Klaatu General Chronologyby David Bradley |
1973 Klaatu released their first record, a single of Hanus of Uranus and Sub-Rosa Subway on the GRT label. Hanus later evolved into Anus of Uranus for their first album in 1976. Later that year they also released a single of an early version of Dr. Marvello backed with a song called For You Girl on GRT. For You Girl was unavailable anywhere else until 2005 when it was released on the SunSet CD rarities compilation.. 1974 The single version of Dr. Marvello becomes the B-side of a new Klaatu single of a song called California Jam. The single version of Dr. Marvello is included on a compilation album on the Daffodil label called "Naturally." A single was also released on Island Records in the United States with the single versions of the songs California Jam and Dr. Marvello. 1975 An early version of True Life Hero was released as a single on the Daffodil label with Hanus of Uranus as the B-side. The band appeared on the Keith Hampshire TV show playing California Jam and True Life Hero. A fourth person appears in this TV appearance. His name is Raymond Grassi. Raymond was in a different band at the time, but John Woloschuk was interested in getting him into the band Klaatu. That, however, never happened. On the song California Jam, he is the person who shouts out CALIFORNIA! near the end of the song. I asked Dee Long of the band if the early versions of songs on these singles were the same recordings used for the LP in 1976 only with new overdubs added for the album. His response was: 1976 Klaatu released their first album. the album had no band member names, and no writing credits other than "Klaatu". In the United States and other countries, the album was called "Klaatu", but in their native Canada, the album was called "3:47 EST", which is the time the alien Klaatu landed on Earth in the 1951 movie The Day The Earth Stood Still. (Capitol Records USA messed up the song title for Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III on the original LP release, listing it as Sir Bodsworth Rubblesby III. This mistake carried onto their subsequent reissues until the first CD issue on Capitol in 1989 which finally corrected this error. Another Capitol error appears on the original issue of this album in the US. It lists the title of the last song as "Little Meutrino" instead of "Little Neutrino". This error was fixed by the time they had reissued the album in the early 80s.) 1977 Klaatu's second album, "Hope" was released and again had no names other than Klaatu. The selections were now copyright by KLAATOONS, Inc. ASCAP/CAPAC. The American album said the songs were published by Welbeck Music Corp/ASCAP. 1978 A third album by Klaatu, Sir Army Suit, was released. By this time sales were beginning to drop off and the album was not met with the sales that had been expected. Again there was no credit other than Klaatu and Klaatoons. 1980 The band came out with its 4th album (which also ended up being the last album released in the US by them). It was named Endangered Species. This time the album gave us some information. It said the songs were published by Klaatoons, and it told us that the album was produced by Christopher Bond. The songs also gave writing credit to Long, Woloschuk, and Tome. Were these the names of Klaatu members? It turns out that "Tome" was Dino Tome. He was a friend of John Woloschuk who helped write a few songs with John. He was not a member of the band. The following note was also included in the liner notes for the album: "Nota Bene: There are three accepted definitions applied when describing the status of declining wildlife: rare, threatened and ENDANGERED SPECIES. The most recent figures published in the Red Data Book, as issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, indicate that there are at least 340 animals and 20,000 plants listed as endangered species. Experts throughout the world agree that unless immediate and effective measures are implemented to protect the existence of these life forms, their final outcome will inevitably be . . . extinction. For more information, please contact: I.U.C.N., 1110 Morges, Switzerland" The album also contained an address to write to the band: So now we had songwriting credits to three people and a note from three people (2 of whom had been part of the songwriting credits). Were these the members of Klaatu? Yes. It turns out that these were the three members of Klaatu. That was the last that the United States heard from Klaatu. Canada was treated to two more albums though, a regular Klaatu release and a greatest hits package. 1981 The band's 5th and final album was released and is called Magentalane. The band went on tour opening for Prism, with 3 additional hired musicians to help make the complex Klaatu music easier to play live. 1982 A second tour in smaller venues as the headliner followed, at which time Dee left the band. A greatest hits package called, "Klaasic Klaatu", was released. By now, Klaatu had broken up and gone their separate ways. 1988 The band reunited in Germany, working with TV Producer Paul Vincent Gunia, as well as John Jones, to record the theme song for a TV movie called Tatort. Tatort was a series of long form programs (movies) made for TV with each one having a different theme song. The theme song for several of these movies would be released on various singles. The one with Klaatu was no exception. The theme song was released on a 7" 45 RPM single with the b-side being an instrumental version. The theme song was also released on a 12" 33 RPM single with the short version of the song, the instrumental version of the song, and an extended version of the song listed as "Film Version".Also, a CD single with all 3 versions from the 12" single was released. That CD single is the only Klaatu CD single, and the very first Klaatu recording to ever come out on CD. 1989 Capitol Records in the US released the first album on CD. Sales were disappointing and the CD was taken out of print in less than a year. Not much more was heard from them until the 1990's. In the early 1990s a company called Justin Records released the first two albums on two separate CDs in Canada and they were distributed by MCA Records. These two are now out of print and Justin Records is out of business. Justin Time Records sued over the use of the name Justin Records and won. Jeff Burns, the company president, re-released them on his new label, BEI Records (Burns Entertainment International). The BEI versions are extremely rare. I've never seen one. 1992 Capitol Records released a CD of the first two albums on one CD called Klaatu, Klaatu - Hope. They cut the ending off the last song on the first album. A whole 10 seconds is gone. This may not seem like much but when you consider that after the fade out of the last song is a mouse squeak and that same mouse squeak starts the second album, then it becomes a matter of them changing the "story/continuity" that the two albums presented together. 1993 Attic Records Limited in Canada released a CD called Peaks which was another greatest hits package. They included the bands' first publicity photo which shows John Woloschuk, Dee Long, & Terry Draper. Sales of this disc in Canada were good and Attic entered negotiations to release another Klaatu disc. 1994 Attic Records Limited released a single CD that contained the 3rd and 4th Klaatu albums on one CD called Klaatu Double Header. 1995 September 19th, 1995, Magentalane was finally released on CD in the USA on the Permanent Press label. This is a true first! Not only was this album now available in the states for the first time in any format, but the states got it on CD before Klaatu's home country! The reason for this is that since it was never released in the US, Capitol doesn't own the rights, the band does. Since Capitol owns the rights in Canada, it didn't come out on CD until the following year. On November 9th, 1995, Dee Long notified me that the band members had talked it over and that they decided that this web page would be called the Official Klaatu web page! Attic Records released 3:47 EST and Hope on CDs in Canada. These release used the identical insert and back cover graphics as the Justin release. They also used the identical CD label. One thing that is NOT the same is the quality. These were much better sounding CDs of these albums. 1996 January 30th, 1996, Capitol finally released Magentalane on CD in Canada and included the lyric sheet with it! 1997 Terry Draper released his first solo CD. 1998 Dee Long released his first solo CD. 2001 Bullseye Records released the 25th anniversary edition of the first album, "3:47 EST" on CD. 2002 Bullseye Records released the 25th anniversary edition of Hope on CD. 2003 Bullseye Records released the 25th anniversary edition of Sir Army Suit on CD. Bullseye Records released the Endangered Species album on CD. 2005 Klaatu reunited for a live performance at a fan convention called "Klaatu Konvention" or "Klaatu Kon" for short. They had a meet and greet with the fans, signing autographs. They had an event where they had photos taken with fans. They, along with Frank Davies and Ted Jones, participated in question and answer sessions with the fans in attendance. They performed a 6 song live acoustic set with the addition of backing vocalist Maureen Leeson. Coinciding with Klaatu Kon, a 2 CD set of Klaatu rarities was released. It was called SunSet. It had many early single versions of songs, unreleased early mixes / alternate mixes, demos, a couple of live tracks, and wonderful artwork and 2 booklets in a slipcover. 2007 Bullseye Records released Magentalane on CD. Bullseye Records released Raarities on vinyl LP. This was an additional set of rarities and unreleased alternate mixes, including some backing track only mixes, and did not duplicate any version that was found on the SunSet CD. 2009 Bullseye Records released Solology on CD. This contained all of the tracks from the Raarities vinyl LP, plus the full 6 songs live performance at the Klaatu Kon in 2005, plus an additional alternate version of Epilogue/Hope (as an unlisted bonus track). 2011 Klaatunes Records released the first album on CD in Canada. Klaatunes Records released Solology on CD in Canada. 2012 Klaatunes Records released Hope on CD in Canada. 2013 Klaatunes Records released Sir Army Suit in a 2-disc set in Canada. The first disc was an audio CD of the album. The second disc was a DVD which included unreleased animated videos for several songs that had been prepared in the 70s for a never-completed or released animated film called Happy New Year, Planet Earth. It also contained some interviews with the band. 2014 Conveyor Records in Canada released the first album on CD in Canada. This page last updated on July 2, 2020. |