I have very fond memories of this Ronco LP from way back when I could play a Ronco LP without being embarrassed about it. And in fact I played the crap out of this one. I don't know how I got hold of Don Kirshner Presents Rock Power, but I suspect that I got it from an older cousin in a gift exchange, perhaps as a regift.
Happily, Don Kirshner Presents Rock Power managed to survive my aunt's vindictive acts of censorship; one of the other As Seen on TV albums in my and my cousin's joint collection had "Squeezebox" on it, and my aunt (for some reason) decided that that song had to be scratched the hell off the vinyl. The music was not all right.
Some of the songs on Don Kirshner Presents Rock Power appealed to me more than others, of course. "Rock On" is a classic, and I still can't get tired of it. If I ever gave you a mix CD, it was probably on it. Similarly, "Right Place, Wrong Time" ... songs I wish I were cool enough to have as the soundtrack to my life. Hell, at this point I'd settle for Seals and Crofts.
A1 Barry White - Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up
A2 Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
A3 The Stylistics - Break Up to Make Up
A4 The Grass Roots - Two Divided by Love
A5 Alice Cooper - No More Mr. Nice Guy
A6 David Essex - Rock On
A7 Love Unlimited - Yes, We Finally Made It
A8 Seals & Crofts - Hummingbird
A9 Dr. John - Right Place, Wrong Time
A10 Five Man Electrical Band - Werewolf
B1 Al Green - So You're Leaving
B2 The Spinners - I'll Be Around
B3 First Choice - Love and Happiness
B4 Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia
B5 Procol Harum - Toujours L'Amour
B6 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Let It Ride
B7 Black Sabbath - Paranoid
B8 Faces - Cindy Incidentally
B9 Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
B10 The Doobie Brothers - China Grove
6 comments:
The album my aunt scratched (before scratchin' was cool) was, I believe, Star Trackin' 76.
Seriously, those are some choice tunes: in addition to the Dr. John and David Essex songs you mention, the Black Sabbath, Faces, and Spinners songs are primo, I love almost anything by the Stylistics, and "Hummingbird" is a song I had to buy from iTunes recently when it got stuck in my head.
I'm going to try to reassemble this and Star Trackin' 76 on my mp3 player, I think.
How many other albums are there that include songs from Barry White, Seals and Croft, and Black Sabbath?
Procol Harum's "Toujour Lamour" is actually a great sog.
If memory serves.
Don't be misled by the title, there's a f*ckload of soul power here too. I wore out the second side of this album as a kid, hands down the best Ronco compilation. They clearly had the edge over K-tel in the early '70s. K-tel never dared produce a comp. of this magnitude, placing the fawkin' Faces and Sabbath alongside the Spinners and the badass Al Green album track "So You're Leaving". What sold me on this record though was Procol Harum's "Toujours L'Amour". I still crank it during thunderstorms. Dark, yet urgent, the song's final verse and guitar solo are among the most brutal rock 'n roll has to offer.
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