Odyssey - Greatest Hits (CD 1997)

Why on Earth did I buy an Odyssey CD? Because they undoubtedly made a bigger contribution to the most popular music genre of my final years at school than people give them credit for. The year was 1978 and Disco had reached the masses- and me. I was fifteen and couldn't get enough of pop, rock and soul. Sure I'd always loved the Tamla Motown stuff- especially the later Motown stuff and those reissued smash hits when Northern Soul was popular in the mid seventies, but I suddenly made a connection with the likes of Sister Sledge, Peaches and Herb and especially Chic.

And then I heard a song called Native New Yorker by another black male/female combo from The States, and I loved that angst-ridden lead vocals and the funky, soulful sound accompanying it. This was my first-ever recollection of a song being pigeonholed into a genre called 'Disco'. I had been attending school discos for two or three years, listening to Joe Tex, Teddy Pendergrass and The Three Degrees and boy I loved that sound. But until then nobody in my limited circles had actually referred to this new genre as 'Disco'.

This album contains all of their major hits and quite a few of the near and distant misses. For in those days a shelf life in the charts of over two years was (for most black acts) quite rare. Despite this, I'm very happy with this compilation. Had they stuck to the hits on this CD they'd never have been able to release a greatest hits album at all, because they only had nine in this country in all.

Use it Up and wear it out was their first and only number one, and is included, as is If you're looking for a way out, Going back to my roots and Inside out, and that's about it as far as the hits are concerned. Real Disco afficionados may recognise lesser hits It will be alright and Hang together, but I'm happy with being able to play their five big UK hits.

They certainly played their part in the more commercial side of the Disco craze, along with Rose Royce and Emotion (remember them?- One way ticket, I can't stand the rain), and for that reason this compilation deserves its place in the Disco hall of fame, or perhaps the Disco Yearbook at the very least. They may not have had the longevity of Kool and the gang or KC and the sunshine band, or the widespread appeal of Chic or earth wind and fire, but they most certainly played a massive part in the shaping of commercial Disco, which after all was the ONLY kind of disco that this fifteen year-old had access to in 1978.

Martin Slade.