Old Songs, New Songs

Reprise issued Old Songs New Songs in March 1971 as the budget-series LP RMP 9007 — a budget-priced compilation that served as a de facto Best Of, but with a twist. Rather than simply collecting past highlights, the album featured remixed and redubbed versions of key tracks from Family's earlier catalogue, many drawn from albums to which the band no longer held full rights. Four Family Entertainment tracks — 'Observations From A Hill', 'Hung Up Down', 'The Weaver's Answer' and 'Hometown' — were partially re-recorded and remixed, with Roger Chapman replacing Jim King's original lead on 'Observations From A Hill', addressing the band's well-documented dissatisfaction with that album's original mix. The LP was not issued in the United States (though it circulated there as an import), but appeared in France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Israel and Argentina.

A budget-price compilation with a specific purpose: to give the original trio (Chapman, Whitney, Townsend) a cathartic chance to remix four songs from Music In A Doll's House — the debut whose production they had never been happy with — alongside A- and B-sides from their singles run. Reviewers took the occasion to note Family's unusually wide stylistic palette, from heavy rock to country inflections ('The Cat And The Rat') to sweet pop ('Hometown', 'Today').

To Jerry Gilbert in Sounds (27 February 1971, 'Roger Chapman — finally Family come together'), weeks ahead of the release: "We were keen on the idea of getting some of these old tracks and just seeing what we could do with them; we finally got into it, and the album is there now, although I never think of it as the release of an album." On the mixing-technology limits of the earliest material: "With the tracks from the 'Doll's House' album we couldn't remix them because it was done on four tracks, so we just tried to raise the level a bit because that album didn't have as much guts in it as it should have had." On the two songs that the reissue gave a second chance to: "There are one or two things we did that I think got overshadowed like 'Today' and 'Good Friend Of Mine'." (See Press Archive: Roger Chapman — finally Family come together.)

Gilbert asked in Sounds why Family had bothered to remix early-album tracks for the Old Songs New Songs release. Whitney: "Well initially it was done for the States because we had a tour booked and we didn't have an album so it was a good idea. But then the tour got cancelled and we thought it would be nice for over here. There may be another one. I mean I think the last one introduced a lot of new people to Family — you know our audience is getting younger and I don't know how these kids can afford albums these days. You notice how young they are when they come round after the shows." (See Press Archive: In The Talk-In — Charlie Whitney by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 15 January 1972.)