Rare Apple pressing of Delaney & Bonnie LP for sale

The rare Delaney & Bonnie record.

Parlogram Records are ebaying an excellent condition 1969 UK pressing of ‘SAPCOR 7’, “The Original Delaney and Bonnie” LP. This is the rarest item in the Apple catalogue. Delaney & Bonnie & Friends were a Rock/Soul Group fronted by husband & wife duo Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, and in early 1969 they signed to Elektra Records to record their second album ‘Accept No Substitutes’. The album was recorded at Elektra’s recording studio and on hearing pre-release tapes of the album, George Harrison offered the group a contract with Apple Records, which the group accepted despite already been contracted to Elektra.

The Apple label, side 1

Apple’s plan was to release Delaney & Bonnie’s second album ‘Accept No Substitutes’ under the title of ‘Delaney & Bonnie & Friends’. Apple got as far as starting production of the album before Elektra declared Apple’s contract void and the pressing was subsequently stopped. Interestingly, it was Electra who supplied Apple with the stampers/metal work which were used to press the records at EMI’s Hayes factory. After Elektra had decided to make Delaney and Bonnie stick to their original contract, most of the small batch pressed at EMI’s Hayes factory were destroyed and only a handful are known to survive. No covers were prepared for the Apple release and none have ever been known to exist, but this copy is housed in an original Apple Records inner sleeve, with a standard factory laminated album sleeve.

The album cover, as released by Electra

On 1 December 1969, George Harrison watched husband and wife act Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett perform at the Albert Hall in London, with Eric Clapton on guitar. The following night George joined them on stage in Bristol, for his first stage appearance since The Beatles’ final concert. He came along for the remainder of the tour, playing guitar and staying in the background. They played two shows each night, in Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool and Croydon in England before going to Scandinavia. In Copenhagen they played At the Falkoner Theatre, on December 10, and one of the concerts was filmed by Danish Television that day. The tour also visited Sweden, playing December 13 in Stockholm and giving two concerts in Gothenburg the following day, Harrison still on board. These later concerts are rarely mentioned in the English/American books about George Harrison’s stint with the group.

While the group was staying in Stockholm, George wrote the song “Woman Don’t You Cry For Me”, as evidenced by the reproduction of the original lyric sheet, the letterhead displays the name of the place they were staying in Stockholm, the Castle Hotel. The song was planned for release on “All Things Must Pass”, but fell by the wayside and was resurrected for the 1976 album “33 1/3”.

Several of the concerts were also recorded for possible album release – the result was 1970’s album Delaney & Bonnie & Friends On Tour With Eric Clapton. Harrison was credited as “Mysterioso” on the album cover. The 40 minute long concert album was expanded in 2010 by Rhino Handmade to a four-disc deluxe reissue, with more than three hours of live recordings from the tour. The package contains the complete performance from the Royal Albert Hall, plus a composite of the next night’s performances at Colston Hall in Bristol, and both the early and late shows from Fairfield Halls in Croydon. George Harrison doesn’t appear on the first disc (as he was only in the audience) but does on the other three.

Although a successful live band, Delaney and Bonnie was never a commercial success on record, and they cut their last album together in 1972, the year they divorced. Delaney Bramlett died in 2008. Before he died, Mr. Bramlett gave an interview where he claimed to have written George Harrison’s smash hit, “My Sweet Lord”, for which he was never credited.