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SOUNDS SPECTACULAR [1975]



Are these Sounds truly Spectacular?  
We'll find out after the jump.


This time around, we have Sounds Spectacular from 1975. It's a very decent album featuring not only 3 Pop #1s but also 5 other songs that topped their respective charts.  The oldest song is from 1971 while the two newest songs cracked the Top 40 in March 1975.  "Get Dancin'" carried over from Out Of Sight.  (Wish we knew a more precise release date for these K-Tel albums.  It would be nice to know if the songs had peaked before, during or after the album's release.  Most likely it was before.)  With only one track missing the Top 40, Sounds Spectacular races up third place in the rankings. HERC's two favorite singles from this album, both of which are significantly longer on their respective albums, are pictured below:


Thanks to some newly gleaned intel about this classic compilation, HERC is proud to present a slightly different chart below.  For the first time on this site, we can plainly see how much songs were edited down in terms of time in the first two columns below.  (The single times are taken from Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual book and the K-Tel times were contributed by several fans of this site.)  The songs that were more than 10 seconds shorter than their original 45 edits are in red.  Cumulative running times are given at the bottom of each column.  Rounding up, we can see that playing the 45 of each of the twenty songs would take 68 minutes while listening to both sides of the Sounds Spectacular album would take 54 minutes. Twelve of the twenty songs were edited down a total of 14 minutes!


Sounds Spectacular [1975]
K-tel Scale: 27.40
Top 40 chart peaks
single editK-Tel editPopR&BDISCOAC
0:02:550:02:53Never Can Say GoodbyeGloria Gaynor934111
0:03:050:03:02Free RideEdgar Winter Group14
0:03:120:03:18FireOhio Players1110
0:03:560:02:33Roll On Down The HighwayBachman-Turner Overdrive14
0:05:010:02:55Radar LoveGolden Earring13
0:03:300:02:20Come And Get Your LoveRedbone5
0:03:200:02:21Up In A Puff Of SmokePolly Brown1629
0:03:200:03:20Butter BoyFanny29
0:03:330:02:00Sugar Baby LoveRubettes37
0:03:090:02:44Do It ('Til Your Satisfied)B.T. Express218
0:03:250:03:26My Eyes Adored YouFrankie Valli12
0:03:500:02:40Shame, Shame, ShameShirley & Company1211
0:03:560:02:08Get Dancin'Disco Tex & The Sex-o-lettes10323
0:02:400:02:36Nothing From NothingBilly Preston1815
0:03:150:03:15DoravilleAtlanta Rhythm Section35
0:03:040:01:57The South's Gonna Do ItCharlie Daniels Band29
0:03:150:02:20It's ImpossibleNew Birth12
0:03:230:02:35Be Thankful For What You GotWilliam DeVaughn4131
0:03:310:03:04Just Don't Want To Be LonelyMain Ingredient108
0:02:320:02:26My MariaB.W. Stevenson91
1:07:520:53:53




In addition to having entirely different cover art, the Canadian version of Sounds Spectacular has an entirely different track listing - all 20 songs were swapped out. What's interesting to note is that 9 of the 20 songs had already appeared on the U.S. version of the Out Of Sight album.  A tenth song also appears on Fantastic on both the U.S. and CAN versions.  Seven songs failed to make the Top 40 and the majority of the ones that did failed to crossover onto any of the other charts resulting in the lowest score yet on the K-Tel Scale.


HERC was familiar with all but one song on this album (the one above) and it is a doozy. He's gone back and listened to it again and again.  Very trippy, very hippie.  He likes it. Apparently it came out in 1974/1975 and spent (at least) three weeks on Canada's RPM Adult Contemporary Charts but failed to crossover anywhere else.  Barry Greenfield is the artist using just his surname this time out.  Wisely, Barry has chosen to make his first two albums available through Spotify.  On his first album, he worked with several top notch studio and jazz musicians but he is the only one credited on his second, self-titled disc from which "Canada Sky" is taken.

Sounds Spectacular [1975]
K-tel Scale: 15.80
Top 40 chart peaks
PopR&BCOUAC
Kung Fu FightingCarl Douglas11
You Ain't Seen Nothing YetBachman-Turner Overdrive1
I've Got The Music In MeThe Kiki Dee Band12
TonightRubettes
Rock And Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)Terry Jacks
I Wouldn't Want To Lose Your LoveApril Wine
After The GoldrushPrelude2211
Dancing With Your LadyMichael Argue
Fire, Baby I'm On FireAndy Kim28
Beach BabyFirst Class438
Crocodile RockElton John111
Fly AwayWednesday
The Black-Eyed BoysPaper Lace
Kings Of The PartyBrownsville Station31
Touch MeFancy19
Heavy Fallin' OutThe Stylistics4
Canada SkyGreenfield
Straight Shootin' WomanSteppenwolf29
Willie And The Hand JiveEric Clapton26
Hang On In There BabyJohnny Bristol82




In an interesting move, K-Tel used similar artwork for the U.K. edition of Sounds Spectacular but chose to feature 20 World Wide Hits Produced by Phil Spector.  Most of these were chart hits but how would the album do on the K-Tel Scale?  Really, really well, actually.

Sounds Spectacular [1975]
K-tel Scale: 28.15
Top 40 chart peaks
PopR&B
Baby I Love YouThe Ronettes246
He's A RebelThe Crystals12
Pretty Little Angel EyesCurtis Lee7
Zip A Dee Doo DahBob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans87
I Love How You Love MeThe Paris Sisters5
Ebb TideThe Righteous Brothers513
Then He Kissed MeThe Crystals68
Every Breath I TakeGene Pitney
Walking In The RainThe Ronettes233
Unchained MelodyThe Righteous Brothers46
You've Lost That Lovin' FeelingThe Righteous Brothers12
Spanish HarlemBen E. King1015
To Know Him Is To Love HimThe Teddy Bears110
Wait Till My Bobby Gets HomeDarlene Love26
UptownThe Crystals1318
Just Once In My LifeThe Righteous Brothers926
Not Too Young To Get MarriedBob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans
Under The Moon Of LoveCurtis Lee
Be My BabyThe Ronettes24
Da Doo Ron RonThe Crystals35

Despite three songs missing the Top 40, an incredible 14 of the remaining 17 songs crossed over to the R&B Charts and this album of "oldies" scored higher than the U.S. version. HERC has decided not to list this one in the official rankings as it "does not feature the contemporary hits of the day" and is "top-loaded with proven hits" whatever that means. This ruling turned out to be harder than he thought as he counts at least four of the songs on this album to be among his favorites of all time, including one in his personal Top 20, Gene Pitney's "Every Breath I Take".   He fell in love with it the first time he heard it in 1991 on a Time-Life disc and has been infatuated with it ever since.  Sadly, it peaked at #42 in 1961 and contributed zero points to the album's score.  

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