Gonks Go Beat and I've Gotta Horse [Import, Soundtrack]

Original Soundtrack (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 10, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Soundtrack
• Label: RPM-RETRO
• ASIN: B001PMRKH8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,554 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. GONKS GO BEAT OST: Choc Ice - LULU AND THE LUVVERS

2. Harmonica - GRAHAM BOND

3. Broken Pieces - ELAINE AND DEREK

4. Burn Up - TITAN SOUND ORCHESTRA

5. Love Is A Dream - ALAN DAVID

6. Take This Train - LONG AND THE SHORT

7. As Young As We Are - DOUGIE ROBINSON AND THE TITAN STUDIO ORCHESTRA

8. Drum Battle - ALAN GRIMLEY, RONNY VERRELL, ANDY WHITE, RONNIE STEPHENSON

9. In Love With You Today - PERRY FORD

10. Penny For Your Thoughts - BARBARA BROWN

11. Loving You - BARBARA BROWN AND PERRY FORD

12. Gonks Go Beat - TITAN STUDIO ORCHESTRA

13. The Only One - LULU AND THE LUVVERS

14. Poor Boy - NASHVILLE TEENS

15. Takes Two To Make Love - BARBARA BROWN AND PERRY FORD

16. Finale - TITAN STUDIO ORCHESTRA

17. I VE GOT A HORSE OST: I ve Got A Horse - BILLY FURY

18. Stand By Me - BILLY FURY & THE GAMBLERS

19. Do The Old Soft Shoe - BILLY FURY & SHEILA O Neil

20. I Cried All Night - THE GAMBLERS

See all 31 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Gems sparkle on obscure mid-60s UK film soundtracks, March 25, 2009

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gonks Go Beat and I've Gotta Horse (Audio CD)

Gonks Go Beat and I've Gotta Horse were low budget British musical films released in 1965, with soundtrack albums even more obscure than the celluloid from which they sprang. A DVD of Gonks Go Beat turned up in 2007, and the film's soundtrack now appears on this two-fer CD. For better or worse, an official DVD of the companion I've Gotta Horse is still to be produced. Both films were intended as cheapy cash-ins, with Gonks the more successful in corralling artists such as Lulu, Graham Bond and the Nashville Teens who provided some mid-60s relevancy.

I've Gotta Horse, on the other hand, was a vehicle for pop star Billy Fury, and the purpose-written songs are in league with Elvis' lesser film works ("Do the Clam," anyone?). As the liner notes explain, this was the "alternative to change in 1965." In addition to thematic songs expressing Fury's love of animals, there are string-laden ballads, offensively inoffensive harmonies from The Bachelors, and stagey show tunes "Do the Old Soft Shoe," "Dressed Up For a Man" and "Problems." This may be fun for the whole family, perhaps even passable filler at a variety show, but it's hardly the sound of '65. The album's one rock `n' roll tune is the Gamblers' garage-blues "I Cried All Night," which sounds remarkably out of place amidst the rest of the soundtrack.

In contrast, Gonks Go Beat splits its time between rock and ballads, much as the film's story line pits the inhabitants of Beat Land against those of Ballad Isle, with a Romeo and Juliet subplot that weaves in elements of The Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life. The soft pop of Ballad Isle is mostly forgettable, but even the softies manage the excellent country-tinged folk of Elaine and Derek's "Broken Pieces." Better are the soundtrack's opening salvo of Lulu's go-go "Choc Ice" and Graham Bond's blues-drenched "Harmonica." The Titan Studio Orchestra offers up a galloping guitar-and-sax instrumental, and a quartet of skinsmen compete in the epic "Drum Battle." Lulu returns for the soulful "The Only One" and the Nashville Teens show they had more than "Tobacco Road" with the rave up "Poor Boy."

The film's ballads play better on film (where the colorful sets and pretty faces provide distraction), but the pop, rock and blues cuts from Gonks are simply terrific on CD. Kieron Tyler's liner notes provide a short history of British pop cinema, suggesting these films were sadly within the tradition and that A Hard Days Night was the artistic aberration. Gonks Go Beat is not as unwatchable as reviews suggest, and the opportunity to see Lulu, Graham Bond and The Nashville Teens (and their vintage instruments and amplifiers) is worth a rental. This soundtrack two-fer (mono for Gonks, stereo for Horse) is a must-buy for the handful of superb tunes from Gonks and the charmingly banal tunes by Billy Fury. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]