From Bankable Burrows to One-Hit Wonders

** 1/2

TONY BURROWS

“Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”

Varese Sarabande

If you’ve ever been caught in the spell of such fluffy but disarming early ‘70s hits as Edison Lighthouse’s “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),” White Plains’ “My Baby Loves Lovin’ ” or the Pipkins’ “Gimme Dat Ding,” you’ve probably sung along with Tony Burrows.

The same goes if you’ve ever come across such other ‘70s ear candy as First Class’ “Beach Baby” or the Brotherhood of Man’s “United We Stand.”

Despite the different group names, Burrows was the lead singer on all of those records, making the Englishman one of the most bankable pop voices of the decade.

The reason he got so little recognition was that the records were so flimsy that no one probably cared enough about the groups to check out who was in them. The result, Gordon Pogoda jokes in the liner notes for this CD, is that Burrows is probably the only singer who can claim he was a one-hit wonder five times. Each of the five groups cited had only one bona fide hit.

Burrows, who began singing professionally in England in 1960 while still in his teens, was in more than 20 “studio” groups in the early ‘70s. With the Kestrels, his first group, he even opened for the Beatles in 1963.

Listening to the bubble-gum bounce of these songs, you sense much of the vitality and emotional exaggeration that later characterized ABBA’s records, making it quite likely that some of Burrows’ hits had an impact on the Swedish superstars.

Of all the tracks, the most interesting is “Beach Baby” because of its zesty Beach Boys spirit. Here, Burrows sings, “Do you remember back in old L.A. / When everybody drove a Chevrolet . . . / Beach baby, Beach baby, give me your hand.”

In the liner notes, Burrows says one of his greatest thrills was hearing a radio interview with Brian Wilson in which Wilson was to comment on the record.

Recalls Burrows, who now writes and produces commercials, “He was played a promotion copy of ‘Beach Baby’ and said, ‘I don’t know who it is, but it’s definitely West Coast America,’ which I thought was one of the nicest things that’s ever been said.”

*

* 1/2 Various Artists, “RCA’s Greatest One-Hit Wonders,” RCA. This CD features what has to be one of the most eclectic mixes of artists on any album you can find in the 500 pages of a Schwann catalog. In what other album could you go from Neal Hefti’s “Batman Theme” to Lorne Greene’s “Ringo”? Or from Marilyn Monroe’s “River of No Return” to Zager & Evans’ “In the Year 2525”? Or from the Youngbloods’ “Let’s Get Together” to Stuart Hamblen’s “This Ole House”? The real question, however, is whether anyone would want such a diverse group of records, whose only link is they were the only hits the artists had on RCA.--R.H.

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** Dobie Gray, “Drift Away: Dobie Gray: His Very Best,” Razor & Tie. This Texas singer is pretty much known in the pop world as a two-hit wonder--first in 1965 with the soul-accented “The ‘In’ Crowd,” then again eight years later with the country-flavored ballad “Drift Away.” It’s odd that Gray didn’t have more hits, because he often found good material--including Tom Jans’ “Loving Arms”--and worked with musicians who blended country and R&B; strains in inviting ways. The problem is that his vocals often lack the fire and character that would have made him a genuine pop contender.

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