The Carpenters. Studio/Live/Solo/Selected Compilation Albums Poll.

Exactly! You get the feeling the really, really didn´t like the song. I know you´re not a big fan, Bobby, but they seem to have liked it even less than you do!

 

It's not a favourite. Olivia tries to copy the Julie Covington version, but she sounds too young and inexperienced to pull it off. She gets closer than Karen though.

 

Agreed. Olivia´s version is better - she tries to "get" the song.

I actually have a soft spot for Julie Covington - apart from those awful "ROCK FOLLIES" DVDs and CDs that I wasted money on... Oh well, at least I tried to watch them. (Only got through the first series.)

 

I like her version of Only Women Bleed. I bought that from iTunes.

 

I think Olivia was trying to "get" the lead in the movie of Evita that was being talked about in 1977 She said at the time it was the only thing she'd seen that she really fancied doing.. Who'd have thought it would take another 20 years for the movie to materialise?

 

Yep. I have her two solo albums and her "JEFF WAYNE´S MUSICAL VERSION OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS" performance. (Now, exhale...) I think she´s a great singer. Or was. She disappeared completely, it seems.

 

Yeah, who´d a-thunk it? Seemed such an obvious idea. It ended up not being Madonna´s worst movie...

 

I basically checked all except for "Only Yesterday (UK comp 1990)", a release I wasn't aware of until now. I doubt I will get it since I likely have every track on it in my other collections (such as From The Top).

 

Only Yesterday was HUGE in the UK. Probably one of their best selling comps.

 

The Singles 1969-1973, whilst not up there with Queen, Greatest Hits and ABBA, Gold, sales wise, seemed to be everywhere, back in 73-74. My LP, was played a lot, I vote for it!

The CD I have, a very early AM+, doesn't seem to suffer, so many of Richard's tweaks.

 

I have got a Donna Summer compilation with Donna's version of Argentina.

 

Julie Covington's singing on, Don't Cry For Me Argentina, is stunning. I love Karen's voice, but credit where credit is due.

 

Me too, Classic Donna Summer.

 

Bought the single, again excellent.

@Jarleboy Also got the two Rock Follies, LPs, CDs and DVDs. Oh yes! And the single of, Ok?

 

You know, I never watched one episode of Rock Follies.

 

Neither did I at the time. I'll be charitable and say they haven't aged well! Equally pleased that I caught up with something I didn't watch, as a teenager.

 

I think it may have had something to do with Julie also being an actress. She acts the song as much as sings it, without being melodramatic. I love her version - so many nuances.

 

I have the Rock Follies CDs and DVDs, her two solo albums with bonus tracks - "ONLY WOMEN BLEED", A-side and B-side, among them. I also have one "SCERET POLICEMAN´S BALL" on DVD, and she´s funny and warm on it. Lovely lady.

Also have her in the line-up on Never Mind the Buzzcocks... Not essential, but fun.

 

I bought it because I had read so much about the show. Bobby, you haven´t missed a thing. It´s dull as ditchwater. I love Julie, and Rula Lenska had her style - I knew her from one of my favourite sitcoms, "To The Manor Born", but this was relentlessly boring. And if I remember correctly, the songs were as forgettable as... Well, obviously they were so forgettable, I can´t remember a single song.

You might even prefer Sheila Walsh´ solo albums to those dreadful perormances. But then again...

 

Bobby, I think you should have included Singles the SACD in your list. I have my reasons for not approving of the original/not original LP, and clearly the UK update is just that, updating the original album concept.

But while the SACD shares the title, it comes from a totally different perspective, because the album this time around was:
1) produced to be a unique 5.1 setting of performances we have heard before over mono radios and stereo on home systems (thus if not for the new medium, there would have been no reason to work on it), and to reclaim what lustre the artist profile may have lost through no fault of their own ("schmaltz"; the bulimia jokes; them being forever part of the '70s), by making it a "tentpole" release in a struggling new medium...and
2) put into perspective by both an awareness amongst even the most casual fans of Richard taking liberties with our classic memories ever since CD happened, as well as just the sheer distance of how far back these songs (and the high school proms they inhabited) are removed from who we were back then, and how we've matured since.

So to my mind, the release exists as a totally different product: not for what it is, but...for what the heck it's doin' here in the first place.

 

I must have been about 13, when a friend played me the first Rock Follies, LP. The songs have stuck!

Maybe it's the Roxy Music, influence?

 

I know UK sales of this stood at 1,025,000 at the end of 1993. By 2002, sales were 1,240,000.

 

Maybe. I came at them - vehemently! - when I was around 45. Not the right age for that sort of thing. It would have been totally different if I discovered them at thirteen.

 

I was 24 and discovered them accidently. This was the mid 90s. I was house sitting for a friend. I was looking through his tapes when I noticed a compilation of theirs. I had heard of them, but not heard anything by them. Every song that came on was amazing. They have since become one of my all time faves.

 

I seem to remember it being advertised on TV a lot. For some reason this comp was embraced by the UK. There's been a lot more since, of course. All featuring the same songs, I might add.