The Best Of Strawberry Alarm Clock Vol. 1

The Best Of Strawberry Alarm Clock Vol. 1 is a compilation album from around 1985 comprising a decent, if typical, cross-section of the band’s more popular (and poppy) songs. It was released on a quasi-official-looking label called Back-Trac (MSP 30005).

Since replaced by better compilations, this one is distinguished by being possibly the very first SAC compilation since 1971 – in other words, a look-back from the vantage point of the 1980s. Nostalgic flower children both young and old were starting to resurrect the stalwarts of 1960s music; this was an early example.

Note that The Best Of Strawberry Alarm Clock Vol. 1 (there never was a Vol. 2) is different from The Best Of Strawberry Alarm Clock, a 1970 compilation on the band’s Uni record label. Vol. 1 was from Back-Trac Records, a 1980s company that specialized in licensing songs from popular but comparatively minor acts of the past for low-cost compilations.

From such undistinguished origins come something that is actually a pretty good collection of Strawberry Alarm Clock music, albeit one that completely ignores the band’s last album, Good Morning Starshine. Nor are there any songs from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s several non-LP singles.

What is here is well-chosen though. Someone at Back-Trac knew what they were doing, or they got lucky.

The cover of Best Of Strawberry Alarm Clock Vol. 1

The cover art is pretty shoddy-looking. It’s built around the famous band photo from the Incense And Peppermints album, rendered here in a kind of sepia tritone. This was presumably a budgetary choice rather than an artistic one. The pink and white diagonal stripes sort of call to mind the green and blue vertical stripes of that debut. The text is splashed across the stripes in a very mundane and utilitarian fashion.

The best part of the cover is the cool clock logo. Presumably it was designed just for this cover, but it was briefly used on the band’s official website around 2010. I assume they just liked it and adopted it for their own, before moving on.

Track listing

Side 1

1. “Incense And Peppermints” – from Incense And Peppermints
2. “Strawberries Mean Love” – from Incense And Peppermints
3. “Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow” – from Incense And Peppermints
4. “Birds In My Tree” – from Incense And Peppermints
5. “Tomorrow” – from Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow

Side 2

1. “Barefoot In Baltimore” – from The World In A Sea Shell
2. “Sit With The Guru” – from Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow
3. “Sea Shell” – from The World In A Sea Shell
4. “Lose To Live” – from Incense And Peppermints
5. “Pretty Song From Psych-Out” – from Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow