Feelin Groovy: Best of Featuring 59th St Bridge So

Harpers Bizarre | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 25, 1997)
• Original Release Date: February 25, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002N83
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,381 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Careless presentation of of underrated 60s pop group, July 6, 1999

By 

James M. Shertzer (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Feelin Groovy: Best of Featuring 59th St Bridge So (Audio CD)

Warners screwed this one. The scraps assembled from the four Harper's Bizarre albums don't represent the group at its best and will likely infuriate the group's fans. There was plenty of room on the disc for ALL of the first and second LPs -- "Feelin' Groovy" and "Anything Goes" --and highlights from the lesser third and fourth sets. Instead we get a too brief, 37-minute run-through of their Top 40 hits --their amiable cover of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song," their brilliantly arranged, just-this-side-of-too-too-much versions of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" -- plus a smattering of this and that. A rare coming-together of talents (among them folks prominent in the camps of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector), this was one of the most inventive, sophisticated and wittily produced pop groups of its time and recorded the earliest work of some of L.A.'s most intriguing young songwriters, among them Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks. Other major talents included arrangers Leon Russell (yes, THAT Leon Russell) and Perry Botkin Jr. and, of course, flaxen-haired lead singer Ted Templeman, who went on to produce the Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Van Halen and others. The liner notes and photos are nicely done, I'll say that. And I'm thankful that a couple of tunes not available anywhere else on CD, like Newman's wistful "The Debutante's Ball" and droll "The Biggest Night of Her Life" and Parks' "Come to the Sunshine" and "High Coin," are included. But it's sad SO much was pointlessly left in the vault. And it's especially disheartening to see Templeman and the great Lenny Waronker, who produced all the original LPs, listed as co-producers of this set. The heritage of well-crafted pop they left us with those nifty Harper's albums deserves a lot better. (NOTE: An equally disappointing import is available with four bonus tracks, at least three of which are lesser numbers from the third and fourth Harper's albums.)

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Excerpts from concept albums are missing the mark., September 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Feelin Groovy: Best of Featuring 59th St Bridge So (Audio CD)

This album would have been better if it had been released as a multi-album set. Many of the songs are excerpts from concept albums and this compilation is a fragmented group of tunes that go nowhere. The band was excellent for its time with "Anything Goes" recapturing the nostalgia craze at the time. A later album, "The Secret Life..." was excellent musically and lyrically, yet not one song appears on the compilation album from "The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre". My copies of these albums are worn out now and I have to seek out imported disks from Japan & Germany to get albums. Warner released their full catalogue in both countries but will not release thhem here. This music is a fine example of Van Dyke Parks early work, before he joined Brian Wilson for the "Smile" sessions. Warner Brothers should release these CD's in America, as there were many genuine fans of the group even after they broke up. As for the Harpers Bizarre CD earlier mentioned, if you are a genuine fan of some excellent harmonies, tight orchestral pieces and are nostalgic about 1920's "pop" music, then buy it, but at the same time you don't know what your missing!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't even have to hear it..., March 28, 2006

By 

Mr. R. J. Briggs - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Feelin Groovy: Best of Featuring 59th St Bridge So (Audio CD)

I have been a fan of HB since hearing Feelin' Groovy back in '67 (or was it '68). The best thing I ever did was NOT buy their Feelin'Groovy album first. I remember being faced with the choice of Anything Goes or Feelin' Groovy. I opted for the former on the basis of Chatanooga Choo Choo and Anything Goes scoring together on points better than Feelin' Groovy. Anything Goes is just 150% excellent. I played that LP to death. I then bought the Secret Life. Arguably even better as a 'whole' even though it didn't have songs to match Anything Goes and Chatanooga Choo Choo. I then bought Feelin' Groovy and was dissapointed. I would never have bought the other albums on the strength of Feelin' Groovy.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, without even hearing this compilation I just knew they've got it wrong. What a waste.

My advice? Hunt out Anything Goes and The Secret Life or Harper's Bizarre rather than buy this. Also Harper's Bizarre 4 (which I've only just got from Amazon - March 2006!). Excellent, but not as good as Anything Goes and Secret.