"It Never Rains In Southern California/The Free Electric Band" by ALBERT HAMMOND - October 1972 US Debut Album (January 1973 UK) and August 1973 (US and UK) Second Album on Mum Records - featuring Keyboardist Michael Omartian, Guitarists Jay Lewis and Larry Carlton, Bassists Joe Osborn and Ray Puhlman, Drummers Jimmy Gordon and Hal Blaine and more (April 2004 UK Beat Goes On (BGO) Compilation - 2LPs onto 1CD - Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Orange Juice And Pills..."

When I worked at Reckless Records in both Islington's Upper Street and the Soho's Berwick Street (20 years penal servitude) - Albert Hammond albums were pretty much a no-no. They were the kind of Seventies platters that just didn't sell - or if they did - went for small beer. And a check on Auction Sites confirms that with £2 values, nothing's changed fifty-years down the line (1972 to 2022). 

 

But I know this multi-faceted British singer-songwriter has his Jimmy Webb-type admirers and they will absolutely want this tasty sounding BGO Remaster of his first two albums - both of which charted Stateside (albeit in the lower regions). The first contained his biggest hit single - the very Matthews Southern Comfort-sounding "It Never Rains In Southern California" (a winner they loved in America in late 1972) - whilst platter number two gave us the funkier "The Free Electric Band" (his only UK hit in 1973). Thinking about it now, I recall that 45-single freedom/happiness/vibe thing that oozed from "Free Electric Band" - blinding synth intro - a sort of pre-Punk precursor to John Mile's similarly themed "Music" a few years later on Decca. 

 

The first album even contains AH's claim to immortality in "The Air That I Breathe" - a song Albert Hammond wrote with long-time collaborator Michael Hazelwood - which The Hollies would of course take to Musical Valhalla in 1974 on Polydor Records. "The Air That I Breathe" is one of the most effecting love songs of that great decade and a tune that's been tapped in many movies ever since to elicit a wee heart tingle and lovy-dovey teardrop fall into your Cornflakes. To the legacy of the free electric man...

 

UK-released 7 April 2004 (3 August 2004 in the USA) - "It Never Rains In Southern California/The Free Electric Band" by ALBERT HAMMOND on Beat Goes On BGOCD611 (Barcode 5017261206114) offers 2LPs from 1972 and 1973 (originally on Mum Records) Remastered onto 1CD that plays out as follows (69:53 minutes):

 

1. Listen To The World [Side 1]  

2. If You Gotta Break Another Heart 

3. From Great Britain To L.A.

4. Brand New Day 

5. Anyone Here In The Audience 

6. It Never Rains In Southern California [Side 2]

7. Names, Tags, Numbers And Labels 

8. Down By The River 

9. The Road To Understanding

10. The Air That I Breathe

Tracks 1 to 10 are his debut album "It Never Rains In Southern California" - released late October 1972 in the USA on Mums Records KZ 31905 and late January 1973 in the UK on Mum Records S MUM 65320. It peaked Stateside in December 1972 and rose to a chart high of No. 77 (didn't chart UK). 

11. Smokey Factory Blues [Side 1]

12. The Peacemaker 

13. Woman Of The World 

14. Everything I Want To Do 

15. Who's The Lunch Today?

16. The Free Electric Band [Side 2]

17. Rebecca

18. The Day The British Army Lost The War

19. For The Peace Of All Mankind 

20. I Think I'll Go That Way 

Tracks 11 to 20 are his second studio album "The Free Electric Band" - released August 1973 in the USA on Mums Records KZ 32267 and August 1973 in the UK on Mums Records S MUM 65554. It peaked at No.193 on the US Billboard LP charts (didn't chart UK).  

The outer card slipcase lends these Beat Goes On reissues a look of class while the 16-page booklet with new JOHN TOBLER liner notes explores his songwriting history back to lucrative Pop schlock like "Gimme Dat Thing" and "Leapy Lee". There are the gatefold's artwork and lyrics and those guest musicians like Keyboardist Michael Omartian, Guitarists Jay Lewis and Larry Carlton with Drummers Jimmy Gordon and the legendary Hal Blaine. It's very nicely done. ANDREW THOMPSON has transferred the original tapes and the CD sounds great - especially that second album. Take the vocal singers and strings on "I Think I'll Go That Way" - the Side 2 ender of "The Free Electric Band" album - so clean and clear - giving that soundscape a real punch when it needs it as the music softens and lifts.

 

Such is its popularity and catchy hum-along chorus, "It Never Rains In Southern California" received four single issues - 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1978 (the last two outings with the track "A Job Is A Home To A Homeless Man" as its flipside. Released Stateside first in September 1972 just before the LP hit the shops, British Mums Records waiting until January 1973 for both the 45 and LP. It's a little surprising even now to see that something as radio-friendly as this signature song for him 'didn't' hit the Top 40 in the UK? Still, debut album deep cuts like "Brand New Day" and "Names, Tags, Numbers And Labels" show a natural ability towards melody - and you can so hear why people rate Hammond's "Anyone Here In The Audience" - the Side 1 finisher that turned up as a melodic lyrically astute flipside to "It Never Rains In Southern California". There's more than a touch of Colin Blunstone and Phillip Goodhand-Tate in "The Road To Understanding" even if there's just a tad too much Neil Diamond melodrama in its string arrangements. And it's downright disconcerting to hear his lighter-than-light acoustic guitar vs. a cello original of "The Air That I Breathe" where you would have to say that The Hollies took a delicacy and turned it into a full-on dessert you want to gorge on (he ruins it with an overly noisy ending). The Audio too is gorgeous.  

The second album ups the Production a notch and it shows as Side 1 kicks in. Early in the misty morning, our hero is heading for another thankless jam, the radio playing love songs with the factory gates looming in the distance. So he works to make a living in the funky "Smokey Factory Blues" - broke but still hoping for love and some cash in tow. His record label obviously figured "The Peacemaker" might make radio waves with its Cat Stevens acoustic strums, so they issued it as a 45-single in July 1974 with the searching-for-meaning "Who's For Lunch Today" as its B-side, but MUMS Records ZS7 6021 didn't click. Awful is the only word to describe the plodding "Woman Of The World", while the excellent synth funk of "The Free Electric Band" gave him his only UK 7" single hit - entering the charts in June 1973 thereafter rising to No.19. Weaker cuts include the weedy "For The Peace Of All Mankind" and some sort of guitar wig-out in "The Day The British Army Lost The War" that doesn't really suit. Still, it ends on that lovely-sounding "I Think I'll Go That Way". 

 

In truth these forgotten Seventies albums are three-star efforts musically and some collectors I know don't even rate them as that. But England's Beat Goes On Records has done Hammond's legacy proud with really great Audio and quality Presentation, the deep album cuts too reminding why his hit-making chops would be covered by so many Easy Listening artists across the decades that followed. 

 

Either way – another typically classy reissue from BGO...