The "Decca Originals" Compilations

I love the name “Decca” because it came from Wilfred S. Samuel, a linguist who thought most languages could easily announce the word ‘Decca,’ and it came from the word “Mecca.” Sir Edward Lewis headed the company for decades and issued a series of remarkable recordings and albums throughout the various eras. I have permanently been attached to the Decca record label design. It has a sense of seriousness that we are not messing around. Its physical presence says that this is a high-quality recording. And since my beloved (and early) Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull, and Billy Fury recordings are on this label, even to this day, looking through a used singles bin, the Decca label stands out for me, and I must pick it up because chances are this will be a masterpiece of some sort. Decca made a considerable dent in the classical music world and is often considered an excellent label for that type of music. For me, it’s the British Invasion world of pop, and here is a land that I dwell on for many hours. Decca, it seems, is an excellent gateway to the unknown (to some) world of psychedelic pop, Beat-rock, girl pop, and the Freakbeat sound.

Most of the artists on these four compilations failed to make an entire album. Some just made it to the world of only one single. On the other hand, their financial failure or lack of commercial success shouldn’t be a bad final grade for those who threw their hopes, desire, and talent into these recordings. The pop music world is very much dog-eat-dog, and the big dog survives, but I’m fascinated with the subject matter of failure, and often I find records that didn’t make it, not due to their quality, but perhaps the hand of fate entering the picture. I follow this technique whenever I go to a used record store. I’m fascinated by what is left in the record bins; customers have something else on their minds when they explore the stores’ inventory. The Decca Originals are very much what was abandoned at the time of the 60s, and, amazingly, we can re-visit or approach these works for the first time. And that is one of the great pleasures of obtaining and listening to these four re-issues.

Without a doubt, the band that should have made a bigger splash, instead of the sound of them hitting the bottom of the water well, is The Fairytale. They only issued two singles on the Decca label and evaporated into the British air. Guess I Was Dreaming (The Psychedelic Scene compilation) is one of the great (and rare)singles that came out of the UK in the Sixties. Flower power, yes, but with a particular aspect of menace in its message and delivery. Run and Hide on the Freakbeat Scene is horrifying and creepy, but what a great recording and song. Maybe The Fairytale only had two songs (plus their great b-sides) in them, but one wonders what an entire album by this band would have been like. Then again, you can say that with most artists on these compilations.

The title of the four anthologies here says all, and one would not be disappointed. The Girls Scene has some exceptional Andrew Loog Oldham productions and some of his magic in The Beat Scene. Another Oldham-related band, The Poets, makes an impressive sound throughout the collection. They were almost painfully moody but unique, and I could see why they were not for the masses, but the qualified few will love them. The world of Decca’s embracing the pop charms of its era is well represented in these four (and there are more) albums. Buy them all.