Elton John's Label of Love sessions...

[Little Jimmy Oddman]

By any chance has anyone come across a list of Mr R.Dwight's session recordings for the usual label of love charity shop suspects apart from the list in the RRPG? I'm thinking Avenue, Marble Arch, Hallmark, Boulevard, that kind of thing and especially Stereo Gold Award...

Don't worry, I only want it for nerdish reasons.

[Blighty]

They're all listed in the Rare Record Guide.

[Lord Thames]

I think there's only one SGA LP that has Elt on it - it's the one with Spirit In The Sky (and I haven't got it, though I've got the same tracks on various other labels!)

The recordings were bussed around various labels for many years - I've found a mid-70s Contour LP and a 1980s Boulevard LP (yes, they really were still going then!) with some of Reggie's pre-fame sessions, well after he hit the big time.

I reckon the version of 'First Of May' on Fontana's Sounds Like Hits no 7 is one of his too. There is an Elton cover of a Bee Gees track that's still not been tracked down - he said in an interview it was 'I Started A Joke', but I suspect it may be this one.

[Little Jimmy Oddman]

Yeah, I suspected that the same stuff was used over and over...

Surely he must have done more though, the ones in the guide all seem to be from 1970. Did he not do stuff apart from then?

[Lord Thames]

It's generally believed his career as a covers singer ran from 1969-70, though I think he'd been doing sessions for a little while longer - he's known to have been a backing vocalist on Tom Jones' Delilah, which was '68. There's also a persistant rumour he was briefly a member of the Mike Sammes Singers, though I've not seen any proof of this yet!

[Little Jimmy Oddman]

Hmmmm...interesting...

[dr kraken]

A couple of years ago Danny Baker had a thing about Reg on his Radio London show (he's probably still doing it) where he would play various covers of reggae hits from TOTP-type albums (Greyhound's Black & White and, possibly, Young Gifted & Black) and, quite rightly, poke fun at Reg's "skanking" vocals... However, Baker also claims that a version of Penny Lane (on Hits 1967?) features the vocals of one David Bowie. I think Lord Thames has already told us (some years back) who this vocalist really is (i.e. not Bowie).

[Lord Thames]

Yes, Mr Alleged Bowie is actually one Tony Steven, I believe -I'm not going to dismiss the Bowie rumours out of hand, but there's never actually been any physical evidence he did any.

I've got Elt's Young, Gifted and Black; young - possibly, gifted - definitely, black - erm......