Power pop started getting something of a resurgence in the ‘90s, and thanks to Shelter Records’ distribution deal with the DCC Compact Classics label, the first two Dwight Twilley Band were reissued on CD. Hopefully this was a financial boon for Dwight Twilley, who’d retired from the major label biz a few years earlier, as well as Phil Seymour, who was losing his battle with lymphoma, to which he would succumb in August 1993. But a few months before that sad occasion, The Great Lost Twilley Album presented an overdue peek into the vaults. This packed CD compiled tracks from their earliest sessions through the drawn-out recording of their two albums together, as well as solo Twilley songs intended for the album that became Scuba Divers after taking so long. These are hardly leftovers; beginning with the original single version of “Somebody To Love”, it’s a non-chronological journey through 25 could’ve-been-hits, including the discarded single “Shark (In The Dark)” and its intended B-side “Please Say Please”, the original mix of “I’m On Fire” and its long-lost B-side “Did You See What Happened”, songs that would be rerecorded for Phil’s first solo album, and other alternate takes and mixes, with most tracks clocking under the 2:50 standard.
The presentation is designed more for listening than strict history, though session details for each track are included. So it’s not really a lost album per se, but a good chance to hear what else had been in the hopper. Most of all, it demonstrates once again how much these guys loved to make records, whether throwback tracks like “I Don’t Know My Name”, slow burners like “No Resistance”, or big productions like “Burnin’ Sand” and “Dancer”.
Thanks to another label switch, The Great Lost Twilley Album soon went out of print and was lost again. Luckily, it’s accessible on all the streaming services, and should be sought.
Dwight Twilley The Great Lost Twilley Album (1993)—3
Current CD availability: none; streaming only
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