Elly Roberts reviews
Lulu: To Sir With Love
(The Complete Mickie Most Recordings)
Distributed by
EMI Catalogue
- Released: January 2005
- Format:2-disc CD
- Rating: 8/10
- Cat.no.: 5603692
Lulu stats:
First hit at 15 with Shout (UK No.7), US chart topper
To Sir With Love (from film of the same name) age 18, won Eurovision
Song Contest with Boom Bang-A-Bang age 20, first UK No.1 with
Relight My Fire (guesting with Take That) age 44.
Just released on EMI Catalogue is a mammoth 39-track compilation from '60s pop
'shouter' and icon, Marie McDonald Lawrie aka Lulu. These Mickie Most
recordings only cover the 'Swinging-Sixties', and why not, it was the birth of
popular music as we know it today.
This is the time Mickie Most made his reputation, working with a galaxy of
stars from the era. There’s no Shout, but it contains six singles, the frenetic
dance track The Boat That I Row, Let’s Pretend, Me, The Peaceful Heart,
Boy, I’m A Tiger, sickly Euro winner Boom Bang-A-Bang, several B-sides
and a number of rare and unreleased tracks.
Starting with the 1967 US No.1 from the film To Sir With Love starring
Sidney Poitier as the cool East End teacher trying to win hearts and minds, in
which Lulu appeared. If you’re not conversant with most of the tracks, you’ll
be impressed with the songwriting contributions.
My late friend Tim Rose gets his co-credit on track 2 Morning Dew. Other
luminaries such as Lennon and McCartney, Harry Nilsson, Bob Dylan, The Bee Gees
(obviously - she was once married to Maurice Gibb), Burt Bacharach and Leiber-Stoller
all throw in their weight behind a very comprehensive collection.
The inclusion of foreign language songs comes as no surprise, as there are a
few Lulu songs with German titles from the early '70s. Predictably,the
production is thin and edgy, but remember it was Britain in the '60s. It doesn’t,
however, lose any of its oomph or impact, and is worthy of sitting alongside
other compilations from the era.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
