Music Week's round-up of the latest album reissues and catalogue releases, including Breakdance/Breakdance 2, Manchester: A City United In Music and Bellissima!: More 1960s She-Pop From Italy…
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Breakdance/Breakdance 2
(Cherry Pop CRPOPD 208)
Released in 1984, the film Breakdance and its quickfire follow-up Breakdance 2 – Breakin’ and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo in America – were low-budget, high-grossing box office hits with adventurous soundtracks housing commercial electro-dance, funk and hip-hop confections that brought the music to a wider audience. Although now largely forgotten, they were very well received at the time, with Breakdance reaching No.6 on the UK album chart and Breakdance 2 No.34. Out of print for some time, they are now released as a newly-remastered 2 CD set, and still retain some charm. Ollie & Jerry’s uplifting and jittery Breakin’…There’s No Stopping Us was a No.5 hit here, while Hot Streak’s Body Work reached No.19 and Rufus & Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody – a track the Breakdance album shared with Rufus’ less successful and otherwise live Stompin’ At The Savoy album – reached No.8. Breakdance 2 did less well at the box office, and housed just one minor hit, in the form of Ollie & Jerry’s Electric Boogaloo, which fell just short of the Top 50. However, German electronic musician George Kranz’s Din Daa Daa is now highly rated, while Firefox’s Radiotron and Midway’s Set It Out - redolent of D Train’s You’re The One For Me in parts - are charming period pieces.
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Manchester: A City United In Music
(Ace CDTOP 21534)
One of The UK’s most musically fertile and diverse cities, Manchester is rarely celebrated but is under the spotlight in this wide-ranging and compelling 2 CD digipack set, which includes 45 recordings spanning 55 years. Starting with Ewan MacColl’s folk staple Dirty Old Town - whose lyrics evoke Manchester’s historical image as a wet and grimy city while capturing the effects of the industrial revolution and its aftermath - the album shifts gear as in engages with a plethora of 1960s beat/pop acts, with the highly successful and very polished Hollies represented by Baby That’s All, the partly-comedic Freddie & The Dreamers by If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody and the lesser known Pete MacLaine & The Clan by their snappy flop, Yes I Do. Bluesman John Mayall, Georgie Fame, Elkie Brooks and Herman’s Hermits also put in appearances. Prog. rockers Barclay James Harvest’s bombastic Mockingbird and 10CC’s Life Is A Minestrone hint at a more sophisticated 1970s but Manchester acts played a big role in the rawer punk/new wave revolution later in the decade, with The Buzzcocks, John Cooper Clarke, Jilted John, Magazine, The Fall, Joy Division and New Order just some of those who made significant contributions, and who are featured here. Simply Red, who emerged from the remnants of punk act The Frantic Elevators, are represented by Come To My Aid, while there’s early Lisa Stansfield in the form of Blue Zone’s near-hit Thinking About His Baby. Madchester, of course, is also represented, with Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets and Happy Mondays also on board, while tracks from Johnny Marr and Oasis round out an impressive rollcall of talent and a pleasing 145 minute program, which comes with a hefty, heavily-illustrated and annotated 44 page booklet.
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Bellissima!: More 1960s She-Pop From Italy
(Ace International CDTOP 1527)
As its title suggests, this album is a sequel, arriving four years after the magnificent Ciao Bella!: Italian Girl Singers Of The 60s. Also part of the broader Ace initiative which has seen femme-led compilations of material from France, Hungary, Japan, Sweden, Spain and, of course, The UK, it is a finely-balanced set with soaring big beat ballads, guitar-driven pop, dramatic ballads and much more. Local repertoire is strong, with Orietta Berti’s spirited La Ragazza Semplici; Eurovision star Gigliola Cinquetti’s groovy Zero In Amore; and Lisa Gastoni’s haunting Una Stanza Vuota - penned by Ennio Morricone, and one of only two singles she release – all impressing. Almost half of the 24 songs here, however, are remakes of UK/US repertoire, and most don’t lose anything in translation, with Caterina Casselli making a decent fist of Il Volta Della Vita - David McWilliams haunting Days Of Pearly Spencer – which retains the original’s swirling orchestrations; La Ragazza 77’s spirited take on Sonny & Cher’s And The Beat Goes On under the title Il Beat…Cos’E; and aspiring teen star Meri Marabini’s Mi Manchi, a plaintive take on I Need You, as written by George Harrison for The Beatles’ Help! soundtrack.
