Too many of the other songs have lesser echoes of those two hits, which may be unsurprising given that so many of their recordings were written by the Tony Macaulay- John MacLeod team who wrote "Baby Now That I've Found You" ( Macaulay co-wrote "Build Me Up Buttercup" too, though with Mike d'Abo, not MacLeod). But it's those one or two big hits - in their case, "Baby Now That I've Found You" and "Build Me Up Buttercup" - that are easily the best items here. At their best, the Foundations credibly emulated horn-backed American vocal group soul, often mixed with mainstream British pop influences, flecked with a hint of ska/bluebeat and Georgie Fame here and there. That means there's not only everything from their singles and albums (including the whole of the late-'60s live LP Rockin' the Foundations), but also five solo tracks (most or all of them from the early '70s) recorded by original Foundations lead singer Clem Curtis the mid-'70s single by the New Foundations, led by Curtis and an unnecessary 12" 1989 remix of "Baby Now That I've Found You." Like many such vault-cleaning anthologies of bands with one or two big hits, though, it's musically erratic. The album includes Mike's chart successes with Manfred Mann, his hit songs covered by other artists as mentioned above, his first ever chart entry with the band A Band Of Angels, and some recently penned material.Whoever thought the day would come when the Foundations would be honored with a three-CD set? Now that it's found us, though, the job's certainly been done with admirable completeness, the 60 songs including everything they did for Pye - a period that covers virtually everything of interest the band recorded, mostly dating from 1967-1970. Mike also plays with the band The Beat Goes On! who in June 2000 recorded a live album at Ronnie Scott's Club in Birmingham. As a broadcaster, he's held in great affection by thousands of radio listeners across the West Country where his show Late Night West is essential listening. In addition to The Manfreds, since 1987 Mike has established a formidable reputation with Mike d'Abo & His Mighty Quintet, the band guaranteed to fill any dance floor. Mike recorded solo albums, made his acting debut in the West End and used his musical talents wherever they led him from the soundtrack of the Peter Sellers/Goldie Hawn movie There's A Girl In My Soup to an array of TV jingles, including Cadbury's 'Finger of Fudge', Mike d'Abo's creative career is a seamless success story. He'd already proved his impressive skill as a songwriter by composing Build Me Up Buttercup for The Foundations and Handbags & Gladrags, a massive hit for Chris Farlowe, reprised with equal success by Rod Stewart, first in 1970 and more recently on his MTV-based 'unplugged' album. Just Like A Woman, Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James and Mighty Quinn were just three of the string of hits with the 'new boy' in the line-up.Īnd, like his predecessor, Mike's career after the disbanding of the Manfreds in 1969 lost none of its momentum. Already attracting attention with his group, A Band Of Angels, Mike was thrust into a wider limelight with the Manfreds and the well-oiled hit machine rolled on. In 1966 there was only one man who could fill Paul Jones' shoes as front man for Manfred Mann.
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