The Best of the Troggs on Fontana/Chronicles is one of the better single-disc Troggs collections you are likely to find. The 12 tracks cover the band’s best work from the initial period of their career in the mid-’60s. Of course, the set leads off with their biggest hit, the wild and nasty “Wild Thing,” but the rest of the tunes show the band to be even wilder with a raft of frantic stompers like “From Home,” the pleading “I Can’t Control Myself,” “I Want You,” and “Gonna Make You.” The group also made some of the most sensitive and pretty music of the British Invasion. Tunes like “Love Is All Around,” “Anyway That You Want Me,” “With a Girl Like You,” and the impossibly tender “You Can Cry if You Want To” are the work of a band with a delicate mastery of emotion and dynamics. Hard to believe it’s the same louts who bashed out “Wild Thing.” Apart from a few minor cuts like “I Just Sing” and “Jingle Jangle,” this collection delivers all the Troggs a casual fan would ever need and is a fine first purchase. – Tim Sendra
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