VA - Hard To Find 45s On CD, Vol 13 - The Love Album (2012)

With the latest installment of our “Hard-To-Find 45s on CD” series, Eric Records tackles a broad topic – love songs. After all, most songs are love songs – all about wanting it, finding it, losing it, and every step in between. And, we’ve got that covered, from John Denver’s heartfelt tribute to his wife, “Annie’s Song,” to Ronnie Dyson’s frank discussion of bedroom politics, “(If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) Why Can’t I Touch You?

What makes Hard-To-Find 45s on CD Vol. 13: The Love Album really special, though, isn’t the love part, it’s the hard-to-find part. Sure, these are all love songs, and nearly all of them were Top 20 hits. But, trying to find these on any other CD collection is like trying to find a date at 10 o’clock on a Saturday night – not easy, and very expensive!

No less than six of these songs are making their CD debut in one form or another! Two of them – Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds’s “Winners And Losers” (1975) and “Do What You Wanna Do” by Five Flights Up (1970) have never appeared on CD in any form, anywhere. Others, like The Avant-Garde’s pop-psych paean “Naturally Stoned” (1968), make their stereo debuts. (By the way, guess who was in The Avant-Garde? Future game show host Chuck Woolery!)

Like all of Eric’s “Hard-To-Find” series, this volume embraces the marvelously eclectic nature of popular music. Its 19 tracks cover more than a decade of prime-time pop, from the swooning “Love Me With All Your Heart” by the Ray Charles Singers (1964) to Roger Whittaker’s poignant ballad, “The Last Farewell” (1975). Included in that span is one of the most sought-after love songs of all time – Paul Stookey’s “Wedding Song (There Is Love)” – in its original hit version.

But nowhere, however, is that eclecticism more apparent than in a foursome of songs expressing love for God – all unexpected Top 20 smashes in an arena not known for its reverence. We have famed songwriter Kris Kristofferson’s quietly awestruck “Why Me,” the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ ecstatic “Oh Happy Day,” and Miguel Rios’s “A Song Of Joy” (1970), based on the climactic final movement of Beethoven’s 9th symphony (making its U.S CD debut, by the way…). And then there’s the most unexpected hit single of all time: “Amazing Grace” by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (1972), which forced teenagers coast-to-coast to listen to bagpipes – and like it!