YOUR GROOVY HOST:
Billy Ingram
The greatest entertainers of the seventies -
especially those you never heard of!
Dave Mason and Cass Elliot
A fine album of folk-sy songs from two seminal artists of the 1970s, both artists at their peak separately and together. Though both artists wrote and produced the album, Cass Elliot only sang lead on two tracks, providing some very pleasing harmony vocals on the others.
Dave Mason made his name with the group Traffic. After going solo he produced many highly regarded albums - "Alone Together", "It's Like You Never Left" and "Dave Mason" for Blue Thumb Records.
"Dave Mason and Cass Elliot" was released in 1971, his second LP after leaving Traffic. His first solo album, "Alone Together" had a single, "Only You Know and I Know," that reached number 42 on the Billboard 100.
The songs on "Dave Mason and Cass Elliot" are simply produced, allowing Mason's stellar guitar work to shine. Also heard were session players Russ Kunkel, Bryan Garofalo and Paul Harris. This was Mason and Cass' only LP together - Cass Elliot died of a heart attack in 1974, at the height of her career.
That's pretty much what the 1970s music sounded like!
The album made it to # 49 on the Billboard chart. The two singles released "Something To Make You Happy” and “Too Much Truth, Too Much Love” failed to make the top 40. Mason and Elliot appeared together on The Tonight Show and The Andy Williams Show and performed two concerts - the first one at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and the second at New York’s Fillmore East.
Mason had his biggest hit years later in 1977 with "We Just Disagree." Written by Jim Krueger, it reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Any fan of these two artists will surely love this unexpected collaboration, it's a great album for background music at a 1970s style party, a fairly simple collection of well constructed tunes with a production approach that doesn't overpower the material.
The music you hear from the 1970s on the radio tends to be the same old tired hit songs they've been playing for decades.
Rarely will an oldies station stray outside of the top ten songs of the decade. That's because there were so darn many - it was the era of the 'one hit wonder.'
Obscure 70s looks at LPs and singles that may not have made the top of the charts but were amazing none the less.
TRACK LISTING
'Dave Mason and Cass Elliot'
1. Walk to the Point
2. On and On
3. To Be Free
4. Here We Go Again
5. Pleasing You
6. Sit and Wonder
7. Something to Make You Happy
8. Too Much Truth, Too Much Love
9. Next to You
10. Glittering Facade
Obscure 70s Looks At:
Walter Murphy's Phantom of the Opera
Mary Kay Place's Tonight at the Capri Lounge
Barbra Streisand's 1970s Albums
Sonny & Cher's Unreleased 1977 Album
Melissa Manchester's Bright Eyes
News Regurgitator |
Obscure 70s Looks At:
Walter Murphy's Phantom of the Opera
Mary Kay Place's Tonight at the Capri Lounge
Barbra Streisand's 1970s Albums
Sonny & Cher's Unreleased 1977 Album
Melissa Manchester's Bright Eyes
