Paper Lace - Paper Lace

Paper Lace, oh man. "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy Don't Be a Hero" (although I don't think it was their version I remember. That honour went to The Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in North America) were ear worms of the highest order when I was a little kid. There was something decidedly infectious about the songs and while as I got older I developed a certain disdain for the songs that moved me in my youth there was always a spot in my heart for this stuff. It's why I still like to listen to "Seasons in the Sun" and "Last Kiss" and am not ashamed to admit this was my jam.

Of course Paper Lace was never a band who seemed to rise above their early success and have been more or less relegated to the pile of other AM gold singles that bombarded the airwaves in the '70s.

This particular Polydor release appears to be a repackaging of ...And Other Bits Of Material the band put out in 1974. As to whether it was available here I don't know, I figure this was put together and the embedded sticker with the "hits" was no doubt supposed to help give the album a push.

The album was produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who also wrote the majority of the songs on the record. The songs were more of less straight ahead pop songs, with a little bit of the emerging glam sound, but frankly there wasn't enough bite to give the songs the requisite edge required to qualify as rock and roll.

The first side kicks off with "The Night Chicago Died" and frankly this was why I bought the album. "Billy Don't Be a Hero" is as maudlin as ever, and frankly I have no idea why this wasn't a hit here, as I can't really tell the difference between their original version and the Bo Donaldson cover. I suspect they're different, and I don't have the ability or desire to do an A&B comparison. The song I was curious to hear was "Hitchin' a Ride" as this was a song I absolutely adored as a kid. My aunt had the 45 of Vanity Fare's version and I played that over and over and over on her old suitcase record player. Considering those were all written by Murray - Callander I had hoped Paper Lace would kill the song. They did, but not in the good way. I suppose if I wasn't aware of the other version this would have been cool ... and it may grow on me ... but that assumes I'm going to play with record more than a few times.

Oddly enough this would more or less mark the end of the band's recorded output which kind of surprised me. After all, it wasn't unusually for so called "One Hit Wonders" to actually have a pretty deep catalogue that flew under the radar after their initial brush with success. Considering they had a couple of huge songs in the U.K. it's odd they didn't get another kick at the can. Then again, based on the strength of the album it actually sort of makes sense. The album is enjoyable for what it is, and frankly this was more a late echo of the '60s bleeding into the '70s. 

Oh well, this was a fun album and full of nostalgic goodness, and frankly that opening one two punch of "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and the album's closing track " Cheek to Cheek" was worth what I paid for the album.

It was a dollar. 

A buck's a buck.