Customer Reviews

Have a Nice Day 13

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Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day, Vol. 13 gives us ten great hits from the 1970s that really made the airwaves hot! These songs still sound great today on this very well digitally produced CD; and the artwork is pretty good as it always is in this multi CD series.

Maria Muldaur begins the tracks set with her hit entitled "Midnight At The Oasis." "Midnight At The Oasis" has a romantic, attractive melody that catches your attention and never lets it go. Maria sings this with a lot of sensitivity and that's probably a big reason why this song went so far the way it did in the `70s. The guitars work well and the percussion adds to the beauty of the number--awesome! Jim Stafford follows with another hit entitled "My Girl Bill." "My Girl Bill" hints at an alternative lifestyle--before turning into a song about two men who both love the same woman! I think "My Girl Bill" is very neatly done and I really like that number.

Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods turn in a bubblegum flavored anti-war song with "Billy, Don't Be A Hero;" this tune has a great melody as well. The guitars and percussion enhance the natural beauty of the song, too. Listen also for Paper Lace doing "The Night Chicago Died." The singing and percussion marking the beat stuns me with its creativity and good sound; and they play and sing "The Night Chicago Died" to perfection.

Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods return for another awesome hit--in my opinion--that they called "Who Do You Think You Are." "Who Do You Think You Are" sounds great and this is clearly a highlight of this album. Andy Kim also does a great job on "Rock Me Gently;" Andy sings this flawlessly with ladies doing backup harmonizing; and the guitar arrangement makes this number shine! First Class also does "Beach Baby." "Beach Baby" always makes me smile; this is easily one of my favorite tunes from the entire 1970s. First Class sounds a bit like The Beach Boys on this number but they hold their own well; and the musical arrangement uses the guitars and percussion really well. Billy Swan's "I Can Help" rocks with just enough of a country twist to make this number memorable; and Billy sings this one out like a pro!

Overall, this is one major installment in this multi CD series of great hits from the `70s. I highly recommend this for people looking for high quality controlled music from the `70s; and newcomers to this type of music will find this to be a great starter CD.

Volume 13 of the "Have a Nice Day" series could be just what you need to have that nice day. This disc has it all: the driving rockers "Radar Love" and "The Night Chicago Died", one of the decade's most beautiful ballads in Dave Loggins' "Please Come to Boston", the bubblegum flavored MOR pop cut "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" and plenty more.

Bill Stafford adds the sniggery cross-over hit "My Girl Bill" and Maria Muldaur goes one step further with the very suggestive "Midnight at the Oasis."

In fact, Volume 13 is so strong that Wet Willie's "Keep on Smilin'" and Reunion's "Life is a Rock" are the weakest cuts offered. For this series, that's going some.

If you're only going to take a couple Volumes from the set, this has got to be one of them. A legitimate five-star collection, Volume 13 is highly recommended.

Finally, a volume from the "Have a Nice Day" series that can truly lay claim to the title, "Super Hits of the 70s." Every one of these tracks is a hit, even though most are guilty pleasures--that is, uncool in retrospect. Even so, who could possibly turn away from the catchiness of such ditties as "Beach Baby," "The Night Chicago Died," and "Billy, Don't Be a Hero"? All original versions.

"Have A Nice Day Volume 13" features some nice pop tunes from the year that spawned Watergate-1974. "Midnight At The Oasis", "The Night Chicago Died", "Please Come To Boston", "Rock Me Gently", "I Can Help" and "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" are the pick of the litter here. Both tunes by Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods, titled "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and "Who Do You Think You Are" are just average, while the Jim Stafford song "My Girl Bill" is a little too silly for my tastes. Ranking right up there with the other primo tunes in this collection is "Radar Love" by Golden Earring. So, take your pick here and enjoy "Have A Nice Day-Volume 13", the only CD series endorsed by Mick Foley (WWF's Mankind, aka WWF Commissioner). HAVE A NICE DAY!!!

Andy Kim. Joey Levine, of Ohio Express fame. Tony Burrows. These dudes were still around in 1974? Yes they were, and you'll find their handiwork prominently displayed on this compilation. And some other, very similar material besides: If not for their grave lyrics "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and "The Night Chicago Died" would be card-carrying members of the same genre as well. Couldn't fathom Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods - they must have been caught in a time warp or something! First they try an antiwar message that was five years out of date (with "Billy"), then they try to become the Spiral Starecase of the mid-70s (with "Who Do You Think You Are"). Neither song is really bad, just spectacularly inappropriate for the times. The first two tracks ("Midnight At The Oasis" and "My Girl Bill") are far more fitting for the period, capturing the soul of the sexual revolution; and Wolfman Jack's banter at the end of "Beach Baby" (unedited version, thank you) was probably the coolest ending to a single since the Beatles saw fit to close out "Strawberry Fields Forever" with that muffled "I Bury Paul." All in all, an average-to-above average entry for the Smiley Face Series.

This volume is about average for the H.A.N.D. series; not outstanding, yet not too obscure, with mostly well-known hits from 1974. I truly enjoyed "Life Is A Rock" here, much more than I did when it originally came out. High school girls used to love that song in 1974-1975: its fun, commercial nature and willingness to spend exorbitant amounts of time learning its intricate lyrics fit well with the typical high school experience. I love its ending where several very nice, well-known pop song choruses are mixed together over a beautiful chord progression with a heavy emphasis on reminiscence. No wonder it sounds better now than it did then. "My Girl Bill" was unknown to me in 1974. It's supposed to humorously pique the listener's interest by sounding like two gay men on a date, but then resolves the question along standard lines. "Radar Love" is a great song for driving. "Midnight At The Oasis" is a sexy song that tosses out every Sahara-related buzzword in an attempt to paint a cultural image. "Beach Baby" was ridiculed in its time for being too commercial. My girlfriend utterly hated "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" for being a pointless story about two brainless fools. "I Can Help" has a cool little guitar riff in the middle.

I have been searching for Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) for some time, a pretty good compilation.

Stuff that should be forgotten mixed in with stuff we will never forget. Rhino defines the times by not glossing over the musical historical record. The CD starts with absurdity, and "Oasis" gives us another one hit wonder girl with a quirky singing style describing a Hollywood-style Arabian desert rendezvous. This song was more confusing than entertaining. Next is "My Girl Bill" (did anyone see that punchline coming?), followed by the blockbuster "Billy Don't Be a Hero", which Ross once mentioned in "Friends" (Ross's character, of course, is far too young to have heard this when it first appeared on the radio), and was remembered not only for its storyline, but for that freaky wailing synthesizer sound it had. "Radar Love" was Golden Earring's first international hit, and "Radar" was actually still being played on some stations by the time that the group's next single, "Twilight Zone" appeared in 1982! "Night Chicago Died" was a UK import that described a fictitious battle between the cops and Al Capone's thugs in the "bad old days". This takes place on Chicago's "East Side", which is actually Lake Michigan (oops). "Please Come to Boston" is slow and soulful, what's it doing in this collection? "Rock Me Gently" is a fun, energetic tune, but the singer sounds just like Neil Diamond. Was that part of the secret of his success? "Beach Baby" is a neglected classic, more evidence of the 50's nostalgia that clamped down on the 70's (listen for the horn solo!). Finally, the whole musical universe is summed up in "Life is a Rock...", a patter song that makes every rap tune pale by comparison. There were stories in my time of kids "cheating" learning the lyrics by playing their 45's (remember those?) of this song at 33 rpms!

With "Midnight At The Oasis" starting off the CD, you could think that this disc will be a wash. But, just a couple of cuts down, you will find "Radar Love" "The Night Chicago Died" "Keep On Smilin" "Rock Me Gently" "Beach Baby" and "I Can Help." My favorite on this disc is "Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled Me," a look back at the present and the past, done just a little different. One Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods song is enough, so one could have been replaced by something else. But, this is yet another gem of a CD showing the inconsistancies of the 70's.

Have A Nice Day vol,13 I got in the latest of the series, I think the 70's were a great time in music and this cd is also great it has:

Midnight At The Oasis,
My Girl Bill. Radar Love,
Rock Me Gently

this cd as 12 tracks and being the 70's just Great!