The Aerovons: World Of You: The Complete Recordings 2CD

• First-ever complete anthology of teenage American band who recorded an unreleased, heavily Beatles-influenced album at Abbey Road in 1969.

• Includes the full album, outtakes, demos, alternative versions, solo recordings and no less than eleven previously unissued tracks.

After a locally-recorded demo attracted the interest of Capitol Records, The Aerovons – Beatles-obsessed teenagers from St. Louis, Missouri - persuaded the company to let them approach EMI with a view to recording at Abbey Road.

Three separate visits to England followed, with an impressed EMI overseeing an Aerovons album, recorded March-June 1969 in between the group's trips to Carnaby Street and starstruck encounters with various Beatles and Hollies members.

Two singles – including the stunning 'World Of You' – were issued in the UK, but Parlophone cancelled the album's release at test pressing stage after the group suffered personnel issues that left them unable to promote it.

Leader Tom Hartman went on to record as a solo act before returning to his studies, but The Aerovons remained a dropped stitch in time until their lost-in-action album was finally disinterred and, as Resurrection, given a long-overdue release by the rpm label in 2003.

Greeted by ecstatic reviews, ‘Resurrection’ belatedly established The Aerovons as one of the forerunners of the 70s power pop genre, their heavily Beatles-influenced sound residing in the same ballpark as the likes of fellow Anglophiles Nazz and The Raspberries.

A 2CD digipack set, ‘World Of You’ features that stillborn 1969 album, various demos and alternative versions from the same period as well as Tom Hartman's 1971 solo single and a clutch of subsequent home studio recordings that follow the trail of musical breadcrumbs left behind by his teenage band.

Featuring eleven previously unreleased tracks, ‘World Of You’ is the final, definitive word on a group whose story reads more like a fan fiction fantasy than the real-life adventures of American teens suddenly transported to the heart of the late 60s British music industry.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE

1  WORLD OF YOU

2  RESURRECTION

3  SAY GEORGIA

4  WITH HER

5  QUOTES AND PHOTOS

6  WORDS FROM A SONG

7  BESSY GOODHEART

8  SOMETHING OF YOURS

9  SHE'S NOT DEAD

10  THE YEARS

11  EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT

12  THE CHILDREN

13  THE TRAIN

14  A SONG FOR JANE

15  HERE

16  WORLD OF YOU (original 1967 demo)

17  THE CHILDREN (alternative version, lead vocals Phil Edholm)

18  EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT (alternative version)

19  WORLD OF YOU (alternative version)

20  THE TRAIN (alternative version, rhythm track, no strings)

1, 3 Single, UK Parlophone R 5804, released September 1969

2, 4-12 Recorded 1969, first released 2003

13, 14 Single, UK Parlophone R 5790, released July 1969

15, 16 Demos, recorded 1967, first released 2003

17-20 Recorded 1968, previously unreleased

DISC TWO

1  STOPPED! (original demo)

2  SUNSHINE WOMAN

3  A LITTLE MORE (original version)

4  SUNSHINE WOMAN (backing track)

5  STOPPED!

6  SHADES OF BLUE

7  ME AND MY BOMB

8  YOU AND ME

9  SO SORRY

10  A LITTLE MORE

11  THE WAY THINGS WENT TONIGHT

12  SWINGING LONDON

13  LITTLE RED ROCKET

14  HERE

15  AIRLINE 59

16  MARY'S PURPLE VILLAGE

17  1968

18  JUST WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

1 Recorded 1970, first released 2004

2, 3 Tom Hartman solo single, USA Bell 998, released May 1971

4 Recorded 1970, previously unreleased

5-12 Recorded 1980-2020, first released 2021

13-18 Recorded 2020-2024, previously unreleased