Hard-To-Find 45s On Volume 8: '70S Pop Classics

Hard To Find 45's is a collector's dream from the Eric Label. Those of us who are completists, working on musical projects or just fans find out very quickly that most Cd collections have the same songs, more or less, the big hits of whatever decade. How many times did I buy a collection that had one song I wanted and fourteen I already had. Another trick was to buy a one hit wonder's Greatest Hits CD, and though some are interesting, others had little to offer besides that one hit. And even in these days of buying MP3 versions of individual songs, there are still many songs unavailable that way, especially when you go back to the Fifties and Early Sixties, which is the general territory of Eric. A British label, Ace, is similar but they rarely venture post British Invasion whereas Eric has even done some 70's and 80's material.You can be confident with this label. It's the kind of label where the people involved love the music, know their stuff and are dedicated to getting it right. You'll find only original masters here, engineered by people who know how it should sound, and highly informative booklets that discuss every track. The licensing of the songs only lasts so long so get them now. Once before most fell out of print and were selling for around $100.00This is their first 70's volume and it focuses mainly on the mid to late part of that decade when the purely 70's sound had developed. The representatives of the early 70's here all show a bit of the more folk and rock influences carried over from the Sixties. These include Last Song by Edward Bear (a group not a single person and in those days of radio, who knew?) and Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone (aka Peter Lee Stirling). Hurricane Smith's riff on Twenties ballads is timeless even though it was from early 1973. The rest is a symphony of later 70's pop, and most of it has the super slick production of 70's recordings. Most 70's pop had really full production with strings and sometimes horns, and in the fore some percussion and usually an electric guitar doing riffs that made the music acceptable to a rock audience. Songs like Jennifer Warnes' Right Time of the Night and bob Welch's Ebony Eyes typify this type of later 70's pop. Of course it's full of one hit wonders like Exile (later big in country) with Kiss You All Over,an interesting Chapman/Chinn number that starts as an average pop ballad then takes off on a cajun chorus.; the incredibly catchy (and Badfinger influenced) Magic is the true rocker in the collection and was produced by Alan Parsons. You'll also find such oddities as Prelude's acapella After the Goldrush and Carl Douglas' memento of the Kung Fu fad. Eric usually ends their collections with a big upbeat number and what could be better than the smooth, dynamic, pure opo of Love Is In the Air.Like all their collections, you'd be hard pressed to find most of these songs unless you'd buy The Poppy Family's Greatest Hits, and though many of them are Top Ten's they're not the usual songs you'd find on collections like Super Hits of the Seventies or hear too often on the radio. It's a winner.

Vol 8 is especially good.It's true many of these songs aren't extremely hard to find ~but this compilation is very convenient,and I prefer owning the C.D. when I can.There are some of Eric's volumes that stand out because they containsome of the best & hardest songs to find.A key word here is 'original' recordings.Some highlights of this particular collection:1. Stumblin' in ~ Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman, 1979 ~ super good song !!!2. Last song ~ Eward Bear, ~ 72.3. You don't have to be a star (to be in my show), ~ Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr ~76.4. Fool (if you think it's over) ~ Chris Rea, 78 ~ this is a great song !!!Rea is still recording music, but his voice doesn't sound anything like it used to.which makes this C.D. a good place to get Rea's hit instead of paying $24.00 for a used copy ofthe original C.D. it was on, - "Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?"All twenty tracks are stereo, and are the original 45 single versions.

I EAGERLY AWAIT ALL RELEASES FROM THIS AMAZING COMPANY-ERIC RECORDS. THERE LAST 3 RELEASES ALL FEATURE REMASTERED STEREO VERSIONS OF SONGS FROM THE 40'S, 50'S, 60'S AND 70'S NEVER HEARD IN STEREO BEFORE. THERE ENGINEERS ARE TRULY WIZARDS AND I ANXIOUSLY AWAIT FUTURE RELEASES!

I don't have much to add to the other reviews here. This is a fine collection of mostly not-so-rare songs. But here are a couple of important points:* This CD has the original version of Fool (If You Think It's Over), but it's just the single (listed at 3:32). Chris Rea's album version added another minute or so to the song. Still, it's great to have the original at any length on CD; this honestly hard-to-find sing is the reason I bought it.* At this writing, there is a link to buy the supposed MP3 version of the album. Except that the MP3 album that comes up has nothing to do with this CD. One reviewer sounded like he got confused by this. It appears that the only way to get an MP3 of the original Fool is to buy this CD and rip it. (For personal use only, of course.)

I searched high and low for a few songs and was glad to find all three on this one disc. The songs I'm talking about are My Angel Baby by Toby Beau, Fool (If You Think It's Over) by Chris Rea and Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone. Most of the rest of the songs on this disc are also by 'one hit wonders' and are well worth the price of the disc if you grew up listening to Top 40 in the 1970's. Enjoy.

Great songs that brought back memories. I'm not sure these are hard to find but they were worth listening to. Sound quality is excellent.

If you expect to find the original and single version of "Fool If You Think It's Over" on this CD, heard on the radio in the late 70's, this is the appropriate CD. All songs are very good and come in their original versions!Spanish Language/ Si tu esperas encontrar la versión original de la canción "Fool If You Think It's Over" escuchada en las radioemisoras de fines de los 70's, este es el cd apropiado. Todas las canciones son muy buenas! y vienen en sus versiones originales!!

These songs are refreshing to listen to because they are not remastered with the high tech, bumped up, synthesized overkill decibel/ frequency levels of newer CDs. It's just the same, normal music we listened to in the '70s. The songs are in their original format. You can actually hear xylophones in Chris Rhea's "Fooled if You Think it's Over." There were some songs I'd never heard of, but the ones I recognized were worth the price.

Hard To Find 45s Volume 9 is a great collection of 70s pop music. Listening to it triggered for me many personal and collective memories from that decade, which arguably produced the best music - in quantity - in virtually all genres, whether it be pop, rock R&B, disco or crossover C&W.. This collection epitomizes that amazing musical mainstream diversity, which,alas,is sadly lacking today. I've wanted to have Prelude's haunting,a cappella take on Neil Young's iconic "After the Goldrush" since the moment I first heard it ( and yes, I do remember that exact moment!), and now I finally have it, along with19 other seventies gems, each of which can hold its own.

Precious collection

A great mix of different tempos for driving to or what I enjoy drumming too.

Well done.

Excelente compilación de canciones que hicieron época. Una buena colección de la época dorada que hará recordar esos años y sus tesoros musicales.