Customer Reviews

Super Hits Of The '70s: Have a Nice Day, Vol. 17

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a typical volume in the "Have A Nice Day" series, meaning it's a mixed bag, with good, catchy tunes like "Dancing In The Moonlight" (included here in mono, for some reason), "Rings," "Smokin' In The Boy's Room" and the 45 edits of "Dance With Me" and "Love Hurts" rubbing elbows with middling tunes like the "Rockford Files" theme, "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues," "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" and "Rendezvous," by the totally forgettable Hudson Brothers (This song is taken from a vinyl record, instead of a master tape, but who REALLY cares?). This CD also includes "Feelings." Enough has been said about this song, so I won't add to it here.

A WARNING, THOUGH: If you're thinking of buying this CD for "Dance With Me," you'd be better off looking elsewhere, since this CD uses a defective digital master of this song: From start to finish, the right stereo channel is DISTORTED. This defective master was also used on the "Only Love: 1975 - 1979" compilation on Essex/Warner/JCI, and may have been used on some other titles as well, but I've heard the same 45 edit of this song on Rhino's "Dance With Me: The Best of Orleans" compilation, and it sounds fine.

SUPER HITS OF THE 70S-HAVE A NICE DAY, VOL. 17-VARIOUS ARTISTS: In the less restrictive daze of 70's AM radio, country, pop, soul, and rock tunes co-existed peacefully, unlike the dull, restrictive formats of now. Rhino's HAVE A NICE DAY series expertly encapsulizes all but the RNB stuff...you'll find that on their equally vital multi disc series SOUL HITS OF THE 70S-DIDN'T IT BLOW YOUR MIND. SUPER HITS OF THE 70S VOL. 17 is an embarassment of one-or-two-hit-wonders like Brownsville Station's snotty schoolboy anthem SMOKIN' IN THE BOY'S ROOM, Mike Post's synth-laden theme from THE ROCKFORD FILES, and Nazereth's heavy version of Everly Brothers oldie LOVE HURTS. Superb entries in the "almost forgotten" category inclde the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver's (I DON'T WANT TO LOVE YOU BUT) YOU GOT ME ANYWAY and Cymarron's dyed-in-the-wool country ditty RINGS. If names like King Harvest, the Hudson Brothers, and Freddy Fender ring a bell, you owe it to yourself to sample this, and other volumns in this exhaustive collection.

RATING: FIVE LAVA LAMPS

... which was "I Don't Want To Love You (But You Got Me Anyway)," by the Sutherland Brothers. Previous Amazon.com reviewers totally overlooked this song, which is a gem not found on any other 1970s compilation out there so far. It came out in the fall of 1973, and by any measure is a feel-good tune that merits more recognition.

Yes, "Dancing in the Moonlight" is a great song. But be sure you don't overlook "I Don't Want To Love You," which is a worthy effort and a good addition to your early-to-mid 70s roster of under-rated one-hit wonders.

Like the glory days of AM radio, when you could hear the newest single from The Rolling Stones, followed immediately by the conventional "Theme from Romeo and Juliet", this 17th volume from Rhino's "Super Hits of the 70s, Have A Nice Day" series, offers a variety of styles that made AM Top 40 radio so splendid.Danny O'Keefe's "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues", is a most welcome haunting ballad of longing and regret with touching lyrics spiked by a kindly passage of the era's drug culture, - "I got my pills to ease the pain." Cymarron's "Rings", is a one hit wonder that gives a good name to 'easy listening'; a lazy poetic slice of good loving with great sing-a-long lyrics - "I got James Taylor on the stereo". The other 10 tracks are oldies radio staples including Nazareth's "Love Hurts", Brownsville Staion's "Smoking In The Boy's Room", and Orlean's lilting ballad, "Dance With Me". Mike Post's "The Rockford Files" is superfluous and Morris Albert's "Feelings" is Gong Show worthy.

Some big hits shine on this CD, but the balance is thrown off by some real duds: "I Don't Want to Love You But You Got Me Anyway" by the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver is a non-hit, and who can say that they know anything about "Rendezvous" by the Hudson Brothers? Worst of all, an edited version of the rock classic "Love Hurts" by Nazareth is included. An odd assortment that could have used some careful revision. All originals.

Where else can you find Rendezvous?! It's nice to find original hits by original artists with no compromising of the quality.

The tracks on this collection bring back memories and still are as hot as they were then. I highly recomend this series for music buffs everywhere.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" from King Harvest, "Smokin' in The Boy's Room" by Brownsville Station, and a personal low charting favorite "Painted Ladies" by Ian Thomas. These three songs alone, would have me paying twice the price for this CD if I had to. A track I never heard before this CD was the low charting "(I Don't Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway" by Sutherland Brothers and Quiver, which did not make it into the Top 40, but I really do like it anyway.

Soft rock radio stations still play "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" by Danny O'Keefe, "Dance With Me" by Orleans, "Rings" by Cymarron, and just for radio stations that like to joke around, if they can't find any Barry Manilow, maybe they'll play "Feelings" by Morris Albert. I guess "The Rockford Files" by Mike Post is okay although I've always though theme songs from TV shows are usually out of place mixed in with pop radio. I like Freddy Fender's "Before The Next Teardrop Falls", I don't know why. It sticks with me. This would be a fun song to sing at a Karaoke Bar.

"Rendezvous" by the Hudson Brothers is kinda like a joke too because they use to have a Saturday morning variety hour for kids. The only truly disappointing entry on this Volume 17, is having to have a shorten version of "Love Hurts" by Nazareth. But, the gems outweigh the disappointments on this CD.

Not bad but a little uneven, some nice songs like Dancing in the Moonlight, and Smokin in the Boys Room but some of the songs just sound out of place like they just don't belong here, like Feelings, etc!

This volume would rank in the Top 5 in this series if only the Rhino Rads had seen fit to dump "Feelings" and "Before The Last Teardrop Falls". Those two songs force one to program the disc. Two perfect substitutions could have been: "I Hear You Knockin" by Dave Edmunds and "Evil Woman Don't Play Your Games With Me" by Crow. Or how about "Temptation Eyes" by The Grass Roots. None of those ever turned up on a Rhino.
Also since nobody has mentioned "Rings" by Cymarron. This is about the only place you can get this overlooked 70's gem.