Have a Nice Decade?

June 16, 2007 8:17 PM

Should I get Rhino's Have a Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box or the individual Have a Nice Day CDs?

I have some reservations about the box set because of some Amazon customer reviews. Apparently some of the songs are edited for space, and there are a bunch of '70s soundbites mixed in with the songs as part of the same track.

Also, Wikipedia says:

While covering much of the same ground as Rhino's Have a Nice Day series, it includes more R&B, funk, soul and disco from the period. It also has several tracks from best-selling artists of the era, making this set less of an obscure semi-hits collection than the Have a Nice Day series.

The "obscure semi-hits collection" part is more appealing to me, because I'd get best-of collections for more well-known artists.

posted by kirkaracha to society & culture (4 comments total)

The series includes a lot of music (25 CDs of 12 songs each, IIRC), and depending on your age (were you at least 5-6 by the later years of the 70s?), you're likely to hear some old gems that you've completely forgotten about. I was blown away to hear Bullet's "White Lies, Blue Eyes," and still remember some of the lyrics!

I haven't checked but would expect the series to include all songs on the box set; have you had a chance to confirm or refute that?

Off-topic: I'd spent the last few years collecting the series, and then listened to it, in order, this January over a few days while at work, and I found myself a little sick to my stomach and depressed, even while listening to some of the happier, more upbeat songs. I guess subliminally I think of the 70s as pretty much a major bummer.
posted by kimota at 9:22 PM on June 16, 2007

There are songs on the individual CDs that aren't on the box set, and vice versa. I graduated high school in 1983, so I grew up on this stuff.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:07 PM on June 16, 2007

I have the box set, and the soundbites are really annoying if played as part of a shuffle. I'd suggest the individual CDs if only for that reason.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 8:19 AM on June 17, 2007

I personally prefer Time Life's AM Gold...
posted by grateful at 8:50 AM on June 17, 2007