Begin is the only album ever released by the collective known as The Millennium during its lifetime (though there have been several compilations since the group's demise).~ Wikipedia know
Begin has gained notoriety throughout the years as being the most expensive album that Columbia Records had released by that time, though critics generally agree that the money was well spent. It is now generally considered to be a classic of sunshine pop.
Begin has been reissued numerous times throughout the years, despite the extremely poor sales of the original release, and has been reissued in three different configurations on CD. The 1990 reissue featured truncated cover art, but included brief interviews with several band members in the liner notes and both sides of a rare promotional single, "Just About The Same" b/w "Blight". A later reissue featured the single versions of several tracks from the album. The most recent reissue of the album is as the third CD in the three-disc set Magic Time, released by Sundazed Records in 2001. It features all of the bonus tracks from the two previous versions, but "Just About The Same" and "Blight" are presented in mono, whereas they were presented in their original stereo mixes on the 1990 release.
You Could Be Born Again is the second album by The Free Design; it was released in 1968.
The Free Design was a Delevan, New York-based vocal group playing jazzy pop music. Their music can be described as sunshine pop and baroque pop, which were pop music subgenres at the time, which later influenced the bands Stereolab, Cornelius, Pizzicato Five, Beck and The High Llamas.~ Wikipedia know
Kites are Fun is the debut album from The Free Design, released in 1967.
Originally The Phantoms (minus Lawley) they'd formed in Cleveland, Mississippi. After relocating to Biloxi, they recruited Linda Lawley and changed their name to Eternity's Children. With aspirations to become an L.A. pop-psych band, they honed their skills on the New Orleans circuit (playing as Charlie Rich's backing band?), before venturing to L.A. to record. Their main claim to fame was Mrs. Bluebird, a minor hit, which was produced by Millennium's Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen. By the time their first album was released however, Bounds, Walker and Blackman had left, with the latter replaced by Texan McClain (ex-Neurotic Sheep).~ Fuzz, Acid And Flower
Overall their eponymous debut album is a top album for Boettcher fans, and features songs by Boettcher plus other Millennium members - including Flowers, a Michael Fennelly composition dropped from Millennium's Begin album. Curiously, the "cover" of Sagittarius' You know I've Found A Way is the exact same track as the demo logged at the publishers, and may not even feature Eternity's Children at all!
Their second album was produced by Gary Paxton in Bakersfield, with compositions by Clarence White, Gene Parsons, Ben Benay and Gary & Jan Paxton. Sounding like a tougher Fifth Dimension, with a European tinge, akin perhaps to Glitterhouse's performance on the "Barbarella" soundtrack. A couple of the tracks, Blue Horizon and Sidewalks Of The Ghetto were cut with Spooner Oldham and Chips Moman - presumably in Memphis.
In 1969, the 45 releases get a little confusing, with consecutive Tower catalogue numbers mixing tracks credited to Charles Ross III, with Eternity's Children cuts. This kind of begs the question, whether this parallel release was a marketing ploy, to push Charles Ross III on the back of the more familiar group name. In addition, their final 45 includes an unreleased Curt Boettcher tune on the 'B' side which may even date back to their first album sessions.
Blackman went on to form Starbuck and later Korona.
The band also recorded a further album which wasn't released at the time. This has recently been discovered by Gear Fab and is due to be reissued together with other bonus material from '65 - '67, sometime in the near future. Alternatively, there is a Revola CD which comprises 25 tracks, covering both LPs and assorted 45s from 1967-1970. This comes with a detailed history by Dawn Eden.
Playback was an album recorded by The Appletree Theatre in 1967.~ Wikipedia know
The project was set up by brothers Terry and John Boylan. It was written, directed and performed by the Boylan brothers, supported by leading jazz session musicians including Larry Coryell and Eric Gale.
Playback was essentially a loosely-woven concept album, divided into three acts, an overture, and an epilogue, with full-length pop songs such as "Hightower Square" and "I Wonder If Louise Is Home" linked by vocal narratives and snatches of music, including elements of jazz, acid rock, and classical music, sometimes given distorted sonic treatment. It was released on the Verve Forecast label, in different album sleeves in the US and UK. John Lennon, in a 1968 interview with Penny Nichols in London, called Playback one of his favourite new albums, and Philip Proctor acknowledged its influence on his own group, The Firesign Theatre. Time magazine stated that "this cycle of rock songs is an explosion of surprises, blending fey whimsy with just plain loony-bin clowning."
Playback was reissued on CD in 2007.
The Cuff Links were an American rock/pop studio group from Staten Island, New York. The band had a U.S. No. 9 hit in 1969 with "Tracy", with rich harmonised vocals provided entirely by Ron Dante. The track was produced as part of a series of recording sessions – sometimes as many as six in a day – by Dante, with the songs released under a variety of band names.~Wikipedia know
