Product Description
Expanded edition of this 1978 near flawless hits collection from the British singer, actor and entertainer best known for his huge worldwide hit 'Rock On' when it appeared as though the hits had finally halted. Subtitled His Greatest Hits, the original British vinyl release of this album boasted 16 tracks. Our CD release adds four rare bonus tracks, 20 tracks in all.

1. Rock On
2. Streetfight
3. On And On
4. Lamplight
5. Stardust
6. America
7. Gonna Make You A Star
8. If I Could
9. Rolling Stone
10. All The Fun Of The Fair
11. Hold Me Close
12. City Lights
13. Ooh, Love
14. Coming Home
15. Cool Out Tonight
16. Brave New World

Bonus Tracks:
17. Bring In The Sun
18. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
19. Turn Me Loose
20. Good Ol' Rock & Roll

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HP9R02/?tag=imwan-20

A one-hit wonder in the US, Essex had a boatload of hits during the 70s and 80s in the UK, for two different labels. This comp nicely covers the earlier (CBS) years. He later moved to Mercury Records and the hot streak continued.

I like David Essex. I FINALLY got after years of searching a DVD for his starring role in "Stardust" released in 1974 and sequel to "That Will Be the Day".

Love "Stardust", with Stray Cat members (yeah, that was the name of the band) Dave Edmunds, Keith Moon, Paul Nicholas and others (like Nick Lowe who was uncredited) and Marty Wilde, father of Kim Wilde. Also starring Adam Faith as the manager Larry Hagman a fun movie with interesting overtones.

I have afew comps on David Essex and enjoyed them. He was a very good looking kid and the girls were really out for him in the early 70's.

Rick A.

But WHAT a hit it was

I was actually over in England in 1973 when his big hit "Rock On" dominated radio over there. I immediately loved it and bought the 45.
When I got back to the US, the song began to be heard over here later that year hitting our airwaves by 1974 reaching #5. Still sounds fantastic all these years later.

The song features a slow-tempo vocal performance in a minor key, along with a minimalist, heavily-bass-driven instrumental accompaniment to Essex's vocals. The lyric pays homage to early rock and roll and its surrounding youth subculture, and notably to 1950s iconic rebel James Dean. The musical arrangement is quite distinctive. While Essex's voice is overlaid with reverb, which itself echoes early rock-n-roll production, Herbie Flowers' bass guitar is inflected with a very obtrusive delay-echo effect. Delay echoes, when run at very high frequencies, transform into reverb. The halting delay effect thus essentialises, but at the same time undercuts, the smooth reverb-laden vocal and its "right" location in a more straightforward 1950s homage. Meanwhile, the delay is radically opposed to clean-cut rock-n-roll rhythms. The song begins with a heartbeat representation, which then is heard to disrupt settled rhythm: the dialectic of life becomes subversive, rather than the youthful and joyous "heart" of rock's typical bass drum/snare drum alternation. The bass guitar is the "wrong" instrument to be echo-delayed.

It's too bad the single that came out after Rock On which was"Lamplight" wasn't a hit also.[I had Lamplight on a 45 btw]......I found out the producer/arranger of Rock On and Lamplight[and the B side "We All Insane"] was Jeff Wayne of War Of The Worlds[interesting].

In fact, track #16 on this CD ("Brave New World") is taken from Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds.

"Rock On" was an even bigger hit for Michael Damian in 1989, topping the chart for one week.

I was going to say, shouldn't this be a 1 song cd called "Greatest Hit"?

It's got 2 number ones and at least 6 other top 10 hits. In the UK. Where he's from.

Never been the slightest bit insular, you Yanks, have you?

Sorry, I tend to to think of Essex's Rock on & Gary Glitter's R&R Pt 1 as a mediocre 2 song ep!

Is this an import? Is that why it takes 6 to 8 weeks to ship?

I didn't say I liked them!

No, Bill, it's a domestic release, but Amazon was temporarily out of stock when you looked at the listing. They've since restocked, but are already back down to just 1 copy as I post this (it's popular!):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HP9R02/?tag=imwan-20

Thanks Linda.