Genre: pop
Rating: 4 stars ****
Title: Spring
Company: United Artists
Catalog: UAS-557
Year: 1972
Country/State: G
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: cut lower right corner; gatefold sleeve; minor ring wear
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5436
Price: $120.00
This is one of those albums that was thoroughly ignored when released in 1972, but over the ensuing decades has gained a cult following in collecting circles, particularly among Beach Boy/Brian Wilson fans where original copies now attract fairly large dollars. I've been looking for a copy for years, but never managed to find an affordable copy until this year (June 2008) when I stumbled across a copy in a record store discount bin. Yeah - hard to believe I finally found a copy for $1.00. I guess it goes to show that persistence occasionally pays off.
As children, sisters Barbara, Diane, and Marilyn Rovell began singing as The Rovell Sisters. They won numerous local talent shows, eventually appearing on local GM car commercials. As teenagers crossed paths with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Wilson took at interest in the Rovell sisters and with the addition of their cousin Ginger Blake started working with the group. Billed as The Honeys, they were eventually signed by Capitol Records (coincidently The Beach Boys' label). Over the next couple of years Wilson produced a string of singles for the group, but none broke commercially and by the mid-1960s they'd called it quits.
Following the breakup of The Honeys Marilyn married Brian Wilson, but along with sister Diane her musical career was limited to providing occasional backing vocals on Beach Boy projects. The Spring project reportedly evolved out of a vocal harmonizing session in the Wilson household kitchen. Having just finished The Beach Boys' "Carl and the Passions" album, Wilson decided to start working with the two sisters, resulting in the release of a 1971 single:
- 'Now Everything's Been Said' b/w 'Awake' (United Artists catalog number 50848)
The single did little commercially, but Wilson's participation was apparently enough of a draw for United Artists to finance a follow-on LP - 1972's cleverly titled "Spring". (Throughout Europe the album was credited to 'American Spring' to avoid confusion with the English progressive band Spring). While Stephen Desper and David Sandler were credited with producing much of the material, Wilson was listed as the executive producer. Wilson also wrote or co-wrote four of the twelve tracks. Moreover the album literally dripped with Wilson/Beach Boy styled production effects (check out the Wilson original 'This Whole World'). Curiously, sporting a folkie feel, the opener 'Tennessee Waltz' was probably the most atypical effort. From there on tracks like Thinkin' bout You Baby'', 'Mama Said' and 'Awake' sported a winning mixture of Beach Boys-styled harmonies (including several tracks with Wilson's own backing vocals), and Phil Spector wall-of-sound styled production effects. That wasn't to understate the Rovells' contributions. The sisters weren't the most technically gifted singers you'd ever heard, but they had voices best described as sweet and innocent and they were gifted harmony singers. At least to my ears much of the set's unique charm lay in their inherent innocence and the set's lack of cutting edge sophistication. Exemplified by tracks like 'Sweet Mountain' (complete with French lyric segment), their cover of Tommy roe's 'Everybody', and 'Good Time' the album actually sounded like a group of friends who were having fun recording material for the sake of having a good time. The only real disappointment was a rote cover of The Carpenters' 'Superstar' (yeah I know Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett wrote it). United Artists also tapped the album for an instantly obscure and highly collectable single:
- 'Good Times' b/w 'Sweet Mountain' (United Artists catalog number 50907)
Unfortunately by 1972 the Beach Boys had lost much of their marketing cache and sporting one of the year's ugliest covers certainly didn't help sales.
"Spring" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Tennessee Waltz (Redd Stewart) - 1:5
2.) Thinkin' bout You Baby (Brian Wilson - Mike Love) - 3:0
3.) Mama Said (Luther Dixon - Willie Denson) - 2:32
4.) Superstar (Leon Russell - Bonnie Bramlett) - 3:30
5.) Awake (Floyd Tucker) - 3:20
6.) Sweet Mountain (Brian Wilson - David Sandler) - 4:17
(side
2)
1.) Everybody (Tommy Roe) - 2:20
2.) This Whole World (Brian Wilson) - 3:18
3.) Forever (Dennis Wilson - Alan Jardin) - 3:19
4.) Good Time (Brian Wilson - Alan Jardin) - 2:38
5.) Now That Everything's Been Said (Carole King - Toni Stern) - 2:19
6.) Down Home (Carole King - Gerry Goffin) - 2:44
Curiously given its limited target audience, sporting different cover art the album also saw German and Italian releases:
catalog
number UAS 29363
Billed as 'American Spring' in order to avoid confusion with a UK-based Spring, the following year the sisters released a one-shot single for Columbia:
- 'Shyin' Away' b/w 'Fallin' In Love' (Columbia catalog number 4-45834)
Marilyn's subsequent divorce from Brian effectively ended the group's recording career.
In 1988 Rhino Records reissued the album in CD format (Rhino catalog number R21S-75762). The reissued included both sides of the Columbia single and two previously unreleased tracks:
- It's Like Heaven
- Had To Phone Ya
In 1994 the See For Miles label also reissued the album as "Spring ... Plus" (See For Miles catalog number SEECD 269).