Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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Showaddywaddy had more UK hits in the 1970s than any other act…including Abba. From their winning appearance on an edition of ‘New Faces’, the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ of the day, to become runners-up in the series’ ‘All Winners Final’, it took just a matter of months until the band released and secured their debut hit, ‘Hey Rock And Roll’, which reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart. This extensive 40th Anniversary anthology features the band’s entire 20th century catalogue of recorded material, including all of their original studio albums in mini-vinyl replica wallets, non-Album A and B sides, together with a small selection of alternative mixes and unreleased rarities unearthed from the vaults, in this 139-track, 10CD box set.

The 36-page booklet includes a 6,500+ word liner note from Showaddywaddy expert Steve Thorpe and an introduction from the band’s Dave Bartram. The box set features the bands’ 23 UK hits, including the Million-Selling #1 single, ‘Under The Moon Of Love’.

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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~ amazon

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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The debut album by the finest rock & roll revival band ever to step out of the English Midlands, Showaddywaddy celebrates the success of debut hits "Hey Rock and Roll" and "Rock 'n' Roll Lady" by rounding up a dozen righteous stompers, divided between ace band originals and remarkable classic covers. Their version of "Johnny Remember Me" has to be one of the finest around, while "Bony Moronie" and "Temptation" also make sure the party keeps swinging all night long. In later years, Showaddywaddy could easily be accused of adhering so rigidly to a formula that their records became interchangeable. At the outset, however, they had a power and glory that rendered them untouchable, and this album sparkles with every ounce of that energy.

by Dave Thompson, AMG

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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To paraphrase David Bowie, this ain't rock & roll. It's genre-cide. Showaddywaddy broke through with a pounding, spangle-soaked approximation of all that made the '50s palatable to an early-'70s Brit teen audience, and racked up three major hits in the blink of an eye. But just how glam were they really – and how glam did they intend remaining? So aptly named if one believes there really was a fiendish plan to subvert a nation of glitterkids into zombie Eddie Cochran clones, Step Two arrived bereft of all but the most superficial layers of spangle and spark, confident in the knowledge that anyone who had traveled this far was hardly going to bail out now. And so it transpired. Step Two was just as big as its predecessor, and its hits were even bigger. Band originals consumed the bulk of the album, but whereas once the group could glitter with the best of them, now the drapes were tightly drawn, and the brothel creeper boots were the platforms du jour. Almost any one of the album's songs could have spun securely on a vintage Sun label, while three crucial covers place the 'Waddy in even darker context. If anything distinguished the British rock & roll crowd (the Teddy Boys of legend and infamy), it was their undying obsession with the movement's fallen heroes. Showaddywaddy's masterful recreation of Cochran's "Three Steps to Heaven" and Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang," and a wry medley of Tommy Dee's "Three Stars" and Buddy Holly's "Rave On," tell you all you need to know on that score. All of which would be a major problem if Showaddywaddy didn't carry it all off with such aplomb, and a die-hard enthusiasm which is impossible to resist. So what if songs like "If You Know What I Mean," "Blue Jean Baby" (dedicated, of course, to Gene Vincent), and "The Latest Craze" have more pelvis than Presley? Catch a glimpse of the band at the peak of their powers, and the smiles are as elvish as they are Elvis, as hearty as they're Haley. In other words, Showaddywaddy might have taken their mission very seriously indeed. But they didn't expect their audience to be even half as dedicated – and would probably have been disappointed if they were. Who else, after all, was going to buy "Hey Mr. Christmas"?

by Dave Thompson, AMG

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A revivalist band like Showaddywaddy is, almost by definition, not one that's going to show much growth or change over the course of their albums. So their third LP was in the same style that had brought them success over two prior albums and a bunch of hit mid-'70s British singles: homages to pseudo pre-Beatles rock & roll styles, including doo wop, Buddy Holly, and rockabilly, with a bit of glam thunder and a knowing nostalgic air. Was it on the level of its inspirations? Of course not, but it was reassuringly catchy for their audience, though that audience shrank for the third album, which stopped just outside the British Top 40. Nine of the 12 songs are originals, including the small hit title track, padded out by covers of Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, and Chuck Berry. The Gary Glitter-like football chants are most prominent in "Lookin' Back"; '70s pop balladry asserts itself in "Paint Your Picture"; the Buddy Holly imitation gets slavish on "Heavenly"; and "Sweet and Innocent You," another Holly-esque ditty, is spiced with corny early-'60s type pizzicato strings.

by Richie Unterberger, AMG

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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Titled for the railroad courier service of the same name (the album's sleeve replicates one of their parcels), Showaddywaddy's fourth album was released on the back of their latest hit, "When," in late 1977. Following in the tradition of its predecessors, Red Star splits its contents between band originals (six of the 13 songs) and the covers which were the staple fare of the band's singles catalog, although it is difficult to say which is which – a tribute to the strength of both the band's writing and the idiosyncrasies of their sound. That the band had developed into little more than a supercharged revival act can never be disputed. But the revival itself had never taken off in Britain, leaving Showaddywaddy to glory in a field of exactly one. And how they gloried. In keeping with the band's established practice, three of the original album cuts became major hits ("You Got What It Takes" and "Dancin' Party" followed "When" up the U.K. listings), and modesty alone surely prevented a genuinely stomping revision of "Something Else" and a heartfelt "Listen to Me" from being sent to join them. It is band originals "68 Teenage Queen," "In Above Your Head," and the closing "Swansong" which best illustrate Showaddywaddy's brilliance, though balancing a keen sense of nostalgia with a definite awareness that half the band's fans weren't even alive when the epoch they evoke was first around. Indeed, that might well be why Showaddywaddy's best albums have steadfastly refused to age, no matter how deeply their inspirations sink into the mists of history. For its CD debut, Red Star packs a solid eight bonus tracks, all drawn from period singles: "I Wonder Why," "A Little Bit of Soap," and the maniacally catchy "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" were all hits during 1978; the remainder were non-LP B-sides.

by Dave Thompson, AMG

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By late 1979 and its fifth album, Showaddywaddy had moved so far beyond its original links with the glam rock scene that it was hard to believe the group had ever been considered a part of it – all the more so since the bandmembers themselves had scarcely altered their own modus operandi in the slightest. Still firmly locked into an updated vision of mid-'50s Teddy Boy chic and still drawing its repertoire from the pre-Beatles rock & roll library, Showaddywaddy was both an absolute anachronism and an unflagging inspiration for a clutch of freshly emergent '50s revivalists – both the Darts and Rocky Sharpe & the Replays made their own grab for chart glory during 1979, leaving Britain briefly (but convincingly) poised on the brink of a full-scale rock & roll revival. Again. Of course it didn't happen, but Crepes & Drapes, released just in time for Christmas, marched on regardless. The album made the U.K. Top Ten, three singles hit the U.K. Top 40, and if critics complained that the whole Showaddywaddy sound was sounding dreadfully formulaic – so what? The usual mix of spot-on originals and excellent covers thrilled the people it was meant to thrill, and who could ask for more than that? Versions of "Sweet Little Rock & Roller," "Twist and Shout," and "Come on Let's Go" stand out among the album's revivals – points also for the skillful Showaddy-izing of Eric Carmen's "That's Rock & Roll." "Remember Then," meanwhile, serves up the latest in the band's collection of achingly nostalgic looks back at the days when rock was young, while the well-packaged 7Ts CD reissue appends two non-LP B-sides that themselves would have sat proudly on the main attraction, "Love for a Star" and "Five Minutes More."

by Dave Thompson, AMG

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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By the time of Showaddywaddy's seventh album, Good Times, almost all of the original spark and enthusiasm the band displayed with their exciting brand of rock & roll revivalism had been paved over by a smooth expanse of pandering showbiz tendencies and bland silliness. The record is the usual mix of originals and covers of '50s and '60s classics. This time out the selection of covers is obvious with picks like "Alley-Oop," "C'mon Everybody" and "Shake," each of which is drained of life and given a dose of lackluster professionalism. The only cover that has a pulse at all is their dash through the Easybeats' screaming rocker "Good Times," and even then the band ruin it with their ham-fisted playing. The originals are no great shakes either as the corny backing vocals and overall processed sound turn even the songs that threaten to rock – like the opener "Multiplication" and "You Always Stand Me Up" – are turned to mush by the end. Some of them were mush from the beginning, like the cheesy polka-sounding "Party Time" and the overly emotional "I Don't Like Rock N' Roll No More." Showaddywaddy should have packed it in long before this album came out. It is that bad. Not that they ever had much of a reputation but what little they had would have been left in tatters if anyone had been listening. It failed to chart and was thankfully cast into the trash heap of glam history until 7T's rescued it and added two equally terrible bonus tracks.

by Tim Sendra, AMG

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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Showaddywaddy - The Complete Studio Recordings 1973-1988 (2013) [10CD Super Deluxe Box Set] Re-up

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