Various Artists – Greatest Love Songs (2001)

And here is one of these countless compilation albums with “Greatest Love Song” …

… Compilations of this kind are part of the music industry to earn a little more money with low budget productions.
Many of the songs are actually “sad love songs” and I think there is something for everyone on these two CDs.

My favourite songs are “Morning Has Broken “, “Island In The Sun”, “The Air That I Breathe”, “Light My Fire”, “When A Man Loves A Woman”, “Pretty Woman”, “Wonderful World”, “My Girl”, “Only You”, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Brown Eyed Girl” … they touch my soul.

Enjoy your sentimental side.

Tracklist:

CD 1:
01. Al Martino: Spanish Eyes (Kaempfert/ingleton/Snyder) 2.49
02. America: Sister Golden Hair (Beckley) 3.21
03. Art Garfunkel: Bright Eyes (Batt) 3.59
04. Barry White: You’re The First, The Last, My Everything (White/Sepe/Redcliffe) 3.26
05. Bellamy Brothers: If I Said You Have A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me (D.Bellamy) 3.12
06. Cat Stevens: Morning Has Broken (Stevens/Farjeon) 3.19
07. Chicago: If You Leave Me Now (Cetera) 3.54
08. Commodores: Three Times A Lady (Richie) 3.38
09. Dean Martin: Everybody Loves Somebody (Lane/Coslow/Taylor) 2.46
10. Diane Warwick: Heartbreaker (B.Gibb/R.Gibb/M.Gibb) 4.18
11. Eric Carmen: All By Myself (Carmen) 4.54
12. Everly Brothers: All I Have To Do Is Dream (Bryant) 2.24
13. F. R. Davids: Words (Fetoussi) 2.51
14. Gary Pucket: Young Girl (Fuller) 3.08
15. Gary Wright: Dream Weaver (Wright) 4.18
16. Harry Belafonte: Island In The Sun (Belafonte/Burgess) 3.23

CD 2:
01. Hazlewood/Sinatra: Summerwine (Nayer/Mercer) 3.39
02. Hollies: The Air That I Breathe (Hammond/Hazlewood) 4.03
03. Jose Feliciano: Light My Fire (Morrison/Manzarek/Densmore/Krieger) 3.04
04. Leo Sayer: When I Need You (Hammond/Sager) 4.07
05. Pat Boone: Love Letters In The Sand (Kenny/Coots) 2.08
06. Paul Anka: Put Your Head On My Shoulder (Anka) 2.37
07. Percy Sledge: When A Man Loves A Woman (Lewis/Wright) 2.49
08. Righteous Brothers: Unchained Melody (Zaret/North) 3.37
09. Roy Orbison: Pretty Woman (Orbinson/Dees) 2.59
10. Sam Cooke: Wonderful World (Cooke/Adler/Alpert) 3.00
11. Temptation: My Girl (Robinson/White) 2.41
12. The Platters: Only You (Ram/Rand) 2.36
13. Them: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Dylan) 3.48
14. Tom Jones: She’s A Lady (Anka) 3.36
15. Van Morrison: Brown Eyed Girl (Morrison) 3.03
16. Walker Brothers: The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More (Crewe/Gauido) 3.01

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Them – Here Comes The Night (1965)

This is the US version of the debut album of Them:

The Angry Young Them is the first album by the Northern Irish rock and roll group Them. The album was released in the UK in June 1965. The band’s lead singer and songwriter was Van Morrison. In the U.S., the album was released as Them with partly different tracks.

As with several Decca releases of the period, the name of the group was conspicuously absent from the front cover and on the back of the LP they were introduced as The Angry Young Them with an essay on this theme declaring: “These five young rebels are outrageously true to themselves. Defiant! Angry! Sad! They are honest to the point of insult!”
Release history

Six of the songs on the album were Morrison originals, including the famous garage band anthem “Gloria”. Another song on the album, “Mystic Eyes”, was a spontaneous creation that came out of the band just “busking around” in Morrison’s words and after seven minutes of instrumental playing he impulsively threw in the words of a song he had been working on.

The lengthy versions of “Gloria” that the band performed at the Maritime and the ten-minute recording of “Mystic Eyes” have never surfaced. All that is left of the “Mystic Eyes” performance is the little over 2​1⁄2 minutes on the album that remained after splicing out from the beginning and ending. “You Just Can’t Win” was a Dylan inspired song about a gold digger, set in specific places in London such as Camden Town. “Little Girl” was about a boy’s obsession with a fourteen-year-old school girl (an earlier take on Lord’s Taverners charity album had been deleted when a four-letter word was heard in the fade out at the end). “If You And I Could Be As Two” starts with a spoken introduction by Morrison with an aggressive Irish accent. Three Bert Berns originals were included and a cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Don’t Look Back” was considered by Morrison to be his finest vocal to date. (by wikipedia)

Decca’s willingness to release a full-length Them album was conditioned upon the breakthrough success of the band’s third single, “Here Comes the Night.” It was not, however, the practice in Britain at the time to put hit singles on albums, so this 14-track LP does not include that song. It does, however, contain six songs written by lead vocalist Van Morrison, including the immortal “Gloria” and “Mystic Eyes,” which became a chart single in the U.S., plus some well-played R&B covers. Because of an annotation on the back of the LP, this album is sometimes referred to as The Angry Young Them, although its official title is Them. (by William Ruhlmann)

Personnel:
Peter Bardens (orgamn)
Billy Harrison (guitar)
Alan Henderson (bass)
John McAuley (drums, piano, harmonica)
Van Morrison (vocals, harmonica, saxophone)

Tracklist:
01. Here Comes The Night (Berns) 2.48
02. Mystic Eyes (Morrison) 2.44
03. Don’t Look Back (Hooker) 3.23
04. Little Girl (Morrison) 2.49
05. One Two Brown Eyes” (Morrison) 2.35
06. Gloria (Morrison) 2.39
07. One More Time (Morrison) 2.50
08. If You and I Could Be As Two (Morrison) 2.54
09. I Like It Like That (Morrison) 3.19
10. I’m Gonna Dress in Black (Gillon/Howe) 3.31
11. (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66 (Troup) 2.25
12. Go On Home Baby (Morrison) 2.34

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