“K-Tel 20 Power Hits Vol. 2”
For some listeners, I suspect listening to compilation albums is like going to Shoney’s – all of those buffet choices available, yet what comes to mind is “How good can they be, all in one place?” and “Is that what I really want?” I get it.
Still, I’ve always been one to pick and choose, enjoying what’s best and avoiding the rest. From time to time, I do the same with the dozens if not hundreds of compilations in my music room, from soundtracks to boxed sets to the earliest K-tel Collections.
This go-around, let’s look at 1971’s “20 Power Hits, Vol. 2.” It’s not the oldest K-tel set I own (I picked up a copy of an earlier release, “20 Explosive Hits,” at a used vinyl store in the early 2000s). But “20 Power Hits, Vol. 2” resonates deeply because it was the first K-tel album I remember listening to – my mom bought it when I was 8, and she and my dad were still married (their divorce would occur within a year). I remember listening to this on a portable record player, looking at the cover pictures and wondering:
· Why did that woman in Ocean look so much like my mom’s friend Kathy? (Since Ocean was a Canadian act, and we lived in the Midwest, where she was married to my godfather, I could be confident that it wasn’t Kathy.)
· Were the two women in Dawn twins? (Nope – and cropped cover photo aside, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson bore little resemblance to each other. At the time, the group was still “Dawn,” not “Tony Orlando and…” and they weren’t yet a TV presence, so I had no other exposure to them.)
- How did the youngest brother in the Partridge Family look one season like a kid who resembled me (brunette hair, Mediterranean features) and next season become a blonde, freckled kid without anyone noticing? (And if a blonde-haired kid replaced me as the oldest brother, would my family notice?)
Pondering such weighty 8-year-old thoughts, I listened to this collection of pop and soul hits over and over – though I remember listening to side 1 much more than side 2. Now, I can’t put it on the turntable (it had so little use that it gave up working – hope to rectify that soon). Fortunately, I could listen via this Mixcloud podcast:
https://www.mixcloud.com/VinylVoyageRadio/adventures-in-vinyl-20- power-hits-vol-2-1971/
This collection is so early in K-tel’s existence that it precedes the legendary “xx original hits, xx original stars” tagline so prevalent in commercials. That’s clear from this collection, since Tommy James and Dawn each have two singles, so it would have been “20 original hits, 18 original stars,” not quite as euphonious. (I guess the cover’s reference to “original hits” refers to these recordings not being made by anonymous studio singers since “Love the One You’re With” and “Gypsy Woman,” at the very least, were first made popular by other artists.)
Top-shelf:
- Tommy James’ “Draggin’ the Line”
- Wadsworth Family Mansion’s “Sweet Mary”
- Delfonics’ “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind”
- Isley Brothers’ “Love the One You’re With”
- Ocean’s “Put Your Hand in the Hand”
- Sugarloaf’s “Green Eyed Lady”
- Brian Hyland’s “Gypsy Woman”
- The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh Happy Day”
- Dawn’s “Candida”
Decent:
- Dawn’s “Knock Three Times”
- Partridge Family’s “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted”
- The Dells’ “The Love We Had”
- Fuzz’ “I Love You for All Seasons”
- Joe Simon’s “Your Time to Cry”
Yuck:
- The Bells’ “Stay Awhile”
- Melanie’s “Peace Will Come”
- Tommy James’ “I’m Comin’ Home”
Question Marks:
- Guess Who’s “Shakin’ All Over” (this 1965 song felt out of place then, and even more so now)
- Ray Charles’ “Sweet Young Thing Like You” (from 1968 and sounding dated)
- … and Curtis Mayfield’s “If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go” (I couldn’t understand the song back then – only its title, which scared 8-year-old me no end; at least the next song up, “Oh Happy Day,” calmed me).
As I listen to it now, “20 Power Hits, Vol. 2” is less the delicious smorgasbord that future K-tel collections would become and more of an all-you-can-eat buffet that hints at such potential.
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The person who ordered the songs so that “If There’s a Hell Below…” was followed immediately by “Oh Happy Day” had a sense of humor.
I’m fascinated by that “The Record Selector” thingy. “Space-Age?” “Works like a computer?” Zowie! Count me in!
The first album I ever bought was Super Rock Hits on Swan Records. I still have it and it’s still really good: The Doors, Chase, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, Carole King, James Taylor, The Grassroots, The Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, The Carpenters, Ringo Starr, etc. It’s totally worth the $1.00 I paid for it at Marden’s.
Do we love the efficiency of the internet, or what? This is a 50+ year-old obscurity, and it took only about 20 seconds to find the cover, and the entire track listing:
Stephen Stills – Change Partners
Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose – Treat Her Like A Lady
Rolling Stones – Wild Horses
Grassroots – Sooner Or Later
Doors – Riders On The Storm
Raiders – Indian Reservation
Carole King – It’s Too Late
Chase – Get It On
Bee Gees – How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
James Taylor – You’ve Got A Friend
Neil Diamond – I’m A Believer
Ringo Starr – It Don’t Come Easy
Tommy James – Draggin’ The Line
Carpenters – Rainy Days & Mondays
Joe Cocker – High Time We Went
Partridge Family – I’ll Meet You Half Way
That’s the one! Great stuff, although they edited off the “Sunshine Of Your Love” riff at the end of “Get It On.” That was my favorite part of the song!
That Tommy James song was popular, as it was on both collections!
Makes sense. It’s a great song!
This is the most beautifully generic cover ever!
I just listened to the show on Mixcloud and remembered all the songs except “Sweet Young Thing Like You,” “Your Turn To Cry,” and “If There’s A Hell Below.” There’s some cheese in there but “Draggin’ The Line” and “Green Eyed Lady” are pretty close to 10s for me.
Since forever, there’s always been lists made of the greatest guitar solos of all time. A little bit lesser-known is the debate for the “best keyboard solo.”
KB players usually separate these into piano, synth, and organ categories.
And for those organ solos, Jerry Corbetta’s wild ride on “Green Eyed Lady” is always in the top 5. Short version, but it still soars.
https://youtu.be/RYbmls7c8EM
I love K-Tel album compilations and own many! I have that Explosive Hits comp (but its back in Chicago). Hot Butter’s Popcorn was the favorite, as was Sammy Davis Jr’s, Candy Man. My brother and I were all about the sweets and we certainly did not want any Bad Osmond Apples. This may have also started my ONJ lovefest with the inclusion of If Not For You. I also have Believe in Music which was named after the Gallery song. Eventually I graduated to 8-tracks, with the Fantastic tape pictured in front of the gold metal rack that held my precious 45s. These K-Tel comps were part of my 70s experience. Thanks for the wonderful nostalgia blast.
Lovin’ the 8-track, RSW!
Brian Hyland’s self-titled album is strong. “Gypsy Woman” portends the future ELO hit sound, and the material includes imaginative covers of “There’s a Place,” “Lonely Teardrops,” and “The Thrill is Gone” in between melancholy and literate Hyland originals. You might be surprised.
This is a radio edit of “If There’s a Hell Below…” which leaves out the loud, prominent use of the N-word at the beginning of the long version. Much as I like the Superfly soundtrack, I was disappointed in the Curtis Mayfield Best of… collection, although “Kung Fu” is as great a funk track as I’ve ever heard for both the music and the message.
My parents picked up the Partridge Family album which had this song (Mom liked “I Think I Love You”). David Cassidy hated “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted” because he was uncomfortable during the spoken section. If, like me, you have a taste for urgent harpsichord-dressed minor-key moodiness, “I Woke Up in Love This Morning” is the Partridge Family deep cut for you.
The only such anthologies I ever picked up were:
“urgent harpsichord-dressed minor-key moodiness…
Those parts on TPF records were good. But this will always be my go-to harpsichord guy:
I love that RSO Chartbusters collection, the cover featuring a 3D version of the RSO cow, or whatever that red animal was.
We had K-tel here as well, though my memory growing up in the 80s was that they were becoming a thing of the past. I associate K-tel here as not exactly being a sign of quality. Cheapness yes. The Now series of compilation albums took over here and made all other chart compilations redundant. They were originally titled ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ but once brand recognition was achieved they became known as just Now. The first one was released in 1983, they’re all double albums with a range of big hits from the past 6 months and a couple of singles about to be released. The sleeve notes were great too, every song had a paragraph with details of chart performance or other trivia.
Incredibly they’ve so far survived the digital / streaming age, my daughter has a couple of the more recent ones and they’re now up to #111 plus many spin offs with decade overviews and genre specific collections.
That doesn’t surprise me … back in late ’99, I was able to get my hands on an import Now collection from England, and it was Now 44 — the “current” U.S. Now was 4. (It was great not only to get hits by British pop stars, but songs by U.S. artists, like Diana Ross’ “Not Over You Yet,” that failed to catch on here.) In the U.S., volume 82 comes out in May. I stopped getting them about volume 20. If I get serious about returning to sampling the current Top 40 (‘gum’s preview of the new Lizzo release intrigued me), it’s probably not a bad way to reconnect.
Hadn’t seen the Lizzo article but excited to learn that new music is pending. Will pop over to ‘gum to learn more. Good As Hell was insanely catchy, one of my favourite singles of recent years so I’m disappointed Tom won’t be covering that one but glad that she’ll still be turning up in the #1s.
Interesting… that’s the first time I’ve ever seen the “Sweet Mary” group listed with “Family” as part of their name (the charts always listed them as just Wadsworth Mansion).
We had a bunch of “As Seen On TV” vinyl sets in my childhood home, although most were compilations of ’50s and early ’60s hits (ironically leading me to be more well-versed in music from the early Rock Era during my formative years than the contemporary hits of the late ’70s).
I do remember owning a couple of Ronco compilation LPs (yes, the same company owned by Mr. Popeil) back when they attempted to compete with K-tel in the record biz circa 1980.
Yeah, Aaron, I had second thoughts about the “Family” since I’d never seen them listed that way elsewhere (and it also brought strange Charles Manson associations to me), but ultimately I used it because that’s what was on the K-tel cover.
Ha, glad I wasn’t the only one whose mind tried to make a Charles Manson connection!
This was the first LP I ever owned. I think my parents got it for me just before we moved down south in the summer of ’72.
It reminds me of many things: how much I hate “Stay Awhile,” true then and now; how much I love “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind”; and how I used to have to fight with our record changer because K-Tel made the spindle hole just a little too small.
Those were the days.
I heard “Stay Awhile” this weekend on the SXM AT40 countdown.
When I was 15, I thought that the girl’s voice was super sexy, and the guy sounded like a real Ladies’s man; a real “boss.”
Hearing it in 2022, all I can say is,
“How it makes me… cringe…”
I had plenty of records as a dinky little kid. (I had free range to my folks’ record collection at age 2). But I think that the first record of my own that I begged for was K-Tel’s Pure Power. I was probably barely 7 at the time, but I distinctly remember being influenced by an ad for the record that I had heard on the radio. I am certain that the song that convinced me I needed it was the Sylvers’ “Boogie Fever”. I must have been good that day, because mom bought it for me. Still have it.
Compilations get dismissed by cultural gate keepers as being inferior, or for the ignorant or the frivolous, or whatever. That’s nonsense. What better way to explore stuff that you don’t know about?
Perfect for kids just learning about music. Perfect for people who don’t live in places with active concert scenes or cool college radio stations. I think I only have one K-tel comp (“Silly Songs” with novelties like Surfin Bird), but compilations were an essential part of my musical education, especially pre-internet.
I will say, for classical music, compilations are great for dipping your toes in and seeing what you might like, but people should really try to go and listen to the full works as they were intended. It’s a really enriching experience. Butt even there, those compilations serve as an important first step into what can be extremely daunting terrain.