Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great sounds from forgotten group, 27 Feb 2002
At last a CD featuring all the Love Affair hits plus the best of the LP tracks.
Really a mod group along the lines of the Small Faces, the Love Affair achieved success with highly produced pop tunes often featuring vocalist Steve Ellis only. This was a departure from their original sound and led to difficulties for the group.
All the great late 60's hits are here -"Everlasting Love", "Rainbow Valley", "Day Without Love", "Bringing On Back The Good Times" "One Road" and "Baby I Know". They still sound FAB. This cd also features some worthwhile LP tracks by the original group like "Hush" and "Handbags and Gladrags" together with a few recent recordings by frontman Steve Ellis. He was still a teenager at the time of the big hits and had an incredible soulful voice, easily the equal of Marriott and Daltrey.
One negative aspect - sleeve notes are very poor. No summary of the group's career or Steve Ellis' ups and downs.
|
|
|
55 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
British pop-rock group of the late sixties, 7 Feb 2004
The Love Affair were a British pop group of the late sixties who had one chart-topper and several other big hits. Steve Ellis was the lead singer and was sometimes the only member of the group involved in their recordings, with the regular musicians being replaced by session musicians.Everlasting love was an American hit for Robert Knight. I haven't heard his version but I get the impression that the Love Affair version is superior, based on the opinions of those who have heard both versions. Certainly, it is difficult to imagine how the Love Affair version, with its great horn arrangement, could be improved upon. The British public clearly loved it, as it went all the way to number one in the UK charts and it has since become a staple of sixties compilations. It is easy to think of them as a one-hit wonder because, while Everlasting love is frequently re-issued, their other hits are not, except on the group's own albums. Actually, they had three other UK top ten hits - Rainbow valley, A day without love and Bringing on back the good times - and a top twenty hit, One road. While not an essential addition to a collection of sixties pop-rock music, the Love Affair made a few great records and deserve to be remembered for more than just Everlasting love.
|
|
|
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Love Affair That Lasts, 16 Jun 2008
I have often mentioned that the appeal of the songs that defined the 60s was in the main down to the energy and melodic structure of the tunes. Melody is something that ran through every artist from the Beatles to Presley, Marmalade to Tom Jones, Hollies to Dusty and so on.
The Love Affair was no exception and driven by a classic pop/rock voice in Steve Ellis, they had a period of success that still puts its marker down to this very day.
The 4 stand-out hits on this album are the massive selling "Everlasting Love" plus "Bringing on back the Good Times", "Rainbow Valley" and "A Day Without Love". All are as infectiously catchy today as they were then.
In the 60s, arrangers and producers had a knack of dovetailing guitars and drums with orchestration, which filled a song and made the sound so rich and powerful. All singles of this time and genre were precious 3 minute classics, not album tracks that promoted the release of their latest LP. Time and thought went into making them something special, hence the test of time for material such as this.
All 4 of these tracks are perfectly interpreted through Ellis' voice. The rest of the material is also good with a mixture of classic standards such as "Handbags and Gladrags" and "First Cut is the Deepest". I give it 4 stars because it just lacks enough tracks at the very top end of the quality scale to merit 5.
It's a shame that Ellis didn't have a longer extended career at the top. His anthology CD is superb, but he never had the lasting recognition that his talent deserved. However, when he and Love Affair did have their day in the sun, they turned out wonderful stuff.
This is an excellent disc to have on your shelf. Next time the nostalgic urge takes over, put it in the player and you'll get the warm glow of instant 1960s sunshine radiating through your speakers.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
