Customer Reviews

Complete Columbia Singles

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Pacific Northwest powerhouse Paul Revere & the Raiders seem to have been lost in shadow of Lenny Kaye's Nuggets and the hundreds of garage-rock compilations that followed in its wake. They aren't exactly a secret, having recorded for Columbia, scoring fifteen Top 40 singles, garnering a feature spot on Where the Action Is and hosting their own shows, Happening '68 and It's Happening. But neither are they afforded the recognition their hits, B-sides, album cuts and live performances really earned. Perhaps it was the genesis of their stardom in Southern California or their major label association that kept them from garage band legend. Maybe it was the themed costumes - particularly the three-corner hats - or that vocalist Mark Lindsay had a soulful finesse which went beyond the typical garage-punk snot. Or maybe it's that their run into the mid-70s outlasted their roots. Whatever it was, it's left the Raiders rich catalog remembered only by a few high-charting hits.

The Raiders' garage and frat-rock credentials were minted on a string of indie singles, and a recording of rock `n' roll's national anthem, "Louie, Louie," that was laid down only a few weeks after the Kingsmen's. The Raiders version bubbled under the Top 100, and along with the Wailers' earlier version helped root the song in the Pacific Northwest. Picked up by Columbia the single had a good helping of regional success before Columbia A&R honcho Mitch Miller scuttled it. The group's original follow-up "Louie-Go Home" sounds more like a grungy take on Otis Blackwell's "Daddy Rolling Stone," than a riff on Richard Berry's original, and once again only managed to grazed the bottom of the Billboard chart. These early single, fueled by Lindsay's fat saxophone tone and covers of R&B tunes "Night Train" and "Have Love, Will Travel," weren't as raw as the Sonics, but were still a lot meatier than most of their L.A., Chicago or Northeast counterparts.

"Louie, Louie," originally released on the Sande label, turned out to be the Raiders ticket to the big time: a deal with Columbia Records. The group continued to crank out R&B covers for the next year, including a fuzz-heavy cover of Gene Thomas' country-tinged "Sometimes" and a solid take on the Aaron Neville hit "Over You." The group's original were initially limited to B-sides, such as the instrumental "Swim," but in 1965 the Lindsay/Revere composition "Steppin' Out" began the group's assault on the charts. Revere's organ riffs and a confrontational lyric gave this single a tougher garage sound that took them just shy of the Top 40. A short-lived detour into Jan & Dean-styled car songs ("SS396" b/w "Corvair Baby") was followed by a trifecta of the group's best remembered hits.

First up was "Just Like Me," with a wickedly insinuating organ riff, a brilliant double guitar solo, and a vocal that rises from barely contained verses to emotionally explosive choruses. Next was Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's anti-drug "Kicks," turned down by the Animals and taken to #4 by the Raiders. Lindsay really sells the song, singing the lyric as both a lecture and a plea, forceful on the verses and understanding in the choruses. The group cracked the Top 10 again with another Mann & Weil tune, "Hungry," propelled by its hypnotically powerful bass line. The group (with Terry Melcher) subsequently began writing many of their own hits and B-sides, including "Good Thing," "Him or Me," and "Ups and Downs," and Melcher began adding studio musicians to the mix.

As 1967 turned into 1968 the band stretched from their Northwest rock roots into sunshine pop, bubblegum, folk rock, soul and light-psych. Fine sides from this period include the Beatle-esque "Too Much Talk," the groovy theme songs "Happening `68" and "It's Happening," and the chewy "Cinderella Sunshine" and "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon." The latter two are among the sides Lindsey produced for the band after their separation from Terry Melcher and the arrival of three replacement Raiders with Southern roots. By the end of the 1960s the group's singles were charting lower, often outside the Top 40, but their quality never dipped, and the advent of stereo releases (with 1969's "We Gotta All Get Together") finally detached their sound from the monophonic thrash of their Northwest roots.

Their success was renewed in 1971 with a cover of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)," a song that had been recorded a decade earlier by Marvin Rainwater and with some commercial success by Don. The Raiders' version topped the singles charts - they're only #1 - and sold a million copies. The renewed success was brief however: a follow-up cover of Joe South's "Birds of a Feather" just missed the Top 20, and their next four singles charted lower and lower, ending their run with 1973's barely charting pre-disco "Love Music." The group's contract with Columbia ended in 1975, lead singer Mark Lindsay left for a solo career, and though the group soldiered on with sporadic new releases they became more of a fixture on the oldies circuit.

Collectors' Choice's 3-CD set offers sixty-six tracks that cover all of the group's Columbia singles. The B-sides offer some real treats, including the autobiographical "The Legend of Paul Revere," the Las Vegas grind-styled instrumental "B.F.D.R.F. Blues," the flower-power "Do Unto Others," the trippy "Observations from Flight 285 (in 3/4 Time)," the muscular jam "Without You," the Band-styled country-rock "I Don't Know," the Peter & Gordon-ish "Frankford Side Street," and the organ instrumental "Terry's Tune." There are four rarities: the withdrawn "Rain, Sleet, Snow" and its flip "Brotherly Love," and promo songs for the GTO ("Judge GTO Breakaway") and a Mattel doll ("Song for Swingy"). The collection closes with the post-Mark Lindsay "Your Love (is the Only Love)," featuring Bob Wooley on lead vocal. Missing are the group's pre-Columbia singles, including their boogie-woogie instrumentals "Beatnik Sticks" and "Like, Long Hair," and their last single "Ain't Nothin' Wrong."

This recitation of the group's Columbia singles hits most of the group's highlights, but with fourteen LPs to their credit there are some worthy album cuts missing, such as their pre-Monkees version of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone." That said, this is a superb document of the band's evolution from Northwest powerhouse into a group that could finesse pop, rock, folk, soul and R&B sounds. Their singles were of an unusually consistent quality, and the group's ability to chart new directions while retaining the heart of their original identity is truly impressive. For most listeners the group's name will evoke only one or two of these hits, but as eleven years of singles reveal, there was a whole lot more to Paul Revere and the Raiders than three-corner hats and Northwest garage. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

In the interest of full disclosure ... I always thought PR&R were a decent enough slice of 60's garage/powerpop/psych. Generally, a single track "best of" would have been MORE than enough to get it done for me.

I picked this disc up at a recent collectors show, with many music and movie stars on hand, including original PR&R singer Mark Lindsay. As my local Best Buy was out of stock on any Raiders CD's, I figured I'd get one at the show.

While it was cool to say hello to Mark, the only thing available from the Raiders was this new triple disc 66-track set, which of course, Mark would autograph. Figuring it was a fair price for the triple disc, and what the hey, he'd sign it, I made the plunge, even though I figured it was probably some 50 tracks too deep for me.

And then the W O W ! part comes in. This set is just terrific. Great sound (true mono/stereo as appeared on the original singles), complete, chronological and with an excellent booklet. And boy, did I discover some GREAT tracks beyond the familiar chart hits like "Kicks", "Indian Reservation", etc).

The early running has lots of b-side instrumentals which are pleasant enough, but disc three is what really knocked me out, with songs like "(If I Had It To Do All Over Again, I'd Do It) All Over You".

Glad I trekked out to that show ....

HIGHLY recommended.

I was hesitant about this one due to the glut of Raiders anthologies on the market, and the fact that is was on the Collector's Choice label. No offense to the label, they do keep a lot of good stuff in print, but their bare bones approach to packaging, bonus tracks and sound quality makes their releases nothing special. This is different. A comprehensive collection of all the Raider's Columbia singles, front and back sides, with a few cool rare bonus tracks to boot. A nice, thick booklet with a well-written essay, and some great period pictures. Since purchasing I have listened to Discs 1 and 2 ceaselessly, and have rarely ventured into disc 3. The 70s were different for every 60s band, but the Raiders plugged along valiantly, in one form or another, until 1975. Their prime was the mid 60s, but they did good stuff all decade long, from Louie Louie all the way to Let Me, and everything in between rocks like crazy. The B sides are great too, a lot of cool instrumentals and humorous tracks that show an entirely different face to this band.

Strangely, this item seems to have been deleted from the Collector's Choice catalog. No longer available at a reasonable price. Perhaps someone is preparing a Raiders box set? Being such a killer singles band, this collection is hard to beat...

Paul Revere and The Raiders never got the respect of The Monkees. Maybe it was the suits and the name which made it impossible for some people to look past their "image" but there's no excuse for NOT giving Paul Revere and The Raiders the respect they deserve--the produced a series of ESSENTIAL singles during the 60's and early 70's from 1963 (before The Beatles appeared on the American shores)to 1975 a 12 year run that is pretty amazing in retrospect especially in the fickle world of popular music.

This excellent collection from Collector's Choice brings ALL the band's singles--both A & B sides--many for the first time to CD. Wonderfully remastered by Bob Irwin we get 66 songs spread over three compact discs. Featuring a deluxe 24 page booklet with interviews from key band members such as Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere and others.

The music is presented in the original mono and/or stereo mixes depending on HOW the singles were originally released. Unlike the two CD set from Sony about a decade back CC has wisely chosen NOT to remix these tracks for stereo (which robbed some of them of their musical punch). This set gets only four stars based on some of hte b-side material itself where some is very good while others are clearly designed just to fill the other side of the original 45.

This is a marvelous set that needs to be in every music lover's collection.

All the PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS Columbia singles (As & Bs sides) have been included in these 3 CDs compilation wandering from Louie, Louise to the incredibly forgotten Your Love (Is the Only Love). In between there is a large collection of masterpieces from one of the most overlooked rock (hard rock) groups of the 60s and 70s. Apart from their outfits, THE RAIDERS were top musicians mostly led by Mark Lindsay, excellent lead voice and composer. The sound is superb as well as liner notes. A must!

For every Paul Revere and the Raiders fan, this is a must as it proves this talented band should be in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. The book (which comes with the CDs) itself is worth the cost as it provides recent interviews with many of the members including Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay. I particularly enjoyed the rare songs released after Mark Lindsay left the group before he briefly re-joined in 1976. I had not heard these songs before and they are some good ones.

My only regret is it did not include any songs from the 1976 album "The British Are Coming", but it was on the 20th Century record label which may have created some legal problems obtaining the rights to the songs. My understanding is that Mark re-joined the band for the country's Bicentennial and Raiders tour and album. If anyone has access to this album, please feel free to share.

Overall, this was a great selection with the versions of the songs we heard on AM radio.

AWESOME, PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS featuring MARK LINDSAY
THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA SINGLES, IT GETS NO BETTER THAN THIS!

Collector's Choice Records is on the right track. After the Singles compilations of Jan & Dean and Jay & The Americans is this for what I have waited so long. And now I'm waiting for Tommy James & The Shondells Singles compilation.

Great song selections. Great audio. If you are a Raiders fan, you will definitely enjoy this CD compilation.