Super Hits Of The '70s: Have A Nice Day - volume by volume discussion

That was kind of the point. the series reflected what was on the radio, and what singles were bought. There aren't enough single edits!

 

"Ma Belle Amie" & "Reflections Of My Life" are my favorites, but really - this whole volume is perfectly picked and sequenced. I also wholeheartedly agree with John54, the whole Marmalade album is a pleasurable listen - I just played it the other week actually and was thinking I should track down their other albums.

 

The original Page One 45 of "Hitchin' A Ride" was in Mono. Does the longer LP version exist on CD?

 

Yes, it's on this volume!

 

Another very strong volume. Probably the only song I really never care to listen to anymore is Ray Stevens' Everything Is Beautiful.

 

I love Vol.1! My favorite on there is Early in the Morning by Vanity Fare — remember hearing it back in the day when I was about six or seven or so. BTW, I was in Miami recently and, out of the blue, a perfect stranger asked me if I knew who sang More Today Than Yesterday. I duly provided the answer. Love pretty much all of Vol. 2 as well, especially Reflections of My Life.

 

Hey slow down! Focus is on Vol. 23!!!

 

Yeah I see your point, but there are plenty of edits on these. I just prefer the album versions in ALL cases. Just my personal preference of course.

 

The set is pretty much geared to top 40 radio fans. If you didn't listen to top 40 in the 70s and buy 45s, you would be frustrated with this collection.

Since this set was produced in the early 90s, we can forgive Rhino for not getting all of the single versions because it was still relatively early in the reissue game, and a lot of tapes hadn't yet been uncovered or remembered. These days, there is almost no excuse for a single version to not be used.

 

A strong volume. Favorites for me are Tee Set's "Ma Belle Amie", and Marmalade's "Reflections of My Life", which was used to good effect on an early episode of "Life on Mars" (the US version). I finally saw the Tee Set on You Tube a few months ago and that was DEFINITELY not what I pictured the singer to look like, lol.

Strangely enough, my main memory of "Hitchin a Ride" is from seeing the Wolfman character on "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" dance to the song in front of a psychedelic background.

 

Yeah, I figured he 's be a lot shaggier...

 

Does anybody else hear a slight, quick fade-up at the very beginning of
"More Today Than Yesterday" on Vol. 1?
Or is that the the way this particular tape that was used sounds?
I have no other version of this song to compare.

 

Oh! Thank you CFTP for the breakdowns and the
smilie indicators.

 

I have the complete "HAND" set & the "Decade" set as well. They are my absolute favorite collections! I too would like to see a breakdown on these two sets but would also like to know which tracks on the "Decade" set have audio snippets attached. I'd like to see how the "HAND" tracks compare to the tracks on the "Bubblegum Classics" series released by Varese Sarabande.

 

"Hitchin a Ride" is stellar man!
The Replacements did a great live cover in 1986 at shows.

 

Kama Sutra 45.

 

Not only do I have the entire set, I made two or three more volumes, and could easily add more.

What I did with mine is ensure that all tracks were the single versions.

 

I take it back, listening to Vol 2 it's pretty damn strong too. "Love Grows" is such a great set opener. "United We Stand" has grown on me the more I listen to this set. Little Green Bag I think is my favorite here, can't get the movie Reservoir Dogs out of my head hearing it. Or Hitchin' A Ride, nice touch having it in mono here, it's stereo on Varese Sarabande Dick Bartley compilation

 

Love that opening riff on "Love Grows." Great way to start the album!

 

I agree that except for that song, the rest of the CD is fantastic. By far the best of the series were the first 3.

 

As with all of these, means that HAND is the best-sounding version of the song that I own.

Have A Nice Day Vol. 3 (1990)

1. Melanie With The Edwin Hawkins Singers / Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

The version on HAND runs 3:59, which is 13 seconds longer than the 45 and the LP. Any other CDs that run this length most likely use the same analog transfer as HAND - two that do for sure are Time-Life's AM Gold - 1970 (1990, levels very low) and Time-Life's Singers And Songwriters - 1970-1971 (2000, diff EQ'd clone of AM Gold). The version on HAND sounds really terrific - listen to the definition of the drums and the bongos in the soft passages. There's another excellent-sounding version on the Rhino Special Editions' cheapie Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 2 (1993), which runs the true 45 length at 3:45 - I suspect that this is a clone of the Rhino Melanie Best Of CD, which I don't have. And then the rest of the entries, which have a much higher generation tape source and sound terrible in comparison: Capitol's 3-CD Woodstock Rock (1989, bad), JCI's Only Rock And Roll 1970-1974 (1994, worse), and Warner Special Products' Freedom Rock (1987, worst - turn it down!)​

2. Alive And Kicking / Tighter Tighter

Bright-sounding on HAND, but still the best of the bunch. Two CDs that use the same analog transfer as HAND are Rhino Special Editions' cheapie Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 3 (1993), and Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies - AM Top Twenty (1993, L/R channels reversed). As I've figured out from the earlier entries in this thread, the version on PolyTel's Ready To Rock (1988) sounds terrible.​

3. Mungo Jerry / In The Summertime

I found a surprisingly good version on JCI's Only Rock N Roll 1970-1974 (1994) - stereo, no evidence of NR, ever-so-slightly smiley face EQ, very clean sound with a little hiss on the fade. The JCI disc sounds like a lower-generation tape source than HAND, which really doesn't sound bad. There are a bunch of CDs that use the same analog transfer as HAND, including Rhino Special Editions' Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 3 (1993), Razor & Tie's More Fabulous '70s (1991, diff EQ'd digital clone and about 2 dB quieter), Time-Life's AM Gold - 1970 (1990, levels very low), and Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies - 1970 Take Two (1990, fold-down mono!) Not recommended are Warner Special Products' Feel Good Rock (1989, truncated fade), and nobody's favorite, PolyTel's Brit's Blitz (1987, from vinyl, mono).​

4. Hotlegs / Neanderthal Man

The version on Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies - AM Heavy Hits (1994) uses the same analog transfer as HAND. Both sound just fine.​

5. Sugarloaf / Green-Eyed Lady

I have this song on 7 CDs, and all are based on Bill Inglot's analog transfer on Billboard Top R&R Hits - 1970 (1989). Digital clones on HAND (1990, identical), Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies - 1970 (1990, identical), and Time-Life's Guitar Rock - 1970-1971 (1994, 0.4 dB louder). Same analog transfer on Rhino Special Editions' Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 3 (1993), Time-Life's AM Gold - 1970 (1990, levels very low), and Madacy's Rock On - 1970 (2004, diff EQ'd digital clone of AM Gold). HAND sounds as good as any of the others, so it gets my vote.​

6. R. Dean Taylor / Indiana Wants Me

It would be nice to have a true mono version of the song, since I don't believe it was ever mixed to true stereo, but the closest we'll get is (E) for everything except the sound effects, which are indeed in true stereo. This is the LP version for all CDs. All the CDs I have use the same analog transfer as HAND, including Rhino Special Editions' Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 3 (1993), Razor & Tie's More Fabulous '70s (1991, diff EQ'd digital clone and about 2 dB quieter), and Time-Life's AM Gold - 1970 (1990, levels very low and faded about 5 seconds earlier than the others).​

7. Partridge Family / I Think I Love You

I have this song on five CDs, and all five sound truly outstanding. You'll be pleased with the sound on any of these. I chose HAND because it's got the longest (and least truncated) fade. The others are Billboard Top R&R Hits - 1970 (1989 - HAND is not a clone of this CD), Time-Life's AM Gold - 1970 (1990, based on same analog transfer as HAND), Razor & Tie's Those Fabulous '70s (1990), and Razor & Tie's Super '70s (2-CD version mastered by our host, 1995, faded a few seconds before the others).​

8. Bobby Bloom / Montego Bay

All the CDs I have this song on are based on the same analog transfer as HAND, including Time-Life's AM Gold - Early '70s Classics (1992, digitally exactly 0.1 dB quieter than HAND), Time-Life's Singers And Songwriters - 1969-1972 (2000, also digitally exactly 0.1 dB quieter than HAND), and Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies - AM Pop Classics (1993).​

9. Brian Hyland / Gypsy Woman

All the CDs I have this song on are based on the same analog transfer as HAND, including Time-Life's AM Gold - 1970 (1990, levels very low), Time-Life's Singers And Songwriters - 1970-1971 (2000, digitally exactly 4 dB louder than AM Gold), Rhino Special Editions' Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 3 (1993) and Madacy's Rock On - 1970 (2004, too loud with lots of clipping).​

10. Jerry Reed / Amos Moses

There's a different analog transfer used for RCA's Nipper's Greatest Hits - The '70s (1989), and it also sounds superb. If you raise the level of the RCA disc by 1 dB, you'd be hard pressed to tell it apart from HAND. That RCA disc is really terrific throughout, and I highly recommend it, but I give the nod to HAND for this song just because it's about a dB louder, with no clipping.​

11. Bobby Sherman / Julie Do Ya Love Me

It sounds OK on HAND, but it sounds more crisp on Time-Life's AM Gold - Teen Idols Of The '70s (1999). I suspect that this AM Gold disc borrows its mastering from a Rhino CD called Yesterday's Heroes '70s Teen Idols, which I don't have. As with many of the tracks above, Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 3 (1993) uses the same analog transfer as HAND and sounds just like it.​

12. Punch / Fallin' Lady

This song peaked on the Billboard pop charts way down at #110 on Oct 2, 1971, and it's the only track on the whole series to completely miss hitting the Hot 100. It sounds just fine on HAND, but I don't have it anywhere else to compare. Actually, I've never heard this song anywhere, under any circumstances, except on this very CD.​

So, "In The Summertime" and "Julie Do Ya Love Me" sound better on other CDs, and the other 10 tracks sound best (to my ears) on Have A Nice Day Vol. 3.

 

My favorites on Vol. 2 are "Ma Belle Amie", "Reflections Of My Life"
and "Little Green Bag". Especially "Reflections...". Great tune.

What amazed me when I got this series was that I knew pretty much
all of the songs. (Just not all of the the song names and artists.)
And what songs I didn't know, my friends knew.

The first 5 volumes were released on Jan. 23, 1990

 

The Punch song was the one track I was utterly unfamiliar with when this series came out. Obviously must have been a regional hit somewhere. Somebody really should do an exhaustive unearthing box-set of all those obscure A&M 45's from the late 60's/early 70's. But I did run into the Punch album at a thrift store back in the 90's, and it's a hidden gem in my opinion; lots of great cover versions of Beatles, Paul Simon - and they come off like an American proto-Abba.

My favorite song by far is "Amos Moses" - I never get sick of that one. "I Think I Love You" & "Gypsy Woman" are other big faves. The only track I've never been able to wrap my tastes around is "Neanderthal Man" even though I'm a huge 10cc fan. It crosses the novelty line into repetitious boredom for me.

Other than that, I think it'd be a good idea for some investors to put some backing money into a new reissue label and hire CFTP & Grant in charge of compiling and overseeing quality control.

 

My favorites from Vol.3 are "In The Summertime", "Green-Eyed Lady", "Montego Bay" and "Fallin' Lady". I've never heard "Fallin'..." neither until I obtained this series. With the ultimate fav being "Amos Moses".

Absolutely!

 

You do know that the mono version was issued on the Complete Motown Singles Collection...

And, the 45 cuts out that hokey "Oklahoma" ending.

Radio out here played it.

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This is another one my absolute favorite volumes that's great from start to finish!