STARS - Various Artists

YEAR: 1977

LABEL: K-Tel

TRACK LISTING: The Things We Do For Love - 10cc, Rich Girl - Hall & Oates, Year of the Cat - Al Stewart, Torn Between Two Lovers - Mary MacGregor, A Little Bit More - Dr. Hook, Love Me - Yvonne Elliman, So Into You - Atlantic Rhythm Section, Devil Woman - Cliff Richard, Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On - Addrisi Brothers, I'm Your Boogie Man - K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel (Pt. 1) - Tavares, Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston, Cool Town - Stanky Brown Group, The World Is A Ghetto - War, Theme from "Roots" - Quincy Jones, Hard Luck Woman - Kiss, Tryin' To Love Two - William Bell, Couldn't Get It Right - Climax Blues Band

IMPRESSIONS: In our last episode, we discovered the magic that was K-Tel and were left with the burning question: What did I eat for lunch that's affecting me like this? Be that as it may, STARS was the next K-Tel record I bought after HIT MACHINE; this was after moving from Maple Surple to our new house in Clay Town. I was all of 11 years old. I remember spinning this record many times on my portable black record player that folded up like a suitcase; especially because my favourite song at the time was on it: Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way". Of course, these were the editted radio versions of the singles; however I still have a soft spot in my heart for some of these songs which aren't exactly too great but give me an incredible rush of nostalgia. It's also hysterical to me that K-Tel seems to have shoved some really OLD songs (at the time) onto their records both here and on HIT MACHINE. On STARS, War's "The World Is A Ghetto" is from the early 70s and Paul Anka's cheesefest "(You're) Having My Baby" was from 1974 and appears on the 1976 HIT MACHINE album. Ha!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: The Things We Do For Love - 10cc, Rich Girl - Hall & Oates, Year of the Cat - Al Stewart, So In To You - Atlantic Rhythm Section, Devil Woman - Cliff Richard, I'm Your Boogie Man - K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel (Pt. 1) - Tavares, Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston, The World Is A Ghetto - War, Hard Luck Woman - Kiss, Couldn't Get It Right - Climax Blues Band

FACT SHEET: Once again, nothing really to say here. This is a K-Tel Records LP released in 1977.

VOICES - Hall & Oates

YEAR: 1980

LABEL: RCA

TRACK LISTING: How Does It Feel To Be Back, Big Kids, United State, Hard To Be In Love With You, Kiss On My List, Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect), You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', You Make My Dreams, Everytime You Go Away, Africa, Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices)

IMPRESSIONS: Still stuck in the 80s this week with Hall & Oates big blockbuster. This album my mother actual bought because she was always a bigger Hall & Oates fan than I was. The big hits on this album I'm not really interested in; however this disc does contain some of my all-time favourite Hall & Oates songs. Their original version of "Everytime You Go Away" is a masterpiece and nothing like the light and puffy fluff Paul Young made of it; here it's a pain-packed, soulful smolder of a song. Then there's the two delightfully dippy winners "Africa" and "Gotta Lotta Nerve". The former is a "Lion Sleeps Tonight"-like romp where John Oates' girlfriend has gone to Africa and he's gotta go get her before "the lions and tigers try to jump on her bones" and the later is a nice piece of Daryl Hall vitriol with a sense of humour La Daryl is not generally known for. The big hits are pleasant enough listening but I've frankly heard them enough over the years due to the massive overplay they suffered at the time.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect), Everytime You Go Away, Africa

FACT SHEET: VOICES is Hall & Oates' ninth album and the first they produced themselves. "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is of course a cover of the Righteous Brothers song written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Phil Spector. This is the album whose new sound began Hall & Oates' domination of the music charts and MTV in the first half of the 1980s. The album has had a seeming multitude of covers but this black & white version was the first featuring raised embossed "sound waves" on the record sleeve. Paul Young would have a number one hit with a vastly inferior cover of "Everytime You Go Away" in 1985.