Hits and Misses

I've run across quite a few of these "hits" albums recently - the covers list hit songs and hit song performers, but the two do not necessarily correlate. For example, on this album there are two Simon and Garfunkel hit songs (Homeward Bound and Cloudy), and S & G definitely perform on the album, but the song that they're performing is not one of the aforementioned hits (it's an album track from the year before). Hit-makers The Cyrkle and Chad and Jeremy also perform - but not their hits. OTOH, Paul Revere & The Raiders (Just Like Me), Billy Joe Royal (Down In The Boondocks [really from 1965]), Bob Dylan (I Want You) and The Byrds (Hey Joe [not the hit version by The Leaves from 1966, of course, but at least a legitimate Byrds release]) show up with their original recordings because they were signed to Columbia Records, the label putting out this LP. Columbia also had on its roster The Brothers Four, Chad and Jeremy, The Cyrkle, John Davidson, The New Christy Minstrels, and The Pozo-Seco Singers - check the track listing below and see if it all starts to make sense...

Of the non-normal tracks here, I actually like The Byrds version better than that of The Leaves (but I worship at the Byrdsian altar), and the New Christy Minstrels' Boots is so cheesy that it approaches greatness (it doesn't hurt that the backing track is smokin'). The rest are just meh, with the exception of Help performed by The Brothers Four, which is so wrong, so ill-arranged, so badly performed, so ill-felt and stiff, that it goes beyond bad, past so-bad-it's good, circles back around bad again (waving stiffly as it goes by), and settles into so-bad-it's-worse.

Various Artists - The Best of '66 Volume One

Side 1

The Brothers Four - Help!

The Byrds - Hey Joe

Chad & Jeremy - Homeward Bound

The Cyrkle - Cloudy

John Davidson - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

Bob Dylan - I Want You

Side 2

The New Christy Minstrels - These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

Pozo Seco Singers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Just Like Me

Billy Joe Royal - Down In The Boondocks

Simon & Garfunkel - We've Got A Groovey Thing Goin'