Various Artists - Mellow Rock Hits Of The '70s: Summer Breeze (1997)

A few months back, I discovered Rhino's Mellow Rock Hits Of The '70s series through the Ventura Highway compilation and quickly found the other two discs in the series.

This one contains a Fleetwood Mac smash hit and I rarely see their stuff on such compilations. Plus, half the tracks were new to my CD collection and a few were new to my ears, as well. Some singles presented here didn't chart and there's at least one deep album cut included on the CD. Overall, a solid purchase for someone who has been nicknamed the Soft Rock Kid.

Don't f**k with the soft rock kid.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks (liner notes promote that these are the full album versions), with chart peaks from the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts plus links to previous appearances on this blog:

Song	Artist	Year	Pop	AC	Prev.
A Horse With No Name	America	1971	1	3	1
Dreams	Fleetwood Mac	1977	1	11	1
Summer Breeze	Seals & Crofts	1972	6	4
Mexico	James Taylor	1975	49	5	1
Blue Bayou	Linda Ronstadt	1977	3	3	1, 2
Black Rose	John David Souther	1976
An American Dream	The Dirt Band	1979	13	12	1
Hot Burrito #1	The Flying Burrito Bros.	1969
How Much I Feel	Ambrosia	1978	3	11	1, 2
Thunder Island	Jay Ferguson	1978	9		1
Tomorrow	Joe Walsh	1978
The Joker	Steve Miller Band	1973	11		1, 2
Fallin' In Love	Souther-Hillman-Furay Band	1974	27
Heart Of The Night	Poco	1979	20	5
Where Are You Hiding?	Terence Boylan	1977
Peaceful Easy Feeling	Jack Tempchin	1978

Some thoughts on the eight tracks that were new to my CD shelves:

• Summer Breeze: Hard to believe I didn't already have this one. Also hard to believe it didn't top the charts. Certainly a top-shelf tune - so relaxing while perfectly warm and breezy. A fantastic, uplifting bridge, those vocal harmonies and some great, unexpected chord progressions take it all up a notch. And have you heard the Isley Brothers deconstruct the thing?
• Black Rose: This one was new to me when I bought the disc, but it fits in perfectly. It's got a relaxed Steely Dan-ish groove with some great vocals on the chorus hook. The only thing that misses is the guitar solo.
• Hot Burrito #1: A key cut from the band's influential debut album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin, this one doesn't quite work among the other cuts. Good tune, just slightly out of place.
• Tomorrow: Walsh has come up with some smokin' guitar riffs throughout his career, but can he write a soft rocker? Turns out he can. This piece is driven by a strumming acoustic and some sublime organ work. Sounds like he tried to write a Paul McCartney tune and it absolutely works.
• Fallin' In Love: The liner notes describe this trio as a supergroup that was "a textbook case of mismatched talent and squandered potential." This bland single certainly supports that characterization. Sounds to me like a filler track on an early Bay City Rollers album. I don't remember hearing it on the radio back in '74, but I was 8 years old at the time so what do I know?
• Heart Of The Night: Like Summer Breeze, I could have sworn I already had this on at least one other compilation. This one got significant airplay on the Houston radio stations I was listening to back in '79, but leans a bit too country for my tastes with the slide guitar and a strident saxophone tone probably being the problems for me.
• Where Are You Hiding?: This CD was my introduction to both song and artist. The backing group certainly contains some familiar names, though: Don Henley, Jeff Pocaro, Dean Parks, and Wilton Felder. I like the driving, forward motion and the background vocals. The liner notes claim that Boylan "awaits a wider rediscovery" and, based on this tune, I'll certainly give some of his other stuff a listen.
• Peaceful Easy Feeling: 6 years after The Eagles hit #22 on the charts with this song, the songwriter released his own laid-back version. It sounds like a John Denver arrangement with lots of acoustic guitar picking plus a lilting flute line and it's absolutely perfect. And the female duet voice has to be either Emmylou Harris or Jennifer Warnes. What a treat.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Swimming to the sounds of Fleetwood Mac at the pool of the Odessa Country Club, listening to James Taylor while on a trip to Chichen Itza, going to the roller skating rink every Friday night in 6th grade, lonely cold wet winter nights in junior high, playing keyboards in a band for no money (I believe they call that "paying your dues"), and on and on...

Previously revisited for the blog:
Mellow Rock Hits Of The '70s: Ventura Highway (1997)