Customer Reviews

Abbey Road 1963-1966 / Abbey Road 1966-1970 / Abbey Road 1973-1989

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This is a box set full of Hollies Rarities. Disc 1 has 28 tracks, disc 2 has 24 tracks, and disc 3 has 20 tracks. This anthology spands their entire career from the Graham Nash years, the Terry Sylvester years, and to their recent lineup with Allan Clarke. On CD for the first time are the songs Schoolgirl,Sign of the Times, Tip Of The Iceberg, Come Down To The Shore, Samuel, and Loving You Ain't Easy. Included are some tracks from the 80s(which most Hollies compilations never include) Too Many Hearts Get Broken, Find Me A Family, and No Rules. From listening to this box set from the first CD to the last, you can tell how the Hollies continue to improve their sound from album to album. A great compilation spanning their entire career.

Until the likes of Rhino or Columbia/Legacy get their chnace to put out a definite Hollies anthology, this is the best choice for someone looking to get the full flavor of the best British harmony band, and one of the most reliable 60s hit machines this side of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Hollies deserve to be mentioned in the same reverential tones reserved for the Who, the Stones, the Kinks and even the Fab Ones, and the At Abbey Road trilogy is ample proof of their deserved place in that pantheon of British Invasion groups. 72 tracks on 3 discs covering three dfecades, and alnost too much good stuff to handle at one sitting.

Disc One has all their earliest singles and B-sides, up to the songs that broke them big in the states -- Bus Stop and Stop! Stop! Stop! The vocal belnd of Alan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash, who were also a formidable writing team. Disc Two has the remainder of their US sixties hits (except fro Jennifer Eccles, for some reason), especially their buggest US smash, the anthemic "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother). Disc Three is less comeplete, omitting quite a few singles, possibly because they were not recorded at Abbey Road. You won;t find "Long Cool Woman" on this collection, for example, but you will find "The Air That I Breathe" and their cover of Springsteen's "Sandy" which easily somokjes the Boss's original version.

Throughout, you get ample proof that Tony Hicks, who has been with the group since its first single, is one of the great unbsung guitar heroes of British rock. He has such versatily and such a sense of the right sound to flavor the mix that re really beings up there with the likes of George Harrison, Brian Jones and Pete Townsend.

Buy and savor, firneds, and them explore the rest of this group's oeuvre. You will not be disappointed.

Buy this ! Tons of demos , alternate takes, you will never find a better price!!! Makes it to my player at least once a month !!!!!