Second Album

by Richie UnterbergerAlthough Chad & Jeremy's Second Album was not released in the U.S., there's not much reason for collectors to sweat out trying to find the LP, as all of its tracks did come out in some form stateside. In fact, Second Album had nearly the same contents as the duo's second American LP (titled Sing for You, and, confusingly, not at all the same as the British LP called Sing for You, which was their first U.K. long-player). The only differences between Second Album and the U.S. Sing for You are that Second Album has a few songs not on the American counterpart, two of which ("Now and Forever" and "Too Soon My Love") had already appeared in the U.S. on the Yesterday's Gone album, the other of which ("It Was a Very Good Year") would soon appear on an American B-side, and subsequently on U.S. album compilations. And naturally, in this transatlantic mishmash, the American Sing for You has two songs which don't appear on Second Album, "Donna Donna" and "From a Window," though they'd already appeared on the British version of Sing for You. The musical merits of Second Album were, naturally, similar to those of the American Sing for You: no big hits, but generally likeable lightweight British Invasion music, though the songs that actually verge on cheery British Invasion rock ("My How the Time Goes By," "Now and Forever," "Too Soon My Love," "Only Those in Love") are far better than the covers of popular standards ("The Girl From Ipanema," "It Was a Very Good Year") and the bossa nova-cum-folk on their cover of Ian & Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds." If you do want to hear everything from Second Album in the original order, try to find the reissue compilation Sing for You/Second Album, which combines the first two albums and five additional tracks on a single-CD release.