If Pickettywitch is remembered today, it's for "That Same Old Feeling" - the 1970 single penned by the hitmaking team of Tony Macaulay and John MacLeod that reached No. 5 on the U.K. Pop chart. Yet that tune was far from the only slice of upbeat, light and cheerful pop recorded by the Polly Brown-fronted group.  Cherry Red's RPM imprint has recently collected the recordings of Pickettywitch along with a solo LP from Polly, plus Polly and Tony Jackson's album as Sweet Dreams, on a new set.  That Same Old Feeling: The Anthology 1969-1976 boasts 52 tracks on two CDs.

Guitarist Dave Martyr, bassist Martin Bridges, drummer Keith Hall, keyboardist Bob Brittain and Brown came together as Pickettywitch, after a name suggested by Brown's sister.  (Brown believed the name was derived from a local village, but it seems to have come from a pub, instead.)  Manager John Cooke convinced John MacLeod to see the group perform live, which led to Pickettywitch's signing with Pye in 1970.  Early disputes, however, led to Cooke and Martyr departing the ranks following the release of the band's first, MacLeod-penned single "You Got Me So I Don't Know."  A new manager was brought in, as was Mike Tomich on bass.  Martin Bridges moved to guitar, and the stage was set for the band's breakthrough with the January release of "That Same Old Feeling."  It had previously been recorded by The Foundations (for whom Macaulay and MacLeod had penned and produced numerous hits) as well as The Flying Machine and The Fortunes.  In the U.K., Pickettywitch's version went to No. 5; in the U.S., it stalled at No. 67, slightly bested by a No. 62 version by another British group, The Fortunes.

Pickettywitch's next single, "(It's Like A) Sad Old Kinda Movie," is still Polly Brown's favorite recording by the group.  Showcasing her innate soulfulness and vocal similarity to Dionne Warwick (also particularly evident on the classy quartet of "Then It Will Be," "Days I Remember," "There It Goes" and "This Day"), Macaulay and MacLeod brought Burt Bacharach/Tony Hatch-esque flourishes to the subtly percolating ballad, and it hit the U.K. top 20.  But more personnel changes dogged the band, as some members felt uncomfortable with the big, brassy, Motown-lite-style pop confections they were recording.  Bridges and Tomich were replaced by Pete Hawkins and Brian Stewart, and dealing the band another blow, Macaulay and MacLeod were dissolving their own, wildly successful partnership.  In November 1970, the LP Pickettywitch was issued - the full contents of which, of course, are on this collection.

The single "Baby I Won't Let You Down," by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens, was in the same bag as the Macaulay/MacLeod songs and rewarded the group with a top 30 placement in October 1970, but 1971 was rougher going.  Hawkins and Stewart both departed, and Pickettywitch brought in Paul Risi on guitar and Paul Riordan on bass.  John MacLeod was tapped for new songs, but listeners had already lost interest.  (Among the oddities recorded during this time was a cover of The Archies' "Waldo P. Emerson Jones.")  By the time of the band's final single, Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown's "Number Wonderful," Brown was ready to go out on her own.  The B-side of "Number Wonderful," MacLeod's prettily wistful "Point of No Return," was prophetically titled.  Polly remained with the band until September 1972.  (Nearly one year later, Pye issued a new Pickettywitch single - "The Power and the Glory" b/w "Living by the Gun" - with no involvement from Polly, and a lead vocal by Chris Warren.  Though both on the pop side of the rock spectrum, the two sides bore little relation to the previous Pickettywitch sound.)

The second disc of RPM's anthology picks up with Polly Brown's solo career, and her complete, self-titled album as released in early 1973 on Pye.  The silky tones on the Pickettywitch singles ceded to a somewhat earthier sound, if still brassy and pop-oriented, on many tracks.  Other songs, like Ron Roker and Gerry Shury's "I'm So Glad I Gotcha" and the ballad "I'll Cry My Heart Out for You" (also released as a single) recalled the group's style.  Working with producer Tony Eyers, Brown surveyed songs by The Bee Gees ("To Love Somebody"), Smokey Robinson ("The Composer"), Sam Cooke ("Bring It on Home to Me") and Van Morrison ("Wild Night" and "Crazy Love").  She earned radio play for a non-LP single, a revival of The Tymes' "So Much in Love," which was backed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Can't Go On Living Without You," also recorded by Lulu and Sandie Shaw.  Polly then issued Veronique Sanson's "Amoreuse," but her version was stopped in its track by Kiki Dee's.

Working with producer-songwriters Roker and Shury, Polly re-emerged in 1974 in anonymous fashion.  She and Ron Roker had recorded a cover of ABBA's "Honey Honey," which was issued on the Bradley's label in 1974 under the name of Sweet Dreams.  For photos and TV appearances, Barbados-born singer Tony Jackson (The Skatalites, Gulliver's People) was enlisted.  Incongruously, Jackson lip-synced to vocals sung by Caucasian Roker, while Brown donned a wig and dark makeup and, in her own words, "blacked up."  Divorced from this unfortunate situation, the music by Sweet Dreams holds up as enjoyably frothy, R&B-infused pop, and "Honey Honey" made it to the U.K. top ten.

The album We'll Be Your Music followed in 1976, featuring Brown and Jackson on songs by Carole King and Gerry Goffin ("I Want to Stay Here"), Van McCoy ("Let's Get Into Something"), and even Tony Macaulay ("I'll Be Your Music").  It didn't repeat the success of the single, but Brown comments in the liner notes, "We had a very successful 'British Motown' stage act which was great fun to do - and like Pickettywitch, lasted about eighteen months."  (Brown's time with Pickettywitch actually lasted between January 1970 and September 1972, per the booklet here.  She now goes by Polly Browne, and can be visited at pollybrowne.com.)

RPM's anthology includes a 16-page booklet with notes by Roger Dopson, and Simon Murphy has remastered.  For two discs' worth of perky British pop, That Same Old Feeling: The Anthology 1969-1976 can hardly be bettered.

Pickettywitch, That Same Old Feeling: The Anthology 1969-1976 (RPM Retro D980, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

1. You Got Me So I Don't Know
2. Solomon Grundy
3. That Same Old Feeling
4. Maybe We've Been Loving Too Long
5. (It's Like a) Sad Old Kinda Movie
6. Times
7. Baby I Won't Let You Down
8. Please Bring Her Back Home
9. Take Away the Emptiness Too
10. Then It Will Be
11. Shame Shame
12. Sound of Silence
13. I'll Say Bye Bye
14. Days I Remember
15. Two Hearts Are Better Than One
16. There He Goes
17. This Day
18. Waldo P. Emerson Jones
19. Summertime Feeling
20. Dreamin'
21. Bring a Little Light Into My World
22. Dream World
23. Number Wonderful
24. Point of No Return
25. The Power and the Glory
26. Living by the Gun
27. Fugue

CD 2

1. The Feeling's Right
2. Teardrops Will Fall
3. To Love Somebody
4. The Composer
5. I'm So Glad I Gotcha
6. Wear It on Your Face
7. I'll Cry My Heart Out for You
8. More Than I Can Say
9. Wild Night
10. Crazy Love
11. Bring It on Home to Me
12. I Can't Do Without You
13. So Much in Love
14. I Can't Go On Living Without You
15. Amoreuse
16. Lonely Days, Lonely Nights
17. I Could Conquer the Night
18. Honey Honey
19. Let's Get Into Something
20. I Just Want to Stay Here
21. Love a Little Longer
22. The Best of Everything
23. I'll Be Your Music
24. I'm So Glad I've Gotcha
25. That's the Way (How Love Grows)

CD 1, Tracks 1-2 from Pye single 7N 17799, 1969
CD 1, Tracks 3-4 from Pye single 7N 17887, 1970
CD 1, Tracks 5-6 from Pye single 7N 17951, 1970
CD 1, Tracks 7-8 from Pye single 7N 45002, 1970
CD 1, Tracks 9-17 from Pickettywitch, Pye NSPL 18357, 1970
CD 1, Track 18 from Pye single 7N 45035, 1971
CD 1, Tracks 19-20 from Pye single 7N 45080, 1971
CD 1, Tracks 21-22 from Pye single 7N 45096, 1971
CD 1, Tracks 23-24 from Pye single 7N 45126, 1972
CD 1, Tracks 25-26 from Pye single 7N 45254, 1973
CD 1, Track 27 first issued on That Same Old Feeling, Castle CD CMRCD265, 2001
CD 2, Tracks 1-12 by Polly Brown, from Polly Brown, Pye NSPL 18396, 1973
CD 2, Tracks 13-14 by Polly Brown, from Pye single 7N 45246, 1973
CD 2, Track 15 by Polly Brown, from Pye single 7N 45283, 1973
CD 2, Tracks 16-25 by Sweet Dreams, from We'll Be Your Music, Bradley's BRADL 1008, 1976