Vinyl repress of U.K. ‘Fancy’ album ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ out now

It’s been a long wait, but Bobbie’s 1970 U.K. album ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ gets it’s first vinyl repress for HMV as part of their centenary celebrations.

Released in the U.S. as ‘Fancy’, EMI, (who owned Capitol and distributed them in the UK) renamed the album ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’, to tie in with Bobbie’s British number one hit with the song the previous year. The LP was issued with alternative artwork and running order, including two additional songs to the U.S. release; the self-penned ‘Billy the Kid’, (which would also appear on the following year’s ‘Patchwork’) and ‘In the Ghetto’, an outtake from 1969’s Touch ’Em With Love sessions. The album was mostly produced with the legendary Rick Hall at Muscle Shoals, but on several tracks Bobbie receives her first official credit as producer. The repress contains new sleevenotes and rare photos and is available to purchase now from HMV. For more info on the release visit our album page.

Tara Murtha on ‘Fancy’ turning 50 for Dangerous Minds

Head over to Dangerous Minds for Tara Murtha’s deep dive into ‘Fancy’ on it’s 50th anniversary. She talks gender bending with Orville Peck (who’s cover of Fancy is out August 14th) and all things BG with Clayton Ivey who played keyboards on the original album sessions at Muscle Shoals. Also included in the story is a video of Bobbie performing ‘Fancy’ onstage in Las Vegas in the mid 70’s – you are not gonna want to miss it!

Orville Peck releases his cover of ‘Fancy’

Following the release of his debut album Pony last year, masked cowboy crooner Orville Peck is following it up with a new EP called Show Pony and it includes his cover of Bobbie’s ‘Fancy’ which fans will be familiar with from his live shows.
“I loved my experience with Pony,” Orville says. “However, Show Pony is a more confident perspective and allows me to share even more both lyrically and musically. Like all country albums, Show Pony is a little collection of stories – some sad, some happy – and I am excited for people to hear it.”

The Masked Singer: Miss Monster aka Chaka Khan sings ‘Fancy’

The iconic singer songwriter Chaka Khan, who had been disguised as Miss Monster, on Season 3 of The Masked Singer impressed Judges in episode 2 with a performance of Bobbie’s 1969 hit ‘Fancy’. Chaka made the song her own and viewers and panelists knew then there was a legendary singer under that pink monster mask! If you missed her performance you can catch up with it on youtube here.

RIP Rick Hall

Rick Hall, the record producer and executive who, as the founder of Fame studios, almost single-handedly established the small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals as a crucible of some of the greatest soul music to be produced in America in the 1960s and 1970s has died aged 85.

As a hands-on producer at his Fame studio, Hall supervised classic recordings by Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton and of course Bobbie. A fellow Southerner, Hall was born in Forest Grove, Mississippi, and brought up in Franklin County, Alabama. In 1970 he produced the Fancy album, including the title track which remains one of Bobbie’s best story songs; a musical cross between country, blues and pop that could define modern Americana. Years later in 1978, he would also produce Bobbie’s last recordings for the Curb division of Warner Bros. Hall remembered his time working with Bobbie fondly:

“I loved Bobbie. My God, she was a beautiful woman. She had a great mind! She had all kinds of talent. The first time I heard Ode to Billie Joe, I was driving past the studio, and I almost ran my car into a telephone pole! I was so amazed! Her story was my story. That’s how I grew up. “Bale the hay. Pass the biscuits,” you know? There were so many Southern things that she did. I felt in my heart that if I ever met her, we’d hit it off. I offered to produce her. We had dinner together, and we did hit it off. We had a great time together. She was one of my very favorites.”

Bobbie recording at Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals, photo from the Fancy LP cover and Rick Hall at Fame.