Various - Hard To Find 45s On CD Vol.12 - 60 & 70s Pop Classics (CD)

​(Eric Records) 19 tracks

Pop music in the ’60s and ’70s was a kaleidoscope of sound – a dizzying, diverse wonderland unthinkable in these days of targeted demographics and niche marketing. Whereas Hard To Find 45s on CD Volume 11: Sugar Pop Classics focuses on a specific – if ephemeral – slice of the pop pie, Volume 12: 60s & 70s Pop Classics embraces the cacophony, culling nearly an hour’s worth of wildly divergent Top 20 Hits not commonly found on other collections.

For instance, we’ve all heard Shirley Ellis’ celebrated novelty song about nomenclature, “The Name Game.” But have you heard her first hit? Well, shake a tail feather to “The Nitty Gritty” – it’s here! Chris Montez is perhaps best remembered for “Let’s Dance,” an early rock ’n’ roll smash from 1962. But he also scored a string of five pop hits in the late ’60s starting with “Call Me,” featured herein. Jay & The Techniques, meanwhile, had just two hits – “Keep the Ball Rollin’” and “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” – and 60s & 70s Pop Classics has ’em both. So there’s no need to buy their “Greatest Hits.”

As advertised, 60s & 70s Pop Classics runs the gamut of pop styles. There’s “I Like Dreamin’,” Kenny Nolan’s cuddly soft rock classic, and “Born a Woman,” Sandy Posey’s country-tinged girl-group paean to distaff suffering – and a bold feminist statement for its day (heard here for the first time in its complete stereo version). There’s “Eres Tu” by Mocedades, a rare Spanish-language entry in the American Top 10, and Coven’s strident protest song “One Tin Soldier,” best known as the theme from the rock ’em, sock ’em drive-in movie “Billy Jack.” And who could forget “Dancing In The Moonlight,” a faux hippie anthem by long-forgotten rock band King Harvest?

Eric Records always insists on the correct single versions of songs in true stereo. 60s & 70s Pop Classics includes some real corkers including the worldwide stereo debut of Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders’ #1 smash, “Game of Love,” as well as “Black Pearl” by Sonny Charles & The Checkmates, Ltd. (Phil Spector’s last big independent production) presented in the best stereo sound you’ve ever heard!

60s & 70s Pop Classics features the same sterling sound found on all of Eric Records’ Hard To Find 45s On CD series, and includes a detailed, illustrated 12-page booklet with biographies of all the artists by well-known music author Fred Bronson, who also annotates the companion album, Hard To Find 45s on CD Volume 11: Sugar Pop Classics. Hard to find? Not anymore!