The Real '70s in Bloomington, MN

BMG Special Product
's
The Real '70s
is an inexpensive three-disc set that does a solid job of presenting a fairly wide range of
pop
hits from the decade. Certainly any disc that contains
Lou Reed
"Walk on the Wild Side,"
Melissa Manchester
"Midnight Blue,"
Michael Nesmith
"Joanne,"
and
the Jaggerz
"The Rapper"
can be called diverse. It never leaves the charts but picks up various styles like
bubblegum
, AM
,
hard rock
disco
, and
smooth soul
, while providing a nonstop flow of great songs. One would never call the set definitive in any way, since it misses out on many of the sounds of the '70s like
punk
new wave
country-pop
power pop
, but it is unfailingly entertaining, and for a budget collection like this, that is enough to make it a reasonable purchase for those looking to add to their collections of '70s
. ~ Tim Sendra