Short story: Before Twice Upon a Rhyme, there were Spun Dreams by Paul Levinson - demos (studio, home, rough, and refined) that Paul for the most part wrote with Stu Nitekman, and recorded as part of the folk-rock-pop group The New Outlook, consisting of Paul, Stu, and Ira Margolis. For many years - from the time these songs first were recorded on a home tape recorder or in a studio (Associated Studios in Manhattan) during 1966-1968, and then moved from tape to acetate for easier playing - these demos languished in dusty closets. Paul brought them into the Walsh Digital Lab at Fordham University in early 2006, and converted them and other demos and master releases into WAV files.

Longer story: The New Outlook began to come into being in the summer of 1963, when Paul Levinson got his first job, making sundaes and ice cream sodas, at Krum’s on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (see bonus photo). Ira Margolis also worked there, and the two soon started talking music, and singing. Stu Nitekman was Ira’s friend. The three soon formed The Transits, maybe the last doo-wop group in the Bronx, with several of Paul’s friends from junior high school and earlier. When the Transits disbanded in 1965, Paul, Stu, and Ira became The New Outlook (see bonus photo -- left to right: Ira, Stu, Paul). And whereas The Transits covered early Four Seasons and Beachboy songs, Paul and Stu wrote their own songs for The New Outlook.

They sang in the “alcoves” of City College -- the entry halls behind the cafeterias of CCNY, where they were students -- both between and during many of their classes. They recorded demos in Stu’s home. Stu sang most of the leads, Paul a few. Paul sang falsetto and tenor harmony with Ira, who sang baritone. Stu played acoustic guitar, Paul played a cheapo keyboard he had purchased at Woolworth’s, Ira had a tambourine in hand. “Two Minus One,” “Happy Goodbye Baby,” “Keep Off the Grass,” “Don’t Blame It On Love,” and “Precious and Golden” were written by Paul (lyrics) and Stu (music). “Water Proof” and “The Flavor of Spring”were written just by Paul. All were recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in Stu’s living room in 1966.

Paul and Stu brought their demos around to every publisher and producer in the Brill Building and nearby they could find. The late great Tash Howard brought the New Outlook into a studio to record a demo of “Please Don’t Cry Little Dove,” which was the group’s first professionally recorded song. A little later, the group went into a studio under their own steam, and recorded “Sunshine's Mine,” written by Paul and Stu, with Paul doing lead vocal.

On a sunny spring Sunday in 1967, The New Outlook were singing in Central Park in New York City. Ellie Greenwich (another legend who died too soon) and Mike Rashkow (see bonus photo) happened by, liked what they heard, and brought the group into a studio to perform a few of our songs. These are represented on this album by “Just that Kind,” “If Leaves Fall Tomorrow,” and “Yesterday’s Rain” (which is about two-thirds the size of its true length, due to a little glitch during the recording). Also included in this album is a Bonus Track from that demo session of The New Outlook, singing a classic song -- not written by us -- a real crowd pleaser in our live performances.

Ellie and Mike changed the name of the group to The Other Voices and signed them to Atlantic Records, where the group had two single releases. Paul co-wrote the b-side to both singles, “Hung Up on Love,” with Mikie Harris. The recording was included in Rhino-Handmade’s compilation album, “Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets,” in 2004 (compiled by Andrew Sandoval).

The New Outlook/Other Voices left Ellie and Mike and Atlantic Records in late 1968. They went into the studio on their own, and recorded a master of what would be their last song together, “Evening’s Evergreen Morning”. Stu sang lead, Paul his customary falsetto, and Ira the baritone harmony. Peter Rosenthal - who would go on to play guitars on every cut of Twice Upon a Rhyme (the album Paul later recorded with Ed Fox, Peter, and other artists) - played guitars on “Evening’s Evergreen Morning”.

In 1972, Paul wrote an article in The Village Voice about Murray the K’s return to New York as a disk jockey (see bonus pdf of that article). Murray hired Paul to help produce Murray’s show on WNBC Radio, and a few weeks later Paul wrote and recorded a studio demo of “Murray the K’s Back in Town,” with Pete on guitar.

Rounding out Spun Dreams are "Follow the Leader", a demo Paul wrote and recorded (in a studio) in 1971; "Lime Streets", a song Paul wrote in 2006 (the recording was made at a concert Paul gave in 2016 at LI-Con, a science fiction convention); and "Pictures on the Phone", a song Paul wrote and recorded in the height of the pandemic, at the end of 2020.

That 2015 science fiction convention was a sign of things to come in Paul's music/ (Check out Paul Levinson's album Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, released in 2020 by Old Bear Records, with vinyl distributed by Light In the Attic Records.)