We five - The Return Of We Five (1969)

The sleeve credits are vague enough that it's difficult to tell precisely what five were the We Five on this release. It's for certain, though, that their original female voice, Beverly Bivens, was gone, that role being taken over by Debbie Burgan. Original members Jerry Burgan (Debbie Burgan's husband) and Peter Fullerton were still around too, but other than that, personnel identification is lacking. Surprisingly enough, it does sound fairly similar to the We Five's prior records, with the same strident yet stirring male-female vocal combinations. Yet the material some by the Burgans, but mostly covers is unexciting. As they did back at the peak of their fame, their repertoire is maddeningly diverse, taking in Rogers-Hart, Jimmie Rodgers, folkie Travis Edmonson, Mason Williams, and Bacharach-David's "Walk on By." On some of the songs on side two, they reach beyond pop-folk-rock arrangements to different territory vaudeville on "Any Old Time," soul on "Walk" but these are by far the worst cuts on the record. This LP bears all the hallmarks of a label trying to cash in on whatever mileage was left in a has-been group, and one that definitely sounded two or three years out of date by the time it came out.