 LOS ANGELES (Capitol Records) - Fans have kept Bob Seger's Greatest Hits album on the charts since its 1994 release (it was No 8 on Billboard's Pop Catalog chart for the week of May 7th - its 550th consecutive week on the charts). Now Capitol Records is responding to requests from the Detroit rocker's online fan community for reissues of Seger's more obscure works by releasing a newly remastered version of his 1972 release, Smokin' O.P.'s, on June 7th. With a career spanning almost 40 years and nearly 50 million records sold, Grammy winner Bob Seger is known for his extraordinary depth of songs that capture both the hope and the heartbreak implicit in the American Dream. With the release of Smokin' O.P.'s, he took a month long break from songwriting and constant touring to record an album of rock classics with Teegarden & Van Winkle of 'God, Love and Rock & Roll' fame. (The title is Seger shorthand for 'smoking other people's songs.') The album was recorded at Pampa Studios in Detroit which resided in the basement of the Pampa Lanes Bowling Alley. The bowlers had to be stopped from time to time in order to record the tracks. As Punch Andrews, Seger's longtime manager, recalls 'sometimes the bass was enhanced by the rumble of the bowlers on Lane 17'. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine notes on allmusic.com: '...it [Smokin' O.P.'s] reveals that Seger isn't just a first-class bandleader and rock songwriter, but that he's a terrific interpreter of other writer's songs. Even well-worn tunes like ‘Bo Diddley' and ‘If I Were a Carpenter' get made fresh by internalizing the hooks, turning them into something fresh and original. That's also true of songs by such contemporaries as Stephen Stills (‘Love the One You're With') and Leon Russell (‘Humming Bird'), and he also breathes fire into blues and rock stalwarts like ‘Let It Rock,' ‘Turn on Your Love Light,' and 'Jesse James.''
In addition to his funk-rock interpretations of some of rock's best loved standards, Smokin' O.P.'s included a 'cover' of his own 'Heavy Music' and 'Someday,' which Seger had recently penned about the hardships encountered in the music industry. Seger made his Capitol debut in 1968 and has remained with the label ever since - except for a three-year break. Touring almost continually, Seger set up his own distribution company, Palladium, for the release of Smokin' O.P.'s. With the success of the single 'If I Were A Carpenter,' an immediate hit in Detroit, Seger's career seemed to be rejuvenated. In fact, the record began to take off so well that independent distributors like Arc Jay Kay and AMI Distributors were screaming for more records.
When Seger and company ran out of resources to press records, they signed on to the Reprise label for distribution through Warner Bros., but by the time Warner Bros. plants were up and running the momentum had passed and Seger would have to struggle for three more years before his music would receive widespread commercial success. The track listing for Smokin' O.P.'s is as follows:
1. Bo Diddley/Who Do You Love
2. Love The One You're With
3. If I Were A Carpenter
4. Hummin' Bird
5. Let It Rock
6. Turn On Your Love Light
7. Jesse James
8. Someday
9. Heavy Music
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