Greatest Hits Of The World (1974)

Let us instantly focus on the important question, how is the girl on the cover connected to the music? You could almost find the photo in a soft porn magazine, but a girl on an album cover, standing on a beach wearing a swimsuit, of which the upper part is some sort of net bra, has of course some sort of meaning. Some sort of symbolism. The only question is which one.

Maybe a clue is the album's opening track? It is Sylvia's mother we see. Unconcerned about her motherly duties and responsibilities, totally unaffected by parenthood's heavy and destructive influence, although she is a little dark around the eyes (this made me a moment think that she is a heroin addict, isn't heroin addicts often dark around their eyes?). But where is Sylvia!? Is she swimming? Can she swim? Does she have a life jacket!!!??? Or is the woman's beaming face a confirmation that You made me so very happy? Then I stumbled upon an idea that made me both scared, worried and intrigued - what if she is The Witch Queen of New Orleans!? A beautiful witch, who with her seductive appearance enchants us and makes us do things we never thought possible - reveal our deepest secrets, betray our friends and buy Greatest Hits albums. Things we in hindsight don't understand how we could do.

Other side of the album cover

For it can't be that the record company places a beautiful, scantily clad woman on the cover, with no connection to the music, just to sell a few extra copies? With the idea that heterosexual men possibly get up their wallets easier and consume, instead of ashamed visit a shady magazine store, wearing a cap, hood and sun glasses, to buy the latest issue of Hustler (this was before the Internet, you know)? Can a record be that greedy and cunning, almost evil?

But look at many of Roxy Music's album covers. Why am I not thinking the same way about them? Maybe I define them like art, with some sort of deep thought behind them. But really, aren't they roughly the same?

Well, enough about the somewhat cheap cover. The music? Well, honestly it's some pretty good songs. It's still a Greatest Hits album, so if the title is not lying, the content is such that the general public has apparently appreciated it. Amongst other we have Janis Joplin with Me and Bobby McGee, The Byrds with Mr. Tambourine Man and Fleetwood Mac's Albatross. Good songs all of them. Of course we have some more dull numbers also, like OC Smith's Little Green Apples.

On side A, I knew more or less all the tracks, on the B-side it was the opposite. It made me a little suspicious, either it just chance or the record company did it on purpose. If the latter, probably on the basis that at the time you actually test listened the albums in the store before you bought them (yes, it's true). But often you just listened to the first side, especially if people were waiting for the record player. In the shops there were usually a limited number of turntables, sometimes just one. There was an unspoken, sometimes explicit, rule that one should not occupy a turntable for too long. Well, knowing this the record company could of course place a bunch more unknown songs on the B-side which they creatively would call "hits". But perhaps I am too suspicious. Personally, I was too young to listen to the radio and remember songs at this time, so if the songs didn't become true classics and get a continued existence in various contexts, they have probably passed me by.

On the B-side, I made a new acquaintance in the song Son Of My Father with Chicory Tip. It turned out that Giorgio Moroder was involved in the song which perhaps explains the funny moog synth that makes the song pretty cool. It's from 1972, the same year I was born, so I hope I'm forgiven I hadn't heard it before.

The subtitle of the album is The Original Versions! Here I just want to put in some sort of protest as the Beatles' Obladi Oblada is performed by The Marmelade, and the earliermentioned Mr. Tambourine Man with the Byrds is of course also a cover (there are possibly more). OK, I understand that the songs were hits in the form of these covers, but I still think a protest is justified. It's not the original, original version. Is the subtitle therefore a lie? Thinking about this too long just gets you confused and makes you start questioning reality itself, so I leave this issue here.

Apparently, the cover was a succée, for the other Greatest Hits Of The World are variations on the same theme:

Overall an OK album with some pretty good songs. Sure, the soft porn cover gives it a bit cheapish shimmer, and you can always a bit snobbish look down on Greatest Hits records, but many of the individual songs are good. I've either got the album sometime as a gift along with lots of other LPs, or it has entered my collection when I have bought a bag of records with relatively unknown content. Or it was the cover that attracted me, the shady magazine shop was too far away, and it was less embarrassing to buy an LP. I honestly don't remember.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show - Sylvia's Mother 3:55
2. The Marmelade - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 2:56
3. Janis Joplin - Me And Bobby McGee 4:30
4. The Byrds - Me Tambourine Man 2:17
5. Bobby Vinton - Sealed With A Kiss 2:48
6. Blood, Sweat & Tears -You've Made Me So Very Happy 3:26
7. Fleetwood Mac - Albatross 3:07

Side B
1. Redbone - The Witch Queen Of New Orleans 2:45
2. Chicken Shack -I'd Rather Go Blind 3:13
3. Chicory Tip - Son Of My Father 2:51
4. Santana - Ji-Go-Lo-Ba 4:18
5. The Tremeloes - Silence Is Golden 2:57
6. OC Smith - Little Green Apples 3:48
7. Georgie Fame - The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde 3:07