VA - Doin' The Mod Volume One: The Go Go Train (2000)

Considering that soul-jazz-based mod rock really wasn't a huge commercial deal in Britain in the mid-'60s, with the odd exception like Georgie Fame, it's amazing how many records in the style were generated. This is a decent 30-song collection of them -- not a hit among them -- although there's one very famous performer in the young David Bowie, represented by his flop Fame-like 1966 B-side "Good Morning Girl."

Some other artists have their followings among serious '60s British rock collectors, such as the Timebox, the Alan Bown Set, the Koobas, the Riot Squad, and Episode Six (the last of whom included future members of Deep Purple). For all its obscurity, this is fun stuff, often grounded by jazz-soul organ, and sometimes dressed up in horns, though a good share of the songs are lightweight and/or generic blue-eyed soul with a bit of British Invasion rock thrown into the mix.

Some of the better cuts are ones which don't try so hard to be American soul tunes and admit some British Invasion pop melodies and harmonies, like Platform Six's "Money Will Not Mean a Thing" and Mal & the Primitives' "Every Minute of Every Day." the Riot Squad's "I Wanna Talk About My Baby" must be the most accurate imitation of mid-'60s Georgie Fame ever done, and the jazzier side of the Paul Jones-era Manfred Mann is echoed in A Band of Angels' "(Accept My) Invitation": an irony considering that the band's singer, Michael d'Abo, would replace Jones."