The BBC Sessions

The first official release of recordings made for radio broadcast on the BBC's Saturday Club (12 tracks spread across four sessions from 1965 and 1966) and Top Gear (three songs from a 1968 session). The first appearance on Saturday Club, which showcases their debut single "Watcha Gonna Do About It", features original keyboards player Jimmy Winston, with replacement Ian McLagan playing on all subsequent dates. Aswell as plugging their latest singles ("Sha-La-La-La-Lee", "Hey Girl", "All or Nothing"), the diminutive Mods cover R&Bsongs like "Baby Don't Do It" and "Shake". Labelmate P.P. Arnold can be heard contributing backing vocals to "Every Little Bit Hurts" and a muscular "If I Were a Carpenter", both from the final session which also yields "Lazy Sunday", complete with sound effects. With only "Jump Back" failing to appear on an original single or album, this collection is aimed at the completist, who will also enjoy the short linking interviews, which have been collected at the end of the disc.