The Dave Clark Five were an unmitigated success from the get-go. During their first two years together, they scored no less than 15 consecutive Top 20 hits. Eventually, they would come to sell more than 100 million records. The band influenced and inspired too many artists to name. Members of Kiss, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, even Eddie Van Halen and Ozzy Osborne have recognized the DC5 influence. One would be hard-pressed to find better pop song construction, decades after they were first hits. Case in point: the raucous “Do You Love Me” and “Glad All Over,” the pair that open DC5’s 2020 compilation All The Hits.
There’s the swift and catchy “Bits And Pieces” marching across the grooves. We also get a sly mover like “Catch Us If You Can,” which was also the title of a movie starring the Dave Clark Five (it was called “Having A Wild Weekend” in the U.S.). If the no-nonsense rocker “Any Way You Want It” doesn’t smack you across the face, nothing else will. The bossa nova sway of “Because,” the bass and rimshot slow dance of “Come Home,” and string swirl and perfect harmonies of “Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)” — these classic ballads all have a spot on All The Hits.
Throughout, the band — singer and keyboardist Mike Smith, multi-instrumentalist Denis Payton, guitarist Lenny Davidson, bassist Rick Huxley, and, of course, Dave Clark, leader and namesake on the drums — hits the marks and keep the tunes coming. We tend to take for granted the ubiquitous nature of great pop songs that have floated across pop culture for decades, having heard them so often. On All The Hits, we are reminded of the Dave Clark Five’s contributions from the first wave of the British Invasion, which also included the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. One spin and you’ll be “glad all over” to hear these remastered pop gems in all their splendor.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
