BGO Records
1972
The Four Sides Of
About This Album
This double-LP anthology of Melanie's work surprised a lot of people when it first appeared in 1972 -- the singer/songwriter/guitarist had enjoyed a short string of hits, but hardly seemed ready for a compilation of this sort. In point of fact, she wasn't quite ready for it, but there it was, a result of her former record label, Buddah, deciding to capitalize on her commercial breakthrough the year before, with "Brand New Key," which had been released by Neighborhood Records. As it turned out, The Four Sides of Melanie wasn't a bad collection, despite a missed treasure or two left out from its 30 songs. The elaborately designed and illustrated package divided its four LP sides into distinct song groupings, the first devoted to her early, formative songs for Buddah, while the second focused on her own biggest hit ("Lay Down [Candles in the Rain]") and her songwriting successes with "What Have They Done to My Song" (then best-known for the New Seekers' rendition) and "The Nickel Song." The third side was given over to her covers of other songwriters' work (which means her version of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday," which did chart quite high, is represented there) -- this side has the one major gap in the collection's programming, overlooking her wrenching and haunting rendition of Phil Ochs' "Chords of Fame" from The Good Book.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1 and 13)

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Disc 2 (try track 5)

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