Various Vol.11 - Sugar Pop Classics (CD)

(Eric Records) 19 tracks (55:00)

Pop radio in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a delightfully diverse thing. Tune in your transistor to your local Top 40 station and you’d hear everything from easy listening to acid rock. But lost amidst the mythology of that tempestuous time are dozens of sweet, catchy, lightning-in-a-bottle hit records – we call them “Sugar Pop.” Many of these artists scaled the upper reaches of the charts and were never heard from again. But, one-hit wonders or not, these are some finest records of their era – and we’ve rescued them from obscurity and polished them to a fine-sounding gleam for the latest installment of Hard To Find 45s On CD.

Sugar Pop Classics captures nearly an hour’s worth of Top 20 Pop hits – a mini-symphony of confectionery classics you won’t be able to stop humming! Remember Gallery’s acoustic rocker “Nice to Be with You” with its irresistible steel guitar break? How about Daddy Dewdrop’s “Chick-A-Boom (Don’t Ya Jes’ Love It),” which sounds a lot like Eric Burdon’s “Spill The Wine” – as written and performed by Flip Wilson! Then there’s Bobby Bloom’s soulful, reggae-tinged “Montego Bay,” which makes its CD debut in its original single version. Plus, Sugar Pop Classics includes a passel of groovy, gentle soft pop smashes including Liz Damon’s “1900 Yesterday,” The Critters’ “Mr. Dieingly Sad,” and The Bells’ “Stay Awhile.”

Two Sugar Pop tracks, however, are especially notable. First, there’s the rare, uncensored version of Lou Christie’s “Rhapsody in the Rain” which is, first and foremost, a sterling example of Lou’s surging, dramatic falsetto. But, it turns out that the young lovers in the song were doing more in the back seat of their car than the moral guardians of the day wanted us to know! Second, there’s “Sugar Baby Love” by the Rubettes – a lost classic that answers the musical question, “What if Phil Spector had produced Sha Na Na?” “Sugar Baby Love” fell on relatively deaf ears in the United States (it struggled to #39), but the song topped the charts in England.

Sugar Pop Classics features the same sterling sound found on all of Eric Records’ Hard To Find 45s On CD series. We use only the correct single versions from the master tapes in true stereo wherever possible. This CD includes a detailed, illustrated 12-page booklet with biographies of all the artists by well-known music author Fred Bronson.