Like the band’s music, there’s nothing fancy about this
compilation: it contains all 20 of their singles that hit the Hot 100, in
order.* As I write this, it’s been on the “Billboard 200” album chart for 506
weeks (#66, week of January 23, 2021). If that’s not enough, Chronicle: Volume Two contains 20
additional tracks from their seven LPs, including classics such as “Born On The
Bayou” and “The Midnight Special”.
The CD package also features a nice write-up by legendary music
journalist Greil Marcus, who characterizes the band’s music as “rock and roll with
no excuses given, no questions asked.”
* - OK, their epic 11-minute cover of “I Heard It Through
The Grapevine” is track 16, placed logically with the other cuts from Cosmo’s Factory, although the edited
version was not released as a single until several years later, after the group
had disbanded.
Favorite tracks:
Lodi
Run Through The Jungle
Down On The Corner
Green River
Lookin’ Out My Back Door
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Fortunate Son
Bad Moon Rising
Proud Mary
On a completely different note, on this date in 1961, the top 3 hits were all instrumentals. And if we thought 1973 was the end of pop, this must have been before the start.
ReplyDelete1 WONDERLAND BY NIGHT –•– Bert Kaempfert (Decca)-11 (3 weeks at #1)
2 EXODUS –•– Ferrante and Teicher (United Artists)
3 CALCUTTA –•– Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra (Dot)
This will almost certainly never happen again. As it happens, my parents' favorites were Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo.
DeleteIt got much better by that June 60 years ago:
ReplyDelete1 TRAVELIN’ MAN –•– Ricky Nelson
2 DADDY’S HOME –•– Shep and the Limelites
3 RUNNING SCARED –•– Roy Orbison
All 3 of these are in my iTunes library. I don't generally care for teen idols (looking at you, Paul Anka and Fabian), but Dion and Ricky Nelson actually produced a lot of good stuff. (Elvis, of course, is in a category of his own, and I don't really count Orbison as a teen idol either.)
Delete