Adam Faith was a contemporary of early British rock & rollers like Cliff Richard and Billy Fury, but Faith's sound was less Elvis Presley-derived and more aligned with teen idol pop such as that of Bobby Vee (who covered Faith's number one U.K. hit "What Do You Want?"). John Barry had a hand in Faith's early efforts, and the instrumental arrangements are truly remarkable, from the surprising hoedown-style fiddling on "Don't That Beat All" to the musical saw on "What Now." In fact, it is the arrangements that elevate this music above standard teen idol fare. Faith rocked occasionally, as on "Made You," had moderate success adapting to the changes wrought by the Beatles, and later worked with folk-pop material. The Very Best of Adam Faith tracks his evolution by collecting 26 U.K. chart hits from 1959-1966, four of which were recorded with the Roulettes. Faith had two minor hits in the U.S. in 1965 that aren't included, but The Very Best of Adam Faith is otherwise an exemplary and essential anthology of an early British pop star.
Collectables combined Percy Faith's interpretations of Lerner & Lowe's Camelot and My Fair Lady on one compact disc. The two albums make a perfect match, not only because they consist of music written by the same team, but because they capture Faith at his peak. He's well-suited to this style of music, turning the lovely songs into soothing easy listening recordings, which may be a little schmaltzy to some ears but should satisfy his fans just fine.
In 2000, reissue giant Collectables took Percy Faith's 1954 Kismet release on Columbia and combined it with the standard-laden Music From Hollywood on one convenient disc.
Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the 1950s and '60s. Not only did he have a number of hit albums and singles under his own name, but Faith was responsible for arranging hits by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, and Burl Ives, among others, as the musical director for Columbia Records in the '50s.
Blind Faith's lone album is often considered vivid proof as to why superstar collaborations simply don't work, but that is a little unfair – in contrast to, say, Chess Records' various Super Blues releases, which stuck top musicians such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf together in awkward combos that they didn't really want to be part of, the guys in Blind Faith really were trying to work together on a long-term basis, and had an affinity for each other's work; the group just never had the time to evolve properly. And in retrospect, the album does have something to offer, including two songs that are touchstones of classic late-'60s rock: "Can't Find My Way Home" and "Presence of the Lord," not to mention the bracing "Sea of Joy."
Two albums from the end of Percy Faith's recording career are paired together on this release. The first, Chinatown Featuring the Entertainer, from 1974, contains Faith's arrangements of popular film themes. The cumbersome title comes from a sudden last-minute revision that replaced one track on the album with "Theme From Chinatown." The original track, "Bend Me, Shape Me," is included here as a bonus track. Summer Place, from 1975, was Faith's last album, released a few months before his passing.