I’m not a big Hall & Oates fan but this album is OK. Overall it’s a very 80′s record, mixing blue-eyed soul, pop and new wave (and as with many many records from the era, lots of saxophone). Allmusic states, “Though the production is state of the art for 1981, what keeps Private Eyes from sounding robotic is that it never gets in the way of the kinetic energy of Hall & Oates’ touring band, who give the music muscle; they are what keeps the album sounding vibrant 20-plus years after its release, since while elements of the production have dated, it still captures a real band working at a peak. These are the elements that make Private Eyes a sterling example of the sound of mainstream pop circa 1981, but the record was a hit, and has aged well, because both Hall & Oates, along with regular songwriting collaborators Sara and Janna Allen, were at a peak as writers….Though they continued their streak of excellent hit singles, Private Eyes was the culmination of the sound they’d been developing since Along the Red Ledge, and it stands as the pinnacle of their time as the biggest pop act in the U.S.A.”

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My highlights of the 20 songs on this LP are probably the ones I heard most as a kid. These include “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” from 1973 which went to #1, “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” from 1972 and hitting #17, “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” also from ‘72 and the title track from the album of the same name; it peaked at #8, the rockin’ “Roller Derby Queen” (a non-single from ‘73′s Life and Times), the acoustic – and aching – “Lover’s Cross” and the heartbreakingly sad track “Time in a Bottle” which Croce wrote in 1970 after his wife became pregnant. The song was not released as a single from You Don’t Mess Around with Jim but after Croce’s death his record label (ABC) released it and it went to #1. But my favorite Croce song is “I Got a Name” from his last recorded album (also called I Got a Name), which was released as a single the day after his death (Sept. 20th, 1973). It went to #10 on the Billboard chart in early ‘74.

I don’t love everything on this comp – the squishy-soft folk “Alabama Rain” isn’t great, Croce’s straining at channeling his inner rockabilly on “Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)” and while folky bluegrass was all the rage back in the early 70′s (at least in my parents’ social circle), I don’t care for those tracks like “Careful Man” and “Top Hat Bar and Grille.”

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Anyway, Fleetwood Mac went to #1 on the Billboard chart and even though it was released in ‘75, it was still the second biggest selling album in ‘76 and the 10th biggest in ‘77, and then the band re-released it in ‘78 after the massive success of Rumours. It was the band’s first record to feature Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Buckingham replacing Bob Welch on guitar and vocals after his departure following the ‘74 album Heroes Are Hard to Find. The first single from Fleetwood Mac was a UK-only release, “Warm Ways.” The second single, “Over My Head,” was released in both the US and the UK (though not at the same time) and it went to #20 on the Hot 100 chart. It’s a Christine McVie-penned track and, honestly, hers tend not to be my favorite. I far prefer the Stevie Nicks written tracks, including the third single, “Rhiannon,” which went to #11 in the US and #46 in the UK. (I also really love “Landslide,” a non-single track – but widely known and wildly popular – on Fleetwood Mac written by Nicks). The final single from the LP was “Say You Love Me” by Christine McVie, which went to #11 in the US and #40 in the UK. It’s better, in my opinion, than “Over My Head,” but still pretty tame soft rock as compared to the more witchy tracks by Nicks. Also of note are the tracks “Monday Morning” (written by Buckingham) and the blues-rock “World Turning” (written first by Fleetwood Mac founding member Peter Green and reworked for Fleetwood Mac by Buckingham and McVie).

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