six consecutive Ferry Corsten productions on CD1

I had to do it, as we stripped a couple of these out of the original 1999 main album!

He really was such a trance driving force that year.

Coming soon:

You softies!

(Click on image to enlarge)

The latest 'Buzzjack Presents' release covers soft rock, a more melodic and lighter type of rock music which emerged in the early 1970s and reached its peak in the 1980s before dying out in the early 90s. It has never been considered cool or fashionable but the Spotify numbers for most of the songs on this compilation are huge which suggests that many people still like to listen to them. There's a high quality to the vocals on all of these songs, backed up by skilled musicianship and a lush production which often includes an orchestra or at least a string section.

Disc 1:

The first disc opens with Foreigner's number 1 single, which closes with that memorable gospel choir, followed by 'Africa', one of the first songs you might come up with if you were asked to name a soft rock song. It's back to the 70s for Chicago's number 1 which leads on to more American groups with their best known songs. The US record buyers have always been more receptive to this type of music which often had the alternative name of adult oriented rock. The first UK representation comes on track 8 from Cutting Crew who are followed by big sellers from John Farnham, Heart and Fleetwood Mac. There's a slight country twang to the next two songs by Dr Hook and The Bellamy Brothers before things get really slushy on tracks 14 to 18. The pace increases again for the final two tracks, 'The Boys Of Summer' and 'Don't Stop Believin'.

Disc 2:

It's off to the cinema at the start of this disc with several songs from movie soundtracks. 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' from 1998 is comfortably the most recent song across the collection, I don't think there's anything else here later than 1992. I wasn't familiar with the term 'yacht rock' until I watched a BBC4 documentary about it a few years ago. Tracks 10 to 13 could all be filed under this genre with Dan Hartman obviously following Daryl Hall as he sounds so much like him. From 'Don't Dream It's Over' to the last track 'Wind Of Change' we have some of the last chart hits that could be roughly defined as being soft rock.

Disc 3:

It's back to the 70s when I don't think the term 'soft rock' was being used but I think the beautiful ballads from tracks 1 to 8 all have the right type of sound to be included. The next two tracks 'Make It With You' and 'A Horse With No Name' both have that laid back early 70s American sound to them before we get to the the only song from the 60s, 'Reflections Of My Life' by Marmalade. Tracks 12 to 16 encapsulate the mid 70s British folk rock/pub rock scene before we get to the much later piano led songs from Bruce Hornsby and The Range and Marc Cohn. The disc ends with a trio of classy guitar ballads by solo artists.

Disc 4:

Elton John, Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney covered many genres but I think the songs I've included here suit the theme. Further on, it's mainly British artists that take up this disc, including some groups that are best known for prog rock but released shorter, simpler songs to get a top 10 single. Paul Carrack, who can be heard on 'How Long' by Ace on disc 3, makes a second appearance singing 'The Living Years' with Mike and The Mechanics. Tracks 16 to 18 are all big orchestral epics before we close with 10cc's masterpiece 'I'm Not In Love'.

Please go and have a listen now to the playlists below. Thanks to Colm for providing the cover art.

Disc 1:

Disc 2:

Disc 3:

Disc 4:

The whole playlist:

At first glance, a few songs I don't like hearing (overplayed or too corny) but for many of the ones I know I have no problem enjoying!

Edit: It might just be me but Disc 3 Spotify playlist is not showing.

Edited September 15Sep 15 by AllStarBySmashMouth

Disc 3 is showing up for me. If you go to one of the other playlists, you should get to it on Spotify by clicking on the "Buzzjack presents..." part which will take you to all the playlists from the series.

Thanks Rollo, have saved the full playlist and looking forward to checking this out.

It certainly is true that a lot of the older songs with very high streams fall into the 'Soft Rock' category, I suppose many of these songs have proven such a mainstay on the radio over the years, often with big choruses that are easy to remember and sing along to, yet are often critically acclaimed to so don't get snubbed by some of the radio stations that might avoid pop.

There's a real comfort in some of these songs.

Glory of Love, Lonely Boy, Sometimes When We Touch, We're All Alone. Songs I haven't heard in years.

I can't seem to see disc 3 in the thread, either.

Great work, KR.

Edited September 15Sep 15 by Colm

I've edited my post and reloaded the disc 3 playlist. Can everybody see it now?

Great work once again Rollo, you've really contributed a lot to this community project since it began! Thank you for all your hard work, along with the graphical work behind the scenes from Colm.

A real marmite genre for me that encompasses many tracks I really like and just as many I can't bear, but everything is well covered here and there are some really great and really surprising picks in there - for example Romeo & Juliet isn't the obvious choice for Dire Straits but it's my favourite by them by far. Conversely, Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere is not getting much love from me but it does seem to be among their most popular these days, so I can see why you picked that one.

Well done for keeping it as broad as possible and still keeping a distinct identity and time period. Inevitably there's stuff that gets left off (totally expected Cher in there) but extra bonus points for Harry Nilsson, Wings and Scorpions being on there.

Another excellent addition to the catalogue and great artwork too.,

Thanks. Sultans Of Swing is certainly Dire Straits' best known song but I felt that one is more classic rock than soft rock. The same applied to some of the other artists here, their most popular songs might not fit into this genre.

Great playlist will defintiely listen to this.

22 hours ago, Colm said:

There's a real comfort in some of these songs.

Glory of Love, Lonely Boy, Sometimes When We Touch, We're All Alone. Songs I haven't heard in years.

John Waite - Missing You is a good emotive one too!

Forgot to include Wet Wet Wet - Wishing I was Lucky is the best of their's.

Also for late 90s would have liked to see Kiss The Rain by Billie Myers.

Edited September 16Sep 16 by TheSnake

I think those two songs are more towards pop/rock.

Disc 3 is showing up now in here, by the way. (Didn't mean to answer late)