Warner Disco Sleeve

Side One Label

“Lotta Love” is a Neil Young composition which as recorded by Nicolette Larson reached #8 on Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 chart in February 1979 and also reached #1 on the Easy Listening chart ranking as the #10 Adult Contemporary hit of the year. “Lotta Love” was also a hit in Australia (#11) and New Zealand (#22).

Larson had formed a personal relationship with Young while backing him vocally on American Stars ‘n Bars; while being driven by Young in his car one day Larson played a cassette which was the demo of “Lotta Love” and Young told her the song was hers if she wanted it. Young did in fact cut a version of “Lotta Love” himself for his Comes a Time album; Larson provided background vocals for the album but did not sing on its “Lotta Love” track, a spare version which emphasized the song’s melancholy.

Larson’s lavish version of “Lotta Love” – which featured a string arrangement by veteran Jimmie Haskell (whose credits include work with Bobbie Gentry) plus a classic soft rock horn riff and a flute solo – presented the song as optimistic; Larson would recall: “It was a very positive song and people don’t want to hear how bad the world is all the time. It had a nice sound rhythm and groove.”

“Lotta Love” served as lead single for Larson’s Ted Templeman-produced “Nicolette” album. Due to a delay in release “Comes a Time” was released on the same day in September 1978 as was Nicolette; the release of a single off the Nicolette album was held off until November when it was clear Young’s version would not have a single release as an A-side (although Young’s “Lotta Love” was released as the B-side of a non-charting “Comes a Time” single).

Much as extended dance versions of hits by the Doobie Brothers – who Templeman also produced – were released, a 12″ single of Larson’s “Lotta Love” was issued, with Jim Burgess performing remixing duties: this disco version differentiated from the album track and 7″ single in its pure “four on the floor” disco drum track (replacing the radio version’s “pop heartbeat” drum rhythm) and a sax solo on the bridge, replacing the 7″ single’s bridge flute solo which was shifted to an extended intro. The track did not heavily impact the club scene, its meager length for a 12″ single – at 4:20 barely a minute longer than the 7″ – a likely deterrent. The B-side of the 7″ single was “Angels Rejoiced” featuring a harmony vocal by Herb Pederson while on its 12″ single “Lotta Love” was backed by Larson’s rendition of “You Send Me”.

Larson died on December 16, 1997 in Los Angeles as a result of complications arising from cerebral edema triggered by liver failure. According to her friend Astrid Young, Larson had been showing symptoms of depression and her fatal seizure “was in no small way related to her chronic use of Valium and Tylenol PM”

Larson is buried in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

A benefit concert was held in Larson’s honor the following February, with tribute concerts staged on the tenth anniversary of her passing in December 2007 and also the following year.

This 12″ is yet another raity pulled from the vaults. The record was given to me by a friend of mine back in the late 80′s when I first started spinning records at Skate World which was the local skating rink at the time. I am so glad that I held onto it because it has now become a collectors item, that usually sells for a nice chunk of change. To the best of my knowledge the “Disco Mix” has never been released on CD.

** Please Note: I have preserved this 12″ as best as possible, you may hear some vinyl artifacts but they do not detract from the mixes.  As a purist I did not want to add further processing to the tracks, because doing this could damage or lower the quality of the recordings. Please be sure to comment and let me know what you think.

DISCOGS LINK

RELEASE/PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Catalog#: PRO-A-781
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Funk / Soul, Pop, Rock
Style: Soft Rock, Vocal, Disco
Credits: Arranged By [Strings] – Jimmie Haskell*
Engineer – Donn Landee
Producer – Ted Templeman

NOTES
“PROMOTION COPY – NOT FOR SALE”

“DISCO STEREO MIX” printed on A side above the title.

“From the Warner Bros. Album BSK 3243 NICOLETTE
Published by Kags Music Corp. – BMI”

“STERLING” is machine-stamped in the A-side dead-wax.

SIDE A
(A) Lotta Love (Disco Stereo Mix) 4:19
Remix – Jim Burgess
Written-By – Neil Young

SIDE B
(B) You Send Me 3:53
Written-By – Sam Cooke

Side Two Label

CLEANING AND GRADING INFO
US 12″ Promo Housed In A Company Sleeve.
Vinyl Grade: Near Mint.
Vinyl cleaned using a VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine and Gruv Glide.

FLAC INFORMATION
All vinyl rips are recorded in full 24bit 96khz resolution and then resampled to 16/44 and encoded from wave to FLAC Lossless level 8.
FLAC files can be played using Foobar2000 media player and it’s free!
What Is FLAC?

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Media Used:
Vinyl 12″ Single
From My Personal Collection.
Artwork Scanned from Original 12″ Single @ 600 dpi
With Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
Edited and Restored Using Adobe Photoshop CS4

HARDWARE USED
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super 20
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@

SOFTWARE USED
Audition 3.0:
Recording (32bit/96kHz float using ASIO drivers)
*Manual removal of remaining clicks
*Editing and splitting of tracks
*DC bias correction

CLICKS REMOVED USING CLICKREPAIR
DeClick Level: 10 DeCrackle: Off
Converted Wav to very high quality Mp3/320 kbps using dBpoweramp 13.1

PW: burningtheground