Super Rock

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Looking at this three-vinyl box set, one can honestly tell that this is a Super Rock set of songs, mostly all tunes from the heady and wonderful year 1968. Everything from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s Fire to Harper Valley P.T.A. and upward to The Beatles. In fact that there are five songs from The Beatles. 45 Smashed hits on three discs, and not one by the original artists.

I will take an educated guess that the causal record buyer was not initially aware that these are all covers. There are no mentions of the original artists nor who played on this box set of classic tunes. On some editions of this package, the music is credited to “The Candy-Rock Generation.” Who and who is in “The Candy-Rock Generation” is a total mystery. Still, it is a Super Rock collection of essential music from 1968. The album was released on Columbia Musical Treasures, a label imprint of Columbia Record Club. My memory of this imprint is that one can subscribe to them, and they will send you albums for under a dollar or something like that. It is probably unlikely that Super Rock was sold in music stores. You had to clip either the coupon on the inner record sleeve or in an ad in a magazine. I’m sure they advertised the hits, but no mention of the actual musicians who worked on these songs, nor making it evident that these tunes are not from the original artists.

That is here or there. One authentic thing is that the album came out in 1969, and it’s a beautiful snapshot of mainstream rock and pop tunes from 1968. It’s truly democratic in that you get a full selection of styles, and if you were a radio listener, there is no way you would be disappointed in the selection. Unless you’re upset that there are no songs from The Velvet Underground’s second album, nor anything by The Beach Boys, which shows those artists were not important on a mainstream level.

A casual listener may never pick up that these are copies of the Hits because the arrangements are very true to the original recordings. Still, it is odd to realize that when you hear Hey Jude, it is clearly not our Paul. That singer may be a Paul, but not a McCartney. Which brings to mind is it essential to know or even care who the original artists are? There is mention of either songwriter or the artists who made these records in 1968. The titles alone are the only concrete information we have about this album. The other strange thing is that it seems that these are songs that were on American radio. Yet, two obscure songs were British hits. My Name Is Jack and Lily The Pink.

Finding the album on Discogs, I discovered that they listed the engineers. They are Frank Decker (Former Chief engineer for Columbia House), Frank Laico (Worked at Columbia 30th Street Studios), Richard Moore (Engineer at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles), and Stan Tonkel (Columbia Recording Studios in New York). Discogs list Super Rock’s producer Betsy Cohen. She seems to be the staff producer for the Subscription Service for Columbia Masterworks, which focuses on Classical Music. We can see that recordings took place in New York City and Los Angeles. So, more likely, it’s not the same musicians, but different players from different coasts.

Nevertheless, I would recommend it because it is the perfect 1968 album if you are not a music snob. If you’re a snob, you may be troubled by the selection. Here are the songs on the album:

A1 Birthday

A2 Hush

A3 Fire

A4 Yummy, Yummy, Yummy

A5 Build Me Up, Buttercup

A6 I Started A Joke

A7 Turn Around, Look At Me

A8 Shake, Rattle And Roll

B1 Both Sides Now

B2 Sweet Blindness

B3 Elenore

B4 A Minute Of Your Time

B5 1, 2, 3, Red Light

B6 Revolution

B7 Suzie Q

C1 Touch Me

C2 Midnight Confessions

C3 My Special Angel

C4 Sunshine Of Your Love

C5 My Name Is Jack

C6 You're All I Need To Get By

C7 Hello, I Love You

C8 Shape Of Things To Come

D1 The Worst That Could Happen

D2 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

D3 Girl Watcher

D4 Hello, Goodbye

D5 On The Road Again

D6 Hey Jude

D7 Rock Around The Clock

E1 I Heard It Through The Grapevine

E2 I Met Her In Church

E3 Over You

E4 Anyone Who Had A Heart

E5 You Keep Me Hangin' On

E6 Penny Lane

E7 Light My Fire

E8 Lily The Pink

F1 Those Were The Days

F2 Eleanor Rigby

F3 Yellow Submarine

F4 Stay In My Corner

F5 Harper Valley P.T.A.

F6 I Gotta Get A Message To You

F7 Street Fighting Man