The Damned – The Best Of The Damned – Chiswick UK LP

With a well-received new album “Darkadelic” in the shops the Damned continue to build on their legendary status. When released earlier this year the vinyl version of “The Best Of The Damned” even went top 20 in the Indie album chart.

This album was originally released by Ace back in 1981 and pulled together the classic singles that the band had waxed for the label like ‘Love Song’, ‘Smash It Up’ (Parts 1 and 2)’, ‘I just Can’t Be Happy Today’, ‘History Of The World’, ‘Hit Or Miss’, their Christmas single ‘There Ain’t No Sanity Clause’ and ‘Wait For The Blackout’. Not only are these now seen as gold standard Damned tracks but also map out a musical development when at Ace where they moved from their punk roots to crafting melodic pop songs that also took them into the charts. Better still, when originally pressed up in 1981 the album cannily also included those earlier classics punk classics ‘New Rose’ and ‘Neat Neat Neat’. There even Captain Sensible and the Softies version of Jet Boy, Jet Girl that appeared on the flip of ‘Wait For The Blackout’ in 1982.

You don’t mess with a classic so we have reissued the original album as it was on this new CD version. The only additional fairy-dust is supplied by new liner notes from Ian Shirley which details the journey of the Damned from ‘New Rose’ to “The Best Of The Damned”.