Six of the Best (EP)

"Six of the Best" is rock band Slade's first extended play (EP) from 1980. The EP features six tracks, three originally from the album Return to Base which was released in 1979, two tracks that featured from the 1981 album We'll Bring the House Down and the track "9 to 5" which was exclusive to this release. The track eventually featured on the remastered edition of We'll Bring the House Down.

The EP was released whilst Slade were still unpopular and before their triumph at the 1980 Reading festival in August. As a result, the EP failed to chart despite being for sale at a low £1.49 as printed on the EP's cover. Shortly following the single's release, the fan club newsletter explained that there was not enough airplay to get the single to chart.^[1]^[2]

The featured track of the E.P. is Night Starvation.

The EP chart into the top 5 in Belgium telemoustique chart, the band's previous album "Return to Base" peaking at #1 around the same time.

The first three tracks were named the rock side whilst the other three were named back side. The featured track was the opener Night Starvation.

The three tracks were used from the "Return to Base" album, "I'm A Rocka", "Don't Waste Your Time" and "The Wheels Ain't Coming Down" were slightly remixed for this extended play.^[3]^[4]

Jim Lea personally created the extended play's artwork.^[3]

When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin' was later covered by The Wall and The Dummies which was a project of Slade's bassist Jim Lea.

A promotional 7" single was released to support the E.P., featuring Night Starvation as the a-side and When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin' as the b-side. It was released on 10 May 1980.

For the Dutch and Belgian market, an E.P. titled Three of the Best - Alive at Reading was released in 1980, featuring the entire Six of the Best E.P., minus I'm A Rocka and Don't Waste Your Time as the a-side. This was although the title stated 'Three of the Best'. The b-side features the entire Alive at Reading '80 E.P.

Background

In 1980, Noddy Holder was interviewed for the Slade fan club. He spoke about some of the songs that appeared on the E.P. "After "Return to Base", then there was a period of us writing songs and seeing how they turned out. Like "When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin'" and "9 to 5" - to us they were all good songs - but they didn't sell huge quantities of records. Therefore, we got to a point where we thought that we'd cool it for a little while, and not go in the studio. Jim was working on his band The Dummies - so me and Jim decided to write a song specifically for them. It wasn't written as a Slade song, because Jim had the idea in his mind how he wanted to do The Dummies record. He played the tune to me, I wrote the lyrics to it - he worked out how he wanted to do it, and the final record got lots of radio play. So we knew that we could still write songs that would get played on the radio. Then it was a case of thinking "where do Slade go from here?" We now knew that our songs were strong. Then the Reading Festival came along. You've seen the reaction on "When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin'" now - when we first brought the track out on the "Six of the Best EP", it didn't see the light of day as far as charts were concerned - but now it's on the Reading EP and all the crowds are singing it!"^[5]^[6]

Track listing

"Night Starvation'" (Holder/Lea)
"When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin'" (Holder/Lea)
"I'm A Rocka" (Chuck Berry)
"Don't Waste Your Time" (Holder/Lea)
"The Wheels Ain't Coming Down" (Holder/Lea)
"9 to 5" (Holder/Lea)

Critical reception

Charlie Gillett of Music Week positively reviewed the EP on 28 June 1980, "Rasping guitar, spot-on Holder vocals, earthy and commercial, catchy riff. Six cuts, no duffs. Slade are no has-beens."^[2]^[7]

Chart performance

Chart (1980)	Peak position	Total weeks
Belgian Telemoustique Singles Chart^[8]	3	4

Personnel

Noddy Holder: Lead vocals and guitar
Jim Lea: Bass guitar and backing vocals
Dave Hill: Lead guitar and backing vocals
Don Powell: Drums

References

↑ http://sladefanclub.weebly.com/uploads/7/6/6/0/7660950/2181517_orig.jpg
1 2 Slade Fan Club Newsletter July–August 1980
1 2 http://sladefanclub.weebly.com/uploads/7/6/6/0/7660950/7871082_orig.jpg
↑ Slade Fan Club Newsletter May–June 1980
↑ http://sladefanclub.weebly.com/uploads/7/6/6/0/7660950/7694077_orig.jpg
↑ Slade Fan Club Newsletter November–December 1980
↑ http://sladefanclub.weebly.com/uploads/7/6/6/0/7660950/9374638_orig.jpg
↑ http://www.sladescrapbook.com/userimages/80a.JPG

Slade

Dave Hill Don Powell John Berry Mal McNulty Noddy Holder Jim Lea Steve Whalley Steve Makin Craig Fenney Dave Glover

Studio albums	Beginnings (Ambrose Slade, 1969) Play It Loud (1970) Slayed? (1972) Old New Borrowed and Blue (1974) Slade In Flame (1974) Nobody's Fools (1976) Whatever Happened to Slade? (1977) Return to Base (1979) We'll Bring the House Down (1981) Till Deaf Do Us Part (1981) The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome (1983) Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply (1984) Rogues Gallery (1985) Crackers – The Christmas Party Album (1985) You Boyz Make Big Noize (1987)

Live albums	Slade Alive! (1972) Slade Alive, Vol. 2 (1978) Slade on Stage (1982)

Compilations	Coz I Luv You (1972) Sladest (1973) Slade Smashes! (1980) Slades Greats (1984) Wall of Hits (1991) Feel The Noize- Greatest Hits (1997) The Genesis of Slade (2000) The Very Best of Slade (2005) Slade Alive! - The Live Anthology (2006) The Slade Box (Anthology 1969-91) (2006) B-Sides (2007) Live at the BBC (2009) Merry Xmas Everybody: Party Hits (2009)

Singles	"You Better Run" (The N' Betweens) "Genesis" (Ambrose Slade) "Wild Winds are Blowing" "Shape of Things to Come" "Know Who You Are" "Get Down and Get With It" "'Coz I Luv You" "Look Wot You Dun" "Take Me Bak 'Ome" "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" "Gudbuy T' Jane" "Cum On Feel the Noize" "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me" "My Friend Stan" "Merry Xmas Everybody" "Everyday" "The Bangin' Man" "Far Far Away" "How Does It Feel" "Thanks for the Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam)" "In For a Penny" "Let's Call It Quits" "Nobody's Fool" "Gypsy Roadhog" "Burning in the Heat of Love" "My Baby Left Me - That's All Right" "Give Us a Goal" "Rock 'n' Roll Bolero" "Ginny, Ginny" "I'm a Rocker" "Sign of the Times" "Okey Cokey" "Six of the Best (EP)" "Live at Reading (EP)" "Xmas Ear Bender (EP)" "We'll Bring the House Down" "Wheels Ain't Coming Down" "Knuckle Sandwich Nancy" "Lock Up Your Daughters" "Rock and Roll Preacher" "Ruby Red" "(And Now the Waltz) C'est La Vie" "My Oh My" "Run Runaway" "Slam the Hammer Down" "All Join Hands" "7 Year Bitch" "Myzsterious Mizster Jones" "Little Sheila" "Do You Believe in Miracles" "Still the Same" "That's What Friends Are For" "You Boyz Make Big Noize" "Ooh La La in L.A." "We Won't Give In" "Let's Dance '88" "Radio Wall of Sound" "Universe"

Video	"Slade in Flame" "Wall of Hits" "Inside Slade - The Singles 1971-1991" "The Very Best of Slade" "Slade Alive! - The Ultimate Critical Review"

Related articles	Discography List of songs by Slade Therapy (James Whild Lea album)

Book:Slade

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