The Singles Collection

I learned a lot with this CD. It's all good.

Remember Chicory Tip in the early 1970s in Spain, France and Italy, where they were very popular in those days.

The 1970s were a time of great change after the 1960s when The Beatles/Rolling Stones/Dylan/Hendrix and many others changed the musical landscape forever.In came such genres as Singer/Songwriters, Heavy Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk, New Wave and Disco among several others.Also in the early 1970s, in the UK as least, came Glam Rock, some good and some forgettable, although it's fair to say both David Bowie and Elton John played their part at start of their careers.Which brings me to Chicory Tip, to be honest many of these 22 tracks are not remarkable, so there must be a reason I have given 4 stars.Well it's all down to Son Of My Father and What's Your Name, synthesizer driven songs to match the best anywhere.It appears Georgio Morroder wrote Son Of My Father and his signature keyboards are written all over it.What's Your Name is written in a similar fashion and after a slightly dodgy start Good Grief Christina works well too.When it comes to the crunch it's only Son Of My Father which is entirely essential, but if many more had been as good , 5 stars would have not been enough!

This is a step back to carefree days of a spotty faced youth plucking up courage to ask girls to dance to some of the songs. I had heard 'Pride comes before a fall' on an oldies show as a quiz question (which hit was this the B side of)and was knocked out. It was worth buying the CD for this alone, but the other big hits were there too. Aah! the spots have gone, replaced by cares of the world, but this CD was a welcome escape.

Brings back great memories of the time and a realisation that the band were so much better than the two hits I remembered

memories galore for me as a spotty kid listening to the radio and hearing this band and others stomping out of the speaker....

A strange one, this. These tracks span just four years in the early 1970s, but chart bewildering extremes of style. The half-baked sleevenotes offer no clue as to what musical direction, if any, Chicory Tip were pursuing. The first few tracks offer catchy pop of the kind The Fortunes and the early Marmalade did so well, though the lush harmonies are sometimes suspect.Tracks 5-8 then complicate matters. 'Excuse Me Baby' is a twee litle number on ukelele, but is followed by an imprssive rocker, 'The Devil Rides Tonight', complete with fuzzed-up guitar. Then it's back to the ukelele and kazoo on the dreadful 'I Love Onions'. And yet, this is followed by the brilliant 'Don't Hang Jack' which sounds as if it could pass muster on a late 1960s psych/freakbeat compilation. The same can be said of 'Big Wheels Rolling', which features a swooning guitar solo.In the midst of all these rock tunes (there are others), are the three hits that were written for them. The later tracks seem to move back toward pop and good time boogie. It's only when you seek out the writing credits that you work out what was going on. The band wrote all the rock material which suggests that they could have had a lot more street cred had they not gone along with, presumably, the A&R men. It certainly suits them, although 'Memory', musically beautiful in a Moody Blues way, is spoiled slightly by awkward lyrics. Having said that, a lot of the pop stuff is very entertaining, if not always suitable. The sound quality isn't too clever on a couple of the early tracks, but this is an enjoyable compilation.

Definitive collection-Son Of My Father still sounds amazing and Cigarettes,Women And Wine should have been a monster hit as well.