60s band We Five ("You Were On My Mind")

Cafe Society
1

We Five had a hit with the Ian and Silvia song “You Were On My Mind”.
The song has been performed by many artists but the We Five version is the version most often played on Oldies Radio.

The We Five version is not available on iTunes, so I was going to find a 60s compilation CD that included it.

Now I had assumed I would need a compilation CD, since I thought of We Five as merely a “One-Hit-Wonder”. But as I searched for the song I found this CD re-issue of two original We Five albums. The kind of re-issue treatment I would not expect bestowed upon a mere one-hit-wonder.

So, can any dopers tell me about We Five? Should I check out the two-album reissue, or just find a good 60s compilation CD.

I am a fan of the Hollies, the Zombies, the Monkees, the Mamas and the Papas, and the better tracks by the Grass Roots, and the better tracks by Herman’s Hermits.

2

I can’t speak for Make Someone Happy, but somewhere in storage I have a copy of the You Were on My Mind that I’ve been meaning to cut onto a CD before I lose the ability to do it. Whatever worth my comments may be to you, you have my thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Anyway, if all you’ve heard of We Five is the first album’s title track, you’ve missed the one thing which sets the group apart from any number of their contemporaries: Bev Bivens’ voice. It’s been a long time since I studied music, and I was never more than a somewhat-serious dabbler; but IMHO she had about as close to an operatic voice as you would hope to find in a rock group, both in range and in the variety of styles she could do. If you did a blind “taste test” of Tonight and If I Were Alone (to use only two examples), you might find it hard to tell they were sung by the same person.

So in case you heven’t guessed, my recommendation would be to go for it. I would. I will.

3

The re-issues are by Collector’s Choice Records, which does lots of good re-issues (including for one-hit wonder bands). Here’s the Wikipedia entry for the We Five, which has a link to an official website:

Apparently a group is still doing some concerts and calling themselves the We Five, but it only includes one person from the original group.

4

As I often mention Allmusic is the go for music queries. A query on We Five gets you this comprehensive biography, discography, album reviews etc.

5

I was surprised to see that two of my local music stores actually had labelled dividers giving We 5 their own special little part of the Pop/Rock section!

Unfortunately both stores only had Catch The Wind. Didn’t help me. Based on OttoDaFe’s recommendation I would have gotten the You Were On My Mind/Make Someone Happy CD if they had had it.

I did find a $7 Sixties compilation the had “You Were On My Mind”, so I bought that. Other than that, all the songs that are actually any good on the compilation CD are songs I already had- except for Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”.

So, $3.50 for “You Were On My Mind” and $3.50 for “King of the Road”. Coulda made out worse I suppose.