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I guess some people would classify most of the music of Boyce & Hart as "bubble-gum". Who cares? I don't worry that much about classification in music, because I know that every category contains good and bad, so to classify it is really meaningless. Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart wrote some quality hits for other artists, probably more than most people realize. They helped The Monkees' careers with "Last Train to Clarksville", "Valleri" and "I Wanna Be Free". The Monkees also recorded "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone", but so did Paul Revere & The Raiders (on this CD), and years later The Sex Pistols gave it a shot too. "Come A Little Bit Closer" is here, probably Jay & The Americans' biggest hit. "Hurt So Bad" was a hit for Little Anthony & The Imperials (on this CD) and later, a big hit for Linda Ronstadt. Bobby Hart co-wrote it with 2 other writers. And there's "Action", the theme for one of TV's many teen-oriented music shows. Tommy Boyce was a co-writer on this one. One that I had never heard is "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" by The Astronauts, but it sounds a lot like very early Stones.
With all that to their credit, the songs I'm enjoying the most are the ones they sing themselves. They prove that you don't need operatic voices to get your point across. Sometimes a whisper will do. "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" is probably my favorite, followed closely by the sexier "I'll Blow You a Kiss in the Wind". (Who can forget Serena, Samantha's troublesome cousin, being involved in that song when our boys were guests on "Bewitched"?) "We're All Going to the Same Place" is a mildly disturbing warning of impending disaster, not their usual subject matter. "Out and About" is sort of a little darker "I Get Around" (the Beach Boys hit), with a touch of "Good Vibrations" added to the mix. "Goodbye Baby" could almost be a Beatles track. "Alice Long" is pretty similar in sound to "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight".
The very day I received this CD in the mail, I happened to read on Wikipedia that Tommy Boyce had died in 1994. He suffered from depression and physical illness, and then took his own life. Right on the heels of the tragic deaths of Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro, and the sad passing of Suzanne Pleshette, this was news that I could have done without. But, celebrities are mortal. Thank goodness their art lives on. As long as I have this CD, I'll have the best of Tommy and his partner Bobby, showcasing their talents as both songwriters and performers of mostly upbeat songs. And that will help to make ME happy...
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探しまくってた曲が遂に
Reviewed in Japan on April 8, 2005Verified Purchase
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