Search - Various Artists :: Super Hits Of The '70s: Have a Nice Day, Vol. 16

Inconsistent, but offers rare lost treasures.

Gary Gardner | Ellsworth, ME United States | 01/05/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Rhino pulls no punches with their now-infamous collection of 70's tracks that offer some hidden treasures, but also a lot of buried (and best that way) musical corpses. This particular edition ain't all that bad, considering some of the other earlier volumes.The Blood, Sweat and Tears-inflected "Vehicle" and "Ride Captain Ride" are fine, stand-out tracks that still rock out on various radio stations. However, it is the folk-flavored songs that will pique the most interest. "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" (before infamously being transformed into a corporate shill for Coca-Cola) is offered up in its earlier, sentimental form; but will I be able to hear it without thinking of Coke? Nah, doubt it!Other stand-outs include "The City of New Orleans", one of Arlo Guthrie's best songs by far. Also included is a rocker still played on FM classic-rock stations today, "I'd Love to Change the World", which has great acoustic and electric guitar by frontman Alvin Lee, yet lyrically leaves a bad taste in my mouth with its shameless (hopefully tongue-in-cheek?) socialist posturing.The "Tommy Overture" by The Assembled Multitude is a pleasant listen, but doesn't groove the way The Who did it. Wayne Newton's "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast" is just a plain stinker, and should automatically prove to everyone why Wayno is stuck in the home for musically-spent artists, Las Vegas. Robert John's pre-"Sad Eyes" "Lion Sleeps Tonight" doesn't hold a candle to the Tokens' version. Ick!The rest is pretty much filler, and not really known all that well. But I have to say that "Toast and Marmalade..." and "Never Ending Song of Love" are pretty darned good fillers.All in all, decent songs, accompanied by only a few clunkers. My biggest gripe (as it is with every volume in the collection) is that the discs aren't longer. Surely, they could have turned a 23-volume set into a good 14- or 15-volume compilation. Ah well, just enjoy hearing these songs again in CD clarity. Just be aware that amongst the diamonds are a few turds."

A one hit wonder smorgasboard

David Hugaert | Honolulu, HI United States | 09/13/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Have A Nice Day-Volume 16" is one of my two favorite CD's in this 25 volume series from Rhino Records. The majority of the tracks here are good, with "Vehicle" and "Ride Captain Ride" possibly being the best songs here. This collection also contains some fine instrumentals as well. You get "Midnight Cowboy" and "Theme From Tommy". Nonetheless, there are some sleepers, such as "Toast And Marmalade For Tea", "The City Of New Orleans" and "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast", hich is perhaps the best one in the sleeper category. The track that really turned me on to this CD is "Small Beginnings" by Flash, a group formed by Yes alumni Peter Banks and Tony Kaye. The beginnings of Flash were rather small indeed, for they never had another hit single. "Small Beginnings" did make the US Billboard top 30, and is the progressive-rock masterpiece of this CD. This is the only place you can find this track, so fans of Yes and oldies music should have this title in their collection."

Oops, We Left Out A Few!

Anthony Brancato | San Francisco, CA (USA) | 02/04/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"After seeing how the format for the first 15 volumes played out, you were probably expecting the likes of the George Baker Selection's "Paloma Blanca," Rhythm Heritage's "Theme From SWAT" and Sweet's "Action" to be featured here; instead, they decided to dedicate this volume (and the next) to tracks they somehow overlooked the first time. Maybe they should have left well enough alone: Delaney & Bonnie's "Never Ending Song Of Love" wasn't all that bad, I suppose, but their other 1971 hit, "Only You Know And I Know," would have been a better fit here; and they also picked the wrong version of "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," as the Hillside Singers' rendition contains some lyrics omitted by the New Seekers ("Put your hand in my hand, Let's begin today/With your hand in my hand, help me find a way."). Post-Sputnik babies will find "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" to be a distasteful (even if arguably necessary) reminder of the family breakups that scarred so many of them as children, and "City Of New Orleans" includes one line that would be considered "politically incorrect" if the song came out today ("Freightyards full of old black men"). Fortunately, however, three 1970 offerings - "Vehicle," "Ride Captain Ride" and "Midnight Cowboy" - save this collection from being a total disappointment."