Lady Godiva / Knight in Rusty Armour / In London for Tea

This set by BGO puts together what are essentially Peter & Gordon's last three American albums. Yes, it's true they had Hot, Cold & Custard in 1968 but virtually no one was aware that album even existed at the time. Even Sunday for Tea had a rather marginal awareness quotient. The single had only reached number 30 on billboard which meant stations were playing it but it wasn't selling much. When the album came out the world was abuzz with Sgt. Pepper and a new album by Peter & Gordon did not get much attention.Peter & Gordon had actually had a great run for a British Invasion group, first wave in the late Spring of '64 at that. Of all that first group only Dusty Springfield and the Beatles were still around in early '67, though the Dave Clark Five did reappear with a final untypical Memphis-sounding hit with You Got What It Takes.Peter & Gordon had managed to have a string of hits spaced apart enough to keep them current, though it had been a while since their last hit, Woman in early '66. They went through the next six months or so without a hit and in the 60's that was a long time. For all intents it seemed like they were over with when they suddenly struck gold with the vaudeville-like Godiva, which gave them a final flourish before their inevitable fading away. In America, even the sound-alike Knight In Rusty Armour made top twenty.Capitol rushed out albums as though they knew this had to be the end and these three came out within five months of each other. Even in the mid-60's when artists often put out three albums a year this was extravagant but it did see them off with a bang.Since no one was expecting a big hit out of the duo, who were hardly even seeing each other by this point, it's a surprise that the Lady Godiva album was released before the single and wasn't a rush job. You would think it then would be the best of the three, the other two being actual rush jobs, but in fact it's the weakest. This does not mean it was a bad album in terms of singing or production. Peter & Gordon always sounded good and the album is enjoyable in its way more so now than when it was released. The problem was the material chosen. When you look at the list of titles, all good songs individually, it nevertheless looks like an album by the Lettermen, not Peter & Gordon.It was novel and inspired for them to do big orchestral versions of originally mellow songs like True Love Ways and to Know Him Is To Love Him ("Him" changed to "You"). To find them doing versions of Western theme songs with cinema-sized orchestras was the highlight of the Woman album and unique in 60's pop as no one had ever even considered doing such a thing. It didn't lead anywhere but was a rare by-way in an era of inventive pop. But with the Lady Godiva album we get too many pop standards as if some Capitol producer wanted to steer them toward the easy-listening market. One of these, like their big take on Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing would be a nice departure but counting the title tune eight of the eleven songs are easy-listening oriented and that's too many for a Peter & Gordon album. The highlight is really unusual ballad, Start Trying Someone Else, which was written by Asher & Waller.Though Knight In Rusty Armour was rushed out when the single became a surprise hit follow-up, it's a fine album for the duo. It contains more of what was the folk-based Peter & Gordon sound in songs like Jackie DeShannon's A Boy With Nothing, their own I Would Buy You Presents and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's Homeward Bound, though it is rather close to the original. They also do a good version of The Flower Lady, a Phil Ochs song that would appear at the end of the year on his album, The Pleasures of the Harbor (one of the finest albums of the 60's and it hardly sold at all). Stranger With a Black Dove is what I consider to be Asher and Waller's best composition and it follows the title track here. They also do a credibly rocking job on Colour Blue and the blues-based Jimmy reed song Baby What You Want Me To Do. All in all it sounds like a Peter & Gordon album, a welcome sound after the previous LP.In London For Tea starts off with the inventive London At Night, another one of their better folk-pop blends that includes two nice wordless vocal sections. The Jokers was the theme song from a movie hardly anyone knew about. It's another Leander-Mills song the duo who wrote Lady Godiva and knight In Rusty Armour, but this time was not a hit. They do an almost folksy version of James and Bobby Purify's I'm Your Puppet which actually works. New Orleans songwriter Alain Toussant's Here Comes That Hurt Again is given a Motown treatment and the Fortunes' You've got Your Troubles is slowed down in a way that emphasizes the lyrics and generally sad tone. The Jaynettes old girl group hit Sally Go 'Round the roses is given a big beat as is Goodbye My Love, which is still recognizably the old Searchers hit. The only composition by either is Gordon's Red, Cream and Velvet, a countryish song that even includes a Floyd Cramer style piano. All in all it's surprisingly good for such a late album and has the eclecticism that Peter & Gordon were known for.BGO has done a great job with these Petr & Gordon remasters. They have a deservedly good reputation. Everything is given a deluxe treatment with a good booklet (though it does reiterate a lot from the other BGO booklets. The sound is excellent as usual with this label. One thing I didn't mention about the other BGO releases in this series is that they always remaster the exact Sixties sound and don't mess around with it in any way. Generally this means some instruments on one channel others and possibly the vocals on the other. This reproduces the way these albums actually sounded in stereo.

Sometime in the 70's, I bought a used copy of Lady Godiva on vinyl. I didn’t get into it. Yes, I loved the song Lady Godiva, but was taken aback by the schmaltzy song selection (Exodus song, Love is a many splendored thing etc.). I bought this collection for the other 2 LP’s which I’d never heard before. Capitol/EMI seem to have botched the careers of Peter & Gordon. Instead of letting them do what they did best (British pop rock, country, 12-string guitar folk), they tried to turn them into the Lettermen, and take them from the youth market to the old folks who probably never heard this music anyway. OK, so now I’m old and listen with different ears. I enjoy Lady Godiva. It’s not nearly as bad as I thought. These guys were consummate professionals, and by this time of their careers, Gordon was a particularly talented singer who could sing in a variety of styles. However, how did EMI not notice that the 2 best songs on Lady Godiva were Morning Calling and Start trying someone else, both written by Peter & Gordon? This probably would have been a much better LP if EMI had let them write the rest of the LP. Knight in Rusty Armour is a better LP, and I particularly love the final track, the dark and melodramatic Young girl of 16. Now comes the real surprise, In London for tea. At first listen, I didn’t like it. After repeated listens, I feel it may be the best LP they ever produced. The song selection is excellent as is the production. It does something amazing - the production is so good, it doesn’t sound dated with perhaps the exception of the psychedelic movie theme The Jokers. The rest of the LP is amazing. I prefer their version of I’m your puppet to the Purify brothers. You’ve got your problems is more appropriate (slower and mournfu) and beautiful than the Fortunes version. Stop, Look, and Listen is awesome. It should have been a major hit (if EMI knew what they were doing). The producer of this album was a genius. If you want to know what they were capable of, how good they were, give London for Tea and Hot Cold and Custard a listen. Unfortunately, by this time in their career Peter & Gordon didn’t seem to like each other much, and they went their separate ways. But the albums I mention as well as their Nashville Hits albums show how talented they really were. I’d give this 5 stars.

Excellent 2cd among. The best songs they made (though no hits here)

Lady Godiva a great song and some others on the cd are good...glad i got it thanks

Just like I remember it when I was a young man.

This is a fantastic release from BGO. Superb sound quality. These 3 original LPs on 2 CDs are P&G at their best. Great versions of "classics" like "The Exodus Song" and "Till There Was You"....along with many other fine tracks.They never cut a bad record.

With this purchase I now have all Peter and Gordon studio albums. They were among the best of the British Invasion.

Great album if you like the music of Peter and Gordon.

This 2-disc set brings together 3 of Peter & Gordon's U.S.A. Capitol Records albums. The duo's success was much more prolonged in the U.S.A., hence 11 albums were released in the U.S.A. versus 4 albums in the UK. The duo(or executives at Capitol) were quite prolific in releasing albums(these 3 albums were released in a space of five months, something that would be unthinkable today!). The duo's hitmaking days as fairly serious folk-rock & beat group performers was in commercial decline, but they got a boost with several novelty songs from outside writers, often in a twee musical hall vein("Knight in Rusty Armour", "Lady Godiva", "Sunday For Tea") which were quite commercially successful in the U.S.A.(and only slightly less so in the UK). The frantic rush to release albums meant that there were far fewer original songs from Peter & Gordon themselves. The "Lady Godiva" & "Knights in Rusty Armour" albums were cobbled together by Capitol from various UK single & album tracks, plus tracks that had not been issued in the UK. The "Lady Godiva" album goes in a very uncontemporary middle of the road direction of relying on covers of standards and show tunes, which was a mistake, but a way to quickly fill an album. What you are getting for these two albums are Capitol's compilation masters, which are several generations removed from EMI/UK's original individual song masters, with Capitol's added processing, distortion and,in one case("I Would Buy You Presents", a Uk B-side) Capitol's fake stereo "Duophonic" processing. While the "Lady Godiva" album got mired in middle of the road material, the "Knight in Rusty Armour" collection was much better, with its' hit title track, and fine cover versions of Phil Ochs' "The Flower Lady", Jimmy Reed's Baby What You Want Me To Do?" & Paul Simon's "Homeward Bound", Del Shannon's rocking "Colour Blue" and two originals. However, the mediocre sound of Capitol's compilation masters does a disservice to the music. Yes, this is authenticity; making the CD sound exactly like Capitol's 1960's U.S.A. vinyl releases, but I would have much prefered to hear these tunes from the lowest generation existing individual song masters in EMI's UK vaults. As for the third album in this 2-CD collection, "In London For Tea", it is a much more coherent work, likely because it was conceived as an actual album. and because of its' non-compilation nature, the tapes used have drastically better sound quality versus the other two albums in the set. Still, two of the 3 albums in this set ("Knight in Rusty Armour" & "In London For Tea") had not appeared on CD before,. This is(for now) an essential addition to your Peter & Gordon CD collection. Still, it seems unreasonable that EMI/UK have, to date, excluded Peter & Gordon from the series of complete works 4-CD box sets that they've compiled for other 1960's beat group artists("Gerry & The Pacemakers", "Manfred Mann", "Herman's Hermits", "The Swinging Blue Jeans" etc.). Such a box set would be a chance to present each song from the best existing individual masters, and search the vaults for rarities. For the "Lady Godiva" & "Knight is Rusty Armour" albums, you are getting the Peter & Gordon equivalent of The Beatles "The Capitol Albums" boxes, but unlike those Beatles boxes, which had some unique mixdown variations, what you are getting in this presentation of the "Lady Godiva" & "Knight in Rusty Armour" albums is merely the sound-degrading effects of Capitol's equalisation and processing. The BGO label did the best with the tapes they were given, and as I've said, anyone who owns the original vinyl albums will get a verbatim reproduction(sonic flaws and all) of those original vinyl albums. Me, I could do with less authenticity. EMI/UK's best individual song masters would do much more justice to the music.

Buen disco de Peter and Gordon, pero un poco alejado de sus primeros grande s éxitos.

I really enjoy this CD! Great sound. You can hear the beginning of the "60s psychedelic sound.