BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1989

Happy Halloween

“Witchcraft” is the seventh single released by the American synthpop band Book of Love. The song was the third, and final single from the band’s second album Lullaby, and was released on July 15, 1989.

“Witchcraft” was the only single from the album Lullaby that failed to make the Billboard charts. The track samples the classic 60’s TV series Bewitched, and also chants the names of the witches/characters from the show…”Enchantra, Endora, Tabitha, Esmerelda, Clara, Hagatha”. The song features quirky deadpan rap-style vocals from Susan Ottaviano, Jade Lee, and Lauren Roselli, with a Shakespeare-inspired incanting of ingredients for brewing a love potion.

The B-side “Enchantra” is a completely different composition, aside from the fact that it uses the chant of Bewitched character names from “Witchcraft”.

The cover art of the 12″ was done by band members Lauren Roselli and Jade Lee. It consists of a picture of a Play-Doh “queen” (done by Lauren Roselli), with refrigerator magnet lettering of the band’s name and song title. Female names included as part of the back cover artwork (Enchantra, Hagatha, Clara, Endora, and Esmeralda) come from the song’s chorus. The witches named in the song’s chorus are all named as a part of the back cover art except Tabitha. The cover sleeve was featured in the 2011 book Put The Needle On The Record by Matthew Chojnacki, which celebrated the vinyl sleeves of records from the 1980s.

During the band’s Lullaby Tour in 1989, when performing “Witchcraft”, the band donned witches’ hats, making it a fan favorite of the band’s live shows.

“Enchantra” has been used as the intro track while the band takes to the stage during Book of Love’s 2013 shows.

SIDE A:
Witchcraft (Extended Mix) 5:16
Witchcraft (7″ Mix) 3:04
Enchantra 2:45
Written-By – J. Lee*, T. Ottaviano*

SIDE B:
Witchcraft (Enchantra Chanting) 6:24
Witchcraft (Dub) 5:22
Witch’s Honor 0:06

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Sire ‎– 0-21251
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Maxi-Single, 33 ⅓ RPM
Country: US
Released: 13 Jul 1989
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Art Direction – Jade Lee
Cover [Playdoh Queen] – Lauren Roselli
Edited By – Roger Pauletta
Engineer – Doc Dougherty
Producer – Flood, Ted Ottaviano
Producer [Additional], Remix – Book Of Love
Written-By – Theodore Ottaviano* (tracks: A1, A2, B1 to B3)

NOTES:
Original version on the sire album ‘Lullaby’, available on lp, cassette and cd.
MCMLXXXIX.

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck 
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi