Les Humphries Singers - Sound 73
Published November 7th, 2006 in Obsessions, Treasure Tags: Cheese, Music.
Just when you think you’ll never find another good thrift store record — when you’ve waded through so many Christmas albums, faceless twelve-inches and complete works of Johnny Mathis that you never want to experience the feel of dusty, mold impregnated cardboard again, when you’re absolutely fed up with fending off conversation with all the other middle-aged sociopaths who also seem to gravitate to the Salvation Army record stack when not at their low-paying jobs (if they even work at all) — you run across the gem that thrills your imagination and fuels your expectation for another seven or eight gas tankfuls worth of crosstown forages. “Sound 73″ by The Les Humphires Singers is just such an album.
I was initially attracted to this album on the strength of its back cover photo, plus the promise dangled but not delivered by other German Euro-medley monsters like Kai Warner, Max Greger and Hugo Strasser. But while this album is certainly aimed at the insatiable European hunger for strict-tempo ballroom dancing, the Les Humphries Singers come off more like a multi-cultural bubblegum gospel choir on helium, accompanied by the Bay City Rollers and a full orchestra.
What strikes one about this record is the sheer relentlessness of its presentation. There is no real attempt to hide the jump edits — songs careen freely from one to another without any real thematic cohesion other than beats per minute. The material runs the gamut from T Rex’s “Children Of The Revolution” and Alice Cooper’s “Elected” to Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Claire” and Elvis’ “Burning Love.” They also throw in some gospel (”Dem Bones”) and even a couple instrumentals (Hot Butter’s “Popcorn”). Humphries includes several of his own compositions as well, including the group’s sub-literate smash, “Mama Loo.”
British-born Humphries formed the singers in 1969 after spending a year playing keyboards for the progressive German rock combo Wonderland. Though LHS distinguished themselves initially with a series of gospel-styled singles, their taste for campy show-biz psychedelia placed them more in the Andrew Lloyd Webber camp than with more devout pop choirs like Up With People. The group went on to release a string of successful secular recordings before disbanding in 1976 when Les fled back to England to escape tax-related criminal charges in Germany. Many of the group’s singers went on to solo careers, including Jürgen Drews, Liz Mitchell (who later joined Boney M) and John Lawton (Uriah Heep).
The group never did much damage over here in the states, so their records turn up with nowhere near the frequency of, say, James Last’s. However, Amazon offers a few German compilations, and you can find a fabulous television performance of Mama Loo on YouTube, which features an excellent example of the group’s exquisite mid-70s couture, as well as Lawton’s hilarious lip-syncing. There is also a non-comprehensive section devoted to LHS on Lawton’s site, and the Vinyl Preservation project is streaming the group’s “Swinging Sound” album. But until Mr. Roy Black finds a way to include them over at Germans Under Cover, this is all we have.
Download “Sound 73″ by the Les Humphries Singers now
More Les Humphries at Bostworld:
Les Humphries - “Piano Concerto”
Les Humphries R.I.P.
WHY you middle-aged sociopath you!!
So great to see you show up at my fledgling Blog! Now I will read yours!!
YAY BOSTWORLD
Funny, that’s what I said when I say YOUR blog!
Call me crazy, but I happen to enjoy sifting through the old records at local thrift stores. And I am glad to hear that it’s not only this area that has an abundance of Mathis records in stock.
But what was that about people with low paying jobs? Sorry, man, but I really didn’t like that part….
Me either; but, hey — we can’t all be millionaires.
Derrick, thanks! This is freggin awesome. I NEVER would have picked this out of the crate. Les looks too “Johnny Mann Singers” on the cover. Your description sold me on giving it a whirl, but it is still cooler than imagined. Been on a bubblegum kick of late, so this fits the bill beautifully. Thank you so much for this cool bit of sharity.
Thanks Katya. This album was an unexpected find for me too!
I’m also happy to report a whole bunch more Les & the kids over at YouTube. In addition, almost every perfromance the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest has been uploaded there as well. (The Singers were Britain’s entrants that year!)
Thank You very much!
Very hard to find music of this artist! Do you have any other albums to share?
I wish!
Is the song ” Dem bones ” available on cd?
Dave
While there are some Les Humphries Singers recordings available on CD (check the German Amazon site), most of them are hits packages or re-recordings. A full reissue series does not yet exist. So you can get “Mama Loo,” “Mexico,” “To My Father’s House” and “We Are Going Down Jordan” easily. Beyond that, you have to rely on mediocre vinyl rips like mine.
Just remember you young whipper-snapper, you’ll be a middle-aged sociopath one day as well.
I’m confused.
What part of “other” and “also” did you not understand?
If you want some more informations about the Les Humphries Singers or need anything like Vinyl-records, please contact me.
Some of the LHS foundet the choir: The Original Singers and they will release her new song on TV at feb. 10.1008 here in Germany.(NDR)
kind regards
Maggie
was looking for that album for 20 years! it is a childhood memory - my mother introduced me to “modern” music using this album of Les Humphries and Hair when I was 7 or 8 years old. While Hair was easy to find, this particular album escaped all my searches so far. Hearing the songs again after so many years is sooo wonderful and brings back so many pleasant memories from times when life seemed so simple…..
maybe it still is, I just forgot…
Thank You!
Christian
Hi there,
I was a HUGE Les Humphries Singers fan in my early teens and I still love their gospel/pop/rock/ sound. I highly recommend their 1971 album “We´ll fly you to the promised land” (including a great versions of Hey Joe). Their 1971 live album is also surprisingly good, although I suspect some of it is studio-recorded.
Sadly, I just read that Les Humphries died in December 2007.
Tomas in Sweden
Hi, I am from West Germany, now living in the US.
I remember that one medley of this LP (Mama Loo/Dem Bones/I’m from the South) was heavily played on our radio station (NDR2 from Hamburg, covering also Niedersachsen south of Hamburg) during the spring and early summer of 1973. (Yes, I am that old, I do remember that!)
It took me until 1982 to buy all LHS LPs, because before that I was not old enough to afford them. I found almost all german pressings in some second-hand stores in Hamburg, where I lived and worked at the time.
The record company Telefunken (with its sub-label Decca) also were in Hamburg, and somebody must have dropped by and sold half their archive. The owner of the store called me once and told me, he just got a pile of LHS-LPs in, all white labels from an archive. Would I maybe like them?
You bet! The price was stiff, 20 DM each (at the time that was a lot of money, especialy when you are an apprentice like I was at the time), but I took them all.
I still have them. And love them. Just can’t play them anymore. so I am really glad to find some listed as mp3 files to download. Really cool.
Thank you so much!