Best of the Bachelors

Considering that a two-CD, 54-song Bachelors compilation, The Decca Years: 1962-1972, was released just a year before this, the 12-song running time on this anthology might seem a bit cheap. On the other hand, it could be argued that 12 songs are enough to get the gist of this minor band, sometimes thought of as a British Invasion act although there were far more country and Tin Pan Alley pop vocal components to their sound than there were rock ones. This CD has most of their 1960s British hits, among them their handful of American Top 40 entries: "Diane," "Marie," "In the Chapel in the Moonlight," "No Arms Could Ever Hold You (Like These Arms of Mine)," and "Love Me With All of Your Heart (Cuando Caliente el Sol)." Fellow British Invader Ian Whitcomb's liner notes are useful in their details of sources for some of the songs, revealing that several of them dated from way before the rock era; both "Diane" and "Marie" (by far their best-known American hits), for example, were written for movies in the late '20s. The Bachelors' sound has not dated well, with its corny country-pop harmonies and arrangements of sentimental pop material. But this disc is a good representation of their most commercial moments, also including their notorious clean-cut 1966 cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," which actually became the hit in Britain rather than the original version, to Paul Simon's displeasure.