The Happenings - Greatest Golden Hits (2001)

The Happenings, the '60s vocal group known for their updated, four-part harmony arrangements of pop standards, scored a series of hits, starting in the summer of 1966 with their Top Ten revival of the Tempos' 1959 Top 40 hit "See You in September." The Happenings recorded for fellow vocal group the Tokens' label, B.T. Puppy Records. In the summer of 1968, after they had placed eight singles in the Hot 100, B.T. Puppy issued the 12-track LP Golden Hits!, which collected those eight hits -- "See You in September" and the group's other Top Ten, "I Got Rhythm"; the Top 20 hits "Go Away Little Girl" and "My Mammy"; and the chart entries "Goodnight My Love," "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," "Music Music Music," and "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" -- as well as three non-charting singles, "Girl on a Swing," "Randy," and "Sealed With a Kiss," and a previously unreleased revival of "Tea for Two." In 1969, B.T. Puppy switched distributors from Jubilee Records to Warner Bros., and in the shuffle the Happenings ended up on Jubilee. After issuing their Piece of Mind LP, Jubilee decided to compile its own Happenings hits collection and released an album called Greatest Hits that duplicated much of the contents of the previous year's Golden Hits! disc. Fast-forwarding 32 years brings us to this CD reissue on Wounded Bird Records, its tracks licensed from that great repository of old record catalogs, Rhino. Wounded Bird has combined the contents of the Happenings' Golden Hits! and Greatest Hits albums for Greatest Golden Hits, eliminating the many duplications, of course. What is left might easily have been called "Golden Hits! [Bonus Tracks]" since it is actually the 12 tracks from Golden Hits! with a couple more non-charting singles ("Girls on the Go," "Crazy Rhythm") and a couple of B-sides ("You're in a Bad Way," "He Thinks He's a Hero") added at the end. The Happenings' last chart single, a medley of "Where Do I Go/Be-In/Hare Krishna" from the Broadway musical Hair, released on Jubilee, is not included; all the added tracks are from 1966-68 and were originally released on B.T. Puppy. And with a running time of only 42 minutes, the album cannot be called the best possible single-disc Happenings CD. As of its release in 2001, however, it could be called the only one, and that counts for plenty.