The Blues Brothers - The Old Landmark/Think/Shake Your Tailfeather 7"

Atlantic (1980)

There are a couple of Blues Brothers picture sleeve 7"s that still elude me, but I recently grabbed what I believe is the last non-picture sleeve 7" that I needed from Discogs the other day.  While this isn't technically a Blues Brothers 7", it's three songs from the movie, with artists backed by the Blues Brothers band and Jake & Elwood make an appearance on one of the songs.  It's also a promo only 7" that I imagine was meant for jukeboxes or something like that.

Things start up with James Brown's "The Old Landmark."  This is from the church scene where Jake sees the light and realizes it's time to get the band back together. It's a lively performance and once that does differ slightly from what ended up in the actual movie.  Next up is "Think" by Aretha Franklin.  This one is on couple other Blues Brothers 7"s, but it stands as my favorite Aretha song and is the definitive version of the song in my highly biased opinion.

On the B side is "Shake Your Tailfeather," performed by Ray Charles with a little backing vocal help from Jake & Elwood.  This was always one of my favorite scenes in the movie and I just love this damn song.  There's nothing on this single that I don't already have multiple times over, but I think it's interesting that Atlantic decided to gather three of the main guest appearance songs onto a single.  I guess "Minnie The Moocher" wouldn't fit.

Aretha Franklin - "Think":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELVZIlv5fbE

Ray Charles - "Shake Your Tailfeather":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ka-rGmXr7A

Aretha Franklin & The Blues Brothers Band - Think 7" (Australia)

Atlantic (1983)

I'm actually just about through all of the Blues Brothers 7"s that I have.  At this point all that is left are a few that are kind of weird and of course the handful that I haven't tracked down yet.  This one is a Blues Brothers 7" although if anything it's kind of like a split 7" with Aretha Franklin.

Aretha gets top billing with her version of "Think" from the Soundtrack of the Blues Brothers movie.  Always a longtime favorite of mine, Aretha's pipes are on full display here as she careens through an incredibly energetic version of the song.  It's one of the most memorable scenes in a movie that has its fair share of memorable scenes.

On the B side is the Blues Brothers version of the theme from "Rawhide."  Again, from an iconic scene in the movie, the whole section from Bob's Country Bunker is one of my very favorites and I've always been partial to the song, even though it's from the soundtrack and is a slightly different and longer version than what is played in the movie.  I think that I like "Rawhide" so much because it is one of the few songs out there that Elwood sings.  And since he's always been my favorite Blues Brother, I've just dug this since I was a little kid.

This is definitely one of the more unique Blues Brothers 7"s I have, it has unique artwork with pictures that miraculously have not been recycled from other releases.  It's even got a funny, fake newspaper clipping show review of the Bob's Country Bunker show by the Good Old Blues Brothers Boys Band from Chicago.  Quality stuff.

Aretha Franklin & The Blues Brothers Band - "Think":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELVZIlv5fbE

The Blues Brothers - "Theme From Rawhide":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y55zpYfFAE

The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" (Europe)

Atlantic (1980)

This version of the Everybody Needs Some Body To Love 7", according to Discogs, is the European version of the single.  I'm not really sure how that differs from the version of this single I posted two weeks ago which was released in Germany (I had mistakenly listed that one as having been from France initially, but have corrected that review).  The last time I checked, Germany was in Europe, so I just don't know why these two different versions exist.  Probably some 80s distribution model that doesn't make sense anymore.

The songs are the same, as the B side for this 7" is Think by Aretha Franklin again.  The only real difference is the font of the song titles on the front of the sleeve, a completely redesigned back of the sleeve and the red/green split design of the label itself.  There's just something about that red and green Atlantic label that I just love.  

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

Aretha Franklin - "Think":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJtTUefG2o 

Otis Redding / Aretha Franklin - Respect Split 7" - Gold Vinyl

Otis Redding / Aretha Franklin - Respect Split 7" - Gold Vinyl, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Rhino (2012)

This was one of the only records that struck my fancy on this years Record Store Day list, and since it's pretty much a novelty, I'm sure that speaks volumes for how completely unexcited I was for this year's list. I will say this, I love Otis Redding and I really like Aretha Franklin, and having their versions of the song Respect on a 7" just sounded like a neat idea to me. I still contend that labels haven't really figured out how to do gold vinyl (looks almost green and swampy to me), but as an interesting record to have in the collection, this one fits the bill for me.