Sunday afternoon on the turntable: History of British Rock and History of British Rock, Vol. 2.
These two 2-record sets were issued by Sire Records back in the 1970s. If you lived through the 1960s, you'll recognize most of the artists' names and many of the songs. There are no Beatles originals, no Stones or Animals cuts on these, probably for contractual reasons. But nonetheless, there are some good examples of British pop from the early 1960s.
The artists on the first album include: Manfred Mann, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Peter & Gordon, The Searchers, Cliff Richard, Dusty Springfield, The Kinks, the Dave Clark Five, the Bee Gees, and the Hollies.
On the second album you find: The Beatles (one of the covers they did, "Ain't She Sweet"), Donovan, Chad & Jeremy, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, and some of the same artists on the first album (but different hits).
If you're a certain age, these songs bring back a lot of memories of AM radio in the early 1960s. There was an explosion of this light pop music back then. For an audience more familiar with Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" and the girl groups that copied his Ronettes, jangly rhythm guitars and pounding bass lines were something entirely different. Although Peter and Gordon as well as Chad and Jeremy could easily be compared to the Everly Brothers, what the heck was the average teenager to make of the Beatles, the Stones and the Kinks?
It was quite an era. I don't miss it, but it's fun to go back and revisit it musically once in a while.
Posted by Linkmeister at November 18, 2007 01:40 PM | TrackBack