GREATEST HITS

The Pretty Things: Frank Holland (vocals, guitar); John Povey (vocals, keyboards); Wally Waller (vocals, bass); Phil May (vocals); Dick Taylor (guitar); Skip Alan (drums). Additional personnel: Viv Prince, John Stax, Brian Pendelton, Vic Unit, Pete Tolson, Stuart Brooks, Gordon Edwards, Jack Green, Reg Norman, Asa Jones, Mark St. John. Compilation producers: Mike Stax, Mark St. John. Formed by Dick Taylor, one-time bassist with an embryonic Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things were an R&B combo that made an early career out of playing and behaving more outrageously than their more famous Dartford rivals. They even succeeded in out-psychedelizising most of the competition with their groundbreaking mid-'60s singles and concept album S.F. SORROW. Releasing a number of critically acclaimed, if not always commercially successful albums during the '70s and '80s, the Pretties ended the '90s by performing the saga of Private Sorrow live on the Internet. The dirty R&B of "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down" (both covered by David Bowie in the '70s) coupled with later adventures in psychedelia such as "Defecting Grey," the two featured extracts from S.F. SORROW, and the excellent "Talkin' About the Good Times" typify the band's '60s output. The '70s and beyond are represented by eight other cuts, including "Singapore Silk Torpedo," the stomping "Bitter End," and "Vivian Prince," a homage to the band's late drummer. Spanning 35 years of the band's history, LATEST WRITS is a concise introduction to a group of '60s survivors most definitely not consigned to the revival circuit.