Groovin' with the Rovers!
I LOVE celtic music, and hearing this CD takes me to another place entirely. I've never been to Ireland, but I can just feel and hear the atmosphere of the old pubs in the drinking songs, and smell the damp fields in others. My favorite, of course, is "The Unicorn", a true classic. The remaster is totally amazing!
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This Is One "Best Of" That Delivers
From the four pages of background notes written in 1998 by Todd Everett to the inclusion of their four hit singles with the then Decca label AND all four B-sides, this release from MCA, complete with excellent sound quality, is one CD that delivers what it says.
The five Irish emigrants - vocalist Jimmy Ferguson (who sadly passed away at age 57 in October of 1997), vocalist/guitarist Wil Millar, his brother George (guitar), their cousin Joe Millar (bass) and Wilcil McDowell (accordian) - who made their home base in Calgary in the Canadian province of Alberta, hit it big in early 1968 when their recording of the Shel Silverstein tune, The Unicorn, made it to # 2 on the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts as well as # 7 on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 b/w The Black Velvet Band.
Many sources cite them as being among the One-Hit Wonders of the industry, but they did have significant other AC hits, each of which also made it into the Hot 100. The follow-up (The Puppet Song) Whiskey On A Sunday, peaked at # 9 AC/# 75 Hot 100 in summer 1968 b/w The Orange And The Green, and late that same summer, The Biplane Ever More topped out at # 13 AC and # 91 Hot 100 b/w Liverpool Lou.
The following spring, their cover of the December 1968 British # 1 hit (by The Scaffold, which included Mike McGear - in reality Paul McCartney's brother Peter Michael), got to # 15 AC as well as # 113 Hot 100 "bubble under" b/w Mrs. Crandle's Boardinghouse. The A-side is based upon Lydia Estes Pinkham who, in the 1800s (she was born on February 9, 1819 and died on May 17, 1883) made her living brewing up and selling a tonic mixing herbs and alcohol to relieve menstrual/menopausal pain in women. It's really quite amusing.
Twelve years after that 1969 hit, they would return to the charts as simply The Rovers with the hilarious Wasn't That A Party, which reached # 37 Hot 100/# 46 AC in April 1981 b/w Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs on the Epic label (a subsidiary of Columbia). Unfortunately, that's omitted from this MCA release.
A happy, toe-tapping album sure to please.
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