Title probably should be "Greatest U.K. Hits of the 60?s"
J. A. Stewart | NH, USA | 07/10/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"At first glance, this 8 disc collection may look like a steal for the price. It is and it isn't. Unlike many cheap collections where the songs are not the original versions but awful modern remakes, these are all original recordings (except possibly for Mike Berry's "Tribute to Buddy Holly," which sounds like it was redone). The downside (depending on how you look at it) is that many of these songs were only hits in UK/Europe and won't be songs you would remember hearing on the radio in the US. Almost half of them in fact, were either minor hits, making only the Top 100, or did not chart at all here. I liked a number of these songs such as "I Can't Let Maggie Go," by The Honeybus, "America," by the Nice, or "Let's Go to San Francisco," by The Flowerpot Men. Of course, there are some that aren't so good like The Move's "Blackberry Way," which sounds like a rip off of "Penny Lane." The other half of the songs were big hits in the US (including many hits by US artists) and since at least the first 4 volumes of Rhino's British Invasion series are out of print, this is a great way to obtain most of the US hit songs from those discs. Many of the UK artists who had big US hits such as Gerry & The Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, Manfred Mann, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas appear numerous times throughout the 8 CDs. Other groups such as The Nashville Teens and The Swinging Blue Jeans, who each had only one US hit, make several appearances as well. It's interesting to hear for example, The Swinging Blue Jeans' Beatle-esque version of "You're No Good," a song originally done by Betty Everett, and best known by Linda Ronstadt. Most of the songs come from 1964 to 1969, but there is the ocassional appearance of a pre-British Invasion hit such as Ernie Mascera's "Shout Shout," or The Everly Brothers' "Let It Be Me."Since the groups are not listed, you should know that several of the songs you may recognize as being U.S. hits are versions by British artists: "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" is by The Fourmost, not The Four Tops, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" is by Cilla Black, not Dionne Warwick, "Stay" is by The Hollies, not Maurice & the Zodiacs, "Shakin' All Over" is by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, not The Guess Who, "Angel of the Morning" is by P.P. Arnold, not Merilee Rush, and the songs, "Think" and "The House That Jack Built" are not the Aretha Franklin songs, but entirely different ones. The sound quality is pretty good for the most part, although there are a couple of tracks that sound like they were taken from records. I was a little disappointed that these discs don't utilize the maximum playing time of a CD. 8 discs could easily have been condensed onto 6. Also, there is no booklet. This is still a good deal however, considering all the good tracks that are here and the price. If you are interested in 60's pop collections that contain only U.S. Top 40 hits, I would avoid this. I would, however, recommend this to oldies collectors who are interested in obtaining hard to find 60's British pop."
Greates HIts of the 60's - Right on Target!
Eric Stapley | 10/26/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"For those of you who were either very young during the 60's or possibly not yet around, this is a really nice collection of some very enjoyable music from the 60's. This was a magical time for American and British pop/rock. I had forgotten many of these songs as they don't get playing time any more but what a nice feeling it was to hear some rarely heard but enjoyable music from this time period.
This set is by no means even close to a comprehensive set of music from the 60's but with 8 CD's, it has quite a lot of the sweet, but not too corny pop and rock music from that era.
If you enjoy pop and soft rock, I think you'll enjoy this collection of music exhibiting the development of many musical styles still heard in today's pop and soft rock music. I found this CD set to be well worth it's cost."
Track Listings (144) - Disc #1