In the past, The Topcats attempted to maintain the dual identity of a "cover band" and an "original
band", but they found this to be quite difficult. In a party and dance atmosphere there is nothing that will clear a dance floor faster than an original song that has never been heard before. The band also discovered that in a concert situation, playing party music worked better for them than trying to cram unheard, original material down the audience's throat. So, after recording "Ten Times 'Round the Sun"
the band stopped playing original music during Topcat performances, deciding it was more important to be received well and to make a living. However, the band has not lost the desire to produce their own music. Individual members of The Topcats have their own musical projects on the side, and The Topcats, as a group, are always working on new projects. Below are descriptions of their recording projects to date. Check them out!!!!!
On March 14th, 2008 The Topcats released "Twenty-Five", a collection of sixteen songs recorded in celebration of The Topcats 25th Anniversary! All songs were recorded at the Apartment Studio in Jefferson, LA. in February of 2008. This recording was produced and mixed by The Topcats, with engineering and mastering by Buzzy Langford and graphic design by David Gamble.
Twenty-Five contains a great variety of musical styles. Many of the CD tracks are songs that Topcat fans have requested over the years, while others are favorites of the band. The sixteen songs are "Foreplay", "Rebel Yell", "Live and Let Die", "Let's Stay Together", "You're The First, The Last, My Everything", "You Dropped a Bomb On Me", "Word Up", "These Arms of Mine", "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)", "Mambo #5", "Shake Ya Tail Feather", "Get Low", "Footloose", "My Own Worst Enemy", "Born To Be Wild", and "Born To Run". The disc also contains a surprise track that is quite different. Let the disc continue to play at the end and you will see!
Check out the audio clips below. "Born To Run"and "Live and Let Die", are two band favorites, whereas "Let's Stay Together" and "Shake Ya Tail Feather" are two fan favorites!
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
On April 11th, 2003 The Topcats released "The Topcats 1983-2003", a double CD set with one disc featuring selected "live" recordings from the past twenty years and the other disc featuring original recordings, some live and some studio, from the past twenty years! This double CD set is produced and digitally mastered/ remastered by Buzzy Beano with art direction and design by Matt Touchard, assisted by Stephany Geiling. Addition photography is provided by Jacqueline Cameron-Sharpe.
Disc number one features "Eleanor Rigby", "Can't Stand Losing You", "Telephone Line", "Happy Together", "Hungry", "I'll Be Back", "Space Oddity", "Pressure", "Synchronicity II", "Tempted", "Great Gosh Almighty", "Ooh Baby, Baby", "Beds Are Burning", "Wishin' Well", "Leave Your Hat On", "New Orleans Ladies", "Jump, Jive, and Wail", "Shamalama Ding Dong", and "What You Need". All of these song were recorded live over the past twenty years and feature the sound engineering capabilities of Frank Robert, Joe Porter, and Kenny Nestor.
Disk number two features "Friends, Money, and Love", two versions of "This Crazy World", "Ladies of The Eighties", "Break Another Heart", "Calling On You", "Playing With Emotion", "Rich Girl", "Did You Think That I'd Tell You The Truth", "Be With You Tonight", "Main Attraction", "Pictures of You", "Sanctuary", "Foolish Me", "Clocks", "Follow You Down", and "Circus Girl". These are all original songs who's recordings span the past twenty years! Included are early versions and alternate mixes of already releases material, as well as Topcat songs sang by Sal Candilora and Don Berry, who both sang with the band in the 1980's!
Check out the audio clips below. "Eleanor Rigby", recorded in April of 1984, and "Jump, Jive, and Wail", recorded October of 1999, are examples from disc one and "Friends, Money, and Love", recorded in April of 1984, and "This Crazy World", recorded in December of 1984 are from disc 2.
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
On June 29th, 2002 The Topcats released their latest CD, "Welcome To The Big Top", the long awaited follow-up to "Party With The Big Dogs"! Almost two years in the making, "Welcome To The Big Top" follows the same format as "Party With The Big Dogs" with fourteen cover tunes recorded live and a number of new original tunes, including "Follow You Down", which is receiving air play on WCKW 92.3FM The Point in New Orleans. The band originally recorded some live material at The Bengal in November of 1999, but due to a lack of time and energy, these recordings never made it to disk. As time went by, the band decided to record again to capture some of their newly learned material, which they did again at The Bengal in December of 2001! The guys then went into The Apartment Studio in May of 2002 where they recorded the original songs and mixed and mastered the complete project.
Produced by Buzzy Langford, with graphic design by David Gamble, "Welcome To The Big Top" features Robert as the "Ring Master", Buzzy as the "Strong Man", Pat as the "Human Cannonball", and David as the "Lion Tamer". The CD starts with "Balloonograph", as circus intro sequenced and recorded by David, and continues on with "Welcome To The Big Top", a little ditty written by Buzzy. An introduction to the "live" portion of the disk by the Big Top M.C., Jason Olivier, is followed by "Centerfold", "Jessie's Girl", "Keep Your Hands To Yourself", "Let's Get It On", "The Freeze", "Boogie Shoes", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Sweet Soul Music", "The Electric Slide", "Wild, Wild West", "Bad Day", "Shake It Like A Dog", "Back That Azz Up", and "What I Like About You". The disk concludes with "Circus Girl" and "Follow You Down", written by Buzzy and "The Bengal Lounge", written by Carlo Nuccio, with additional lyrics by Buzzy.
Check out the audio clips below. "Balloonograph" shows the circus side of the disk. "Boogie Shoes" and "Brown Eyed Girl" show the party side of the disk, and Follow You Down shows the original side of the disk!
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
The Topcats have released "We Wish You A Merry Christmas Again", a Christmas CD, for Christmas 2001! It features the two songs from The Topcats' 2000 release of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", "Please Come Home For Christmas",and "Oh Holy Night", plus eight newly recorded songs. All songs were recorded, mixed, mastered, and duplicated by Buzzy Langford at The Apartment Studio in New Orleans, with graphic design by David Gamble. The CD contains two new original songs - "Christmas Time", written by Buzzy Langford, and "Christmas In My Pocket", written by Buzzy and Paris Langford. The remaining songs, "Jingle Bell Rock", "Blue Christmas", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Nuttin' For Christmas", "Happy Christmas", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas 2001" are all long Topcat favorites!
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
The Topcats released "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", a Christmas CD single with two bonus tracks, for Christmas 2000! It features "Please Come Home For Christmas" along with "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Oh Holy Night". "Please Come Home For Christmas" was recorded live at Legends, the same night the "Party With The Big Dogs" tracks were recorded. "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" was recorded at The Apartment Studio in November 2000. The instrumental version of "O Holy Night" was sequenced and recorded by David on his new keyboard in November 2000! All three tracks were mastered and duplicated by Buzzy at The Apartment Studio, and the graphics were created and duplicated by David! Check out the audio clips of "Please Come Home For Christmas" and "Oh Holy Night" below.
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
On March 6th, 1998 The Topcats released their first recording on CD, "Party With The Big Dogs", in celebration of their fifteen year anniversary, and it addresses a repeated request for the band to record some of their more popular "party" tunes. This disk contains eighteen tunes, fourteen "cover" tunes, and four new Topcat originals. Two of the originals, "Foolish Me" and "Clocks", were written by Buzzy, and the other two originals, "Busy Signal" and "Keep Back 200 ft.", were penned by a good friend of the band, Carlo Nuccio.
The CD was produced by Buzzy Langford, with additional production by Robert Schulte, Carlo Nuccio, and The Topcats. The fourteen "party" songs were recorded live by Damond Jacob of 4U2NV, at Legends, in Metairie, La., on Thanksgiving weekend, 1997. The "studio" songs were recorded by Buzzy Langford, at The Apartment Studio, New Orleans, La., in January, 1998. Graphic design was done by Skeeter Hanks, with photography by Skeeter Hanks and Terri Rallo. The disk was mastered at Necromancer Digital, New Orleans, La., by Mike Hogan and duplicated by Moontown Disks. The Topcats also wish to acknowledge Joey Catalanotto for the use of his dog, Butkus as the "Big Dog" cover model.
The fourteen "party" songs, "Hot Hot Hot", "YMCA", "Love Will Keep Us Alive", "Fast As You", Hard Days Night", "Alright Now", "Lady In Red", "Unbelievable", "Tainted Love", "Whoomp, There It Is", "Tootsee Roll", "Your Mama Don't Dance", "Honky Tonk Women", and "Evil Ways" represent the variety of music that can be heard on any given night with The Topcats. You can check out sound clips of some of these tunes on the "Let's Party" page. Below, you can hear clips from the four "studio" songs from the CD. Below, you will also see an inside cover image and an image of the CD itself.
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
In 1993, The Topcats produced and recorded "Ten Times 'Round The Sun" to commemorate a decade of
performing together, hence the title "Ten Times 'Round The Sun"! This two song EP was recorded at Rockit Studios, engineered by Steve Matthews, with graphic design
by Matt Touchard, and it features the two songs, "Sanctuary", and "Pictures Of You". Please check out the sound clips from "Sanctuary" and "Pictures Of You" below!
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
Recorded and released in 1988 and released again in April of 2003 on CD, "Fourplay" was The Topcat's first full length LP. It consists of eleven songs written
and produced by The Topcats. The album was recorded at Southlake Studios, in Metairie, La., engineered by David Farrell,
with graphic design by Matt Touchard. The eleven songs, "Did You Think That I'd Tell You the Truth",
"Rich Girl", "There's Gotta Be More", "She's a Dancer", "Can't Seem To Get Away", "Friends Til The End",
"Gone To Long", "Be With You Tonight", "Automatic Reaction", and "Big Man" were written in 1987 and 1988.
Some of the songs feature the background vocal talents of Don Berry. "Automatic Reaction" received
considerable radio airplay, as it was put into regular rotation on WRNO 99FM, in New Orleans.
The recently released CD version of "Fourplay" also contains four bonus tracks! "Dreamin" and "Cruel World" are two Topcat songs that have never been released, and "Without A Second Thought" and "Take Me Back" are from The Topcat EP, which was released in cassette form only!
Please check out the sound clips from "Rich Girl", "There's Gotta Be More", "Gone Too Long", "Automatic Reaction", "Cruel World", and "Dreamin" below!
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
Recorded in 1986, "The Topcats EP" was the band's first original project. This recording consisted of
four songs, "Break Another Heart", "Without a Second Thought", "Calling On You", and "Take Me Back".
The entire EP was produced by The Topcats and was recorded at Studio Solo in Slidell, La., engineered by David Farrell, with graphic design by Charles Daigle.
There were two different releases of this recording,
hence the two different cover designs. The first release's art work depicted five Topcat members.
The fifth member shown in the first picture is Sal Candilora. He sang with the band for a number of years, but because of
personal reasons, Sal did not perform on this recording. The band thought it was important to include him
in the picture, since he was a vital part of the band at that time. Shortly after "The Topcats EP" release,
Sal left the band, and they re-released the EP with the different art work shown in the second picture. The original
release is somewhat of a collector's item. If you have one, hold on to it! One can never tell what it
may be worth in the future! Please check out the sound clips from "Calling On You" and "Take Me Back" below!
All audio clips are in stereo, 128 bit MP3 format. Click on a song name and click play.
In 1993, The Topcats produced and recorded "Ten Times 'Round The Sun" to commemorate a decade of
performing together, hence the title "Ten Times 'Round The Sun"! This two song EP was recorded at Rockit Studios, engineered by Steve Matthews, with graphic design
by Matt Touchard, and it features the two songs, "Sanctuary", and "Pictures Of You". Please check out the sound clips from "Sanctuary" and "Pictures Of You" below!
