Top Of The Pops - Volume 20 (Hallmark)

Released around the time i was born, thus these were the hot pop sounds exciting the nation while i was ready to make my debut, what a scary thought. Some of the songs are pretty good, the cover of "Maggie May" has been on another of these Top Of The Popper CDs i have reviewed and is a good attempt at the song though the singer sounds more like Joe Cocker than Rod.

"Spanish Harlem" and "The night they drove old Dixie down" also delight, though in the latter case its as much for the subject matter more than anything else, pop songs about the American Civil War are pretty rare these days. Much of the album is bland however. Maybe that just reflects a less than vintage crop of pop tunes at the time to cover, then i arrived and it all changed. Or did it?

"I'm leaving" is the Elvis cover, unfortunately with this series you always imagine they got a cheesey Elvis impersonator to do the song. Best song on the album is the Four Tops cover "Simple game" which is very true to the original and performed very well indeed.