The Hollies - Midas Touch: The Very Best Of The Hollies

A hits collection with a difference

The Hollies’ very considerable catalogue is constantly being reworked. For their 2010 tour, it’s a two-disc, 48-track collection of their hits – and more. The familiar titles are here with the exceptions of If I Needed Someone and After The Fox, and it’s a new recording for The Baby. Mike Batt’s Soldier’s Song should have been one of their biggest hits: it’s 10 times better than Jennifer Eccles, but maybe we can’t tell the bottom from the top.

Album tracks here cover Rain On The Window (Evolution) and Dear Eloise (Butterfly). Rare material includes a moralising Schoolgirl and an excellent Will Birch & Billy Bremner ballad, Laughter Turns To Tears. There are tributes to The Miracles (Mickey’s Monkey), The Band (This Wheel’s On Fire) and Buddy Holly (Heartbeat). The package concludes with the title song from their recent album, Then, Now, Always, and a live version of one of the tracks, I Would Fly.

Their golden harmony (often taken superfast and superhigh in the 60s) was The Hollies’ Midas touch, but it’s odd that the collection should be named after a minor hit, King Midas In Reverse (here in a new stereo mix). This track has, however, aged much better than many psychedelic recordings.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

EMI | 6082272 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Spencer Leigh
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