Manfred Mann's line-up included a saxophonist, a rarity in the sixties pop music scene. This very successful group had three distinct phases in their career. The second phase, with Mike D'Abo as lead singer, yielded seven top ten UK hits including Mighty Quinn, while the third phase, Manfred Mann's Earth band, yielded three top ten UK hits including Blinded by the light. This compilation focuses on the first phase when Paul Jones was the lead singer.
During this phase, which covers the period to mid-1966, the group had six top ten UK hits, two of which (Do wah diddy diddy, Pretty Flamingo) made number one. Two other hits peaked at number eleven. Their final hit, You gave me somebody to love (an excellent song), failed to make the top thirty but this may have been because of lack of promotion due to the change in record label that coincided with Paul Jones leaving the group.
5-4-3-2-1 provided Manfred Mann with their breakthrough when it was used as a TV theme. It followed two singles (not included here) that failed to chart. The failed singles can be found on another compilation, Manfred Mann at Abbey Road.
The Exciters, an American group, were first to record Do wah diddy diddy, but their version was only a minor American hit, yet Manfred Mann were able to take it to the very top of the American charts, matching the success they had with the song in Britain. Somewhat disappointingly, they didn't have many hits in America, but they had plenty in Britain.
Originally an American hit for Maxine Brown, Oh no not my baby was later revived by Rod Stewart although I think Dusty Springfield's cover is better than any of the hit versions.
If you gotta go go now, written by Bob Dylan, is the only one of his songs that became a hit for Manfred Mann during this period, but Bob's songs became more important after Paul Jones left the group.
Apart from those already mentioned, Manfred Mann's hits with Paul Jones (all included here) were Hubble bubble toil and trouble, Sha la la and Come tomorrow.
There is a compilation (Ages of Mann - Greatest hits) that includes the hits from the first two phases of their career, but some people don't like it as it's not in chronological order. If you want to keep the Paul Jones tracks separate from the Mike D'Abo tracks, buy this for the Paul Jones stuff and buy a different compilation (Very best of the Fontana years) for the Mike D'Abo stuff.
This budget 20-track collection first appeared on EMI's Music For Pleasure in 1993 and combines a generous selection of the band's many HMV hit singles with Paul Jones, with a sampling of six of the more typical jazz or rhythm and blues pieces that appeared on their first album in 1964, The Five Faces Of Manfred Mann presented in stereo, and four from the following year's Mann Made, perversely in mono.
5-4-3-2-1, famous as the theme tune for Ready Steady Go! and Hubble Bubble, their fourth single, both originals, are included, as are their two biggest number one hits, the Exciters' Do Wah Diddy Diddy, which also topped the American charts (unfortunately to the detriment of the Exciters' own version and subsequent career), and Pretty Flamingo.
I'm puzzled that they should have recorded Hi Lili Hi Lo, which Leslie Caron sang in the film Lili in 1953, and which the Alan Price Set also had out around the same time as a single. What is the song's appeal? They also try their hand at the Skyliner's Since I Don't Have You, a gorgeous doo wop tune not presented at its best.
They were always admired for their arrangements of then unfamiliar Bob Dylan material of which their excellent version of If You Gotta Go, Go Now was the first, and reached number two. Covers of Maxine Brown's Oh No Not My Baby and the Shirelles' Sha La La were also big hits. Manfred Mann's own keyboard work and Mike Hugg's vibes are featured to advantage on The Abominable Snowman, and there is a smattering of more of their own material throughout
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