Seals & Crofts - Greatest Hits

I was this many years old when I finally realized it wasn't Seals & Croft ... it was Seals & CROFTS. Well, better late than never I guess. Seals & Crofts had a pretty good run through the early '70s. While I'd never have called myself much of a fan I had to admit that their radio hits were syrupy ear candy. I still love "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl" and when I saw the Greatest Hits album in the bargain bin (along with about twenty other albums that came home with me ... it was a good haul) I had to get it. So I did.

The album after a deep clean was remarkably pristine and the liner notes were still inside the jacket. Sadly it was just a lyric sheet with no credits. At least the back cover listed the producer - Louis Shelton, the legendary session guitarist who I assume also played guitar on the album.

This is a great sounding record, and the intertwined harmonies of James Seals and Dash Crofts are so good. It would have been cool to have the lead vocalist identified on the tracks, but it really didn't matter. It was the blend of voices that made their work special. Of course having said that I'll contradict myself and say that when the lead vocal is prominent I am partial to James' voice.

I really liked the songs on the Greatest Hits, although sometimes I think labels stretch the definition of hit a bit thin. Although here I have to admit I'd forgotten about the song "Hummingbird" which is one of my favourites of the newer to me songs on the album. By definition the album should be good, as it represents their greatest commercial success. If you're wondering, this is a good album. Really good.

The duo were followers of the Baha'i Faith and they wove elements of their beliefs into their lyrics and they never seemed to be heavy handed or preachy. They were just - good. The early '70s were the golden era of the singer songwriter and Seals & Crofts between 1972 and 1976 released four gold, and two double platinum records. If the label had waited another year to include songs from Get Closer, it truly would have been their Greatest Hits.

This scratched the itch I had for the duo, but I suspect if I was to come across any of their earlier albums curiosity would no doubt get the better of me as to what the deeper album cuts sounded like. Of course it would depend on the price ... I am notoriously cheap.

Comments

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the 90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984 my (dearly departed, and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy that had a bonus track of " Get It On (Bang A Gong)" that when I bought the album didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read just go back and skim it, I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off and on again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. However, at the time all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the first cut "Baby Come Back" and proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another and closed out the album (sans any...

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day. To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continues to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner who had been with Gary from the beg...

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog