Serendipity/The Many Sides of the Serendipity Singers

The Serendipity Singers

1999: PolyGram/Collectables COL-CD-2728

1. Waggoner Lad
2. Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)
3. Sunshine Special
4. Mud (Hippopotamus Song)
5. Freedom’s Star
6. Sailing Away
7. Sing Out
8. Jimmy-O
9. Sinner Man
10. Cloudy, Summer Afternoon
11. Boots and Stetsons (The Lilies Grow High)
12. Goin’ Home
13. Let Me Fly
14. Beans in My Ears
15. Soon It’s Gonna Rain
16. Mill Girls Don’t Sing or Dance
17. Look Away Over Yondro
18. The New Frankie and Johnny Song
19. You Don’t Know
20. Down Where the Winds Blow
21. Movin’ in My Heart
22. Six Foot Six
23. Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo
24. Fast Freight

I grew up with Serendipity and Take Your Shoes Off but not the middle album from this group, and I really do wish all three were available on CD now. This is a handy combination of their first two albums, but because it doesn’t contain the third album’s title track and its closing track of “Rider” (of all things) I can’t quite rate this as highly as I’d like to. Still, if you ever heard their music when you were young you will probably like this very much. With the outstandingly annoying exception of “Beans In Our Ears,” that is…all the other tracks are at least interesting if not great, and the great ones are so very lovely: examples of the latter are “Sailing Away, “Sunshine Special,” “Fast Freight,” “Waggoner Lad,” and a few others.

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Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.