Music For Biscuits - Mike Sammes & The Mike Sammes Singers

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	A good collection of a past age's jingles .
Disadvantages:	Not an artefact to listen to in one sitting .  .  .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Oh now, this is a WEIRD one to review.

This CD comes to you courtesy of the small but perfectly formed Trunk Records, (proprietor, Jonny Trunk), a reissue label that for the last ten years has specialised in issuing obscure, neglected, deleted, previousely unissued and just plain weird musical and non-musical recordings. They have only a small, but ever-changing catalogue and don't re-press when a particular recording sells out (as I've found to my disappointment...). Many of the recordings are available on both CD and vinyl, check out the Trunk Records website to see what I mean...

The full story is available in the liner notes (and on the Trunk website) but in a nutshell, shortly after Mr. Sammes death in May 2001, Jonny Trunk came into possession of the tapes of what were advertising jingles recorded in the 60's and 70's by The Mike Sammes Singers, for a variety of products, from TUC biscuits to International Harvester tractors. Destined for the rubbish skip prior to Jonny's nifty rescue mission, most are around 25 to 35 seconds long but many are much longer (up to almost 3 mins) while some are as short as only 6 secs (ie, the Sunblest one).

In addition, there is the soundtrack to a short movie included called "Youth" (rather jolly in a non-groovy 60's way, imo) and seven, (yes SEVEN!) 'hidden' tracks at the end.

What of the music itself? Apart from the already mentioned brevity of the tracks, the music itself is what I would descibe as top-quality "easy listening". Now, I'm no fan of most easy listening but what makes these acceptable IS their sheer brevity. They do their bit, dwell before your ears and are then gone, just like the ads they were once a part of. Standout tracks are the Toast Toppers one ( to the tune of "You're The Tops") the TUC Biscuit ones and the two for tractors.

And of course, as any reader of (ahem) a certain age will know, Mike Sammes specialised in rather well worked out and gorgeous harmonies.He worked not only on ads, but also movie scores (eg "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid") and other media too. From the 50's to the 80's, he worked with Bacharch, the Beatles, loads of top names, anyone who WAS anyone in the music biz. The Mike Sammes Singers also had hits under their own name. For crying out loud, this man had class and pedigree! And if you're after his trademark harmonies, here you will not disappointed, as they are the bedrock of the music on here, often accompanied by mainly fairly sparse backing music.

It's all good stuff. but I'm reserving my criticism for last. This album isn't (as such) a real album, basically. I don't think you could sit down and listen to it whole, like a proper album, just dip in and play the odd track every now and again.

One thing I think it would be useful for, would be to include the odd tracks on your own home-made mix tapes/CDs. Could be a general "nostalgia" mix or just an overall generally weird one (for example, I have my own weird mix CD planned over the next few weeks and will include one or two from this CD). DJ's, samplers and users of 'found' sounds in their own recordings will find a wealth of useable stuff on here too (the TUC biscuit one would be good for this, as would the Vespa one, I think).

So there you have it. Old 60's and 70's ads a go-go, courtesy of Mike Sammes and the entrepreneurial fandom of Mr and Mrs Trunk's little boy, Jonny. Not perfect by any means, as a few of the tracks are a little under par. But not that bad either though, out of a total of 44 tracks (counting the seven hidden tracks). But can we expect a Vol.2, I wonder? Oh, I hope so...

Definitely one for the fan of the odd or off the wall, in conclusion.
What really freaks me out is that I can actually remember a few of these. Am I really THAT old? Apparently, yes.

Blimey. Where's me Zimmer frame...?