As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

LP #39 The Association – Renaissance (1966)

Deciding between The Association’s first two albums for the list was almost a coin flip for me. Their debut, And Then … Along Comes The Association, was a hit, largely on the success of their first two singles, “Along Comes Mary” and the even-more-successful ballad, “Cherish”. While the band’s overall sound was quite similar on Renaissance, the latter flopped commercially.

 

What happened? Well, it helps to pick a good lead single. “Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies” is by no means terrible, but it’s even stranger than its off-putting title. Not surprisingly, it peaked at #35 on the Hot 100, compared to #7 for “Along Comes Mary” and #1 for “Cherish”. It wound up leaving such a sour taste that “No Fair At All” (the second single), which is every bit as good a ballad as “Cherish” or “Never My Love”, didn’t even make the upper half of the chart.

 

For me, Renaissance does the most to spotlight the versatility and overall talent level of the band. All 12 of the songs are written by band members, and five of the six members contribute at least one song. The same five also each handle lead vocals on at least one track. And it’s not as though there’s any filler; each can stand quite nicely on its own.

 

Favorite tracks:

 

No Fair At All

Another Time, Another Place

Memories Of You

You Hear Me Call Your Name

Songs In The Wind

Angeline

2 comments:

  1. Okay, at the risk of throwing over the cliff some very warm memories of my high school years, at this point I feel that whenever I hear an Association song, I say to myself, "This group recorded the most insipid songs of the 60s" (and are therefore the most insipid group of that decade). And everyone knows that it's windy!

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    1. As the Duke student section (in their more polite moments) used to chant at basketball games, I beg to differ! ;-)

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