Nearly fifteen years after releasing their first compact disc series, The Rock'N'Roll Era, Time-Life Music launched The Singers & Songwriters Collection in 2000. While we were not among the initial subscribers to this particular series, we've managed to assemble the collection via the world's biggest yard sale over the past fifteen years or so. Before we delve into the initial batch of discs in the series, let's take a look at the two early prototype Singers & Songwriters compilations the company released in the early 1990s.
Singers & Songwriters is a 1990 release, a double-disc set with forty songs from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. The set was also released on four LPs or two cassettes, if that is what you collect. There is an obvious folk vibe running through the soft rock track list, along with a welcome strong presence of female artists as well. It's an easy listen with several notable narratives among the songs. We'd rate Singers & Songwriters a solid three and a half stars on our six-star scale. In the Warner Special Products catalog, Singers & Songwriters with its matrix OPCD-4528 falls between Desert Island Classics (OPCD-4527) and 60's Frat Rock (OPCD-4529).
In 1992, Time-Life Music followed up Singers & Songwriters with Our Songs: Singers & Songwriters Encore, another two-disc 40-song collection. We think it's a slightly more enjoyable group of songs, with less of the folkie vibe that seemed to permeate Singers & Songwriters. Unfortunately, there's also a lesser female presence among the artists. The music feels a little more upbeat overall than the earlier collection. We've seen it available on cassette but have yet to come across a vinyl version. Our Songs: Singers & Songwriters Encore rates four stars.
Here comes the Eighties! 1980-1982 ranks high among our favorite eras of music, so it should come as no surprise that we like 1980-1982 a lot. Top to bottom, there are no skippable tracks here as it's the cream of adult contemporary of the time. It's a wonderful blend of both upbeat and laid-back tracks from a variety of artists. Four and a half stars.
In late 1999, Time-Life Music began soliciting subscriptions to The Singers and Songwriters Collection with mailers to previous Time-Life Music subscribers and television commercials. The initial discs began arriving in mailboxes in 2000. As had been Time-Life's custom, the discs were not in any discernible order save for their sequential matrix numbers.
With the number R812-01, the first disc released was 1972-1973. While the double-disc format is retained from the prototypes, the number of tracks per disc has been nearly halved, with a dozen tracks per disc instead of twenty. Speaking of those prototype discs, five of the songs from Singers & Songwriters and three of the songs from Encore reappear on 1972-1973. One of those tracks is Rundgren's "Hello It's Me", originally featured in its 3:41 single version on Encore. It appears here on 1972-1973 in its 4:45 album version. Unlike Time-Life's previous pop and rock music series, such as AM Gold and Sounds of the Seventies, that featured hit single versions, nearly all of the tracks going forward in The Singers and Songwriter Collection are full-length album versions. 1972-1973 serves as an effective time machine for whisking this listener back to Top 40 AM radio circa 1972-1973, though admittedly, I have almost no real-time memory of that era. The surprise appearance of Paul McCartney, whose work never appears on compilation albums like this, is a definite bonus. 1972-1973 is an easy four stars.
1970-1971 was the next release in The Singers and Songwriter Collection in 2000, with John Lennon making a special appearance this time around. Should we expect a track from Ringo or George next time out? There is another aspect to this series I haven't mentioned yet that may very well be the reason Paul and John are appearing. Once you open the slim-line dual disc case and flip the CDs out of the way, you will see a special message from the T.J. Martell Foundation informing you that a portion of every dollar The Singers and Songwriters Collection earns will be donated to the Foundation. Having picked up all of our discs used, exactly none of our dollars went towards the charity, but we remedied that with a frictionless online donation. The music heard on 1970-1971 is more mellow and a little out of my preferred scope of 1973-1982. It's a solid three stars.
Now this is more like it. The third album in the series is 1974-1975, a particularly sweet spot for us, with many of these tracks appearing on our Hideaway 100 lists for 1974 and 1975. John Denver appears with a pair of songs, including a ringer originally released in 1971, and we count seven female artists offering a variety of sounds. Why does this matter? As I've matured as a music listener, I like to hear female voices in my music mix more often than when I was younger. There are some all-time favorites here alongside a few clunkers that hold the rating down to three and a half stars.
1976-1977 is even more mellow goodness. Linda Ronstadt is honored with a couple of her best cover versions, and she also appears singing backup on Andrew Gold's "Lonely Boy". The latter track is a rare single version in this series of mostly album versions. What I notice most while listening to 1976-1977 is the lack of a few artists (ABBA, Bee Gees) and genres (country, R&B, hard rock, and disco), but that is not what The Singers and Songwriters Collection is about. It's about the 7:11 version of Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" among others. Four stars.
The fifth album in The Singers and Songwriters Collection may well end up being our very favorite. 1978-1979 is stacked and packed with some very fine tracks. It's soft, smooth, and so easy on the ears that it has served well during the day on the back porch and during the night under the stars. The classic rock of "Werewolves of London" and "Sultans of Swing" stick out at first glance but blend well within the context of their respective discs. The sound on these early discs in the series is absolutely top-notch; I wouldn't be surprised if these tracks rank among the best-sounding versions of these songs in our entire library. Easy five stars on our exclusive six-star scale.
While the Singers & Songwriters prototype discs featured music from across three decades, the series has been solely confined to particular years in the Seventies until this disc. The 1960s album revisits a few tracks from those earliest discs and adds enough familiar favorites to keep our interest. After a few discs with no "special" guests like Paul McCartney or John Lennon, Bob Dylan shows up to the party with a deep cut, "To Ramona", from 1964's Another Side of Bob Dylan. Less popular tracks from Donovan and Gordon Lightfoot are also here, and the vibe is pure folk except for "Brown Eyed Girl", which passes for blue-eyed soul for some folks. The 1960s is a decent listen, but I can't give it more than three stars here and now.
At some point in 2000 or possibly even early in 2001, Time Life Music released a two-disc sampler of The Singers & Songwriters Collection for retail sale. Using the cover artwork from the 1974-1975 discs, the collection is simply titled Singers And Songwriters. Each disc features songs that had been previously issued on other discs in the collection, but I counted four songs that are exclusive to this album among the entirety of The Singers & Songwriters Collection:
"Without You" - Harry Nilsson"Shannon" - Henry Gross"After Midnight" - J.J. Cale"One Way Ticket Home" - Phil Ochs
Singers And Songwriters is a fine introduction to the collection, covering the Sixties and the Seventies while avoiding the Eighties. One minor complaint from this listener for a series that features mostly full-length album versions: "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" is included here in its 2:59 single edit rather than the 4:37 album version included on 1976-1977. We give this retail sampler three and a half stars.
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That wraps up Phase One. Next time out, we'll listen to Phase Two, the releases in The Singers and Songwriters Collection from 2001.
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