
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 14, 1993                   TAG: 9308140027
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ANTHOLOGY

The only reason "The History of the Dave Clark Five" (Hollywood), a two-CD anthology, became the most anticipated release in compact disc history is that Dave Clark, now an extremely wealthy entertainment mogul in England, controlled the rights to all his past work and sat on the tapes for decades. There was every possibility that, once we got a fresh listen to these 50 tracks from the band's mid-'60s heyday, we'd wave to shrug and say, "Is that what all the fuss was about?"

Turns out, however, that time has been very good to this material. No, the DC5 was not the Beatles, but they were the band that the Beatles initially pretended to be. No drug busts, no psychedelic lyrics, no ego clashes, no dramatic mood swings or costume changes - the Dave Clark Five started and ended as a British Beat Group, and they poured every ounce of their energy and modest talent into a string of two-minute classics that filled up a dozen albums. The albums themselves tended to sound far more alike than the Beatles or the Stones, but the hits ("Glad All Over," "Try Too Hard," "Because," "Anyway You Want It," "Come Home") simply can't be argued with, and the selected B-sides and album tracks that fill out this package are clearly the best of the rest. Lead vocalist Mike Smith emerges as an extremely underrated performer. In all, an extremely satisfying listen, if not necessarily a revelation.

One quibble: Why not stereo? I've got an old EMI Starline LP with 14 DC5 hits mixed in terrific stereo, so stereo was obviously an option. This back-to-mono stuff is getting tiresome. Knight-Ridder Newspapers

by CNB