EMI Plus' budget-priced The Story series presents straightforward, no-frills compilations of major rock artists with catalogs in the EMI vaults, accompanied by CD-ROMs containing brief biographical information (in English, Dutch, French, and Spanish), discographies consisting of album titles and dates of release, and a photo gallery. Manfred Mann recorded for the EMI subsidiary HMV Pop from 1963 to 1966, and the first ten of the group's 11 British singles from that period are included here in chronological order, A-sides ...
Read More
EMI Plus' budget-priced The Story series presents straightforward, no-frills compilations of major rock artists with catalogs in the EMI vaults, accompanied by CD-ROMs containing brief biographical information (in English, Dutch, French, and Spanish), discographies consisting of album titles and dates of release, and a photo gallery. Manfred Mann recorded for the EMI subsidiary HMV Pop from 1963 to 1966, and the first ten of the group's 11 British singles from that period are included here in chronological order, A-sides followed by B-sides. (There was enough room for the 11th, the U.K. Top 40 hit "You Gave Me Somebody to Love," too, but it is not here.) Eight of those A-sides reached the British charts, starting with the Top Five hit "5-4-3-2-1" and including the chart-toppers "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Pretty Flamingo," as well as the Top Fives "Sha La La," "Come Tomorrow," and Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now." Paul Jones provides the gruff, soulful lead vocals, with the band churning out a hard-edged R&B sound behind him that sometimes gives way to lighter pop. In the U.S., where the recordings were licensed by the Ascot and United Artists labels, four of them -- "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "Sha La La," "Come Tomorrow," and "Pretty Flamingo" -- reached the charts, with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" also reaching number one in America. This is really only part of the story of a group who went right on scoring hits after the switch to Fontana Records (Mercury in the U.S.) and the departure of Jones. But it does provide a detailed look at Manfred Mann's earliest recordings and some of their most successful ones. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Read Less
