Customer Reviews

Have a Nice Day 12

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Volume 12 of the "Have a Nice Day" series is one of the sillier, more inconsistent discs in the collection, but the good songs are so strong that they make the weaker offerings tolerable. Blue Swede's massively successfull remake of B J Thomas' "Hooked on a Feeling" sets the tone, ably assisted by Bill Stafford's "Spiders and Snakes" and Ray Stevens' "The Streak." But don't make the mistake of thinking this is a comedy collection! Rick Derringer's "Rock 'n Roll Hootchie Koo" and David Essex' "Rock On" are powerful mainstream rockers, while Mocedades adds a beautiful downtempo ballad in "Eres Tu." Sister Janet Mead's "The Lord's Prayer" and Stealers Wheel's "Star" are more than a bit out of place here, but do little to detract from the overall appeal of the disc.

This is one of the few really strong Volumes in the series and does just fine as a stand alone, despite it's overall light-hearted tone. Highly recommended.

Once again, the folks at Rhino induge our senses of humor by assembling a compilation of such diverse songs. I never expected to see "The Lord's Prayer" and "Eres Tu" on the same disc. In fact, I forgot that there was a pop version of "The Lord's Prayer"! This disc gives a nice overview of pop music-mid 70's style.

I loved "Spiders & Snakes," "The Streak"--but they weren't songs I'd buy a whole album for. Now there're all here in one place, along with a HUGE favorite of mine (that never gets air-time on our local Oldies stations) Eres Tu (Touch the Wind) by Los Mocedades.

Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day, Volume 12 gives us another enjoyable installment in the "Have A Nice Day" series by Rhino. The quality of the sound is excellent and we get some really good tunes. (I'm not reviewing the CDs in this series in order because I am just getting them in and I didn't order them in order.)

Terry Jacks starts off the track set with his painful yet beautiful ballad "Seasons In The Sun." The electric guitars work well and the strings in the background enhance the beauty of the melody. Terry sings this flawlessly and he jumps almost effortlessly from subtle key change to subtle key change--I love it! Black Oak Arkansas performs their own rendition of "Jim Dandy;" this tune rocks and it still sounds just right all these years later. "Jim Dandy" is one of the "harder" rock songs on this album but it's still nothing short of excellent. In addition, Stealers Wheel performs a Beatles style ballad entitled "Star." Stealers Wheel does it up right with guitar, great vocals and percussion.

Blue Swede's "Hooked On A Feeling" is probably my favorite tune on this album. The beginning of the song with the chanting appeals to the primal sense for music we all share; and the melody stuns me with its beauty. The band never misses a beat on "Hooked On A Feeling." Awesome tune!

Mocedades performs another one of my all-time favorites, "Eres Tu;" this love ballad impresses me with its beauty and the group Mocedades sings this to perfection; it almost seems that their talent is beyond human when I hear and enjoy this song so much.

Marvin Hamlisch's "The Entertainer" is easily recognizable even today; and the album ends with a novelty tune by Ray Stevens, "The Streak." "The Streak" was wildly popular when it was first released and we'd joke about it at school all the time.

My only true complaint about this CD is that it runs a tad short. They could have and should have added a couple extra songs to the album. Some people say that Sister Janet Mead's "The Lord's Prayer" doesn't truly fit in with the rest of the tracks. However, I think the rhythm is distinctly `70s in nature and I don't mind it here even if it doesn't completely fit in with the rest of the album.

Any fan of `70s music should get this album. The songs are pretty darn good and the track set features a fine diversity of artists.

I almost got sexually excited when I first saw this CD at the record store back in 1990. Back in 1974, which this volume represents, I lived in Corvallis Oregon for one year before my parents and I returned to Detroit Michigan during this era. I discovered girls, cranberry juice, "Happy Days", "M*A*S*H", and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" on PBS back during this era. And, of course, Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", the album! A totally unique landmark album of the era, second only to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" for changing the way we interpreted music.

"Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks. What a fabulous song. He was the male of the duo The Poppy Family who did "Which Way You Goin', Billy?" (which is on a previous volume of "Have a Nice Day.") Sadly, The Poppy Family had two other radio gems: "That's Where I Went Wrong" and "Where Evil Grows" that Rhino didn't get for us for the "Have a Nice Day" collection. Two other interesting notes about Terry Jacks is that he had another solo hit called "If You Go Away" that just missed the Top 40 but played on Detroit radio anyway. And another obscurity from Terry Jacks that I wonder if anyone remembers is "Cause We're in Love" by the Hood (featuring Terry Jacks). It didn't even grace the Top 100 Billboard chart, but all the girls I knew in Detroit loved it. I have a Canadian greatest hits collection of Terry Jacks which every song is so great. He is definitely a fabulous overlooked dark folk artist. His collection is one of my favorite CD's, and it's definitely out-of-print. I've had it for almost 20 years.

Jim Stafford's "Spiders and Snakes" is a classic. I only wish Rhino gave us his "Wildwood Weed" too. "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" by Rick Derringer is a one hit wonder that still gets album rock play. So is David Essex's "Rock On." If you ever heard Jeff Wayne's musical version of "War of the Worlds", you'll hear David Essex on this album. He plays the Artilleryman.

My stand out favorites on this CD which are hard to find elsewhere are "Eres Tu" by Mocedades, and "Star" by Stealer's Wheel. I never heard this song before I heard this CD and it became my most favorite song of this whole CD, and definitely one of my Top 10 favorites of the entire 25 volume collection of the "Have a Nice Day" series.

"Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede and "Eres Tu" by Mocedades always takes me back to my favorite year of my teenage life back in the safe haven of Corvallis Oregon. So does, "The Lord's Prayer" by Sister Janet Mead, and "The Streak" by Ray Stevens. (Rhino has the best collection of Ray Stevens on CD, hands down!)

This collection has the 45 edit of Redbone's "Come and Get You Love" and it also features "Jim Dandy" which I don't ever remember hearing on the radio. But I do remember hearing it in the 1993 film "Dazed and Confused." If you love the seventies, then you should definitely see "Dazed and Confused".

To end this volumes review, I will suggest that Marvin Hamlisch's soundtrack to "The Sting" was probably one of the biggest Number One albums of 1974. I think the soundtrack was a greater success than the movie. Top 40 radio back in 1974 was so wonderful. And to hear "The Entertainer" from Marvin Hamlisch represents just how diverse radio use to be. I truly miss this year of my life. Although, my mom was miserable being in Oregon, I was very happy there but then I became very depressed when we returned to Detroit. Radio definitely shapes our memories. All the good as well as the bad.

Unlike the other reviewers....the only reason I bought this disc was for "The Lord's Prayer"! I've been looking all over for a copy of this!! Many of the other songs on this CD I already own on other compilations, but there were at least 5 I didn't have yet and "The Lord's Prayer" is the one I wanted the most! It's a beautiful version of this prayer.

A solid collection of genuine hits, all in their original versions. Irreverent liner notes aside, these songs are tough to find on any other collection, even if "Star" by Stealers Wheel is a bit odd in the company of bigger hits.

The 12th edition of Super Hits of the 70's contains a bunch of smash hits from early to mid 1974 and it has a bunch of great songs on this CD.
Terry Jacks had his one and only solo hit with 'Seasons in the Sun' which went all the way to #1 and it still gets timeless FM airplay to this day, he also played guitar for the Poppy Family which had a Top 40 hit in 1970 with 'Which Way You're Going Billy', Jim Stafford enjoyed a smash hit with the laid back 'Spiders and Snakes' which is one of the comic reliefs on this CD, The next song is a little dose of southern rock with a top 30 hit from Black Oak Arkansas's 'Jim Dandy' which was featured on a 1993 hit movie with Dazed and Confused, even though Black Oak Arkansas never returned to the Top 40 but drummer Tommy Aldridge went onto success in the 80's with Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake, Rick Derringer is also featured with his one and only hit with 'Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo' and it is now an heavy FM classic rock staple, David Essex enjoyed a smash hit with 'Rock On' and although he never scored another U.S. hit, but he got the satisfaction when Michael Damien did a remake of this song which became a #1 hit in 1989, Stealers Wheel enjoyed a Top 30 hit with 'Star', although not a classic like their smash hit 'Stuck in the Middle With You the previous year, not long after 'Star' came out, Stealers Wheel broke up and singer Gerry Rafferty would enjoy success in the late 1970's with 'Right Down the Line' and 'Baker Street', Even though I'm not a fond of remakes, I actually like Blue Swede's version of 'Hooked on a Feeling' (which was a successful hit in 1968 from B.J. Thomas) and it became a #1 hit in the spring of 1974, Mocedades had a hit with 'Eres Tu (Touch the Wind)' and although they never achieved another hit but you probably remember hearing this song on Tommy Boy, now for my favorite song done by Redbone with 'Come and Get Your Love' and I wish that a 90's band Real McCoy never did a remake of this song cause this song was a classic, Redbone also had a Top 30 hit in 1972 with 'Witch Queen of New Orleans', Sister Janet Mead enjoyed a hit with 'The Lord's Prayer' but that was the only success she got and this song was my least favorite song on this CD which was the reason why I only give this CD 4 stars instead of 5, Marvin Hamlisch enjoyed a smash hit with 'The Entertainer' and it was featured on a classic movie 'The Sting' and Marvin Hamlisch won a grammy award for 'Best new Artist' and 'Best pop instrumental Performance', now for the final track with veteran comedian Ray Stevens who had a #1 hit with 'The Streak' and boy that song is hilarious and too bad that they don't make songs the way they used too anymore, Ray Stevens enjoyed a Top 10 hit with 'Ahab the Arab' in 1962.

If you love pop music from the early to mid 70's, then you should cherish this CD cause it has timeless hits that you've probably haven't heard since high school.

Some really good memories brought back with this arrangement, however, a couple of the selections maybe would have fit better on another grouping. Enjoy 70s regardless so has been an added value to my collection and when my original copy was stolen, I did feel the need to replace it. Obviously, I like the majority of the disk.

Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day, Vol. 12
This is Classic '70s! Some really cool songs like "Season's In The Sun", "Jim Dandy" "Rock On", "Hooked On A Feeling", and much more.