For Jeff Lynne, listening to The Idle Race must be a bit like viewing baby pictures. He's quoted from a 2013 interview in the liner notes to Cherry Red/Grapefruit's essential new reissue of the band's 1968 LP The Birthday Party: "I still like all those Idle Race songs, but I just find them so weird!" Indeed, The Birthday Party is weird - but in the best sense of the word as the young Lynne's melodic gifts were already very much in flower in his pre-Move, pre-ELO days. Somewhat surprisingly, The Birthday Party has only been issued once before on CD, in a 2007 Japanese edition. It was included in full, however, on the 1996 "complete" Idle Race anthology Back to the Story. This deluxe 2-CD edition is due this Friday, March 20 in the U.K. (and March 27 in North America) and boasts the original mono and stereo versions plus ten bonus singles and alternate takes.

The Idle Race and The Move had been linked from the very beginning; The Idle Race formed out of the ashes of Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders, from which Roy Wood departed to join The Move. Replacing him on guitar was Johnny Mann, who had worked with another future Move vocalist - Carl Wayne - in his group The Vikings. After the Nightriders (Mann, rhythm guitarist Dave Pritchard, bassist Greg Masters, and drummer Roger "Ollie" Spencer) parted ways with Sheridan, they placed an advertisement for a new guitarist. Eighteen-year old Jeff Lynne answered the call, and the band got more than they bargained for. While Lynne was a talented guitarist, he was a prodigiously gifted songwriter and a distinctive lead singer, as well. The Nightriders saw his youth as an asset, and quickly promoted him to frontman of the newly-christened Idle Race.

The band developed a strong reputation based on their live, covers-heavy act, but they knew they had to up their game when Liberty Records' new U.K. arm came calling. Roy Wood at first offered them his "(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree," even playing on the session. But The Move decided to issue their own version, and Liberty scuttled The Idle Race's single. (It did see release outside of the U.K., including in America.) Lynne stepped up to the bat with "Imposters of Life's Magazine," on which he employed every trick he learned from listening to The Beatles. The studio was a key instrument on the uptempo, impressionistic acid trip of a song on which Jeff multi-tracked and speed-altered guitars, pianos, and cello. The single, released in September 1967, wasn't a hit but it garnered enough attention for the band to continue pursuing its muse.

The next year, The Idle Race recorded The Birthday Party. With the exception of "Happy Birthday" and Dave Pritchard's "Pie in the Sky," every song was a Jeff Lynne composition. Gerald Chevin and Eddie Offord, a veteran engineer for The Move, produced the LP at Advision Studios with The Idle Race sharing credit. The songs blended quintessentially English music hall influences with trippy, psychedelic (and sometimes dark) lyrics and accessible melodies; the production was both radio-friendly and experimental with plentiful effects. The Birthday Party included some tracks previously released as singles, including the carnival-esque opening cut "The Skeleton and the Roundabout," two-and-a-half catchy minutes of eccentric musical comedy, and the Fabs-worthy "End of the Road" with its easygoing, McCartney-esque melodicism and tight harmonies. Like The Bee Gees (to whom they were sometimes compared), The Idle Race took the Beatles' musical language as their starting point while developing their own sound. "Follow Me Follow" (a strong single-that-never-was) and "The Lady Who Said She Could Fly" both incorporated strings, and the cello introduction on "The Birthday" looked forward to ELO.

Bizarrely, Liberty opted not to release a single from the album (cancelling the planned "I Like My Toys" b/w "The Birthday"), all but scuttling its chances despite critical acclaim. A couple more singles and a second, self-titled album followed, earning Jeff his first production credits. But in early 1970, he accepted Roy Wood's offer to join The Move. The rest of the band persevered for one more LP before calling it a day. And the rest is history...

Grapefruit's reissue of The Birthday Party makes the case for it as a lost classic. Additional context is provided with all of the associated single sides through the 1969 non-LP 45 "Days of the Broken Arrows" b/w "Worn Red Carpet" plus three alternate takes originally released on Back to the Story and one rechanneled stereo version. (The reissue compiler explains in a special note that the original stereo LP had "Sitting in My Tree" in mono as no stereo mix was ever made of the song. This edition has retained that presentation, but included a 1976 rechanneled version in the bonus section.) The mono mix is making its worldwide CD debut. Press materials indicate that the (uncredited) remastering is indeed from the original master tapes.

The two discs are packaged in a handsome six-panel digipak echoing the original LP's gatefold sleeve; a 24-page booklet has David Wells' comprehensive essay on the band's history as well as credits and copious photographs and memorabilia images including a tape box scan. The Birthday Party is an enjoyable chapter on Jeff Lynne's road to ELO; Grapefruit's invitation is one you'll be happy to have accepted.

The Idle Race, The Birthday Party (Liberty LBL/LBS 83132, 1968 - reissued Cherry Red/Grapefruit QCRSEG065D, 2020) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1 (Mono)

1. Skeleton and the Roundabout
2. Happy Birthday
3. The Birthday
4. I Like My Toys
5. Morning Sunshine
6. Follow Me Follow
7. Sitting in My Tree
8. On with the Show
9. Lucky Man
10. Don't Put Your Boys in the Army, Mrs. Ward
11. Pie in the Sky
12. The Lady Who Said She Could Fly
13. End of the Road
14. (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree
15. My Father's Son
16. Imposters of Life's Magazine
17. Knocking Nails Into My House
18. Lucky Man (Alternative Version)
19. Follow Me Follow (Alternative Version)
20. Days of the Broken Arrows
21. Worn Red Carpet
22. Days of the Broken Arrows (Alternative Version)

CD 2 (Stereo)

1. Skeleton and the Roundabout
2. Happy Birthday
3. The Birthday
4. I Like My Toys
5. Morning Sunshine
6. Follow Me Follow
7. Sitting in My Tree
8. On with the Show
9. Lucky Man
10. Don't Put Your Boys in the Army, Mrs. Ward
11. Pie in the Sky
12. The Lady Who Said She Could Fly
13. End of the Road
14. Sitting in My Tree (Rechanneled Stereo Version)

CD 1, Tracks 14-15 from Liberty (U.S.) single 55997, 1967
CD 1, Track 16 from Liberty single LBF 15026, 1967
CD 1, Track 17 from Liberty single LBF 15054, 1968
CD 1, Tracks 18-19, 22 from Back to the Story, Zonophone 72438 3816224, 1996
CD 1, Tracks 20-21 from Liberty single LBF 15218, 1969
CD 2, Track 14 from The Birthday Party reissue, Sunset SLS 50381, 1976