The Wounded Bird label came too late with this CD release of Lulu's 2 US Epic label albums. All of these songs have been released on the 2 CD Set UK " THE COMPLETE MICKIE MOST RECORDINGS: TO SIR WITH LOVE ". Had this CD been issued 7 years ago, it would have supplied a need to the all the fans who wanted the complete albums on CD. The best sounding CD out of every Lulu CD to contain her Epic recordings is by far the US CD " THE BEST OF LULU 1967-1968 : TO SIR WITH LOVE " on the Taragon label. It features the only true stereo versions of Lulu's singles & top album cuts, and has the best sound quality out there . The songs from the " TO SIR WITH LOVE " album have been on many other compilations, and the " IT'S LULU " album was released on the UK CD " THE MOST OF LULU / LULU'S ALBUM " . It was called " LULU'S ALBUM " in the UK , and featured a bland red cover instead of the groovy shot of Lulu singing on the cover of the US version " IT'S LULU ". Even having the bonus A + B sides doesn't add much, and they missed including the rare B side " THIS TIME " [ which is on the other 2 CD's ]. Too bad they came out so late with this in the US market. Now how about releasing her 1978 album on Rocket Records - " DON'T TAKE LOVE FOR GRANTED " that has 10 great pop/soul songs including the hit " I COULD NEVER MISS YOU [ MORE THAN I DO ] "? Also her two early 80's albums for ALFA - " LULU " and " TAKE ME TO YOUR HEART AGAIN " have never been issued on CD either.
Jackie Deshannon was LuLu's only real competitor when it came to clean, fun pop. Both these great singers have the perfect voices for this; voices that were clean, crisp, pretty, but never sappy.
These two albums by Lu Lu are great pop--melodic music that stays dead center of the road. It never gets maudlin, the playing---probably some of it by John Paul Jones--is always great, and these tunes are damm near impossible to get out of your head.
LuLu never grew into straight rock as Jackie Deshanon did on the great
, or made anything with the epic sweep of Dusty SPringfield's
.
But for really nice pop that borders on rock, you can't go worng with this.
