Lo-Flo Records presents Songs from the Vault: Reel #5, a two-song EP written by prolific composer Jane McNealy, featuring legendary jazz musician and producer Harold Battiste. Jr. Out on April 26, 2024, these jazz songs—“Why Can’t I Have It Too” and “Movie Star”—have been unearthed from McNealy’s vast archive and date back to the 1970’s, early in McNealy’s writing career.
Full-length music videos for each song have been created by Jeremy Gladen. The first video for “Why Can’t I Have It Too” will be released on May 3 with the subsequent video released one week later via Lo-Flo Records’ YouTube channel:
“Why Can’t I Have It Too” and “Movie Star” were written by McNealy in 1974 and 1977, respectively, amidst the constant output of her flourishing musical career. “Why Can’t I Have It Too”, which McNealy co-wrote with her collaborator, Alice Kuhns, was originally from the musical To Be Fred. Both songs were arranged and produced by Battiste as well as feature his signature saxophone work. “Why Can’t I Have It Too” opens with McNealy playing a melancholy piano melody, which is followed by Battiste’s emotive saxophone. The song evokes the feelings of personal and societal struggles of the time. In contrast “Movie Star” is a funk-infused song, once again featuring Battiste’s saxophone work, and McNealy playing the keyboard, synthesized wind and electronic effects, and providing the reverb-ladened background vocals. The result is epic and uplifting. While decades old, these songs stand as a testament to the many lasting creative ventures between Battiste and McNealy.
McNealy recalls, “It was a very exciting time as To Be Fred was the first musical that Alice and I wrote that was then produced…. the best part was that I had talked Harold into doing the orchestrations and arrangements for the show – the sad part was, he did it in exchange for my parlor grand piano, as I had no money at the time.” McNealy eventually bought the grand piano back! “Why Can’t I Have It Too,” was Battiste’s favorite song from the stage show and he told McNealy that he wanted to record it one day. A few years later, McNealy and Battiste put together a collection of songs to record at Hollywood Central Recorders and “Why Can’t I
Have It Too” was first on Battiste’s list.
In 1977, McNealy was offered a project to record an album for a client who wanted to sing her songs. McNealy immediately called Harold to ask if he would do the orchestration and arrangements for the recordings. McNealy elaborates, “The joy of knowing Harold was he
never turned down my ideas. One of the songs on the album was “Movie Star” and it soon
became Harold‘s all-time favorite, calling it, ‘The greatest of Jane McNealy’s hits from the
1970’s.” It doesn’t get any better than that!“
