Los Bravos - Black Is Black: Anthology 1966-1969

2017 two CD set. Spanish Beat band Los Bravos shot to fame in 1966 with the Motown-styled blue-eyed soul classic 'Black Is Black', which was a huge hit across the world (# 2 in the UK and # 4 in the States), selling over a million copies. This success prompted a prolific output of singles and albums from the Madrid-based band, some of them issued on Decca in the UK but many more restricted to domestic release in their native Spain on Columbia. Follow-up single 'I Don't Care' reached #16 in the UK charts. Additionally, 'Going Nowhere' and 'Bring A Little Lovin' were minor hits in the US and Australia. The band were formed out of the ashes of two other Spanish bands, Los Sonor and The Runaways, and were fronted by a German singer, Mike Kogel (alias Mike Kennedy). A sixty-track double CD, Black Is Black is the first comprehensive retrospective of Los Bravos, mopping up the lion's share of their recordings from 1966-1969, including all their singles A's and B's, key album tracks and rarities. All their albums are featured: Los Bravos (recorded in London with Ivor Raymonde, 1966), reworked outside Spain as Black Is Black, the film soundtrack Los Chicos Con Las Chicas (1967), Las Canciones de la Película Dame Un Poco de Amor (alias Bring A Little Lovin') (1968) and Ilustrisimos (1969). In 1967, the band participated in the San Remo Music Festival with the song 'Uno Come Noi'. In their home country, they were huge stars, prompting two films based around them. The package also boasts exhaustive sleeve-notes and a host of photos and rare images, offering a long-overdue reappraisal of Los Bravos' prolific output during the second half of the '60s.