Lee Hazlewood - The Sweet Ride: Lost Recordings 1965-68 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

We are so very excited to announce the next release in our Lee Hazlewood archival series, The Sweet Ride: Lost Recordings 1965-68, a new compilation of demos, outtakes, and home recordings from Lee’s most prolific and successful era. The tracks have been cherry-picked from Lee’s personal tape stash by GRAMMY®-nominated producer Hunter Lea. The audio is remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin and features ten previously unreleased recordings.

The collection is bookended by two different studio demos of “The Sweet Ride,” the title song Lee wrote for the 1968 surfer drama film in which Lee also co-starred as “The Man.” The film version was beautifully sung by Dusty Springfield and released on the soundtrack LP The Sweet Ride (20th Century Fox S4198, 1968). Both the fast and the slow demos were recorded on July 12, 1967 and feature the Los Angeles session musicians, The Wrecking Crew, which include the unmistakable piano of Don Randi. Don mentioned how Lee became friends with co-star Tony Franciosa while working on The Sweet Ride film. Lee thought so highly of Tony that he and Don demoed some songs in hopes to record an album, but Tony just couldn’t sing!

Tracks 2-5 are from a previously unheard demo tape, recorded August 12, 1965, the day before Lee’s very first session producing Nancy Sinatra! The songs were recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders and engineered by Bruce Botnick (The Beach Boys, Jerry Goldsmith, The Doors, Love). These four recordings are the missing link between Lee’s albums, Friday’s Child (Reprise 6163, 1965) and The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood (MGM E-4362, 1966 & LITA 131, 2014). “I Move Around,” and “When A Fool Loves A Fool” were re-recorded in 1966 for The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood, “The Old Man & His Guitar” was re-recorded for Lee Hazlewoodism: It’s Cause And Cure (MGM E-4403, 1967 & LITA 132, 2014) and “Big Town” never made it on album, it’s heard here for the first time!

Tracklist:
1. The Sweet Ride (1967 studio outtake, fast version) (02:52)
2. I Move Around (1965 studio demo) (02:33)
3. Big Town (1965 studio demo) (02:12)
4. The Old Man & His Guitar (1965 studio demo) (02:12)
5. When A Fool Loves A Fool (1965 studio demo) (02:26)
6. Winter Moon (acoustic demo) (01:15)
7. Little Bird (acoustic demo) (02:40)
8. Spring Thing (1968 studio demo) (02:53)
9. I've Been Down So Long (1968 acoustic demo) (02:01)
10. Nothin’s Gonna Blow My Mind (1968 acoustic demo) (01:35)
11. The Sweet Ride (1967 studio demo, slow version) (03:26)


Thanks to the Original customer!