Customer Reviews

Barry Scott: Lost 45's of 70's & 80's 2

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the other reviewers have stated, this CD contains original 45 versions of some rare songs from the late 70's and early 80's. Some of these songs ("Ariel" by Dean Friedman, "Hearts on Fire" by Randy Meisner and "Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang" by Silver)have been available previously on other compilations by Rhino Records and other companies, but the true rarities make this CD well worth the money spent to get it. Some of the songs on here I have not heard for 20-25 years include "Sausalito Summer Night" by Diesel, "I Couldn't Say No" by Robert Ellis Orrall & Carlene Carter, "Only a Lonely Heart Sees" by Felix Caviliere, "If The Love Fits, Wear It" by Leslie Pearl, "Precious to Me" by Phil Seymour, and one of my all-time favorite songs that I have been searching for for many, many years: "If You Remember Me" by Chris Thompson & Night. I also own Volume 1, and they are both quality CD's with excellent liner notes. I wish I lived in Boston to hear Barry Scott's weekly radio show where he plays rare songs from the 70's and 80's. To avoid the scalper prices here, you can buy the CD directly from Barry Scott on his website, lost45.com. This CD is $25.00 there which included shipping & handling as opposed to the $50.00 price they are selling for here. I highly recommend both volumes. Like the other reviewers, I also would like to see a Volume 3. My wish list for Volume 3 would be:

1. "Pop Goes the World" Men Without Hats

2. "The First Day of Summer" Tony Carey

3. "Dreamin' is Easy" Steel Breeze

4. "Never Been in Love" Randy Meisner

5. "Think it Over" Cheryl Ladd

6. "Weekend" Wet Willie

7. "Goin Down" Greg Guidry

8. "You're my Girl" Frankie & the Knockouts

9. "Boys Do Fall in Love" Robin Gibb

10. "What the Big Girls Do" Van Stephenson

11. "All I Have to Do is Dream" Andy Gibb & Victoria Principal

12. "Hot Summer Nights" Night

13. "Pop Goes the Movies" Meco

14. "Holdin' On" Tane' Cain

Is anyone out there listening?

Kudos to Barry Scott for his two compilations of songs you'd never find anywhere else! And these are good tunes, and I was surprised that these artists never achieved more success. However, the songs on this collection are good and reflective of what is missing in most of today's "pop/rock" scene: melodies that stay with you, melodies you can hum. My favorite on this one is Chilliwack's "I Believe." This has such a melodic hook, good chord changes, and those high harmonies that would later favor such acts as Firefall and the Doobies. Chilliwack had an earlier hit "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" which is included on the first Barry Scott collection. These two songs alone should have guaranteed Chilliwack a more noteable longevity. It's also fun to hear Silver's "Wham Bam Shang a Lang," a melodic, string-laden uptempo song about lost love--sophisticated bubblegum, but a haunting tune nonetheless. Chris Thompson's rendition of "If You Remember Me" is a poignant recreation of losing someone. It was originally intended to be in Jon Voight's remake of the tearjerker "The Champ" but for some reason didn't make the cut. It's a very lovely song. LeRoux chips in with their "Nobody Said It Was Easy" which I think is better than their main hit, "New Orleans Ladies." But still these were both excellent tunes and should have received more airplay. I'm surprised Mac Davis' "Rock and Roll" is on this collection, as there have been numerous Davis sets released, but evidently this one didn't make it on. It's an innocuous paen to the rock and roll star and his life. Not great, but one of Davis' better efforts. If you remember the 70s and 80s and can remember when these lesser known songs were on, they will bring back a warm nostalgic feeling; if you are just in to these decades music, and looking for something a little different, these tunes should fill the bill.
RECOMMENDED.

Another volume makes its appearance in the Barry Scott lost 45's series. But rather than get into a discussion about whether these tunes are "good" or not, just be aware that these is a collection of middle-of-the-road pop tunes from the 70's and 80's. No punk or hard rock here, but an excellent sounding collection of top-40 tunes rarely, if at all, found on CD.

There are several one-hit wonders here such as Diesel's "Sausalito Summertime", Phil Seymour's "Precious To Me" and Leslie Pearl's "If The Love Fits Wear It". Also found are the reappearance on the charts of Del Shannon ("Sea of Love") and Felix Cavaliere (ex-Rascal)'s "Only A Lonely Heart Sees".

Sound quality is excellent, all the cuts are in true stereo and the booklet has interesting info about each song in the compilation. Here we are priviledged to have a refreshing collection of familiar songs of the era without the tiresome replaying of the top-5 tunes found everywhere else. For the purpose, this is a genuinely superb disc.

As he did with the first volume of his Lost 45 series, Barry Scott has done an admirable job of unearthing some forgotten gems of AM Top 40 radio of the 70's and early 80's. The big finds on this collection are by Larry Santos ("We Can't Hide It Anymore) and the George Baker Selection ("Paloma Blanca"), both hits that charted below the Top 25 on the Billboard charts. And that's the beauty of a collection like this. This CD works best when it digs up tracks like the above 2 or something from Leslie Pearl, Diesel or Rubicon. None of these songs got the airplay to go Top 10 and don't get much airplay on oldies radio today. If you grew up on Casey Kasem's American Top 40 countdown of the 70's or AM Radio from that era, this CD will be a treasure of AM memories. The sound is excellent (from master tapes, no surface noise) and the liner notes by Scott are good. Has the well run dry for more collections? Nope? I challenge Barry Scott to find this forgotten favorite of mine from the 70's: John Valenti - Anything You Want #37 (1976). Happy hunting.

I found the Rubicon tune (I'm gonna take care of everything) on a 7" Scotch Classic Open Reel Tape that I bought with the deck in a pawn shop about 15 years ago. (It was a steal and had INCREDIBLE sound quality, whoever dubbed it knew all the mistakes to avoid including underrecording the level...). I've been searching ever since trying to figure out who did this tune. It sounds like "Vices" era Doobies to me.

The collection would be worth every dime to me at it's original list price. But the increase in fidelity isn't worth $40.00 to me.

I love the Rubicon tune. The rest are non starters for me, at least from the samples....

First of all, regarding David Hugaert's review (above): A solid review except for a factual issue. "Wham Bam (Shang-A-Lang)" by Silver is anything but a Disco tune. It is an up-tempo, yet sad tune about love lost. Silver had a definate country-pop flavor, ala Orleans and Firefall. I'm sure David must have been thinking of the truly disco German trio, Silver Connection.
This is a great collection for the money spent, presuming that you are into lost nuggets. These songs are rarely heard anymore, maybe because the artists couldn't follow them up with anything strong. But these are mostly oustanding "one hit wonders."

If you're considering buying this CD because of "Sausalito Summernight", BEWARE: the song has been edited to the point of butchering. The intro has been shortened and the entire second verse ("Hot summernight in Sausalito /Can't stand the heat another mile", etc) is missing. A Dutch compilation has a "single edit" which is longer and does include the second verse, so it is a really short version you're getting here. Apart from that, the collection is faultless. I didn't know most of the songs and I liked them all. But if it's the Diesel track you're after, the original album is soon to be reissued including the full-length version.

Barry Scott did a truly admirable job accomplishing what he did unearthing wonderful mediocre, to the average listener, tunes from some of my favorite ''lost ''artists like Chilliwack, Diesel , and Leroux. I'm 24 years old , yet remember hearing these tunes on radio as a small child. it's a good feeling remembering these songs. Now if only he could dig up stuff from my lost 45's favorites like 707, The Fools, Shooting Star, or The Headpins , heck ,even the Korgis. I'll buy volume 3.I also pose a challenge to Mr. Scott in finding the 1984 classic ''Vitamin L'' , by the unheard -of B.E. Taylor Group from Pittsburgh, the only song I've heard that rhymes the words ''cure'' and ''doctor'' and actually makes it work.

I awaited this CD for months as it had a number of songs on my wish list. However, it is one unexpected song that stays in my head after repeated plays: Larry Santos' "We Can't Hide it Anymore". Barry, keep up the good work, and I hope your show gets back on the internet soon.

This is a very uneven collection of work, but as it is (currently) the only way to get Diesel's "Sausalito Summernight" on CD (I actually own the original 45 RPM single), the need to have that outweighed the trepidation I felt in buying a CD with Mac Davis (not even "Hard to be Humble" or "Don't Get Hooked On Me", even) on it...I try to remember him better as Seth Maxwell in "North Dallas Forty".

So, to the review, then: "Sausalito Summernight" is the best track on the CD (even though it does sound, as the excellent liner notes suggested, a lot like the Steve Miller Band). I considered this song to be a bit New Wavey for this collection, but I'm thankful to hear it anywhere. Great rhythym, featuring quite possibly the most over-compressed bass guitar in the history of recorded music. "Ariel" by Dean Friedman (who sounds a lot like Billy Joel) is a hokey little song that could only have been recorded in the '70's (there just aren't enough songs out there about picking up baked girls that reference VW buses anymore). "Sea of Love" is a diappointment (if you want a good cover version of this song, The Honeydrippers can't be beat) considering it's Del Shannon who did it (in truth, this sounds, very sadly, like Ringo Starr's remak of "You're Sixteen"). "I Believe" by Chilliwack is all right, but all bets are off with "I Will Still Love You". Anyone with diabetes runs the risk of certain death fro listening to that sugary tripe. "Hearts On Fire" by Randy Meisner is good (and it reminds me of "Ashes By Now" by Rodney Crowell, which was recorded at about the same time and wouldn't at all be out of place on a compilation of this sort (it was covered by Lee Ann Womack in 2000). Additional highlights are "Let's Live Together" by The Road Apples (really, I'm not making that up), whose singer sounds a bit like Randy Newman), "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang", which is really disturbing when you consider how serious the effort was made by Silver in recording this ("I think you're seein'/What I'm sayin'/'Cause I see you dancin'/To the tune I'm playin'"...Lord save us). "I'm Gonna Take Care of Everything" by Rubicon will grow on you (Jack Blades of Nightranger/Damn Yankees fame plays a GREAT bassline that is doubled by what has to be the last Moog synthesizer on Earth), and "Precious To Me" is a fun, lightweight pop tune with some nifty guitar work. "Paloma Blanca" gets the nod for the most irritating song in the history of pop music (until Katrina & The Waves came out with "Walking On Sunshine" in the '80's, of course), and "If You Remember Me" closes out the CD, sounding all the world like Eric Carmen. All-in-all, this collection of tunes by various Dutchmen, Canadians, and commercial jingle singers isn't bad, and is worth buying if you care enough about even one of the songs included. The quality of the recordings is crisp and brilliant, which is surprising given the obscure nature of the work...sounds as though they could have been engineered yesterday. A good way of summing up the collection is that it's pretty much what you'd hear while watching the re-runs of "WKRP in Cincinnati" over and over and over.