The Last Will and Testament of Jake Thackray
The Last Will and Testament of Jake Thackray is the debut album by Jake Thackray. It was produced by Norman Newell in August 1967 and released on LP that year by EMI in the UK and Philips Records in the USA. The record company, unsure of how the public would respond to Thackray's lugubrious voice accompanied only by his guitar, added orchestral arrangements by Roger Webb and Geoff Love to many of the songs. The album is now out of print, but its songs, digitally remastered, are included in the four  CD retrospective "Jake in a Box". The fourth CD of the set also contains 26 songs recorded in April 1967, including the earlier version of the album (originally mono) and 13 other tracks. They include unreleased solo (vocal and guitar) versions of all the songs that are recorded with orchestral arrangements on the album, with the exception of "The Black Swan". The song "Lah-Di-Dah" has been covered as a duet by Petula Clark and Rod McKuen, and by the band Sky Larkin.