Customer Reviews

Very Best of

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

 

 

I was told that I had to check out Mungo Jerry not to long ago and I decided to give it a whirl. I was only aware of the obvious hit IN THE SUMMERTIME, as I think that it must have been the only single ever released in the U.S.
That tune is very well known, and always established the band as a rag tag type of music... like an old time western saloon type of gimmick. What I discovered was that these guys had some downright rockin' songs, that recieve very little attention. Songs like BABY JUMP and WILD LOVE are awesome, and sound nothing like the Mungo Jerry that I ever heard before. The singer goes down low on the vocals, and almost rasps out the bars... "she's a cat, she's a kitten..." and so forth.
The dude below me says that he didn't like the fact that it was too rockin', but I think it was great. I was very pleasantly suprised with the sound of this disc. LADY ROSE has sort of an early T. Rex glammed up sound, and sounds closer to the familiar sound that I knew of before, but there are gems all over this one, like a nine minute cover of I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU, crazy. I can't believe the change in styles, but it actually works.
This is packaged like a cheap collection of a band that never had any real hits, but there is a lot of heaviness behind it, and showed me Mungo Jerry in a whole new light. An awesome find.

Mungo Jerry appeared on the scene in 1970 with their irresistible bubblegum boogie hit In The Summertime, a song that took the world by storm with its simple hypnotic riffs and its catchy tune. It went top ten in both the UK and the USA.

The next year they scored big again with Baby Jump, Lady Rose and You Don't Have To Be In The Army To Fight In The War, all catchy numbers with the same buoyant pop rhythms, engaging melodies and soulful vocals as Summertime. In 1973 they had more hits with Alright Alright Alright and Long Legged Woman.

Their happy mix of prominent piano, guitars and banjo gave them a unique and appealing sound on those hit singles. I would call it folk-pop, but the vocals had a distinct bluesy rock feel and some of these tracks are pure hard rock, though still with a bluesy, at times acid rock, undertone.

This is a good, but not comprehensive collection, as it omits the band's minor successes like Johnny B Bad and Maggie. Besides the aforementioned hits, my other favorites on this album are Wild Love and San Francisco Bay Blues. This music is a beautiful reminder of the colourful variety of styles that flourished in the UK in the early 1970s.

If you know Mungo Jerry, as I did, from the two most popular songs (In the Summertime and Lady Rose) and you are expecting more of the same on this album, you'll be disappointed. Unlike those two upbeat, catchy pop songs, the remainder of this album is what I would call hard rock. Too noisy and loud for me. The 9-minute long "I Just Want to Make Love to You" is almost painful to listen to; it includes a lot of what I would call "screetching". San Francisco Bay Blues is not bad and "You Don't Have to Be in the Army to Fight in the War" isn't bad either. The remainder of the songs are just too hard rock for me. Some of the songs are just weird, such as "Baby Let's Play House". It almost seems that the band couldn't quite figure out what they wanted to sound like and did some experimenting, hoping something would work. A few things did; most things didn't. I am probably being overly generous giving 3 stars, but there are a few good songs and some interesting sounds here. Not what I was expecting. It is sometimes hard to believe the same band is playing all these songs because of the difference mixing of styles. The band should have focused on one type of song; instead they jump all over the map with mostly stuff that is not memorable and not that good. If this is the very best of Mungo Jerry, I would hate to hear the worst!!!

The U.K. skiffle group known as Mungo Jerry [Ray Dorset lead vocal/guitar/washboard], pianist/vocalist Colin Earl, drummer Mike Cole, and guitarist/banjo player Paul King] had several other hits besides the chugging In The Summertime in the U.K. and other parts of the world.

Here in North America, however, they were one-hit wonders in every sense of the term. The hit, b/w Mighty Man, reached # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and # 30 on the Adult Contemporary charts in August 1970 for the Janus label. After that, nothing, although their initial LP, Mungo Jerry, reached # 64 on those charts.

Perhaps part of the problem was related to a couple of salient facts: they did not tour North America once their song became a hit; and their second single, Baby Jump, wasn't released until 1971 in the U.K. on the Dawn label and without a corresponding North American release. Another might have been their preference for EPs as opposed to the usual singles.

Whatever the case, despite recording under that name until late 1977 [in late 1971 Cole, Earl, and King were replaced by John Godfrey, John Pope, and Tim Reeves], they would never have another North American hit. In 1979 Dorset reunited with Earl and, along with bassist Chris Warnes and drummer Pete Sullivan, recorded well into the 1990s as Ray Dorset & Mungo Jerry without achieving one more hit - either in the U.K. or North America.

Unless you need both sides to the one hit, you are better off seeking out In The Summertime on a multi-artist compilation. It's on several good ones.