8 Terrific Cherry Red Pop Boxes

My mid-year picks from the English label are too good to miss

Cherry Red is one of my favorite pop labels. Based in England, the record company and its subsidiary imprints strive for fantastic sound, smartly edited collections and seductive packages. I typically feature a collection of my favorite Cherry Red sets twice a year—in June and just before the December holidays. So today, here’s my mid-year report:

Lulu—Independence (Dome). In 1993, long after disco had come and gone, Scottish singer Lulu recorded a superb dance album called Independence. Lulu, of course, is best known in the States as the singer of To Sir With Love, the hit song for the 1967 movie. Independence was her first album since 1982. The title track was a hit in Europe, reaching No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart, and peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s dance chart. This five CD set features 57 audio tracks plus a DVD with promotional videos. The production and arrangements are superb. To buy (available July 24), go here.

Here’s the title track…

Various—Digging Your Scene: New Pop and All That Jazz, 1982-1987 (Cherry Red). At the tail end of disco, dance melted into a smoother, slick sound peppered with heavy beats and jazz influences. This box captures that fresh, sophisticated era in the U.K. on four discs. It’s a sequel to an earlier box—Heaven Sent: The Rise Of New Pop 1979-1983. All of the tracks are jazzy and sexy. To buy, go here…

Here’s New York Afternoon by Mondo Kane, featuring Dee Lewis, Coral Gordon and guest star Georgie Fame…

The 5th Dimension—Let the Sunshine In, the Soul City & Bell Albums (Strawberry). If sunshine pop had a royal family, it would be the 5th Dimension. Their vocal harmonies and arrangements were sterling and a plush counterbalance to the emerging hard rock movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. The songs chosen for the vocal group suited them perfectly, from Up Up and Away and Working on a Groovy Thing to Wedding Bell Blues and California Soul. This six CD box features all of their best albums plus bonus tracks. The sound is fantastic, and you quickly realize that the hits you know were just the tip of their rich catalog. I cranked up One Less Bell to Answer and was blown away by the warm, sterling fidelity. To buy, go here.

Here’s One Less Bell to Answer from the new set (turn it up)…

Really Into Something: Brit Girl Sounds and Styles, 1962-1970 (Strawberry). I adore the Brit girl sound of the 1960s and have posted about this genre for years. The female U.K. artists who made in the U.S. were limited to a handful. These include Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Shirley Bassey and a few others. If you were in London back then (I was, in 1968), you’d be up to speed on Jackie Trent, Carin Kay, Debbie Lee, Cindy Cole, Sandra Gale and dozens of others who never made the leap across the Atlantic to the States with hits. This three CD set features one great pop single after the next, and brings to mind white boots, pink blush, white lipstick, heavy black lashes and colorful mod outfits. To buy, go here.

Here’s Romy Carr singing Can You Feel It, Baby…

What’s It All About? Film and TV Music of Swinging London (Strawberry). What would this roundup be without the brassy drama and high-impact sound of cinematic Brit-rock associated with Mayfair and Carnaby Street in the mid-1960s. This 3-CD set intermingles youthful vocal tracks with more adult-listening orchestration tracks (Sonny Rollins’s Alfie theme is here, too). What they all have in common is the cool, sophisticated, secret agent-y, sports-car scene of London then. Consume with a Pimm’s No. 1 Cup and cucumber. To buy, go here.

Here’s John Barry’s The Ipcress File…

The Lovin’ Spoonful—What a Day for a Daydream: The Complete Recordings 1965-1969 (Strawberry). This 7-CD, 170-track box compiles the complete 1960s recordings by the Lovin’ Spoonful. The box’s mastering is by Grammy-nominated archivist/producer Alec Palao and includes the group’s first four studio albums: Do You Believe In Magic (1965), Daydream (1966), Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful (1966) and Everything Playing (1967) in both stereo and mono. There also are stereo mixes of their two soundtrack albums—The Lovin’ Spoonful In Woody Allen’s ‘What’s Up Tiger Lily?’ (1966) and You’re A Big Boy Now (1967). And much more. Sophisticated folk music for a simpler time that influenced California folk-rock. To buy, go here.

Here’s You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice…

Leon Russell With Mary Russell—The Paradise Years 1976-1982 (EMD). When I interviewed Leon Russell at home outside of Nashville in 2014, I told him my favorite albums of his were the ones he cut with Mary McCreary, his former wife. Looking at me with his bushy white beard and mustache, and sunglasses, he paused and said, “Thank you. They’re among my favorites, too, though the music was better than the relationship.” Strife notwithstanding, this is 4-CD set is a dream box for anyone who feels the way I do about Leon’s soul sessions for Paradise Records. To buy, go here.

Here’s Daylight…

Various—CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986 (Cherry Red). Starting in 1973, New York’s CBGB club became a hothouse for the development of punk and then new wave. All of the bands on this 4-CD set made a name for themselves playing live, and a handful of artists got record deals. The history of New York punk is here in one place, featuring a cross-section of the primitive music launched by social outcasts and misfits. All of them loved the grit of garage rock and rebelled against glossy arena bands by specializing in driving guitar riffs and raging vocals. To buy, go here.

Here are the Necessaries’ Back to You…