Discovered by David Geffen after a controversial performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, a 20-year-old Laura Nyro convinced Clive Davis to sign her to Columbia Records by inviting him to her flat, where she turned all the lights off and performed material from what would become ‘Eli and the Thirteenth Confession’. This darkly theatrical blue-eyed soul music made her and Geffen a millionaire. But by the age of 24, she retired from the public limelight and married a carpenter. Considered a “singer’s singer”, Laura Nyro was covered by the likes of Three Dog Night and Barbara Streisand, and inspired everybody from Elton John to Bette Middler.


“Eli and the Thirteenth Confession” is also the 462nd Greatest Album of All Time, according to Rolling Stone magazine. This week, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd and Liam Withnail enjoyed it, then talked about everything from what music they want played at their funeral to what their favourite musical is. All that and more, plus a jazz-trumpeteering edition of Secret Posho, on episode 38 of Enjoy An Album. Enjoy!