Beach Baby: The Complete Recordings

英国産ビーチ・ボーイズと賞賛されイギリスのハーモニー・ポップ傑作として知られるトニー・バロウズ率いるグループ、ザ・ファースト・クラスが1970年代に残した全音源を収録したコンプリート作品がCD3枚組で登場!
アルバム2枚に加え、シングルやテレビ用のジングル、未発表作品まで全てを完璧に収録したマニア必携の作品。

ビーチ・ボーイズ直系ハーモニー・ポップ・ヒットメーカー初の3CD完全アンソロジー!
チャス・ミルズとリード・シンガーのトニー・バロウズの助けを借りて、ベテランのポップ・ヒットメーカー&ソングライターのジョン・カーターが始動させたプロジェクトがファースト・クラス。
74年のヒット・シングル「Beach Baby」を収録した『FIRST CLASS』と『SST』の2枚のアルバムに加え、すべてのシングル、仮名リリース、広告ジングルや打ち切られた1974年のミュージカルの曲を含む多数の未発表トラックをフィーチャー。デジパック・パッケージには豪華ブックレットも付属され、ファースト・クラスとジョン・カーターの70年代後半の活動を網羅したポップ・ファン必携の決定的ドキュメント!

The First Class delivered one of the sunniest injections of harmony pop in the mid-70s with the deathless "Beach Baby," a song that one-upped the Beach Boys in the nostalgia stakes. That song was undoubtedly their finest moment, but Grapefruits Beach Baby: The Complete Recordings gives curious listeners proof that they had more than just the one song up their collective sleeve. With songs written by longtime hitmaker John Carter and Gill Shakespeare and sung by a trio of Carter, Chas Mills, and man of a thousand hits, Tony Burrows, theres never much doubt that the end result wouldnt be first-class pop music. The set collects their two albums, 1974s First Class and 1976s SST, along with singles, songs written and performed by the same core people, and a batch of advertising jingles. The first album is much in the vein of the kind of radio-friendly, good-times-great-oldies nostalgia that "Beach Baby" captures so well. It also tacks on fine versions of songs that other Carter projects had released -- namely, "Funny How Love Can Be" and "Dreams Are Ten a Penny." The albums second single, "Bobby Dazzler," is a fun mini-rock opera that, if it hadnt stiffed, might have led to a stage play. The process got as far as demos, seven of which are aired here for the first time. The bands second album, SST, ditched the nostalgia angle in favor of mature and orchestrated pop more in tune with the trends of the time. Songs touch on disco ("Aint No Love"), smooth MOR ("Life Is Whatever You Want It to Be"), tender acoustic ballads ("And She Cried"), and horn-driven rock & roll ("Old Time Love"), with nary a hit in sight but with craft to spare. Further singles didnt make much of a dent, but hearing them collected here is nice, as it ties a neat bow on their story. The third disc of the set collects jingles that Carter wrote in the 70s; they are fun, but much better are the First Class-style songs the team issued under different names. "Oh California" by Magic is a lost summer gem, Starbreakers "The Sound of Summer" adds some majestic French horn to the template in surprising fashion, "Sidewalk Johnny" by South Bank Wheels is probably the best disco song ever written about skateboarding, and "Silver Surfer" is retro surf at its silliest (and best.) The occasional clunker aside, the non-LP material here is frothy fun, a perfect match with "Beach Baby" and essential components of what turns out to be a great collection. Its silly, baked in that most dangerous of feelings -- "the good old days" -- and as close to perfect as this kind of pop music can be. ~ Tim Sendra