Customer Reviews

Have a Nice Day 6

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

 

 

In terms of chart success, this is by far the weakest in Rhino's Have a Nice Day series. We're still looking at songs from 1970-71, but only three of these songs hit the Top 10 and three of them ("He's Gonna Step on You Again," "Tarkio Road" and "It's a Cryin' Shame") didn't even dent the Top 40.

By the far the biggest hit was the Five Man Electrical Band's million-seller "Signs." [It's odd that Rhino put their less successful follow-up hit "Absolutely Right" on the same album instead of a later volume.] The other Top 10 hits were the infectious "Sweet City Woman" and the loopy novelty song "Gimme Dat Ding."

Other highlights include the garage rock sound of Crabby Appleton's "Go Back" (you gotta love a band that names itself after Tom Terrific's nemesis!), and one of the weirdest songs in pop music history,"Timothy," a song about cannibalism written by Rupert "The Pina Colada Song" Holmes.

As I've noted in reviewing earlier volumes, Rhino has focused on one- and two-hit wonders for this series. This is especially true here. As I already noted, some of these artists aren't even technically "one"-hit wonders. In fact, the only artist with more than two chart hits is Lulu. And "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" only reached No. 22.

So volume six not only includes a number of fringe artists, many of these songs aren't going to bring back a lot of memories. [Who the heck is John Kongos?] But with a handful of delights ("Signs," "Sweet City Woman," "Go Back") and guilty pleasures ("Gimme Dat Ding"), this volume has its moments.

From the truly great- Buoys and Lighthouse- to the good - Pipkins, Lulu, 5 Man Electrical band (twice), Stampeders, Brewer and Shipley, there's a decent amount of good material here. The rest is pretty forgettable. I bought it for Lighthouse's great "One Fine Morning" and the Buoys catchy song about cannibalism "Timothy". No accounting for some people's taste! 3.5 Stars.

I really enjoyed hearing these semi-obscure songs from 1970-1971. Although I still recognized many of these song titles and groups, I didn't realize just how long it's been since I've heard some of them played anywhere--so long that I barely recognized them, though I'm sure Rhino has presented the original versions. I recognized 8 songs by sound, I was able to find 2 more on top 40 lists, but 2 were completely alien to me. I wish this "Have A Nice Day" series had stuck to its original pattern of presenting songs from a narrow time period, instead of spanning 2 or more years per CD as they did here. Considering that 25-30 new Top 40 songs are released each month, they could easily have released albums that spanned no more than 1-2 months, which would've been more logical and nostalgic. More songs per CD would help, too. Specific memories: I remember poking fun at the humorous family song "Saturday Morning Confusion" in 1971, my girlfriend liking the wacky "Gimme Dat Ding" in 1970, jokes about the topic of cannibalism in "Timothy" in 1971 (nice chord progression, and moves well!), the overly played story song "Signs," the overly played and irritatingly banjo-laden "Sweet City Woman" in 1971, the negativity of "Go Back" in 1970, the unremarkable "Tarkio Road" in 1971, and every guitarist banging out the intro chords to "One Fine Morning" throughout the early '70s (nice high energy song). Obviously Rhino's strategy of collecting lesser-known hits from the '70s is very effective in reviving old memories.

One of the most rewarding aspects of compiling a collection of music from one's youth is the (re)discoveries that attend it. For example, "It's A Cryin' Shame" by Gayle McCormick was one of my favorites back in 1971, but I was too young, and the song too limited in its chart success, for it to be recalled after a while. Which is a shame in itself, as this song languished in nearly total obscurity for 20 years until Rhino justly included it on this installment. Others that fall under the same heading include the surging, raucous "Go Back" by Crabby Appleton and Five Man Electrical Band single "Absolutely Right", one of the most intense numbers ever to hit the Top 100; the charming "Saturday Morning Confusion", sinister "(He's Gonna) Step On You Again" and "Timothy" [the latter of which couldn't be more different from "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" though Rupert Holmes was responsible for both] and the full album-length version of "One Fine Morning" by Lighthouse. Definitely worth picking up if only for those six songs.

OK, no question about it. This is my favorite CD of the series. Saturday Morning Confusion is the family man that I have "grown?" into. One Fine Morning still cranks me up. The two cuts from The Five Man Electric Band are both great songs. Go Back by Crabby Appleton is a real rocker. Every song is strong in its genre.

If you want to try to remember the 70s, this is a good place to start. Every song hear was played on the same radio stations before everybody became so "specialized". This disk is plain fun!

To me this Volume Six of the h.a.n.d. series is unique and the reason is because I did not recognize the names of many of these songs but the few I did recognize; I have fond memories of so I decided to buy it and now that I own it I can say that I remember all but two of them. Most of the reviews you read are opinionated (including mine) and this Volume has plenty of negative reviews but I don't believe it is that bad. Lighthouse's, One Fine Morning, Stampeder's, Sweet City Woman, Crabby Appleton's, Go Back, Five Man Electrical Band's, Signs, &, Absolutely Right, and Gayle McCormick's, It's A Cryin' Shame, make this a decent Volume. As a long time music fan; I have found that on occasion; Top Ten songs do not appeal to me as much as songs that didn't make the Top Fourty and that is the case on this Volume. Another thing I have found out is that these twenty five, Have A Nice Day, Volumes are liked and disliked. It all depends on the individual and to me this one is ok.

Rhino Records does an outstanding job of releasing some of the best pop and rock songs from decades past, and the "Have a Nice Day" series of CDs contains dozens of cool songs from the 1970s.

Volume 6 of "Have a Nice Day," which contains songs from 1970 and 1971, is one of the best of the series. Rhino showcases some Top Ten songs here, including "Signs" and "Sweet City Woman," but also includes some great songs that only made the second division of the Top 40 and some that just bubbled under, such as "Absolutely Right," "Tarkio Road," "One Fine Morning," and the awesome Hollies-style rocker "Go Back." Rhino doesn't shy away from including the occasional novelty tune in this series, either.

The brief liner notes for these discs are good as well, and the series provides listeners with a good cross section of what was being played on Top 40 radio in the time period covered.

"It's A Cryin' Shame" by Gayle McCormick is a rare one hit wonder that never even made it into the TOP 40 (Billboard), but as Rhino always does... they dig up pop tunes that people can never find.

Like Eric and other specialty labels, this entire Rhino series (25 in all) offers a library for the radio addict in all of us. You would have to have OCD to buy the entire set and most of it is now out of print anyway. My hat is off to the Rhino-roos for thinking that not everyone's taste is exactly the same and therefore makes sure that nothing is ever buried!

Cheesy 70s pop is an addiction for me so this series from Rhino is a sort of nirvana. However, this is not one of the better discs overall. Really there are only 3 Top 10 hits here (The Pipkins' novelty "Gimme Dat Ding", Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs" which later was an 80s hit for Tesla, and The Stampeders "Sweet City Woman") so the value of this has to come in "Wow! What a great song, never heard THAT before!" appeal. Unfortunately that only happens once with Lighthouse's jazz-rock ditty "One Fine Morning" which only managed Top 30 status in November of 1971 but deserved a better fate.

BOTTOM LINE:
You can probably get the highlights here elsewhere. Skip this one...

Some of these "hits" do not belong on a CD bearing this title: "He's Gonna Step On You Again" by John Kongos, "It's a Cryin' Shame" by Gayle McCormick, and "Tarkio Road" by Brewer & Shipley missed the top 40 completely, while other oddities like "Absolutely Right" by the Five Man Electrical Band and "One Fine Morning" by Lighthouse have received little or no airplay since they were originally released. Rhino Records usually delivers good results with their CD collections, but they have made an exception with this one.