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VINTAGE ROCK 'N' ROLL & ROCKABILLY
Bob & Lucille -> The Byrds

BOB & LUCILLE
EDDIE BOND
GARY U.S. BONDS
THE BOOGIE KINGS
PAT BOONE
JIMMY BOWEN
TERESA BREWER
THE BUCKINGHAMS
SONNY BURGESS
DORSEY BURNETTE
JOHNNY BURNETTE
JOHNNY & DORSEY BURNETTE
 
 

 

BOB & LUCILLE Hydra 27106 The Canadian Sweethearts ● CD $21.98
30 tracks featuring the Vancouver husband & wife team of Bob & Fern Regan. Best known for th hot Eeny Meeny Miney Mo (featured here). Fern, AKA Lucille Starr sings in a hiccuppy Janis Martin type voice and Bob is a fine rock 'n roll guitarist. It includes hot rockers by the duo from the mid/late 50s along with later pop rockers and more mainstream country sides from the mid/late 60s. There are also some early sides featuring Bob with his brother Keray in a more western flavored style and a couple of 1986 recording with Karree Rose as The New Canadian Sweethearts including a fine remake of Eeny Meeny MIney Moe. Comes with 20 page booklet with extensive notes, photos & discography. (FS)

 
EDDIE BOND Bear Family BCD 15708 Rockin' Daddy ● CD $41.98
51 tracks, 118 minutes, good. 2 CD set chronicling Eddie Bond's early career. The first 4 tunes are great, energetic hillbilly recordings done for the Ekko label in 1955. The following year found Eddie and his band, the Stompers, recording for Mercury where he had his greatest success (in the artistic sense, anyway.) 14 tunes are reissued here including such fantastic rockabilly tunes as Rockin' Daddy/ Slip Slip Slippin' In/ Flip Flop Mama , etc., more good country as well as the rancid pop tune Hershey Bar . When rockabilly was just about kaput Eddie finally made through the 706 Union Ave. doors. He cut a few decent country tunes, although none were released by Sun. I kinda like the catchy Broke My Guitar . After Sun he recorded for a bunch of different labels (see Stompertime CD 1 for that) but came back in '62 to record the gospel LP Eddie Bond Sings Greatest Country Gospel Hits heard in its entirity here. A further 17 tunes were recorded later on that year including some remakes of his rockabilly tunes and a lot of good country. One CD's worth would've been a killer but two dilutes things too much. (AE)

 
GARY U.S. BONDS Ace CDCHD 692 Quarter To Three/ Twist Up Calypso ● CD $18.98
Two classic Legrand albums on one CD - all the hits and much more - Quarter To Three/ Cecilia/ I Know Why Dreamers Cry/ New Orleans/ Not Me/ School Is Out, etc.

 
THE BOOGIE KINGS Jin 9046 Swamp Boogie Blues ● CD $14.98

 
PAT BOONE Bear Family BCD 15884 The Fifties - Complete ● CD $299.98
Only Bear Family would have the nerve to do this. 12 CD box set featuring everything Pat recorded in the 50s including his rare 1953 recordings for Republic and all his Dot recordings including 88 previously unissued tracks,

 
JIMMY BOWEN Collectables 5406 The Best Of Jimmy Bowen ● CD $13.98
Reissue of his only Roulette album - 12 songs including I'm Sticking With You/ Stop Wasting My Time/ Money Honey/ Raggedy Anne/ Way Back Home/ Last Night, etc.

 
TERESA BREWER Bear Family BCD 15440 Teenage Dance Party ● CD $21.98
20 Coral tracks - a couple previously unissued.

 
THE BUCKINGHAMS Sony Special 723114 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy ● CD $8.98
To those who think 1967's Kind Of A Drag was the only good song the Buckingham's ever recorded, this 18-song CD will surprise. Song after song, these lads from Chicago with the British sounding name, ugly suits and Beatle hair turn out well-crafted, horn-heavy pop. Columbia bought their early USA material, issuing six of those songs in remixed form. Many of the other songs appear in previously unreleased stereo mixes. Lawdy Miss Clawdy/ I've Been Wrong Before/ I Call Your Name/ Hey Baby/ Don't You Care/ Where Did You Come From are all winners. And the minor hit Susan is a bizarre period piece that will no doubt elicit tears of one kind or another. It's a good show all around, right down to the liner notes. (JC)

 
SONNY BURGESS Bear Family BCD 15525 Classic Recordings, 1956-59 ● CD $41.98
Double CD set of every Sun recording done by Sonny Burgess and the Pacers from 1956-1959. Considered by many to be the wildest rockabilly artist on Sun, Burgess certainly never lacked enthusiasm on his rockers. His band, anchored by a series of pounding drummers (Russell Smith, Jack Nance, etc.) really picked 'em up and laid 'em down, not only providing solid instrumentation but contributing a never ending series of whoops, hollers and rebel yells behind Sonny. You can just imagine how wild they were live if they were this dynamic in a recording studio. Burgess was an excellent singer so even on the rare occasions that they did a country tune or a ballad it comes off topflight. The alternate takes are spread around so you hardly notice the duplication. 54 spine tingling tunes, a cool photo packed 32 page booklet, and enough rockin' to fill the Grand Canyon. We Wanna Boogie/ Red Headed Woman/ Fannie Brown/ My Bucket's Got A Hole In It , etc. (AE)

 
SONNY BURGESS Collectables 6020 We Wanna Boogie - The Very Best Of Sonny Burgess ● CD $13.98
21 Sun sides - We Wanna Boogie/ One Night With You/ Don't be That Way/ Sweet Misery/ Thunderbird/ Red-Headed Woman/ Tomorrow Night, etc.

 
SONNY BURGESS & BOBBY CRAFFORD Collector CLCD 4405 The Razorback Rock & Roll Tapes ● CD $16.98
28 recent recordings by Sonny Burgess, Bobby Crafford and the Pacers, about half previously unissued. This stuff sounds a lot better than most revivalist groups but a lot of the tunes are real rock'n'roll chestnuts like Lawdy Miss Claudy/ Matchbox/ Hound Dog/ Johnny B Goode , etc. There are some nice surprises though like Sonny's Hell, Yes I Cheated and a version of Dwight Yoakum's Guitars, Cadillacs And Hillbilly Music , Teddy Redell, fronting the Pacers, on the brilliant Poor Ole Me and more. (AE)
MERLIN BEE: Baby/ SONNY BURGESS: Don't Let Me Hang Aroun Hillbilly Music/ Lawdy Miss Claudia/ Mary Lou/ Red Hot/ Rock & Roll Ruby/ School Days/ Short Squashed Texan/ Truck Stop/ Willie & The Hand Jive/ Boogie Woogie Country Girl/ Little Red Rooster/ BOBBY CRAFFORD: Down The Line/ Hound Dog/ Johnny B. Goode/ Long Tall Sally/ Matchbox/ Red Headed Woman/ Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On/ JIMMY LUKE: You Are My Sunshine/ THE PACERS: Easy Rockin'/ Sooie/ TEDDY REDELL: Poor Ole Me/ RAPID ROBERT: My Baby Done Quit Me/ TOMMY ROCCO: I'll Cry Awhile

 
SONNY BURGESS WITH DAVE ALVIN Hightone HCD 8039 Tennessee Border ● CD $13.98
Legendary Sun rockabilly artist Sonny Burgess is still around after almost 40 years in the biz. He mostly just plays Europe where he is rightfully lionized but maybe after this domestic release a club in your backyard will have the good sense to book him. This 1992 recording finds Sonny backed by a crack outfit lead by the torrid guitar of former Blaster Dave Alvin. Sonny sounds real good on both vocals and guitar on recent tunes by James Intveld - My Heart Is Achin' For You , Dave Alvin - Flattop Joint/ Enough Of You and As Far As I Could Go by Jack Smith. He really rocks out on the old ones too, breathin' fresh life into Joe Hill Louis' Automatic Woman , Lefty Frizzell's Old, Old Man and Jimmy Work's title tune. Dick Bachmann lends a deft touch with his steel guitar on a couple of the country tunes. Not much trumpet on this one (the credit is "unknown" on I Don't Dig It ) but with Sonny, Dave and Jerry Miller all trading licks on lead guitar you might not even notice. Five stars and a bullet.... AE

 
DORSEY BURNETTE Bear Family BCD 15545 Great Shakin' Fever ● CD $21.98
25 mid-60s recordings.

 
JOHNNY BURNETTE Bear Family BCD 15474 Johnny Burnette Trio - Rockabilly Boogie ● CD $21.98
The definitive edition of Johnny & The Trio's Coral recordings, one of the cornerstones of rockabilly, presenting all 25 songs recorded by them in 1956 and '57 along with alternate takes of 3 songs. With the powerful vocals and rhythm guitar of Johnny, the powerful standup bass of brother Dorsey and the blistering lead guitar of Paul Burlison they set fire to songs like "Rockabilly Boogie/ Lonesome Train/ Sweet Love On My Mind/ The Train Kept A Rollin'/ All By Myself" and many more. Superb high quality sound thanks to Bob Jones and a great 32 page booklet with detailed notes by Colin Escott, full discographical information, many photos and newspaper clippings. As usual for Bear Family, when they do something it's done right! (FS)

 
JOHNNY BURNETTE Collectables 2729 Dreamin' - The Very Best Of ● CD $14.98
20 track compilation of his Liberty sides - Dreamin/ I beg Your Pardon/ I'm Still Dreamin'/ Second Chance/ It All Depends On Linda/ Big Big World/ Don't Do It/ I Love My Baby, etc

 
JOHNNY BURNETTE Rockstar 006 That's The Way I Feel ● CD $21.98
32 tracks, 80 minutes, good. This collection frames a better known stage of Johnny's career, in this case his pop idol phase already documented on EMI as "The Best Of Johnny Burnette". We pick up Johnny in mid-'59 with his version of Hank Williams' Settin' The Woods On Fire and its follow-up Don't Do It, both cut for now-defunct Freedom's parent, Liberty. But it was the inclusion of strings on his third single Dreamin'/ Cincinnati Fireball that finally broke him (only the B-side is included here) commercially and effectively ended any hopes of a Trio-like comeback. Other obscurites and unreleased material from this period showed he could still rock, especially Love Kept A-Rollin' and That's All I Care, but it was international pop success (fueled almost exclusively by outside songwriters) that followed, with Liberty sneaking out a Johnny/ Dorsey instrumental (billed as the Shamrocks) Green Hills/ Lonely Island (reissued for the first time here) just as his popularity began to wane. What followed was a label change to Capitol, the complete recordings (1963-4) of which are presented here, including one for the first time (Skipping School), but success was not forthcoming. Capitol dropped him, he released two more singles (not presented here), then drowned in a boating accident. Together with Rockstar 005, this is undoubtedly the most comprehensive collection of Burnette obscurities ever issued. (GDR)

 
JOHNNY & DORSEY BURNETTE Hydra 27110 Rock & Roll Tonight ● CD $21.98
Amazing collection of rare and unissued sides from these talented brothers covering the period from 1956 up to shortly before Johnny's death in 1964. Nearly all the tracks feature the two of them - some with Johnny on lead vocals, some with Dorsey on lead. Included are the Rock & Roll Trio's live performance on the Alan Freed Show in 1956, their obscure Abbot sides from 1957 (a mix of rock 'n roll, pop & country), a fine previously unissued demo recorded for Sun in 1957 by The Rock & Roll Trio, their single issued on Hanover in 1957 as The Kids From Texas, Dorsey's hot Cee-Jam single from 1957, their 1959 instrumental session for Infinity issued as by The Texans, a previously unissued demo session recorded in Los Angeles in 1959, a limited edition acetate issued as a promotion for a friends party, a 1961 instrumental single for Gothic, a previously unissued live version of Bony Moronie performed in England by Johnny and later singles issued on Reprise, Sahara & Magic Lamp. Set comes with 32 page booklet with extensive notes, photos and other memorabilia and full discographical info.

 
JOHNNY & DORSEY BURNETTE Rockstar 005 The Burnette Brothers ● CD $21.98
33 tracks, 80 minutes, recommended Completists who need to fill in the gaps around the Johnny Burnette/ Rock'n'roll trio classic period (see Bear Family 15474) should be delighted by this and its companion release. Exhaustively annotated and compiled, it begins with a gem, the brothers (with Paul Burlison on guitar -- the Rock'n'Roll Trio before they had a name) 1954 country-inflected single for Von, Go Mule Go/ You're Undecided, and then skips forward to the end of the Trio in late '57 (the rumored Sun demos, which would date from before the Trio's success on Coral, have still to be uncovered), when the brothers signed to Imperial as a duo. After a failed attempt to reunite the Trio, they cut some pretty good rockabilly (though not as intense as their Trio days) backed by Ricky Nelson's band: Warm Love/ My Honey/ Boppin' Rosalie/ Do Baby Do, with the first two being released as a single. At this point, Johnny scored a solo deal with Freedom and gave us 3 singles: Kiss Me/ I'm Restless, Gumbo/ Me And The Bear, and Sweet Baby Doll/ I'll Never Love Again, all commercial stiffs. Dorsey simultaneously launched his solo career on Imperial, with similar smoother sound and lack of success; 8 of these cuts are presented here, including It's Late/ I Only Came Here To Dance later unearthed for "Imperial Rockabillies Vol. 3". The set concludes with a final Burnette Brothers session from '59 and an interview with Johnny. Certainly not as awesome as the Rock 'n' Roll Trio at their peak, there are some worthwhile items here, especially the early single. (GDR)

 
JAMES BURTON A&M (UK) 540 553-2 The Guitar Sounds Of James Burton ● CD $12.98
Reissue of 1971 solo album by legendary guitarist which proves once again that great sidemen should rarely give up their day job. James does some fine playing here but the choice of tunes and arrangements gives him little chance to shine - includes Polk Salad Annie/ Fire And Rain/ Johnny B. Goode/ Delta Lady/ Rock & Raunch/ Hi-Heel Sneakers, etc.

 

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