The Association - The Greatest Hits!
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Free Music Notes for The Greatest Hits!
Free Music Review: Time for a new one
Hit: 4 Stars
Although this CD is a classic, it needs to be replaced by a new compilation with remastering and more tracks to cover the period following the 1968 release of this album, as well as to include some of the better album tracks of the pre-68 period. There are Japanese reissues of all the original Warner Bros. albums. You'd think they could at least come up with an updated best of here in America.Free Music Review: Contains the Hits...But This Is Not Definitive
Hit: 4 Stars
Over a two-year period in the mid-Sixties the Association were responsible for some of the most memorable pop/soft rock music of the decade. Hits like "Along Comes Mary," "Windy" and "Time for Livin" show the band capable of catchy hooks and tight harmonies, but it was the ballads like "Cherish" and "Never My Love" that the band is most identified with. [Both of these singles sold over a million copies each.] In fact, after four Top Ten singles in little over a year, the Association were voted the No. 1 Group of the Year in the U.S. by the influential Bill Gavin Radio-Record Congress in 1967.The Association's massive success also seemed to be their undoing. It forced them into a very narrow format which didn't allow for musical growth. When the band tried to broaden their appeal on singles like the hard-rocking "Six Man Band," their audience fled and the single stalled at No. 47. Even when the band returned to their proven hit formula, "Goodbye Columbus" (from the soundtrack that came out a year after this Greatest Hits collection) did no better than No. 80. It was the Association's last chart single, although they did put out three more studio albums through 1972. In 1972, original bass player Brian Cole died, and for the most part so did the group.
It's unforgivable in the CD Age that more than three decades after its first release, this 13-track collection is the best Warner Brothers can do. To make this truly definitive it should have included the experimental "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" (a minor hit from 1967), the aforementioned "Goodbye Columbus," and some of the progressive rock tracks from their last albums on Warner Brothers and their swan song, Waterbeds in Trinidad, on Columbia.
Until that happens--if ever--this is (sadly) the only domestically available album to demonstrate the greatness of the Association. RECOMMENDED
Free Music Review: A Great--But Not Greatest--Hits Collection
Hit: 4 Stars
The Association's Greatest Hits was their highest charting album (No. 4) and has remained in print since its release in 1968. By 1967 the Association (with three million-selling singles) were so popular that they were voted the No. 1 Group of the Year in the U.S. by Bill Gavin Radio-Record Congress--ending the Beatles three-year run!This soft-rock band excelled at lush ballads with tight harmony singing like on the singles "Cherish" and "Never My Love," which went to No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.
They also charted with mid-tempo numbers like their debut single "Along comes Mary" (No. 7) and "Windy" (No. 1). During their brief career they would rarely stray from this formula. However, "Six Man Band" in 1968 showed the band trying to update its sound with a psychedelic approach--the fans weren't buying and it peaked at No. 47.
They returned to the soft ballad formula with the theme from the movie Goodbye Columbus, but interest in the band was lagging and it barely reached Billboard's Hot 100 at No. 99. It was the band's last charting single.
"Goodbye Columbus" was released after this Greatest Hits package was first released, so it is not included here. But that does not explain why "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies (a No. 35 single from the album Renaissance) is not. To get those singles you will have to spring for the $30 import greatest hits album. [And if you're a real fanatic, their individual albums are available with bonus tracks as Japanese imports!]
For most fans, this collection will do nicely. It includes all five Top 10 singles, plus at least one album track from each of their first four releases. Until Warner Brothers decides to add some bonus tracks, this album is still a bargain. RECOMMENDED
Free Music Review: Simply Wonderful
Hit: 5 Stars
The 60's were a time where artists experimented in the studios and tried to get the best "groovy" sounds to make people really go "Whooaaaa." This band is one of those lost gems. A band of style and importance, lyrics full of feeling and love, and just fun.This album is a compilation of a lot of hits from some of their hard-to-find albums. Even today in 1999 and onto the new millenium, The Association will still sound wonderful. Some others do not even come close.
Free Music Review: Take some time for "Time for Living"
Hit: 4 Stars
We alternated sets with the Association in '83 (their comeback tour) and shared with them a dressing trailor. As I remember, all but the keyboardist were veterans of the original sixties group. The song "Along Comes Mary" had provoked some minor controversy when it was originally released; it was alleged to be about marijuana. I can't say whether it is--or was, but I can tell you how The Association prepared to play the opening song of their set--ah, on second thought I won't. My very favorite Association song is "Time For Living". I asked if they were to play "Time for Living". They said they'd forgotten it. Rather a disappointment, but--and this is my point AT LAST--somebody hasn't forgotten it; it is included in this collection, and it would make this collection worth owning even if the other popular songs were not.Speaking of keyboardists (wasn't I just?), I should like to direct the musicians among us to "Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz Rock Keyboardist", a method book. That's all.