Dave Berry - The Collection (2015)

Briefly a big star in Britain in the mid-'60s, Dave Berry faced the same dilemma as several other British teen idols of the era: R&B was obviously nearest and dearest to his heart, but he needed to record blatantly pop material to make the hit parade. It was also obvious that Berry was in fact much more suited toward pop ballads than rough-and-tumble R&B, regardless of his personal preferences. At his peak, his output was divided between hard R&B/rockers and straight pop. Help from ace session players like Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones notwithstanding, his smooth voice was frankly ill-equipped to deliver the goods with anything close to the same panache as Mick Jagger or Eric Burdon on the bluesier items. He made a rather good go of it, on the other hand, with romantic pop/rock ballads, hitting the British Top Ten with "The Crying Game" (1964), Bobby Goldsboro's "Little Things" (1965), and the excruciatingly sentimental "Mama" (1966). "This Strange Effect," written by Ray Davies (though not released by the Kinks), was a huge European hit for him in 1965 as well. Berry's voice was not exactly teeming with character and he never made the slightest impression on the U.S. market, but the best of his material is quite pleasant period fare. He remains well regarded in his homeland, where the Sex Pistols unexpectedly covered his toughest track, "Don't Gimme No Lip Child." Even more unexpectedly, "The Crying Game" brought Berry's voice to his biggest international audience ever in 1992, when it was used as the theme song for one of the year's most successful films.

01. The Crying Game
02. I Don't Want To Go On
03. Ella Speed
04. Not Fade Away
05. The Girl From The Fair Isle
06. Go On Home
07. Everybody Tries
08. God Bless The Child
09. Memphis Tennessee
10. On The Other Side Of Town
11. Go Home Girl
12. My Last Date
13. St.James Infirmary
14. Just a Little Bit
15. C.C. Rider
16. Don't Make Fun Of Me
17. Mama
18. I Ain't Going With You Babe
19. It's Gonna Be Fine
20. So Goes Love
21. You Made A Fool Of Me
22. Sticks And Stones
23. Now And From Now On
24. Same Game
25. Alright Baby
26. I Love You Babe
27. Soft Lights
28. Green Grass
29. Love Has Gone Out Of Your Life
30. Little Things
31. Maybe Baby
32. The Coffee Song
33. She Cried
34. And The Clock In The Steeple Struck 13
35. We Can Live On Love
36. My Baby Left Me (Version 1)
37. Baby's Gone
38. Dying Daffodil Incident
39. Suspicions (In Your Mind)
40. Since You're Gone
41. Stick To It Ivity
42. I Got The Feeling
43. Hoochie Coochie Man
44. Sweet And Lovely
45. If You Wait For Love (Alternative Version)
46. Tossin' And Turnin'
47. I'm Gonna Take You There
48. If You Need Me
49. Me-O-My-O
50. Can I Get It From You
51. He's With You
52. You're Gonna Need Somebody
53. Don't Gimme No Lip Child
54. This Strange Effect
55. (Do I Still Figure) In Your Life
56. And I Have Learned To Dream
57. Baby It's You
58. Casting My Spell
59. Change Our Minds
60. Chaplin House
61. Fanny Mae
62. Forever
63. Heartbeat
64. Hey Little Girl
65. Huma Lama
66. Just As Much As Ever
67. Long Walk To D.C.
68. Picture Me Gone
69. Round And Round
70. Run My Heart
71. Stranger
72. Trees