bad.squirrel presents...

Charlie's Angels - "Greatest Hits Vol.1"

I've always had a soft spot for Charlie's Angels. Their girlie teen enthusiasm and melodies are infectious as is their youthful sense of fun and this CD certainly oozes fun. The compilation brings together the first 3 singles with an assortment of out-takes, demos and general larking about. The tunes grab you from the opening "whoa oh oh" in the opening "It's never gonna happen to me" through to the other singles "I wanna be your baby" and "Don't say that you love me". Some of the B-sides are great like "Oh boy", "Runaway", "Tricky" and "Your pretty face", dig those Fuzzbox vocal inflexions! They mostly deal with girl / boy relationships, probably at school discos, in fairly simplistic terms but hey, that's the whole point!

     

Other tracks show the Angels poking fun at popstar lifestyles, giving cookery lessons, sampling speech from toy dolls and speculating about aliens. Some are lo-fi four-track stuff and there's the disco "Things and more things" and Take That's "Whatever you do to me". One of my favourites is "The young ones" where the girls chant "We are the young ones! We are the fun ones! We are pretty!! We have fun in the sand... Sha la la la..." and it all sounds very much like a feisty mix between Cliff Richard, the Monkees and the Banana Splits theme. Moments of pure childish amateurism mix unashamedly with the studio-quality singles and as there's 28 tracks on the CD, it's a bit like rummaging around in a jumble sale.

All very cutesy and girlie and a bit punk with tiaras and cream cakes thrown in. It won't leave you pondering the consequences of the second law of thermodynamics but it's jolly good fun all the same.

Released on Org Records, 1997 (ORGAN034CD).

Charlie's Angels were Charlie Renton (vocals), Diana Eskell (vocals), Nadia Ramsahoye (vocals), Nick Smith (guitarist), Kath Kehoe (bass), Lisa Gordon (drums).

Click here for Org Records' page on the Angels.

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