Philly --- Italian Style

[NickNack]

For the trivia buffs:

On whose album did the 'Sweethearts of Sigma' 8) sing the vocals to Alec Costandinos' "Accidental Lover"?

[DJ-Pir]

For the trivia buffs:

On whose album did the 'Sweethearts of Sigma' 8) sing the vocals to Alec Costandinos' "Accidental Lover"?

Hm.. just played this last week, so still fresh in memory, the T-Shirt album from Love and Kisses.
Side 1 is Accidental lover, side 2 is I've found love :lol: Think this is the one you mean.

[NickNack]

Sorry, DJ-Pir, not Love and Kisses. The vocals on that album are credited to Sue, Stephanie, Joanne, Vicki, Sunny and Alec. The Sweethearts of Sigma are Barbara Ingram, Evette Benton and Carla Benson.

Hint: This is "A Tom Moulton Mix".

[DJ-Pir]

Another try then, in a track list for Tom & Jerry/Salsoul i found an old cover version of the Costandinos track by Mc Lane Explosion.
My list only contains writer/performer/mixer info but doesn't say who did the vocals on this version,
it is a TM Mix though. (i'm kinda curious how this sounds too )

[NickNack]

Mc Lane Explosion --- that's the one, 1978 on Tom N' Jerry, produced by Roland Romanelli. They tout this as one of the early syntesizer-driven albums. A 4-track lp with songs written by Vangelis, Costandinos, J. Michel Jarre, and Ecama. They are "Pulstar", "Accidental Lover", "Oxygene" and "Magic Fly", respectively.

Personally I was never a big fan of this lp. Magic Fly and Oxygene are ok but Pulstar sounds disjointed and Accidental Lover is nowhere near as lush as the original. On this version, the synth replaces the strings and he didn't seem to use polyphonic voice. (Was that available back then?) The intro actually sounds 'empty' to me.

If you get it on the cheap it's nice to have but I wouldn't sell my soul for this one.

[DJ-Pir]

NickNack : the synth replaces the strings and he didn't seem to use polyphonic voice. (Was that available back then?)

Hm, most of the time these early synthesizer tracks do sound rather flat and dull compared to "real" instruments, never really my taste.
Polyphony came in the mid-late 70's for the first time as i recall it..
Thanks for the info Nicky, don't think this would be a real must have for the collection.. 8)

[BrunoRepublic]

Mc Lane Explosion --- that's the one, 1978 on Tom N' Jerry, produced by Roland Romanelli. They tout this as one of the early syntesizer-driven albums. A 4-track lp with songs written by Vangelis, Costandinos, J. Michel Jarre, and Ecama.

The bizarre thing is... three of these tracks were all or mostly synth to begin with! (The original Alpha uses some conventional instrumentation). Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene LP is a classic. Although he is still around today, he has never regained the heights of that LP. "Ecama" was a pseudonym for Didier Marouani's recordings as "Space". I recently discovered that he is still around, and apparently more popular than ever -- at least, in the former USSR. Vangelis just keeps getting better and better. There are loads of albums of Vangelis covers, and I honestly don't know why people bother. Vangelis' magic is in the way that he plays, not so much in his music, and most certainly not in the cheesy keyboards he was using at the time. His dynamics and pacing defy the limitations of electronic instruments. It's amazing what he could do with even a B3 organ. Listen to side two of his early 70s soundtrack to "L'Apocalypse Des Animaux" to find out.

Personally I was never a big fan of this lp.

It's even harder to appreciate if you've heard the original versions of any of these tunes.

Magic Fly and Oxygene are ok but Pulstar sounds disjointed and Accidental Lover is nowhere near as lush as the original. On this version, the synth replaces the strings and he didn't seem to use polyphonic voice. (Was that available back then?)

Sort of. There were string synths, but they only made one basic sound (think Sylvester's "Mighty Real"). There were a handful of quasi-modular synth units by Emu and Oberheim, but these were cumbersome and difficult, few in number, and very expensive. There were a few other poly synths that were basically glorified string synths (Polymoog, Korg PS3300) but these were also hugely expensive and simply didn't sound as thick and rich as monosynths. For all intents and purposes, the first real polysynth was the Prophet-5, which I think came out in 1978.

If you get it on the cheap it's nice to have but I wouldn't sell my soul for this one.

Far better to seek out the original versions of these songs. With the tragic exception of Constandinos, they're all still available (although Space is only in print in Europe AFAIK).

[JussiK]

Didn't that Romanelli guy do an early 80's dance track called Connecting Flight?

[NickNack]

Didn't that Romanelli guy do an early 80's dance track called Connecting Flight?

Yes, 1982 on 21 Records. John Luongo had some involvement but he doesn't get full credit for the remix.