We’ve filled you in about some of Real Gone Music’s releases for June, including releases from Cheap Trick and The Quick, but now we’ve got word of a couple of more, this time from “Mama” Michelle Phillips and Keely Smith, both due June 1.

The first is a reissue of Michelle Phillips’ one and only solo album from 1977: Victim of Romance.  This new edition features liner notes by our very own Joe Marchese.  After the break-up of The Mamas & The Papas, Cass Elliott, Denny Doherty and John Phillips began releasing solo music.  Michelle took her career in a different direction, moving into acting.  She appeared in such films as 1971’s The Last Movie, 1973’s Dillinger (her breakthrough role), 1974’s TV-movie The California Kid and 1975’s Shampoo among other roles on television and movie screens.  And while she had contributed background harmonies to some projects, including ones by her former bandmates, she did not release any solo material until 1975 after she had begun to write songs herself.  Signed to release a solo album for A&M, Phillips’ ex-husband John came in to produce and co-write a couple of tracks, but John had to drop out due to personal issues.  Jack Nitzsche was brought on to produce the album that became Victim of Romance.  Pulling out the stops, Nitzsche rebuilt the Wall of Sound for Michelle’s debut LP.

Released in 1977, Victim of Romance took its material from a variety of sources.  Four cuts came from members of the band assembled for the project, including John Martin’s title track.  Michelle tackled a Bee Gees cover with “Baby As You Turn Away” and reinterpreted the 1963 Doris Troy hit “Just One Look” a year before Linda Ronstadt’s hit version.  Phillips also contributed two of her own songs (“There She Goes” and “Lady of Fantasy”) and performed a John Phillips tune, “Trashy Rumors.”  Unfortunately, the album did not fare well on the charts and Michelle would soon return to her acting career appearing in numerous roles over the years including her memorable turn as Anne Matheson on Knots Landing for six years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Victim of Romance has appeared on CD before, but is long out of print.  This new edition expands the album with three outtakes from the recording sessions with Nitzsche, including another Bee Gees cover (“Had a Lot of Love Last Night”), Dennis Lambert and Fil Spina’s “Practice What You Preach,” and Michelle’s own, tropically-flavored “Guerita.”  These three songs were not featured on previous reissues of the album. (They have only been available on The Mamas & The Papas – Ultimate Anthology, a PBS exclusive box set from 2016).  Joe’s liner notes feature quotes from a new interview with Michelle and the CD has been remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision.

Real Gone’s other release comes from over a decade prior: Keely Smith’s Sings the John Lennon-Paul McCartney Songbook from 1964.  This was Smith’s third album on Reprise (Real Gone has reissued her first two albums for the label in 2016 and 2017).  And while today it seems like there are thousands of Beatles covers albums in every genre conceivable, that was not so much the case back in 1964.  There had been covers album by groups like The Hollyridge Strings and even The Chipmunks, but jazz and traditional pop vocalists still seemed wary of The Fab Four.  But that changed with Smith’s album.

Ernie Freeman and Benny Carter provided the charts for the LP which was produced by Smith’s soon-to-be husband Jimmy Bowen.  Keely brings her jazzy style to the 12 tracks on the album, built around major hits from the Beatles up to that moment including songs like “Please Please Me,” “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”  Four cuts came from the Beatles’ then-recent album A Hard Day’s Night.  Smith also dove a bit deeper with the B-side “This Girl” (gender switched from the original “This Boy”) and covered a Lennon/McCartney (then-very recent) hit for another group:  Peter and Gordon’s No. 1 “A World Without Love” from earlier in 1964.    Keely’s album would prove to be a big hit in the U.K. and soon everyone was covering The Beatles.  She would record one more album for Reprise in 1965 and then didn’t record another LP until 1985.  She passed away just last year.

Real Gone’s reissue marks the first time this album has been released on CD.  Steve Hochman was written the liner notes and the booklet features rare photos.  Mike Milchner at SonicVision has done the remastering.

If you would like to give either of these two titles a try, we’ve got the full tracklisting and preorder links below!

Michelle Phillips, Victim of Romance: Expanded Edition (Real Gone Music, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Aching Kind
2. Let The Music Begin
3. Victim of Romance
4. Trashy Rumors
5. There She Goes
6. Paid The Price
7. Baby As You Turn Away
8. Lady of Fantasy
9. Just One Look
10. Where’s Mine
11. Guerita
12. Practice What You Preach
13. Had A Lot of Love Last Night

Tracks 1-10 from Victim of Romance, A&M LP SP-4651, 1977
Tracks 11-13 unreleased originally, first appeared on The Mamas & The Papas – Ultimate Anthology, TJL/Universal Products CD B0024954-02, 2016

Keely Smith, Sings The John Lennon-Paul McCartney Songbook (Reprise LP R 6142, 1964 – reissued Real Gone Music, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. If I Fell
2. This Girl
3. Please Please Me
4. And I Love Him
5. World Without Love
6. She Loves You
7. A Hard Day’s Night
8. Do You Want To Know A Secret
9. Can’t Buy Me Love
10. All My Loving
11. I Want To Hold Your Hand
12. P.S. I Love You