Midnight Ride marked just about the pinnacle of Paul Revere & the Raiders' history as a source of great albums. Even more to their credit, most of the music on Midnight Ride was written by the bandmembers themselves, and not just Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere, but Phil Volk, Drake Levin, and Mike Smith getting a shared songwriting credit. The irony is that this was the last album on which that egalitarian spirit was to dominate; alongside the tight, hard, eminently danceable rock & roll sounds that comprise about two-thirds of this album, there are signs of the softer, more introspective balladry that lead singer Mark Lindsay was starting to favor in his songwriting ("Little Girl in the Fourth Row," etc.)…

The Spirit of '67, Paul Revere and the Raiders' third gold-selling, Top Ten album to be released in 1966, marked the triumph of the group's in-house writing team of lead singer Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere, and producer Terry Melcher. "Hungry," the Top Ten follow-up to "Kicks," was written, like the earlier hit, by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, but Lindsay-Revere-Melcher then hit the Top 40 with "The Great Airplane Strike" and the Top Ten with "Good Thing." (Actually, Revere was not a writer on "Good Thing," as subsequent releases indicated.) Those hits anchored this collection, which was filled out by showcases for bassist Phil Volk and drummer Mark Smith (guitarist Drake Levin had been replaced by Jim Valley), plus some secondary material by the group's leaders…

This double-CD set presents a real conundrum, on a lot of levels. For starters, on its face, 55 songs may well seem like overkill to the casual fan who only knows or remembers (or thinks they only remember) five or six big hits by Paul Revere & the Raiders. And there are more modest single-CD collections to be found on this band that seem less daunting. But as it turns out - for those who give this set a try - Paul Revere & the Raiders did have just enough hits, when coupled with a sufficient number of respected album tracks and B-sides, to sustain a double-CD set. And that goes double for anyone who likes plain old rock & roll - even when this band got ambitious and a little bit progressive and serious, they never lost sight of the value of a great beat and carefully placed vocal and instrumental hooks, and they were always fun…

They may have looked like a thrown-together cartoon band with their Revolutionary War outfits and various slapstick gimmicks, but Paul Revere & the Raiders were actually a veteran R&B cover band out of the Northwest, and when fame found them working as a house cover band on the teen television show Where the Action Is in the mid-'60s, they were ready to run with the spotlight, and charted several solid singles like "Steppin' Out," "Just Like Me," "Kicks," "Hungry," "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone," and "Good Thing" that were sharp, well sung and played, and full of a kind of sassy, garage punk attitude that eventually rendered the prop uniforms they wore obsolete.

Having done complete singles collections on such great 60s singles bands as Jan & Dean, Gary Lewis & the Playboys and Jay & the Americans to rapturous applause from the collector community, we knew which group they were hungry for next it had to be Paul Revere & the Raiders! And, with all due respect to those previous collections, we think this one might the best set yet! Once again, Ed Osborne is your annotator and curator for this triple-disc collection, which features all 62 commercially-released A and B sides the band recorded for Columbia in its various incarnations (as Paul Revere & the Raiders, Paul Revere & the Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay, the Raiders, etc.), plus their two Special Products tracks Corvair Baby and SS396 and two bonus tracks, commercial jingles for Mattell s Swingy Doll and the Pontiac Judge GTO Breakaway Commercial for GM. As with our previous collections, all singles appear in their original mono taken from original tapes (on the first two discs) and original stereo from original tapes (on the last disc), with invaluable assistance provided by Columbia vault-meister and engineer extaordinaire Bob Irwin. Copious liner notes featuring new, exclusive interviews with Raiders Paul Revere, Mark Lindsay, Phil Fang Volk, Keith Allison, Jim Harpo Valley and manager Roger Hart accompany, festooned with rare photos. It s the definitive collection from one of the great American rock bands, and remember - many of these original single versions have never appeared on CD! 66 tracks!

Hungry for Kicks: Singles & Choice Cuts 1965-69 does an effective job of chronicling the majority of Paul Revere & the Raiders' biggest hits from the mid- to late '60s. Most of the familiar radio tracks are featured, including "Kicks," "Hungry," and "Good Thing." Also included are the 45 versions of seven tracks and several great album cuts, many of equal quality to the hits. Tracks like "Why? Why? Why? (Is It So Hard)," "Ballad of a Useless Man," and "Louise" are would-be chart-toppers that got away. What separates this set from similar PR&R compilations is the omission of the R&B cover versions that were prevalent on their original LPs. Raucous and fun as they are, the discarded R&B covers leave the listener focused on the Raiders as an innovative pop band as opposed to the kings of frat party rock. Rev-Ola did a fantastic job putting this package together, with rare photos, picture sleeves, and informative liner notes.

Tunesmith: The Songs Of Jimmy Webb is a 2CD 2003 compilation from Australia honoring the music and songwriting of Jimmy Webb. Raven Records made this.

20 Super Oldies is a 1994 compilation honoring some of the best songs of the rock & roll nation and beyond. The front cover says these songs are "Too Good To Be Forgotten" and you gotta believe it because it's true. This is a Companion presentation.