Customer Reviews

Super Hits Of The '70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 3

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

 

 

Volume III of the Superhits Series provides a solid musical sampling of the kaleidoscope of sounds and influences that made up early 70s pop. From the bubblegummy "I Think I Love You" to the borderline hard "Green-Eyed Lady", this disc has it all.

There is Melanie's Joplin-esque "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)", a truly marvelous song, and R. Dean Taylor's hard-to-find, country-influenced "Indiana Wants Me." Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses" has an even stronger country flavor and Bobby Bloom's "Montego Bay" features a gentle hint of calypso sound.

Although not expensive, it is hard to classify this disc as a top value. Like all of the offerings in the series, Volume III contains only twelve tracks, and the last two are virtual throw aways. However, considering the investment of time that would be required to locate all of these relatively obscure tunes, this is still quite a bargain.

I bought this CD for Alive And Kicking's Song "Tighter, Tighter"
The other songs on this CD are good, Lots of great songs but Tighter, Tighter is the BOMB, If you buy this CD for just this song, it is money well spent!

That Rhino Records has kept this series in print proves that there's is still a market for these songs. And while I have at least twenty of these titles in my collection, the current crop of pay-per-download websites gives the consumer total control over song selection, making these kinds of collections more and more obsolete when you consider that you're still paying a dollar per song either way.

Like the previous volumes, it's a mixed bag of mostly MOR pop hits from one- and two-hit wonders. In fact, only three of these artists had any kind of extended musical career. Unlike Rhino's Sixties-oriented TOP ROCK 'N' ROLL series, which included many artists with multiple hits, the HAVE A NICE DAY series does not include major acts of the period like Rod Stewart, Three Dog Night or the Carpenters. These are --in many cases--songs that are infrequently anthologized, giving you a broader look at the early Seventies. [Each of these songs, by the way, were released in 1970.]

In addition, most of these were Top 10 hits (although "Fallin' Lady" didn't even dent the Top 40), and half of them were million sellers like the gospel-influenced "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," the quirky "In the Summertime," Bryan Hyland's lone Seventies smash "Gypsy Woman," the Partridge Family's signature song "I Think I Love You," the countrified funk of Jerry Reed's novelty "Amos Moses" and Bobby Sherman's schmaltzy "Julie, Do Ya Love Me." These are all original hit versions and the sound quality is empeccable. It's just a matter of how badly you want each of these songs.

R. Dean Taylor, Alive and Kicking, Mungo Jerry, Bobby Bloom, and Jerry Reed make this disc a must. The disc also has it's bad points and they ring loud and clear: the Partridge Family and Bobby Sherman. There is also the average with Melanie and Hotlegs. As you go through this series, you will find that many of the disc are like this one, very uneven with a few gems that you will have a hard time finding anywhere else.

Though not as worthy as the first two volumes of the series, this CD offers more hard-to-locate pop hits. Some barely qualify, though--"Neanderthal Man" by Hotlegs may not ring a bell, and Punch's "Fallin' Lady" never even charted!

Lots of great songs, but "Tighter, Tighter" is a stand out hit! This song alone makes owning this CD worthwhile. Too bad this group did not continue with further work!

Boy, did I get excited when I saw this CD. Back in 1990, Rhino released five volumes called "Have a Nice Day: Super Hits of the Seventies". I didn't know at the time if there were going to be more. So, with five CD's having 12 songs each, it was a very exciting day for me to bring home 60 songs from the era of 1969 to 1971. Each volume had over 75% of the songs I loved as a kid. I never expected to ever see or hear them again until Rhino invented this concept of put together a music collection of (generally forgotten) one hit wonders. How could we have ever expected to see and hear these songs again? Most of them were not even worthy of having their own greatest hits album. And as diverse as they all are, they still all belong to each other. And for the one hit wonders, and the artists that only had a few memorable charted singles (none really able to sell a whole album), Rhino managed to create 25 volumes of "Have a Nice Day" and then followed up with 20 volumes of an obscurity collection of rhythm and blues and soulful pop hits of the seventies, called "Didn't It Blow your Mind?"

Anyway, check out the lost 45's on this collection. My favorites starting with "Montego Bay" by Bobby Bloom (I wish this was shortened like my old 45, I don't like how it ends here), "Indiana Wants Me" by R. Dean Taylor, "Lay Down" by Melanie, "I Think I love You" by The Partridge Family, and "Julie Do You Love Me?" by Bobby Sherman.

The Partridge Family and Bobby Sherman had many other hits but Rhino only gave us one each with this "Have a Nice Day" series. There are three rather silly novelty tuines on this volume. "In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry, "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed, and my personal favorite "Neanderthal Man" by Hotlegs. Hotlegs is actually Godley and Crème who are the original members of the up and coming group 10cc.

"Tighter, Tighter" still has a fresh pop feel. I'm surprised that radio doesn't play this gem anymore. The one track here that I wasn't familiar with at all back then was "Fallin' Lady" by Punch. Did that song even chart? There's nothing wrong with it, but it just feels out of place because I know everything else here so fondly.

The only track that really keeps this volume from getting five stars is having the 45 edit of "Green Eyed Lady" by Sugarloaf. I know it's wrong to expect the full album version since this collection is based on rare AM radio pop ditties and I'm sure the 45 version was always played more often than the album version. It's just that, over the years, I have been listening to "Green-Eyed Lady" in its full album version so have a lower tolerance to hear it shortened like this now. So, with "Green Eyed Lady" and "Montego Bay" being great tunes but compromised, and having Jerry Reed, Mungo Jerry, and Punch being not-so-wonderful to me, this collection loses two stars.

Although this Volume 3 of the Have A Nice Day series isn't as strong from start to finish as Volume's 1 & 2 it does have it's share of outstanding Gems. Two of them are, Lay Down (Candles In The Rain), sung by Melanie; With The Edwin Hawkins Singers and, Green Eyed Lady, by Sugarloaf. The Partridge Family's, I Think I Love You, was # 1 in November 1970 and it is also here. The Legendary Jerry Reed's, Amos Moses, reached the Top 10 In March 1971 and Brian Hyland had a # 3 smash in December 1970 with, Gypsy Woman, and both of them are also here but THE highlight of this Volume 3 compilation is Alive & Kicking's, Tighter Tighter. This song was a Top 10 Hit In August 1970 and should have went to # 1 but didn't. Along with, Gypsy Woman, it is definitely my favorite on this Disc!
These twelve songs peaked between July 1970 and August 1971. Volume 3 is definitely a worthwhile purchase. I mean afterall.....Back in the 70s I owned most of these twelve songs either on Vinyl or Tape and they have never sounded better than they do on this CD. Isn't technology amazing! 3.5 Stars
Final Note: I own both the cassette and the CD of this Volume 3 and the CD has twelve tunes while the cassette only has ten. The two extra tracks on the CD are Bobby Sherman's Top 10 Hit, Julie; Do Ya Love Me, and Punch's, Fallin Lady. Both are good tunes.

If you're "into" music from this era, this is a great CD. I've almost worn the grooves off of my copy. Good selection of hits!

This product was a very purchase I made I'm very satisfied. Thank you for your interest in my opinion.