Customer Reviews

1968-1973 A Good Thing Lost

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I first heard the voice of Susan Jacks in the early '70's. The Poppy Family's album was sent to the radio station I was working for in Houston and I had the pleasure of deciding which cuts would be played on the air. Many years and thousands of records have fogged my memory a bit but I'll never forget Susan's version of "Winter Milk". It was what we call a deep album cut because it was never promoted as a potential hit by the record company, nor was it played in heavy rotation. I fell in love with the song and Susan's beautiful, expressive voice the first time I auditioned the album, and it seems that we always got a number of calls whenever the song played from people wanting information on the song and it's singer. While it's true this cd has a number of better known songs to sell, "Winter Milk" says it all and is worth the price admission. I suppose Susan Jacks went to the island of lost rock singers when she and Terry split-very sad-she was truly special singer. This is the old disc jockey....signing off.

I grew up listening to Susan Jack's beautiful voice from the time she sang in a church in Haney, British Columbia. Her vocals are incredible and the the Poppy Family sound will never be recreated. I would recommend this album to anyone, young and old. Just close your eyes and drift away.

It's Like Being 1970 All Over Again!...AAAAAH Reminisce And Enjoy;And That's Exactly What I Do When I Listen To Susan And Terry Jacks And The Poppy Family.Susans Voice Was Beautiful.To Me: This CD Is Great.The Songs "Which Way You Goin'Billy" And "That's Where I Went Wrong"And "Tryin" Are My Favorites..."Which Way You Goin'Billy"Was The Poppy Family's Biggest Hit In The U.S.And A Big Hit It Was!!!!Nothing Short Of "BRILLIANT" And On This CD;I Can Say The Song Never Sounded Better And I Have listened To It Many Times Over The Years.(THE POPPY FAMILY;A GOOD THING LOST:1968-1973)What More Can I Say Other Than I Love It.FINAL INTERESTING NOTE:The Beautiful Song "Tryin" Was Originally Wrote By Terry For Tammy Wynette.

I found this album in my local library and thought I'd give it a spin. Oh my god, what beautiful music. The vocals are exceptional, and the arrangements really top-notch. I grew up a huge Abba fan, and I can see some similarities in the music if not the lyrics. Also, I found it interesting just now that Amazon paired the album with the Travelling Wilbury's. I don't want to attempt to draw any comparisons between the two. But I will say that Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are my other two huge favourites, so maybe there's something to that. This is the sort of album I just want others to hear for themselves. It was a serendipitous find, for sure.

Listening to the radio one day, I heard an familiar song that was beautiful, but had no idea who it was. After some research, I realized it was "The Poppy family", a group I had never heard of before. Purchasing the CD, I immediately recognized all those old tunes very clearly. "The Poppy Family" was very popular from 1968-1973. In fact, the two founding members are Susan and Terry Jacks. The latter famous for that relentlessly repetitious and popular "Seasons In The Sun".

Susan Jacks has a beautiful voice as a lead and background. The set is very well mixed and there is a very strong essence of Hippie influenced instruments, including congas, inventive percussion of all kinds, sitar, some special vocal effects and guitar licks that are so prevalent of that period. The lyrics are of the Vietnam and drug period. As a side note, Kurt Cobain was a huge fan of "The Poppy Family", which is a big endorsement.

Highlights you'll remember are, "Which Way You Goin', Billy" (two versions), the wonderfully strong, "That's Where I Went Wrong" (both in the Top Ten of USA Contemporary hits), the anthemic "I Was Wondering" with a fantastic background mix of horns, "Where Evil Grows", "Good Friends" and many more with a total of twenty-one (21) songs.

The sound is very much the West Coast USA sound, so its interesting to know that the "Poppy Family" is all from Vancouver, Canada. Check out "The Poppy Family" and your own musical history.

"You are my whole, babe
My heart and my soul, babe" - "Which Way You Goin' Billy"

I had been searching for these songs for several years. Finally found them on Amazon. I have been enjoying them so much. They are from my youth and it brings back so many warm memories to listen to this album.
I have found many things on Amazon rather than running from store to store only to be disappointed because they are hard to find items; and often the costs are actually lower than most stores like blockbuster or walmart..

I am so glad that I discovered this little known collection from the late 60's - early 70's. Almost every single cut, out of the 21 included, is brilliant. The songs are catchy and sometimes really strange. I could see this appealing to fans of Sousixie and the Banshees as well those of Abba. There is a lot of Indian influence, sitars and tablas. Evil overcoming innocence is a theme that occurs over and over. My favorite cuts are, Shadows on the Wall - a tribute to a child's bedtime thoughts, Beyond the Clouds - where a seed planted in the singers "garden" doesn't grow, There's No Blood in Bone - the song in which Marie goes maaaaaad and Where Evil Grows - "I should have steered clear of you, everytime I look at you evil grows in me". Great riffing guitars, catchy bass lines and cool tom-tom beats will hook you. The lead singer Susan Pesklevits was working the bare mid-riff long before J-Lo. I have played this CD for numerous friends and they all love it.

Anyone around in 1969-1970 could hardly escape the sounds of The Poppy Family. They were played everywhere as their hit "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" soared to the top of the charts. A followup hit of "That's where I Went Wrong" didn't do as well, but it got airplay as well. After that, their single releases largely went nowhere here in the US, but those of us who remember them, do so fondly.

Buried in my large collection of LPs, it was just recently that I found both of The Poppy Family's albums. They did two: WHICH WAY YOU GOIN'BILLY and POPPY SEEDS. The first is fairly common, while the second one is much more rare. As I spun those LPs, happily re-discovering the treasures they had on them, I found a yearning to seek these tunes out on CD.

After research, I found that this collection being offered on Amazon is currently the only CD release of the great music of The Poppy Family. A GOOD THING LOST is a retrospective of the period of time in which Susan and Terry Jacks recorded together as The Poppy Family. This CD collects 10 out of 12 songs from their first album, and 6 out of 12 from their second album. In addition there's a further 5 tracks that the duo recorded -- 3 from what would've been a third album, 1 early recording, and the US single version of "That's Where I Went Wrong". It's quite a bargain and truly provides most of the best tunes these two did.

Like the Carpenters who scored most of their hits with Karen singing lead, The Poppy Family did likewise with Susan Jacks' vocals out in front. Susan's vocals are equally as expressive as Karen's, and there are times that the similarity between the two is inescapable. Quite often in this collection, you'll hear overdubs of Susan and Terry doing their own backing vocals, and the great bulk of the composing of the songs was done by Terry himself.

For this collection, Terry Jacks went back to the original recordings and expertly remastered each and every song here to bring out the best that modern sound reproduction can offer, and the songs have never sounded better.

For whatever reasons, The Poppy Family is largely forgotten about today, and this CD is all that's out there to remember them by. I recommend it highly.

I have to admit that before buying this CD I knew next to nothing about the Poppy Family aside from the fact that they were Susan & Terry Jacks and had a U.S. hit with "Which Way You Goin' Billy!". This CD is fabulous! All the tracks feature the beautiful voice of Susan Jacks with Terry coming in on only one duet (not that his vocals are needed at all). The liner notes are almost worth the price of admission, with Terry Jacks, who produced and mixed the compilation, giving insightful comments on each song. He doesn't try to gloss over the couple's breakup in 1973 and even briefly mentions their reunion 23 years later.
The songs are primarily in a pop vein with the exception of a couple of nice psyche tracks; the psyche highlight being "There's No Blood In Bone" which is reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane. Buy this CD today!!! You will not regret it!!

The Poppy Family's stock-in-trade was the wistful ballad sung by a female vocalist -- you could think of them as a sort of Carpenters on depressants.

Being Canadian, they were perhaps not as well known Stateside as they were north of the border (where they received endless airplay due to 'CRTC' rules stipulating that a certain percentage of songs played on the radio must be by Canadian artists, of whatever quality). I remember moving to the US in around 1972 to find that almost no American had ever heard of them -- I had just assumed that US stations were playing them about 15 times a day too.

In any case, The Poppy Family were (and remain) a refreshing change from the insipid, sugar-coated pop of the time: the darker sound they produced feels more current and less dated than that of many of their contemporaries, although this collection also showcases the occasional and regrettable tendency towards Burt Bacharach style horn arrangements, molasses-dipped violin sections, and overuse of the sitar.