[.ca] Have a Nice Day - Vol. 11

THIS IS AN AWESOME CD!!!!:
If you like 60's music..I really reccomend that you buy this cd! It is great! There is NO bad song on it! Its A MUST GET CD!!!!

Mostly Big Hits of the 70s:
All original versions of some big hits make this a fantastic entry in the "Have a Nice Day" series by Rhino Records. Only one curiosity, "Tell Her She's Lovely," by El Chicano, is out of place.

A swiss cheese of a disc. . . .:
Unfortunately, I must disagree with previous reviewers of this disc. Volume 11 of the "Have a Nice Day" series is terribly inconsistent. When four of twelve cuts are marginal at best, you have a bit of a quality problem. Volume 11 is a study in contrasts. There are two instrumental tracks; the superb "Dueling Banjos" and the overlong, overplayed Deodato version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Gilbert O'Sullivan and Clint Holmes add a light touch with "Get Down" and "Playground in My Mind", and Maureen McGovern's beautiful "Morning After" provides a bigband-ish angst ballad. There is a strong country-influence in Donna Fargo's silly but successful "Funny Face" and the much better Charlie Daniel's Band debut offering, "Uneasy Rider." There is some very good music on this disc, but many of the tracks seem very out of place on a collection whose primary title is "SuperHits of the 70s." Like so many other compilations on the market, Volume 11 is a take it or leave it proposition based solely on the purchaser's individual taste.

A Little Bit Of Everything - And More Than Enough Of It!:
The songs featured here range from No. 1 smashes ("The Morning After") to an entry that neglected to even crack the Top 40 ("The Free Electric Band"); from country ("Funny Face") to novelty ("Uneasy Rider"); from pop with attitude ("Big City Miss Ruth Ann") to death-pop ("Daisy A Day"). The Hot 100 was sure a mixed bag in 1973, and this edition conveys the essence of that almost perfectly. The finale could have been better - nothing terribly wrong with "Tell Her She's Lovely," except for the fact that chances are, if you grew up on the East Coast this will be the first time you have ever heard it. Would have been six stars if Keith Hampshire's "Big Time Operator" had closed out this disc instead!

+ 1/2 stars...Big Hits and a Handful of Clunkers:
As Rhino has done throughout its Have A Nice Day series, this is an interesting look at the Seventies as presented by artists of the era whose fame was short-lived. The compilers at Rhino assume you already have Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Chicago and Paul McCartney in your music library. So they have filled in the gaps with a collection of mostly one-and two-hit wonders. \oOnly Gilbert O'Sullivan and Charlie Daniels reached the Top 10 more than once!\c Not that there aren't plenty of big hits here. Five of these songs were million-sellers: The lightweight pop smash "Playground in My Mind," the POSEIDON ADVENTURE theme "Morning After," the country-crossover "Funny Face," the usually maudlin Gilbert O'Sullivan gets funky with "Get Down" and the banjo-guitar duet from DELIVERANCE "Dueling Banjos." For me, the treats of volume 11 are the topical humor of Charlie Daniels' hilarious "Uneasy Rider" and the melancholy of Jud Strunk's "Daisy a Day. \oStrunk is probably best remembered as a former cast member of "Laugh-In."\c Several of these tracks, however, weaken the overall impact of the collection. "Big City Miss Ruth Ann" was Gallery's last gasp in the Top 40 before becoming candidates for "Where are they now?" trivia. El Chicano's "Tell Her She's Lovely" spent one week at No. 40 before dropping off the chart entirely. Still, that was a better chart performance than Albert Hammond's "Free Electric Band." Songs like these didn't enter the American musical conscience thirty years ago, why bring them back now? It would have made more sense to include such 1973 hits as Sweet's "Little Willy," Billy Preston's "Space Race," or Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance." Overall, there's enough big hits here to make the set interesting, but enough duds to keep this from being truly essential.

• Playground in My Mind - Clint Holmes
• Morning After - Maureen McGovern
• Dueling Banjos - Steve Mandell, Eric Weissberg
• Funny Face - Donna Fargo
• Also Sprach Zarathurstra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) - Deodato
• Big City Miss Ruth Ann - Gallery
• Daisy a Day - Jud Strunk
• Get Down - Gilbert O'Sullivan
• Free Electric Band - Albert Hammond
• Uneasy Rider - The Charlie Daniels Band
• My Maria - B.W. Stevenson
• Tell Her She's Lovely - El Chicano