From Chuck’s Record Collection: Sounds Spectacular

Released in the late spring of 1975, K-Tel’s Sounds Spectacular is one of the label’s finest sets.

Its biggest problem?

It’s an embarrassment of riches.

By 1975, the average length of a 45 record was about 3 minutes, but K-tel was still holding onto the model of an album with 10 songs on a side. 

The label’s solution was to leave some songs alone, but whittling others down to a fraction of their single length. Had K-tel decided to shift to 18 songs (9 per side), it could have dropped a few marginal tracks and avoided some questionable edits.

Take side one:

The British group the Rubettes’ only AT40 track, “Sugar Baby Love” from 1974, is trimmed to 2 minutes, barely enough time to make any impression.

Dropping it from the set would have allowed Redbone’s smash “Come and Get Your Love” to fill out its early fade…

…And permitted the second verse to be restored to Polly Brown’s sublime “Up in a Puff of Smoke.”

On side two, cutting out the odd choice of the four-year-old track “It’s Impossible” by New Birth could have yielded more time to either Shirley and Company’s “Shame, Shame, Shame” or the Charlie Daniels Band’s “The South’s Gonna Do It,” both of which suffered for the edits rendered.

Trims aside, this is a great set.

Many of the tracks were Top 10 smashes in 1974 and 1975, with three No. 1 hits:

• The Ohio Players’ “Fire,”
• Frankie Valli’s “My Eyes Adored You”
• And, Billy Preston’s “Nothing from Nothing”

And: The Number 2 “Do It (’Til You’re Satisfied)” by B.T. Express.

Does anyone else find it interesting…

That the hottest songwriting team of spring 1975, Kenny Nolan and Bob Crewe, had three Top 10 songs that sounded nothing like one another?

Two of them:

…The Valli track

…And Disco Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes’ “Get Dancin’” …

are on “Sounds Spectacular.”

The third, Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade,” may have been released too late as a 45 for this collection.)

The burgeoning sound of disco is well represented from the start:

With Gloria Gaynor’s blazing remake of “Never Can Say Goodbye” joining “Shame, Shame, Shame” and “Get Dancin’.

“Fire” and “Do It” provide the funk. While Preston, William DeVaughn’s “Be Thankful for What You Got” and the Main Ingredient’s “Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely” offer more R&B/pop nuggets.

But Sounds Spectacular includes other genres, with rock represented by a few older tracks:

The Edgar Winter Group’s “Free Ride,”

And Golden Earring’s “Radar Love,”

As well as the recent Top 20 from Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “Roll on Down the Highway,”

And Fanny’s “Butter Boy.”

Southern country/rock get a one-two slice with the first Top 40 hit for the Atlanta Rhythm Section, “Doraville,” next to the Charlie Daniels song. Redbone, Polly Brown,

And the two-year-old track “My Maria” from B.W. Stevenson offer varying shades of pop to the mix.

The Yuck:

Truly, no “yucks” here.

Just a few head-scratching edits, and the odd song selection of the 1971 New Birth track. 

Top-shelf:

• “Never Can Say Goodbye”
• “Free Ride”
• “Fire”
• “Roll on Down the Highway”
• “Radar Love”
• “Come and Get Your Love”
• “Up in a Puff of Smoke”
• “Butter Boy”
• “Do It (’TilYou’re Satisfied)”
• “My Eyes Adored You”
• “Shame, Shame, Shame”
• “Get Dancin’”
• “Nothing from Nothing”
• “Be Thankful for What You Got”
• “Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely”
• “My Maria”

Decent:

• “Sugar Baby Love”
• “Doraville”
• “The South’s Gonna Do It”
• “It’s Impossible”

You can listen to a collection of the tracks on Spotify without the edits: 

Which tracks do you like? Which do you hate?

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