 3:48
  2. "Special Care" (Stephen Stills) – 2:54
  3. "Give Me Back My Dynamite" (Harrison, Troy) – 4:53
  4. "You Tore Me Up Inside" (Troy, Ray Schinnery) – 2:27
  5. "Games People Play" (Joe South) – 3:06
  6. "Gonna Get My Baby Back" (Harrison, Richard Starkey, Troy, Stills) – 2:17
  7. "I've Got to Be Strong" (Jackie Lomax, Troy) – 2:33

Side two

  2. "Hurry" (Troy, Greg Carroll) – 3:10
  3. "So Far" (Klaus Voormann, Troy) – 4:22
  4. "Exactly Like You" (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields) – 3:08
  5. "You Give Me Joy Joy" (Harrison, Starkey, Troy, Stills) – 3:38
  6. "Don't Call Me No More" (Troy, Schinnery) – 2:04
  7. "Jacob's Ladder" (traditional; arranged Harrison, Troy) – 3:18

1992 reissue

Tracks 1–13 as per original release with the following bonus tracks:

  2. "All That I've Got (I'm Gonna Give It to You)" (Billy Preston, Troy) – 3:55
  3. "Get Back" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:06
  4. "Dearest Darling" (Troy) – 2:50
  5. "What You Will Blues" (Troy) – 4:57
  6. "Vaya Con Dios" (Larry Russell, Inez James, Buddy Pepper) – 3:29

2010 remaster

Tracks 1–18 as per 1992 reissue with the following bonus tracks:

  2. "All That I've Got (I'm Gonna Give It to You)" [alternative version] (Preston, Troy) – 3:21

Personnel

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Ken Burke, "Doris Troy Biography", musicianguide.com (retrieved 3 November 2012).
  2. ^ Dave Godin, "Doris Troy: Dave Godin Meets Mother Soul", Blues & Soul, 27 February 1970; available at Rock's Back Pages (subscription required; retrieved 7 November 2012).
  3. ^ a b c Clayson, p. 276.
  4. ^ Richie Unterberger, "Doris Troy: Overview", Allmusic (retrieved 8 November 2012).
  5. ^ David Nathan, "Doris Troy: Stretchin' Out and Gettin' Ahead", Blues & Soul, April 1974; available at Rock's Back Pages (subscription required; retrieved 7 November 2012).
  6. ^ Leng, p. 60.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Doris Troy", Apple Records (retrieved 3 November 2012).
  8. ^ a b c d e Roger St. Pierre, "Doris Troy: This Little Lady Is Miss Troy", West Indian World, 17 December 1971; available at Rock's Back Pages (subscription required; retrieved 7 November 2012).
  9. ^ Leng, pp 60–61.
  10. ^ O'Dell, p. 125.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Leng, p. 61.
  12. ^ a b c d Spizer, p. 340.
  13. ^ Miles, p. 371.
  14. ^ "When the Night Is Cloudy", Contra Band Music, 24 February 2012 (retrieved 8 November 2012).
  15. ^ a b Castleman & Podrazik, p. 91.
  16. ^ Rodriguez, pp 1, 73–74.
  17. ^ Leng, pp 59, 77.
  18. ^ Spizer, pp 340–41.
  19. ^ Peter Frampton interview, interviewsofrecordingartists.com (retrieved 3 November 2012).
  20. ^ John Harris, "A Quiet Storm", Mojo, July 2001, p. 70.
  21. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 86.
  22. ^ Madinger & Easter, p. 426.
  23. ^ Badman, p. 10.
  24. ^ a b c Richie Unterberger, "Doris Troy Doris Troy", Allmusic (retrieved 3 November 2012).
  25. ^ "Doris Troy Doris Troy: Credits", Allmusic (retrieved 8 November 2012).
  26. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 90.
  27. ^ Leng, p. 62.
  28. ^ Leng, pp 61–62.
  29. ^ David Nathan, "Doris Troy", SoulMusic.com, 17 February 2004 (retrieved 8 November 2012).
  30. ^ Doris Troy – Doris Troy (CD, Album), Discogs.com (retrieved 3 November 2012).
  31. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Various Artists Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records", Allmusic (retrieved 8 November 2012).
  32. ^ David Nathan, "Doris Troy Classic CD Spotlight", SoulMusic.com, 1 January 2011 (retrieved 8 November 2012).

References

  • Keith Badman, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001, Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ISBN 0-7119-8307-0).
  • Harry Castleman & Walter J. Podrazik, All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975, Ballantine Books (New York, NY, 1976; ISBN 0-345-25680-8).
  • Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003; ISBN 1-86074-489-3).
  • Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006; ISBN 1-4234-0609-5).
  • Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium, 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ISBN 0-615-11724-4).
  • Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years, Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ISBN 0-7119-8308-9).
  • Chris O'Dell with Katherine Ketcham, Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved, Touchstone (New York, NY, 2009; ISBN 978-1-4165-9093-4).
  • Robert Rodriguez, Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ISBN 978-1-4165-9093-4).
  • Bruce Spizer, The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, 498 Productions (New Orleans, LA, 2005; ISBN 0-9662649-5-9).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Doris_Troy_(album)&oldid=587887738"