Rock & Roll: The First 50 Years/The Late '60s: 25 Top 10 Hits

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CD

  • Release Date: 03/01/2005
  • Sales Rank: 49,171
  • Label: VARESE FONTANA
  • UPC: 030206663723

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  • Editorial Reviews
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Track List
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Rock & Roll: The First 50 Years/The Late '60s: 25 Top 10 Hits

1LISTENMony Mony / Tommy James Stereo 2:55
2LISTENKind of a Drag / The Buckinghams Stereo 2:11
3LISTENBackfield in Motion / Mel & Tim Stereo 2:36
4LISTENGet Together / The Youngbloods Stereo 4:41
5LISTENAquarius/Let the Sunshine In / The 5th Dimension Stereo 4:51
6LISTENThen You Can Tell Me Goodbye / The Casinos Stereo 3:08
7LISTENThe Horse / Cliff Nobles & Company Stereo 2:44
8LISTENSpooky / Classics IV Stereo 2:52
9LISTENHooked on a Feeling / B.J. Thomas 2:49
10LISTENLove (Can Make You Happy) / Mercy Stereo 3:16
11LISTENGimme Little Sign / Brenton Wood Stereo 2:20
12LISTENLittle Woman / Bobby Sherman Stereo 2:31
13LISTENHappy Together / The Turtles Stereo 2:56
14LISTENIf I Were a Carpenter / Bobby Darin 2:25
15LISTENWestern Union / The Five Americans Stereo 2:40
16LISTENSugar Town / Nancy Sinatra Stereo 2:27
17LISTENExpressway to Your Heart / The Soul Survivors Stereo 2:25
18LISTENSoulful Strut / Young-Holt Unlimited Stereo 3:04
19LISTENSkinny Legs and All / Joe Tex Stereo 3:09
20LISTENGroovin' / The Young Rascals 2:32
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Editorial Reviews

To most observers, the title of Varese's The Late '60s: 25 Top 10 Hits installment of their ongoing Rock & Roll: The First 50 Years series would suggest that the 2005 collection would be filled with trippy psychedelia and acid rock. After all, the late '60s were when rock got heavy and serious, both in sound and sentiment, so it would only make sense that a compilation chronicling that time would also be heavy and serious. However, the late '60s were also the time of light, swinging, cheerfully trippy sunshine pop, bubblegum, pop-soul, and folk-pop, and those are the sounds that hit the charts, so it makes sense that this disc concentrates on this area. The closest this comes to psychedelia is the Youngbloods' "Get Together," the Turtles' "Happy Together" and the Zombies' "Time of the Season," with most of this concentrating on mainstream pop from the likes of Tommy James, Bobby Darin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bobby Sherman, and the Buckinghams. There's a surprisingly heavy dose of soul -- including Joe Tex's funky "Skinny Legs and All," the Soul Survivors' hard-hitting "Expressway to Your Heart," and Brenton Wood's "Gimme Little Sign," which is as perfect as music gets -- and is not only a welcome balance to the breezy sunshine pop and lite MOR here, but it helps draw a greater picture of the era. Most of the songs here are quite familiar and easy to find on other collections -- the exceptions are Mercy's "Love (Can Make You Happy)," which rarely shows up anywhere, and "Gimme Little Sign," which isn't on nearly as many comps as it should be -- but this is a well-selected, highly enjoyable set regardless. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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Rock & Roll: The First 50 Years/The Late '60s: 25 Top 10 Hitsby Anonymous

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May 13, 2005: The music industry may be bigger now than in the '60s, but it's definitely not better. The loss of radio listeners to other conveyances (MP3 players, Internet webcasts, etc.) and media (such as music television) has led to a fragmentation of pop music's audience and resulted in a balkanization of radio's formats. It's nearly impossible to imagine a commercial radio station that would program the variety heard on this CD. ¶ Varese's fourth volume in this series focuses on the years 1966-1969, and gives a good sense of the variety that was programmed on Top-40 radio, including pop, rock, folk, soul and bubblegum. These work together on a variety of levels. There are soul songs ("Soulful Strut" "The Horse" – both, ironically, backing tracks to vocals releases that weren't nearly as successful) that segues with pop that has blue-eyed soul and jazz underpinnings ("Groovin'" "You've Made Me So Very Happy"), there are party-time anthems in both straight-ahead rock ("Mony Mony") and soul ("Expressway to Your Heart"), and there are all manner of pop tunes from Nancy Sinatra's lazy "Sugar Town" to the ear candy or The Archies' "Sugar Sugar." The freedom to create music for radio without strict genre boundaries lent itself to the era's ethos. ¶ With the dawning of the '70s, independent record labels found themselves marginalized in a record business increasingly dominated by conglomerates. This volume amply demonstrates the savvy music business "ears" that created hits for long-gone labels like Roulette, USA, Bamboo, Soul City, Fraternity, Phil-L.A., Metromedia, Imperial, Sceptor, Sundi, Double Shot, White Whale, Abnak, Crimson, Dial, Date, Calendar, and Colossus. ¶ Without tracks from the Beatles, Stones or the psychedelic and hard-rock camps (e.g., Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, Electric Prunes, Steppenwolf, Donovan, Vanilla Fudge), this isn't a complete exposition of the late '60s pop musical stew, but it is a generous helping of some of the era's most memorable radio hits, nearly all presented in true stereo. Only cuts 9, 14, 20, 24 are delivered in mono. Informative liner notes and detailed discographical and chart info make this a fine walk down memory lane for those who lived the era and a good introduction to radio's late '60s riches for those who didn't.