Have You Heard? Rhino's CALIFORNIA GROOVE [2009]

I think we can all agree that some really cool things have come out of France: fries, bread, toast, dip sandwiches, connections and kissing, to name but a few. And from David Dutreuil and his small but dedicated team at Warner/Rhino France came the magnificent series of three 4CD box sets (and a single disc Special Edition) known as California Groove. In April 2009, the first California Groove was released with 75 tracks spread across four CDs. Isaak Jasmin gets mastering credit on the compilation, with tracks spanning 1969-2009. The illustration of a woman on the cover seems like a hybrid of Pat Benatar and Terri Nunn to me. Does it remind you of anyone?

	title	artist	year
1	Ventura Highway	America	1972
2	Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)	Daryl Hall & John Oates	1973
3	Lotta Love	Nicolette Larson	1978
4	Dismal Day	Bread	1969
5	Dance With Me	Orleans	1975
6	Border Town	The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band	1974
7	Some People Call It Music	J.D. Souther	1972
8	Summer Breeze	Seals & Croft	1972
9	You're So Vain	Carly Simon	1972
10	Long Hot Summer Nights	Wendy Waldman	1978
11	Chuck E's In Love	Rickie Lee Jones	1979
12	Easy For You To Say	Linda Ronstadt	1982
13	It Doesn't Matter	Firefall	1976
14	I'm Easy	Boz Scaggs	1969
15	Junkman	Danny O'Keefe	1973
16	I Saw The Light	Todd Rundgren	1972
17	Willin'	Little Feat	1971
18	Suzy	Terence Boylan	1980
19	Ghost Town	Poco	1982
20	Life's Been Good (Original Long Version)	Joe Walsh	1978
21	Oh Lori	Alessi Brothers	1976
22	Damn You Girl	Barnaby Bye	1974
23	Break The Chain	Jim Messina	1981
24	Mama Coco	Gino Vannelli	1975
25	Future Train	Felix Cavaliere	1974
26	Swearin' To God	Frankie Valli	1975
27	Too Young	Crackin'	1978
28	Nighttime In The Switching Yard	Warren Zevon	1978
29	On The Swing Shift	Ned Doheny	1981
30	What A Fool Believes	The Doobie Brothers	1978
31	Survival	Marc Jordan	1978
32	Night People	Vapour Trails	1979
33	This Is It	Kenny Loggins	1979
34	Ticket To My Heart	The Wilson Brothers	1979
35	Genevieve	Andrew Gold	1978
36	Casablanca	Dane Donohue	1978
37	Gotta Get Back To Love	Bill Champlin	1981
38	Thunder Island	Jay Ferguson	1977
39	Ride Like The Wind	Christopher Cross	1979
40	Livin' It Up	Bill LaBounty	1982
41	Hot Rod Hearts	Robbie DuPree	1980
42	I Keep Forgettin (Every Time You're Near)	Michael McDonald	1982
43	You're The Only Woman (You & I)	Ambrosia	1980
44	Get Used To It	Roger Voudouris	1979
45	Who'll Be The Fool Tonight	Larsen-Feiten Band	1980
46	Cool Night	Paul Davis	1981
47	I'd Really Love To See You Tonight	England Dan & John Ford Coley	1976
48	Falling	LeBlanc & Carr	1977
49	Fly Away	Peter Allen	1980
50	Nite Crawler	Larry Carlton	1978
51	Got A Hold On Me	Christine McVie	1984
52	California 1	Con Funk Shun	1981
53	That's Why I Came To California	Leon Ware	1982
54	What Cha' Gonna Do For Me	Chaka Khan	1981
55	Stop, Look, Listen	Patti Austin	1981
56	Please Don't Walk Away	George Benson	1984
57	We're In This Love Together	Al Jarreau	1981
58	99	Toto	1979
59	When Sly Calls (Don't Touch That Phone)	Michael Franks	1983
60	Nice Girls	Eye To Eye	1982
61	On The Beach	Chris Rea	1986
62	Ocean Bay	Nightshift	2007
63	More Than You'll Ever Know	Michael Ruff	1988
64	I Love L.A.	Randy Newman	1983
65	The Higher You Rise	Maxus	1981
66	She Waits For Me (Early Airplay demo)	Jay Graydon of Airplay	2006
67	Where There's No Tomorrow	Peter Cetera	1992
68	The Big House	Stephen Bishop	1980
69	First Time	Michael Sembello	1983
70	Countdown (Captain Fingers)	Lee Ritenour	1981
71	Sister's Beautiful	Geyster	2009
72	Hard To Say I'm Sorry	Chicago	1982
73	My Baby	David Pack	1985
74	Cure Kit	JaR	2008
75	French Music Par Excellence	Week End Millionaire	1979

For me, California Groove has the solid makings of a really, really great double disc set as several of my favorite songs, both old and new, are featured throughout but there are an almost equal number of tracks I don't care too much for as well. This will be a recurring scenario through the other two 4CD sets in the series. While I applaud the massive undertaking, each volume feels a bit bloated and one moreso than the others.