Track Listing

1. I Think Of You
2. Don't Let It Happen To Us
3. Wishin' And Hopin'
4. I Love You Yes I Do
5. I Stand Accused
6. Last Night (I Made A Little Girl Cry)
7. Long Tall Sally
8. It Would Take A Long Long Time
9. Milkman
10. It's Love That Really Counts
11. Fortune Teller
12. Mister Moonlight
13. Hello Young Lovers
14. He Will Break Your Heart
15. Really Mystified
16. Good Good Lovin'
17. Don't Turn Around
18. See Me Back
19. Jumping Jonah
20. All My Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4925 in Music
• Released on: 1998-01-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

A Liverpool group of the sixties
Between 1963 and 1966, the Merseybeats had seven UK hits, one of which (I think of you) made the top five. Don't turn around peaked at thirteen, as did Wishing and hoping (an American hit for Dusty Springfield). Their other four UK hits (It's love that really counts, Last night, I love you yes I do, I stand accused) failed to make the UK top twenty though two of them came close.

Line-up changes took their toll and the original group disbanded in 1966. Two of its members became the Merseys and had a UK top five hit with Sorrow, later covered by David Bowie who had a UK top three hit with it. One of the Merseys re-emerged in the seventies with another group, Liverpool Express, who had four UK hits including You are my love and Every man must have a dream.

This compilation focuses exclusively on the music of the Merseybeats though I'd like to have seen Sorrow (recorded for the same record label) included. While their chart history is not as strong as some of the other Liverpool groups, they had some great songs, both ballads and rockers, and were clearly accomplished musicians.

If you enjoy British pop music of the sixties, give the Merseybeats a listen. You'll be in for a treat.

I LOVE THIS, YES I DO
'The Very Best of The Merseybeats' is the very best CD in my collection. I say this with hand-on-heart, crossing which, I hope to die if I lie!

Not that I'm much of a CD collector, if I'm honest about it- more of superannuated, dyed-in-the-wool, fusty-dusty vinyl freak. Hey, and a 45 rpm 7" vinyl singles freak while we're about it, please. I love 'em - and I love this Meseybeats CD just as much.

Talk about money well spent! What an absolute humdinger of a collection this is! With the sole (soul?!) exception of 'Sorrow', a truly regrettable omission, let it be said. Okay, this McCoys' cover was released by The Merseys, if we're gonna be pedantic about it. But with this single understandable exception (hurriedly rectified, I might add, via my 3, 000 strong singles collection) 'The Very Best of The Merseybeats' is the definitive Merseybeats' collection with knobs on.

Yep, all their hits are here, every one of them as far as I can see. It ain't nothing but a 20 track cornucopia of a Merseybeats singles fest on stilts, of which my personal high notes are the classic 'Mr Moonlight'( a rendition infinitely superior The Beatles' effort), and the unfairly underated 'I Stand Accused' and 'Last Night I Made a Little Girl Cry'.

With a repertoire outstripping that of The Animals (name me four Animals' singles without looking them up) - and, quite possibly, The Byrds, The Merseybeats lacked (luckily for me, a fan of long-standing) the compositional skills of The Beatles and their continuity of line-up. And I, for one, cherish these perceived professional shortcomings because they keep The Merseybeats (and myself by affiliation) ever Sixties-based and (in my mind's eye: okay, a pig's!) eternally young.

Because for me, and for the reasons already given, The Merseybeats will ever retain that quintessential tang and twang that so distinguished the beat music of the early to mid- Sixties. Consequently, whenever I tune into Tony Crane's distinctively nasal tones backed by Billy Kinsley's and/or Johnny Gustafson's quasi-percussive guitars, I am back again in Bernard Manning's World Famous Embassy Club (circa 1965) where The Merseybeats look and sound just as they always did . . . Hey, and me too, if you don't mind: full head of hair, girl on my arm ('the' girl c. 1965), pint of Tetley's bitter and a Senior Service cigarette on the go, nobbut 9 stone 10 pounds clad in a three-piece suit, winklepickers and overcoat, boozed up on a (hic')'nother Saturday night.

Happy days, eh? You just bet your black velvet collar and Italian bum freezer jacket, they were! Correction: ARE - whenever I slot this Very Best of the Merseybeats' CD back into play mode with the volume at top whack!

well, nice to hear the great gustafson
Yeah.. great, competant band. Must be, with ole' Johnny G.
Worth the admission price just for Milkman.. that lovely chord-ey sort of sound. Tasty drummin' ... right on the button, too.
I suppose the image was a teensy bit naff... but then one had to eat etc.Nonetheless, good recording and a bargain price to boot.