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  | Various Artists - The British Invasion: History of British Rock, Vol. 7
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Average user rating:  | |
| Just stay close at hand | |
| This is a good collection of songs from the U.K. (although The Easybeats were from Australia and Los Bravos were from Spain). The songs date from late 1965 to early 1967. There is a good selection of songs here. You get big stars like Dusty Springfield and The Hollies. You get unknowns like The Smoke and Wild Uncertainty. Some of the songs here were hits in America, some of them were hits in the U.K. and some of them weren't hits at all. You probably won't like every song here (I didn't), but there are enough good songs here to make it worth getting. | |
| Delicious Ear Candy | |
| Taken individually, Rhino's excellent British Invasion series seems like it would have a limited market. If, however, like me (and countless other Baby Boomers who see this music as the soundtrack to our adolescence), you are looking for an eclectic cross-section of British Invasion rock, then buy as many of these volumes as you can while Rhino still holds the license to these songs and keeps them in print. There are familiar Top 40 hits: Donovan's "Mellow Yellow," Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me," the Hollies' "Carrie-Anne," and the Tremeloes' "Silence Is Golden." There are other hits that rarely get anthologized: the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind," Los Bravos' "Black Is Black," the Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" and the New Vaudeville Band's "Winchester Cathedral." And because this is a History of British Rock (and not just British rock that were big hits in America), you get "Smashed! Blocked" by John's Children (which did not yet boast Marc Bolan as a member), the Small Faces' UK No. 1 "All or Nothing" and Wayne Fontana (minus the Mindbenders) on his solo UK hit "Pamela, Pamela." [The inclusion of Chad and Jeremy's "Teenage Failure" seems a bit odd only in that the duo had only one hit in their native England--"Yesterday's Gone"--and then moved to Hollywood. Granted, Chad and Jeremy were (and are) still British, but "Teenage Failure" was not a hit on either side of the Atlantic. (It's a pleasant enough song, but I sense that sometimes Rhino's hands are tied by the licensing agreements they can arrange.)] Overall, this album makes for enjoyable listening and is guaranteed to bring back fond memories. RECOMMENDED | |
| One of the best in the series. | |
| The first two tracks alone make this cd worth owning...I haven't seen them anywhere else and they are great! | |
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