Category Archives: MP3 Review

Jan and Dean: Surf City and Other Swingin’ Cities

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Take a road trip with Jan & Dean

As great as are the singles (1963’s “Surf City” and “Honolulu Lulu”), Jan & Dean’s first concept album doesn’t always represent their most interesting or inventive work. Heavy on covers that pale in comparison to the originals, the duo’s nasally voices weren’t well-suited to Rodgers & Hart’s “Manhattan” or Tony Bennett’s classic “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Still, Jan Berry’s true stereo production is excellent, and there are some unusual touches in his arrangements – like fuzz guitar played against violins – that are oddly compelling. They manage to rock Freddy Cannon’s “Tallahassee Lassie” in a sun-bleached West Coast sort of way, and fare nicely with the nostalgic novelty “Philadelphia, PA” the swinging cha cha of Chuck Berry’s “You Came a Long Way from St. Louis,” and the go-go closer “Soul City.” [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Various Artists: San Francisco Roots

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Mid-60s San Francisco rock and pop from the Autumn label

This is a reissue of a 1968 Vault Records LP that anthologized mid-60s tracks from San Francisco’s Autumn Records. The Beau Brummels, the label’s biggest stars, sing four tracks, including the stellar “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “Sad Little Girl.” Superstar-in-waiting Grace Slick sings lead on the Great Society’s pre-Jefferson Airplane version of “Somebody to Love” and provides background wails on “Free Advice.” The Mojo Men, Vejtables and Tikis offer up great pop-rock tracks, but the set’s gem is the Knight Riders garage-rock “I.” This collection doesn’t match the depth of Big Beat’s out-of-print Dance With Me: The Autumn Teen Sound, but it’s a good start for those who want a taste of San Francisco’s mid-60s teen scene. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Earls: Remember Then

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Fine sides from doo-wop’s later years

The Earls were a doo-wop group formed in the Bronx in the late ‘50s. They’re most fondly remembered for this set’s title track, released in 1962 and peaking at #24 the following year. The group’s first four A-sides are included here, starting with 1961’s “Life is But a Dream” and its follow-up “Looking for My Baby,” 1962’s “Remember Then” (presented here in a stereo mix that doesn’t have the same punch as the original mono) and 1963’s “Never.” Their 1963 demo of “I Believe” and 1964 single “Cry Cry Cry” are also treats. The odd-bodkin in the lot is a suitably overwrought cover of “I Who Have Nothing” that seems to be from a later, non-doo wop period in the group’s history. The Earls stayed together in various lineups for quite a few years, which means this collection is missing numerous B-sides and additional singles. The Earls were a terrific example of the artistry that could still be found in doo wop’s waning days, with Larry Chance’s strong lead vocals backed up by sharp harmonies. This selection of their early A-sides is a good taste, but for the whole story you’ll need to track down out-of-print collections released by Collectables, Emor and Ace. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Larry Chance and the Earls’ Home Page

Bobbie Gentry: Ode to Billy Joe

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A strong debut album overshadowed by its title hit

The raw, bluesy edge in Gentry’s voice as she spells out “M-I-Double S-I-Double S-I-Double P-I” sounds as if she’s still clearing her throat from the previous night’s bourbons and Marlboros. The album’s title hit doesn’t really prepare you for the hard soul guitar, funky drumming and swampy horns of the opening track. That same vocal edginess also works well on the album’s ballads, combining folk, country, soul and jazz notes with textural orchestrations. The album’s few pop tracks, including “Sunday Best” and “Hurry, Tuesday Child,” don’t play to Gentry’s strengths and are outclassed by the funkier, bluesier, country-folk. Gentry wrote ten of the album’s eleven cuts, but she didn’t have ten fully original arrangements, as the acoustic guitar and bass hooks of “Ode to Billy Joe” are repeated on nearly every track, blunting the punch of “Ode to Billy Joe” by the time you get to the hit at album’s end. Her lyrics sketch the Delta’s poverty, fauna (“Bugs”), commerce, characters, and gothic secrets. This is a strong debut, though it doesn’t fully live up to its original single (“Mississippi Delta”), nor the flip-side (“Ode to Billy Joe”) that shot Gentry to stardom. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Seekers: A World of Our Own

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The Seekers stretch the folk revival into 1965

Though the Seekers sound like many other American folk groups of the early ‘60s, they formed in their native Australia, relocated to London, and came to the US on the tide of the British Invasion. They outlasted both the folk revival and the first flush of UK hit-makers, crowning their U.S. chart success with 1967’s “Georgy Girl.” This 1965 album is a warm collection of folk standards, then-contemporary compositions by Bob Dylan, Ian Tyson and Bob Gibson, and original hits by the group’s manager (and former leader of the Springfields), Tom Springfield. At the time of its release, the album’s combination of double-bass, mandolin and twelve-string guitar was a throwback to the non-rock folk revivalism of a few years earlier. Springfield’s “A World of Our Own,” anchors the album with a sound akin to that of the Rooftop Singers, Kingston Trio, Limeliters and even the Weavers. Recorded and released in mono, with Judith Durham’s stirring lead vocals out front, this is a nice reminder of the optimism and sense of empowerment that preceded the darker events of the ‘60s. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Ramsey Lewis Trio: Never on Sunday

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The Ramsey Lewis trio swings standards and pop hits

When this 1961 album was recorded, the classic lineup of the Ramsey Lewis Trio (featuring bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt, who later formed Young-Holt Unlimited) was still developing the highly accessible jazz style they’d created in the late ‘50s. More importantly, the trio was still a few years shy of their 1965 breakthrough with “The In Crowd.” Here they combine pop hits, such as the title track, with tin-pan alley standards (the Gershwins’ “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’”), folk tunes (“Water Boy”) and the Academy Award winning (and Bob Hope theme song) “Thanks for the Memory.” The playing is soulful, with Lewis fingering his usual bluesy twists, Young playing wonderfully musical solos on bass, and Holt complementing the beat with terrific accents. It’s a brief album, but the trio’s style is buoyant and refreshing. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Wanda Jackson: In Person

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Wanda Jackson graces the stage in 1969

By 1969 Wanda Jackson had long since transitioned from her early, incendiary rockabilly days to straight-ahead country sides. But, as this live album shows, she still displayed plenty of spark and twang on stage. Performing at Mr. Lucky’s in Phoenix, Jackson and harmony vocalist Mike Post mix her own records (“Let’s Have a Party,” “Right or Wrong” and “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”) with country hits (“Jackson,” “Release Me” and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E”) and recent pop tunes, including a terrific country two-step harmony arrangement of Johnny Nash’s 1968 rocksteady hit “Hold Me Tight.” She sings Joe South’s “Games People Play” with deep conviction, and Post’s duet and harmony vocals are superb. Jackson was a country hit maker into the mid-70s, but her stage act retained all the energy of her earliest rock ‘n’ roll records. She was a gracious stage performer who generously credited her band and worked hard to satisfy her audience, closing out the evening with a cowboy yodel for her Southwest fans. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Monday Blues: The Phil Spector Songbook

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An earnest 1970 tribute to Phil Spector

Originally released in 1970 on the Vault label, this is the earliest known album tribute to the songs made famous by Phil Spector. Numerous artists had taken a crack at imitating Spector’s Wall of Sound, but this was the first, of what turned out to be many, album tributes to the Tycoon of Teen. The Monday Blues are more of a soft-rock vocal group in the Mamas and Papas vein than a pop group, and the arrangements have more in common with the then-emerging singer-songwriter sound than the Brill Building. But this all works in the record’s favor as it creates a tribute to Spector’s songs rather than his inimitable production technique. The song list is drawn almost entirely from the works of the Ronettes and Crystals, but their best known hits are augmented by a few of their later songs, including “Do I Love You” and “Is This What I Get for Loving You?”  Nothing here substitutes for the original singles, but as the first tribute to Phil Spector, it’s a sweet reminder of his artistic genius. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Various Artists: Rockabilly Rhythms

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Original artists, not original hit recordings, but still interesting

Like hundreds of other MP3 compilations on the market these days, this one is filled with recordings of unknown origin. But unlike compilations that try to fake the hits, this one’s got some interesting live performances and alternate arrangements. These recordings may or may not date to the original sessions, but fans will get a kick out of hearing Bill Haley sing “Rip it Up” live and Gene Vincent strut his way through a slower, bluesier version of “Be-Bop-A-Lula.” A number of the tracks don’t even graze rockabilly, including Gene Autry’s trail-rhythm “Back in the Saddle Again,” guitarist Billy Mure’s instrumental take on Hank Williams’ “Kaw-Liga,” sax-man Ace Cannon’s cover of “Little Bitty Pretty One” and the horn-fed R&B of Jackie Kelso and Willie Egan, but there are some nice finds for rockabilly fans, including Joe Seneca’s “Rick-A-Chick.” Many of these tracks fail to live up to the collection’s title (not to mention that cover boy Chuck Berry doesn’t appear at all, and Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” is presented in awful, pinched audio), but there are a few treats to be picked out. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Dolly Parton: Wanted

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Rare and previously unreleased early Dolly Parton tracks

Though the first three tracks of this collection are sung by an unknown vocalist, the remaining sixteen are by all accounts sung by Dolly Parton. More importantly, seven of these tunes (tracks 4-10) are rare, previously unreleased tracks that appear to be from Parton’s years with Monument. The remaining ten tracks are drawn from her out-of-print Monument albums Hello I’m Dolly and As Long as I Love. Though no credits are provided, the seven newly discovered tracks sound as if they were recorded during the pre-RCA years in which Parton tried out country ballads and honky tonk, often with pop, jazz, folk and blues inflections. Several of the songs were recorded by other singers (George Morgan recorded “Not From My World,” Kitty Wells issued a single of “Only Me and My Hairdresser Knows” and Tammy Wynette waxed “Send Me No Roses” for a 1967 album), but this appears to be the first time that Parton’s versions have been widely released. Though the audio quality is variable (better for the unreleased cuts than the previously released album tracks), this is a real treat for Dolly Parton fans, and one that may not be on the market for long. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]