Hard To Find 45s On CD, Volume 17: Late Sixties Classics

Like others wrote, this is an amazing CD with what appears to be actual stereo versions of several songs previously only in mono. The song I was most fascinated with was "Wincheter Cathedral" as I had the original stereo album on Fontana Records and the song was "fake" stereo there and very over-equalized. Never thought I would hear it in stereo. if this one was electronically made to be stereo it sure fooled me. The only song I have a bone to pick with is "Might Quinn." The mono mix I have carries the voice upfront, but this stereo version sounds boxy, the voie is pushed back and there's a kind of metallic sound to the song as if it were re-channeled, yet I don't think it was. but is doesn't sound right either in stereo or in mono, I've tried. Otherwise, the rest of the CD is superb. Now some songs are more readily available than the write-up suggests. The Sun-Rays song, I've had that for 20 years on a CD so it's nothing new. Dusty Springfield's song I've also had for years. It is possible these have been out of print but they have been available before. "Psychotic Reaction" is amazing on this CD. I heard a stereo version some 15 years ago but it was electronically re-channeled and sounded horrible. Eric Records has done a tremendous job here other than what I wrote above, but still there is so much good stuff on here it's a must-have for any true oldies collection.

6 Stars - SUPERB audio quality considering the age of these recordings. I bought this as an afterthought a couple months back in hopes of finally finding a good sounding MacArthur Park. Well, I got much more than that. I had forgotten a lot of these songs and the sound quality on some of them is a revelation. I believe the person who complied this collection really did go to the trouble to find the Master tape or, if not, then a very close generation to the Master. On Incense & Peppermint, Gimme Some Loving, Groovy Kind of Love I immediately heard details, instruments I have never noticed before. Another bonus is "widening one's horizons". I had never heard things like "Little Green Bag" before (it's good!). A very whimsical and fun CD. If you go for old 60's hits check this out for a less cookie cutter "full meal" deal.

I am using the same two opening paragraphs for volumes 17, 18 & 19. It’s too hard to say basically the same thing three different ways. The rest is all specific to each volume.It’s great to see that the Eric label is still putting out their Hard To Find 45’s series, even in 2017. In the days when there was only hard copy they were essential for serious collectors. Those were the days when collection after collection offered only the big hits of a particular year or era and the collections endlessly duplicated each other.(I must have a dozen copies of some songs). Collectors like myself often bought a collection for one song and already had all the others. If not that, you had to get a Greatest Hits collection from a one hit wonder usually full of other songs that explained why they only had one hit. People have it easy now with streaming and mp3’s but even so there are songs unavailable in those forms and every once in a while, still completely unavailable or only at an extremely inflated price on an out of print disc.Eric pretty much sets the gold standard in remastering, using original masters and also making wise choices of what songs to include. These songs sound amazingly good. Their collections show the wide diversity of the pop and rock scene from the 50’s to 70’s and lately even the 80’s. Each collection has some super-rare titles you’ve been looking for, either something from a very small label or perhaps the single version of an album original. There’s also usually a song or two you’ve never heard of, a song you had forgotten about that you now love hearing again and sometimes a song you’d rather have kept forgotten. Eric’s selections are always interesting as volumes 17, 18 and 19 show.Volume 17 is subtitled “Late Sixties Classics”, late sixties here being broadly defined as post 1964. What’s great about this more expansive view is that they are able to include a large palette of popular genres that give a fairly full picture of mid and late sixties styles. There’s a bit of the British Invasion, surf, folk-rock, sunshine pop, garage rock and psychedelic pop. Critically I might have wanted to see a little more R&B (which is almost entirely absent) and sunshine pop (for which there are no American examples). But am I really going to complain about an Eric release? No way. Like most serious collectors (at least I think I’m serious), I look forward for all that they do. There are other quality retrospective labels out there, but unlike many, who license really large amounts of older material, Eric’s releases are few and far between.The selections on this disc do not seem to be as hard to find as usual, but although I have 5 to 8 versions of seven of these songs and 2 to 4 of the others, many of them are on collections that are probably out of print by now or CD’s of one hit wonders that not everyone would want and which may be out of print as well. What makes them rare is that in many cases this is the stereo debut of many of these songs in their single versions, often in a time-consuming digital extraction process that creates a modern stereo version and does not just duplicate an album’s multitrack version, as those were often rushed and sloppy because albums sold mostly mono until at least ‘68 or ‘69. There is a case for mono for some singles, especially early ‘60’s and I get those, too. No matter what, you’ve probably never heard these songs sound better. They’re very full sounding and never pitchy, the thing I like least in some remasterings. I listened to some other releases of these songs alongside these and these won every time.I also love Greg Adams booklet notes. I’ve mentioned this before, but he really knows this era and others as well and is full of interesting information about every song. Very often performers on these discs have had very little ever written about them until now. I will try to limit what I say about the songs to things not in the booklet (which I usually try to do anyway)..The disc opens with a bang with the psychedelic and punk-pop of ‘66 and ‘67.Like most of the songs on the disc, Incense and Peppermints was a big hit, one that dominated the airwaves in late 1967 with its portentous vocal and minor key. The Count Five were all teens when they made Psychotic Reaction, a garage and punk rock classic with the same attitude as other ‘66 rockers like the Shadows of Knights’ Gloria and the Troggs’ Wild Thing. You’re Gonna Miss Me was a little too ahead of its time in ‘66. A year later it would have fit right in, especially with that electric jug making the weird sound in the opening.. They were from Texas, not California, and when he was busted for marijuana possession in 1969, bandleader Rory Erickson chose a mental hospital over state prison.Wouldn’t you?There are eight British acts here, going all the way back to Dusty Springfield from the early days of Beatlemania to The Marmalade, whose single hit crossed into 1970. Dusty is represented by her biggest hit, 1966’s You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me with its big orchestration and Europop sound. The Mindbenders are the only real sunshine pop here, even though it was basically an American phenomenon. Wayne Fontana had simply walked off the stage in the middle of a concert in 1965 and Eric Stewart took over lead vocals (Fontana includes the song in his sets, but I imagine fans don’t know he wasn’t on the recording and expect to hear it). Winchester Cathedral was a monster hit in late ‘66 and this was a surprise to everyone, especially Geoff Stevens, who wrote and sang it. As I recall, many of my friends hated it but most everyone’s parents loved it.Sam the Sham was with his second set of Pharaohs when he recorded Lil’ Red Riding Hood, the Wooly Bully Pharaohs having quit en masse over a financial dispute (probably either Sam or the label wanted them to be a hired backup band and not receive royalties). Unlike most of the people here he had two big hits instead of one. The Sunrays were Murry Wilson’s attempt to show Brian and the other Beach Boys that he could create a new hit group using their sound. Murry was a real piece of work. Neither this song nor its follow-up, Andrea., were truly hits. But the Sunrays were a real band that had been together since 1959, and band leader Rick Henn had written the song himself. It’s a terrific surf vocal, a bit too long after the craze, that deserves to be heard more often.We Fives’ You Were On My Mind was one of the biggest and best songs from 1965’s late summer and fall folk rock wave, a really exciting and dynamic take on Sylvia Tyson’s folk composition. Their label, A&M (owned by Herb Alpert) didn’t really know what to do with a folk rock group and pushed them a little too far in an easy listening direction on their first album. They followed it up with a great version of Let’s Get Together which inexplicably did not make it until the Youngbloods did it as Get Together in 1969.MacArthur Park is a real anomaly of pop music, a seven minute semi-symphonic composition by Jimmy Webb, who among pop composers was the one doing the most to push the genre in new directions. Though he had hits with The Fifth Dimension and Glen Campbell, he did his best and most unorthodox work with actor, Richard Harris. With Harris he created unified concept albums that were very cinematic, and featured a film score-sized orchestra. There were actually two albums, but the second, The Yard Went On Forever, produced no hits, though it did rise to #27 on Billboard’s album charts. The title track featured Harris, a huge orchestra, soulful female backup singers and a children’s chorus singing in Latin - a bit of 60’s excess to be sure. But it does have the more-than-worthwhile Hymns From Grand Terrace. Both Harris/Webb albums are still available on CD together and are worth pursuing if you like MacArthur Park. The newer release is at a budget price but sounds incredibly good.There is much more on this volume than this, of course and it is clearly a collection worth having.

Great CD.

I grew up in the era from which these songs were taken and it's like the soundtrack to my life. Lots of good memories here, and it is hard to separate the intrinsic quality of the songs/melodies themselves from the memories they inspire. Most of it is from junior high. Audio quality is probably as good as you are going to get, considering when the recordings were made, and it is definitely better than the scratch 45's I used to have. It's nice being able to get this collection of songs all on one CD. Well worth the expenditure!

Even though I was born in 1961, I knew the words to every song on the cd. I also loved the song selection that was chosen. It was a great price,and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves 60's music!

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