I Have Never Heard Entire Albums By These Bands Who Have Excellent Songs On Late '70s/Early '80s European K-Tel-Style Compilations

Do any of them have albums worth hearing? The world wants to know, or at least I do.

Double Dancing (Record 2) (K-Tel Finland 1983)

GARY LOW "I Want You"
FREEZ "Pop Goes My Love" (have only otherwise heard his/their electro-hop classic "I.O.U." before)
STYLE "Dark Eyes"
BLACK LACE "Superman" (talked dance steps, sounds like an English version of Claudio Chechetto's Italian early '80s "Gioca-Jouer," or maybe the other way around)
CAROLA HĂGGVIST "Hunger"
DAVID GRANT "Love Will Find A Way" (Linx-style early '80s Brit soul I guess?)

Disco Fever (K-Tel U.K. 1977)

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo" (Second-tier ABBAs, right?)
MERI WILSON "Telephone Man" (top 20 hit in U.S.!)
SMOKIE "It's Your Life" (superstars in this world, I guess. Lots of hits on lots of these compilations; "Living Next Door To Alice" was their only U.S. top 40)

David Grant was the singer in Linx

OK, that explains the similarity, duh!

Hit Machine (Arcade West Germany, no year notated but clearly early '80s)

SEAN TYLA "Breakfast In Marin" (from pub rock band Tyla Gang, who I've also never heard an LP by)
EAST SIDE BAND "Rendesvous"
ARABESQUE "Marigot Bay"
CHRISSY "Mark My Words"
COAST TO COAST "Do The Hucklebuck"

Hit Power (Arcade West Germany, 1975)

HANK MIZELL "Jungle Rock" (crazy rockabilly about jungle animals -- sound like it's from the '50s)
HELLO "Love Stealer" (also did "New York Groove" that Ace Frehley covered, obviously. Both songs seem to steal the beat of Bohannon's "Disco Stomp"! And somebody sent me a CD-R of their The Glam Rock Singles Collection which I haven't listened to yet, so I guess I can knock them off the list soon.)
5000 VOLTS "Doctor Kiss-Kiss"
JOHNY WAKELIN "In Zaire" (Hit in U.S. only with "Black Superman - Muhammad Ali; this was apparently the followup, about Ali's Bungle in the Jungle vs. George Foreman. "African Man," not about boxing, shows up on a different compilation.)
HEAVY METAL KIDS "She's No Angel" (Lots of songs on these samplers. My favorite so far is "Chelsea Kids.")

Hit Tornado (Arcade Holland, 1977)

CHAMPAGNE "Rock N Roll Star"
SAILOR "Stiletto Heels" (Less artsy version of Roxy Music? Can't believe I've never checked these guys out. Another comp has their "A Glass of Champagne")
HARPO "Rock 'N Roll Clown"

BLACK LACE "Superman"

Is this the same Black Lace who later had hits with Agadoo, We're Having A Gang Bang etc? If so, aargh.

FREEZ "Pop Goes My Love" (have only otherwise heard his/their electro-hop classic "I.O.U." before)

This was the first Freez song I ever heard, courtesy of an altogether different K-Tel compilation:

... what the ad doesn't tell you is that the album is split between a) the horrifically wack instructional rap and b) bonafide classics like "You're The One For Me" and "Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel".

This record was my gateway into all things hip-hop, electro, and dance.

Sorry to hijack - carry on, xhuxk!!!

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo"

Many, many UK hits. I think they won a major tv talent show in about 1972 which set them on their merry journey into British hearts. Utterly reprehensible in every way. At least it wasn't "Save Your Kisses For Me".

24 Top Hits (Ariola West Germany, c. 1979 apparently)

DSCHINGIS KHAN "Dschingis Khan" (More superstars, I'm concluding. Boney M wannabees, maybe? Or maybe not. Have heard a few other tracks, usually awesome.)
TONY MARSHALL "Ich Klau Dir Eine Strassenbahn" (Actually an "esset" character, untypable on my keyboard, instead of those two s's in Strassenbahn)
FRANK ZANDER "Captain Starlight"
BERNHARD BRINK "Frei Und Abgebrannt (How Could This Go Wrong)"
SUNNY SINGERS "Moskau" (Dschinghis Khan cover!)
CAR MEN "El Lute" (Instrumental Boney M cover!)

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo"
This was a UK #1...

You may notice a slight similarity to ABBA's Fernando...

Actually, Brotherhood of Man's big U.S. hit (among a few smaller ones) was "United We Stand." Which is indeed reprehensible, and doesn't sound Abba-like at all, obviously. (Though "Angelo," which sounds great to me, definitely does.)

I'm surprised that anyone has heard of them outside of the UK who isn't a Eurovision fanatic. BTW, "Dschingis Khan" was West Germany's 1979 Eurovision entry. And Black Lace are wankers, responsible for the awful "Agadoo" and, er, "Gang Bang".

Sailor = basically Roxy Music lite, although "Glass of Champagne" reminds me more of the Kaiser Chiefs. They had a gimmick where the two keyboard players would play an instrument that looked like two upright pianos stuck back to back, but with synths concealed inside.

I have also never heard an album by Tyla Gang but there is a comp called Blow You Out which I think is early singles and it's really good glammy pub rock.

The Best of Disco/Dance Music 7 (Rams Horn Holland, 1985)

BOYS TOWN GANG "When Will I See You Again" (Three Degrees cover by gay-bar stars who get flamier in the "Cruisin' The Street" 12-inch I've got by them)
ROBEY "One Night In Bangkok" (Murray Head cover!)
NATASCHA KING "On Ice"
MAN PARRISH & FREEZE FORCE "Boogie Down" (Man Parrish has other great singles too, obviously)
PAUL HARDCASTLE "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" (Pigbag cover!! By the "19" and "Rain Forest" guy)

Dancemaster Vol. 1 (London/Polydor U.K., 1983)

ROCKERS REVENGE "Walking On Sunshine" (isn't the more famous version of this by some band called Central Line? Or was that a different song?)
MAJOR HARRIS "All My Life"
STEVE HARVEY "Tonight (Francois Mix)"
STREET ANGELS "Dressing Up"
HOT STREAK "Body Work"
MONYAKA "Go Deh Yaka"
BOOKER NEWBERRY "Love Town"
RUMPLE-STILT-SKIN "I Think I Want To Dance With You"

ROCKERS REVENGE "Walking On Sunshine" (isn't the more famous version of this by some band called Central Line?

Central Line's one was 'Walking INTO Sunshine'

Get Up: 16 High Energy Dance Hits (Hansa West Germany, 1984)

PATTO "Black And White"]
MY MINE "Hypnotic Tango"
THE TWINS "Love System"
PHIL FEARON AND GALAXY "What Do I Do?"
KENNY JAMES "Gimme A Little Sign" (Brenton Wood cover, I think)
MANUEL DE LEO "Let's Go (Tango)"
SLIP "Mamy Blue"
QUENZO "Break-Out (Don't Leave My Baby)"
THE FLIRTATIONS "Earthquake"

wtf? I'll ask the Moderators to un-triplicate that.

The Great Glam Rock Explosion (Biff!, year unknown)

THE ARROWS "Touch Too Much" (also did "I Love Rock 'n' Roll before Joan Jett)
BARRY BLUE "(Dancing On) A Saturday Night"
KENNY "Fancy Pants"
CHRIS SPEDDING "Motor Bikin'" (later did punkier stuff with Vibrators etc., right?)
THE TEEZERS "The Best Part of Breaking Up"
JEFF ALLEN "Good Times"
JOHN ROSALL "I Was Only Dreaming"

Somebody played some Spedding on WFMU the other day...sorta like if Lemmy was the lead singer of Rockpile?!

High Fashion Dance Music (Dureco Benelux, 1983)

SANDY KERR "Thug Rock" (great title!)
STU STEVENS "Cowboy In Paris"
CLUBHOUSE "Medley: Do It Again with Billie Jean" (as in Steely Dan/Michael Jackson!)
RHETTA HUGHES "Angel Man"
CHASE "Back To Funky Town"
THE BROADS "Sing, Sing, Sing" (Gene Krupa cover)
LAFLUER "Boogie Nights" (Heatwave cover)
FRESH FACE "Huevo Dancing"
ESAVU "Breakin' Up"

High Life: 20 Original Top Hits (Polydor West Germany, 1980)

OTTAWAN "You're OK" (somebody on another thread said the dad or uncle somebody in Daft Punk is in this band!)
DOLLY DOTS "Hela Di Ladi Lo"
CHILLY "Come Let's Go"
BZN "Rockin' The Trolls" (????)
THE PINUPS "New Wave Lover"

same title, different album:

High Life: 20 Original Top Hits (Polystar West Germany, 1978)

LUV "You're The Greatest Lover"
OLIVER ONIONS "Miss Robot" (okay, probably not really so great, but I like his name and the title)
BINO "Mama Leone"
RUBETTES "Little 69" (powerpop, via the early Beach Boys I think. I also have a 45 from 1976 called "Rock Is Dead," but know nothing about them)

Heavy Metal Kids were a band fronted by Gary Holton who is most famous in the UK for his role in the Brits in Germany sitcom 'Auf Wiedersehn Pet' and died aged 33 in 1985.

Rockers Revenge is an Eddy Grant cover, sure they were a nom de plume for Arthur Baker.

Don't know anything about Booker Newberry other than that Love Town is an immense piece of early 80s soul.

Chris Spedding's now most famous for his involvement in producing the early Sex Pistol's demos.

Rubettes were a glam era group, that single must have been at the fag end of their career as they'd faded away in the UK by the mid-70s. Sugar Baby Love was a massive #1 hit in the UK in 1974 and is quintessential glam/rock n'roll revival, great tune and a neat Four Seasons pastiche too.

Sugar Baby Love

It's Belgian (Dites 33 Belgium, 1985)

EXIT "Leave It"
GUY DE SIMPELE "Feest"
CURRICULUM VITAE "The Moon Shot A Heart"
THE REPORTERS "Arabic-Funk"
LENIN SHIPYARD "The Day I Lost My Memory"

lol who calls an album "It's Belgian"? Sounds like a prop from Father Ted...

I forgot to add that Britpop miserabilists The Auteurs released a single titled 'The Rubettes' from their alabum 'How I learned to love the Bootboys'.

Radio Mars: Hits Und Stars Von Radio Mars (Ariola West Germany, 1979)

BACCARA "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD" Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" (A hit in the U.S. for Mac and Katie Kissoon)

I have finally heard a LES HUMPRHIES LP (actually two, and they are weird, all medleys, like "Immigrant Song" going straight into "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" for instance!), so I can not technically list them, but I'm mentioning them anyway.(They do "Going Down Jordan" on this sampler.)

Chris Spedding -- session man who went solo, made quite a few albums, still does. Latest I saw was with Robert Gordon. Spedding really digs the 50s-rock greaser look. Hurt featured Chrissie Hynde prior to the Pretenders. Good album, no longer have it. But do have Guitar Graffiti which still sounds great. He was also the leader of a Free-like band called Sparks with Andy Fraser. First album is good. Second album, after Fraser left, replaced the bassist with Busta Cherry Jones and was called Jab It In Your Eye. Used to see it in cutout bins everywhere.

PATTO was the band of Mike Patto. Quirky hard rock band in the early Seventies with guitar whiz Ollie Halsall. Had a heavy jazz thing going on in it. Made three albums, I think, the last which Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick used to rave about. Patto's drummer, John Halsey, would be more famously known as Barry Wom in the Rutles. I find it hysterical that they'd be on a dance hits compilation.

Heavy Metal Kids -- had the debut, never delivered on the name of the band. After that, they dropped the Heavy Metal and were just the Kids for a second one.

CHASE -- if it's the same, was an American horn rock band, one which grabbed a small piece of Chicago's action. Very jazzy and proggy, charted with a song entitled "Get It On" which isn't the T. Rex tune but which high school marching bands sometimes played at football games in the Seventies. A couple albums on Columbia, one of which -- entitled Ennea -- was a stab at a rock opera.

i like that first heavy metal kids album. i think chuck would like it.

robey was the star of my fave t.v. show friday the 13th (not based on the movies). i have a couple of her singles.

i have a middle of the road album that is pretty bad. their 2nd album, i think. even by my non-existent bubblegum standards it's bad. they have some good youtube action though. stuff not on the album i have.

I WANT ALL THESE COMPS. you lucky duck. i used to have a bunch of german comps like this, but sadly i sold them years ago.

the freez album is good. definitely worth a few bucks if you see it.

I WANT ALL THESE COMPS

^^^

Pretty sure the Chase and Patto upthread are later ones that the bands George's referring to (both of whom I'm vaguely familiar with.)

Star-Treff 71 (Star-Treff West Germany, 1971)

SIW MALMKVIST "Garten Eden"
KAREL GOTT "Lied An Die Freude"
MANUELA "Herzkloppen"
FACIO "El Condor Pasa"

Also includes a Shocking Blue song ("Never Marry a Railroad Man")! And also obviously is too old for this thread (being early rather than late '70s), but big whoop.

Street Beat (Pickwick U.K., 1982)

Q-TIPS "S.Y.L.J.F.M. (The Letter Song)"

Wasn't Paul Young in that band? LP also has a track by the RACING CARS, who I paid $2 for an old LP by last year but it bored the heck out of me. (Not to mention great songs by the Selector, Linx, Pat Benatar, Leo Sayer, Debbie Harry, Huey Lewis, and the Babys, all of whom are way too famous for here.)

Robey -- Hot Slut of the Week

Stars Und Hits Folge 2 (Bellaphon, 1973)

Most of these are probably pretty marginal, if occasionally amusing:

KINCADE "Jenny, Jenny" (some of his 45s are ickier than other ones.)
DIE FLIPPERS "Hello My Love" (not to be confused with Flipper)
SHUKY & AVIVA "Signorina Concertina"
WOLFGANG "Tingeltangel Boulevard"

I'm surprised Chuck didn't know Patto.

Like I said -- different Patto (though yeah, I don't really know the earlier hard rock one either).

And uh, Stars Und Hits is from West Germany, if you didn't figure it out on your own.

The Freez song says "Embedding Disabled by Request". It's tragedy of untold proportions. Someone should be made to answer for this inexplicable interruption of my pop culture entertainment.

Okay here's the Freez song...and it's fun!! I can't believe they had another song besides that I.O.U. one!

Freeez had a different style before they went electro with 'I.O.U' and the above (presumably a follow-up). Here's their next biggest hit ('Southern Freeez'), which reached #8 in the UK chart in 1981:

Power Hits (K-Tel West Germany 1981 -- only own this on cassette, though I assume it exists on vinyl, too)

SECRET SERVICE "L.A. Goodbye"
PRECIOUS WILSON "We Are On The Race Track"
DORIS D. AND THE PINS "Dance On"
HELEN SCHNEIDER "Shadows Of The Night" (Benatar had a hit with this in 1982, so maybe this is the original? And I guess Helen -- with or without her band The Kick, not credited here -- was basically the Kraut Benatar at the time, if not Branigan?)
RACEY "Shame"

(Tape also has two Bucks Fizz songs, plus Joe Dolce, very fun proto-Nena-like German new wave gurl Caro, Eddy Grant, Hot Chocolate, Jona Lewie, and other folks who I own good albums by, including a rather pointless version of Roy Orbison's "Running Scared" by the Fools -- had no idea they ever hit in Europe.)

chuck, you would definitely dig smokey albums too. basically a more pop version of the sweet with all the same chinnichap goodness. at least their 70's stuff is good like that (though, you know, nowhere as godly as sweet). i never ventured into the 80's with smokey. chris norman from smokie was the dude who sang stumblin' in with suzi.

Okay, I will start hunting around for their LPs. And speaking of Suzi Quatro, one of those German comps has her version of "Roxy Roller" on it! One of my favorite songs ever. Not sure if her version is more famous, or the version by Sweeney Todd (feat. Nick Gilder and Bryan "Guy" Adams) I have on 45, or the Nick Gilder solo one. But they're all totally great.

have you seen all the great les rockets footage on youtube? i know i gave you at least one of their albums:

there is so much and it's all awesome:

i have to track down ganymed stuff. just one single would make me happy. i never see anything:

Smokie were Big In Japan! Huge! Simon Frith wrote a whole(?) column about this phoenomenon or how ever you spell it in Creem. Looked like your grey morning drive made-love-in-our-Chevy-van-and-that's alright early 70s denim pop Top 40 comfort food, so I guess that might be what they sounded like? Good to know about Speddings own albums (thanks Gorge), I just knew him from all those Cale-and-extended crew albums on 70s Island Records--aye,him and Ollie Halsall AKA Ollie Haircut were the session shit fo a while--was rumored to have ghost-played on Pistols demos, and later he (Spedding) was in the Professionals with Jones and Cook, right? Car crash and didn't hear as much about him after that. Very educational thread, thanks.

Disco Explosion notes:

Racey's superpop "Boy Oh Boy" turns out to be, well, rather gay: "Oh boy, the first time we danced...and boy, when the night was over, I walked you home."

Promises of "Let's Get Back Together" fame were not only high-pitched, but also apparently Canadians (and -- holy shit, only George will have any idea how awesome this is -- their girl singer is Leslie Knauer, later of the great '80s L.A. bubble-glam girl band Precious Metal! Yep, that's her alright. Youtube teaches me something new almost every day):

Hit Saison '79 notes

I am increasingly starting to believe that the songs that I said upthread merely reminded me of the Eagles' "Lyin Eyes" and Chris Rea's "Fool If You Think It's Over" are actual cover versions instead.

Reto & Toni's Heinzelmanchen, the apparent kiddie act featuring puppets, sound something like a duet between the munchkins from Oz and Yoko Ono, doing a drinking song with lots of "hey hey hey"'s in it.

That Promises clip is very strange. They look like a typical American pop-rock band, but they are doing the European glam bounce dance move.

Super 20 Hitparade notes

JULIANE WERDING "Oh Mann, Oh Mann Wo Hat Der Mann Ur Seine Augen" has a woman starting an ending with a talked part whose rap flow for some reason reminds me of Ian Dury (circa "Reasons to Be Cheerful") and/or Tim Curry (circa "I Do The Rock"), but a more country-and-western-German version of course; at one point, she mentions both Einstein and Dr. Hook!

Gunter Gabriel's "Komm Charly, Fang Mich Charly," the countryish rap-schlager I compared to Johnny Cash above, also sounds kinda proto-Falco in a way.

The Latin/Brazilian/Afro-Caribbean counterrhythms -- from drums, whistles, horns, partying background vocals -- in a bunch of songs here (Roland Kaiser "Sieben Fasser Wein", Lena Valaitis "Iche Spreche Alle Sprachen Dieser Welt," Pepe Lienhard Band "Monika, Du") is actually less rigid and more accomplished than I gave it credit for above, and also reminds me that certain kinds of disco were basically a mix of German and Latin-American ideas, so maybe there's some connection to that here. (Roberto Blanco's "Wer Trinkt Schon Gern Den Wein Allen" is more obiviously Mex-polka, but good, too.)

Kaiser, among a bunch of German drinking people:

"Skateboard" by Benny (same young German fellow who covered "Ca Plane Pour Moi"/"Jet Boy Jet Girl" up above -- really need an album by the guy now) is probably my favorite non-cover on any of the more schlagery compilations here. There are car horns, and when he says "sea surfin'" it sounds like "sea serpent"! The youtube clip (not a performance unfortunately) actually calls it "Skateboard Uh-Ah-Ah", and there's a link to Sonic the Hedgehog battling to the Witch Doctor song on the "related videos" sidebar, so I didn't imagine that connection.

Music Power (K-Tel West Germany, 1974)

Man, this album pretty defintively demonstrates glam rock taking over the sound of the U.K. charts. It's not so much that there are great stomping songs by hard rock bands like Slade ("Bangin' Man" -- AC/DC prototype, almost, with an awesome cowbell opening, and what is it about, a horny sewer worker or somebody banging "down in that hole"?) and Nazareth (killer screeching Joni cover "This Flight Tonight") and Gary Glitter ("Always Yours") and ANGEL ("Good Time Fanny," total Slade -- how much stuff did they do this great? And is this even the same band with Punky Meadows -- because their debut LP didn't come out until 1975, right?) It's that bands and singers you always thought of as wussy seem mysteriously grow some 'nads here -- SHOWADDYWADDY ("Hey Rock'n'Roll," w/ fist-pumping chorus closer to Slade than Sha Na Na), THE GLITTER BAND ("Angel Face" -- what was it with glam bands and angels anyway? -- with a ram-jammy riff that keeps mechanically leaving and coming back like some progentior of big-beat techno almost -- did they do other stuff this good?), John Kincade from all those schalger comps ("Til I Kissed You" -- didn't like the 45 on that Metal Mike 45s thread, but even then I liked the crunchy opening riff and now the rest is growing on me), DANIEL BOONE ("Love Spell," really proto-METAL, with tempo slowdowns into parts that sound almost doom-rock-like, wtf?) Plus the Rubettes do their aforementioned high-falsetto doo-wop bubble- rock "Sugar Baby Love" on here. It all adds up.

Also like:

BARRY BLUE "Miss Hit And Run" (maybe he's mentioned among the sub-glammers upthread or maybe not; anyway, this is a really sweet Beach Boys rip.)
THE JAMES BOYS "Hello Hello" (more bubble-glam, from squeaky little kids -- the Jonas Brothers are pretty good, but they'd be even better if they sounded like this...or at least like they do on the K-Tel album -- voices seem a little thin and strained in this vid):

DAN THE BANJO MAN "Dan the Banjo Man" (reasonably wobbly/jaunty instrumental, not notably banjofied; context seems to have been...clowns, what?, actually I haven't decided how pointless this is):

Also realized while listening to this that I really should explore the Hollies someday ("Air That I Breathe" is almost a Bowie ballad at points, and "Son Of A Rotten Gambler" has hard country-rock guitar.) And "Honey Honey" may well be the most sexually explicit hit that Abba ever had.

Okay, according to youtube comments (to a video not especially worth looking at), the Angel here is a different, non-Punky-whipping Angel: "this song got to No. 13 in Germany in 1974 - so not a complete flop!! ...Angel was produced by Sweet guitarist Andy Scott and Sweet drummer Mick Tucker. This song was written by Andy Scott. The other Angel single 'Little Boy Blue' was also written by Andy Scott.."

Apparently "Hey Rock'N Roll" was Showaddywaddy's first single; guess it was all downhill from here:

Glitter Band, "Angel Face" -- so were these guys, basically Gary Gliter's band sans Gary, or what?

Yes. "Angel Face" was about their best. I have a 'best of' album. It's solidly fair, not much more. Put them and Mud together and you still don't have Sweet or Slade competition. Maybe Suzi Quatro though.

Hit Parade notes

HENRY VALENTINO "Ich Hab Dein Knie Geseh'n" (Okay, didn't really notice this one before. Valentino sings in a really gruff music-hall voice atop lots of tubas and Johh Philips Sousa-type march rhythms, and there are scratchy voices behind him that sound like taken from an Irish American 78 from the turn of the century, which I assumed was just my imagination running wild until I noticed that Valentino was saying things about "neun-zehn-hunderd-zehn" and "gramophones", "stereo" and "discoteche." So maybe the scratchy voices are meant to sound like 1910 gramophone voices? Non-foot-fetish parts of vid below suggest I'm on to something.)

-- But there's also clearly a strain of schlager (possibly all Eurovision stuff?) that leans toward exuberant, upbeat, girl-pop - not grandmotherly at all. I'd put songs here from Siw Inger, Gitte, and Teach-In (posted vid up above) in that category.

Super 20 - Starparade notes:

(This is the album that came to me without a cover.)

EL PASADOR "Amore Mia (Amade Mia, Amade Mio)" (Google says that's the artist anway; seemingly Italian, though I could be way off on this one. Ominous hushed proto-goth male Eurotrash voice oh-oh-ohs, evolves into a super-emotional bolero-ish thing)

LENA VALAITAS "Oh Cavallo (Don Quichote)" (Sounds like a kids TV song -- sort of Xuxa-like: cute, with a sort of English countryside reel or jig fiddle clippity-clopping, and children yelling "hey!" now and then, and quite possibly lyrics about a donkey.)

WOLFGANG PETRY "Gianna (Liebe Im Auto)" (As in, sex in a car? Sounds like early '80s girl/boy pop, with a jaunty semi-ska rhythm. Very bright and bouncy. Dude has a extremely bushy mustache and Afro, too):

Then there's that song "Disco Planet" that Metal Mike compared to "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees. The DJ guy talking to the duck has this real evil, cackling voice, like he's Vincent Price to the duck's Michael Jackson. And I say "DJ guy" because he drops all these names of songs, like he's doing a countdown -- just noticed "Yes Sir I Can Boogie," and something about "Queen of Disco Town," whatever that is. The duck occasionally sings a girl-group-ish melody; the disco beat comes and goes; the DJ laughs at us.

This is one of the best threads ever. It's like a "secret history" lesson.

Thanks! It's also, at times, one of the drunkest. (Glad somebody has a use for it, though.)

Anyway, more on Music Power:

-- Uh, guess that "Banjo Man" instrumental by those clowns is pretty useless after all. I hereby apologize for it.

-- The non-Punky Meadows Angel song sounds, not surprisingly given its origins, a lot closer to (the slightly artier/proggier/arier) Sweet than Slade, I've since realized.

-- The thing about the Hollies' "Air That I Breathe" that reminds me of early space-ballad Bowie is some of the vocal inflections. No idea whether anybody's pointed that out before, but now it's almost all I hear.

-- For some reason this '74 comp includes a (typically lovely) Drifters song called "Kissing In the Backseat Of The Movies" that was never a hit in the States. I assume it's actually from an earlier decade (like that Hank Mizell "Jungle Rock" song up above), unless they reunited. No idea why it hit so late in Germany.

-- There's a line in "Honey Honey" by Abba that I keep hearing as "And honey, to say the least, you've got Double D's." Internet lyric sites say the words are actually "...you're a doggone beast" instead, which is maybe even funnier.

-- "Always Yours" by perv Gary Glitter has a riff that sounds a lot like Adam and the Ants several years later (who I figured are also the band that may have ripped off the Hank the Knife and the Jets riff that I'd thought had later gotten ripped off by Stray Cats instead. The Ants' song "Goody Two Shoes," I think.)

-- That Barry Blue "Miss Hit And Run" Beach Boys rip is more than just sweet -- it's a rock'n'rolling car song, with engines revving and powerchords the Beach Boys would never have put in there. Sounds great. Sadly can't find a youtube clip.

-- Also can't find one for "Love Spell" by Daniel Boone, which is the song on here that's been really killing me. "You got me in a love spell, woman"....what the hell, had somebody bought him a copy of the first Dust album for Christmas?

I think it's well-documented that Adam & the Ants raided Gary Glitter's two drummers playing tom toms (no hihat) feature and also the guitar sound.

Super Hits 78: Vocal & Instrumental (SR International West Germany, 1978)

PEGGY MARCH "Oklahoma" (Real nice quasi-country sung in German -- so does that mean formerly "Little" Peggy wound up shooting for stardom there once her star faltered in the U.S., as somebody said above that Roger Whitaker did? Not that I know all that much about Peggy March to begin with, beyond her great 1963 #1 "I Will Follow Him" at 15 years old; looks like she had two other, much smaller Top 40 hits later that year, after which her career took a quick nosedive. Really, the main thing I know about her is that Richard Meltzer includes her in a genre called "march rock" in Aesthetics of Rock.)
TRUCKSTOP "Die Frau Mit Dem Gurt" (Took me mere seconds of listening to this fast country talker to realize country-rock Canadians the Road Hammers did it as "Girl On A Billboard" on their album last year. But I don't think a "gurt" is a billboard. No idea what the original version is. Or who Truckstop are for that matter, but they sound sehr gut.)

Thing is, for a two-disc set, that's all that I really cared about. There's a good ethereal Baccara disco song called "Darling," Amanda Lear doing her usual proto-Broken English Marianne Faithful decadence schtick in "Follow Me," Robin Zander's DJ-and-duck (or maybe robot?) "Disco Planet" and Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" again. But not much to convince me that keeping this twofer would be more useful than employing its inner sleeves elsewhere.

Mainly, what there is is ORCHESTER TONY ANDERSON doing singerless elevator Muzak MOR versions of a fairly wide-spanning variety of material (that's the "instrumental" of the LP title), interspersed among all the way more legit sung songs: "Mull Of Kintyre," "Love Is Like Oxygen" (!), "Black Is Black," "Singing In The Rain," Chic's "Dance Dance Dance" (not bad actually), something called "Mein Verein Ist Spitze" that sounds like swirling circus music with lots of handclaps, something called "Dancing Party" that sounds based on Gary U.S. Bonds's "Quarter To Three," something called "For A Few Dollars More" credited to Chinn/ Chapman not Ennio Morricone (yet boring anyway), something called "House of The Rising Sun" that doesn't seem to be that one, something called "Amada Mia, Amada Mio" with a sort of "I Feel Love" synth rhtyhm and space-age-bacherelorette-pad girls la-la-la-ing, plus a few songs I never heard of before. It sounds intriguing on paper, probably, but out my speakers it got tiring faster than you'd think.

(Frank Zander, I mean, obv. Not the Cheap Trick guy.)

Zander's DJ-and-duck (or maybe robot?) "Disco Planet"

Wait, I figured it out! It's not a duck or a robot! It's a space alien! "Disco PLANET", get it? (And the martian voice is strictly in the lineage of whatever Buchanan & Goodman martian tracks came before, and Newcleus and Lil Wayne ones etc. later.)

(Also, speaking of space aliens, when I say the Hollies' vocal inflections in "Air That I Breathe" remind me of Ziggy-era Bowie, I'm talking about how quivery they are. Or something.)

Didn't even make it through Svensk Toppar 4 (Triola Sweden, 1969) or Svensk Toppar 15 (Flora Sweden, 1972), though the latter was clearly more upbeat pop and less MOR, plus had covers of Daniel Boone's "Beautiful Sunday" and Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue" on it. Prefer the girl on the cover of 4, though, who is wearing a paisley miniskirt in a hay loft and quite leggy.

Metal Mike Saunders, on these compilations in general:

since i'm really tweaky/picky about saving/keeping V/A comp lps...something like the two "keep it" criteria being either (1) great sides i don't own anywhere else, or (2) genre collections, or (3) an entire side that plays straight through

so you trumped Paige in being the back-up to route all the 75-cent (50e, at last spring's 1.50/euro peak exchange rate when we were there) v/a lps. ALL FROM THE SAME STORE. i think they're stickered with that 50e price

And on Les Humphries (mentioned briefly upthread, and who he also sent me three LPs by):

the only lps in that whole box that didn't average out to "50cents/ea" were one or two of the super neat LES HUMPHRIES medley-lps from 1970-71-72. (there's many but the earlier they are, the better). which cost anywhere from $3 to $10, can't remember (at $1.50/euro) but i accept sliding-scale valuation. (everything else, just figure a 50 cent/lp average, all loosely screened since i keep the REALLY good stuff, don't even ask cause you don't wanna know).

Little Brown Man (their original, and i badly need the full 45 version if there is one) comnig right after its prototype, the radically re-arranged (for the better, and better played also i say) Brown Sugar is a true alternative musical unvierse ( = germany) mindfuck! then i believe the very next track (starting the next medley) is an excellent Badfinger cover.

they REALLY had some cool sounding gear (guitars/amps/drums) in that band. i have no idea where/how they recorded, but it sure sounds all-live, straight to 8-track (like black sabbath's first two albums, uriah heep's first three albums inc Look At Yourself, etc). with Les angling to pay his rent with that humungous menangerie of band members, you can bet (1) he paid for and owned the masters like Dave Clarkin 1964-x, and (2) recorded super fast and cheap. fuck, for all i know he arranged the whole damn thing on SHEET MUSIC, people who read music? i can't imagine 12 people doniog "head arrangements" except maybe for strict vocal-ranges like the beach boys (or any regimented white vocal group pre-beatles).

i haven't burned the time grinding through their Youtube clips to see if one ever clearly shows what equipment their guys on gtr/bass/drums/keyboards are using.

too bad Les was too young for the 80's synth/keyboards/Fairlight era.

Some work though (and they probably just made this thread impossible to load, oh well.

Not quite but close. One of my browsers crashed but not the other. You're work here isn't over.

George was referring to the thread-crashing Metal Mike emails I'd posted, which had way too many youtube links to keep things unfrozen. So I asked the mods to delete my posts, which they did, and here is Metal Mike again, without those links. (He starts off the first one by quoting Wikipedia):

1. ARABESQUE
http://www6.plala.or.jp/arabesque DISCOG SITE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesque_(group)

"The all-girl trio Arabesque was created by two Frankfurt-based German producers at the height of the disco era in 1977. After one album and a few singles that had found surprising success in Japan, the producers changed the lineup, keeping Michaela Rose and replacing the two other girls with Jasmin Vetter and Sandra Lauer. Vetter, a former gymnast, also became the trio's choreographer and Lauer, soon to be billed simply as Sandra, assumed the position of a lead vocalist. The first single of the updated Arabesque, Hello, Mr. Monkey went to number one in Japan. The Far East remained the band's biggest market, with numerous albums and compilations released over the years. However, Arabesque's success in their homeland was very modest, with only one single, Marigot Bay, entering the German charts at number eight in 1981"

"6 million albums sold in Japan"!

songs i like off Youtube (i have the first lp/finnish pressing from a junk bin, with the earlier hit disco-era singles): Young Fingers Get Burnt LP7 (A-side)
Hit The Jackpot LP6 (A-Side)
Make Love Whenever You Can LP4 (A-side**)
Peppermint Jack (1979) LP2 (A-Side)
Rollerstar LP3 (B-side of High Life)
Like a Shot in the Dark LP5
I Don't Wanna Have Breakfast With You LP4 (B-side** japanese) (B-side german In For A Penny)
Parties in a Penthouse LP3 (B-side german of Take Me Don't Break Me)
Billy's Barbeque LP5 (A-side)
Jingle Jangle Joe* LP3
Prison of Love* LP7LPs
1978 Friday Night
1979 City Cats
1980 Marigot Bay
1980 IV
1981 Billy's Barbeque (In For A Penny)
1981 Caballero
1982 Why No Reply
1983 Dance Dance Dance
1984 Time To Say Good Bye
Caballero*

more Metal Mike:

another really cool act i may have flat out forgot to look for (in the large alpha-betized LP proper-price racks) in the berlin/hamburg/oslo record stores last May was early-mid 70's German glitter-rock band TIGER B. SMITH

i actually have/bought a 10-cent bin copy of the 2nd lp, american pressing (on Janus) at Moby Disc on ventura blvd, late 70's. funnny, it was spot-checked/audited once only, and misfiled it (forever, until just now) into the "crap, what is this?" misc uncategorized section. since it had a rather confusing cover, not clear if it was a real act or some "fake band" or "rock/disco studio creation, not a band" (as late as the late 70's, america had not yet figured out that the "fakeness" of much UK74 glitter rock was actually a badge of "authenticity," ie fake being a criterion for true UKglitter's 2nd-wave. and don't forget that lousy In-Betweens 45s. or the earliest (and lousy) Bolan and Bowie 60's 45s. when they're actually a German heavy rock/prog rock thing that jumps into "glitter rock" in 1974 (like all the UK hasbeen/neverwas schlubs in 1973-74). "Album: "Tiger Rock" originally released on Vertigo (german only).
No domestic release in the U.S.
Progressive/Glam Rock from Germany" 1st lp goes for over $150 on german ebay in just VG+/VG+ , ie a Vertigo label heavy/prog rock band collectible. (just 5 songs, one of them 10+ minutes) "Album: "We're the Tiger Bunch" released in the U.S. on Janus Records, 1975.
Progressive/Glam Rock from Germany
The album cover was issued in the U.S. the same as the 1972 release of Tiger Rock. Category: Music" (9 songs, almost all of them conventional length) no particular value for the US pressing on Janus/1975. ten years ago it wasn't even listed as a "price guide album." (from a Youtube top 10 german heavy/prog albums list/clip)

As you may notice by watchin´this, my favourite German label is Philips and favourite year is 1971 when it comes to heavy progressive Krautrock, as always many great bands didnt find space here. Blackwater Park, Armageddon, Message, Tiger B Smith, Kin Ping Meh, Asterix and Gift, fell just outside this list." ======================================= NEWTON FAMILY as mentioned some time back (to chuck) my Youtube checklist of the best songs/youtube by the 70's-80's-beyond NEWTON FAMILY from Hungary (no lps turned up in the cheap lps on last year's trip). i have just one, one of their best (ie, most Abba-disco-like) lps (MARATHON), in a east european issue, from a local thrift store a looong time ago, maybe early 90's. indications are that only a tiny percentage (even less than Aqabesque) of thier material is ABBA-sound (i.e., eurodisco era ABBA)

Only a couple such comps worth noting in this year's big Metal Mike giveaway box. Only getting to the first one now.

Die Grosse & Aktuelle 72/3 Star Parade -- wouldn't call any of these quite "excellent", but whatever:

DALIAH LAVI "Ich Glaub' An Die Liebe" - part of this sounds sort of like the part of "Uncle Albert" where Paul McCartney and Wings sing about "hands across the water." The rest sounds sort of like something else schmaltzy and early '70s I can't place.
NEW KEY "Oh Ich Will Betteln, Ich Will Stehelen" -- song leaves no impression at all, but still worth noting since all the other artists get photos of their faces on the cover and New Key only get a drawing of a key. Maybe they were a TV show or something?
WINDOWS "How Do You Do" -- previously noted on German 45s from Metal Mike thread, I think; catchy Auf Deutsch cover of catchy 1972 U.S. hit by Dutchpeople Mouth & McNeal
ANITA "Glück In Der Tasche" -- Cute sweet high-pitched but bravely sung bubble-polka by apparent (judging from cover photo) pre-teen
POP TOPS "Suzanne, Suzanne" -- Minor-key partial "Jolene" (Dolly Parton) soundalike by biracial sextet who might've been mentioned upthread somewhere
BIG SECRET "Samson & Delilah" --My favorite track on this album; proto-Abba Europop oompah with a slight (maybe imagined) Caribbean lilt by female duo who, judging from their small cover photo, might be of either Far or Middle Eastern (or Pacific Islander) ancestry
KAREL GOTT "Gute Nacht, Freunde" -- Attempt at lounge jazz in German; not horrible, considering

Eurovision Gala: 29 Winners - 29 Worldsuccesses (Polygram Portugal double LP, c. 1982)

Again, mostly not great, but at least halfway likeable:

TEDDY SCHOLTEN "'N Beetje" -- Jaunty skip-through-the-tulip-patch Alpine girl-pop, Netherlands 1958
ISABELLE AUBRET "Un Premier Amour" -- French girl-pop with a minor key Middle Eastern lilt, from 1962
FRANCE GALL "Poupe'e De Cire, Poupe'ee De Son" -- Exuberantly sung music-box-swirling Serge Gainsbourg cover, from Italy in 1965. (I like it way more than Metal Mike, who writes on the LP gatefold, in red and blue felt-tip marker, "Kill kill make it stop! No no noooo I hate bad French 'ye-ye' shit i.e. everything but Francois Hardy")
SANDIE SHAW "Puppet On A String" -- U.K. 1967; Nice oompah doompah beat but her singing is almost as lame as Metal Mike says; no idea if that's typical of her
MARIA ROSA MARCO (SALOME) "Vivo Cantando" -- Quasi-Latin percussion and backup tough-guy gang shouts behind loud if otherwise inconsequentially voiced Spanish lady who knows how to repeat chorus hooks and make them stick, from 1969
DANA "All Kinds Of Everything" -- These are a few of her favorite things, several of which have to do with the sea (though the list gets more generalized and therefore less interesting as she goes on), Ireland 1970 with a decent vocal trill to it.
TEACH-IN "Ding-a-Dong" -- "The world is sunny, everything is funny": Excellent, super catchy, slightly dark fake Abba from the Netherlands in 1975, just a year after "Waterloo"
YITZHAR COHEN & THE ALPHA BETA "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" -- By far the most exotic sounding song on the album (Middle Eastern go-go-dancer pop, with disco strings and brass and Boney M harmonies), and one of the best, from an Israeli band featuring six people in the gatefold photo; 1978.
GALI ATARI & MILK & HONEY "Hallellujah" -- More Israelis, from 1979; simple and pretty boy-girl harmony two-finger-piano probably secular praise-pop and builds with the fake jazz horns.

Also has Lulu "Boom Bang A Bang" (more Brit oompah), Abba "Waterloo," Brotherhood Of Man "Save Your Kisses For Me," Bucks Fizz "Making Your Mind Up" (Metal Mike: "Abba break up, and this is all the entire UK can come up with? Laame!")

Hah, just noticed I wrote this upthread, almost two years ago:

A disco band I think might not be very good is MILK & HONEY WITH GALLI. They've had two songs on these comps so far, and I haven't liked either one.

Actually, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure Metal Mike sent me a full LP by them a few years ago, too, and that seemed pretty marginal as well.

Also upthread two years ago (I might be being redundant all over the place, but all the youtube clips I posted make the thread un-openable, so I'll never know):

TEACH-IN "Ding-A-Dong" (Dutch maiden catchily ding-a-ding-donging, more Abba than schlager; youtube blurb says it won Eurovision in 1975)

So much win here, but I think Clout might be the winningest. (Weird how so many of the choruses represented don't qite deliver on the verses, though.) I know it's a pretty catholic selection to invent an umbrella for--beyond K-tel--but tell me, someone in NYC has a DJ night devoted to genius Euro bubblegum, right?

...also kinda shocked that "Amoureux Solitaires" isn't some meticulous pastiche from like two years ago...

Norkse Topp Artister (Nor-Disc 1968 -- record label logo is a cool long dragon-like Viking boat with records on the side!) has songs that appear to be (presumably Norwegian) covers of:

"Hello Muddah Hello Faddah!"(BIRGIT STRØM's "Brev Fra Leier'n" -- do kids in Norway even go to American-style summer camps with alligators in the lakes and play baseball there? If not, how would this song make sense? It's such an American song. Unless it is a different parody of Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" entirely, but the vocal cadence sure sounds taken from Alan Sherman)
"Que Sara Sara" (NORA BROCKSTEDT's "En Gang, Et Sted" -- 90 percent sure I guessed this melody right anyway)
"Sloop John B" (VESTLANDSDUOEN's "Eg Hadde Ein Goin Ein Bat" -- unless both Vestlandsduoen and the Beach Boys stole the tune from the same ancient public domain sea chantey)
"Guantamera" (ANNE KARINE's "Guantanamera" -- not sure how relevant that song could be in Norway, either)

Also cute sounding:
WENCHE MYHRE's "Jeg Har Vǽet Sånn Fǿr" (pretty sure I also approved of her "Komm Allein"/"17und4" single on the German 45s from Metal Mike thread)
and even more so
TOII STØA's "Tjakkaboom, Tjakkaboom" (sounds like "chick-a-boom chick-a-boom")

Also
NORA BROCKSTEDT's "En Gang" Et Sted" sounds like bullfight music
ǺSE KLEVELAND's "Fritiof Och Camencita" sounds like her vocal style might've influenced Nina Hagen, according to my wife.

All these singers are women, though there is one middle-aged male/female duo among the dozen acts pictured on the cover (otherwise, ten women and one female trio, ranging in age to twentysomething to elderly. No way to tell which photo is which artist, though.)

Hit-Palast (Teldec W. Germany 1982)

F.R. DAVID "Words" -- I remember this super pretty singer-songwriter pop number being on German radio all the time when I arrived there in 1982. Almost made me happy to be there too! Barely gave it another thought for the next three decades, but now I own it, and I know nothing else about F.R. David (though I should probably google him.*) The song's not as great in reality as it is in my memory, but it's still really nice.

Otherwise this comp has a few obscure and pleasant girl-group/Abba-like acts I never heard of before (HORNETTES, BABE), a few less pleasant adult-contempo Euro ballad crooners I never heard of (RENEE & RENATO, PANARAMA, SALVA), a mysterious band covering "Another Brick in the Wall" whose picture on the cover shows them dressed up in KKK/executioner/Mentors-like black capes and hoods (PINK PROJECT), plus famous and almost-famous names names (Hall & Oates, Madness, Haysi Fantayzee, Adam Ant, Madness, A Flock Of Seagulls, Toto, Yazoo, Eddy Grant After The Fire, Eruption, Sharon Redd, etc.)

* OK, just did. Here's Wiki:

F. R. David (born Elli Robert Fitoussi, 1 January 1947, Menzel Bourguiba, Tunisia) is a Tunisian-born French singer.
During the early 1970s, he was a band member in the French rock band, Les Variations. His personal "trademarks" are his sunglasses and his guitar (a white Fender Stratocaster). His most recognised song was his hit "Words" (1982), which sold eight million Carrère records across the world, topped charts around Europe in late 1982, and reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart in Spring 1983, going on to becoming the 22nd best selling single in the UK during 1983.
The track's eventual UK success was caused by its exposure on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops. The disc was featured on the first edition of a special Euro-slot incorporated in the TV program. The song is a catchy, slightly plaintive mid-tempo ballad sung in a slender, high-pitched voice.

More, from "Words"' own Wiki page:

It was a huge European hit, peaking at #1 in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Norway.

Pink Project Wiki is interesting too, though I didn't notice the song sounding especially Italodisco or like Alan Parsons; maybe I need to listen again:

Pink Project is the name of an Italo disco production created, like its contemporary Kano, by Italian composer/keyboardist/producer Stefano Pulga, together with his colleagues Luciano Ninzatti (also guitarist/programmer), Matteo Bonsanto (keyboardist) and sound engineer Massimo Noè. Their biggest hit, which also provided them with their name, was a mashup - one of the very first such creations, actually, in Italy - entitled "Disco Project".
"Disco Project" was born out of the mixes that Pulga used to create during his club nights. In early 1982, he and Ninzatti had realized that Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), which was a big hit in Italy in that period, and The Alan Parsons Project's equally popular "Mammagamma" had the same tempo and, in some sections, the same key. Plus, in light of Parsons' long-standing association with Pink Floyd - he engineered the band's historical Dark Side of the Moon album - APP's instrumentals (starting from earlier ones, such as "Lucifer" and "The Gold Bug") were often mistaken for Pink Floyd by Italian club goers and 'dance' fans in general.

wait, you didn't think their italodisco cover of alan parsons sounded like italo or alan parsons? or another song by them. i love that whole album. or double album.

i bought that album at funkomart in philly, like, 20 years ago! i think it was a dollar. they had such great stuff in that store.

that album with "words" on it is really good, by the way. do you need a copy? i've had one in the store forever. also picked up, like, ten german hits/schlager/disco comps a couple weeks ago if you want some of those. quality varies.

oh and i picked up the Les Variations album Moroccan Roll recently (not to be confused with the later brand x album with the same title) and i like it a bunch. worldmusic/rock/psych fusion thing.

oh wait okay i see it was the pink project floyd cover on that comp of yours.

chuck, you REALLY need the Domino album by Pink Project. if i ever see another copy i'll send it your way. the album opens up with a disco mash-up of der kommisar and da da da.

Renee & Renato was kind of a novelty/joke number 1 in the UK, tho I'm sure lots of people bought it sincerely too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9e_and_Renato

can't find the original video on Youtube. it was quite funny.

Scott, the Pink Project track on this comp is called "Disco Project," but it sure just sounded like a Pink Floyd cover to me, the two times I've listened. I will relisten though, and report back if I'm wrong. Maybe they just included an excerpt of the entire mashup? Or maybe I was too busy cooking pasta to notice how cool it was, who knows. Anyway, I own zero F.R. David or Pink Project albums, have never heard any, and of course I would welcome them and any schlager-disco you wanna send!

disco project is an alan parsons/floyd mash-up. it starts out with APP. first the chicago bulls theme and then mammagamma and then pink floyd.

to be honest, alan parsons could have made way better italo than most italo music people if he had wanted to.

Yeah, you are right about the mashup - definitely hear the Italo at the beginning now. Part of my problem, though, is that I wouldn't know a Alan Parsons swipe if somebody knocked me over the head with one. I am so non-APP-literate. You're going to think I'm lying, but I never even heard of "Mammagamma" before today, I swear.

Anyway, that Pink Project track is pretty sweet after all, but I bet I'd like it way more in the context of an album (especially one with Falco/Trio mashups on it.)

Relistened to the Renee & Renaldo track, too, and am still not getting the joke, if there really is one, at all. Just sounds like a bel canto style old-people Tin Pan Alley schmaltz duet to me. Don't hate it, seems competent enough, but I'm missing what's funny about it. Just kitschy I guess? But maybe if I saw the video, I'd get it.

i love APP records. i like them for the sounds. i dunno, i'm just a fan. i love his production work. the stuff he did with pilot and the hollies. you should be able to get the first ten APP albums for ten bucks. i like all those albums! they're weird and cool and sound so massive. pop-prog at its finest. and disco beats and all kinds of beats and cool guitars and completely anonymous singing and just fun in the sun if you are me.

yeah the joke with Renee and Renato was he was a bit of a chubby middle-aged dude and she was a younger woman, the video was a cheap soft-focus Mills and Boon looking thing and the DJs presenting Top of the Pops who were probably as old as he was could all have a knowing giggle as it sat there amongst all the New Romantic and synth pop and smart young people music of 1981.

should have said "joke" really.

The Hit Factory: The Best Of Stock Aitken Waterman (Stylus U.K., 1987)

I guess this counts on this thread? It's almost all hits, apparently, but (outside the two Bananaramas and one Rick Astley), mostly not big U.S. hits. And it looks K-Tel-ish. On the other hand, the songs all share a similar sound, obviously, in ways a K-Tel comp's songs wouldn't. Anyway, whatever. Favorite song I either didn't know or hadn't heard in a million years is "FLM" by MEL AND KIM; I have no idea what "FLM" stands for, but I always liked "Respectable" too, and I'm pretty sure I never heard an entire Mel and Kim album but now I kind of want to. Likewise Hi-NRGized "Whatever I Do" by Hazell Dean is great too, but I have an album by her already. Next favorite new one to me is "Toy Boy (Extra Muscle Mix)" by SINITTA, post-early-Madonna slightly r&b bubblegum girl-twirl by somebody who I never knew was Miquel "So Many Men So Little Time" Brown's daughter, much less (according to Wiki) both Simon Cowell's and Brad Pitt's ex-girlfriend.

Also fairly likable: The songs by PRINCESS (on here twice), CAROL HITCHCOCK (a Kim Wilde style disco-pop cover of the Tempts/Rare Earth's "Get Ready"), and MANDY, none of whom I'd ever heard of before, I don't think. Somewhat tolerable: The ones credited to MONDO KANE FEATURING GEORGIE FAME ("New York Afternoon," sort of adult-contemporary quasi-reggae with a decent schlock melody -- makes me wonder whether Georgie Fame's older stuff was ever any good, but doesn't make me wonder that much) and "Roadblock" credited to STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN themselves, more a production collage than a song, and passable at it but not near as audacious as say "Pump Up The Volume". Which leaves a horrible charity "Let It Be" cover by all-star group Ferry Aid (feat. Kate Bush, Paul McCartney, and Boy George, among others, the cover says), and a catchy Samantha Fox tune that I probably heard before, though maybe not a in this (not particularly jump-blues) "Jump and Jive" mix.

SZTÁROK A GYERMEKEKÉRT (Gong Hungary 1985)

This one is pretty great! SZTÁROK is now officially my new favorite rock sub-genre! Also it looks like they sold square-inches of ad space to something like 144 (sometimes alphabetically arranged) Hungarian companies (6 up x 6 across x 4 pages) with very snappy logos for the back cover and inner sleeve -- quite the innovative funding and revenue concept!

SARAGOSSA BAND --Shake it to the right shake it to the left bubblegum dance music. I have more or less liked every song I've heard by this mysterious cheeseball worldbeat band, I think -- "Ginger Red" on some other compilation way upthread, "Big Bamboo (Ay Ay Ay)" and "I Like It" on some 45 I somehow got somewhere. Haven't totally loved any of them, though. (The one they do here is called "Agadou," which title sounds familiar so maybe I already have it somewhere else, too.) In the picture on the cover there are eight people in the band -- probably seven men, one woman; five lighter-skinned, three darker-skinned; four or so with Hawaiian shirts.

UNIVERSAL MOVEMENT -- "Subway Dancin": I love this one! Some kind of stretched-out disco-breakdance production pop, lots of rhythm at the beginning before anybody starts singing; okay, just realized there's a sort of less steely and severe "Axel F"/"Rockit" electro-hop thing going on, and duh, the words are about breakdancing: "Subway dancin', what a fascination/Subway dancin', breakdance at the station," plus a rapper who seems to be calling himself Whiz Kid coming in now and then to tell you to do the rock and the freak, neat! Europeans pretending to be from the South Bronx? Long song, too, with more false endings than any K-Tel track I've ever heard, probably, and finally a cheesy obligatory "rock" guitar solo at the end, but all melodically sweet and lovely in that early '80s post-disco ("boogie") r&b way that totally lures you in and lets you bask in its bottomless warmth and rhythm -- could be eight or nine minutes, easy; has to be a 12-inch mix.

CHARLES AMOAH "Sweet Vibration" -- More dance-on-the-sidewalk scratch-boogie pop; wow, Hungary was totally getting funky in the mid '80s! Actually, this sounds more like a post-Chic or post- Slave type r&b band than the previous song, but with a European accent talking about what his doctor recommended. And ha ha, now he's talking about "aaaaaaaaaaaaah......scratch"-ing! His back, what a joker! And this one has a better (and longer) gratuitous guitar solo than the Universal Movement one, too -- followed by lots and lots of genuine scratching!

THE TWINS "The Wild Romance" -- Fey swishy male synth-pop duo with a sax solo; reminds me of the Pet Shop Boys or Alphaville or somebody, but somehow having Central European accents makes these guys seem more warm-blooded and less detached. (Alphaville were Germans, actually, but they only sounded warm-blooded some of the time.)

MP "I Hav' An Rendez-vous" -- Actually I'm not sure whether that hyphen belongs in the title, or whether they just split it up because they ran out of room on the sleeve where the title is listed, which might well be a first. (Okay, just checked the actual label -- the hyphen stays!) Anyway, MP (as in Miltary Police??) is clearly a Falco wannabee, hopefully a Hungarian one. Rapping, continentally and gutterrally, about who knows what. With scratches, and what sounds like pigs grunting, and somebody mixing in "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles once.

PALAIS SCHAUMBURG "Easy Go" -- What the heck are these guys doing on there? I always figured them for super avant-garde Neu Deutsche Welle weirdos (the only other song I have by them is on a comp LP also featuring Der Plan, Einsturzende Neubauten, Malaria, Ja Ja Ja, etc.); does being on this compilation mean they wound up selling out with actual hits somewhere? Like...Hungary, for instance? Anyway, this track is sort of odd, like for instance when the Pigbag/Dirty Dozen Brass Band horn-fart charts come in, and there's something off-kilterishly Nina Hagen like about the female backup part, but mostly it's just your usual Numan/Dolby science-class-pop robotics. Still glad it's here.

CATERINA VALENTE "SOS - Wir Bauen Ein Dorf Aus Liebe" -- Post-Abba schlager hausfrau makes you cry in your Pilsner during the verses, then bounce around in your seat and sing along and clink steins and order more bratwurst during the la-la-la chorus. In the gasthaus. Wearing a dirndl, most likely.

Tolerable ballad schlocksters: Riccardo Fogli (singing foreign), Bernie Paul (singing English --actually he's not all that tolerable maybe), Uwe Adams (foreign - the foreign-schlockers are winning), Cebra (still better than Bernie Paul.)

Best Band on the Compilation (who I already have a big pile of albums by) Award: Boney M, who do "African Moon"

"FLM" by MEL AND KIM; I have no idea what "FLM" stands for

as far as i can remember... and i'm almost ashamed to admit this, I think it stood for Fun, Love and Money.

It did indeed stand for Fun, Love and Money... as stated in the lyric!

The Twins: they had two big Euro hits in 1983 - "Face To Face (Heart To Heart)" and the wonderful "Not The Loving Kind". The lyrics to the latter are particularly OMGWTFLOL: "You know you can't succeed / in winning cocks with chicken feed" ... "Your efforts are effete / the stake's too high for easy meat / why don't you just admit defeat?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAdqNexE4Is

Ha, that's awesome. I never even heard of them before.

square-inches of ad space to something like 144... Hungarian companies (6 up x 6 across x 4 pages)

Uh, guess these ads would be two square inches each, not just one, since the LP cover is a square foot. (Estimating distances was never my long suit.)

Roadblock" credited to STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN themselves, more a production collage than a song, and passable at it but not near as audacious as say "Pump Up The Volume".

funny you should mention "Pump", as it used a sample from "Roadblock" which SAW spotted & sued for. I think non-UK versions had the sample stripped out?