Hold Your Head Up: The Best Of

Would recommend

God Gave Rock & Roll to You is one of my all-time favorites and this 2-disc collection has the best Remastered sound that I have ever heard - loaded with great classics "Hold your Head-Up, It's only Money and Liar"

Really nice collection & best single release if you wanted just one title of theirs to own.

Great songwriting, great musicians

Despite being familiar with their classic,anthemic singles; Hold your head up and God gave rock and roll to you,for quite some time now; I was unaware of their rich 'progressive rock' genre output from self-titled debut album in 1969,through to final l.p. Circus - in 1975.(five in total).Rod Argent's semi-eponymous band also consisted of: (original line-up) Russ Ballard - guitar,lead & backing vocals; Jim Rodford - bass g,backing vocals and Bob Henrit - drums.later joined by John Verity - Guitarist,vocals.Rod Argent's keyboard contributions are pretty awesome - it has to be said.with church organ bombast,which is way over the top - but so fitting of the era's prog rock music scene.hear him on tracks such as; Hold your head up,Dance in the smoke,Lothlorien (disc 1).Sleep won't help me and disc closer - Candles on the river.Russ Ballard's guitar playing is outstanding.God gave rock & roll to you - prime example.he and Rod Argent collaborate on song writing duties throughout and individually.along with Chris White's gregarious songwriting contributions - (R) Argent and white are also credited with production duties on every track.Not entirely bogged down with their 'prog rock' tag; Argent: come up with soulful music - Like honey and twelve bar blues on - Sweet Mary - superb guitar licks in the instrumental break.School girl (Russ Ballard song) - is reminiscent of his previous group - The Zombies - Time of the season - classic song.another excellent inclusion.Pun-ladden titled: Man for all reasons - is both powerful and moving - theme of: one man is proud to fight for his country; whilst another man is a pacifist and perishes the thought.very atmospheric,military style snare drum (courtesy of Bob Henrit),flute and appropriate sounding organ - a truly outstanding song inclusion for this collection.Disc 2 opener: Thunder and lightning - has a literal opening start - with the sound of err...T & L - and is a dramatic song overall.Jim Rodford's solid bass guitar is evident on most tracks and is superb on his specialist instrument.Have to get back to UK hit singles; Hold your head up (album title track) - lyrically about self pride and dignity - and God gave rock & roll to You.both presented on disc one in their full,unabridged album versions.Tragedy: their much neglected other top 40 hit - is also included on this excellent overview of the (very) best of Argent.Some familiar diehard Argent fans may disagree with me,but up to listening to this two CD collection; I've been pretty much an Argent novice,up to this point in my musical life!Package is presented in fold-out digipack format and includes a twelve page booklet containing; two band photos,excellent sleeve notes by music writer Alan Robinson,full track listing with song writing credits and the digitally re-mastered sound is truly wonderful.Hold your head up: The very best of Argent - is an excellent collection of - the respected - but still underrated 1970's progressive rock band - and more!NB: sneak in a mention of - Liar - an atmospheric rant of a song - superb stuff!

Argent were an interesting band - good at a range of pop, rock and prog - later veering too much towards a bit of jazz rock - led by Rod Argent and Russ Ballard (later a hit songwriter for various others including Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow) - and this 28 track compilation on 2CD’s covers all the bases and is what the world has been waiting for & is also a worthy set to assess the band - all the hits are here and a lot of good album tracks to showcase their musical sensibilities and especially Rod Argent’s fantastic keyboard playing.I will always adore the classic rock songs Hold Your Head Up, God Gave Rock And Roll To You, Tragedy and Thunder & Lightning.The individual albums could be a bit patchy but overall Argent deserved more praise for the good lasting quality of music they made - bravo lads!

Argent are well overdue a re-appraisal. The combined talents of the keyboard wizard Rod Argent (The Zombies) and Russ Ballard (songwriter of Rainbow's Since You Been Gone, I Surrender and Colin Blunstone's I Don't Believe In Miracles as well as many of Argent's greatest tracks), plus the other more than capable band members such as the late, great bassist Jim Rodford and drummer Bob Henrit, both of whom went on to join The Kinks, deserve a much wider audience. Rod Argent also co-wrote many of Argent's songs with his former fellow Zombie Chris White, so along with Ballard, the songwriting on this compilation really does have an exceptionally high pedigree. Hopefully this reasonably-priced 2CD set will get a few more ears appreciating them as it's jam packed full of memorable songs including big hits Hold Your Head Up and God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You (also a huge hit for Kiss) and many others that straddle the genre between rock and prog. There's some incredible musicianship to enjoy here and many of Argent's albums are not currently available, so it's an excellent opportunity to hear some superb songs which have been difficult to find for quite a long time. There's also a detailed and informative essay by music writer Alan Robinson to be enjoyed in the liner notes. What more could you possibly want from an Argent compilation? Buy it!

It's hard to believe much of this material is over 50 years old now. One of the best live touring bands in the early 70's, they failed to produce that one perfect album even though they all had their moments. This compilation, by far the best of a number that have been released over the years, certainly does them justice. All the hits and more. Dance of Ages (a live favourite) is missing, but that's a minor quibble. This collection has some great album cuts as well as the tracks you'd expect like Hold your head up, God gave rock & roll to you & It's only money.Lothlorien, Highwire, Pleasure & Keep on rollin' are really strong compositions and show just how great this band were.The mastering on this CD is first rate, and a mention too for the new commentary by Alan Robinson which reflects on the legacy of a much underrated band.I can't recommend this 2 CD set enough.

Great collection of a vastly underrated group.