Customer Reviews

Glad All Over Again

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

 

 

Why not release this music? All it does is keep the band from getting paid, and force the rest of us to get it from bootleggers. Fortunately, I'm getting mine for ten bucks. I'm giving the CD five stars because I know the music (even though I won't actually hear THIS CD), but I'd really rather buy an authorized version. I don't get it -- who benefits from this? Not the publishers, not the musicians, not Dave Clark. And, you know, why not circulate the music?

It seems the Dave Clark 5 is the band that nobody remembers. They had a long, successful career in the 60's, sold millions and millions of records.They were front runners on the British Invasion, coming around just a few weeks after the Beatles and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Their first US hit was "Glad All Over".

Glad All Over featured the standard DC5 formula. Up tempo rocker driven by snare drum rim shots from Dave Clark, thumping bass from Rick Huxley, up front saxaphone from Denny Payton, and the great, rough voiced Mike Smith on organ. Lenny Davidson's guitar was usually barely heard. Smith had a big, huge growling voice and was the featured singer on virtually all the DC5 songs.

The DC5 didn't mess around. Their style had almost no subtelty. Just fast rockers played loud. The DC5 had very few ballads, even on their albums. Their follow-up hit, "Bits and Pieces", was a powerful, full-throttle song fueled by those Smith growls and Dave Clark's rim shot heroics. No finesse. Just loud, fast music. It was great!

The DC5 had a lot of hits in the US, were on Ed Sullivan a lot, and toured the States a lot. I saw them in Columbus, Ohio, and they rocked the house with hit after hit. Today, they are almost forgotten. Part of the problem is that Dave Clark guards the music closely, letting compilations out only occasionally.

Anyway, get this album. The DC5 kicked butt in a very 60's fashion.

Dave Clark and his group were the first British group to tour America in the sixties, spearheading what came to be known as the British invasion - a much more successful (and friendlier) invasion than the battle of New Orleans.

Because of their extensive touring schedule, the Dave Clark Five were more successful in America, where their many hits included fourteen consecutive top ten hits, than in their homeland, where their career total of twenty-two hits included just eight top ten hits -good by most standards, but it could have been better.

In Britain, the Dave Clark Five began their run of hits with Do you love me, a cover of an early Motown song. Despite the song having already been an American hit (for the Contours), this was a huge American hit. By contrast, it was only a minor British hit, losing out to a rival version by Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who took it to number one.

Next came the two songs for which the group is best remembered in Britain - the UK number one hit, Glad all over (it has since been adopted as an anthem by a football club) and the UK number two hit, Bits and pieces. These two monster hits were followed by Can't you see that she's mine, which also made the British top ten. After that, most of their British hits failed even to make the top twenty, but as their British popularity faded, their American popularity gained momentum.

Among their other songs, two completely different hits share the same title (Everybody knows), one of them providing the group with their second and last British number two hit. It is fairly common for different songs to share a title (and not that rare for artists to record different songs with the same title) but I can't think of another act that has charted with two such songs. Catch us if you can (its American title is Having a wild weekend), Red balloon, Good old rock'n'roll (a medley of covers) and Everybody get together complete their list of British top ten hits. Only one other record, Come home, made the British top twenty. Over and over, a very minor UK hit, made number one in America.

This compilation includes all the tracks I've mentioned and most but not all of their other hits. Dave owns all the group's recordings and only occasionally leases them to record companies for limited periods. This means that the music is very hard to obtain most of the time, so if you get a chance to buy, make sure you take advantage.

Tracks

1. Glad all over
2. Do you love me
3. Bits and pieces
4. Can't you see that she's mine
5. Don't let me down
6. Any way you want it
7. Catch us if you can
8. Having a wild weekend
9. Because
10. Like it like that
11. Over and over
12. Reelin' and rockin'
13. Come home
14. You got what it takes
15. Everybody knows
16. Try too hard
17. I'll be yours my love
18. Good old rock 'n' roll medley
19. Here comes summer
20. Live in the sky
21. Red balloon
22. Sha na na hey hey kiss him goodbye
23. More good old rock 'n' roll medley
24. Put a little love in your heart
25. Everybody get together

Music is reproduction is good, not great. CD case art and CD art appear to be poor quality printer reproductions. I'm glad to have the CD, but it does not appear "new" as specified, just shrink-wrapped. I find it difficult to charge that much for lesser quality.

Brought this CD in good faith, as it was advertised as new and factory sealed. It seemed a lot to pay for a cd, but this is a band that is hard to find, so I went ahead and ordered it. I was informed by Amazon that Clarkfan is based in England and that it would be shipped from there.
When it turned up, it had a badly hand writen envelope with a private sender address in Philadelphia PA. There was no return paper work in the package and when I opened the CD, I found it was a copy with a badly scaned cover and cd label. Yes the cd is good, but its not what I paid for. I paid for a new factory sealed cd. So be warned if you intend to buy this.

Labeling appear "amateurish". Barcode blurry. Titles in player do not match actual tracks. For instance, one title appears 3 times. All following titles do not match. Cover art says 35 tracks, in actuality only 26. All tracks appear to be monaural though sound quality is good but not great.

This is a well mastered selection of the DC5's hits featuring many mono original mixes all on a single Cd. The liner notes provide a great insight into the legacy of this band on pop music and why the have never been forgotten. Strongly recommended,

What more need I say,there music was great,fun to listen,and you just wanted to listen to them over and over again.
This is a must have CD for anyone who likes rock music. It is better then any beatles records ever released.
I had the chance to meet the late Mike Smith perform.
All I want to say is he was one of the nicest people you ever wanted to meet.
RIP Mike, I miss you.