Customer Reviews

Definitive Collection

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

 

 

Before introducing the Bay City Rollers for the first time to an American sudience on "Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell" in 1975, Cosell posed the question: "Is it hype? Is it hope?" In hindsight it was probably both. For those who were led to believe this was the second coming of the Beatles, it was certainly the former. But after a string of successful U.S. hits, it gave hope to record buyers that yes there is life after disco.

This latest compilation succeeds on several levels:

1. The twenty tracks doubles the number of songs on 1991's Greatest Hits. Except for the most devoted fans, this is all you'll ever really need.

2. Unlike the previous Greatest Hits package, The Definitive Collection does not focus exclusively on the Rollers stateside career. They had six Top Ten singles and two No. 1 albums in England dating back to 1971--four years before they charted in America! So you get their lively cover of the Gentrys' hit "Keep on Dancin," such uptempo numbers as "Remember (Sha La La La)," "Shang-a-Lang" and a remake of the Four Seasons' "Bye Bye Baby."

3. The sound on this CD is excellent and the liner notes are thoroughly done.

The Rollers only topped the U.S. charts once with their million-seller "Saturday Night," but this and other power pop hits like "Money Honey, "Rock and Roll Love Letter" and a cover of the Dusty Springfield classic "I Only Want To Be With You" were infectious songs.

By 1977, however, they began drifting into Barry Manilow territory with string-laden songs like the Top Ten "You Make Me Believe In Magic," but the lush ballad "The Way I Feel Tonight" peaked at No. 24 and would be their last hit on either side of the Atlantic.

While critics almost unanimously dismissed them, I'm reminded of a quote from former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne: "A critic is someone who comes in after the battle is over and shoots the wounded." While Rollermania may not have caught on in a huge way in the U.S., they left behind a number of terrific pop singles. This CD is a reminder of just how fun pop music should be. RECOMMENDED

No offense, but I wonder if PC Fields (below) even LISTENed to this album at all. At any rate, his/her review(s) surely sound like he/she just glanced at the press release for it. Or something. Oh well, unfortunately the Rollers have always been subjected to that sort of dismissive attitude from critics, so why should it be any different now? Unless, of course, as in this case when we have before us the very first CD selection of the Rollers' songs which collects ALL of their U.K. and U.S. hits - the big, the small & the almost non-existent - onto one album. Arista certainly took their time doing this, but, given how this album fairly showcases the band's unfairly little heralded versatility, the wait seems certainly - almost - worth it. From the first U.K. single in 1971, the Jonathan King-produced "Keep On Dancing", to 1979's lost-in-action Power Pop gem "Turn On The Radio"; this is as good as it gets when we're talking pure, unpretentious, instantly gratifacational 1970's pop music. Never mind Led Zeppelin, and forget the annoying BCR image - not to mention the hype and the scandals that still hover over the Bay City Rollers' name even today; if you only ever buy one BCR album in your whole life, this surely has got to be it. Minor nuances such as Arista's over-zealous, but maybe well-meaning, representation of its contents (The version of "Remember" here-in is not, like the booklet states, the original single version, but the later album version; and a 'single version' of "Turn On The Radio"? I think not. Such a thing never even existed to begin with!) and a few factual errors plus the odd misspelling of names in the otherwise obviously carefully written and researched liner notes, are only mildly and momentarily bugging since, as a result, the bigger picture is only that much more appealing. The selection of non-hit & album tracks is also somewhat satisfactory, although Arista's reasons for only choosing them from the band's originally written material, may be suspicious - and not fitting to air in a casual review such as this - to say the least. But when all is said and done, again, this is, at long last, the best BCR collection of its kind out there and now we're 'only' left needing & wanting for that long-awaited box set and the remastered original albums including all the B-sides & bonus tracks! But now I'm getting delusionally ahead of myself so I better just call it quits while I'm still - relatively - among the sound-minded and somewhat sane.

I was a huge Bay City Rollers fan when I was in the sixth grade. I have all of their albums save for the last one, which I believe was Up The Elevator. I liked this collection because it contained a couple of songs, like "All of Me Loves All of You," that were not included on my vinyl collection. The only thing missing was any song from Strangers In The Wind, one of my favorite BCR albums. Except for that, this is a fine overview of the Rollers during their peak.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, the Bay City Rollers never earned much respect; arguably they deserved at least some. They were tagged as a mere teenybopper (with a loyal legion of tartan scarf waving girl fans) or bubblegum band, soft, mindless and manufactured, as if there is something wrong with bubblegum. As a matter of fact, late 1960s-based bubblegum pop (The Archies, The Cowsills, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Tommy James and the Shondells, etc.), and its early 70s, slightly more British cousin, glitter pop (Sweet, Gary Glitter, Mud, David Essex, etc.) are two of the seminal genres of rock/pop music history. Bands like the Ramones, REM and Talking Heads have all admitted to being influenced by glitter/bubblegum. The boundaries of glitter pop and glitter rock (i.e., David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, T-Rex, NY Dolls, early Queen, etc.) have certainly not always been so clear. The Bay City Rollers, then, were as much as anything, victims of bad timing; coming about in the mid 70s, they kind of missed the boat of the early 70s glitter invasion, but were too early to cash in on the early 80s, MTV fueled pop renaissance (ala Duran Duran, Culture Club, Flock of Seagulls, Wham, etc.); of course, they might have had to change their sound, somewhat.

Listening to this collection, which contains all their big hits, including the song they are best known for, Saturday Night, as well as such pure pop pleasures as their cover of Dusty Springfield's I Only Want To Be With You, and what may be their greatest song ever, the wonderful tune Rock and Roll Love Letter (I once heard Yo La Tengo playfully cover this, and do it justice, at an all covers show of theirs), you come to realize that the Bay City Rollers had a true knock for very catchy, very melodic pop music. Call it a guilty pleasure, but this stuff sounds better than I think anyone might have expected it to, all these years later.

This is a GREAT collection. For everyone who wore out or (heaven forbid) threw their old lps year ago, the Definitive Collection is a wonderful revisit to the tunes that made these lads from Scotland the wall covering of choice for millions of young fans during the 1970's. In addition to containing most of the tunes we happily hummed along to (including Saturday Night, Rock and Roll Love Letter, and I Only Want To Be With You), this collection includes some pleasants surprises. Included for the first time on any Roller collection in North America is the original single version of Keep On Dancin' featuring the very original lead singer Nobby Clark (later replaced by Leslie McKeown). As well, this collection also includes Turn On The Radio featuring Duncan Faure (who replaced Leslie McKeown). This is the only Roller collection currently available with all three Roller lead singers featured.

If you buy only one Roller CD to add to your collection... this is definitely...A Definitive Collection!

Yes, I liked BCR in the 70's, and still enjoy hearing certain feel-good songs again. If you liked BCR back when, or want to hear something fun, give it a shot, Rock and Roll Love Letter, Saturday Night or whatever. But if you don't own the album, or simply want to show how cool you are by saying you couldn't possibly listen to this, then please, don't listen. If you have nothing informative to say other than how uncool the music is, save your time and ours. No, it's not Beethoven or Bob Dylan, but it is fun; lighten up.

I stumbled across this while shopping for something else. Wow! This brings back memories of my "younger" days! If you are looking for one cd that will give you most of the popular and memorable songs from the Bay City Rollers then this is the one for you.

This is the Rollers collection I've been waiting for. It contains all of the hits, starting with 1971s 'Keep On Dancing'. Then all of their UK hits and of course the US hits, which were considerably less. Everything is remastered and sounds absolutely fantastic. My favourites are 'Shang-A-Lang', 'Love Me Like I Love You' and the racous 'Money Honey', which should have been their biggest hit. Thank you Arista. Now how about putting out a collection of their B-Sides??

What a surprise this catchy little collection is.

I forgot how grown up and sophisticated songs like "The Way I feel tonight" were! This song, in particular, is beautiful, with lush strings, an understated brass section, warm "adult" vocalizing- perfectly beautiful.

A lot of the tracks stray far from the formula of "Saturday Night" and "Money Honey"- and those songs themselves are harmless little rockers that have aged well.

Guess I wasn't expecting much from the Lads In Plaid, but this set goes way beyound image and hype.

It's downright delicious.

A lot of nonsense that is written here. If you didn't like 70's pop or most likely didn't live through them, you should know that BCR had more hits in the US than just one. They had during a period of two years four Singles in the Top 10 (Saturday Night, Money Honey, I only want to be with you and You made me believe in Magic.) They also had smaller hits such as Rockn'roll Love letter and They way I feel tonight which made the Top 30. About the success they had over here in Europe, or in Australia and Asia we could even write a whole book. This band deserves a lot more respect, especially considering all the crap we have to endure today. They might not have been everyone's darling in the 70's but they certainly had a uniqueness that is completely lacking from todays boy bands. They also wrote several of their own songs and certainly knew how to play live (listen to the Live CD at the Budokan in Tokyo). No, their songs certainly did not set the World on fire, it was simply refreshing Pop Music, and I still enjoy it today.