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"YUM YUM - THE VERY BEST OF THE GOODIES"

OR DON'T THROW OUT THAT VINYL YET!

A review by Matthew K. Sharp

(from C&G #20  July 1997)

The release of any new item of Goodies merchandise is heartening to we fans - it shows that the program hasn't been completely forgotten. So when I read in last month's C&G that there was a new CD out, I was a happy chappy. And when I then heard a few weeks later that it would be available locally, for a mere $15, I was quite an ecstatic human indeed. The only question left in my mind was - what the hell was on it?

The CD is a compilation of 20 tracks drawn from the three albums recorded for Bradley's Records in 1974/5. Well, I say three. I mean two. Or perhaps one and a half. And then there's the six singles. It's all rather confusing really. The albums in question are:

 * The New Goodies LP (Bradley's BRADL 1010; M7 MLF-038 in Australia)

 * The Goodies’ Greatest (Bradley's BRADL 1012; M7 MLF-??? in Australia)

 * Best Of..... The Goodies (M7 MLX-150 - apparently released in Aust. only)

These albums were released in Australia on the M7 label (which also released Arthur Lowe's versions of "Making Whoopee" and "Sunny Boy" - it was that sort of label).

Some of the singles contain tracks released on The New Goodies LP. The other two albums (Greatest and Best Of...) each contain a different selection of singles tracks (between them covering all the tracks not on New LP), plus "The Goodies Theme" (from New LP), and "Charles Aznovoice", which was not released as a single. Overall, the three Bradley's LPs contain 22 tracks.

Those of you with advanced mathematical skills may have spotted a slight discrepancy, inasmuch as there are only 20 tracks on the CD. The two missing tracks are "Bounce" and the aforementioned "Charles Aznovoice". The omission is puzzling. The CD is 67 minutes long, and could easily accommodate these other two tracks. There doesn't seem to be any obvious copyright clearance problems. It's just very annoying that the CD represents only most, and not all, of the Goodies' Bradley's opus.

Enough of what it doesn't contain. It does contain almost all the songs from "The Goodies - Almost Live" TV episode (produced the following year), and these tracks should be familiar, at least to Australian fans. "Working The Line" is from the "Bunfight At The O.K. Tearooms" episode. A few songs (Baby Samba, Rock With A Policeman, Nappy Love and Sick Man Blues) originated on I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. The version of the Goodies theme on the CD is that used from series 5 onwards. And of course, what Goodies album would be complete without a tonsil-ripping rendition of "Wild Thing"? (the only part of any Goodies episode my mother ever liked).

The cover is good, although "The Goodies" could have been a little more prominent. The photo from "Daylight Robbery On The Orient Express" is a nice touch, and quite apt too, since this CD is sure to brighten a Le Boring moment.

Right, that's the technical side out of the way. What about the quality of the content? The songs are... how shall I put this? ...not excessively humorous. They do not provoke fits of laughter. Let's face it - obviously you can't translate the Goodies' trademark visual comedy to LP, and it is highly unrealistic to expect the albums to be directly comparable to the TV shows. That said, most of the tracks are fun to listen to, and after two or three plays you'll be singing along to these bright, cheery tunes, and getting the occasional chuckle. Certainly, these songs don't deserve the reputation they have gained in some quarters of being childish rubbish (with the possible exception of "Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me").

What is often utterly overlooked is that Bill Oddie is a wonderful writer of "straight" songs. His 1964 single "Nothing Better To Do" is a perfect example of this. Imagine an album made up of some of the songs used as backing to the Goodies film sequences - Needed, Love (from "Give Police A Chance"), Are You Coming Out To Play? ("Cecily"), Hurry Postman ("Radio Goodies"), The One That Got Away  ("Scotland") to name just a few. Not to mention the stirring anti-war They're Taking Over from "Way Outward Bound". Fantastic stuff. A CD of clean versions (ie. without all that annoying laughter) of these songs is almost too tempting to contemplate. I wonder whether the BBC, or Bill Oddie himself, has kept any tapes?

But back to reality. I would certainly urge everyone to buy a copy of "Yum Yum". Mind you, I urged everyone to buy a copy of "The Goodies Fact File" and look where that got us. It is encouraging to see that Music Collection International has decided there may be a market for Goodies CD, and if sales are good, hopefully they may consider it a worthwhile exercise to dig into the archives of Decca, Island, Columbia and E.M.I. to issue the other three LPs on CD. But in the meantime, don't throw out that vinyl yet.

DETAILS:

Yum Yum - The Very Best Of The Goodies.Music Club MCCD 294.Produced by and copyright 1997, Music Collection International. Original Bradley's recordings issued under licence from Castle Copyrights Limited.

TRACKS:

Goodies Theme / Funky Gibbon / The Inbetweenies / Please Let Us Play / Custard Pie / Black Pudding Bertha / Cricklewood / Good Old Country Music / Nappy Love / Baby Samba / Wild Thing / Rock With A Policeman / The Cricklewood Shakedown / Panic / I’m A Teapot / Working The Line / Sick Man Blues / Last Chance Dance / Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me / Make A Daft Noise For Christmas

Original recordings produced by Miki Antony. All compositions by Bill Oddie (published by Castle), except "Wild Thing", by ? Taylor (published by Dick James).

"YUM YUM - THE VERY BEST OF THE GOODIES" - MORE DETAILS

by Alison Bean

So after reading Matthew's article I'm sure you're all going to rush and buy this CD. And at only $15 in Australia and a similarly low price in the UK, why not? The only problem you should face is that according to various club members who've contacted us, this record is selling far better than the record companies expected. So you may have to get your record shop to order it in.

The other problem is that in some states of Australia it isn't even available. According to Festival Records (who are the distributors in Australia) it won't be available in South Australia until the 21st of July. Weird eh? And for those in North America or elsewhere you'll probably have to get through import. But since we've given you the serial number above, you shouldn't have too many problems with that.

And finally, since Matthew's criticised the CD a bit, I might as well have a go too. I must say that I agree with his statement that many of the songs on this CD are not exactly side-splitting, they ARE great to listen to though. "I'm A Teapot", "Funky Gibbon" and "The Cricklewood Shakedown" are particular faves of mine. But what I'm really hoping is that this CD will sell really, really well, so they'll bring out the other records on CD too. The Goodies' later records ("Nothing To Do With Us", "The Goodies Beastly Record" and "The Goodies Greatest Hits") have some very funny songs on them, "Elizabeth Rules - UK" (Bill's love song to Queen Elizabeth) and "Taking My Oyster For Walkies" (Graeme's love song to an oyster) are particularly hilarious. So all I can say is buy up big, we'd all love to hear these classic comedy songs on CD.

"YUM YUM - THE VERY BEST OF THE GOODIES" - THE COVER

by Duncan Lilly

The cover features a roll of square "Goodies" sweets (if you see what I mean...) and several loose sweets in wrappers with song titles written on them. There is also a picture of the Goodies themselves, all wearing Union Jack waistcoats - Bill is blowing a tiny toy trumpet, Tim's just standing and Graeme is holding a bunch of red fake flowers. (He has slightly dark glasses and a rather odd moustache/ beard growth on his chin (if that helps date the picture!)) The inlay folds out and has a lengthy introduction piece by Bill.