Collectors’ re-issue label group Cherry Red currently have a whole raft of goodies on offer. Top of their pile is a straight reissue of the 5th DIMENSION’S wonderful ‘The Magic Garden’. The original LP was released in 1968 and, of course, was a collaboration with JIM WEBB. He provided all the songs and the lush orchestral links and though some of the cuts are always featured on the group’s hits albums, it’s so good to hear them in their original context. Label, by the way, is Rev-o-La. Sister label Shout can offer DENISE LASALLE’S ‘A Little Bit Naughty’ – a mix of her best ABC and MCA recordings and McKINLEY “SOUL” MITCHELL’S wonderful ‘The Town I Live In’. Over on the Poker imprint there’s MAMIE LEE’S’ Once In A Lifetime’. LEE was a classy soul-jazz singer who died in the late 70s and this 12 tracker proffers the singer’s collectable MGM album on which she sounds like a cross between ESTHER PHILIPS and NANCY WILSON along with a couple of bonuses – one of which is the popular Northern groove, ‘I Can Feel Him Slipping Away’… and as ever Cherry Red also offer lots of great sixties pop from outfits like the GRASS ROOTS and the TOKENS (both favourites with ageing mods).
