Customer Reviews

The Bay City Rollers - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I can still remember it like it was yesterday. I was probably 10 years old, and I was shopping in Princeton, IN with my parents. We went into a corner five & dime/drugstore (remember them...weren't they great!), and there was this Bay City Rollers Greatest Hits album. I persuaded my mom to buy it for me, even though I was not familiar with most of their songs other than "Saturday Night". At that young age, I had a huge crush on their 4 handsome faces on the album cover. I took the album home and played it on my Donny & Marie Record Player. It was pure bliss. I loved every song. I took the album to school and played it during music class when we would get to bring in records from home. My mother being English, I also liked the fact that they were from Scotland. In a couple of years, they faded from view and were never heard from again. When I found this CD, I had to buy it to relive those wonderful days of my childhood. I have played it many times, and I still get a thrill when I hear these songs. My two favorite songs are the ballad "The Way I Feel Tonight" and the rocking "Yesterday's Hero".

Since this CD was issued, I see that they have released a "Definitive Collection" that includes other songs that were hits overseas before they became successful in the States. I suppose the diehard fans prefer that collection. But I prefer this one since it preserves my memories of these 10 classic songs from the 70's as I remember them. Critics can say what they want, and they can lambast this music for being empty, vapid, bubblegum pop. But for those of us who loved the Rollers, they can't take away our memories of a simpler time in our lives. And in the end, isn't that all that matters anyway.

Of course they weren't the Beatles, Bach or Beethoven - but they weren't supposed to be! They were a great group in their own right and made a lot of teenage girls swoon (me included) at the time. The music is still the best (never really did like the Beatles in the first place) as far as I'm concerned. You can't go wrong with this album!

Includes all their American chart entries, including "Saturday Night." Fair liner notes, though one wishes that the band members had contributed to them.

BAY CITY ROLLERS-GREATEST HITS: Okay, admit it. These briefly hot Scots of the mid 70s had at least a couple ditties you actually DUG, though you'd rather have been sentenced to wearing plaid suspenders for the rest of your life than come clean to your Kiss-worshippin' buddies. Maybe they weren't innovative, or even particularly adept musically, but when SATURDAY NIGHT pops up on oldies radio, you crank it up a little and chant at the top of your lungs like some deranged, over the hill cheerleader, "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...NIGHT!!!" And that ain't all...blasted bubblegum be damned, MONEY HONEY, ROCK AND ROLL LOVE LETTER and even their charismatic cover of Dusty Springfield's I ONLY WANNA BE WITH YOU don't make you scramble to change the dial either. Too bad the other half of GREATEST HITS can't compete...despite a couple of decent later singles YOU MADE ME BELIEVE IN MAGIC and THE WAY I FEEL TONIGHT...at least they didn't hang around forever like Donny Osmond, fer cryin' out loud! The Backstreet Boys couldn't carry these guys' blowdryers.

RATING: THREE TARTAN SCARVES

The basics. Good for those who have not heard them since the seventies, and want a refresher course. When listening to this album I remember what I was doing while listening back as a teenager hearing their music(And it wasn't very pretty--what I was doing; not the music)

Yes, I was a Bay City Roller fan from the beginning to the end (once Leslie left the band). Yes, we were young teenaged girls who fell in love with these guys from Scotland. They didn't do brain surgery but they were cute and lots of fun. Their market was young girls from 8 to 18 no different from what's going on in todays "Teen idols". People who need to disect the lyrics and use words most people need to look up in the dictionary obviously missed the boat. The B.C.R.'s did their job and did it well. It hopefully made them lots of money and great memories. If we bought it and enjoyed their songs what's it to you.

This albulm is their early work. The abulm Dedication with Ian Mitchell was my favourite. This was recorded in Toronto and maybe this has a lot to do with its popularity here.

Saturday Night by the B.C.R.'s was fun in '76 and was sung by male and females alike. It was once the critics (who were adults) that gave their reviews that influence opinions on young minds. Too bad Derek Longmuir is so hard to find, or I'd tell him he did a great job of making my teens years dreaming lots of fun. He was classy and very sexy. The icing on the cake was of course Leslie, Ian, Woody and Eric.

This albulm is just as much fun to the selected few who enjoyed it then and they would now. Keep on Rolling!!!! P.S. I wonder if Tam Patton is still managing rock groups??

Is it too much to say that this album changed my life? Because it did. While my older brother was ruining his brain cells and his spirtual life listening to Black Sabbath and similar dark, loud and dangerous music, I was rockin and boppin to the most wonderful band ever, the Bay City Rollers. They made me so happy as an awkward teenager from a small farm town in Indiana. When I sat at the far end of the bench my Junior year on the basketball team, they comforted me in a way that even my Mom couldn't top. And when I decided not to play basketball my senior year, everyone thought it was sour grapes, but it wasn't! I was making time for myself so that I could drive for hours in my car, listening to the most awesome music ever by the completely original boys in plaid. Those were the days, my friend! I wished they'd never end! But they did, and all too soon. Now, I have been ruined for music forever unless the Bay City Rollers make my dreams come true and come out with a comeback tour. Here's hoping!
Todd Mathis

I think the Bay City Rollers were one of the most underated groups of their time! They wrote a lot of their own material, played all the instruments, and the vocal harmonies were great! Can't wait for their new album! Keep On Rollin'!

The CD was in perfect shape and arrived quickly. It was a great "blast from the past," and I have enjoyed listening to it several times since it arrived.

The only band that mattered in the 70's was THE OSMONDS Great then and still going strong 50 years in the music biz!! And that's the truth!!!