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Review: 'VARIOUS ARTISTS'
'Paradise:The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde'   

-  Label: 'Bella Union'
-  Genre: 'Sixties' -  Release Date: '3rd August 2018'-  Catalogue No: 'bella714CD'

Our Rating:
Mylene is the only vocal performance for which Ivor Raymonde received a credit on a record label. Otherwise his roles, chiefly in the 1960s, as arranger, musical director, producer and songwriter have been criminally overlooked.

Until now, that is.

Fortunately for us, his son Simon is on hand to right this wrong and show just why he deserves to be more widely known. The former Cocteau Twins member and Bella Union founder has lovingly compiled this album, with friend Kieron Tyler, as a personal tribute to a sadly missed father who passed away in 1990.

This rich collection takes its name from the title of Billy Fury’s Halfway To Paradise, a single that should be familiar to students of 60s UK pop. The tracks mix other hits like Los Bravos' Black Is Black with near-misses and obscurities.

Many are typically melodramatic girl meets boy (or vice versa) commercial pop tunes like He Doesn't Love Me by The Breakaways, He Knows How To Love Me by Helen Shapiro or Cindy Cole's He's Sure The Boy I Love. These are very dated but still great fun.

Among the real star names are Dusty Springfield and The Walker Brothers, artists who were able to turn such libidinous tales of true romance into something more profound.

Raymonde wrote the music for Dusty's I Only Want To Be With You and provided brilliant orchestral arrangements to The Walker Brothers' Make It Easy On Yourself and My Ship Is Coming In. His role in turning these songs into bona fide classics is indisputable.

He also worked with David Bowie and Tom Jones before they became famous on Love You Till Tuesday and Little Lonely One respectively. He was even employed by Ian Dury to give an authentic 60s flavour to Superman's Big Sister.

The oddest find is Chahawki, an eccentric song by Burr Bailey about a Native American and his dog. By way of contrast, the spotty adolescent petulance of (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone by The Flies, a song later covered by the Sex Pistols, is the nearest thing here to psychedelic rock.

All told, this sublime tribute album is a revelation and provides 26 good reasons why Ivor Raymonde should be a household name.
  author: Martin Raybould

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VARIOUS ARTISTS - Paradise:The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Paradise:The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde