Dave Berry - This Strange Effect: The Decca Sessions 1963-1966

The dark one returns…

A quick glance at the songwriting small print reveals that virtually every major writer or team aside from Lennon/ McCartney and Jagger/Richard are represented within this 57- track overview of Berry’s Decca career. With the soon-to-be-dropped Cruisers, he covered all the usual beat group bases of Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry et al. While his career kick-started on such material, though, Berry’s biggest successes came with more standard pop fare such as Little Things and The Crying Game, as he was moulded into the classic moody guy dressed in black.

Of the earlier material, Go Home Girl and St James Infirmary stand out, while the later Same Game has an effective, broody delivery and production to raise it above the rest. Berry had a pleasant but not instantly recognisable voice, so his career was never going to sustain itself on image alone. It inevitably dipped when his people ran out of distinctive songs for him.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

RPM RETRO | D 860 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Kingsley Abbott
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