Best Of The Rubettes CD

This tight and tuneful collection covers the career of the Rubettes, an English group who earned several hits throughout Europe during the 1970s by synthesizing classic pop melodies with modern production techniques. Although superficially tagged as a glam group on the basis of a few singles like "I Can Do It," The Best of the Rubettes reveals there was much more to this group than glam rock. However, that doesn't mean glam rock fans won't find plenty to like on here: "Julia" is a mid-tempo love lament that pits raunchy guitar riffs against forceful, crashing drum beats, and "The Sha Na Na Song" layers the title chant over a relentless, huge-sounding drum beat in the glam rock tradition. Other tracks take the group's penchant for older sounds in interesting directions: "I Can Do It" slyly blends a Chuck Berry-style guitar riff with thickly layered harmonies reminiscent of the Beach Boys to create a sly bit of retro rock, and "Baby I Know" is a credible and well-crafted stab at country-pop that became a Top Ten smash in England. The Best of the Rubettes also includes two brilliant recreations of the Phil Spector "wall of sound" production style in "Tonight" and "Sugar Baby Love," a pair of tunes that combined grandiosely romantic melodies with lush string arrangements to become huge European hits. The Rubettes even tackle the message song genre with "Under One Roof," a socially conscious song that tackles taboo subjects like homophobia and child abuse. Although this song is shamelessly manipulative in its tear-jerking lyrics and melody, the song is undeniably heartfelt and moving. All in all, The Best of the Rubettes is a fine, diverse collection of carefully crafted pop that proves the Rubettes deserve to be remembered as more than one of glam rock's lesser lights. ~ Donald A. Guarisco

A straightforward summary of the seven (out of eight) Top 30 hits enjoyed by the Rubettes between 1974-1976, rather obviously intended as a farewell to what had once ranked among the most effervescent hitmaking machines of the age. How premature -- just months later, the Rubettes bounced back with the tremendous "Baby I Know" and scored their biggest hit since "I Can Do It" two long years before. One cannot blame the powers that be, however, for thinking the band was over. Since they first emerged in a flurry of semi-Showaddywaddy rock & roll retro-isms and the chart-topping "Sugar Baby Love" in May 1974, the Rubettes' career had been moving slowly backwards all the time; the sugar-baby sound-alike "Tonight" peaked at a meager number 12 in the U.K., while just two further singles even breached the Top Ten: "Jukebox Jive" and "I Can Do It."; "Little Darling" and "You're the Reason Why" had barely scraped the Top 30. But the Rubettes were always worth far more than their singles discography insisted -- their first three albums, at least, stand alongside any of the bands that the mid-'70s media was regularly appointing "the next/new Beatles," even if the Rubettes themselves were never dropped into that same bag (blame snobbery: People heard the hits and dismissed them as valueless. They never even bothered playing the LPs). A handful of album cuts included here begin to state that case, and "Baby I Know" would confirm it, for anybody who cared. But the new age of the Rubettes, ushered in by that release, has no part to play in the story told here -- instead, sit back and marvel at just how effortlessly "Sugar Baby Love" and "I Can Do It" still roll back the years, and the jukebox jive comes alive once more. Yeah, they really could do it. ~ Dave Thompson

Personnel: Alan Williams (vocals); Bill Hurd (keyboards); John Richardson (drums).