Description
Dunefish: Omega — Best of Omega Vol. 1: 1965–1975 CD (Digitally Remastered)
In VERY GOOD condition! As pictured! Buy with confidence!
Product Details:
- Product Type: Audio CD
- Brand / Label: Dunefish (distributed by Edel Contraire)
- Artist: Omega
- Title: Best of Omega Vol. 1: 1965–1975
- Release Year: 2005 (compilation)
- Producer: Omega
- Genre: Rock
- Style: Hungarian progressive rock, classic rock
- UPC / EAN: 4029758595947
- Catalogue No.: 0000302DU
Product Features
- Format: CD
- Discs: 1
- Total runtime: 71:10
- Tracks: 15
- Remastering: Digitally remastered; mastered by János Kóbor and Miklós Küronya at P. Stúdió, Budapest
- Sung in: Hungarian (English subtitles in track titles)
- Condition: Very Good (VG) — used, as pictured
Overview
Omega is the longest-running and most internationally recognized band Hungary has produced. This first volume of the Best Of series gathers the early decade — 1965 to 1975 — when the group moved from covering The Beatles and the Stones into the symphonic, keyboard-driven rock that made their name well beyond the Eastern Bloc.
Fifteen tracks run just over 71 minutes, all digitally remastered for this 2005 Dunefish edition. The selection leans on the band's foundational lineup of László Benkő, János Kóbor, Tamás Mihály, György Molnár and Gábor Presser, and includes the song that turned them into an export: "Gyöngyhajú lány" (Pearls In Her Hair), a melody that travelled across Europe and got covered far and wide. Each Hungarian title is paired with its English equivalent on the sleeve, so the set reads easily for collectors outside Hungary.
For listeners building a serious shelf of European progressive rock, this is the cleanest single-disc entry point into Omega's classic period — remastered, well-annotated, and tracking the band's arc through its most fertile decade.
Interesting Facts
- Omega traces back to 1962 in Budapest, founded when János Kóbor and László Benkő merged two rival school combos; the group is still active more than six decades later.
- "Gyöngyhajú lány" (Pearls In Her Hair) became Omega's biggest international hit, winning festival prizes in Palma and Tokyo and charting via German radio.
- In 1968 the band travelled to London at the invitation of John Martin, manager of the Spencer Davis Group, and recorded their first LP for Decca — released abroad as Omega Red Star from Hungary.
- Keyboardist Gábor Presser, credited on much of the early writing, later left to form the influential band Locomotiv GT.
- Under socialist-era copyright rules, lyricist Anna Adamis initially could not be credited because she was still a student, so songs were attributed to the placeholder name "István S. Nagy."
- The booklet notes the band's recurring friction with cultural authorities, who were uneasy about mixing "serious" orchestral music with popular entertainment.
Track Listing
- Stormy Fire (Tűzvihar) — 3:59
- Spanish Guitar Legend (Spanyolgitár legenda) — 3:33
- Nem tudom a neved (Help To Find Me) — 7:36
- Naplemente (Sun Is Setting) — 4:07
- Live As Long As (Addig élj) — 3:20
- Nur ein Wort (Van egy szó) — 3:55
- Ten Thousand Paces (Tízezer lépés) — 6:12
- Sötét a város (Dark Is The Downtown) — 4:38
- Emlék (Memories) — 3:30
- Everytime She Steps In (Régvárt kedvesem) — 3:47
- Éjszakai országút (Nocturnal Highway) — 3:48
- Petróleumlámpa (Petroleum Lantern) — 3:15
- Gyöngyhajú lány (Pearls In Her Hair) — 5:50
- A bűvész (The Magician) — 4:51
- Varázslatos fehér kő (White Magic Stone) — 8:51
Publishers
Released by Dunefish in 2005, distributed by Edel Contraire, P & C Mega Multimedia. Produced by Omega; mastered by János Kóbor and Miklós Küronya at P. Stúdió, Budapest. Album design by Andreas Fack. Made in EU. LC 09263.
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