Customer Reviews

Have a Nice Day 25

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rhino closes out their extraordinarily voluminous compilation series "Super Hits of the '70s - Have A Nice Day" with this twentyfifth volume (who would have thought they would have gone this far!).

The tracks here come from 1978 and 1979 and were all top-30 pop hits, nine of which were top-20 with four of them making top-10. Adding a bit more interest to this volume is the appearance of a few seldom-found tracks, namely City Boy's "5.7.0.5.", Ace Frehley's (of Kiss) "New York Groove" and Roger Voudouris' "Get Used To It" - all classifiable as one-hit wonders. Whether intended or not, the appearance of "Oh Well" as the final track on this final volume in the series has a twinge of irony about it.

Sound quality it decent and an eight-page liner notes booklet provides some backround on the included tracks. All told, a respectable finale to this amazing series documenting the top-40 music of the 70's. Anyone who has had the gumption to obtain the first 24 volumes in this series has, by default, no choice but to purchase this. But even as a stand-alone piece, this piece is worthy of consideration on its own.

Instead of giving an individual review of each volume in this series, I decided to give one review on the final volume of the series.

As a child in the 70s I grew up hearing these songs on the radio and the entire series really gave me a feeling of nostalgia. When I started collecting this series, I didn't always know each artist or even each song title, but once I spun the disc, the lyrics to these songs came back from the dark void of my memory. That was half the fun of this whole series. Volume 13 was the one volume in the entire series that I remebered each song. Volumes 12, 13, 14 and 15 are my favorite volumes.

Not each volume is a winner. Volumes 4, and 6 I felt weren't that great of volumes, but each volume contains at least 4-5 great gems. Again, the entire series is great.

This series and Rhino's Didn't It Blow Your Mind series are hands down the best series of 70's music out there. I give both series five stars. If there was one thing that I felt that Rhino missed on these was that they didn't take each series out to five more volumes. The would have given Have A Nice Day 30 volumes and Didn't It Blow Your Mind 25 volumes. Either way, the Have A Nice Day series is my favorite 70s music complilation series and it has gotten lots of use in my CD player.

If you like quirky AM pop from the 70s, then this series is for you. You won't regret it. If your looking for more of the FM style 70s music, then get Time/Lifes Sound of the 70s.

After reading several reviews for the various volumes in this series, it's clear the some people missed the entire point of this series. This entire series was supposed to resemble or be a throw back to those infamous compilation LPs from K-Tel that were everywhere in the 70s. This series wasn't supposed to have great songs. Just memorable ones.

As time wore on for this series, Rhino started using full length versions of these songs as opposed to radio and single edits. One edit, however, was used for this final entry to this series and that song is "Love Is Like Oxygen." The group Oxygen sounded a lot like E.L.O. of the late seventies; the full length version of "Love Is Like Oxygen" is nearly seven minutes long. There are lots of edits throughout this series, Player was severely edited on both their songs, as was Robert John's "Sad Eyes. " Singles were the focus of this series, but I have to admit I don't care for edits and until this last disc came out, I pretty much stayed away from this series. I do own a few of these cd's, especially the one's that have songs from the late seventies when I was in High School and listened to a lot of radio. As I've grown older, my attention steered from the catchy hooks and turned toward production and voice. The songs here not only bring back great memories, but are extremely well done. "Love Is Like Oxygen" is a catchy, upbeat song full of hooks and it's easy to hear why this song was the hit it was. "Falling" was one of my favorite songs, LeBlanc and Carr sing well and harmonize like they are joined at the hip. The ballad has tones of blues. "I Just Wanna Stop" turned me on to Gino Vannelli and his big hair. His voice is just as big as his hair and hasn't changed much after all these years. According to music critics, men who are the lead singers of arena rock groups like Styx, claim that age make all these guys sound like Gino, who by the way, records for Verve records and has released two fine jazz albums to date. "My Angel Baby" was a hit song, it's a bit doo-wop toned down, I forgot the song existed until I bought this disc. "Lead Me On" is a great song I hadn't heard in years, Maxine was an early disco queen with "Get Right Back Where We Started From." She performs this ballad, with r&b harmonies, beautifully. "Love Takes Time" was an adult radio staple, a huge hit for Orleans who's song "Still The One" was used as a jingle for ABC television. This collection presents the biggest singles from the artists here and is a fine closer for this series.

.....this entire collection is for you! This is the only collection where I could find ALL THE SONGS I listened to on AM RADIO! ALL 25 VOLUMES ARE A MUST for your 70's collection! So what - some of the songs aren't Top 10 hits - but they were part of your life if you loved 70's AM Radio! If you bought 45's - If you bought albums - If you listened to the radio - you know these songs! If you want repetitive Top 10 songs, then get another collection. If you truly want the songs of the 70's.... GET ALL 25 VOLUMES of "HAVE A NICE DAY!"

Volume 25 is one of the better Volumes of this series.Several good songs give a strong presence here. Personal favorites are, Lead Me On, Shake It, My Angel Baby, and , Love Takes Time, plus there is also one song on this Volume that I want to brag about and with good reason. I have always been a sucker for Ballads and there have been plenty of good ones over the years but two Ballads hit the airwaves in the latter 70s that I consider two of the best ever and one of them is right here being LeBlanc and Carr's, Falling. The other can be found on 1979 Billboard Top Hits called, Just When I Needed You Most, by the late great Randy Vanwarmer....Very Nice!
It has been roughly 30 years since these 12 songs on this Volume hit the airwaves but most of them still sound fresh and not dated.

I have owned most of the HAVE A NICE DAY CDs for several years but I picked this one up just last week and was quite surprised how enjoyable it was. At first glance I didn't recognize some of the songs but upon hearing them I found I did. Anyone over 30 knows FALLING when they hear it. It's a soft-rock classic. LOVE IS LIKE OXYGEN is delightfully cheesy and just try not to sing along with the soaring MY ANGEL BABY. I don't think I ever heard 5.7.0.5. before but it's goofy enough and fits right into the flow of this very entertaining CD.

I ordered this CD for one song specifically, "Falling" by Lenny LeBlanc and Pete Carr. All the other songs were a bonus. The memories from my teen years came flooding back as I listened. Those of us who grew up in the 70's had the very best music as the soundtrack for our lives. "Falling" is truly one of the most beautiful songs ever....I cried and cried as I listened, reflecting on times past and loved ones I've lost.

Well, several volumes of the Rhino collection aren't perfect, but they all bring us back in their own inimitable way. "Love Is Like Oxygen" has the perfect lyrical "hook" as well as a variety of musical gimmicks. "How Much I Feel" is either totally saccharine or a genuine tearjerker depending on your point of view, but they sure sang it like they felt it. Wow! "Falling", a slowdance harmony classic for the next hundred years, is rightfully included here, too. Gino Vanelli can take his big 'fro elsewhere for all I care, but I'm sure he has his fans (in Montreal and elsewhere). "5705" and "New York Groove" appear to have been included for archival purposes only. Did anyone actually like those songs when they came out? "My Angel Baby", an instant classic, joins the pantheon of 50's-sound "stroll" tunes, and its similarities to Robert John's "Sad Eyes" are obvious (once the Rhino folks call attention to this in their liner notes). "Love Takes Time" and "Shake It" contain a strong sexual subtext, hearkening back to an era where songs couldn't be "explicit" in their lyrics. "Get Used To It", an upbeat one-hit wonder, remains one of the few songs of the rock era using a synthesized harpsichord. Maxine's "Lead Me On" slows the tempo as the CD concludes with the anarchistic, defeatist "Oh Well" ("I can't sing, I ain't pretty, and my legs are thin"). You need this CD. Get it now, so you know what the originals sounded like before Jewel and/or Lenny Kravitz records a re-make!

this series is worth shopping around for, if you must have it. I am glad I shopped around in my purchase of vol. 1- 20. after that the series was OK, but I was not that impressed. those that must have Vol. 25, Half.com has a seller offering it for 26.75 about. sometimes you may find it even cheaper on Rhino's Direct site. that is when they offer it. as I have said, sometimes a CD can be had for a lot less by going direct to either the CDs website or sometimes the artists website direct. the bottom line-it does pay to shop around. I think the quality of the product is good, but on Vol. 25, I just, already have most if not all of the tracks on other CDs. Vol. 24 and 25 are very over priced. Scalpers at work maybe? shop around, but you will, likely still find these Vol.s overpriced.

SUPER HITS OF THE 70'S-HAVE A NICE DAY, VOL. 25-VARIOUS ARTISTS: This is my hands down fave reissue series from master retro compilers Rhino Records...some two dozen volumns of guilty pleasure pop/rock classics and forgotten singles from the hey day of AM radio. A wellspring of late 70's snapshots are captured in this grand finale, including Sweet's psuedo-proggy LOVE IS LIKE OXYGEN, Kiss axe handler Ace Frehley's NEW YORK GROOVE, and Detroit's unsung Rockets, who gleefully pulverize Fleetwood Mac's RNB gem OH WELL into hard rock submission. On the lighter side, country rockers Orleans, soul belter Maxine Nightingale, and mellow slicksters Ambrosia also get their due. While names like Roger Voudouris and Toby Beau may have you reaching for your rock n' roll encyclopedia, you WILL recall their trademark tunes, probably with a giddy fondness, once you pop 'em on again.