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9383 - ALAN PRICE SET - THE PRICE TO PLAY (1966)

ALAN PRICE SET
''THE PRICE TO PLAY''
1966
38:14

1 Barefooting (Chris Kenner) 04:32
2 Just Once In My Life (Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Phil Spector) 03:23
3 Going Down Slow (James Burke Oden) 04:44
4 Getting Mighty Crowded (Van McCoy) 02:13
5 Honky Tonk (Billy Butler, Bill Doggett, Clifford Scott, Berisford ''Sheep'' Shepherd) 04:40
6 Move On Drifter (Jeanette ''Baby'' Washington) 02:27
7 Mercy Mercy (Don Covay, Helen Miller) 03:06
8 Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever (Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevie Wonder) 02:42
9 Ain't That Peculiar (Warren ''Pete'' Moore, Smokey Robinson, Robert Rogers, Marvin Tarplin) 03:19
10 I Can't Turn You Lose (Otis Redding) 02:20
11 Critic's Choice (Oliver Nelson) 01:58
12 Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo (Adolph Deutsch, Bronislaw Kaper) 02:46

REVIEW/AMG
by Richie Unterberger
Price's first album (released in the U.K. only, although some tracks would come out in the U.S.) is a rather routine set of club R&B/soul. Fronting a six-piece that includes three horns, Price sticks mostly to covers of familiar American tunes like "Mercy Mercy," "Ain't That Peculiar," "I Can't Turn You Loose," and "Barefootin'" on this amiable, but hardly remarkable, set. Price's voice is appealing, but lacks power, and in all it sounds like a clump of covers ground out hurriedly to get an album on the market. Georgie Fame did this kind of thing better, though Price's approach isn't as jazz-oriented. The CD reissue on Repertoire doubles the length of the original LP by adding 12 bonus tracks from 1965-1967 singles, including the brilliant British hit "I Put a Spell on You." The other singles cuts, alas, aren't in the same league, though in general they're better than the ones that constituted The Price to Play. His cover of "Any Day Now" is decent, and the interpretation of Randy Newman's "Simon Smith and the Dancing Bear" (presented in two versions) would both give him a British hit and foretell a move into a much poppier direction.

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Richie Unterberger

As the organist in the first Animals lineup, Alan Price was perhaps the most important instrumental contributor to their early run of hits. He left the group in 1965 after only a year or so of international success (he can be seen talking about his departure with Bob Dylan in the rockumentary Don't Look Back) to work on a solo career. Leading the Alan Price Set, he had a Top Ten British hit in 1966 with a reworking of "I Put a Spell on You," complete with Animals-ish organ breaks and bluesy vocals. His subsequent run of British hits between 1966 and 1968 -- "Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo," "Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear," "The House That Jack Built," and "Don't Stop the Carnival" -- were in a much lighter vein, drawing from British music hall influences. "Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear," from 1967, was one of the first Randy Newman songs to gain international exposure, though Price's version -- like all his British hits -- went virtually unnoticed in the U.S. A versatile entertainer, Price collaborated with Georgie Fame, hosted TV shows, and scored plays in the years following the breakup of the Alan Price Set in 1968. He composed the score to Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man!, where his spare and droll songs served almost as a Greek chorus to the surreal, whimsical film (Price himself has a small role in the movie). His 1974 concept album Between Today and Yesterday was his most critically acclaimed work.

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