“I’ve never been to a place that has had such a cultural impact,” American actor Dennis Hopper said of this brief but culturally significant phenomenon, always referred to as Swinging London. “It was really about culture, painting, music, sculpture, fashion, clothing. I don’t think anyone could touch that for about five years. They were dictating culture to the rest of the world. I was there.”
As if to prove Hopper and his easy-going friends on both sides of the Atlantic right, this compilation brings together over 90 pop songs that soundtracked that era. There’s more here than you’ll find in a Cartier warehouse, including Kinky Boots by Avengers couple Patrick McNee and Honor Blackman and I Was Batman in the Kaiser Building by whistling Jack Smith. There are gems.
I’m A Boy (The Who), Friday On My Mind (Easybeats), Little By Little (Dusty Springfield), I Can’t Control Myself (The Troggs), Whatcha Pop classics such as Gonna Do About It (Small Faces), Walking Down the Street (Electric Banana, Pretty Things’ Nixer Group), London My Hometown (The Complemented by impossibly groovy tracks like “Chantelles” and “She’s a Labor” (Dana Gillespie), it’s got the ultimate Austin Powers vibe. I’ll Go Crazy (The Untamed) A well-designed booklet with detailed track-by-track information completes the popadelic, pre-psychedelic, shagadelic package.
