[.ca] Best Of

extra! extra!:
decca era? decca era! yyyeeeaaahhhhh! "who are you waiting for?" "amen corner decca recordings!" oh! now everyone's CD-Player into "Amen Corner Decca Collection!"

Before paradise was half as nice:
Amen Corner are best remembered for their British number one hit, If paradise was half as nice, which was recorded on the Immediate label. The recordings they made for Immediate have been repackaged many times, but their earlier Decca recordings were unavailable on CD before this was released, except for Bend me shape me, which can be found on British 60's various artists compilations. Andy Fairweather-Low, the lead singer, has a distinctive falsetto voice which is difficult to forget and it works just as well on these recordings, which have a definite R+B flavor, as it does on the music he recorded after leaving Decca. These tracks were recorded in 1967 and 1968 and yielded three British hits - Bend me shape me (a cover of an American hit for American Breed), Gin house blues and High in the sky, though the first of these is much better known in Britain than the other two. All three turn up on Immediate collections via live recordings, but I much prefer the original studio versions. The set also includes great covers of Love me tender and Can't get used to losing you, which you certainly won't mistake for the originals - not just Andy's voice but the arrangements are very different. I don't know how well Amen Corner did in America, but they were certainly one of the best British groups of the late sixties. For anybody interested in British pop/R+B music of the late sixties, the Amen Corner is worth inestigating.

• Bend Me, Shape Me
• World of Broken Hearts
• Gin House Blues
• Judge Rumpel Crassila
• Love Me Tender
• I Am an Angel (But I Can't Fly)
• Expressway to Your Heart
• Can't Get Used to Losing You
• Lost and Found
• Nema
• I Know
• Run Run Run
• Something You Got
• Let the Good Times Roll and Feel So Good
• Satisnek the Job's Worth
• Our Love (Is in the Pocket)
• I Don't Wanna Discuss It
• Good Time
• High in the Sky