Marshall Crenshaw - The Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw (2026)

Marshall Crenshaw has dug through his archives and curated a compilation of previously unreleased recordings, demos and live songs recorded between 1984 and 1989. Songs include a cover of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day,” featuring Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg; demo versions of songs that would appear on his third and fourth studio albums; live recordings from 1986-87; and other lost recordings Marshall unearthed from his studio. One very cool artifact included here is a demo snippet featuring vocals by Kirsty McColl. Marshall had been working on a demo for the song, “(We’re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds,” but had hit a block in writing it. According to Marshall, “ At one point when I was struggling to write it, I sent the backing tracks to Kirsty MacColl to see what might happen- she wrote her own song (‘All I Ever Wanted’) over the tracks; it wound up on one of her albums (and a UK single too, but not one of her hits unfortunately). I’m presenting this the way I found it on the tape reel- my demo, followed by the last bit of her demo, which I accidentally recorded over.

This compilation provides a rare glimpse into an artist’s songwriting and recording process, as well as featuring some very fine recordings finally seeing the light of day.