Kiki Dee

Five CD box set. When Elton John started up his Rocket Records label in 1973, Kiki Dee was his first signing, and he produced the first album Loving And Free, utilizing his own band and a "who's who" of UK session musicians. In 1974, she formed the Kiki Dee Band, and again hit the charts with the single and album "I've Got The Music In Me". In 1975, she recorded an album in LA, Cage The Songbird - for reasons that will be revealed in the extensive annotation in this book set, this album was shelved and did not see a release until 2008. It now takes it's correct place in this collection of Kiki's recordings for the Rocket label. The summer of 1976 saw Kiki occupy the UK # 1 singles spot for six weeks with her old friend Elton, with "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". It was also # 1 in the US, where it sold over a million copies. Further success came with two more albums for Rocket, Kiki Dee (1977) and Stay With Me (1978), featuring the singles "Chicago" and "First Thing In The Morning". Containing all five albums and lavishly illustrated with photos and ephemera from Kiki's own collection, and with annotation by Alan Robinson based on a brand new interview, this media book package also features ten bonus tracks, including "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", and it's B-side "Snow Queen", on CD for the first time outside Australia.

There was a two-year gap between the release of the s/t "Kiki Dee" album in 1977 and 1979's "Stay With Me". The latter however proved that Kiki had lost none of her unique and powerful vocal range, and featured nine songs that underlined the considerable experiences that she had gone through in the preceding six years.

Making its first ever appearance some three decades after being recorded, Kiki Dee's "Cage The Songbird" album was made during the period of Kiki's recording career when she was enjoying phenomenal pop chart success around the world, via her duet with Elton John of “Don't Go Breaking My Heart” and shortly after the break up of the Kiki Dee Band. The "Cage The Songbird" album, unreleased for so many years, serves as an intriguing bridge between Kiki's 1973-1975 recording output for Rocket Records, and her subsequent solo recordings.

Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri's 'The Long Ride Home', released in April 2022. In 1970 Kiki Dee was the first British artist to sign to Motown Records and subsequently to Elton John's Rocket Records where she had many hits including the international number one 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' with Elton John in 1976. In the 2000's Kiki teamed up with virtuoso guitarist Carmelo Luggeri and they have been writing, recording and performing sell out shows ever since.

This 1987 release is absolutely one of Kiki's very best albums. She makes a welcome return back to doing rock songs, but it also has other influences as well. Definitely a touch of alternative modern rock on songs like "I'll Build A Tower Over You" (with an uncredited Daryl Hall featured), "Pay", "We Cry On", and the hard edged "Knowing You Like I Do". But that's not all as there are some superior ballads like "Stay Close To Me" and "Angel Eyes" - both dreamy, perfect pop ballads produced magnificently by Patrick Seymour. And Dave Stewart of Eurythmics produced "Another Day Comes (Another Day Goes)", an uptempo modern rock song with a gospel choir & horns! How this album missed being a hit is puzzling, but then it was never released in the US either. Finally, EMI has corrected the situation with reissuing this Kiki classic that you have got to hear.

"Perfect Timing" is a 1981 album by British singer Kiki Dee. The album marked a brief comeback for the singer, led by the top 20 single "Star". It was her only album on Ariola Records and reached #47 on the UK album charts. The title track was also released, peaking at #66. Two further singles were released; "Midnight Flyer" and "Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever" (a duet with Elton John). The album was produced by Pip Williams. The album was re-released in 2008 on Compact disc with four bonus tracks.

"Loving and Free" is the 3rd album by English singer Kiki Dee released in 1973 on The Rocket Record Company label. It was recorded at the AIR Studios and Nova Studios in London between April 28 and June 22, 1973. "Loving and Free" has masterful production by Elton John and Clive Franks, and if anything, it is as lovingly produced as it is performed. One of four strong Kiki Dee originals is the title track, which opens up this soulful album, reflected so beautifully in the cover photo of young Dee on a bicycle with flowers in a field. It's reminiscent of Lesley Duncan's "Love Song," and lo and behold, Duncan shows up on backing vocals on the very next song, "If It Rains." Elton John plays keyboards on seven of the ten tracks, including the short gospel piece "If It Rains," written by Dee, and the Bernie Taupin/Elton John number "Lonnie and Josie."

Signed to the fontana label when she was just 16, kiki dee's first single, "early night" (Penned by Mitch Murray) was released in May 1963, before cilla Black, sandie Shaw, Lulu or Dusty Springfield (as a solo artist) had released a record. She released a further eleven singles (plus several European versions) and an album on fontana, before being signing to the Motown label, The first British artist to do so. This is the first comprehensive collection of all of kiki's 60s releases, compiled with her involvement. Discs one and two feature all of kiki's singles for the fontana label, including "(you don't know) how glad I am" And her Northern soul classic "on a magic carpet ride", as well as the "I'm kiki Dee" Album (with all twelve tracks in stereo on CD for first time). also included are kiki's ten European fontana singles together on CD for the first time, seven on CD for the first time ever. Kiki manages to sing in Italian, French, German and Spanish! Disc three features her recordings for the Motown label - The original album "great expectations" And nine bonus tracks (two of these appear on CD for the first time, and one mix is previously unreleased). produced by Frank Wilson, kiki covers such classics as "for once in my life", "I second that emotion", "walk on by", "put a little love in your heart", "you're my world" And "you don't have to say you love me".

Kiki Dee looks young and innocent on this Tamla recording, and her voice is beautiful as she covers some classic Motown here an up-tempo "I Second That Emotion," a unique "For Once in My Life." The late Jimmy Miller said that Dee and Dusty Springfield were good friends. Dee covers Springfield's "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," and it is excellent, but what is more intriguing is how much she sounds like Dusty Springfield on the lesser-known "Johnny Raven." Tackling "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" without the duet that Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's version enjoyed is commendable the Motown sound making a transition to showcase a white soul singer works. "Jimmy" is haunting, and displays the power and subtlety absent in her two big hit recordings for and with Elton John a few years later.

Kiki Dee kicked around Britain as a white soul singer for the better part of the late '60s and early '70s even becoming the first British Caucasian signed to Motown before hooking up with Elton John, who signed her to his Rocket Records label and produced her first notable hit, "I've Got the Music in Me." In 1976, at which time John was the biggest pop star in the world, he wrote and duetted with Dee on the single "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," which promptly topped the charts all over the world.