The Dave Clark Five - Everybody Knows (2019 - Remaster) (2019) [Hi-Res]

Although the Dave Clark Five would continue to release a good deal of music through the early 1970s, Everybody Knows, issued in early 1968, was -- oddly, considering how massively popular the band had been in the U.S. in the mid-'60s -- their final non-compilation American LP. Perhaps that was because by 1968, the DC5 could no longer count on having their name alone sell substantial copies of albums, having had their final U.S. Top Ten single the previous year. Everybody Knows did have a couple mild American hits, the ham-fisted soul-rocker "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" and the rather treacly ballad "Everybody Knows" (an entirely different song than their 1964 Top 20 hit of the same title, and a much bigger hit in their native U.K., where it reached number two). "Everybody Knows," which unusually featured Lenny Davidson rather than customary chief DC5 singer Mike Smith on lead vocals, sounded something like the ballads with which Engelbert Humperdinck was rising to fame around the same time. Despite its success, that's not what most fans come to DC5 records to hear, so it might be a relief to learn that it's not typical of the rest of the LP, though none of the other songs were among their better work. Some of them saw the group competently, if not excitingly, adapt to trends in late-'60s production with an increased brassiness, as they do on the soul-pop tunes "A Little Bit Now" and "Inside and Out." "Red and Blue," meanwhile, gets into more wistful densely produced late-'60s pop, and just edged into the Top 100; one can imagine "I'll Do the Best I Can," one of the better tracks, as filler on a Walker Brothers record. Other songs are more or less similar to their mid-'60s sound, although with slightly more updated production. It adds up to an album that has some appeal for serious Dave Clark Five fans, but isn't essential listening for more discriminating listeners. ~ Richie Unterberger