1 comments about Ragtime America.

1. As Ian Whitcomb states in his liner notes, "I have recorded these songs not merely as historical documents but as sounds that delight and move me." If you pick up this album expecting the classical Ragtime music of Scott Joplin and his contemporaries, you need to move along to the classical albums. This collection consists of the jaunty show, vaudeville, and saloon tunes of Tin Pan Alley that flourished in the Ragtime era.
   
   This is not a "museum" album. The liner notes provide the cold, hard facts for each song; Whitcomb and his ensemble provide the entertainment, bringing life to undeservedly forgotten songs such as "Settle Down in a One Horse Town" by Irving Berlin, "I'm Crying Just for You" by James Monaco, "Rose Room" by Art Hickman (best remembered as Phil Harris's theme song), and the classic "At the Ball, That's All" by J. Leubrie Hill for a show called "Darktown Follies" but known to all Laurel & Hardy fans as the slide-dance song in "Way Out West." Ian's own Ragtime compositions are here as well, from the classic-style "Les Temps Du Chiffon" to that risque' number unearthed from the notes of "Nat D. Ayer": "You've Got to Show it to Mother."
   
   Whitcomb's instrumental arrangements won't always please the purists, and he occasionally updates a lyric here and there where old lines and allusions fail the test of time, but the Tin Pan Alley spirit here is 100 percent authentic. If you love this genre, you can't be without this album.

1 comments about The Golden Age of Lounge.

1. Ian has done it again with this collection. Each song is handled gently and with grace, giving the listener a hint that chivalry and romance isn't dead after all. Kudos to Ian for an enchanting selection of finely presented melodies!

No comments about Greatest Hits [Collectables].

5 comments about Live at Leeds.

1. The Who's Live At Leeds, recorded on February 14, 1970, is unquestionably deserving of its reputation as one of the greatest live recordings in rock 'n roll. One should put aside whatever reservations he or she might have about live albums and embrace it in all of its bombastic glory. As rightfully skeptical, however, as one should be of a live album as an introduction to a band, Live At Leeds might be the best disc in The Who's catalog to serve as such. True, more succinct and more comprehensive compilations are available, but Live At Leeds - released the year prior to the masterpiece Who's Next and the compilation Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy - contains hits, covers, and epics. Plus, at the time the album was recorded, The Who had one foot on either side of the dividing line between their early R&B-influenced pop songs and the ambitious, larger-canvas rockers of the late 60s and early 70s.
   
   The first of the hits on the album is "I Can't Explain", which (although it isn't here) was and continues to this day to be the opening number to almost every Who concert. About halfway through the CD's set list come what Pete Townshend calls "three selected hit singles...the three easiest": "Substitute", "Happy Jack", and "I'm A Boy". They might be easy and simple, but they are also catchy, intelligent, and even - in the case of "I'm A Boy" - a bit risqué. Each of these songs is presented in a no-frills fashion.
   
   Two epics follow on the heels of these less-than-three minute pop songs. On their second LP, "A Quick One, While He's Away" was impressive but a bit brittle. In this live setting, it is pumped up significantly. The spectacular "Amazing Journey/Sparks", from their 1969 LP Tommy, is arguably the highlight of the set. The whole of Tommy was played at the original Leeds concert, and is avaiable on disc 2 of the 2001 deluxe edition of Live At Leeds. The Who was wise to select this one particular track for the expanded 1995 remastered version.
   
   Two other classic hits are given mammoth treatment at the end of the show. "My Generation" runs for almost fifteen minutes, and is interspersed with lyrical and musical references to songs from Tommy (including some riffs that had originally appeared in "Rael I" from The Who Sell Out). I have never personally cared much for "Magic Bus", which runs for nearly eight minutes. However, it was definitely a crowd pleaser, and the band did a fine job of mixing it up here.
   
   Finally, the band revisits its roots with four covers throughout the disc. These are the obscure blues numbers "Fortune Teller" and "Young Man Blues" and the rock `n roll classics "Summertime Blues" and "Shakin' All Over". The Who made the former two tracks very much their own, but the latter two feel a bit perfunctory and surprisingly uninspired.
   
   Several better-known songs - such as "The Kids Are Alright", "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", and "Pictures of Lily" - were not performed at the Leeds concert. However, they are not that noticeably absent on the disc. The Who wisely treated Live At Leeds as an opportunity to present themselves in not-so-obvious ways. John Entwistle's "Heaven and Hell", the opening number, was never included in a studio version on a Who album. The Who Sell Out, the band's first great album, is represented not by the ornate hit single "I Can See for Miles", but by the poignant "Tattoo". As mentioned before, Tommy is represented by "Amazing Journey/Sparks" rather than by the classic "Pinball Wizard".
   
   The greatest thing about The Who in a live setting is that each member played as if he were the only one on stage. John Entwistle and Keith Moon don't just keep the beat, they rise above the surface of the songs. Pete Townshend was never quite the soloist that his contemporaries were, but given the chance to spread out, he proved himself to be at least as good of a riffer and every bit as inspired as his fellow axemen. Roger Daltrey literally and figuratively speaks for himself, especially on "Young Man Blues", which might be his finest performance of the show.
   
   Live At Leeds was pretty much by accident the first Who concert made available to record buyers. The band had done an extensive tour in support of Tommy, and planned to release a live album afterward. Townshend balked at the idea of listening to and sifting through all of the shows, so he scheduled two dates to be recorded specifically for a live album. When the mics failed to record John Entwistle's bass at Hull City Hall on February 15, the concert at Leeds University became the show for the live LP by default. However great any of the shows might have been, it is hard to imagine them being as good as or better than the one at Leeds. Whatever the case might have been, rock fans of every generation are lucky to have at least one of them preserved for prosperity.



2. First time I heard this was over FM radio wearing headphones lying in bed, listening. They played the whole thing and they had short interval of somthing weird and then played the next cut, did this for the whole album, it was 1970 somthing.
   IF you havent listened to this whole thing with real headphones without distraction, do it, trust me, do it, I would not lie.
   Good lesson for guitar players also.



3. It's The Who. Live. At Leeds University. Duh. How come you haven't bought it already? Powerful live set from seminal rock four-piece, blah, blah, sizzling energy, innovative songwriting, blah blah....Keith Moon....buy it. Listen to it. Have mind blown.



4. Amazing live album is all that i have too say for this. The drums are absoutley amazing Keith Moon is probaly one of the greatest rock drummers of all time his peformance is great here. Pete Townshends guitar is great and everybody in this is really doing great on there instruments.
   
   This may just be one of there greatest peformances of all time it has the energy and they sound just really great here i think all the live versions sound great on here
   
   If your a big Who fan like me buy this album today you wont be dissapointed...



5. Really horrible sound quality, and the band must have been totally wasted...Apparently with so many for sale , others thought the same.

2 comments about Greatest Hits.

1. Lulu has got to be one of the most repackaged artists in pop music. Compilation after compilation has been released.
   Well, finally we have one that includes the best of her early hits, 70's recorings, and the best work of her long career: the 90's and 2000's
   Included from the 60's: Shout, To Sir With Love (She's a woman with two signature songs), The Boat That I Row, and the arguable Boom Bang-A-Bang (even she has to be sick of that one, but it did win her the Eurovision contest, so for a career retrospecive I guess it has to be included.)
   The 70's are represented by her top 40 hit Oh Me Oh My, her colaboration with David Bowie, The Man Who Sold The World, the Bond theme The Man With The Golden Gun, and the brilliant I Could never Miss You (More Than I Do). The later taken from the late 70's Alfa Records album "LULU", song for song the best album she had released up to that point. But the best was yet to come.
   The 90's saw her reemergence as a dance DIVA with the hits Independance, and Relight My Fire (with Take That, and landing at the top of the UK charts). One of her first attemps at songwriting, I Dont Want To Fight, is a fantastic recoring, and was later a huge hit for Tina Turner. That success led to more song writing and the best work of her career.
   The work she has done in the new millennium has proven she is still a force to be reckoned with. The dance singles Where The Poor Boys Dance and Hurt Me So Bad outshine anything turned out by today's top female singers. The fact that problems with the record label resulted in only the two singles being released and the album being shelved is a shame (we can only hope that someday we will hear those remaining songs).
   Her duets cd "Together" is represented here with collaborations with Elton John, and Sting. Her duet with Ronan Keating on We've Got Tonight is a beautiful and powerful vocal.
   This collection ends with a sweet duet with former husband Maurice Gibb, First Of May, recorded live shortly before his death.
   There is a 2 disk version available that containes a great DVD of Videos of most of the songs. The DVD is in the PAL format but for those with access to a region free DVD player it is well worth the extra cost.



2. There are many "Best of Lulu" type cds out on the market and they focus on her career in the 60s. This one is quite different in that it covers mainly more recent works from her brilliant dance hits from the 90s and tracks from her dynamic album of duets, "Together". If you think of Lulu as merely a 60s icon, you will be delightfully suprised that she is back on track and and has been recording music that is fantastic. The DVD alone makes this worth the price. I cannot recommend this excellent CD and DVD highly enough. My only regret is that Lulu is not being marketed in the US. She has matured and is now a brilliant singer/songwriter. I so think that with her forthcoming album, "Back On Track", we will hear a great deal more from this amazing artist.

No comments about Dave Berry/One Dozen Berrys.

2 comments about Athens Andover.

1. "Athens Andover" is a pretty unlikely collaboration between the English pub-rockers (punkers) the Troggs and superstars REM. The result is surprisingly succesfull. The sound is still very much the Troggs, but with a great touch of REM finesse.
   
   Reg Presley's vocals are as good as ever, and the production beats anything the Troggs have recorded before. With Pete Buck, Mick Mills, Bill Berry, Peter Holsapple to help the Troggs the musicanship is top-notch.
   
   Reg Resley is a fine ( occasionally brilliant ) songwriter. His songs "Together" and "Suspicious" are great , but his finest contribution here is "Don't You Know" , which is as good as his classic hits "Love is All Around" and "Anyway You Want Me"
   
   Chip Taylor, who wrote the Troggs' break-through single "Wild Thing", has supplied the fine "Crazy Annie", a slow-rocker with the well-known Troggs beat-hook. I sure would have liked to see her dance!
   
   Producer Larry Page wrote 2 of the tracks (with guitarist Daniel Boone) - the two straight-ahead rockers "Turned Into Stone" and "Hot Stuff"
   
   Tone Shevlin wrote the nostalgic "Deja Vu" with several lyric lines from old Troggs history. Another highlight of the album.
   
   The REM people wrote the dramatic cynical "Nowhere Road" ( great lyrics ) - this must be live-favorite.
   
   A big shame so few people know about this album, and I certainly agree with Larry Page's liner-notes "A Landmark in R&R History"
   
   Highly recommended!



2. "Athens Andover" is a pretty unlikely collaboration between the English pub-rockers (punkers) the Troggs and superstars REM. The result is surprisingly succesfull. The sound is still very much the Troggs, but with a great touch of REM finesse.
   
   Reg Presley's vocals are as good as ever, and the production beats anything the Troggs have recorded before. With Pete Buck, Mick Mills, Bill Berry, Peter Holsapple to help the Troggs the musicanship is top-notch.
   
   Reg Resley is a fine ( occasionally brilliant ) songwriter. His songs "Together" and "Suspicious" are great , but his finest contribution here is "Don't You Know" , which is as good as his classic hits "Love is All Around" and "Anyway You Want Me"
   
   Chip Taylor, who wrote the Troggs' break-through single "Wild Thing", has supplied the fine "Crazy Annie", a slow-rocker with the well-known Troggs beat-hook. I sure would have liked to see her dance!
   
   Producer Larry Page wrote 2 of the tracks (with guitarist Daniel Boone) - the two straight-ahead rockers "Turned Into Stone" and "Hot Stuff"
   
   Tony Shevlin wrote the nostalgic "Deja Vu" with several lyric lines from old Troggs history. Another highlight of the album.
   
   The REM people wrote the dramatic cynical "Nowhere Road" ( great lyrics ) - this must be live-favorite.
   
   A big shame so few people know about this album, and I certainly agree with Larry Page's liner-notes "A Landmark in R&R History"
   
   Highly recommended!

1 comments about Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers/Got.

1. What if things had turned out differently? What if Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers hadn't worn those awful plaid jackets on the cover of their debut album? Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers was an outstanding British R&B band that made no impact in the U.S. as part of the British Invasion, and mysteriously sold far fewer records in their homeland than lesser groups. Bennett was one of the classiest British R&B singers of the day, and the band was loaded with talent (including at one time Roy Young, widely known as Britain's Little Richard). The "2-fer" format (you get two albums for the price of one) makes this a must-have purchase for fans of British Invasion era R&B. By the way, the second album represented here, includes Bennett's rendition of "Got to Get You Into My Life." Sir Paul himself was at the session, if not in control of it. This was a hit in the U.K., and deservedly so. Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers might best be labeled "musicians' musicians." Ignore the jackets and listen to the phrasing, the solid rhythm section, etc., etc. Well worth the price!

1 comments about You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry.

1. According to the liner notes on this import, The Caravelles were a couple of young British office workers who were signed to a recording contract and had a fairly big hit with YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A BABY TO CRY in 1963. Their sound has been described as "whispered harmonies", and listening to the 25 songs on this disc, the closest way to sum up their style would be to say that it feels as if you're listening to an early demo tape of The Chordettes. Their harmonies are in fact quite nice, but the arrangements are very pedestrian and the instrumental accompaniment is very sparse, to say the least.
   Most of the songs in this collection are simple pop tunes of the type you'd expect to hear from teen singers in the early sixties. The girls also cover a number of songs made popular by other artists ranging from Rosemary Clooney to the Everly Brothers. Unfortunately, it's on these tracks that their limited singing abilities come up shortest, and the marginal sound quality doesn't help matters any. I'm not enough of an audio expert to tell if the fault lies in the way the songs were originally recorded or in the mastering of the material for compact disc, but the sound has a muddy quality with the instruments often only barely discernable.
   High fidelity or not, it's still pretty neat that SOMEBODY has taken the time to release a collection by The Caravelles. The girls may be just a footnote in pop music history, but they put together some nice melodies and it's cool that that their work has been preserved, if rather shabbily, on this CD.
   For the record, The Caravelles took their name from a stylish French jet airliner, which is pictured on the back cover of this collection.

2 comments about World of the Bachelors.

1. I had all the Bachelor albums when I was in high school, however they were played so much they wore out. Was not able to find their music for years until this album, Their sound and harmony is wonderful. I don't know how they didn't make it to greater heights.



2. THANK YOU FOR PRODUCING SUCH AN OUTSTANDING COLLECTION OF THE BACHELORS HITS. I HAVE ALREADY LISTENED TO THE ENTIRE CD. AMAZON HAS CAPTURED MY FULL ATTENTION FOR MUSIC. IS THERE ANY POSSIBLE WAY, THAT I CAN SEE WHAT IS CONTAINED ON THE BACHELORS GREATEST HITS? THANK YOU