Search - Jeannie C Riley :: Little Darlin

Jeannie before success

Beth | Mesa, AZ United States | 03/04/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Harper Valley P.T.A. and this album "The Songs of Jeannie C. Riley" both came out in 1968. This was demo work that Little Darlin' put out after her Harper success. My two favorite songs from this album and from her in general are the sassy The Price I pay to Stay and The Heart he Kicks Around.

Jeannie wrote two ok songs from this album I'll be a Woman of the World and How can anything so right be so wrong. She wouldn't write her own songs again till she joined MGM in the 70's. In some ways this album sounds more like traditional country than her Plantation work but the songs are less memorable. After all Tom T. Hall wrote some of her best songs. This is hardly Jeannie's best album but since it's one of the few on the market it's worth picking up."

Early Jeannie C

CP | England | 02/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a delight at long last an entire original Jeannie C Riley album.

Other than Harper Valley PTA this is the only original Jeannie C Riley available so far. The album predates Harper Valley and is Jeannie C's first album. For me the highlight of the album is the song "The price I pay to say" a taste of feisty Jeannie C to come. The album like Jeannie C, is wonderful from start to finish especially for a debut album. I only hope that those that have the back catalogue of Jeannie C's Plantation and MGM years treat us to some more original albums and not more of the same material that has been churned out on endles collections."

Remixed sound messes up the album's original integrity

Thomas J. Diehl | Rensselaer, NY United States | 05/10/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"When Aubrey Mayhew commissioned KOCH Nashville to release to cd several cds of music from his Little Darlin' record label, as well as music from his Certron record label reissued under the Little Darlin' label, I thought it would be great to finally get some of the music on cd. However, I have problems with the music that was released on this particular cd.



Basically, here are the problems that appear to be evident with every single song: Every single song runs faster on the cd than the original lp plays when it is running at the proper speed.



The songs are also all remixed. I don't necessarily believe everything is from master tapes as I heard vinyl noise on The Heart He Kicks Around, and even a little bit on The Price I Pay To Stay, but some of the songs all also have annoying background vocals that were not on the original lp at all, and the fiddles and small electric guitar parts have all been replaced on the cd version with an annoying twangy guitar sound similar to the guitar from Harper Valley PTA. I don't know when the instrumentation or stereo mixes were changed or when the background vocals were added, but they are most definitely not on the original "Little Darlin'" lp release.



The Price I Pay To Stay in particular sounds a lot different on the cd as it is upbeat there, it was not quite as upbeat on the original lp. The stereo version of the song on this cd matches the mono version found on the 45 Capitol 2378.



Lastly, what's with the song "You've Got Me Singing Nursery Rhymes"?? The original lp had the song "Or Is It Love" in it's place, and i think I prefer that one to this song. 'Nursery Rhymes' was first issued as the B side to her 2nd and last Capitol 45, #2449. They should've left "Or Is It Love" on this cd. Not to mention that the track order on the cd is not the same as on the original lp.



These songs were recorded as demos for Aubrey Mayhew who recorded her before anyone else had (or so the original Little Darlin' lp states) (I don't know how she ended up recording for Mayhew but I've heard stories of her being cheated out of royalties from the songs that came from those sessions, and probably from this cd too), but when two 45 rpm releases on Little Darlin' in 1967 did nothing (all 4 of those sides are on this cd), she switched over to Plantation Records where she finally reached success. The Little Darlin' lp was released after her success with Harper Valley PTA to cash in on it, which is even more evident on the cd re-release of these songs by making them all sound like that hit.



I don't know what recording masters Aubrey Mayhew sent to KOCH to put out for this cd, but they are not the original album mixes, which makes this entire cd almost worth avoiding entirely. If a vinyl source was in fact used to master this cd reissue, it would likely have been the Capitol LP titled The Songs Of Jeannie C. Riley (Capitol 177), which means that all of these songs would be under the copyright of Capitol, and not Aubrey Mayhew. I'm not so sure EMI would throw a fit about it if they ever found out, and that was the case with these songs, but if all of the songs on this cd are identical to those on the Capitol LP, then that is first class false advertising.



The album sounds so much better in it's original Little Darlin' vinyl form, and it is worth seeking out, so check ebay for it! Jeannie C. Riley - "Sock Soul" on Little Darlin' SLD-8011. To anyone who owns or once owned the original "Little Darlin'" lp, if you think you're getting those original versions on this LP, you're only kidding yourself. Avoid this cd unless you are a true completist who already owns the lp and wants to hear the songs from a different angle. But for me, who liked the original lp recordings as they were, this cd just did not cut it at all when it claimed to be the "Little Darlin'" sound of Jeannie C. Riley. If anything, this album should've been called "The Capitol Sounds Of Jeannie C. Riley"."