Search - Gary U.S. Bonds :: The Best of Gary U.S. Bonds

The previous review

John A. Gallagher | Staten Island, New York USA | 05/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I hate to belittle a Top 100 Reviewer but did he even look at the tracks and the label for this CD? It is not Rhino - it is Capitol. Yes, the CD titles are the same - Best Of Gary U.S. Bonds.The tracks are not in a different order - they are different altogether except for a song or two done live.I have the Rhino CD and am looking at it right now. It has 18 tracks from his Legrand period. The 10 track CD here is a Best of from his period with Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven in the 80's.Shortly there will also be a CD containing all the tracks from 2 Bruce Springsteen assisted LP's - Dedication and On the Line. It contains all of what is on here (except for the live tracks) plus a lot more - 21 tracks. For someone interested in Gary U.S. Bonds in the 80's, it is a must. There is also a brand new 2004 CD from him called Back in 20."

Appears To Be An Error In Track Listing

08/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With all due respect to one reviewer, unless Rhino put out two CDs on Gary U.S. Bonds in 1990, then this is the same as the one I have in front of me. The cover of mine, titled The Best Of Gary U.S. Bonds, shows him jumping, pointing to his name across the top, and with a clock face just below his name. The CD itself is also shown as a clock face with the hands, of course, pointing to a quarter to three. The issue number on mine is Rhino R 70971, licensed from Legrand Records. I note from the above information that it also shows Rhino as the distributor.



Having said that, the contents are exactly the same with only the order in which they appear being different. Inside are five pages of liner notes, with a fold-out showing Gary in front of a blown-up $100 bond. Three more nice shots of him are also included, while on the reverse is a partial discography of the contents [no chart details].



Born Gary Anderson in Jacksonville, Florida in 1939, he was signed to Legrand by Frank Guida and saw his first hit, New Orleans, reach # 5 R&B/# 6 Billboard Hot 100 in late 1960 b/w Please Forgive Me. For his next hit, which didn't come until the summer of 1961, he borrowed the melody of A Night With Daddy which had just "bubbled under" at # 111 Hot 100 for The Church Street Five. Renaming it Quarter To Three, it reached # 1 on the Hot 100 and # 3 R&B b/w Time Ole Story. Both hits had been billed to U.S. Bonds, as was Not Me, released in February but which failed to chart. That's in this volume, while the two B-sides to his first two hits are not.



After that he would be billed as Gary (U.S.) Bonds on all remaining releases, starting with School Is Out [# 5 Hot 100/# 12 R&B in August 1961 b/w One Million Tears], School Is In [# 28 Hot 100 that November b/w Trip To The Moon], and Dear Lady Twist in late December/early January 1962 [# 5 R&B/# 9 Hot 100 b/w Havin' So Much Fun - the only B-side included in this set].



Late in the spring of 1962 he again borrowed from another song, in this case the calypso tune Shake, Shake Senora (Jump In The Line) and, as Twist, Twist Senora, it hit the # 9 Hot 100 slot in May b/w Food Of Love. A couple of months later Seven Day Weekend from the film Trad-Dad reached # 27 Hot 100 b/w Gettin' A Groove, and in September Copy Cat finished at a lowly # 92 Hot 100 b/w I'll Change That Too.



Although that would be his final Legrand hit single, the label continued to issue recorded material but none of it brought him back to the charts. These included Where Did The Naughty Little Girl Go? in December 1962, No More Homework [August 1963] and Perdido (Parts 1 & 2) that November, Do The Bumpsie in November 1965, and Take Me Back To New Orleans in April 1966. All are here at the expense of the B-sides of some that DID work for him. Making matters worse for something blaring "The Best Of" the cuts Soul Food, I Wanna Holler (But The Town's Too Small), and Lover's Moon were never previously released. All of which is why I reluctantly deducted one star since it would have been much more preferable had they included the missing B-sides.



Meanwhile, demonstrating his fondness for Country, Bonds also wrote the 1971 Johnny Paycheck hit She's All I Got, and in 1981 made a comeback with EMI America when This Little Girl reached # 11 Hot 100 in June b/w Way Back When, followed by the old Moon Mullican Country hit from 1947, Jole Blon, which reached # 65 Hot 100 in August b/w Just Like A Child. He then closed out his chart career in the summer of 1982 with, appropriately, Out Of Work. Produced by Bruce Springsteen and Miami Steve (Little Steven) Van Zandt [as were the other two EMI America hits], and featuring Clarence Clemons on sax, it peaked at # 21 Hot and # 82 R&B b/w Bring Her Back.



An exuberant, exciting performer, his tunes had everyone happily dancing and singing along in the early 1960s until, that is, an avalanche known as the British Invasion rudely shoved him and many more like him to the sidelines."

I never had it so good

Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 06/06/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD features 18 of Gary U.S. Bonds recordings from his '60s heyday. Seven of these songs were hits. One problem with Gary Bonds records is that they tend to sound alike. For example, after "School is Out" was a hit, it was followed up "School is In". His biggest hit was the great "Quarter to Three", so a whole bunch of his follow up records sounded like "Quarter to Three" rewritten. But other than that, these songs are pretty enjoyable pre-Beatles rock songs. Recommended to oldies fans."