Taken from the LP ‘Hits ’68′ | (Music For Pleasure MFP 1226) 1968

The 1968 Pop scene is confused and exciting; ballads are still strong, but beat is holding its own, although the much-publicised Rock-and-Roll revival (heralded in spite of themselves by the Beatles with ‘Lady Madonna’) has yet to show itself in all its black-leather finery.

Esther and Abi Ofarim will obviously become giants over here, and ‘Love is Blue’ shows that an attractive instrumental can still find a place in the charts; but before dealing with the twelve numbers assembled on this record, there is one question which must be asked — will there be a boom in one-man-bands?

Last year Sandie Shaw carried off the Eurovision song contest laurels with ‘Puppet on a String’, and this year the same songwriting team have given us the tuneful ‘Congratulations’ for the contest; at the time of writing its chances look good, particularly as Britain’s ambassador of song is to be Cliff Richard.

On her first series of television shows Cilla Black proved herself a charming hostess as well as a brilliant songstress; one of the brightest features of the shows has been the signature song she uses, the Lennon-McCartney number ‘Step Inside Love’, which is now floating up the charts.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich have become five of the most consistent hitmakers on the pop scene today; their Granada-tinged ‘Legend of Xanadu’ is a typically dynamic number which makes imaginative musical use of the whip. A complete contrast, and a surprise hit for French bandleader Paul Mauriat, is the delicate ‘Love is Blue’, in which nothing more violent than a harpsichord is heard. This appealing tune rode the top of the American charts for five weeks, and is likely to catch on here in just the same way.

Don Partridge played twelve-string guitar, tambourine, mouth-organ, bass drum and kazoo on ‘Rosie’, which took him after five years of busking to the heights of the hit parade. He also wrote the words and music to the song, which is one of the most attractive and one of the most unusual pieces ever to be heard in the charts.

One of the most original, and certainly one of the greatest hits of 1968 is Esther and Abi Ofarim‘s’ Cinderella Rockefella’; Esther and Abi have been very big names on the continent for some time now, but this tuneful and witty song was their first British success, and we will undoubtedly hear more of them in the upper atmosphere of the charts from now on.

The Tremeloes are a pop group with a truly professional approach, and they added to a long line of catchy hits with their up-tempo number ‘Suddenly you Love Me’; the only confusion here was whether ‘Suddenly’ or ‘As You Are’ on the other side of the record was the bigger hit!

A newcomer to Britain in 1968 was New Zealander John Rowles, whose powerful rendering of ‘If I Only Had Time’ made him the brightest of today’s new ballad stars. People have said that he looks like *ngl*b*rt H*mp*rd*nk, but his voice is all he needs to carry him to the top.

Manfred Mann made up for a long absence from the charts with Bob Dylan’s ode to an Eskimo ‘Mighty Quinn’, a song which proved that, Rock revival or no Rock revival, pop music today can have as much beat to it as it ever has done. ‘Mighty Quinn’ has topped the charts all over the world, and provided Paul Jones’s Manfred successor Mike d’Abo with his first big hit.

Tom Jones and Lulu are two of the most powerful singers in the world today, and both have scored big successes with songs ideally suited to their individual styles. ‘Delilah’ has the most dramatic lyrics of any song that Tom Jones has recorded, and ‘Me, the Peaceful Heart’ gave Lulu the chance (which she should never be denied) of swinging a tune as nobody else can.

After listening to these hits of ’68 you will feel like saying with Alan Price ‘Don’t Stop the Carnival’; for this bright number Alan took a tune by jazzman Sonny Rollins, flavoured it with ‘Ska’, and added a brief note of English realism in the middle.

We all know now of the contribution that ‘session’ musicians have made even to the best-known sounds in recorded Pop, and you will find that the hits on this record, skilfully recreated by studio musicians, have all the excitement and appeal of the original numbers. (LP liners)

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cost of record: £1
from: St. Cuthbert’s Hospice