Long Live Love

In America Sandie Shaw was part of the British Invasion’s second wave, arriving in November of ‘64. Her career most paralleled Cilla Black’s: she never had a real hit in the U.S. but became one of the most successful female artists of the ‘60’s in Britain. At least Cilla made #28 with You’re My World while Sandie’s (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me never rose above #52 despite it being a well-sung and beautifully produced Bacharach song. Despite its memorable melody and lyrics the now classic song had to wait for its fifth recording by Naked Eyes in 1983 to become a true hit at #8.Sandie had been a trainee computer programmer in the Ford Factory in Dagenham, her home district on the far east side of London. She entered a talent contest and her second prize was a chance to sing a song opening for British singer-actor-heartthrob Adam Faith. He was bowled over by her rendition of Everybody Loves a Lover and introduced her to his manager, Eve Taylor who got her a contract with Pye Records and changed her name to Shaw from Goodrich. Sandie had a difficult relationship with the domineering and controlling Taylor who really wanted her to be an easy listening singer. In later years Sandie had to go to court to get her rightful producer credits (and royalties) acknowledged. Faith also later complained about Taylor, but in her defense, she did make stars of both.The best thing Taylor did for Sandie was to make Chris Andrews her songwriter. Though Sandie’s first hit was Bacharach’s (There’s Always Something There To Remind Me) a parallel to Cilla’s Anyone Who Had a Heart, she couldn’t depend on getting Bacharach songs. Andrews wrote almost all of Sandie’s hits and had a real sense of both what suited her strong voice and what the British public wanted to hear. She had the perfect voice for his songs. Mostly you could say he wrote in a Bacharach-influenced way. On As Long As You’re Happy Baby he has the earlier girl group style down so well that he could have been a major Brill Building writer. Long Live Love, one of her biggest hits has a Caribbean lilt to it along with a big brass beat. Her follow-up, Message Understood, was almost as big, making 1965 her biggest year.When her singles career started to wane, eve Taylor had her enter the Eurovision Song Contest representing the U.K. The song was chosen from a group of five she sang on Rolf Harris’s television show by the viewing audience and it was the Phil Coulter-Bill Martin song, Puppet On a String. This caused no end of problems for Sandie who only recently finally made peace with the whole thing. Sandie was a kind of “It” girl of Swinging London, hip and mod with cool clothes, geometrically cut straight hair and her trademark of performing barefoot. Puppet On a String was more like an old beer garden song complete with oom-pahs. It’s catchy as all get out but not a song that went with her image or style. All I can think is that the demographic of the Harris show was older than Sandie’s usual fans. Of course it won, the first time for Britain, became a huge international hit (everywhere but the U.S.) and was her biggest song ever, haunting the rest of her career though it did give her a boost.This is a very comprehensive collection that includes almost all of her singles through 1969 and also her 1982 comeback version of Anyone Who Had a Heart and was rediscovered by Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and the Smiths. Other tracks include a surprisingly Jazzy version of One Note Samba, the very French Monsieur Dupont her duet with Hynde, Nothing Less Than Brilliant, and a totally reimagined Puppet On a String. I would have liked to see something other than Walking the Dog from her most acclaimed album, Reviewing the Situation, her tribute album of songs and artists she liked. How about Your Time Is Gonna Come? Much is made of her being the first artist to cover a Zeppelin song so why not include it? But aside from that this is a fantastic Sandie Shaw collection and beautifully remastered by Salvo Music of the U.K. Every fan should have it.

Always liked the song that were much anthologized (Girl Don't Come and, of course, the classic (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me), so I thought I'd take a chance on this. I had fairly low expectations, because she was nearly unknown in this country, but I found the material consistently compelling for 3 reasons - strong songwriting, excellent production and evocative vocals. I didn't expect anything as strong as the above mentioned songs, but there are many here that come very close - Long Live Love marries a psuedo-ska beat to a dead catchy melody...a precursor to Obladi Oblada. A well-deserved #1 in England.If you have an appreciation for 60s British female vocalists, Sandie Shaw stands with the best of them. Excellent collection.

This CD sounds great and has a couple of selections not on the other CD's in this series that are just wonderful! I would recommend it to a friend!

Love It!

Some of the tracks were not to our taste - very jazzy, but it's just a personal viewpoint. Others were just great.

This compilation was hand-picked by Sandie, so to some extent it reflects her personal preferences. The interesting track here is an alternative version of Puppet on a string, here in a new moody ballad version titled Puppet no strings, as well as the original version with its original title. Another notable feature of this compilation is that it includes a few tracks that resulted from Sandie's surprise comeback in the eighties, which occurred because some of that decade's pop stars were fans of Sandie.Born Sandra Goodrich, she was discovered by Adam Faith and became Sandie Shaw. Sandie quickly established herself as one of the most important female singers of her generation, at least in Britain, between 1964 and 1967. Sandie was best suited to up-tempo material and that is clearly reflected in this collection. If you are looking for soft, romantic love songs, look elsewhere.Sandie began her career with the Bacharach-David classic, Always something there to remind me. Taking the record to the very top of the UK charts, she knocked Roy Orbison (Oh pretty woman) off the top spot and remained there for three weeks, after which (curiously) Oh pretty woman returned to the top for one last week.Chris Andrews (who had his own hit with Yesterday man) wrote all of Sandie's subsequent hits prior to Puppet on a string, including her second UK number one (Long live love) and three other UK top ten hits (Girl don't come, Message understood, Tomorrow).By the beginning of 1967, Sandie seemed to be fading fast, but she was then selected to represent Britain in the Eurovision song contest, which she won with Puppet on a string, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. Sandie hated the song but the public loved it and it became her third and last UK number one hit. Sandie only had one more UK top ten hit, Monsieur Dupont, a translated French song. It was the first of two hits that Sandie had in 1969, after which it seemed that her career was over.This compilation contains everything that most people will ever want of Sandie's music.

This CD takes you right back to the swinging 60's, even if you weren't there in the first place!Sandie wasn't the greatest singer, but she Shaw had something (groan)and her voice was pretty unique.This compilation takes you right through her career from the earliest hits onwards. For me the only negative is an ill advised stripped down version of Puppet On A String (puppet-no strings), but the rest of it is wonderful and as usual Salvo have done a sterling job on the remastering. It sounds fantastic.Even the songs i wasn't too familiar with are now firmly planted in my head.It's a bargain, and i'll be investing in some of the other Salvo reissues for sure.Long live love - long live Sandie Shaw !!

I bought this album for the new version of "Puppet", "Puppet - No Strings". It is beautiful. Then I was smitten with the remastered version of 'Cool About You' which was written for Sandie by the Jesus and The Mary Chain. What a beautiful song and performance from Sandie. When I saw her singing this song on stage it gave me goose pimples. And of course the brilliant version of Anyone Who Had a Heart, simply perfect! A classy complilation :) obviously songs that the lady chose herself.

Excellent. Most of the arrangements are imbued with that indefinable '60s magic. Burt Bacharach created much of it of course. Each decade has its standout tracks and this compilation is right up there with the other greats of that decade. I'd also stick my neck out and say that if you missed out on the '60s you should really get this. The songs stand up as well in 2016 as they did in the Ready Steady Go! days.

I first found Sandie Shaw thanks to The Smiths and her work done with the band in 1984. That is the main reason I purchased this LP. I have a collection of her greatest hits that I picked up in 2001 but decided to splurge out on her back catalogue now that it has be re-issued with bonus material.If you have never heard Sandie Shaw before than this is the perfect starting point. The price is more than reasonable and the listening makes for a wonderful journey through some of her more popular songs.

Bought this for my wife who wanted something to remind her of the sixties songs she loved. This compilation of Sandie songs however has some beautiful bonus tracks recorded post sixties and makes it a fabulous buy. Notice some mixed reviews on the Puppet on a String remake. I am in the love it camp. Unrecognisable as a Eurovision song this slowed down version is verging on the erotic. Nice one Sandie