Outfit today tagged as a one-hit-wonder due to their prosperous remake of Roger Cook and Roger Greeaway's 1967 "Softly Whispering I Love You". While the "David And Jonathan" (pseudo for Cook and Greenaway) original only had a minor impact, this 1971 cover made #4 in UK, #29 in US and top ten in many other countries...but that was it for this setting. The LP undoubtedly a trial to cash in on the 45 success by doing an album consisting of eight covers and two self-penned performed in the exactly same style. There has been many attempts to record follow-up albums to one-off hits through the years and most of them not so good, but this I like. Most of it heavily orchestrated and backed by giant quires, then balanced by Brian Keith's raw, borderline guttural, vocals and Alan Parker's partly prominent guitars. These are the two pictured on the sleeve, but I suspect most of the result was due to the work of arranger and conductor Andrew Pryce Jackman plus producers John Burgess and Peter Sullivan at George Martin's AIR studio. It's very emotional, the audio is absolutely tophole and I'm touched. Especially by the title track and versions of "Lover's Concerto" and "If I Could Have My Way". When it comes to the covers of Beatles "Something" and Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade Of Pale" I'm already too stuck with the originals, but the versions here are so different they're worth to be valued intrinsically. Call me sentimental and sometimes I am and then this will work like a charm. Issued in US and Canada as "The English Congregation" on Signpost (SP 7217), US also as mono promo. Australian on Columbia (SCXO 6490). To my knowledge never released on CD. Premiere UK had label as shown here in a laminated flip/back cover.
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