Part One

Wet Wet Wet | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 26, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B000001E4P
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,119 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Love Is All Around

2. Cold Cold Heart

3. I Can Give You Everything

4. Lip Service

5. Wishing I Was Lucky

6. Shed A Tear

7. Goodnight Girl

8. Sweet Surrender

9. Temptation

10. More Than Love

11. Sweet Little Mystery

12. Angel Eyes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection of songs, September 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Part One (Audio CD)

Many people may not know this group, but they have been a successful group since their UK debut in 1987. This album originally released as "The End of Part One: Their Greatest Hits" in UK and rest of the world. 12 songs including Four Weddings and A Funeral's soundtrack, Love Is All Around (which was the highest selling single in 1994 in UK, staying on top of the chart for 15 weeks!) are in this Part One album. Tracks of this album are their singles since their debut. From their debut single, Wising I Was Lucky to their latest single, Love Is All Around, you can really hear soulful Wet Wet Wet sound. This US release also includes remix of I Can Give You Everything that was only available on Limited second collection of The End of Part One, and impossible to obtain.

Their music is one of a kind. Marti Pellow's vocal is exceptional. Good Night Girl (another UK no.1 song) and Angel Eyes are classic ballades. This album is the great collection of their singles. You won't regret it. In fact, you are going to want more of Wet Wet Wet after listening to this album. Not very many bands could perform that kind of magic. Amazing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice collection from this Scottish Whiteboy soul band, October 2, 2005

By 

Gizmola "gizmola" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Part One (Audio CD)

I saw Wet Wet Wet early in their career, touring the states to promote their first album, which is the core of this collection. The band was something of an oddity at the time, emerging at the tail end of the 80's new wave heyday and the emergence of stars like Elvis Costello, ABC, Spandau Ballet and Scritti Politti (whose lyrics were the source for the band's name). While many of the new wave bands were reinterpreting soul and R+B using synthesizers and drum machines, and in some cases bringing ska, raggae and punk into the mix, Wet Wet Wet seemed completely without guile, structured as a traditional 60's R+B unit, with guitar, base, drums, keyboards and horn. If those new wave bands, as well as the Beatles and the Clash were indeed inspirational for the band, as they've claimed, it's hard to tell how.

A phenomenon in Europe, Wet Wet Wet never quite managed to crack the US market, and realistically, while they have always aspired to the the great R&B, Motown and Soul of the 1960's and 70's, singer Marti Pellow's pleasant voice just can't compare to the voices of those who influenced him: Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, David Ruffin, Stevie Wonder or Otis Redding. While you can't fault Pellow for trying, Wet Wet Wet has never managed to escape their reputation as imitators. Not unlike Simply Red, Wet Wet Wet has always resembled a male only real life version of the fictional band in the "The Commitments" -- recreating the feel of Soul music, without a clear idea of how to make music that seems authentic or personal. Considering the careers of Van Morrison, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, such a transition is certainly possible. You just won't find that sort of evolution in the collected work of Wet Wet Wet.

It's no surprise that their biggest success came in the form of a cover of "Love is all around us", by the Troggs, which was featured on the soundtrack of the hit film Four Weddings and a Funeral and vaulted Wet Wet Wet to the top of the UK and Euro charts in 1994. Given the nature of their predominant fanbase (countless teenage girls enamoured with Pellow's looks, and Princess Diana), that few of them seemed aware the song wasn't an original.

That doesn't mean that Wet Wet Wet wasn't a competent live act, or that their original material is without merit. In particular the songs "Wishing I was Lucky", "Sweet Little Mystery", and "Temptation" from their 1988 first album, all demonstrate what the band might have become had they remained as a unit with the same sort of soul revisionist zeal they started with, and managed to find an identity of their own.

After the huge success of "Love is all around us" the band essentially became a singles factory, drifting farther and farther toward the middle of the road - easy listening genre. This collection then, represents the band in its earliest and most creatively vital period.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is their best album I would give it 500 stars, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Part One (Audio CD)

I think Wet Wet Wet is the best group ever their music is so universal. They sing about real life situations and real emotions. I give it two thumbs up.