VANILLA FUDGE (AKA STAR-COLLECTION)

While the music here is of a good quality, this is rather a pointless compilation. All the tracks are taken from just two albums by Vanilla Fudge, their fourth and fifth for Atco records. The two albums concerned are "Near the beginning" and "Rock and roll". There is therefore nothing from the band's legendary debut, or from the fine "Renaissance" album.

The selection process appears to have been decidedly lazy, simply taking the first side of each LP and pairing them together one on each side of this album. Thus the only track missing from "Near the beginning" is the 23 minute epic "Break song". In the context of the band's catalogue, the three tracks on side one of that album are far from being the band's strongest, the cover of Lee Hazlewood's "Some velvet morning" for example being decidedly below par in the big picture of great interpretations by the band.

The "Rock and roll" album was a fine finale for the band, but to simply take one side thereby excluding two fine cover versions is pointless to the point of being destructive.

There is some good music here, but this album is as much about what is missing as it is about what it contains. Avoid.