Customer Reviews

Have a Nice Day 4

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Through the passage of three decades, most pop music listeners may forget that the year 1971 was a fertile period for crossover hits from the country-western genre.

This CD brings that fact into sharp focus with the biggest hits in the respective careers of Lynn Anderson ("Rose Garden"), Ray Price ("For The Good Times") and Sammi Smith ("Help Me Make It Through The Night)." Also appearing are three other hits with a rural flavor: "Mr. Bojangles" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, "One Toke Over The Line" by Brewer & Shipley and "Woodstock" by Matthews' Southern Comfort.

Adding to the eclectic mix are long-forgotten "Yellow River" by Christie and Mark Lindsay's second solo single, "Silver Bird." There's something for every pop fan here. Anyone who remembers the Glass Bottle's radio hit "I Ain't Got Time Anymore" will appreciate that fact.

If my ears could breathe, this compilation would be a breath of fresh air.

Volume 4 of the "Have a Nice Day" series won't raise many musical eyebrows, but it does have a bit of a split personality.

Much of the disc is MOR pop, like Mark Lindsay's "Silver Bird", Christie's "Yellow River" and Ocean's slightly folk-flavored "Put Your Hand in the Hand."

Three of the cuts aren't country-flavored, they're flat-out country. Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden", Ray Price's "For the Good Times" and Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" were all successful on the pop charts, but they're died in the wool, cry in your beer country. Another track, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Mr Bojangles" was also a major cross-over hit.

Brewer and Shipley's classic "One Toke Over the Line" and Wadsworth Mansion's "Sweet Mary" add a pleasantly humorous touch and do a nice job of rounding out a slightly disjointed collection.

Volume 4 isn't one of the best in the series, but it's a lot better than some. This one's well worth the effort.

I purchased Vol.4 of the Have A Nice Day series because it contained "Stay Awhile" by the Bells. Although it was a Top Ten song in 1971,I never hear it on the radio anymore. I work for Mix 106 in Charlotte, NC and we do play some of the cuts on this cd including: "Rose Garden", "Mr. Bojangles", "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and "For The Good Times". Those are all good additions to my music collection.

The 1970's seemed to have a large number of "One-Hit Wonders". Although these songs were popular at the time, many don't receive airplay in the 21st century. Thank you Rhino for giving us an oppotunity to obtain some of the Forgotten Oldies of the 70's on cd.

Rhino's Have a Nice Day series may not provide an thorough representation of the Seventies (how could any 12-song compilation do that?), but what it does is provide a facet of the decade seldom found on other anthologies.

Three of the songs topped the country charts before peaking on the pop chart: "For the Good Times," "Help Me Make It Through the Night" )both penned by Kris Kristofferson) and "Rose Garden" (written by Joe South). Another song that wouldn't have been out of place on the country charts was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's signature song "Mr. Bojangles." [It would also be their lone Top 10 pop hit.]

Folk/pop is also represented on this collection with one-hit wonders Ian Matthews take on "Woodstock" and Brewer and Shipley's "One Toke Over the Line."

Other one-hit wonders include the infectious "Sweet Mary" by Wadsworth Mansion and the gospel-tinged "Put Your Hand in the Hand" by Ocean.

Even the lesser hits ("Silver Bird," "Yellow River," I Ain't Got Time Any More") that peaked in the bottom half of the Top 40 bring back fond memories of the hits of 1970-71, which makes this a satisfying (albeit brief) collection. RECOMMENDED

Several of these H.A.N.D. Volumes have at least one Country/Pop crossover song on them but I believe this Volume 4 tops them all with Lynn Anderson, Ray Price, Sammi Smith, Brewer and Shipley, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band all giving strong Country and/or Pop entries here with, Rose Garden, For The Good Times, Help Me Make It Through The Night, One Toke Over The Line, and, Mr.Bojangles, (in that order). All five were very popular but there are also some darn good Pop songs on this Disc too; being Wadsworth Mansion's, Sweet Mary, Christie's, Yellow River, and Mark Lindsay's, Silverbird. Ocean's Gospel flavored, Put Your Hand In The Hand, is another excellant song here. The Bell's, Stay Awhile, was also very popular at the time plus the toned down & soothing version of, Woodstock, by Matthews' Southern Comfort is also a welcome addition to this Disc. Their version of, Woodstock, is much different than the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version from their renouned Déjà vu Album but I like both.
Anyone who listened to AM Radio during this 70-71 time period will remember most ( if not all ) of this lineup. I can easily say that this is one of only a few of the Have A Nice Day Volumes that I can listen to from start to finish. Like a previous Vol.4 reviewer said.....This is not the best Volume but it is definately not the worst either. This is a SOLID 4 Star product and a good purchase with lots of high quality Oldies.
Food for thought.....For the longest time I was reluctant about purchasing several of these H.A.N.D. versions because I already own a few of these songs on other compilations however I have found that the duplicates are very minimal for me and I was missing out on some darn good (hard to impossible to find) Oldies on CD. I now own almost half of these Volumes and I am satisfied with all. Gosh! It has been a long time since I heard so many of these tunes and they sound great!

More tough-to-find AM hits from the 70s are here in their original forms, but some filler also makes an appearance--tracks like Glass Bottle's "I Ain't Got Time Anymore" and Matthews Southern Comfort's "Woodstock" don't stand up well next to bigger hits like "Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson or "Put Your Hand in the Hand" by Ocean. Still, a decent CD with good sound quality.

Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day, Vol. 4 gives us twelve more songs from the 1970s in this multidisc CD series. The sound quality is quite good and I like the choice of songs; they bring back warm memories for me.

Christie's "Yellow River" starts off the album with a rockin' tune that uses the guitars and percussion well. They perform this song really well. Lynn Anderson sings a very popular tune for her that is entitled "Rose Garden." This country flavored ballad puts Rose's vocals squarely in the spotlight and she sounds so good I just have to smile whenever I listen to this song-although it can be somewhat melancholy.

Ray Price's "For The Good Times" is another country flavored ballad that Ray delivers with great sensitivity and panache; his excellent diction makes his performance strong. Ray has some voice, too! "Mr. Bojangles" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band could never be a number I would forget; and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band never misses a beat on this number. I love it!

Brewer And Shipley's "One Toke Over The Line" is another timeless ballad with great harmonizing. The guitar arrangement shines and the percussion works well. Love that arrangement for the piano, too, on "One Toke Over The Line!" Listen also for a passionate ballad named "Woodstock" by Matthews' Southern Comfort.

The music here is really great; but again my complaint with this series is that they all have a set limit of twelve songs. Not thirteen, not eleven, not fourteen either--twelve and exactly twelve. I don't like that because I would prefer this CD to have an extra song or two. I will take off one star to make this a four star review.

However, after all is said and done, this is a good installment in the Have a Nice Day CD series of `70s songs. I recommend it for people who enjoyed these songs back then; and the albums in this series are almost always great ways for younger people to find out just how special the music of the 1970s really was.

You wouldn't find These Hard To find Memories these songs were just Brilliant hits I love all of these Wonderful songs I Remember Hearing Them of Springfield's WHYN 56 AM Back in 1971 I Was at the age of 14 in middle School Help Me Make It Through The Night Rose Garden and sentamental song For The Good Times just Brings Tears To the Listener's Eyesbecause of The sorrow Put your Hand In The Hand was Really Inspiring This CD Reccomenable From The Dark Ages Of The 45 RPM SinglesThat were Cluttering up in America's Closets

More of my own personal 45's are here. "Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson, "Mr. Bojangles" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, "Put Your Hand in the Hand" by Ocean, "Woodstock" (we are Stardust...) by Matthew's Southern Comfort, "Silver Bird" by Mark Lindsey, and "Stay Awhile" by The Bells. Oh the memories. The simple times in my life as a kid in Hazel Park Michigan before we moved to the deepest and darkest area of Detroit.

My wife remembers "Yellow River" by Christie better than I did and she grew up overseas. I forgot the great gems like "For The Good Times" by Ray Price and "Help Me Make It Through The Night" by Sammi Smith. These two songs, and many other here, definitely give this volume more of a country music feel. I think that's the main appeal of this volume. Even "One Toke Over The Line" by Brewer and Shipley has an early country rock feel to it.

The novelty track in this volume is the one hit wonder "Sweet Mary" by Wadsworth Mansion. And the lower charting obscure track is "I Ain't Got Time Anymore" by The Glass Bottle. It's got a Partridge Family/Hollies sound to it. It's not bad.

This disc earns four and a half stars. Why only four and a half? Although there is nothing really wrong with any of these songs, none of them are truly outstanding.

I truly enjoy listening to this CD. What's extra special is that I can sing along with almost every song! What fun!