The Rodney Collins Page

Remember the soft-rock harmony group Harper’s Bizarre? They had two UK hits in 1967 and now Cherry Red issue their ‘Anything Goes’ album as part of their New Sounds series. This is offered in the original packaging with nine bonus tracks. This was the band’s second LP for Warner Brothers - definitely worth seeing out. From the same label comes a 60’s collection fromJaywa Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers - it’s called ‘Jaywalkin’ and contains the single releases between 1962 & 1965. For country fans there’s a David Houston CD from T-Bird Americana and on the same label a set from John Anderson combining two 90's albums - 'Solid Ground' and the brilliant 'Seminole Wind' which includes his version of 'Steamy Windows' originally a late 80's hit for Tina Turner.

Regular listeners will be familiar with Florence Joelle’s Kiss Of Fire as we played tracks from their EP earlier in the year. The album (pictured below) is now available and one track ‘Watermelon Gin’ is alone worth the price of the CD. More at http://www.florencejoelleskissoffire.com

And if you like Florence’s jazz sound, check out the website for the greats such as Ray Charles at http://www.warnerclassicsandjazz.com/ where you will find a host of goodies such as Ray’s finest albums for Atlantic, now collected on a budget-priced boxed set. This ‘Original Album Series’ also contains releases from Sergio Mendes, The Young Rascals and the wonderful Carly Simon. Her ‘No Regrets’ album remains one of my favourites from the 70’s and its included on her set. These releases offer you five original albums for a fraction of their original retail price!

EMI have a Massive Hits series of CD packs. The Sixties and Seventies releases are particularly good, containing something more than just the usual collection of oldies. The Sixties set has hard-to-find tracks by Gene Vincent, Johnny Nash, the Bedrocks, Classics IV and the Lemon Pipers. They were UK hits but often get overlooked in other re-issues. From Charly Records we have more CD’s in their ‘Complete Rock n Roll’ series, this time from Marty Wilde and Connie Francis. The Connie Francis set contains all the big hits from the end of the 50’s and early 60’s such as ‘Stupid Cupid’, ‘Lipstick On Your Collar’ and ‘Who’s Sorry now?.Watch out for a Cliff Richard set soon. Also from Charly comes a CD from the wonderful Bettye Lavette called ‘Nearer To You’ - on the playlist this week.

Zone Records have a CD by Richard Harris - details at http://www.zonerecordsltd.com . Apart from his acting career on stage and screen, Richard is best remembered for Jimmy Webb’s ‘MacArthur Park’ but Zone’s early 70’s album contains ‘My Boy’ as the lead track in what is a very good set indeed - and first time on CD, by the way.

Fantastic Voyage have a 1961 British Hit Parade set of CD’s out now. This is part of a series covering the late 50’s and 60’s. There are two sets, the first covering the first half of the year and the other covering July-December 1961. All the major hits are here plus a few surprises!

The show is broadcast right here on OMR on Sundays at Midday, Wednesdays at 1300, Thursdays at 2000 and Saturdays at 0800 (all UK times). You will also find the programme on www.isles.fm on Monday mornings at 1000 and Wednesday lunchtimes. The show is also on www.replayradio.net on Sunday afternoons, Monday mornings and Wednesday evenings. The programme, recorded weekly, is produced on a free-to-air basis and is broadcast by many other radio stations world-wide. For more information please contact me by e-mail.

Currently living with my family in Scotland I have been in the media business now for 44 years starting out with Record Mirror and Music Week and then joining Pye Records and Stoll-Moss Theatres at the end of the 60’s. In 1971 I moved to BBC Radios 1 & 2 in the early 70’s and then worked for Radio Luxembourg/Atlantic 252 in a management capacity and then ran local commercial stations in Glasgow, London and the Isles of Man and Lewis. In 2002 we had a world exclusive on Frank Sinatra on Isles FM - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1790935.stm or http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/sinatras-carousel-song-gets-airplay-after-14-years-671738.html