Genre: pop
Rating: 2 stars **
Title: Nonstop Hits
Company: Synchro
Catalog: SPS
1295
Year: 1968
?
Country/State: Austria
Grade (cover/record): VG+ / VG+
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5741
Price: $120.00
This sounds incredibly sexist, but this album gets an extra star just for the stunning woman posing with the cool, tricked-out Mustang on the cover art. Unfortunately it gets docked a star for the dweeb band photo on the back cover ... The reviewer gives and takes away.
This one's value and collector appeal seems to stem from it's rarity as opposed to it's musical quality. There are no performances on the album, but as you can see from the titles, these guys were apparently a marginally talented cover band with a penchant and appreciation for then-popular American and UK soul and pop hits. Imagine a low end wedding band (complete with tacky suits), or perhaps an Austrian version of a Justice label garage band and you'd be in the right aural neighborhood. To be perfectly honest, their lack of refinement and finesse added a certain tacky charm to "Nonstop Hits". Tracks like 'Baby Come Back', 'Young Girl', and 'Delilah' were kicked along by heavily accented vocals which gave the performances kind of a Saturday Night Live-does-Arnold Schwarzenneger feel. 'Spicks and Specks' warranted special notice given it came off sounding like a racial slur with 'specks' sounding like 'spics'. This stuff won't appeal to everyone out there, but there's certainly a cult following for this kind of stuff. Whoever these guys were (the back panel cover photo showed six members), they played with quite a bit of enthusiasm, though it frequently exceed their technical prowess. Check out their instrumental stab at covering Redding's 'The Dock of the Bay". Their intentions were certainly good, but they managed to turn it what may be the lamest Otis Redding cover ever made. That said, they were smart enough to not even try to sing many of these soul classics, turning in instrumental versions of 'I've Been Loving You Too Long' and 'Knock On Wood'. Giving credit where due, the sax player was actually quite good. The rhythm section, not quite as impressive. Not quite sure what the writing credit for the closing tune 'Mohair Sam' was about. The inner label showed it as being written by 'Wrazler', while I thought it was a Dallas Frazier effort.
"Nonstop
Hits" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Baby Come Back (Grand)
2.) I've Been Loving You Too Long (instrumental) (Otis Redding - Jerry Butler)
3.) Knock On Wood (instrumental) (Eddie Floyd - Steve Cropper)
4.) Young Girl (F. Fuller)
5.) The Dock of the Bay (instrumental) (Otis Redding - Steve Cropper)
6.) Spicks and Specks (Gibb)
7.) It was a Very Good Year (instrumental) (Brake)
(side
2)
1.) Delilah (Reed - Mason)
2.) You Came a Long Way From St. Louis (Brooks - Russell)
3.) Honey (Bobby Russel)
4.) Back On My Feet Again (Maccauley - Mcleod)
5.) Don't Fight It (Wilson Picket - Steve Cropper)
6.) Greensleeves (instrumental) (traditional)
7.) Mohair Sam (instrumental (Wrazler)