If you’ve ever wondered what this psych/pop/folk/acoustic album is like, now is probably the best time to buy a copy. Following the announcement and release by King Records in Japan of a CD release in March of the album as part of their CTI Alltime Collection [1]http://ctproduced.com/king-records-cti-alltime-collection/, BGP/Ace Records in the UK have released a vinyl LP reissue for the first time since the original 1970 pressing [2]https://acerecords.co.uk/kathy-mccord-1.
As is always the case, it seems, like London buses, when you wait ages for one, two come along at the same time. It’s worth remembering that the original CTI pressing was released in April 1970 [3]Billboard – April 11th, 1970 pg. 63. and in three countries: the USA, Japan, and Spain.
I have a copy of the original green label pressing, but if I wanted one I could get pretty much anything right now if I was willing to pay for it [4]The country at the end of each item is the country where it was on sale at the time of writing. I looked on both ebay.com and discogs.com.
- A promo pressing of the original US release [5]https://www.discogs.com/release/11224931-Kathy-McCord-Kathy-McCord?ev= (France)
- A general release original US pressing with a green label [6]https://www.discogs.com/release/3111092-Kathy-McCord-Kathy-McCord?ev= (US)
- A MINT, Sealed general release original US Pressing with a green label [7]https://www.discogs.com/release/3111092-Kathy-McCord-Kathy-McCord?ev= (US)
- A 2011 CD South Korea release [8]https://www.discogs.com/release/6947973-Kathy-McCord-Kathy-McCord?ev= (US)
- A near-mint, Japanese original 1970 pressing with the King Records / CTI Insert. (South Korea)
- The Japanese King Records CTI Alltime Collection CD release [9]https://www.discogs.com/release/33383588-Kathy-McCord-Kathy-McCord-%E8%99%B9%E3%81%AE%E6%9E%B6%E3%81%91%E6%A9%8B (Japan, USA)
- The BGP, Ace Records distributed 2025 Vinyl Pressing [10]Kathy McCord – Kathy McCord – Vinyl (LP, Album), 2025 [r33204027] | Discogs (Available in at least nine countries including the USA, France, Germany, Spain)
Fortunately, both 2025 releases can be had for $35 or less.
ACE Records 2025 Release
It’s not clear what prompted the Ace Records release, it’s actually on the BGP label which was dedicated to releases curated by Giles Peterson originally. It is pressed on 180gm vinyl, the release does not say anything about the source of the recording. At best, I assume it was cut from a final stereo mixed-down master, released by CTI in 1970 rather than a version of the studio master multitrack tape.
BGP/ACE usually do a great job with their reissues. If you buy a copy of this, I’d love to hear your comments on the mix, pressing, and sound quality. The album stays pretty true to the original pressing and release. The cover uses the same front picture and mostly the same liner notes as the original, including track lyrics, but with BGP branding. A barcode is added. The record labels are green but updated to reflect the BGP release and catalog number; the track times and order are also the same.
The liner notes tell us the album is “Licensed courtesy of Billy Vera c/o Vera-Cruz Music”. As with the original, the rear cover uniquely carried both Creed Taylor’s and Kathy McCord’s signatures. It also carries the same McCord artist declaration and philosophical musing:
Born of the Mountains at a very young age, I quickly discovered life. Now I am a singing poet with a record album. Perhaps if it makes you happy, I’ll be happy too.
Kathy McCord
It also carries “With deepest appreciation to Thunderfrog” as the original jacket did. We still have no clue who Thunderfrog is, I’ll ask Billy Vera! [I asked, Billy has no recollection of a Thunderfrog.]
Vera provides an additional set of notes and photographs that are included on a double sided insert. Vera notes that “My then -manager brought her to another Taylor the noted jazz producer Creed Taylor who was just then in the process of forming his own label, CTI Records. Creed had recorded my song “Good Morning Blues” with George Benson and, after hearing Kathy sing her signed her immediately as his first artist.” – Vera also notes that “The album was recorded in November and December of 1969. Kathy McCord was all of seventeen years old.”
Vera continues “Creed didn’t yet have his promotion team in place. Coming from the jazz world, his staff simply didn’t know how to sell a pop artist. So the record became an instant collectors item, coveted by a few devotees in Europe and Japan. Creed soon learned that jazz was where his strength lay and he dropped her from the label and stuck to what he knew best.”
This is all consistent with my earlier post on the CTI 1000 series “The Popular Label.” The insert includes this picture from page 48 of the March 14th, 1970 issue of Cash Box magazine. It’s an interesting picture; apart from McCord, the picture includes Vic Chirumbolo, CTI National Sales Director, and Murri Barber. Barber was perhaps the agent behind the push for Taylor to try yet again to find a way into the lucrative pop market [11]CT 1000 – The “Popular” Label – Creed Taylor Produced, which wouldn’t happen except through the introduction of the CTI sublabel KUDU created for the soul, funk, and later disco market.
Chirumbolo had been with Verve, and immediately before joining Taylor at his standalone CTI initiative had been at Uni Records, an MCA company how had among others Neil Diamond, High Masekala, The Foundations, John Fred and His Playboys and Betty Everett and others. Chirumbolo certainly knew how to market McCord, what is more likely is that by the time he and Taylor had distribution agreements lined up, Murri Barber had lost interest, so did Taylor.
Mojo Magazine April 2025
It is great to see the release getting some traction, Andrew Male writing in this months UK based Mojo, summarizes the release and insert notes [12]https://www.mojo4music.com/.
Apart from her perfect, introspective cover of The Beatles She’s Leaving Home (powerfully reworked as I’m Leaving Home) all the songs are originals and range from swirling psychedelic folk (Rainbow Ride; The Love Flow) to acerbic Dory Previn vaudeville (Baby James; Velvet Smile). However, the records finest moments inhibit a kind of celestial Laura Nyro country-rock dreamscape, encapsulated in the eerily evocative Jennipher and the earthily resigned Take Away This Pain, in which McCord sings “make me smile again” like it’s just some hopeless dream.
Andrew Male – Mojo Magazine, April 2025 – pg93
Original Reviews
I was only able to find two contemporary reviews of the album, one in Record World and the second in High Fidelity magazine.
High Fidelity – June 1970
KATHY McCORD. Kathy McCord, vocals; Don Sebesky, arr. (Jennipher; For You, Child; Baby James; seven more.)
CTI 1001, $4.98.
When arguing that quality records can be profitable, the name most often used in support is Creed Taylor, who successfully produced fine, albums by such artists as Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, and Herbie Mann.
This album, presenting singer /writer Kathy McCord, says as much about Taylor as it does about Miss McCord, and both stories are worth noting. The album is on Taylor’s own label, not A & M, the company with whom Taylor has been associated recently. The fact that Miss McCord is in the contemporary mold suggests that Taylor is shifting his sights from jazz to current pop – which is fine news for pop.
Miss McCord wrote all but one of the songs here. While she is not similar to Laura Nyro, one could say that her talent lies in that direction. Her songs are young, searching, poetic, often weak and often string. Among the best are “The Love Flow” and “Candle waxing” (the latter sensitively set by arranger Don Sebesky, with Ed Shaughnessy on tabla). Several tunes are given a country flavor
that doesn’t quite fit. A communication problem seems to have occurred on “Velvet Smile”, whose sweet if lightweight lyric is fighting an inappropriate goodtimey music background.
Miss McCord’s voice is low, soft, velvety, a little shy. Capitalizing on her elements, Taylor has captured her essential sweetness. For all its flaws, this is an album I’m happy to see. If Taylor is going into the rock business, rock must profit by it, even as Kathy McCord has.
The review was signed just M.A. – longtime readers will recall that I wrote about, and exchanged emails with Morgan Aimes when writing principally about Sally Kellerman [13]http://ctproduced.com/sally-kellerman-and-that-voice/, but also about the Taylor-produced, Grammy Award-winning Quincy Jones album “Walking in Space” [14]http://ctproduced.com/walking-in-space-grammy/.
Record World – March 7th, 1970
KATHY McCORD – CTI 1001.
Kathy McCord is a seventeen-year-old songwriter and singer whose voice belies her youth. Her poetry is above standard fare and time should see others singing her songs. All originals, except for a first person treatment of “She’s Leaving Home.”
As I noted earlier, if you buy a copy of this, I’d love to hear your comments on the mix, pressing, and sound quality. Comment below or CONTACT ME. If you don’t have it, you can sample the tracks direct from the Ace Records website [15]https://acerecords.co.uk/kathy-mccord-1 – Ace have sold out of their earlier BIG BEAT CD “New Jersey To Woodstock” – featuring both McCord’s albums, but are stilling selling MP3 versions of all the tracks either individually or as a complete set for both albums for £15.98 – which as of writing was approximately $20. If you wait a few days you may get it for $15.98 😉 [16]https://www.acerecords.co.uk/new-jersey-to-woodstock-mp3.
References
UPDATE:
April 27th, 2025 5:12pm – Billy Vera has no recollection who Thunderfrog was/is.
April 4th, 2026 – Added TOC; minor changes to headings
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