Mark Wirtz
was one of the behind-the-scenes whiz kids that made the '60s music scene in the U.K. so magical and
Dream, Dream, Dream: The Anthology
is an expansive, well-chosen collection of singles, albums tracks, and rarities that shows off all facets of his work. He was a jack of all trades who could sing, play instruments, write songs, arrange them, and produce them as well. Though his résumé isn't littered with hits, he concocted one of the great lost albums of the era --
A Teenage Opera
-- collaborated with
Tomorrow
on their landmark debut album that helped invent psychedelic pop, gave easy listening music a hip twist, and never quit trying to capture his musical vision. He started off writing novelty pop in the beat group era, shifted to writing for male and female vocalists, and after making a splash with his
Mood Mosaic
easy listening album, he started working for
EMI
and teamed up with
. At the same time, he tried to launch his ambitious
Teenage Opera
song cycle and had a hit single with 1967's "Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera'." Though it failed to be released until years later, the concept led many others (like
Pete Townshend
) to think about albums as more than just a collection of singles. Attempts to get bubblegum hits under
the Matchmakers
name or make an adult pop splash as
Philwit & Pegasus
didn't quite work; neither did his solo albums made in the early '70s where he revisited his love of
the Beatles
in a
Badfinger
-esque way.
Dream
gathers up key songs from all phases of
Wirtz
's career and all of them make it clear that he was more than just a craftsman out for a quick buck. He was more of a visionary with a clear sense of what pop music meant to him, and that comes through whether it's
Peanut
's girl groupy cover of
the Beach Boys
' "I'm Waiting for the Day," the swirling psych of
's "Revolution," the groovy smoothness of his easy pop covers and originals like "A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass," the mainstream pop singles he made with singers like
Zion De Gallier
, the silly bubblegum novelties recorded by
, or his more serious records made under his own name in 1973. Alongside the three discs of previously released and reissued songs, there are two discs of songs that are rarer. Two albums of easy pop covers and originals --
Come Back and Shake Me
from 1968 and
Fantastic Teenage Fair
from 1970 -- are aired here for the first time in decades and there is a full disc of outtakes, alternate versions and a batch of stereo remixes made in 2024 by the set's complier
Stephen C. Wilson
.
will never be a household name, but for a certain set of pop-loving '60s fanatics, he's the ultimate, and as such deserves a reissue like this that treats him and his music with suitable respect and a well-earned sense of awe. ~ Tim Sendra