Customer Reviews

A Carnival of Hits

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There was a rumour going around Perth some time around 1993 that Judith Durham had drifted into town with no notice, certainly no media attention, and met a few friends, as you would expect, but astonishingly just landed one night at a venue somewhere around Scarborough beach and sang to a completely unsuspecting audience...
Of course, there wasn't a journalist in sight, but apart from the five people who had fixed it all up, everyone was completely agog and the whole evening was spent in an atmosphere of serious awe and gratitude, not to mention disbelief...

I know someone who was there, and he says that everyone said that Judith, if anything, has gotten even more awesome than she was with the Seekers - and they were pretty brilliant, as we all know.

I'm not at all sure what she is doing now, but if you listen to this, you might get a good idea of her way of putting her own stamp on the music of the 60's. She has a vocal characteristic that is quite distinguished - a sort of energy and conviction that you just can't match precisely anywher else. Even on the songs here that are covers, her voice, and Athol, Bruce, and Keith, are terrific.

The first time I ever heard the Seekers, I was 8, it was midnight after a long journey to a farm just outside London, and it was exciting, exhilarating, even a bit mysterious - I had never heard anything quite like it. That piece (this little light) is certainly an original arrangement, with that twist in the harmony, that everyone knows and takes for granted now...

Ther are some silly songs here, but it's not too important, and the fault of the record company, noit the Seekers, for goodness sake...

There have been many Seekers compilations but this is one of the better ones. The most commonly available compilation, which has been re-issued several times in different packaging but usually titled Very best of the Seekers, is made up of their UK hits plus their entire debut album, with a couple of other tracks in the middle. It is an excellent compilation but, as I said in my review of it, the title Very best of is not quite correct. This compilation has a much better claim to that title.

Here you get all the hits, though they are spread throughout the set. You also get their covers of folk songs, though not as many as on that other compilation, but what you also get here are their interpretations of contemporary material.

The big hits were I'll never find another you, A world of our own, The carnival is over, Morningtown ride and Georgy girl, all of which made the UK top three, two of them going all the way to number one. Walk with me also made the UK top ten while Someday one day and When will the good apples fall just failed to reach the UK top ten. In America, their successes were fewer but Georgy girl was a bigger hit there than in the UK.

Traditional folk is represented here by The leaving of Liverpool, We shall not be moved and Kumbaya. Other covers include 59th street bridge song (Simon and Garfunkel), Island of dreams (Springfields), Red rubber ball (Bobby Vee), The times they are a-changing (Bob Dylan) and This land is your land (Woody Guthrie). The last two tracks (One world love, Keep a dream in your pocket) were recorded specially for the original release of this digitally re-mastered compilation.

If you only want a single CD of music by the Seekers, this is a good choice.

This is an excellent compilation album of some of The Seekers' greatest all-time hits. The music is catchy and easy to sing along with. It is a mixture of folk songs and more modern songs, some of which have been written by members of the group.A very enjoyable album.

Although the CD was purchased second hand, still a lot of quality and very happy to have made this purchase. Allayed much skepticicm with 2nd hand CDs. The music of the Seekers is very uplifting, epitomizes optimism, harmonic, and melodic where one can sing along to it while driving or at home. Thus, not a day goes by that I don't play the CD. Truly wish there were more groups like this, but I live in a world of nostalgia anyway. The item only took about 4 days to be received, a pleasant surprise. Thank you, Larry