Search - Various Artists :: Am I Dreaming

A Lovely Dream Indeed

W. Davidson | Melbourne, Australia | 11/04/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Achieving the impossible, this CD manages to collect and package a dream come true. 24 fantastic tracks from many little known Brit girls, there's no Lulus, Cillas and Sandies in this collection, instead you get the shrill tones of Patsy Ann Noble on the great "Sour Grapes", the sultry Cindy Williams berating the neighbours for spying on her with "They Talk About Us", the atomic Beryl Marsden (the only artist on here I had heard of before) with "Breakaway", the cheeky Susie Cope with "Biggity Big" (title!) and so many more. I especially like Samantha Jones singing the Phil Spectorish "I Deserve It" where she punishes herself for cheating on her beau. There's enough great campy songs here to keep drag shows in music for months. Am I Dreaming? follows on in the tradition of eighties compilations such as Dream Babies, Girls With Guitars and Stop, Look And Listen which also paid a debt to the lesser represented sixties gals. On top of everything else you get sleeve notes by Bob Stanley (St Etienne member and music fan), incredible packaging and heaps of fantastic songs. Am I dreaming? You'll have to pinch yourself to find out."

Fun and Funny Blend of Goofy with Great Girl Tunes!

uthungus | San Francisco, CA | 05/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been very pleased with this series as it unfolds and new volumes come out. This was the first one I came across (as well as it being the first in the series) and for a while until later installments came out I felt this one was by far the best! I still favor this one over others for different reasons now - also owning other Dream Babes volumes I love too. The overall era definition I've noticed and particularly love about lots of 60's music was that never before and rarely since was the use of melodic bells used in rock music (accompanying the "wall of sound" often times). For the more serious cuts on this track - "The Town I Live In", "You'd Think he Didn't Know Me", "I Didn't Love Him Anyway". This collection is a great blending of rare, well-written and orchestrated cuts : "I Deserve it", "Be His Girl" ,"Can't Stop Thinking About You" with some of the funniest novelties tunes written: "Sour Grapes", "Snakes and Snails", "Biggety Big", "Some People" (Toot-toot! Go the boat whistles!!). Also fun is the phenomenon of "twin" and "separated at birth" songs like "Once More with Feeling" being an almost mirror of The Beach Boys "Don't Worry Baby" and "Be His Girl" sounding a lot like The Supremes "Come See About Me" style-wise! Fantastic starter set for some truly rare collectibles!"