Gerry & the Pacemakers Greatest Hits - The Definitive Collection CD | Classic British Invasion Music for Home, Car & Parties

Gerry and the Pacemakers arrived quickly on the heels of Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas on the U.S. charts, the sixth act to do so after the Beatles. Like other early arrivals in the British Invasion they already had a handful of U.K. hits to release in quick succession which augmented the sense of an "invasion" occurring. In fact, what was called the British Invasion in America was called the Beat Band craze in Britain and it had already been going on a year or so. The Beatles themselves had not only this in their favor but a number of singles from EMI which Capitol had rejected and which were released simultaneously by the small R&B labels that had purchased the rights. In the Spring of '64 the British Invasion was in full force.Gerry Marsden and the Mars Bars - a name which was quickly changed when Mars Candy Co,. complained - were a big part of the Liverpool scene, performed at the Cavern Club along with the Beatles and were the second group signed by Brian Epstein. You might not guess this by their singles which had a very pop sound. They had a rock'n'roll side and produced a very Fifties kind of sound with an early-Elvis influence which is present on their first three American LP's but not so much on this collection. And, though the Cavern was basically a rock'n'roll club scene, all the bands had their ballads and old standards as well; the Beatles often had Besame Mucho in their sets.Gerry and the band were the first English act to have three Number 1's in a row: How Do You Do It, I Like It and the improbable You'll Never Walk Alone from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. That song was the B-side of How Do You Do It in the U.S. where their first hit was Don't Let the sun Catch You Crying, a daringly different slow ballad with a full orchestral backup. Gerry had a talent for writing slow ballads and the exceptional orchestration was done by none other than George Martin. Anyone else would have schlocked it up, but Martin had both restraint and a command of orchestral textures which would make him a legendary producer. Could Sgt. Pepper have happened without him?That was followed by his two bouncy, poppy English hits, How Do you Do It and i Like It, again not really typical of the band's sound. These were composed by Mitch Murray, a man with a talent for crafting hit singles with big pop hooks including I'm Telling You Now, Even the Bad Times Are Good, The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde, Hitchin' a Ride and Billy Don't Be a Hero. I'll Be There was a Bobby Darin song lushly scored by George Martin. Then came the movie and Gerry's finest moment. Not many people saw the film but the single was one of his biggest hits, a spellbinding vision of Liverpool with a perfect Martin arrangement that included acoustic guitar, flutes and distantly soaring strings. It was one of the best and most memorable songs from the pop side of the British Invasion.It's Gonna Be Alright was also from the film and like Ferry was also written by Gerry. It had a bit of the folk sound that often crept into British Invasion songs and was another of his better singles though it made only number 23 and was his last appearance on the U.S. Top 30 until the fluke hit Girl On a Swing which surprised everyone in the Fall of '66. The Beat Band craze was pretty much over in Britain by the Summer of '65 and with it basically the end of the careers of Gerry, Billy J. Kramer and the Searchers.This disc has been around a while and was once the only credible hits collection of the group. This Collectables CD is an exact duplicate of the EMI U.K. "Legends of Rock'n'Roll" Series which was released under the United Artists imprint in the U.S. If it had been EMI U.S. it would have been part of the "Legendary Masters" Series which the style of the cover imitates. Why United Artists (which only released the movie and its soundtrack in America while Laurie Records handled all their other material) I don't know. But from the information given this is the same remastering with the whole package simply being licensed and imprinted by Collectables. This is good because Collectables has had some sound problems in the past and this sounds great. EMi owns all the original masters so that's why it sounds so good.The material mostly comes from their first two American albums, a couple from their third album plus single B-sides and a number of tracks never released before at least in the U.S. The singles are nicely in roughly chronological order so you can follow the development of the group over time or listen to the singles in the order you first heard them. It gives an overall fair picture of the band, though as I noted before, not quite enough of their harder rocking side to identify them as part of the Liverpool scene. They could have pulled out a couple of the weaker ballads and added Slow Down, Reelin' and Rockin' or Rip It Up to give a broader picture of the band. You do get one of the rarest Lennon/McCartney songs, Hello little Girl, nothing all that memorable but truly rare. Also La La La, an odd late attempt by Laurie to make Gerry sound like Gary Lewis & the Playboys and that final hit single Girl On a Swing, written by Bob Miranda of the Happenings. There's an excellent booklet if you can read the fine print. This is rare for Collectables, who usually skimp on any text but apparently they took over the whole EMI package because it's identical (I compared both).I don't know about some of the newer collections but this one is really good and still sounds great.