Terry Black Only Sixteen CD - Import

Black sounds like Billy J. Kramer with more guts on this collection of mid-1960s material, featuring plenty of songs that had been released as singles. That's partly because Black covers a couple of Lennon-McCartney songs that had been donated to non-Beatles artists, "Bad to Me" (which had actually been done by Kramer himself) and "World Without Love." Much of this, however, is material penned and produced for Black by the nascent Californian songwriting team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. It's a ripoff of light British Invasion acts (like Kramer), given more resemblance to the real Mersey deal via the frequent chiming 12-string guitars. Nonetheless, it's a pretty enjoyable ripoff, even if the songs are on the featherweight side, as they're real catchy, especially "Unless You Care," "Say It Again," "Everyone Can Tell," and "Kisses for My Baby." Many of the songs also appear on another Black LP from the mid-1960s, the wonderfully titled The Black Plague. Glen Campbell plays session guitar on "Unless You Care," and Sloan has recalled that other top Los Angeles session guys Leon Russell and Hal Blaine also played on Black recordings from this era. ~ Richie Unterberger