CD Review: Various "Totally Oldies 6: Then '70s" (Varese Vintage)

It's hard to imagine the highly balkanized radio formats of today producing 
the wide-range of beautifully crafted hits heard on this collection. From 
the heavy rock guitars of "More Than a Feeling" and "Hocus Pocus" (not to 
mention the latter's signature yodels, something sorely missing on today's 
charts!) to the R&B soul of "Groove Me," "Do You Know What I Mean" and 
"Starting All Over Again" to the contemplative pop and singer-songwriter 
angst of "Reflections of My Life," "Time in a Bottle" and "Shannon" (the 
last will still make you tear-up, after all these years), these are the 
torch-bearers of a golden decade of top-40 radio.

The '70s also saw terrific hybrids, like Bonnie Tyler's 
singer-songwriter-soul-country-Rod-Stewart-rasping "It's a Heartache," Blue 
Haze's reggae-remake of the '50s doo-wop standard "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," 
the barely-out-of-the-60s spirituality of "Spirit in the Sky," Richie 
Haven's acoustic-folk-soul remake of "Here Comes the Sun," and the 
ressurected Neil Sedaka's Elton John backed pinnacle, "Bad Blood." And these 
could be heard spun back-to-back (okay, 
back-to-announcement-to-commercial-to-station-ID-to-back) on the same radio 
station -- something that's unimaginable on today's commercial radio dial.

These tracks are generally well represented on '70s anthologies, and anyone 
working on a complete collection of the '70s top-40 will find a great deal 
of overlap with discs they already own. But that's not really the point of 
this disc... what really recommends this collection is the care with which 
the tracks were selected and organized into a terrific program that yields a 
super solid '70s spin.

It's hard to imagine the highly balkanized radio formats of today producing 
the wide-range of beautifully crafted hits heard on this collection. From 
the heavy rock guitars of "More Than a Feeling" and "Hocus Pocus" (not to 
mention the latter's signature yodels, something sorely missing on today's 
charts!) to the R&B soul of "Groove Me," "Do You Know What I Mean" and 
"Starting All Over Again" to the contemplative pop and singer-songwriter 
angst of "Reflections of My Life," "Time in a Bottle" and "Shannon" (the 
last will still make you tear-up, after all these years), these are the 
torch-bearers of a golden decade of top-40 radio.

The '70s also saw terrific hybrids, like Bonnie Tyler's 
singer-songwriter-soul-country-Rod-Stewart-rasping "It's a Heartache," Blue 
Haze's reggae-remake of the '50s doo-wop standard "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," 
the barely-out-of-the-60s spirituality of "Spirit in the Sky," Richie 
Haven's acoustic-folk-soul remake of "Here Comes the Sun," and the 
ressurected Neil Sedaka's Elton John backed pinnacle, "Bad Blood." And these 
could be heard spun back-to-back (okay, 
back-to-announcement-to-commercial-to-station-ID-to-back) on the same radio 
station -- something that's unimaginable on today's commercial radio dial.

These tracks are generally well represented on '70s anthologies, and anyone 
working on a complete collection of the '70s top-40 will find a great deal 
of overlap with discs they already own. But that's not really the point of 
this disc... what really recommends this collection is the care with which 
the tracks were selected and organized into a terrific program that yields a 
super solid '70s spin.

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