by Ken Lee - Directed by Philip Hedley - 1975

Producer: Leo Lyons

• Good Evening Friends

• Wonderful World

• The Great Pretender

• Chantilly Lace

• Teen Angel

• Teenager in Love/Wooden Heart

• Never Go Home Anymore

• Walk Hand in Hand

• My Prayer

The Original Program

I searched for this album for a few years, and was willing to spend a large amount of money to hear it, since I considered it to be the follow-up to the awesome I/You record. I was expecting miracles.

Village Music in Mill Valley, CA, has a well-deserved reputation for finding obscure records. More than a year after I filled out a simple request slip, they contacted me to say that they'd found it. And, to add a certain luster to the prize, it was less than $5!

However, it's full of somewhat histrionic and strained performances of American "at the hop" tunes, as the soundtrack to a "Rock 'n' Roll Musical," and it seems to deserve its obscurity.

Ken Lee is listed in the credits as the producer - as well as the man responsible for the scenery and costumes. (?) Therefore, it makes sense that my major issue is with the production here, since it's a big stumbling block to enjoying the album. Perhaps the stage version was much better than this.

So it was disappointing to find it, as well as exciting. But don't bother looking for it. Go back and listen to "Interview/Also in the Limelight" instead and forget about this one.

11/99

OK, so maybe I'm mellowing with age. Or maybe I'm not so shocked or disappointed as I once was that it's not like I/You. The first time I played this album I gave it a couple of tries and just couldn't get past how unexpected or different it was. As I was listening to the tracks while converting them for this site, I'll admit that I wasn't nearly as disappointed with them as I was when I first heard them.

Now, separating it from the other BP discs and lumping it in with the other "theatre" soundtracks, a la "Rocky Horror" or "How To Succeed in Business" or "Bye Bye Birdie," it's not quite as...difficult to listen to as it once was.

I don't have the space (or the copyright) to put the whole album on the website, but check out the four songs in the playlist above that have audio files - they’re the ones that have BP prominently featured on them. I hope you like them. These days, I honestly do, but I still wish it were "I/You Redux."