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"The Very Best Of...." (1995)
This CD collection's title suggests that every compilation that went before containing the word "Best" in the title was only playing at it. Maybe it wasn't far wrong at that. From the opening bars of "Please Don't Touch" to 1963's rare "Some Other Guy" the twenty selected tracks cover the whole of Kidds' career in some sort of chronological order and includes all the hit singles - "Linda Lu" from 1961 being the only exception here - otherwise only a couple of other singles miss out from being represented at all.
There are outings for "If You Were The Only Girl In The World" and "Always And Ever" and while they are not bad tracks this set may have been strengthened by the inclusion of a couple more of the 1964 Lost Album cuts, such as the remake of "Big Blon' Baby" instead of , otherwise this is an excellent beginning point to Kidd's music.
A couple of nice surprises adorn this CD - the first is the inclusion of "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" which features quality guitaring from top session man Joe Moretti, perhaps justifiably more famous for supplying the memorable licks and riffs on it's more illustrious topside "Shakin' All Over", although as can be heard he is no slouch on this one either. The second is "Send Me Some Lovin" which has a similar feel to "Your cheatin Heart" (also present), both being cut at the 1964 album sessions.
Another welcome inclusion is "The Fool" from the flipside of the very last single, issued posthumously. The 1964 aborted album sessions saw a regular, beaty version of this Sandford Clark number cut and it remained a favourite of Johnny's. This is the definitive version, a more "boozy" take if you like with themed sluggish piano from Ray Soaper complimented by some nicely relaxed guitar from Mick Stewart. Overall the band sounds a tight little unit and with performances like this, you can see how Johnny was happy with them. It's just a shame that they weren't together long enough to carve out their own niche or even find that new direction that was needed.
Any self-respecting Kidd "best of" set should include the barnstorming and probably politically incorrect "Doctor Feelgood" (which indeed it is here) and the last cut from the first classic trio line-up, "So What" (which isn't). Nevertheless, if the slightly misleadingly-titled "25 Greatest Hits" hadn't been released just three years later, then there would probably be no better "Very Best" single CD-collection for the new Kidd fan to start from.