Nicky Hopkins - The Revolutionary Piano Of... (1966)

Or perhaps a better title might have been The Counter-revolutionary Piano of Nicky Hopkins. For, although Nicky had already established himself as one of the greatest rock and R&B pianists in Britain via numerous sessions, this 1966 instrumental LP was dominated by easy listening arrangements of standards. Despite the production credit of Shel Talmy (Who, the Kinks), what sets the tone are the period lite soundtrack orchestration (by David Whitaker) and wordless backup vocals (by the Mike Sammes Singers). It's candlelight music with a desperately trendy edge, far removed indeed from the Who's My Generation album (which both Hopkins and Talmy had worked on extensively around this time). Nicky Hopkins doing "Goldfinger," "Love Letters," and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"? Yep, with MOR arrangements of "Satisfaction" and "Yesterday" thrown in for good measure. It's nothing more than a curio, though with the massive easy listening revival of the mid-'90s, its day may have finally come; indeed, it was reissued on CD by Columbia in the U.K.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo