Matti Caspi - Side A Side B (NMC 1978)

After the unprecedented success of Caspi’s first and second solo albums, which have won the praises from the critics and the audience, Caspi preferred to dedicate his third solo album to songs that were first recorded by other artists.

The album was recorded after Caspi decided to shelve another unfinished album, which he started recording that year. Caspi had already finished recording “Prelude”, “Drums of Two” and two more songs, but the result wasn’t satisfying and although “Prelude” was already released to the radio as a mini record, Matti decided to turn to the recording of the album “Side A Side B”.

It can be assumed that one of the principles that lead Caspi through the selection of the song for this album, was the will to “salvage” certain songs which didn’t receive as much resonance in their first incarnation. And so, the following songs were recorded again: “We Haven’t Talked Yet About Love”, which was originally performed by Susanne and Fran, and “A Place for Care” which was originally named “There is a Place for Care” and was originally performed by Sarah Badishi in 1975, where Caspi accompanied her with backing vocals. The version is in the album “Side A Side B”, very different than the original.

However, many other successful songs were recorded again, such as “In the Hot Summer Nights” (originally performed by “The Cannons Group” with soloist Mally Brunstein), “It’s Been A while” (by Oshik Levy), “Song of the Dove” and “The Day will Come” (by Netanela), “Love Song” (Like a Wheel) (by Ofra Fux).
“Eliezer Ben Yehuda” was commissioned by the BA (Broadcasting Authority) and was originally performed by Hava Alberstein. It’s one of the first songs Matti has written that achieved great success: “It’s the only song I wrote intentionally because it was commissioned by ‘Kol Israel’ for the program ‘Do Re Mi and more’, while I was still a soldier in the army, near the end of my service in 1969-70. The song’s lyrics were written by Yaron London - Eliezer Ben Yehuda. It’s the only song I wrote technically. I didn’t wait for inspiration, I just tried, planning my moves. It’s a one-time thing I did”.
The lesser known song from the album, “How Many Songs Can You Invent at All” was originally performed by Caspi himself and was released as a mini record in 1973. Like the song “Efraim” which was also released as a mini record at that time, this song didn’t make it to his first album eventually. It’s the first song to which Caspi has ever written lyrics.
The song finishing the album, which lyrics wrote Yehonatan Gefen, originally appeared in Yossi Bannai’s album “Yossi Bannai” from 1974. Caspi’s arrangement is very different than the original one, and gives the performance a different personality than Bannai’s version.

It’s impossible to point at weak spots in this album - like Caspi’s former albums, all songs in this album have also become heritage assets in popular Israeli music.

The album’s cover has also won a classic status and is considered one of the best designed album covers in Israel - designed by David Tratkober, it’s made the album one of Caspi’s most distinguished symbols, and is in use until today on this website.

In this album Caspi decided to “stick” to playing the bass, drums, percussion, and the keyboard. The guitar parts were entrusted to the expert hands of Haim Romano, and Shem Tov Levy was invited to play the flute in several songs. Also participated some string and wind instruments musicians from the philharmonic, and other musicians like Peter Wertheimer and Morton Kam.

Caspi is planning to return with two albums in the same spirit - “Another Side” which consists of children’s songs, and “Side C Side D” which includes songs that were performed by other artists during the late 70’s and the 80’s.