Jerry Ganey's Northern Soul classics - produced by Bill Medley, issued on CD

Both tracks of Jerry Ganey’s Northern Soul classic double sider, “Just A Fool”/”Who Am I” produced by Bill Medley, have been reissued on the “Phil’s Spectre III: A Third Wall Of Soundalikes” CD by the premier UK reissue company, Ace Records, who transferred them from the original master tapes recently.

Ace Records is the leading reissue company in the UK and has one of the largest and most active, back catalogues kept by any major record concern.

Jerry Ganey (pictured left) was an immensely talented singer with an extensive range, who had been the lead singer of The Clouds, a group that Bill Medley a couple of years earlier, had also produced two singles for.

The original promotion copies of the single on Verve still commands a hefty price – the regular copies of the single are harder to find as not many were pressed.

The song “Just A Fool” written by Bill Medley and Art Munson especially for Jerry Ganey, was recorded in Los Angeles on 16 June 1966, with Bill Baker arranging - Bill Medley used all his production techniques and skills to create a classic ‘Righteous Brothers sound’ to compliment Jerry Ganey’s majestic vocals.

The B side, "Who Am I" written by Bill Medley, is another big production classic combining with Jerry Ganey's soaring vocals.

Friday Night's A Great Night For Football

The Japanese issue of Bill Medley’s “Blue Eyed Singer” album has an additional feature that makes it well worth seeking out.

The album includes an extra track, “Friday Night’s A Great Night For Football”, not included on the US release of the album and only issued as a promotional CD single on Curb Records 091 in 1991.

Bill Medley performed “Friday Night’s A Great For Football” in the opening sequence of the Bruce Willis film, “The Last Boy Scout"

French & Italian issue of A&M Hello Rock N Roll

One of the most interesting aspects of record collecting is to discover foreign issues that use album only tracks as B sides - this French and Italian 1973 release is really significant and unusual because neither of the two tracks were issued on a single in the US.

Both songs written by Bill Medley, are from the 1973 A&M 3517 album “Smile”, “Hello Rock N Roll” was a re-recording of an unissued MGM version of the song a couple of years earlier.

In 1980 he re-recorded the song for the withdrawn “Sweet Thunder” album on United Artists 1024 although it was still available as it was used as the B side to the “Still A Fool” single on United Artists 1349.

Smile album issued on CD in Japan

The Universal Music Group who own the entire Righteous Brothers 60's catalog, Bill Medley's MGM and A&M catalog plus Bobby Hatfield's MGM/Verve catalog - have finally seen the light after years of shamefully failing to put out anything except the most popular Righteous Brothers songs.

This Japanese only release of the classic Bill Medley album, which many claim is his finest, is a welcome boost to any collector of his, hopefully may be the start of a reissue program.

The clarity of the digitally remastered tracks is truly amazing, hearing Bill Medley singing Mann/Weil's "A Long Way To Go" and "It's Not Easy", Jim Webb's "All My Love's Laughter", Lambert/Potter's "Put A Little Love Away" and of course his own "Hello Rock N Roll" , "Wasn't It Easy" and "Rock N Roll Loser" - is an experience not to be missed.

As with most Japanese releases, included are the lyrics in Japanese and English, although the accuracy is lost probably after the translation plus there is a lengthy biography albeit in Japanese.

The album only released in 2001, can easily be purchased through import, it is not known whether it will be issued outside of Japan.

Australian compilation CD

An Australian compilation CD made by Polydor to capitalise on the popularity of the Righteous Brothers song "Unchained Melody" in the 1990 movie Ghost coupled with Bill Medley's highly successful appearance in the Dirty Dancing Concert Tour, which toured Australia in 1988. The tracks are the complete "Someone Is Standing Outside" album plus 9 of the 13 tracks that comprised the "Nobody Knows"/"Gone" albums.

Yesterday
Let Me Love Again
A Change Is Gonna Come
Love Me Tender
Hey Jude
Didn't We
Little Green Apples
Blowin' In The Wind
Someone Is Standing Outside
For Once In My Life
My Way
Nobody Knows
Let It Be
See That Girl
Gone
Bridge Over Troubled Water
This Is A Love Song
Brown Eyed Woman
Something
Peace Brother Peace

German compilation double album box set

An extremely rare 1970 German compilation double album Box Set that combines several of the Righteous Brothers biggest hits, including the Bobby Hatfield solo "Ebb Tide" plus an interesting cross section of tracks taken from all of Bill Medley's MGM solo albums.

The insert included in the Box Set has the full size photo of Bill Medley as used on the front and back of the box, there is also a biography in German and English.

Several of Bill Medley's MGM singles had been released in Germany but it is unknown how many albums. It could possibly have been the same situation as in the UK, where "Bill Medley 100%" was the only solo MGM album released with singles up to "Someone Is Standing Outside".

(1) Peace Brother Peace, Evie, For Once In My Life, EbbTide*, The Great Pretender*, The Impossible Dream

(2) Bridge Over Troubled Water, That's Life, You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You, Something, You've Lost That Lovin Feelin*

(3) Let It Be, Georgia On My Mind*, Hey Jude, Run To My Loving Arms, Love Me Tender

(4) Yesterday, Someone Is Standing Outside, Goin Out Of My Head, Nobody Knows, See That Girl, Blowin In The Wind


*= Track by the Righteous Brothers

Sonny & Cher & Friends

Compilation album that includes Sonny & Cher tracks when they were known as Caesar & Cleo also features Bill Medley singing three of his original songs "I Surrender (To Your Touch)", "Leavin Town" and "Wo Yeah" probably recorded c1961.

All Bill Medley's tracks were produced by Nat Goodman who was the manager of the Paramours and also the Diamonds, for who Bill Medley wrote two songs "Woomai Ling" and "Chimes In My Heart", around this same period.

"Leavin Town"/"I Surrender" were issued as a single in 1965 on Reprise 0413.

"Leavin Town"/"Wo Yeah" were issued on an EP with the identical name and number as the album.

Original version Of Damn Good Friend

Produced by Mike Patterson & Art Munson, includes the original version of "Damn Good Friend Of Mine" (Medley) by Bill Medley, although he is not credited. Another version of the song with title shortened to "Damn Good Friend" appeared on Bill Medley's "A Song For You" album a short while later.

Mike Patterson and Art Munson also perform on the album (named after the location in LA), Bill Medley had produced records for two of the other artists on the album, Darlene Love (with the Blossoms) and Chris Morgan.

Withdrawn Sweet Thunder

The original issue of "Sweet Thunder" on United Artists came to be withdrawn after the record company was taken over and the EMI executives apparently thought the funky style of the album focused too much on the instrumentation and not enough on Bill Medley.

The production duties on this original release were handled by Randy Goodrum & Brent Maher, who also wrote a superb song, "Amy Amy" performed in the classic Medley style.

"Until The Night"/"Maybe It's Not Over"/"Grandma & Grandpa" were carried over to the issue on Liberty LT 1097 in 1981.

"Still A Fool"/"Hello Rock & Roll" were issued as a single on United Artists 1349 in 1980.

This album does appear for sale occasionally with most copies originating from Canada, with the same catalog # as the US issue, the front and back covers on the United Artists and Liberty issues have the same photos and the layout on both are identical.