Customer Reviews

Best Disco in Town: Best of

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This compilation of the Ritchie family has most of their hits, short versions. I was disappointed with the Arabian Nights medley, they cut it down to around 8 minutes originally it was about 16 minutes. Same thing with the African Queens medley, that was cut also. Overall if you can overlook the cut down size of most of the song, its a good compilation disc.

A pretty good compilation but the Arabian Nights & African Queens medleys just don't work in edited form. I pray for the day they release the full-length albums...BRAZIL..AFRICAN QUEENS..ARABIAN NIGHTS..LIFE IS MUSIC. All brilliant..all greatly desired by their fans..PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE..

The early days of disco saw the birth of a classic song turned into a classic again with the magic touch of disco sound. Even the cover of their debut LP was an enigma not showing the faces of the group members. "Frenesi" and "Peanut Vendor" completed the first side of the record which had a jazzy fair. The B side has "Fascination","Dance with me" and "Pinball" Which although short in lenght were more danceable. "Arabian Nights" portrayed their classic "Best Disco in Town", the rest of the songs were good but never topped the charts. The cover art pictured the group members wearing exotic "carnival" costumes. Cassandra Ann Wooten, Gwendolyn Oliver and Teri Mason Jacks were credited as the group voices. "Life is music" followed in 1977 with a glamo- rous picture cover and a centerfold where the trio were wearing furs. "Long Distance Romance", "Lady luck" and "Liberty" were great songs but again didn't top the charts. By the end of the summer "African Queens" was released. Again the art cover was very exquisite portraying the trio as different African Queens. Only "Quiet Village" topped the charts (not included here). "Summer Dance" was a very danceable tune as well as "Voodoo", unfortunately only the 7" mix of the first one is included. Disco was hot on the trails by 1978: "American Generation" was released with a new line up. The sound was more aggressive as showed in "I feel Disco Good" and of course the title hit. This was their final release on Marlin/TK label. The release of "Bad Reputation" with Casablanca records portraying the new group dressed in leather and surrounded by bodybuilders on the cover was simply hot. The sound was very High Energy: "Bad reputation" "Put your feet to the beat", It's a man's world" and "Where are the men" really will make you put your feet to the beat. By 1980's the group was fading away. They were singing ballads and mellow songs. With RCA records "I'll do my best" and "All night, all right" are presented here. Will be great to see releases of the "disco good" days of this group.

I am SO GLAD that I got my hands on this cd!Thanks to the Inter net, I would have never found this MUST HAVE CLASSIC!Back in the 70's,my mother played "The Ritchie Family" almost daily to the point where the albums now sounds like crumbled wax paper.Then I I heard these songs again on WKTU.NY and I had to add this to my disco collection!"BRAZIL" is beautiful and breath taking!!You cannot sit down when this song is playing!It's one of my top 10 disco hits of all time!!!"ARABIAN NIGHTS" is my next favorite with it's blend of disco & exotic Persian/Turkish tunes!I would have prefered to hear the 16 min version instead of the 7 min 18 seconds because I hate when good songs like this is edited.The next one is "BEST DISCO IN TOWN" a combination of all disco hits including their own.This is the most common song of(TRF)it gets the most air play."AFRICAN QUEENS,SUMMER DANCE AND GOOD IN LOVE" is also easy to like.I haven't heard "AMERICAN GENERATION" in about 20 years and I fell in love with it all over again!How come "QUIET VILLAGE" is not included?"QV" was a top hit with it's medium tempo yet tropical and sexy rhythms!There were two other songs on their original LP that was indeed candidates for their best hits and they were "BABY I'M ON FIRE & ROMANTIC LOVE"! These songs like all the rest had that danceable,sexy and mesmerizing touch!!Overall, I definetely got my $$$$$ worth and will cherish it forever.My mother totally agrees and we both say -too bad they don't make music like this anymore!With this kind of extravagant music "YOU MUST BE THE GRIM REAPER IF YOU WERE GLAD TO SEE THE DEMISE OF DISCO"!!!!!! "KEEP DISCO ALIVE"

This was one of my very favorite "disco" groups. In fact, I was once on stage with them [the original line-up of Cassandra, Gwendolyn and Teri] at a club called Valentino's in Cherry Hill, NJ]. But that's ancient history!

As for the music...it is DEFINITIVE, classic disco. Great production, with mostly full orchestra featured (at least on all selections by the original line-up), all the strings and horns, good, sexy vocals. I will not purchase it, though, because it is missing my favorite track, "Quiet Village" [gotta have that one]. That tune featured a great retro-big-band arrangement, and some of the breathiest, sexiest vocal harmonies! That and the African Queens Medley are the main reasons to purchase a Ritchie Family collection. But, sorry, I basically find it unacceptable to have shortened versions of disco classics, which is the case, reportedly, with the Arabian Nights and African Queens medleys, and in spite of the fact that there is a very generous total time to the collection. Also, and quite frankly, I lost interest in the group when the original line-up was replaced. Some of the new line-up's tunes are included in this collection [though the originals are pictured on the cover]. I am not familiar with those tunes [one reviewer stated that after track 8, it's the newer line-up].

I SUGGEST THAT SOME SAVVY PRODUCER RELEASE AN ANTHOLOGY FEATURING ALL OF THE ALBUMS [I believe there were 3] BY THE ORIGINAL LINE-UP.

I would be very interested to know if anyone out there who has
purchased this item feels as ripped off as I do.

It's a great compilation BUT my copy is a cd-r!!!!

I was gobsmacked after shelling out my hard earned dollars on what I thought would be a nice journey down memory lane only to be sent a cd-r and an inner sleeve that looks like a scanned photo copy.

If you're just after the music,you can't go wrong,it's a great collection.Unfortunately the shoddy presentation lets it down.

I'm that scared that the lacquer on the disc will scratch or the fine layer of foil the music is burnt on to(it's almost completely see through) will peel away that I will be making a backup copy to play.

It's such a shame as Hot Records include a catalogue inside the cover however you would be wise to be warned.They sell cd-r's!

The 'Best disco in town' is the song through witch I came in touch with them. Then I searched for Brasil, their first LP. I dramatically loved Life is Music, in particular the album title, Long distance romance, Liberty and Superlover.
I bought African Queens as soon it was published, yet before the definitive cover was available and Summer Dance is, according to me, the best song of all disco music, sunny, airy, it gets you to dance. Then from Bad reputation onward I never bought anything else. The group did not have the initial staff, rythms did not like me texts neither. During the year after I mantanined among thier production only Life music in vynil. Finding in this website the best of The Ritchie Family with the cover of Arabian nights has been an amazing surprise.
Finally, after many years, I have the chance to listen again to those records with had come along with my childhood.
Above all Summer dance.
Bye

This CD is better than their Greatest Hits since there are more songs and has an underrated song "Dance With Me" (I think of loving romance when I hear this song!) There are songs missing such as "Quiet Village" and "Peanut Vendor" but there is no time to put those songs on the disc which runs at 78 minutes. That's the reason the Arabian Nights Medley is shortened from the original LP. I hope someday that their original albums are reissued on CD. I'll end up buying all of it!

I highly recommend this album for disco lovers to go with the other disco girl groups such as First Choice and Sister Sledge.

This item is of course a very good collection of the most hits of these beautiful and talented women. Strong missing is "Quiet Village".
Why are only 2 long play CD'S aviable ?
Ritchie Family Fans allover the world are waiting for more.
Make it possible and true Mr.Henry Belolo before we are to
old to dance to this great Disco Music You produced.

this excludes many of their best songs and includes some of their less impressive songs and includes songs that lose nearly all of their power in edited form. It would be better to just re-issue the original albums in their entirety but I'll bet no record company is smart enough to do that. I gave up long ago and just make my own CDs using my vinyl albums and recording software and a USB turntable.