The significance of their rip of
Jonathan King
's arrangement of the
B.J. Thomas
hit is that -- no, it isn't as sublime as the original, but for a
novelty
hit, it works. Should they have quit after this? Absolutely. Did they? No. This album is definitely bizarre, more so than the follow-up
Out of the Blue
, for this made-in-Sweden record shows what happens when someone other than
David Bowie
is copping the riffs. Lead singer
Bjorn Skifs
collaborates with producer
Bengt Palmers
(he changed his name to Ben Palmers for the next disc) on a strange attempt at the Philly sound.
"Gotta Have Your Love"
doesn't work, but what is intriguing is
"Lonely Sunday Afternoon,"
a strange blend of
Sonny Bono
meets
Lee Hazelwood
on the other side of the world. It is so totally different from the other originals on side one that the band surprises with sparks of creativity -- chameleon moves that give a hint they could have been capable of more. The group also provides evidence why
Abba
and
Bowie
became so popular while
Blue Swede
faded out of the picture rather quickly. They were trying too hard to be an American group.
The Savage Rose
Brainbox
were at least being themselves, Europeans staking their claim to a piece of the
rock
pie. Side two is all covers: They take on
Jose Feliciano
;
Kenny Rogers & the First Edition
by way of
Mac Davis
Lee Dorsey
Allan Toussaint
Dionne Warwick
; and, of course, their other Top Ten, the dreadful re-working of
the Addrisi Brothers
'
"Never My Love."
The Association
must have cringed, or laughed hardily, but had this group hired a consultant to give them a hip wardrobe and sense of musical style, they could have done some real chart damage. Had they gone after
"I Can Feel You"
by
and maybe
"Sunday Morning"
Lou Reed
, adding a hip and serious face, they would have been as cherished a memory as
"Venus"
the Shocking Blue
is. Instead, they ripped
Reed
's
"Rock & Roll"
to shreds on the next album, and tinker with
Burt Bacharach
Hal David
so poorly here it is beyond travesty. This is a parody record, but the joke's on
because they bastardize important music and tanked their thankfully brief career in the process.
Mrs. Miller
was fun for ten minutes, and at least
Nancy Sinatra
had some sense of style. The big problem with the album
Hooked on a Feeling
is that they didn't have
dueting on the cover of the
First Edition's
"Something's Burning."
might be able to sing on key more accurately than
Kenny Rogers
, but he isn't anywhere near as entertaining.
"Working in a Coal Mine"
actually sounds like
Skifs
is emulating
, and
new wave
band
Someone & the Somebodies
did it much better on their
Bops on the Head
EP, leaving the listener asking the 64,000 dollar question, "What's the point?" Still,
"Hooked on a Feeling"
is classic camp, so they get to be a
rock & roll
footnote. ~ Joe Viglione