Newspaper Articles

GOLD RECORD - Little Sue Cowsill, youngest member of the singing, swinging Cowsills, holds the Record Industry Association of America gold record awarded to her family for their album, "The Rain, the Park and Other Things," which grossed MGM factory sales in excess of 1 million.

WITH NEW rock groups springing up every week it would be a Herculean task to find the total number represented on records. There must be hundreds of them, some good, some bad, most of them in the middle, the latter motivated, apparently, more by the lure of fame and money than by a genuine love of making group music. Most record reviewers, flooded with such discs aimed for the youth market, are content to let the teen-agers sort the racks and discover their own heroes and heroines among the varying forms of rock performances.

NOW AND THEN, however, a combination comes along which seems to strike sparks amid the welter of dullness. Just recall The Beatles, The Monkees and, more recently, The Cowsills. They all seemed to derive genuine pleasure from their music making. The same can be said for the four young Canadians who have organized themselves Into a group named The Sugar Shoppe.

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MEANWHILE, Capitol Is out with The Letterman's new album, "Special Request," containing 11 tunes most often requested at the group's campus and concert-hall appearances. The disc (ST-2934) is typical of the group's fine vocal blend and contains an oldie, "I Only Have Eyes for You," and an impressive arrangement of "More" which is getting a lot of radio play. The Cowsills also are alive and well in a new disc for MGM entitled "Capt. Sad and His Ship of Fools"—a title quite descriptive of this family's fresh approach to novelty in pop music. The disc is catalogued 8E-4554.

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