Album Review: Various - Good Times: Celebrating 50 Years Of Albert Productions

One-hundred-and-two tracks over five CDs – almost worth dusting off that ol’ player just for the novelty factor. Albert Productions most famously covered the rock, roll, surf and mainly boy-led side of Australian music – all the way from A to C to D and back to C. There’s much to celebrate (including, but not limited to, Angus and the school uniform). Kicking off with Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs Mashed Potato, Billy and his boys feature well here, as do The Easybeats, Rose Tattoo, The Ted Mulry Gang, The Angels, and more recent additions like Dallas Crane, Knievel and Skybombers.

The collection is roughly organised around themes and genres, although even then there’s quite a lot of crossover, and solo efforts from Stevie Wright, Doc Neeson and John Paul Young also add a nice flavor.

The kicker is really the live bits and rarities, like The Easybeats’ She’s So Fine (live from the Melbourne Awards) and the three parts of Evie (live from the Sydney Opera House Forecourt), while She’s Got Balls live from the Bondi Lifesavers was likely the last time Acca Dacca played a little room near the sea. A good sidenote (lost gem) is Alison MacCallum’s Excuse Me, complete with the overblown strings and vox of ‘70s style, while much newer lady Shelley Harland’s In The Dark is stripped, slow and sweet compared with all that electrified shaking, rocking and balls-out business. The pop of Aleesha Rome’s Search My Heaven probably doesn’t sit as well, but good to have a counterpoint regardless.