Last week, U.K. band The Outfield paid tribute to their late songwriter John Spinks with a digital treasure trove of unreleased recordings he curated before his passing in 2014.

The Baseball Boys: Early Demos and Rare Tracks is a generous, nearly two-hour offering from the group's career, including alternate versions of every song on their breakthrough debut, 1985's Play Deep, which featured the band's signature song "Your Love." Spinks himself worked to transfer the music from various cassettes in his archive, and designed the artwork, which features the guitar that recorded "Your Love" and indicates that the tracks span mostly between 1982 and 1989.

Spinks, vocalist/bassist Tony Lewis and drummer Alan Jackman were struggling to make a living in London's music scene in the early '80s. Largely uninterested in punk rock, theirs was a brighter, upbeat rock style meant for singing along on the radio. Lewis' expressive voice, Spinks' sticky melodies and Jackman's whip-crack snare reached a peak with "Your Love," produced and co-mixed to perfection by William Wittman, who oversaw the mixes of two other debuts by CBS Records artists: Cyndi Lauper and The Hooters. The track reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986 and Play Deep was certified platinum, becoming a staple of decades rock radio over the past 35 years. (Indeed, at a restaurant not far from Second Disc HQ, we once witnessed three separate parties - one in their 40s, one in their 30s and one in their 20s - spontaneously sing along to "Your Love" when it played over the speakers.)

Spinks initially started recording songs as The Baseball Boys (the namesake of this collection), not taken from the American sport but a viewing of the cult film The Warriors. The group later Americanized their moniker even further, which led to a strange irony: none of their albums or singles hit the Top 40 in their homeland. ("Your Love" was followed by four more Top 40 hits in America between 1986 and 1990.) Jackman was replaced by drummers Simon Dawson and Jeffrey Gish in the '90s and '00s, though the original lineup reunited for one more album, 2011's Replay, before Spinks' passing three years later at the age of 60.

The Baseball Boys is a fine piece of pre-history for fans of The Outfield. (It also follows the chance to rediscover several late-period albums newly digitally available: It Ain't Over... (1998), Extra Innings (1999), Live In Brazil (2001) and Any Time Now (2006).) While the cassette quality can occasionally vary and the lack of liner notes is always a bummer, hardcore fans will delight at a few more bases to run and a few more memories of a band that deserved every homer they hit.

Stream or download this set at the links below!

The Baseball Boys: Early Demos and Rare Tracks (self-released, 2020)

iTunes / Amazon / Spotify

1. 61 Seconds
2. Mystery Man
3. All The Love
4. Your Love
5. Talk To Me
6. I Don't Need Her
7. Every Time You Cry
8. Taking My Chances
9. Say It Isn't So
10. Nervous Alibi
11. Since You've Been Gone
12. Playground
13. Somewhere In America
14. The Night Ain't Over
15. Reach Out
16. Voices Of Babylon
17. Let My Love Run
18. Never Told Lies
19. Looking For a Girl
20. Nervous Alibi (Alternative Version)
21. Turn and Run
22. Stranger In My Own Town
23. One Hot Country
24. Simple World
25. Tiny Lights
26. Sandman
27. Don't Tell Me
28. Mr Dream Maker
29. Better Get Ready
30. Never Wanted To Dance
31. Burning Light

Versions of Tracks 1-10 and 20 released as Play Deep (Columbia, 1985)
Versions of Tracks 11-13 released on Bangin' (Columbia, 1986)
Versions of Tracks 14-16 released on Voices Of Babylon (Columbia, 1989)
Version of Track 22 released on Rockeye (MCA, 1992)
Version of Track 23 released on If Looks Could Kill: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (MCA, 1991)
Version of Track 25 released on "Every Time You Cry" single (Columbia, 1986)
Version of Track 26 released on Replay (self-released, 2011)
Version of Track 29 released on "The Night Ain't Over" single (Columbia, 1989)