Manfred Mann (born Manfred Sepse Lubowitz, October 1940, Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa) is a keyboard player best known as a founding member and namesake of Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

Lubowitz studied classical music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and worked as a jazz pianist at a number of clubs in Johannesburg. Between 1959 and 1961 he recorded, together with his childhood friend Saul Ozynski, two albums as The Vikings - South Africa's first rock 'n' roll band.

Strongly opposed to the apartheid system in his native South Africa, Lubowitz re-located to the United Kingdom in 1961. Around this time, he began to write for Jazz News under the pseudonym Manfred Manne (after jazz drummer Shelly Manne), which was soon shortened into Manfred Mann. The following year he met drummer and keyboard player Mike Hugg, at Clacton Butlins Holiday Camp, and together they formed a large blues-jazz band called the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. This eventually evolved into a five-piece group and they signed a record deal with EMI in 1963, under the HMV label. They changed their name to Manfred Mann at the suggestion of the label's record producer, and from 1964 to 1969 had a succession of hit records, (Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Sha La La, Pretty Flamingo, Mighty Quinn).

Manfred Mann the group split in 1969, but Mann immediately formed another outfit with Mike Hugg called Manfred Mann Chapter Three, an experimental jazz rock band. The band was short-lived, and after two albums disbanded. Undeterred, Mann formed a new outfit in 1971, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, which still record and perform to this day. Well known hits include Blinded by the Light, which reached no 1, Runner, which peaked at no 22 and Davy's On The Road Again.

He has also released albums as solo projects under the title Manfred Mann's Plain Music and Manfred Mann '06  (wikipedia)

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Odds & Sods - Mis-takes & Out-takes is a 4CD Box set compilation album released in 2005 by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. It features alternate takes, outtakes and other assorted rarities, recorded over the 35 year career of the band.

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Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Odds & Sods-Mistakes & Out-takes 1969-2005
(4CD London Cohesion 2005)

CD 1  In The Beginning

 1. Happy Being Me (1970)
 2. Travelling Lady (1969)
 3. Messin' Up The Land (previously unreleased version) (1970)
 4. Fish (previously unreleased) (1970)
 5. Turn You Away From My Door (previously unreleased) (1970)
 6. Ashes To The Wind (previously unreleased version) (1971)
 7. Ned Kelly (previously unreleased) (1971)
 8. Please Mrs Henry (previously unreleased version) (1971)
 9. Jump Sturdy (previously unreleased version) (1971)
10. Holly Holy (previously unreleased) (1971)
11. Tribute (1971)
12. Ain't No Crime (previously unreleased) (1971)
13. In The Beginning (1973)
14. Joybringer (1973)
15. Be Not Too Hard (1974)

CD 2  Hollywood Town

 1. Blinded By The Light (1976)
 2. Spirits In The Night (1976)
 3. Living Without You (1971)
 4. Pretty Good (American only release) (1975)
 5. California Coastline (1972)
 6. Hollywood Town (1979)
 7. Chicago Institute (1977)
 8. Quit Your Low Down Ways (American only release) (1975)
 9. California (1977)
10. Runner (1984)
11. Summer In The City (previously unreleased) (1987)
12. Rebel (American only release) (1984)
13. Salmon Fishing (First released in States) (1992)

CD 3  Brothers & Sisters

 1. Redemption Song (1984)
 2. Singing The Dolphin Through (1976)
 3. For You (1981)
 4. I (Who Have Nothing) (Single release only) (1982)
 5. Redemption Song (1982)
 6. Africa Suite (1982)
    a) Brothers and Sisters of Africa
    b) To Bantustan
    c) Koze Kobenini (How Long Must We Wait?)
 7. War Dream (B side of single only) (1982)
 8. Heart On The Street (1981)
 9. Telegram To Monica (1987)
10. All Through The Night (previously unreleased) (1988)
11. Better Place (previously unreleased) (1996)
12. Demolition Man (live) (In memory of Steve Waller 1951 - 2000) (1984)
13. Martha's Madman (live) (1998)

CD 4  To The Limit

 1. Instrumedicine Song (1990)
 2. Geronimo's Cadillac (previously unreleased version) (1993)
 3. Tumbling Ball (previously unreleased version) (1996)
 4. Lead Me To Water (previously unreleased) (1993)
 5. To The Limit (previously unreleased) (1993)
 6. Don't Let Me Down (previously unreleased) (1993)
 7. Nature Of The Beast (previously unreleased version) (1993)
 8. Pleasure And Pain (previously unreleased version - live) (1993)
 9. Dirty City (previously unreleased - live) (1993)
10. Don't Bring Me Down (Castles Burning) (previously unreleased - live) (2001)
11. SOS (previously unreleased - live) (2001)
12. Davy's On The Road Again (previously unreleased live version) (2001)
13. Hillbrow (previously unreleased - from 2006 recordings)