Having read more record reviews than I’ve had hot dinners in my youth, in such august journals as the New Musical Express (NME), Sounds, Melody Maker, Q, Uncut, and Mojo, I’ve decided it would be a great feat for me, to review all of my own CDs in alpha order. I currently have 374 CDs in my collection, but I have noticed over the years they have a funny way of multiplying. At one review completed per week, the project could take me 8 years, but as I am involved, and there is the problem of the CDs multiplying, it could also take much longer.
Either way… here’s the starter, conveniently from a successful commercial band. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the next review.
This album was released in 2000 on Disky, a budget label from the Netherlands, which EMI had a stake in from 1995 to 2002.
Other notable releases from the Disky stable were similar compilations of hits from the Hollies, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Hot Chocolate, Dr Hook, Ike & Tina Turner, Tavares and even Lynsey De Paul!
Although Disky pulled 18 tracks from the first couple of albums 10cc made, they actually made 12 studio albums between 1973 and 1997. Of course it’s not possible to put all of 10cc’s best tunes onto one CD but there’s a fair selection here which gives more than just an essence of the band.
For those seeking a beefier offering, the Edsel label brought out “10cc – 20 Years (1972-1992)” in Jan 2024, consisting of all of their output, plus at least 2 CDs of extras, never previously released.
At the time of writing (24 Jun 2024) there are 70 other 10cc compilations featured on Discogs. Doubtless I chose this particular one because it was cheap in Morrisons!
Disky’s a budget label and I appreciate it’s probably keeping the price down for its own customers, but the budget didn’t stretch to some insightful liner notes. There’s just a track-listing on the back cover and the same inside but also giving dates of release and songwriting credits.
Many of the band’s celebrated hits feature on this compilation, The Wall Street Shuffle, Donna, Johnny Don’t Do It, the Dean and I, and Old Wild Men which predicted the inevitable …
Old men of rock and roll
Came bearing music
Where are they now?
They are over the hill and far away
But they’re still gonna play guitars
On dead strings, and old drums
They’ll play and play to pass the time
Notable exceptions not on the disc are I’m Not in Love, I’m Mandy Fly Me and Dreadlock Holiday. In fact the vast majority of songs on the disc come from their debut 10cc and from Sheet Music their 2nd, from 1973 and 1974 respectively.
Listening to the album 50 years later (count ’em 50 years) in 2024, the music still stands up as far as I am concerned. After all, when it was released it already seemed larger-than-life, cartoon-like with its sound effects and (Godley and Creme’s) falsetto vocals. It was as though Walt Disney had decided to make pop music. Strange though, as Stockport, the place the music was made, was perhaps a little more prosaic than Burbank, in the 1970s.
Being hometown boys the band’s studio Strawberry Studios was founded in Stockport in 1968 by Eric Stewart.
Hotlegs (the 10cc prototype which had a worldwide hit with Neanderthal Man – “I’m a Neanderthal Man, You’re a Neanderthal girl, let’s make Neanderthal love, in our Neanderthal world” in 1970) Neil Sedaka (for whom the boys – not yet known as 10cc – played as session musicians in their own studios for the American singer’s Solitaire album) and then 10cc, were amongst the first recording artists using the studio.
So successful did Strawberry – named after Stewart’s fave Beatles song – become, that they opened a southern outpost in Dorking (Surrey), naming it Strawberry Studios South. You can guess what they called the Stockport variant.
Sad Café, Agnetha Faltskog (one of ABBA) the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney amongst many more artists recorded there and the studios continued to be used, until the early 1990s, although by then 10cc had stopped using them.
The Gizmo (AKA Gizmotron), was created by Lol Creme while in the band. It was a forerunner of the mellotron, but not as a keyboard instrument, instead the strings utilised were guitar strings. Old Wild Men on this compilation features this creation splendidly.
In 1976 Godley and Creme (the wacky songwriters) fell out with Gouldman and Stewart (the straight-down-the-middle, classic tunesmiths) and left 10cc to work in other media such as music videos for other bands, and their own, joint and solo, music outside 10cc. Don’t forget that Andrew Gold made a couple of albums with Graham Gouldman as WAX as well.
After Stewart left Gouldman and 10cc in 1995 to concentrate on producing other artists at Strawberry he appeared on 3 Paul McCartney albums and also 3 with the Alan Parsons Project.
Gouldman’s 10cc (as he is the only band member from the original group), announced a 25 date UK tour for Autumn 2024.
If you’ve never heard 10cc before, this compilation is as good a tasting plate as any, to prepare you for the full 12 course dinner.
Here’s a video of one of my very favourite 10cc hits on this compilation, “The Dean and I” originally released on their debut album
“Hey kids, let me tell you
How I met your mom
We were dancin’ and romancin’
At the senior prom
It was no infatuation
But a gradual graduation
From a boy to a man
Let me tell you while I can
The soda pop came free…”
adewils.com 
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