Don’t Just Stand There! Real Gone Reissues Patty Duke, Johnny Lytle

They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike!  You can lose your mind, when cousins are two of a kind!

So went the theme song to television’s The Patty Duke Show, starring the former Anna Marie Duke as “identical cousins” Patty and Cathy Lane.  We’re told in Sid Ramin and Robert Wells’ theme song that the worldly Cathy “adores a minuet, The Ballets Russes and crepe suzette,” but the normal New York teen Patty “loves to rock and roll!”  So, apparently, did Patty Duke, based on the charming albums and singles she recorded for United Artists Records between 1965 and 1968.  Four original LPs, including one that has never been issued in any format, have been lovingly compiled on two new collections from Real Gone Music, marking the first official release of the Duke discography on compact disc.  Unsurprisingly, both CDs are a warmly nostalgic treat.

Don’t Just Stand There/Patty (RGM-0122) combines Duke’s first two UA albums.  The starlet signed with the label in the television series’ second season, and although she was just 18 years of age, she was already an Academy Award-winning show business veteran.  Duke got to use her well-honed dramatic chops on “Don’t Just Stand There,” which became the title track of her debut.  “Don’t Just Stand There” is as musically close to Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” as is legally possible, but it became a full-fledged hit.  Lor Crane and Bernice Ross’ song reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and provided an auspicious start for young Patty’s recording career.

We have plenty more on Patty, plus a review of two albums from vibraphonist Johnny Lytle, after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of June 18

Patty Duke, Don’t Just Stand There/Patty / Sings Songs from Valley of the Dolls/Sings Folk Songs (Time to Move On) (Real Gone Music)

All four of Patty’s United Artists albums released on a pair of two-fers, including 1968’s unreleased Sings Folk Songs.

The Supremes, Cream of the Crop / Love Child / I Hear a Symphony / Join the Temptations / Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland / Supremes A Go-Go (Motown MS 649, 1966) (Culture Factory)

A bunch of Supremes classics – six albums from 1966’s The Supremes A Go-Go to 1969’s Cream of the Crop, their last with Diana Ross – all get the mini-LP treatment from Culture Factory.

Diana Ross, The Boss /An Evening with Diana Ross (Culture Factory)

Culture Factory also brings Miss Ross’ long out-of-print concert disc back to CD, along with a new, mini-LP edition of the Ashford and Simpson-helmed favorite The Boss.

Julia Fordham, Porcelain / Swept: Deluxe Editions (Cherry Pop)

The second and third LPs by U.K. singer Julia Fordham are expanded and remastered for the first time.

Porcelain: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Swept: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Various Artists, 20 Feet from Stardom: Music from the Motion Picture (Columbia)

The soundtrack to the anticipated new documentary about the best backup singers you might not have known, from Darlene Love to Merry Clayton. (Legacy’s releasing Clayton’s first-ever best-of compilation next month.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Paul Young, Remixes and Rarities (Cherry Pop)

Two discs of rare or new-to-CD bonus material from the ’80s crooner. (Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.)

Various Artists, Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center (Legacy)

Not sure if this concert kills fascists, but this CD/DVD tribute to a folk legend, featuring John Mellencamp, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash and more is a fitting way to honor one of the century’s best songwriters. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Have a Real Gone Summer with Surf Punks, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Grateful Dead and More

When Real Gone Music kicks off summer with a slate of releases due on June 4, it’s only appropriate that one title comes from a surf band.  Well, sort of.  Locals Only, the sophomore album from Surf Punks, the snarling beach band formed by Dennis Dragon (yes, the brother of “Captain” Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille!) and Drew Steele, is one of the seven reissues coming your way.  Locals is joined by another second outing, Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys’ Albion Doo Wah.  (Real Gone reissued Cat Mother’s Jimi Hendrix-produced debut earlier this year.)  In a completely different vein, Real Gone has the first two Warner Bros. albums for musical renaissance man Mason (“Classical Gas”) Williams, as well as the first two long-players from The Amazing Rhythm Aces.  And that’s not all.  On the country side of town, the label is anthologizing Dickey Lee’s 1970s sides for RCA.  Real Gone rounds out its slate with the latest reissued installment of Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks.

After the jump, we have pre-order links for every title and the complete contents of Real Gone’s press release, with full details on all releases!  Plus: rescheduled dates for previously-announced reissues from Patty Duke and Henry Mancini!

Don’t Just Stand There: Real Gone Readies January Slate with Patty Duke, Rick Wakeman, Billy Joe Shaver, and More

2012 isn’t yet over, but it’s not too soon to look forward to all of the amazing releases already slated for 2013!  Real Gone Music is doing its part with a whopping nine-title slate due January 29 from a plethora of pop, rock, country and soul artists.

One of the sixties’ most unexpected hits might have been Patty Duke’s “Don’t Just Stand There,” a 1965 Top 10 hit that sounded more than a little like Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.”  By the time the actress recorded her first album for United Artists Records, she had already conquered both television and film, with an Academy Award under her belt for her work in 1962’s The Miracle Worker.  Duke recorded four albums for the UA label between 1965 and 1968, and all four are getting the Real Gone treatment.  Don’t Just Stand There and Patty came out in 1965 and 1966, respectively, and are being joined on one CD.  In addition to the first album’s No. 8 title track, this album duo included songs by Bacharach and David and Tony Hatch, and the hits “Say Something Funny” and “Whenever She Holds You.”  Another hit, the single “Funny Little Butterflies,” has been included as a bonus track. 1967’s Sings Songs from Valley of the Dolls tied into Duke’s role as Neely O’Hara in the controversial film adaptation of the Jacqueline Susann novel, and features Duke’s renditions of the Andre Previn/Dory Previn theme song and “I’ll Plant My Own Tree.”  Duke finished her UA tenure with 1968’s Sings Folk Songs, but the LP was never released.  Real Gone rectifies this, pairing it with Valley of the Dolls.  These two releases mark the first legitimate release of these four albums on CD, and are taken from the original master tapes.  Ms. Duke herself has contributed quotes to the liner notes.

Also from the sixties, Real Gone excavates two more gems.  The Pozo Seco Singers’ third album for Columbia Records, 1968’s Shades of Time, was the first album from the group following the departure of Lofton Klein, leaving just Don Williams and Susan Taylor to soldier on with the Pozo Seco blend of pop, country and rock.    For Shades of Time, Williams and Taylor dropped “Singers” from their moniker and teamed with producers Elliot Mazer and Bob Johnston.  The album, however, wasn’t a commercial success, and Pozo Seco disbanded in 1970, setting Don Williams on his way to solo country stardom.  Real Gone has added eleven single sides (nine in mono, two in stereo) to this reissue.  Vic Anesini has remastered the entire album, while Tom Pickles has contributed liner notes with new quotes from Susan Taylor, a.k.a. Taylor Pie.

One year before Shades of Time, country songwriter Kenny O’Dell recorded Beautiful People for the Vegas label.  Though O’Dell would later gain fame writing for artists including Charlie Rich and The Judds, Beautiful People was less country and more pop-psych, even yielding a Top 40 hit with the title track.  Real Gone’s reissue adds seven bonus tracks from O’Dell’s brief tenure with the Vegas and White Whale labels, and also includes O’Dell’s only other Top 40 hit, “Springfield Plane.”  Ed Osborne has written the new liner notes and Steve Massie has remastered.

After the jump: a prog-rock legend, a soul man, an outlaw and a Sham!