The late 1960s and the early 1970s were my favorite period for music. I have diverse tastes in music from this era, ranging from singer-songwriter folk pop to bubblegum, and from soul to classic rock. As a result, I salivate when I come across one of these retro collections. Here is my take on each of these songs, in chronological order:

In the fall of 1968, R&B balladeer O.C. Smith had a huge hit with "Little Green Apples." It is a simple yet sincere love song written from the point of view of an enraptured lover. The writer, Bobby Russell, is famous for his 1971 hit "Saturday Morning Confusion," and he wrote "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" for Vicki Lawrence. "Little Green Apples" has become a pop standard, having been covered by a host of crooners like Tony Bennett. The song reached #2 on the chart, being kept out of #1 by "Hey Jude."

The Cowsills' song "Hair" has always blown me away. I have always been a hair lover, and this song hits the bull's eye with me. The song seems like sort of a novelty these days, but it is still exhilarating--from the opening strum to the rousing climax, the singer makes it known that he likes HAIR. This song reached #2 on the charts in April 1969, being kept out of the top slot, ironically, by another song from the musical "Hair" called "Aquarius/ Let the Sun Shine In."

"Green-Eyed Lady" is another song that is well-crafted. It was a #3 hit for Sugar Loaf in the fall of 1970, and this track creates an excellent autumnal mood: It is bass-like and brooding yet also uplifting. The uncut album version has an extended guitar riff that builds and builds to a climax. It is the excellent guitar and bass work that drove this song and makes it a treat even now.

"Sooner or Later" was a top-10 hit for The Grass Roots in the summer of 1971. Like most of their hits, it falls into the pop-rock category. This band knew how to create a hook in their songs, having had 15 top-40 hits from 1966 to 1972. This song was written by Lambert and Potter, a prolific team who knew how to write hits.

Jim Croce first hit the charts in the summer of 1972 with his top-10 hit, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim." It is a story song that tells of a tough, working-class guy who gets into his share of fights. Croce was successful because he knew how to tell a story without moralizing--a lot of his hits were in this vein, like "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" and "Carwash Blues."

Another hit from the summer of '72 is featured on this album, "Black and White," by Three Dog Night (see my review of them from last Sept. 29). When I first heard this song, in early August 1972, I knew it was a hit--it grabbed me right away. At first, though, I thought the song was called "The Child Is Right." This hit #1 at the beginning of the 1972-73 school year, and because of its lyrical message I have always thought of it as a good back-to-school song.

Dobie Gray had reached the top 20 in 1965 with a song called "The In Crowd." However, it would be eight more years before he would have another hit, 1973's top-five "Drift Away." I first heard this soulful hit in March 1973, and I thought it was called "Give Me the People" or "Get Lost in Your Rock & Roll." This song is a hand-clapper yet mellow--it remains an oldies and Lite rock staple to this day. Gray would have one more top-40 hit, a disco-tinged number called "You Can Do It," in 1979.

"The Sting" was the film that won the Best Picture Oscar for 1973. The theme from that movie, Marvin Hamlisch's "The Entertainer," became a top-five pop hit in the spring of 1974. This instrumental was Hamlisch's update of the ragtime composition by Scott Joplin, written around 1910 (?). I always associate this song with another movie instrumental that broke into the top 40 the same week in March 1974: Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells," from "The Exorcist." I wish that seldom-heard song was on this disc too.

In 1974, the group Paper Lace had a huge hit in the United Kingdom called "Billy Don't Be a Hero." However, their version barely charted in America because another group, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, beat them to the punch by covering their song. The result was a #1 hit for the group. The song featured anti-war lyrics--in a sense. It tells of a young woman who is distressed that her fiancee is going off to war, calling him foolhardy. He begs him not to be a hero-she wanted to marry him. However, the guy winds up getting killed in the war. This young woman is revealed to be the villain of the story, spitefully throwing away a letter stating that "Billy had been a hero." Musically, the song is early--'70s cheese, with march-like instrumentation. It was the sort of record that often hit #1 in May or June, along the lines of Ray Stevens' "Everything Is Beautiful" or Sammy Davis's "Candy Man."

Billy Swan had only one top-40 pop hit, "I Can Help," in the fall of 1974. Swan had struggled for many years before finally hitting pay dirt with this record, which went all the way to #1. It has a country/rockabilly flavor to it, and it was a favorite in roller skating rinks all across the country in the mid-'70s. The lyrics tell of a guy who wants a relationship with a woman--and her child. The singer keeps saying that he is there to assist her in any way. When the song first came out, I thought it might have been an answer song to Joni Mitchell's spring 1974 hit, "Help Me."

B.J. Thomas had a long string of hits from 1966 to 1977, reaching #1 twice with "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and "Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song." The latter track is featured on this album. While not one of my favorites, it is a genuine country-pop ballad that was a huge hit in early 1975, also going #1 country. However, I was hoping that this record had one of Thomas's earlier hits, like "No Love at All" (1971) or "Rock and Roll Lullaby" (1972).

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils were a Southern rock band that charted with several hits in the mid-'70s, most notably "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" (1974) and "Jackie Blue" (1975). The latter is featured on this disc, and it had all the ingredients of a big hit: excellent guitar work, an intriguing storyline, and insinuating vocals. When I first heard this song, in March 1975, it grabbed me right away--I eventually bought the single, and the song went to #3 nationally and to #1 on my own chart. The lyrics are mysterious, telling of a girl who is difficult to figure out because she seems reserved.

In summary, I enjoy most of the tracks on this disc. Unfortunately, there is always one or two songs that I don't care for. There is no song I dislike, though I am not madly in love with the Hamlisch or Thomas tracks. However, I enjoy the diversity present in this album, though it could have benefitted from one or two more soul hits.




Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out