Welcome to the first part of our Ace Records late 2015 round-up spotlighting two of the label's recent releases: Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First and the third volume of The Birth of Surf.

2015 was a good year for fans of Georgie Fame.  The British singer, who has blended rhythm and blues, jazz, ska, beat, and soul into his own formidable style for over 50 years, was celebrated with BGO Records' collection of his CBS recordings (Georgie Does His Thing with Strings/Knock on Wood/The CBS As and Bs) as well as with Universal/Polydor's 5-CD box set The Whole World's Shaking: Complete Recordings 1963-1966.  Now, Ace has recognized the Fame legacy with Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First, a compilation bringing together the original versions of 25 key songs recorded by Fame.

Fame's role on the Motown tour of 1965 may have played a major role in shifting his repertoire towards contemporary soul sounds; as the fine liner notes by Tony Rounce point out, eleven of the twelve tracks on Fame's first album of 1966 were soul covers.  From Hitsville, USA, you'll hear Marvin Gaye's "Pride and Joy" (1963) - the first Motown song recorded by Fame - plus The Spinners' "Sweet Thing" (1964), Earl Van Dyke's "Soul Stomp" (1964) and The Miracles' "Shop Around" (1960).  Georgie didn't ignore the sounds coming out of Stax's Memphis studios, either, and the compilation includes Rufus Thomas' "The Dog" and William Bell's "Monkeying Around."  Fame also drew inspiration from other soul men like Ray Charles ("Get on the Right Track Baby"), Major Lance ("The Monkey Time"), Billy Stewart ("Sitting in the Park"), Lee Dorsey ("Do-Re-Mi"), Joe Hinton ("Funny How Time Slips Away"), Joe Tex ("Close the Door"), and Sam Cooke ("It's Got the Whole World Shakin'").

On the jazz side, Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First includes tracks such as "Work Song" as recorded by its lyricist Oscar Brown, Jr. in 1961, Willie Dixon's "I Love the Life I Live" (1961) from blues-jazz singer-songwriter Mose Allison, "Gimme That Wine" (1960) from vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and most notably, "Yeh-Yeh!" (1963) from Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan - the group that emerged when Yolande Bavan replaced Annie Ross in the trio line-up.  Fame's 1964 recording of "Yeh-Yeh!," of course, would become his first pop crossover smash.  To this day, he remains the only British pop artist to have achieved three Number Ones with his only three Top 10 records.  (The other two are "Get Away" and "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.")  Still other tracks on this set are even more eclectic, by artists ranging from Paul Anka ("Eso Beso (That Kiss)") to calypso artist Lord Kitchener ("Dr. Kitch").  This set includes a 16-page booklet with Rounce's detailed, track-by-track liner notes; Duncan Cowell has newly remastered all tracks.

The first volume of Ace's The Birth of Surf series arrived in 2007, with Volume Two following in 2010.  After a five-year hiatus, the series returned with Volume Three.  As compiled by Alan Taylor and Dave Burke of Pipeline magazine, this entry adheres to the blueprint of the first two entries in the series.  It begins, chronologically, with influential instrumentals recorded before "surf music" had been coined and then presents key hits and rarities from the heyday of the genre.  The collection's 26 tracks all hail from the period between 1959 and 1966.

Many names familiar to surf aficionados are here, among them The Chantays ("Scotch High's," the B-side of the follow-up to "Pipeline"), The Riptides ("Machine Gun"), The Astronauts ("Surf Party"), Dick Dale and the Del-Tones ("The Victor") and both The Surfaris ("Storm Surf") and The Original Surfaris ("Moment of Truth").  Though rival groups of the same name have tended to crop up years after that group's prime, there were competing Surfaris from virtually the get-go.  As succinctly explained in the notes here, "The outfit heard here performing 'Moment of Truth' [from 1963] had the name Surfaris first, but the guys who had the big hit with 'Wipe Out' got to keep it."

Still more recognizable names crop up in the credits.  Billy Mure's "Flaming Guitar" was one of musician and arranger Mure's instrumental cuts featuring a group of the day's finest guitarists including Al Caiola, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Tony Mottola.  Richie Polodor, future producer of Three Dog Night, Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf, played lead guitar on The Beachcombers' "Lone Survivor," while Three Dog Night's Jimmy Greenspoon co-wrote and played on The New Dimensions' "Failsafe" with Michael Lloyd.  Greenspoon and Lloyd would go on to form The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band among numerous other credits, and The New Dimensions' Craig Nuttycombe performed as one-half of the A&M folk duo Lambert and Nuttycombe.  Dick Dale's "The Victor" features future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston on the track, as well as illustrious Wrecking Crew veterans Glen Campbell, Jerry Cole, Plas Johnson and Earl Palmer.

The Birth of Surf Volume Three features a 20-page booklet with Taylor and Burke's copious liner notes.  Nick Robbins has handled the remastering.  Like Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First, it's available now at the links below from Ace Records!

Various Artists, Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First (Ace CDCHD 1458, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Sweet Thing - The Spinners (Motown 1067, 1964)
2. Work Song - Oscar Brown Jr. (Columbia 41977, 1961) (*)
3. The Monkey Time - Major Lance (Okeh 7175, 1963)
4. The Dog - Rufus Thomas (Stax 130, 1962)
5. Yeh-Yeh! - Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan (RCA LP LSP 2747, 1963)
6. Get on the Right Track Baby - Ray Charles (Atlantic 1143, 1957)
7. Pink Champagne - Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers (Specialty 355, 1950)
8. Close the Door - Joe Tex (Dial 4022, 1965) (*)
9. I Love the Life I Live - Mose Allison Trio (Columbia LP CS 8365, 1960) (*)
10. Eso Beso (That Kiss) - Paul Anka (RCA 47-8097, 1960)
11. One Whole Year Baby - Earl Curry and His Orchestra (RPM 402, 1954)
12. Sitting in the Park - Billy Stewart (Chess 1932, 1965)
13. Pride and Joy - Marvin Gaye (Tamla 54079, 1963)
14. Sick and Tired - Fats Domino (Imperial 5515, 1958)
15. Monkeying Around - William Bell (Stax 141, 1963)
16. Kitch - Lord Kitchener (Telco TW 3170, 1962)
17. Bend a Little - Shorty Billups (United Artists 281, 1960)
18. Soul Stomp - Earl Van Dyke (Soul 35006, 1964)
19. Do-Re-Mi - Lee Dorsey (Fury 1056, 1961)
20. Gimme That Wine - Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (Columbia 41588, 1960) (*)
21. Shop Around - The Miracles (Tamla 54034, 1960)
22. Moody's Mood for Love - King Pleasure (Prestige 924, 1962)
23. It's Got the Whole World Shakin' - Sam Cooke (RCA 47-8539, 1965) (*)
24. Funny How Time Slips Away - Joe Hinton (Back Beat 541, 1964)
25. All About My Girl - Jimmy McGriff (Sue 777, 1962)

All tracks mono except (*) stereo

Various Artists, The Birth of Surf Volume 3 (Ace CDCHD 1454, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Flaming Guitar - Billy Mure (RCA LP LPM 1869, 1959) (*)
2. Machine Gun -The Rip Tides (Challenge 59058, 1959)
3. Sheba - Johnny and the Hurricanes (Big Top 3036, 1960)
4. Lone Survivor - The Beachcombers (Dot 16354, 1962)
5. Boss - The Rumblers (Downey 103, 1962) (*)
6. Vesuvius - The Sentinals (Del-Fi LP DFLP 1235, 1963)
7. Scotch High's - The Chantays (Downey 108, 1963) (*)
8. Moment of Truth - The Original Surfaris (Northridge LP 101, 1963)
9. Failsafe - The New Dimensions (Sutton LP SSU 332, 1963) (*)
10. Bonzai - The Baymen (Merri 6000, 1963)
11. Surf Party - The Astronauts (RCA 8298, 1963)
12. Bacardi - The Torquetts (Torquett 005/006, 1964)
13. The Force of Gravity - The Genteels (Stag 4949/4950, 1964)
14. Christina - The Charades Band (Impact 32, 1964)
15. On the Run - The Rondels (Dot 16593, 1964)
16. The Victor - Dick Dale and the Del-Tones (Capitol 5140, 1964) (*)
17. The Marauder - Marrell's Marauders (Fan Jr. 1003, 1964)
18. Pressure - The Pyramids (Cedwicke 13006, 1964)
19. Gear! - Dave Myers and The Surftones (Wickwire 13008, 1964)
20. Countdown - Buddy Lee and The Satellites (Columbia 43125, 1964)
21. More Surf - The deFenders (previously unreleased, rec. 1964)
22. Take 7 - The Novas (Parrot 45005, 1964)
23. Minor Chaos - The Treasures (Valor 4750, 1964)
24. Static - The Velvetones (Velvet 101, 1965)
25. Heartbeat - The Avengers VI (Mark 56 LP 536, 1966)
26. Storm Surf - The Surfaris (GNP Crescendo CD GNPD 2245, 1998 - rec. 1965)

All tracks mono except (*) stereo