Genre: pop
Rating: ** (2 stars)
Title: The Glass Bottle
Company: AVCO Embassy
Catalog: AVE-33012
Year: 1970
Country/State:
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: minor ring and edge wear
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4415
Price: $10.00
Cost: $66.00
This LP is worth owning simply for the hysterical cover showing six happenin' folks decked out in their hippest threads. Love the hippy beads two of the guys are wearing and the scarf the more conservative geek is sporting.
Co-produced by Bill Ramal and the late Dickie Goodman, musically 1970's "The Glass Bottle" is kind of a disappointment. Apparently a studio outfit, the album doesn't even provide full performance credits. Gary Criss is credited with handling most of the lead vocals, with Dennis Dees (I'm guessing the black guy) and Carol Denmark (I'm guessing she's the black lady) handling a couple of tracks. No idea who the three other folks were. In spite of their young and cool look, this largely anonymous outfit are in fact a pretty conventional pop outfit - exemplified by material such as 'Sorry Suzanne' if you think along the lines of England's Brotherhood of Man you'll be in the right area. Sure, there are a couple of nice moments, including the bubblegum-ish 'Honey Do' and the atypically rocking 'Red River Sal'. Unfortunately, too much of the set is given over to insipid over-orchestrated ballads such as 'Pretty Thing', 'Love for Living' and 'Velvet'. Elsewhere the track 'Wonderwheel' was featured in an AVCO Embassy movie entitled "The People Next Door".
"The Glass
Bottle" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Sorry Suzanne (Macauley - Stephens) - 2:44
2.) Pretty Thing (Jeff Barry - Ellie Greenwich) - 2:52
3.) Honey Do (Jeff Barry - Sanders) - 2:15
4.) Red River Sal (Levitt - Raisin) - 3:42
5.) Velvet (Appel - Cretecos) - 3:15
(side 2)
1.) Love for Living (C. Terry) - 3:01
2.) Wonderwheel (English - Weiss) - 2:56
3.) The First Time (Dayton Callie) -2 :49
4.) Make Me a Woman (Chuck Gordon) - 2:58
5.) Boys In the Band (Leiber - Stoller) - 2:54
A follow-up single 'I Ain't Got Time Anymore' b/w 'Things' (AVCO Embassy catalog number AVE-4574) went top-40. There may also be a sophomore LP with the same title, but I've never seen or heard it.
In case anyone cares, Criss recorded a couple of pre-Glass Bottle solo efforts. He also briefly reappeared in the mid-1970s on the disco-oriented Salsoul label, enjoying a couple of dance hits with material such as 'Rio De Janeiro' and 'Brazilian Nights'.