The Hollies Albums The Hollies Relations
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The Hollies
Released on The Beatles record label, The Hollies reached number two on the UK album charts with this debut set of covers and one lone original. The 122 second long original is the fairly tame Clarke/Nash original 'Little Lover' and the best that can be said about it is that it fits alongside the material by the likes of Chuck Berry and Gordy Jr, etc. So, what can we say about this album? Well, it's well played and no doubt fairly closely resembled the groups live set at the time. The sound is Merseybeat circa 'Please Please Me' by The Beatles but The Hollies fail to show the range The Beatles had even with their debut, this being fourteen songs that all chug along in much the same fashion as each other. The nasal vocal style of The Hollies is more akin to Lennon than McCartney and The Hollies lack the wild abandon of The Beatles circa the cavern club days. The hit single here is 'Stay' which is at least as impressive as the first couple of Beatles singles, but for the fact The Hollies didn't write it themselves. The likes of 'Rockin Robin' is hideous, much better is 'You Better Move On'. The Hollies have a mean guitar sound though, some of the solos outstrip the efforts of The Beatles around this time. Did you find this page by searching for The Beatles? May as well have done! Ok, i'll try not to mention them again. For all the bands pouring out of Liverpool, EMI were smart enough to also look right towards nearby Manchester. The Hollies had stage charisma, could harmonise and seemed a good bet, as later would be proved. The Hollies never got the respect other acts did on the albums front, however and to this day are seen as a singles act by many. The released a lot of albums too and a reappraisal is perhaps due.
Nitty Gritty-Something's Got a Hold on Me / Don't You Know / To You My Love / It's in Her Kiss / Time for Love / What Kind of Boy / Too Much Monkey Business / I Thought of You Last Night / Please Don't Feel Too Bad / Come on Home / You'll Be Mine / Set Me Free The majority of songs second time out are Hollies originals and it makes a big difference. The bands instrumental attack has also improved and although The Hollies remain very rough around the edges at this stage in their career, eg, a good 12 months behind The Beatles in terms of development, there are some pleasing things on this LP. No hit contained on the LP, by the way - The Hollies released their singles seperately from their LPs at this stage and had much success with them. Having said that, this LP is far more consistent than their debut, even if very few of these songs would have been able to trouble the hit-parade, had they actually been singles. Still, the three part harmonies make an entrance, the guitar playing is far better. A song such as 'Time For Love' has very decent harmonies and is actually a pretty well developed pop song for 1964 in the UK beat-group scene. The covers fare less well, particularly when they do something like 'Too Much Monkey Business', where the comparisons with The Beatles become more inevitable and you wish The Hollies had a rock vocalist as good as Lennon.
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