Music : Have A Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box

Rating: - Good, but a repeat
Time-Life's AM Gold offers much the same selection as this collection does, but the 70s box is considerably more affordable. Worth buying and full of memories, from Edison Lighthouse, Fleetwood Mac, the Partridge Family, Barry White, Diana Ross..the list goes on. Some hard-to-find tunes that you won't hear even on the oldies station

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Rating: - A great way to revisit to joys of '70s AM radio
Perhaps my favorite box set. This reminds me so much of listening to KYA or KFRC (two top-40 stations in San Francisco in the 1970's), when you would here rock, then country, then pop, then novelty songs. A fantastic blend. Favorite songs include: Popcorn, Chick-A-Boom(hadn't heard this since the '70s), Love Goes, More More More, Love Rollercoaster, School's Out, Dueling Banjos, Candy Man, Rose Garden, and I could go on. One star is missing due to

a. Some songs are cut
b. Some songs I would have liked to see(licensing would have been an issue on some) include
My Sharona by The Knack(biggest hit of 1979)
Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees
Bennie & the Jets by Elton John
Escape(The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes
I Think I Love You by The Partridge Family
Gonna Fly Now(Theme From Rocky)
Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney and Wings
Beth by Kiss
If You Leave Me Now by Chicago
Dancing Queen by Abba
We've Only Just Begun by The Carpenters
(Take Me Home) Country Roads by John Denver
Nadia's Theme

All of the above were major top 10 hits(most were big number #1s)

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Rating: - Right Down To The Puke Green Carpet
Being born in 1970,and growing up around alot of this music,HAND had to be in my music collection.
Hearing these songs bring back memories good(The Candy Man)& bad(Disco Duck,Convoy)as well as introducing me to long forgotten tunes(Chevy Van,Alone Again)as well as those that should've remain forgotten(Afternoon Delight).
But like all era compilations not everything could fit or be licensed(Springsteen,Elton,solo Beatles).So for every song I wanted on HAND(Tighter,Tighter,Loving You)there are those I'm glad wasn't included(Playground on my Mind)

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Rating: - A Fun Hodgepodge of 70s Rock & Pop
Sure, the decade of the 70s was kind of cheesy-particularly the fact that everything was BIG & LOUD(the clothes, the shoes, the hair, etc.)! It was also a fun decade in that I was in high school from late '69-'73 when more than half of these tunes were huge radio hits. All in all this is the soundtrack of my teenage years. Once I ventured out into the working world in the summer of '73 the latter half of these songs were either on my turntable or in my 8-track player(God, who can forget those annoying things & their incessant CLICKS). As always, RHINO put together a fine mix of songs, but for my money, the 70s collection ROCK & ROLL RELIX is far superior because they've mixed in plenty of soul/r&b hits among the rock, pop & novelty tunes. Still highly recommended for collectors of 70s hits.

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Rating: - This is one release that is hard to review
Rhino Records has tried to hit a home run and maybe only wound up getting to second or third base. Baseball analogy aside, this review cannot only focus on the music as it's not cheap. The packaging is amazing, the inserts are hilarious and informative, it includes timely sound bites of the era, and the 7 CDs do not skimp on the music.

Is it worth your time and money? Maybe. Out of the 7 CDs I wound up making a 4 CD mix (adding others that were not here)and I think it more than covers the best of this selection. My point here is that there is a lot of filler that is neither fun because it was great or because it was so cheesy. My best of would consist of the collections best songs and songs that although may not have been loved by the critics, were representative of the period.

So if money were not a consideration one could say go for it; however money is generally a consideration and it's not too fun to keep fastforwarding through songs that don't appeal to you. On the other hand the collection has songs that you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

The are some serious problems in that some songs were cut off or butchered for either space consideration or due to the focus on the single edits. This is particularly annoying in the live songs on the 7th CD.

This may be one of my least persuasive reviews because there is a lot to like, but almost as much that should have been inlcuded or have been left out. I enjoyed it but all in all it's not worth the price unless you have a lot of disposable income and are a collector of box sets.