Beat of Love

The Mindbenders in their post-Wayne Fontana configuration were a hot little British pub trio specializing in a kind of jazzy rock similar in a lot of ways to the Zombies or Traffic, and they amount to one of the great lost groups of the 1960s. Although they had two strong songwriters in Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman (together they would go on to form one half of 10cc), the Mindbenders were also one hell of a cover band, and their recorded legacy is surprisingly diverse because of it. This two-disc, 37-track set, which collects the two LPs, six EPs, and ten singles the group released between 1966 and 1968, is a revelation in that regard - it includes imaginatively done garage soul covers of “Shotgun,” “Mystery Train,” and “The Seventh Son” alongside the pipe dream psychedelia of “Yellow Brick Road” and the hazy sunshine pop of “A Groovy Kind of Love”…

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich followed up their self-titled debut LP with the tongue-in-cheek If Music Be the Food of Love…Then Prepare for Indigestion (1968). The quintet of Dave "Dee" Harman (guitar/vocals), Trevor "Dozy" Davies (bass), John "Beaky" Diamond (rhythm guitar), Michael "Mick" Wilson (drums), and Ian "Tich" Amey (lead guitar) return with another batch of strong Brit-pop compositions, including a pair of their most prolific sides, "Bend It" and "Hideaway." While all but unknown stateside, the combo became hugely popular throughout Europe - which may well account for the distinctly conspicuous Mediterranean flavor on the former. Their left-of-center sense of humor surfaces on the Noel Coward-esque potty platter "Loos of England"…

Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat (after bands from Liverpool and nearby areas beside the River Mersey) is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums. The Beat Of The Pops - excellent selection of beat tracks.