Gerry & The Pacemakers Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying/Second Album CD

Collectables Records' two-fer combines material from two LPs released by Laurie Records in 1964 that constitute most of the early recordings of Gerry & the Pacemakers, the second beat group to come out of Liverpool and join the British Invasion. Like their predecessors, the Beatles, the Pacemakers had their U.K. recordings parceled out differently across the Atlantic; in England, this material made up their 14-track album How Do You Like It? and a bunch of A- and B-sides of singles. In the U.S., Laurie got two 12-track LPs out of it, though two of the same songs ended up on both records. On this compilation, seven of the 12 songs the group placed in the American singles charts are included: "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying," "How Do You Do It?," "I'm the One," "I Like It," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "You're the Reason," and the bonus track, "Girl on a Swing," the Pacemakers' final Top 40 hit from 1966. The album tracks are often similar to the singles, bouncy pop tunes penned by Mitch Murray and the band's lead singer/guitarist, Gerry Marsden, with the rest covers of country, rock, and R&B evergreens. Gerry & the Pacemakers earned their place as Liverpool's second biggest band of the mid-'60s. They were a tight little rock & roll band with an exuberant leader. Marsden's enthusiastic, adenoidal tenor comes across well on the ballads, suggesting his later musical direction and foreshadowing the breakup of the Pacemakers, who ultimately couldn't keep pace with the musical changes of 1966-1967. But that was later. This 1963-1964 material catches the band at its height, and if the absence of hits like "Ferry Across the Mersey" keeps it from being complete, it is nevertheless a well-rounded portrait of one of the better British Invasion bands. ~ William Ruhlmann

Originally released on Laurie.

2 LPs on 1 CD: DON'T LET THE SUN CATCH YOU CRYING (1964)/SECOND ALBUM (1964).

Liner Note Author: Al Fichera.