‘Opens with the discotheque-friendly Hey, Rocky by front-cover stars The Shirelles of New Jersey, the USA’s most successful girl group until the Supremes broke through and stole their thunder, and closes with The Bermudas’ Chu Sen Ling, a record sure to appeal to those who favour the ethereal West Coast sound.
‘Other highlights include The Hollywood Chicks’ dance-craze Tossin’ A Ice Cube, which marks the recording debut of Barry White (on handclaps); great tracks by The Witches, The Pussycats and Linda Laurie from the catalogue of genius songwriter/producer Bert Berns; MayAlta Page’s densely produced rarity Don’t Worry About Me Baby (I Feel Just Fine); and, for the girl group buff who has everything, He Calls Me Child by Ohio duo 2 Of Clubs, and A Dumb Song by the soulful Delicates, both previously unreleased.’
‘One of the best, rarest and most sought after South African recordings of the early 1970s, available again for the first time since its original South African release — the tough, jubilantly swinging township groove of The Jazz Clan’s 1973 debut LP, Dedication. It captures the acoustic jazz sound of the early 1970s in its pomp — a handful of tightly wound songs jostling for space, blending uptempo soul-jazz sensibilities with Latin influences and pronounced township jazz accents, the latter especially audible in Dimpie Tshabalala’s piano vamps, Jeff Mpete’s pattering hi-hat emphases, and the unmistakably South African swagger and dip of the horns on cuts like Rabothata. It is music on the brink of a transition, looking ahead but still dedicated to the sound of the golden years, and it could have been made nowhere else on earth but in Soweto.’