Customer Reviews

Have a Nice Day 9

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

 

 

Volume 9 of the "Have a Nice Day" series is one of those rare discs that provides catchy, memorable tunes from all across the spectrum of 1970s rock/pop. There is something for just about everyone in these 12 tracks.

For mainstream rock with a slightly hard edge, Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" takes center stage. Unfortunately, due to the format of the series, this is the commercial release short version, which edits out the excellent solo work in the center of the song. However, that is a very small distraction on an excellent compilation.

For MOR pop, there is Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Claire", Looking Glass' classic "Brandy", and two very underated cuts, Daniel Boone's "Beautiful Sunday" and Gallery's "I Believe in Music." For those who prefer ballads, Lobo's "I'd Love You to Want Me" and Canadien crooner Austin Roberts' "Something's Wrong With Me" will fill the bill nicely. Finally, for afficianados of the instrumental, this disc includes Hot Butter's playful "Popcorn" and Gary Glitter's sports fan anthem "Rock 'n ' Roll, Part 2."

No matter how you slice it, this volume delivers the whole pie. It is definitely one of the stars of the series. Highly recommended.

I purchased volumes 1-23 of Rhino's Have a Nice Day series long before the current plethora of pay per download websites. If I hadn't, I probably would have gone that route where you can cherry pick the songs you want. Regardless, vol. 9 in the series continues the trend of featuring mostly minor artists (one- and two-hit wonders); some that had huge hits ("Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" sold a million copies and went to No. 1) and some that barely lurched into the Top 40 (Cashman & West's "American City Suite" peaked at #27).

As I've pointed out in reviews of earlier volumes, Rhino's intent is not to give you the biggest hits of the year (in this case 1972), but to give you a wide range of hits--both major and minor.

Two of the biggest hits are the instrumentals "Popcorn" and "Frankenstein," although the later is a truncated 3:28 single version as opposed to the 4:45 album version. Million-sellers included "I'd Love You To Want Me" and "Clair."

But what has always set this series apart, is the inclusion of the rarely anthologized songs, like Rick Springfield's first hit, "Speak to the Sky" (almost ten years before his next hit "Jessie's Girl"), Gallery's follow-up hit "I Believe In Music," and Daniel Boone's "Beautiful Sunday."

It's difficult to recommend these albums too highly because at twelve songs (ten on the cassette), you don't get much bang for your buck. And let's face it, no one's going to like every song on here. But there's just enough variety and surprises to keep the series interesting.

This gets a 5 star rating for one simple reason: This is about the only way I know of the get a copy of the full-length version of American City Suite. No Cashman & West CD currently available (to my knowledge) has this version on it. So if you've been looking for this hard-to-find gem, here it is!

I mostly jumped into this discussion to add a bit of fun trivia, however since I was asked to rate this CD, I give it 4 stars. It has an EXCELLENT variety of music types all on one CD, and I am proud to have it in my collection (actually, I have it in vinyl form, as I bought the record album back in the early '80s).

I have read a few postings here discussing the Cashman and West song "American City Suite." Now, I had never heard this song on the radio growing up in the '70s either, and I actually like the lyrics quite a lot. When I first heard the song over 20 years ago on my album, I had no idea who Cashman and West were, but then, one day in the late '80s, I heard a song called "Talking Baseball (Willie, Mickey and the Duke)" which sounded to me an awful lot like "American City Suite" in many ways. The singer sounded very similar and the lyrics and tempo of the song were also similar to ACS. I then discovered "Talking Baseball" was written and performed by a man named Terry Cashman. Hmmmm, Cashman and West..... Terry Cashman.

Yep, same dude. This isn't earthshaking stuff, but I found it interesting, and it sort of put a new face to Cashman and West for me. Peace.

First, the bad news--"Frankenstein" by the Edgar Winter Group has been brutally chopped up, deleting most of the solos. And some of the tracks included are hardly hits ("American City Suite" by Cashman & West?). Most of the tracks hold up well, though, and the elusive hit single "Speak to the Sky" by a young Rick Springfield makes the collection particularly attractive. All original versions.

A mixture of hits and misses here for the 9th entry in Rhino's take of 70s Top 40 music. Far and away the 3 smash hits here are Looking Glass' tale of a sailor's widow ("Brady (You're a Fine Girl)") and classic rock tour-de-force "Frankenstein". As others have noted, it's an eviscerated version of the Edgar Winter stomper that appears here missing most of its instrumental flash. In Rhino's defense, this WAS the version you'd have heard on A.M. radio at the time but in purely artistic terms it robs it of much of its power. Closing out the biggies is one shot wonder glam rocker Gary Glitter's sports arena mainstay "Rock and Roll Pt. 2" (bah-da-da-daaah-daah-HEY!-duh duh duh...)

Beyond those, 3 others make the grade. Hot Butter's "Popcorn" has found new vitality recently in a remix version by dance artist Crazy Frog so it's a welcome chance to revisit the original. Gallery's "I Believe in Music" may be the last gasp of hippie thought ("I believe in music/I believe in love" sung earnestly over an acoustic guitar) and barely veiled sex anthem "Thunder and Lightning" gets Chi Coltrane honorable mention for salacious pop in the 70s (alongside Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" and Maria Muldaur's sensual "Midnight at the Oasis" found elsewhere in this series..)

Most of the rest are pleasant but nothing that would make you stop the dial these days if they did actually get airplay. Several reviewers have heaped praise on Cashman and West's "American City Suite" but I found it yawnworthy. I'll stick with their better known "Talkin' Baseball", thank you.

BOTTOM LINE:
OK if you want one of the 6 'hard to get' cuts on the CD but if you just want a 70s pop anthology choose one of the other discs in the series instead.

I'm usually a fan of the hodge-podge track sequences on this series, because they provide a good glimpse at a variety of music on the charts in a given year of the 1970's. There are only a few skippable tunes on this volume. The Looking Glass' "Brandy" is a wonderful song, one of the best of 1972, in fact. "Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone is a simple, fun tune with a good guitar hook. I will always remember "Popcorn" from the drive-in trash epic SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED, and it's still kinda fun today, as the Moog has completely disappeared from the musical scene (isn't it time for a comeback?). Lobo was one of many sensitive songwriters who made it big in the 70s, a harmless guy whose light vocals endeared him to adoring female fans. "I'd Love You to Want Me" is his biggest hit, and sure, it's maudlin and cheesy, but it's a great time capsule song. The Brady Bunch did a good cover version, too! "I Believe in Music" has one of the best synthesizer breaks in any pop song, and Gallery's cover of the Mac Davis song one-ups that version. Too bad it isn't played on the radio too often, today, and you have to love that cowbell. Chi Coltrane's strong vocals on "Thunder and Lightning" are incredibly infectious! Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Clair" sounds oddly similar to "Hello It's Me", and any number of Paul McCartney songs, but it's a breezy tune worth hearing, and I actually prefer it to "Alone Again Naturally", his previous #1 hit. Another harmless male vocalist/songwriter of the early 70s. And you can never go wrong with Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein", though this is the shortened radio version.; it features one of the most recognizable guitar intros in rock history (even most of today's generation knows it, though they probably can't identify the song title).

Now for the not so hot selections: Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" has become a sports anthem, and thus is incredibly overplayed and irritating in 2006. It may have been great listening in 1972, but because it's everywhere now, it's a little too obvious an inclusion here. "Speak to the Sky", Rick Springfield's early hit pre-"Jessie's Girl", sounds like Brotherhood of Man sans the ladies, and is only worth having for completists' sake. Some reviewers on here have gone ga-ga for "American City Suite", but it's not the masterpiece they've hailed it as. It may hold memories for those who heard it in 1972, but today, it's just not much fun to listen to, as it's very meandering and not memorable in the least.

All in all, a solid 4-star outing walking down memory lane in 1972.

There are some great songs here. My favorites being "Thunder and Lightning" by Chi Coltrane, "Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone, "I'd Love You to Want Me" from Lobo, "I Believe in Music" by Gallery, "Clair" by Gilbert O'Sullivan, and just for fun "Popcorn" by Hot Butter.
I was never too terribly impressed with "Rock and Roll Part 2" from Gary Glitter but it plays an important role to the vastness of what Top 40 radio was all about. It was nice that nobody had to sound like somebody else to be able to make a song for the radio back then.

The most popular song here is probably the first track, "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) by Looking Glass. And it's interesting to have such an early-charted hit from a poplar 80's icon to pop music, Rick Springfield with his semi-religious "Speak to the Sky."

The songs I am most uncomfortable with on this volume is "American City Suite" by Cashman and West. Jeez, this song is almost 8 minutes long and it still sounds like it was edited together from a longer sound project. It sounds like 3 songs spliced together like a rushed medley of something where there must be more to the story. Like it was part of a whole concept album, just putting some edited highlights together for radio.

The "raspberry award" goes to Austin Roberts with his idea of splicing words together from previous pop hits on the radio. This song "Something's Wrong With Me' sounds like it was written by a computer that gathered up popular "one-liners" from hit records with a hope to make the ultimate pop record. What a joke.

The greatest disappointment to me though on this volume is to have the 45 version of Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein". I'd rather not have this song if it's not going to be the complete version.

But, my most favorite rare gem on this volume is definitely "Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone. And the most anthematic song goes to Gallery with "I Believe in Music."

This collection was rather awkward, so it looses 2 stars from me.

If you enjoy the other volumes of this cd, you will this one. My favorite are from volume 1 through 16. Hopefuly, they can keep these CDs going, without going out of print.

this product is great to listen to even if you wasn't born during that era. God bless!